You don’t have to be a Guggenheim to start your own collection. Just check your inhibitions at the door, pour yourself a glass of Chardonnay and have a look around.

By Julia Spalding | Photographs by Ramona D’Viola

SEEING ART IN A GALLERY can be an overwhelming experience that churns up waves of emotion, broadens the mind, lightens the soul and occasionally moves a person to tears. Buying art in a gallery can be an overwhelming experience that churns up waves of nausea, boggles the mind, lightens the wallet and occasionally moves a person to tears.

It’s hard to put a warm-fuzzy spin on the openby- appointment world of hushed white rooms and discreetly placed price lists—an arena that, rightly or wrongly, has a bit of a reputation for making regular folk feel like they’ve just tracked in mud. But the tectonic plates are shifting in our little swath of Southern California’s art scene. San Diego painters, sculptors and other creative types are banding together to put on crowd-pleasing group shows, and those in the business of selling art are doing the unthinkable: They’re being very gentle.

Case in point: On a recent Friday night in La Jolla, a pair of synchronized gallery openings boast (on the surface, at least) all the snobby accouterments people have come to expect from blackturtleneck events. Vintage photographs by the late Andre de Dienes line the walls of Joseph Bellows Gallery, almost all of them featuring the fashion photographer’s one-time fiancée, Marilyn Monroe.

According to a laminated price sheet next to the giant flower arrangement at the front desk, the prints sell for a gasp-inducing couple thousand dollars each.

Directly upstairs at R.B. Stevenson Gallery, people are sipping wine as they cluster around 11 oil paintings by Jason Godeke, an artist who creates lush, fantastical still lifes full of fruit, flowers, small nude figures and Fisher-Price Little People.

Sure, there are some esoteric mysteries, some shocking price tags ($1,000 to $7,500) and more than a few people wearing intimidating little librarian glasses. At the same time, the featured artist is surprisingly down-to-earth, the gallery staff downright charming, the bartender friendly and generous with his pours, and . . . hey, this is kind of fun.

Clearly, an olive branch has been offered here, and we’re seeing similar gestures all around town. San Diego isn’t one of those big pretentious gallery hubs dominated by an art-selling cartel, but it’s no cultural backwoods, either. A person can hardly walk down the block on a Friday night without finding himself in the middle of a neighborhood gallery crawl. Plus, we’re home to several emerging artists and art genres—but not a lot of bloodthirsty art buyers, which is why some people (wealthy out-of-towners in particular) refer to San Diego as one of the best-kept secrets in the art world these days. (We’ll get back to that, but suffice it to say that you’d be wise to buy art right here, right now.)

A good old-fashioned Google search will also clue you in to past shows and possible reviews. But in the end, your critique— your visceral reaction to the work itself, minus the artist’s back story—takes precedence over anyone else’s scholarly opinion. So trust it. You could be on to something.

“The more you educate yourself, the more confidence you’re going to gain,” says Patricia Frischer, coordinator for the arts information database San Diego Visual Arts Network (another great source for local gallery information). To that end, SDVAN offers occasional workshops that cater to fledgling buyers, with lectures, collector roundtables, even practice auctions using play money. In one of the first exercises, students are asked to respond with a simple yes or no to about 30 works of art flashed on a digital screen. The object of the exercise is “to instill the confidence in them that they can say, ‘I know what I like,’ ” Frischer says.

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE FIRST STEP to becoming a happy art collector: identifying your tastes. Do you dig the crazy splashes of abstract expressionism? Does the exquisite detail of postmodern art suck you in? Are you highly impressed with the impressionists? If you’re not sure—or if your brain went numb just now— then you need to get out a little more. No, really. The more art you see, the more trained your eye will become for spotting work that is a cut above.

Opportunities to browse abound, beginning with some type of gallery opening or artist’s reception for practically every night of the week in the city. Basically, if the gallery lights are on after dark, consider it an invitation to pop in and have a look around —no strings attached.

Once you’ve signed up for a few of the gallery mailing lists and become part of the marketing matrix, the invitations will come flooding in. The fêtes are as mainstream as the San Diego Art Institute’s massive juried shows, where hordes of art enthusiasts stand shoulder-to-shoulder and stroller-to-stroller inside the Museum of the Living Artist in Balboa Park, and as funky as the artist parties at Magpie, a vintage clothing boutique and gallery in South Park that has featured the art of Pamela Jaeger, Tim Mc- Cormick, Jason Sherry and a host of other edgy up-and-comers.

