Christopher Cokinos

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - An award-winning nature writer will talk about extinct bird species at California Lutheran University in February.

Christopher Cokinos will present “Re-civilization: Extinction, Heresy and Hope” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24, in Overton Hall. As part of his talk, he will read selections from his 2000 nonfiction book, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds.” The free event, part of the university’s Artists and Speakers Series, ties into Cal Lutheran’s emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches and environmental issues.

Cokinos is an associate professor of English at the University of Arizona where he teaches creative writing and curates The Next American Nature and Science Writing series. Affiliated with the university’s Institute of the Environment, Cokinos has strong interests in research-based nonfiction writing on nature and science, and science fiction as literature. Other interests include climate change (especially geoengineering), extinction, natural history, space sciences, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and improving science communications.

He is the author of the literary nonfiction book “The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars,” the lyric essay collection “Bodies, of the Holocene” and the poetry chapbook “Held as Earth.” His current book project is a history of the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

“Hope is the Thing with Feathers” won the Glasgow Prize and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. For “The Fallen Sky,” Cokinos received a National Science Foundation grant to participate in a meteorite-hunting expedition in Antarctica. The book was a finalist for the Saroyan Prize.

Cokinos’ books have been featured and praised in such media outlets as “All Things Considered,” People magazine, the Boston Globe, Nature, Science, and Natural History. His poems, reviews, essays and aphorisms have appeared widely in such publications as Poetry, Science, Birder World, Hotel Amerika, Orion, The New York Times and The American Scholar. His essays have won the John Burroughs natural-history essay prize and the FineLine Lyric Prose Prize from Mid-American Review. He contributes to both the Los Angeles Times and High Country News.

Overton Hall is located south of Memorial Parkway and west of Regent Avenue on the Thousand Oaks campus. For more information, contact Jacqueline Lyons at jlyons@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3825.

CA State Old Time Fiddlers will meet on Sunday 2/8/15 from 1:30-4:30pm at the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road, Oak View. The public is invited to play, listen and dance 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 the Premier Players in concert at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 21, in Samuelson Chapel.

Pianist Robert Thies and violinist Lorenz Gamma will join Cal Lutheran faculty cellist Joyce Geeting in a performance of music by Antonin Dvorak, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Zoltan Kodaly as part of the university’s Artist and Speakers Series.

As the Gold Medal Award winner in the 1995 International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Thies is the only American pianist to win a Russian competition since Van Cliburn’s triumph in 1958. Thies is described by the Los Angeles Times as a pianist of “unerring, warm-toned refinement, revealing judicious glimmers of power.” A frequent recitalist in the United States and abroad, he has developed a reputation for his genuine interpretations of intriguing and delicately balanced programs. The Los Angeles resident he has worked and recorded with top studio musicians and film composers. His playing can be heard on Mychael Danna’s Oscar-winning score to “The Life of Pi” and he was a featured pianist on Danny Elfman’s concert piece “Serenada Schizophrana.”

Born and educated in Switzerland, Gamma is a violinist who, like Thies and Geeting, has enjoyed a diverse career as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. The Los Angeles resident has performed internationally a large part of the string quartet repertoire of more than 50 composers, as well as most of the other standard chamber music repertoire of more than 80 composers. Gamma dedicates himself with passion to coaching chamber music in addition to teaching violin. He has given master classes in the U.S., Europe and Asia and has taught violin at several universities. His private and professional violin students have won numerous prizes and gone on to continue their studies at prestigious music schools.

Geeting has been featured in televised solo and chamber performances in Europe and the U.S., served as a soloist and faculty member for the American Institute of Musical Studies in Austria and toured Western Europe with the Collegium String Quartet. The Simi Valley resident has performed as a soloist with festivals in Austria and Italy and as a guest artist with symphonies throughout the U.S. The Los Angeles section of the American String Teachers Association named her the 2014 Studio Teacher of the Year and she has numerous award-winning students as well as former students who are professionals throughout the U.S. and in Europe and South Africa.

The free concert is part of the university’s Artists and Speakers Series. The chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane. 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 visitCalLutheran.edu.

SANTA PAULA, CA – “End of Bees,” a tantalizing look into a world made of earthly elements.

“End of Bees,” the art of Elena Horowitz-Brookes, is the current exhibit at the Ventura College Santa Paula site. A Meet the Artist Reception will take place Tuesday, February 3, 6:30-8:00 PM. The exhibit will run through March 12, 2015.

