Movers and Shakers: Who’s Who in the Visual Arts in San Diego
Introduction by Patricia Frischer, coordinator of SDVAN

The original idea for a portrait exhibition came from Julia Gill when a general request went out for projects to increase the awareness of the San Diego Visual Arts Network now that we had over 1000 resources listed on the site. We wanted to celebrate this benchmark and also create an exciting project that would continue to involve the visual arts community while at the same time reach out to the general population of the San Diego region. She thought that portraits/photographs of Movers and Shakers would fit this bill especially if these works depicted their subjects in the midst of their work. On a trip to London in Jan.-Feb. of 2006, I was able to see the major retrospective of William Hogarth at the Royal Academy of Art and this encouraged me to take the idea further and include all art forms. Hogarth portraits are documents of life in London in Georgian times that ring with life and still capture our interest to this day.

The exhibition we are sponsoring could have been self-portraits of artists or portraits of artists in their studios or portraits of artist’s models or even portraits of animals or border guards or any number of subjects. All are of interest, but we decided on Movers and Shakers because we are interested in capturing a period in San Diego’s artistic life. Working with Denise Bonaimo to flesh out these ideas, we came up with a proposal for an exhibition at Art Expressions Gallery and an online gallery through the San Diego Visual Artists Guild.

Mike Von Joel in his article Here’s Looking at Me, published in State of the Arts, says “(Portraits) have been the mainstay of visual art ever since that first scratch on rock.” In fact, we can see the whole history of art in portraits. Portraits might not be considered to be the height of fashion now, but that is changing fast mainly because we have become a society not only fascinated by art and its economy but with self. With huge amounts of money spent to keep us looking good, especially in Southern California, it is only natural to want to document that result.

All major cities have some sort of gallery of portraits. In America’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., a law restricting portraits to those at least ten years dead was repealed in 2000, but we still have a long way to catch up to the National Portrait Gallery in London with it’s well supported yearly competition. Portraits of children are particularly absent in public collection perhaps due to the strict laws protecting them from pedophiles and pornography.

Most good portraits are, in a way, portraits of the artist who create them. The best express a feeling about the human condition and have exceptional clarity. They reflect not only the subject but also something of the time and place. They advance the scope of art. We want to see a physical resemblance but we also need the intellectual and emotional aspects of the subject’s personality revealed.

The show is not intended as a "best of" survey. It is a sampling instead of many types of art honoring VIPs in the art world. We hope this combination of Movers and Shakers with artists does not result in Matisse’s famous sentiment, "God preserve me from the model!" But instead urged our artists to dig deep to show their best about some of our brightest supporters.

Id, Ego, Superego Movers & Shakers: Who’s Who in the Visual Arts in San Diego
by Patricia Frischer, coordinator of SDVAN

Freud helps us understand the functions of the mind and how the unconscious influences our lives. He hypothesized about an id that answers only to the pleasure principle, a super ego that differentiates between right and wrong, and an ego that mediates between the id, the superego and reality.

Are you surprised? Perhaps you thought, as I did, that a superego was the biggest ego of them all. You don't put together 40 Movers and Shakers, who make the art world spin, and the 35 artists, who set out to delve deeply to portray them, without dealing with highly developed egos. Amazingly enough there were very few clashes of ids during the lead up to this show. Yes, a few broken appointments, and some miscommunications but on the whole, this was a positive and enhancing experience for both groups.

A portrait is made up of insights, which try to capture something of the sitter greater than a single view. It is not a complete record of the person, but can seek to leave a mystery to be contemplated. Ellstad's portrait of Mary-Catherine Ferguson is made up of 30 distinct individual photographs and gives us three versions seamlessly integrated into a compelling whole. Likewise, Crol, Fleener, Yuransky, and Stacy Smith are giving us faceted views of Naimeh Tahna, Gustaf Rooth, Kevin Freitas, and Patricia Smith.

