The 11th annual El Corazón show curated by José Vargas fills all three galleries at the Bath House Cultural Center.

Always a heartfelt show. Diverse, fascinating, textured. All, at once obvious and subtle, human and mechanical, real, abstract amd heart puns amok. Love in lividity. Death in the details.

These are the pieces that made me want to take their pictures. Beneath each are some of my thoughts as I watched them.

Like love, many feelings and questions. Not so mnay conclusions.

 

Cimi - untitled
acrylic on board

 

Densely colorful yet poignant humane. A gentleness touched by absurdity, including the hard contrast of primary colors against a reluctant, constumed man. A clown with pathos. A red fool in a blue world, his initialed heart on his chest.

 

 

Kate Schatz - Heart Renovation
wood, brass, copper

 

Everyday materials angled, curving and squiggling over vivid red ground. Copper glowing golden with a dark, spidery shadow. Luscious euphoria of reds and reds and reds in metaphoric human machine.

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Jason McPeak - It Grows
mixed media

 

Another strange wonder from Jason McPeak, whose work I see almost exclusively in this show. Enticing in macro, amazing in micro. Sensual delight about feeling and, of course, heart. An assembly line spinning sharp deltas down on bleeding veins.

 

 

T.Stone - Heart to Heart
mixed media

 

Utterly simple. Red/green contrast floating in white. Self-supporting suspension of disbelief. Communication somewhere between tin cans and a string, and coiled telephone wire. Self-generating direct current, hot wired.

See T.Stone's DARts Supporting Member
page to see more of her art.

 

 

Celia Muñoz - Yena
mixed media

 

Corner piece. Framed in black like a death notice. The empty matching frame says yena — by whom or by which in Sanskit, but my Spanish dictionary won't translate it, though the similar sounding lleno means full or complete, the -a form feminine. Pictured is a woman with a giant Sacred Heart cornered in red walls. Romant arches. Gold marbles shape a darker golden heart in the gilded triangle below.

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Angela Gallia - Contemplating the Mysteries of the Heart
stoneware

 

Household scenes etched on muted ceramic bells with gold handles and soft blue field — tables with keys and trees, a flaming heart, owl and an electric outlet unplugged. Black inside, outside scratched in white. Windows, wood surfaces and a cup of coffee. Odd and gentle. Grouped leaning.

 

 

Sara Cardona - Head Over Heels
mixed media

 

When I saw this, it made me angry. I knew I better photograph it, so I could think about that.

Slick, glossy plastic wrapped. Oddly, enigmatically sexist in a smear of warm colors, diving into cool, eveloped in blue. Flaming red heart like a bearded tongue, trailing her mouth. Eyes back, falling. Vivid. Disturbing. Contrastly emotional.

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DARts Contents
Art Calendar

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