Monday, December 30, 2013








Introducing The Hill Street Country Club’s inaugural Supper Club Artist Project; a three-part series providing community education & involvement in the Arts.

EDUCATE • APPRECIATE • CELEBRATE

Join The HSCC, artist Johnny Nguyen of Songs of the Green Bird and our sponsor MainStreet Oceanside, for a Pop-up ART Workshop inside the Oceanside Farmers Market & Sunset Market on January 2, 2014 for Part I: EDUCATE of the Supper Club Artist Project. ...

Learn alongside your community as Nguyen shows how to approach photography with a journalistic eye inside the market, then explore and take photographs of your own. Instant-use cameras provided.

The workshop will involve direct communication with local buyers and members of the Oceanside community. Using Nguyen as a guide and inspiration, participants will be invited to use their own cameras (mobile phone, ipad etc) or one of several disposable film cameras available at HSCC booth located in Downtown Oceanside Farmers Market. Participants will then be prompted to spend some time exploring and photographing their own local market. Guests will be given instructions on how to use the camera as well as a few tips and tricks from the artist himself on how to photograph using a street photography/photojournalism technique. The intention of this workshop is to provide a unique experience for our Oceanside community, access to local art and introduce a new or perhaps unfamiliar technique. The HSCC will encourage an appreciation and understanding of the dying art form of print photography.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: FREE & FOR ALL AGES.


Workshop Times on Thursday, January 2, 2014:

9:00 AM – 1:00 PM inside the Farmers Market

5:00 PM – 9:00 PM inside the Sunset Market


The Hill Street Country Club thanks MainStreet Oceanside for sponsoring this Pop-up ART Workshop.


RSVP on facebook for the Opening Reception of Songs of the Green Bird; Part II: APPRECIATE of the Supper Club Artist Project happening January 18th for an opportunity to see your photos in addition to artist Johnny Nguyen’s work inside the Hill Street Country Club Gallery inside Artists Alley.
See More






  • Part II Jan. 18th, 2014 ...6:00 ~ 10:00

    212 D Coast Highway (Artists Alley), Oceanside, CA

  • Introducing The Hill Street Country Club’s inaugural Supper Club Artist Project; a three-part series providing community education & involvement in the Arts.

    EDUCATE • APPRECIATE • CELEBRATE

    Take in art at the Opening Reception for Songs of the Green Bird by Johnny Nguyen, PART II: APPRECIATE of the Supper Club Artist Project, on Saturday, January 18, 2014 from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm at The Hill Street Country Club Gallery inside Artists Alley. Songs of the Green Bird features a collection of photojournalistic ...works taken by Nguyen inside a marketplace in Vietnam.

    Nguyen’s photographic work stems from an interest in photojournalism and meshes with fine art through the use of film and darkroom processes. In Songs of the Green Bird, Nguyen exhibits a photographic series documenting a small, open-air marketplace supported by its surrounding community. This market named “Cho Chim Xanh,” (translated to English as The Green Bird Market) and other markets such as this, are prevalent throughout the country of Vietnam. Not only do these markets supply the local population with fresh meats, fruits and vegetables, this communal environment provides a framework of stability for their respective neighborhoods by offering a central venue for its citizens to converge and dialogue.

    Nguyen embedded himself within the community circles of The Green Bird Market to photograph these intimate, photojournalistic, street-style portraits of the lives that give the market its heartbeat. He hopes that this series of 16 classical, black and white gelatin silver prints encourages the audience to appreciate the human value of local markets, and to compare and contrast between the market culture observed here in America and elsewhere throughout the world.

    Alongside the Opening Reception of Songs of the Green Bird by Johnny Nguyen, photographs taken by the Oceanside community from the Jan. 2nd Pop-up ART Workshop inside the Oceanside Farmers & Sunset Market will be on display.

    Food provided by Wrench and Rodent Seabasstropub. Beer served by Booze Bros Brewery.

    FREE EVENT: OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.


    The Hill Street Country Club would like to thank our generous sponsors for helping make PART II: APPRECIATE of the Supper Club Artist Project happen:
    Booze Bros Brewery of Vista, CA and Wrench & Rodent Seabasstropub in Oceanside, CA.

