It
’s the new place to be – if you’re an artist, an art lover, an
art learner or just somebody who wants a quiet, pleasant place to
hang out.
It’s the new place to be – if you’re an artist, an art lover, an art learner or just somebody who wants a quiet, pleasant place to hang out.
The Morgan Hill Art Guild throws its doors open Saturday with the first of a six-month-long Saturday series called Art in the Alley – an outdoorsy farmers market-like event – only for art.
While the Art Guild will be open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Art in the Alley will hold forth, Saturdays only, during the same hours. But the idea is the same.
Artist/manager Shelley Hanes wants people to think of the guild house as a casual, comfortable place to watch, talk, share and listen, plus as an outlet for local artists.
“I want to offer a chance for local artists to have their work seen,” Hanes said, “where they don’t have to gallery sit or help with promotion or bookkeeping. I do that.”
Artists, many of whom work at home, often do not have a place to display their work in public. The guild house is now that place. Finished art at the guild is for sale, though there is no charge to tour the house and grounds.
Unlike a typical art gallery where finished art presides, the pale yellow guild house, at 17265 Monterey Road in the middle of the Downtown, contains working – on site – artists, all of whom will be content to talk about their work, share helpful hints and provide a casual air of skill. So far the guild has a membership of 35.
One room of the 70-year-old house could have a painter working in oils; another provides a congenial atmosphere for quilters.
Hanes is installing benches, chairs and ‘art horses’ around the house and yard for people and artists to sit and knit, paint read or relax. One chair is nestled in a cool arbor beyond a wooden bridge across Little Llagas Creek. She expects writers to feel at home with their laptops.
Hanes said she does not expect a visit to the guild or Art in the Alley to be an expensive trip.
“I won’t suck the money out of peoples’ wallets,” Hanes said. “But if some falls out, that is okay.”
Finished art is available for sale and runs the gamut from ceramic artists, painters, charcoal illustration, photography, wood working, handmade jewelry, mosaic work, bronze sculpture, lamp design, pastels, quilting and spinners spinning wool from their own sheep, then knitting it into beautiful wearable art.
Hanes is a potter, known in town as the “fish lady” because she does a lot of ceramic fish. Spaced around the garden, propped on fences, hiding among plants, dangling from beams or “swimming” in water, are dozens of ceramic fish – some familiar, some prehistoric.
In spring only, Hanes produces her sought-after ceramic chickens.
“Now’s their chance,” said Hanes of people eager for the birds.
Gilroy artist Scott Lance gives painting lessons Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights but Hanes is eager to send people seeking lessons or materials to classes around town or to Stacey Marr’s Art Scene (Monterey Road and West Third Street) for art supplies.
She also directs visitors to the House of Bagels across the street, Vintage Pear, a tea shop next door and to restaurants around town.
“I want people to enjoy their downtown,” Hanes said.
Children are welcome and dogs too, but only outside and on leash. The dogs that is. Children are welcome everywhere. The driveway will be closed during Art in the Alley events to allow for more artists and more visitors. The yard was totally landscaped by Hanes’ effort and with donated bulbs, seeds and plants from friends. A few donated trees, especially larger ones, she said, would be welcome to help shade the drive area.
“It will get hot, especially during July and August,” Hanes said. “I’m just so grateful for the donations.”
Guild membership is required to work on the property, between $50 and $100 a year and $5 a day to work on the property. Artists can work any day from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Hanes said her artist list will always be changing and, while she wants to concentrate on local artists, she also is recruiting from Palo Alto to Monterey.
Hanes is a lifelong Bay Area resident, with 12 years in Morgan Hill. As a child she accompanied her mother on oil painting excursions to the coast.
“I have a fondness for color and composition no matter what media I am involved in – even gardening,” Hanes said.
A 15-year background in business helped put the guild project together, though she will still have to produce “fish” and her spring chickens to make ends meet, but Hanes enjoys ceramics.
“If you have to do a lot of something, try to make it fun.”
Hanes invites small groups, under 10, to hold meetings at the gallery at no cost for the time being.
“It will be very nice change of scenery for local businesses, very comfortable and quiet,” she said. Call the guild for details. She’d love to give tours and lesson suggestions to school and scouting groups if they will call in advance.
Besides providing a comfortable environment for artists, Hanes is thrilled to be sharing the house she has rented for a year with others.
“It’s all about the house,” Hanes said. “When it became available, I kept staring at it thinking – ’wouldn’t this make a great guild?’ This house just is perfect for this kind of idea – comfortable, everyone knows where it is, downtown, near the restaurants, coffee and bagels with a great garden to just sit and relax in, artists to meet and talk comfortably with. Just a great old house that needed to be brought back to life again.”
And bring it back she did, with cooperation from house owner Jerry DiSalvo and help from the Downtown Association that secured a grant from the Redevelopment Agency.
“Most of it went for rent,” Hanes said. Troubles with city and county building codes – interior fire sprinklers and a handicapped ramp – delayed the guild’s opening by months. But now she’s ready; her artists are ready. Hanes hopes the public is too.
Art in the Alley: Saturdays through November, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. MH Art Guild and Gallery, 17265 Monterey Road. Wed.- Sun. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. E-mail: mh********@*******nk.net or 778-0054.
