Expand<\/a><\/p>\nThis exhibition was co-curated by longtime arts writer Bondo Wyszpolski with the help of Los Angeles artist Bernard Fallon (who also has a piece in the exhibit).<\/p>\n
\u201cBondo has written these prompts that are kind of organized by themes or categories,\u201d Niessen said. \u201cAnd then the artists he invited picked prompts and made an artwork in response to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artists worked on their pieces for about six months, Niessen said, though conversations around the show had been ongoing for well more than a year.<\/p>\n
Participating artists received a list of more than 70 prompts \u2014 short, imaginative snippets that ranged from whimsical to unsettling. Drawn from themes including mythology, nature, animals, seascapes and urban life, the prompts included lines such as:<\/p>\n
\u201cA circus woman with an apple on her head and arrow through her forehead.\u201d
\n\u201cThey buried the long snake by first rolling it up like a carpet.\u201d
\n\u201cPeople glued to a television set.\u201d
\n\u201cStill life with parrot. The painting shows an empty cage, door open.\u201d
\n\u201cThe birth of magenta. Someone has accidentally stepped on paint and it has squirted all over a pristine child or cat.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a side note, I couldn\u2019t help but think that this whole exercise feels like feeding weird prompts into ChatGPT and asking the artificial intelligence to create \u201cart.\u201d What fun Wyszpolski must have had imagining the art that would be created by his imaginings!<\/p>\n
It makes sense, perhaps, that Wyszpolski approached the project as a writer. A longtime Easy Reader contributor and editor, he has spent decades covering the South Bay arts scene,cultivating the relationships that helped him assemble a roster of artists eager to participate.<\/p>\n
He is also working on a novel.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last several years, going way back into the last century, I would always write down little descriptions of possible subjects for paintings, like two or three sentences,\u201d Wyszpolski said.\u00a0\u201cThey would pop into my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those word snippets have also become tools for his fiction writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been writing this novel, and in the novel, the characters go to all these art shows, so I had to have them see real pictures,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I mean real in the sense that I could describe what they saw, even though the pictures did not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
The descriptions were sent to the participating artists, who were free to choose whichever prompt resonated with them and do with it as they wished.<\/p>\n
While most pieces are oil or acrylic on canvas, the exhibition also includes a sculpture, a photographic work, a lenticular print, and a piece created with archival pigment on woodenframes with gilded mulberry paper.<\/p>\n
Some artists even chose the same prompt \u2014 resulting in multiple interpretations of a single phrase.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them are taking it very literally, and others are very imaginative and kind of going in a more abstract, expressive way,\u201d Niessen said. \u201cSo it\u2019s kind of fun to see how everyone took on the challenge individually.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many artists, that challenge meant stepping outside their comfort zones.<\/p>\n
Rancho Palos Verdes artist Nicole Carmody, who chose the \u201ccircus woman with an apple on her head and arrow through her forehead\u201d prompt, said the words spoke to her experience with grief. Her painting was Picasso-esque \u2014 an abstract face amid bold colors and sharp angles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through so much stuff in my life; I lost my husband 10 years ago,\u201d Carmody said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s a painting of grief,\u201d she added, \u201cthe madness and the shock and just the hurt and the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolling Hills portrait artist Susan Whiting, meanwhile, chose the same prompt, but her painting was a more straightforward depiction: a young woman, poised with an apple on her head and a toy arrow embedded in her forehead \u2014 all painted in soft brush strokes and pastel colors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI chose to paint the subject matter the way I did,\u201d Whiting said, \u201cafter imagining how betrayed I would feel if someone had promised to hit the apple on my head and instead hit my forehead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karen Wharton, a wildlife artist who has participated in earlier iterations of the project since 2020, said the goal has always been to push artists in new directions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge,\u201d Wharton said. \u201cThe whole idea was to get the artists out of their comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Carter, whose richly textured painting \u201cBird in a Gilded Cage\u201d was inspired by the \u201cstill life with parrot\u201d prompt, echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is different than what I usually do,\u201d the San Diego artist said. \u201cIt was a little bit off the charts from what I normally do. That\u2019s why it was kind of fun to paint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wyszpolski himself has explored variations of this idea before, including a 2011 photography project in which dozens of photographers were asked to photograph the same woman, each in their own way. This is the first time the concept has been realized at the Manhattan Beach Art Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great way to showcase local talent,\u201d Niessen said. \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to have such a great community following us, and it\u2019s great to be able to give back in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Want to try your creative hand at interpretation? The exhibition includes a free community education space where visitors can choose a written prompt, use provided supplies to createtheir own art, then post their finished works on the wall for others to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically inviting the public to make their own work in response to prompts that we have written,\u201d Niessen said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great activity for kids to come and do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Are You Seeing What I\u2019m Seeing\u2019<\/p>\n
When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday through March 29.<\/p>\n
Where: The Manhattan Beach Art Center, 1560 Manhattan Beach Blvd.<\/p>\n
Cost: Free.<\/p>\n
Information: 310-802-5440 or infombac@manhattanbeach.gov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Art is in the eye \u2014 or, rather, the words \u2014 of the beholder at a new exhibit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63,48906,32478,4862],"class_list":["post-108604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-tbr-entertainment","tag-tbr-things-to-do","tag-the-beach-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n