From time to time, I post opportunities for regional artists on this blog...this is such an opportunity,,,

Call to Artists: Skate Parks Murals The City of Vista's Public Arts Commission is pleased to announce a Call for Artists for Murals at the two City Skate Parks which are slated to open Summer 2017. Two stipends will be offered for each park. The city will offer a $9,000 stipend for the mural work at the park located at 400 N. Santa Fe Avenue. For the park located at 510 N. Santa Fe Avenue, the City offers a $6,000 stipend. Interested artists or artists teams may submit to work on one or both parks. For consideration, artists are to submit a one or two page outline of their concept, a relevant resume, and portfolio images by January 26, 2017. Renderings are not required at the time of submission. Please refer to the call at the bottom of this email for complete information.  The City highly recommends that interested artists and artist teams participate in the walkthrough of both locations on January 11, 2017 at 10 a.m. RSVP by Noon on January 10, 2017 to Rachel Beld via email. Timeline: Optional Sites Walkthroughs: January 11, 2017 Concept Submission Deadline: January 26, 2017  Artist Interviews: February 8, 2017 Selection by Public Art Commission: March 7, 2017 City Council Approval: March 14, 2017 (tentative) Mural Completion: June 30, 2017 Click Here for the Call to Artists For information on the City of Vista's Public Art program, click here: vistapublicart.com

CELEBRATE 

THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN THE ARTS DISTRICT IN DOWNTOWN OCEANSIDE

View a previous Season of Art Walk an event in 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCrkgJ1hDcg

Hello! Tonight is the last of the First Friday monthly Art Walks which have been for the past two years a new opportunity for Artists and Art patrons to have an interaction between the Artists and the Community. The Oceanside Friends of the Arts will in our future be offering First Friday Art Walks as quarterly events. Entitled Four Seasons First Friday will have many of the same elements and are adding the First Saturday as an added plus for new experiences in the Arts.

Starting in March to celebrate Spring the Four Seasons First Friday will have venues in our local merchants, restaurants, galleries and Museums. Artists Alley will play a more prominent role in our events as will our City Plaza.

We urge you to come tonight and celebrate our Holiday Season and participate in Our Oceanside's Arts District for your shopping quests. We know that you will find great Art works, wonderful food, and make new friends in our Arts Community.

Ruth Jameson 

Artists are welcome to make inquires for next year. Contact  

Ruth Jameson or Susan Brown at:  https://apps.google.com/u/1/user/hub

THE ENERGY PORTAL    

ENERGY: Webster’s: ability to be active: "the physical or mental strength that allows you to do things: natural enthusiasm and effort, usable power that comes from heat, electricity, etc.

PORTAL: a large door, a site serving as a guide or point of entry to the World Wide Web and usually including a search engine or a collection of links to other sites arranged especially by topic, a communicating part or area of an organism".

This morning at a meeting of the Mainstreet vision committee, we were wondering and brainstorming of how to describe our City of Oceanside. Many words and phrases were tossed about, and several came together for me like a thunderclap. Energy and Portal. That’s it Energy Portal…it’s what makes you catch your breath when walking down the sidewalk on Pacific Ave. It’s what sends vibrations of joyful intensity when you pass the young people on Coast Highway. It’s what sends shivers down your spine when you walk the Oceanside Pier and realize that you are on the Edge. Energy Portal captures what we are, who we are, and what we are doing. It captures the new revitalization of our Downtown with “beach Industrial” businesses such as the new craft beer and wine venues. This is a growth industry ideally suited to our local beach scene and will continue to flourish. 

Who we are; an amazing amalgamation of ethnic, economic, educational, age groups, all of who are going through this portal of purpose each and every day. What we are, the doers, who have  seen our own visions of what is possible in this City of Opportunity come to fruition, Artists Alley, and The Oceanside Museum of Art. We are doing amazing things. Bringing new businesses into the City, creating new venues for the most sought after element in what draws us together, The Arts. Working together to help our Community’s citizens to be aware and collaborate to bring new solutions to our Environmental challenges. Oceanside leads the way in making our City a leader in sustainable goals.

