Bob Dob Says...

Bob Dob (aka Robert Dobbie '01) played 20 questions with the new on-line magazine "Pipe Bomb." Turns out he did not originally set out to be an artist, has played in punk bands and thinks young illustrators are not being properly compensated. Read the whole interview here.

Multiple Vantage Points Indeed

I attended the opening reception yesterday for the Multiple Vantage Points show at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Among the 50 artists- all female- in the show were many from the Otis family including current and former faculty members: Lita Albuquerque, Carole Caroompas, Phyllis Green, Alexis Smith and Betye Saar, and alums Camille Rose Garcia ('92), Sarah Perry ('83), Alison Saar ('81), Patssi Valdez ('85) and Carrie Whitney ('96).

Lots of folks at the event, enough so that I had to park well off-site and it had a really nice energy about it.

Co-sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Southern California Women's Caucus for Art and the Southern California Council of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the exhibition remains on view through April 15.

Robert Irwin- This is What I Do

Jason Schmidt's new book "Artists" (Edition 7L) features Robert Irwin ('50) among others in their native element- making and talking about their work. In Sunday's Los Angeles Times Arts & Music portion of the Calendar (F3) Irwin's entry in the book is featured along with that of Chris Burden.

In the story when prompted by Schmidt "I'm here to take a picture of you doing what you do" Irwin- pictured at work at his drafting table- is quoted as saying "This is what I do."

18" one one hand later...

Last June, Kent Twitchell's ('77 MFA) mural "Ed Rucha Monument" was unceremoniously and abruptly painted over. The six story piece, which adorned the side of a downtown LA building, vanished after a work crew for the Job Corps re-painted the exterior walls.

Just as quickly as the mural was covered, the effort to restore it began. While the legal process grinds along- Twitchell is suing the building owners- a parallel effort was undertaken to try and reclaim one of the artist's most loved murals.

In the Saturday Los Angeles Times Calendar section (E2) it was reported that a square of paint 18" x 18" had been removed and Rucha's hand was once again visible- the first small test to see if removing the remainder of the top coat is viable.

Norman Rockwell- Icon- Otis Faculty

Norman Rockwell, who would have turned 113 this month was an icon of course, known for his slice of Americana illustrations, especially the covers of The Saturday Evening Post. Less well known perhaps was his role at Otis.

During the late 1940's Rockwell served as an artist-in-residence during the winter months and even used some Otis students as models for Post covers*

*reference taken from Wikipedia

LA Times Reviews Mario Ybarra Jr's new show

Christopher Knight describes Mario Ybarra Jr's ('99) new show at Anna Helwing Gallery as "...rather too diffuse. But when it hits, it clears the fence." The review appears in today's Calendar section on page 30 and it can also be seen on the paper's website.

Artillery Magazine littered with Otis mentions

Picked up the latest copy of Artillery magazine today. Fine Arts faculty member Alexis Smith has the center spread. Nice little story about Eloy Torrez's ('77) mural "The Dancing Anthony Quinn" and efforts to restore it and other imporant works, including Kent Twitchell's ('77) piece on the same building (pg 11). Ruben Ochoa ('97) received a strong review of his Los Angeles I-10 Freeway project and grad student Tucker Neel ('07) wrote a review of Jefferson Pinder's recent installation in Washington D.C. (pg. 40)

LA Weekly Highlights current show in the Ben Maltz Gallery

The LA Weekly gave the current show in the Ben Maltz Gallery "The Moral Museum: Selections from the Bick Archive" a nice listing in their calendar section.

You Never Know What You'll Find Out There

Like most schools, Otis is listed on a lot of college search sites. Here's a great example of some of the information being "mostly" right and some being way off- not to mention the scary old logo. I'm going to have to check into that and get back to you...

California Colleges

NMC Digital Story Telling

Otis has been involved with Second Life for a while now, with some of the good folks in the Library really taking a leadership role. The College joined the New Media Consortium as a result. This blog entry about NMC and digital story telling includes references to an earlier meeting at our Campus on EduIsland