A closer look at two artists from our show Positively Beastly, in the gallery July – August 2022.
Julie Stock
Untitled (Little Purse Beast) Found Object, Polymer Clay, Wax, Pigment.
The theme of the current Art Guild of Pacifica show is “Positively Beastly.” I thought that this purse with teeth that I had made was perfectly suited for the theme because it is a little beast. Watch out! It will chew up your money and credit cards!
I am fortunate to have had a creative family growing up; we did a lot of projects from oil painting, sand sculptures, and sewing to darkroom photography. My Uncle Marty, a NYC artist, had brought me art supplies, and we did art together before he died of AIDS in the 1980’s. He was so much fun; he liked to spread all the markers out on the floor while working instead of keeping them neatly in the box. I distinctly recall the smooth glide of oil paint on a big brush when he set me up with a canvas when I was only 6 years old! The first artwork that I created that really mattered to me were pencil drawings of my favorite animal characters: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet and Tigger. I wanted to share them with Uncle Marty when he was visiting our family out on Long Island.
Later I discovered that he had taken the drawings back with him on the train to NYC. There had been a miscommunication—I hadn’t intended to GIVE the drawings to him, I just wanted to SHOW him. I was upset. On a later visit, my Dad brought the Winnie the Pooh drawings back to me, rolled up and creased; they weren’t the same. I worked in picture framing in my twenties and understand more about preserving art, what to keep and how. Forty-five years later, I am still working on the skill of “letting go.” Now, as an art teacher, I realize that some creations may be precious to youth. It is essential to listen.
A current project I am involved with is a collaboration with Sheila Gamble-Dorn, one of the Sanchez Art Center’s founders and artists. She had the idea to create informational public artwork for people to learn about the beauty and value of the wild animals in their coastal habitat. I helped her design the poles several years ago. My teen daughter worked with a classmate on the snowy plover pole on the north end of Lindamar beach. Another artist, April Uhland, did beautiful mosaics, on all three poles. It is a real collaboration coordinated by Shelia. I made the top sculpture for the plover pole, which is installed, and now am working on the top pieces for the other two poles. The open ocean theme pole (by the comfort station at Lindamar Beach) will feature a pelican. The pole by San Pedro Creek will be a heron. I have been learning about corten steel and working with fabricators. The poles are really wonderful to see already, the signage art was made by several students in the Pacifica Schools. I love that this public collaborative art relates to a sense of place, playing a role in preserving and protecting our beautiful, diverse natural habitat. I see folks taking pictures of them frequently. I hope they read and learn something, developing a deeper concern and hopefully positive action that benefits our natural world. I hope you can get a chance to see them.
John Sacco
Potpourri Digital Art
I think of this piece as a light abstract. I could have called it “A Perfectly Beastly Composition,” but I have one called that already and this one is somewhat beastly, with elements floating around. But also because this art, I believe, is a near perfect composition. And I felt it needed a little more exposure.
I don’t know exactly what tool I use most in my practice. All I can say is, one day, while looking at the weeds in my front yard, I said to myself, “What of weeds does an artist see if not inspiration and the need of an artistic interpretation.” Perhaps it is the subject itself and the desire to do something creative with it. So,I created a multi-relief collage depicting those weeds along with the words of “What Of Weeds…” This multi-relief collage sold during the last hour of the closing of the San Mateo County Fair this year.
While in grade school and high school, my art was selected and shown in an art gallery in my home town of Omaha. While in high school in SF, my glass sculpture was shown in a gallery in San Francisco Golden Gate Park. The first artwork that really mattered to me, however, would probably be the in my in high school senior year art class, the class project of designing three 4 x 8 foot murals. They were to depict things that crawl, swim and fly, one mural on each subject, using images from the Incan and Aztec carvings and drawings of reptiles, fish, and birds. It was a big success. The senior class took up a collection, and paid the construction cost to the art department, then donated the work to the school.