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Rocky Romano on Artists on Art July 27, 2010

On July 27th, Rocky Romano was the live guest artist on Artists on Art, KZSC’s weekly interview radio show to talk about his art as a filmmaker and activist.

Rocky has done a lot of different things in his life from  Manhattan and Tahoe Restaurateur to action sports athlete to filmmaker  to creating a production company that makes action sports movies and award winning short documentaries and online community with Keep Tahoe Real.

We had a great conversation on how Rocky got started as a filmmaker after receiving his education in business management at UC Berkeley, doing the corporate project management work in Oakland, moving to to Tahoe and becoming an action sports athlete, a world cup level snowboard coach, and a world-class raft guide.

We talked about his first ski and snowboard video Gapers Gone Wild in 2003.  You can see this cult classic by clicking on the link.

In 2006, he founded  The Go Big Project production company that specializes in action sports films, videos, events, photography, music, athletes and brand development. He then helped create the grass roots online community  KeepTahoeReal.com where you can find a lot of information about Rocky and his crew and  that features the best of action sports, film, art, music, photography and culture from around the world.  The tagline at Keep Tahoe Real is to Respect Earth and Life.  Their mission is to support and promote the growth of the action sports industry and community.

We talked about his production company’s movie, “Ride A Wave”, that won the audience award for best short at this year’s Santa Cruz Film Festival.  The picture on the right is a still from the beginning of the movie.   Ride a Wave is a local organization that provides a day surfing and boogie boarding for kids with special needs. The movie shows kids that can’t even walk catching waves at Cowells. It really pulls at your heart strings.

During the show, we played the music that is featured in  the “Ride A Wave” movie that was created by the Lead Editor/Production Manager of the Go Big Project, Rob Armenti.  You can find Rob’s music at his page on myspace.

Lastly, we talked about the newest movie, “Stealing Cars” to be released this fall by the Go Big Project.  Below is the trailer for  Stealing Cars and the movie short Ride a Wave.

“Stealing Cars” Official Teaser from The Go Big Project on Vimeo.

Ride a Wave from The Go Big Project on Vimeo.

If you would like to hear a recording of our live broadcast, click on the play button below.

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By admin – July 28, 2010

Noga Vilozny

On July 6, 2010, multi-talented, local artist and longtime resident (from the age of 10) Santa Cruzian, Noga Vilozny, aka Noga Love Bites, spoke with Artists on Art host, Nada Miljkovic.

The two talked about Noga’s life’s work and art practice that involves singing, dancing, acting, life-coaching, and teaching.  All of these forms of artistic expression which can be related to in terms of elevating vibrations.

Noga is also well known about town as Noga Love Bites.  She has been sending emails to people signed up through her website NogaLovesMe.  People are very happy to receive these surprises that can be affirmations, pictures, movies, all kinds of media with content that help make the day a little better.

Noga began acting with her friend and filmmaker Bella Shing (creator of  Sweeter Media) a Los Angeles transplant who now calls Santa Cruz home. Shing and Vilozny became friends after Vilozny attended a “Manifesting Your Beloved” seminar. The two began collaborating artistically last August when they created two commercials that have been submitted to Cannes.  They can be viewed at Noga’s website in the tab Photos.

The two also worked on a movie called Noga & the Love Seminar. Vilozny wrote the screenplay with director Bella Shing,  Santa Cruz resident Penny Dufour plays the supporting role.

The story is about a young woman, Noga, who had some traumatic love experiences. Her friend, Melissa, drags Noga to a seminar about love. The film follows Noga’s experiences in the seminar as she discovers whether it will help erase her marred past and bring her the love she desires.

Image by Kyer Wiltshire

Vilozny’s singing experience is put to use in the film, as she lends her vocals to several songs throughout the story. Local salsa band Flor De Caña performed all of the music for the short.

Here’s the trailer for Noga & the Love Seminar:

Nada and Noga talked about Noga’s singing and dancing particularly Flamenco. Noga sang several songs during the course of the show.  They also spoke of how Noga began helping people organize their homes.

Photo by Reija Bolwell

Please click on the link below to hear the entire broadcast.

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By admin – July 7, 2010

Allan Lundell Guest on Artists on Art for June 29, 2010 shown

Al at Burning Man

On June 29, 2010, I had the great pleasure to speak with longtime Santa Cruzian artist, videographer, journalist, futurist, techno-wizard,  Allan Lundell.

Allan has done so many things in his long and illustrious career making media that it was challenging  to know where to start the conversation.

We first spoke of Allan’s beginnings as a videographer while a student at Antioch University in Baltimore in 1972 at the very beginning of this new media form, video, using the Sony PortaPac.  His job through the school was to record video of government experiments on the biggest drug users in the world doing drugs.  He explained his recording people sitting in a circle each holding a joint and being told to smoke it all together to it’s cherry stub.

