February Art Walk

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It’s February, Rare Birds! You know what that means: love is in the air. And Valentine’s cards, vintage finds, lots of vinyl, fun books and new local art are at The Rare Bird. Come see what Oakland artists are up to at the next Art Walk on February 16 from 6-9 pm.

Our February artists are both Oakland residents. Jen Tredinnick’s otherworldly terrariums combine air plants, geodes, skulls and and other natural elements in unusual found vessels. Nancy Overton uses maps, stamps, sheet music and other found papers to create collages and papiermache figurines. And, once again, FeatherLuxe feather hair extensions is setting up shop during Art Walk at Rare Bird, so come and be-feather yourself!

Jen and Nancy’s work will be at The Rare Bird throughout February, so come take a look. And be sure to mark your calendars for the Art Walk on Thursday, February 16 from 6-9 pm as we fete local art, sip wine, feather our hair, and boogie down to the sweet sounds of resident DJ SOB.

What: Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Magical terrariums by Jen Tredinnick and collage and papiermache figurines by Nancy Overton

When: Thursday, February 16 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Jen Tredinnick: Jen Tredinnick is an Oakland resident who has created her own interpretation of the terrarium. Her work consists of various air plants arranged in unique vessels, including found glass. Tilandsia are arranged with crystals, skulls, geodes and other elements to create a miniature world. White-tailed deer antlers and a collection of crystal ball stands found at flea markets are examples of the one-of-a-kind pieces used to display her glass.

Inspiration for her work is drawn from 1970s bric-a-brac, hunting for vintage home décor, and growing up surrounded by nature. Combine this with an essence of magic and you have a living piece of art. Although her plant arrangements consist of natural materials, they seem to have a supernatural feel to them. Her eye for detail creates a harmonious balance in each piece.

About Nancy Overton:Nancy Overton’s love for paper and glue and her fondness for old recipes and love letters have inspired an artistic life of collage and papiermache. Nancy’s posters and three-dimensional creations make use of maps, stamps, sheet music and ephemera discovered on her Saturday morning outings to estate and garage sales in and around her home town of Oakland. Each design is made up of many individual torn or cut pieces of paper, secured by Elmer’s glue.

Nancy Overton is a graduate of The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting.

About Featherluxe: Featherluxe is the ORIGINAL feather hair extension system. The Featherluxe process requires no chemicals, no heat, no glue and is easily maintainable. Featherluxe™ feather hair extensions can be brushed, washed, blow-dried, straightened and even curled. With our technique, your feathers will last 1 to 3 months and with maintenance can last up to 6 months. You don’t have to worry about dreading, or messy knots. Your feather extensions will look fantastic and flow smoothly with your hair! Natural and vegan feathers available.

January Art Walk

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Happy 2012 Rare Birds! May the new year bring you peace, wisdom, creativity, vintage finds and tons of local art.  Join us for our monthly celebration of local art —  the next Art Walk is January 19 from 6-9pm.

Rare Bird is kicking off 2012 with two local artists: Ramsi Metzger’s singular jewelry line repurposes old jewelry and other found objects into new jewelry pieces. Paul Guido’s playful botanical drawings of human-like flowers tell a story about community, love and inter-connectedness.  And, once again, FeatherLuxe’s feather hair extensions is setting up shop during Art Walk at Rare Bird, so come and adorn yourself for the new year!

You can browse Paul and Ramsi’s work at Rare Bird throughout January, and be sure to mark your calendars for the Art Walk on Thursday, January 19 from 6-9pm. Join us to drink wine, feather your hair, celebrate local art and see what  resident DJ London Fog is spinning.

What: Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Found-object jewelry by Ramsi Metzger and anthropomorphized botanical drawings by Paul Guido

When: Thursday, January 19 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Paul Guido: In a decade when the average rainfall was higher and the temperatures were lower than those of current times, Paul Guido spent many of his winter months in true Northern California drawing surreal plant life and landscapes and reading and writing stories until he moved to the Bay Area in 1991. Over the next decade and a half he spent more time on music than writing stories and his drawings ceased all together until the winter of 2005, when a severe climbing accident left him largely immobile and, in his downtime, he started drawing again. The subjects of these new drawings were of community, family and love expressed through the forms of human-like botanicals. A trip to Paris later that year birthed an idea for a book in which the botanical drawings would be arranged into a story about the inter-connectedness of all beings. The prints on display are a selection from that book. The book is not yet published.