Elena Horowitz-Brookes’ recent series, “End of Bees,” is a lyrical depiction of altered reality concerned with depth and space. Defying her own post-apocalyptic world with whimsy, the alluring colors and flower-like shapes are juxtaposed with a sense of anxiety, urgency even. Striped teardrop shapes echo powerless bees—frustrated without their stinging power, as they spit and ooze into the primordial garden. Elena's often complimentary color scheme is tweaked, creating an acidic charge unexpected in the abstracted fields, while hints of feminism dance in egg shapes around her acrylic works on canvas. Elena's work is a tantalizing look into a world made of earthly elements but still not our own. She explores the richness of those elements and creations just beyond our grasp; not in an attempt to define or categorize, but simply to ponder and admire. In this manner, Elena's paintings and works on paper do not force their viewer to believe any which way. Open for interpretation, they are open arms to exploration and expression. www.elenahorowitz-brookes.com

Art Exhibitions at the Ventura College Santa Paula site offers students and members of the community a forum for the presentation, interpretation, and discussion of artworks, from a variety of media within an educational setting. An on-going series of exhibitions by visiting artists encourages individual thinking, develops visual literacy, supports local artists, and inspires a lifelong commitment to the arts. For more information contact (805) 525-7136 or vcsp@vcccd.edu. The Ventura College Santa Paula site is located at 957 Faulkner Road, 106, Santa Paula, CA 93060. Parking and admission are free. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Follow the event online: https://www.facebook.com/events/193410630829569
www.venturacollege.edu/santapaula

Enlarge Photo

The Museum of Ventura County presents Contemporary Impressions: The Artwork of Kate Hoffman at its Agriculture Museum, opening February, 7, 2015 and remaining on view through May 31, 2015. The opening reception will be held Saturday, February 7, from 4-7 pm. Award-winning artist Kate Hoffman is familiar to many people in Ventura County for her paintings of horses and other animals, as well as for the fluid blue and green water of her seascapes.

She usually paints in oils on large surfaces, blending rich, earthy colors with outlined suggestions of shape and volume. Her images are simple and loose, and her surfaces are often rubbed to suggest the dimension of the canvas, paper and gesso underneath. This exhibition comprises 12 large works, mostly oil on canvas and many of which depict horses.

“My goal,” she says, “is to create an avenue directly into the emotion of the painting, whether it’s a horse, a giraffe or a tiny boat on a vast green sea.”

Hoffman studied at the Art Students’ League in New York and at the Instituto Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums, including the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico and The Logan House Gallery of the Beatrice Wood Foundation in Ojai. Her work can be found in many private collections, as well as the permanent collections of the Ojai Valley Inn and Rotary International U.S Headquarters in Chicago.

The Museum of Ventura County’s Agriculture Museum is located at 926 Railroad Avenue, Santa Paula, California, in their historic downtown. Hours are 10 a.m.– 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Admission is $5 adults, $3 seniors, $1 children 6-17, free for children ages 5 and under, and for Museum of Ventura County members. The first Sundays of every month is free to the public. For more information, go to www.venturamuseum.org or call (805) 525-3100.

Buenaventura Art Association will present a selection of works by the late Len Poteshman in a Feb. 10-March 7 exhibition at the Buenaventura Gallery in downtown Ventura.

A prolific Ventura artist for more than a decade, Poteshman was 88 at the time of his death of brain cancer in August 2014. His longtime life partner and studio mate, sculptor Linda Carson, is curating the show from the collection of Poteshman’s daughters, Neila and Mica, who inherited his paintings and sculptures. There will be a reception in connection with the show from 5-7 p.m. Feb. 21.

Poteshman aspired to be a concert violinist, but broke both hands badly in an airplane accident after being drafted during World War II. So he pursued an art career instead, studying at the Chicago Art Institute, American Academy of Arts and Chouinard Art Institute before earning his Master of Fine Art degree at the University of Guadalajara under the G.I. Bill.

He painted portraits in Mexico for a time before moving back to the States, where he became a deputy in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, moving up the ranks during a 25-year career. Poteshman’s art background became part of his work: He sketched crime suspects from witness descriptions, sculpted representations of victims’ wounds and re-created crime scenes for investigations. He also worked undercover on art fraud cases with the FBI and other agencies.

After retiring from law enforcement, Poteshman taught art in Los Angeles until relocating in 2001 to Ventura. Figures remained a frequent theme in his paintings, and he often used acrylics and epoxy to create sculptural canvases.

The posthumous exhibition of Poteshman’s art will be at the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St., which is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. For more about BAA shows, art opportunities and joining the nonprofit artists’ cooperative, visit www.buenaventuragallery.org.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University will host its popular Chinese New Year celebration from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in Soiland Recreation Center.

This year, the annual event coincides with the “Chinese Figurative Realism in the 21st Century” exhibit through April 9 in the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art and “A Chinese New Year Residency at the Kwan Fong Gallery” from Feb. 10 through 19.