We are now bringing  a new element of energy which knows no constraints, The Arts. The infusion into our Downtown of this driving economic element is becoming a force to be reckoned with. With the opening of the First Museum ever for the art genre of murals, The Art Miles .a project of the Muramid Museum will bring new energies into our region. International players in the Arts focusing on Peace will be a catalyst for change, bringing many new visitors in Artists Alley which will in turn have a ripple effect on the whole of Downtown.

ENERGY PORTAL: Our daily gift of being, living, and working here in this electric energizing wave of the future in tune with our neighbor to the west, The Pacific Ocean, which brings us her gifts from sea. Clean air, waves to conquer, food to eat, and most of all the soft sweet vibrant sounds of the endless waves…through this portal everyday, we are endowed with energy.

ELENA'S FRENCH CREPE CAFE

ART comes to us in many different genres... It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I introduce to Oceanside and beyond a new and tasty adventure in gastronomic fulfillment. The opening of Elena's French Crepe's Café located at the corner of Oceanside's Artists Alley and 511 Pier View Way.* The new business is owned by Elena and Hassan El Sharkawy.

Elena is the most charming and energetic woman I have met in a very long time. She is a painter and has many stories to tell of her journey's across this world. She is now embarking upon a new adventure in the opening of her Café in the heart of Oceanside's Arts and Theatre district.

Hassan is also an artist. Retired from oral surgery the owner of dental clinics in Egypt, he has journeyed to America to start his new life as a painter/sculptor and co-owner of Elena's Café. Together, they are part of  the wondrous International makeup of our City of Oceanside. The dynamic energy they bring will welcome You and will give you the flavor of tastes from the Old World melding into the New World of Cooking Arts for our City of Oceanside and beyond. 

"In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport". Julia Child

In Oceanside we now have Elena making her art form for You and for Me !

* https://www.google.com/maps/place/511+Pier+View+Way,+Oceanside,+CA+92054/@33.1969003,-117.3822125,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dc6e3725edc675:0xe6cf7b2b05a57fe0!8m2!3d33.1969003!4d-117.3800238

  

FOUAD TAWFILIS

A Magnificent Presence. He was in our City of Oceanside. He and his talented wife Joanne, brought the Muramid Mural Museum to Artists Alley and so to the world. The first Mural Museum in the world to be founded and given life in an Alley which has seen the arts brought to a new and inspiring level in Oceanside.

A world traveler of peace and unbridled love for all Fouad was a unique force of energy, talent, love and an unending source of giving, us a new perspective of what love is all about.

In spite of the many health issues he had to contend with, he was always upbeat about what the next day, the next project, or the next possibility for what the art world could bring to us all. Love, Peace and Happiness were his priorities. He never wavered.

I do know this...He would say to me and all of You,

"Well what are we going to do today?  What new project are you going to give to the world, and how soon can we get started? I'm way ahead of you, so try if you can to catch up and show me your vision. You Can Do It..."  

This is what he would say to all of us. 

Welcome to a new Venue for Poetry. We invite you to come to the Muarmid Mural Museum in Artists Alley in Downtown Oceanside.

As Always Ed Coonce will be our facilitator  for an evening of words of adventures, deeds, and pathos in a setting of extraordinary visual experiences from around the world.

Nibbles and Wine included...

212  F Artists Alley Oceanside CA

The Horse Power Project

My earliest drawing passion were Horses. Always the hero in my summer reading as a fourth grader were in the Zane Grey books along with All of the Black Stallion books by Walter Farley. With my math book propped up on my desk as a school girl, I drew horses and forever was the problem child for my teachers....of course there were Black Beauty and Thundehead. Later came my history heroes and their horses as exemplified by Bucephalus.

With my childhood passions still intact, I go to the race track to "see" the Horse. The race of course is thrilling and another story in and of it's self, but it is the component I don't need. My need is the Horse. In the paddock, I watch the approach of the great ones. As they pass by, the eye meets mine, and we speak.

I remember Magnum, a great dark bay who paused by the paddock rail, and we had the conversation of expectation. He who runs, and I who love. That's all I really need and my day is complete.

"Horse Power" is in our lexicon in so many ways in our western culture... I often wonder how we would express the power of a modern car in terms other than Horse Power. These drawings are about the Horse Power which is inherent in the gaze of a Horse. The sweet glance of the mare towards her foal, the experimental gaze of the young colt, the magnetic  power of the stallion waiting for the acknowledgment of his worth, the loyalty of "Sergeant Reckless".