About Ramsi Metzger: Ramsi Metzger is a San Francisco-based artist. From her origins on the beaches and Blue Ridge Mountains ofVirginia, she brought her love for jewelry design to the West Coast 3 years ago.  With no formal education in Fine Arts or Design, her interest-turned-passion began with a few simple jewelry fixes.  Next, it was turning the mate of a lost earring into a ring because she couldn’t bear to throw it out. From that moment on, she realized she could breathe new life into any out-of-date of jewelry piece. Ramsi now has her own jewelry line, Etsy site, and tables at local craft fairs. Continually inspired by broken jewelry passed on by friends, flea market finds, or items from nature, she contextualizes one-of-a-kind items into jewelry pieces that tell a story.

About Featherluxe: Featherluxe is the ORIGINAL feather hair extension system. The Featherluxe process requires no chemicals, no heat, no glue and is easily maintainable. Featherluxe™ feather hair extensions can be brushed, washed, blow-dried, straightened and even curled. With our technique, your feathers will last 1 to 3 months and with maintenance can last up to 6 months. You don’t have to worry about dreading, or messy knots. Your feather extensions will look fantastic and flow smoothly with your hair! Natural and vegan feathers available.

December Art Walk

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‘Tis the season to shop local! The recent success of Plaid Friday and Small Business Saturday warmed our hearts and showed us that our awesome customers put their money where their hearts are — in the community. With the calendar now flipped to December, Rare Bird is in full holiday season mode, bursting with magical gifts for all ages.  Join us for the next Art Walk on December 15 from 6-9pm, or come by anytime to browse our collection of playful gifts from (mostly) local sources.

This holiday season we are featuring two Bay Area artists. Diana Lovett presents a 20-year retrospective of her nature-inspired jewelry. Artist Lauren Nelson’s urban landscapes blend painting, printmaking, photography and typography — we will showcase affordable prints by Lauren, in addition to framed originals.

You can check out Diana and Lauren’s work at Rare Bird throughout December, and be sure to mark your calendars for the Art Walk on Thursday, December15 from 6-9pm. Join us to drink wine, celebrate local art and enjoy the singular spins of  resident DJ London Fog.

What: Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Nature-inspired jewelry by Diana Lovett and urban landscape paintings and prints by Lauren Nelson

When: Thursday, December 15 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Diana Lovett: A student of music, art, textile, fiber, and metal, Diana brings an unusual set of skills to her jewelry making. Using techniques such as Kuem Boo, a Korean process of fusing 24-karat gold foil to silver, Diana creates stunning jewelry that references the many facets of nature, from its seasons and textures to natural formations and finishes. These influences are expressed in her jewelry as impressions or textures of leaves, wire, metal or crumpled paper that Diana embosses on metal through a rolling mill. Art is a spiritual pursuit for her, and she calls on the ideas of many religions and cultures, past and present, to create each piece.

About Lauren Nelson: Lauren Nelson is an artist whose work reflects her love for painting, printmaking, photography, and typography.  She blends these mediums together, using her own photographs as the initial inspiration for each piece.  Her artwork depicts scenes from travels to Mexico as well as places she’s called home (San Francisco and  Los Angeles).  She is now back in San Francisco, settled with her husband and new pup, Henry. Lauren is also an interior designer and photo stylist.

November Art Walk

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November at Rare Bird promises to be our most special month yet, as we get our holiday sparkle on, celebrate past successes and look forward to a bright future.  In addition to our monthly Art Walk showcase celebrating local art, November marks Rare Bird’s one-year anniversary!

In the past year, we have featured 25 local artists, hosted 12 artist showcases, participated in 4 neighborhood events, offered 2 art classes, and commissioned 1 mural. None of this would have been possible without the support and enthusiasm of our wonderful client base and community, so a heartfelt thanks to all who have supported the store in its first year.

This month, featured artists Laura Tabet and Ajay Reed play with animal medicine in “Back and Forth, Forever,” a series of collaborative paintings that explores the art of relationship. Featured designer Suzanne Baker brings her signature collage aesthetic and bold colors to a collection of pillows, quilts, coasters and decoupaged found objects inspired by 1960s psychedelic rock.

You can browse their work all month long at Rare Bird, and be sure to mark your calendars for the Art Walk and Anniversary Party on Thursday, November 17 from 6-9pm. Join us to sip wine, luxuriate in the aural stylings of resident DJ London Fog, and party down in honor of Rare Bird’s birthday.

What: Piedmont Ave Art Walk and Rare Bird’s One-Year Anniversary!

