THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University’s Wind Ensemble will present the fourth annual PRISM Concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 28, in Samuelson Chapel.

The program’s continuous rotation of music is designed to provide audiences with the complete spectrum of music for woodwind, brass and percussion music.The varied and eclectic program will also spotlight student soloists and chamber ensembles. Michael D. Hart will conduct.

The program will open with Ron Nelson’s exuberant and joyful “Lauds.” Other works will include the South American-inspired “Volver a la Montaña” by Shelley Hanson, “Sheltering Sky” by John Mackey, “Kirkpatrick Fanfare” by Andrew Boysen Jr., the “Gladiator March” by John Philip Sousa and the traditional favorite “Irish Tune from County Derry” by Percy Grainger.

Works featuring student soloists consist of Aaron Copland’s serene “Down a Country Lane” conducted by CLU student Brian Hix of Sisters, Ore., the CLU Saxophone Quartet performing “Stella by Starlight” and the CLU Percussion Ensemble performing the virtuosic and intense “Concerto for Percussion and Wind Ensemble” by David Gillingham.

As director of bands, Hart conducts the Wind Ensemble, the CLU Pep Band and the Chamber Winds Ensemble, which he founded. He also teaches courses in music theory and ear training and provides lessons in trombone, euphonium and tuba. He has initiated several community outreach concerts and commissioned several new works for band since coming to CLU and is active throughout Southern California as a guest conductor and adjudicator.

Donations will be accepted.

Samuelson Chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus. Additional parking is available at the corner of Olsen Road and Mountclef Boulevard.

For more information, call the Music Department at 805-493-3306 or visit callutheran.edu.

Camarillo, CA - The Third Annual Relay for Life at CSU Channel Islands (CI) will kick off with President Richard Rush at noon, Friday, Mar. 14 on the South Quad lawn. Students, faculty, staff, and community members are encouraged to attend and/or participate by signing up online at www.relayforlife.org/csuchannelislandsca.

During the opening ceremony, cancer survivors will take the first lap around the South Quad’s relay track. Later that evening, the South Quad will light up in a Luminaria Ceremony, as individually decorated paper bags containing votive candles are illuminated to honor loved ones affected by cancer.

CI’s Relay for Life is a 24-hour, overnight walk/run team relay event. Participants will camp around the relay track and participate in multiple activities. Food, games, and entertainment will keep the walkers motivated. Live music performances and Zumba will take place center stage throughout the evening and early morning. The event will conclude with a closing ceremony at noon, Saturday, Mar. 15.

All proceeds from Relay for Life go to the American Cancer Society. Over the past two years, the CSU Channel Islands Relay for Life has raised almost $60,000 for the American Cancer Society. This year, event organizers are aiming for an ambitious goal of $30,000.

Event sponsors include CSU Channel Islands, University Glen Corporation, Cronies Sports Grill, Blenders in the Grass, B Real Fitness, CI Cove Bookstore, Dippin’ Dots, Noah’s Bagels, Rocket Fizz, Shave-It, Starbucks, and Tan LA.

Complimentary event parking is limited and only available in the designated parking lot. Once on campus, follow the directional signage to event parking then follow the walking signage to the event location. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road parking lot with bus service to and from the campus. In order to waive bus fares, riders should present their event registration confirmation when boarding the CI Vista bus, otherwise the cash-only bus fare is $1.25 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at: www.goventura.org.

For more information or to sign up, visit www.relayforlife.org/csuchannelislandsca, or contact CI Relay for Life event organizer Rachael Ellison at rachael.ellison012@myci.csuci.edu, or Brittany Keegan at the American Cancer Society at Brittany.keegan@cancer.org.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more about CI by visiting CI’s Social Media.

The Santa Paula Society of the Arts presents the 77th Annual Art and Photography Show. The Show is being held at the Blanchard Community Library, 119 N. 8th Street in Santa Paula. Show Opens Tuesday, March 11, 2014, noon to 8pm.

There is no charge to view the show, which can be seen during normal Library hours. Entries from all over So. California are hung in categories of Oil/Acrylic, Watercolor, Photography, Mixed Media and Pastels. Some of the works are very reasonably priced, for those who prefer original art and there are many subjects from which to choose. Voting will take place Tuesday, March 11 through the Reception date of Saturday, March 22 when balloting closes at 5:00 pm sharp. Voting is encouraged before the reception date to avoid the rush. Voting and reception will be at the Blanchard Community Library.

Reception Date:
Saturday, March 22, 2014, 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Awards Ceremony begins at 6:00 pm

Show Closes:
Wednesday, April 2, 6:00 pm

For more information about the show, please contact Kaye Ford at 805 861-8023.

