An interactive night of art and wine makes a winning combination

On a Wednesday evening, about 50 women and men paint Birds on a Wire. It sounds, perhaps, like a competition among professional artists; but the atmosphere in The Back Room of 98 Bottles in Little Italy is one of sheer camaraderie: people relaxing, drinking wine and filling 16-by-20 canvases with color. Artist-instructor Kari Powell guides them step-by-step over a three-hour per-iod. Artist assistants keep participants supplied with paint, while the 98 Bottles staff fill drink and food orders.

Chris Muylle, owner of Painting and Vino, brought the concept to San Diego in March 2011, after kicking it off in San Francisco.

“I am the perfect example of our typical clientele,” he says. “Ninety-five percent of them have no [art] experience.” Muylle got the idea after painting at a similar event instructed by his brother in Indiana. “It’s a great social atmosphere — a great place to meet new people,” he says.

Tammy Fitzgerald, a VA San Diego nurse, finds attending the events on a regular basis therapeutic. “All of the stress of the day just flows with the paint onto the canvas,” she says. “I have brought 11 co-workers at different times with me, and nobody is ever disappointed.”

A walk around The Back Room reveals a range of styles, even though everyone is painting Birds on a Wire. One woman ignores the suggested palette of yellow, brown, green and aqua — favoring a red/orange/yellow background. Her friend opts for all blue and green.

Grant Nixon (like many of the people in the room, there for the first time) skews from the format itself, turning his canvas horizontal.

“It’s always good to have that nonconforming person in the room,” says the Marine Corps second lieutenant, who brought his girlfriend with him.

“I did better than I expected,” he says in the end. “It was surprising in the fact that I didn’t know it was actually a class. I expected they would give you paints and an easel and you sit down and paint what you want to paint. I didn’t know we would all be painting the same thing. That being said, it’s kind of cool to see the different perspectives that people had.

“It was a great time,” he continues, “plus wine helps. And the music was good. There was no pressure, no stress. It’s not like you are comparing yourself to the person next to you. It’s art.”

Angela Bailey, who works in international relief and community development and just returned to the San Diego area after six years in Africa, was “hanging out with friends” at Jake’s on 6th when she first saw a Painting and Vino event in action.

“I went to my first class thinking it was something my mom would enjoy,” she says. “When I brought the painting home, my mom was very inquisitive, so I knew she would be interested in going.” At 98 Bottles, she brought her mom and two friends visiting from the Bay Area.

One of four Painting and Vino artist-instructors, Powell recreates the finished painting (two are on display), guiding the participants on brush size, mixing colors and stroke technique. Occasionally, she walks the room.

“I actually like it when people ask questions,” she says.

Muylle interviewed 30 artists before opening business in San Diego. “We make sure they aren’t just talented, but also have that ability to entertain and instruct,” he says. “We try to avoid a classroom feel; we want to make sure people are having fun.”

That’s also part of the business plan for 98 Bottles, says co-owner Jill Mesaros.

“It’s very much in line with our mission to have people get together to do fun things,” she says. “They make new friends, and they’re experiencing something they haven’t done before. They find the creativity within themselves.”

San Diego Life: By Janice Kleinschmidt • Photography by Martin Mann

Photo Caption: In lieu of simply socializing over drinks at 98 bottles, friends also exercise their creativity at a Painting and Vino event.

AS A PARTICIPANT in Chalk La Strada, the street-painting festival held each autumn in Little Italy, Barbara Stanley rubs her fingers raw, pressing pigments of color into asphalt — making a masterpiece of art that, like a sandcastle at the beach, eventually washes away. But a recent work is here to stay.

“Karen Krasne called me out of the blue a couple of weeks before the festival,” Stanley reports. “She said that she and her husband, Jamie, wanted me to do something in front of their Extraordinary Desserts store on Union Street to coincide with the festival.”

That something turned out to be an inspirational piece of chalk art depicting one of Krasne’s luscious fruit tarts. Swirls of red mix with whipped butterscotch tans, yellows mingle with luscious lime greens and dark teals meld with brilliant pinks on a 6-foot-by-4-foot canvas.

“I’ve known Barbara for 22 years, and she’s a talented artist,” Krasne says. “Her use of colors is really spectacular, and her attention to detail — gorgeous. At a marketing meeting just before the festival, we decided we should do something unusual for the restaurant, and my husband suggested Barbara’s work would help attract people to the restaurant during Chalk La Strada.”

Now that the festival is over, Krasne is uncertain as to where she’ll be able to showcase the artwork because it is so large. But Stanley isn’t too concerned. She just had fun doing it.