The free event will celebrate the year of the wood sheep with a traditional lion dance and gong fu and tai ji martial arts demonstrations. Performers will include the Thousand Oaks Chinese Folk Ensemble, Yang Sheng Choir, in-Harmony Choir, Thousand Oaks Chinese School Dance Group, Thousand Oaks Tai Ji Group and Santa Barbara Dance Group.

Authentic egg rolls, dumplings, chicken, noodles and desserts will be served. Artists will demonstrate painting and calligraphy, and vendors will offer a variety of items for sale. Red envelopes will be distributed to participants for good luck.

Chinese New Year, which this year begins on Feb. 19, is the most important of the Chinese holidays. The holiday lasts 15 days and focuses on bringing good luck for the new year.

According to legend, Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian. To protect themselves, villagers put out food to satisfy the Nian. Later, finding that the beast feared the color red, they hung red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. Today, adults give red envelopes, often containing money, to children to symbolize wealth and prosperity in the coming year. Lanterns symbolize the brightness of spring. In dragon and lion dances, a group of dancers parade under elaborately decorated costumes to scare away bad luck.

Cal Lutheran’s Languages and Cultures Department, Multicultural Programs & International Student Services, Chinese Culture Club and Community Leaders Association are sponsoring the celebration.

Soiland Recreation Center is located in Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center on the north side of Olsen Road between Campus Drive and Mountclef Boulevard on the Thousand Oaks campus. For more information, contact Debby Chang at ddchang@callutheran.edu or Daniel Lawrence at 805-493-3489 or lawrenc@callutheran.edu.

On Saturday, January 31 at 3 pm, artist Richard Schloss will present a gallery talk and tour of his solo exhibition Painting the Light: California Landscapes of Richard Schloss at the Museum of Ventura County. The UCSB-trained artist will give a firsthand account of how he began landscape painting in an era of abstract art (the 1970s), and how his plein air technique has developed over time. Schloss is a founding member of the famed Oak Group artist collective, formed in 1986 to raise awareness (and funds) for nature preservation along the Central Coast.

In honor of his roots as an art student and later an art instructor, Schloss will gear this talk toward art students, who will be admitted free with a valid student ID. For the public, admission to the gallery talk is included with museum admission.

To RSVP, please contact Tina Nielsen at (805) 653-0323 x330, or tnielsen@venturamuseum.org to attend.

The Museum of Ventura County presents Painting the Light: California Landscapes of Richard Schloss, an exhibition of more than thirty-five paintings from this prolific painter.

The oil paintings of Richard Schloss are a testament to the beauty of the land and sea that surrounds us—traditional, impressionistic and yet always unique in the genre of landscape painting. His exceptional and dramatic treatment of light creates and captures a moment in time that evokes memories of an unspoiled California. Quoting artist and co-founder of the Oak Group, Ray Strong, “there is light, and then there is Schloss light.”

Richard graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a Master of Fine Arts in 1979 and a BA in Italian in 1981. Following his graduation, he lived and painted in the Santa Barbara area for many years. It was during those years that Schloss became part of a movement of landscape painters known as the Oak Group. This group of artists was committed to preserving open spaces by bringing public awareness to preservation efforts in areas throughout California, including the Channel Islands, Santa Barbara, the eastern Sierra and Marin County.

Featured in the exhibition are works culled from private collections and galleries throughout California as well as four new works created recently which have never before been exhibited.

Richard Schloss is recognized as one of California’s best landscape artists. He is part of a tradition of California plein air painters and Impressionists, reminiscent of the early twentieth century artists including Edgar Payne, Maurice Braun, William Wendt, Granville Redmond and others who, over one hundred years ago led the way. These artists, whether classically trained academic painters or self-taught artists, chronicled the scale, the scope and the picturesque expanse of California’s incredible vistas. Today, Richard Schloss continues that same dedication to his subject matter in the form of his light-filled canvasses and awe-inspiring natural landscapes.

The Museum of Ventura County is located at 100 East Main Street in downtown Ventura. Hours are 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $5.00 Adults (18 years & older) $3.00 Seniors (65 and older), Students & AAA members with ID, $1.00 Children (17-6 years old) Children 5 years old & younger are FREE. Paid events include free admission to the galleries, and the first Sundays of every month are free general admission for the public. For more museum information go to www.venturamuseum.org or call 805-653-0323.

Mian Situ

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - Six Chinese-born artists will give lectures and demonstrations, including the painting of a Mongolian couple on their wedding day, throughout a 10-day residency at California Lutheran University.

“A Chinese New Year Residency at the Kwan Fong Gallery” will run from Tuesday, Feb. 10, through Thursday, Feb. 19. It coincides with the “Chinese Figurative Realism in the 21st Century” exhibit on display from Jan. 22 through April 9 in the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art and the Chinese New Year celebration on Feb. 12.

