GDCA is pleased to announce our February 2021 Group Exhibition,  "Passage"

Featured  Artists 

Nurit Avesar, Susanne Belcher, Richard Bell, Edem Elesh, Sylvia H. Goulden, Karen Hansen, Jonathan Jerald, Suki Kuss, Kathe Madrigal, Jane Marshall, Stephen Schubert, Bill Sherwood & Martha Stevens.

JOIN US FOR A VIRTUAL RECEPTION SATURDAY March 20TH AT 6PM (PST) 

Feel free to contact us anytime with questions or to arrange for a masked & socially distanced in person appointment during our temporary business hours: Wednesday through Sunday from 12noon - 5pm!! 😷

EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND!!

GDCA is pleased to announce our March  2021 Solo Exhibition:

Cynthia Ann Swan:  "V"

JOIN US FOR A VIRTUAL RECEPTION SATURDAY March 20TH AT 6PM (PST)

"'V' is the culmination of my 18 years of passionate obsession with all that is Vincent. I have done multiple "deep dives" into his work and his life, and have come to feel a personal, intimate connection to Vincent, the man and the artist. My research has evolved into this reflective retrospective.

'V' strives to invite the viewer to experience Vincent on a deeper level. It references his letters, his thoughts, and the themes of his work as an impassioned celebration." - Cynthia Ann Swan, Kiln Formed Glass Artist

Exhibition Dates: March 6th - March 31st, 2021.

Nurit Avesar 

"This body of work is in response to quarantine and uncertainty. I draw comfort and inspiration from my familiar surroundings – items collected over the years, my favorite books and the potted plants on my porch. I find myself contemplating smaller compositions and paying close attention to mundane details. The surreal sensibility of the paintings, with dream-like blues, deep oranges and compelling bold reds is a reflection of this restricted and complex time." - Nurit Avesar

Susanne Belcher 

“Fun and whimsical expressions on canvas soon became a catharsis of unexpressed anxiety traversing an unknown world. Facing challenges and obstacles on an unfamiliar landscape required a delicate balance in order to transcend isolation. Reality made a paradigm shift and dissolved into what became a serenade of escapism fantasies depicted by squares and traveling pods that began to meld together creating a sense of community and togetherness again.” - Susanne Belcher

Richard Bell 

"An Award winning artist whose paintings describe realism, with influences of eclectic surrealism and impressionism.

John Coltrane is one of the most influential musicians in American history. His work in music theory (the circle of 5ths) is still being studied in academia to this day." - Richard Bell

Edem Elesh

"I am exhibiting 3 new works from my "Mnemonic Devotion Series".  In them I celebrate a former world/paradigm where the freedom to travel, to peacefully congregate, of free speech, of the free exchange of ideas, of personal autonomy, of human physical interaction, and freedom from censorship, were the norm. But, all being said, we are still free to travel in the mind. This is our inalienable right. " - Edem Elesh

Sylvia Hamilton Goulden 

"Working with charcoal and pastels when drawing nudes, I began exploring other subjects. These mediums lend themselves to sensitive, soft lines and sometimes quick gestures, allowing for freedom of movement that create a sensual, active image...

Working with black ink or watercolor creates a bold statement, empowering the subject matter, even a magnolia blossom or sunflower..." - Sylvia Hamilton Goulden

Karen Hansen 

"These are particularly trying moments in our lives. We have the isolation that has come with Covid-19 as well as its threat to our health and to our economy. Also among our stressors are massive wildfires in the West and historic hurricanes and flooding in the Southeast. On top of all that is a contentious, fragmented political atmosphere. It’s no wonder we feel anxious. 

These paintings are offered as serene resting places from our hectic, complex world. They are moments of reprieve." - Karen Hansen

Jonathan Jerald

“And Loplop, bird superior, has transformed himself into flesh without flesh and will dwell among us.” – Max Ernst

Suki Kuss 

"This has been a difficult year for creators. Isolation is usually something that most people fear. For the artist, it can be a gift, an uninterrupted space in time to work and learn. My lesson was the reality that I am a solitary extrovert. I have to balance my urge to be alone with my work and the need to communicate…talking with my artist friends and watching bad TV.

This series spans a period of time from 2014 through 2021. The diptych, Celestial Navigation, my most recent work, speaks to me of flight and space, not an area that I commonly explore. The pieces felt oddly familiar which led me start a hunt through my storage unit, looking for answers. I discovered work that was quite similar but done years ago when my husband was hospitalized. 

My conclusion…when life is uncontrollable, create a universe of your own and set yourself free. The work is personal and profound…a celebration of freedom and an intimate voyage." - Suki Kuss

Kathe Madrigal

Jane Marshall 

"Ai Weiwei was asked if it was better to be an artist or an activist, he paused and answered, "An Artist is an activist."...

My water portraits celebrate water as the artist, and I offer these images to reflect and treasure the movement of how water passes through, in and around, and protects us. Let's actively defend our nature."  - Jane Marshall

Stephen Schubert

"Unity Stripes - Since we are all made up of different stripes and colors, I wanted to recognize that even so - we are all United by more of what we have in common, most of which is below the surface..."

" 'Crossings' is about discovering magic along our paths right now as we cross this new terrain. There is much that is new to connect to..." - Stephen Schubert

"We cannot imagine- twenty four hours at any time but our sun can! A never failure-our eye in the sky, where perfect trajectory begins, then ends at the same place with every hour- passing moments- to final seconds. A journey of personality changes, bright to shiny, murky to dark, then sometimes however not at all when clouded at least from what we only see. There are blue and bright skies, laughter above and beyond. The confusion is we perhaps - all of us. We are only the only ones who leave.... Sun Going - Down Gone."

