Stephen Fitz-Gerald's 'Industrial Tropic'

Readers have been sharing their opinions with me recently about large outdoor sculptures to be seen around Sonoma County.

And now we have a new one to talk about.

Stephen Fitz-Gerald’s new 12-foot-high steel sculpture, “Industrial Tropic,” commissioned by the Martin family of Pine Creek Properties, has been installed on Piner Road near Industrial Drive in Santa Rosa.

“I was challenged in that they wanted the banana leaf as the motif, because the name of the shopping center will be Palm Square, and also that the piece would ultimately be painted,” Fitz-Gerald said.

“Both of these challenges took me somewhat out of my comfort zone, but I have only grown in the past artistically when this has happened, so I ultimately embraced the project,” he continued.

Fitz-Gerald did the design and fabrication, and the Martin family handled the base platform and the high-tech paint job.

If the Rohnert Park-based sculptor’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s been the county for 30 years. You may have seen his “Sea Spiral Fountain” at Memorial Hospital, or his “Trione Sculpture Fountains”‘ at Third and D streets in downtown Santa Rosa.

The “Industrial Tropic” project was financed by the Santa Rosa Arts District ordinance, passed last year, which funds new public art by taxing one percent of the budget for all commercial projects that exceed $500,000 in building cost.

In the past, sculptors have seen great potential sites for art around town, but have been unable to come up with the funding, Fitz-Gerald said.

“Now that there’s this new ordinance, it’s quite possible that it will change the face of Santa Rosa in a very short time,”  he added.

What do you say to that, fans (or foes) of public art?

Sculptor Bruce Johnson at lower right, with assistant Genaro Gutierrez at center. Photo by Philip Barlow.

One of my father’s favorite jokes was to take a cliche and turn it upside-down:

“Everybody’s crazy except you and me, and sometimes I’m not so sure about me.”

Or: “Things will get worse before they get worse.”

Or, appropriate to today’s topic: “I know a lot about art, but I don’t know what I like.”

In the past week or so, readers of this blog have participated in a loose, ongoing discussion of public art.

Readers gave mixed reviews to the whimsical work of sculptor Robert Ellison, including “Donut Diorama” at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts and “Renaissance,” the giant scissors at Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square.

Support remains strong for the statues of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” characters — Charlie Brown, Woodstock and Snoopy — scattered around Santa Rosa, especially with 30 new Lucy statues coming this summer.

And several people mentioned the Sculpture Grove at Santa Rosa’s Paradise Ridge Winery, and particularly the huge redwood sculptures of Bruce Johnson, whose current show, “Uprooted,” runs through April at the winery.

Johnson used roots, logs and copper boulders to create 11 new sculptures with titles like “Outburst,” “Rock Slide,” “Eko” and “Ion.”

Go out and take a look, at 4545 Thomas Lake Harris Drive, Santa Rosa. Information: www.formandenergy.com/uprooted, 528-9463.

Any thoughts on Johnson’s work? Or suggest some other public art somewhere in Sonoma County, and we’ll try to dig up a picture, and start a new round of comments.

In early 1990, Ren Brown and Robert DeVee moved from Berkeley and opened the doors to their new gallery, the Ren Brown Collection, in Bodega Bay.

For 20 years, the gallery has been one of the few in the United States specializing in contemporary Japanese prints.

The gallery’s first group show exhibited the work of some of Japan’s most renown printmakers, including Mayumi Oda, who was then living in California.

On Thursday, March 11, the Ren Brown Collection will open the “Twentieth Anniversary Exhibit:  Mayumi Oda — Feminine Buddhas.”  There will be a celebration and reception with the artist from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 13. The show will run until April 18.

Mayumi Oda’s art combines her devotion to Zen Buddhism with a strong activist and feminine view of life.  After living in Muir Beach for years, she now lives on the big island of Hawaii.  This show will include silkscreens and etchings from the last 40 years, as well as some drawings and banner paintings.

The Ren Brown Collection  is at 1781 N. Highway 1, Bodega Bay, CA.   Gallery hours are 10 a.m.  to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; closed Monday and Tuesday. Information: (707) 875-2922, www.renbrown.com

People really seem to like those “Peanuts” character statues scattered around Santa Rosa.

