California State Old Time Fiddlers, District 8, will meet Sunday, Sept 26, 1:30 - 4:30 at Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road, Oak View. For a fun, family oriented afternoon join the fiddlers for western, country, and bluegrass music for listening or dancing. Free parking, no admission charged, refreshments served. For information call 640-3689, 517-1131 or visit www.calfiddlers.com.

 


 
This weekend only
 


 
Center for Equality and Justice sponsors free event
JosĂŠ M. Alamillo, associate professor and coordinator of the Chicano/a studies program at California State University, Channel Islands.
JosĂŠ M. Alamillo, associate professor and coordinator of the Chicano/a studies program at California State University, Channel Islands.

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - A professor will discuss the history of local braceros at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, at California Lutheran University.

José M. Alamillo, an associate professor and coordinator of the Chicano/a studies program at California State University, Channel Islands, will present “The Braceros of Ventura County” in the Roth Nelson Room as part of the CLU Center for Equality and Justice Lecture Series.

The U.S. and Mexican governments instituted the bracero program, which brought Mexican farm laborers to the U.S., in 1942 and officially ended it in 1964. Of the 5 million braceros imported to the U.S., at least 20 percent were contracted to work in Ventura County and about 20 bracero camps were located throughout the county.

Alamillo, who was born in Mexico and grew up in Ventura County, worked with his students to chronicle the lives of 70 county braceros for an exhibit currently on display at CSUCI. He has researched labor, immigration, race, gender and sports. Alamillo is the author of “Making Lemonade out of Lemons: Mexican American Labor and Leisure in a California Town, 1900-1960” and is currently working on a book about transnational sports between Southern California and Mexico.

The Roth Nelson Room is located on Mountclef Boulevard between Olsen Road and Memorial Parkway.

For more information, call Greg Freeland at (805) 493-3477.

 

Creativity and passion are evident at the Art Night in the Harbor on Thursday, September 30 from 5-8 PM featuring local artists who exhibit, sell, and create at the Ventura Harbor Village. This monthly series highlights numerous shops and exhibiting spaces providing an opportunity for the public to meet and greet the artists and take advantage of live demonstrations, music, culinary specials, and public art projects.

Artists featured for the September 30 Art Night in the Harbor event include Larry Carnes from Ojai and fellow potters with a Potter’s Wheel Demonstration at the Ventura County Potter’s Guild from 5 – 8 PM, artists Marilyn Cahill and Gloria Rupio who add their talent to an art beautification program at the Harbor Village by painting oceanic scenes on trash receptacles live at the Harbor Village Gallery, and artist Margery Spielman at The Treasure Cove. Spielman, a professional diver and naturalist, infuses her love for the environment into her drawings and paintings, many of which depict the Channel Islands and Pierpont Beach. Her work is in the art collections of Jacques Cousteau, Jean- Michel Cousteau and Mikhail Gorbachev.

The sounds of Flamenco, jazz, and classical guitar will spill over the Harbor Village with a performance by ASHUN at the Carousel Stage from 5 – 8 PM. An interactive Chalk Graffiti Wall for guests and an Interactive Art Project using materials from Art from Scrap gives attendees the chance to embrace their own creativity. Plus be one of the first to relax and unwind at the newly installed Wind Sculpture™ garden in the Harbor Village with three pieces powered by the breeze designed by sculptor Lyman Whitaker.

At Art Night in the Harbor guests are invited to stroll through the galleries to view the current open competition, “Go Figure: A Celebration of the Human Form” at Harbor Village Gallery along with Luanne Perez’s solo show “Watercolors” and Nancy Raymond’s coastal paintings and cards.

Ventura County Potters’ Guild Gallery showcases 14 diverse and talented potters and ceramists in a stunning setting with refreshments throughout the evening.

Savor the culinary delights of the Harbor overlooking the boats at Brophy Brothers bar for weekday Happy Hour which features over a dozen appetizers for under $5.75 as well as drink specials from 4- 7 PM. Andres Wine & Tapas Bar entices Art Night in the Harbor guests with a special $5 tasting for three wines complimented with $1 tapas, coupled with a live musician from 5- 8 PM on September 30.

Anticipating the start of the fall season and inspired by fall flavors, the Harbor Village Carousel & Arcade will brew up a special Fall Spice Fudge for the Art Night in the Harbor guests to taste and purchase, and treats adults to a discounted $1 ride on the 36 hand-painted Carousel horses and animals during the event.