Camarillo, CA - A daring, dynamic and, at times, disturbing interactive art exhibition will visit the campus of CSU Channel Islands (CI) in March, as renowned Los Angeles multimedia artist, surveillance sculptor and scenic artist Gary Lloyd debuts They: An Answer Driving the Problem, Revisited at CI’s Napa Hall Gallery. The free exhibition, a potent blend of paintings, props, sculptures and technology, opens to the public on Monday, March 10.

Lloyd will help launch the show on Thursday, March 13, with a one-hour performance art piece incorporating live performers riding skateboards, wearing technologically-altered “surveillance suits,” and wielding a money-laden bullwhip. The action will play out against an orchestrated backdrop of technology, including digital projectors streaming live video from China, audio messages broadcast in three languages, touch screens, mobile devices, and FM and CB radio stations transmitting the comments of spectators, recorded surreptitiously through the artwork’s hidden microphones, cameras and transmitters.

The opening reception begins at 6 p.m., with the one-time performance starting at 7.

“Depending on what baggage viewers bring, they’ll either be shocked, engaged, off balance, tuned in, or all of the above,” the artist said.

Long recognized for his ingenuity as a pioneer in the strange medium of surveillance art and worldwide work as a film industry and commercial scenic painter, Lloyd’s newest exhibition revisits a theme he first explored in a similarly named Los Angeles show 35 years ago. They: An Answer Driving the Problem, Revisited dissects the issues of climate change, man’s impact on the planet, and the interplay between time, technology and the transformation of the world, for better or worse.

“I wanted to utilize technology and streaming media to foster an exchange of ideas and perceptions about climate change with a live audience and the world outside the gallery,” Lloyd said. “Emerging miniaturization technology, the Internet, cell phones, social media, the 3D printer, robots and genomic discoveries will transform the world. I hope to create continued awareness regarding climate change forces by providing elegant models of the choices humankind already has on hand.”

Upon arriving at the gallery, guests will be greeted by a large airplane wing-like structure, spinning slowly driven by a belt and pulley, solar-powered mechanical system. The light-reflective 6x14-foot sculpture, “Alelle,” is made of plywood, plastic window screen, aluminum tubing, and silver reflective foil and refers to “the transformation of energy from the sun into electrical and mechanical energy, the building blocks of nature, and the basic elements we’re not respecting.”

Other highlights include “Micromextechdeafa sic,” a gape-mouthed golden skull covered in Mexican centavos. Like other pieces in the exhibition, the surveillance sculpture is rigged with microphones to capture the comments of spectators and transmit them via pirate and FM radio to listeners within range. Speakers will be set up around the gallery and throughout campus, allowing listeners to eavesdrop on the comments and conversations Lloyd’s artwork evokes.

“You have to take responsibility for what you say in front of these paintings and sculptures,” Lloyd said. “The work becomes a vehicle, a vessel, a facilitator for some kind of social interaction.”

“Defense Spending” is a giant red, marbled slab of irradiated meat, shaped into an axe. The sculpture is represented in a photograph on the gallery’s wall only; the actual work is stored at UCLA in a radiation storage facility because it’s too radioactive to be exhibited.

Expanding on his 1978 exhibition of the same name, Lloyd has updated his work by incorporating almost every form of modern communication technology so that people can participate in real time from all over the world. The artwork and its observers will be broadcast to various devices in the gallery, campus, and around the world via radio, streaming video, and social media.

Lloyd’s exhibition at CI serves as a premiere of a larger installation he hopes to bring to LACMA. He’ll find out by April if his proposal will receive grant support and exhibition space through LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab Program.

At 70 years old, Lloyd remains an energetic and productive force in the art scene. An alumnus, former faculty member and chair of the sculpture departments at the Otis Art Institute and UCLA, Lloyd grew up in the foothills of La Crescenta, where he developed a keen appreciation for ecology. After serving as a Navy corpsman in Vietnam, he was influenced to depict the imagery of war in flying pieces of meat and surveillance sculptures. Over the past two decades, Lloyd has focused on work as a scenic artist and owner of Sky Drops Inc., where he provides painted sky scenes and backdrops for the film industry, casinos, hotels, convention centers and other large public and commercial spaces worldwide. He continued to advance his personal works during that period in his vast studio. He sees his newest exhibition as an opportunity to engage the public in the most critical discussion of our time.

“Climate change and global warming are all a byproduct of the emerging industrial world acting on the biosphere. It affects us all,” he said. “My work investigates ways we can use all forms of media to engage this problem that must be solved in our time.”

