Positano, by Clara Berta. Mixed media on wood panel, 8 ft. x 4 ft.

“Lifelines”, the new group show at GDCA, brings together an exciting mix of painting, mixed media, collage, photography and glass art. There are many new names and fresh voices to be discovered in this well-balanced ensemble. An element of note is that this exhibit introduces artists from out of state, in addition to the wide array of local talent on display. Their works are interpretations about what elements connect us emotionally and physically to our past, present and future, to ourselves, as well as to each other.

Participating Artists - Cody Riess, Charles McCauley, Claudio Luchina, Mike Lanni,  Jonas Bienenfeld, Michelle Chapman, Cynthia Ann Swan and Clara Berta.

Clara Berta’s canvasses are a study in motion. Her collage work is textured with organic and recycled materials, ranging from seaweed to actual fossils, masterfully incorporated into luscious, rich colors, which bring to mind the landscape and oceans of Southern Italy. Though highly abstracted, her paintings suggest the atmospheric feelings of a Turner. Then, displaying a new direction for the otherwise bold colorist, the artist offers us a delicate, almost translucent coffee monochrome. This internal and quiet work accents it’s surface textures like a graphite etching. It is also testament to artistic individuality. While Berta and Lanni share the medium of coffee, their two interpretations could not be more different…a nice punctuation to the exhibit.

“Lifelines” Opening: Thursday, Feb. 14th 4-10 p.m.; on display at Gloria Delson Contemporary Arts (GDCA) through February 28^th.

DOWNTOWN GALLERY, 215 W. 6th Street #115, Los Angeles, CA 90014

(Entrance on Spring St.)

- Jessica Telles / GRAWN

LA-based Clara Berta at Intrepid Gallery/ArtSpot Miami, Red Dot Art Fair

Wynwood Art District, 3011 NE 1st Avenue at NE 31st Street, Miami, FL  33137

by Jesus Manuel Rojas Torres

From December 4th to 9th, 2012, Intrepid Gallery/ArtSpot Miami hosted by Red Dot Art Fair will showcase the work by Los Angeles-based abstract artist Clara Berta.

Berta was born and raised in a Hungarian enclave in Romania and at the age of eleven she moved to Chicago to live. Later, she relocated to Los Angeles where she began her formal education receiving a B.A. in Psychology from Antioch University in 1995.

Her work is concentrated on abstract expressionism in which subjective emotional expressions explore various themes: the ebb and flow of memory, renewal, the passing of physical time, desire, passion and love.

The artist is imbued with feelings of peace and compassion which play a vital role in her life as a therapist and artist.

From Los Angeles, Berta’s home studio is surrounded by English and Zen gardens that contribute to create a mood of a Zen-like lifestyle imbued with a spiritual atmosphere desirable to produce inspiring works.

Using unconventional materials, Berta paints on wood panels integrating poetry, photography, printmaking using a varied palette filled with opulent and vibrant colors.

Three of Berta’s blue abstract paintings were showcased in a frame of the Disney movie “You Again” which were enlarged into 5′ by 5′ to cover other paintings during the filming in one of the movie sets.

The artist hosts weekly lessons at her home studio encouraging her students to use artistic expression as a means for overcoming personal challenges.

Inspired by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Hannelore Baron and Jackson Pollock, Berta combines her passion for psychology and art hoping to share one basic message connecting the body and mind.

WUM briefly interviews Berta who talks about harmony and inspiration and why creating from nothing is her deeply satisfying experience.

WUM: Why do you create art?

I am compelled to create and it is indeed my passion. I find myself gazing at a blank canvas or a wood panel and get excited to fill the space with texture and then start painting, layering and creating a story. The process of filling a canvas with color and form is a deeply satisfying experience. The development from a single brush stroke into a finished canvas that is five feet by eight feet is an artistic challenge. What I love most of all, is the process of growing with the artwork itself.

WUM: Are you the only one artist in your family? How did you discover painting?

