Tercer Mano at Coastline Community College Art Gallery

Thanks to everyone who made it out! It was great to have your support. Hoping to see you out again at the Art Walk and Lyon's at Night this Saturday.

Life Out Back

This piece was inspired by a friend who is living much closer to the earth than I am. It is meant to show both forest and fantasy.

Arizona

These photos were taken in 2010 at the Cochise Stronghold and Chiricahua National Monument.

December Events

Hello everyone,

My December schedule is front loaded, but there are three great events lined up. You can also find great holiday cards and fine art magnets at my Etsy site along with prints. I hope you have a great holiday season.

December 2nd-4th: Coastline Community College Art Gallery Holiday Art Sale

December 11th: Long Beach Art Walk

December 11th: Lyon's at Night

Thanks for your continued support,

Ben

Tercer Mano

http://tercermano.blogspot.com

http://tercermano.etsy.com

Dia de los Muertos

These three pieces (plus one pending) are in celebration of the soon to come day of the dead. They represent several different ways of remembering the dead.

The first image is a collage I did inside a frame I bought at an estate sale with materials I also bought there. The frame still had dust on it from its previous life, and it left me thinking about the previous owner.

The second image is coincidentally also a garage sale find as a base, but was created for the sole purpose of celebrating the holiday.

The third image is of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I am trying to find the original image for a fourth, but have yet to find it.

Aquatic Photos

This is a quick sampling of some aquatic pictures (mostly from Brazil).

Ellevation Market

Thanks to all of you who came out to support Tercer Mano and Aldana Mica at Ellevation Market on Sunday. In the coming weeks, you can catch us back on Melrose at the Melrose Trading Post.

My new Etsy Shop!

I am now on Etsy. I'm working on uploading my product there, and plan to put most of it online. Please check my site and let me know if something you like is not there yet.

Thanks,

Ben

www.etsy.com/shop/tercermano

Upcoming Events 08-22-10

Upcoming events

Hey everyone,

I will update this as new events come up, but as of right now we will be at:

August 29th - Ellevation Market

September 5th - Melrose Trading Post

September 11th - Long Beach Art Walk

September 12th - Melrose Trading Post

September 19th - Melrose Trading Post

e-mail me if you want more details
Ben
benjfish@gmail.com

Large Prints

44" X 29"

44" X 25"

44" X 29"

Brazilian Ingenuity

The pictures of spices were taken at markets in Sao Paulo and Rio. What we would call "farmer's markets" here is simply how a wide range of Brazilian society gets their produce. There is certainly a significant presence of supermarket chains, but the out door markets are still a significant distributor of produce. They are much more concerned than Americans with regards to presentation beyond the color, feel and shape of the produce itself. It was quite impressive.

The pictures of the crafts were taken at Embu Das Artes near Sao Paulo. It is an amazing town that fills up with crafters on the weekends. It's several square blocks of shoulder-to-shoulder booths, and stores on both sides of the street. Because they don't have money for first-hand materials, you will find lots of creative up-cycled crafts. At one particular restaurant we went to in Brazil, we found a boat (think Pilgrims) made of match sticks. If you have chance to go, it's well worth the trip to marvel at their creativity and works of art. Unfortunately for the artists, Brazilians often value art based upon its material costs. You will find very low prices on almost all art sold by street vendors in Embu. The artwork in the stores is a bit of a different story.

Flowers

This collection of flowers is from assorted locations.

The rose was taken on a walk with my sister near her home in Los Gatos.

The orchids were taken at an orchid exhibition in Rio de Janeiro Brasil at the Jardim Botanico. I highly recommend this garden if you are ever in Rio.

The water lily was taken from a kayak on the water of the Santo Antonio River of Chapada Diamantina near Lencois - BA, Brasil.

The hand holding the flowers is that of my girlfriend Micky, and was located in Parque Ibirapuera of Sao Paulo. The photo of the heart made of flowers was made with the same flowers and includes my girlfriend and I standing looking at it. Ibirapuera is a wonderful park with several wonderful museums and public spaces being well utilized by the locals.

The Gerber Daisies are from Holambra - SP, or Cidade Das Flores (City of Flowers) in Brazil. It's where most of the flowers in Brazil come from and is a fun one day trip. You can tour the farms, but there is not a ton to see outside of the tours. We went there for the Festival das Flores (Festival of Flowers), which was basically an expo.

Rosy Mirage

This piece was done on top of a wooden Finnish serving platter I recently inherited. It's a carnival blend of reds, oranges and yellows.

Mother

I made this piece for my mother, with images from around the world, as she was a world traveler.

Old Man and the Sea

This piece was a print of a painting I found at an estate sale. I re-vamped it with this mix from of photographs, painting and ancient art.

Upcoming events

Hey everyone,

I will update this as new events come up, but as of right now we will be at:

August 28th - El Dorado Nature Center (tentative)

August 29th - Ellevation Market

September 5th - Melrose Trading Post

September 11th - Long Beach Art Walk

September 12th - Melrose Trading Post

September 19th - Melrose Trading Post

e-mail me if you want more details
Ben
benjfish@gmail.com

Baskets

The background of this piece is completely comprised of Native American baskets. On top is assorted art from around the world.

The Wave

I found myself with a large amount of purple paint back when I was getting in the ocean more often. The logical result was a wave. I went online to look up how to draw a boat in thirty seconds, and used a small plastic jar to create the circles.

Faces

When looking through my material, I came to see a lot of similarity between faces. The faces of people more or less removed from their African origins are eerily similar depending upon how long ago their ancestors left Africa. Additionally, we tend to frame the existence of non-human animals in a human-centric viewpoint that devalues their right to life. The most enlightened face in this piece is not human.

Flight

This piece one of my most recent and is meant to show flight and our constant aspirations to flight.

Brazilian Happiness

I made this piece in 2009 while we were in Brazil. It's meant to be a light piece of chaotic happiness.

Intimate is public's eyes

This collage has a border of eyes (you can only see them at the bottom. It is meant to show intimacy amongst a large range of people, while showing that the eyes are always on them, as more and more our intimate moments are public.

Outer Space Chaos

I bought the background painting (Saturn and purple semi-circle at right) at a garage sale and made the oil pastel "blue hole" and collaged the rest on top.

Micky saves me

This is a mix of oil pastel and collage. The figure at the top left is meant to represent Micky, while the figure in red is me being saved by her.

Frida Recycled

Micky did this piece after visiting a local Frida Kahlo exhibit. It's made of up-cycled material.