Home on the Strange: In Search of the Salton SeaNew work by Deborah Martin with collaborative works by Amy Sather Smith and Juli Vizza.
February 11- March 6, 2010
Artist Reception
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
6:00-10:00pm
Artist Reception
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
6:00-10:00pm
Based on Polaroids taken over a period of four years, Deborah Martin paints portraits of landscapes depicting various aspects of reality of life on the Salton Sea; including scenes from Slab City, Salvation Mountain and Bombay Beach. Martin’s subject matter includes such curiosities as dilapidated trailers, an eerie outdoor living room, and a Technicolor monument built for Jesus, but belies so much more. In her trademark style of haunting American Realism, she skillfully and subtly examines concepts of worth and beauty and begs compelling questions about the psychology of place and the search for a sense of home.
Amy Sather Smith contributes text to supplement Martin’s paintings, providing a history of the Salton Sea and examining the dreams that originally attracted people to the area as well as the psychology that compels some to stay and others to still arrive.
Video artist Juli Vizza accompanied Martin on trips to the Salton Sea, taking film footage of the environs that inspired the series. What results is a masterfully pieced together visual translation of the unspoken language between landscape and painter, establishing the context that exists between a series of snapshot frames, where still life and life in motion intersect.
About Deborah Martin
Deborah Martin is a Los Angeles-based contemporary realist painter, fine art photographer and curator. In her continued exploration of American landscapes, Martin turned her attention to this landmark saline site known for it's distinctive inhabitants, unorthodox social ecology, and unique architecture. Deborah has exhibited in galleries and Museums in New York, Provincetown, Boston and Los Angeles. Her work was recently selected to be featured in the next issue of New American Paintings Magazine representing the Pacific West Coast. Martin received her BFA and BS Master of Arts in teaching, Art Education, from the Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University.
About Amy Sather Smith
Despite overt tendencies toward megalomania, Amy Sather Smith has a difficult time producing personal content for public consumption. She does, however, embrace with guardedly naïve enthusiasm the prettier things in life and states, “My work is part of a conversation between my Self and an Other…both variable and specific. I am uninspired when I have nobody to impress.” An expatriate of intellectualism, most of Amy’s notions of the nature and importance of Art tend toward the existential. When pressed to make comment about her most recent work, Ms. Sather Smith replied, “I am fascinated by the relationship between the human psyche and physical environment. We are amazing and resourceful animals. How we create and/or adapt to our physical surroundings, our notions of home and definition of community: all potent reflections of our inner hopes and fears, which on a base level are completely universal…no matter how disparate things may appear on the surface.”
About Juli Vizza
For more than 15 years, Juli Vizza has been working in the film industry from Development to Marketing. Her credits as a producer and editor include, "Fallen", "Riding In Cars With Boys", "Sunday Driver", "DaVinci Code", "Angels & Demons" and "Julie & Julia. She has exhibited her experimental filmmaking at the Guggenheim in New York.
Amy Sather Smith contributes text to supplement Martin’s paintings, providing a history of the Salton Sea and examining the dreams that originally attracted people to the area as well as the psychology that compels some to stay and others to still arrive.
Video artist Juli Vizza accompanied Martin on trips to the Salton Sea, taking film footage of the environs that inspired the series. What results is a masterfully pieced together visual translation of the unspoken language between landscape and painter, establishing the context that exists between a series of snapshot frames, where still life and life in motion intersect.
About Deborah Martin
Deborah Martin is a Los Angeles-based contemporary realist painter, fine art photographer and curator. In her continued exploration of American landscapes, Martin turned her attention to this landmark saline site known for it's distinctive inhabitants, unorthodox social ecology, and unique architecture. Deborah has exhibited in galleries and Museums in New York, Provincetown, Boston and Los Angeles. Her work was recently selected to be featured in the next issue of New American Paintings Magazine representing the Pacific West Coast. Martin received her BFA and BS Master of Arts in teaching, Art Education, from the Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University.
About Amy Sather Smith
Despite overt tendencies toward megalomania, Amy Sather Smith has a difficult time producing personal content for public consumption. She does, however, embrace with guardedly naïve enthusiasm the prettier things in life and states, “My work is part of a conversation between my Self and an Other…both variable and specific. I am uninspired when I have nobody to impress.” An expatriate of intellectualism, most of Amy’s notions of the nature and importance of Art tend toward the existential. When pressed to make comment about her most recent work, Ms. Sather Smith replied, “I am fascinated by the relationship between the human psyche and physical environment. We are amazing and resourceful animals. How we create and/or adapt to our physical surroundings, our notions of home and definition of community: all potent reflections of our inner hopes and fears, which on a base level are completely universal…no matter how disparate things may appear on the surface.”
About Juli Vizza
For more than 15 years, Juli Vizza has been working in the film industry from Development to Marketing. Her credits as a producer and editor include, "Fallen", "Riding In Cars With Boys", "Sunday Driver", "DaVinci Code", "Angels & Demons" and "Julie & Julia. She has exhibited her experimental filmmaking at the Guggenheim in New York.
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