Robyn Jones
Staff Writer
In the Gallery SOHO at the Montclair Place mall, artists jumped the “Down the Rabbit Hole” to create an edgy spring themed exhibition along with an Easter event on April 15 in the Pomona Valley Art Association space.
“Down the Rabbit Hole” is a quirky and edgy concept created by Kat Hopkins, artist and member of the Association. The exhibit also features eight other artists.
Inside the gallery, members of the Association set up a class area to allow children to participate in an air-dry clay egg making class and egg hunt in spirit of Easter Sunday.
For artists to get their work in the show, they had to be active Association members.
The artwork was set out on podiums for were sculptures or standing ceramics, and on the wall if they could be hung.
The color scheme had a dark edge.
For a spring themed show, it was intriguing to see the artwork in dark blues, browns, reds, and semi-dark greens.
“It was a loose concept,” Hopkins said.
“We wanted to be about spring, but we didn’t want it to be so limited, like it has to be only rabbits.”
Hopkins created a rustic steampunk watering can inspired by the movie “Alice in Wonderland.”
Around the base of the can were glued on gear-shifts, quotes from the movie, a key and a clock.
It caught the eye of many visitors.
It was an intricate quirky handmade piece, and all of its elements blended together as one.
Richard Morris of Rancho Cucamonga was another featured artist.
He’s a landscape artist who focuses mainly on painting rocks, water, and sky as a part of his entries and has his own personal signature.
Morris’ paintings were perspective pictures looking from the inside out.
His art had the effect of transporting the viewer into a cave filled with a sea of rocks and a never-ending ocean.
“They’re stylized landscapes,” Morris said. I don’t try to photographically paint something.”
As an artist he said he hoped this event would bring a few more people into the gallery to see what all the noise is all about.
Ruthellyn Whittington was another artist with two pieces in the exhibit.
One of her pieces was a woven frame with a moon and sun in the middle of feathers harboring the outside of the circle.
Her color scheme was midnight blue with accents of a grayish silver.
“The exhibit as a whole – I love it,” Whittington said.
“I like that it is different from just a painting or a piece of art. It makes you think. It’s whimsical, clever, and it puts a little bit of a skip in my step.”
Andre Ford, an event host and artist, said he was happy with the exhibit’s outcome.
Because Pomona Valley Art Association is a non-profit organization, any funds from such shows and events go right back into funding the organization.
For more information, visit pvaa.net.
Robyn Jones can be reached at robyn.jones2@laverne.edu.
Robyn Jones is a senior journalism major and sports editor for the Campus Times. She is also a member of Iota Delta and a freelance photographer whose work can be found on Instagram at @jnaisphotos.
Drake Ingram, a junior criminology major and photography minor, is a staff photographer for the Campus Times.
