Page 4 April 4, 2013 Herald Publications Designer Makes a Name in Art World By Brian Simon in abstract, elongated pieces. Her new passion expos for the Redondo Beach Art Group and -calling it “the best job” she has had in many It’s not too often you hear that the reason is wood, though she also works with clay, is part of the five-woman Studio 1613 in years—which allows her the time to come someone became an artist was because their cement, bronze and stone. “Since I don’t have Torrance—a tight group of artist friends who up with more ideas to further her art. Patty dad was a plumber. Yet such was the original access to kilns and other equipment, I can get together weekly to chat, sip some wine has sold paintings, monoprints and sculptures inspiration for Herald Publications freelance still work on larger pieces with wood. It was and make monoprints together. through the art galleries and exhibitions she graphic designer Patty Grau, who has crafted a natural leap for me,” she said. “I love the a burgeoning side career as an accomplished tree, I love the wood and I love the grain. It’s painter, printer and sculptor with ongoing become my style to leave some of the outer exhibits in the Southland including a monthly edges, to the bark, to remind us of its origins.” show at the Lazy Dog Studio in San Pedro. As Another advantage of working with wood a creative kid growing up in Pasadena, Patty is a relatively low price point. “People see spent countless hours in her father’s shop and what I’m doing and they offer me some tree learned about the simple joys of making things. they’ve cut out of their yard,” Patty said. Since “Mom was the secretary and would take me the wood needs to cure before it can be used, with her to the shop. Left to my own devices, Patty essentially lives with the tree for awhile. I played with tools, ceramic tiles and metals,” During the curing process, Patty’s mother she said. “I learned from the men who worked passed away in November. In December, Patty there that if there was something you need, you began to sculpt the four-foot cedar trunk into just make it yourself. That stayed with me.” a squid that she completed in early March for After graduating from Pasadena City College a gallery showing. “It’s one of the magical with a degree in commercial design, Patty aspects of art when you have a vision you embarked on a career in retail advertising— work to achieve and the obsession takes care starting as a layout artist for newspaper ads of the grief and the pain and helps you focus and eventually becoming the art director on something other than just yourself,” she for full-color catalogs of major department said. “It’s a great blessing to have this ability Capturing the personalities of loved companions in a commissioned pet portrait. stores such as Neiman-Marcus, Bullock’s and and I think most artists feel the same way.” Perhaps Patty’s most memorable exhibition participates in. She also takes commissions Robinson’s May, while working all over the Recently, a forester friend from Santa Cruz was during the 2011 Power of Art show in for pet portraits and makes cement planters country. Although she dabbled in painting and brought Patty a huge piece of walnut now Redondo Beach when she stepped outside she calls “instant artifacts.” The secret recipe did illustrations as part of her job, Patty wasn’t curing in her driveway. She plans to make a of her comfort zone and created a mixed- deteriorates a bit in the molding process and interested in fine art at this point. “I always whale sculpture and hopes to display it at Lazy media installation piece in a three-sided room though sturdy, they appear to have been around inspired by the tsunami that had recently struck for centuries. “It’s difficult to sell art in this Japan. “I was so moved by the heroism of economy—that’s why I have a few other more the Japanese people and found the theme of commercial ventures.” she admitted. Embracing ‘Gaman’, which is interpreted as taking the technology didn’t hurt either. Once limited to worst that could happen to you and coming using only chisels and other old school hand out of it with grace and dignity,” Patty said. tools due to a “fear of power tools” that made “It’s one of the magical aspects of art when you have a vision you work to achieve and the obsession takes care of the grief and the pain and helps you focus on something other than just yourself.” Using pizza box tiles with foam to replicate her art process painfully slow, Patty can now the waves, Patty glued them to one side of be seen wielding a chainsaw in her driveway, the wooden structure and then affixed plastic thanks to a friend’s urging. “That set me free,” Patty has an artistic eye for finding the hidden beauty. Squid sculpture in beginning stages. Photos courtesy of Patty Grau. toys, fake Monopoly money and other debris. she said. “Since then, I got an air compressor loved art, but I was focused on a career in Dog Studio, where Patty is part of a stable “Seven is a sacred number—so I had seven and am using all different kinds of power tools advertising,” she said. of artists whose pieces are shown the first soft mannequins hanging from the ceiling all to help finish the work. In the end, there is A self-professed workaholic, Patty fell in Thursday of every month at the gallery. She dressed in Japanese clothing. A projector shot still handwork with the details and the sanding. love with the on-set stylist, Bruce Watson. “In began entering art shows during the time she into the darkened interior images of Japan It’s taking something that is one thing and the late ‘70s, Bruce convinced me to take a was taking classes at El Camino and persevered from Godzilla to classic art to Hello Kitty all changing it to something else. That’s what I vacation, though I didn’t really know how,” despite steady rejections early on. Once she showing in a loop. The intent was to come love the most about art...” she said. “He said, ‘You’ll know how—we’re was finally selected for a show, it got her on around to the front, step inside and be engulfed Patty Grau’s work can be seen the first going to Hawaii.’ So I took a portfolio of my a roll with eventual exhibits in Downtown Los by floating bodies and the changing light. It Thursday of each month at Lazy Dog Studio, retail advertising work along with my bathing Angeles, Echo Park, Long Beach and at the was fantastic—people were very moved.” 361 W. 7th Street in San Pedro. To inquire about suit and set up appointments on different Zask Gallery in Rolling Hills Estates, among Now more motivated than ever, Patty is happy her services, call 310-540-3315 or follow her islands.” That vacation landed her a job with other venues. She also curated and arranged to continue her work for Herald Publications- on Facebook. • Liberty House in Honolulu, during which time Patty also gave birth to their son William. But after having a child her priorities changed and being away from family and friends made the California girl homesick, so she returned to open her own graphic design business that she has maintained ever since. She joined the Herald in 2010 on a part-time basis, giving her ample opportunity to concentrate on her art. That art began to truly take flight in the late ‘80s. Though not really serious about it at the time, Patty had taken a few art classes and began producing paintings that were increasingly more “sculptural” in feel. “I was adding a lot of thickness and texture to large acrylic paintings and my best artist friend, Paul Sherman, asked if I had ever looked into sculpture,” she said. “I was astounded because I had never considered 3-D at all. Then I began taking beginning sculpture with Andy Fagan at El Camino College and it changed my life.” Next, Patty went into bronze casting, auditing a class every semester for the next decade taught by renowned sculptor Terrell O’Donnell. This allowed her to create increasingly larger works, but it also pigeonholed her own growth to an extent. When budget cuts prohibited students from repeating classes without graduating, it freed Patty to venture on her own and explore new materials as well as her growing interest Patty Grau with her finished wood Squid sculpture and ocean paintings now showing at the Lazy Dog Studio in San Pedro. All are part of her ongoing underwater life series.
Manhattan 04_04_13
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