LIVE LOCAL ART! FREE WINE SAMPLES! SUSTAINABLE FARE!
On Thursday, October 20th, we’ll be hosting an Artist’s Reception featuring work from North Park resident Benjamin DeHart. Ben has created and revamped all of our specials chalkboards over this last year, and is known for the chalk art he has done around San Diego for years, but he also does acrylic and oil paintings so we’ll be showing some of this fine art at Sea Rocket for a while. In addition to the chalk art and fine art, Ben will be creating a live art piece during the reception- an underwater portrait of the Sea Rocket kitchen brigade wrestling sea creatures to harvest for dinner. As Chad likes to say, “It’s gonna be insane!” We’ll be charging $10 at the door which will include a variety of hors d’oeuvres throughout the night. Drinks will be available at the bar.
Join us for the opening reception of Ben’s show from 6pm-9pm and enjoy an added bonus of some free wine tasting from Vesper Vineyards and Los Pilares. Los Pilares is local San Diego wine from locally grown grapes, made by the innovative new winery Vesper Vineyards, located in Valley Center. It is an avant guarde example of natural winemaking — completely unfiltered and using ambient yeast and whole-berry fermentation to create a more distinctive wine style that shows off the potential of local fruit. Collaborators Michael Christian & Chris Broomell will be bringing a couple of locally-made wines to introduce us to, including Alcala, a Rhône blend of Marsanne & Roussanne, and the just released 2010 Los Pilares Grenache Carignane which we will be putting on our drink list. Both wines will be available at the bar for the introductory price of $7/glass throughout the reception!
Here is a little bit about Ben and his art.
BENJAMIN GREGORY DEHART
Media: Acrylic, oil, chall
Ben DeHart is a San Diego born artist who grew up in the hills of Jamul. “although I don’t plan on being here forever I do plan on making my mark before I leave” he says. He paints in Oils and Acrylics and though he originally started out painting detailed landscapes when he was taking private painting lessons in high school, he has branched out into modern art, impressionism and city-scapes, among other more progressive subjects. He worked for Trader Joe’s doing the store artwork from September 2004 to January 2011 which was where he developed his “love/hate” relationship with chalk. “Chalk has a very specific use in this modern age. It provides a sustainable medium which can be changed and updated often, which is extremely useful in the bar and restaurant industry. And if you get an artist who knows how to work the medium it will look as good or better than any printed material. I call it ‘sustainable signage’. It also gives the restaurant or bar owner more direct creative control without sacrificing a professional look. As you can imagine beer draft lists and chalk are a match made in heaven” He runs a side business under the name of DeHart Designs doing Chalk Menus and promotional/marketing signs all over San Diego for bars, coffee shops, restaurants and a few local breweries and beer companies. He is currently living in beautiful North Park where he is “attempting to make sense of this escapade they call life”.