“Gleaning House,” the latest art exhibit at Idyllwild Arts Academy, showcases the work of six seniors, including Esther Chung, Dominique DeRoss, Haley Kuhlmann, Natania Frydmann, Joohee Park, Helena Walker and Miriam Grace Leigh.

“It’s a strong show,” said Rob Rutherford, head of the Visual Arts Department at Idyllwild Arts.

The show, which began on Friday night, April 23, at the Parks Exhibition Center, features a variety of media, including acrylic paintings, graphite drawings, ceramic sculptures and a large installation (wood construction).

The works that you see, said Rutherford, have changed a bit from their original proposals.

Months before, Rutherford and his staff reviewed the student’s proposals and artists statements and worked with them on their part of the show. However, two of the artists had changed their plans, including DeRoss and Frydmann.

The “Gleaning House” show title is puzzling. The definition of “gleaning” is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested. Some ancient cultures promoted gleaning as an early form of a welfare system. In fact, the poster for this “Gleaning House” art show featured a single russet potato. By using “gleaning” instead of “cleaning” house, perhaps the students wanted to show that they were giving or offering something, instead of throwing it away.

The first thing you notice when you walk into the gallery is Frydmann’s installation of a house, entitled “Downstairs a Mouse is in a Jar.” About the size of a doll house, it’s made up of wood (2 x 4s and plywood), fabric material (for the roof) and paper (the prints inside).

There’s room enough for a single gold armchair, and all around the walls are small hangings of prints with words on them.

“Go in and sit down,” encouraged Vance Blaettler, director of Design & Graphics at Idyllwild Arts. “It’s meant to be interactive.”

When you sit down on the chair is that there is dirt all over the floor, which is spilling out into the gallery and making quite a mess.

On the outside of the house are graphite drawings, which could be artistic doodlings. Yet, if you were to venture to the back of the house, you’d see a life-sized drawing of a female nude torse with a large nose attached. Obviously, Frydmann can draw too.

The prints on the inside tell more of a personal tale. Someone in her family had cancer, Rutherford said, and she was greatly affected by it.

“In fact, the house was not in her original proposal,” he said, “but she convinced me that it was necessary.”

The house had to be brought into the gallery in pieces, and constructed inside. When the show closes tonight, it has to be broken down again.

“Phylum Acrasiomycota,” the ceramics installation by Dominique DeRoss, also started off differently, Rutherford said.

“Originally, Dominique wanted to mount all of the ceramics onto a wooden log,” he said. “But she had to change those plans in the end.”

He said that it was important to her to have a natural element along with her ceramics because Idyllwild is all about nature, and she’s lived here her entire life.

The title is the name of a spore that grows on a log. That’s why the log was important. Since it didn’t work out, she wanted to put natural clay on top of the white cubes to give it an “earthy” element, but that idea got nixxed.

“Her glazes are nice,” Rutherford said.

Each of DeRoss’ vessels had a different glaze, texture and feel to them. She said the first one was hard to make, but the others were easy. She’s not sure what she’s going to do with all of them (about 25 in all) when the show closes today, April 30, (on her 18th birthday). After the summer, she plans to take a year off and move to Oregon.

Another ceramicist of note was Helena Walker and her six pieces. They also had a nature theme, and she included the scientific name along with the other titles, including encrusint coral, azure sponge, acorn barnacle sponge, brain coral and candy cane coral.

One can imagine that Walker made up the names to match the textures and colors of her strong pieces. Although they wouldn’t be mistaken for corals or sponges, the ceramics were created with much detail to the designs, and the glazes were colors that would gleam in nature.

Miriam Grace Leigh, combined her ceramic pieces (under bell jars) with the framed ink and watercolor paintings on the wall. The paintings, which look organic, remind one of eastern European art, with its elongated features and political influences. In Leigh’s case, however, the titles signify more of a personal journey: Milk Flower,” for one that looks like breast barnacles, and “Screaming Grass” and “Cannibal Plant.”

Esther Chung, whose two acrylic paintings, not only show intense color and grand scale (each 90 x 117 inches), but unusual perspectives. On one of the paintings, Chung has shown her room, perhaps her limited world, from several perspectives, including a bird’s eye view.

Haley Kuhlmann’s “Aging Tragedy,” depicts a series of portraits of a man, from infancy to old age, also caught a lot of attention from attendees.

“Look! the eyes are a different color!” remarked two people from Idyllwild. Indeed, the colors changed from purple, to brown to green, and finally blue. Those same eye colors were repeated by Kuhlmann in large blocks of color at the base of each painting.

“Wow, that’s really cool!” said Juwan Lockett, a theater major, at the aging transformation.

