Tehachapi News

larger view

In August, the good ol’ summertime is winding down and kids – and their parents – are thinking about school starting up again.
And in Tehachapi, August is the month of the popular Mountain Festival and Rodeo, a time when the town gets in touch with and celebrates its ranchin’ and cowboyin’ heritage.
CrossRoads Gallery will be getting into the spirit of things by featuring two very wonderful western artists for the month: Marge Marantos and Millie Funk. In addition, since both cowboys and cowgirls like to look good, two jewelry artists who work in traditional silver and turquoise and other gems and minerals, will be featured as well: Carmen Lewis and Judy Whitfield.
Marge Marantos, a local rancher’s wife who is sometimes late for her shift at the gallery because she has had to chase down escaped calves, is well-known in the area for her realistic western and wildlife paintings. In fact, her detailed paintings and life-like sculptures, which she says are her passion, have been well-received all over the country and are part of many private and corporate collections.
Marge especially considered herself fortunate to “have had the privilege to study with Millie Funk,” who was her mentor and close friend and who is now deceased. It is almost impossible to talk with Marge about her work without hearing her praise Millie and acknowledge her wealth of talent and knowledge and her willingness to share it, and we in Tehachapi are fortunate that in agreement with Funk’s estate, Marge has brought some of Millie’s work to CrossRoads Gallery.
Millie was a well-known national artist, and was many-times published, claiming quite a few Western magazine covers. Her work also appears still on Leanin’ Tree note cards and limited edition prints.
It was one of Millie’s fondest wishes that others could learn and study art as she did, and her art will live on not only in her own work and the work of students like Marge, but her family has established an art scholarship in her name at the Linn Benton Community College in Corvallis, Oregon. We are privileged to be presenting her work exclusively in our area at CrossRoads Gallery.
Carmen Lewis is an example of what passion and instruction can accomplish. A transplant to Tehachapi from Bakersfield, she found she wanted to get out more and meet new people, so she wandered into the Art Center and took a drawing class from Terri Asher. That lead to a class in watercolor taught by Tom Fujiwara, and then she decided to try silversmithing with Dean Westman.
After more than a year of classes at the Art Center with Dean, Carmen decided she was ready for her own show, and applied at CrossRoads. She was immediately accepted and scheduled for August. Her beautiful one-of-a-kind silver and gem work will be on display in the gallery all month. 
Judy Whitfield came to CrossRoads as an oil painter, and is still part of Lynne Freeman’s Studio Bee, which was featured in the gallery in June. But Judy also has a passion for jewelry and an eye for design – her stunning jewelry pieces are always available at the gallery, and she has new pieces that will be unveiled on August 1.
These artists’ special displays will open on August 1, during the First Friday Art Around Town event, held at CrossRoads (and other local venues) from 5 to 8 p.m.. Guest artists will also be featured at the gallery that evening in a show titled “All Things Western” (there we are with that western theme again!). The gallery offers visitors hors d’oeuvres and champagne to toast the new art show and the artists who created it.
Art Around Town, held on the first Friday of each month, includes other local arty venues like Tehachapi Art Center, Gallery N Gifts, Mama Hillybean’s, Frame of Mind, Books and Crannies and Picture Perfect and Stamps of Approval. All of the art venues are open from 5-8pm for the evening and feature local artists, refreshments and often live music; a limo sponsored by Jamal Nasser is available to take visitors all around town to the various venues.
CrossRoads Gallery is a dedicated fine arts gallery with 23 member artists who have regular displays in the gallery, and who host the First Friday festivities and other special occasions.
CrossRoads is located on the northeast corner of the Compass Rose in historic downtown Tehachapi (Tehachapi Boulevard and Green Street).  For information or directions, call 661-822-5242, or visit our website at <crossroadsgallerytehachapi.com>.