Holly Tempo Featured Artist at Inglewood Library for September 2010!

HOLLY TEMPO

Holly Tempo, who received an MFA from the Claremont Graduate University, is known for her labor-intensive paintings and site-specific works. Tempo’s work is informed by an ongoing exploration of the semiotics of color, decoration and pattern and an engagement with both macro and micro systems in nature and society.  Ambitious in scope and execution and whimsical in tone, the work interrogates the state of being of the individual as well as the group and often presents the viewer with subtle interventions.  Recent monumental works by the artist include The Anti-war Macassar, a large floor piece crafted entirely of acrylic paint, and Chasing Arrows at Las Orchièdas, a site-specific work in the Panamanian rain forest.

With an active professional career, the artist has shown her work extensively at exhibition spaces in Southern California, including POST, Miller/Durazo Fine Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Angels Ink Gallery, Track 16 Gallery, the Leo S. Bing Center at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, At The Brewery Project, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Frumkin/Duval Gallery, Kohn Turner Gallery, the Huntington Beach Art Center, and the San Bernardino County Museum of Art.  Tempo has also exhibited internationally in India, Spain, Great Britain, France, Israel and Central America. 

Tempo joined the faculty of the School of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art & Design in 2001, where she serves as Associate Professor of Painting. The artist, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, maintains a studio in Inglewood, California.

DIATOM PAINTINGS

These paintings explore the relationship between nature, labor and aesthetic intervention.  The imagery is based on diatoms, a type of alga.   Diatom skeletons form fossil deposits which, when viewed under a microscope, resemble doilies. 

In this case, I used actual doilies as templates to replicate the skeletons of micro-organisms.  Each form was handmade with acrylic gel medium and pigment.  I used a pastry tube to create the “doilies” and glued them to the canvases.  

The resulting paintings become repositories for these enigmatic forms that hover in pictorial limbo.   They vacillate between being organic super structures and signifiers of hyper-culture.

Holly Tempo is a member of the Inglewood Open Studios Tour. 

Each year she supports her community 
by opening her studio to the public 
to witness her artistic process, 
learn more about the arts and 
encourages other artists to do the same. 
This year's Inglewood Open Studios Tour 
is scheduled Saturday and Sunday
 November 13th and 14th, 2010.

Look for announcements about the tour here at 

http://finearttrekkinInglewood.blogspot.com

http://inglewoodopenstudios.blogspot.com

The Inglewood Public Library Supports Inglewood Artists 

and features one artist per month to represent

 their art and their community. Reading is the key to understanding our world. 

Art nurtures the artist as well as the community 

and the sense of achievement that is obtained 

from both reading about art and creating artworks

 that are appreciated by your peers is both fulfilling and  

vital to the development of our youth in our culture. 

Visit the Inglewood Public Library more often. 

Get involved with your children, 

and children teach your parents what you know. 

We all feed each other. 

There is a thirst and a hunger for knowledge 

which makes us better human beings 

to our families and our world. 

It all begins with a visit to your local library, 

open a book, open your eyes to the artwork around you 

and enjoy your journey!

Inglewood Public Library, 2010. 
Photo by Ginger Van Hook

SEE THRU EXHIBITION @ Gallery 825 THRU 8.27.2010 Review by Anne Cheek LaRose

Hi, it’s me again – Anne Cheek La Rose – guest reviewer.  As usual, we can’t have Ginger or Luke Van Hook review their own works on exhibit, so here are my thoughts!

“SeeThru” at Gallery 825, is a collaborative effort between science – Professor Shinsuke Shimojo of California Institute of Technology – and art.  It was fascinating to me.  Since I knew nothing about the science end going in, I had no clue what to expect.  It’s a huge exhibit with 22 segments.  Ginger and Luke were involved in seven of the segments, and frankly, their work was the part that I believe the layman could most relate to.  Everything was magical and very interesting, but some of the science behind the artwork is just too complex for mere mortals to comprehend.  The exhibit is based on Professor Shimojo’s work with how the brain processes information with respect to how we visually perceive our world.