The teenager, looked very much like Bram Rees-Davies, a moving pictures student. However, Kuhlmann wasn’t there to confirm it.

The old age picture, however, depicted a man above age 90, thin, with large eyes. It looked a lot like Yoda, from “Star Wars.”  If Rees-Davies went from looking like he is today to looking Yoda-like, it would be a tragedy.

Joohee Park’s “Change,” is an organic looking oversized graphite drawing (37 x 76 inches), that takes up the entire back wall space. Like most seniors, Park is likely reviewing all the changes she has made over the years at Idyllwild Arts, and looking forward to college.

“Gleaning House” closes today, Friday, April 30, at the Parks Exhibition Center on campus. The next senior art show will be next Friday, May 7, at 6  p.m. All shows are free and open to the public. For more information, call (951) 659-2171.

Guerilla art is unexpected, usually anonymous and sometimes illegal in its application. For instance, every year before St. Patrick’s Day, a gigantic green shamrock appears on the street in front of an Irish pub in Omaha. Coincidence or guerilla art?

It’s not legal to paint the streets with shamrocks on March 17^th or any other day.

“But it’s fun and gets people celebrating,” said the owner, who swears she doesn’t know where the shamrock came from.

However, those guerilla artists had to spray paint the shamrock on a busy street late at night (when there was no traffic around), and hope that the cops didn’t show up. They also had to make sure that the green paint dried in time. Because if it smeared, it would be a mess, and not a shamrock.

Idyllwild Arts student Jacob G. remembers guerilla art appearing on a tree in his hometown in Alaska.

“One morning, in the middle of our town park, a wire was wrapped all the way up and around a large tree,” Jacob said. “Attached to the wire were hundreds of paper clips that glistened in the sun. And, at the bottom of the tree, there was a single poem attached to one clip.”

Soon, hundreds of poems appeared on that old tree, and it was a moving and beautiful sight, he said.

He thought the tree poem originator was a teenage girl at school.

“We all said that we were going over to the tree and add our poems,” Jacob said. “And she refused to go with us. I think hers was already up there.”

That got me thinking about certain trees in Idyllwild, namely one large one on Tollgate Road. It appears close to the road, and at the base of the trunk, there’s a large section of bark that has been stripped away.

More than likely, cars have been hitting that tree. Either people can’t see very well because they’re old, inexperienced in mountain driving, or have imbibed in too much alcohol. Either way, the tree is getting the worst of it.

Yesterday, a blue dot was spray painted on the trunk at the base. Guerilla art? Nope. It’s likely Cal Trans has marked this tree for chopping. How is this possible? It’s a tall, healthy tree that could be 100 years old. It doesn’t deserve to die because of poor drivers.

It might be too little too late, but I put a red reflector on the tree next to the blue dot. I should have added the red reflector months ago. It costs about $2.50 at Forest Lumber, and the nails were already in my toolbox. So I put my mark on that tree too. Now, we can only hope those who drive too close to that tree will see the reflector and veer off.

Notice that Edison and other municipals mark their poles well—with red, blue and yellow dots, and even reflecting bands. They certainly don’t want anyone driving into their poles. And many of them are close to the road.

As homeowners and conservationists, we can learn from Edison and their reflector caution. No one should be running into our trees in Idyllwild– if there are red reflectors on them.

On another tree on Tollgate Road, someone had put three red reflectors. They were not put in a straight line, but are there to lovingly to save that tree. However, two more trees down the road are not as lucky. They have bark stripped away because cars couldn’t make the turn. Red reflectors are desperately needed there.

Ralph Hoetcher on South Circle Drive has a large tree on his property that is also close to the road. He put a sign with three yellow reflectors in front of it, and no bark has been stripped away.

All around town are trees that have been damaged by cars bumping or running into them. Their bark has been stripped away, leaving the tree exposed to parasites and inclimate weather. These trees need our help. If Cal Trans deems them a nuisance for most drivers, then there will be one less tree in Idyllwild to give us shade and shelter.

Guerilla or not, I challenge you to buy some red reflectors and place them on these trees in jeopardy, especially if they’re on your property. After all, a tree stump is a sorry sight to behold.

By Marcia E. Gawecki

Out of the thousands of Southern California students who entered the Music Center Spotlight Awards this year, six Idyllwild Arts students have made it to the semifinals. Besides an opportunity to win thousands in scholarship money, Spotlight winners are also invited to summer music festivals, meet influential people and perform before large audiences. In short, it’s a big deal.

For more than two decades, the Spotlight Awards have been providing meaningful recognition, encouragement and advancement for high school students studying music and visual arts. The categories include: ballet, non-classical dance, classical voice, non-classical voice, classical instrumental, jazz instrumental, photography and two-dimensional art.

