New Exhibit • "Views Through The Lens And Through Glass" Opening Reception at Coast Highway Art Collective, March 5
By Rozann Grunig
The Coast Highway Art Collective will host an opening reception on Friday, March 5, 12:00pm to 5:00pm, to welcome artists Cynthia Myers, etched glass and Peter Dobbins, photographer. The show will run during regular gallery hours from March 3-28. The Collective is following Covid-19 protocols including face masks, social distancing and limited capacity for guests.
Myers and Dobbins will be guests on KGUA to discuss their work, their processes and their backgrounds. The interview will air on March 3 at 9:00am.
Peter Dobbins spent several years as the ship’s photographer on the U.S.S. Rochester, often the Flag Ship of the Seventh Fleet in the Far East and briefly attending the University of Alabama, Dobbins transferred to Art Center School in L.A., a leading fine and commercial art school, entering their photography department (now Art Center College of Design.)
After Art Center and a few years of working as a photo-assistant for advertising free-lancers, Dobbins felt prepared to start his own business working for the agencies in L.A. and the Bay Area. Along with fellow Art Center student, Michael Cohen, Dobbins formed Cohen Dobbins Photography.
“Dealing with art directors and agencies was certainly stressful but boy was it a hell of a teacher,” recalls Dobbins. “A client would call with the need for any kind of photograph, from still life, aerial, landscape, portrait, underwater, industrial, to fashion and beyond. After a couple of years of increased stress and overhead we were ready for a change. I left the business to Mike, then spent the next year shooting for The LA Times Magazine. I was seriously burnt out and my wife and I decided that moving to the country was the thing!”
Dobbins considers himself “some kind of a Zen Buddhist.” He says he loves the Japanese poetry forms of haiku and senryū, austere poetry that is meant to give an instant visual hit of truth from mere words. “In my images, I seek something similar to the audial experience one feels in the immediate aching silence at the end of the last note of an organ in a cathedral or a gong in a temple as those last notes still ring in your head,” explains Dobbins.
One of the works included in this exhibit is a large piece consisting of multiple images of the “Halloween Keepers,” citizens of Point Arena in the 1980’s. The piece was setup and shot pro bono by Cohen Dobbins Photography. Dobbins and Cohen consider it a “Point Arena self-portrait.”
More information about Dobbins can be found at http://peterdobbins.com/
Artist Cynthia Myers and her work are well-known on the Mendocino coast. Intricately etched glass vases and art pieces in a variety of hues catch the light and the viewers imagination. The designs feature floral and animal themes, with an eye for subtlety and detail. Myers employs a shadowing technique that gives her artistry depth and dimension. "I use sand under pressure to carve and etch my artwork onto hand blown glass,” says Myers. “I am a self-taught glass etcher, learning my art in the barnyard of my family farm in Northern California. I've now honed my etching and my artwork over 30 years and have been continuously inspired by the wild nature that surrounds me in my garden here on the edge of the Northern Pacific Ocean. I draw my artwork from my inspiration and work on hand blown glass made specifically for me by an artist in the Bay Area.”
For more information about Myers and her works, visit her website at www.cynthiamyersglass.com.
The Coast Highway Art Collective is regularly open Thursday through Sunday from 11:00am. to 2:00pm. The gallery is located at 284 Main Street, Point Arena, next door to the Redwood Credit Union. More information is available at www.coast-highway-artists.com.