After graduating from college, Allan began working in Silicon Valley in the latter 1970s working as a journalist specializing in new technology working for magazines such as  BYTE, and  Mondo 2000. He is the author of the 1989 book Virus! The Secret World of Computer Invaders That Breed and Destroy.

For years, he has been living in the San Lorenzo Valley. He co-founded Future Peak home of Virtual World Studio.  This may be one of the only off-the grid-media company’s in the world. He is co-founder of the DigiBarn Computer Museum in Boulder Creek with fellow forward thinker Bruce Damer created in 2001. In 2009, he co-founded Awake Media.

He’s made tons of videos that can be found on Youtube and Vimeo,  One of the most fascinating aspects to Allan’s work is he has been recording anything that is interesting in his life since 1987 when Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape as a new digital format.  He’s been recording in Hi Definition since 2005 and tapeless since 2008.

He has over 20 years of parties, events, get-togethers with really incredible talented artistic people.  If you’ve partied with Allan over the last two decades, there’s a pretty good chance you’re in his archive.   Having always been an incredible social networker in the physical, Allan has embraced social media both as a practitioner as well as educator. 

Al began his interest in radio in high school when he began making them and broadcasting in the 60s. Most recently, he is the host of the Dr. Future show (entertaining all positive possibilities for the future) which airs Tuesdays at 2 pm on local family-owned AM radio station, KSCO 1080 AM radio.

To hear the entire broadcast, please click on the triangle below.

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By admin – June 30, 2010

Andrew Broadbent

Local artist painter and activist, Andrew Broadbent was the guest on Artists on Art for June 22, 2010.

Two years ago, Andrew moved to Santa Cruz via Hayward and originally from Connecticut.  He has been an artist his entire life.  You can find some of his paintings at following link: Fine Art America.

When he began painting, the themes were apolitical, until recently.  A few years back, he was inspired by his work in real estate and watching the big banks going bankrupt.  Also, the CEO of Lehman is from his home town Greenwich, Connecticut.  This hit home personally.

Unbridled Enthusiasm

This research led him to paint, Unbridled Enthusiasm, an acrylic on canvas depiction of the all the aspects that played a role in the Housing Market’s Collapse.  The painting encapsulates his idea of corporate greed.

Profits of War

After which, his research led him to questioning the role of politics and the oil industry in the new painting titled “Profits of War“.  This painting has been transferred to t-shirts and available  in Santa Cruz at Graffix Pleasure and Streetlight Records.

Andrew spoke of using social networks and platforms to activate people to not only think about our nation’s dependence on oil and also make changes in their behavior.  The Pickens Plan intends to break the US addiction to foreign oil.  As an example, Andrew put his Pickens Plan Painting on YouTube to reach a greater audience.  Andrew is using his own Facebook page in connection to the Pickens Plan Facebook page.

If you missed the live broadcast, you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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By admin – June 23, 2010

Stephen Hosmer Guest on Artist on Art for 6/15/10

Santa Cruz local artist, Steve Hosmer, was the guest for the the June 15th live broadcast of UCSC’s KZSC’s Artists on Art show to talk about the art of signs and posters design.

Are signs propaganda?

It was great talking to him because as a member of NextSpace I am surrounded by his bold artwork every working day.

The following pictures of his work were taken at NextSpace.

During the show, we spoke of how Steve got into this art form. His career in art and sign making began when he was working as a waiter at the Chart House in Los Gatos and the owner asked that he make a parking sign.  He did and the owner loved it.  

Hence began  a new career in Pleasure Point where he was already making stained glass windows.

In 1984 his neighbor, Harry Stokes, retired and Steve took over the business, Stokes Signs at the Sash Mill where business still resides.  Through hard work and a lot of lessons learned, since then, Steve has built a successful and prolific business.  His signs are all over Santa Cruz.

Five years ago, Steve began making poster art as a way to continue revenue on his work.  Signs generally are a one time fee and payment.

To date, he has created over 40 local paintings, including Elkhorn Slough, the Boardwalk’s ferris wheel, the Santa Cruz wharf and Bonny Doon, to name just a few. He credits two German artists as his inspiration — Ludwig Hohlwein and Lucien Bernhard.

For more information about about Steve Hosmer’s work and Stokes Signs, please go to  stokessigns.com.

If  you want to see his studio and witness  the process, you’re in luck.  Steve partakes in Open Studios.  This year the event will take place the first three weekends in October.  This year is particularly special because it is the will be the 25th  year of Open Studios put on by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County.

If you missed the live broadcast, you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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The following is a twitvid we took before the show:

More art by guest, Steve Hosmer.