The six Idyllwild Arts semi-finalists for 2010 include: Martin Peh, Ru Guo “William” Wang and Shen Liu, classical instrumental; Caleb Hensinger, jazz instrumental; Kayla Tuggle, non-classical dance; and Li-An Tsai, for two-dimensional art. Some, like the dancers were eliminated earlier, while the four music students will find out if they made the finals today, Saturday, March 13.

“I’m happy, but it’s hard when you’re up against your best friends,” said Martin Peh, who plays the violin. His friends, William and Shen, both play the clarinet, and are just as stoic.

When William was congratulated recently, he smiled and looked down. “He’s happy, but he’s holding back his emotions,” said his girlfriend, Ai-Ching Huang, an Idyllwild Arts violist.

Last year, two Idyllwild Arts students made it to the Spotlight Finals: Tian-Peng “Timmy” Yu, a sophomore pianist, who won his classical instrumental category and Samuel Chan, a junior, who took second place in classical voice.

Timmy, who won his category, agreed that it could be nerve wrecking. “When they announced the two finalists (from the classical instrumental category) last year, they put us all in the same room,” he said. “Everyone was looking at me. It was kind of awkward.”

“But when you’re one of the two finalists, you’re already won,” Timmy added. For first place in the classical instrumental, he earned a $5,000 scholarship, while Samuel got a $4,000 scholarship. They both have been invited to attend the Aspen Summer Music Program this summer on scholarship.

Timmy said it was exciting to be a finalist. “A Hollywood director takes a video of you, and you get to talk to the media,” he said.

At last year’s Spotlight Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA, many Idyllwild Arts students and faculty showed up to support Timmy and Samuel. The short videos depicted their life at Idyllwild Arts with interviews with their music teachers, family and friends. It’s a memento they will treasure for a lifetime, Timmy said, and was later posted on You Tube for all to see.

After the videos were shown, each of the finalists got to perform before the large audience at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

“I can’t wait to find out who made the finals this year,” said Samuel. “I want to pass on the torch.”

There were no Idyllwild Arts students in Sam’s classical voice category, but one visual artist made it to the Spotlight semi-finals this year, Li-An Tsai. She said her small watercolor depicts two people listening to music, she said.

When she received her congratulatory letter this year, Li-An didn’t celebrate for at least two hours. She had entered the Spotlight Awards last year and got a rejection letter. She was sure it was the same thing, but she waited to show her roommate, Geneva Winters, just to be sure.

“She knows English better than I do, and she said that I made it,” Li-An said. By making the semi-finals, Li-An also received $500 towards summer arts classes.

As part of the Spotlight semi-finals process, Li-An was invited to the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica with the other finalists from the 2-D art and photography categories on March 6. For two hours, she and her IA friend, Sana Liu, toured four galleries, and talked about art with their sponsor.

“He asked us questions like, ‘What message do you want others to walk away with?’” Li-An said. “It makes you think about what you want your art to say to people.”

On March 20, Li-An will know if she made the Spotlight Finals at a gala the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, in which they’ll showcase all of the arts student’s entries.

“When I told my mom that I made it to the Spotlight Semi-finals, she said, ‘Oh good!’” added Li-An. “I don’t think she knows what an honor it is yet.”

For more information on the Music Center Spotlight Awards, visit www.musiccenter.org.

Copyright 2010 Idyllwild Me. All rights reserved.

Idyllwild Arts student Caleigh Thompson Birrell is going to New York University for art next year, but before she goes, she’ll be getting a real life gallery experience.

Her work was recommended by Kirsten Cunio, a staff nurse at Idyllwild Arts, who knew Amanda and Steve Taylor from Artisans Gallery in Oakwood Village.

“I liked Amanda right away, and I’m thrilled that she’s willing to give me a show of my work in April,” Caleigh said.

“Her work is great, very strong, and we’re happy to have her in our gallery,” Amanda said. Artisans Gallery features paintings, pottery, fiber art, sculptures, photography, and jewelry of mostly local artists. Both Amanda and her husband, Steve, are artists. Amanda creates jewelry, while Steve carves from Manzanita wood.

After Kristian’s recommendations, Caleigh brought in her portfolio to show the variety of her work over the years at Idyllwild Arts. Yet, it wasn’t until she brought in the two acrylic and mixed media paintings that Amanda could see the depth of her work.

Immediately, she placed the portrait of “Robert Towne” on the fireplace mantle, a place of honor.

“It’s the first thing that people see when they enter the gallery,” Amanda said. “Besides, when it’s cold, they want to get warm by the fire.”

The 20 x 30 inch portrait of “Robert Towne” is a mixed media painting that appears to have writing mixed into the paint.

