Happy New Year! May it be filled with joy, good health and art

Article by Laura Fogg

Please see our website: cornergalleryukiah.com

Corner Gallery Front Windows January ‘24

The Corner Gallery is celebrating its 16th year of existence with a front window show featuring all of its artist members for the month of January. According to gallery president Linda Wolfard, “It is a tribute to both the supportive community and our dedicated artists that we have lasted this long. We not only survived more than a year of being closed during the pandemic, but we continue to thrive. This front window show is a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of us.”

Gallery members are: Linda Wolfard, Jon Wolfard, Jeanne Koelle, Elliot Little, Katie Gibbs, Susan Blackwelder, Darrell Carpenter, Jill Millward, Meelah Dorhosti, Nancy Little, John Richards, Cassie Gibson, Jeanette Carson, Kathleen Gordon-Burke, Laura Fogg.

The First Friday opening celebration for this show will be on January 5 from 5-8pm. Live harp music will be provided throughout the evening by Suni Smith with flute by her friend Gwen. The Corner Gallery is located at 201 S State Street in Ukiah.

Art Center Ukiah January ’24 Winter” show

Even though we Ukiahians don’t live in a snowy northern climate, there is enough of a winter here to cause people to bundle up and hunker down. Short days, gray skies, bare trees, freezing temperatures and flowing creeks are a welcome contrast to our long hot summers.

Art Center Ukiah January show organizer Susan Blackwelder asked artists “How do you experience winter?” Whether people love the outdoors or prefer the coziness of a seat by the fire, she encouraged artists to show their favorite aspect of the darkest season. “And,” Susan quips, “finding the beauty in what can be a dreary month is a great way to avoid the doldrums after the holiday season is over… both for artists and gallery visitors!”

With all the talented artists in the Mendocino County Art Association availing themselves of monthly classes to improve their skills at oil painting, pastels, watercolor and other techniques, there should be plenty of high quality entries on the winter theme. Susan is also expecting a wide and diverse range of subject matter for this show. “Not just snow,” she laughs. “I already know that we have a print, a quilt and a metal tree, and I’ll just have to wait and see what else turns up.” 

The exhibit, “Winter” is graciously sponsored by Philip Gary and Donna Mecca.

The First Friday opening for the “Winter” show will be on January 5 from 5-8pm. Live harp music will be provided throughout the evening by Suni Smith. The Corner Gallery is located at 201 S State St in Ukiah.

Mendocino County Arts Association Wall

Katie Gibbs
Katie works in steel, cutting shapes from sheets of steel with a plasma torch. Often her work is either polished or left to rust as steel typically weathers with age. For this exhibit she is showing a collection of fanciful, enameled sea creatures, dressed in bright colors to enhance a small corner of a garden or a kitchen. Something to make you smile.

Solana Rubino – Corner Gallery Young Artist Jan-Feb 2024

The Corner Gallery will start out the new year with a new featured young artist. Solana Rubino, an impressive stained glass artist, has lived most of her life in Mendocino County, and describes herself as a product of the Waldorf school system here. Currently 20 years old and taking nursing classes at the Mendocino Community College, she looks back at her early education with pride. In her words, “The Waldorf school teaches its students musical instruments, knitting, painting, embroidery and all kinds of other arts. I think this upbringing made a positive impact on me and how I appreciate the arts now. I’ve always loved working with my hands and I think the education I got at Waldorf helped me feel comfortable starting up an art like stained glass.”

Solana’s artistic family also plays an important part in her interest in art. “A lot of my family,” she says, “participate in art in some way. Whether it’s cooking or playing music, my family has always been artistic… and that’s made me more interested in art. It was my aunt, Aldina Rubino, who initially started me making stained glass. She is a professional stained glass artist who’s been doing stained glass for more than 20 years. A couple years ago she started bringing glass and materials for me and my siblings to try and make our own projects.”

Solana continues, “I loved stained glass from the beginning! It’s amazing how beautiful glass can look in the sunlight and how the process is so intricate with every step. How there is so much to learn through the process and how even if a design isn’t totally great the glass always looks good in the light. My aunt taught me the basic steps, and since then I’ve been figuring more of it out on my own. Sometimes I look for information online and that is always very helpful for me as well. And now in this last year I’ve gotten more involved in doing art, and I feel more confident making pieces. My goal is to continue to get better and be able to follow through with my own creativity.”

Not surprisingly, Solana is also drawn to the art of mosaic, through she hasn’t had much experience yet with that medium. She likes the idea that mosaic uses similar materials to stained glass and sees some experimentation in her future.

When asked about her favorite piece in her show, Solana was quick to point to a piece that she and her aunt made together. “It is two geometric shapes layered on top of each other,” she explains, “and I’m excited to be showing this piece because it involved family. Not only did my aunt and I make it together, but my brother helped me frame it as well. Because of this I find it a very sentimental piece.”

And do enjoy our website, cornergalleryukiah.com., kept up to date by member artist Elliot Little, Art Center Ukiah, your Community Gallery announces upcoming exhibits in 2024.
We’d love to have you sponsor an exhibit

February “Men at Work –Art by Men”
by invitation only
March “Birds: Winged Messengers”
April “High School Artists”
May “Annual High School Photography Show”
June “Pride– How you honor the concept of Pride”

Join us for one or more exhibits this year.
For information and entry forms write acuentries@yahoo.comor find them in in the gallery. We send a special email for artists with details and entry forms. Please make sure that we have your email and specify that you are an artist.

We’d love to hear what you think of our newsletter, please write acuentries@ixonsmendocino
Art Center Ukiah | 201 S State St, Ukiah, CA 95482