Tag Archives: Santa Barbara

DROUGHT RESISTANT: SUMMER ART SERIES FEATURING JENALEE HARMON

Slippery When Wet

slippery when wet, 2015

CJM::LA presents the third and final show in our series DROUGHT RESISTANT, featuring recent works by Jenalee Harmon.
Curated by Patrick Melroy, the show runs August 3, 2015 through August 28, 2015.

Jenalee Harmon is an artist who works most often with vibrant color palettes that assault any notion of boring. She creates large photographic images, videos and objects of sleek clunky materials. Her work is arresting from a distance and captivating up close. Harmon’s work occupies the uncanny arena in which image and object converge. The images she creates spark elaborate back stories in the minds of the viewer. Often the viewer is left feeling like they saw both a wink and a nod which only left them with more questions. Harmon never gives in to the obvious and always presents art that makes you triple-take.

Harmon received her MFA from UCSB, a BFA in New Genres, from the San Franciso Art Institue. Her work is well traveled and she shows regularly. In addition to DROUGHT RESISTANT, her work will appear in Peak Experiences, Shangri-LA in Joshua Tree this September. She was also recently seen in Moist curated by Ginger Shulick Porcella at OCCCA in Santa Ana, CA. A small selection of the other shows she has been featured in include: Mystical Absolutes, Nervous for a New Reason and Ectoplastic Fantastic in Santa Barbara; Pardon My Condition curated by Andrea Huber at the Raymond Gallery Pasadena and Spectacular Subdivisions curated by Jay Lizo for High Desert Test Sites in Wonder Valley, CA.

The three artists in DROUGHT RESISTANT, Cathy Ellis, Megan Mueller, and Jenalee Harmon, are contemporary experts within their individual disciplines and regularly show their work nationally. The series is curated by Patrick Melroy. The idea for DROUGHT RESISTANT came from a creative conversation between CJM::LA principal Courtney Miller and several artists within the community. The substance of the discussion surrounded the desperate need for more quality venues for contemporary art within the very rich cultural center of Santa Barbara. Miller engaged curator Patrick Melroy who in turn invited three artists who have persevered through the shortage of show space and continued to advance their artistic practice despite not having a lot of room to spread out. The title of the series was entirely the idea of artist Megan Mueller.

The opening will be on Thursday, August 6 at 5 pm in collaboration with the Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday event.

CJM::LA is located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, visit our Contacts page for more info.

DROUGHT RESISTANT: SUMMER ART SERIES FEATURING MEGAN MUELLER

[thud], dimensions variable, cast cement boulder and trampoline, 2015

[thud], dimensions variable, cast cement boulder and trampoline, 2015

CJM::LA presents the second show in our series DROUGHT RESISTANT, featuring recent works by Megan Mueller.
Curated by Patrick Melroy, the show runs July 1, 2015 through July 31, 2015.

Megan Mueller is known as a sculptor who assembles tactile full color/pattern drenched objects. She is a artist who is unafraid of any medium, moving between cast concrete and wood constructions at will. Her work doesn’t so much walk a tightrope as swing wildly on the slack rope of surprise and improvisation. She is just as likely to mine the language of the rural Virginian countryside of her birth as to harvest the feeling of cold urban landscapes. She is a sculptor with limitless humor and innovation.

Mueller received her MFA from UCSB, a BFA in Sculpture and Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BA in Political Science from George Washington University. She has shown recently at Long Beach Arts Exchange, Shangrila, The Glassbox Gallery, (e)merge Art Fair with Transformer Gallery, Some other time travel, California State University Channel Island, INTERWEB, curated by Ana Torok, Grand Art Haus, GLAMFA 2014, University of California Long Beach, Drift & Fixation, curated by Kai Tepper, Arts Fund Santa Barbara, Spectacular Subdivisions, curated by Jay Lizo, High Desert Test Sites and Monte Vista Projects,  2008

The three artists in DROUGHT RESISTANT, Cathy Ellis, Megan Mueller, and Jenalee Harmon, are contemporary experts within their individual disciplines and regularly show their work nationally. The series is curated by Patrick Melroy. The idea for DROUGHT RESISTANT came from a creative conversation between CJM::LA principal Courtney Miller and several artists within the community. The substance of the discussion surrounded the desperate need for more quality venues for contemporary art within the very rich cultural center of Santa Barbara. Miller engaged curator Patrick Melroy who in turn invited three artists who have persevered through the shortage of show space and continued to advance their artistic practice despite not having a lot of room to spread out. The title of the series was entirely the idea of artist Megan Mueller.

