A spiral staircase rises high above Logan Creative's gated entry, piquing interest and harkening back to the days when the property was a spiral staircase factory. Nowadays, the former factory is home to both the Blinking Owl Distillery and 11 talented artists who have found a working space in the heart of Santa Ana in mediums as diverse as metal, glass, wood, printmaking, paint, ceramic, photography, floral and graphic design. 

Logan Creative is an industrial arts hub tucked in the historic Logan neighborhood on quiet Santiago Street near the Santa Ana Regiontal Transit Center and Santiago Artist Lofts.

On December 10, 2016, the artists held an open studio show, much like an open studio event at the Brewery or Bergamont Station in Los Angeles,  welcoming visitors to see their art-making facilities and works on display. We had a great time touring the property, viewing the art, and speaking with the artists.

Bret Price never got the memo that you have to act like a grown-up to be a world-famous artist. Bret has an exuberant Robert Redford smile and he marvels at his work with the energy of a child. Raw talent  runs in the family: Bret's son Greg is a glass artist at Logan Creative, and Bret's father worked closely with Walt Disney. (Disney trivia: Disneyland's City Hall pays homage to Bret's father, "Buzz" Price, with the ornate window sign "Call on our Numbers Man for the Best Price!"). Bret's work has a well defined point of view. He works in metal pieces get as large as RVs that he twists and turns into frozen movement. Effortlessly twisted, giant red beams and spheres shocked out of frozen tracks of lighting make metal look like its as easy to bend as fuzzy pipe cleaners. But better yet, their playfulness and overwhelming scale puts a smile on your face as wide as Bret's. 

Greg Price is a prolific glass artist whose candy colored, multi-layered forms emulate nature exploding through glass, time and the fabric of reality itself. With the intensity of this work, it's hard to believe how laid-back he seems (and then you remember he's the son of Bret Price who really needs to write a book on work-life balance. I would read it!). Greg has expanded his space at Logan and it's well worth a visit just to check in with him and his amazing array of lava-like creations (especially at night when the lighting has the most impact).

Hiromi Takizawa is an incredible glass artist whose work represents natural forms. Each of these rocks is the result of an inverted glass-making process. It takes 7 days to produce a single rock. Hiromi descirbes the process sort of like making lasagna: With lots of layering of naturalistic patterns and textures, she can create flawless representations of nature.

Sal Perez, a ceramic artist and Board Member of the National Museum of Ceramic Arts, has been at Logan Creative since it launched. His workshop is filled with works of sublime beauty inspired by the Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi. (Most notably expressed in Japanese tea ware, wabi-sabi's elegance is said to represent three simple realites: that nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect.) Perez' cups balance precariously on natural forms, and seem to further represent the wabi-sabi principles by imparting what one scholar would call, "a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing."

Jordan Christian is a classic abstract painter who loves the works of his 20th century forefathers. In the photos below, Jordan stands before a didatic work he created: He painted the left piece after returning from the desert, and the right while here in his urban home. Putting the two paintings next to each other creates an even more complex implant. Below, Jordan shows a piece called "Double Dipper," a piece he developed in two different periods. The final piece is a great representation of his work in that you can keep finding new meaning, beauty and expressions the longer you view it.

Eli Woodridge is an incredible mixed-media creator. Though he claims he built it to entertain himself while the glue was drying on another project, his tree-form drum set is beautiful -- and apparently a very effective way to kill time while glue dries. The gorgeous wall in the background was constructed for the LAB Anti-Mall, and the cool lighitng fixtures were a collaboration between Eli's wife and Logan Creative studio-mate Hiromi Takizawa.

Andrea Harris is an incredibly talented printmaker, illustrator and educator. She has powerful lessons for any artist in being able to understand your role and duties to yourself and society as an artist. The insanely fun character creations from Andrea's recent show "You're Better with Butter," are all over her worksite as well as abstract multi-layered prints she mesemerizingly worked on with lightning speed. Andrea's husband and Santa Ana Arts Commissioner Mike McGee was hanging out in Andrea's studio, and shared wonderful stories of F Space Gallery and the Spurgeon Series (an event in the late 90s where dozens of artists took over unoccupied spaces in the Spurgeon Building for a showcase event). McGee hinted that a revival of this series for a third round would be fun.

Like Bergamont Station or the Brewery in Los Angeles, Orange County's Logan Creative is an intriguing workspace and collaboration hub. It is an amazing arts asset in its own right, and it adds another new dimension of work and space for Santa Ana's arts scene. We hope Logan Creative can do more on- and off-site events and that more people connect with these amazing artists and this incredible space. 

Thank the Consulado de México en Santa Ana for two years of persistence to secure Santa Ana as a destination for the world tour of Jorge Marín's contemporary sculpture series "The Wings of the City," 8 of which could be placed on public display in Downtown Santa Ana Fall/Winter 2017.

A proposal to bring the bronze neo-classical sculptures to Santa Ana was presented on Nov. 17th to the City of Santa Ana Arts & Culture Commission,  who recommended the Santa Ana City Council approve approximately $40,000 to bring the program here and create educational tie-ins, workshops and tours of the artworks for Santa Ana students and residents. 

After the final nod from the Santa Ana City Council, downtown art galleries, educators and arts organizations are encouraged to get in touch with Norma Edith Aguilar, Cónsul para Asuntos Comunitarios, Educativos y Culturales at the Consulado de México en Santa Ana and connect your  upcoming events and cultural programming for late 2017 with this amazing outdoor exhibit. 

We are grateful and excited for Santa Ana's role to display "The Wings of the City" and our opportunity to springboard our own season of magical realism right here in Santa Ana with a little conjuring help from these momentous sculptures and "The Year of Mexico in California" umbrella.
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Partners are already lining up to coordinate events and programs with this exciting cultural exchange including the Downtown Santa Ana Artwalk, SanArts Conservatory at Santa Ana High School, Santa Ana Sites and the Downtown Santa Ana Restaurant Association.

Visit jorgemarin.com.mx for more information about the artist