Artists Unveil Their World During 10th Venice Walk

Los Angeles artist Daniel J. Martinez was faced with what he calls “an interesting set of problems” when he was asked to create a special outdoor work for the 10th annual Venice Art Walk on Sunday.

How, Martinez wondered, could he create something effective and interesting “that’s satisfying to me, that doesn’t essentially cost any money,” and avoid the bureaucratic red tape of city permits that eliminated his initial ideas?

The result of his creative pondering was “A Sign of the Times,” a grouping of four paintings at each of 28 bus stops along the art walk route.

Paintings on Wood

Martinez’s colorful, 18-inch-square paintings on wood evoke geometric shapes and are stenciled with four words that express the same idea or closely related ideas. Many of the paintings “mimic certain early styles of minimalist or reductionist kinds of paintings,” Martinez said.

“The point of my pieces is merely to raise questions in people’s minds and to juxtapose language and very beautiful paintings, attractive colors and images and make them think . . . about what the function of art is.”

And what better opportunity and setting to contemplate the meaning and function of art than this annual marathon art fest, from noon to 5 p.m., in Venice?

The art walk provides a behind-the-scenes look at the studios, homes and galleries of 40 Venice artists, as well as 14 special exhibitions, a silent auction of 300 art works, a food fair and shopping place and a one-hour historical tour of Venice.

The event is a benefit for the Venice Family Clinic, which serves more than 9,000 low-income children and adults each year. “We’re really the family doctor to the low-income community,” says Andi Sobbe, assistant director of development at the clinic.

“It’s a wonderful community event because it serves everybody’s needs,” says Shelia Goldberg, chairwoman of the art walk. In addition to raising funds for the clinic, she says, the event “gives artists greater exposure and gives the public wonderful art education.

From Graham to McRight

“What I think is especially wonderful about the art walk is you see from established artists to emerging (artists),” Goldberg adds. “You go from a Robert Graham (sculptor) to someone like Blue McRight (an emerging painter). Not only do you see their work spaces, you see many of their homes.”

Guy Dill’s new studio, for instance, is really a compound with two large buildings, totaling 12,000 square feet, facing a courtyard enclosed by an 18-foot-high black steel gate.

Inside the studio are Dill’s steel, marble-and-steel and bronze-and-steel sculptures, ranging from 18 inches to a 20-foot-high work in progress. Dill has been working on his “Collection de Los Espejos Abstractos” (“The Collection of Abstract Spanish Mirrors”) for more than two years. The work is a series of steel sculptures, all painted black and incorporating a variety of geometric shapes.

“The reason that I’m in Los Angeles is that I can work more here than anyplace else,” says Dill, who sometimes needs a crew of seven to complete his larger works. “The more the city grows, the more people need art in Los Angeles. . . . My whole motivation is that I work so that I can make more work.”

Betty Gold’s studio has 16-foot-high ceilings that accommodate two 10-foot-high metal sculptures bolted to the floor. Her work also includes maquettes, small models of larger pieces.

Gold starts with a metal rectangle and cuts pieces from it. She then shapes those pieces and fuses them to the rectangle. Her largest work to date is 28 feet high and is at the Walker Hill Art Center in Seoul. She is working on a commission for the Ronald Reagan State Office Building in Los Angeles.

“In a way I’m like a Chinese puzzle,” she says. “And in a way, I’m like origami. . . . I use all the parts, but I fold and bend and weld it back and give it all shape.”

Ruth Weisberg’s studio is one of three in St. Jives by the Sea, a converted church. Here, Weisberg creates oil paintings, prints and drawings with “images that are a heightened reality.”

“The Scroll,” a 90-foot Weisberg drawing, is on display at Hebrew Union College. It took her more than two years to complete the project, and participants in past art walks saw the work in progress.

Follow an Art Project

“One of the things about the Venice Art Walk that’s so gratifying,” Weisberg says, “is that people really do follow your work. They come back year after year. They remember what you were doing before. They often come to exhibitions where they first saw the work in the studio in progress. So they have a much better sense of the generation of a piece of art.”

In addition to the artists’ studios, art walk participants may view 14 special exhibitions, which include Wendy Clarke’s video art at Tony Bill’s studio; “Lifeguard Towers,” maquettes by a dozen architects; kinetic art by Jim Jenkins and Dave Quick at the Chiat/Day building, designed by Frank Gehry, and a Steve Dobbin and Karl Matson show at Beyond Baroque.

Because it would be nearly impossible to see everything, it’s best to target about 10 studios/exhibits. Buses are available, but some walking is necessary, so comfortable shoes are advised.

Art walk starts at Westminster School in Venice, also the location of the silent auction and food fair. Admission is $45 each and tickets, which will be available at the door, include a badge for admission to all art walk sites and a brochure listing the sites and how to get there.

However, no parking is available at Westminster School. Art walkers must park at one of three satellite locations and take a tram to Westminster School. The parking locations are: Walgrove Elementary School, 1630 Walgrove Ave., Mar Vista (entrance on Morningside Way); Broadway Elementary School, 1015 Lincoln Blvd., Venice (entrance on Broadway), and Coeur D’Alene Elementary School, 810 Coeur D’Alene Ave., Venice (entrance on Garfield Avenue).

For information, call (213) 392-WALK.

Other artists opening their studios include: Larry Albright, Clytie Alexander, Martha Alf, Mari Andrews, Annette Bird, Dominique Blain, Diane Buckler, Robert Burtis, Madeline Coit, Woods Davy, Stephanie DeLange, Roseline Delisle, Laddie John Dill, Jean Edelstein, Fred Eversley, Stephen Glassman, Susan Hauptman, Diana Hobson, Paul Knotter, Cynthia Kolodziejski, Lilla LoCurto, C. A. Michel, Tim Nordin, John Okulick, William Outcault, Anne Flaten Pixley, Curtis Ripley, Lara Russell, Sherie Scherr, Tom Scheir, Fritz Scholder, Da-veed Schwartz, Ruth Snyder, Judy Stabile, Barbara Sternberger, DeWaine Valentine, Charles Ward, Pamela Weir-Quiton.