Lloyd’s show runs through April 1 in The Napa Hall Art Gallery, the University’s premier art exhibition venue, located on Ventura Street on the CI campus. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional information, contact the CI Art Program at 805-437-2772 or email art@csuci.edu. To learn more about Gary Lloyd, visit www.skydrops.com, http://skychisphere.wordpress.com/ or contact him at gary.skychi@gmail.com or 818-633-2639.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more about CI by visiting CI’s Social Media.

When long-time friends make music together, something magical happens. Hear how four Santa Paula musicians put their own spin on rhythm & blues and classic rock, on Friday, March 7, 2014, at the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum, in Santa Paula. On that night, “The R & B’z,” featuring Robert Guizar, Robert Pond, John Avila and Brian Hernandez, will perform from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for the general public, $5 for Museum members, and $2 for kids with an adult. Seating is first come, first seated.

From 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., The Underground Gourmet food truck will park outside the museum and those listening to music can purchase burgers, wraps and tacos to bring inside. Tables will be provided.

Santa Paula is the common denominator for “The R & B’z.” Three members were born and raised in town. Robert Guizar and Robert Pond have been friends for decades and went all through school together. John Avila is also a native son and Brian Hernandez married a woman from town. Lead vocals and the keyboard are Robert Guizar’s contributions to “The R & B’z.” His musical background includes stints with Blues and Rock and Roll bands. Robert Pond, on bass, plays those styles as well as Hawaiian, Country and Bluegrass. Lead guitar is John Avila’s instrument. He toured with the well-known Latin Rock and Roll band, “Malo.” Brian Hernandez plays drums for many Santa Clara Valley bands.

Egg Activities for the family from 10am to 2pm
The EGGSibit runs until June 15, 2014

Which came first? You may not be able to answer that question after you visit, but you will be amazed at the collection of eggs shown in this exhibit at the California Oil Museum. Borrowed from the vast collection at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, this exhibit focuses on Ventura County bird eggs and the habitat in which they are hatched. Explore the unique beauty of the eggs while you learn about the fascinating world of birds. Opening day will have exciting egg activities for the entire family, such as how to blow out an egg, and professional bird watchers that will inspire you to become a bird enthusiast! The California Oil Museum is located at 1001 E. Main Street. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $1 for students 6-17, free to members and children 5 and under. The Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 4pm. For more information find us atwww.oilmuseum.net or call 805-933-0076.

So what is it about eggs and nests that called out to both professional and amateur ornithologists alike, inspiring them to spend large amounts of time in the field collecting the materials and endless hours organizing them in museums, despite the risk of going into debt, alienating their friends and family, and even losing their lives? The answers lie not only in the nature of old-time bird collectors, people who loved to amass rare, unique, and common specimens alike, but also in the nature of early ecologists, people with the passion for the natural world who found answers to questions about natural history and evolution in the shapes, colors, patterns, clutch sizes, and distributions of the eggs and nests of the world’s birds. The answers lie, too, in the nature of the eggs and nests themselves- beautiful, fragile, unique, useful, and marvelous to behold!

Who: Egg lovers
What: Amazing Collection of Bird Eggs
Where: The always fascinating California Oil Museum
When: Saturday, March 15, Egg Activities 10am-2pm
Why: To see what the Egg is all about!

Camarillo, CA - The Art Program at CSU Channel Islands (CI) is pleased to present “Dreams, Fables & Histories, Captured and Framed,” a student exhibition of time-based media art, at the CI Palm Gallery, Monday, March 3, through Friday, March 21. A free, public reception with the artists will be held on Thursday, March 6, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Curated by CI digital media lecturer Elizabeth Leister, “Dreams, Fables & Histories, Captured and Framed,” represents video and animation projects where students explore the imaginative re-structuring of time, the modernization of a fable, and the visual study of a specific history. Diverse approaches to subject matter, technique and style are reflected in the work, including green screen compositing, stop motion, and hand-drawn animation. Each video is also screened and captured as printed image sequences, allowing key moments and frames to be viewed and appreciated as a single composition.

The CI Palm Gallery is located at 92 Palm Avenue, Camarillo, inside the Camarillo Smiles Dental building. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday. The gallery is closed Saturday and Sunday. For further information call 805-437-2772 or email art@csuci.edu.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more about CI by visiting CI’s Social Media.

Jessica Helms

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - The California Lutheran University Choir and Women’s Chorale will perform music by female composers at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 11, in Samuelson Chapel.

The CLU Choir and Women’s Chorale will present their annual Spring Concert with guest conductor Jessica Helms. The program will feature an eclectic assortment of music by female composers including a rarely performed cantata by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, sister of the famed Felix Mendelssohn, Alice Parker’s “Street Corner Spirituals” and works by Lili Boulanger and Gwyneth Walker.