Yes, I am the only one in my family who is creative; I started painting in 1988, but as many of us do, I let it slip away. One day, while going through some personal and difficult experiences, I returned to painting as a way to heal and found it very rewarding and then, I was hooked again.

Around 2008, my creativity began to soar, and in hopes of learning more about technique and composition, I took off for Florence, Italy to study at the Santa Reparata School of Art.

WUM: Tell us about your inspiration to create a work of art?

My inspiration comes from love, nature, traveling, using organic materials such as coffee, tea and collage elements and also from a deep sense of movement in space. It is an evolution of happy accidents that culminates in and expresses how I feel in a particular moment.

WUM: You have been very active teaching art classes for quite some time in which your background as a psychologist has helped others find a place to express their emotions. Can you explain us the relationship you find between psychology and art?

I find that art is healing and through teaching I have found a great way to support many students. It is also inspirational and nurturing in different ways, since it helps you release, let go, and be present and in the moment. I gained tools to understand, listen and evoke and encourage the students to release old emotions. I also create a safe and comfortable environment to enable students to be themselves and give them space to create. The more we connect, the more creative we become, and the more creative we are the more passionate our lives will become.

Cesare Safieh has been creating unique, European-inspired hairstyles since 1979, and works hard to stay on top of the latest styles and industry techniques, while providing a customer experience that leaves his guests feeling like a celebrity.

With such a busy, and hectic, lifestyle Cesare looks forward to moments when he can step out of the limelight and spend some time unwinding with his paints.

Today we caught up with Cesare to talk about how creating mixed media art enhances his life.

Berta Art Academy: How did you get interested in art?

Cesare: I am a very creative person. Working with hair is a very creative endeavor; I find art to be an extension of my creativity… another way for me to express myself. I find that creating art is an enjoyable way to release my creative energy.

I work very hard in my profession, always putting my clients’ needs first, so art is a chance for me to be creative without the demands of my clients taking center stage.

I enjoy the time I spend in front of a canvas creating. There’s a sense of freedom, and an emotional rush, when I create art… it helps me relax.

Berta Art Academy: What inspires your art?

Cesare: My art is inspired by objects I find in nature, as well as my mood at the time I am painting.

I like to move in the moment; if I feel something is right I just go with it.

Berta Art Academy: What is your creative process like?

Cesare: Mixing colors is my favorite part of the creative process. Inspiration just flows from me, so I paint what I feel. But I do like to have music playing while I paint.

Berta Art Academy: What do you like most about mixed media art?

Cesare: The ability to layer my images.

Berta Art Academy: What is your favorite art tool to use?

Cesare: My hands. I can feel what I am creating; I can manipulate the medium.

Berta Art Academy: What is your favorite surface to create with?

Cesare: Canvas and wood. The texture of the canvas creates a great base to add additional materials, like lava and string.

Berta Art Academy: Have you developed an artistic style yet?

Cesare: Not really, I don’t believe one has to have a style. Creating is always evolving.

Berta Art Academy: Why did you choose to take an art class at the Berta Art Academy?

Cesare: It was time for me to have fun. Clara is an amazing artist and has a flare for teaching others. Her patience and love of art shine through her teaching and interaction with students.

Berta Art Academy: What art class did you take and what was it like?

Cesare: I took a mixed media art class. We have a great time painting and creating works of art. We even have coffee while we sit and discuss our art. I enjoy sharing my ideas and the students enjoy my creative input. Clara allows us to be open in our creativity.

Berta Art Academy: Overall, how would you describe your experience as an art student at the Berta Art Academy?

Cesare: The art studio is amazing, and you can’t beat the setting.

Berta Art Academy: If someone were considering taking an art class, what advice would you offer to make the experience a positive one?

Cesare: Don’t worry about whether or not you know art, or if it is right or wrong… all art is wonderful. Explore your creativity and imagination. Don’t be shy, you never know what you might create.