Professor Shinsuke Shimojo from CAL TECH in Pasadena
selected artists from Gallery 825 in Los Angeles to collaborate with him
on the SEE THRU exhibition; an exploration of the intersection between
Science, Perception, Photography and Art. Photo courtesy of Ann Marie Rousseau.

                As one enters the gallery, there is a very large mobile featuring fragments of a whole photo.  This is meant to expose the sighted person to how the world is “seen” by the unsighted person.  At first one tries to mentally pull all the fragments together to create the whole photograph.  Within a few seconds or so of a back-and-forth visual jigsaw puzzle, one realizes some fragments are missing.  Voila!  We “see” as the unsighted “see”.  Very effective.  This work is by Dori Atlantis, Ching-Ching Cheng, Meg Madison, and Mei Xian Qiu

"Assemble" created by Artists Dori Atlantis, Ching-Ching Cheng, Meg MAdison and Mei Xian Qiu

“Brain Projector” is based on a traditional Japanese rotating lantern.  This is, perhaps, the one piece of the exhibit that would readily fit into a home environment.  It investigates the visual cortex and gives a glimpse into how the brain processes information.  It’s not a small lantern but commands the space of a good-size table lamp.  Perhaps I was drawn to this because it is colorful and projects shape in colors on the wall as it rotates.  The Van Hook’s did a lovely job and I hope this work will be part of the Fourth Annual Inglewood Open Studios tour this November.

"Brain Projector" created by Ginger and Luke Van Hook 

at the request of and in collaboration with Professor Shinsuke Shimojo who states 

"The surface of the visual cortex, as well as the lateral geniculate nucleus 

(LGN) which is the relay part between the retina and the brain, 

are organized topographically with regard to the visual field. 

That is, the visual world is "projected" onto the cortical surface...

suddenly it occurred to me that we may steal the idea from  traditional Japanese lantern. 

I immediately wrote to the artists, who then replied to me with their enthusiasm!"

"Blue Volumetric" created as a collaboration
between Yoichi Kawamura, Shana Mabari and Shinsuke Shimojo to attempt to
give color another dimension.
Shimojo states " It was a German Gestalt Psychologist, D. Katz, who made
a distinction between surface and volume color.
While the latter was everywhere in our daily life,
such as water or the sky, it has received much less attention
both in science and art.
On top of the vigorous impression of cubic volumetric blue from a farther distance,
one may feel that its eyes are absorbed into the inner surfaces (including the top)
where steam and water "self organize" into fascinating patterns, texture, and dynamics."
Photo by Ginger Van Hook

To get to the room with the lantern, one must walk through “Science and Surveillance”.  This was a microcosm of the surveillance apparatus that we experience in our lives.  I found it disturbing because until one is confronted with all this in one place, one simply dismisses it as part of daily life.  However, out of the usual context, I found some of the associated signage to be somewhat comical.  This exhibit was created by A.M. Rousseau.

I also liked “The New Zodiac” by Siri Kaur with Romann Weber and Daw-an Wu.  This was a series of six faces of Politicians and six Bunnies.   This explored how we first view a person who is new to us.  The photos were covered with a solid color and, as if the viewer’s eyes were laser pointers, the image was revealed.  In five seconds or less, the accompanying materials tells us, we first look at eyes, mouths, breasts (some things never change), and flesh.  I tried my own experiment, and yes, I went straight for the eyes.  Further noted in each photo are the spots we look at behind the initial ones.  These are shown as tiny laser-like lines trailing off in all directions with dots at the points the viewer lingers momentarily.  This all gave the photographs an abstract graphic quality.  I’d like to have the opportunity to sit at the machine that produced these images to create one of a loved one.  Could be a new business model.   

“The Opposite of Love” is a two-photograph work by Mei Xian Qui.  The same woman is shown in both photos and the only immediate difference is that in the hand thrust forward in one holds flowers, and in the other a gun.  The question here:  is the woman’s expression the same in each photo?  I looked long and hard and tried to imagine myself presenting both items.  My expressions would be different, depending on the item, but I could see no difference in the expressions between the photographs.  Interesting study.  