Nan Liu, an associate professor of visual arts at Florida A&M University, will present a lecture titled “Introducing Traditional Chinese Brush Painting” from 9 to 10 a.m. Feb. 10. He will demonstrate brush-painting techniques from 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 10 and from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 11.

Xu Weixin, a professor and artist in the School of Arts at Renmin University of China, will discuss “Chinese Contemporary Art Observation ¬– Thinking and Practice” from 9 to 10 a.m. Feb. 12. He will work on an oil painting called “The Miner” from 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 12 and from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 13.

California Art Club Signature Artist Jove Wang will present “Art Reflects Personality" and sign copies of his book “Instinct & Feeling: Jove Wang’s Oil Painting” from 9 to 10 a.m. Feb. 14. He will paint a Mongolian couple on their wedding day from 1 to 5 p.m. Valentine’s Day and continue painting 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Feb. 16.

Mian Situ, a California Art Club Signature Artist, will discuss “Chinese immigration History and My Art” and sign copies of the 2007 book “The Overseas Oil Painter of China: The Works of Mian Situ’s Oil Painting” from 9 to 10 a.m. Feb. 17. He will return from 1 to 5 p.m. to paint a Chinese model wearing traditional clothing.

Z.S. Liang, an award-winning painter from Agoura Hills, will discuss “American Indian Culture and My Art” and sign copies of Tom Saubert’s 2014 book, “Z.S. Liang, Native Trails Fresh Tracks,” from 9 to 10 a.m. Feb. 18. He will return from 1 to 5 p.m. to work on an oil painting of a Native American model.

Yu Ji, a professor of art at California State University, Long Beach, will discuss “American and Chinese Street Culture and My Art” from 9 to 10 a.m. Feb. 19. He will return from 1 to 5 p.m. to demonstrate figurative drawing and composition in art.

Visitors to the Kwan Fong Gallery of Art and Culture may also catch the Chinese artists at work at other times between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. throughout the residency. The free events are part of the university’s Artists and Speakers Series. For more information, visit CalLutheran.edu or contact Michael Pearce at 805-444-7716.

CA State Old Time Fiddlers will meet on Sunday 1/25/15 from 1:30-4:30pm at the Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road, Oak View. The public is invited to play, listen and dance to Country Western and Bluegrass music. Free admission and parking, refreshments available. calfiddlers.com or call 805-797-6563.

Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015
4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Ojai has no shortage of Renaissance men and women, but none quite like Phil Harvey. He has forged distinguished careers as a singer in opera, light opera and musicals, and as a movie actor he appeared in the classic film “Touch of Evil,” among others.He is an accomplished photographer and some of his striking Ojai images are collected in the popular booklet in post card format, “Mystique of Ojai”. This Sunday, Jan. 25, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, he will share some of his stories with the public at the Ojai Valley Museum, 130 W. Ojai Avenue, in a special event, “A Conversation With Phil Harvey.”

The museum’s Town Talks coordinator, Mark Lewis, will sit down with Harvey to chat about his many-faceted career and the extraordinary people he met along the way, including Krishnamurti; John Bauer, founder of the Ojai Music Festival;Iris Tree, English poet and actress, who invited Harvey to join the Ojai Art Center’s Shakespearian Theater group; Orson Welles, who directed Harvey in “Touch of Evil;” and Clint Eastwood, whom Harvey met when both were young contract players at Universal.

Harvey also founded the Ojai Photography Club and the Ojai Community Chorus, and served as longtime music director at the Ojai Presbyterian Church. In 2003, he received the City of Ojai’s “Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award,” andin 2010 the Rotary Club of Ojai honored him as a Living Treasure. Indeed, he has a treasure chest full of stories to share this Sunday. Well into his tenth decade of life he remains a vibrant and active member of the local arts community. The event will run from 4:30 to 6 p.m. For this Town Talk, museum members are admitted free and $5 for non-members.

The Ojai Valley Museum, established in 1967, is generously supported in part by museum members, private donors, business sponsors and underwriters, the Smith-Hobson Foundation, Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, City of Ojai, Ojai Community Bank, Rotary Club of Ojai, Ojai Civic Association and a grant from the Heritage Fund of Ventura County Community Foundation.

The museum is located at 130 W. Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA. Admission: Free for current 2014 members, adults - $5.00, children 6–18 - $1.00 and children 5 and under – free. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Tours are available by appointment. Free parking is available off Blanche Street at back of museum.

For more information, call the museum at (805) 640-1390, ext. 203, e-mail ojaimuseum@sbcglobal.net or visit the museum website at: Ojai Valley Museum.org Find us on Facebook Ojai Valley Museum

The Santa Paula Art Museum is thrilled to present Dos del Sur (Two from the South), a two person exhibition featuring work by Ojai artists Carlos Grasso and Sylvia Raz. These two Ojai artists are brought together through their origins in South America where passion was conceived of through the Tango, political dictatorships were prevalent, and art was everywhere.

