For those of you who are local, I recommend a class starting in September at De Anza College.  This is a class for art lovers of all sorts – artists, admirers and enthusiasts, those who want to learn about the local art scene, curators, art students, historians, anyone interested in art. 

The class will be taught by George Rivera, the Executive Director and Senior Curator of Triton Museum in Santa Clara.  Mr. Rivera is exceedingly knowledgeable about art history in general, as well as the historic and current art scene in the Bay Area. 

The class will meet on Fridays, and each Friday we will visit an art venue in the Bay Area.  We will visit museums, galleries and city art centers.  At each venue Mr. Rivera will talk about the venue itself, the current exhibition and the artists, the format of the exhibition including the space, the arrangement and lighting of the art.  

I took this class a few years ago with Mr. Rivera and I highly recommend it.  As an artist, I found it an enriching practice to get out of my own studio for a couple hours each week and learn about other artists’ work.  That practice was exponentially more valuable in the company of Mr. Rivera and the conversations he provoked amongst the students. 

If you are interested, follow this link:  http://www.deanza.edu/schedule/classes/schdetail.html?detailNum=713

I hope to see you there!

After completing a Business of Art course offered by the Center for Cultural Innovation and sponsored by the city of San Jose, a number of us artists/students formed a collaborative:  Silicon Valley Artists’ Collaborative  www.svartists.org.

One of our members, Deborah Thackrey, an amazingly energetic and outgoing networker, has taken on the role of curating art for AXIS San Jose.  AXIS is a new luxury high-rise condominium complex in downtown.  Deborah is placing art from local artists in the lobby and a couple of the model units.  So far we plan for at least one of my large wall pieces, From The Valley Of Heart’s Delight, to hang in the residents’ mail box area in the main lobby.

AXIS will hold a reception once all the art is installed.  If you live locally, save the date:   Thursday, September 24, 5:30 – 7:30 PM.  I will post more information once the installation is complete.

From The Valley Of Heart’s Delight, 32″h x 63″w x 6″d, Completed July 2008

Returning from vacation, I was welcomed by a terrible trojan virus in my computer system.  Someone hacked into my website files and perhaps the same person deposited a very pesky root virus into my system, making it impossible to function.  It’s fixed now thanks to Bart at Pro-to-Call!

Clearly there is no shortage of intelligence and competence in the community of trojan, virus and bug inventors.  I submit a challenge to all who do that – Put your intelligence and talents to something helpful for society rather than to things that produce damage to others!