The students at El Camino College who step into the campus art gallery are being exposed to an alternative and non-academic approach to making art. The traditional view may be along the lines of the artist sitting on a bluff and painting the sunset or arranging alligator pears on a table cloth, or finding a friend to model in vintage clothing for a series of snapshots.
“Under the Influence: Both Artist and Collector,” which is being curated by Susanna Meiers with a reception one week from today, on Thursday, Nov. 29, looks at who the artist is, at least in some small but vital part, by what they have an eye for – and bring home, repeatedly. In the case of some artists, perhaps the more obsessive ones, we could say by what they horde.
“I am interested in knowing why people collect what they do and how this collecting does or does not influence their work if they are artists,” Meiers says. “I have intentionally chosen a group of artists whose works are obviously influenced by the things that they collect. I have broadly defined collecting as the gathering and keeping of objects rather than just formal collecting of a particular type of art or precious objects. Within my definition of collector [is] anyone who amasses a quantity of a certain kind of object, whether it is machine parts or Oceanic tribal costumes.”
Perhaps this is why artists’ studio tours are so fascinating, because they offer us a glimpse into an environment that presumably shapes or reflects the thinking of the person who spends most of their working hours there. For example, the late Jari Havlena lived in an idiosyncratic home that seemed to have grown organically from its original architectural plan. Every part of it reflected who she was, her exquisite personality, and the same could be said for Harold Plople, whose book-crammed cottage off of Gaffey in San Pedro mirrored his never-ending quest for knowledge and new ideas.
Her personal connection
Susanna Meiers has an affinity for this kind of thing. She came of age in antique stores, she jokingly told me, but her home environment as a child seems to have been even more compelling.
“I grew up in a family of collectors and artists,” she says. “Both of my parents were artists and they collected and sold Mexican folk art, beginning in the 1950s. Their love of folk art influenced my father’s painting and the design work they did together of stoneware dishes and Mexican hand-woven fabrics.
“My own work,” she adds, “has also been influenced by the whimsy and dreamlike quality of the Mexican folk art that surrounded me in my early years, and actually does today as well. [My parents] were founding members of the Mingei Museum of International Folk Art in San Diego, and were also very involved with the UCLA Fowler Museum and Museum of Cultural History (UCLA).”
Meiers has been connected to the local arts community for many years and so she had some idea of how to reach out and find many of the artists who proved to be a perfect fit for “Under the Influence.” And the good thing about knowing a few artists is that those artists, in turn, have their own coterie of friends who may be collectors.
For Angie Bray it has been feathers and dandelion puffs, for Nancy W. Romero it’s animated toys (from Mexico, from Africa, and from our coastal Northwest), for Karyl Sisson it’s drinking straws that are shaped into sculptures, and for Clayton Spada it’s action figures – lots of alien creatures from what I can see – transformed visually through digital manipulation and the enlargement of Polaroid images.
Other artists in the show apparently ransack flea markets, comb hillsides and forests, or navigate through e-Bay. But whatever it is that grabs and holds their attention, it’s surely working on and through their subconscious. In the case of Robert S. Hilton, what he comes across, either manmade or natural, stands a good chance of being reconverted into part of a musical instrument. One may think of the inventive Harry Partch. Hilton will play several of his instruments at the opening.
Additional artists with works on view include Mark Clayton, Ruth Di Nicola, Lynn Doran, James Griffith, Jacqueline M. Jefferies, Jeffrey Kibbe, David Lovejoy, Michael Lewis Miller, Laura Stickney, and Lizzy Waronker.
A more fascinating bundle of people, all together in one place and at the same time, is unlikely to come our way again anytime soon.
Under the Influence: Both Artist and Collector is on view through Dec. 13 in the El Camino College Art Gallery, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance. Reception, Thursday, Nov. 29, from 7 to 9 p.m. Closed today (Thanksgiving). Call (310) 660-3010 or go to elcamino.edu.Â
