by Elizabeth Monks Hack
Each month, the Cypress Gallery brings to our community a new show of art, planned and arranged by its members. The gallery is owned and operated by the Lompoc Valley Art Association, an active community organization that has drawn local artists together since 1965. Desiring a permanent, public space to exhibit their artwork, LVAA established the Cypress Gallery in 1994, creating a local nonprofit and co-op art space for the benefit of all.
Consider it a treasure box full of color and ideas that you can open and enjoy every month of the year. The front gallery room usually showcases the work of our featured artist, with the remainder of the gallery filled with submissions by individual artists; unless a special gallery-wide show is planned. This July, the treasure box metaphor is particularly apt.
C. Wood gifts us with “Paper and Paint,” a show that must be experienced in person to get the full effect. These works of art glitter and dazzle the eye, with pattern and color so richly applied the viewer is almost physically mesmerized. C. Wood is a multi-faceted and exuberant artist who sets no limits to her creativity. Previously, she has exhibited captivating landscape and still life paintings and pastels, rendered with keen perception and a deft hand.
In this show Wood explores her love of Japanese patterns and color combinations, with large, collage-paintings that are each three foot square. They depict a gallery of traditional Japanese portrait figures, each alone in an environment of paint, paper, foil, antique Japanese stamps and origami papers. In works such as “Geisha,””The Bride” and “Samurai,” the faces and exposed skin of the figures are painted, in contrast with their lavishly collaged costumes.
The large works are accompanied by smaller, abstract-expressionist pieces and objets d’art, using a similar color and texture theme. The small works are each spectacular, and demonstrate what an original and accomplished painter C. Wood is.
A truly enjoyable feature of the Cypress Gallery each month is the variety of work submitted by our artists. It is so often full of surprises. Steve Scolari, whose two-dimensional work is usually diminutive and realistic, has created a very large, abstract piece. Entitled “Barns,” and mounted in a wide black frame that functions as a continuation of the idea, the painting explores the geometries and colors of barn structures.
Jasmine Gonzalez's three-dimensional mixed-media piece also gives the viewer a start. Stable in its organization but full of contrasts, including a baby in utero and clown faces, it is entitled “All My Friends Are Having Babies.”
So much to explore! We also feature handmade gifts, jewelery and cards stamped with the personality of individual artists. Come in and interpret the works of art for yourself. Visit “The Cypress,” your friendly local art gallery!
All photos by Bill Morson
The Bride by C. Wood
The Official by C. Wood
Crazy Layers by C. Wood
Barns by Steve Scolari
All My Friends are Having Babies by Jasmine Gonsalez