“I love color so much, and Karen’s desserts are so beautiful that they are a work of art in themselves. It was like me copying the Mona Lisa. Well, much more luscious than the Mona Lisa — more like a Van Gogh with the color.”

WHEN KUSI CONSUMER INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Michael Turko arrives at the TV studios in the morning, he is handed a transcript with 50 potential stories to cover — all from phone calls to the Turko Files hot line.

“We get up to 300 phone calls a week,” he says. “About 10 percent are worth investigating, and 10 percent of those actually get on the air. I do four stories a week, and some are multiple parts.” Those he chooses are “the ones that affect a lot of people.”

Turko, who grew up in Texas and graduated from the University of Texas with a journalism degree, was always interested in consumer reporting. “I feel sorry for people that are getting a raw deal,” he says.

After three years as a reporter, he went back to the university. “I always wanted to go to law school,” he explains. After earning his juris doctorate degree, he opened his own consumer law and criminal defense practice.

“I practiced law for three years and said, ‘This is for the birds.’ I hated it.

I didn’t see that I was making a difference. It was a lot of paperwork and way too much compromise.”

Turko returned to reporting and originated the Turko Files at a TV station in 1992. KUSI owner Michael McKinnon offered him a job in San Diego after seeing Turko via satellite. That was more than 15 years ago. Now Turko has gained a local following for standing up for the little guy — even against a literal powerhouse.

“Some of the things I have exposed with SDG&E ripping off their customers have been very challenging. That takes a lot of research, a lot of investigation,” he says, noting that he’s not worried about antagonizing public officials and large companies. “They’re big boys. They can take the heat.

“I think most people know that I am going to be fair,” he continues. “I am not going to go easy on them, but I am going to be fair. I am pretty happy that most public officials and companies will talk to me, whether they like what I do or not, because they know that I will be fair.”

Some of his cases get resolved before KUSI airs them. “Once I start calling people [to investigate], they change their tune quite a bit. I put them on the air anyway,” he says. “By the time I call you, it’s too late.”

In his free time, Turko builds guitars, cellos and violins — a skill he taught himself. He also plays rhythm guitar and sings in a four-member rock and roll band called The Sherlocks. As much as he is a familiar face on television and on the street as a consumer advocate, Turko is less known on the music circuit. Ask him where the band plays and he’ll answer with a wide grin:
“Mostly in people’s garages.”

San Diego Life: By Janice Kleinschmidt • Photography by Martin Mann

“OUR JOB IS ONLY TO HOLD UP THE MIRROR — to tell and show the public what has happened.” Those words, spoken by Walter Cronkite, inspired a young man growing up in the woods of western Pennsylvania, the middle child in a family of 15.

The subsequent career of Steve Bosh has taken him from spinning vinyl at a revolutionary 1960s Colorado radio station to covering the White House and interviewing astronauts. He has won multiple Emmys for reporting and news anchoring and has been with KUSI News for 15 years. Bosh recalls the first time he realized the raw emotion and responsibility of covering hard news as a rookie reporter in 1970. The Wichita State football team plane crashed into the mountains of Colorado, killing 31 people.

“That’s probably the first big story I covered,” he says. “Strangely enough, you see these things, but they don’t affect you right away because you have a job to do. They affect you afterwards. That was when I figured out that reporting hard news is what I’m cut out to do.”

A voracious reader, Bosh is on a never-ending quest to learn. His wife refers to him affectionately as “the learner.”

“It’s true. I like to learn things,” he says. “I’ve never been to college. I’ve educated myself, and I still do. Every day is an education to me. I live for the news, and I take my job very seriously.”

The veteran newsman (nearly four decades covering the news) worked for NBC in Denver and CBS in New York before joining KUSI in San Diego. A subscriber of old-school news ethics, Bosh firmly believes the news must be autonomous. When he has an opportunity to talk to students, he tells them that; and then he gives them the tool with which to conquer the world:

“I tell them to read, read, read,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what you read, just read. If you get into the habit of reading, it will take over and direct you. Maybe one sentence somewhere will excite something in your mind that will take you on a journey. Then, you’ll look for other things that are related to that journey. And once you start reading, you won’t be able to stop.”

Bosh covers the news full time at KUSI and can be found in the 6 and 10 p.m. news slot. He covers City Hall, the City Council, politics and the military. When he’s not working, he’s hanging out with his wife, watching the History Channel or playing a little golf.

San Diego Life: By Joe Ditler • Photography by Martin Mann