shift

SHUFFLE: INTERPRETING MUSIC INTO VISUAL ART, A COLLABORATIVE PLAYLIST

Presenting a one of a kind show entitled: SHUFFLE. Exemplifying how music and art go hand in hand, this body of work is a unique collection of creations by both local and international artists. SHUFFLE highlights how universal art and music are with its recreation of a new catalogue of album covers and music inspired pieces.

It was a regular lazy Sunday, just like any other, when my editor called and told me I was to interview Gary Baseman. I, of course, engulfed in the daze that often accompanies lazy Sundays of that sort, replied with a “cool”, or “awesome”, or some other mediocre word that has come to signify a person’s interest in something. It wasn’t until I had hung up the phone and about ten minutes had passed that I finally realized what he had said— and sincerely began to question my hearing. Wait. Did he say? Are you sure? He did! Gary Baseman!

Have you ever come across something that immediately broke your heart? And then just stared at it, trying to take all its elements in, trying to understand each part of it and why it kills you?

That’s exactly what White’s paintings do to me. They made me come to a complete stop, and stare. Perhaps it’s because I can so closely relate to something that has to do with family being slightly less than ideal.

Do you take experiences from your life or other’s lives and incorporate them into your art? They aren’t necessarily experiences from my life, but the ideas all come from my head, and from inside my stomach. Some are based on actual experiences, but as a whole, they are thoughts shaped by my hopeless romantic and insecure mindset. So I’m incorporating my thoughts and feelings into my art, not necessarily telling the story of my life.

DeviantART.com creates an alternative online community for artists and enthusiasts alike, and establishes the new norm for the D.I.Y. industry.

Somewhere beyond Myspace and Xanga, there lies a digital refuge for the creatively inclined. A forum for the cerebral, and a haven for the artistic. DeviantART.com goes beyond the standard artist commune, and creates a globally accessible art empire for the everyman and everywoman.

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness...” begins the famous poem by Allen Ginsberg that would not only secure his place as an icon of the Beat generation but come to represent the period itself.

Rothko, Pollack, Warhol, who’s next to be added to the list of notable American Contemporary Artists? Phong, Turner, Klein?

The Laguna Art Museum’s, biennial survey, the OsCene 2006: Contemporary Art and Culture in OC, is a showcase of the overlooked and misunderstood artists from thirteen of the thirty-three cities in Orange County.

The first OsCene was organized in 2004. It had been over twenty years since an exhibition had spotlighted the contemporary art scene of Orange County. When guest curator Jacqueline Bunge came to the Laguna Art Museum as an assistant curator, she took on the responsibility of restoring faith in the legitimacy of the “OC” as a hotspot for cutting edge art and culture.

“You want a beer?” It would have been rude to not oblige.

Hermosa Beach. The bastard child of sunny southern California beach towns; an architectural paradox of urban landscape littered with a pinch of sand and muddy water. Accompanying the shorelines along 190 street is a house of comparable negligibility. From the outside, this house resembles any other one would expect of the lower echelon of real estate: miniature front garden- courtyard, near impossible parking accommodations, warped wooden accoutrement. To my surprise, the inside of the house conveyed a completely different living space than I was first led to believe.

Ken Ruzic is quite serious about his art. Born in 1964 in Illinois, he grew up the typical normal Lutheran midwestern bookworm juvenile delinquent. When he wasn't creating mischief, he would draw or read. It wasn't until a 4-year stint in the US Marine Corps (1982-1986) that Ken's eyes opened to how our leaders could hoodwink their citizens into supporting corporate agendas.

Disenchanted and seething with inspiration, discipline,and agitation; Ken settled in California, attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and starting a 15-year stint designing graphics and tees for the surf industry. It was here that Ken's appreciation of Pacific/South Sea art was kindled.

Rarely in today’s celebrity-obsessed, reality-driven mass culture are any record labels pushing the boundaries and producing new music. The majority of big labels busy themselves playing it safe, recycling sure things and randomly plucking fresh faces from an over-saturated sea of mediocre talent. Very seldom is music the point at all.