Featuring: Animal medicine paintings by Laura Tabet and Ajay Reed and functional textile collage art from Suzanne Baker

When: Thursday, November 17 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Laura Tabet & Ajay Reed

“Back And Forth, Forever” is a series of paintings by Oakland-based artists Laura Tabet and Ajay Reed.  These paintings represent a deep inquiry of collaboration between two individuals openly engaged in a dialogue with animal medicine and with each other. Their process of art-making examines the art of relationship itself.  Each piece is a transmission of archetypal power and is infused with prayer and blessings. Through this series, Laura and Ajay have brought their backgrounds in Imaginal psychology and as healing arts practitioners into an exploration of how to create through intention, allowing, and the guidance of animal wisdom.

About Suzanne Baker

Suzanne Baker is an Oakland artist and craftista who creates one-of-a-kind pieces of functional and decorative art using bits and pieces of reclaimed items – skirts, scarves, discarded paintings and drawings, kimonos, album covers, trays – in combination with new materials. This November at Rare Bird, she’s creating pillows and other functional textile pieces inspired by the colors and graphic patterns of psychedelic 1960s rock. She’s also creating coaster sets made from album covers, and decoupaging collaged figures and scenes onto trays salvaged from thrift stores and other second-hand sources.

October Art Walk

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Fall is here, and at Rare Bird that means we’re getting cozy with knits and feathers for October’s Art Walk!

Join us on Thursday, October 20 from 6-9 pm when we celebrate our featured artists: Ponder Knitwear, a hip and eco-conscious line of multi-purpose scarves that can function as hoods, ties, vests, and satchels; and Willow Solem, whose  paintings on salvaged wood feature birds found in the Bay Area and her native Pacific Northwest. And, just in time for Halloween, become a rare bird yourself with feather hair extensions from Featherluxe, who will be on hand during Art Walk at Rare Bird to provide natural or vegan feather hair extensions.

Visit Willow and Ponder Knitwear’s work all month long at Rare Bird, and mark your calendars for the Art Walk on Thursday, October 20 from 6-9 pm. Admire, shop, laugh, sip wine and, as always, marinate in the sonic grooves of resident dj London Fog.

What: Piedmont Avenue Art Walk

Featuring: Eco-conscious multipurpose scarves by Ponder Knitwear and paintings on salvaged wood  by Willow Solem

When: Thursday, October 20  from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Ponder Knitwear: Ponder Knitwear bloomed from designer Jillian Claire’s loom in a cabin atop a mountain deep in the forests of Big Sur. With a heart as large as the state of California and a spirit as eclectic as San Francisco, the Ponder family creates garments that are elegant yet rustic, phenomenal to touch, and crafted with methods and materials that support our commitment to living symbiotically with the Earth.

Ponder creates garments to fall in love with. They feel and look beautiful on your body, but are utilitarian. The new Digital Native collection is a fusion of attractive elements—Native American textiles and retro computer graphics inform the design of multi-purpose scarves that can function as hoods, ties, vests, and satchels. Their eco-conscious designs use cashmere, merino wool, bamboo, seacell, sasawashi, organic eco cotton, and reclaimed yarns.

Ponder Knitwear endeavors to lessen our negative impact on the planet, and heighten our impact on design. We are pleased to introduce ourselves as young, active agents dedicated to positive fundamental change for humanity on this planet. All garments are made in California by Californians.

About Willow Solem: Born in Northwest Washington and currently living in Oakland, Willow Solem studied painting at the Claremont Colleges and the Glasgow School of Art, graduating from Scripps College with a degree in fine art. Her artwork is in several private collections.

Approximately 20 years ago, Willow’s grandfather salvaged wood from a 100-year-old barn in Northwest Washington.  For several years, these hand-split boards were stored at her grandmother’s Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary, which protects local birds. When Willow gained access to this wood she wanted what she painted on it to reflect its origin. With this in mind, she chose to depict birds  native to Northwest Washington. Because she now lives in Oakland, she also paints birds found in the Bay Area.

About Featherluxe: Featherluxe is the ORIGINAL feather hair extension system. The Featherluxe process requires NO chemicals, NO heat, NO glue and is easily maintainable. Featherluxe™ feather hair extensions can be brushed, washed, blow-dried, straightened and even curled. With our technique, your feathers will last 1 to 3 months and with maintenance can last up to 6 months. You don’t have to worry about dreading, or messy knots. Your feather extensions will look fantastic and flow smoothly with your hair! Natural and vegan feathers available.

September Art Walk

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The monthly Art Walk is here again!  September is Small Business Month in Oakland, and at Rare Bird we’re toasting to independent businesses and local artists at the  Piedmont Avenue Art Walk!

