Soiree # 7 proved to be our largest Art-Centric event to date.
The Art of Larry and Sandra Ortega
The studio spaces have been bustling. Our outdoor studios are used for welding, woodwork, and finish sanding. The desert is taxing when working outdoors, I somehow honor the heat. Another studio area focuses on casting and mixing resin with rare-earth minerals, and final assembly.
Half of the studio space has become a gallery space that exhibits my work under very dark conditions using UV light. It activates the rare-earth minerals to create a light described by many as a bioluminescent light. The color and light spectrum sometimes is described as metaphysical. While another studio is devoted to painting and converted into a shipping area during the last part of the year.
My online gallery shows my artwork.
Poetry Reading
Poetry has always been an idea for Obliq Art. Soiree #7 was our first time hosting poetry. Shawnte Orion and Rosemarie Dombrowski were our poets for the evening.
Soirees and Open Studio Sale
Soirees for 2023 will be combined with an Open Studio Tour and Sale. We will host up to three artists to show with us.
The Obliq Artist: Larry Ortega
Open Studio Sale
Obliq Art: Sandra Ortega
The fantasy of creating an object that flys through the air, with ingenuity and crafty folds of paper, done by various ages of people, are accentuated in the mullti dimentional paintings of Sandra’s new series “Flight in Fantasy”
Art Opening: Jason Hugger
Jason Hugger
My process consists of using found objects. I create a still-life setup and then create a landscape scene around it resulting in a painting that evokes the beauty and desolation of the desert.
I am obsessed with the hidden nature of things. As a painter of surreal desert landscapes I produce work that reveals the luminous beauty hidden in displaced objects and barren desolate horizons.
The types of objects I select to use as reference for my paintings are usually heavily rusted and broken pieces of metal. Reusing these discarded objects gives them a second life and a beauty they may not have originally had as tools or other useful items.
It is my objective to bring the viewer into the picture plane as if they are actually visiting. I want to take them out of the physical world and give them a feeling of traveling to a new and uncharted world. I want the viewer to be transformed by the image. I want to show them places they have never imagined.
Art Opening: Sally Murphy
Sally Murphy is largely a self-taught artist. As a child had a natural talent for drawing.
Later in life found it to be her true calling. She finished college at 42 with a
practical degree of a Bachelor of Science, in Environmental Health of her love of
nature. She then promptly and organically stepped on the artist’s path never using that
degree. The artist’s path allowed her the freedom to release the creativity that was
a constant swell in her life. During this time she developed her talent for a
subtractive method of painting utilizing cut-up sheets and rags and her fingers to
create very detailed images of trees, nests, and vignettes of nature. She found herself
wanting to capture the deeper sweetness and connection of the natural world and
evoke the moods and feelings that nature brings.
Later, being impatient with the slow drying process of oils she began working with the
fast-drying acrylics in between paintings. In the acrylic medium, she found herself
often accessing a deeper internal dialogue. She often uses a mildly
meditative state to begin, not knowing where or what she will be painting. Colors
tend to be bright and lively and harmonizing. You can find Sally working
from her home in Jerome Arizona, a small artist community near Sedona perched on
the side of Cleopatra Hill.
Art Opening: Nick Rascona
To create thought provoking art works that generate conversation, and engage communities near to and far from myself.
Poetry at Soiree #7
Poetry has always had a part in Obliq Art. We are excited to host a reading at S#7.
Art Opening Poet: Shawnte Orion
“Gravity and Spectacle”
Shawnte will be reading poetry from his published book “Gravity & Spectacle” https://tolsunbooks.com/shop/gravity-amp-spectacle. This is his collaborative work with photographer and fellow poet, Jia Oak Baker.
A Magical Review
“Cactus Head (the mask, the man, the poet) is a metonymy for Phoenix—the wastelands and the outposts and the once-iconic venues, all of it juxtaposed with the ever-public persona of a dandy, someone (or something) as ubiquitous as street art and the steel shade structures that line our downtown streets.
The persona that Orion creates through verse – and that Oak Baker brings to life through the image –is simultaneously the desert on drugs and in rehab. He is the curator of the ugly-beautiful, the faded bricks, and the fairytale horizon. Accordingly, Orion perfectly captures the limbo of modern life with the opening lines of the opening poem: the Sonoran desert is an hourglass/knocked on its side.