Carlos Grasso's work is an exploration of the relationship between the psychological inner worlds of the mind and the outer manifestation of the physical. His work takes many forms from the surreal to the abstract, the figurative to conceptual. Sylvia Raz's work is confrontational and challenges people to a meditation on human responsibility. Her work resists categorization in any one genre or style, and it is fueled by a fascination with process and reinvention.

OPENING RECEPTION
Saturday, January 31, 2015 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
$10.00 SPAM Members
$15.00 General Public

Camarillo, CA - CSU Channel Islands senior Meghan Sheetz is due to become a new mother in March. Her new role is one of the concepts the Art major explores with her exhibit, "Reaching for the Skies," a show created with bottles of different shapes, sizes and colors.

"I've created a space full of bottles that celebrate my female perspective and the many roles I play as woman, artist, domestic partner and soon-to-be mother," Sheetz said. "The form itself has human elements. You talk about the neck, the shoulder of the bottle."

Sheetz' work is appearing on the Grad Wall of an upcoming exhibition in CI's Napa Hall featuring the works of professional artists Jeff Page and Sommer Roman called "Logical Elsewhere." Page and Roman are both edgy artists who express themselves with an unlikely mix of grit, glitter, grass, paint, fur and torn clothing among other materials.

"I felt their art had commonalities and interesting differences at the same time," said CI Art lecturer and gallery director Christophe Bourely, who described their art as visceral and textured.

Page, a second year Masters of Fine Arts candidate at UC Santa Barbara, and Roman, who received her MFA from UCSB in 2014, both let the materials and the process guide them to the finished work—which is called process-oriented art.

"There are many aspects to my work, but there are always contradictions in the surface of every piece," Page said. "Lately I'm working on paintings that attempt to create the feeling of grit fused with glamour in one surface."

Roman works with everyday materials associated with the body and home because the material is familiar to the viewer and may excite the senses and personal memories.

"My materials may include anything from discarded clothing/linens; old pillow fill, discarded objects; faux grass; faux fur; wood, glass; metal; paper or clay," she said.

The Grad Wall is a place of honor designated for a solo show by a senior picked by a faculty member. Sheetz' mentor and instructor, Amiko Matsuo, selected Sheetz for the honor in part because she appreciates the way Sheetz uses the anthropomorphic shapes of the bottles to reflect various aspects of her identity.

Like the tall, exaggerated forms of her bottles, Sheetz, 32, plans to "reach for the skies" when she graduates this spring with an Art degree and double emphasis in studio art and art history—and a new baby boy.

The exhibit runs Jan. 26 through Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the Napa Hall Gallery with an opening reception Jan. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m.

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 California State University (CSU) will reach a significant milestone of 3 million alumni during commencement in spring 2015 and has launched the world's largest yearbook. The Class of 3 Million online yearbook is an interactive platform where alumni can create a profile and connect with the millions of other alumni from the 23 CSU campuses across the state. Alumni who sign up for the yearbook will also be entered into a special contest to win one of three $10,000 scholarships for a current or future student, sponsored by Herff Jones. For more information about the yearbook and the Class of 3 Million, visit https://classof3million.calstate.edu/

Jesse Byock

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - The 16th Annual Nordic Spirit Symposium at California Lutheran University will highlight Iceland in a scholarly program geared for the general public.

“Iceland: Land of Fire, Ice and Vikings” will be held Feb. 6 and 7 on the Thousand Oaks campus. The public is invited to join in the spirit of a symposium, which blends music, dining and the free exchange of ideas to enhance the pleasure of learning.

A millennium-old Viking settlement, the world’s oldest continuous parliamentary government and volcanic eruptions are a few of the aspects of the country that will be discussed by experts from Iceland and the United States.

Multiple sessions will be presented over the two days. Highlights include Ásgeir Margeirsson, CEO of HS Orka, discussing Iceland’s energy production and use of geothermal energy. The country is the world’s largest producer of electricity per capita and has the lowest per capita emissions from energy production. Eiríkur Steingrímsson, a professor at the University of Iceland Biomedical Center, will talk about how Iceland, with a population of just 320,000, has become a leader in human genomics research and how this achievement may impact health care.

UCLA Professor Jesse Byock, director of the Mosfell Archaeological Project, will discuss the site in southwestern Iceland’s Mosfell Valley. Elisabeth I. Ward, director of the Scandinavian Center at Pacific Lutheran University and the daughter of an American soldier and an Icelandic woman, will review Icelandic history from Viking settlement to today.

The indie folk band The Evening Guests with singer-songwriter Jokull Jonsson will lighten the mood on the afternoon of Feb. 7 with musical entertainment. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Anna Mjöll will provide that evening’s dinner entertainment. Mjöll grew up in one of Iceland’s leading musical families and represented her country in the famed Eurovision Song Contest. She later toured worldwide with the Julio Iglesias band before setting out on her own as a jazz singer.