    Stay Social! Follow us on instragram: @thehillstreetcountryclub @thecameracollective @wrenchandrodent @boozebros

Friday, December 13, 2013





Lewis ~  Taking awesome Care of the OMA Gallery....

  an Installation by
Armando de la Torre

As our Holiday Season rushes to its finale, we have the privilege to visit an enchanted place from the Heart of Armando de la Torre.

This is a place we will all recognize in our hearts of  remembering our sweet experiences of Childhood and Parenthood of our younger days. It will bring to us the once a year experiences of the “woods” when we found the perfect tree in the forest. The warm feelings of the hearth and of home resonate with the songs of remembrance of Years gone by. The togetherness of Family and loved ones create the Magic of the Season.

The Gift of Family, Our Place on this planet Earth, and the unending Universe of Being is what our Holiday Season is all about. This is the space you will enter into at OMA’s satellite venue in the Westfield Mall and given to us by an Artist of great accomplishment, Armando de la Torre.







Monday, December 9, 2013





Creating an Arts District…


Participating in the forthcoming discussions led by our Oceanside Museum of Art, I will post various examples and opinions on the Creation of Art Colonies and Art Districts, and the implications which arise in the process. Is Gentrification to be desired? What happens when the long time residents and business owners confront the success of an Artist Colony or Arts District? What about Culture Clash? What about the Money Clash? What about when the Success of the Colony becomes the antithesis of what it started out to be? Please feel free to comment where ever you live and if you have had experiences to share. 

Article taken from Pomona College Magazine • 550 N. College Ave, Claremont, CA 91711

Downtown TurnaroundEd Tessier ’91 turned dying downtown Pomona into a vibrant Arts Colony with some help from family and the skills he learned at the College.

By Mark Kendall
Ed Tessier ’91 grew up watching downtown Pomona die. The sporting goods store where he got his first baseball glove closed. So did the department store where he bought his Cub Scout uniform. So did the lunch counter where his grandpa used to buy him root beer floats.

Shortly after graduating from the College, Tessier set about bringing downtown Pomona back to life.

While in school, Tessier majored in urban sociology and used Pomona’s downtown for case studies. Still, he never planned to undertake a crusade to save it. He expected to wind up behind a desk in some city planning department, “playing with colored pencils the rest of my life.”

But his father, Victor, a prominent Pomona attorney, had suffered multiple heart attacks and in 1992 asked his children (Ed, Jerry and Vicki) to take over six buildings he owned downtown. They could have unloaded the properties, but felt too much of a connection with the community.

”It was an emotional decision,” says Tessier.

Tessier remembered the words of one of his mentors, Pomona sociology professor Robert Herman. “He had a mantra,” says Tessier. “That even in the most distressed neighborhoods there’s always something that works. The goal should be to find it and nurture it.”

After months of research, Tessier’s first plan was to turn the area into a Latino-oriented businesses district. Latinos now were the majority in Pomona, and such retail efforts had been successful elsewhere in the Los Angeles area. But it turned out another developer had proposed doing the same thing elsewhere in Pomona, and the city told Tessier to come up with something else for downtown.

The downtown already was home to an underground arts scene, with “guerilla artists” occupying empty buildings, hosting exhibitions and poetry slams. Tessier decided to tap into the existing vibe and proposed turning the area into an arts district centered along Second Street, west of Garey Avenue.

By 1993, Tessier had opened (with a business partner) The Haven, a combination gallery and coffee house. Downtown artists came out of the woodwork and connected there. But the place wasn’t just drawing crowds on weekend nights. It was drawing scrutiny from the city, as Tessier tells it, with visits from code enforcement and other agencies. He saw this as part of the longstanding tension between downtown artists and the city.Read More: http://pomona.edu/magazine/pcmfl04/OOtessier.shtml




Traveling out of the Downtown of Oceanside to one of our most cherished historical Churches.
The Arts of the Past... 



Images of the Hands who built.

As I sat in the lovely restored interior of the San Luis Rey Mission for a Requiem Mass listening to the songs of beauty and love, I could see all around me the quiet hands which built this magnificent Mission. The walls of plaster painted with the designs and embellishments of the yesteryear, and the Paintings of ancient heritage were all encompassing.

Can you feel history in your inner core…yes it is possible. The very air seemed to vibrate with these hands of history and the sounds of feet treading along the Central Isle of the Church of hundreds of years resonated within me as an overlay to the music of the Now.


