Virtual opening via FB LIVE!
Saturday 12 Sept. 6:30 PM PST
or visit (w/ masque) during gallery hours:
12-5 PM Sat/Sun
Art by Wendy Lee Gadzuk
Beneditos (Cabin blessings) by Colleena Hake
PAINTINGS & PHOTO COMPANIONS BY RAQUEL BELL
PAINTINGS BY JOE ALVAREZ
About the artists
WENDY LEE GADZUK
WENDY LEE GADZUK
WENDY LEE GADZUK
Wendy Lee Gadzuk is a visual artist, writer, musician, and diviner living and working in Morongo Valley. Trained at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia as a jeweler and metalsmith, she now works in various mediums, resulting in 2 different bodies of visual art - finely detailed visionary work on paper, and altar-like 3-dimensional mixed media assemblage pieces. Inspired by our universal connection to the divine, religious and occult imagery as well as symmetry are recurring themes in her work. The contrasting methods of working hold a similar thread, connecting in its own way to the collective unconscious.
Wendy has created several small sacred objects for this show, at a time when we all need a piece of something to hold onto.
COLLEENA HAKE
WENDY LEE GADZUK
WENDY LEE GADZUK
Colleena was given the Last Rites (a Catholic sacrament performed on one's deathbed) at age 2 after a severe bout of spinal meningitis. Fortunately she now lives on what she calls Bonus Time, and losing her hearing was a small price to pay. As a lip-reader during this Age of Masques, she has compensated by becoming a better mind-reader. Colleena is also a performance artist who created different "get-ups", like Lady Luck, Tammy Why Not?, & The Bionic Wonder Bread Woman. She also loves creating outdoor mosaic murals which is the perfect pandemic project (besides making Beneditos). She founded La Matadora Gallery in 2017, and before that she ran Candelabra Gallery in Tucson, AZ for 3 years.
RAQUEL BELL
RAQUEL BELL
RAQUEL BELL
Raquel Bell is making art for the heart. The fear, greed, and confusion destroying life on Earth has inspired Bell to get more in tune with nature and the divine aspects of life. She hopes that the animals can bring their wisdom to the human animals, and she portrays them in candid photographs (a new medium for Bell). Her new collection of photographs are intended to be treasures and companions.
Bell's new paintings invoke spiritual deities and include a death tribute painting to America's own sacrificial deity, the one and only George Floyd. As a fellow musician Raquel Bell personally felt a deep love for Floyd and his music with hip-hop Houston legend DJ Screw. Painting Floyd was the most important work of art Bell has ever made. "George Floyd's beauty shone through and his strong spirit touched my heart during every moment of creating this painting. It is my hope that the evil and disgusting racism in the U.S.A. ends forever."
Bell has painted/composed/and performed in galleries and museums across the the country as well as Canada and Taiwan.
JOE ALVAREZ
RAQUEL BELL
RAQUEL BELL
Recently moved from Los Angeles to Landers, Joe Alvarez has been included in many art exhibitions, from Pasadena to Joshua Tree. This accomplished artist uses allegorical subjects in the guise of part-human/part-animal figures, circus show performers, and fairy-tale characters in his work, quite a far departure from his previous life as a Marine. His symbolic and narrative work encompasses parody, punk, black humor, and mestizaje culture. He paints mostly on repurposed wood, and now also makes papier-mâché sculptures in the form of diorama story scenes. Inspired by Frida Kahlo and William Blake, Alvarez creates shadowy myth and droll masquerades that signal that everything is not always what it seems.