Now showing at the 29 Palms Inn

Tami Wood & Snake Jagger  

June 1st - July 26th 2015

Tami Wood 

The collection at the Inn is a bit of 3 different series I am working on. The crosses are made of desert trash and found objects and old wood. I also have a couple of pieces that showcase a rusty can embellished with ceramic flowers surrounded by an old frame. The 2nd series is made with paper bits that create a landscape and often have a carved Joshua tree in the wood. The 3rd collection is my newest. It is assemblage pieces with airstream trailers as the subject. Happy words are carved into the wood alongside the airstreams.

My inspiration comes from many places. The constant in almost all of my inspiration is beauty. I see beauty in rusty bits and old wood. I am also inspired by the human heart and love to bring an uplifted message through my art.

In terms of my creative process, I just make time to do my art. I have a space, I have tools, I have rusty tin cans and wood. As I am creating my art I am lost in the task of creating something inspiring for someone. I am also my own marketing person, so I also make time to take pictures and promote my art, selling it on ebay, etsy and different venues. My creative process continues outside the studio into the marketplace.

Visit TamiWoodCreations.com for more information 

Snake Jagger

Snake Jagger refers to his artistic style as Whimsical Surrealism. He is an artist who, while dedicated to the subtle exposition of his personal philosophy, doesn’t take himself too seriously and is comfortable working with his tongue planted firmly in cheek. Jagger’s work seems to draw a significant part of its compositional inspiration from Rene Magritte. Jagger, like Magritte, is able to juxtapose the most mundane of objects in a manner that convinces us to accept the entire image, regardless of its disparities, as a wholly realistic depiction. In Magritte’s paintings, we are not taken aback by the locomotives roaring out of fireplaces or by swarms of levitating British businessmen soaring above the rooftops. And so it is with Jagger’s work; once the mind’s eye has recorded the presence and positioning of these incongruous objects, it then becomes almost impossible to imagine the painting existing without them.

Jagger’s striking visual imagery often takes viewers on a down-the-rabbit-hole journey into what could almost be considered a parallel universe. Within this hyper-real world, massive vine ripened tomatoes lounge on a sunny Mediterranean patios, huge Saguaro cacti double as street lamps, dripping water faucets thrust up out of the velveteen desert sand dunes, and so carefully integrated into the composition, that we are hard put to think of these visual elements in any sense other than as normal, expected components of the landscape. The artist also employs a broad lexicon of symbols in his paintings. This complex iconography has been an important part of his work for over 25 years and is present to some extent in virtually everything he creates. But before viewers can explore the artists copious use of symbolism they must first understand the seminal importance of the highly ordered, manicured landscapes and architectural components that are the visual center point of Jagger’s singular view of the world, and he is inviting us all along with him on a journey that promises both discovery and fulfillment.

Visit SnakeJagger.com for more information 

The Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council is a nonprofit, volunteer-based organization whose mission is to inspire and enliven the community through the arts, and to enhance the cultural and economic health of the region. Building community through the arts, the Arts Council continues to be a leading source of information, inspiration and energy for artists and patrons throughout the Morongo Basin and beyond. 

The Art in Public Places program organized by the Arts Council allows MBCAC members the opportunity to show their artwork at a variety of venues throughout the Morongo Basin, including here at the 29 Palms Inn restaurant.

Visit the MBCAC website for listings of other shows and events.