Another business breaking out of the traditional art gallery mold is Little Italy’s Mixture, a contemporary home furnishings store housed in a 1940s brick warehouse conveniently equipped with high ceilings and soaring windows. By presenting original paintings and sculptures by local artists alongside one-of-a-kind furniture and other mod accessories, this store proves it has nothing against the long-scorned patron who wants a painting to match her red sofa. In fact, they’ll sell them to her as a set.

“It‘s all good, quality artwork that stands on its own. We just show it in a setting that looks good as well,” says Charles Taylor, a co-owner of the store, which opened in 2003. Taylor, who also organizes Mixture-curated shows around town in an attempt to grow the careers of some of his favorite local artists, says the white gloves are officially off when it comes to educating people who want to learn more about collecting. “Just tell them there are no dumb questions.”

What other little secrets have gallery owners been keeping from us all this time? Is there anything else they’d like to tell us before the learning curve roughs us up any more? Well, they’re only human, for starters.

Insider Tip No. 2: Artists don’t bite. In fact, they’re usually quite nice. “I highly recommend that people contact an artist personally if they find their work interesting,” says Ann Berchtold, site curator for SanDiegoArtist. com. “Meet the artist. Go to their studio to see their whole collection and really get to know their background. I think artists are much more open to that than people think. That’s how they build up their collector database, through those one-on-one relationships.”

Insider Tip No. 3: Everything’s negotiable. But not in the Moroccan bazaar kind of way, since bargain art tampers with the sticky issue of market value. However, if money truly is an issue, there are ways to get around that $2,000 roadblock. “People should know that most artists and art dealers will make any kind of deal with them,” says Mirto Golino, a 3-D mixed-media assemblage artist who has worked in San Diego for more than 20 years. “They should speak up if they don’t have the money right away,” she says, noting that there are such things as layaway plans, collector discounts and plain old ego-stroked price breaks.

Insider Tip No. 4: See it before you buy it. Catalogues and artist Web sites are a great way to get acquainted with a person’s oeuvre, but a thumbnail sketch on a computer screen doesn’t even come close to seeing the real thing. Colors, dimensions and brush strokes might take on a whole new life when you’re in the same room with a piece. Or they might fall disappointingly short of your expectations.

Insider Tip No. 5: Know what you are buying. Some artists have no problem selling prints and other reproductions of their original work. Others have a really big problem with it. “Personally, I wouldn’t do that,” says artist Kelly Paige Standard, who sells gorgeous oil paintings and commissioned portraits out of her self-owned show space in South Park. “I want everything I make to be an original that lasts a lifetime. Prints are going to eventually fade and get all blue, which are things people should be aware of before they go out and buy a $2,400 print.”

Insider Tip No. 6: Don’t limit your search to traditional galleries. Similar to the parking spaces–to–cars ratio in San Francisco, there’s simply not enough gallery wall space to accommodate all of the working artists in San Diego. They’ve adapted to this reality by displaying their works in coffee shops, restaurants, frame stores and even hair salons around town. Any time you’re out and see a painting with a little information card posted next to it, that means it’s for sale— and more often than not, minus the gallery markup.

Insider Tip No. 7: It’s not an investment. It’s art. Oh, okay. Sometimes it’s an investment. If you do your homework, develop an eye for artists on the verge, buy at just the right moment (which, incidentally, means going the night before a gallery opening and grabbing everything your budget allows) and then get really, really lucky, you might be able to put your grandkids through college someday. But that’s not why you’re doing this, right? If all you want to do is turn a buck, go buy some stock instead.

Although, if ever there was a time to feel optimistic about dropping a stack of Benjamins (or even a James Madison or two) at a San Diego art auction, that would be now. We have the talent. We have the young, edgy energy. We have geographic dibs on a couple of emerging genres, including surf art and Chicano art.

