In and around Sonoma County, figuratively as well as literally speaking, art is everywhere.
And this is not only a welcome addition to the many blank canvases that abound—walls, sidewalks, alleyways and utility boxes—it also helps spark imagination and open people’s minds to what art can be and even mean.
Petaluma-based artist Jonny Hirschmugl is one of several local artists who have been commissioned to beautify areas in and around the city with public art, including murals across the front facade of Petaluma Coffee and Tea, the southside of Petaluma’s American Alley, the underpasses along Petaluma’s Lynch Creek Trail and numerous other barns, businesses and exterior walls around our fair county.
Now one can see a great representation of Hirschmugl’s work via “Wet Paint—A Perspective on a Retrospective.” This is a whimsical way of labeling the retrospective of his work opening July 23 at Petaluma’s Keller Street CoWork and running through October.
Anyone who has met Hirschmugl knows him as friendly but a bit quiet, funny and someone who really has to be listened to. He’s the kind of guy one probably has to become with a name like Hirschmugl. But luckily for all, his inner sense of playfulness, nostalgia and everyday magic that abounds if we just pay attention is writ large (and sometimes quite small) via his artwork. These range from said murals to two-inch canvases (“my best sellers”), 8×10 inch and larger sized canvases, and around four- and five-foot canvases.
By way of a better example of the above, Hirschmugl explains his roots thusly: “Well, there was a great flood when I was being born, so my mother sought higher grounds on the 6th floor in a San Francisco hospital. I was spoon fed and potty trained in the town of Novato. I spent my adolescence in the more gritty parts of Petaluma.” I imagine one is getting the gist of the artistic sensibility here.
Said mother is also an artist with a focus on painting as well as button jewelry. Hirschmugl says he has no formal training, just years of learning by doing, including “scribbling on walls up to the age of the proper authorities telling me to stop scribbling on walls.”
Fans of his work notice common renderings of birds—particularly crows and owls—but Hirschmugl says this isn’t necessarily by design. He notes that rather, “Sometimes I’m chasing a theme that jells with me or jells with the patrons. And sometimes I’m working on something without an observable reason.”
As if quoting from David Lynch’s must-read transcendental meditation book, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, Hirschmugl says, “I mean, you can always create a reason for doing something after you’ve done it. But intuitive creating might just be tapping into some other communal stream of consciousness. It’s got some good stuff in there; you just have to fish it out.”
While that feels very nice and open-minded, Hirschmugl says his actual creative process is slightly more chaotic. “Flipping vinyls on my record player helps create a working rhythm. I’ll dance between my small works, [and] I don’t sit too long working on one piece at a time. It’s part of the reason I can never answer the question of how long it takes me to make a particular painting.” He continues, “Freedom of thought to work on a piece has its challenges. The voice in your head asking why you are doing this can get kind of loud sometimes. The music helps drown that out.”
As noted, public art seems to be all the rage—never-ending outcry over the Petaluma bathtubs on stilts project notwithstanding—and Hirschmugl is a big part of that. When asked what the sudden rise in this is all about, he’s unsure but ties it into what moves him as an artist. Says Hirschmugl, “We already spoke of phases. And as I attribute these things to a cycle of nature, it could just be something like that with the art scene around here. In 10 years, fighting the robots might be the happening thing. Other than that, I’m not really sure, but I’m really happy to contribute where I can.”
Artist Jonny Hirschmugl’s ‘Wet Paint—A Perspective on a Retrospective’ opens July 23 at Petaluma’s Keller Street CoWork, 140 Keller St., and runs through October. For more information, check out jonnyhirschmugl.com.
