Despite the destruction of some of its property earlier in the week, the Santa Clarita Artists Association held its grand re-opening in Newhall and premiered its exhibition, “Fresh Perspectives,” on Friday.
In remodeling the space, gallery chair Mardi Giorgio reached out to Home Depot and Boy Scout Troop 499, which her sons belonged to. A new exhibit called “Fresh Perspectives” accompanied the gallery’s reopening. Portraits and drawings reflected various and different perspectives on nature through new or unusual points of view.
“There’s some interesting perspectives in there, and a lot of people’s imagination,” said Mardi Giorgio, artist and gallery chair. “This one shows quite the imagination of this group of artists that we have. Really interesting work this time. This one stretched the boundaries a little bit, so that was pretty fun.”
Georgette Arison’s “Space Girl” featured a a futuristic woman, drawn in colored pencil and originally based off a black and white photograph.
“I love depicting different types of women,” Arison said. “I do a lot of that kind of art and in each piece, I’m that person. So this is just another perspective of different personalities that I have that come through me in portraying a lot of women in different facets, different lifestyles, different careers. It’s reaching for the stars.”
The reopening was not deterred by a fire which burned a storage unit at Extra Storage Valencia containing SCAA supplies. Donations stored at art auctions, along with some artwork, a portable air conditioner, and display panels were destroyed in the blaze. The job left now is to clean and recover what’s salvageable from the unit. Artist and SCAA member Howard Marcovitch hopes half of what was in the unit can be salvaged.
“Tomorrow’s job is individually assessing how bad the damage is and see if I can get a better picture of it,” he said.
“Fresh Perspectives” is set to run until Feb. 24.