To learn more about Cesare’s hairstyling business, visit http://hairbycesare.com

The VillaBerta Gallery is pleased to announce a group show of eight Los Angeles painters in a beautiful residential space, curated by Charity Burnett. Featured artists are Alex COUWENBERG, Clara BERTA, Summer JANELLE, Sharon WEINER, Sharon SUHOVY, Charity BURNETT, Chris TRUEMAN, and Grant VETTER. Works will be on view Friday, May 18^th to Sunday, July 15^th 2012. 

Friday May 18, 2012
7 – 10 p.m.
wine and cheese reception

Between sensual indulgence and tranquility, these process painters explore associative play and the limits of desire. They express thirst-quenching colors, fantasized gratification, soothing ambient moods, and healing or therapeutic transcendence. Works on view in “The Pleasure Principle” have aesthetics of tactility that simulate a physical quality. As westernized culture puts increasing importance on leisure and recreation, over-stimulation, even addiction – it arouses the primitive brain’s pleasure circuitry meant for survival. Freudian psychology say’s, “The Pleasure Principle is the instinctive drive to seek pleasure and avoid pain, expressed by the id as a basic motivating force that reduces psychic tension.”

The resurgence of an intuitive process in painting is a result of artists reacting to their data driven and analytic culture, becoming a phenomenon coinciding with the Digital Age. These artists have come to abstract painting as innovative collaborators to the mid century moderns. Painting has never been more vital in the last fifty years. Conceptualism is increasing reliant on the “shock of the new” and distrustful of the subconscious, that part of our minds that drives desire and motivation -the very things that make us human. The LA art world is ready for a hedonic shift. Art history is an evolutionary cycle of “thesis, antithesis, synthesis.” Contemporary process painters, like the ones in this show, are in the synthesis stage. Several of these painters create a hybrid of cultural aesthetics from polarized genres while also being true to their times.

-Curatorial statement by Charity Burnett

Show: “The Pleasure Principle” exhibition runs Friday, May 18th to Sunday, July 15th 2012.

Opening Party: Friday, May 18, 2012 | 7:00pm to 10:00pm | Closing Party: Sunday, July 15, 2012 | 1:00pm to 4:00pm

Hours are by appointment only and during opening/closing receptions.

Your RSVP is requested to attend  clara@bertaart.com

Press contact: Charity Burnett 818.398.2992 sangriafinearts@gmail.com

ALEX COUWENBERG combines matte finishes and high gloss in ‘Zen’ like execution. Mark making with intuitive rhythms, speed, and precision have been created with tape that is traditionally used in coating exteriors of hot rods. His paintings have pulsating colors reminiscent of hot rod colors, metallic pearls, firemist oranges, daytona yellow, marine blues, and swift reds. Built up and torn down – layers of paint and abstract shapes become a multiple play field of pinball, surf riding, skate boarding emerges. Gestural maneuvering bends the orbit of metaphorical surf-like almond-shaped tubes, gaming gadgetry like flippers, kickers, bumpers, targets, hexagonal saucers. In a recent video by EMS, Couwenberg refers painting to a “therapeutic experience.” He attended Art Center College of Design and has an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. Alex Couwenberg is showing “courtesy of William Turner Gallery” at Bergamot Station.

CLARA BERTA paints with mixed media, creating atmospheric sweeps of dense textural colors. The award winning abstract expressionist imbues the process with the belief that art is healing. The Hungarian artist born in Romania explores themes like “the ebb and flow of memory, the significance of personal heritage, renewal, the passing of physical time, desire, passion, and love.” Presently, Clara Berta produces commissioned work, shows at Artspace Warehouse, and teaches mixed media and collage. Berta has a BA in Psychology from Antioch University. She is also the gallerist at VillaBerta Gallery.

