Category: Visual Arts

DAC Artist Workshop presents Mike Ferguson at Golden Park on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 7:00 PM.

Golden Park,   8840 Golden Ave.,  Downey, CA  90242

Born and raised in Southern California, Mike is an emerging artist with a unique style and a love for the absurd that truly sets his work apart. His art is an expression of his imagination, which transports the viewer into a charming and fanciful world where anything is possible. Sometimes disturbing, often whimsical, his work has been known to elicit both deep thoughts and deep laughs (a fact which pleases him immensely).

With a talent that is unique yet reminiscent of the likes of Heinz Edelmann and Peter Max, Mike transports us to a land of angry suns and swirling winds, he takes us deep into the ocean to cavort with sea creatures, shows us mystic smoking totems and grinning devils, and introduces us to Tiny Robots who win our hearts with their charming personalities. The detail that goes into these fantasies is beyond description and a must-see.

A full-time Marketing Professional, Mike also plays the mandolin and the Appalachian dulcimer and enjoys working with fused and stained glass. He currently lives with his son Joseph and his dog Gunner in Downey, CA.

Participants will get a chance to participate in Mike’s “The Melvin Project” in which he provides the outline of his illustration and invites artists to style and color themselves.  His favorite will receive a special gift.

View From The Edge is a lecture series bringing life to modern art with important voices of the local arts community.  Thursday May 23, we present Sue Ann Robinson, Director of Collections and Exhibitions for the Long Beach Museum of Art, as she brings a talk entitled, “Modern Art Nurtured in California: Historical Contributions of Our Local Artists.”

The lecture begins at 6:30PM at the Downey City Library, and is free to the public.  The Downey Museu of Art, Downey Arts Coalition and curator Roy Anthony Shabla have collaborated to bring you this series.  The DMOA has had a historically significant place in the modern art movement in California, as have artists local to the area.  Come to learn about some of the significant names of the local history of modern art.

Sue Ann Robinson’s bio, courtesy of Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art.

Sue Ann Robinson is a visual artist, educator, author and museum professional. Robinson co-founded the first graduate program in museum education at George Washington University, Washington, DC. She worked with art museum director Walter Hopps at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and has developed innovative educational programs at the Long Beach Museum of Art, where she is currently the Director of Collections. She authored essays for the Art Museum as Educator, published by the University of California, Berkeley.

Robinson exhibited her assemblage on the east coast in the 70’s and produced artist’s books at the Writer’s Center, Glen Echo Park, MD. She was employed by the Women’s Graphic Center at the Women’s Building in Los Angeles in the 80’s. She received two three-year artist-in-residence grants from the California Art Council at the Long Beach Public Library and the Long Beach Museum of Art, where she subsequently continued as Director of Education.

Robinson has received numerous fellowships, awards and grants for her artist’s books—including the Library Fellows Grant from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, two artist’s fellowships from the Arts Council of Long Beach, a C.O.L.A. grant from the City of Los Angeles and residencies at Centrum, Port Townsend, WA; Dorland Mountain Artist Colony, Temecula, CA; The Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY; and the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY. She has completed numerous commissions for the Long Beach Public Library, the Long Beach Symphony and the California Art Education Association.

Her artist’s books are in the collections of The National Gallery of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Getty Research Institute, Yale University, University of Washington and the Environmental Library at the University of California, Berkeley, among others. Robinson maintains her studio in Long Beach, CA.

As a bonus, Roy Anthony Shabla is hosting a TV Night on Tuesday 21st to watch arts documentaries, held at his home Casa La Reina.  Contact the website for directions, begins at 6:30PM.