FarmArt.org

When we first envisioned this festival, some people said, “What’s the connection?  Why farm and art together?”  Some even said, “I don’t get it.”

How do you explain to someone to see with Vincent Van Gogh’s eyes?  How to do encourage someone to take a look at the art of the ancient world and its clear inspiration from the land?  Food and People:  They kind of go together.  Therefore, farms and art do, too.

Dennis Garcia, one of Tuolumne County’s stellar artists, is known for his geometric layered pieces that express tones of color.  His work is exclusively non-representational, meaning that it really is not intended to LOOK like anything specific.  However, it is in his palette that he brings dynamics, mood, evoking an image in the viewer’s mind.  He talked once about moving from Los Angeles to Tuolumne County, and how that move affected his paintings.  In L.A. his palette was muted in steel, grey and black.  When he moved to the foothills, the colors jumped into him!  Gold, umber, royal purple, the spectrum of greens and blues.  He said that this change was his response to the land, the light, the open landscape that now renewed and inspired him. His painting, Sonora Autumn, is on display at the Square I Gallery in Claremont, CA.  But you can see his work IN Sonora, too. Dennis has just opened his new gallery–The Ventana, at 19 W. Bradford Ave. in the Bradford Building (corner of Washington & Bradford).  Get yourself in there!  You won’t believe it–quite hip with exquisite pieces of contemporary art, juxtaposed with antique paintings.  Dennis is one of California’s most prestigious collectors of California Impressionist paintings.  Some of them are available at the Ventana, along with amazing contemporary works by other well-established local artists:  Sherman  Hay, Corey West, Joy Willow and Mike Dwaileebe.

Give yourself a treat!  Call up a friend.  Invite her/him to lunch at one of our great downtown restaurants, and then go visit the Bradford Building.  It now has four art galleries!  Then how about meeting me for a glass of wine at Muir-Hanna, which is right next door?  Or maybe you’d rather visit the Mother Lode’s hippest DERELICT BAR–Servente’s!

I can take a little break from the garden to show you around my town, my home–Sonora in Tuolumne County, California.