On Thursday, May 6th, San Francisco's Blue Room Gallery will host a reception for painter, Yisrael K. Feldscott, as part of the 2004 Inaugural ArtSFest "Celebrations of the Arts" festival taking place in San Francisco, May 12-31. Feldscott's work will be exhibited at the free, non-profit, micro museum on Mission Street until June 13, 2004.

While many artists take time and travel to restore and invigorate their creativity, few artists have journeyed as extensively or intensively as painter Yisrael K. Feldsott. Beginning in 1978, Feldsott left behind his role as a rising star in the art world to immerse and involve himself in the rich yet endangered ecologies and cultures of Central and South America.

In his historic, first US exhibition in over 25 years, Feldsott offers dazzling visions of the worlds he has visited abroad.

“Los Icaros de la Pintura” can be roughly translated as “Painted Songs,” though an icaro is much more than melody and lyrics. Icaros are sacred songs of shamanic power, sung to restore the health and vitality of an individual or the entire community. While stories and themes are often shared, each shaman may have his or her own icaros and develop a personal style to tell them. As Feldsott absorbed the history and wisdom of indigenous American cultures, he was moved to share his own icaros in visual forms.

These works do not depict typical scenes nor do they use realism to depict what one might see in the lush rainforests of Central or South America. Instead, bold shapes, dazzling colors and lines of heroic energy transport the viewer deeper into the spiritual realms of these places.

Notably, the images that relate most specifically to time and place include modern weaponry and refer to recent violence. In stark contrast to sunnier notions of westernization and progress, Feldsott seems to warn of discord, disruption and destruction. Like the rest of the “Icaros,” they are grounded in his direct experience.

After a dozen shows in the 1970s, including three solo exhibitions and two group shows at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, Feldsott became less interested in commercial success and felt compelled to explore the world beyond our borders. His passionate reactions lead him to activism. In 1986, he was a founding member of the Forest Island Project, which combines ecological restoration and cultural conservation in Veracruz, Mexico. He has also been involved in the Matico Foundation, an agency in the Ecuadorian Amazon that promotes intercultural dialogue about health care as well as providing health care that honors multiple healing modalities. Feldsott found his own path as a healer, learning the lore and absorbing the wisdom of traditional shamans. Upon his return to the states, he co-founded a health center in Bolinas, CA dedicated to traditional medicine.

In 2003, at the Fundacion Guayasamin in Equito, Equador, Feldsott revealed thirty of his “Icaros” for the first time to the public. In the exhibit catalogue, Feldsott says, “…It is clear that the gift of this exhibition came as an invitation to start giving back some of what I have received and as a new opportunity to contribute to the enrichment of universal culture.”

A similar impulse and set of circumstances moved him to show this work at the Blue Room Gallery.

The San Francisco community is invited to The Blue Room Gallery's artists’ reception from 6-9 pm on Thursday, May 6th.

Please call 415.282.8411 to RSVP.

If you are not available on the 6th but wish to see Feldsott's work, the Blue Room Gallery will have his paintings on display until June 13, 2004.

The gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 1-9pm.

A percentage of all proceeds from Feldsott’s work will be donated to support traditional health care and indigenous people in the Amazon.

To complement the “Icaros de la Pintura,” sculptor David Baughan will present new works in stone and bronze. Like Feldsott, Baughan’s work combines a unique personal style with a profound interest in universal truths and archetypes. Baughan says, “My sculpting process originates with an idea, an inner form in need of becoming conscious.” His work is grounded in his own intuition and imagination, supported by his training and technical prowess.

As an admirer of Carl Jung, Baughan sees his sculptures as artistic explorations of Jungian notions, especially of the feminine aspects in the collective unconscious. In Baughan’s capable hands, mythological creatures or deities become believable and personable physical presences, while in other works forms collide, evolve and resolve together with the visionary quality of dreams.

Both David Baughan’s sculpture and Yisrael K. Feldsott’s paintings extend an invitation to journey across the distances between our varied cultural experiences, our diverse beliefs and into each of our own places of inner knowledge and wisdom.

The Blue Room Gallery is honored to host this historic and important exhibition. As a nonprofit gallery, performing arts space and educational center, the Blue Room Gallery serves the Bay Area’s diverse social, economic and cultural populations. New artists are featured every six weeks.

For more information regarding exhibits or gallery programs, please contact Executive Director Paul Mahder at 415.282.8411 or Paul@blueroomgallery.org.

Or go to: BlueRoomGallery.org

Inspire & Be Inspired.

~Jennifer King