Thumbprint Presents Hitchcock Group Art Show
Speaker 1: 00:00 Alfred Hitchcock's films continued to delight and terrify audiences decades after he died. This Saturday thumbprint gallery holds an opening reception for its Hitchcock group art show as subterranean coffee boutique in Hillcrest KPBS arts reporter Beth Haka, Mondo previews the exhibit with guest curator Jennifer Cooksey. But to begin, here's Hitchcock in the trailer for his film, Psycho Speaker 2: 00:28 the bathroom. Well, they cleaned all this up now. Big Difference. You should have seen the plot a home. The whole place was, well it's, it's too horrible to describe Greg. And I'll tell you that's a very important clue was found here. Well, the mantra is cheat, right? Inhale berries, ferry across the shower was on. There was never sound. And uh, Speaker 3: 01:07 [inaudible] Speaker 4: 01:12 Alfred Hitchcock is a director who is very iconic people. When you mentioned his name, people immediately think of these tens exciting, sometimes horrific films. So you are going to be curating an art show dedicated to Hitchcock of what is it about Hitchcock that you think inspires people's imaginations? And especially artists. Um, his work is very visceral. It taps into a very, um, profound kind of view of, of the human experience in terror. I mean we can all, we all share similar fears and he understands that like no other director and the way he frames each scene and the tension he builds. That's incredibly inspiring for artists. I think. Um, you could look at any one of his frames and go that's, that's a piece of art right there. What can people expect coming to this show? They can see some of Hitchcock's greatest like psycho rear window. Speaker 4: 02:07 So I imagine my artists will be going the spectrum of his film. So Vertigo, some really interesting kind of black and white and kind of, you know, contrast it with some stark colors in there. I think we're having some really exciting pieces. I know my artists are really thrilled for the show. So this is a show put on by thumbprint gallery. What kinds of things do you guys do? Because that tends to tap into pop culture a lot. Yeah. Thumbprint gallery really focuses on pop art and they've been kind enough to give me the subterranean coffee locations in Hillcrest, in North Park. So monthly they have shows there. And I definitely kind of focus on pop art and themes that are popular in popular culture, like television shows, movies, music, stuff that's happening in books. So we, yeah, we would try to stay on top of really what's happening currently and also kind of give a nod to nostalgia because that's kind of really big right now. Speaker 4: 02:59 Things that we've grown up with and things that people love and make them happy stuff that they're passionate about. So what kind of opportunity does this afford? Local artists, while it's all about supporting local artists. So it basically gives them an opportunity to work because what I kind of found was as a pop artist, it was hard to find a venue and a time to show. I would be in different shows here and there, but this is a monthly opportunity to show and the shows are themed and so it kind of keeps you on top of a theme and can, you can really build your body of work, Barbara, by participating in these shows. So when you set these themes, does that also tend to inspire artists to create something new to fit whatever the show is? Absolutely. Yes. Um, most of the time my artists are making new things for the show because we'll discuss, um, we'll discuss the body of work that uh, that were our topic is on and they get really excited, especially if they're passionate about it or they are big fans of the movie or the director or you know, whatever piece where we're tackling that month. Speaker 4: 03:59 So yeah, I see a lot of new art coming out of the artists. It's very exciting. And this art that's on display, it's also for sale, correct? Yes, absolutely. So everything is for sale. It's all on view for about three weeks. So we try to give you a little bit of time to check out the show. But it's a lot of fun. And what is subterranean like in terms of a venue for people to see things? They're absolutely wonderful. So Jean and Kelsey who own a subterranean, they are our biggest cheerleaders. They let me poke holes in their walls and they let me put up the art. So they're wonderful. They're very flexible and they very much kind of let me go with my crazy ideas. They're like, go for it, do it. So having that kind of support in the community is wonderful. And what kind of range of art can people expect? Speaker 4: 04:44 Is there going to be work that's done completely digitally in Photoshop and other software? Is there paintings? Is there a sculpture? So it's wonderful. We actually kind of run the gambit of artists. We have digital artists, we have sculptors. I myself am a sculptor, we have photographers, so we have a bunch of different mediums. So there is a big variety of mediums of art kind of tied in with one subject. So it's cohesive in that it's one topic, but it's very different. So we kind of get everyone's taste and interest representative and talk a little bit more about them. Print Gallery, I'm not sure how familiar people are with it. They do these shows at different venues, but they also have a home base as well. Yes. Thumbprint gallery has a home base in La Hoya, which they do wonderful, beautiful shows with very exciting artists. Like they are very much focused on up and coming artists and and kind of really promoting what the San Diego art scene is all about. Speaker 4: 05:40 So they have different venues where they'll have different shows. They support independent curators and artists like myself. So they'll give us venues and they kind of let us go. They give us quite a bit of freedom and a lot of support. So there are wonderful. And how many artists are usually involved in these shows? I'm anywhere between probably about 15 to 30. Sometimes I'll get more if I have a little extra room, but if the artists want to go big with their pieces, sometimes I have to limit my, uh, my, my numbers of participants. And you mentioned that you are an artist herself. So what has inspired you in terms of this Hitchcock show? I'm a big horror fan. Like I'm, I'm all about horror films. And growing up. I adored Hitchcock like I wanted, I loved what he did, I loved how he made everything look, the boundaries that he pushed. Speaker 4: 06:30 I just found him incredibly inspiring. And so I've kind of had it in my head for a while to do a Hitchcock show. So this is a fantastic opportunity to kind of jump on that. And what piece of art have you created for this? Can you reveal? Yes, absolutely. So I went with psycho cause that was actually my introduction to Hitchcock. So I painted am I sculpted a mother piece. And so you know, she's, she's lovely, very skeletal and gross and you can see her in all of her glory this Saturday. And how do you prepare for creating a piece of art like that? Oh, I have the best research ever. I watched the movies and I sit there and I'll pause frames and I'll kind of get ideas for composition and how to design the figures. So it's fantastic. It's the best kind of research ever. Thank you very much for talking with me. And let's go out with some of Bernard Herman's music from psycho. Alright. I can't wait. Thank you. Speaker 5: 07:33 [inaudible] Speaker 4: 07:33 and that was Beth Armando speaking with guest curator, Jennifer Cooksey. The Hitchcock group art show opens this weekend and runs through September 6th at subterranean coffee boutique in Hillcrest. Speaker 5: 07:48 [inaudible].