The Van Hook’s also did a piece called “Brain”.  It is formed from mirrored plexiglass, LED diodes, and batteries.  The life cycle here is noted to be approximately five days.  A ‘birth’ notice was published in a local paper and a ‘death’ notice will be published when it dies.  I didn’t get it . . . or maybe I did, but it sure was pretty.

The "BRAIN" is a brainchild of Luke and Ginger Van Hook who gave this idea life by

 putting a birth notice in the LA TIMES Newspaper. 

According to Professor Shinsuke Shimojo of Cal Tech, The brain, or the CNS (Central Nervous System)

 is differentiated very early in the prenatal period, which is very well identified 

and described including the genes and the cascade like processes triggered 

by them in developmental biology. 

Until very recently, it has been believed that no new neurons are born or created after the birth. 

Several major discoveries in the last decade may argue against that.

The "Brain" emmits color in the dark. Artist, Luke Van Hook.

Luke Van Hook stands beside the "BRAIN" 

with his friends and supporters Jason and Madeleine Golaboski.

“Revealing the Invisible” was a hands-on exhibit by the Van Hooks, to show exactly where on the receiver end of a cell phone the magnetic field is located.  While I was there, several people, using different makes and models tried it out.  Some emitted a greater field than others.  I’ll never know, as I left my phone home that evening.  But, the new, iPhone emitted a greater magnetic field that the older model.  Perhaps this is a clear case of ‘newer isn’t better’.

The one segment that I found most profound was the “Electromagnetic Fields – First Steps and Electromagnetic Fields of Memory”.  This is a study of the enormous triangular towers that hold multiple lines.  We’ve all heard the stories of how these electromagnetic fields can affect humans.  Most can come up with an anecdotal story or two, or find living so close to these giants, just plain creepy.  Ginger chose to illustrate how these towers and their lines insinuate themselves into our lives by creating a photographic collage (in a mild red tone for added effect) of childhood photos of she and her sister, Else.  There is the basic collage, but superimposed over that is the ominous visage of power lines and one of the towering giants.  Ginger tells us that as a child, she found the towers fascinating and wanted to climb the one behind their home.  As an adult, she now knows that there is a great deal of research on these very towers and the lines they support. While they still look appealing, her focus now is researching their potential damage to humans with the hope of writing a book on the subject.  Hopefully, this collage, too, will be included in the Inglewood Open Studios tour on Novemer 13^th & 14^th, 2010.

Ginger Van Hook stands beside the images that make up a memoir of her sister Else.

All in all, I was very glad to have seen this exhibit.  It was a refreshing change from a traditional showing and the science is fascinating.  One has to love an artist’s brain.  We think so far out of the box that an exhibit like this becomes exactly what was hoped for – a visual representation of how we work.  The gallery provided Professor Shimojo’s notes on each segment and notes by the artist’s on their segments.  Together, one has a clearer picture (no pun intended) of what was seen.   

Edward Ewell is Featured Artist at the Inglewood Public Library!

Edward Ewell Exhibits his Photographic work at Inglewood Library in August, 2010.   

           Every month, Inglewood Public Library features a new artist to exhibit work on the long wall of the first floor as one enters the book section (look over to your right). For the month of August, Edward Ewell is displaying an array of stunning landscapes that transport you right into the streams, the mountains and even into a lively coconut tree. Do visit the library for a view of these beautiful images of a paradise in which exist a meditative quality of spiritual ambitions and emotions. Edward Ewell treats the canvas of his photographs with respect and reverence and follows his heart to bring this exhibition to bear.

Mr. Ewell tells us that "The photographic images displayed here in the Library are part of a series of photographs titled 'Photographic Expressons of Praise.'  This series was started some 25 years ago.  The title derives from two points.  First, my thankfulness and praise to God for allowing me the opportunity to see his creations, and secondly, to see not just the physical, but also the spiritual and emotional aspect of His creations and being able to copy what I see and feel.  God being the very first of all artists, for all of this I give Praise through the lens."

