Arts DEVOté

Seeing celadon
It is the green season, and Arts DEVOté is busy, busy, busy. Earth Day is upon him and he still has a garage full of plastic bottles that have yet to be stapled to the trunks of oaks in the grove across the street. It’s a concept piece protesting the reprocessing of recyclable plastics that could instead be reused in works of socially conscious art.

It’s a joke. Put down the pitchforks.

Actually, the anticipation of Earth Week activities has motivated A.D. … to stare at the computer screen and search the WWW for art that intersects with the green movement. One of the first, and best, discoveries is the Green Museum (greenmuseum.org). It’s an environmental art resource, with profiles of and artwork by major environmental artists, plus environmental art news updates and an extensive calendar of events. But the links are where the gold (sorry, “the green”) is, with tons of resources for related media outlets, green building, funding resources, and environmental artworks, including A.D.’s new favorite subgenre: Land Art, which mixes the natural world with the work of art. Every land art link leads somewhere rad—the Poustinia Land Art Park in Belize (www.poustiniaonline.org), Krakamarken public sculpture park in Denmark (www.museetfordanskkunst.dk/ krakamarken)—but the most magical of all might be the Arte Sella sculpture park in Italy (www.artesella.it/eng). In the forests of the Val di Sella, Arte Sella hosts a biennel showcase of forest-situated artworks, as well as the permanent Arte Natura exhibition route with dozens of insane (insane!) land art pieces. A.D.’s fave: Belgian artist Bob Verschueren’s “Après le chaos,” a bundled-log latticework bridging a ditch in the forest.

Serendipi-tastic!
Seek and you shall find, indeed! While A.D. was inside absorbing the green glow of his computer monitor, outside there was actually some very fine land art being created a little more than an hour’s drive from Chico. Up in the McConnell Arboretum and Gardens of Redding’s expansive Turtle Bay compound, world-renowned environmental artist Patrick Dougherty (who also has a piece in Krakamarken park mentioned above) just completed “The Lookout Tree,” a interweaving of willow branches that form huts around a valley oak. Just another reason why Redding’s Turtle Bay (www.turtlebay.org) is kicking Chico’s corporate-funded arts butt (see also, sculptor/architect Santiago Caltrava’s Sundial Bridge and the current exhibition of ceramics by Picasso—ending April 20). For more on Dougherty go to www.stickwork.net.

Bi-weekly Devotions

• Public Art Policy Committee: Meets Thursday, April 17, 5 p.m., in the City Council Building.

• Chico Art Center Lecture Series: This month, graphic artist Bruce Murray Fri., April 25, 7:30 p.m., $5 donation.

• Expressions: Chico State’s dance team’s annual showcase of dance—jazz, lyrical, hip-hop and tap. Two shows: Fri. and Sat., April 25 and 26, 7:30 p.m., in PAC 134 on the Chico State campus. $5 donation.

• More art lectures: Director of Sonoma State’s University Art Gallery, Michael Schwager, presents two lectures: “The Concept of Place in Contemporary Art” Tues., April 29, 5 p.m. (in Humanities Gallery), and “Conversation on California Art” Wed., April 30, 7:30 p.m. (at 1078 Gallery).