ARTrails

Today, after a delectable lunch at the Willow Wood café in Graton, we visited some ARTrails Open Studios. This was the work of one Tony Speirs. This painting was a big (say 9 feet tall) piece displayed on the garage at the entrance to the studio. The studio interior housed a related and larger ensemble about the Game of Life. Hope or Fear. Spin the Wheel. What's your next move?

A collaborative effort incorporating a multitude of drawings from multiple artists contributing their sketches about Fear or Hope. Exceptional. Eventhough the sketches depict so many of the faddy icons I see cross-pollinizing these days (i.e. tikes, retro commercial kitsch, cute animals, bad boy tattoo, antlered heads, zorro masks…) I like it. The overall feel was an amalgam of old carnival and high school binder doodling.(Don't know if there was a liger in there). And it has the particular distinction of being baptized by Burning Man of which this year's theme was...Hope and Fear.

I have participated in ARTrails for six of the past eight years and it feels strange to not be a part of it. But good too. I am incubating new work and need this time out of the light.