Martha Stevens

Martha Stevens has worked in a variety of art forms - paint, dance, theatre, education and is an award winning storyteller. For many years, she told traditional mythologies, folk and fairy tales in schools, universities, museums, prisons, and traveled to various countries telling and collecting stories. Here in Los Angeles, she was a performer with Music Center on Tour and was Workshop leader for the Music Center's Education Division. She also was invited as guest speaker to UCLA, CSUDH, CSUN, UCSF, USC, Loyola Marymount and to various Conferences around the state. She was awarded grants from the California Arts Council, FEMA, CMLEA and a FOF Grant from Denmark.

Martha started out as a painter. Her work caught some attention and encouragement for its originality. She showed in various galleries, but when she was given a grant to work in schools, she took it. That led to a long, unlooked for but successful career as Storyteller and less time to paint. Now, off the road, she is happily returning to paint.

She is a member of Los Angeles Art Assoc.

The Portraits

Vincent painted many self portraits, each striving to capture the man he was at the time he was painting the portrait. Vincent held a high regard for painted portraits, believing they were a deeper depiction of the soul of the subject (in this case, himself) than a photographic representation.

Therefore, I choose his most iconic self portrait to represent Vincent, trying to channel everything I felt I'd learned about him with each mark I made with my glass. I centered this likeness, flanking it with two others abstracted from the original. The abstracted versions intend to convey an aspect of Vincent which is not naturally apparent by viewing his likeness, a private peek at the invisible man.

Both of these bookended portraits share the abstracted profile of the original, and employ the reference of prison bars to both literally and figuratively suggest cages that held him captive.

Nearly all of his most famous paintings from his St. Remy period were painted from the barred window of his asylum cell. Even, "Starry Night". He just left out the bars.

The Letters

The letters of Vincent van Gogh refers to a collection of 903 surviving letters written or received by Vincent van Gogh. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo. They have been preserved and cataloged, and are available online. They offer the best insight into this artist's life and soul.

The Paintings

The idea of creating a collection that celebrated and shared what I had come to know and love about Vincent the man and the artist did not manifest itself quickly, but saturated my creativity slowly and deeply over more than 15 years. It was never my intention to "copy" Vincent's work, but to allow his life and his art to bleed into my heart and inspired me to create what I hoped would be a worthy homage to all that he was.

That said, I did feel that one of the series in this collection should actually reference his own art, so I decided to select three of his lesser known paintings (one from each main residential location /period), and interpret them with glass.

1."Public Garden with a Corner of the Yellow House" (Arles 04-1888)

2."The Iris" (not to be confused with "Irises") (St Remy-de-Provence 05-1889)

3."Undergrowth with Two Figures" detail (Auvers-sur-Oise 06-1890)

Trees

Vincent, like many other artists, liked to paint the same or similar subject many times. You might think of his paintings with nights full of concentric stars, or vases full of golden sunflowers. You might not think about trees, all kinds of trees, from his iconic cypress to almond groves, stately pines to tangled forests.

He and I share that love of trees, so this is the spot in the collection where I allowed our loves to intertwine. I chose to paint many of my own favorite trees, but using a different one of my own signature glass techniques for each piece.

The resulting series serves as both a nod to Vincent's beloved tree subjects and a technical retrospective of my own explorations in glass process.

Trees are sacred, essential guardians of the earth, purifiers of the air, and beautiful beyond measure. Save the trees, save the earth, save ourselves.

Plein Air Gardens Series

Plein air painting is about experiencing painting and drawing outside in the landscape. Vincent preferred the freedom to paint “en plein air,” which is the French expression for “in the open air.”

My Plein Air Gardens series was an attempt to re-create the experience that Vincent so loved by experimenting with creating glass canvas and glass "paint", and painting landscape and nature outside using a plein air portable easel and palette knives. It so happens that I painted this series outside in the high desert of California in the 100+ degree weather of high summer (unlike Vincent's balmy French countryside). It was a challenging undertaking. I painted both natural desert and landscaped lawns and rose gardens. Juggling all the painting apparatus and trying to keep my glass "paint" from drying out and crumbling off the glass canvas gave me new appreciation for the efforts that Vincent made to paint.

Three of the paintings are rendered in the double-square format Vincent used almost exclusively during the final weeks of his life in Auvers, in June and July 1890. To arrive at this size, Vincent combined the legs of two standard square sizes to create a literal "double square" canvas. I created my 3 double square glass canvases as 24"w x 12"h. " - Cynthia Ann Swan

"V"

Cynthia Ann Swan ~ Artist's Statement

"V" is the culmination of my 18 years of passionate obsession with all that is Vincent. I have done multiple "deep dives" into his work and his life, and have come to feel a personal, intimate connection to Vincent, the man and the artist. My research has evolved into this reflective retrospective.

Vincent was a loving, spiritual, lonely, and tortured soul. His art was both a source of personal expression and professional rejection He was misunderstood, rejected, and tormented by nearly everyone he encountered. His illness imprisoned him, and love set him free. His sanctuary was the enduring bond he shared with his beloved brother, Theo, to whom he wrote 874 heartfelt letters over many years, sharing his thoughts and ideas. Thanks to Theo and his wife, Jo, those letters were preserved, and provide an amazing insight into his private reality.

"V" strives to invite the viewer to experience Vincent on a deeper level. It references his letters, his thoughts, and the themes of his work as an impassioned celebration.

Please, let me introduce you to Vincent Van Gogh." - 

Cynthia Ann Swan

Kiln Formed Glass Artist