Trend watchers such as Joan Seifried, owner of Angel Appraisers and one of the most sought-after art auctioneers in town, are practically giddy with anticipation. “San Diego is just about to explode,” says the Sotheby’strained appraiser. “If you attend some of the nonprofit auctions here, you are going to find some incredible surprises.”

That just doesn’t happen in more “mature” markets like London, Paris, Barcelona and New York, where connoisseurs sniff out the best pieces long before the general public even lays eyes on them.

“Even in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco—forget about it,” Seifried says. “But here, we aren’t to the point yet where we know who our own emerging contemporary artists are, and I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that some of them are not as well-known here as they are in other parts of the country.” Yet.

Seifried points out that, at the moment, most of San Diego’s art scene is underground—almost rave-like. “It’s like a volcano, but it’s going to erupt soon. And when it does, it will be glorious.”

Let’s Talk Money
HOW MUCH WILL $100 BUY in San Diego’s art market? How about 20 times that much? Here’s a budget-by budget breakdown of local masterworks and their corresponding price ranges.

$100
This 6-by-6-inch collage is part of The Bird Series Project by the San Diego art collective Paint Night Group. Several artists collaborated on the piece, which—as with every other work in the series—began with a rubber stamp of a bird. (paintnightgroup.com.)

$500
Young local artist Anne Bush’s work recalls a mid-century feeling. Down, a 72-by-24-inch acrylic-on-canvas piece, is indicative of her style. Available at Mixture (mixturedesigns.com).

$1,000
Katelyn is a 24-by-18-inch oil-on-canvas painted on commission (from a supplied photo) by South Park artist Kelly Paige Standard (kpstandard.biz).

$3,000
Fine-art photographer Chip Hooper explores the rugged beauty of the California coastline in his Seascapes collection, which includes this gelatin silver print titled Davenport Rock. Available at Joseph Bellows Gallery (josephbellows.com).

$5,000
Highly collected in San Diego and represented by two galleries—Galeria Ninapi in Ravenna, Italy, and Billy Shire Fine Arts in Los Angeles—Raul Guerrero is considered one of our top local painters. He’s known for his symbolic nudes, which sell for much more, but this 30- by-40-inch oil-on-linen, French Fries, was included in a series of realistic fast-food paintings. (rguerrero.com, billyshirefinearts.com.)

$10,000
Poise, a 72-by-108-inch oil-on-canvas, is part of North County artist Gail Roberts’ Tree Lines series, a major public-art commission installed at San Diego International Airport in 2001. (portofsandiego.org/sandiego_ publicart/treelines.asp.)

$20,000
This 1920s-era vintage plein-air oil painting by Ernest Pohl is a fine example of the California Impressionism genre, which flourished from 1910 to the ’40s. The 20- by-24-inch Sunset, California Hills, San Diego comes in a hand-carved gold leaf frame. Available at K. Nathan Gallery (knathangallery.com).

WHO WILL BUY?

by Kinsee Morlan of San Diego City Beat

The San Diego visual-arts scene stinks. Bitch. Moan. Boo-hoo.”

Sound familiar?

It’s a common refrain in San Diego, a place often deemed culturally inept—especially when compared to its big sister 120 miles to the north and its little, yet more culturally accomplished, sister on that peninsula in the Bay Area. But plenty of art-scenesters who are in tune with what’s really going on here think such cynicism is misguided.

It’s said that the problem isn’t with local artists; the problem is with local art collectors—by and large, they simply don’t exist.

“We have awesome artists,” said Ann Berchtold, founder of SanDiegoArtist.com, an online site that spotlights local artists once a month. “Pamela Jaeger, Tim McCormick, Daryll Pierce, Joshua Krause, Blaine Fontana.

“What we don’t have are people who really collect here,” she said. “If they do have the big, big money, then they’re going to buyers who are buying from L.A. and San Francisco.”

Berchtold said people generally don’t understand or are intimidated by the art-buying process, and that it’s important for them to educate themselves and buy locally. Artists, she said, can’t survive in a city like San Diego—now well-known for its outrageous cost of living—unless people buy their art.

New to the art-collecting world herself, Berchtold believes just about anyone can do it.

“If we can change the mind of the Average Joe,” Berchtold said, “like me—I don’t have the money to buy $10,000 paintings but I’ve made it a point to get to know the artists, and I know I can barter. Artists are great barterers.”

