Every year, I’m asked to donate art to help many different and meaningful causes. Saying yes to everyone would result in no inventory. However, one that is very special is Pro Arts Gallery’s Box Art Benefit Auction. What makes this one different from others? According to their website: “Pro Arts provides critical access to contemporary art in the region and serves as a regional hub for arts activities, independent curated exhibitions, open studios, advocacy, arts education and capacity building artist services –fiscal sponsorship to artists and professional exhibition services matching artists with community partners. We produce 15 exhibitions annually, exhibit over 500 artists, and reach an annual audience over 72,000.”
I’ve worked with Pro Arts Gallery for over ten years by participating in the East Bay Open Studios and various exhibitions. 2012 will be my eighth year involved in the Box Art Benefit auction and over 100 artists will be participating in the event. Artists are given a recycled block of wood from The ReUse People (TRP) to create an unique piece of art.
This year, I created an acrylic installation out of fabricated strips for the auction. The wood block was used as a template for the completed piece. Each strip of acrylic was designed through Adobe Illustrator and sent to the fabricator Ponoko. The strips were bent with extreme heat temperatures carefully to avoid yellowing, cracking, and bubbling. My art is inspired by my interest in an array of dichotomous relationships—simple and complex, beautiful and grotesque, micro and macro perspectives, and natural and manmade environments.
Here’s the end result:
The Box Art Benefit Auction preview is October 16-19th with the live auction on the 19th from 6-9 pm. The mission of the gallery is to support communities by serving the needs of artists. Sounds like a worthy cause to me. Pro Arts Gallery is located at 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA.
The Links:
http://www.proartsgallery.org/exhibitions/2012_box.php
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