Once more, the stalwart tradition of Sierra Art Trails continues in the foothills
By Donald Munro
Sierra Art Trails finished up its 22nd annual open house of home studios and galleries in Mariposa and eastern Madera counties on Sunday, Oct. 12. Those of you who have read me over the years know that I’m a big fan.
I headed up to the foothills on Saturday on a sunny, crisp, cool, autumn-is-around-the-corner day. Here’s my take on some of the venues in my order of visit:
Happiest artist
Pictured above: Kathleen Kabbani converted her adult son’s room into a studio. Photo: The Munro Review
Kathleen Kabbani of Coarsegold, who greets our group with great cheer, tells me she uses art as therapy, and the result is a body of work (including fluid art, alcohol ink, collage and mixed media) with a joyful vibe. Mixed with various colors, the alcohol-ink technique used by the artist creates unpredictable, abstract blotches on a primed canvas. The results can feel wild and unrestrained, and I can see why it can be exciting for an artist to use the technique: You have to give up some control in the process and go along for the ride.
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I particularly like the way Kabbani in some pieces combines the alcohol-ink technique with collage. The cut-out images sit against the vibrant backdrops in a way that gives the pieces a sense of depth and dimension.
One reason I love open studio tours is that you get to see the places that artists work. In Kabbani’s case, she converted the bedroom of an adult son into her studio. Another reason is that you get to talk to the artists. I always encourage attendees of Sierra Art Trails to ask questions. It’s the best way you can gain insights into their work. (Think of yourself as an inquisitive, vaguely insistent arts reporter.) That’s how I found out that Kabbani lived in Lebanon for 20 years. Some of those years were spent without electricity, which is one reason that she developed a fondness for cutting paper for her collages – it’s a low-tech endeavor that doesn’t require advanced technology. I also learned she makes a terrific dolma (stuffed grape leaves) that “melts in your mouth.”
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You can see the subtle Lebanese influences in some of her works, from whirling dervishes to Arabic characters.
Through it all, her colors and the energy of her art come through. This merry ArtHop stop left me with a bright, buoyant feel. Kabbani puts her heart into her art, and it shows.
Contact info: You can see more of Kabbani’s work on her Instagram page. Here’s her website.
Painting friends
Another great thing about Sierra Art Trails is how you can experience multiple artists at one stop. Sometimes the grouping is about convenience and proximity, with little binding the artists together. But in the case of Kathy Hamilton Todd, Janet Morita, Jim Taylor and Jim Tilkes, who all showed together for this Trails at Tilkes’ home studio in Coarsegold, the ties are tight. On an average Thursday afternoon, you’ll find them in the clubhouse of Yosemite Lakes Park painting away. (At least until the bar opens later in the day.) You’ll find that lots of artists start later in life learning to express themselves through painting and other media, and when you paint in a group, the encouragement that members can give each other is invaluable.
The Munro Review Kathy Hamilton Todd’s barn in Pozo.
The Munro Review Janet Morita’s “Young Heifer.”
Each of the four has a different favorite subject to paint. For Todd, it’s barns. (One image I am drawn to is of a barn in Pozo, in San Luis Obispo County.) Morita is a big fan of animals. I really like her “Young Heifer,” a beautiful fiber collage depicting a serene looking cow made up of carefully glued pieces of cut fabric. Tilkes is a big landscape guy, with a special interest in seascapes.
The Munro Review Jim Taylor with his whimscal take on the world.
The Munro Review Jim Tilkes is drawn to landscape painting in watercolors.
The “first” Jim – Taylor – brings a whimsical, organic take on the world to his watercolors. There are no straight lines in the structures he paints, and his figures have a simple, flat, folk-art feel. He’s also a very big fan of a near fluorescent yellow, a color that dominates his palette. He shows me one painting titled “Apple Place” that includes what looks like a magical apple tree and an impossible-to-build house with wavy walls. Unlike many artists who paint plein air (out in the open) or from photographs,Taylor works mostly from within his imagination.
The “second” Jim — Tilkes, who offered garage space and an area for a tent to his comrade artists – works out of a converted home studio. I ask him about his inspirations, and after he tells me, he turns the conversation to me: Have I ever painted? Not since grade school, I told him. I enjoy such artistic pursuits as music and writing, but visual arts have never come easy to me. He encourages me to try my hand at it again. And I tell him: Yes, I will think about doing that. After all, an event like Sierra Art Trails is in part a celebration of people who decided that art doesn’t have to be just for professionals trained since youth. I’m inspired to extend my own creative endeavors as well.
