Local Gallery Reaches Community

-

CMATO at Thousand Oaks Mall

Wandered through a Southern California mall this week and I passed this store front. Could there be a better place than a mall to bring the arts to more people? This is home to the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks (CMATO), a lovely, inviting gallery space, open to the public free of charge.  

I've always been curious about this place but, in the past, my timing has been off and I haven't been able to explore it. Happily, I had the time and a willing companion, so we decided to check it out.

CMATO's stated goal is to provide "a place where ideas are shared and people connect." The current show is entitled "Landscape Through the Eyes of Abstraction," which presents art work on the theme of the environment. (The show of six contemporary artists will be on display through July 31, and activities are planned for Earth Day so check out their website: https://cmato.org/.)

The bold colors and shapes in the work of Charles Arnoldi reminded me of some modern quilters :


Moving to the next room, Claudia Parducci depicts the devastating effects of wildfires in her installation, "23 Columns." Each suspended column is knit in twine or ropes of greys, browns, and black which puddle at their base. Very arresting.  


The light open gallery is a fitting space to appreciate the work of Cynthia Ona Innis. Her soft grey palette and silvery tones in mixed media, (fabric included,) present a very different world to the viewer. 

 
And Kim Abeles has yet a different perspective in her work. Using satellite photos she mapped out the existence of trees in urban areas. The long wire trunks suggest to me the fragility of nature in this setting. I also found the shadows that these pieces cast on the walls particularly interesting. 


We were so glad we took the time to investigate this spot. It was a thought provoking and gratifying stop in an otherwise busy schedule, and added a little light to the day. CMATO is true to it's mission:  "to enrich and inspire our community through exceptional experiences with the visual arts." 

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Ooops, I did it again

-
Image
You know when you make a mistake and you end up thinking " Man, I really should have known better!"? I recently experienced that moment when I took my latest finish out of the wash, hung it to dry, and later found that the backing I used had bled through to the front of the quilt. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it had covered the entire quilt, but in this case I have a strip of a stronger color on one side of the back: Heartbreaking to think that after all that time and effort, the piece was ruined just because I forgot to turn to the cold/cold setting for the delicate cycle on the washing machine. But then it occurred to me to "put it out there." I posted the problem on Instagram and got back several suggestions. The most popular solution was Dawn dish soap. And I'm happy to report I've met with success!!! It did require some persistence though. First, I tried applying Dawn to the affected areas and then putting it through the wash with a bit of ...
Read more

A Follow Up

-
Image
Shifting Contour When last you heard of this quilt it had been saved from the scourge of fabric bleeding. But I never posted the whole quilt. So here it is.  I have called it Shifting Contour because, in my mind, the patterned fabric plays the role of the background on the left side of the piece. On the right side, the patterned fabric moves to the foreground and becomes a solid shape against the cream background. It is an experiment with the concept of negative space. This year our local guild has taken the lead from our parent organization, the Modern Quilt Guild, and focused on a specific topic each quarter. They covered categories which can be found in the annual QuiltCon quilt show: modern traditionalism, applique, negative space, and minimalism.  I found defining these terms has been really helpful, as sometimes it's difficult to identify why a certain quilt is in a category, in which category a quilt "belongs" when entering it, and even how to deliberately incorpo...
Read more

Q=A=Q 2025 Opening

-
Image
  The first weekend in November was the opening of the annual Quilts=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, New York.  Q=A=Q Opening Night The show includes seventy quilts created by fifty three artists from around the world, including  Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Kuwait, Switzerland, and the US. This is the second year that I've been honored to be juried into Q=A=Q.  It requires a bit of effort to get to upstate New York on opening night; there are no direct flights from our location. So I'm doubly grateful for the support of family who joined me to take in the experience.  This is very different from a large quilt convention. While you can get up close to the work at any kind of quilt show, the more intimate setting of a gallery brings a unique perspective. The environment elevates a quilt to the status of art. I love that there are so many ways to present my work. I know this is a relatively new phenomenon and it reflects c...
Read more