Arts DEVO

Flaming! Got an FYI from CN&R columnist Anthony Peyton Porter about the upcoming worldwide Drawing Day 2009 on June 6, and while scoping out the deal at www.drawingday.org, I began to think once again about how much I suck at drawing. There is no feat, short of dunking a basketball over Yao Ming, I’d rather be able to accomplish than to put pencil to paper and create images I’d enjoy seeing on a wall.

I am a lifelong doodler, and over the years the occasional accident has emerged from a notebook or the cover of the telephone book that has made me laugh enough to want to show the scribbles to others; but, mostly, it’s just the same bad 3D geometric shapes, crazy eyes, obsessive experiments in repetitive shapes … oh, and flames—lots and lots of flames. Ninety percent of all my doodles end up on fire, in fact. Actually, flames are the one thing I can kind of draw.

I should look into being a niche tattoo artist or start painting cars. Or, I could just celebrate the art of drawing by sharing Fire Dog with you. Enjoy.

If you think you can draw The city of Chico is working on its Resource List of Pre-Qualified Artists, so if you’d like to potentially be called upon to work on “creating design elements or integrating site-specific artwork into capitol improvement projects,” the deadline for applying is June 12. For info, contact Arts Project Coordinator Mary Gardner at 896-7214 or <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">{ document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,97,32,104,114,101,102,61,34,109,97,105,108,116,111,58,109,103,97,114,100,110,101,114,64,99,105,46,99,104,105,99,111,46,99,97,46,117,115,34,62,109,103,97,114,100,110,101,114,64,99,105,46,99,104,105,99,111,46,99,97,46,117,115,60,47,97,62)) } </script>.

He knows he can draw Chico serigraph master Jake Early has another gigantic feather to stick into his printmaking hat. To commemorate the opening of the new Shasta Trinity Trail—a hundred-mile trail for hikers, bikers and equestrians that runs from Redding’s Sundial Bridge to the Trinity Alps—the National Park Service and U.S. Department of the Interior commissioned Early to make one of his trademark hand-pulled prints. Represent.

Community canvas I’m long overdue in giving thanks to local painter/arts activist Gregg Payne for clueing me in to another new community art project: the new Native American tribal design mural on the east side of Community Park. With collaboration between Payne, the city, CARD, Preservation Partners, local tribal leaders and Chico U Lock It Storage, adaptations of tribal designs of the Mechoopda and other local tribes were painted on 500 feet of Chico U Lock It cinderblock walls facing the park.

Heavy metal! Pat Collentine and Susan Larsen have been busy. Of course, the artist couple is always busy—making art, advocating for local art at the 1078 Gallery, building neon signs for their Tesla Neon business, and deejaying their experimental and new music show Sonic View on KZFR (second Tuesday each month, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.). Lately, they’ve been especially busy building a 17-foot, 2-ton, glass-and-steel public sculpture for the state’s capital city. The duo’s “Bell Pagoda” is in the final stages of being painted and will be installed in Sacramento’s Fremont Community Garden during the first week in June. Join me, again, in big congratulations and thanks to local artists for representing Chico!