A good resource for finding and getting to know local artists, aside from her own site, Berchtold said, is another organization she belongs to, San Diego Visual Artist’s Network. SDVAN is a database of local artists’ names and contact information. The site includes an events calendar and links to an art gossip column as well as a link to “The Smart Collector,” an oft-updated series of articles about the ins and outs of art collecting.

SDVAN is also currently hosting “AROUSE Yourself with Art: Collecting Secrets Revealed,” a free, three-part series that began last Wednesday with a basic overview of art collecting. Berchtold, who seems to have her hands in almost everything with the words “art” and “San Diego” in it, made an appearance as one of two art collectors on a panel fielding audience questions.

Patricia Frischer, the primary coordinator of AROUSE, agrees with Berchtold’s assessment of the art scene in San Diego, noting that a lack of collectors was the main impetus for the series.

“It seemed apparent that we needed some more direct how-to advice,” said Frischer, who added that the event was originally intended to be a short, one-hour informative workshop but quickly evolved into something more.

Run completely by volunteers, Frischer said more and more people started getting involved (maybe the sexy name “AROUSE” had something to do with that). Felippo Floridia, the director of Galerie D’Art International, volunteered his space, and 10 selected artists, along with several other art experts (including a certified art appraiser) volunteered their time.

The second part of the AROUSE series is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, at the Galerie D’Art International in Solana Beach. Participants will learn how to find emerging and established artists’ works, and a mini-exhibition will teach parents how to involve their children in the art-buying process (Berchtold is behind this segment as well, with Inspire, a project she created that turns artists into instructors and takes them into classrooms throughout San Diego County). But the main event of the night will be a mock auction. Audience members will be given $20 million in fake dough and encouraged to pretend-bid on the art.

Frischer said it’s all part of “demystifying the whole process.”

“Everyone who goes to the event will get 10 tips to collecting art,” she said, offering one tip in advance: “If you walk by an art gallery and all the lights are on and you can see people drinking wine, you can go in.

“Just remember to enjoy yourself.”

She said San Diego “has the population to support our artists”—it just needs a little prodding.

Pamela Jaeger is one of the emerging artists who’s taking part in AROUSE and will have four pieces hanging in Galerie D’Art International during the event. A San-Diego native, she’s no stranger to the local art scene. She started showing her work publicly within the last three years and quickly thereafter was able to shed her “starving artist” skin. Now, she said, she’s able to live off the money she makes from her artwork; SanDiegoArtist.com and SDVAN played a big part in making that possible, she said.

“People still will contact me and say, ‘Yeah, I saw your stuff on [the web],’” Jaeger said. “Somehow, people just find me.”

The last segment of AROUSE is happening on Aug. 31—same place, same time. Meet local artists in person, and, if you’re feeling brave, make a bid in the real-life Contemporary Art Auction and take your place as one of San Diego’s few budding art collectors.

Check out www.SanDiegoArtist.com and www.sdvisualarts.net.

WHEN ART AND RADIO

by Kinsee Morlan of San Diego City Beat

“San Diego is always getting a bad wrap about its cultural blandness, but San Diego is not a cultural cul-de-sac.”

So says Philip Swenson, co-host of the local Internet radio show, Art Rocks! And Swenson, aka Philly Joe Swendoza, should know. He, along with Alexandra Rosa, aka Ally Bling-Bling, records Art Rocks! live every Wednesday night from 7 to 8 p.m., a show dedicated to the San Diego art scene.

“It’s where art, fashion and music collide,” said Swenson.

The duo, which has been doing Art Rocks! since 2002, has interviewed the likes of Tim Field, executive director of the San Diego Art Institute’s Museum of the Living Artist, and Ann Berchtold, founder of SanDiegoArtist.com. Berchtold now appears on the show every first Wednesday of the month.

Both Swenson and Rosa said the San Diego art scene is kicking. They don’t have any trouble coming up with content for the show, they said, because they tend to cover subjects that generally slip by the mainstream media.

And because Art Rocks! uses the Internet as its medium, all their shows are automatically archived. Rosa said the show has thus become a “recorded history of the San Diego art scene.”

“The Internet is so tremendously powerful,” said Rosa. “The next step is creating a live, streaming Art Rocks! Internet television show.”

