An active participant in the Art and Shelter program since the beginning, Dan Callis has been the point of contact for many artists who have filled the empty walls of our housing programs. Professor of Art at Biola University, Dan is a prolific painter and curator. In the last year, Dan has organized a series of exhibitions by local painters in multiple venues, building awareness in the community of an evolving group of artists.

He recently mounted a solo exhibition at Bunny Gunner in Pomona. At the end of a sabbatical and recent residency in Barcelona Spain, Callis’s work is emerging from the studio with fresh energy and a complex layering of composition and meaning. The work reflects an appreciation for the dynamics of the material, from the board the paintings is built on top of to the way layers interact across straight lines, curves, drips, and splats. The rawness of the work brings to mind the unconscious layering of abstraction that heavily gratified walls conjure over time.

The work of Dan Callis is a good reminder of the unfolding potential of abstract work to train our eyes to see more clearly the complexity of our visual environment. Though many people pass on the assumed simplicity of abstraction, the time spent with this type of work translates into a contemplative depth that helps us develop spiritual practices toward greater maturity as individual people. The work of Dan Callis is a form of art that we should live, pray, and brood over as we seek a deeper understanding of who we are in this frustratingly beautiful and tragic world.

“Kin”, an exhibition of photographs that explore the dynamics of home and family, opened at the Art and Shelter gallery in November. On view through January, the collection of photographs gives the viewer the meditative opportunity to explore the visual breadth of family life.

Mud Struggle, by Kurt Simonson, is an intimate and dirty peek into the unfettered lives of children in the North Woods of our country. A classic composition of children playing in the mud, all work and play as the children search the surface and below for lost treasures or some unknown object of interest. For a photographer, the amazing composition of figures represents the rare moment of opportunity. Beyond its beauty, the image also invites us to participate in the moment, leaving the viewer checking their shoes for traces of mud.

The photograph comes from a larger body of work entitled North Woods Journal, a collection of quirky and visually rich images that explore Kurt Simonson’s family life. Combined, the photographs tell a story of a photographer (and California transplant) looking deeply at the unique flavor of his heritage and using the photographic image to bring sharp splendor and a little nostalgia to an experience history is likely to gently let go.

Art and Shelter will be hosting The Sketchbook Project: Library April 4 to April 11, 2010. The Sketchbook Project is organized by Art House Coop in Atlanta Georgia.

Background

Sketchbooks offers a glimpse into an artist’s life, which is why we want to make a publicly accessible library of sketchbooks that people can browse, peruse, and check out.

We think that this sketchbook collection has the potential to open a new line of communication between the artist and the viewer, since the experience of making and viewing are both so personal. Anyone can sign up to receive a sketchbook. Before joining our permanent collection, sketchbooks will be exhibited at select galleries across the US.

Project Goal

The library will house thousands of sketchbooks from artists that reside all over the globe. We’ll be touring around the United States with the collection starting in April, followed by a permanent location for the library in 2010

A Permanent Collection

Your sketchbook will become part of our permanent library. Sign up receive a blank sketchbook marked with a barcode that links it to a searchable database. When you send your completed book back to us, it will be included in the library. Future library patrons will be able to browse books alphabetically, by location, theme, etc.

A Brief History

Currently in it’s fourth incarnation, The Sketchbook Project exhibited in October of 2007 with 500 artists participating from around the world. For Volume 3, the The Sketchbook Project toured to 9 different galleries and venues around the East Coast, connecting almost 3,000 artists together through the project.

Kin, a group photography exhibition, opens on November 7th 2009. The night begins with a dinner discussion at 6pm followed by an opening reception at 7pm.

The dinner discussion and opening reception will be held at The Salvation Army Alegria, located at 2737 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90026.

This show was designed to give us entry into thirteen artists’ individual experiences with home and family, and to create a starting point for conversation about the most important relationships and geography of our lives. What makes up a family, and what makes up a home? How can one even begin to define such things in a complex contemporary culture, especially in a city like Los Angeles? The hardships that many of us face within our families and homes often cloud our sense of hope… however, the word “kin” is an ancient one, and one that reminds us that family is an essential, and even sacred, part of our identity. No matter what form it may take, one cannot live a life of wholeness or shalom without a sense of place, a sense of belonging… a sense of being loved and learning to love in return.

