We’re in Good Company – “A Summer with the Ladies” opens tomorrow in Redondo Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Sean Carroll

Behind the AES power plant lies gallery 608 North, which is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the work of nine talented female artists titled “A Summer With The Ladies.” The exhibition opens tomorrow (Friday) with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m., and will be on view through July 14.

I was very fortunate to interview six of the nine artists that are exhibiting their work: Edie Pfeiffer, Margaret Korona, Vivian Ryan, Kat Anderson, Andrea Schouten, and Eve Pericich. The show was organized by Kevin Holladay and the other artists are Angelina D’Arcy, Dolores Garren, and Janet Milhomme.

 

Art from many angles

Edie Pfeifer “fell in love with clay early in life,” and focused on ceramics while at Santa Monica College. She worked on figurative sculpture as well. At the exhibit she is showcasing a mix with her clay work as well as some plywood sculptures that were in the recent California 101 show. She is the only sculptor in this show and specializes in “table-top” size sculptures. “A lot of people are put off by sculpture. They think they need to have a pedestal or a huge house or something,” she says. “I don’t do huge.” She will also have an abstract head on display titled “Free to Be Me.” She chose this title because she feels “that artists are not free to be themselves; they’re trying to please someone else.”

Margaret Korona, a native of Szczecin, Poland, specializes in painting in the Old Masters Style, painting portraits of movie icons, such as Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. Back in 2000 when she first came to America, her friend from the Hamptons asked her “to paint a black and white portrait of Marilyn Monroe.” She felt “a great release,” and came back to New York over the years to create more portraits of movie icons. However, there is something unique about the way she paints them. “I like showing them as angels with swan’s wings,” she says. “I lend them my jewelry and accessories and change their hairstyles. Sometimes I place them in surrealistic surroundings that have never existed.” Some of her works on display include Audrey Hepburn as an angel, a ballerina, and yoga meditation.

Vivien Rhyan started painting when she was only three years old. She studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where she has a B.F.A. and worked for Hannah Barbara as a background illustrator. She also worked for the Jacque Harvey Studios of Beverly Hills in the United States and France for eight years. She currently works for Sundance Graphics, a print company in Orlando, Florida. At the art gallery, she’s exhibiting art such as “equestrian art, sailboats, children’s fantasy, Indian, landscape, floral, cupcakes, butterflies, and lots of posters.” She also “currently exhibits works and watercolors and acrylics through various dealers and designers across the country.”

Kat Anderson is a self-taught painter who grew up in Las Vegas, where she was a singer for years. She has been painting since she was a child, and was painting professionally at fifteen years old. Painting is her passion because it makes her feel good, and she could do it 24/7. “I interpret vibrations such as thoughts, feelings and impressions and translate them onto canvas,” Anderson says. She has a new style of painting where she wants the viewers to interpret the art for themselves.

Andrea Schouten has always been artistic. Her method of painting is called “scratchboarding,” which is an “etching technique to scrape off black ink from a white surface.” She discovered this method of art in 2007, and has been “nearly working exclusively in this medium.” To accomplish this, she uses “blades, needles, and various sharp objects.” Besides being a scratchboard artist, she has a distinct style to her paintings, mainly influenced by science-fiction films, and also “ideas of nature, dreamscapes, imaginative realism, ancient architecture, and fantasy art.” Most of her artwork is in black and white, and after that portion of her works of art have been completed, she uses acrylic paint. She has been a scratchboard artist for five to six years.

Eve Pericich is the oldest artist of the group. She is a retired adult schoolteacher who became seriously involved with painting. Her works of art specialize in acrylic collage. The collage consists of “lots of paper cut from newspapers and magazines” which “gives it more depth and texture.” She is also interested in textiles, costumes, and colors from Central and Eastern Europe. In fact, she has a B.A. and an M.A. in Slavic languages and literature from USC. Also, she is the artistic director of the Zhena Folk Chorus, which sings village folk songs from central Europe. Her main work of art that she will be displaying is “Sedona.” With this work of art, she used a new technique, making it more abstract.

A Summer With the Ladies opens Friday (tomorrow) with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. at 608 North, located at 608 N. Francisca Ave., Redondo Beach. Hours, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call (310) 376-5777 or go to 608north.com. ER

 

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