September’s featured artists at Rare Bird draw their inspiration and materials from the natural world and far-flung cultures. Thomas Christopher Haag has painted murals across the U.S. and the world, including the captivating mural outside Rare Bird! Take a piece of this talented muralist’s work home, in the form of his paintings on wood and canvas.  Featured artist Brittany Barrett uses natural and upcycled materials to handcraft exquisite jewelry inspired by her world travels.

Browse Thomas and Brittany’s work all month long at Rare Bird, and mark your calendars for the Art Walk on Thursday, September 15 from 6-9pm, our monthly celebration of our featured artists. Admire, shop, laugh, sip wine and, as always, marinate in the sonic grooves of resident dj London Fog.

Be sure to check out our class page for artist workshops, and take note of our new Fall hours, 11am to 7pm, Tuesday through Sunday.

See you at the partay!

What: Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Paintings by Thomas Haas and Native Drops jewelry  by Brittany Barrett

When: Thursday, September 15 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Thomas Christopher Haas: Thomas Christopher Haag was born in Wichita, Kansas into a family as vast as the sea. He took chemistry and math classes for some reason at the University of Kansas and then dropped out and started hitchhiking. He has lived in Southern Mexico, Switzerland, India, Spain, the Pacific Northwest, the Great American Southwest, and now, Oakland, California. When he’s had to work, he’s been a commercial diver, propman, art director, low-volume smuggler, curator and gallery owner. He also once worked for eleven days in a dog food factory where they made kibbles’n bits, but he prefers to paint.

An avid muralist, both commissioned and not, he has painted buildings in Oaxaca, Barcelona, Venice, Albuquerque, Varinasi, Bangkok, Rangoon, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oakland, and many other places, under the names “detach”, “stove”, and “el pituitario”. He has exhibited with the likes of shepard fairey, chaz bojorquez, swoon, gaia, slinkachu, henry chalfant, mark jenkins, chris stain, and chip thomas. Using “reclaimed” housepaint taken from chemical disposal facilities, found wood, and discarded books, he constructs multi-layered, collaged paintings and assemblages which reference ancient cultures and spiritual traditions, but with just a hint of smart-ass. Homages to criminal saints, a bodhisattva telling a fart joke, events of divine banality and cosmic significance, stripped of pretense or stuffed with it. Either way, it’s all holy shit.

About Brittney Barrett: A Bay Area local, Brittany Barrett founded Native Drops in 2010. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and an insatiable passion for creativity, her business was inspired by the requests of friends and family to make them jewelry.  Brittany is inspired by the notion of adorning oneself with beautiful jewelry in order to cultivate a feeling of self love that can be shared with the world. A self-taught jewelry designer, Brittany has traveled around the world studying cultural art and design, learning and becoming inspired by how the world’s people use their natural resources to create beautiful wearable artwork. Brittany is dedicated to creating quality handmade jewelry using natural and sustainable materials whenever possible and can often be found perusing the bins at East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, and Scrap- A Source For the Resourceful, searching for interesting objects to use in her jewelry designs. Her favorite materials are reclaimed leather, vintage lace, found objects, upcycled fabric, and feathers from humane bird farms.

August Art Gallery & Trunk Show

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At Rare Bird, we’re sending out summer in style with our August Art Gallery and Trunk Show, and the third monthly Piedmont Avenue Art Walk! The energy these past two months has been incredible – it is such a delight to be a part of this vibrant community and we want to thank YOU for showing your love and support for independent business and local art.

August brings new and exciting mediums to Rare Bird! Featured Artist Ken Shelf creates whimsical, lush art with his terrariums. Drawing inspiration from nature, Ken cultivates his micro-paradises using succulents and other plants expertly arranged in glass tabletop and hanging containers.

Any lover of the natural world will have the same fondness for our other Featured Artist’s craft: handmade journals by Emily Coker. Using repurposed wood and vinyl records for covers, Emily lovingly crafts each journal as a unique creation, right down to the hand-torn paper edges. The results are books that feel personal and magical at the same time – perfect for daily journals, guest books, or sacred poem diaries.

Visit Ken and Emily’s work all month long at Rare Bird, and mark your calendars for the Art Gallery and Trunk Show on Thursday, August 18 from 6-9pm, our monthly celebration of our featured artists. Admire, shop, laugh, sip wine and, as always, marinate in the sonic grooves of resident dj London Fog.