The opening will be on Thursday, July 2 at 5 pm in collaboration with the Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday event.

CJM::LA is located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, visit our Contacts page for more info.

City of Santa Barbara | New Bike Corral

Helena Street Bike Corral

Helena Street Bike Corral | photo courtesy of SB BIKE

The City of Santa Barbara’s Public Work’s Department recently opened a second bike corral within the Funk Zone neighborhood.  We could not be more excited to see further support of multi-modal transportation within our community, especially in an area of town that is home to so many bikes!  This project was a partnership between the City of Santa Barbara Public Works Department, the Architecture Review Board, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition as well as local business and property owners.

This particular location provides space for 18 bicycles without the loss of any vehicular parking.

Big Betty Butia at Alameda Park

CJM::LA recently completed plans for the restoration of a small area of our local Alameda Park.  The project included the relocation of an existing non-functioning well in order to bring it back into operation and provide another much-needed water source for the Santa Barbara community.  As part of that restoration, our office worked closely with the City of Santa Barbara, the Historic Landmarks Commission, and the Parks and Recreation Commission to restore a small area of the park.  A few existing non-specimen trees were removed and replaced with beautiful new palm trees.  This park is a significant part of the open space network within our community, and historically has been home to hundreds of unique tree species.  We worked with Seacrest Nursery to select and install a unique specimen known as Big Betty Butia.  She is a Butia capitata, or Jelly Palm, and has a beautiful grey-green canopy.  Photos below::

Big Betty at Seacrest Nursery
Big Betty at Seacrest Nursery
Big Betty planted at Alameda Park
Big Betty planted at Alameda Park

DROUGHT RESISTANT: SUMMER ART SERIES FEATURING CATHY ELLIS

Shots From the Sky by Cathy Ellis, 2014

Shots From the Sky by Cathy Ellis, 2014

CJM::LA presents the first show in our series DROUGHT RESISTANT, featuring the works of Cathy Ellis.
Curated by Patrick Melroy, the show runs June 1, 2015 through June 30, 2015.

Cathy Ellis is known for her exceptionally competent compositions and dramatic color combinations.  Her development of subject matter reveals a thoughtful mind at work in the sloppy sticky edges of memory and mistake.  The work lures viewers into it, leaving room for them to fill in the back-story and to build the associations of meaning around the elegant and yet clumpy figures and landscapes.  Her work makes big noises about quiet subtle reflections.

Cathy Ellis received her BFA from Sonoma State University and her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014.  She has exhibited nationally, including exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Barbara, the Minan Gallery in Los Angeles, Cal State Channel Islands in Camarillo, 186 Carpenter in Providence, RI, the Sonoma Valley Museum in Sonoma, SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery, Trillium Press and Southern Exposure in San Francisco.  She is currently a Teaching Fellow at the College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, and the 2014 winner of the Howard Fenton Award for Painting.

The three artists in Drought Resistant, Cathy Ellis, Megan Mueller, and Jenalee Harmon, are contemporary experts within their individual disciplines and regularly show their work nationally. The series is curated by Patrick Melroy. The idea for DROUGHT RESISTANT came from a creative conversation between CJM::LA principal Courtney Miller and several artists within the community. The substance of the discussion surrounded the desperate need for more quality venues for contemporary art within the very rich cultural center of Santa Barbara. Miller engaged curator Patrick Melroy who in turn invited three artists who have persevered through the shortage of show space and continued to advance their artistic practice despite not having a lot of room to spread out. The title of the series was entirely the idea of artist Megan Mueller.

The opening will be on Thursday, June 4 at 5 pm in collaboration with the Downtown Organization’s 1st Thursday event.

CJM::LA is located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, visit our Contacts page for more info.

DROUGHT RESISTANT: Summer Art Series

DROUGHTRESISTANT_1

Courtney Jane Miller Landscape Architecture is sponsoring a summer art series at their Canon Perdido design studio. DROUGHT RESISTANT will feature the works of three women artists who maintain studio practices in Santa Barbara. Each artist will present their work via a solo show for one month during the summer from June to August. All three are contemporary experts within their individual disciplines and regularly show their work nationally. The series is curated by Patrick Melroy. The idea for DROUGHT RESISTANT came from a creative conversation between CJM::LA principal Courtney Miller and several artists within the community. The substance of the discussion surrounded the desperate need for more quality venues for contemporary art within the very rich cultural center of Santa Barbara. Miller engaged curator Patrick Melroy who in turn invited three artists who have persevered through the shortage of show space and continued to advance their artistic practice despite not having a lot of room to spread out. The title of the series was entirely the idea of artist Megan Mueller.