But maybe the most delicious part is the fact that the line between ego and alter ego is invisible here, that every poem leaves you feeling as though you’re listening to the wire-tap tapes of some old-school hooligan (maybe Orion himself) like it’s all a veiled confession in the spirit of Whitman’s Calamus poems, arranged and rearranged into a secret sequence of desire and longing—though not for the transcendent, but rather for the ephemera, the scraps of pop culture and personal desire he’s collected along the way. Orion’s leaving them for us like a trail of breadcrumbs, like a topographical map into the heart of Phoenix.
Most importantly, this collection has proven that Phoenix is a real city, its streets choked with culture, the fatty tissue of its heart lined with punk rock politics and poets who are sometimes as hollow as pinatas.
Rosemarie Dombrowski, inaugural Poet Laureate of Phoenix, founding editor of rinky dink press and The Revolution (Relaunch)
Art Opening Poet: Rosemarie Dombrowski
Rosemarie Dombrowski is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Phoenix, AZ and the founding editor of rinky dink press. She’s also the founding director of Revisionary Arts, a nonprofit that facilitates therapeutic poetry workshops for vulnerable populations and the community at large. Rosemarie is also the recipient of an Arts Hero award (2017), a Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets (2020), a Great 48 award (Phoenix Magazine, 2020), and the Arizona Humanities Outstanding Speaker Award (2022). She’s an Assistant Professor of Practice at U of A Biomedical (Phoenix) and a Principal Lecturer at Arizona State University where she specializes in medical humanism, literature of the marginalized, and journal editing/production.
Chef Devan Cunningham
Since 2017, we’ve hosted everything from intimate dinners to grandiose weddings! No matter the size, we treat you like our own family!
Our team of professionals is excited to bring your vision to life alongside our intersecting passion for food, music, culture, and hospitality.
Devan is our resident culinary judge and provocateur. The expression of the culinary arts is part of the Soiree evening. Our BYOB and small plate potlucks bring the artists out of all of us.
Devan is doing a series of pop-ups around the valley.
Artists of Soiree #6
Art Opening Artist: Joey Melinda Morgan
Bringing nature inside through bold abstraction. I am inspired by the natural world’s hues, contours, and textures of canyon walls, sand patterns, tree bark, sandstone formations, plant life, and intricate organic designs in stone. Most often, we admire nature from a distance; it’s an entirely different experience when viewed close-up. The intricate detail, shapes, and designs are formed biologically by wind, water, and fire.
Chemistry also inspires me. The effects of chemical reactions on copper produce an array of vivid colors and patterns – I like to say it’s when chemistry becomes ‘art.’
The initial step in my creative process is to create and photograph patina-style copper. Then I digitally merge one or more copper photos with one or more close-up images of nature. I scale, skew, or distort to enhance the texture detail and depth of the composition. Nature gives us our most spectacular art forms, but I add another dimension, perspective, twist, and thought-provoking view to send the viewer on a visual journey. The final composite image is printed on metal.
Conjuring ideas for a new piece is an explorative, challenging process that I enthusiastically welcome. An individual’s journey to serenity is uniquely their own. For me, it is the creative process. It comes from within, it cannot be rushed, and it evolves as it is nurtured. As long asI can be creative on some level; peace exists within; it feeds my spirit and soul.
Art Opening Artist: Hector Ortega
My work focuses on abstract and simplified geometrical three-dimensional forms, their relationships, and interconnections amongst each other: life experiences, constraints, and my current environment. Steel as a medium has enabled me to translate gentle arcs, rolling waves, and tapering geometries into forms that, once interconnected, evoke a sense of place, calm, and order in our environment. Most of all, to inspire others to better this world. I want people to be excited as I am for a project and to be inspired to do more with every opportunity that is given to them. It is my duty to uphold a standard that is inspirational to all.
Hector Ortega
Who attends Soirees?
Professional artists and their partners. Collectors attend who are bringing friends. Those connected with arts and culture community. To clarify, Soirees are the art opening night.
Are Soirees Private?
Soirees are private and invitational only. We started the Soiree events during the pandemic. First, we wanted to play it safe for the events. Second, we began with a limited number of invitations. Above all, and like all galleries, limiting the number of people to an event was prudent. As word of mouth spread, so did the requests for an invitation.
