A party for your eyes

By CHRIS PAGE, The Bakersfield Californian staff writer

Thursday July 03, 2003, 05:25:07 PM

Jennifer Randall, Claudia True and Nicole Saint-John are the "Charlie's Angels" of Bakersfield's art scene, as evident by their triple-treat showing at the Arts Council of Kern, titled "Nueva Frontera."

The exhibit is ostensibly a tribute to south-of-the-border flavor, but more than that, it's a chance for all three artists to amplify the colors of their palettes and to bask in new inspiration. Like "Charlie's Angels" -- and I hate to plug the new movie -- the show starts off with a bang. Even the hallway leading to the Arts Council of Kern gallery bursts with the trio's work.

Randall's love of geometric mandalas gets ample play in the exhibit, starting with her "Valdes House.' Elsewhere, she steps into new territory, like portrait -- crafting portraits of friends True and Saint-John ("Senora Claudia Contemplating Citrus and Cactus," "Senora Nicole Dreaming of Agave") as well as a fabulous piece of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Series she has done based on the work of multimedia artist Laurie Anderson and one juxtaposing saints with environmental concerns (the saint of butterflies, "Santa Mariposa de la Tristeza" is used to rail against genetically modified foods and Monsanto) are hinted at in a tucked-away wall of the exhibit.

True, a wizard able to reduce landscapes to their bare essences only to recast them in vibrant hues, turns her eye to Spanish missions and Mexican imagery. "Mission I" is sun-drenched and cast against rolling blue mountains. "Love Those Olives!" pits the fruit against True's still life love of lemons with whimsy.

If the trio's art were serious, then the exhibit's onslaught of bright color and active imagery would probably be blindingly unbearable. But there's a sense of humor throughout the show, mainly in Saint-John's work -- surrealist scenes featuring oddly foreign, exaggerated characters you wouldn't imagine anywhere else but a perky French art film.

The artist finds her characters sipping margaritas ("Margarita," appropriately), falling in love ("Southern Date," a man and woman about to touch hands on a park bench) and, just for the heck of it, dancing on tables ("Deja Vu").

Saint-John reaches new levels of sweetness in the show, though, with pieces like "Southern Date" and an earlier work, 2002's "Make a Wish," which finds another man and woman sitting together on a simple chair, watching the twilight sky shower falling stars around them. It's the end of a perfect date.

"Nueva Frontera" is the kind of must-see show that I want to make a return trip to see. True, Randall and Saint-John are at the top of their forms -- even testing new themes and palettes -- and seeing them exhibit together is the kind of eye candy that's just too delicious to ignore.