Shirley Salzman - The Dance Palace

“All Over the Map”

I’m not going to tell you my whole life story. I’m sticking to all the different art projects and media I’ve tried this lifetime. Hopefully I will inspire some of you to get out there and make something.

Basically I grew up on the Peninsula and graduated in Fine Arts from Berkeley in 1967 . I soon learned that my degree meant nothing , but I had wide ranging skills and interests, as you will see.

1967 and into the early 70’s, I supported myself sewing clothes for a hippie shop, illustrating books, making posters for the anti-war effort and painting landscapes for a friend’s gallery in San Francisco. After a three week career in SF as a receptionist, I moved to Mendocino and made ceramic pots for a living. These sold at a store called “Accelerated Research”.

I hit on the idea of drawing local Victorian houses and produced a coloring book which I distributed myself. Next I made a similar book of San Francisco Victorian houses and eventually did a whole series.

I had always done sewing, and for some time I concentrated on making quilts and stuffed sculpture for a gallery in Sausalito. Stuffed sculpture was all the rage briefly, and I had a show in Rome and one in Malta

Then, in the early 80’s, back to Berkeley where I had a family and a house and enjoyed that for years. I made a few wall murals, most notably one entirely covering the walls and ceiling of one room. Then, whoopie, we moved to Point Reyes Station where I designed and worked on my third house building project. (What was that thing about houses?)

Next art project was sacrilegious collages. I considered this a political statement. My friend Jennifer saw my work in 1993 and offered me a show at her shop, Thompson Design, in Inverness Park. She continued to sell my collages until she closed the shop in 2003.

I showed more sacrilegious art at Toby’s Gallery; one show was called “Dieties Switched at Birth”. I still enjoy this type of art and will chop up magazines and art books as entertainment.

At one point in the 90’s I discovered that my favorite painting teacher, Leigh Hyams, was teaching at Esalen and I went there for a week each year to paint with her. After 20 years, she died, but a group of her students continue to meet for a week each year to paint together and critique our work. So, for many years I’ve stuck to acrylic painting.

Let me tell you my favorite method for preparing a canvas: lay out primed , unstretched canvas outside, set up the eight foot ladder, climb up and stick your gloved hand in the liguidy paint and splash or drip it on the canvas. Let it dry in the sun and then spray it with the garden hose. Some of the paint will come off leaving a ghost. Repeat until you like it. Later make a drawing and paint in the negative space.

For a year I painted nothing but but kelp , and another year made hundreds of little houses from children’s blocks. ( houses again, but very tiny) This year I’m back at landscapes. Lucky me.

Most everything that still exists is for sale; you can reach me at shirley_salzman@yahoo.com.

Artist Reception with Shirley Salzman

February 21 @ 5:00 pm

This virtual event will feature a conversation with the artist discussing several pieces, followed by a Q&A session. Registration required; register via Eventbrite. This event is free; donations are encouraged. To donate, please visit our donation page here and mention this event by name in the comments section.