The sheer physical beauty of Ann Berchtold, Victoria Hamilton, Constance White, Vas Prahbu, Mary Beebe, Jean Lowe, Felicia Shaw, Alexandra Rosa and Ellen Phelan as depicted by Roche, Connors, Bean, Greve, Scholz-Rittermann, Cervantes, des Rosiers, Roxx and Cohen should encourage us to look very closely at these works. Start by concentrating on the eyes, which we know are the windows to the soul. What are they seeing? Are they looking at the artist, beyond the artist or perhaps into their own superegos? Colis shuts the eyes of Liz Edwards but asks us to perform the same exercise with Liz's luscious lips. Matt D'Arrigo's closed eyes seem to be a moment of pure bliss captured by Mofo.

Torero who depicts Naomi Nussbaum and Rix in his portrait of April Game cast these women as goddesses while Wildesmith turns Catherine Sass into a superhero. They use symbols to represent a whole world of important concepts as does Jaeger when she ties strings around Robert Pincus's fingers. Tall's mountain of clay shows Sandra Chanis embracing the entire Oceanside Museum of Art. Lisa Smith's sculptural abstraction of Mario Torero captures perfectly the whirling dervish qualities of this volcano of a man. De Watteville brings all the fun of a dancing teapot cartoon to her celebration of Zandra Rhodes as a formidable and enticing opera and fashion designer. A circle is the perfect symbol for the perfect union of Nate and Ralyn Wolfstein as depicted by Snider and Brown.

Sometimes we are given additional clues to understand a personality in this show. Stacy Smith shows us the ArtsBusXpress that is such a big part of Patricia Smith's life. Ghilarducci and Bis-Sevon have literally set Laurie Brindle, Laura Groch, Pam Kragen, and Gary Warth in their North County offices as well as at play. Raul throws books and a death reminding skull into the mix with Larry and Debra Poteet. (She is another one of our beauties that can not be denied.) Other times it is the lack of clues that intrigues us as in Lisa's Smith photo of Steven Churchill.

Bonaimo rose to the challenge of this exhibition by producing a portrait in jewelry of a jewelry artist and she did so using the materials and techniques for which Arline Fisch is known. Portraits as jewelry has a tradition in lockets and cameos which makes this 21 century version so particularly exciting.

There is an incredible balance existing between Tina Yapelli and her dog in the work by Roberts. Roberts inspires us all to look as deep as humanly possible and then some. Leo (named after Leo Castelli) is the dog companion to Hugh Davies and we are privileged to see into the private life of this public man in Yoemans' masterwork. Try contrasting that work with the struggle Derrick Cartwright has to maintain his position while Greve seeks to reveal his private side.

But the public persona is in full view in the Trute, Camp, and Burton paintings of Dennis Batt, Jonathan Segal and Doug Simay. Here we see power at its fullest. Superegos that have attained a moral balance are contributing to society and are still able to indulge in the pleasures of the San Diego visual art scene.

Most good portraits are, in a way, portraits of the artist who create them. The best express a feeling about the human condition and have exceptional clarity. They reflect not only the subject but also something of the time and place. They advance the scope of art. We want to see a physical resemblance but we also need the intellectual and emotional aspects of the subject's personality revealed.

This show is not intended as a 'best of" survey. It is a sampling, instead, of many types of art honoring just a few of the VIPs in our art world both Movers and Shakers and artists.

Portrait Selection (Artist - Mover & Shaker)