Local photographer, Kevin Cory, of the newly opened Cory Tile Art, specializes in readymade photographic tiles as well as the opportunity to create a unique and custom backsplash or art piece by bringing in digital images to the studio.

Catch former professional surfer and talented jazz artist, Davey Miller at the Davey Miller Gallery creating or talking about his large scale hyper-realism and abstract paintings, as well as the works of a handful of local artists.

Come meet the artists, view art, and taste the culinary delights at Art Night in the Harbor on Thursday, September 30. Admission to the event and parking are free. For more information, call the Buenaventura Art Association at (805) 644-2750 or (805) 648-1235 or visit www.buenaventuragallery.org

 
 
Mark Plotkin to discuss Shamanic healing

Thousand Oaks, CA - A man hailed by Time magazine as an environmental “Hero for the Planet” will discuss the untapped potential for Shamanic healing in U.S. healthcare at California Lutheran University.

Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., will present “Shamanic Medicine, the Mind-Body Connection, and the Future of Healthcare: An Amazonian Perspective” at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 11, in Samuelson Chapel. CLU’s Artists and Speakers Committee is presenting the free lecture.

Plotkin asserts that Shamanic medicine offers new insights into everything from diagnoses to cures in ways we are just beginning to appreciate. But mainstays of Shamanic healing such as herbal solutions and spiritual healing are missing from the current healthcare debate.

The renowned ethnobotanist has firsthand knowledge of the healing potential harbored by the Amazon rain forests – through their cultures and the plants and animals their inhabitants know and use.

For much of the past 20 years, Plotkin has worked with and learned from the ancient shamans in the rain forests of Central and South America, where he has acquired knowledge of healing plants and shaman traditions.

A spellbinding orator and CONTINUED »

 

Camarillo, CA - The Latin Recording Academy announced its nominations for this year's Latin Grammy awards. Included among the nominees was composer Miguel del Aguila’s CD: Salon Buenos Aires (Bridge Records), recorded by Camerata San Antonio in 2009.

Aguila has lived in Ventura County since 1992 and teaches courses on music history and composition at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of California State University Channel Islands. He has written over a hundred published works and has been recognized with a long list of awards including the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. His music is regularly performed and recorded worldwide, (Salon Buenos Aires is his 21st.CD). He is a graduate of San Francisco and Vienna conservatories.

“I am deeply honored to receive not one, but two, Latin Grammy nominations," said Miguel del Aguila. “I am also extremely proud to represent Ventura County and CSU Channel Islands in this way. “Clocks”, which was nominated for Best Contemporary Work, was commissioned by Burns Taft for the Ventura Music Festival and premiered here".

Recorded 2008 in San Antonio, Texas, Salon Buenos Aires was released late 2009 by Bridge Records. Within months it was being broadcast regularly by classical radio stations worldwide and received enthusiastically by audiences and reviewers:

“This is vibrant, CONTINUED »

 
“A Sense of Place” art by Luanne Hebner Perez.
“A Sense of Place” art by Luanne Hebner Perez.
Enlarge Photo

Local Fillmore artist Luanne Hebner Perez will be participating in the Buenaventura Art Association’s 2nd Annual Watercolor and Aqua Media Competition, exhibiting at the Buenaventura Gallery from Tuesday, September 14 to Saturday, November 6, 2009. Artist Reception is Saturday, September 25 from 4 – 7pm. Awards will be announced at reception.

The water media themed competition is open to professional and amateur artists from Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Cash awards totaling $850 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Best In Show will be awarded at the Reception. One award in each category will be given as well as two non-cash prizes for Honorable Mentions. .
The Buenaventura Gallery is located at 700 E. Santa Clara St, Ventura, CA 93001. Hours are Tues thru Friday from 12 – 5 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm. For questions or an appointment during other hours, please call (805) 648-1235 or visit www.buenaventuragallery.org.

 
Wana Klasen
Wana Klasen

Fillmore resident, Wana Klasen will be the guest speaker at Saint Philip the Apostle Catholic Church in Bakersfield at 6:00 PM on Thursday, September 16, 2010. Klasen's presentation is entitled "We All Have a Story", and will explore the connectedness we share through the stories we live. She will focus on music and art as healers as we journey through each page of "our story" and invite growth through the twists and turns that inevitably come along. Wana is a retired Registered Nurse, artist, and vocalist/musician with a strong interest in the healing powers of the arts. She will be sharing her original art work and original musical compositions as part of her presentation.

