Calling All Portuguese Bend Artists For A New Show

Artists are about as plentiful as peacocks in Portuguese Bend so that should generate a generous number of entries for an upcoming show at Ps Zask Gallery at Golden Cove.

Gallery owner Peggy  Zask, a Bend resident, is calling all artists whose work uses Found Objects as a major component of their art form for a new show, entitled Found Object,  to be held from October 2 to November 6, 2010.  

According to Mrs. Zask, this type of art, "is created from the undisguised, but often modified use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function. Marcel Duchamp was the originator of this in the early 20th century."   She notes that there are many artists in Portuguese Bend, including members of the Portuguese Bend Artist Colony, and she hopes that all of them will enter this show.

Artists may have three entries (by digital entry) for $15. Entry deadline is August 31, 2010.

Contact pszask@cox.net for a prospectus or call 310 429-0973 for more information.

The gallery, which is open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., opened three years ago with a Spirit of the Horse Art Competition, to benefit the Portuguese Bend Pony Club. It continued with exhibitions of a variety of fine works from artists in Southern California and across the country. Ms. Zask recently re-opened the gallery with a new focus on ceramic art, sculpture and paintings that, she says, "explore the senses, issues and ideas about the earth's environment."

Both Zask and her husband. Ben, are artists. Ben, a science teacher at Dana Middle School in San Pedro, makes sculpture specifically out of found objects. "He does not use one thing in his art that is not recycled from somewhere around our home," according to Peggy.

She is a ceramic sculptor, potter and painter and teaches art, ceramics and sculpture at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach.  The very unusual wall around their property, "Is made mainly of Mira Costa High School student projects that were left behind at the end of the school year," Peggy said.  "Rather than throw them away, I decided to make a shard wall, as you may see in China, but of a sculptural nature.  Over the years, I have had other professional artists in the area add to the wall so it is developing quite a history," she said. 

Each year, the Zasks host a field trip from Mira Costa.  "We have about 50  students come and we do an ancient method of Pit firing with wood, firing the pots that kids have prepared specifically for the trip," she explained.  

"The method is based on the southwestern pottery of Maria Martinez.  After they prepare their pots and put them in the fire, they hike the traills, go to the tide pools and then we barbeque and relax and then they go on the bus back to school.  It's always one of their favorite times in high school. Many students take the ceramics class just so they can go on this famous field trip, always in spring of course.  It's a nice way to share Portuguese Bend."

Here's hoping that all Portuguese Bend artists enter this show, even if the focus is not their particular art form. It would be fun for the rest of us to see what artistic vision can bring to the ordinary.