I attended the opening of “The Art of Tea” (or Why is Soda Pop More Popular than Tea?) show at the Cricket Engine Gallery http://www.cricketengine.org last Friday and I did not see a single Mr.T related work. What a gyp! Although artist Lexa Walsh did create a piece titled “Cozy” constructed from hair extensions that did very much resemble something that would be very much at home on the head of George Clinton or Cousin It.

Now I’m not much of a tea drinker. Sometimes I get a craving for sweet & sour chicken so I go to the restaurant where such things are served and they pour me tea and I drink it because it’s there. But to answer the question asked in the title of the show I prefer soda and the reason why is simply because it’s choc full of sugar and delicious chemicals that are bad for the human body and as we learned in jr.high all things delicious are hazardous (Not unlike Barbara Sue Hillary who sat next to me in third period English).

The show featured a live performance of a Japanese tea ceremony and a free to all tea tasting hosted by a glam rock inspired Mad Hatter played by Vinney Flores. One of the greatest assets of the Cricket Engine gallery is its unassuming nature. It is a very welcoming place where the artists can feel free to be more experimental in the work they present here than they might in a more mainstream setting. Jessica Moreno an artist in the show and a friend of mine created an incredibly charming Alice in Wonderland inspired piece titled “The Dormouse” which can be seen on her web site http://www.allfeltup.com/ no hipster’s nursery should be without one. She is relatively new to the bay area art scene and as you may know it can be a very daunting task to break into this or any other field. But thanks to venues like Cricket Engine budding artists have a place to cut their teeth.

The show is up through May 28th, 2006

Cricket Engine Gallery
499 Embarcadero Avenue #3 (at 5th Avenue) in Oakland
Gallery Hours 1pm to 5pm Saturday & Sunday
Or by Appointment 510-835-1920