Considering the Arts…

Our City Council is in the Planning Process for the Budget 2014 – 16.

Jonathon Fohrman, Dean of Arts at Mira Costa College, and Vice Chairman for the Arts Commission will be giving the Statement of Importance for funding the Arts to the council at this very important meeting for the coming year.

Please contact your art colleagues, and if they have time, to come to the Council Chambers for a show of solidarity. This is important for artists of all levels of accomplishments. Students who are studying the new media where there are many jobs, mid career artists who are the driving force of creativity, and the Established Senior Artists who are our guiding lights of the possible. 

We need the support of all of the Artists in Artists Alliance. If you can’t come, please send an email to Bradley Penner at

BPenner@ci.oceanside.ca.us

Our sphere of influence reaches far beyond our City Limits. The exhibitions in the Southfair in Del Mar, and Encinitas are great examples of such an influence. One of the far reaching efforts of our Arts Commission will be the bringing together the various Arts Commissions of the North County to participate in a Retreat to realize forward thinking in bringing together the talents of our many Communities for Common economic benefits and Cultural Understanding in the various art histories of each. 

Partnering with the various stakeholders both in the Arts and Economic weight such as The Oceanside Museum of Art, Main Street Oceanside,

The Chamber of Commerce, Visit Oceanside, the various Art Commissions of North County will make our Region into a Destination of International Importance for the 21^st Century and beyond…  

 

The Council Meeting of April 2^nd at 5:00 PM is of prime significance in our quest for funding and re-establishing our Arts Commission as an economic force for our City to become Where the “Bold Meets Beautiful!”

Joanne Tawfilis

Joanne Tawfilis International Super Star 


The Arts Commission of Oceanside CA is so very fortunate to have on the panel folks who are professionals in the field of Art. I will be introducing my fellow members one by one for our Communities to become acquainted with them and to learn why we are so very lucky to have such dedicated and talented people serving our"City of the Arts". 

Joanne Tawfilis is an International Super Star in the innovative and fulfilling programs for Children the World over. Her love of "Seeing with Her Own Eyes" should be a model for all.  

The beautiful mural above is the dedication mural of The Women's Mural Mile. It was painted by Austrian artist Silvia Pecha in honor of Joanne's mentor, artist Laurel Burch, "a courageous and lifelong woman humanist, whose artwork has served as an inspiration and healing vehicle to women worldwide."

This mural was painted by St. Mary's School in Nairobi, Kenya as part of the Multicultural Diversity Mile. Art Miles Project Mural

Joanne Tawfilis is a retired UN Executive (Director of Human Resource Management Services, United Nations Environment Program; and Director, Management Services, International Atomic Energy Agency) and former Director of the Women of Srebrenica Project in the former Yugoslavia under the Clinton Administration. She is an award-winning careerist; winner of the Bob Marley Peace Award; recipient of the Peacemaker of the Year Award/My Hero Project, United Nations Association UNA USA (regional and local chapter); honored by the International Committee of Artists for Peace, the Youth For Human Rights International Peace Hero Award and a commendation from the California State Superintendent of Schools, to name but a few of her honors. Joanne was recently featured as a keynote speaker at the United Nations Youth Forum and 2nd World Conference on Arts Education held in Seoul, South Korea. In Seoul, she convinced the Incheon International Airport to display an exhibition of Art Miles Murals for the more than 18 million visitors, who will be able to view a sampling of more than 12 miles of hand-painted murals on canvas. In December 2010, Joanne was one of 4 women selected by AOL/AT&T to attend the lst TED Women's Conference in Washington, DC. Work of Art Miles and the Tawfilis' is also featured in the recently published important book, "Sea Voices" authored by Elizabeth and Duffy Healey.

As Co-founder/Executive Director, with her husband Fouad, of The Art Miles Mural Project and Art Miles Shoes of Hope, together have accomplished the incredible feat of mobilizing more than ½ million people from more than 125 countries to paint more than 4,000 murals, which were highlighted in a recent exhibition at the famous "Culture Wheel" in Cairo, Egypt, with live webcasting to over 200 million people throughout the world in collaboration with the Unity Foundation and Peace Day TV. Over the past five years, Joanne has also assisted in the facilitation, painting and delivery of more than 68,000 pairs of hand-painted shoes to disarmed child soldiers, children in need, and victims of human and natural disasters across the globe. Joanne was recently appointed as a Commissioner by the US State Department to the US National Commissioner for UNESCO.

Joanne and her husband are passionate advocates for youth, and together they have dedicated their lives to unifying people through the language of the arts in a meaningful, fulfilling, and fun way. Their work teaches and promotes collaboration, understanding, and respect on a global scale with the hope of generating sustainable educational programs and actions that prevent violence and promote peace.

Joanne earned a Master's Degree in Fine Arts (MFA) from L'Acadiana Art School and several other certifications in Management and Crisis Counseling Intervention.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

There are some Wonderful Videos of the Murals which have been completed. The artworks will amaze You!

Kenneth Capps

A Good Week at OMA

“Where Bold Meets Beauty”

Our Oceanside Museum of Art is the wellspring of cultural consciousness for we who live here and for visitors from far and wide. This wondrous place which was first designed by the famed architect Irving Gill has been enlarged and enhanced for a greater Community inclusion both in Oceanside and in the greater sphere of influence of OMA. We have our dynamic Director Daniel Foster to thank for this new cultural force and the programming of these energizing and engaging Events. 

As part of a capacity audience, this past Wednesday, listening to an informative lecture given by Ann Hoehn about two Women Artists Georgia O’Keeffe, and Camille Claudel, I marveled at the incredible distance we, as a Community, have traveled in the past 20 years. From a City with pizza parlors, barbershops, and girlie shows to a thriving and shinning place of new Hotels, Restaurants of great food and our beautiful Art Museum which continues to inspire the rest of our City to innovative and economically productive paths of growth. This vibe of the new echoes the energy of the young of our City.