Helms earned a bachelor’s degree in music, specializing in piano and oboe, from CLU in 2004. The Newbury Park resident is an accompanist for the university and has played for other choirs, ensembles and soloists including Newbury Park High School, Ascension Lutheran Church, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church of Oxnard, the Geraldine Decker Vocal Studio, Camarillo Community Theatre, All Saints by the Sea Episcopal Church of Santa Barbara and Ventura College. She did graduate work at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., and is pursuing a master’s degree in choral conducting at California State University, Los Angeles.

The CLU Choir is the premiere choral ensemble at CLU. While dedicated to performing works that represent the university’s Lutheran heritage, it also embraces innovative new music and pieces expressing a multicultural perspective.

The CLU Women’s Chorale is comprised primarily of freshmen and sophomores. It draws its repertoire from the wealth of choral music for female voices from a range of historical periods from classical to modern.

Donations will be accepted.

Samuelson Chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus. Additional parking is available at the corner of Olsen Road and Mountclef Boulevard.

For more information, call the Music Department at 805-493-3306 or visit http://www.callutheran.edu/music.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - The California Lutheran University symphony and choir will perform orchestral works by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 7, in Samuelson Chapel.

The University Symphony and CLU Choir will present the little-performed “Cantata in A” for soloists, choir and orchestra by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Also on the program will be her brother Felix Mendelssohn’s concert overture “Fingal’s Cave” (“The Hebrides”) and Concert Piece No. 2 for two clarinet soloists and orchestra. Featured on clarinet are students Hongsik Park of Canoga Park and Hillis Johnson of Livermore.

Veteran faculty member Daniel Geeting and alumna Jessica Helms will conduct.

One of the first ensembles established at the founding of CLU, the University Symphony is a 50- to 60-member ensemble that performs several times each semester and has a diverse repertory ranging from the latest in contemporary composition to standards of the symphonic repertory. While the symphony is an integral part of the program for music majors and minors, it is open to all CLU students and also includes community members.

The CLU Choir is the premiere choral ensemble at CLU. While dedicated to performing works that represent the university’s Lutheran heritage, it also embraces innovative new music and pieces expressing a multicultural perspective.

Donations will be accepted.

Samuelson Chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus. Additional parking is available at the corner of Olsen Road and Mountclef Boulevard.

For more information, call the Music Department at 805-493-3306 or visit callutheran.edu.

CA State Old Time Fiddlers will meet Sunday 2/23/14 from 1:30-4:30pm at the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road, Oak View. We will be playing, listening and dancing to Country Western and Bluegrass music. Free admission and parking, refreshments available. calfiddlers.com or call 805-797-6563.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University will present a free screening of a German psychological drama on Wednesday, March 5, as part of its International Film Series.

“Das Experiment,” which was filmed in German with English subtitles, will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Lundring Events Center.

The fine line between play-acting and reality is blurred beyond recognition in this 2001 movie about a social experiment. The film is based on the novel “Black Box” by Mario Giordano. The movie resembles Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment of 1971 in the beginning, but then it takes the story to a fictionalized conclusion.

Tarek Fahd, a journalist making ends meet by driving a taxi, sees an advertisement offering 4,000 marks to people willing to submit to a psychological experiment. He arrives to discover that half of the volunteers will pose as prison guards and the other half will be their prisoners. Before long, quarrels arise and the wardens employ ever more drastic sanctions to confirm their authority.

German actor Moritz Bleibtreu received an Audience Award Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Fahd, prisoner #77, at the 2001 European Film Awards. Known for his work on the 1998 film “Run Lola Run” and last year’s “World War Z,” Bleibtreu won the Silver Berlin Bear Best Actor Award in 2006 for “Elementarteilchen” at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Ernst Lubitsch Award in 1998 for “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Stadtgespräch.”

Director Oliver Hirschbiegel is an award-winning television director, writer and producer who made his cinema debut with “Das Experiment.” He won both the 2001 Best Director Award at the Montreal World Film Festival and the Bavarian Film Award for Best Direction for his work on the film. He won the Directing Award for World Cinema – Dramatic for “Five Minutes of Heaven” at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

“Das Experiment” won the People’s Choice Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Bergen International Film Festival and was nominated for other international awards.

CLU’s department of languages and cultures is sponsoring the International Film Series with a grant from the CLU Community Leaders Association. Inspired by the six-year success of the university’s French Film Festival, faculty members replaced the event with the international festival this year. The series will conclude with the French film “Chicken with Plums” April 30 at Muvico Thousand Oaks 14.

For information, contact Walter Stewart at stewart@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3436.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University will show the first full-length feature ever filmed entirely inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, at Muvico Thousand Oaks 14.

