Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA)

Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA)
OMA occupies the venerable 1934 former City of Oceanside City Hall designed by pioneering San Diego architect Irving Gill and the Frederick Fisher designed Central Pavillion opened in 2008.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Memento Mori: Remember Your Mortality

Legend by David Gough

Death is a universal experience that has enticed artists to give tangible form to the mysteries of the afterlife for centuries. Celebrated by Mexicans each year during Dia de los Muertos, memorialized with religious icons by the Catholic Church, and popularized in vampire and zombie movies, mortality is a subject that resonates with all. Organized in conjunction with Art After Dark Death on October 28, OMA presented a special two-week exhibition as a visual complement to its dark tableaux of programming. Memento Mori: Remember Your Mortality is a Latin phrase that translates to “remember your mortality,” and was intended to inspire artists to meditate on their understanding of death and what becomes of us all.
OMA had an amazing response to the Memento Mori call to artists. Out of 275 works submitted, 32 pieces were selected by 28 different artists. Participating artists included Dan Allen, Fernando Apodaca, Sue Averell, Mike Calway-Fagen, Shay Davis, Arnaud De Valoise, Angela Kosta, Peter Fay, Patricia Franklin, Arie Galles, Robert Glick, David Gough, Jim Hornung, Ruth Jameson, David Lozeau, Andrew Marino, Elizabeth Mead, George Papciak, Robert Pendleton, Paula Riddle, Jiela Rufeh, Denise Sarram, Scott Saw, Greg Smirnov, Emma Webster, Aron Wiesenfeld, Eric Wixon, and Walter Wojtyla. The exhibition was on view in the OMA Groves Gallery October 15-30, 2011.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Kids Free in October

October is a great month for families to visit museums, especially since kids under 12 with an adult receive free admission to 25 amazing museums in San Diego. With kids back in school this is the perfect time to engage their visual learning, by visiting art, history and science museums to gain first hand tactile experience of what they are reading about in the classroom. Museums have an important role in the development of a child's education as a place of fun and active learning. Take note of what your child is interested in at school and try to direct their learning in a new environment, such as the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Air & Space Museum or the Oceanside Museum of Art. With 25 different museums to choose from you are bound to find a few that your child will love.
Participating museums include: Barona Cultural Center & Museum, Birch Aquarium at Scripps, Coronado Museum of History & Art, Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, Heritage of the Americas Museum, La Jolla Historical Society, Lux Art Institute, The Marston House, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Oceanside Museum of Art, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (gallery only), San Diego Air & Space Museum, San Diego Archaeological Center, San Diego Botanic Garden, San Diego History Center, San Diego Model Railroad Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, The NAT (San Diego Natural History Museum), The New Children’s Museum, Tijuana Estuary Visitor Center, Timken Museum of Art, USS Midway Museum, Veterans Museum & Memorial Center, Water Conservation Garden and the Women’s Museum of California.
Simply download and print your Kids Free in October coupon on the SDMC websitewww.sandiegomusuemcouncil.org and bring it with you to the museum to receive free admission for up to 2 kids 12 and under with an adult. The coupon is good for general admission and does not apply to field trips or special events and exhibitions.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Interview with Everett Peck


This interview with artist Everett Peck (E.P.) by Danielle Deery (D.D.), Director of Exhibits and Communications at Oceanside Museum of Art, takes place a few days before the big opening of Peck’s first museum exhibition It’s Not My Fault: The Art of Everett Peck. The exhibition opens on September 10, 2011 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and will be on view through January 29, 2012. It’s Not My Fault showcases Peck’s work over the past thirty years and traces his evolution as an artist from his early concept sketches to his recent large-scale paintings, which explore the pop culture of modern America and its intersection with everyday life.  For more information on the exhibition visit www.oma-online.org

D.D.How did you start out as an artist?
E.P. I guess I was always an artist.  By that I mean as long as I can remember I always had a passion for drawing and trying to express ideas in that way.  The social tag of being an “artist” came along much later.

