According to gallery and center co-owner Allison F. Walton, plasma artists are just now starting to get a handle on the fourth state of matter to make glowing artworks out of them.

I listened intently to some of the pieces as they cracked and buzzed. Some people couldn’t help themselves and ignored the “Do Not Touch” signs and put their hands on the glass pieces and watched the lightening-like rays of electricity follow their touch through the glass. I was too shy to do so, and a little afraid of a shock I might get from the pieces!

The show features work from Norman Moore, Ed Kirshner, Michael Pargett, Bill Conannon , David Hollister, Ken Herrick and Allison F. Walton, who co-owns the Float center.

The pieces will be up until Jan. 10. To see the work, call the Float center at (510) 535- 1702 for an appointment.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at SFMOMA this week and last week getting myself involved in the “Art of Participation: 1950 to Now.” Seriously, smiles came easily as I put on Matthias Gommel’s “Delayed” headsets and attempted conversation. I enjoyed watching Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz’ “Hole-in-Space” film and attempted to be a “One Minute Sculpture” a-la Eriwn Wurm.
The show is interesting and the pieces are varied. I was sad to miss the daily performance of John Cage’s “4′33″” at noon when I revisited the museum Tuesday, but I promised myself that I would be back to see what it was all about.

It’s an interesting show for both adults and, dare I say, kids. Something both can experience and enjoy in the modern art museum. However, there was one show omission that I was confused by in the “Art of Participation.”

I hate to be a cheerleader for Burning Man, but going to that event for the first time in 2001 is what really got me interested in participatory art.

Back then, I had just come home from a backpacking trip in Europe where I was fortunate enough to see legendary artworks in notable museums in places from Amsterdam to Athens. There was hardly a day where my dogs weren’t aching from cruising the halls of museums. I was absorbing, learning and loving fine art.

Then I went to the desert festival. I know Burning Man is teased, most recently by my friend, as being the “biggest hippie convention in the world.” But there are some fantastic art pieces there and I would venture to guess more than 1/3 of the 50,000 annual participants go because of that artwork.

The organization has pushed participation for years now. And I can tell you I have pushed, pulled, pedaled and climbed my way into experiencing art many, many times over the eight years I have been going to the event.

So, at an exhibit that focuses on participatory art, I was confused as to why Burning Man was not mentioned nor were any of the major participatory projects over the years noted. I chatted a bit with curator Ruldolf Frieling about Burning Man and a delightful project that I saw this year, Damian Janssen’s “Zsu Zsu: The Crybaby Drama Queen.” He not only didn’t care to talk about it, he seemed incredibly put off by my even mentioning such a thing.

Like it or not (and I know lots of people hate it) but Burning Man is a huge influence in San Francisco’s art community. And participation is what the event is all about. I found it to be a real oversight that SFMOMA didn’t recognize this in their current exhibit or exhibition catalogue, especially since the insitution shares the same street as the Burning Man headquarters.

Am I being silly here? Do you have any thoughts on this?

The photographs and accompanying interviews are compelling - and bone-chilling.

“Jairo Yumbo” by Lou Dematteis

A young Ecuadorian girl looks into the camera with a milky eye which doctors believe is a result of contamination, perhaps from the Texaco oil well that burns near her home or the petroleum-tinged streams where her family draws their drinking and cooking water. In another image, a daughter stands near her mother whose abdomen is swollen from the effects of colon cancer.

Images from this series will be on display along with work by photojouranlist Ed Kashi and photographer Ian van Coller at San Francisco’s RayKo Photo Center Nov. 5-Dec. 6.

From Ed Kashi’s “Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta”

Kashi is exhibiting selections from “Curse of the Black Gold: 50 years of Oil in the Niger Delta,” a project which documents oil exploitation in West Africa. Kashi’s color images vividly capture Nigerians struggling to survive in their grossly polluted towns.

Ian van Coller’s “Interior Relations: Portraits of Female Domestic Workers in South Africa” examines the current state of post-apartheid race relations between families and their nannies and maids in Johannesburg.

“Angel Mthembo” by Ian van Coller

A reception for “Interior Relations” will be held from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 7 in the gallery located at 428 Third St., S.F. RayKo is open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays and closed Mondays. 415-495-3773, www.raykophoto.com

We met at her home in West Berkeley and had a conversation about photography, some of which was included in this article. I’ve posted a few more highlights from the interview, which touched upon Sturm’s influences, background and additional projects, along with a few color images.

“Man in Old Delhi framed by Time”

Q: How did you approach your subjects?
A: In India it was pretty intense because I look very different. It’s a very intense and congested place, these cities like Jaipur and Delhi. But because I was flanked by friends, Indian friends, I was able to feel confident and just had to jump out and just do it. It was very exciting. I’ve been a photographer for years but never carried the camera with me all the time. This is the first time in my life I’ve carried the camera every single moment.

Q: Why wouldn’t you carry the camera every moment?
A: Well, it’s heavy. I use an FE2 so this is all shot with film. Even though this was a trip to see India, it was a focused trip in that I knew I was going to come out of it with some important work for myself.