“Wadjda,” the story of a 10-year-old girl, and will be screened in honor of International Women’s Day, which falls on March 8, as part of CLU’s Reel Justice Film Series.

The PG-rated film’s central character is fun-loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of the conservative world in which she lives in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn’t be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. Wadjda’s mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue, so Wadjda decides to raise the money herself.

Director Haifaa Al Mansour is the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia and is regarded as one of the kingdom’s most significant cinematic figures. Within Saudi Arabia, her work is both praised and vilified for encouraging discussion on taboo subjects like tolerance, the dangers of orthodoxy and the need for Saudis to take a critical look at their traditional and restrictive culture. She comes from a small town in Saudi Arabia where, she says, there are many girls like Wadjda who have big dreams, strong characters and so much potential. Mansour believes that these girls can, and will, reshape and redefine the nation.

“It was important for me to work with an all-Saudi cast, to tell this story with authentic, local voices. I hope the film offers a unique insight into my own country and speaks of universal themes of hope and perseverance that people of all cultures can relate to,” Mansour said of the 2012 release, which has won numerous awards at film festivals around the world.
Admission is free. Tickets will be available starting at 6:30 p.m. until the theater reaches capacity. Muvico Thousand Oaks 14 is located at 166 W. Hillcrest Drive.

CLU’s Center for Equality and Justice, Gender and Women’s Studies Program, ASCLU, the Religion Department, the student club Feminism Is…, the Saudi Student Club and the Muslim Student Association are sponsoring the event. For information, contact Peter Carlson at pcarlson@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3435.

Fish, from The Vernacular Bestiary, John Nichols Collection
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Colt, from The Vernacular Bestiary, John Nichols Collection
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From March 1 through June 15, 2014, the Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula, CA, will present the first exhibition of “The Vernacular Bestiary: Animal Snapshots from A to Z.” This collection of anonymous amateur photographs has been collected by photographer and gallerist John Nichols over the past two decades and has never been publicly exhibited. The abecedarian display of creatures is comprised of photographs taken over the past 120 years. An adjacent kids’ reading and exhibit area will encourage children and their families to read and write poems, as well as draw and display their own responses to the animal-themed exhibition. Animal poems by published poets will also be shared, in binders that can be carried around the exhibition area.

Call for Poetry: Writers are invited to preview selections from The Vernacular Bestiary online immediately at http://flic.kr/s/aHsj5133kr or see the original snapshots at the Agriculture Museum, beginning on March 1. They may submit up to three original poems of up to 25 lines each inspired by any of the snapshots. Submission implies that the poems can be used by the Agriculture Museum non-commercially to publicize the exhibit (credit will be given) and copyright reverts back to author. Poems must be submitted to VBpoem@gmail.com by March 29. A panel of judges will select poems to be shared at the “An Afternoon of Animal Verse” to take place in April. Poets will be contacted and asked to read their selected poems at the event; poet Jackson Wheeler will read the poems of any who cannot attend.

Related Events:
Thursday, March 13 at 2:00 p.m., John Nichols will give a Gallery Talk entitled, “What’s Special About Vernacular Photography?”

Saturday, March 22, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., free opening reception for “The Vernacular Bestiary”

The Museum of Ventura County Agriculture Museum is located at 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, CA 93060. (805) 525-3100. Information about the museum can be found at: www.venturamuseum.org Museum hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 10 – 4. For more information about the exhibition and the call for poetry, contact John Nichols at sespenichols@gmail.com or at (805) 525-7804.

Roger Scruton. Photo credit: Pete Helme.

VENTURA, CA - The Representational Art Conference 2014 will feature demonstrations, discussions and presentations on topics ranging from the healing power of portrait sitting to self-portraits in the age of Facebook.

About 300 artists, critics, academics, collectors and curators will converge on the Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach from Sunday, March 2, through Wednesday, March 5, for the second international conference on representational art presented by California Lutheran University.

Presentations, panel discussions and studio art demonstrations will explore the direction of 21st-century representational art, which portrays recognizable people, places and objects. Artist Alisyn Blake with Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia and a psychologist will discuss efforts to paint portraits of children with craniofacial conditions to help them and others see the children in a different light. Katherine Zoraster, who teaches art history at local colleges, will present a paper called “Selfies: The Self-Portrait in the Age of Facebook.” Some of the many other presentations will focus on Chinese, Russian, Judaic and Middle Eastern art.

Distinguished philosopher Roger Scruton will be one of two keynote speakers. He explored what makes an object beautiful in his 2009 book “Beauty” and caused a stir with his BBC Two documentary “Why Beauty Matters” when it was released the same year. Scruton insists that beauty is a real and universal value with an indispensable role to play.