Patricia Bean - Constance White (SD Airport)
Denise Bonaimo - Arline Fisch (master jewelry designer)
Stuart Burton - Doug Simay (collector/gallery Simayspace)
Dan Camp - Jonathan Segal (Jonathan Segal Architecture and Development)
Alida Cervantes - Jean Lowe (artist and lecturer UCSD)
Becky Cohen – Ellen Phelan (art activist and educator)
Cynthia Colis – Liz Edwards (Let’s Play Downtown)
Isaias Crow (Crol) – Naimeh Tahna (Studio Vivace Healing Arts)
Kevin Conners - Victoria Hamilton (Executive director SD City Art and Culture)
Mireille des Rosiers - Felicia Shaw (SD Foundation)
Irène de Watteville - Zandra Rhodes (International Fashion designer)
Raymond Ellstad - Mary-Catherine Ferguson (California Center for the Arts)
Mary Fleener – Gustaf Rooth (Ray at Night founder and galleriest)
Gerrit Greve - Derrick Cartwright (The Maruja Baldwin Director, SDMA) and Vas Prabhu (Deputy Director for Education and Interpretation, SDMA)
Dave Ghilarducci and Cindy Bis-Sevon - Laurie Brindle and NCT Art Editors Laura Groch, Pam Kragen, and Gary Warth ( North County Times)
Raul Guerrero - Larry Poteet (lawyer, SDAI board member, art collector and Debra Poteet collector and both honorary VIP host for SD Art Prize)
Pamela Jaeger - Robert Pincus (Art Critic, Union Tribune)
MOFO - Matt D’Arrigo (ARTS A Reason to Survive)
Aaron Rix - April Game ( San Diego Fine Art Society)
Gail Roberts - Tina Yapelli (SDSU Gallery)
Lisa Roche - Ann Berchtold (SanDiegoArtist.com. L-Street Gallery)
Jamie Roxx - Philly Joe Swendoza (Art Rocks!) and Alexandra Rosa (Art Rocks and RAW)
Philipp Scholz-Rittermann - Mary Beebe (Stuart Collection UCSD)
Lisa Smith - Mario Torero (Barrio Logan/East Village Art Association) and Steven Churchill (Art of Photography curator)
Stacy Smith - Patricia Smith (Art Expressions Gallery /ArtsBusXpress)
Doug Snider – Nate and Ralyn Wolfstein (Wolfstein Sculpture Garden, Scripps Hospital)
Cheryl Tall - Sandra Chanis (Outdoor Arts Foundation, Oceanside Museum of Art - President Board of Directors)
Mario Torero – Naomi Nussbaum (Synergy Arts foundation and the BL/EV project)
Jen Trute - Dennis Paul Batt (Museum Artists Foundation, SDVAG)
Sidney Wildesmith - Catherine Sass (Port of San Diego)
Jeff Yeomans - Hugh Davies (MOCA)
Jim Yuransky - Kevin Freitas (Art as Authority)

San Diego Visual Arts Network: SDVAN is a database of information produced to improve the clarity, accuracy and sophistication of discourse about San Diego's artistic and cultural life and is dedicated to the idea that the Visual Arts are a vital part of the health of our city. SDVAN hosts a free interactive directory and an events calendar covering all San Diego regions including Baja Norte with an opportunity section, gossip column and the SmART Collector feature to help take the mystery out of buying art. SDVAN is the proud non-profit sponsor of the SD Art Prize. This is the only site designed exclusively for the SAN DIEGO region and the VISUAL ARTS and is one of the most technically advanced sites of this kind in the country.

Art Expressions Gallery: Art Expressions Gallery provides personal service to both residential and corporate clients. The gallery features a vast selection of both traditional and contemporary art in a variety of media, as well as an extensive inventory of fine art photography. Art Expressions Gallery also offers on-site art and framing design consultation and art locating services with worldwide resources for the serious collector. Under the stewardship of Patricia Smith, who founded the gallery in 1984, Art Expressions Gallery represents emerging American artists who share a mastery of their medium. Patricia Smith established ArtBusExpress, a prgram that offers all school children in San Diego County free transportation to the arts. To date, this non-profit has provided rides to over 135,000 children.

San Diego Visual Artists Guild: SDVAG became an online representative for artists in the San Diego/Baja Norte region in Jan. of 2004. It evolved from the orginal San Diego Art Guild founded in 1915. It features images of well over 300 artists and links to hundreds of websites of the participating artists, museums, and art resources throughout the region. Also on the site is a comprehensive history of the Guild from 1910-1999.

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SDVAN is a project of the San Diego Synergy Arts Network (Public Charity 501 (c) 3 EIN #20-5910283).