A reception will kick off the event at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 6 at the Scandinavian Center. The symposium will conclude with dinner and entertainment at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 in the Lundring Events Center. All presentations will be in Samuelson Chapel.

California Lutheran University and the Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation are sponsoring the symposium. The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and the Norway House Foundation in San Francisco provided grants.

For prices, schedules and registration, call Howard Rockstad at 805-497-3717. The registration deadline for the Feb. 7 lunch and dinner is Jan. 24.

WHAT: Ventura Potters' Guild presents: Yvette Franklin - Ikebana Demonstration and Kevin Wallace of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts

WHERE: The Ventura Avenue Adult Center
550 N Ventura Avenue
Ventura, 805 648-3035

WHEN: Monday, January 26, 2014

Doors open at 7 pm

Program begins at 8 pm
Contact: Cecile Gurrola-Faulconer
805 985-5038

Ikebana (生け花, "living flowers") is the Japanese art of flower arrange-ment, also known as kadō (華道, the "way of flowers").

Yvette Franklin, Ojai resident and current President of Ventura County Potters' Guild, will demonstrate the art form of Ikebana for the Guild's January Program. As a student of Sogetsu Ikebana, Franklin will demonstrate a basic upright moribana arrangement and share her studies of the history of Ikebanal She has been a collector of Ikebana ceramic containers for years and will bring several styles to admire. Franklin hopes to inspire her audience to make their own containers and arrangements for future enjoyment.
Kevin Wallace, Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts will talk about the theme "The Natural World" for Ventura County Potters' Guild annual juried show. The show is August 22 through October 3, 2015.
The public is always welcome!

Camarillo, Calif., Jan 12, 2015 – A new book co-authored and edited by CSU Channel Islands (CI) lecturer, photographer and writer Larry Lytle is winning critical acclaim for helping restore the historical legacy of a disgraced photography pioneer.

Lytle recently released "American Grotesque: The Life and Art of William Mortensen," a book he co-edited and authored with Michael Moynihan. For Lytle, the book represents the culmination of 20 years of research piecing together the lost biography and work of trailblazing Hollywood pictorialist photographer William Mortensen (1897-1965).

Mortensen’s vivid hand-retouched images of monsters, witches, torture and nudes won fans like Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, but incurred the wrath of powerful foes like realist photographer Ansel Adams, who called Mortensen “the Antichrist” and engineered his removal from art history.

Since the book’s recent publication, “American Grotesque” has earned favorable reviews from the L.A. Times Book Review, The Guardian and Smithsonian magazine and was named to the Huffington Post’s “Top 10 Art Books of 2014” at No. 6. In a front-cover review late last month, the L.A. Times Book Review called “American Grotesque” “the most extensive work on one of the strangest and most compelling artists of the 20th century.” The book’s publisher, Feral House, ordered a second printing due to its popularity.

Lytle, considered a leading Mortensen expert, first became captivated by the disgraced photographer as a student in the 1980s. After gobbling up accounts by photo critic A.D. Coleman and curator/writer Deborah Irmas – two Mortensen experts credited with rediscovering him in the 70s – Lytle was left with numerous questions about how a groundbreaking photographer who inspired such passion could fade into obscurity.

“His work was so extraordinary and unique, yet it had been dismissed by art historians in such an offhand manner,” Lytle said. “As I delved deeper into his work, it became sort of an underdog thing for me. I became a caretaker of his story. I think Mortensen needs to be acknowledged as the first American visual artist that used the grotesque as the focus of his work. And he was the first to use highly manipulated imagery in a way that wasn’t embraced until Photoshop almost a century later.”

Mortensen rose to fame in the 1930s for his portraits of Hollywood stars and his striking still images depicting the grotesque, occult and erotic at a time when horror themes dominated cinema. He worked alongside film directors like Cecil B. DeMille and helped launch the career of screen star Fay Wray with his still photos. Mortensen also operated a popular L.A. photography school, authored numerous books on photography, merchandised name-branded equipment, and was an American pioneer of pictorialism, a force within photography that promoted retouching, hand-worked negatives, chemical washes and artistic, painterly manipulation.

With the rise of realism and straight/documentary photography, Mortensen was broadly dismissed as vulgar and overly-romantic. He was relegated to obscurity by vocal purist opponents such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston until fans like Coleman, Irmas, Moynihan, Lytle and Feral House Publisher Adam Parfrey emerged to resurrect his legacy.

“Adam Parfrey at Feral House was actually the driving force behind ‘American Grotesque,’” Lytle said. “He had read one of my articles on Mortensen and lobbied me to do the book.”

