Art is Life is Art: Susan Reep Photo Art

The Bakersfield art scene is exploding!  Artists Deon Bell and John Moore have opened The Bellmore, a gallery with a cool vibe.  It’s underground – literally, in the basement of a turn-of-the-century building that once was a bakery.  Check out what Deon and John have to say about their new venture in this vimeo by Gabriel Briano.

Mark and I went to the opening last night, and being us, we went early and left early.  Something about getting older I guess.

The entrance is suitably cryptic – and the stairs are very steep.  VERY steep.

Caught a musician scurrying down.

DISCLAIMER: If these photos don’t look too good, it’s because I’ve had another camera mishap.  Remember the last one?  I dropped my purse in the driveway and we ran over it – twice?  And my favorite little Canon Power Shot SD550 was inside?  This time it’s not quite so bad, but I took my new Canon Elph last night instead of the 5D – thank goodness! – and almost before I took a single photo (I took these as we exited) I tripped on a raised part of the floor and dropped the camera.  With the lens out.  And that’s where it landed.  I could take photos, as you can see, but the lens is a little crooked and won’t extend or shut properly, so it’ll be off to Canon tomorrow.  I just love to spend money on technology repair.  You might think it’s my fault and not the gallery’s, and you’d probably be right.  I just thought those little white lights outlining the sitting area were to be pretty, not to mark a change in floor level. But then again, I’ve been known to trip on nothing.

So.  Into the gallery.  It has a cool, cement-like basement vibe.   D’oh, it’s in a basement.  But it feels good.

That’s John on the left, and Deon.  I’m not familiar with John’s work, but Deon is brilliant.  Such an impressive artist with a determination and hunger to make art available to everyone and raise Bakersfield’s art IQ a few notches.  He has grand plans.  I’m too tired for grand plans but Deon will probably achieve his.  Cool guy.

This is a studio area and I believe they’re going to rent out space.  In fact, I think space is already rented out.

Fantastic space.  Wish we’d been able to stay for the music.  I can only imagine the sound.  There will be lots of chances, however, and moving fatigue will have left us and I’ll be up to the challenge of later nights.  Right?  At least I’m ever-hopeful.

On the way in, we passed a couple on a bus bench.  They said, “You going in there? Don’t bother.  It’s not worth it.”  I wanted to go grab those guys and say, “Are you crazy? This is so worth it.  One of the coolest spaces in town!” I guess they were too cool for themselves even, her with her blue hair and him all in black.

Even had a nod to American Idol but I’m pretty sure there was another meaning here.  I liked this painting.

This was another dramatic painting.  Those brick walls are a brilliant background.

I remember when the trend began to leave pipes exposed and give an industrial feel to a space.  Everyone was very impressed with this out-of-the-box ultra-modern thinking.  Of course, when you set up shop in a basement, it comes that way already.

The poster for the show made a nice contrasting statement to the space.

Splendid Life.  The all-American Cleavers would have been horrified to set foot in The Bellmore, this basement art gallery.  But I hope Bakersfield embraces this venue and keeps things percolating downtown.  We have arrived.  We’ve come a long way since Ward, June, Wally and the Beave.

Web page

I’m going to be putting some new photos on my web page soon, so watch this space!   Plus, I’m getting more up on Etsy.  That’s tomorrow’s task, should I choose to complete it, and I do.  I shipped some photos to Tanzania recently and they arrived just fine, so go ahead and order, folks!  I’ll get gorgeous photos to you wherever you are.

More Bakersfield Galleries

For up-to-date information about another new Bakersfield Gallery, The Micro Gallery, check out  Terry Telford’s article in Bakersfield Express.

Tags: art scene, bakersfield CA, Bakersfield Express, camera problems, Creative Every Day, Deon Bell, Micro Gallery, new art gallery, Terry Telford, The Bellmore

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2010 at 3:59 PM and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.