LOIS HENRY: The art of Kern's water
| Tuesday, Aug 17 2010 05:21 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Aug 17 2010 05:43 PM
SEE THE SHOW
Ebb and Flow: Kern's Vanishing Water
When: Show opens Thursday, Aug. 19, and runs through Oct. 3
Where: J.P. Jennings, 1700 Chester Ave.
Also: Twenty-five percent of any sales will benefit the Kern River Parkway Foundation.
Presented by the Arts Council of Kern and sponsored by Chevron
Images
Gradient Reversal is a painting by Christine McKee.
"Sand, Oil, Water" by Becky Osterdock.
"Siphon" by Claire Putney.
"Grading the reservoir" by Claire Putney.
It will be interesting to see how a group of local artists depicts something that we all use every day, but most of us don't really look at and never take the time to think about -- water.
Of course, water is near and dear to my heart.
But I was surprised when friend and artist Barbara Reid told me the Arts Council of Kern was backing a series of shows clustered around current events and the theme her group had picked for the first show was water.
It's called "Ebb and Flow: Kern's Vanishing Water." Love the title.
The gala opening is tomorrow at J.P. Jennings, 1700 Chester Ave. It will run through Oct. 3.
Reid tried explaining the concept to me several times. But, frankly, art is art and I'm me and until I got a sneak preview last week, I really didn't get it.
It's very cool and I hope everyone has a chance to see the show.
The artwork is as unique as each of the artists.
One painting is a deep, royal blue with fingers of golden brown running through it; another shows a team of mules pulling an old-fashioned plow with a chart of plummeting groundwater running starkly across the image.
In another, a sinewy stream of water flows toward a pallet of ripe produce; another work shows a lush, youthful face emerging from the parched earth as a single drop hangs suspended above its lips.
Talking with the artists, I got the sense this wasn't an easy task.
None of them had really thought about water or understood the complexities, the politics and the power surrounding such a basic resource.
Before picking up their brushes, or, in the case of one artist, her welding torch, they went on a fact-finding mission, reading, interviewing, touring and listening.
"This project was really eye-opening," said painter Claire Putney.
That sentiment was echoed almost verbatim by all the artists, including Reid, Christine McKee, Becky Osterdock and Stacy Holland.
"The biggest surprise was learning about all the history," Holland said. She grew up in Kern County and thought she knew the river.
A regular bike path walker, she said she thought about all she was learning as she strolled along and the one thought that kept coming back was the "desecration of the river and how it had dried up while no one was paying attention."
"My main point in my piece was for people to see how things are changing right in front of us." Her contribution will be a six-foot sculpture using natural objects found along the river.
Even Osterdock, who spent part of her early years on a pistachio ranch in Shafter where the pump on their well would sometimes go out for a day or two, didn't understand the larger issues surrounding Kern County water.
"This was really challenging for me."
One of her paintings is a rush of blue swirling into a cluster of turbulence. I'd say that about sums up water anywhere in California.
Besides realizing this vast world of conflict was brewing, in some cases right beneath their feet, the artists were also all struck by the need to spread the word.
"I hope it gets people thinking about what's coming our way if we're not careful," Putney said. "It was fascinating learning how many different facets and perspectives to water there are in Kern and how they are controlled by power and money. And, of course, it's not a fair situation. It's not shared equitably.
"There is no water utopia."
True. But that conflict, with all its drama and struggle, is what makes the art so rich.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Comment at people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/noholdsbarred, call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com
