SpoonFed Art

autumn sunburst

New! 
"Autumn Sunburst"... now available in the gallery...

the scoop!

Hi there!
SpoonFed Art is now available at
Scoop studios in Charleston, SC!
Scoop is a new gallery on Broad Street in beautiful, historic downtown Charleston... if you're in town stop by and take a look around - and please say hello to the gallery's lovely owners, Angel Powell + Colleen Deihl. 
This black and white photo (which I believe is infrared) is by Stewart Young and is available at Scoop...

"Bono Ferry Grotto"

...have a nice weekend!

birthday cake and a melody gin

Melody Gin - courtesy LA Times
Isn't it funny how you can go for days and days without a single interesting activity and then all of a sudden there's a massive deluge of stuff to do every night for weeks on end?!  Well that's what's been happening here lately, and I think it started with that trip to the opera... (wow, who knew a trip to the opera could do such a thing!)  There's way too much to detail here, so I'll just hit the highlights. After the opera, we spent several nights viewing films outdoors, 2 of which were at Hollywood Forever, where we picnicked and watched Hitchcock's "To Catch A Thief" one night and Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" the next... it was so much fun...

 

Grace Kelly & Cary Grant in "To Catch A Thief"
(as projected on an outdoor wall)
...and then the next thing I knew... it was my birthday!

On the big day I had lunch at Chateau Marmont, which is now sort of a tradition, followed by an exciting day filled with good friends and happy celebrations.  I did the LACMA art walk at the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Saturday where I met some really cool fellow artists and crafters, and had just an all around great day. And on Sunday, some friends threw me a birthday party... and what a party it was!  Actually, it was a party for me, but it was also a Dewanatron show (slash) magic act (slash) interactive post-it-note-art-experience, complete with champagne flavored cake. wow.  And the whole shindig was covered by NYLON and the LA Times...


Brian Dewan, Rob Zabrecky, Tim Maloney - courtesy LA Times
(and check out that spoon art!)

Me, Rebecca Tull - courtesy LA Times

Brian Dewan, Me, Leon Dewan - courtesy Mark Blackwell

Syd Lynch - courtesy LA Times

Lisa Bae & friend- courtesy LA Times

Cake! - courtesy LA Times
It's about now, I imagine, that you've started wondering about the Dewanatron... a remarkable invention that you need to experience in person to order to fully appreciate.  Since we can't really do that here, I've posted the Times article below, which describes its
eloquence and uniqueness quite nicely.

Continuing the fun, the next day we had a SpoonFed Art photo shoot, so look for some new photos with a lovely new model and a new website design, all coming soon.  And to wrap up the extended SpoonFed Art/birthday/Dewanatron weekend, we watched "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey", an interesting little documentary about the inventor of the first electronic synthesiser instrument...



Last week was full of great adventures too, including an enchanting evening of magic and cabaret with my friend Rob Zabrecky, Handsome Jack, Derek DelGaudio and the incredibly lovely and talented Lindsay Benner.  It was my first time seeing Lindsay, and I was thoroughly thrilled... she was amazing. 
I was also lucky enough to be invited to a little comedy club located in an alley in Santa Moncia where I saw my friend
(and former SpoonFed Art model) Pamela Walt perform stand-up for the very first time... and she was great!  It most definitely takes talent and lots of guts to do stand-up, and Pamela has both - (way to go Pam!!!)

And so, after all of that, the NYLON Magazine party is tonight in Hollywood.  And there's even more coming up this week.  Whew... when it rains, it pours! 
 
 
*Shine on, Dewanatron*

By Dean Kuipers, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 1, 2009

If you've got a melody gin, it only takes two little musical tones to make a song, a really good party, or even a strange and ever-changing career as a musician. Sunday night at Ghettogloss gallery in Silver Lake, the duo known as Dewanatron made a rare appearance with their handmade instruments, pulled together a bunch of L.A.-based musicians and a birthday cake, and left the local hip-oisie gaping in wonder.

