By Julie Leah

The Huntington Beach Art Center’s theme for 2023 is the environment. When we visited the installation, curator Brian Ball was in the midst of setting up their latest exhibition, Art Reclaimed. The exhibition takes a fresh look at the idea of environmental art. The show features art in vibrant colors and textures utilizing reused and discarded materials. The show is comprised of 13 artists utilizing different styles of reclaimed art, from rusted to fine art.

In the exhibition, viewers can often recognize the remnants of mass-produced items once discarded and rendered obsolete, and see how those items have been reimagined and transformed into something beautiful.

Included in the exhibition are large installations with fiber art, glass work and sculptures. Curator and artist Brian Ball said, “Art Reclaimed is all about making beautiful art for people to enjoy. We embrace reclaimed materials that radiate substance to create a fun experience.”

The exhibit is on view July 22 - September 16, 2023.
For more information on Art Reclaimed, please visit the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92648. Call (714) 374-1650 or email artcenterstaff@surfcity-hb.org for more information.

Lately, I've been waking up to surprising weather that oscillates between the marine layer and a warm sunny day.
 
It's rare to find an art show that reflects this see-saw effect, but it's becoming more common in the local Southern California and global landscape.

"By Degrees: Art and Our Changing Ecology," presented by the Huntington Beach Art Center, offers a timely examination of how weather conditions affect the environment. The exhibit runs from April 15 to June 10, 2023, and is curated by guest jurists Luciana Abait and Lawrence Gipe.

The curators have taken a broad view of the environmental theme and have included art produced with conventional and unconventional materials, such as repurposed "non-art" and eco-activist documentation.
 
While canvas art depicting storms and showing trash in our oceans and melting icebergs caused me to pause with sadness, it was an art video showing a Southern California firestorm that made my eyes water. I said, "Wait, we just had all that rain," but if you've lived in Southern California as long as I have, you know that we have a “fire season,” which is often in the fall. However, who knows? That might be shifting as well.


The fire-themed video is not the only thematic film on display. There is another film from Antarctica and a 40-minute film, "Rizomas," by Carolina Montejo, which presents a compilation of atmospheric sound, reflective monologues, and nature subtly moving from image to image. The film is screened weekly in the Art Center's multipurpose room, Tuesday and Wednesday at 4 pm, Thursday at 6 pm, Friday at 5 pm, and Saturday at 2 pm.

For more information on "By Degrees: Art and Our Changing Ecology", please visit the Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92648. Call (714) 374-1650 or email artcenterstaff@surfcity-hb.org. Web www.huntingtonbeachartcenter.org.

Helen Plehn is an intuitive painter, certified crystal healer, third generation Fengshui master and spiritual teacher based in Huntington Beach, California. She is also a Yoga Alliance certified Yoga and meditation teacher, Ayurveda practitioner, and a passionate Flamenco dancer. Her work has been exhibited in the Orange County Fine Arts Showcase Gallery and the Huntington Beach Art Center. Additionally, she teaches acrylic painting at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Newport Beach, California. ​​

Because of her spiritual practices, she sees colors as energies; in fact, everything is energy. Her art is about joy, beauty, and wisdom. You can feel them in the vibrant and saturated colors, joyful objects of life, and expressive, energetic brushstrokes. Synchronizing colors, crystals, and symbols energies to manifest a piece is her expertise. She deeply believes that at her soul level, joy and beauty are its expressions. Her ancient soul was a wise teacher and healer and her humanness asks her to lead and create.

Helen will be teaching these fantastic classes in the spring of 2022:

Expressive Floral Painting
Join this acrylic floral painting class to explore the symbolic magic of flowers. Inspired by Georgia O' Keeffe, Expressionism, and Modernism, we are going to play with proportion, scale, line, color, composition, and various brushstrokes. We will channel our emotions and energies into our paintings expressively. $40 material fee.

Helen Plehn | Studio
251656-4A      18-99 yrs      Fri      4/1-4/29      3:30-4:30pm      $191/166
251656-4B      18-99 yrs      Fri      5/13-6/10     3:30-4:30pm      $191/166


Meditation as a Daily Practice
This class introduces you to various meditation techniques from different traditions. The goal is to find a practice for you to achieve calm, joy, unconditional self-love, and inner fulfillment. Some practices include mindful gazing at artworks, loving-kindness meditation, sound bathing, mantra meditation, and moving meditation.

Helen Plehn | Multipurpose Room
251551-4A      18-99 yrs      Wed        3/30-4/27     3:30-4:30pm      $156/135
251551-4B      18-99 yrs      Wed        5/11-6/8          3:30-4:30pm     $156/135

Enroll Online Today!​