Vallejo is known for its talented artists and they are all on display for free throughout town with the annual open art studios.
Approximately 70 local artists showed off their work at over 20 locations throughout the city starting on Saturday and continuing on Sunday. One of the venues was on Georgia and Marin streets at the Temple Arts Lofts, which had eight artists display their talented work.
One of the artists there was sculptor Jean Cherie.
“This location is great and we’re often the very first place people stop by on the tour,” Cherie said. “I think that is because people naturally walk by it and sometimes the art in the windows catches their attention. They say, ‘Oh, it’s open, so let’s go in there.’”
The venue featured a pair of guest artists and a new resident showing off their work at the venue for the first time.
“I really like the opportunity to meet the people and ask them what brought them in,” Cherie said. “A lot of people see me at other places and they love my art. They like seeing what my latest art is. I really enjoy talking about how I am doing things, what I’m doing and what the art is made of.”
Cast paper art is what Cherie specializes in, but she said she doesn’t design a piece of art specifically for the Open Art Studios weekend.
“No, because I’m constantly moved to create art all the time,” Cherie said.
Jane Zhang was showing off her art at the same studio as Cherie. She’s been creating art since she was only 4 years old and is a fourth generation to create Chinese calligraphy. She won a national prize when she was 18 and has been continuing to put up creative pieces of art for the last 35 years. Zhang, who lives in the lofts, said she sold 12 pieces of her art on Friday night alone.
“I love having a discount place to live and work,” Zhang said. “I feel the people here really support me. I feel really happy being here. I’m happy when people say, “that’s beautiful art.’”
Zhang said she doesn’t become too attached to any of her work.
“No, no, I feel art is made to make other people happy,” Zhang said. “So I don’t have any feelings bad in letting it go.”
Muralist and CEO of One Triple People Izzy Drumgoole was thrilled to show off her art at her new location, the Norman King Center on Magazine Street. Drumgoole has started working at the venue thanks to a new partnership with the Greater Vallejo Recreation District.
Drumgoole said there was four artists being shown off at the venue, some having their work shown for the first time.
“I absolutely love that this event takes place and I am thankful for the people that have been doing it for the last 10 years,” Drumgoole. “What’s most exciting today is the weather is beautiful so people will be out and about. We have two new artists and I tell them, ‘We need to start somewhere. We need to start.’ Sometimes people keep waiting and never start.”
Drumgoole still loves just sharing her art and having conversations with the people coming in to visit. She also loves inspiring new artists.
“I love breaking things down into baby steps and having people learn about art by breaking it down and making it like a color page or a paint-by-numbers,” she said. “I love seeing people get pleasantly surprised with how good something turned out when initially they thought they couldn’t do it all. I think art is a complete healing method and maybe one day they require that everyone does art multiple times a week and it becomes like a vitamin.”
Open Art Studios in Vallejo continues on Sunday. For more information visit vallejoopenstudios.com.
