Art Palm Springs 2018

I was fortunate enough to be invited by the Maria Elena Kravetz Gallery to exhibition at Art Palm Springs this year. The exhibition was a huge success. I chose to only show 5 photos from the Pilgrimage of Heritage series. 

These photos are printed on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk (310gsm) paper with Lucia Inks, which translates to very high quality, archival pigment prints. The prints are mounted on Davey board, a stiff board used by book binders. The frames are treasures and lucky find. I have been collecting these “bubble glass portrait” frames from the late 1800s. I fix up the broken ones and have then gold plated at a place just south of downtown Los Angeles.  The original back plates for the frames were thrown out and replaced with a heavy metal, also plated in gold. The glass protecting the print is convex (domed-shaped). These frames are a good weight when hanging on the wall. 

I had the best location as it drew people in to the booth, assuming they weren’t glazed over from the over-loading of art intake.

Over the course of 4 full days and a brief opening celebration, I met a lot of people and received valuable feedback. One person thought this work was “kitsch” until she heard the process and how it was all constructed and assembled. I research this kitsch term and discovered that it is often related to pop-art. I have never considered myself as “Pop” art before. In fact, I don’t know what I considered myself before this past weekend. Yes, I previously knew that I was of the photomontage, post-modernism or post-postmodernism crowd, but I have never really thought of myself as an Andy Warhol type. Now of course, once in a portfolio review in Palm Springs last year, Frank Meo said that I was like Andy Warhol compared to everyone else showing him work at the Palm Springs Photo Festival.  I never thought much of that comparison until now.

I met a lot of great people who really loved my art. One lady looks like a relative of Queen Elizabeth. I wouldn’t have placed her and the Queen together had she and a fellow artist not mentioned it. She loved my work. I asked her opinion on which she loved the most and she said “The Church” and “The Royalty”. From a marketing standpoint, I wonder if those are the strongest in the series. 

As a parent, I couldn’t escape that “bring your kid to work day”. My youngest, Dino became a performance artist for 2 hours. This was his first un-official, yet official solo as a performance artist. I did not drag him around. He did his own thing near my wall of art. It was cute. I think he might have a performance artist career cut out for him! It’s not like that does not run in the family. As a former actress, I always said I’d never put my kids in the Industry. I knew what goes on behind the scenes as well as what they would be exposed to. Performance art is different. They show up to the venue, do their thing, take pictures with fans, and be on their way (in a perfect world). 

I am glad I could drag them along for a fun, long weekend away from Los Angeles. It was interesting to see Leo’s face when he noticed his picture hanging on the wall. He felt, I’d say, somewhere between embarrassed and flattered.

Since I constantly felt like I was scaring people away from my work, I often roamed the fair in search for other artwork I’d hang alongside this Pilgrimage of Heritage. I thought it would be fun to play “interior designer” or “curator” and curate art that would be shown along with these 5 in a living room gallery. Here is what I discovered at the fair. Forgive me for not keeping track of who these pieces belonged to.

I have a few more, but they are trapped on my iPhone and taking too long to transfer to the Box of Dropping (Dropbox). These omitted photos were recently posted on my Instagram feed (for those of you keep track).

Until next post,

- Cathy