“See how she blends the oranges and reds into the painting,” Amanda pointed out. “That’s technique that adds a lot of warmth to an otherwise black and white painting.”

The other portrait, which is untitled, depicts a man looking down in a somber mood.

“Caleigh said that she did that one from out of her head,” Amanda explained. “It’s not of any particular person, while Robert Towne was a writer, I think she said.”

Caleigh said that she liked the work in Artisans Gallery. It’s the first gallery she’s shown in besides the Parks Exhibition Center on campus.

Artisans will give her a one-woman show in April. The date has yet to be determined, but Caleigh said that she has enough pieces to show (generally 10-15 pieces). She’s not sure if the series is going to be all male portraits, or if her boyfriend, Nate Levonson, an Idyllwild Arts music student, is going to be one of the subjects of a painting.

“People’s reaction to Caleigh’s work has been positive,” Amanda added. “They really like her work.”

Visit Artisans Gallery in the Oakwood Village at 54425 North Circle Drive, call (951) 659-9091, or visit www.idyllwildartisans.com.

Art is everywhere in Idyllwild, and some appear in places that you’d least expect–such as on top of a shopping mall roof and covering ugly old propane tanks. Yet, it doesn’t seem so unusual when you’d meet local artist T.J. Darwin.

He’s a fine artist, educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but has lived and worked in Idyllwild for years. He sees the big picture, thinks like a marketer, and uses his talents to help local businesses, such as Wooley’s, Fairway Market and Dore’s Mountain Metals.

What’s most important for Wooley’s is that Darwin wears hats.

“Wooley’s sells hats, but not a lot of people knew that,” said Darwin. “So I convinced the owner to put a hat on the roof.”

It was more than just any old hat, mind, you, but a very large one, about the size of a Mini Cooper. It’s made of wood and resin and measures 8 feet, by 6 feet by 4.3 feet. Despite its size, it’s lightweight enough to sit on top of the shopping mall roof.

Located in the Village Centre, Wooley’s sells wool and sheepskin products, including hats, gloves, coats and rugs. The owner gave Darwin “carte blanche” on the style, shape and size of hat that he wanted create. He used one of his own hats as inspiration.

“The owner was horrified at first, because she thought that the hat would fall through the roof,” Darwin of Wooley’s owner’s reaction. “But now she loves it.”

The dark brown hat resembles a lot of Western-style hats on sale in the store. Think of the hats from the popular movies, “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” and “Indiana Jones.”

Darwin said that it took him about two months to create the hat in his friend Don Teele’s garage.

“I thought he’d never get it out of there,” Don said.

It has about 12 coats of exterior latex paint on it and oil-based polyurethane coating on top, explained Darwin. The Wooley’s hat needs to withstand Idyllwild’s harsh temperatures, including snow, wind and rain.

Darwin, Don and two other friends hoisted the oversized hat onto Wooley’s roof from the back of a pickup truck. Luckily, it didn’t incur any damage, but Darwin added one more coat of paint, just to be sure.

“Once we got it up, the hat looked good on the roof, but it needed something more,” Darwin said. So he added a white “Wooley’s” logo to the front of the hat, and an Idyllwild landscape sign behind it.

“Once the logo was on the hat, and we added the backdrop, it took everything to the next level,” said Darwin. “It worked.”

The backdrop sign, which features Idyllwild nature scenes and animals, took Darwin another month to complete. It features Lilly Rock, Tahquitz Peak, a deer, mountain lion and eagle, and a collection of rocks from Anza. The composite image is similar to the ones he’s created on propane tanks.

“The propane tank that I painted for Fairway Market took me one week,” Darwin explained. “And the last propane tank that I did (for an Idyllwild resident) only took 10 hours.”

Darwin created the images on the Fairway Market propane tank for free.

“I had to drum up some business,” he said. “People needed to see up close what I could do with propane tanks.”

Although necessary, propane tanks can be unsightly white, oblong obtrusions in an otherwise beautiful landscape. Instead of constructing a fence around these tanks, Darwin gives Idyllwild homeowners an option: paint.

Yet painting on a capsule-shaped metal tank is not the same as painting on a flat canvas. Darwin used a projector at night to project his own photographs of Lilly Rock and Tahquitz Peak onto the tank.

“Some people may think that using a projector is ‘cheating’ or ‘tracing,’ like you did in grade school, but with the distortion of the tank, it’s necessary,” Darwin explained. “It gives me a framework to work from and saves a lot of time.”

With the framed Idyllwild backdrop, the oversized hat looked like a piece of art. “But it’s been great for drumming up business for Wooley’s,” he said.

Darwin works from a small studio in the back of the Village Lane (near the Greek Restaurant).