Old Buildings do this to me. I see the inhabitants of the past going about their earthly chores and giving of themselves to the building of the Mission, the Cathedral, or Civic projects of the Times gone by. Touching the oldness of such a place is one of communion with the hands of time. I feel the vibrations of intent and accomplishment of the Hands. It is the same when visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art …the Egyptian sculptures are born again with me, within my heart of knowing.


The San Luis Rey is within my sightline every day I drive down the hill of Rancho del Oro. The gleaming whiteness of the wall, the sublime curves of the colonnade, and most of all the Blue Dome blending into the sky above.  I do no often go inside the Mission Church, but when I do, it is with the anticipation of my intense interaction of sight, of hearing the whispers of time, but most of all, the vibrations of my heart connecting to the Hands of the past and their commitment to a task well done. 


Tuesday, December 3, 2013



First Tuesday: Art + Community Series


7:00 - 8:30pm 
Free for OMA members 
$10 for nonmembers



OMA is launching a new educational program, Art + Community Series, moderated by OMA Executive Director, Daniel Foster. These regular panels and lectures will discuss the power of art to transform the economic prosperity, quality of life and identity of a community. Joining the discussion on December 3 will be James Enos, Urban Arts Developer; Naomi Nussbaum, Public Art/Sculpture Curator/Arts Professional; George Buell, Director of Development Services, City of Oceanside; Stew Mayer, Urban/Mixed-Use Developer; and Dinah Poellnitz, with the Hill Street Country Club, Oceanside. For reservations please call (760) 435-3721.





The studio, the gallery, the store


The Fantasy of the Magical Gift...Search and you will find it Here!

The Newest Studio in Artists Alley...we welcome You!


Friday, November 29, 2013

Come and See the Lighting of the Oceanside Christmas Tree ...
December 5th from 6:00 ~  6:30 

Downtown at the Regal Center Plaza




Wednesday, November 27, 2013


THE SUNSHINE BROOKS THEATRE PRESENTS FOR YOUR  HOLIDAY ENTERTAINMENT IN THE 
OCEANSIDE THEATRE  &  ARTS DISTRICT
THE FROG AND THE TOAD



Justin Jorgensen -- Frog
Devin Collins -- Toad
Ashley Jenks – Ensemble (Rear, Left)
Shauna Riisoe – Ensemble (Rear, Right)Bryan Taylor -- Ensemble (Center)


Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The Star Theatre of Oceanside
Presents "The Nutcracker"

Nov. 30 – Dec. 1    The Nutcracker         Performing Arts Workshop
and


December 7            The Nutcracker        To The Point






Monday, November 25, 2013

The Nutcracker Appears This Weekend!
This production is by “The Performing Arts Workshop” in Encinitas CA


Mother Ginger (Chris goldsmith) and Bon Bons, taken by Chad Sorlie



The Season of Fantasy and Wonderment comes forth with the production of the Ballet “The Nutcracker”.

The Star Theatre in Oceanside proudly presents for Children of all ages to become a time traveler with “Clara” in this favorite Holiday production.

Guest Artist Peter Kurta daning our Snow King
 and Cavalier this year, taken by VAM Productions


Who has not been enthralled with the “growing” Christmas Tree? We all have cheered for the Nutcracker Prince when battling with the Mouse King…



Evie Roemer and other Bon Bons, taken by Carolyn Swayze

 Jessie Fendler as Marzipan, taken by Ken Fendler

Come and support the Dancers of our region who make our Holidays special and timeless. We are All the Dancers in our minds memories…





In Oceanside, we are so very fortunate to have real performing Theatre. This year at the “Star” Theatre, there will be two Dance Troops performing The Nutcracker Ballet. The pictures below are from the “To the Point” Group . Photographs by Jakrel Photography.







"The Magic of the Nutcracker"
Our Dreams are filled with memories of Christmas past and those memories seem more real as the Years go by.


 Did we Imagine our selves watching Clara's Tree grow bigger and bigger, or were we really there? 




Did we hiss at the Mouse King and when he looked at us did we cringe or was it just a dream? 


This then is the Magic of the Nutcracker Ballet. When danced by Children and Young Folks it seems so much more real, for They do "Believe", and they do "Live" this wonderful incredibly beautiful Story in Dance.