SUMMER JANELLE irrigates or sprays delicate acrylic paint on digital prints of wind blown ornamental grass or sparkling fresh water. Colors and lacy textures induce the viewer into a pensive relaxed state. The Claremont Grad says, “My work derives from the inner sensations we encounter with human interaction on a daily basis. I am fascinated with the invisible everyday occurrences and I bring them to life. I am making the invisible, visible.” The artist will be showing at Sangria Fine Arts in the fall. Summer Janelle studied Healing & Creativity at Chapman University, earned a BA from UC Riverside, and has a MFA from Claremont Graduate University.

SHARON SUHOVY sculpts sumptuous edible roses with cake-frosting utensils. The sculpted paintings are metaphoric for the female body. The artist says, “Seduction manifests in to lure to guide someone into the depths of their desires. The painting becomes the stage for this mid-summer nights dream as the excreted line work meanders across the surface. The s-curved calligraphy of the acrylic gel frosting, juxtaposed with the pastel Rococo palette, conjures the sweet scent of arousal. Suhovy will be showing concurrently at The Loft at Liz’s. She attended California State University, San Bernardino and has an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. Suhovy is a college art professor at Norco College and Victor Valley College.

CHARITY BURNETT makes whimsical foodstuffs with oil paint and sweet fragrant beeswax. She slow-pours molten paint into oddities that are stacked high with tottery equilibrium. Burnett pipes soft paste, which resembles frosting with a cake decorator device. Amorphous forms are a result of adaptation, and are into ice cream mounds, domes, and bells. Burnett say’s “I mix color to arouse the senses. Full-bodied consistencies simulate euphoric/addictive flavors from caramel, raspberry, blueberry, to exotic blends. Flavor as realism gives immediacy and believability to ferry us into the realm of fantasy. My work expresses unfulfilled plans of celebration in a dystopian times.” Burnett is the Curator for “The Pleasure Principle” at Villa Berta Gallery, and also for Sangria Fine Arts, a blogger for ARTZILLA and ArtMinute Press. Artforum.com chose the painter’s solo show as the “pick of the week.” Burnett is a graduate of Art Center College of Design, and has shown at Bergamot Station, in San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C.

SHARON WEINER’s luxuriant mark making and soothing acrylic pours explore the conscious and unconscious. The LA painter builds and sands layers into smooth surfaces. Glossy sheens coat organic spills and reflect the room, making them ambient. Seductive colors against oceanic or cosmic blacks entice the viewer into meditation and imaginative play. Sharon Weiner earned an MFA at Claremont Graduate University, having shown at several museums, nationally and internationally in New York, South Korea, and France. She has been reviewed by art critic Peter Frank, and will be showing at Sangria Fine Arts in the fall. Sharon Weiner shows “courtesy of Ruth Bachofner Gallery” at Bergamot Station.

CHRIS TRUEMAN’s shimmery paintings of graphite-like tonalities are merged with atmospheric geo-abstractions. They resemble reflective micro-prismatic sheeting or the icy flat surfaces. Like patterns of a healing crystal, the surfaces become a dazzling energy field yet somehow seem apocalyptic. The artist say’s ”These paintings are constructed from various styles and strategies sourced from the language of modernist abstract painting. Rapid shifts in the type of space, illusionistic or through screen-like layers meet flattened abstract planes and the materiality of raw canvas. Moiré and optical patterns keep parts of the underlying gestural painting from being fully grasped, while flesh-like yet unrecognizable swaths lay clearly in plain view.” Trueman attended the San Francisco Art Institute, and earned an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. He teaches painting at Fullerton College. Trueman had works curated by art critic David Pagel for an exhibit at LACE this spring. He has shown at Torrance Art Museum, Bergamot Station, in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, San Diego, and Milan.