“I enjoy seeing the Charlie Brown statues everywhere, each with their respective theme connecting them to whatever business or dwelling they sit outside of;  it lends itself to whimsy and fun, and also highlight the connection Sonoma County has to Charles Schulz and his life’s work,” one reader wrote.

Charlies on parade, before they were auctioned off five years ago. (Photo by Scott Manchester.)

Several others said essentially the same thing. Previously, I had tried to test the public mood about the statues, now they’ve been standing around for a few years, and didn’t get much response. I figured maybe we’d just all gotten used to them.

Now that we’re scheduled to get 30 new Lucy statues, to be decorated by local artists this summer, maybe now is the time to talk about Charlie Browns, Woodstocks and Snoopys we’ve already got. Send me your comments, plus photos of the ones you love the most, or least. (My email is dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.)

For those who weren’t here then, or don’t remember, here’s a brief history of the Peanuts statue project:

2005 ” During the kickoff summer, titled “It’s Your Town, Charlie Brown,” 55 round-headed Charlie Brown statues greeted locals and tourists alike from street corners and sidewalks all over town. The Santa Rosa Visitors and Convention Bureau officials estimated tourist traffic nearly doubled, from 15,000 in 2004 to 27,000.

2006 ” The city made bird-watchers of us all, as sponsors and artists set up 76 Woodstocks ” each nested in his own polyurethane tree and individually decorated.

2007 ” For “Joe Cool Summer,” the third and final year of the city’s “Peanuts on Parade” promotion, local artists decorated 95 statues of Snoopy in his persona as big dog on campus, shades and all.

That was it, until the announcement of the Lucy project this year.

Footnote: For those who don’t know,  “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz moved his family to Sonoma County in 1958, settling first in Sebastopol and later Santa Rosa, where he died in 2000 after writing and drawing the comic strip for nearly 50 years.

Stayed tuned for details of a contest in which there are no prizes, just a great chance to vent. But first, this message:

Not all art hangs on a wall.  Some gets right in your face. Every day.

The beauty of  public art is it reaches everybody. The drawback is that people see it whether they want to or not.

“Everybody’s got an opinion. It’s so subjective,” Sonoma Mountain sculptor Robert Ellison said recently.

That’s his “Donut Diorama” shown above. It’s at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, where he has several pieces.  You’ve probably also seen his “Renaissance,” the giant steel scissors at Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square.

“People like that one, because they can understand it,” Ellison said. “You’d be surprised. People get offended by sculptures just because they’re not a horse with a rider on it.”

Agree or disagree?

OK. Here comes the contest part. Tell me what public art around Sonoma County you love, or hate, and tell me why. Send me pictures, and I’ll post some. (Send to dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.)

But let’s not just pick on Ellison, who happens to be a very nice guy. How do you feel about Bruce Johnson’s big redwood sculptures out at Paradise Ridge Winery, or the Charlie Brown and Snoopy statues scattered all over the place? (The latest word is Lucy statues are coming this summer.)

If you’re walking in the park, or running an errand at a public building, and you see a sculpture that pleases or annoys you, take a picture on your phone and send it to me. I’d like to run them as long as they last.

Comment here, or to my email, or both.

“Sideshow: Art of the Handcar Regatta” opens with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m.  Thursday, March 4, and runs through April 4 at the Sonoma State University Art Gallery on the Rohnert Park campus, 1801 E. Cotati Ave.

The exhibition will feature some of the eccentric festival’s artistically crafted handcars, costumes, banners, paintings, sculptures and various ephemera.

Participating artists include Todd Barricklow, David Farish, Andy Graham, Theresa Hughes, Muir Houghton, Frey Marcelis, Gene McClelland, C.D. Payne, Tony Speirs, Krank-Boom-Clank and more.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free. Information: 664-2295.

The third annual Handcar Regatta, with improbably designed and decorated contraptions riding the rails at Railroad Square, is scheduled for Sept. 26.

