Three artists from the Painted Bird Gallery in Kelseyville will grace the front windows of the Corner Gallery for the month of April. This “cultural exchange” between sister galleries, appropriately entitled ‘Partners in Art,’ all started when artist Terry Church from Kelseyville made a day trip to Ukiah and ended up talking art for an hour with the sitter on duty at the Corner Gallery. The result was that Terry and two of his artist mates from the Painter Bird Gallery jumped at the chance to come over the hill and show Ukiah what they are up to.

Terry has been a partner at the Painted Bird Gallery for the past four years, and has been showing his whimsical and sometimes political assemblage sculptures in California for over twenty years. His large outdoor sculptures have been featured at the Eco Arts Walk through the Mac Gallery in Middletown, and two are currently showing in the ‘Capturing the Ordinary’ show at Art Center Ukiah.

“I use society’s discards for my pieces,” Terry says. “Hopefully this encourages repurposing and can start a dialog around serious subjects.” This sentiment is exemplified by his piece entitled ‘Nothing Like a Home-Cooked Meal to End Your Day’ that is currently in the Art Center Ukiah show. Viewers do a double-take when they come upon it… a beat-up cardboard globe is rotating on a spit over a barbecue created from an oil drum, metal grating, woven metal fencing and other cast-off detritus.

Another of the guest artist is Petcharee Tamawong, a native of Thailand. In contrast to Terry’s large and in-your-face wood and metal pieces, Petcharee creates small, intricately carved gems that all start with a piece of fruit. “The art of carving fruit is an ancient and traditional practice from Thailand,” she explains. “I realized one day about twenty years ago that I didn’t know how to do it, so my friend and I took a class with the master in Thailand. I turned the technique into my art business when I moved to the US.”

For Petcharee, carving fruit was just the beginning of her art exploration. “I've always been a curious person,” she laughs, “and I’m drawn to explore new ideas for different kinds of arts, but photography is really my main interest. So now what I do is photograph my carved fruit pieces artistically, which frequently involves pouring condensed milk over them, believe it or not. I set up my camera to capture the cascade of the thick liquid over the carved shapes, and it’s magic.” Petcharee also makes silicone molds of some of her fruit carvings and creates unique beeswax candles to add to her business.

The third totally unique artist of the group is painter Ben vanSteenburgh III. He quips, “I am old and have been drawing and painting for more than sixty years. I’ve done murals in my past, but now I tend to look for canvases that are considerably smaller.” Ben uses acrylic and gauche for most of his pictures, with the eye-catching use of 24k gold leaf as the background.

Ben elaborates about his favorite themes. “I look to incorporate human studies with mythical stories (Troy, Minotaurs, gods & goddesses, Celtic, Greek & Norse stories) or other improbable combinations of people & situations that strike me as amusing or thought-provoking. A lot of my work has an oriental feel with the gold leaf background, especially when the subject matter is giant sea birds, multi-colored octopus, whales and magicians conjuring Harpys from a hat.”

Viewers of ‘Partners in Art’ will be treated to a demonstration by Petcharee of her fruit carving technique during the First Friday opening celebration. The gallery will be open to the public on April 4 from 5-8pm. Live acoustic guitar music will also be presented throughout the evening by Jerry Rubio. The Corner Gallery is located at 201 S State Street in Ukiah.