In addition to a biography by Lytle and essays by Moynihan and Coleman, “American Grotesque” includes over 100 of Mortensen’s photos, many published for the first time. As a companion to “American Grotesque,” Feral House also released an expanded reprint of Mortensen’s book, “The Command to Look: A Master Photographer’s Method for Controlling the Human Gaze.” The book features essays by Lytle and Moynihan and 66 images widely considered Mortensen’s best work.

For Lytle, an L.A.-based photographer who has taught at CI since 2003, the reviews are an unexpected surprise.

“It’s overwhelming and humbling,” he said. “I researched and collected Mortensen’s biography and work mostly as a hobby. In the process of satisfying my obsession, I just became an expert. … I’m kind of surprised they’re capturing attention. It’s like winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects That Include a Mummy.”

A free public exhibition at CI’s John Spoor Broome Library in February will showcase dozens of Mortensen’s works selected by Lytle as well as some of Lytle’s research materials for “American Grotesque.” Lytle will also give a talk on Mortensen and his work during the opening reception, Thursday, Feb. 5, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

For more information on Lytle, visit http://larrylytlephoto.com.

Visit the publisher at http://feralhouse.com/american-grotesque/.

Read early reviews of the book at http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-william-mortensen-20141..., http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/photographer-who-ansel-adams-..., and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/14/william-mortensen_n_5968520.htm....

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 California State University (CSU) will reach a significant milestone of 3 million alumni during commencement in spring 2015 and has launched the world’s largest yearbook. The Class of 3 Million online yearbook is an interactive platform where alumni can create a profile and connect with the millions of other alumni from the 23 CSU campuses across the state. Alumni who sign up for the yearbook will also be entered into a special contest to win one of three $10,000 scholarships for a current or future student, sponsored by Herff Jones. For more information about the yearbook and the Class of 3 Million, visit https://classof3million.calstate.edu/

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - A chamber ensemble will perform music with a Hispanic influence at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, at California Lutheran University.

Camerata Amistad will present the free concert in Samuelson Chapel on the Thousand Oaks campus as part of the university’s Artists and Speakers Series.

The versatile chamber ensemble of orchestral musicians performs a wide variety of chamber music but is particularly dedicated to of art, folk and popular-culture music from the Hispanic world. Ensemble members Cathy Collinge Herrera, P. Brent Register and Diane Gold Toulson share their love for this music with a wide range of audiences in both the United States and Latin America. They have been featured at music festivals, conferences, artist series and U.S. Embassy-sponsored events and are sought-after guest artists for university programs.

While a Fulbright scholar to Peru, Collinge Herrera was principal flutist with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional for two years and she founded of the Festivales Internacionales de Flautistas. As an artistic ambassador for the U.S. Embassy, she has performed as concerto soloist recitalist and master class clinician in Central and South America. She has also performed throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and England. She teaches at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

Register is a professor of music at Clarion University of Pennsylvania and has served as assistant director of the Clarion University Honors Program, for which he was named a National Honors Fellow. He has received awards for musical direction from the American Theatre Festival Competition and a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has performed both nationally and internationally, including solo performances in New York City, Boston, Oslo and Milan.

Toulson has enjoyed an extensive career as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral flutist. Concert appearances in the U.S. include Carnegie Recital Hall, the Lincoln Center Library and Avery Fisher Hall in New York and the National Gallery and Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Internationally she has performed and taught master classes in the Netherlands, Spain and Argentina. She teaches at The Music Academy in State College, Pennsylvania.

Register, as composer, is collaborating with fellow Camerata Amistad members on recording and publishing their musical arrangements and compositions.

The Artists and Speakers Series, the Languages and Cultures Department and Multicultural Programs & International Student Services are sponsoring the concert. The chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane. For more information, contact Eva L. Ramirez at 805-493-3349 or eramirez@callutheran.edu.

“Beatrice Wood on her 105th Birthday” – Artist Alice Matzkin – 1988. On loan from collection of artist.
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“Kay Haley” – Artist George’s Posla – 1937. On loan from collection of Robert Haley.
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“Peter with Red Shirt” – Artist John Nava – 2013. On loan from collection of artist.
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“Sherman Day Thacher” – Artist H.R. Butler – 1922. On loan from Thacher School
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“Fine Portraits/Fine People”
January 17 through March 29, 2015
Opening Reception, January 17, 5 to 7 p.m.

Portraiture will be the focus of the Ojai Valley Museum’s first exhibition in 2015, “Fine Portraits/Fine People.” Museum Director Michele Ellis Pracy has selected nineteen insightful portraits of Ojai personages who are important to the history, art, and culture of Ojai and the Ojai Valley. The exhibition opens Jan. 17 and runs through March 29, 2015.