Edward L. Ewell was born and educated in Los Angeles.  During his military tour of duty in Southeast Asia, he became interested in photography.  He purchased his first camera and began photographing the landscape and people in their various conditions.

Realizing that the images he captured left impressions on those who viewed them, he decided after the military to continue to develop his photographic skills.  Taking courses in photography and attending various workshops and seminars, he completed a college degree.

Ginger & Luke Van Hook Exhibition at the Inglewood Library

"Bird of Paradise" Photography by Ginger Van Hook

BLOOMING

INGLEWOOD

&

L.A.

LANDSCAPES

2010

GINGER

VAN HOOK

&

LUKE

VAN HOOK

"Green Horse Bar" Oil on Panel Plein Air Painting by Luke Van Hook

Anne Cheek La Rose * Guest Blogger * Artist Reviewer

I am Anne Cheek La Rose, and it is my pleasure to be your “guest blogger as we couldn’t have Ginger Van Hook review her own work and that of her husband, Luke.  Their joint exhibit will be on view at the main Inglewood Public Library for the month of July.  

Ladies first, and this is also how one sees the exhibit entering the Library.  The focus of this exhibit is Inglewood, specifically the north end; the gardens of the quaint bungalows that sit on the streets north of Centinela and east of La Brea.  This is the heart of the Inglewood Art Colony.

 Ginger Van Hook chose flora for her subject, but looking at her work, I see her as a portraitist.  Now, Ginger may not think of herself in this way, but it occurred to me, as I viewed the series and the names of each work, that she has, indeed, portrayed her artist-friends as flowers from their respective gardens.  All are glorious in their color, but the one that touched me most is the singular sweet pea blossom from the garden of recently deceased Dustin Shuler.  Dustin was as singular an artist and person as this sweet pea.  It’s a lovely homage to a fallen friend.

The Bird of Paradise is exactly the flower for the bold, out-spoken artist/owner of that garden.  The bright and frilly red stalk from Renee’s yard perfectly captures her feminine side.  The one photograph that doesn’t seem to be a perfect fit is the purple sage.  It is marvelously angular in composition and hints at a jungle-esque retreat in which the other flowers could get lost in meditation.  So, it is actually the anchor for these floral portraits.

Ginger is a Photographer/Writer/Artist covering a myriad of subjects in addition to this blog about fellow resident artist’s work.  She was born in Argentina and has a wide knowledge of art, thanks to both parents and grandparents.  She has worked as a photographer for 20 years, but embraced the digital medium about 10 years ago and earned her MFA in writing/photography

 at Otis College of Art and Design right here in Los Angeles where Inglewood neighbors 

with the LAX Airport.

Fine Art Trekking is her umbrella blog spot name.  As a Fine Arts Journalist, Ginger covers the fine arts in a variety of communities.  She is also on the Otis Art Institute’s faculty for Continuing Education Department where she instructs in Color Photography.   

Now, to the other half of this husband-and-wife artist team . . .

Luke Van Hook’s work is visually like a big, comfortable easy chair.  His subjects seem familiar, even if one has never seen them before. 

Every good art colony has a watering hole, and Luke found the Green Horse Bar in Inglewood.  There’s a texture, with lumps and bumps, to Luke’s work that gives this image all the well-wornness of the block on which the bar sits.  This texture also imparts - using very few cars - the hustle and bustle of this main thoroughfare; for Centinela Avenue never sleeps.

The other work Luke has on view is an LA landscape.  It is of downtown LA and Chavez Ravine and is classic in it’s depiction of freeways, bridges, power poles, and houses in the distance.  This has a dream-like quality and takes one back to the LA of yesteryear, it is a ‘forever LA’ kind of work.

Both paintings are not recent and both are plein air, which makes them even more wonderful.  I’ll put Luke on notice here, I’d like to have Downtown & Chavez Ravine, but I’m afraid to ask the price.  Artists can seldom afford one another’s work.

