INVITE

Yesterday was the opening reception of the Los Angeles Invitational Show at George Billis Gallery. According to Southwest Airlines, the company offers 660 daily flights in California. Flying to Los Angeles from Oakland was light, airy, and free of drama. My rapid trip of rewards included intriguing artworks, contemporary insights, and supportive friendships. Los Angeles welcomed with open wings!

The Los Angeles Invitational Show at George Billis Gallery featured thirty-two artists with diverse backgrounds and practices. The gallery director Tressa Williams selected my acrylic sculpture WEST. Entering the space, a sophisticated curation emerged showcasing line and form within the human experience.

WEST description: The artwork investigates how perspective can be skewed and contorted in natural and manmade environments. WEST mimics the patterns of the Pacific Ocean as it interacts with the California Coast. The goal is to identify how movement impacts perception by creating new narratives.

Highlights included Three Lotuses by Julia Johnson, Nitsa + Tasya by Satsuki Shibuya, and Dance me to the Edge by Catherine Ruane. Each artist investigates the natural world within a conceptually dynamic and subtle approach. From Shibuya’s website writings: “By opening our hearts through conscious awareness of feelings does the path towards understanding and fully embracing our true selves appear.”

*Three Lotuses* by Julia Johnson. Image source: http://www.georgebillis.com/la-invitational.html

*Nitsa + Tasya* by Satsuki Shibuya. Image source: http://www.georgebillis.com/la-invitational.html

*Dance me to the Edge* by Catherine Ruane. Image source: http://www.georgebillis.com/la-invitational.html

Artist Statement 2 by Louise Marler provides elegant commentary on technology in the modern world. Marler’s website states: “My work is a negotiation transpiring between the analog media, sentimental comfort and our shift from ten digits to two thumbs, mobile, abbreviated language and digital lives. It is also a comment about cyber life and needing the key words on the backside of websites for spiders to have content to feed the almighty new machine, the internet.”

*Artist Statement 2* by Louise Marler. Image source: http://www.georgebillis.com/la-invitational.html

Meanwhile, Maidy Morhous’ Fortunate? sculpture reminds the viewer of the relationship between luck and reality. From the artist’s website: “Maidy Morhous’ sculptures cannot be taken in with one glance. They expose the viewer to and pull him in to react and question what he is viewing; be it to question life and one’s existence, the world’s plight or just to bring a smile. Morhous has spent years examining social critique, political and cultural issues.”

*Fortunate?* by Maidy Morhous. Image source: http://www.georgebillis.com/la-invitational.html

George Billis Gallery is located in the Culver City Arts District home to various artistic adventures. The Los Angeles Invitational Show directs a viewer to what is possible in the heart of screenland. Thanks to an unparalleled vision and opportunity, my journey landed me south of San Francisco. All aboard!