The Lux Store

The Lux store was created to be not only a unique retail experience underscoring the one-of-a-kind nature of Lux Art Institute, but also an opportunity to collaborate with talented local artists and artisans and share their craftsmanship with the San Diego community.

In its first incarnation in late 2009, the retail installation came to life as Specimen, a collaboration with gallery owner Mark Quint and artist Adam Belt offering curious treasures, antiques and flea market finds that reflected an appreciation of science, art, nature and adventure. It was re-born in Spring 2010 as J & K Souvenir, Inc., a pop-up shop conceived by two of San Diego’s most recognized art stars, Jean Lowe and Kim MacConnel, carrying a select collection of playful, one-of-a-kind goods that illustrated the tension between the mass-produced and the handmade.

In its newest state, the Lux store highlights our distinctive museum experience with custom items such as tote bags, shirts, hats and note cards featuring never-before-seen photos of Lux resident artists at work and images of their most striking creations.

It will continue its signature twist of spotlighting the craft of local artists, who will change out of the store periodically so as to allow for a constant flow of works by new talent to be exhibited, enjoyed and purchased. Please click on the "Local Art Partner" link to discover who is currently being featured. 

As a special and ongoing feature, the store is also showcasing the artwork of students ages six to sixteen, with a variety of products designed or created by kids who have participated in Lux education programs. This Lux Kids line of products includes decorative pillows and tees screen-printed with student drawings, as well as note cards emblazoned with images of students’ sculptures, paintings and drawings. All proceeds from the sale of Lux Kids items directly support Lux education programs, including camps, classes and the growing Summer Art Camp Scholarship Program.

Learn more about Lux Kids by visiting our blog: kidsatlux.blogspot.com.

For this current installation beginning March 2012, the Lux store will showcase one-of-a-kind, handmade treasures by San Diego artisans, artists and designers:

Thais Pacci

With a degree in Fashion Merchandising and Art with emphasis in Applied Design, Encinitas-based designer Thais Pacci specialized in metal-smithing techniques at University of California, San Diego. Her background also includes studying knits in Italy, interning for Women's Wear Daily and Zandra Rhodes, and assisting on Vogue shoots in Los Angeles. 

Pacci Designs is a sustainable line of handmade jewelry designed and fabricated in-house using recycled metals, natural fibers and repurposed materials. Pieces are one-of-a-kind or made in small quantities and

For her current collection at Lux, Thais--whose challenge is to create items that are both aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to wear--used leather, salvaged house numbers, and fabric to develop pieces that marry the Victorian refinement of pearls, crystals and antique objects with the rustic touch of natural fibers. Processes include sewing, braiding, painting, heating and cooling to achieve different forms and shapes. 

Jeremy Gercke

Having begun his involvement with clay as a teenager at a community art center in Wilmington, Delaware, Jeremy states: "By nature, I am a ‘hands on’ artist. I like to be tactilely involved with what I am creating in much the same way a baker will knead bread and punch it down when it rises before baking. In concept, I profess to be obsessed with the ceramic process, as it affords me both the opportunity to be spontaneous and make calculating decisions when constructing. I love working with pottery forms because it is familiar and concrete but can be imbued with meaning that can transform setting, speak to ritual, consider a moment in time, or be complete fantasy."

The pieces on display at Lux take inspiration from disparate sources. One grouping of vases includes details of architecture, Sputnik motifs of the 50’s, and water balloon forms. The grouping of functional of bowls and flower vases with drips is heavily influenced by Japanese oribe ware of the 17th century. This type of pottery looked to capture the softness of working with very wet clay, and these pieces were altered from a symmetrical form that had been freshly made on the potter’s wheel.

All of the work at Lux is made from white stoneware clay and formed on the potter’s wheel or from constructing with flat slabs (panels) of clay, glazed, and then fired in a kiln to 2156 degrees Farenheit.

Wood and Silver

Wood and Silver jewelry at Lux is the collaboration between Phil Audia and Jill DeDominicis. As partners, they celebrate a love for natural materials and beautiful, functional design. 

Wood and Silver jewelry is crafted from exotic and domestic woods, silver and semi-precious gemstones. While not all of their works contain wood, their aesthetic is inspired by its inherent patterns and colors. Using rejected and scrap pieces, they focus on wood’s intrinsic beauty, turning even the smallest bits into art for the body, and love the combination of wood's warm, sensual qualities with the more rigid and metallic beauty of silver.

Their necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings push ideas of composition, asymmetry and balance, taking traditional and modern motifs and making them their own. As self-taught artists, their work is constantly evolving and taking shape. With designs based on the organic variations of our materials, no two pieces are ever completely alike.

Ashley Kim

Clay artist Ashley Kim''s formal education in Ceramics includes a BFA from Utah State University and an MFA from Indiana University Bloomington.  While her formal training has helped in shaping her as an artist, her commitment to the craft and love for the medium have grown over the years of working with clay. 

The inspiration for her textured and embellished pottery and plates in the Lux store have come from many sources. Says Ashley: "For me it was a simple tool, my pattern marker. Then came scraps of laces and zippers. This is how my current work began.  It is composed of utilitarian pots usually for a small group of people. Domestic forms, such as vases, are new forms I am exploring.  Of course, containers (a continued study since graduate school) are also a part of my repertoire. It is important to me that they function well and hopefully communicate my sensibilities with the medium and their intended function... My work is intended to bring joy and richness to daily activities of cooking, serving and eating. So it's natural that my creative process ends with the user."