 

Ojai, CA - Live music, Casa Barranca organic wine, and organic vegetarian hors d’oeuvres will enhance the Ojai Valley Green Coalition’s annual fundraiser reception on Friday, October 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church hall at 409 Topa Topa Drive in Ojai, the reception will kick off the popular Green Home & Building Tour, to take place the following day. Highlighting the reception will be a short program featuring Ventura City Manager Rick Cole, called "one of Southern California's most visionary planning thinkers" by the Los Angeles Times. Joining Cole will be County Supervisor Steve Bennett, co-founder of Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR), who will present the owners of the tour sites with plaques in appreciation of their leadership by example.

On Saturday, October 2, from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., the members of the Green Coalition, whose mission is to advance the Ojai Valley as a green, sustainable, and resilient community, hope to educate residents from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara on green building practices as they view five green-built homes and commercial sites. The self-guided tour, with clearly identified eco-friendly features, will have designers and contractors on hand to answer questions.

New this year and running concurrently with the tour will be a Green Home Show at the former Ford dealership building on Ojai Avenue. This show will provide visitors with a display of sustainable-living merchandise and information, and will be free to the general public.

The tour and show are sponsored in part by the Ventura County Contractors Association, the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, the Ojai Valley News, REC Solar, Shaklee Distributor Brad Hudson, Studio Landscape, Ojai Printing, and Modular Lifestyles. Tour tickets may be purchased online at www.OjaiValleyGreenTour.com for $10; the evening reception will be $25 ($20 for those with paid Green Coalition memberships). For further information, call (805) 669-8445 or visit www.OjaiValleyGreenCoalition.org.

 
Join the Community Environmental Council as we Celebrate 40 Years of Green in Santa Barbara

We invite you to the eco-chic party of the season for CEC’s 40th Anniversary Green Gala! The outdoor Plaza del Sol at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort will be transformed into an enchanted Celtic forest, replete with wood nymphs, fairies and satyrs.

Make your way down the moss-filled path to the clearing in the woods, where you will find great music, a dinner inspired by local farmers, organic wines, a fabulous live auction and much more.

For forty years, the Community Environmental Council has actively taken to heart the motto, “think globally, act locally.” We are dedicated to moving our region away from fossil fuels in one generation. Such an ambitious mission requires friends with a passion for the environment and a desire to celebrate with abandon. Proceeds will go to the Community Environmental Council.

Date: Friday, October 8, 2010
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort in the Plaza del Sol, 633 East Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara
Cost: Tickets are $250 per person

To RSVP, please contact Kathi King (805) 963-0583 x 108 or kking@cecmail.org
For more information, visit www.cecsb.org.

 
Best of Show 2009 “Loquat Filament Quadrangle” watercolor by Louisa Wallace Jacobs.
Best of Show 2009 “Loquat Filament Quadrangle” watercolor by Louisa Wallace Jacobs.
Enlarge Photo

Buenaventura Art Association’s 2nd Annual Watercolor and Aqua Media Competition will be exhibiting at the Buenaventura Gallery from Tuesday, September 14 to Saturday, November 6, 2009. Artist Reception is Saturday, September 25 from 4 – 7pm. Awards will be announced at reception.

Award-winning artist and Lifetime member of the former California Gold Coast Watercolor Society (CGCWS) Don Fay is juror. A graduate of the California College of the Arts, Fay studied with Robert E. Wood, Sergei Bongart and Milford Zornes. Fay was a Visual Information Officer in the Defense Department and served collateral duty on the Federal Board of Examiners for the Office of Personnel Management judging art and design applicants’ portfolios for government positions. As a fine artist, he works and exhibits in many media with a particular concentration on transparent watercolor. Fay taught college level students and week-long workshops in the Sequoias and Yosemite.

The water media themed competition is open to professional and amateur artists from Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Cash awards totaling $850 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Best In Show will be awarded at the Reception. One award in each category will be given as well as two non-cash prizes for Honorable Mentions.
This show celebrates the merger CGCWS with the Buenaventura Art Association (BAA) in 2009 and will continue to be an annual open competition for local watercolor and aqua media artists to exhibit in.