Some of our connections through words:

Horse sense, Hold your Horses, Wild Horses couldn't keep me, Cart before the Horse, Horse Power, Pony Cars, Horse of a different color, Horsing around, Horse Hair, Horse feathers, lead a horse to water but, Horse Play, death rides a Pale Horse, Pony tail, shank ponies, there are many more as found on Google. http://www.lrgaf.org/guide/equestrian_terms.htm

These drawings were created in the beloved "Art Building" in Artists Alley Oceanside. It is here that the painting 'Kublai Khan' was painted and the little bronze sculpture series  the "Cloud Dancers" came to life.      

ARTISTS - HASSAN EL SHARKAWY, NATHAN STINSON, MARTA HOTELL AND KONNI JENSEN

ART ! OCEANSIDE

 AT THE PHANTOM GALLERY OCEANSIDE

212 NORTH COAST HWY IN THE HEART OF THE ARTS DISTRICT DOWNTOWN.

Tonight is the First Friday Art Walk in Oceanside from 5 - 8 PM. Many venues will be participating and it is a very walkable and captivating evening for the Arts. The Phantom Gallery Oceanside will be open from 4 - 8 PM and hope that you can drop by to view our newest exhibition.

   

UPCOMING  JULY POETRY SESSION

AT THE PHANTOM GALLERY OCEANSIDE

WE HAD A FULL HOUSE  FOR OUR JUNE READING

SO COME EARLY AND ENJOY OUR NEWEST EXHIBITION.

AS LAST MONTH, OUR HOST WILL BE ED COONCE

THIS MONTH WE WILL HAVE AS OUR GUEST ARTIST

HASSAN EL SHARKAWY . NEW TO OCEANSIDE, HE WILL TELL US HIS STORY OF COMING TO AMERICA FROM EGYPT TO START A NEW LIFE AND EXPLORE HIS ARTISTIC TALENTS.

HE AND HIS WIFE ELENA ARE OPENING A FRENCH CREPE CAFE AT THE CORNER OF ARTISTS ALLEY AND PIER VIEW WAY DOWNTOWN OCEANSIDE.    

INSTEAD OF FENCES

     
                                               click on grey image for larger view

This is what our Fountain Area looks like today and for the past two years it has been fenced off and sits there looking like a "dead zone" which on one can enter. The Council is waiting for the Rains to come and help with filling these"iconic" fountains. This plaza could be a "Social Commons" which would be a place to read, play chess, and have a coffee. Instead, visitors look at it and say, why?

Our Citizens Communities, have been tasked to save water and put in natural climate friendly landscaping. Why can't Our City Leaders have the sensible outlook for their own City Hall Complex. Putting in fake grass sends the message that Oceanside is seeking the most cost effective way to deal with the problem of climate change. Our Citizens deserve better, much better!

February The Month of Love...

From the First Friday Art Walk celebrating Love, to the Oceanside Museum of Art with "Tango"

Come and Join us for a week long of Valentine events in the Arts District of Oceanside CA

                             First Friday Art Walk 5 - 8 PM Artists Alley and beyond! 

Good Morning to my Friends, Art Patrons, Artists, and Educators who make our Children’s environment a true Art Form in and of itself.

A week from today, a  grand event will take place in Oceanside CA. A new and the first of it’s kind, The Muramid Mural Museum will have its grand opening.
January 22, 2016, @ 7:00 PM
Muramid Mural Museum and Art Center located in Artists AlleyOceanside CA 90254 760.716.9308 or 760.231.1010

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN will be guest speaker.

Our Beautiful City is fast becoming an Arts Destination with International Relationships.

Come and Help us Celebrate the opening of the First Mural Museum in the World and it’s located here in Oceanside CA.

Sincerely,

Ruth Jameson

The Muramid Mural Museum

Artists Alley Oceanside

Dear Friends, We are proudly announcing the Grand Opening of our long-term partner and collaborator ArtMiles Mural Project latest initiative: The Muramid Mural Museum & Art Center in Oceanside, CA. Come join us for the Opening Reception on  January 22nd, 2016 from 7 PM to 9 PM The Museum is located at 212 North Coast Highway, Suite F, Artist Alley in Oceanside, California 92054