GRANT VETTER’s process of making extrusion paintings is a metaphor of the body. The artist’s work challenges traditional genre distinctions of painting and sculpture. Paint is pulverized or milled through the back of woven substrates. Effects resemble tapestry. Vetter’s paint becomes a bold play of textural ornamentation and topography, with the contrasting binaries conveying tension. The extravagant and elaborate mass build up of texture is both grotesque and beautiful. The paint assumes the wall, like a tapestry to a throne, becoming nothing more than a spectacle of decadence. In other bodies of work Vetter compares process painting to the processes of science and war, in a time when the sciences and militarism have let our society down. Yet moments of serendipity occur, even beauty. Vetter is a PhD Candidate, Doctor of Philosophy. The artist has earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, a Masters of Art in Communication, B.F.A. Art Center College of Design, Fine Art Media. Vetter is at present a Board member of F.A.R. (Foundation for Art Resources,) Founder and Director of Autonomie - a non-profit arts organization.

Artist Clara Berta with “City Full of Rain”

March 3rd opening 5-8pm
Part of the “Miracle Mile Art Walk”
Show runs March 3 through April 19 at

Artspace Warehouse
7354 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.936.7020

Silhouettes

A new series of artworks by Los Angeles artist Clara Berta, Los Angeles artist Daniel Maltzman, German artist Edith Konrad, US artist Mark Acetelli, German artist Ekaterina More, Los Angeles artist Judy Zimbert, and many others.

Transition by Clara Berta

The Women’s City Club of Pasadena at the historic Blinn House is pleased to announce “RED” – a unique exhibition celebrating the color red. The exhibition, which runs from February 1 through March 30, 2012, features sixty works by twenty-seven California-based artists and photographers. It will be the fourth art exhibition produced by Margaret Danielak, the Women’s City Club of Pasadena’s Curator of Exhibitions. A reception is scheduled for Thursday, February 9, 2012  from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“We accepted only 60 pieces out of hundreds of submissions, selecting only the most captivating red-themed contemporary paintings, photographs and mixed media pieces for display. Good thing I love the color red because I sure saw a lot of it during the judging process!” says Danielak.

The “RED” exhibition will feature the work of Shula Singer Arbel, Judith Asher, Clara Berta, Tim Bulone, Jessie Castillo, Merrilyn Duzy, Bryan Fair, Marian Fortunati, Dick Heimbold, Julie Hill, Lucie Hinden, Ben Humphrey, Anna T. Kelly, Natalie Lundeen, Athena Mantle, Lisa Mozzini-McDill, Marie Mustard, Robin Neudorfer, Terry Romero Paul, Christina Ramos, Joy J. Rotblatt, Julie Snyder, Teri Starkweather, Carol Steinberg, Diana Stewart, Beth Summers and Felice Willat.

The Blinn House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1905 for lumber baron Edmund Blinn and his family. The Blinns hired popular Chicagoarchitect, George Washington Maher to design their Californiahome in the Midwestern Prairie School Style. The building has been home to the Women’s City Club since 1945 and continues to serve the Pasadenacommunity as a meeting place for civic, cultural, and educational activities.

“RED” will be on view from February 1 through March 30, 2012. The reception is Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. The Women’s City Club of Pasadena is located at 160 N. Oakland Avenue in Pasadena, CA  91101.  Free parking is accessible behind the building from Madison Avenue.  www.womenscityclub.com

The Women’s City Club of Pasadena is open for art viewing Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.  During the run of the exhibition, Curator Margaret Danielak will be on hand for art tours of the Blinn House by appointment. In addition, a popular course in art collecting will be offered. Curator Margaret Danielak may be reached through her website at www.danielakart.com via email at Margaret.danielak@gmail.com or via phone at 626-683-9922.

It’s a type of therapy that is commonly used among the psychologically ill, physically ill, and abuse victims. Art therapists work by combining concepts that are generally employed in psychology as well as art to be able to help patients cope with the traumatic events which they manage, as well as the triggers which they face in everyday life. There are a variety of different advantages of art therapy.

Art therapy has proven to help you develop your social skills using art work. It involves letting you express yourself with different kinds of  art materials like, clay and paints. Art care has proved to help you create visual representations of your emotions. Numerous benefits can be produced from art therapy. It could increase your self-awareness and help you develop your social skills. Art treatment could assist you to acquire problem solving strategies and creative thinking.