Contact info: Reach Janet Morita at janet@rjmorita.com. Reach Kathy Hamilton Todd at punkstiles3@yahoo.com. Jim Taylor’s website is here. You can reach Jim Tilkes at tilks@sti.net.
The prettiest stop and most fascinating backstory
My driver and I got a little lost finding BethAnn Goldberg’s idyllic home studio a few miles from downtown Mariposa. Which isn’t such a bad thing on a nice day as we loped along various gravel mountain roads lined with no-trespass signs cheering us on. After we gave our GPS a stern lecture, we got on the right track and eventually approached the Goldberg compound, which comes complete with an electronic swinging gate to keep the cows and donkeys in. As we drove up to the house, we saw that the setup includes its own lake, which is pretty cool.
The Munro Review BethAnn Goldberg with her “Colorful Galaxy.” You can see the corner of her lake at right.
Goldberg is a cheerful hostess. (I think she’s surprised anyone would bother to drive all the way out here to see her art.) Her body of work, which hangs on a section of the wraparound porch facing the lake, includes works painted using the encaustic technique, which uses heated, pigmented beeswax. Goldberg calls the resulting colors “yummy.”
Here’s where talking to the artist makes a home-studio visit totally worth it. Goldberg tells me she is transitioning into a more serious artist from a day job as the owner of a high-end cake business in the Bay Area. (She has the kind of clientele that recently ordered a cake for a 13-year-old boy’s birthday that called for electric lights as part of the design.) Plus, it turns out that she has worn yet another career hat – that of an engineer (“I like to build things”). She got her degree from Stanford and worked for NASA. Now she and her husband are living in Mariposa nearly full time as she practices her art, still popping back to the Bay Area now and then to make cakes for special clients. (Here’s a YouTube video about her that includes some great pics of her cakes.)
I like the colors and interesting abstractions of Goldberg’s encaustic works. And she has a hit on her hands with a series of stylized vertical-paneled collages depicting various Western-themed amiable characters (plus a flamingo). Displayed amidst the rustic charm of this place, they set a folksy, pleasant mood.
So, to sum up: One friendly couple. Fun art. Three cows. Two donkeys. Several cats and one very friendly dog. One lake. And one fascinating career path from technical-minded occupation progressing to someone expressing their artistic side. It’s inspiring.
Contact info: Reach BethAnn Goldberg at goldberg.bethann@gmail.com.
A nod to nature
In downtown Mariposa, oil painter Rebecca Sullivan hosted an ArtHop spot at Casto Oaks Tasting Room. Her work represents one of the most popular artistic subjects in the foothill communities: the glory of Yosemite National Park.
The Munro Review Rebecca Sullivan with her “Merced River Poppies.”
Sullivan used to live near the park full-time and owned Ridgeline Gallery and Gift, and she still commutes regularly from her home in Manteca to sketch and paint the scenery of Yosemite. Her subjects include redwoods and poppies. She is passionate about nature and never lacks for inspiration when she’s out in it.
Contact info: Reach Sullivan at Rrrsullivan@yahoo.com.
A pilgrimage to Boomer’s
Bob Boomer is one of the stalwarts of the foothills artistic community. For five decades, he’s made his detailed wooden sculptures, mostly carved out of manzanita wood found near his Ahwahnee home.
The Munro Review Bob Boomer with his “Weighing Cotton.”
The last time I visited Boomer for Art Trails, his cozy display space was packed with people. This time, near the end of the day, we were the only visitors, and I had a chance to speak with him at length about the recent direction of his work.
Boomer is known for telling the stories of Native Americans through his sculptures, and that’s the subject area that I’ve long associated with him. But I learned that his work ranges wider than that. One example is a newer piece titled “Weighing Cotton.” It is inspired by his own work picking cotton as a boy in Chowchilla.
His sculptures are more like story tableaus than slices of realism. In “Weighing Cotton,” a slightly stooped woman wears a large bag on her shoulders. Pickers would fill those bags with hand-picked cotton. In the mid-1950s, when this method was used, pickers received three cents a pound. Also depicted in the sculpture is a large milk can, which the growers would fill with water. The pickers would use a personal ladle to dip into for communal water breaks. There’s also a small scale to weigh the cotton, representing the time pressure of picking.
Another example of this story-tableau style: Boomer has a carved piece representing an enslaved person escaping the South by means of the Underground Railroad. The artist incorporates railroad tracks into the depiction.
Boomer continues to work even though his hands are a bit shaky and his stamina has lessened. But he loves what he does, and he loves to talk about it. He’s still going strong. And his sculptures are every bit as impressive as ever.
As we leave, I shake his hand. “It’s been a good 50-year-run,” he tells me.
Contact info: Reach Boomer at bobboomersculpture@yahoo.com.