As the Nutcracker Prince takes Clara on her journey through the worlds of exotic dancers and strange lands, we travel with her and live in the moment of our own Childhood again...




The Best part of this experience is that we can travel with Clara into this story of enchantment every year and take own Children into this magical place if only just for one precious evening...


Saturday, November 23, 2013

ARTISTS ALLEY WELCOMES 
"LIVE, THE STUDIO, THE GALLERY, THE STORE"






A NEW PLACE FOR THE ARTS IN OCEANSIDE...

Wednesday, November 20, 2013


GRAND OPENING THE 21ST...NOVEMBER,
ARTISTS ALLEY 


Sunday, November 17, 2013


"The Frog Prince" 


From time to time we will be sharing the Art Venues in and Around the Sphere of Influence of Artists Alley.

One of the visually enchanting venues and gourmet delights in uptown Oceanside is Petite Madeline across Coast Hwy from Artists Alley.

This "soft sculpture" the Frog Prince may be viewed at this delightful and morning sunlit eatery. We love to go there and have our visual senses fulfilled as well as our hunger pangs more than surfeited...

Thursday, August 29, 2013



OMA Mega Exhibition Reception
Saturday, November 16
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.



Oceanside Museum of Art and San Diego History Center (SDHC) have collaborated with local art scholars to produce a joint exhibition that offers visitors a unique and diverse perspective from which to view our region’s landscape. Nature Improved: San Diego Artists Interpret Our Landscape, will open at SDHC on September 19 and at OMA on October 26 and will continue through January 26, 2014 at SDHC and February 23, 2014 at OMA.










This Painting of Michael Roenblatt is on View at OMA with the opening reception, "Nature Improved", this Saturday Evening. Come and have a wonderful time with our fellow Artists of  North County and become a Member today.





Michael Rosenblatt

A Young Artist of unbridled passion. Congratulations Michael on your upcoming shows at two prestigious Art Museums in San Diego County.

Michael will be showing at both OMA and the San Diego History Center this fall.  SDHC Members Only Reception is Sept. 19 (Sept. 19 – Jan. 26, 2014) and OMA’s Public Reception is Nov. 16 (Oct. 26 – Feb. 23, 2014).

I have known Michael Rosenblatt since 1993. We met in Artists Alley in Oceanside while we were both working day and night in our world of the hidden artists of Oceanside. In those days he could be seen walking up the alley in the early dawn, paint on clothes and hands with the eyes of the painter who was still in the thrall of “seeing” the vision becoming reality.



He was after coffee and I was just arriving at the Alley with my eyes half open … 5:30 being too early at my age.

“Another all-nighter” was all he said…I knew what he meant and gave him a hug. 
One of my most precious possessions is a self portrait of Michael. He was younger then, with hair and a beard. Now he is a man of great strength with the heavy brows of knowing his own vision of truth. Onward Dear Michael, keep the path of your truth and Thrive…  



Friday, August 23, 2013




Oceanside Museum of Art: OMA 
Launches Public Artist-In-Residency Programs w...: GREAT NEWS! Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) just received a $150,000 Exploring Engagement Grant from The James Irvine Foundation  ...

Friday, August 9, 2013







A World of Beauty…Seaside Flowers

You enter into this beautiful small world created by Sherry Shelton and marvel at the wonderful change in the Promenade of Artists Alley. Here in Oceanside where the unexpected has become the now expected we find a Shop which is graced by the fragrance and enchantment of the Flora.

I remember when this Studio Space had another Artist from another Time. The years have given this Venue for the Arts a patina of use, it has had a struggle to find the fulfillment of our Dream for Artist Alley. Sherry has changed much of this aura for the Energy of Flower Power is visceral.

Looking down the Alley now you will see the welcoming yellow Sunflowers with their funny faces smiling at you and beckoning your presence to be part of a stroll to find new adventures in Artists Alley.

The Sunflowers will have a permanent presence here for the South Entrance is graced with an image of Vincent Van Gogh and his enigmatic smile of his Art World…

Sherry is a Colorado Girl. She is adventurous, courageous, engaging and most of all full of creative energy. She has been in the Floral Trade here in Oceanside for 20 years and is a confirmed supporter for all of the Arts here in Oceanside.