Juliette Aristides, a painter and writer dedicated to rebuilding traditional arts education in the United States, will deliver the other keynote address. The author and painter is the founder of the Aristides Atelier at the Gage Academy of Fine Art in Seattle. She teaches workshops throughout the world.

Odd Nerdrum, a Norwegian who is regarded by many as one of the greatest living representational painters, will discuss beauty, art and kitsch with Scruton. Nerdrum has written about why representational painting should be called kitsch rather than art because of the way it tugs at the heart and emotionally engages people.

Virgil Elliott, Pam Hawkes, Jeremy Lipking, Graydon Parrish, Stephen Perkins, Tony Pro and Alexey Steele will present demonstrations.

TRAC will include an excursion to CLU’s Thousand Oaks campus to see the “Women by Women” exhibit in the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture and the “Resonating Images III” show in the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art.

CLU faculty members Michael Pearce and Michael Lynn Adams organized the first conference in 2012 to address the lack of critical appreciation of representational art and explore the new directions it might take.

For registration and more information, go to www.trac2014.org.

"Milky Way Over Blue Lake" by Photographer Pete Scifres
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"Little Lake Star Trails" by Photographer Pete Scifres
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"Double Arch Night" by Photographer Pete Scifres
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"Bristlecone Star Trails" by Photographer Pete Scifres
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Ojai, CA - The Ojai Photography Club welcomes photographer Pete Scifres to its February 18 meeting, 7:00 PM, at Help of Ojai’s Little House, 111 Santa Ana Street, in Ojai. Scifres will share techniques and experiences in producing images of the sky and landscape after dark.

Before critiquing club member photos, Scifres have a power point presentation that will cover basic astronomy, equipment, planning your shots, and overcoming problems unique to outdoor after dark photography such as obtaining focus and lighting the foreground. He will show some of his images, and some the equipment he uses to produce them.

Scifres has been an enthusiastic amateur photographer for about 8 years, working mostly in landscapes, and more recently nighttime landscapes. He is a former president of the Thousand Oaks Photo Group, has twice won the Ventura County Fair Photography Exhibit's Landscape category, and recently published an e-book on Landscape Astrophotography. He has taught photography at the Calabasas Savvy Senior program and made many presentations at the Thousand Oaks Photo Group. For more about Pete Scifres connect with his website at: http://www.petescifres.com/

Monthly presentations, like Scifres, are part of the Ojai Photography Club’s community service outreach and visitors are welcome to attend.

The Ojai Photography Club, which is devoted to education, inspiration, and camaraderie, meets on the third Tuesday of each month, February – November. Only members may submit images for critique. More information is available at: www.ojaiphotoclub.com/

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - The third in a series of exhibits of representational art from 1900 until today opens Thursday, Feb. 20, in the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art at California Lutheran University.

An opening reception for “Resonating Images III,” which features works of contemporary artists in multiple styles, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, March 1. A second reception will be held from 5:10 to 6 p.m. Monday, March 3, in conjunction with The Representational Art Conference, which is being presented by CLU. The exhibit will continue through April 17.

Exhibitors will include Van Arno, Bayo, Sandow Birk, Davis Cone, Ron English, Helen Rebekah Garber, Wes Hempel, F. Scott Hess, Alec Huxley, Ruth Grace Jervis, Eric Joyner, Gegam Kacherian, Michael Knowlton, Ira Korman, Brin Levinson, Adam Miller, Odd Nerdrum, Billy Norrby, Michael Pearce, Michael Rosenfeld, Randye Sandel, Christopher Ulrich and Peter Zokosky.

Nerdrum, a panelist at TRAC, is a Norwegian regarded by many as one of the greatest living representational painters. He is known for his allegorical images of refugees adrift in an inhospitable Icelandic landscape.

Hess, who will present a paper at TRAC, has received National Endowment for the Arts and Getty Museum fellowships. The Los Angeles resident has had more than 20 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 100 group shows on three continents.

Birk, of Los Angeles, emphasizes social issues in contemporary life. He received a National Endowment for the Arts International Travel Grant to study mural painting in Mexico City in 1995 and a Fulbright Fellowship for painting in Rio de Janeiro in 1997. He was an artist-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institute in 2007 and at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2008.

English, of New York, coined the term POPaganda to describe his colorful mash-ups of cultural touchstones.

Joyner, of San Francisco, is a former digital animator who has painted urban landscapes, Mexican masks, cartoon characters, robots and donuts.

Admission is free. The gallery, located in William Rolland Stadium at 160 Overton Court on the Thousand Oaks campus, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. For information, call 805-493-3697 or visit www.callutheran.edu/rolland.

