Patti Heid Tries to Make Sense of the Media and the World

FACES

Patti Heid doesn’t want to stay behind the “art world shield.” Although she says that once was the case, she now wants to do more than just create art to please her own abstract imaginings. Her goal now, she says, is to “change the world.”

“Everything changed once I had Joey,” says Heid, speaking of her son, who developed a potentially fatal syndrome soon after his birth. Although he needed constant monitoring for years, he’s now a healthy 5-year-old.

“I started caring about life and what happens to him,” says Heid, 38. “Before, my work was much more abstract, more Dadaist. But as a mother, when I saw all the things going on out there, I was horrified, and I wanted to do something about it. I’m shocked at what has happened; we can’t save our planet anymore.”

In the past, Heid’s works were much more commercial, such as her 1984 series of Olympics-inspired paintings, which were satirical but had a slick quality. She has now set out to “make my minor statement and my own contribution toward changing the world.” That statement is through a new body of work, “Media Sedation,” which took her two years to complete. The show, which went on view this week at Santa Monica’s Brendan Walter Gallery, is her first since Joey’s birth.

“Media Sedation” is comprised of 18 paintings of political and violent images derived from those seen nightly on TV newscasts. Examples include “Imelda Praying,” which shows Imelda Marcos praying next to a pair of leopard-skinned shoes formed into a cross; “No Reasonable Offer,” which depicts a smiling Ronald Reagan, and “Geraldo: His Own Story,” in which a bandaged Geraldo Rivera is shown alongside headlines about his nose being broken in a television brawl.

“It’s just so preposterous what’s on the news,” says Heid, who is married to actor Cheech Marin. “These are heroes and idols; role models for some people. It’s scary that they’re the ones controlling the media.”

To create her pieces, Heid takes real video images and enlarges and mutates them with a computer. She airbrushes the images with acrylic on canvas to get a video-screen look, then adds heavy brush strokes, streaks and thick paint to “incorporate more Angst “ into her colorful works.

“Maybe I can’t really change the world, but I feel I’m making a little bit of difference,” says Heid. “There’s so many things going on out there that are so horrifying they just tear me apart. So I’m trying to do my part to change that.”

THE SCENE

On Friday night, 24 galleries will open their doors for the Santa Monica/Venice Art Dealers Assn. second annual Open House.

Participating in the event will be many of the area’s old mainstays, such as L.A. Louver and Tortue, as well seven galleries that moved to the popular spot during the last year, such as Koplin and Richard Green.

In addition to the Open House, many galleries, including Andrea Ross, Michael Maloney, Meyers/Bloom and Pence, are holding opening receptions for their artists on the same night (see listings, Page 95). Refreshments will be served in all of the galleries, and free maps of the district will be available.

Artist Nicola Rosalie Atkinson-Griffith, who has previously installed her works in more traditional settings such as the former USC Atelier, Otis/Parsons Art Institute and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, has taken over an entire Mid-City block (between Western Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Manhattan Place and 18th Street) to provide art lovers with an imaginary journey through a “fantastical landscape.”

Her site-specific public installation, “Gentle Breezes Blowing,” has been erected in a multicultural block that includes a Korean church, Mexican bakery and market, a pizza shop, tailors, a mini-mall and apartment complexes.

“This is a very simple idea, yet very abstract; it will exist more in the mind,” explains Atkinson-Griffith, as she describes her installation, comprised of a tour map for an imaginary landscape of gardens, seas, parks, rivers, bridges, hills and scenic overlooks. At each of 18 “stops” along the tour (such as the bank or the meat market), will be a tiny nine-inch by 12-inch painting of the imaginary site.

“It’s about the power of maps, which have always fascinated me,” said Atkinson-Griffith of her installation, which was funded by the Foundation for Art Resources and the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department. “We all imagine going to a place, and if it wasn’t for the map, we couldn’t. So this gives people a map, and an opportunity to go to this place of refuge, of contemplation, and of adventure.”

Armand Hammer used his 10-minute prepared speech at last weekend’s opening of the Los Angeles Festival to plug his new Westwood museum, which is scheduled to open in November.

“I’m delighted to be able to add to this rich cultural diversity,” a healthy-looking Hammer told the captive audience, after briefly praising Los Angeles’ existing museums before launching into a long detailed description of his own collection and how it would “enrich” the city.

In his talk, which prompted even a couple of festival organizers to snicker that the oil magnate “brought the wrong speech,” Hammer also mentioned that visitors would have to “pay a nominal fee” to be so enriched.

CURRENTS

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C., has announced the winners of its 10th annual Awards in the Visual Arts. The AVA program, which awards each emerging artist $15,000 and mounts a nationally touring exhibition of their work, was embroiled in controversy two years ago when one of its recipients, Andres Serrano, drew fire from conservatives and Christian fundamentalist groups for his work “Piss Christ.”

Ten AVA winners were chosen from 500 candidates across the country to each represent one U.S. geographical district. Painter James Hayward of Moorpark was selected to represent Southern California and Hawaii.

Other recipients are conceptual sculptor Tony Labat of San Francisco; painters Carlos Alfonzo of Miami, Arnaldo Roche-Rabell of Chicago and Kay Rosen of Gary, Ind.; sculptors Petah Coyne of Manhattan and Steve Barry of Corrales, N.M., and mixed-media artists Adrian Piper of Washington, Cary Leibowitz of Boston and Jessica Stockholder of Brooklyn.

The “AVA 10” exhibition is scheduled to premiere in 1991 at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington (June 12-Sept. 2), then travel to the Albuquerque Museum of Art, History and Science (Sept. 14-Dec. 1) and the Toledo Museum of Art (Dec. 15-Jan. 26, 1992).

Los Angeles-based visual artists and organizations can apply for $150,000 in grants and fellowships through the California Community Foundation’s J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts.

Fellowships of $15,000 each will be awarded to five midcareer individual artists, and grants ranging from $5,000-$15,000 will be given to non-profit groups with budgets under $1.5 million.

The application deadline is Oct. 15 and the grants will be announced in January, 1991. Information: (213) 413-4042.

HAPPENING

Bill Turner of Turner/Dailey Gallery will speak on negotiating artist/gallery contracts on Wednesday at a workshop at the law firm of Gold, Marks, Ring and Pepper, 1800 Avenue of the Stars, Century City. Cost for the 7 p.m. event, sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts, is $15. Information: (213) 623-8311.

The Armory Center for the Arts is holding its annual street festival on Saturday from 1-4 p.m. Festivities for the free event include exhibition tours, art workshops for children and outdoor displays by local artisans. Information: (818) 792-5101.

Otis/Parsons Art Institute on Tuesday begins a five-session course, “Grant Writing/Public Funding,” designed to help individual artists receive public grants. The $105 course meets Tuesdays through Oct. 9, from 7-10 p.m. Information: (213) 251-0501.

A self-guided tour of more than 50 artist studios and exhibition spaces in the Greater Highland Park/Eagle Rock/Mount Washington area will be held today from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Information sheets and maps will be provided for $5 at Occidental College’s Weingart Center in Eagle Rock. Information: (213) 259-2749.

Three two-hour, free walking tours of public art in downtown Los Angeles are being led today, Saturday and next Sunday by Urban Art Inc. All tours begin at 10 a.m. Information: (213) 624-2400.

Pacific Asia Museum on Tuesday begins a series of 15 slide lectures on Oriental art. “Monuments of Asia: Sacred and Secular Sites” will cover the art of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. The talks will be held at the museum every Tuesday through Dec. 18 from 10 a.m.-noon. Cost is $7 per lecture. Information: (818) 449-2742.