TOP : ETHAN JONES ; BOTTOM : COURTESY OF JIM OLARTE AND COOPER ROOT |
A NEW WAY OF SEEING Olarte ’ s studio illustrates a robust oeuvre that predates macrame . Interspersed with knotted nautical rope in all its colors are mobiles and wall-mounted 3D sculptures assembled from copper armature and found fiberglass .
He likes to walk the beach and comb rock outcroppings in Laguna and neighboring towns , where broken down hulls , buried by the tide , wash up . In fact , Olarte walks everywhere from his bungalow in Woods Cove . “ It ’ s really opened my eyes ,” he says . “ You see things at a different level when you ’ re not in a car . … I zone out , pay attention to the environment . I [ notice ] the cycle of flowers . I see ‘ trash ’ on the beach [ and ] pick it up .
“ The [ fiberglass pieces ] are just the way I found them . … I don ’ t shape any ,” the artist says . “ Aren ’ t they beautiful ?”
Substantial collections of remnants from the natural world — fragmented cowries and abalone and chitons — amass in glass jars and beakers . “ It ’ s minuscule ,” Olarte says , holding up a purple edge of a shell . “ But when you have 1,000 or 10,000 of them , it ’ s a statement .”
There are also bleached bones , lead sinkers , Hot Wheels toy cars and other beach debris , either gathered en masse or awaiting artistic experimentation — or maybe not . “ I don ’ t collect for the sake of collecting ,” he points out . “ But I ’ m a hunter-gatherer person . That gene is in me .”
Rocks and stones and driftwood , some artistically wrapped in leather cord , form an organized display on an aluminum table . Among them , a linen-bound edition of “ Surf Shacks ” published by Gestalten opens to a spread featuring Olarte at home . The book was a project of Ventura ’ s Indoek gallery , where both Olarte and Root last year exhibited their work in “ Found ,” a show supported by Outerknown .
It ’ s also where they first connected with Moore . A “ Found ” marketing poster hangs on a wall ; nearby , so does an oil portrait of Olarte painted by local multimedia artist Jorg Dubin . Scattered between are miscellaneous mementos of life experiences , inspiration and a multicolored macrame panel made from salvaged copper wire . Somehow , they all weave together like his macrame rope pieces , tying parts of his past to his present in one interconnected web . g
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Olarte ( left ) and design partner Cooper Root work together to create the macrame pieces . If they knot continuously , they can each create a 15- to 20-foot-long piece in about eight hours . |
The pieces sometimes incorporate found objects from shells to rocks , fishing line and more . |