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Upcoming New School Events

Sunday, June 7th, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, Commonweal Gallery

Food for Thought: A Retreat with Wendy Johnson and Deborah Madison

A day-long retreat with Wendy Johnson, one of the founders of the San Francisco Zen Center's Green Gulch Farm in Muir Beach and author of Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World and Deborah Madison, one of the founders of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco and author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets and What We Eat When We Eat Alone.

Wendy and Deborah will read from their books, reflect on their lives as friends, cooks, and gardeners, and talk in conversation with participants on how food and gardens nourish us. There will be walking and writing meditations and an organic lunch prepared with fresh produce from Green Gulch Farm.

Fee: $50.00 includes lunch

Please join us. Call Point Reyes Books, (415) 663-1542, to sign up. Pt. Reyes Books http://www.ptreyesbooks.com

You are Invitetd to an Illustrated Talk

"My Book is a Painting - Marcel Proust & the Resonance of the Visual Image"

by Eric Karpeles author of “Paintings in Proust”

Friday, June 12 at 7:30

Commonweal Library, Main Building

Please join us for an evening with Eric Karpeles, author of Paintings in Proust, who will present an illustrated talk entitled "My book is a painting: Marcel Proust & the Resonance of the Visual Image."

Paintings in Proust has received considerable acclaim in the US, Britain and France, where the French edition sold out its first printing in three weeks. Salman Rushdie called it his favorite book of the year. The NY Times claimed the book elicited "the literary equivalent of a hosanna." A NY Observer critic wrote that the work is "authoritative, intelligent, amusing, and can be enjoyed without prior exposure to Proust." The same can be said about Eric's talk, which, while specifically about Proust, is also generally about the mind of the artist and the creative process.

This event will take place in the Commonweal Library on Friday, June 12 at 7:30 PM. Copies of Paintings in Proust will be available for sale, and Eric has said he will be happy to sign books.

We are pleased to host Eric's presentation at the same time that Michael Sell's beautiful exhibition of oil pastel drawings, "Body Work," is on view in the Commonweal Gallery. The opening reception of 'Body Work' earlier in May was a celebration of this truly powerful work. We strongly encourage you to visit the gallery before the show comes down on June 26. If you can come early for Eric's talk, there will be time to view Michael's exhibition in the gallery upstairs.

Do not miss hearing and seeing the work of these two gifted artists who have quite recently made Bolinas their home.

We hope you can join us.

Upcoming Art Exhibition at Commonweal Gallery

Michael Sell 'Body Work'

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 3, 3-5 pm.

May 3 - June 26

For the past twenty-five years, Michael Sell has extensively explored the medium of oil pastel, yet changing his subject from still lifes to the figure in the mid-1990's. Since then he has revisited earlier and more meticulously rendered depictions of the figure in order to break down the strict realism inherent in those compositions. As a result, figurative forms appear as expressionistic and as the artist describes it "they are more spontaneous and emotionally direct taking them further toward their own internal essence."

This idea was partially inspired by a visit to the Elgin Marbles in London, where Sell became intrigued with ancient marble sculptures that contain fissured sections and are marked by the wear of centuries. Their transformation from classical structures into semi-abstract forms is analogous to Sell's search for an inner truth.

In Michael Sell's most recent body of work, the figures' presence seems to slowly dissolve into the more atmospheric texture that characterizes the overall compositions. There is something equally soothing and unsettling about each depicted individual of whom only mysterious fragments remain. The figures' poses suggest physical fragility and a lack of outside protection, a prominent subject for Sell, who identifies through personal experience. In the end, "these are all self-portraits even if drawn from a model," states Sell, who further explains that each work is an attempt to face his fears of life's termination while embracing the passions that define human existence.

Fragrance-Free Events: Please refrain from wearing perfumes and colognes when attending events so that those who are sensitive to chemicals may also attend. Commonweal Gallery is not wheelchair accessible.