The Buenaventura Gallery is located at 700 E. Santa Clara St, Ventura, CA 93001. Hours are Tues thru Friday from 12 – 5 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm. For questions or an appointment during other hours, please call (805) 648-1235 or visit www.buenaventuragallery.org.

 
One-man show makes plays instantly accessible
Tim Mooney
Tim Mooney

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - A one-man show that makes the works of 17th-century French playwright Molière instantly accessible through rhyming verse, audience participation and amazing energy will be presented at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 4, at California Lutheran University.

The free performance of Tim Mooney’s “Molière than Thou” will be held in the Preus-Brandt Forum on the Thousand Oaks campus.

In his seven years of touring with “Molière than Thou,” Mooney has introduced more than 50,000 people to the playwright.

His one-man show is an anthology of Mooney’s own translated scenes from Molière's classic, but still hilarious, witty and relevant comedies. In typical 17th-century curled wigs and costume, Mooney changes both character and personality by adding a tie or shedding a jacket. He gives the setting and theme of each selected play before assuming its principal role.

“Molière than Thou” imagines the Molière of 1671, scratching out a living as only he might, performing the funniest roles in his plays rewritten in rhymed iambic pentameter by Mooney. Molière explored farce with “The Precious Young Maidens” and “The Imaginary Cuckold,” challenged his audiences with the textured modern characterizations of “The School for Wives,” and created an uproar with the searing social commentary of “Tartuffe,” “Don Juan” and “The Misanthrope.” He finished out his career taking aim at doctors in “The Doctor in Spite of Himself,” lawyers in “The Schemings of Scapin” and middle class poseurs in “The Bourgeois Gentleman.” He died one of the most ironic deaths of all time, collapsing amid the finale of “The Imaginary Invalid” and then dying in bed without a priest or doctor willing to attend to him just as he had depicted it on the stage hours before.

Mooney is the author of 16 celebrated new versions of the plays of Molière and also composed a self-help book on acting, “Acting at the Speed of Life.”

Preus-Brandt Forum is located south of Olsen Road between Campus Drive and Mountclef Boulevard.

CLU’s Artists and Speakers Committee is sponsoring the event. For information, contact Karen Renick at renick@callutheran.edu.

 
Several local musical groups will perform

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. – A Chinese Moon Festival Celebration Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, in Samuelson Chapel at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

Musicians will present a free evening of traditional Chinese and Western music. Featured local groups are the Pacific Pearl Symphony Orchestra, Yang Sheng Choir, Dancing String Chamber and Thousand Oaks Chinese Folk Ensemble. Special guest vocalist Li Zhang, who recently moved from Beijing, will also perform.

The Chinese Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is an important holiday in the Chinese culture that has been celebrated for thousands of years. Chinese people believe that on that day the moon is the roundest and brightest, signaling a time of completeness and abundance. It is a celebration of the harvest season and a day of family reunions, much like Thanksgiving in the United States. Traditionally, family and friends get together to admire the moon and eat moon cakes. The legend associated with the festival recounts the story of a beautiful woman named Chang E who flew to the moon and has lived there ever since.

The doors will open at 7 p.m. Samuelson Chapel is located south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive.

CLU's Department of Languages and Cultures and Office of Multicultural Programs and International Student Services, as well as the Pacific Pearl Music Association, are presenting the concert. For more information, contact Tim Proffitt at ppmamusic@gmail.com or (805) 231-5409.

 
Women worked to bring down a dictator

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. – California Lutheran University will present an award-winning documentary on the Liberian women who worked to bring down a dictator at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29, in Lundring Events Center.

The free showing of “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” is part of the Reel Justice Film Series sponsored by CLU’s Center for Equality and Justice.

The film tells the true story of the unsung heroines of Liberia who worked to end a long, brutal war armed with only white T-shirts and courage. Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Gini Reticker directed the documentary. The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival where it won Best Documentary Feature, and has gone on to win a number of other awards.

The Liberian women from the Mass Action Campaign for Peace received both a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award and Gruber Women’s Rights Prize.

Lundring Events Center is located in Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, which is north of Olsen Road near Campus Drive.

For more information, call Greg Freeland at (805) 493-3477.

 

California State Old Time Fiddlers, District 8, meet Sunday, September 12, 1:30 - 4:30 at Oak View Community Center, 18 Valley Road, Oak View.

