ART VIEW Hot August Art

By Jim Christiansen

The Art Scene is hoping that Hot August Nights will be cooler than July’s triple-digit temperatures. The weather forecast says this may be the case, but there were a few things that made July so hot in the arts. Musicians and friends performed a concert to say goodbye to community friend Mike Shelton and his closing of Ralston’s Goat. I had a migraine that day but watched the many videos of it all during vampire hours and extend a thank you to Mike for Ralston’s Goat’s support of the arts and artists from the start. I have had my art on display and co-produced the Comedy Series “Just Kidding” with Jen Eros early on. Cocktail Goat watercolors started participating in Art Walk, poetry readings, weddings, Pub Crawls, and more, like departed artist Phil Murillo’s signage and early community murals. The Goat will be missed.

July marks the 70th anniversary of the Central California Art Association. Modesto knows it as the Mistlin Gallery, but it is in transformation, now doing business as the Stanislaus Arts Council. This expands the outreach into the many creative art entities beyond and with the visual arts. This was formally announced at the Emerging Artists/Members Choice artist reception and mixer. Fitting of the historic occasion, scrapbooks and histories of the Central California Art League’s original formation were on display in the classroom studio. Books included the changeover to CCAA, the move from the McHenry Museum Basement to the current 1015 J Street location, renamed for sponsor Tony Mistlin, up to 2023. Fittingly, the People’s Choice award for the Members, not Emerging Artist show, CCAA’s youngest member Charles Sperling. Patron participation counts.

The future for the next decade of the CCAA is reflected in the new “Synergy” multidimensional, multi-artistic disciplines, multiartist collaborative works on display now. Updating to the age of interconnection, the Synergy project brought together the visual arts, writers, poets, videographers, musi- cians, choreographers, and dancers to bring an expansive experiential presentation on various themes. QR codes abound in this exhibit, taking you to videos and other storylines outside the gallery location. Mistlin has already hit the YouTube and Facebook live presentations of the regular interview live show of “Expose Yourself to Art” on Sundays, which recently featured Barbara Alvarado and what happens and the inspiration behind the Dragonfly Art for Life studio/gallery on J Street. This is membership renewal and joining time for the CCAA, and the next big event is the Autumn Arts Festival, a members-only juried show. We are happy to report that several recent participants in the Emerging Artist Salon de Refuses show and Synergy have joined up, eligible to be part of this major juried showcase.

The Art Walk will be on the third Thursday as usual for August. Venues like Picasso’s are open during the week. During the recent meeting at Mistlin Gallery, the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock opened its Annual Showcase exhibit, and there are plenty of other opportunities in our area to attend and celebrate the arts in the Modesto View area, including Chartreuse Muse and other venues on the Art Walk map.

Attend the shows at the galleries to see who got in and what awards were presented. Current newsworthy awards are the Heartland Grantees. Lightbox Theatre Company, Boys and Girls Club of Stanislaus County, South Modesto Businesses United, Inc., Central West Ballet, Carnegie Arts Center, Prospect Theater Project, in the nonprofit organizations. Jacquie Villegas, Marisa Segovia, Jason True, Nicole Jones, Cristina Accalos, Jose Mariquez, Cyprin Mason, Orlin Reyes, and filmmaker Mark Runnels as individual artists received Heartland Grants.