To nurture and inspire the imagination of its staff, Studio 2055 regularly schedules field trips to Southern California museums and galleries. The group’s exposure to a wide-ranging variety of art, design and architecture affords an opportunity to move out of the studio environment to recharge their creative desires. Trips to Los Angeles’s Getty Museum, Culver City’s Museum of Jurassic Technology, Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum and San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Arts have helped to inspire the Studio’s own design work.
Most recently, the staff visited the William D. Cannon Gallery at the Dove Library in Carlsbad to view a show by Adonna Khare, a gifted illustrator who works with pencil and watercolors to create fanciful animal scenes. Some of her meticulous work defies the imagination in trying to grasp the monumental scale of many of her pencil drawings—not only the amazing talent of Ms. Khare, but also the near-overwhelming size of her illustrations. A graduate from Cal State Long Beach, Adonna Khare is an illustrator born with an incredible ability to combine exacting draftsmanship with a wildly imaginative eye that reflects a peaceful, benign kingdom of animals reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights.”
Her monumental work in carbon pencil, entitled “Elephant, Lion and Buffalo” measures 35 feet by five feet. Standing in front of this overwhelming drawing causes the viewer to marvel at not only the artist’s ability, but her energy and desire to create such a huge work filled with her unique world of animals.
The World of Adonna Khare: Beasts, Backpacks and Curious Creatures, continues at the Cannon Gallery off El Camino Real until November 7.