“Men on Street, Old Delhi”

Q: Do you have a conversation with your subjects or ask permission to photograph them?
A: I do ask permission from them. Most of the people who I photograph up close like this, I ask for permission. I don’t want to rob people. There is a sense of being like a sniper. Being in India, as a foreigner, on this fast and furious photography expedition, it did feel like sniping, especially being in cycle rickshaws and just looking around, taking pictures.
Also, the name of this show is “Dear Delhi and Rajasthan” because I’m trying to offset the tradition of street photography where the person with the camera has the power to look and capture.
During the months of looking through these photos, these people become more and more real to me. They’re not just these people whom I was lucky to grab their image and have it printed out and now I’m lucky enough to have this show. They’re real people. The relationship with them continues to go on and on.

Q: Who are some of your influences?
A:Diane Arbus. I find her gutsiness and seeking out what she liked when she walked along the streets of New York City very exciting. Then, of course, Henri Cartier-Bresson. Also [Andre] Kertesz I like very much. I think Helen Levitt is a wonderful photographer. She almost makes me cry when I look at her photographs because she was shooting when I was a little girl in New York City. I’ll never be able to take photographs like that for the simple reason that New York City doesn’t look like that anymore. Looking at her color work is almost like returning to my childhood through her eyes.

“Woman in Jodphur”

Q: Where else have you traveled to photograph?
A: This June I went to Mexico City where I lived in 1983 and I learned how to do soundslides. I did a portrait project. I asked every single one of the people if I could photograph them and I got their name and I got their age. I came up with this idea partly from this nostalgia of having lived in Mexico 25 years ago and partly as a strategy to talk to people. It’s a portrait project but it’s very much street photography. All of the photos were taken in the historic center.

Q: What other mediums do you work in?
A: I’m very much a diarist. I do a lot of drawing in sketchbooks so I have many, many drawings in sketchbook form. I’ve done some artist’s books, and a little bit of printmaking. One reason that I am so excited and happy about this work is that I really talked to these people. I feel like there’s not that many street photographers or traveling photographers, whether it’s amateur or professional, who talk to the people they photograph. In the past I didn’t do it much either, but I like the idea of offering oneself to the subject and it not being a one way thing. Traditionally photography is very one way. The photographer takes.

I was lured by the bats.

They hang in a cluster from the edge of “Bat Board.” In “Bats,” they’re fluttering three-dimensional shapes pinned on the wall and fashioned from paper, human hair, food waste and glue. And in “Untitled,” the silhouettes of bats float against dark blue Nepalese paper.

There’s a few more reasons I’m drawn to Heather Johnson’s work which is currently on display in “human/nature” at John F. Kennedy University’s Arts and Consciousness Gallery in Berkeley.

First, Johnson is obviously passionate about the natural world. Her small canvases and precise drawings are heartfelt elegies to small things like seeds, bees and crushed earwigs. She memorializes a dead robin found outside of a post office in an oil painting which manages to be both scientific and tender.

She’s also concerned, according to her artist’s statement, about the interchange between humans and the natural world and our disconnect from the environment. She aims to “push material’s physical nature towards vulnerability and fragility” and is “interested in attempting to save what is unlikely to be saved.”

That could apply to some of her most delicate art works, like the swarm of porcelain moths that circle a lightbulb, and the subjects she depicts.

“human/nature” is on display through Oct. 25 at 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd Floor, Berkeley. For information, call 510-649-0499 or visit http://www.jfku.edu/gallery/

The exhibit, which represents a fraction of the Beekhuis’ collection, is divided into three main groups: The Dutch Romantic School, The Hague School and the Dutch Impressionist School. Pastoral landscapes, seascapes and moodily-lit interiors form the bulk of the Romantic School. The Hague School’s loosely painted still lifes and landscapes point towards the crisp hues and bold brushstrokes of the Impressionist School.

Thumbing through the catalogue, I see echoes of Rembrandt Van Rijn in Jozef Israel’s contemplative “Grace Before a Meal.” There’s traces of Franz Hals in the ribbons and fabric adorning the young woman in Johannes Hendrik Veldhuijzen’s “Portrait of Meta Meese, Bride.” And Petrus van der Velden’s “Workers in the Fields with Tulips” is the sort of heroic “salt of the earth” painting Vincent Van Gogh’s idol, the French painter Jean Francois Millet, might have created.

A lecture with Dr. Jan and Mary Ann Beekhuis and curator Thea Grigsby will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 12 followed by a ribbon-cutting and reception with the Consul of the Netherlands Douglass Engmann and Hon. Vice-Consul Johan P. Snapper at 3 p.m. Admission is $5.

The exhibit is open 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m Wednesdays-Sundays through Dec. 14. Admission is $3, free for children under 12 and group tours. Visit www.hearstartgallery.org.

