Fannie Allen Design | The Obsessive Observer: January 2015

Wowow! Saturday evening I had the great pleasure of attending ArtSpan's Selection Show, at the SOMArts Cultural Center (another gem in SF). What a blast: the pieces were chosen from hundreds of submissions, to represent the excellence and diversity or art being made right here in the SF area.

AND the artists were standing right there, with a glass of wine or beer, talking to anybody who wanted to chat, about anything.
Plus the artists each wrote a short blurb about their work, which I totally dig seeing.
How great is that!!
It gets better: all the works were for sale. And geeze, the prices were very "accessible."

ArtSpan is a non-profit with c. 800 local artist members, who open up their studios to the public over 4 dazzling weekends each year, called the Open Studio event. It's a truly fabulous fun outing for the family. Most of these artists are not represented in galleries, so this is the way to discover new artists, or see current work by artists you already love.
Mark your calendar for this year's SF Open Studios: Oct 17 - Nov 8, 2015.

But on Saturday, instead of walking around for four weekends, I got to see a juried selection of works from artists all over the San Francisco area in one single spot, while swilling a bit of wine with the makers themselves! There were familiar faces, and works by artists I had never seen before.

This compressed experience was just a ball.
Plan to go next year.

"Last Kiss" by Howie Katz

SHOUT OUT to my artist pal Howie Katz for being selected for the show!!
Howie's pieces are elegant, thought provoking, a response to the destruction of the natural world around us, but on a very personal scale.

I'm always drawn to colored glass. Artist Romy Randev is fascinated by stained glass in Gothic Cathedrals. This wall sculpture is digital & changes colors as you watch it.

I love the meticulous detail of these mono prints, of other worldly yet familiar structures.

Phillip Hua has a fascinating process: he first prints, then paints, on pages from financial papers, which will yellow over time as they age.

Detail of Blind Mary by Bradley Platz

Amy Ahlstrom, an "urban quilter," is influenced by street art, graffiti, signage.

An excellent description of the evening, by Paul Madonna.

If you live in the Bay Area, you can go today through Sunday to see the Fog Design & Art Show at Fort Mason. It is a blast, is unique in our area (modern art and furnishings show), and benefits SFMOMA so a good cause. I love the combo of furnishings with art, of course, since that's how we live life.

There is a lot of emphasis on "blobby-organic" form, not much color (though I was drawn to the colorful items, no surprise).
Loads of metal.
And a huge dose of humor. Thank goodness.
Many items I truly lusted after, there are some really fabulous pieces.

My photo disclaimer: some of my favorites just don't photograph well, like the oh so cool lucite table with items frozen in it by Ted Noten. AND I did take over 100 pictures, which I painfully narrow down so you don't spend all day waiting for the load.
Sigh. So much beauty, so little bandwidth...

Here are a few of the wonders at the Fog Fair: