IMPERIAL — Almost a year after the “Life, Land, Leisure: Selections from the Hetzel Collection” of historic photography was displayed at Pioneers’ Museum, Far South Border North artists as well as other Imperial Valley artists responded to the collection with their own interpretations, ranging from a community quilt to digital art to traditional art pieces.
Titled “Hetzel Pretzel: Local History with a Twist,” an exhibit to reimagine the revered photographer’s work, was free to the public on Friday night, July 19 and community members were able to enjoy free drinks and food from the Critter Corral Food and Bar Art Experience, including signature cocktails like the Leo Hetzel-Ade and the Critter Overboard.
Victor “Leo” Leopold Hetzel, a portrait photographer, was born in 1877 in Northern California and moved to El Centro in the early 1910s, where he became Imperial Valley’s most significant photographer until his death in 1949.
Leo Hetzel’s photographs of the Imperial Valley consisted of everyday life, where he captured photos of farmworkers in the fields, desert landscapes, group portraits, businesses, homes, schools, group projects and more.
Susana Martinez, an assistant artist at Pioneers’ Museum as well as one of Far South Border North’s granted artists who specializes in fiber art, was present at Friday’s event.
She presented her “In the Garden” mixed media art piece that was made from acrylic yarn, felt, wire and buttons that were placed on foamcore. This piece was inspired by one of Hetzel’s photographs of the Imperial Valley Fairgrounds; the photograph contains a view of a cactus garden, which she recreated on the 11-inch-by-14-inch foamcore piece.
Martinez also participated in the creation of an aerial view quilt of the Imperial Valley that was displayed at the showcase on Friday. She stated that a lot of the quilt blocks were donated, and she gives herself credit for about 70 percent of the work on the quilt, which includes cutting and stitching it together.
Artists from the Desert Quilters of Imperial Valley as well as other Far South Border North artists contributed to the creation of the quilt as well. “It’s a community quilt made by the community,” Martinez said.
Annaka Penner Smith, another assistant artist at Pioneers’ Museum, created two series of mixed media art/poetry for Friday’s event. The first two pieces are inspired by a Hetzel photograph that contains a cantaloupe, the second two pieces are inspired by a different Hetzel photograph that features interwoven telephone poles.
“I thought the cantaloupe was so inspiring and cute, so I took two canvases and split them in half, one with a full cantaloupe and one with a slice across it. I also wrote a poem for the piece that reads, ‘Cantaloupe that sweet fleshed moon, sliced and grinning just for you,’” Smith said.
“The bottom two pieces are called, “Telephone pole.” They were painted as a group together and I later chopped them in half. I added another poem that reads, ‘High and mighty as a telephone pole why do you never pick up when I call, the morning birds carry my song, settle down beside you, when they find you, chirping, I love you, I miss you I’ll call again soon,’” Smith said.
Jazz LedBetter, an artist originally from Hartford, Connecticut, who has been residing in Brawley for the past six years, displayed three mixed media artworks at Friday’s event.
“What I wanted to do is I wanted to emulate Hetzel by capturing the fact that he was able to photograph each race and demographic in the Valley, as you look at the piece you’ll see that it’s almost segregated by race but not just race by likeness as well, with agricultural workers, sports teams, healthcare workers and business owners all being together,” LedBetter said.
“If you look in the far right corner of the first piece, you’ll see a tiny photograph of an African American woman on top of a pickup truck flatbed and I wanted to make sure she was represented in the photo as someone of color, I wanted her to be part of this event,” she said.
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LedBetter’s third piece was a spinoff from the community quilt that was displayed at the showcase, and she chose to display this third art piece in the African American section of the museum, as she feels proud to be one of few African American artists in the Imperial Valley.
“Being the founder of Harlot Heart, hearts are my favorite, so I wanted to incorporate that in my piece as well as put some ‘pizzazz’ on it. A quilt piece is naturally something that is supposed to be repetitious and have a pattern to it, but I wanted to go ahead and emulate that there’s pattern in imperfection, each square is similar but not the same, I wanted to show my abstract side in this piece, just to make sure that you can turn it anyway and it’ll still be the same,” LedBetter added.
Jesus Corral, an Imperial Valley artist, created a digital art piece using the pinstriping technique of a 1934 Plymouth vehicle.
“I got the inspiration from one of Hetzel’s photos of a Plymouth car where a woman is seen standing beside it. I recreated the image without the woman and just drew the car with the pinstriping technique. It’s a technique of painting that is famously used on lowrider cars. I wanted to recreate those types of lines in my piece,” Corral said.
Nissim Ouzan, another Imperial Valley artist, displayed his acrylic on canvas piece “After the Market” at Friday’s event, which was inspired by a Hetzel photograph of a market that showcases fruit stands.
“I decided to paint someones courtyard with a bag of fruit; they have some sliced up, they have a smoothie, and on the paper bag of fruit it’s the name of this market that’s very expensive and unattainable (Erewhon) yet all the fruit came from the same crop and field. The pixels that are in the background is representing one of my personal paintings of the style I create, and it’s just a representation of how food becomes a commodity, and even though it comes from same ground you can see other paintings and his photographs are of people eating it on the fields,” said Ouzan about his piece.