CATHY ELLIS, MEGAN MUELLER, and JENALEE HARMON will each present a solo show at CJM::LA this summer. Each show will open with a celebration in partnership with the downtown association’s 1st Thursday Art Walk. CJM::LA will have food and drink on hand at each reception and the artists and curator will be in attendance to discuss the work and the current state of the art scene in Santa Barbara. All art will be for sale.

THURSDAY JUNE 4TH, 5-8PM CATHY ELLIS

THURSDAY JULY 2ND, 5-8PM MEGAN MUELLER

THURSDAY AUGUST 6TH, 5-8PM JENALEE HARMON

 

CJM::LA is located in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara, visit our Contacts page for more info.

Santa Barbara Historical Museum | Artists of the Meridian

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The Santa Barbara Historical Museum is hosting a lecture on Thursday, April 9 at 5:30 pm entitled “Artists of the Meridian.”  The Meridian Studios were originally designed by George Washington Smith and Carleton Monroe Winslow in the 1920’s.  They have been home to a number of artists, creatives and architects over the years including Huguette Clark, Joe De Yonga, Catlin Phelps and Adele Herter.

CJM::LA’s Courtney Miller was lucky enough to work at #4 for her first two years in Santa Barbara, with the Office of Katie O’Reilly Rogers.  This is an incredibly beautiful collection of buildings and is still home to a number of exceptionally talented designers and architects.  For more info, click here.

Celebrating Two Years

CJM_LA-2Years-R2
We are celebrating two years in business today!  And looking forward to a successful year.

Kids Draw | Architectural Foundation

KidsDraw
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is hosting it’s annual Kids Draw event over the next few weeks in April.  This fantastic event provides children with the opportunity to sketch buildings in our community, aided by local artists and architects.  Each year a calendar is produced with their drawings which provide a refreshing perspective on the built environment in Santa Barbara.  For more info, click here.

SANTA BARBARA | STATE OF THE CITY

The Chamber of the Santa Barbara Region will be hosting the annual State of the City Presentation this Friday, March 20, 2015.  Join us in reviewing last year’s milestones as well as plans for 2015.  The Mayor’s presentation is free and open to the public.  For more info, click here.

Coastal Housing Coalition | Annual Conference

The Santa Barbara Coastal Housing Coalition is hosting it’s annual conference at the Carrillo Recreation Center on Friday, March 20, 2015.  The theme for this year’s conference is “Housing Needs and Opportunities Revealed.”

The Coastal Housing Coalition is a non-profit dedicated to educating the public about the impacts of the lack of available housing that is within financial reach of our local workforce.  To read more about this organization, click here.

MCA Santa Barbara | Magic Mountain Opening

The Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara is hosting an opening reception for a new show entitled Magic Mountain at their satellite space at Hotel Indigo.  Magic Mountain is a group show including the works of Zachary Cahill, Alyse Emdur, Chris Johanson, Boris Mikhailov, Yunhee Min, Shana Moulton, John Newling, Johan Rosenmunthe, Truong Cong Tung, and Hannah Vainstein.  For more info, click here.

Hannah Vainstein, Urn, 2013, Watercolor on paper, 20 x 14 ⅛ in., Courtesy the Artist
Hannah Vainstein, Urn, 2013, Watercolor on paper, 20 x 14 ⅛ in., Courtesy the Artist

From the museum’s website:
For centuries, travelers to remote mountain villages, seaside escapes, desert oases, and elsewhere, have sought out nature’s curative properties. Whether it’s to find the elixir of life, or to practice sungazing; to harvest mud for beauty masks or to dig for healing rocks, the searches are motivated by a belief in nature’s bewitching attributes that often transcends scientific explanation. This exhibition investigates the inspiration for some of these quests and obsessions, and the truths, mysteries, antidotes, and rabbit holes that arise along the way. The artists’ works bring to light the mythologies and marketplace of natural cures—spiritual, physical, and psychological—at a time when humankind’s relationship to the environment is rapidly changing.

The opening reception is on Saturday, March 7 at 6 pm.
The show is on view from March 8, 2015 to January 31, 2016.