Take a look:

Dirk Peter Lokhorst Van de Velden’s “Cows at the Water’s Edge”

Nicolas Johannes Roosenboom’s “Beach Scene with Ships”

Piet van der Velden’s “Workers in the Fields With Tulips”

Johannes Hendrik Veldhuijzen’s “Portrait of Meeta Meese, Bride”

The Tri-Valley, California Convention & Visitors Bureau is holding their second annual regional photo contest and they’re looking for photographers who “can best capture the ‘Tri-Valley, California Experience.’ That includes sporting activites, shopping, dining, wine tasting, arts and celebrations and more in Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville and the surrounding region. Images need to be high-resolution (300 dpi) and submitted on CD. Contest specifics and an entry form can be found at www.trivalleycvb.com.

For some inspiration, take a look at the work of Bill Owens, whose images captured the look and feel of the Tri-Valley area so many years ago. An image from “Suburbia” is pictured below. You can read about him here.

Only Las Vegas and crappy Reno gas stations can mimic the sweet sounds emanating from the Marin Country Fairgrounds this weekend at it hosts the Pacific Pinball Exposition, the second year this event has has rocked the socks off silver-ball enthusiasts across the Bay Area.

Ok, that was silly. But still.

The second, dare I say annual, Pacific Pinball Expo is going on now through Sunday. They baited me with snacks and kindness so I went to check out their “art” and their “games” in stoic journalistic fashion.

That lasted about five minutes.

Dan Fontes, best known for his Oakland murals, and Ed Cassel have been at it for months now, working on large-scale murals of pinball backglasses for this year’s show. They want to show the art of pinball and, boy have they in about a half-dozen pieces that line the expo’s back wall.

mural by Dan Fontes
You see those tiny signs in the foreground? Those are human-sized signs. The mural is what is huge in this photo. Dan told me he worked on this mural in thirds in his houseboat in Sausalio and the result is an absolutey gorgeous piece of artwork.

So you’re not into art, you’re into pinball. Well, the folks from Lucky Juju and friends are offering up about 400 games for you to play, from antique machines to more modern versions of pinball. I would show you the photos I took, but they are really bad. So I just have to say that if you like pinball, you’ll love the expo, one of very few of its kind in the United States.

The Pacific Pinball Expo is just about 30 minutes from Oakland in San Rafeal in the back corner of the Marin County Civic Center in the Exhibition Hall. Follow the signs to the show until you start hearing the bells of the games.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and over per day. The proceeds go to building a permanent pinball museum in the Bay Area. Show schedule is : Friday Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday Oct. 4: 10 a.m. to midnight and Sunday Oct. 5, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The first exhibit is “Birds + Their Dwellings” which opens Oct. 11 at the Design Store. It’s a juried show of “hand-crafted, one-of-a kind” works inspired by birds and their dwelling places. Nearly two dozen artists are contributing works in clay, glass, metal and other materials. Plus, the work is for sale.

Here’s a peek:

“Quiet Moment” by Demetra Theophanous

Renee Eaton’s “Sandpiper”

The second exhibit is “The Thinking Body: A Contemporary Metalworks Exhibit” which features work by contemporary American and European artists and “presents a new examination of the relationship of the body’s perceptual relationship to jewelry.” The images below promise a show full of conceptual works addressing the politics of personal adornment.

“Four Finger Bangle” by Gerd Rothman

Melanie Bilenker’s “Arms”

Mark your calendars.

“Birds + Their Dwellings” opens Oct. 11 and runs through Nov. 13. A free reception will be held Oct. 11 from 3-6 p.m. “The Thinking Body: A Contemporary Metalworks Exhibition” open Oct. 17 and runs through Jan. 4, 2009. The San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design and the Museum Store are located at 550 Sutter St., S.F. 415-773-0303, www.sfmcd.org.

I think this is something I’d like to see Oct. 13 through 15 in Oakland. Read carefully. You get to actually cut a soldier’s uniform off of him. I am not sure how I feel about it, but it sounds like art to me. 

From the Mills College PR Department:

Mills College’s Book Art Program will host the first Combat Paper Project at a Bay Area university, bringing local war veterans to participate in a national peace art project.

For three days, a dozen war veterans will work with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and four visiting artists in a transformative process of making paper from their war uniforms. Through cutting, cooking, beating, and pulping their uniforms to form sheets of paper, “the veterans reclaim their uniform as art and begin to reconcile their experiences as soldiers in war,” said Drew Matott, co-founder of the Vermont-based Combat Paper Project.

The veterans will then use the paper to create prints and handmade books from their own poetry and writings. Their works will be shared in a public reading on Oct. 14 from 5:30–7 p.m. as part of the Mills College Contemporary Writers’ Series. (More information at www.mills.edu/english) Audience members are invited to attend and cut a uniform from a soldier’s body while he discusses social responsibility in time of war.

Mills College is at 5000 MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland. I suggest stopping by the Old Weang Ping Village restaurant after the show, one of my favorite Thai dinner spots in Oakland.

Photo of military uniforms by Flickr user Gail Borden Public Library used under Creative Commons license