Kamila K. De La Fuente
Assistant Editor
In the heart of the Claremont Village, the Claremont Art Walk bursted with color and passion on Saturday evening, lighting up the streets as people wandered West Second Street and North Yale Avenue.
While featuring art exhibits at the Claremont Chamber of Commerce and participating local businesses there was also live music, vendors, varied art mediums and more.
This monthly edition of the Claremont Art Walk featured a lineup of several artists throughout the Village and Memorial Park.
On the west side walkway of Bunny Gunner Gallery and Framing, visitors can find the Button Box Museum, written in curly cursive print on a wall display, presenting “The Pearlies of London.” In the window, you see a set of male and female petite dolls dressed in hats and coats, covered to the brim with buttons.
The Button Box Museum is curated by ButtonAnnie for Bunny Gunner Gallery. Originally called Hole in the Wall Gallery, it features small pieces of art in the display. And for the last seven months, Ann Seltzer has taken over the curation of the museum, making sure there is a new piece every month to be included in the art walk.
Yvette Hart, the owner of Bunny Gunner Gallery and Framing, features local artists every month for the Claremont Art Walk. In addition to her art gallery, Hart does custom picture framing for the general public and frequently for artists when they are having a show in different venues.
Her gallery, located at 230 W. Bonita Ave. in Claremont, is showcasing Max Prothro’s series “The Tree Show” that is inspired by the writings and life of Herman Hesse, which Prothro began about two years ago.
“Supporting local artists by giving them an opportunity to have a show in the galleries is what keeps the art walk going here in Claremont,” Hart said.
Hart said that this in turn brings numerous people into Claremont businesses that may not frequent or have been there before, bringing more awareness and exposure to village businesses.
The fleeting image of Prothro’s scenic cloudscape painted apple in the front display has you daydreaming, before you find yourself admiring the works of Argentine-born, Los Angeles-based artist Atilio Pernisco at the Claremont Chamber of Commerce on 205 Yale Ave.
Pernisco’s medium is oil on canvas. The pieces featured were from a 2021 exhibition titled “Scramble.”
“The pieces are almost reminiscent of a whole body of work I did during COVID-19,” Pernisco said. “It was like the inside of your apartment kind of work from those two years and a half.”
Next, on 200 W. First St. you can find the exhibit featuring works from glass artists Kéké Cribbs, Richard Marquis and David Svenson in the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art, in the Claremont Depot.
This exhibition in particular “Transformations in Glass: Vitreous Funk, Fantasy, and Light”, runs through Feb. 5, 2023.
Crescent Tree Corp on 206 W. Bonita Ave. in Suite G presents “Picture Us,” a group exhibition by current Claremont Graduate University students. It features the work of University of La Verne graduate Fel Nikoli McCoy, Alexis St. John, Huaijin “Moki” Li, K’Von Blakemore-Johnson, Jonathan Godinez Davila, Jeneane van Grotewiel and Elysabeth Belle.
The Ginger Elliot Gallery at Claremont Heritage, located at 840 N. Indian Hill Blvd., had an assortment of holiday cards and artwork by notable Claremont artists in the exhibition “A Gift of Traditions.”
In Studio C, located on 260 W. Bonita Ave., you could see a show of small 6×6-inch paintings in spirit of the studio’s six year anniversary, featuring local artists Sue Conner, Karen Karlsson, Denise Kraemer, and A.S. Ashley that runs through Dec. 31.
Conner made all her pieces especially for this exhibition to meet the six by six criteria. This included stitched items, encaustic elements, as well as components of repurpose fabric that has been ecodyed: primarily eucalyptus leaves and other kinds of foliage on paper or fabric, whose images she incorporated into her compositions.
“The art walk is fantastic exposure, because there’s a lot of people, it’s a nice small art community,” Conner said.
Down the line you can find art from Susan Hertel, Millard Sheets, Milford Zornes, Phil Dike and John Svensen at Square I, located at 110 Harvard Ave.
The art walk comes full circle with the exhibition “Winter Boutique,” which showcases work of artists Ron Lane, Dolores Montijo and Elizabeth Mayer at the Pomona Valley Art Association, located at 317 W. First St. in Claremont.
The event is free to the public and takes place on the first Saturday of every month.
The next Claremont Art Walk will take place from 6 p.m to 9 p.m on Jan. 7 in the Claremont Village.
Kamila K. De La Fuente can be reached at kamila.delafuente@laverne.edu.
Kamila K. De La Fuente, a senior creative writing and journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism, is a staff writer for the Campus Times.