"Much like a cotton gin weaves together strands to make cloth, the melody gin weaves together a melody," explained Leon Dewan in between sets. One half of Dewanatron, Leon makes the "guts" of their handmade analogue electronic instruments, while his cousin Brian Dewan makes the cabinets. Leon's father was an inventor and worked with high-voltage equipment. "It's better to work with low-voltage, solid-state parts," nodded Leon, "and not risk death every day."

The Dewans' melody gins come in various sizes and shapes – some, like the Dual Primate Console, are too big to transport easily. Others are gallery installations or meant to hang on walls, where they generate tones on their own. Leon explained that the particular gin he was playing that night, which was about the size of an old reel-to-reel tape machine, generated sets of two toggling tones – up to sixteen total – that could then be modified with banks of knobs and dampening keys.

At full roar, the Dewanatron experience howled and warbled with demented mid-1960s fervor, all simple rhythms laced up with complex and freakish electronic wails, a retrofuturistic journey to the reinvention of the synthesizer.

The Dewans were joined by screenwriter Mark Blackwell on guitar; filmmaker Paul Yates on his own Dewan-built melody gin; bassist Jim Robbins; Drivin' n Cryin' drummer Jeff Sullivan; Tim Maloney on incidental violin, trumpet and guitar; plus other folks on electric dulcimers and found percussion, and Tommy Jordan banging spoons all over the place.

Spoons, in fact, were the motif of the evening, with silver spoons arranged on the walls, as the night also celebrated the birthday of Spoonfed Art proprietor Karin Collins. Her jewelry, based on spoons (www.spoonfedart.com), has been featured in about a zillion publications including Nylon, Health, Jane and L.A. Weekly, and is available at the Ghettogloss boutique.

Magician Rob Zabrecky, formerly in Silver Lake band Possum Dixon, even kicked the night off with a card trick and some illusions. Which were really good and worked even in lights so dim you could hardly see. What more do you want from a Sunday night?

celestial ash

I went by the Craft and Folk Art Museum shop today to drop off some inventory and ended-up walking through the current exhibit, "Celestial Ash: Assemblages of Los Angeles."  The show was inspired by Joseph Cornell's etherial shadow boxes,and included work by Exene Cervenka, Gail Greenfield Randall, Matjames Metson, and Michael C. McMillen.  I'd seen a show of Exene's work last year at the Western Project in Culver City, which included her collage work and journals from her days touring with X... her journals were what I remember most from the show... they seemed more personal that the collages and are really part of music history.  My favorite piece from Celestial Ash though was actually by Matjames... it was a large multi-level house-like box with lots of doors and windows... there were interesting details created from rulers, pencils and string... I wish I had a photo to share but like most shadow boxes, to get the full effect you really need to see it
in person...
and a great chance to do that is during the LACMA ArtWalk!

Yep, it's on Saturday, May 30th and takes place on Wilshire Blvd. between Fairfax and La Brea.  Four Museums will be offering free admission and more than thirty galleries will be participating in a self-guided tour... restaurants throughout the area will be joining in the fun too by offering specials & discounts - and there's even an after party at the El Rey Theater!

I'll be in the Craft and Folk Art Museum courtyard with 15 other local vendors, offering the best in handcrafted, fair-trade, and artisan-produced items so stop by...
(all the details are above...)

there will be A LOT to see!

silver lining

Hello!
The long weekend is officially over, and even though Unique wasn't what I expected, all in all it was great fun!
I met some amazing artists and designers, sold a necklace to a lovely girl who had been wanting a SpoonFed Art pendant ever since she first saw them in a magazine
3 years ago...
and I even saw Jimmy Kimmel scurry past my booth. 
(btw, thank you Mr. Kimmel for that Depeche Mode show on Hollywood Blvd. last week - or was it the week before -
either way, wow!) 
I think the most fun was seeing people's faces when I told them that the pendants were spoons...
even the most introverted perusers lit up light fireflies!
And a big huge thank you to my friends... especially Mark and Tommi... I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have
such amazing & supportive friends!  Really, over and above...
Stay tuned for photos...
have a great week!
Edit: so here are a couple of photos from the show... they're not great, but at least you'll get an idea of the set up...
(and hey, how about that sign made of spoons!!)
  click to enlarge

Unique Los Angeles!

