“The icon & the Iconic” at St. Ignatius Church

Father James Blaettler talks about icons

Saint Nicolas, The Miracle Worker (c. 19th century)
Russia, bronze with enamel, 9”x10”

Old and modern icons

Saint Catherine by D. Papadopoulos
Greece, 20”x14”

by Ekaterina Levina



The exhibit “The icon & the Iconic” brought back my childhood memories. One of my grandmothers was a devoted Orthodox Christian. I remember her praying in the front of icons in a red corner (right corner of the house) since, well... I remember myself.
The icons were dark, very old, the faces of saints were wise, serene and otherworldly.
I remember my grandmother praying to St. Nicolas for all her children traveling somewhere in the world. A thin wax candle was flickering in front of St. Anna, a silver cross, other saints – I don't remember who they were. Unfortunately, all these beautiful icons burned with the house a few years after my grandmother died. All, but one, which was given to my aunt when she got married. I didn't get a chance to inherit anything except my grandmother's intuition.

When I was looking at 17-18 century icons and crosses at the exhibit, I remembered a serene and illuminated face of my grandmother whispering words from a book of prayers. The book was heavy with an old lather cover and written in old style language decorated with red and gold ornaments. For me, when I was a kid, all those religious symbols were beautiful and mysterious objects, they were so different from everything around.

This icon exhibit at St. Ignatius Church features traditional Christian icons (from Russia, Greece, Bulgaria and Ethiopia) as well as iconic works by contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol.

A few beautiful old and contemporary icons were landed to the exhibit by families who knew Father James Blaettlet. I guess that the church (this one is a Jesuit Parish ) is one of the greatest networking systems in the world.

A lady from my art history class organized a tour for our class. Father James gave us an insightful 1,5 hour lecture about icons and art works at the exhibit. There are 69 traditional icons and icon interpretations at the exhibit.
Look up at the dome, and you'll see a pair of angel wings spread over you. A video installation shows people making a snow angel.
A bell “St. Nicolas Shadow” tolls every hour for civilian people who were killed in Iraq on that day.

Last chance to see this beautiful exhibit is Sunday, June 7, 2-5 pm.
Manresa Gallery, St. Ignatius Church
650 Parker Avenue, CA 94118

College Night at the de Young Museum

My painting “California Boys” (center)

Live art drawing demonstration by CCSF Museum Drawing Class

“This is not a box of Wheaties” by Beth Bloom

“Dindelion” by Nining Muir

“Obsession” by Melissa Love

by Ekaterina Levina


I participated in the student exhibit “Warhol Now and Then” with my painting “California Boys” at the de Young Museum last Friday. Yep, it feels good to get to the show at the museum!
It was one big fun party, kind of “an art gallery meets a night club meets an indie film festival”.
I met a few people from the art school who also participated - Beth Bloom, Nining Muir and Simone Guimaraes, who' been a very enthusiastic president of the Art Club of CCSF this semester.

A Museum Drawing class of the City College did a live drawing demonstration in Piazzoni Murals Room. They manage to stay on their places despite all that action and music around.
Usually this class has three costumed models, but this time a male model didn't show up, so Rick Rodrigues, an art instructor, stood for a model. You could see that he wasn't used to modeling – Rick couldn't stay still for a minute.

I have a couple of favorites from the show.
I loved a short film (I think the title was “Anonymous”) by Melusina Gomez in collaboration with Tokotzli and Aztlan Media Kollective. It was a combination of a film, music, and performance with old-fashioned nostalgic imaginary and beautiful poetry with a hint of desperation of a broken heart.

The art exhibit had a bright colorful and optimistic feel for the most part. One work stood out and had none of that cheerfulness - “Obsession” by Melissa Love.
I haven't had the chance to talk to the artist, but I assumed that the young and pretty woman taking her picture next to this photo was her.

It's difficult to see the whole image, but there's also a shadow of a leaving man on a door on the right side. It's simple, concrete and wonderfully dark.
You can find a much better quality image and other photographs by Melissa Love on her website:

http://melissalovephotography.com/

In her statement for the museum Melissa Love wrote:

“.... Death fascinates us as it is one of life's many mysteries. One will never get to know what it is like, until he or she is faced with it. Until then, it seems all that we can do is observe.”

Open Studio event at the end of earth in San Francisco

Industrial landscape at Hunters Point Shipyard

Beth Bloom greets a guest

Sculptures by Beth Bloom

Linda Hope in her art studio

Assemblage boxes by Linda Hope

by Ekaterina Levina


I went to Spring Open Studios at Hunters Point Shipyard for the first time yesterday.
This place at the end of earth has been an art community for about 20 years.
I know a couple of artists who work there.

Beth Bloom is a future interior designer. She does everything – painting, printmaking, sculpture, jewelery. I met Beth when she was a president of the Art Club at CCSF last year. I think she's been the most energetic president so far. She makes art, studies for her interior design degree, runs her own design business and trains for marathons. I don't know when she sleeps.

At open studios Beth presented her jewelry - very modern pieces combining silver and wood and her sculpture. For some reason, my attention is always drawn to things that have a heart shape. It doesn't matter, if it's a painting or a sculpture, if it's a heart – I love it.

Check out Beth Bloom's web site:

http://bethbloomdesigns.com/

In a studio next door I met my ex-instructor Linda Hope. I took Linda's class a few times. I love how she teaches Figure Drawing. Her approach to explaining a process of drawing a human figure could be applied to drawing anything. Her class is about how to open eyes and hearts to creating something on paper. Drawing is a process that involves an eye, a hand and a mind. Linda teaches how to engage everything.

This summer Linda Hope teaches Figure Drawing “Life Beyond Fundamentals” at Fort Mason (Continuing Education CCSF) on Saturdays, June 13 – July 25.

I recommend this class to everybody who's serious about drawing.

Hunters Point Shipyard is a very busy and vibrant art community.
All art studios were taken, all were open, all available space had art works in it. Clearly, the artists have been working there – they had a lot to show.

Many people came looking for something – paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, ceramics, jewelery... As one artist said: “people come just looking on Saturday, then some of them come back to buy what they love on Sunday.”
I hope they would.

Such a great art community deserves great patrons who appreciate art.