Alex_OnArt: November 2013

Curated by Alex Ortiz.

During these art exhibits The NX ArtHouse hosted OnTheFly Open Mic with flymaster John Davies and SPEAKEASY Open Mic with co-hosts Alex Ortiz and Zeke Hughes.

I had always planned on this being temporary. It was just time. I loved curating these shows. It was a huge challenge. I would do it again, in another time and place. I'm not planning on curating any events soon. Who knows what adventures will happen next. For now I'm going to focus on my own art. Thank you to everyone involved for this experience.

Much Love,
Alex Ortiz

Quintessence of Dust, The Art of Sarah McComb. November 2013.

Quintessence of Dust, The Art of Sarah McComb

NX ArtHouse, November 2013

Artist Statement: Sarah McComb currently lives in Bakersfield, California. She draws things sometimes, usually with black Uniball pens.

About the artist:

Sarah McComb is a primarily self taught artist who is new to the Bakersfield Art scene this year. She has participated in several group art exhibits and First Friday in Downtown Bakersfield.

Her favorite media is ink and paper, however she also experiments with collage and acrylics. All the titles of this exhibit were taken from Hamlet.

i was never young, the art of beatrice huerta boswell. October 2013.

"i was never young," the art of beatrice huerta boswell

NX ArtHouse, October 2013.

I was never young

When you spend your days hiding in an apple tree with a book

Because everyone else is making fun of you

Because you sing along with the radio to every song you know

Because you don’t think like a third grader should

You see the war unfolding before your very eyes in black and white

Because you sit on the cracked wood of the back stairs with your freshly showered

Dad; drinking a small Olympia beer while he drinks a full sized one.

When you go to bed with a belly that is never full

When you drink a lot of water and hang out at your friend’s houses

Just in case you get invited for lunch or dinner

Because your father would rather pour his money into his car

Because he’d rather spend it on some bimbo he’s fucking

Because your mother is always borrowing money from your landlady.

When everything you own is secondhand

Even your pets are throwaways

And you feed them the bugs you catch

Because you can’t always afford chicken scratch

Because you are the only kids the feed store allows to buy a quarters worth of dog food

Because your cats do eat the field mice who wander into your house otherwise they both would starve.

Because you actually have fights with your father about Viet Nam War

Because you have a friend whose father has been missing for over a year now

Because you are wearing a POW bracelet with his name on it

Because you are hoping her dad comes back and your dad just leaves

Because you love him but you hate him

Because he is your father

Because he beats your mother

Because he beats your siblings

Because he beats you everyday

Because you stand up and defy him and refuse to believe that the was is just

Because you do not believe in “my country right of wrong”

Because you don’t realize that you were never young until you grow old enough to

Understand what an old soul is when you look in the eyes of your children.

About the artist:

“I was never young and would never dare think of ‘Me’ as an artist”, is how self-taught artist; beatrice huerta boswell describes herself and yes she spells her name all lowercase. boswell thinks of herself as a poet first and this poetic vision is what gives her inspiration to create visual “songs, limericks and prose”. A lot of her art is tongue-in-cheek, or just downright painful to look at. boswell works in mixed media and enjoys including found objects into her work.

Most of her subjects are from the literary world, myths or members of the LGBTQ community, she also finds time to wage a war of the sexes on canvas. She finds the act of making a new piece of work just as difficult and cathartic at times as writing a poem or essay on her childhood growing up poor in the San Joaquin Valley.

This Is Your Valley & Other Works, The Art of LisaAnn LoBasso. September 2013.

This Is Your Valley & Other Works, The Art of LisaAnn LoBasso

NX ArtHouse September 2013

Artist Statement by LisaAnn LoBasso:

Darkroom. Dodge. Burn. Spot tone. When I began in photography, the final phases were controlled in the darkroom. Most photographers found this a tedious process. I found solace in the hours upon hours of dim red light. I could stay in the chemical room for days, unaware if it was day or night, preferring to pull off my gloves and feel the print and it emerged in the liquid. It was a unique space with a peaceful feeling. Others would come and go.

In the end, I would have stacks of prints, only one being the "perfect" final copy. I didn't care that the chemicals were damaging my weak lungs or eating my skin. Shooting was its own game, quite different. Most photographers felt in their element shooting, rather than developing. These photographers were strong technically. The technical language was something I could feel but never able to memorize. I found strength in my technical mistakes, the act of "seeing", the photographer's good eye.

I never called myself a photographer, only an artist, using the medium.

Today there are no darkrooms. Photographer's use computer programs like Photoshop or Lightroom. It is a healthier option. We can save the final "perfect" version and make multiple copies easily if we choose. There is no solace in this process.

As an artist I find printing on to other formats intriguing, such as these dangling acetates, that allow the light to shine through the subtle colors and text. I enjoy the different textures, crumbling the prints, adding decoupage, sewing partial images to make one. I am captured by the mistakes of shooting at the wrong speed or surprised by the turnout of expired film. It is the process that arrests me.

This Is Your Valley is a series developed about our valley. Filled with dust. It is about the pain in this valley. It is about the beauty in this valley. The struggle in this valley. The naked truth of the valley.

This Is Your Valley was completed 2 1/2 years ago. The nX hosts the first solo exhibit that exposes them. I have not shot or written since.

Except this wedding photography you see. Another artist, a dancer, forced me to shoot her wedding. I was never interested in commercial work until three years ago. Wedding photography has made drastic changes and now the wedding photographer captures moments more often than stiff portraits. I was just embarking on the idea of a business in photography, tied to my fine arts background, but halted as life changes absorbed me. These images of love, as the two are committed together, were created at the beginning of my divorce.

I do not feel like an artist today. After over 20 years, I am uncomfortable behind the lense, the pen, the mic. I do not shoot or write now. But hope to one day find a process again.

Your Mama Don't Paint! Art Show! August 2013.

Your Mama Don't Paint! Paint Off!

NX ArtHouse August 2013.

This was a group art show composed of art that people created over a few nights. Some of the canvases were shared. Artists were instructed: "Just go with it. Don't think. Paint for as long as you need. Paint for as long as there is paint, then paint some more. The colors will never let you down. The painting will last as long as you want it to."

Participating artists:

Art Rodriquez

Joe Rodriquez

Alex Ortiz

Sarah McComb

Ester

Brittany Koenig

Immyr

Django

Violet