By Shanika Whaley
City Times
The San Diego ArtWalk had another yearly showing in the streets of Little Italy on April 28-29. From India Street to Date, Little Italy was packed with people, all interested in browsing or purchasing some amazing art pieces.
With art, selections of home goods and food, as well as some much needed entertainment for the children, this turned out to be a great, family fun weekend.
ArtWalk was in its 23rd season this year. Some new artists, especially from Mexico got to show off their painted pieces or photographs, while featured artists talked about some of their most prominent pieces and how much they cost.
Roberta Veatch had a booth set up at ArtWalk, displaying some of her hand-made pieces- earrings and pendants for necklaces the pieces looked like beautifully colored rocks, with interesting pictures and shapes inside. When asked if her pieces were blown glass, she simply stated, “No, I hand-fuse all my pieces.” She continued, “Hand-fusing is the act of melting to pieces of glass together. Not similar to blowing glass, which is melting and shaping objects together.”
Another artist, Paz Winnstein showed some amazingly detailed oil paintings of what looks like a normal human being, but was really a dummy. “I usually use models in my paintings, but sometimes I use dummies,” Winnstein noted.
Winnstein’s oil paintings captured the real essence of the human body and used bright colors that were captured brilliantly by the light. One of her paintings that showed this imagery was the “Comedy and Tragedy” oil painting. Comedy and Tragedy has the two faces, one side happy, the other sad, but in this oil painting Winnstein captured the two faces on a man and a woman. “This painting I thought of in my head,” she stated. “It was merely conceptual in the beginning.”
ArtWalk also introduced interesting sculptures cut out of glass. One of the featured artists, Greg Dinaur cut big pieces of glass and structured them into different forms and shapes. Colors swirled through the flowing cut glass, while another was displayed and cut into a city. Each cut piece of glass had a different structure and flow to it, none of it was the same.
The Mexican Consulate, on India Street had a lot of talented artists too. Maria Evangelina Rodriguez, from Mexico had been displaying her art at ArtWalk for five years now. Her work is expressive, and detailed, also she likes to work with watercolors. She also had her horses outside for every body to see. “I love horses,” she exclaimed. “I have one horse of my own and I love it.”
The public was so intrigued by all that ArtWalk had to offer them- great art from the locals, terrific food, and music. There was so much to see that you couldn’t see it all in one day.
“I can’t believe all the fantastic art that’s out here,” said Suzy Johnson. “Where I’m from, Minnesota, we don’t have anything like this.”
“I’ve never had so much food in my life,” said Frank Floyd about the immense amount of culinary treats. “Everything is delicious and flavorful. These Italian restaurants and food stands out here offer a lot of variety.”
The two days in Little Italy were filled with people, food and fantastic art. All the artists involved worked hard to get their art shown. Even though the San Diego ArtWalk is in its 23rd year, the art keeps getting better and better each year.
