The Campbell Reporter

Community

Artists open their doors for Open Studios

I t's come down to the final weekend of Silicon Valley Open Studios, and that means it's Los Gatos' and Saratoga's turn to open the doors and let the public in.

SVOS is an annual Bay Area event in which artists of all genres and media--from painting to sculpture and mixed media--invite the public into their private studios and workplaces to view their art, discuss it and sell it directly. For many artists, that means inviting the public into their homes, offering an even more personal look into their lives and how the ideas behind their art are born.

SVOS is one of the few art shows in the Bay Area that is not juried, meaning there is no committee that pre-screens the artists. Therefore, the event also provides a valuable opportunity for new and emerging artists, who previously may not have had the chance to share their work with the public in a professional manner.

April Maiten of Los Gatos is overjoyed to be one of those emerging artists, and hopes many Bay Area art lovers will be ringing the doorbell at her home at 136 Belvue Drive on May 17 and 18.

Maiten, a part-time Spanish teacher at Leigh High School, is a mosaic artist. The medium involves taking a surface such as a table or sculpture and covering it with materials such as glass or tiles, in colorful patterns.

Maiten says one of the most fun aspects of her art is finding the materials; there are endless possibilities.

"I incorporate found objects, such as stained glass or broken plates, or things people give me," says Maiten. "You can really use a lot."

In today's craze for everything "green," Maiten's art definitely fits in.

"I love to take old, rusty tables and give them new life," she says. "I sand off all the rust, paint them and do mosaic. That was the first couple of [projects] I did, when I started."

Sometimes, garden shops can yield valuable treasure, she says.

"One time I found this dragonfly covered in cobwebs, all the way in the back of a garden shop. They were glad to get rid of it finally, and sold it to me for five bucks," she recalls. "It's nice to recycle old objects."

One of Maiten's most prized creations is her life-sized, 5-foot-5-tall "flamingo," which sits in her back yard and will most definitely be on display for SVOS.

"I used rebar, netting, plumbing parts and other things to give it form, then covered it with mesh, covered the mesh with cement and put glass over that," Maiten says.

Although mosaic is Maiten's primary focus, she also loves to make three-dimensional art, and jazz up boring license plate frames.

Maiten first started creating decorated license plate frames when she purchased her new red Toyota Rav 4. Everywhere she went, she saw red Rav 4s, and it made it difficult to pick her car out in a parking lot. So, she took her plain license plate frame and gave it some "bling," with beads, glass buttons and other accessories she found at a Michael's craft store, plus seashells she collected at the beach.

"I got so many compliments, my friends started bugging me to make some for them," Maiten recalls. "Then I started getting other requests for them, especially after I made one for my daughter with her sorority letters on it when she went away to college. So now I sell them."

Now, Maiten is just counting down the days until her debut appearance in this year's SVOS event.

"[To be a part of SVOS], this has been my goal for a long time. Every time I've gone to visit other artists' studios, I thought to myself, 'This is what I want to do,' " says Maiten. "I'm excited to hear what people have to say, and just to get out there."

Silicon Valley Open Studios continues on May 17 and 18, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, San Jose, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos and Saratoga. Visit www.svos.org to download a map of where each participating home or studio is located.