Heart.Land, an exhibition of paintings by Monterey artists Rick Deragon and Karen Nagano, will run at Avenue 9 gallery from June 3 through July 2, with a reception on Friday, June 10, from 5-8 p.m. Nagano depicts "intimacy and magic of childhood" in monumental paintings that blend Japanese with western styles. Deragon's landscapes of Monterey County show the "beauty of the commonplace." His art is rooted in realism and impressionism. The featured artists, husband and wife, cooperate in all aspects of living, including house and childcare, so that they each have time to paint. They also share common goals in art.  In every respect, this remarkable show is an intimate look at the blending of two cultures at the core.

Deragon states: "I want my art to bring joy into the world." Nagano agrees: "I hope my paintings will serve as reminders of the life-giving forces of nature." Nagano's graduate study in art included the Kofukai Art Institute in Tokyo and UC Santa Barbara. But the most formative and influential educational period occurred while she was pursuing her art degree at Stanford University where she studied with Frank Lobdell and Nate Oliveira. Deragon was awarded Masters degrees in both studio and art and art history from CSUC. He served as the juror who selected forty participants for the "Sherwood Forest plein air Painting Competition" (July 20-23, 2005) -- a highlight of the Bidwell Park Centennial Celebration.

MOEGI-IRO
(for Kenji)

The spring I flew to you
the sky opened wider
than the dragon’s mouth;
Skimming the dragon’s
teeth with our wings,
We flew west into
an eternal sunrise.
Dragon with five toes,
belly of light, its body
our journey. Our
destination: its celestial
lair. You, takara mono,
the treasure.

It was springtime,
the world alive with you,
moegi-iro, the green of sprouting
spring leaves. You danced across
hillsides, bowed from the tips of
branches, trailed across arbors and
weighted my arms with
your blessed body. You,
moegi-iro, painted the lining
Of my heart, turned it into its
own palpitating spring.
And rising out of ashes you
carried me with you, laughing,
to Fukuyama, mountain of good
fortune, and a red weasel scampering
across the black tile roof
of our temple abode.

©Karen Nagano 2001

moegi-iro – the pale green of new spring growth
takara mono – treasure

An article on Rick Deragon and Karen Nagano's art by Dolores Mitchell is featured in the June 2005 Issue of Inside/Out Magazine. Below is an excerpt:

For Deragon, the HEART.LAND exhibition in Chico represents "coming home." He was awarded dual Master’s degrees in studio art and in painting from CSUC in 1986. He began painting landscapes during his art student days when he would explore Upper Bidwell Park. "I was inspired by that profound sense of history in the cliff structures. As I painted, I tried to tell the story of time I witnessed in the eroded strata, with the creek below still burrowing down through the rocks." It is fitting that Deragon served as the outside juror who selected forty participants for the "Sherwood Forest Plein Air Painting Contest," a key part of the 2005 Bidwell Park Centennial events. From July 20 through 23, artists from all over the country will demonstrate rapid painting skills on location. Deragon notes: "I know from my own experience that artists will have a tremendous variety of poetic, powerful scenery to paint in Bidwell Park. It’s great that Chicoans will be able to watch art in the making."

Nagano received her B.A. in art from Stanford University, and did advanced study at the Kofukai Art Institute in Tokyo and UC Santa Barbara. Her art has been exhibited at such venues as the Monterey Museum of Art and the Gallery of New Art in Wil, Switzerland. All of her paintings in HEART.LAND depict the couple’s son Kenji in the strong shapes and flat colors of Japanese woodcuts. Nagano says: "From infancy, Kenji had a rapt, watchful gaze. His eyes were so steady and his look so penetrating it seemed he was contemplating the world which he would one day inhabit as an adult. The calmness in Kenji's gaze reminded me of a Buddhist statue and as I painted, I imagined him, a baby Buddha, considering the future of us all."