1. “One Eye Open,” a group show curated by d’Arci Bruno celebrating the joy of photography at K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda. The exhibit runs August 13 – October 2 with a reception on Friday, August 13, from 6-9 PM, in conjunction with Estuary Art Attack.

2. “Tibetan Memorial Quilts,” a MONTH-LONG exhibition of colorful quilts from the Tibetan Memorial Quilt Project at Rock! Paper! Scissors! Gallery in Oakland. Opening Night, in conjunction with August Art Murmur, on Friday, August 6, 6-9 pm.

“The Tibetan Memorial Quilt Project was started to raise awareness about human rights and to memorialize Tibetans who have died in the struggle for justice and human rights in Tibet. The quilts are made by Tibetans in the Bay Area. Like the AIDS Quilt Project, this series of quilts juxtaposes human pain and suffering with the warmth and comfort of quilted fabric.”

3. “Hidden Places” a collaboration of Tim Graveson, Photography and Zea Morvitz, Prepared Books at Oakopolis in Oakland. Opening on Friday, August 6, 6-9 pm (part of Art Murmur).

4. “Best of the East Bay Party,” a once-a-year event not to be missed if you like parties and love the East Bay. Hosted by the East Bay Express, you can expect live music, good food and more. Friday, August 6 from 5:00 to 11:00 pm at Jack London Square, Oakland. Admission is free. Click here for more details.

Please join us for a summer Art Party at Frisbie St. on July 18th from 3 to 9pm.

We will be making One Word Collages in the backyard and there will be an interactive art installation inside the gallery space.

Plus starting after 6 pm we’ll host a Community Potluck for Frisbie St. friends + neighbors – so bring something yummy to eat and share. (Just a reminder that Frisbie St. is an alcohol and drug free community space.)

And then around 7 we’ll open the “stage” for musicians and poets of all ages and abilities. We want to hear whatever you want to sing or say – come share your music or spoken word with a friendly and appreciative audience.

We would love to see you. Join us! This is a free kid-friendly event.

We’ve got humorous illustrations from Scott,

soulful photographs from Becky’s recent trip to Ghana,

and a new mixed media series by Lanell exploring the realm of our dreams.

Plus more!

Come check it out – things are always better in person. We’re open from 11 am to 6 pm this weekend (June 5/6) and next (June 12/13).

Hey all you art lovers out there, this is your weekend! Starting Friday night there will be close to 500 artists exhibiting their work throughout the East Bay. Wow!

With so much to choose from? Where to start?

For Friday’s, June 4th Art Murmur we suggest starting at 21 Grand for the 10th Annual Benefit Art Sale and then heading down Broadway to the Pro Arts Gallery to view the preview exhibit for East Bay Open Studios 2010. Also, check out this new website for “Midtown Oakland Arts” for galleries and art venues within easy walking distance.

On Saturday and Sunday, come to Frisbie St. to pick up your Free Artist Directory to help you plan your East Bay Art adventure.

Plus we’re featuring 3 artists in our space: Lanell Dike, Becky Jaffe and Scott D.S. Young. See what we’ve been up to!

After that, we recommend you visit these fabulous artists who’ve participated in past Frisbie St. Art Shows or Art Days – of course we’re biased but we think you’ll agree that they’re A-mazing:

Leah Virsik (Map number 413)
JJ Fryzel (Map number 159)
Matthew Kowalski (Map number 340)
Debra Jan Bibel (Map number 372)
Jane Barker (Map number 371)

Pro Arts Annual Gala
Celebrating 36 Years of Service!Pro Arts Annual Gala
Thursday – June 3, 6 – 8 PM
Tickets: $55 General | $30 Artist
Pro Arts, 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland

Exclusive VIP reception for East Bay Open Studios. Live Entertainment, Music, Great Food and Inspired Art. Followed immediately by the Free Artists’ Reception starting at 8pm.

Catering provided by Encuentro, Miraglia Catering, Awaken Cafe, and WingWalkers Baking; Beer by Trumer Pils; Entertainment by Kinetic Arts Center, DJ provided by Acme House of Music

More Info….

A shape emerges through the mist and we detect a human approaching. The very next attribute we perceive is whether it is a man or a woman, but that developing figure may have an entirely different self-perception than ours. Thus, among the first presentations encountered as we enter the Frisbie Street exhibit is Molly Kate Taylor’s photographic grouping of a transgender, cross-dressing man whose self-image is challenging.

Carrel Crawford’s backroom cluster of subjective abstractions and an objective photograph epitomize the theme of the show: What I want my body to be; what I feel inside; what I see; what I think others see; and what others actually see. Crawford projects a target metaphor of a large, beautiful, graceful horse, but others see only plain blue jeans.

An adjacent slide show prepared by Elisa Salasin views what people answer to “What weight do you carry?” Weight, a factor in appearance and self-image, is interpreted broadly here, as in Robert Bly’s Jungian bag of shadows or Buddha’s dukkha: social status, expectations, conceptions, pains, secrets, traditions, and other cravings, burdens, and guilt.

To emphasize the focus on weight, scattered about the floors are weighing scales, by JJ Fryzel, whose readings and marking have been altered. One scale only provides positive outcomes, such as Gorgeous!, or Cutie Pie!, or So Pretty!, or Hot! Hot! Hot! Another scale always reads “0”.

Yet another urges resistance to advertising and social forces on what is an appropriate weight, as if genetics has no role whatsoever and Barbie is anatomically correct. Indeed, our self-image, another encumbrance, is socially conditioned, health-related, and age-dependent.

The curators, Lanell Dike, Becky Jaffe, and Carrie-Andrea Kaye, have assembled a thoughtful and sometime whimsical assortment of artistic explorations on what and how we judge ourselves in appearance. The reasons why are less obvious. It is a daily ritual for many: the weighing on a scale, the view in the mirror, grooming, and cosmetic applications, which is extended to choices in clothing and gadget accouterments.