Hi everyone!
Unique LA starts today, so stop by if you can... there will be some really amazing independent artists and designers, a photobooth, a dj, giveaways, food, drinks, cupcakes and more!

(from Daily Candy's LA Weekend Guide:)
Unique Los Angeles

What: More than 275 indie designers, craftsters, and handiworkers come together for two days of sales, snacks, DIY sessions, and more
Why: One of a kind
When: Sat., 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: California Market Center Penthouse, 110 E. Ninth St.
at S. Main St., Downtown

Have a great weekend!

unghosting (momentarily)...

...to give a nod to Earth Day and
to share another re-worked piece!
My week has been good so far, and I'm happy to say that even though I've been burning the midnight oil,
I haven't been a total recluse! 
I stopped by an opening at Ghettogloss - a mixed-media group show - and even though the "secret" pre-Coachella
My Bloody Valentine show was an ear-splitting bust, I did make it to U2charist, a communion service accompanied by U2 cover songs.  It took place at St. John's Episcopal Church downtown, and Pavel Sfera, a professional Bono impersonator
(and friend!), and his band performed the songs... lots of fun and very uplifting.  At one point, I closed my eyes and decided that it didn't matter who was making the music or where we were, it was just a really nice experience.  When I first got the invitation I thought "only in LA" but apparently, these services started in Maryland in 2004 as a call to rally around the Millennium Development Goals...very cool. 


(The beautiful St. John's Episcopal Church, Los Angeles)

Incidentally, one of the 8 MDGs involves integrating the principles of sustainable development and
reversing the loss of environmental resources...
(whew...I knew this post would eventually get around to having something to do with Earth Day!)
So it's back to work for me...
take care and happy Earth Day!

cherry, sichuan, ...van damme?

 

Hi!
I've been working on a project for a stylist for the last two weeks, but it's all finished up now and I'm ready to get back in the swing of things!  It's actually been a fun couple of weeks -
I had Sichuan food for the first time (prickly-ash, wow!),
we went to the Sam Cherry opening and saw his life's work (Bukowski, Black Cat, Skid Row), and (last but not least,)
I saw a strangely surprising film, JCVD.  
Never thought I'd be commenting on a Jean-Claude
Van Damme movie, but this little Belgian film is
pretty unique.  He plays himself, and you get a glimpse of what it might be like to be Jean-Claude Van Damme...
something I've never (even remotely) thought of. 
His soliloquy towards the end is revealing and seems so personal and real... if you have a spare evening,
it's really worth checking out... (really!)

I may be returning to ghost mode temporarily over the next couple of weeks... Unique is just around the corner, and I've been re-working some designs, like the one above... 
and gosh there's lots to do before the first of May!

Hope spring has sprung at your house and all is well...
see you soon!

a hodgepodge of deliciousness

It's overcast today, and a little bit chilly...
so when I started to think about lunch, all I could think about was soup!
And gee whiz, you can't have tomato (basil) soup without
(a heart-shaped) grilled cheese, can you?!

I also wanted to share some really great news!!~
I found out late Tuesday that I'll be at the
Spring Unique LA show on May 2nd & 3rd!

(details to follow...)
enjoy your afternoon!

a new shop! (... and a recap)

Hi there and hello! 
Sorry to have been so scarce lately...
I've had a friend visiting from out of town, and it's always
challenging to find a balance when there's so much going on. 
But I'm happy to report that we had a super fun visit and also...
Spoonfed Art is in a new shop! 
You can now purchase SpoonFed Art at
Hunter Lea Gallery in Vermont...
isn't it charming?!



It was great having my friend in town, and we managed to fit a lot of fun activities and some really good talks into the few days she was here.  The best parts for me were our trips to The Museum of Jurassic Technology and the Magic Castle...
and our drive up the coast to spend the day at the beach with Astrid (and our delicious lunch at Malibu Seafood on the way back home!)  Yesterday morning we got up early and drove up to Griffith Park Observatory... it was such a beautiful day, sunny and cool and breezy...
I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to be spending such a great day with one of my favorite friends -
lucky indeed!