Yesterday at the Consortium meeting, new pathways incorporating the arts into economic partnerships are becoming defined and are inspiring folks eager to be involved in a leadership role in the creation of the Art Walk in our Downtown area and beyond. When the Community becomes a force with passion is when startling and creative events happen. Such will be our Art Walk First Friday projected for August 2014.

It was pure serendipity that when I went downstairs that I happened to tag along with Julia Fister our Director of Education. She was introducing her docents to Kenneth Capps who was giving the docents an inside tour of his sculpture installation and his history in the arts. 

He is a tall man of quiet beauty in stature and in manner. His explanations were imparted to the docents with the sincerity of an artist who is in touch with his own history of truth. His sculpture is sublime in the purity of line and negative space. A simple curve becomes a crescent of longing for another way of seeing. The mass of pure steel is a form of thought brought into being in a solid and truthful way. Thus his history becomes a visual and visceral form of contemplation.

I had a chance to chat with Kenneth for sometime afterward. We did share our common delights in the wonders of the architecture of Irving Gill. His gave me his impressions of how Oceanside has changed in such a short time. We discussed and how this incredible evolution is thrusting our City on the North Coast into becoming a Cultural attraction for visitors from all over the world, and our many diverse communities here in San Diego County.  Kenneth did give me a word for half of our new identity. He said,

The Original Oceanside City Hall
designed by Irving Gill

“I have always considered Oceanside to be a Bold City, one with great potential for change in a new direction”.

I enthusiastically agree. Oceanside is:  “Where Bold Meets Beauty”.  

The Expansion of OMA with elements of Gill.

  

Art and Morality

The true creative spirit is an elusive and exclusive force which drives the Artist to produce a product. This may be literature, music, visual art, or performance. The creator does not produce his art form for the desire of monetary reward. The driving force of this passion comes from the highest of all motives, to express his/her visions of inner expression of truth to share with humanity.

To give without guile is something which the Arts are, in their truest form, an element which raises the viewer’s awareness to a place of new ways to view our world and have a fresh understanding if only for a moment in time. The monuments to house these are forms have throughout history been some of Mankind’s greatest achievements. The Pyramids, the Parthenon, the Louvre Museum, St. Peters to name just a few. Some of these edifies were built with slave labor some were not.

While Art Museums have long been a driving force in my life’s desire to visit and be inspired by, the actual building of these Cathedrals of Art have not been a concern of mine, but now it seems that the competition to build the biggest, the most expensive, and the most “beautiful” has come to be the antithesis of what Art is all about.

This morning in the Union Tribune the article Art and Labor Intersect, raised my awareness of the practices of the building of some of these new and magnificent structures for the Arts.

 http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/mar/12/doris-bittar-labor-migrant-gulf/

For me, this dichotomy of the higher ideals of Art and truth clash vehemently with the idea of the laborers of this new Guggenheim Museum in Abu Dhabi being exploited in the worst way by the elitist oligarchs building yet another crown jewel to display art made by artists who are not driven by the motive of conspicuous consumption. As Art makers, we should be a voice to say no to the conditions of the workers who are treated much as slaves to house the very art of our soul’s passion to not be displayed in such a place as this. We are the keepers of our own truth, and if that truth is compromised by where it is installed, and where it is used as a prize, then we have lost our moral rights as art makers to claim our own personal truths in our own Art.

Oceanside and the New Media

Considering Digital Art…is it real Art?

“I would like to see the hand of the Artist” one of the Alliance members so stated when viewing a Digital Painting I had brought to the quarterly meeting of the group’s critique.

The General consensus was that the originality, content, and value of the art work itself I had brought to be shared was not considered, but the discussion was what was it? Could computer art be thought of as “real” art. This was rather disconcerting to me as I have a history of many different media in my production of work which includes Bronze Sculpture, Oils on canvas, water color, and Graphite. Having my work in collections by private collectors nationally and internationally, this seemed to me to be rather lacking in the awareness of what is actually going on not only at our Oceanside Museum of Art, but in Galleries and Museums all over the world.

The making of a digital painting in my work usually consists of a pencil drawing scanned into the computer then enhanced with a Wacom pad and Stylus. I use the stylus the same way as I use a pen or paint brush with the flexibility of being able to instantly correct my work as I progress through the evolution of an idea. My images may incorporate photos which I have taken and stored in a digital file.

We were fortunate to have James Enos at the Museum for the past months for his works are unique and complex in their structure. In his statement he mentioned that he used digital and laser technology to fabricate his housing sculptures. This technology has been in use for about 20 years, and it was demonstrated to me at my foundry in LA when they were involved in making a model for an Arabian Prince who was building a new palace.  These new technologies, * the Inkjet printer, the laser printer and the 3D printers are slowly becoming the lexicon of our 21^st Century Art World.

I would like to share with you my process and the many wondrous advantages of the Digital World which gives me in my advancing years of existence a way of creating work without the physical angst. Aging is not fun, but with the new media I can be creative and productive. Everyday is exciting as I contemplate the possibilities of the “what ifs”.

The image in the lower left hand corner has one of my photos from Moonstone Beach near Eureka CA. In my work, the photos are always my own and I use them extensively taking elements from them for new work. 

“The imperfections of hand built art may not be seen in the making of a Digital Creative Work, but the heart and soul of the Artist shines through clear and true”.  R. Jameson

         The Many Manifestations of the "Eve Tree"

From a Pencil Drawing...

scroll down and view the various models built by this process...