Today we’d like to introduce you to Priscilla Salser.
Priscilla, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I grew up in Nestor, which is a small pocket that is still considered San Diego for some reason; it sits in between Imperial Beach and San Ysidro. There’s not much to do there so I found some unproductive ways to keep myself entertained as the adult supervision was usually at a minimum. During elementary I remember my mother attending community college for her AA. She would come home with these detailed pastel drawings of the campus and black and white portraits of Luis Miguel. I’ll never forget how proud and excited she was of them, and that was the happiest I’d seen her. I took my first art class in Jr. High and was hooked. I always doodled, but I remember that first painting of Garfield the cat did it for me. I continued the art thing throughout high school and community college as a painter. During my fourth year of messing around at Southwestern, I decided it was probably time to focus and figure out what I wanted to do. I’d made enough art and worked on projects with amazing instructors so I ended up transferring to UCSD as a studio art major.
Welcome to conceptual art. I stopped painting and continued to explore with mediums and ideas. After graduating, I ended up taking myself a little too serious and found that I couldn’t make any work. That always bothered me. After a few years of idling, I came up with an idea for a temporary project. I was still involved in the arts, mostly hanging out and volunteering at Helmuth Projects. I started bijou because I thought I’d be fun and maybe even interesting.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My personal work uses the contours and spaces of my body – I find ways to create dialog between isolated fragments that later become abstract landscapes of color. I run a space called bijou. It does not have an address nor is there rent to pay, bijou is a space that temporarily inhabits public nooks around the city where gatherings would not otherwise occur. It’s a lighthearted, sustainable project for public art happenings. Through collaboration I attempt to create a new conversation and experience during every opening.
Once the artists accept the invitation I team them up with a musician, performance artist, or in one case, a cassette player. The intention is to complement the work. This collaboration sets a mood and creates a sense of place.
Spaces like bijou are laboratories for established artists and other outsiders to explore their practice in ways that they are not able to through institutions.
bijou is not here to take itself seriously. It is an invitation given to an artist to create in whatever form they interpret the gallery to be- either space/object/vessel or nothing at all. It presents the artist with a starting point and is essentially open to interpretation. Bijou makes space for art to exist in public without funding or a fee. It takes participants on a journey to find a specific piece and immerse themselves in the surroundings.
It exists because we say it does. People come because they are curious and supportive, people stay because it’s not just another art opening at the same museum or gallery they went to last week. bijou happenings are temporal and remain as records on the internet, artist websites or CVs.
Through bijou people get the chance to experience magical pockets in the city and find community. Why not go stand on the side of a hill and watch a bijou sized Popsicle melt under a spotlight… see a video projection of a hand pulling cloth objects through a glory hole… listen to the soothing sounds of a Theremin accompanied by faint vinyl recordings of nature and birds, sounds coming from a multicolored lit bush.
How can artists connect with other artists?
Go to openings, talk to artists about their work. Talk to them about yours. Be nice. Drink a Tecate. Artist run spaces and events are what keeps our small community thriving and inspired in San Diego. If there is something missing, make it happen or at least try? Much love and gratitude to the artists and friends in the bijou family. You have made bijou come to life.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
There is a bijou show three to four times a year. You can sign up for the mailing list at bijougallery.org to get invitations to upcoming shows or find it on the Instagram @bijou.gallery.bijou
Contact Info:
- Address: TBD
- Website: bijougallery.org
- Email: whereisbijou@gmail.com
- Instagram: @bijou.gallery.bijou
Image Credit:
Josh Pavlick
Priscilla Salser
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