You can listen to Art Rocks at www.ws radio.com/artrocks.

SANDIEGOARTIST.COM'S FEATURED ARTIST OF THE MONTH:

by Kinsee Morlan

Harrison Howard paints what he calls “The Flower Ladies” in delicate, precise watercolors. The figures are inspired by chinoiserie, a kind of decorative art from the 16th and 17th century produced mainly in France and England. Chinoiserie is the result of Eastern influence on European art. It’s basically what happened when Europeans attempted to copy Eastern art.

“People got the idea that the Far East was this sort of fantasy land,” Howard said. “Europeans pictured the East as a place filled with oversized plants and flowers and undersized people.”

This long-held misconception has become the inspiration for the subjects that populate Howard’s work. He prefers using watercolors to paint his Flower Ladies, particularly with a wash, because of the chalky and luminescent look that sets his work apart from other media.

But originality is not Howard’s main concern.

“It’s part of what happens to artists as they get older,” he explained. “Complete originality is almost impossible, because if you look hard enough, you’ll find that someone’s already done what you’re doing.”

Instead, Howard concerns himself with the dreaded commercial aspect of art. “I don’t think any artist can survive without putting some thought and effort into being able to sell what you paint.”

His background in interior design has taught him about people’s likes and dislikes. He said an artist has to take his market into consideration, but, he warned, during the actual creation of a painting, an artist should try to forget about pleaseing potential buyers.

“When I sit down to paint something, I feel the need to sell what I produce,” said Howard, “but I think every artist needs to put that out of their mind…. It’s a very negative way to go about painting.”

Amid the excitement of being featured on SanDiego Artist.com (see the main feature), making an appearance on Art Rocks! radio (see the other side story) and speaking at the AROUSE event, the commercial side of his artwork is top of mind for Howard. He said he hasn’t been able to sit down in front of a painting for the last five months because he’s been transitioning between murals and smaller pieces, working on his brochures, promoting his website and trying to get into local galleries. He has more than 100 sketches that he’s waiting to paint, if only he can find the time.

“It’s ironic,” he said, “because I enjoy painting now more than I ever have in my life.”

Check out www.harrisonhoward.com.

Arts & Culture

Entrepreneur exposes students to world of artistic inspiration

Ann Berchtold, middle, shown with Alexandra Rosa ‘Ally Bling Bling’ and ‘Philly’ Joe Swendoza, promotes local artists on a weekly Internet radio show.

By Marti Gacioch of Del Mar Times

Ann Berchtold grew up surrounded by artistic family members. She dabbles in painting and mosaics herself, but she prefers to market other artists’ work rather than create her own.Five years ago, she debuted her first on-line art gallery, San Diego Artist at sandiegoartist.com, that she designed to showcase the work of emerging artists. Each month, Berchtold selects one artist to introduce on her Web site and to her mailing list that now numbers 5,000 subscribers. She supplements this exposure with an artist interview on “Art Rocks,” an Internet radio program.

However, her interest in the arts extends far beyond her on-line galleries, resource Web sites and consultation practice. She also devotes ample time and energy to promoting artistic opportunities for children like her two sons, Shane, 7, and Julian, 4.When Shane started at Del Mar Hills Academy of Arts and Sciences, Berchtold was instrumental in bringing the Inspire San Diego Art Kids program to his school, which offers a dedicated arts curriculum. The Inspire Program introduces local artists into the classroom, who describe to the students how the old master artists inspired their own art. Guest artists then lead the children in a demonstration of that art style.

Berchtold described artist Chris Forder’s lively presentation for the students: “Forder chose Jackson Pollock as his artistic inspiration and created a motorized robot that he calls an I-Bot. It was a tripod using a paintbrush or a Sharpie pen that gyrates on a canvas. So after Forder masked off the white space of the painting, he let the I-Bot do the rest.”Berchtold said that the kids were so enthusiastic about using the I-Bot to paint with that Forder built an I-Bot for each of the 30 students, so they, too, could paint in Pollock’s style.

This year, Berchtold designed the San Diego Kidz Web site, sandiegoartkidz.com, to present children’s art opportunities. This site is geared toward helping parents with children who are art enthusiasts and serves as a resource for them to locate San Diego art resources and projects for their children.