The portraits in the exhibit are paintings or drawings that fix a person in space and time. They are traditional; they are formal; they reveal elements of character, identity and personality. Each artwork captures the physical features and the spirit of the model’s personality and goes beyond a likeness to exemplify the individuality of each person represented. The works also capture human moments, values, and concerns of the Ojai community in which they were created. Subtle and direct effects are embedded within the image by both the one producing the portrait, as well as the one being portrayed.

The two-dimensional artworks, accomplished in oil, acrylic, pastel, intaglio, ink and collage, are one-of-a-kind pieces borrowed locally from the private collections of the portraitist, institutions of learning, or from the families of the person portrayed. The earliest portrait was executed in 1922 and the most recent in 2013.

The walls hold visages of Ojai residents, individuals and couples. Each person we look upon appears to make the absent present. The portraits reveal who the subjects are or were, show us how they lived, what they held dear, and how they connected to the wider world. Short wall text biographies of the subjects offer additional insight for the viewer.

This exhibit is organized to feature both the social importance of the sitter as well as the artistic capability of the portraitist. Among the Ojai persons of merit on view are: Sergio Aragonés, Peter Bellwood, Harry Gorham, Kay Haley, Otto and VivikaHeino, Willoughby Johnson, JidduKrishnamurti, Sherman Thacher, Constance Wash and Ginger Wilson.

John Nava, Stanton MacDonald Wright ,Xavier Cugat, MichealDvortcsak, Alice Matzkin,and Mark Whitman are among the California artists rendering the portraits.

The Hall Gallery includes educational wall texts addressing the History of Portraiture; Types of Portraits; Setting and Symbolism; and Color and Technique. Each portrait in the Rotating Gallery is accompanied by a short biography of the person represented, which provides an historical perspective. The artworks reveal the skill and joy intrinsic to the fine art of portraiture.

This exhibit of fine art portraiture heralds influential Ojai personalities as rendered by notable California artists. “Fine Portraits/Fine People,” is a selection of stellar artwork describing exceptional individuals who have influenced how we live our lives in Ojai.

Whether formal, religious, historical or imaginative, each and every portrait carries meanings intended by the artist, and those assigned to it by the viewers. It will be fascinating for visitors to explore those meanings and learn about the similarities and variations within portraits from different time periods.

The Alcove Gallery features a mini science exhibit, “Topography/Cartography of the Ojai Valley.” Viewers explore the valley geography via a three-dimensional topographical map and informative wall texts on this subject. The art of cartography (map making) is also featured.

The Ojai Valley Museum, established in 1967, is generously supported in part by museum members, private donors, business sponsors and underwriters, the Smith-Hobson Foundation, Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, City of Ojai, Ojai Community Bank, Rotary Club of Ojai, Ojai Civic Association and a grant from the Heritage Fund of Ventura County Community Foundation.

The museum is located at 130 W. Ojai Avenue, Ojai, CA. Admission: Free for current 2014 members, adults - $5.00, children 6–18 - $1.00 and children 5 and under – free. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Tours are available by appointment. Free parking is available off Blanche Street at back of museum.

For more information, call the museum at (805) 640-1390, ext. 203, e-mail ojaimuseum@sbcglobal.net or visit the museum website at: Ojai Valley Museum.org Find us on Facebook Ojai Valley Museum

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - “Piano Man” Jeffrey Jacob will perform at California Lutheran University at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, in Overton Hall.

Jacob will present a lecture-recital on composer George Crumb and his largest and most ambitious work for solo piano, the “Makrokosmos, Vol. II – 12 Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac” for amplified piano. Crumb’s reputation for composing hauntingly beautiful scores has made him one of the most frequently performed composers today. He has received a Grammy and Pulitzer Prize.

After speaking briefly about the influences on Crumb’s music and the unusual techniques found in the work, Jacob will perform the entire “Makrokosmos” without interruption.

Since his debut with the London Philharmonic in Royal Festival Hall, Jacob has appeared as piano soloist with more than 20 orchestras internationally and performed solo recitals worldwide.

A noted proponent of contemporary music, he has performed the world premieres of works written for him by Crumb, Vincent Persichetti, Gunther Schuller, Samuel Adler and many others. As a composer, he has written three symphonies, three piano concertos and numerous works for piano and chamber ensemble. The Warsaw Music Journal described him as “unquestionably one of the greatest performers of 20th century music” and the New York Times called him “an artist of intense concentration and conviction.”

Jacob holds a master’s degree in music from the Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Peabody Conservatory. He is artist-in-residence at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, where he is known as “Piano Man.” He received the 2002 Artist of the Year Award from the International New Music Consortium at New York University for his work as composer, pianist and educator.

Admission is free.

Overton Hall is located south of Memorial Parkway and west of Regent Avenue on the Thousand Oaks campus. 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.