What: Art Gallery & Trunk Show at Rare Bird and Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Succulent terrariums by Ken Shelf and handmade journals  by Emily Coker

When: Thursday, August 18  from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Ken Shelf: Ken Shelf is the co-owner (with his wife, Amy) and lead cultivator at Succulence – a life and garden store in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco that sells supplies for a succulent lifestyle.  Ken also lives in Bernal with Amy and their children, Huck and Trudy. Ken’s plant art began with the creative camouflaging of marijuana plants in his tomato garden and continues with his exploration of the disintegration and reintegration of nature with itself. In his endless quest for interesting planting vessels, he has planted teapots, popcorn poppers, electrical boxes, watering cans, shoes, bicycle rims, bird-feeders, sea shells, grain mill belts, coal cans, potato and onion baskets, and a metal Hoosier flour bin for his wife’s 40th birthday. Ken teaches classes on vertical gardening and terrarium building monthly at the Bernal Heights store. Rare Bird is privileged to offer Ken’s terrarium building workshop in September! Check out our Classes page for sign up information.

About Emily Coker: Emily Coker is a self taught multimedia artist living and creating in Oakland. Inspired and intrigued by all things vintage, Emily creates unique handmade journals from repurposed wood and vinyl records. Noticing the slow demise of old practices, traditions, and routines in this soft copy world, Emily wanted to create a tactile hard copy medium for all to enjoy. Each page of her journals is torn by hand to lend a rustic feel that evokes something familiar in the user. The books are versatile and can be used for many things,  including journals, guest books, or even photo albums.

When not making books, Emily curates and runs an art event called Oakland Under $100 in an effort to pull together the Oakland community through the arts.  She is honored to be showing at Rare Bird, which facilitates that very idea for the Oakland art community.

July Art Gallery & Trunk Show

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Summer nights are heating up at Rare Bird with the second month of the Piedmont Avenue Art Walk and our fabulous July Art Gallery  and Trunk Show.

Both of our July featured artists are channeling summer fun with the bright greens, yellows and turquoise of their nostalgic designs. Collage artist Jamie Noriega uses vintage images to create colorful, surreal and provocative new realities. Jewelry designer Kelley Hollis takes enamel and plastic brooches, pins and earrings from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and upcycles them as modern jewelry. Their work will be featured all month long at Rare Bird, and don’t miss our monthly celebration of these local talents, the Art Gallery and Trunk Show on Thursday, July 21 from 6 – 9pm. Drink some wine or homemade chai from Café Crush and, as always, luxuriate in the aural stylings of resident DJ London Fog.

What: Art Gallery & Trunk Show at Rare Bird and Piedmont Ave Art Walk

Featuring: Vintage collage by Jamie Noriega and ‘upcycled’ vintage jewelry from Kelley Hollis

When: Thursday, July 21 from 6-9 pm

Where: The Rare Bird – 3883 Piedmont Avenue – Oakland, CA

About Jamie Noriega Jamie Noriega is a resident of the East Bay. He is inspired by billboards, folk tales, cartoons, religious icons and military propaganda posters. The materials he uses for creating collages are generally culled from the pages of illustrated children’s books, atlases of anatomy, travel, cooking and fashion magazines, and periodicals. Vintage gift wrap, napkins, postcards and photographs are all considered fair game and are manipulated to construct provocative, confrontational or whimsical realities.

About Kelley Hollis The Berkeley artist’s la chat souriant line of jewelry is inspired by a life-long love of vintage jewelry, especially plastics and enamel, manufactured in the 1940s thru the late 1960s.  The color and texture of the pieces captured her imagination:  fabulous rich colors and textures of Bakelite, celluloid, Lucite, and the intricate details of enamel painting. All pieces are handmade from vintage plastic and mother of pearl buttons and vintage brooches and earrings which have been upcycled and given new lives.

June Art Gallery & Trunk Show

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Summer has arrived and it’s time to wax nostalgic at Rare Bird with vintage cameras and urban photography from our June featured artists. None other than our resident photographer, Kimberly Patterson, brings us photographic works that explore of the beauty she finds in her urban surroundings. George Polley, our second featured artist, brings a fantastic collection of rare vintage cameras to the June event.

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May Art Gallery & Trunk Show

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Due to popular demand, our monthly celebration of art continues! This May, Rare Bird features painter Gina Zupo and jewelry designer Katie J. Evans. Gina’s oil paintings explore the underbelly of seemingly innocuous familiar objects, while Katie’s jewelry enshrines the largely unsung elements of the natural world – like snakeskin and turtle scutes – in glass and metal cases.

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