Weekend Watch- Robert Altman’s “3 Women”

 Art, Artists, Films, Video and Film
Aug 122024
 

After hearing the sad news of Shelley Duvall’s passing, I decided to watch a few films from her filmography and started with 3 Women, released in 1977. Based on a dream writer/director Robert Altman had, the film follows Duvall and Sissy Spacek as their lives and identities intertwine in the California desert. Later a third woman played by Janice Rule, becomes more important in the pair’s world.

Using reflections, water, mirrors, mirrored actions, and twins, Altman creates a mysterious space for these women to inhabit. Adding to the unsettling energy of the film are a series of murals created by artist Bodhi Wind (Charles Kuklis).

It’s definitely worth a watch, with an ambiguous ending that has been subject to many interpretations.

 

 

California Art Flashback-Jessie Homer French at Palm Springs Art Museum

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Collage, Conceptual Art, Fiber Arts, Los Angeles Art Shows, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Palm Springs, Sculptors / Sculpture
Aug 022024
 

The above image is of Jessie Homer French’s  Mapestry California 2012, 2012 (fabric, thread, fabric paint, and pen), which was on view in 2018 at Palm Springs Art Museum.

From the museum about the work-

This work is from a series of “mapestries” that the artist made between 2012-2017. These textile works graphically map out natural elements and forces in California, from prominent flora and fauna, natural monuments and mountain ranges, as well as hidden fault lines that spur the earthquakes that constantly threaten the region and its inhabitants. The work reflects the artist’s hyperawareness of the environment around her. Their flat, graphic qualities are similar in form to the artist’s paintings. The mapestries were made specifically for Californians, as artworks that could do no harm hanging over one’s bed in case of an earthquake.

One of her paintings is currently part of the benefit exhibition Art for a Safe and Healthy California at Gagosian Beverly Hills. The exhibition, presented by Jane Fonda, along with the gallery, is raising money to protect communities from toxic oil drilling.

California Artist- Eva Slater at Palm Springs Art Museum

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Palm Springs
Jul 262024
 

This beautiful painting, San Jacinto Mountains, was created in 1960 by Eva Slater. It is currently on view at the Palm Springs Museum of Art. You can also see her study for the painting on view as part of the exhibition A Shadow Set Free.

California Desert Art has more information on the artist as well as an image of the study.

From the museum about the work-

Eva Slater’s painting, San Jacinto Mountains, conveys the majesty and mystery of the mountain range that dominates the western boundary of the Coachella Valley. Its clean lines, broad areas of rich color, flat simplified forms, and well-defined edges are characteristic of the California Hard-Edge style of painting that Slater helped to establish. However, the delicate triangles that flow throughout the composition are a unique contribution to this movement. Slater described these forms as “cells” that functioned much like the cells in our body. Each triangular “cell” is stretched and molded to conform to the contours of the layered mountain peaks, and the subtle color changes create a sense of atmosphere and depth.