“My goal is to create artistic opportunities for children,” said Berchtold, “because it makes the whole school process more engaging and fun to open up doors for kids who may not be touched by subjects like math and science.”She views art as a core foundation for any child’s education. “It’s my mission to see that there are as many creative opportunities for kids as possible.”

To demonstrate her devotion to that mission, Berchtold joined the effort to save the San Diego Children’s Museum in downtown San Diego after she learned it was threatened for financial reasons.According to Berchtold, when the museum opened across from San Diego’s Convention Center many years ago, it was initially very successful. But, because the museum was housed in an old building with architectural problems, including asbestos, it was forced to close its doors two years ago. While museum supporters have worked hard raising funds for a new building, they still lack sufficient funds. When the city of San Diego was planning to take the property away to give to another non-profit agency, Berchtold got involved.

Ever since then, she’s been working to raise public awareness about the museum’s programs. As a strong advocate for the museum, she is enthusiastic about the many creative activities that the interactive amuseum had offered children.“They had a huge truck that kids loved to paint on,” she said, “and a recycling center where people could use the recycled material, including paper, to create art projects. They had a huge selection of costumes where children could dress up and interact, and they also brought in visiting artists do demonstrations for the children.”

As a 15-year Del Mar resident, Berchtold said that she is inspired by the city’s culturally rich artistic community, which she finds more of a grassroots effort than San Francisco’s gallery-oriented artist community. The Children’s Museum still needs to raise $5 million more for their new building. Contributors can learn how to help by visiting sdchidlrensmuseum.org or by picking up virtual tour information available at Del Mar Library and the Carmel Valley Library.

Berchtold, who is the arts coordinator at Del Mar Hills Academy for Arts and Sciences, hopes to eventually piggyback the Children’s Museum projects with the academy’s programs.

TOWN FOCUS: DEL MAR
Students master works of famous artists

By Amy Horton of San Diego Union Tribune COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER September 8, 2004

Elementary students from Del Mar will be learning the artistic techniques of modern master artists this school year. Art consultant Ann Berchtold is bringing the program she created, "Inspire! San Diego Art Kidz," into fourth-, fifth-and sixth-grade classrooms at Del Mar Heights and Del Mar Hills Academy of Arts and Science. After talking with teachers about the lack of art in the classrooms because of budget cuts, Berchtold, a Del Mar resident, offered to implement an art program as a supplement to the existing lessons. Each month, a local artist will introduce students to the artist that served as his or her inspiration. The class will then participate in a hands-on project that will emulate the style of the inspirational artist, such as Salvador Dali or Claude Monet. For instance, this month, local artist Victor Ochoa will introduce his inspiration, Diego Rivera, by sharing a variety of paintings. Then the students will use sponges to paint onto a 30-foot-by-8-foot paper, using simplified forms and vivid colors to make a mural. In November, local artist Christopher Forderer will introduce the work of Jackson Pollack to the students. The students will then paint abstractly, in the style of Pollack. Forderer also led an art class last year through Berchtold's Inspire! program at Del Mar Hills Academy. The program was from March to June. Forderer is planning a similar lesson about Pollack. Last year, he introduced students to Pollack's abstract style by having them paint with a motorized tripod he created. The students dipped three paintbrushes, attached to a covered motor, into a palette of reds, blues and yellows. Then they manipulated the robotic device to paint circles and abstract shapes. "One of the keys that keeps art surprising and fun is that you can make rules and be innovative," Forderer said.

Courtesy photo Del Mar Hills Academy of Arts and Science students saw pieces of art such as this created during a demonstration by visiting artist Chris Forderer.

Forderer explained how Pollack painted what he felt and expressed those feelings by splattering paint onto a large canvas laid on the floor. Nicole Nelson, the art specialist at Del Mar Hills, said Forderer's class made a powerful impression on the students. After the discussion about Pollack, Nelson saw the sixth-graders take risks with their art. "This expanded their definition about what art is," Nelson said. "It doesn't have to be a picture of grass, a tree or the sun. And they learned they don't have to draw perfectly to be an artist. "One of the kids said, 'I never liked modern art until we did this,' " she recalled.

