• • • • • GOGALLERY • • • • •

Ventura Gallery Crawl

I spent the day distributing postcards around Ventura for Carina’s Dec 15 show. She and I had mapped out where we were hit the other day, and I had staked out downtown Ventura as my territory. Despite having been outright shunned by a couple of folks earlier in the week for even asking to put a post card in their gallery, today’s trip turned out to be a very positive and inspiring experience.

The first stop was at Sassy Sally’s on Main St., which is always a good stop to make. Sassy Sally’s is by far the coolest store in Ventura, boasting a sweet collection of reasonably priced one-of-a-kind clothing. While chatting with Lindsey, the proprietor of Sassy Sally’s, I spied a super hip collection of silk screened patterned cotton scarves made by Ventura’s owned Mia Bortolussi. They sold for about $25 - $30. Pretty cool. If I was in the market for a feminine floral scarf, I’d be all over it. In any case, I’d highly recommend to anyone to shop there. myspace.com/sassysallys

Next, I walked a couple of doors down to Accolades Gallery were I had the opportunity of seeing Joe Cardella’s Art Life Magazines. Art Life is or was a hand made magazine done in very short runs of up to 250. Each page was done by different artists from all over and the magazine was assembled by Mr. Cardella. An amazing labor of love. Despite his magazine having been in The Guggenheim Museum, Mr. Cardella had only one subscriber in his home base of Ventura. I’d never been to the Accolades before, and after mentioning this to Rene, the owner, I was soundly ridiculed by her. She took a few post card off my hands and told me GoGallery is cool even if it is in Fillmore. http://accolades-gallery.com

Lastly, I rolled down to Artist Union Gallery down at the end of California St. Walking in, I was greeted by a group of 8′ paper mâché figures. Being a staunch advocate of cheap materials such as paper mâché, I was certainly impressed, especially with the folksy-looking sculptures of Joseph Palmoujtsos. His most striking was a figure of an old man looking at his pocket watch, entitled “Timekeeper”, followed by a piece depicting a vested man smoking Lucky Strikes. The show is described as being “an invitational outreach exhibit for artists who might not otherwise be able to showcase their artwork.” My only response is ,”Right on.” Overall, this is some of the most inspiring work I’ve seen since I moved down here from Oakland last year. I’d highly recommend seeing both of these shows. As far as I know, The Artist’s Union doesn’t have a website, but I found a blog for them here: http://venturaartistsunionblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/artists-union-gallery-committee.html

Jeremy

CORRECTION 12/21: Ventura Artist’s Union does have a web site that can be found Here: http://www.venturaartistsunion.org/