(Measurement of Worth by Lauren Davis)

We alter our appearance not only to identify ourselves to others but to conform (or, like many adolescent rebels, not to conform) to social norms and to attract mates, and if we fail, we can suffer. Perhaps that is why Courtney McCutcheon’s photographs of people in masks show us that anonymity provides self-acceptance.

Historically and culturally, what are regarded as beautiful features have varied. Once, a Rubenesque plump figure was keenly attractive. The midriff is sexy in India and the Middle East, but American men zero in on breasts.

Becky Jaffe’s introductory section in the front room was an experiment that required patience. She took some 2,000 photos of each volunteer model over 4- to 6-hour sessions and requested a choice of but one that best fits the self-image.

Some portraits were nudes, others included prop clothing. Audios were provided of the subjects explaining their choices. The most arresting image was of a Black man in partial theatrical blackface, a visual statement of protest since even among African and Afro-American communities the level of melanin pigmentation has social consequence.

The self-perception of a person in chronic pain or disability is Maia Huang’s study. Other people can observe the changes in appearance that come with pain; often a muscular strain or a melancholy is manifested. For the sufferer, self-image is often negative, and a search arises for transcendence beyond the body.

We can also regard scars of mastectomy and accidents as body flaws to overcome.

(Maxine by Bruce Temuchin Brown)

But then we come to self-inflicted assaults on the body. The photographs of G. M. M. Coghlan of bloody “cutters” ask questions but provide no answers. On the one hand, tattoos and skin inserts are allowed and even encouraged within ritual tribal cultures or urban subcultures, but hair-pulling and nail-biting are inattentive habits of anxiety and compulsion.

In anorexia, the delusive perception is as if the person is facing a fun-house mirror that broadens a truly slim body. (Indeed, in an alcove there is a reflective film that twists and bends our mirrored body shape.)

In contrast, long-distance runners and competitive bicyclists can have a gaunt appearance, and a few people who voluntarily consume near starvation but balanced levels of food in pursuit of health and longevity also appear unusually lean. Their self-image is not pathologically distorted.

Age influences our self-perception. Elisa Salasin’s photographs of children in play wearing costumes or in dress-up with parental clothing only begin this discussion. Young children do not have self-image standards or even concerns.

Indeed, in play, clothing as a uniform has fetishistic quality, and in their imagination with a cape, the child becomes a superhero. The adolescent, however, is mired in self-image problems, peer expectations, and cultural dictates. Senior citizens have consciously discarded such nonsense.

These artists and other contributors at the Frisbie Street show place a mirror before us, demanding, “Is this you?” Our self-perception supports our ego and shapes our life and social interactions, but it is in flux, changing day by day and hour by hour. It is also pliable, developmental, soon reduced to “old,” and ultimately meaningless.

Once again, the multimedia, multifaceted approach at Frisbie Street has offered a worthy, highly interesting, and evocative exhibit. The universal theme is, of course, psychological but also sociological and biological, and I can envision the exhibit expanded into an interactive presentation at the Exploratorium and similar public scientific venues.

- Art Review by Debra Jan Bibel, Ph.D. – you can view her work at Studio Lone Mountain and during East Bay Open Studios on June 12 and 13.

Also from 1:30 to 3:00 pm you are invited to join a Body Image Workshop led by Kathryn Sterbenc and Linda Shanti McCabe. You can read more information about the workshop here.

We had fun last night with music from Heather and Erika of Waste Band

and a solo set by Ryan James. Thank you!

For those of you planning to come today, we’re open from 2 to 9pm and serving up hot beverages in addition to the art since we know it’s cold outside!

Co-curator and artist Becky Jaffe making hot cocoa. Sweet!

Yummy!

Bring your jacket and come listen tonight to live music by Waste Band and Ryan James. We look forward to seeing you!

More pictures….

Empty gallery waiting for you. Come see some art – including Bruce Temuchin Brown’s silver halide on copper plate photographs Maxine and Mystic.

Listen to “Conversations on Body Image” (installation and photographs by Becky Jaffe.)

You will hear candid and thoughtful stories on living with HIV, recovering from bulimia, the profit motive in advertising, the freedom to be found in crossing identity binaries (e.g. male/female, black/white, straight/gay), the importance of growing your own vegetables, surviving childhood sexual abuse, and learning to love your knees.

Photographs by Molly Kate Taylor who says, “I became a photographer to capture a part of a person that is either never or rarely seen by others or even themselves. To be able to photograph A. in his true essence was an absolute joy.

and more…

Special Thanks to Jon Jackson our FB and Twitter Frisbie St. presence and the warm greeter spreading the love vibe at the front door and to…

Vanessa Beggs of Vanessa and Her Many Moons who rocked the stage in the backyard with her beautiful, amazing voice. Thank you Vanessa! You can read more about Vanessa and her music in this article in VonEtte Magazine.

For a preview of some of the art you will see and the artists you will meet this weekend, check out Michael Singman-Aste’s review of the show in The Island of Alameda.

He says, “Demons are not willingly exorcised, and whether yours involves food or its rejection, age or illness, injury or self-injury, whether you are a man or woman, straight, gay, bisexual or transgender, there is something to push nearly everyone’s emotional buttons.” Read the full review here.

We always want to make our Art shows kid-friendly and never have a show without an art table set up in the backyard for creative fun. However, due to the nature of the subject matter of this show (body image) we want to let you know in advance that there are photographs of naked bodies (male & female), as well as artwork about anorexia and cutting.

We’re asking all parents to preview the show first before bringing their kids in. Feel free to get your kids involved in an art project in the backyard and then walk through the show.