Luke, too, has an exotic birthplace – Turen, Indonesia.  Though he has been an artist much longer, Luke was encouraged by his mother-in-law to attend art school.  He did so, and took an BFA at Otis in 2004.  He’s been part of several group exhibits around Los Angeles since graduating.  His works can also be found in several private collections in LA.

The Van Hook’s work together periodically and it’s so nice to see disciplines that compliment rather than compete.  On the human side, one would be hard-pressed to find two more giving and fun folks.

Downtown & Chavez Ravine  Oil on Panel

Plein Air Painting Luke Van Hook   72” x 48”

Inglewood Public Library Exhibition of works 

by  Luke Van Hook on display through July 31st. 2010

Inglewood Public Library Exhibition of works 

by Ginger Van Hook on display through July 31st. 2010

Ginger Van Hook promotes art exhibition 

at the Inglewood Public Library through July 2010.

Photo by Luke Van Hook

Ginger and Luke Van Hook Exhibition 

Inglewood Library 2010 

The Inglewood Public Library can be accessed from 

La Brea Blvd. by turning onto Regent Street.

"Blooming Inglewood" Digital Photograph by Ginger Van Hook

The Inglewood Public Library on Manchester Blvd.  is under the flight path of airplanes flying into and out of Los Angeles International Airport. On clear days such as this, one may witness the beauty of the airplanes against the blue skies sprinkled with white clouds and the sun brilliantly mirrored against the dark tinted transparent window walls of the Inglewood Library. Inglewood, California. 

Photographs 2010 copyright by Ginger Van Hook

Inglewood Public Library, Los Angeles County, California. 

Photo by Ginger Van Hook. copyright 2010

Inglewood City Hall, Inglewood, California. 

Photo by Ginger Van Hook Copyright 2010

The Gladys Waddingham Lecture Hall in the Plaza 

of the Inglewood Public Library, Inglewood, California. 

Photo by Ginger Van Hook, copyright 2010

Sculpture Relief Artwork in the plaza of the Inglewood Public Library.

 Inglewood, California. Photo by Ginger Van Hook, copyright 2010

Administration buildings facing Regent Street. Inglewood, California 

Photo by Ginger Van Hook. copyright 2010

A block over and to the right from Regent Street one will find the Market Street Plaza in Inglewood, California. Photo by Ginger Van Hook. copyright 2010

Inglewood Plaza facing Market Street on the corner of Florence Blvd., 

Inglewood, California.

Photo by Ginger Van Hook. copyright 2010

Field of flowers in an open lot on the four corners of 

La Brea Blvd., Market Street, Florence Blvd., Regent Street.

Inglewood, California "Blooming Inglewood" Photo series by Ginger Van Hook

copyright. 2010

     

"Blooming Inglewood" photo series by Ginger Van Hook, 2010

Inglewood Landscape. "Blooming Inglewood" 

Photography Series by Ginger Van Hook. 2010 copyright

Ginger Van Hook. Artist. Photographer.    “BLOOMING INGLEWOOD”   

Flower Series From Inglewood, California.

            I picked these flowers for you, Inglewood, and no flowers were harmed in the picking during this nature walk. Flowers mean a great deal of many things to many people. To me, the kindly people in my life are the flowers residing in my soul. I walk our dogs in the city of Inglewood every day and I pass gorgeous blossoms, which remind me of the artists who live and work in my community.  For the Inglewood Library Exhibition, I decided to take a small ‘Coolpix Nikon’ digital camera with me on one of our dog walks to demonstrate the aesthetics of our LIVE-WORK community of Inglewood. I started the walk along Hargrave Street and captured the purple sage along the fence of my neighbor and artist friend Jill Lundin, whose collage and artistic shoes (full of glitter, flowers and miniature birds) were recently exhibited in a fancy gallery in Santa Monica.   I continued along Hargrave St., passed the little park, and went along Marlborough St. rounding the corner at Hyde Park, and was reminded of my friend and artist Renee Fox. Her images of seeds, leaves and petals drawn in color pencil leave me in awe at the intensity of her details. You may be familiar with Renee Fox because about 3-4 years ago she initiated the Inglewood Open Studios Tour with her husband, artist and abstract painter Kenneth Ober. Since then, Inglewood has witnessed a metamorphosis of the art community. I walked back along Marlborough St. and the little park, avoiding a beautiful white Akida dog next to Renee’s studio because my dogs, Sasha and Pyro get all riled up around other dogs.

