Karyn and Her Major Arcana

Local artist Karyn Crisis has a whole new body of works based on The Major Arcana, a suit of 22 cards in the tarot deck. From the looks of the show announcement and the progress shots (below)-  it will be a fierce body of work. The show is at Sacred Rose Tattoo's gallery - SR2 in Berkeley and it opens on Oct. 1st, just in time for our much loved haunting season. The opening reception is from 6-9 PM and the exhibition will be up until Nov. 1st. See you all there!

From Karyn's blog:

 "I've found that in learning about Tarot, there are cards which have been misread by people no matter what time period they are speaking to or being used in. So with my deck, I would say my clairvoyance is taking me to the core of each card. Here is where, in updated symbolism (or symbolism that speaks to me and my inner language) I am "updating" cards with codes that carry the information in a way that speaks to me the story."

"Hello, Tomorrow" at The Hazel Wolf Gallery in Berkeley

Not being able to make the opening of Hello, Tomorrow, we stopped into the Hazel Wolf Gallery this week. The exhibition contains works which comment on the state of our world - either environmentally, politically or socially. 

The Brower Center asked Bay Area artists to respond to David Brower’s quote: “Have a good time saving the world. Otherwise, you’re just going to depress yourself.” 

We were very impressed by a number of works, especially the above piece by Michael Kerbow, Their Refinement of the Decline. 

Mark Bryan's Mad Tea Part Duh was a joy to view as well, everybody's in there!

Michelle Water's Global Warning was not new to us but certainly great to see again.

Jeff Long's Farallon is a large and spectacular avian watercolor.

And Anthony Holdsworth's SF garden scene was gorgeous - full of saturated colors and shadows.

Ruth Santee's machine-bug-beetle in pen and ink was wonderful.

There were a number of other pieces (all below), more conceptual, abstract as well as traditional, many mediums and styles. A pretty good view - if you are in the hood, of downtown Berkeley, stop in to see it. The show will be up until Sept. 2nd, 2011.

Artists include: Mari Andrews · Timothy Armstrong · Claire Brandt · Noah Breuer · Mark Bryan · Hagit Cohen · Alicia Escott · Lisa Espenmiller · William Harsh · Ryan Hendon ·Anthony Holdsworth · Grant Johnson · Michael Kerbow ·Kimberlee Koym-Murteira · Alexis Laurent · Jeff Long ·Viviana Paredes · Ruth Santee · Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang · Esther Traugot · Michelle Waters · Stephen Whisler

Our Top Picks From "Light/Dark" at the Berkeley Art Center

Eclectix visited the packed opening of "Light/Dark" at the Berkeley Art Center. There are a large number of really nice pieces in this show, we selected only our favorites here. ( Of course, favorites are once again edited by the ability to get a good photo.) From the Center's info for the show - "Chosen from a submission pool of nearly 100 members of the California Society of Printmakers and selected by renowned Bay Area printmaker Enrique Chagoya, this exhibition features 53 works from 53 artists encompassing a range of styles and approaches based in the print medium." There were images representing almost all printmaking techniques - etchings, woodblocks, mono prints, lithographs, silkscreens and so much more. This eclectic and worth-seeing show is up thru May 29th, check the website for hours.

Artists Exhibiting: David Avery, Peter Baczek, Priscilla Birge, Karen Brussat Butler, Gary Comoglio, Noriko Constant, Jessica Dunne, Beth Fein, Peter Foley, Barbara Foster, Linda Fribley, Dan Harrison, Art Hazelwood, Maj Britt Hilstrom, Nif Hodgson, Jack Jacobson, Elizabeth Jameson, Debra Jewel, Mike Kimball, K. Kuster, Dixie Laws, Anthony Lazorko, Peter Leone McCormick, Roberta Loach, Leslie Lowinger, Janet Mackaig, Valerie Magee, Maggie Malloy, Luz Marina Ruiz, Barbara Milman, Julia Nelson-Gal, Russell Pachman, Adam Pitt, Carrie Ann Plank, Pat Prosek, Jenny Robinson, Deborah Sibony, Robynn Smith, Maryly Snow, Sylvia Solochek Walters, Herlinde Spahr, Barbara Strikker, Toru Sugita, Elizabeth Tana, Susana Terrell, Jerry Theobald, Susan Trubow, Fran Valesco, Katherine Venturelli, Peter Villasenor, Mark Welschmeyer, George Woodward, Mark Zaffron.

Yarn Art Attacks in the Bay Area

Yarn Attack, downtown Berkeley

While driving around Berkeley, Albany and Oakland lately, I noticed many stop sign poles and other public sign posts were recently adorned in cute little sweaters. Custom knit to fit the poles, they are colorful and strange oddities. Found a little note on one crediting "Streetcolor" , an anonymous knitter who documents his or her work on the Streecolor blog. A little web research reveals these yarn attacks are known as yarn bombing...


From Wikipedia - Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, graffiti knitting or yarnstorming is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk. While yarn installations – called yarn bombs or knit bombs – may last for years, they are considered non-permanent, and, unlike graffiti, can be easily removed if necessary. The practice is believed to have originated in the U.S. with Texas knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide.


There is a wealth of weird yarn bombing pix here at Yarn bombing. It has become a worldwide movement that aims to “improve the urban landscape one stitch at at time”.

Albany yarn bombing

The Rare Phone Booth, Embellished

Walking around Berkeley the other day and spotted this phone booth. Got me to thinking how rare they are nowadays and also to wonder how long before they are all gone? Gone the way of the typewriter and their lovely clacking noises, ditto machines and the cool smell the purple memos made, flashbulbs in their funky cube shapes...  Mailboxes also seem to be disappearing, there used to be one at every major corner or shopping spot and now you have to hunt for them. Newspapers are also biting the dust, the empty racks at the Bart stations are kinda depressing. 
This phone booth had been decorated by some artist and I thought it looked so cool. Some untalented tagger came along and did a little damage but it still looks fun and poppy. The stickers and ads on the phone itself were a fun juxtaposition as well.

Eye Candy Clown Mural by Ezra, Berkeley

This mural was in progress the first time I drove by. Oakland artist Ezra Li Eismont was hard at work on a glorious clown. A great piece of professional street art, bold and happy-creepy. I thought it was just art-for-art's-sake, but stupid me! Ended up it is an ad for Adult Swim. Shoulda' known better... however as far as ads go, at least they hired an artist and did a really nice job. Makes a boring brick wall so much nicer, let's hope all the taggers leave it alone... Good job, Ezra!