“The greatest joy I have is helping my customers create a custom made arrangement that will carry their message, as they are telling me about the situation and/or their loved one. They share with me their lives, and the flowers express their feelings”


As I gaze around the blue flowered interior of Sherry’s Studio I remember the yesteryear of when our Artists Alley was in full bloom. With Seaside Flowers, we now have “The Bloom” and are on our Way to find the luster which just awaits quiet now, inside the Studios along the Artists Alley of Oceanside CA.     

Sunday, July 14, 2013









Art Alley and the Beginning of an Idea…

When first coming to Oceanside in 1991, I had my sculpture studio in the Tech Park area. The studio was a gift really for the entire Park was virtually vacant. My landlord let me have 1200 sq. feet of 20 ft. sky lighted space for 150. which was decadent in its amenities. As luck would have it for him this changed after about one year. Then the search began for a new studio space, one which would offer the ambiance of the beach, people about and most important a place coffee with colleagues.

So began my tenure in an alley which was the most God forsaken place in downtown Oceanside. You might think that being located just across from the incredibly beautiful Civic Center Plaza it would be just the opposite. Not So.

The Alley was strewn with unmentionables left from each nights visitors of nefarious ways, and the detritus was so odoriferous, that walking down this Alley was a Physical Challenge.

However, and this was the big attraction, it was a Downtown commercial/retail space for only 350. a month.

The unit was the best one on the Alley for it had a skylight, and was next to the walkway into the Art Building as it was to become known. The space was dark and had carpet with living creatures in it and walking into it I knew my work was cut out for me. As a former Newport Beach Designer for 20 years I was up to the task, and before long the cement floors gleamed and the walls were painted white.


Now, I had a Studio. It really was a place for the creative muse to hang out with me and some of my most original work was done there both in paintings and sculpture.

After about a year, the building was filling up with artists both on the Alley and upstairs where there were nine more studios. We met from time to time and became kind of a unknown force of underground artistic abilities who were on the outside of anything related to the downtown of Oceanside. This was a Town of Pizza joints and Marine barber shops, strip joints and cleaners.
The  Playgirl Club" was not the "New Oceanside Image" and it was finally closed by the City.  

There were no upscale Restaurants, Hotels, or Theaters which ordinary folks could patronize. Certainly there was no Art.   

About this time, in 1992, I was offered a seat on the Cultural Arts Commission for the City of Oceanside. At the same time a seat on the Redevelopment Committee opened up and I was accepted as a Citizen/business member.

As my involvement in the Oceanside Community became more intertwined with folks who could help the Arts precipitate change, the idea of Art Alley developed. On the other side of Art Alley was a wonderful Community minded man, Jim Terry, who became my ally in approaching the Council. He owned the Building which is now part of Church related activities. 

The proposal for a Closed Walking Promenade for Artists to show their work was made and Councilman Terry Johnson asked if we could hang a banner and lights to make this venue a true Art Alley. He said, “it could become another Gas Lamp district”. This was in the year 1993.

It Happened! The Banner was hung, the days for our Art walks were to be Thursday mornings which coincided with the Farmers Market and we were in Business.  With the songs of Jamaica Steel drums on the tape in the Alley, folks came into a place which had NEVER before been attempted.

I journeyed to Carlsbad and conscripted the Community Arts group who painted on Coast Highway in front of a Hotel every Sunday. About seven came up that first day, and eventually they filled the Civic Plaza every Thursday during the Farmers Market.  

That first morning at 5:00 AM I was there with my German Shepherd Kruger, and we hosed down the Alley. With the music, the fragrance of Coffee in the Air and Paintings lining the walkway, we would become the one of the driving forces for the New Face of Oceanside, a new element injected into a heretofore Marine Town and a place for the birth of Energy for The Arts to be Realized.

I will never forget our first day. One of our Artists sold a painting for 1500.00 dollars. It was if we had come from outer space, but incredibly the alley was to become a force because of the talent and drive which lived and breathed in this place once considered the armpit of Oceanside.

Members of this group were James Aitchison, Ginny Thompkins, Michael Rosenblatt, Andre Blaine, Gigi the photographer, Sally our wildlife portraitist, and others who filled the upstairs studios. From this group the beginnings of the Arts Commission were infused with real artists whose commitment to our City has become legend.

The Idea of an Art Museum was being Born. 

Going Back to the Future:



   

Friday, July 12, 2013