            I wound around to Ellis St. where I was reminded of the artist and Community Vice Chair of the Inglewood Arts Commission, Ms. Anne Cheek La Rose. She is the artist who is responsible for initiating the Inglewood Library Exhibitions by putting the word into the ear of the Director of the Inglewood Library, Bruce Johnson, thus making a unique difference in the art community as well. Anne has the most beautiful ‘birds of paradise’ in her garden!   Continuing our walk, took us near La Brea Boulevard when I discovered the cluster of ‘sweetpeas’ on the vine and where from I could see the studio doors of an artist who has recently passed away, Mr. Dustin Schuler. I met our long time resident of Inglewood during the Third Annual Inglewood Open Studios tour last year. I spent some time getting to learn of his artwork, touring his studio and enjoying several art shows with he and his wife. I was dismayed that by the time I had gotten to know and like Dustin, as well as his lovely wife Karen, I was receiving word that he had passed this year. There is no better flower to describe our kindly and talented Inglewood artist, Dustin Schuler than the delicate and fragile sweet pea for the man who was a sweet gentleman and this flower is my memory of him.

            We kept walking around the corner of the Laundromat and made a complete circle to come back to Hargrave Street on our return walk home when I was reminded of my friend and neighbor Tana Rosales who is an artist appreciator that cultivates her flowers as artistically as she cultivates her children.  I’ve often found her here at the Inglewood Library, checking out books with her young sons, Joel Jr. and Kalebh. She also often calls me to come over and photograph one of her emerging blossoms. I am gifted with the pleasant company of beautiful blooms in our community both the people and the flowers. This series of flower friends is too extensive to adequately cover on this particular wall as our community has grown in size and number and I am blessed by simply existing in their midst. If you’d like to see more of these talented artists and blossoming flowers of Inglewood please visit my blogs:

http://finearttrekkinInglewood.blogspot.com or http://gingersartjournal.blogspot.com or my website: www.gingervanhook.com.

Pyro and Sasha Van Hook on a nature walk in Inglewood, California. 

Photo by Ginger Van Hook

Luke Van Hook. Painter, Draftsman          

“L. A. LANDSCAPES”    

Plein-Air Paintings from Los Angeles, California.

These two paintings represent some of my work and focus from a few years back. I enjoy the struggles and rewards of painting from life. They make me feel excited and free still when I look at them. The Green Horse Bar is located on Centinela and I set up my easel right across the street to get the best angle. I just could not resist painting this huge horse on top of this building. Then one day shortly after my wife Ginger decided to take me inside the Green Horse for my birthday, we got to know some of the locals who call the Green Horse their watering hole and learned its history, which dates from the early 60’s. I painted D-Town and Chavez Ravine a few months earlier from Elysian park looking towards Dodger Stadium and the 110 Freeway into downtown. It was windy that day and extremely difficult to keep the easel and painting from blowing away into the Metro Transit Authorities train yard down below. Struggles and rewards like these add character to a work of art and make me proud to now call myself an Angeleno Artist. After ten years, we are now part of this intriguing and complex community called Inglewood. We have a diverse community of artists here and we are thriving and adding to the story of this sophisticated Southern Californian City. I want to additionally thank all those involved in supporting the LIVE-WORK initiative for Inglewood so that us artists can feel at home. THANK YOU. If you’d like to see what I’m painting now, please visit my website at www.lukevanhook.com.

Luke and Ginger Van Hook Art Exhibition 

at the Inglewood Public Library through July 2010. 

Inglewood, Los Angeles County, California

Photo by Luis Ingels. copyright 2009