The Best Eclectic Shopping in the San Francisco Bay Area

Eclectix is all about eclectic - with something for just about everyone on your list. One stop shopping with artful, one-of-a-kind, unique and different gifts. Specializing in recycled, green and locally handmade. New & vintage: clothes, jewelry, kid’s stuff, Mid-Century, furniture, Elvis items, lamps, Day of the Dead, housewares, Isabel Samaras, Tiki items. Fun and strange, Tim Burton, lava lights, rock and roll, Emily the Strange, cards, Mark Ryden, lunchboxes, Hi-Fructose, folk art and masks. Art-related items galore...

And the two galleries exhibit creative, exciting, alternative fine art; really worth the trip! They are chock full of great original art and prints, starting at just $35.00 and up.

Here is just a tiny bit of the specific gifts EclectiXmas has to offer:

Warm, vintage wool coats with satin linings, perfect condition for that fashionable woman. Guitar pick earrings. "Accordian Babe" locally made calendars for that musician dude. A Robert Crumb "Devil Girl" lunchbox for the comic lover. Beautiful 1950's table top lamps. Tattoo design onesies for the hip little baby in your life. A Michael Jackson candle to light on New Year's Eve. Soaps sculpted into little hands for the dirty. A set of vintage crystal martini glasses for the couple that needs a housewarming gift. Miriam Wosk, Camille Rose Garcia, Rolling Stone, Todd Schorr, Annie Leibowitz and Eric Joyner art books for that artist friend. Hand made, artisan fine jewelry. A Fender jazz bass scale model for your desk. Hand painted skeleton plates & figures from Mexico for folk art collectors. Pirate and Cupcake bandages stocking stuffers for little ragamuffins. A 1940's rhinestone and jet Art Deco style necklace for New Year's Eve. Or a "Boss Lady" re-cycled shopper. A set of Caran d'Ache pencils for the doodler. A pair of 1950's china pink cows for the collector. Hand painted Frida tables for the Frida Kahlo fan. Silk scarves of every color for anyone. A "Tweet" artist tee for the Twitter fan. Pool ball ornaments. An emerald green silk dress from the 1960's for that holiday party... or a striped skinny tie from the 1950's, all cleaned & pressed, ready to wear. And there is so much more!

By shopping Eclectix you help support local the local art & business community. Skip the mall, keep the X in your Xmas and make it an EclectiXmas!

For more on the store go to: http://web.me.com/eclectixp/Eclectix/Eclectix_Store.html

For more on the gallery go to: http://web.me.com/eclectixp/Eclectix/Exhibits_News.html

Eclectix Store & Gallery

10082 San Pablo Ave. El Cerrito, CA

(just north of Berkeley, at Central Ave.)

Bay Area Townie: Miz Jennybird Alcantara's Art

I've been following Jennybird's art for at least 6 years (it just keeps getting better) and over the last few it has matured, really coming into it's own. Her work is quite arresting, full of vivid, deep colors, exploding symbolic imagery and expertly rendered. Why she hasn't gotten more recognition, is beyond me, she certainly deserves to be "up there" with the bigger Newbrow names. Maybe it's because she doesn't cater to the "half-naked-adolescent-girl-with-big-breasts" stereotype (yawn) or maybe because the old boy network is too busy patting itself on the back, to notice other artists anymore. Regardless, her art cranks. Varnish Gallery recently had a nice big solo of her works and it was breathtaking.

Her images are often part animal, part human - anthropomorphic compositions of union and conflict. Her creatures are often characterized with a side profile, just one eye is revealed, much like a whale's gaze. It has reminded me of illustrator Janet Woolley's early collage work.

Jennybird's compositions call to mind a spiritual side, arranged mandala-like and symmetrical, somehow reminiscent of Tibetan Buddhist art. They have an other-worldly feel, almost underwater in the way the images are suspended, floating ethereal, submerged and dis-connected. Mix this with the influence of vintage, anatomical science text illustrations, her wonderfully saturated hues, juxtapositions of animal & human life, symbols of life & death and end result is that of an apocalyptic, yet painfully beautiful panoramic narrative.

Jennybird also creates outlandish dolls with masterful aplomb. Some are mutant hybrids with insect limbs or wings spouting forth where arms might have been. With beautiful textiles, soft cottons, fun & furry hair-dos and shiny notions; the artist lures us past the darker side of a severed limb to experience beauty. So what if she has three breasts or eyes? So what if her intestines are on the outside looking in? Sure, her veins may be erupting outside of her skin but they are intricate, lacy veins waterfalling down a broken arm with painterly grace and abandon. And maybe her feet are on backwards but they're groovy in lace-up Victorian boots. Literally wearing her heart on her sleeve, it is surrounded by "satin n' tat" and who could do better than that?

Jennybird currently has two large dolls for sale, in the "All Dolled Up" exhibit at Eclectix Gallery. Try to see them in person, they are well worth the trip. Showing thru November 29th, 2009.

A Look at Laurie Hassold's Art, Meet the Artist, June 20th

Laurie  Hassold's masterful works cry out in their own little wiggly world. At first glance, I was struck by their symmetrical, flowering grace and elegant composure. Somehow, one knows a woman created them, both beautiful yet somehow painful. At closer look, the juxtapositions in her imagery start to smack you around. They are delicate yet grisly, feminine yet macho, organic yet mechanical, cerebral yet sensual, fun but also dead serious. The ying and yang of her works are reflective of life itself and it is her singular creativity, which holds our interest and makes us want more. Sculptures which resemble organic creatures of the Alien variety, they are composed of sometimes humorous, often symbolic and always strangely wondrous recycled items. 

"Their elaborate bone-like structures give the appearance of predatory fossils from the future, aggressive bodies without minds that leave one to ask “what will reign at the top of the food chain after the human race has become extinct?” In my artistic practice, I explore the symbiosis of apparent opposites to suggest that the tension between mind and body is precisely what makes us uniquely human."

It seems she begins with a formed wire base, molded with epoxy clay and florist tape. From there the piece evolves into it's own incarnation and along the way, items are incorporated. Enamel paints, life casts, fur, chiffon, jewelry, elephant tusks, toys, found objects, lace, dolls, beads and skull parts, to name but just a few.

"My core interest in making art lies in blurring the boundaries between art, science, literature and psychology, by focusing on how these disciplines each negotiate the split between mind and body. Growing up in a physician’s household, I was exposed at a very young age to the body’s visceral workings, and by the age of eleven had witnessed a range of surgical procedures, from minor mole excisions to full hysterectomies. I continue to be fascinated with our complex, yet efficient biology, and how we, as a species, mediate our corporeal existence within an increasingly advanced technological world. Technology enables us to surpass the limits of our physical form, but how does it affect our psyche, our spirit? By using the body, both literally and symbolically, I fuse scientific with artistic practices in an effort to blur the boundaries between my own mind and body."

Laurie currently has four pieces on display in the "All-Gurlz" Exhibit at Eclectix Gallery. A Southern California resident, she will be in town at the Closing Reception on June 20th, from 6 to 8 pm.

For more info: http://www.eclectix.com

Entomology: McCann's Ladybug Collection

A must see at Eclectix, Katie McCann’s latest body of works, “Entomology”, comprise elegant insects, Victorian images and recycled materials into her specimen creations & “Lady Bugs”. Using collage, beads, fabric, old photos and paint she weaves a wonderful web of eclectic personas.