"Birth of Venus de Nano"

Tomorrow Night is First Friday Art Walk in Downtown Oceanside. Once again you will be able to watch artists creating work in real time. The Oceanside Museum of Art is free admission on this First Friday Art Walk Night.

I will be painting live in the entrance of the Museum and hope to see many of you there to enjoy the new exhibition of the 100 Painters of San Diego’s Art Guild…

This exhibition will feature works by one hundred distinguished artists who lived and worked in San Diego during the last century and who were, or are currently Artists Guild members.

I will be working on one of the “Nano” Series of Prints

MAY 1ST FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK OCEANSIDE DOWNTOWN ARTS DISTRICT.

Over 15 artists and 4 bands in 21 galleries-for-the-night      Introducing Theatre inspired by Art at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. at MainStreet Oceanside

Featured Art Walk Curated Artist    Blake Kern  at Coast Jewelry & More  Art Walk Curated Band    Kelly Hollaran        at Endurance House  Featured Gallery Curated Artist  Charles Bibbs   at The Gallery at the Brooks

The Saga Continues  … The Oceanside City Plaza Pools are Iconic, thus they must remain empty and wait for the rains...

APRIL 22 ,2015

In the presentation of Jason Dafforn our Water Utilities Director last night he went into the latest mandates from the State of California from our Governor Jerry Brown to have the 20 % cut from all users. He considers this necessary to conserve our precious water resources. However, the Pecan Tree growers are exempt. By now it is well documented that these growers use more water for their cash crop than all of the home users combined. This makes me mad as hell that we are being docked for the People of China’s eating pleasures of “Pecan Treats”. Californians should wake up and realize that the bottom line of certain people are dictating our water resources, where they are being used and who is getting rich from this incredible misdirection of our water..

Mr. Dafforn finished his report about the Fountains saying that he envisions the pools to be left empty with a decorative wrought iron fence surrounding it. This fence will be installed into the cement around the Fountain circumference and will someday be removed when the rains come once more. After spending more than 350,000. dollars refurbishing the surface of the pool and replacing the tiles this will be for the foreseeable future the Center Piece of our Civic Plaza. A huge “Iconic” hole with Palms in their planters and a place for Seagulls to be the only users of our Fountains which will entrance visitors with our lack of vision.

In speaking to the Council last night, I stated that as of today, NOAA predicts that California will run out of water in 2016. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/sdo_summary.htmlNASA

says much the same as does National Geographic. I put forth the request that the Council use this opportunity of consideration to put forth a call for Landscape Architects, Architects, and Artists to share a vision of the new awareness of our plight in the coming years of drought. A use of native plants and artworks could be a new kind of Icon. Think the Getty Museum in LA. This is our new normal. The rains will not come and if they do, they will not replenish what we have been wasting for the past decades. 

At this point you might ask; what has all of this to do with Artist Alley? My answer is simple. Everything. Artist Alley is across the street from the City Plaza. The Alley is a bright new spot in our Downtown Arts District which the civic leaders are supporting with new landscaping and upgrades of signage. Lighting is to follow. Looking across the street to the plaza, you will in the future see a giant vacant  beautifully finished “Iconic” concrete hole with a fence around it. This is not the way to give our Community the best use of a space which could be a Community Interactive space, but instead be a question of …”When will the rains come”?    

 

FOR THE FUTURE WE WAIT FOR THE RAINS...  

A CALL FOR ARTISTS, ARCHITECTS

AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

“Concerning the Fake Grass Solution”

This morning in the Union Tribune on the front page of the Local Section there was an article about the City of Oceanside and the Civic Plaza Fountain water problem. The City has spent over 350,000. Dollars to refurbish the fountains using recycled water. Now the water is deemed to be not safe for public contact. In the summer children and adults alike wade in the pools.

Our City Staff has put forth a solution: build a wooden platform over the space which is two to three feet deep and then install fake grass over that. This means that the entire project would be constructed over concrete and inside this structure there would form a mini climate of humidity and dampness. Many foreseeable maintenance problems would exist. Most of them related to animals and their functions which would be expensive to mitigate. The Staff is presenting this as a temporary solution until the drought is over. The Drought will not be over in the foreseeable future. As our City is promoting a downtown Arts District, this solution certainly will not make our City seem Art appreciative, or informed.

I have presented my vision to the Public in an exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Mine is but one which could make a public space into something wonderful. This is the heart of our City, and to have even a temporary solution of fake grass is one which will bring derision and dismay to not only our Community Citizens, but to tourists and visitors it would be a true negative.

I believe that in our immediate region there are many who could bring their own visions of what our City Plaza theme should be. It should be worthy of the magnificent setting already in place and the stunning views of the Blue Pacific to the west. It should be one where people can walk, rest, read, and just be one with the people energy which is the most vital element of our City of Oceanside. It should be one where visitors can take away a memory of beauty, history, and most of all the enchantment of being in the Ocean air which is one of life, and our inner selves. We should put forth our true selves and never, never offer a fake sense of what we as a City are all about.

There are the Robert Irwins, the James Hubbells and Patrick W. Caugheys of our Region. There are many more talented professional voices who could share a vision for our City’s Plaza. Our City should send out a Call for Professional expertise and established project contractors who could give our City Plaza a vision worthy of our present beautiful Buildings. The Gill legacy should be our guiding light, and we should honor this history of excellence. 

The City of Oceanside will hear this solution April 22 at the Council Meeting. Please come and make your voice heard and let the Council know that a bad temporary solution is not a good choice for the Heart of our City.

contact: kruger1988@yahoo.com

The North County Arts Network

The 78 Corridor Collaborative Endeavor

And

“The Imagination Engine”

The Exceptional People of North County are collaborating with energy unparalleled.

The long time honored practice of competition of everyone for themselves has turned into a force of cooperation and realized recognition that by joining forces and talents we have unleashed a new and dynamic force of creative innovation.

I look forward to the Day when the two North County agencies will blend their energies and talents to embrace the ideals of STEAM ( science, technology ,engineering, art and math). The Arts which are left behind by State agencies in the instructional aspects of creative and imaginative education are being recognized by our North County Business and Educational organizations that without the Arts, the innovative process lacks the creative energies of imagination. “The Imagination Engine”  is what gives us the Aha moment and in turn turns the page for a new paradigm shift in how we integrate our most important resources.

Our Resources:

The Young Entrepreneur, the New Graduate, the Eager New Immigrant with a vision, The High School Senior who lives in the Digital Age, The Artist with Vision of Impossible Dreams, The Night School Student who will become the writer of the new American Dream. The Corporate CEO with a visionary plan for sustainable energy sources, the University President with a new View of Student Responsibilities and incorporating the interchange of world views between the students and business leaders, our Senior Citizens who find a vital new Community role of sharing expertise of past successes.

Our Civic Leaders who have become aware of the benefits of Collaboration and Innovation brought about by Imagination. “The Imagination Engine” will power our efforts to become the dynamic, creative, economic and innovative power of the San Diego North County Region. Our very air is an elixir of the possible. We have here in short, the Explorers of the New World of Collaboration.

The Math of exponential collaboration is still an unknown quantity. It is a new kind of Math, with a new formula being written. It is being written by You and by Me, by our Students, Civic leaders, and the Corporate world of bottom lines. I believe that the total of the New Math of Collaboration invigorated by “The Imagination Engine” will lead us into the Innovative Universe with the bottom line of an Economic Big Bang of Prosperity.