The Narrative Between Patron, Mentor and Artist

English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Japanese...there are many languages to communicate in the world. But, our communications are not always made up of languages.

Artists communicate to viewers through their works, and artworks have sometimes have a stronger power of appeal to them than languages.

Santa Monica College's Emeritus College Art Gallery put on the guest artist exhibition "Evelyn Meyer and the Narrative Between Patron, Mentor and Artist," to support emotional artworks of new artists.

Evelyn S. Meyer is an artist, collector and mentor of the arts and was born on December 5, 1934, in Bridgeport, Connecticu. She moved to Boro Park, New York, with her mother and grandparents on her mother's side when her father dispatched with troops during WWI. This experience had a major influence on her artwork.

She worked on her lessons at Boston University and she got a BFA, an MA in psychology and an NSW in social work until 1985. She was employed in various jobs like teaching art, psychotherapy, administration, industrial training and gerontology. In1991, she decided to start work fresh as a mentor to support new artists.

She opened her house as a gallery for showcasing nameless artworks which she collected for visitors. From these activities arose the art for the exhibition which SMC is proud to host.

Entering the gallery, visitors will see works by Meyer and other artists on the white wall in the right side of the space. Each art piece is accompanied by explanations on clear laminate. The artists in this exhibition explain art by their own styles which are affected by their personal histories, cultures and religions. They did not learn professional art skills. All artworks have powers to appeal to the viewer's heart. That's why Mayer prepared these artworks for the exhibition.

One of artworks, "American Flag-America the Beautiful," by Ramona Otto is made of found objects. She explains American Flag by red, white, blue blocks with her message. She plays an active role in the Santa Monica art scene and encourages the local community to support art.

Another work, "Spirit Flag," used beads on silk. The background is made of white colored spangles. Each spangle is sewed with white beads. By wadding between clothes, this picture looks very solid. A white wooden box was selected as the frame for this piece.

Visitors can enjoy and know various art expressions like watercolor, oil, ink, sewing beads, paper mache and other media. In focusing on the material, an artist used wood as canvas, clothes like "Spirit Flag," and Meyer used papers from magazines in her artworks.

This exhibition narrows one concept because it comes from the artist's life. This point is a big point visitors can touch on in this exhibition through their original artwork.

The Emeritus College's first floor is the space for this exhibition, and the address is 1227 2nd St. in Santa Monica. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday from April 26 through May 22. It's free.

Meyer's artist book of this exhibition which will be selling also describes artists works and how to come into their art world. All interests are used for supporting the SMC Art internship program. For buying her artist book, please go to the SMC Emeritus Gallery web site and contact Walter Meyer.

"As an international language, art speaks beyond culture as a medium for conversation and exchange of ideas," according to Meyer's artist book.