To learn more about the program, visit www.sandiegoartkidz.com.

Arouse Report Part Two, Aug 17, 2005
by Theresa de Mol

I've just returned feeling supercharged from yet another
San Diego Visual Arts Network sponsored event.  It was once again held at the Galerie D' Art International, located in the Designer District on Cedros in Solana Beach. This was the second of three sessions designed to familiarize novice art collectors with where to look and what to look for.  It's ancillary purpose is to educate artists about what is selling and who is buying so that they may develop strategies to better position themselves on the path to

Before I begin my recap of this evening's discussion, I have one question to ask those of you who weren't there:  Where the heck were you?  If you are an artist with high aspirations, then in my book, there is only one legitimate excuse for not attending and that is you were right in the middle of creating.  If you have any other excuse, I don't want to hear it.  'Nuf said.

The session began with Darwin Sindlee's "Post it and slap it"
brainstorming exercise, for which we were all given post it notes and asked to write down 2-3 ways or places where you can expose yourself to more art.  Sindlee tossed out the first
suggestion: "Marry an Artist" which is precisely what he did. 
Another guest suggestion was to become involved with the San Diego Visual Arts Network.  A complete list of everyone's suggestions will soon be posted on their website. 

Next up, the woman who is the driving force behind
www.sandiegoartists.com and sandiegoartkids.com Ann Berchtold, spoke of the importance of involving kids in collecting.  She has two children, ages four and seven.  Her four year old collect crystals and her seven year old collects trading cards. And she makes sure they both get included in the selection process for mommy's art purchases.  

After that, Joan Seifried, certified appraiser of fine arts and antiques, and evidently a dynamite auctioneer talked about the auction process, painting a vivid picture of what it's like to attend a real live auction.  She described it as a social event where "we're looking at each other's clothes, jewelry, boyfriends, handbags..."   

Speaking of dress, she later informed us that it's not the flashy dresser, but rather the "guy in back with the tie holding up his faded jeans" that you've gotta watch out for.  He's the one who's loaded. 

The presentation culminated with a mock auction of real artwork.  Including a Degas valued at over $250,000.  If you've got the cash and would like the chance to purchase real art with real money, be sure to attend next week's final session, same time, same place. Unfortunately, I won't be there.  My excuse?  I'll be in Tahoe, probably on a dinner cruise, cursing my misfortune for not being able to attend, and thus giving someone else the opportunity to write this review. 

Best wishes to all,  Theresa de Mol

Back to the top

Emerging Artist selected by our collector panelist
By Maria Palma

Collectors play a pivotal role in the art world. To become a true collector, you must visit art galleries/auctions, look at as much art as you can, talk to artists, and educate yourself. Also, talking with other collectors creates a synergy and excitement about art.

The art collector panelists for the Arouse event were Ann Berchtold and Larry Poteet who offered their criteria on choosing art for their personal collections. Ann and Larry also chose the artists to be represented for this event. These emerging artists include Blaine Fontana, Matt Forderer, Pamela Jaeger, Tim McCormick, and Alejandro Martinez-Pena.

Blaine Fontana is a full-time artist who has a background in graphic design, photography, sculpture and life drawing. With a BFA in Communication Art/Design, Blaine has an extensive work experience doing different types of art for many companies and shows his art throughout the nation. His work is abstract in nature, but contains figurative as well as natural elements.

Matt Forderer is a self-taught artist whose work is inspired by the original surrealists. His paintings and collages portray his fondness of nature and are filled with symbolism. Forderer encourages the viewer to contemplate and think outside the box.

Beauty and fashion are elements in Pamela Jaeger’s paintings. Pamela has a degree in graphic design, but also studied drawing, painting, color theory, and costuming. Her paintings are fun and whimsical portraits that appeal to all ages.

Tim McCormick’s love for art is evident in his paintings. He paints everyday and his works emanate from the heart with no goal or plan of what it will look like in the end. Tim’s art has been shown in numerous galleries and venues throughout California and the U.S.

A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Alejandro Martinez-Pena studied architecture and then went on to study in Italy and Tijuana. He has taken many workshops in graphics and paints. Alejandro’s paintings are bright and colorful abstracts that convey figures and fluid lines.