Jeff Irwin

With a BA from Humboldt State University and an MFA from San Diego State University, Grossmont College Ceramics Instructor Jeff Irwin presents "The White Work" in the Lux store. Inspired by animal trophies and taxidermy books, Jeff has created a series of all-white, tree-like animals which are meant to represent our manipulation of nature and our need to idealize that manipulation. For the artist, this work alludes to power, ego, preciousness and loss. White as a color or absence of color brings with it connotations of simplicity, clarity, spirituality, and transcendence between life and death. 

These particular pieces are the maquettes he uses to create the larger forms which are more typical of his work. To make the them, he collects a wide array of animal images from the internet and books. The images show the animals in several positions and expressions. Then using a simple pinch pot technique, Jeff fashions the clay into relatively realistic animals that also resemble parts of sawed off trees. The pieces are then fired to about 1900 degrees Farenheit. Following that, they are glazed in a white glaze that he developed and fired again to about 1800.

Hulga of San Diego

Hulga of San Diego is the creation of artist Jean Lowe. She earned her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley and her M.F.A. at the University of California, San Diego. A lecturer at UC San Diego from 1992 to 2008, Lowe has shown in more then fifty exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally and is represented by Quint Contemporary art in La Jolla, Calif.; Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif.; and McKenzie Fine Arts in New York. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including two WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowships and the CalArts/Alpert Ucross Residency Prize.

Bearhead Factory

Bearhead Factory Jewelry, launched in 2005 by Erin Rivera Merriman, is the official jeweler of the Peaceful Warrior. They create rank insignia, talismans, and medals of honor for those on the front lines of the battle for humanity’s indigenous soul.

The animals and symbols found in Merriman's jewelry are chosen for their archetypal and magical properties, and their ability to serve as both guardians and guides. Her work is inspired by dreams, Jungian psychology, a reverence for the mysteries of the natural world, and her training in Eastern and Native spiritual traditions. Her process involves painstakingly carving each original model out of wax and casting it in brass or sterling silver using the lost wax method of casting. She then makes molds which allow her to reproduce pieces. She currently creates each piece  in her downtown San Diego studio, located in the San Diego Jewelers Exchange. Each piece of jewelry is intended to be infused with talismanic meaning by the wearer.

Erin holds a BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and has participated in many group shows in New York City and New Mexico between 2001 and 2010.

Brian Dick

Brian Dick's work is constructed from everyday vernacular materials that emerge from a process of play that is purposefully temporary and not meant to last over time.

The items featured in the Lux store, plaster cast figurines handpainted with water colors, are a part of the The Nationwide Museum Mascot 2012 Tour. Over the last three years Brian and his partner Christen Sperry-Garcia have travelled around the United States for the Nationwide Museum Mascot Project. Using locally found thrift store materials, they make mascots on site for art institutions. Says Brian, "We know they really don’t want us there; we make them feel uncomfortable. After all they want to project a certainkind of image and a silly mascot is not really it. But our stated mission is sincere even if we do it with our tongue in our cheek a little bit; we really are trying to bring attention to institutions we genuinely like and need. But what I really enjoy are the people we meet, getting out in the world and playing with and exchanging ideas, and using suggestions and help from people... The quest to collapse my daily life with my art life is partly intuition, partly intellectual and partly a logical conclusion to a need to connect with the world of things and the
world of people in a way that is exciting, meaningful and funny to me."

Kelly Schnorr

Artist Kelly Schnorr is committed to the study of the suburban American experience through a variety of topics using clay and ceramics as a sculptural material. In the past, she has addressed subjects such as suburban sprawl, family and divorce, homogeneity and identity, consumerism and waste, sentimental objects and kitsch, water use and the environment. To address each issue, she challenges herself to employ what she think is the appropriate technique to pronounce her concept. Weather it be making molds of disposable objects to be cast in porcelain, or placing photographs of the suburban landscape onto china plates, she feels ceramics is a most domestic material.

One concept she has explored is the process of taking a mass-produced consumable, such as a tract house, and adapting and transforming it into a highly personalized home. She has played with the process of embellishing purchased ceramics from thrift stores,
restaurant suppliers, and big box stores. For the Lux store, she has made a line of teacups, where each cup has been modified to speak to the individual.

Having earned her BFA from California State University Chico and her MFA in Ceramics at San Diego State University, Kelly is currently the Ceramics Technician at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA.

The Friendly Feather Shop

Creator of The Friendly Feather Shop, Justine loves the magic of birds, feathers and flight. Her desire to work with exotic plumage led to snail mailing various shelters, rescues, bird protection groups, aviaries and zoos across the country. The more she learned, the more she needed to know. What had started as a feather treasure hunt became a living.

Justine starts with a bag of feathers and sanitizes them using alcohol and an antibacterial plant oil blend. The feathers are then sorted by species and paired up for use in earrings. Single feathers are set aside for necklaces and hair clips. The feathers are preened by hand, then trimmed for use. Some feathers are glued and some are crimped, depending on the thickness of the quills.

Natural, exotic feathers sourced after molting cycles are used to create beautiful earrings. Each pair is totally unique, due to the natural variances in color and pattern from the birds. 

 
Lux plans to feature different local artists and products in the store space throughout the year. Store goods will range in price from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. The Lux store is open during regular visitor hours and at special events.