Join fiddlers for an afternoon of Country, Western, & Bluegrass music for listening or dancing. Free admission & parking. Refreshments available.

Info: 640-3689, 517-1131 or visit web site www.calfiddlers.com

 
Best of Show 2009 “Loquat Filament Quadrangle” watercolor by Louisa Wallace Jacobs
Best of Show 2009 “Loquat Filament Quadrangle” watercolor by Louisa Wallace Jacobs
Enlarge Photo

Buenaventura Art Association’s 2nd Annual Watercolor and Aqua Media Competition will be exhibiting at the Buenaventura Gallery from Tuesday, September 14 to Saturday, November 6, 2009. Artist Reception is Saturday, September 25 from 4 – 7pm. Awards will be announced at reception.

Award-winning artist and Lifetime member of the former California Gold Coast Watercolor Society (CGCWS) Don Fay is juror. A graduate of the California College of the Arts, Fay studied with Robert E. Wood, Sergei Bongart and Milford Zornes. Fay was a Visual Information Officer in the Defense Department and served collateral duty on the Federal Board of Examiners for the Office of Personnel Management judging art and design applicants’ portfolios for government positions. As a fine artist, he works and exhibits in many media with a particular concentration on transparent watercolor. Fay taught college level students and week-long workshops in the Sequoias and Yosemite.

The water media themed competition is open to professional and amateur artists from Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties. Cash awards totaling $850 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Best In Show will be awarded at the Reception. One award in each category will be given as well as two non-cash prizes for Honorable Mentions.
This show celebrates the merger CGCWS with the Buenaventura Art Association (BAA) in 2009 and will continue to be an annual open competition for local watercolor and aqua media artists to exhibit in.

The Buenaventura Gallery is located at 700 E. Santa Clara St, Ventura, CA 93001. Hours are Tues thru Friday from 12 – 5 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm. For questions or an appointment during other hours, please call (805) 648-1235 or visit www.buenaventuragallery.org.

 
Free event features martial arts, dance

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. – Students from the Hmong Cultural Heritage Center and Museum in Fresno will give a free public performance at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 26, at California Lutheran University as part of the Freshman Year Experience program.

The “Hmong Cultural Performance of Martial Arts and Dance” will be held in Gilbert Arena, which is located in the Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center north of Olsen Road near Campus Drive in Thousand Oaks.

All of CLU’s freshmen read Kao Kalia Yang’s book “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir” before arriving on campus. The new students began discussing the book during orientation and are continuing to address it in Freshman Seminar classes. Yang is speaking to students and the community on Sept. 16 and 17.

Donations will be accepted.

CLU’s Freshman Year Experience and the Office of Student Life are sponsoring the event. For more information, contact Michaela Reaves at (805) 493-3381 or Kristin Price at (805) 493-3521.

 
“Picture This! Pictorial Quilts (and more) of Ventura County” At the City of Santa Paula’s California Oil Museum

“Picture This! Pictorial Quilts (and more) of Ventura County” is the theme for the 12th Annual Heritage Valley Festival of Quilts to be held September 26 through January 9, 2011, at the California Oil Museum, 1001 E. Main Street, in historic downtown Santa Paula. The exhibit showcases the variety of techniques used by textile artists in portraying their surroundings. The public is invited to attend the opening reception on Sunday, September 26, from 1-3 PM. Light refreshments featuring local ingredients will be served. A short gallery talk by guest curator, Linda Wilkinson will be at 1:30. The California Oil Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Admission: Adults $4, Seniors $3, Students (6-17) $1, Members/5 & under Free.

Quilts on display include the Santa Paula History Quilt, made in 1980 by the Santa Paula chapter of P.E.O. This quilt with 30 blocks representing historic buildings and activities is a repository of Santa Paula’s heritage. The women of this group worked from designs by Ventura County graphic artist, Leavitt Dudley, to create this quilt. It is normally on display at the Blanchard Community Library, 119 N. 8th Street in Santa Paula. The library staff has taken great pleasure in sharing this quilt’s history with school children for three decades. As part of the library’s centennial celebration this year, the quilt has been cleaned, documented and rehung by guest curator, Linda Wilkinson. It will return to the library following the close of the exhibit. Students from Mr. Arguelles’ AP History class at Santa Paula High School have also studied the quilt this year as part of their exhibit at the museum in the spring, 2010.

