Going Where the Fringe Isn’t Extreme

GREAT EXPECTATIONS Brian Eno visits CSULB on Sept. 20.

Music genius Brian Eno will visit our school on Sunday, Sept. 20 for an intimate evening of discussion at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center (CPAC), and tickets are set aside for the special student price of $25. (The general admission price is $100.) Student tickets go on sale at CPAC's Atherton box office on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 11 a.m.

One of the center's managers pointed out that there is a limited number of tickets, though students will find their seats in a premium spot in the 1,000-seat auditorium.

Brian Eno's career spans in countless directions, having worked in a multiple of genres since his beginning with Roxy Music, then with interesting stints in carrying the producer hat to bands like U2, Talking Heads and Coldplay. He's most popular for creating instrumental, ambient music. And, while many go unaware about this tidbit fact, he also engineered the little tune we hear on our PCs when Windows starts up. Viola!

Brian Eno's art will show at the University Art Museum (UAM) through December for "77 Million Paintings." The exhibition opens on Sat., Sept. 12.

If this all sounds very foreign to you, simply don't turn away. Instead, try something new and watch your horizons expand.

Brian Eno visits the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center at Cal State Long Beach on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. for "An Evening with Brian Eno." Tickets at student prices will go on sale Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 11 a.m. For more information, call the CPAC ticket office, 562-985-7000, or visit online at http://www.carpenterarts.org/.

[Source of photo.]

Must: Open Studios 2009 Announced!

WORKS IN PROGRESS: At the beginning of a new school year at Cal State Long Beach, MFA artists open up their work spaces.


[Open Studios]


My favorite event of all arts events at Cal State Long Beach: Open Studios. My first plunge into the art-making sphere last year was entirely property of Open Studios. I met a friendly count of MFA artists, sometimes at work inside their campus studios or hanging out with other campus MFA friends. It's a scene. CSULB studios become breathing, stunning spaces exhibited in meticulous order, regardless of the paint-stained floors or hosed-hammered walls. The must-attend art event of the entire school year: MFA Open Studios 2009.


I'll see you throughout the CSULB Fine Arts Buildings, exploring MFA studios on Sunday, Sept. 6, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Alongside the Open Studios, GLAMFA.

An Update from the Arts Commissioner

INSIGHTS: A feather-textured dress made of cardboard-like material debuts at the student gallery show, "Annual Foundation Show." Photo by Barbara Navarro.

Dear ARTicles readers,

Thank you for bookmarking my blog and for being a loyal audience. I know many others at school have also taken notice of my efforts. A few weeks ago my commissioner peers awarded me with a shimmering plaque that read, "Commissioner of the Year." It was the best way to end my first year participating with the student government. A hundred thousand thank yous!

It takes a lot of planning and a lot of work in being commissioner. Though it remains top priority to organize events for the school so that our artists and their works are seen for the beauty and thought they fashion our world and our CSULB community.

The eartliest mission in capturing the artistic spirit at school came with the week-long itinerary of music, dance, visual arts and theatre for ArtsWeek, capping it off with a warm finale at the University Art Museum for the second annual Leaders Night. In late January, to open the spring semester, I curated an art show "Downtown" where the Long Beach community could also sample the great productions coming out of CSULB's creative side. That was a sparkly night at downtown Long Beach's Goods Gallery. I hope you were there!

My current status is simple and probably very similar to yours: I'm taking a break for the summer. My passion for the arts (and for my first: journalism) keeps strong, anyway, and I'm already working on ideas for "The New."

What do you think? Barbara Navarro: Arts Commission... A second term?

Have a great summer, and I'll see you all in the fall!

Hearts and arts,

b. bnavarr2@csulb.edu

Best in Class: At Insights 2009

A glimpse to an annual affair that brings together our school's finest art students, the current "Insights" exhibit at the University Art Museum. These are fine-tuned projects that faculty and UAM directors, a.k.a. the jury of the show, can look at with confidence and say, "We get it." And most noteworthy to mention is this year's addition of typography-related products, as experienced through Chris Ballard's curvaceous book on Frank Gehry L.A. gems.

