A.S. Ashley brings heartless show to the Empty Space - By N.L. Belardes

Saturday I walked into the land of broken hearts. You know such dismal landscapes? It’s where the depressed reside to mend their dreams of fairy tales gone haywire. Ahh, lost love… Make such a theme for artists and you’re going to find nothing more than the macabre. You’ll enter a gallery filled with strange art and even stranger stories behind such painfully dripped acrylic and broken charcoal scratches.

When Empty Space curator A.S. Ashley approached me about doing a broken heart project I quickly thought up 3-4 interesting ideas that ranged from poetic paintings on enormous canvas to videos of people with broken hearts puking their guts out from being so dismally sad, to grandiose posters with images of headstones where real lovers were buried after 50 years of marriage—lovers til death crushed their hearts.


Two unique artists: Andy Gonzales and A.S. Ashley
photo by artist Deb Coffey

The follow-thru was the difficult part. I came up empty handed though I did show up at the Gallery open house. I first met musician/artist Andy Gonzales, whose haunting sketches are reminiscent of dark comic book images and evil anime plots of twisted dungeon love. If there would have been more architecture in the drawings I would have thoroughly pondered Piranesi and his macabre etchings of lost souls amid gothic cathedrals. Maybe Gonzales will begin to explore the depths of broken souls in the expanse of mystical man-made structures as his next artistic voyage? How very macabre to even ponder.


photo by N.L


photo by N.L.

A.S. Ashley himself had a grand piece of artwork displayed: a bloodied card game with a larger than life Queen of Hearts as the slaughtering image of decayed love within a tangle of random gambled relationships. In such a dark-side-of-Wonderland game, symbolic stakes could only be set as “Til death do us part” in the culmination of an imaginary lovestruck shootout. Ahh, love is but a gamble and a shootout. Off with their heads! Throw down a full house and cheat and a gun might be shoved in your face for not playing fair in the Queen’s jealous and fragile house of cards.


photo by N.L.

I heard that A.S. spoke on KRAB radio about the need for a town art critic and entertainment reporter and there was talk as if some gunslingin’ blogger had run one out of town. Pure hogwash I’m sure. You can never trust Ashley, Meathead, Desi and Rocky all in the same room. There’d be some cheatin’ in that card game for sure.

I then met up with a few CSUB artists who all had their own broken heart imagery displayed in the gallery in the form of photos, paintings and slabs of meat. CSUB art club vice president, Shyanne Weston talked photos with me. She had several displayed that were perfectly framed near the front entrance as well as several loose photos in bins for sale. Shying from digital photography she keeps true to her traditional dark room style.


photo by N.L.

Speaking of dark rooms, this was the Broken Heart show, a mockery of the upcoming sappy slappy blah blah of Valentine’s Day. Such twisted love held firm in the form of a tri-painting between two artists, Nyoka and T. Saunders who both in their own twisted paths of seeking love in the creeptown underground that Bakersfield can be, happened upon the most unlikely of circumstances: an art class with each other after both having dated the same lucky/unlucky traveler of the streets of Bakersfield loveless: some kid whose name I don’t remember, but whose image was captured in a photo by artist, Deb Coffey.


photo by N.L.


photo by N.L.


photo by Deb Coffey

Now I don’t know about you, but these two artist vixens of the college scene, both adorned like princesses of the nighttime prowl, appeared to really have poured their hearts into their respective pieces. Yes, the pun works because each image displays the graphic nature of love, an emotion unseen but worn bloodily and literally heart-wrenched in their paintings, while the painting in between displayed the slit wrist manifestation of a self-abused lover, as uncaring as any suicidal and self-loathing lover with no self-respect could be.


photo by N.L.

Worth a look? Definitely. You can even meet these lovely artists and more at the second show this Saturday, January 21st from Noon to 7pm… Bring some cash. Buy a painting or two as these future artists’ works are certain to go up in price. Invest in art. It’s fun and profitable…

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Tuesday, January 17, 2006. You can leave your response.