Other quilts on display depict the agricultural bounty of the area by Marilyn Smith and Shirley Kelley, the variety of life from seashore to tidepool to the ocean depths in “Down by the Beach” by Debbie Bayer and Shirley Kelley has designed a view of Anacapa Island with fireworks representing the Ventura County Fair. The little chapel that was on Darling Road in Saticoy has been painted on fabric by Martha Whelchel and framed with a pieced border. Sue Harding has created a fabric collage of the Faulkner Barn. Pat Masterson created a wall hanging as a travel poster representing the city of San Buenaventura, “California’s Hidden Treasure”. Susie Swan interpreted the four seasons of a citrus tree in “Oh My Ojai”. She also will display “Becky’s Hands”, inspired by a photo of her daughter in the Ojai Valley News. Textile artist, Barbara Wunder Hynes, created “Cradle of the Moon” using the Ojai Valley as part of her inspiration for a CD album cover design. A scenic view while driving into Moorpark from the Conejo Valley was the inspiration for Dana Zurzolo’s quilt. Most of the fabrics in this quilt are recycled drapes, dresses, scraps & thrift shop finds and features hand appliqué and embroidery as well as stencil details.

Also on display will be quilted panels of the Santa Paula Depot and the Clock Tower finished by Linda and Sarah Wilkinson for the 2002 Heritage Valley Quilters challenge using citrus fabric for the theme and the wall hanging “Quilt Show Ladies” made in 1995 by the Morning Glories Quilt Group, a mini group from Camarillo Quilters Association.

Non-quilted textiles in the exhibit include a hooked rug, “Oxnard, A Very Long Time Ago” by Sharon Clarke and an machine embroidered shirt made for Pauline Hair, using the same designs worked in two of the blocks in the Santa Paula History Quilt.

WHO: 12th Annual Heritage Valley Festival of Quilts
WHAT: “Picture This! Pictorial Quilts (and more) of Ventura County”
WHEN: September 26 through January 9, 2011
Opening reception Sunday, September 26, from 1-3 PM
WHERE: The City of Santa Paula’s California Oil Museum
1001 E. Main Street, in historic downtown Santa Paula
Open Wednesday-Sunday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Admission: Adults $4, Seniors $3, Students (6-17) $1, Members/5 & under Free.

 

Camarillo, CA. – The Art Program at California State University Channel Islands (CI) announces “David Kiddie: Ceramic Sculpture” currently on exhibit through September 24 in the Art Gallery in Napa Hall, CSU Channel Islands (CI) campus. A public reception for the artist will be held Thursday, September 23 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The ordinary yet intangible becomes physical and extraordinary in recent ceramic sculpture by David Kiddie. The work is an outcome of his interest in interpreting the ordered structure of biological cellular elements seen only in the microscopic realm. Through a microscope, simple formed organisms such as bacteria and viruses can be seen in the act of mitosis and clustering as they build larger patterned masses.

On a macro scale, Kiddie clusters multiples of basic forms that inform his exploration of structural possibilities. The resultant clustered structures imply conceptual underpinnings related to chaos theory, offense, defense and infiltration. As photographs of cell clusters are color enhanced for clarity, Kiddie embellishes his work with many colored layers and drippings of viscous glass bolstering the notion that these things are foreigners in the world of human dimension.

David Kiddie’s work is included in national and international collections and exhibited in numerous galleries and museums including the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Cal Poly Pomona University and Western Project in Culver City. He holds an MFA from Claremont Graduate University and currently resides in Orange, California. He is an Assistant Professor of Art at Chapman University.

CSU Channel Islands is located at One University Drive, Camarillo and the exhibit is open Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. For additional information, contact the CI Art Program at 805-437-8570, Email: art@csuci.edu or visit the web site: http://art.csuci.edu/gallery.

Limited parking is available on campus. A daily permit is $6. Free parking is available at the Camarillo Metrolink Station/Lewis Road parking lot in Camarillo with bus service to and from the campus. Riders should board the VISTA Bus to the campus; the fare is $1 each way. Buses arrive and depart from the Camarillo Metrolink Station every 30 minutes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. For exact times, check the schedule at http://www.goventura.org.

CSU Channel Islands is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

CI Mission Statement
Placing students at the center of the educational experience, California State University Channel Islands provides undergraduate and graduate education that facilitates learning within and across disciplines through integrative approaches, emphasizes experiential and service learning, and graduates students with multicultural and international perspectives.