Hike California is a series  of posters being designed for
The State of California Santa Cruz.

Photo Credits:  Seabright lighthouse , Both  and Westside rainbow from Seabright Beach

My daughter, Justine, is the model on the bike for this years and last years  logo for the Tour of California.

Play

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By admin – June 16, 2010

Yvette Contois 6/8/10 Guest on Artists on Art

Local artist, of both the fine and commercial worlds and educator, Yvette Contois was the guest for the June 8th live broadcast of UCSC’s KZSC‘s Artists on Art.

She works as an art teacher, graphic designer, technical illustrator, and painter.

Yvette has been giving art lessons to adults & children since 1990. For the last year, she has been teaching at the studio space, the Art Factory, in Aptos.  Currently,   there are many summer classes for kids happening from ceramics to art/science and

Her artwork has been featured in juried exhibits since the 1980s, and her commercial art has won national & local recognition.  She received her Bachelors in Fine Art and K-12 Art Teaching Certification from Rosemont College, PA, & an Associate Degree in Visual Communications & Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Philadelphia.

Her guiding passion is bringing art into the lives of her students and that all ages can develop the ability to draw and paint what they see while enriching their visual perception of the world.

Yvette recognizes the value in children creating art as “historical documents”; representing their thoughts, processes, developmental stages and creativity. Process and positive, supportive art experiences always come before product.

If you missed the live broadcast, you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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By admin – June 9, 2010

Iris Irina Silva Guest on Artists on Art May 18, 2010

Artist, painter, sculptor, educator, shaman, and performer, Iris Irina Silva, of Elemental Art Studio, was the guest for Artists on Art for the May 18th show.She combines art with intentional based prayer and vibrational awareness.

We spoke of her art installation at the Windmill Cafe that began May 2 and runs through June 9th.  May 21, 2010 at 6:00pm was the opening reception.

The Windmill Cafe is at 2-1231 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz, CA.

We spoke of her background both as artist and shaman as well as the spiritual aspect to her art practice beginning with childhood in Rome, Italy, Ethiopia and travels across the African continent. Prior to the opening reception, she created an art performance ritual that was to be filmed and included at the art show.

The purpose of the ritual was to intentionally “charge” each art piece with a high based vibrational healing energy. This will be done through chanting, movement, mediation and prayer in a spiral based mapping. Iris is reintroducing pagan and tribal art making into contemporary mainstream art.

For more information about Iris’ artwork and education, please go to her website: irisexpression.com.

If you missed the live broadcast,  you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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Here’s a twitvid of us in the studio.

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By admin – May 26, 2010

Phil Crawford on Artists on Art May 11, 2010

The Artists on Art guest for May 11, 2010, was mediator, advocate, educator, steward of the community, and long time Santa Cruz resident, Phil Crawford.

Phil raised both his children here on the Westside.

Phil began his art of advocacy and debate as a child.  His family encouraged his argumentation and speaking out against injustices in the world.  He began his art of  mediation in the early 70s through training he received as a police officer in San Jose.  He learned and then later taught others on how to help people in conflict through effective communication and interest based dialogue to lead to “win-win” end results.

Phil founded the Children’s Art Pro­gram  of Con­tra Costa Chil­dren and the Courts Arts Project — A col­lab­o­ra­tive Project spon­sored by Lesher Foun­da­tion — to place ther­a­peu­tic art from chil­dren of divorce and child abuse vic­tims in the court­room as a human­iz­ing addi­tion to the court­room. He sees the use of the court­room as a place for col­lab­o­ra­tion and  co-creation of solu­tions for chal­lenges in our community.

Alongside his work as  a lawyer, Phil has been and continues teaching law at San Jose City College. His first class was in Juvenile justice over 40 years ago. Most currently,  Phil wrote the cur­ricu­lum for Judi­cial Admin­is­tra­tion at SJCC being used to cer­tify and teach court employ­ees in California.

Phil’s work as a peace officer, mediator, court administrator and educator has catalyzed him to run for Santa Cruz County Judge Seat 3.  Access to Phil Crawford’s work and can be found at his website: crawford4judge.com.

If you missed the live broadcast, you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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Here’s a littie twitvid we took before the show.

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By admin – May 11, 2010

Denise Gallant – Artist on Art Guest for May 4, 2010

Long time Santa Cruz local videographer and UCSC and KZSC alumnus, Denise Gallant came into the radio studio for the May 4th live broadcast to talk about the 9th Annual Santa Cruz Film Festival. There are a lot of happenings around the SC Film Fest such as all the events including parties, the programs, and the films.  “It’s not just a festival, it’s an experience.” We had a lot to talk about including her former DJ years at KZSC and her long and illustrious video artwork.

