Friday, October 18, 1996
ART:
Weekend event brings together city’s best in intimate setting,
offering lower prices for customers and personal contact for
artistsBy Kristin Fiore
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Certain things can bring wildly different people together Â
free food, world war and a good art show.
Kathy Bransfield, a pint-sized 25-year-old jeweler from
Cincinnati who moved to Los Angeles only a year ago, and Marlene
Zimmerman, a flamboyant ceramist and UCLA graduate, are both
participating in Beverly Hills’ semi-annual "Affaire in the
Gardens."
Last spring’s show was Bransfield’s first year as a participant.
It was Zimmerman’s 22nd. She is one of a handful of artists who has
been a part of the event since its inception in 1974. To her, this
weekend exhibit is more than an art show; it is "old home week,"
she says.
"People that I went to school with come here. Now they come with
their grandchildren."
A stroll through Zimmerman’s Spanish-style home immediately
confirms her status as a Los Angeles native and prolific
artist.
"I’ve taken over the house," she claims, and not without reason.
Every surface is spattered with colorful displays of Beverly Hills
schools, the city’s famous auto show and street scenes that include
Frederick’s of Hollywood, the Sunset Strip and the infamous
billboard starlet, Angeline.
One of her most famous and most reproduced paintings is
"Celebration of the Peoples of Los Angeles." It looks like a
"Where’s Waldo" of the ’80s  a crowd of 90 ethnicities
wearing bell-bottoms or the current international fad of the day
peers out at you, watching as you peruse Zimmerman’s living
room.
Painted or collaged family portraits of everyone from relatives
and friends to strangers in dusty antique photographs compete for
your eyes on the bright, bustling walls. These folk-style slices of
family life are some of her more popular commissions.
"One day I got a phone call, many years ago  ‘Could you do
Neil Diamond’s family portrait?’ So I went to his home. It was
being done as a surprise for him," she says.
Despite her love of painting of all sorts, Zimmerman’s current
and most enduring obsession is ceramics. A myriad of playful
ceramic hats sit atop a gigantic circular ottoman in her living
room like a dozen Technicolor frogs convening on a plush lily pad.
Returning patrons stop by her booth at the Beverly Hills show each
year to see which hats will be in style this year at Zimmerman’s
pseudo hat shop, complete with faux fur hats, roaring ’20s
creations and country floral styles.
To complete her women’s line, she has ceramic purses and
matching shoes with brash patterns and bold hues that top even her
hats. Ceramic tiles which can be used to cover tables and frame
mirrors sport Hollywood-style femmes fatales of all sorts.
Zimmerman also has the intellectual side covered, with two
paintings for the National Women’s Political Caucus of "Women of
Achievement." However, no evidence of male brawn or brains can be
found.
"I don’t like to do men’s faces as much as I like to do women’s.
I just find the women so much more interesting. … Women are just
more colorful," she says.
Men don’t boycott her work, however. "I did a table for a
gentleman in Westwood and I (painted ceramic tiles of) 37 of his
relatives, some of them at different ages  and this is his
breakfast table," she says.
Through family portraits, ceramics or the variety of other media
she dabbles in, Zimmerman always seems to conjure memories or one’s
playful spirit.
One could say the same of Bransfield, though her work seems to
be the inverse of Zimmerman’s. Lacking the size and flashy colors
of Zimmerman’s paintings and ceramics, Bransfield’s silver jewelry
is both intimate and "whimsical," as she aptly describes it.
Many have moveable parts, such as rings with spinning pieces or
bracelets with cars that race around your wrist. Their tires, made
of 100-year-old Venetian glass beads, even spin. Some of her most
popular items are "book necklaces" made of silver pages upon which
Bransfield can inscribe personal messages.
"I like to call it jewelry that gives you something to do while
you’re standing in line at the DMV," she says.
Her creations are by no means the "dainty jewelry" your mother
used to wear.
"The work is definitely more functional art than jewelry. I
think a lot of people see jewelry as something that adds to what
you’re wearing. It doesn’t draw attention to you, like pearl
earrings. Whereas my work is a lot more like a conversational
piece."
Bransfield draws ideas and parts for her work from places and
things that no one else would look at twice. Besides raiding the
usual flea market and antique store, Bransfield gets "donations"
from her friends.
"They actually collect little bits of junk before they ever
throw anything out in their house. They put it all in a box and
send it to me to see if I can do anything with it, which is usually
humorous."
She always keeps an eye out, even in seemingly unlikely places,
for new material. In fact, these random scraps are often the ones
which turn into personal treasures.
"I made a really fun necklace out of a piece of sea glass I
found in Mexico on my honeymoon and was actually planning to sell
it until my friend was wearing it at dinner one night, and I kept
staring at it and thinking, ‘I’m not going to sell that.’ I ended
up keeping it."
Bransfield loves it when others connect with her work the way
she does, a reward that is often the favorite (and only)
compensation for artists. Old women will often drag their husbands
by her booth. The men seem disinterested, Bransfield says, "but
then they’ll say something absolutely wonderful to me like ‘You
have the greatest stuff at the show’ or ‘You have a great
imagination’ and it’ll really make me feel good, because it’s some
65-year-old guy who’s the last person in the world that should have
an interest in jewelry," Bransfield says.
This is why she prefers shows to in-store sales, where she
doesn’t get a chance to meet her customers. Stores also mark up her
prices and take 50 percent of her profits, so it benefits both the
artist and the consumer to buy and sell at this sort of art at a
show.
However, many Los Angeles shows do pose a problem. Bransfield
must often sell her original works next to assembly-line jewelry
that makes customers think hers is overpriced.
"That’s the one thing I give the Beverly Hills show a ton of
credit for, because they’re very consistent with having quality
work there. They don’t cut corners. … I think a lot of shows in
California are just really flimsy-flamsy. You’ve got people selling
finger-puppets across from you," she says.
Many who would place work like Bransfield’s in the "hobby"
category don’t realize how much effort actually goes into each
piece. The average hand-constructed piece takes three to six hours,
but some take a day or more, such as her lock-and-key necklace. For
her first Beverly Hills show this spring, she spent 16 to 18 hours
a day working.
"For four weeks I did nothing  no one even saw me. At one
point it was seven days that I hadn’t even gone outside. I went
outside the day before the show and I thought, ‘Something feels
weird to me,’ and then it dawned on me: ‘Oh my God, I haven’t been
outside at all  not even to get the mail,’" she says.
This time, however she’s more prepared. She’s also looking
forward to seeing old acquaintances and friends, as is
Zimmerman.
"I had a girl that wrote a beautiful poem (on a book necklace)
to her mother, and she took it out to North Carolina and gave it to
her, and her mom cried. She’s actually coming back this weekend for
the show."
At times Bransfield thinks of giving up jewelry-making for more
philanthropic endeavors, but then concedes that her book necklaces
and race-car bracelets do help people in their own way, too.
"I suppose if I was making nuts and bolts, it would be much
worse, right?"
ART: "Affaire in the Gardens" shows Saturday and Sunday, 11
a.m.-5 p.m. in Beverly Gardens Park (on Santa Monica Boulevard and
Rodeo Drive). Admission is free. Call (310) 550- 4625 for info.
SHAWN LAKSMI
Bruin alumna Marlene Zimmerman displays ceramic hats which she
hopes to sell along with her other works at the "Affaire in the
Garden" art show this weekend.