Some of the artists in this show give us glimpses into personal and interior spaces of home and family by letting us look into bedrooms and kitchens, and by showing us treasured objects that belonged to loved ones. Other artists explore the interactions of family members through staged or frozen moments, or by literally piecing together their identity from places that have been home at one time. And still other artists choose to simply present their loved ones before us, before their cameras, to allow us an opportunity to have a taste of the same intimate interaction with these people that they did while photographing them

Exhibition Booklet

Photographers participating in Kin include

Amy Cano
Justin Craft
David Ditman
Charity Highley
Louie Huesmann
Seth M Johnson
Linnea LeBreton
Rita Lombardi
Jeff Rau
Bethany Rodriquez
Kurt Simonson
Rebecca Tenpenny
Angi Welsch

An exhibition of paintings in conjunction with Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition’s 10K Art Walk on September 26th from 1pm to 6pm. The exhibition includes work by Timothy McMullen and Jonathan Apgar.

Blood and Fire, a Sheetrock Project by Rex Hausmann. With DJ set by Mickey House. Curated by Samuel W. Kho.

In the Silver Lake community of Los Angeles, The Salvation Army’s Alegria – a transitional housing program for homeless families affected by HIV and AIDS – is also home to a unique “Art and Shelter” series, displaying high end art on the walls of this social service facility.

“Original art is a simple enhancement of what we do here,” said Paul Hebblethwaite, Executive Director at Alegria. “It says to someone that you’re special enough to have something rich. A high design environment pampers the consumer – we’ve translated that same experience to homeless services.”

The mission of this innovative program is to expand contemporary art awareness while enriching the social services environment.

“The harsh reality of the art makert is that it validates a small number of artists and relegates the rest to the hallway closet – where does the unsold art end up?” Hebblethwaite wrote in his blog on conversantlife.com. “My only conclusion is that this system results in a tragic absence of art in contemporary life, with art divided between walls of the art establishment and the darkness of an artist’s closet (or worse, a landfill).”

Hebblethwaite said he believes that environment should reflect perspective.

“People live up to their environments,” he said. “If they live in a nice place, that carries expectations and they’re less willing to compromise.”

A visual language

When Hebblethwaite assumed responsibility as Executive Director at Alegria in September 2007, he instituted changes in the facility’s aesthetics – toned down wall colors, painted visible pipes white instead of bright colors, and installed accentuating lighting in the hallways – to give the space a more home-like feel. He also filled the bare walls.

Hebblethwaite began Art and Shelter to display professional art at Alegria in January 2008. “Art is a visual language – an ever-changing and expanding form of communication,” Hebblethwaite said. “With art you can explore divergent issues and ideas; art addresses the issues in society that we want to ignore.”

He said the displays have allowed the staff at Alegria opportunities for conversation – object lessons with residents that relate to their life situations.

A role in the healing process

The fourth exhibit, “Remembrances” by Jonathan Puls, concluded in January 2009. Puls’s portraits and paintings focused on small moments of his family memories, which are his “most intimate and restorative works.”

“I was excited to have my work in this space because it is an unconventional and experimental idea to combine the language and culture of ‘high art’ with a facility that is dedicated to meeting immediate needs in the community,” Puls said. “On a more fundamental level, it makes a statement that art can play an integral role in the healing process within individuals and communities. These are beliefs I hold very deeply, that both in the process of making and seeing, art can be a healing and restorative agent.”

The first exhibit at Alegria, “Universal Terrains,” featured abstract art by Raymond Berrellez with a multitude of color and texture. The second showcase contained abstract and urban graffiti paintings from a group of 17 artists. The third display featured photography by Tatiana Cardeal of a 22-story abandoned clothing factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where 468 homeless families live. A preview of each exhibition can be viewed online at artandshelter.org.

Enriching social services

The opening reception for the fifth exhibit, “The Stillness Within,” is scheduled for March 28, 2009. In an effort to connect the local community and Alegria, it will feature photographs by John Marshall High School’s photojournalism students, who aimed to capture the stillness within a person in a photograph. The images are raw art – no artificial lighting, retouching, or digital reworking were used.

This exhibit will be on display from March 28 to April 30, 2009.

Hebblethwaite has encouraged other Executive Directors to exhibit art in their facilities. One painting is on display at Southern California’s Bell Shelter and another at the nearby Zahn Emergency Shelter. He hopes to keep collecting artwork to further enrich the environment of social services in The Salvation Army.

“Art is about finding places where the stories you are concerned about resonate with others,” Puls said. “I hope a bit of that happens here.”.