Two hundred works of art created and donated by renowned artists, celebrities and local art stars will go home with art lovers during Mystery Masterpiece, Studio Channel Islands Art Center’s fundraiser on Saturday, March 29 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. Guests at the will have the opportunity to select one original work of art that resonates with them.

What’s the mystery? All artist signatures are hidden: art by celebrities such as Daniel Stern will be on display anonymously next to artwork by prominent visual artists from Ventura County and beyond, such as David Gallup, Susan Petty, Julia Pinkham, Michael Rohde and Hiroko Yoshimoto.

Mystery Masterpiece tickets are $200 and include a work of art valued at more than $250. You may purchase two “art” tickets or one art ticket and an accompanying guest ticket (no art) for $75. Elegant finger food and premium wine will be served. On March 15, the price of the art ticket increases to $225. Mystery Masterpiece tickets and art sales benefit Studio Channel Islands Art Center’s art education programs and the Blackboard Gallery, the largest art gallery in Ventura County. To purchase tickets or for more information, go to http://www.studiochannelislands.org/mm14/ or call 805-383-1368.

“We want the community to know that art is accessible and that there is incredible talent in our midst,” said former Studio Channel Islands Art Center president Maggie Kildee. “We want people to come down to the studios to enrich their lives.”

Now in its 16th year, Studio Channel Islands Art Center is an exhibition and performance space. It serves as a creative hub and regional resource center for artists and an arts education center for people of all ages.

The Studio Channel Islands Art Center offices and Blackboard Gallery are at 2222 Ventura Boulevard in Old Town Camarillo. More than 40 resident artist studios are open to the public every First Saturday of the month from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, go to www.studiochannelislands.org or call 805-383-1368.

A $1,000 Award for Excellence in Art Studies for 2014 will be awarded to an art major from Ventura College. Each year Studio Channel Islands Art Center selects a local college to submit three student candidate portfolios for consideration. The Award for Excellence honors both the quality of the art teaching as well as the work of the students. The three finalists are offered an exhibition in Studio Channel Islands Art Center’s Blackboard Gallery in April when the Award will be presented.

The Award was established in recognition of Studio Channel Islands Art Center founding member Pat Richards Dodds. Award recipients are selected based on the quality of the art rather than financial need. The Art Center’s Scholarship committee includes artists Gerd Koch and Patti Post, Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus Bob Privitt, Founder and Executive Director of Focus on the Masters Donna Granata, and John Nichols of John Nichols Gallery at the Santa Paula Art Museum. Last year’s award recipient was Donna Espinoza from Oxnard College who impressed the panel with her accomplished style and creativity.

Interested Ventura College art majors should contact the Ventura College art department about the submission procedures and deadlines, and may review the general prospectus at http://www.studiochannelislands.org/education/award-for-excellence-in-ar....

The Studio Channel Islands Art Center offices and Blackboard Gallery are at 2222 Ventura Boulevard in Old Town Camarillo. They are open Tuesday 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Wednesday through Friday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. As many as 40 resident artist studios at the Center’s campus across from the gallery are open to the public every First Saturday of the month from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, go to www.studiochannelislands.org or call 805-383-1368.

Camarillo, CA - The Art Program at CSU Channel Islands (CI) is pleased to announce “Dreams and Memories/Colors and Patterns, The Quilts of Kathy Musashi,” on display Tuesday, Feb. 4, through Sunday, Feb. 23, in the John Spoor Broome Art Gallery. The exhibition, an exquisite selection of modern abstract quilts, pays tribute to a gifted quilter and cherished colleague on the eve of her retirement from CI. A free public reception will take place on Thursday, Feb. 6, from 4:30 to 6 p.m., coinciding with Musashi’s retirement the following day.

Curated by Irina D. Costache, CI Art History Professor and coordinator of the Broome Gallery, the exhibition presents almost a dozen quilts in abstracted patterns and stylized forms. Composed of diverse swatches of textiles, each quilt offers a pictorial feast of fragmented shapes and bold colors, along with endless visual connections and conceptual possibilities. From a distance, the viewer’s gaze is drawn to the quilts’ powerful simplicity. A closer observation of each work reveals subtle textures, unexpected asymmetries, and refined graphics. These features create a complex mosaic and reveal a sophisticated narrative connecting the works.

“It is a privilege for all viewers, but particularly for all of us on the CI campus, to be able to see these marvelous quilts,” Costache said. “I first saw the quilts in the President’s Office, but did not know who the artist was. I was struck by their beauty and power. I was even more impressed when I found out that they were created by Kathy, whom I knew and admired for her outstanding professionalism as a member of the CI community. The same level of dedication and an incredible artistic elegance was in her artwork. I am very happy to curate this exhibition that reveals a sample from Kathy’s vast body of work and discloses her incredible imagination and exceptional craft.”

