“The Doorway of Magic” is one of the paintings done by Steve Brummé that is at the Sunflower Caffé.
PHOTOS BY Ryan lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
After James Hahn and his wife, Mila Chanamé, took over the
Sunflower last summer, one of their goals was to host regular shows of Sonoma County artworks. Enter Steve Brummé, a regular patron whom Hahn got to know since he started managing the café.
One day, Brummé says, Hahn asked him to be the gallery’s director. Although he’d never run a gallery, with 25 years experience showing his work, he figured he could learn by trial and error. That’s one reason he put his own art in the first show.
Brummé’s 11 acrylic on panel and canvas paintings, representing a year’s work, “illustrate the inner world of my imagination,” in a style he calls mystical realism. “Painting is a way of creating affirmations for what’s most important in my life,” he said, adding that it helps him believe in something he’s never experienced.
That’s the kind of thinking that set him on the path to earning a black belt in the martial art jujitsu. Because Brummés legs are paralyzed from polio (which he contracted as an infant), he’s been working towards that goal for the past 13 years.
After seeing Ryan Lely’s photographic essay on love in the February/March issue of FineLife Magazine (which, like the Sonoma Valley Sun, is published by Three House MultiMedia), Hahn and his wife decided they wanted it in the Sunflower. Lely, who had always wanted to do a man-on-the-street series, set up a simple studio on the lawn in front of City Hall one afternoon last December. He asked passers-by to sit for a photo while answering the question, “What is love?” in only three words. Some complied, some declined, some said they needed time to think and came back later. The result was 25 portraits and three-word answers from locals as well as from people around the world.
“I am touched that the piece affected the Sunflower’s owners so much that they wanted it hanging in their café,” said Lely.
Brummé, who said he “loves having kids around me wherever I go,” will welcome them to Friday’s reception with healthy treats. (In April, in conjunction with the Sonoma Ecology Center, he plans to show drawings by students from their field trips. The June show will feature art by 10 adults and 10 children participating in the Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance.)
The Sunflower Caffé holds its first gallery reception Friday evening, from 5 to 7 p.m., for two Sonoma artists – painter Steve Brummé and photographer Ryan Lely – whose work is on display until April 1.
Sunflower Caffé
421 First Street West
Sonoma
707.996.6645
www.sonomasunflower.com
