It’s time again for another edition of MIXED DRANKS!  Please join us on Sunday, October 7th from 3:00 - 5:00 pm for an afternoon of new connections. Lively conversation, and delicious drinks – generously hosted by Kelly Inouye at Irving Street Projects.  Feel free to share this invite with other Bay Area ladies in the arts and creative fields. We look forward to seeing you there! — ABOUT THE EXHIBITION  Cathy Lu // Peach Garden  Join artist Cathy Lu at Irving Street Projects as she develops an installation of ceramic-based sculptures inspired by the ancient Chinese myth of the Immortal Peach Garden. According to legend, peaches from this garden ripen over generations to be eaten by deities to gain eternal life. For thousands of years the peach fruit has served as a symbol of longevity and prosperity in Chinese culture. In Western art history, the fruits are also part of a suggestive, symbolic visual language and are frequently fetishized in popular culture today. Neither edible or romanticized, Lu's Peach Garden offers an alternative perspective to traditional symbolism associated with the fruit. For the past eight years, Lu has been creating sculptures inspired by produce she finds in different Asian neighborhood markets. Her interest lies in the ways immigrant communities import fruits from their homelands and why some of these fruits remain ‘exotic’ and some become mainstream in American markets.  Cathy Lu is a San Francisco-based contemporary artist. Her work explores the manipulation and appropriation of traditional Chinese art imagery and how ideas of cultural ‘authenticity’ and ‘tradition’ interface with contemporary trans-cultural experiences. Her work has been exhibited at Root Division, Aggregate Space, and Hashimoto Contemporary. She is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI MFA 2010) and Tufts University (BFA 2007). She has taught ceramics at Sonoma State University, California College of the Arts (CCA), and Ulloa Elementary Peach Garden