My photos begin with another Ballard (Chris's brother), a university sculpture student who I worked with for the "Downtown" show. Part of the charm in Patrick's work relies on an unspoken communication that almost screams. Whenever I see that block laced with an imaginary static I really just want to dive into it. And Patrick would be fine with that, really. But has anybody tried it?? In the pictures following, I have captured a few of my other favorite pieces showing at "Insights." Rachel Malin's works are odd and they always get my imagination working on little stories of impossible mystery. What Julia Haft-Candell has works in the same way for me, except, in general, I consider Julia's tangled pieces so pretty. Feline and sophisticated with an echoed languor, the scariest way I'd describe what I see in Julia's work. To elaborate what I've drawn out from her sculptures: speckled straps and blushed-up rags. (And more and more. We can all fixate. Now.) The last two artists here (White and Flaherty) worked with capturing the X-rated, a subjet matter I usually turn away from. But not this time when I was, undeniably, left turn on.

Congratulations to all "Insights" artists and to those who were awarded scholarship for their entries! I'm looking forward to more, more, and more!

Patrick Ballard

Rachel Malin

Julia Haft-Candell

James H. White, III

Sean C. Flaherty

"Insights" is a must-see exhibition reflecting the best of our university's artists in various mediums (paint, film, sculpture, typography, photography, fibers etc.). The University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach closes the show on Sunday, May 31st.

My heart's racketing flywheel is stuttering:
Downtown! Downtown!

Cal State Long Beach artists are presenting works in photography, sculpture, paintings, mixed media and video art on Saturday in downtown’s cargo container art space, the Goods Gallery. All CSULB students are invited to attend for free. There’ll be cool local music by Dietra Kruschev and a cool cupcake party. Come celebrate "Downtown!" DTO9.

Your arts commissioner,
Barbara Navarro

Behind the Scenes with Barbara: Making the Ad Art for ARTSweek and Leaders Night

It’s great when you find an art director/designer/illustrator group all-in-one situation to work on a project — which happened with creating this year's invitation (image above) to the ASI Student Leader Night.

I walked into the ASI Communications office (where 99% of the student government orders its project materials, everything from name tags to 30-foot banners) three weeks before the bash, which would take place at the close of ARTSweek, on Thursday, Nov. 20. And I came in with oozes of newspaper articles, books with marked photos and all the written details to what would belong on the inside of the invitation.

My vision for the invitation's look came from Pop master Andy Warhol's Mick Jagger pastel and acetate collaged silkscreen foil posters, and his Liz Taylor pastel prints (I love!). But when I met with one of the illustrators at ASI Comm., Patrick, he had his own ideas and created a landscape of the University Art Museum à la color-by-numbers — he made the museum into the star. After, another designer stepped in and added color. The results? Pssss... Look above!


After researching the designer's inspiration for the Leaders Night invitation, which was to transform the UAM into a star and create a color-by-numbers landscape, I became a fan.

A full week of arts-related events for ARTSweek passed, then Thursday night finally strolled in for the ASI Student Leader Night, an event created by the previous arts commissioner, Melissa Tanney. A group of about 50 devoured yummy minis from Bouchees Bistro and Silver Ballon cupcakes created especially for this event by Frosted Cupcakey. Apple Computers and the Photo Club entertained guests with taking Polaroid and other Pop-inspired photos in the UAM's Reading Room. Then, we toured the galleries with the direction of the UAM museum director, Chris Scoates, as he ellaborated on Andy Warhol's life as an artist and his art pieces found in "Warhol: 15 min/24 fps."

Let Andy Warhol inspire you, too. "Warhol: 15 min/24 fps" will be at Cal State Long Beach's UAM through Dec. 14.

Chris Scoates on YouTube: 'Now at the UAM'

If you're curious of what the University Art Museum Director Chris Scoates has to say about the three current exhibits showing at the UAM, watch this YouTube video:

On the Arts Beat: 400 Words about ARTSweek

Making the ARTS on campus visible
Published in Tuesday's edition of the Daily Forty-Niner