A CI employee since the campus’ early days in 2003, Musashi will retire on Friday, Feb. 7. As CI’s Academic Programs & Planning Coordinator, she supports the University’s Curriculum Committee and helps guide through changes to the University’s 23 academic programs. She communicates those changes to the greater academic community through her work overseeing the University’s course catalog.
An avid quilter for nearly a decade, Musashi is a member of the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild who creates her quilts mainly as a creative outlet and labor of love for friends and relatives. She was surprised to learn her work was selected for exhibition by the University’s Art Program.

“I am very honored,” Musashi said. “This is a wonderful opportunity to say farewell to my magnificent colleagues who have supported me in many ways while at CI.”

Musashi is even more pleased to share “Fair Winds and Following Seas,” a quilt she created in memory of her former boss, beloved CI administrator and professor Stephen Lefevre, who passed away in 2011.

“Steve was a wonderful academic, administrator, and human being. His passing affected me greatly and creating this quilt helped me to mourn his loss,” she said. “He loved to sail and was the faculty advisor for the first sailing club at CI. The quilt depicts images of sails. Steve was always calm no matter the storm. ‘Fair Winds and Following Seas’ has evolved over the years as a nautical blessing. Along with those words, the color of the quilt, and its quietness, it all reminds me of Steve. After the show, I plan to give it to the Lefevre family.”

After retiring, the Camarillo resident, mother and grandmother plans to travel, work on her golf game, and help out her aging parents.

She also plans to do a lot more quilting, which has become a family passion.

“Being the OCD person I am, quilting consumes much of my time. It’s a very labor-intensive endeavor,” she said. “My husband, as a result, has also taken up quilting. It’s an extra benefit having your spouse to share this kind of work. He’s a member of two quilt guilds. We collaborate on work, and critique and assist each other as necessary. We’ve turned quite a bit of our living space into our studio. Not so presentable, but it works for us.”

The exhibition is supported by the CI Art Program; Karen T. Carey, Associate Vice President for Art & Sciences; and William P. Cordeiro, Associate Vice President, MVS School of Business & Economics.

The John Spoor Broome Art Gallery is located on the second floor of the John Spoor Broome Library. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

Limited parking is available on campus with the purchase of a $6 daily permit; follow signs to the parking permit dispensers. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road with bus service to and from the campus. Riders should board the CI Vista Bus to the campus; the cash-only fare is $1.25 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at www.goventura.org.

For additional information, contact the Art Program at 805-437-2772; Irina D. Costache at irina.costache@csuci.edu; Kathy Musashi at kathy.musashi@csuci.edu; or the John Spoor Broome Library at 805-437-8561.

About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands (CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more about CI by visiting CI’s Social Media.

The Oxnard College Literature, Arts and Lecture Series will begin its 2014 spring Series with a celebration of the African American Poet Langston Hughes. Other events will feature a panel on addiction, poetry reading by the California State Poet Laureate, a Middle Eastern musical group, and testimony from a concentration camp survivor.

Sponsored by Oxnard College, the Series begins February 26, 2014, and will be held on Wednesdays from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on campus in the Performing Arts Center. The event held on April 30 is co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, Inc., through a James Irvine grant. All events are free, open to the public, and interpreted for the deaf and hard of hearing. Parking is $2.00. For more information, contact Shelley Savren, faculty coordinator, by email at ssavren@vcccd.edu or tel. 805-986-5800 (x1951). The Performing Arts Center is located on the north end of Oxnard College at 4000 S. Rose Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93033.

Spring 2014 Series Schedule

Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Langston Hughes’s “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz”
For African American History Month, USC Music Professor Ron McCurdy will recite the words of this 12-part epic poem and accompany them on the horn, celebrating Hughes's homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014
“Addiction”
Oxnard College Addictive Disorders Professor Michael Webb will moderate a panel discussing problems and solutions of addiction, featuring Bill Shilley addressing new strategies, Lois Zsarney on nutrition, Becca Porter on support groups, Jose Cuervo on recovering, and Dr. Webb addressing criminal justice.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014
“Latinologues”
Award-winning actor-writer-director-producer-comedian Rick Najera will entertain the audience with monologues from his book, Latinologues, and will discuss the image that Latinos have in Hollywood from inside out, focusing on the need for diversity in the arts and how his book Almost White addresses it.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014
“The Wild and the Fire”
Poet and English Professor Shelley Savren will read poems from her new book The Wild Shine of Oranges and from The Common Fire, which depict her rebellious youth, portray her family and highlight teaching experiences in prison, juvenile hall, and schools for abused and suicidal teens, among others.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
“Ain’t Got No CONTINUED »