There are many folks with severe physical disorders who reap the benefits of art therapy. People who find themselves paralyzed, for example, may make use of art therapy. Cancer patients are also known to make use of art therapy to relieve stress and, ultimately, feel much better regarding themselves. Prior experience or skills in art-creating aren’t required to take part in art therapy, which is about self-exploration and recovery through finding out how to find the metaphorical, visual as well as verbal interactions contained in your artwork.

A lot of people are under the impression that you will need to see an art therapist in order to benefit from this kind of therapy. Art therapy is something you can do on your personal time. Any time that you’re feeling very stressed and want to release some of your body’s stress or frustration out, why not take out a sheet of paper and some colored pencils? All that you need to do is draw the first thing that one thinks of. It is likely that you might learn a bit about yourself by doing this. You will also probably feel a lot of peace and a sense of accomplishment.

Mixed Media Artists can show you how to heal yourself. The benefits of art therapy activities have shown to help folks learn how to express their feelings. Art therapy can allow you to come to terms with your feelings by determining and working through rage, bitterness along with other feelings. This is particularly helpful during or after a traumatic incident or illness. In this way it could restore or refresh your spirit. It is possible to use art-making as a means of self-discovery. You can de-stress and re-engage with life experiences in a creative and revitalizing way. It isn’t about making good art. Using imaginative expression and an array of art materials, observing and experiencing the art, it’s possible to be guided through its creation and reviewing in a secure and non-judgmental atmosphere.

Stop by and say hello – Clara and her art work will be at the LA WineFest on Saturday June 11

Sip, nosh, and mingle at Hollywood’s Historic Raleigh Studios, Saturday June 11 (2-6PM) and Sunday June 12 (12PM-6PM) at this year’s 6th Annual LA WineFest. 550-plus wines, spirits, beers and Lifestyle Exhibitors will come together to for your enjoyment. This year the Fest will be benefitting Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles.

Dubbed “LA’s largest educational wine festival,” LAWineFest 2011 will feature the Robert Mondavi Discover Wine Tour, an interactive experience educating guests about wine and entertaining.

Clara is proud to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Greater Los Angeles by donating one of her works to the LA WineFest Charity Auction

My piece, “LA through House of Blues”, carries delightful memories with a scoop of joy. For me, this piece embodies the spirit of LA – a sunny afternoon on the Sunset Strip and laughing with friends. The movements in the brush strokes are filled with energy and a zest for life. If you look closely, you can see a secret love note I wrote on a napkin at the House of Blues and then tucked away forever inside the painting. I hope you enjoy the zest for life bursting from the canvas – may it bring you a fresh outlook each time you view this work.

My friends are entitled to $15.00 off on a Saturday or Sunday single adult admission

Please mention my name: Clara

Art for Life

Please join me and 25 artists brought together on Facebook and Twitter to support Matt Le Blanc and the Art for Life Campaign.

We are all artists and we are all for finding a cure for cancer!

I’m excited to support this wonderful cause through our artistic work. Matt shares below how he created this heartfelt campaign.

“As most of you already know, I don’t shy away from supporting my community — especially when it comes to the fight against cancer. I created the Matt LeBlanc Art for Life Campaign last year to raise awareness and much-needed funds for the Tree of Hope Campaign, an annual event by the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont Hospital Foundation in Moncton.  The campaign was a huge success — I raised a grand total of $38,000 for the foundation.  You can read about last year’s campaign below.

As a way to kick off my awareness effort this year, I went to my fellow artists for some help. I’ve spent the last two months putting together an online video with 24 other artists from North America and as far away as Australia. The idea is simple — each artist answers one question: Why do you paint?  The video is a collection of answers from these artists. The video ends with a powerful message:

Clara Berta in Art for Life Campaign

Painting is life.

We love to paint and we love life.

We are all artists and we are all for finding a cure for cancer.

For more information, please visit Matt’s website: www.MattLeBlancArt.com