Agata Popęda here, with a recommendation. Tomorrow, the Marjorie Evans Gallery by Sunset Center in Carmel will be filled with a collection of fantastic works by local female artists including Eva Boynton, Terese Garcia, Micheen Levee, Bernadette Renois, Denese Sanders, Carol Diggory Shields, Diane Danvers Simmons, Jenny Webster and Anne Ylvisaker. The opening reception for this exhibit by Open Ground Studios happens from 5-7pm on Friday, Jan.12.
Open Ground Studios is a Seaside-based artists collective. Denese Sanders is the founder—she works with paint and charcoal and does installation art, too. Her work titled “Homebody” is below:
“Homebody” by Denese Sanders. Courtesy of Open Ground Studios.
Eva Boynton, from Monterey, works with charcoal, pastel and graphite. “Graphite has always been my favorite,” she wrote on her website. “It is the base knowledge I bring to art and my most comfortable medium. My favorite thing to see in a museum, gallery or social media is the artist’s sketchbook where, usually in graphite form, the imagining begins.”
Terese Garcia does non-representational art, installation and mixed media. “Art is the step you take or don’t take, not the beginning or end,” she wrote in an artist statement. “Either way, the intangible, the unknown and the impermanent are the energies that exist in my work.”
Micheen Levee is loosely affiliated with the group. She lives in Santa Cruz, where she also works as a marriage and family therapist. She is interested in art therapy.
Anne Yivisker is a poet and artist. She produces paint, mixed and digital media, as well as poetry and fiction. Minnesota-born, Yivisker spent much of her adult life there, teaching and writing. In 2010, she moved to Monterey.
Diane Danvers Simmons works as an artist, author and activist. She is the author of “My Mother Next Door,” a fantastic tale of a mother-daughter relationship that went through unimaginable difficulties.
The exhibit also includes other Open Ground Studios’ artists: Bernadette Renois (mixed media, installation), Jenny Webster (clothes, poetry) and Carol Diggory Shields.
While the work of each artist is quite distinct, the exhibit celebrates areas of commonality—including a sense of freedom to explore and radical acceptance, the same principles that underpin the Open Ground Studios community. The Carmel exhibit will be on display until Feb. 28.