'Upstage" by Kathleen Youngquist

If you love oil paintings and crave something a bit different, here’s a tip:

The Quicksilver Mine Co. in Forestville will open “Upstage,” a one-woman exhibition of recent work by Kathleen Youngquist, on Friday, March 5.

The gallery will host reception for the artist from 4 to 6 p.m.  Saturday, March 6. The exhibition ends April 11.

Younquist’s figurative oil paintings capture imagined emotions and fantasies, frozen in the moment.

“In my paintings, I question and continue to be fascinated with the tension between beauty, humor and the potential uneasiness inherent in human interaction,” she said in a notice announcing the show. “Dance is also a recurring theme in my work, whether on a stage or a dance floor, in a café, under turquoise water, in an amusement park, or on a high wire in a circus arena.”

Maintaining a studio in Graton, Younquist studied art in California, New York, France and Texas, and holds a bachelor’s degree in ceramic and a master of fine arts degree in in painting. Younquist teaches drawing at Santa Rosa Junior College.

Her recent exhibitions include a show at the Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery, and juried shows at the Arts Council of Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Long Beach Arts and Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, Ore. Her work also is in the SFMOMA Artists’ Gallery in San Francisco.

Visit the Quicksilver Mine Co. at 6671 Front St. (Highway 116) in Forestville.  Gallery hours are 11 am. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Monday.  Information: (707) 887-0799,  www.quicksilvermineco.com.

Maynard Dixon's 'Traveling Storm,' 1937

Painter Maynard Dixon,  famed for his evocative scenes from the American Southwest, died in 1946, but his reputation and influence have grown significantly since then.

In recent years, interest in Dixon’s art has risen to new heights, prompted by four books about the painter, three major exhibitions and an award-winning, feature-length documentary film.

His work features the landscapes of Arizona, Utah and Nevada,  with images of deserts, cliffs, mountains, clouds, cowboys and native Americans.

Local art lovers can take a close look at the artist’s paintings at the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, where the new exhibition, “Space, Silence, Spirit: Maynard Dixon’s West,” opens Sunday, Feb. 28, and runs through June 20.

At 2 p.m. Sunday,  Abe Hays, the collector who loaned the paintings being shown in this exhibition, will give a free slide presentation on Dixon’s life and art.

The exhibit also includes photographs of Maynard Dixon by photographer Dorothea Lange.

The museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays at 431 S. Main St., Ukiah. Admission: $3-$4; $10 per family. Information: (707) 467-2836, gracehudsonmuseum.org.

He sat alone on the playground at lunchtime, choking down his peanut butter sandwich and wishing he had the courage to speak to her.

Alas, his ardor went unrecognized and unrequited, but we all cherish a tragic love story.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Sunday, Feb. 14, by offering free admission to all red-headed women, little or not.

The museum is located at 2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.

Regular admission is $10; $5 for children age 4 to 18, students with valid ID card and seniors over 62. Free for age 3 and younger.

For more information: www.SchulzMuseum.org.

Evidently told at some point to mind their own beeswax, some Northern California artists have come up with impressive results, working with wax to master a technique known as encaustic painting.

A new exhibit showcasing their efforts, ‘Working with Wax: Contemporary Encaustic Painting in Northern California,’ curated by Thomas Morphis, opens with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. today (Thursday, Jan. 21) at the Santa Rosa Junior College Art Gallery. The show continues until March 6.

Artists featured include Tracey Adams, Mary Black, Emily Clawson, Robin Denevan, Eileen Goldenberg, Howard Hersh, Lisa Kairos, Julie Nelson, Mark Perlman, Carrie Ann Plank and Eleanor Wood.

One of the artists, Mark Perlman, will give a talk on encaustic painting from noon to 1:30 p.m.  in Newman Auditorium, Emeritus Hall, at the Elliot Avenue end of the SRJC campus.

Another of the artists, Mary Black, will conduct a demonstration of the technique from 1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 4 in the Art Gallery, located on the first floor of the Frank P. Doyle Library on the main SRJC campus, 1501 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Information: 527-4298, santarosa.edu/art-gallery.