Art wonderland

All in the golden afternoon/Full leisurely we glide—Lewis Carroll (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)

A blue sign pointed to a vintage Chico bungalow on Fifth Street. Atop the tall porch stood a regal standard poodle that quietly welcomed me, my wife and our miniature poodle (tucked safely under arm) into a living room filled with works of art that sparkled with cosmic forces.

This quirky scene was the first stop on what turned out to be a magnificent mini adventure as my trio biked around Chico under afternoon sun last Saturday (Oct. 20) looking for the blue signs that corresponded with spots on the map for the Open Studios art tour. Of course, a big part of the charm of the Chico Art Center’s annual two-weekend event is being invited into the creation spaces themselves, where each stop offers not only a view of a different artist’s work, but also a unique art world to explore.

This year’s event features 49 stops (most in Chico, with one in Oroville and three in Paradise) and more than 70 artists, and the cosmic art on Fifth Street that promised to “clean the air in your home” belongs to Kathryn Silvera. The artist explained that her pieces that feature a certain combination of metals, quartz crystals and resin makes the art double as air filters for your home. Whether one is skeptical of the powers of Silvera’s colorful “orgonite” slabs or not, the molded pieces of various sizes were indisputably gorgeous, as were her 3-D encaustic/oil/watercolor paintings in a side room.

Sharing space with her pieces on a huge wood-slat wall erected in the middle of the living room were complementary wood-and-metal works by Silvera’s husband, Justin. His wall-hangings featured various knick-knacks—a plastic goose, a brass pineapple, wooden giraffe head, etc.—attached to wood slabs alongside little metal spouts that he explained were once used for tapping maple trees. Unique, super cool and affordable ($50 and up).

The blue sign outside Dylan Tellesen’s studio was haphazardly affixed with blue painter’s tape to the side of a three-story building in downtown Chico, and despite being very familiar with his art and having known the artist for many years, I was stunned by what we found inside. Tellesen’s space is the stuff of artist fantasies. Think: New York, industrial space and Andy Warhol. It takes up nearly the entire second floor of the First Street building, with high ceilings and brick walls and open-concept work spaces for him and his studio mates—designer/illustrator/painter Susie Tolen and typographer/man-of-many-artistic-hats Max Infeld.

Nearly all of the works Tellesen had on display—both finished and in-progress—were his signature stylized portraits, most impressive of which were the large ones of well-known folks—Elliot Smith, Leonard Cohen, Angela Davis, etc. My favorite was “Bourdain,” a stunning, somber, blue-toned sad-eyed mural of the chef/author/TV personality.

Of all the potential new worlds to explore on the Open Studios tour, I doubt any can touch the magic inside at 7th Street Centre for the Arts. The performance and visual art center for Chico’s Mains’l Services—which provides art and dance classes, plus support for people with developmental disabilities—filled several rooms with an impressive collection of paintings, prints, collages and sculptures by its clients.

The pieces ranged from the striking thickly painted creamy-yellow figure “Silhouette 2” (by Glenda Davidson) and Nikki Davis’ bold thick-lined portrait of a “Blond Maiden” to several collaborative paper collages and intricate wood and linocut prints by David Plant. It’s as vibrant and expressive a show as you’ll ever see in Chico. If you’re heading out for the final weekend of the tour (Oct. 27-28), I highly recommend stopping there.

Fair warning, many of the artists bow out for the second weekend of the tour, but more than half will still have open doors this Saturday and Sunday (including the Silveras’ home studio and 7th Street). That’s more than enough for what promises to be another sun-soaked day, perfect for leisurely gliding along the arts trail.