On March 2nd I dropped by the reception at the new Wee Gallery in the back of OZMA Atelier (vintage clothing) at the building on the SW corner of 6th St. and 6th Avenue. Address there is 439 N. 6th Avenue, and it’s a wee bit hidden but worth the search. Website: www.gallerywee.com. And it’s also a wee bit small for any art gallery, hence its appropriate name.

Exhibiting for the month of March is the Tucson Weekly’s cartoonist Rand Carlson, with his unique tin collage art pieces/pictures made out of recycled cans and auto license plates. If you haven’t seen his creative art over the years (he used to exhibit at Bohemia), drop by the Wee Gallery which is open Thursday to Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This particular show of 11 pictures is all about guns and the American craze over them, hence the name “Armed and Dangerous”. I particularly liked the one entitled “The Gunited States of America” (take off of United States of America) with cut out pieces from cans depicting portraits of past U.S. Presidents and their First Ladies. I remember eating cookies out of similar cans, as I had saved them for our son to learn about American history.

From Rand’s artist statement:

Collage seems to be a medium of this modern world. It mimics the elements of thought, emotions, and even a diverse society. A collection of similar and dissimilar pieces quilted together to form a new larger whole, a composite reality.

The element of recycling is also a contemporary notion in the art. To reuse and reinvent these materials into a conceptual whole that borrows from folk art, and even a manufacturing environment, morphing into a ‘new’ object.

Over the years we’ve also seen Rand exhibit at the Temple of Music and Art and at the Tucson Museum of Art downtown, and my husband and I started saving our used cookie cans for him to use in his art.

Rand’s art studio is at the Citizens Artist Collective at 44 W. 6th Street (upstairs), and his artist website is: www.randomshots.com. Go to his website to see lots and lots of other one-of-a-kind collage art pieces.

Drop by any branch library of the Pima County public Library and locate a copy of their January to April, 2011 magazine “At your Library”. The cover artwork is by Tucson artist Mel Dominguez, who moved here from Los Angeles several years ago.

Here’s a photo of this lovely mixed media painting of “A” Mountain (courtesy of the artist from her website):

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Check out lots more of her art at her website “Melo Rockin’ Our City”: www.melodominguez.com.

Mel got her start painting mural in Los Angeles and went on to serve an internship at Self Help Graphics & Art in East Los Angeles sponsored by The Getty Museum. During the internship she began creating art in various mediums, including watercolor, ink, acrylic, plaster, clothing and photography.

We’ve seen several different exhibitions of her sketches, murals, paintings at Fragment Gallery, My Addiction Gallery, Bohemia, and Raices Taller Gallery, all in Tucson. I think one of my favorite paintings of Mel’s is coincidentally the one pictured above, selected by Pima County Public Library for their current magazine.

Coming up (save the date):

Create Your Own Altered Book

“Tucson artist Mel “Melo” Dominquez will lead an interative “Altered Book” workshop. Her work can be viewed around Tucson and on her website, melodominquez.com. This program is part of the library’s Nuestras Raices: Celebrating Mexican-American Authors, Arts and Culture.”

Monday March 28, 2011
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Location: Quincie Douglas Branch Library,
1585 E. 36th St. (NW corner of Kino Parkway)
Tucson, AZ 85713
520-594-5335