We love this beautiful vase by Yuichiro Roy Kunisaki, purchased just last year at the picturesque Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, Ca., where Roy thrives in his studio. He is hands-down the hardest working studio artist on their premises with a vast collection of work like no other California potter. This vase stands about 8 inches high and we don’t only love it because it had a bird in it. It’s a stunning work of pottery.

Roy is Japanese born, and attended Cal State University Long Beach from 1994-1997. He has been working at Angels Gate since 1998 and his work sells like hotcakes at every open studios tour. He has mastered a brush technique inspired by nature, cycles of aquatic ecosystems, Japanese ethnicity and California life style. He also teaches workshops at different cultural centers all over California.

Here’s a link to an interview with him at Angels Gate Cultural Center.

Roy has exhibited with Little Tokyo Clay Works, The Craft and Folk Museum, The Folk Tree, FT Art Gallery, and Icaan Gallery.

Here is a great video of Roy making one of his larger porcelain vases:

Here is an amazing and favorite little piece by Los Angeles artist, Leigh Salgado. It is delicate, yet strong, just like the artist, and very much like the thing that connects all of us as humans. We are fragile, and we are complex survivors…

Leigh Salgado is definitely one of the most interesting contemporary artists working today. She creates very labor-intensive drawings that at times look to be reproductions of lace. Her skill is what drew us in, her investment of time and patience into each work, both large and small. She draws with both paint and pen, and uses wood burning tools, while meticulously cutting out portions of the paper with an exacto blade. These pieces cast beautiful shadows behind the work, giving a 3-dimensional element.

This technique is called “sculpted drawing” per her website. It is an “attempt to bring a third dimension into pictorial space without compromising the elements of drawing.”

Leigh is an artist of experimentation and bravery. She manages to weave in dark and feminine subtexts into her work. We can see the psychology that brings her work to the foreground of our love of art, where full understanding in not necessary, but a welcome, beautiful mystery.

Leigh was born in San Diego, California and is currently represented by Patricia Correia Gallery/FaufiTown Projects in Santa Monica. She is opening her 2nd solo show there this September. Here is a link to a review by LA Weekly’s Peter Frank about her last show.

This piece is entitled “Corsage” 2007, It is approximately 9.5 x 6.5 inches. It is from a series of work where she used old player piano scrolls. It is wonder piece and we proudly display it in our office, where we can enjoy it several times a day.

Welcome to the Picklebird Blog. Please, take a moment to read about what a Picklebird is and where it came from in our recent posts.

What does the Picklebird do exactly? Well, The Picklebird can not fly, yet it manages to wake up very, very early every morning and find art from across the land to bring back into its nest, adding to its vast collection of art and books. With more than 70 artists in the collection, now it’s time to start showing it off and ramble on about how great the artworks are, because they are great! But we will not blab about it in some academic way with intellectual jargon and theory bullshit. Picklebird poops on the elite and strives to bridge understanding between humans and the art that humans make. We are not interested in starting debates with art snobs and cantankerous assholes. We just want to show our love for the artists in our collection, and share it with the world.

We are currently configuring the database for our artists and setting up an online store. We are cleaning up our mailing list and getting our shit in order, and it’s damn exciting. It’s going to take some time though, since we are just a staff of 2 and there is a LOT of stuff to document. Cataloging each and every work of art is going to be time consuming, so we have put together this blog to begin to feature some of the work in the meantime.

Eventually we will be showing off our Bukowski manuscripts, editions on paper, original paintings, drawings, handmade books, and special signed editions – all from artists like Niki de Saint Phalle, Elizabeth Hoffman, Mary Ellen Mark, Leigh Salgado, Matt Sesow, Anne Grgich, Andy Jenkins, Richard Burnside, James Scott, Clint Griffin, and so many more.

And while we get this show on the road, we will feature an artist from the collection every week or so. So stay tuned and join the mailing list to receive updates and newsletters from the bird. We will also have a little online store that will sell t-shirts and prints, handmade books and zines, editions and other odds and ends. You’ll see. It will be fun.

Long ago, way back in 1999, the Picklebird was hatched from the minds of artists, writers, and collectors to form an online alternative magazine for Los Angeles. It consisted of articles, reviews, and trade secrets from gallerists and insiders. It featured under-recognized artists of yesteryear that you should have known more about, reader polls and a comments section (mind you this was pre-blog craze). We had your artist websites, your personal artist horror stories, and the greatest show under the big top. There was also Ebay advice (although not very encouraging to the dabbling artist, and a bit too sarcastic for the easily offended.) Plus, Outisder Art definitions, links to the Visionary Art world, art resources, poetry, random artist’s quotes, and an events calendar, not to mention a bi-monthly newsletter, mailing list database, and the management of advertising…

Needless to say it was a LOT of work for 2 people to manage, and especially difficult for the CEO, Ferguson Yahn, who was really just a finger puppet we bought on Olvera Street for a dollar. He was made of embroidery yarn and had demented fingers. He could hardly type, let along manage the monster of a site that Picklebird came to be. He only knew how to say “Si!”

The project that picklebird was lasted about 3 years and was then finally laid to rest because of the overwhelming work that it was to manage writers, gather content, and deal with the mass amounts of hate mail.

Here is a glimpse of Ferguson Yahn’s inspired mission statement as it was in 2001:

“…started by a small group of artists, collectors and art lovers who were tired of the local run-around and mainstream BS, picklebird came here to make you aware of art that may never be seen at local galleries or museums. we hope to shine a light on a few of the unappreciated geniuses out there and the artists in our collections. this is about the artists we love, and a way to find more of them…”

What the hell is a picklebird?

No one really knows for sure what it is. We do know that the picklebird is nocturnal and feeds on fodder and the unconventional. Even those who have caught a glimpse of this rare and puzzling creature cannot wholly define this mysterious and legendary reclusive beast. Questions bombard the minds of the curious… Can it fly? Does it peck? Sadly, no one knows if the picklebird is a scarce, fermented animal, or just a complex vegetable. Truthfully, it doesn’t really matter.