This is the first year for Denise to be on the Santa Cruz Film Festival Board.  She has previously presented her movies in the Festival.  She has two in this year as well, Last Call for Alcohol with music by Kevin Shine and God’s Radar – Live in Philadelphia with music by one of the oldest singing groups in the US, Dixie Hummingbirds.

Denise

Denise started her path studying at UCLA film and quickly moved to the new media at the time video due to it’s cost.  She then came up to UCSC (Kresge) to study and began creating electronic music and interactive video/audio synthesizers. She worked with electronic music composer Gordon Momma and built a electronic video audio modulator.  The mechanism’s claim to fame was its usage in the Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood movie, Brainstorm.

Denise was one of the first individual female DJ at KZSC back in the early 70s.  There was the women’s collective Breakfast in Bed (Betsy McNair talks about this KZSC Collective on the Artists on Art  3/9/10 show).  She had an experimental rock show that also included poetry that ran on Friday nights at 10pm.  Somewhere in the KZSC station is a video she made of that time. She says that these were some of her best times.  This was also where she met her husband. She shared that she interviewed Brian Eno and Robert Fripp on her radio show.

After her stint up in the redwoods, she returned to her hometown of LA to work as an editor at NBC as well as being the first VJ (1980-1983).  After which, the trees called her back and she’s been in home in Santa Cruz ever since. Along with continuing her film-making and helping the SC Film Fest, Denise teaches digital video editing at Cabrillo College Digital Media Department.

Video4dvd

Access to Denise Gallant’s work can be found on YouTube at Video4dvd.

If you missed the live broadcast, you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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By admin – May 5, 2010

4/27/10 Guest Chris(Topher) Maraffi

The Artists on Art guest for April 27, 2010 was Topher Maraffi. He is  the last in our series of Digital Arts and New Media pending graduates exhibiting at the new Digital Arts Research Center that is having its grand opening (ribbon-cutting ceremony) Thursday April 29, 2010 at 3:15.  Since March, I’ve interviewed Kathleen Kralowec, Jessica Hayden and Chris Molla, and last week, Nick Lally.

Topher will perform at this event directly after (between 3:45 and 4:15pm) Chancellor Blumenthal and Dean of the Arts Yager speak at the UCSC Digital Arts & New Media MFA research.

The name of his overall performance is Mimesis & Mocap with two performances, the Avatar Dance and  Magic Mirror Game (inspired by the  Marx Brothers Mirror Scene). These performance are  a cross-disciplinary study in creating believable real-time interaction between human performers and 3D characters within a theatrical environment. His two performances,  and The Magic Mirror Game, envision future methods of re-creating classic dance and pantomime movements with a digital double.   There will be at three more performances that he will do during the show DANM MFA 2010 Exhibition Everything is Possible (running April 30th-May 9th with the reception on May 7th at 5:30pm).

Here’s a list of his performances:

DANM Building Dedication, Thursday April 29th @ 3:45pm
Saturday May 1st @ 2:00pm
Tuesday May 4th @ 3:45pm
Show Reception Friday, May 7th @ 7:00pm

Additional evening and matinee times may be announced for the 8th & 9th. Check back on his website for details.

Topher came to the KZSC studio a few months ago (March 2, 2010) for only part of the Artists on Art show.  I wanted him to come on the show to talk about the DANM and Theater Arts co-production Stop the Press, an audience-interactive production about the demise of print and the rise of digital media. I had already booked with the Queer Queen of Comedy Poppy Champlin when I heard about this successful and acclaimed.  One person that has their finger on the pulse of Santa Cruz and has for decades said it was one of the best student productions in years.

I wanted  him back  for a full show and better explanation of his studies and work as  a performance artist, technical animator, educator (dance SWANGO and 3d animation along with other subjects) and author. Prior to joining the DANM program in Fall of 2008, he taught on the topic of 3D character creation and wrote three books on the subject such as MEL Scripting a Character Rig in Maya.

We started the show with a quick download of all the upcoming exhibitors in Everything is Possible. The Artists are: Karl Baumann, Lyès Belhocine, Drew Detweiler, Christoph Girard, Nik Hanselmann, Jessica Faith Hayden, Antoine A. Jaoude, Kathleen M. Kralowec, Nick Lally, Chris(Topher) Maraffi, Kyle McKinley, Christopher Molla, Elizabeth Travelslight, and Alex Walter.

If you missed the live broadcast, you can listen to our show in entirety by clicking on the triangle below.

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This is a TwitVid we did right before the show on Tuesday of Topher dancing.

I’m hoping he’ll be back on the show sometime in the future.  In the fall 2010, Topher will start as a PhD student in the UCSC Computer Science program.  He plans to continue in collaboration with Theater Arts and to develop expressive and improvisational real-time synthespians.

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By admin – April 28, 2010