D.D.What motivated you to be an artist?
E.P.I don’t remember needing to be motivated. I just remember being inspired and encouraged by others along the way.

D.D.When did you start making art?
E.P. Like I mentioned, I don’t remember starting to draw, it’s just something I’ve always done as long as I can remember. I do remember thinking maybe I could make a living doing this somewhere around second grade. Walt Disney and reading comics inspired that idea.  I knew somehow those people got PAID for drawing!

D.D.Did you ever get in trouble drawing as a child?
E.P. I had a problem with compulsively drawing in my textbooks, especially in Jr, High and High school. The idea was to check out the books, use them for the year and then return them for the next group of students to use the following year.  Most of the time my books where so drawn up my parents ended up having to buy them. You can imagine that didn’t go over very well.  Sometimes I would turn them in at the last minute and get them through.  I remember walking down the hall one year and a kid came up to me and asked if I was Everett Peck.  I told him I was and he proceeded to tell me he had gotten my textbook from the previous year and I was a very good artist. 

D.D.Where does the title “It’s Not My Fault” come from?
E.P. I’m a great fan of popular culture and it seams that passing the buck in a pinch has become our moral default setting.  I know it works for me.

D.D With Duckman, did you do any of the animation yourself? Was it hand drawn, digital or in-between?
E.P. I didn’t animate Duckman.  Most television animation these days is accomplished by a huge room full of 300 Koreans.  They do an amazing job.  I was involved in everything before and after the actual animation.
3a. Duckman was basically done traditionally.  Hand drawn and painted on cell.  Everything from the first season on was digitized in postproduction.

D.D.How does your work relate to Pop culture? Is it a response to pop culture?
E.P. Popular culture to one extent or another affects us all.  I can’t think of any other reason why I would walk around with a mustache all through the 70’s.  Now we have so many instantaneous sources that constantly feed us a never-ending diet of pop… and I can’t seem to look away.  I’m both fascinated and repulsed at the same time, like coming upon a really bad car accident or mud wrestling.

D.D. Who are some of your biggest influences?
E.P. Like I mentioned, Walt Disney was one of my very earliest influences both through the weekly TV show and a trip to Disneyland as a kid. I remember walking through an attraction called “The Art of Animation,” that really knocked me out! I also really liked Mad Magazine, especially Jack Davis, Don Martin, and Basil Wolverton.  And of course comics. There used to be a great comic store in Oceanside on Hill Street (now PCH) called the Coronet. One of my favorite things to do would be to ride my bike down there, get a new comic and a candy bar and get busy.

I liked all kinds of comics but I especially enjoyed Carl Bark’s Donald Duck series.  Well drawn with great stories. I also enjoyed Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse Comics (always much more interesting than any Mickey Mouse animated cartoon, except maybe “Mickey’s Trailer”).  Loved the Phantom Blot. I was crazy about war comics like Sergeant Rock drawn by Joe Kubert. I really liked the way he drew smoke and a firing machine gun “Ratattattat”!  I also liked most anything with monsters in it and was also quite taken with the wacky single panel cartoons of Virgil Partch (VIP) and Gahan Wilson. It was also around this time that I became entranced with airplanes, cars and motorcycles and the allusive art of Von Dutch and the not so allusive Ed “Big Daddy” Roth.

When I got to Oceanside High School I was pleased to find a great art teacher there named John Goddard (nephew to the famous rocket pioneer, Robert Goddard.) It was there that I became enamored with the facile drawing styles of 19th century European pen drawers, especially Heinrich Kley as well as more contemporary chaps like the great Ronald Searle. I also flipped over the underground comic movement and poster art.  I especially liked Rick Griffin, Robert Crumb, and Victor Moscoso.  When I was in college at Long Beach State the artists of Push Pin Studios and Heinz Edelmann were quite popular with us students.

I would say some of the artists I admire the most today are painters like, Philip Guston, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and the not so much a painter, Jeff Koons.


D.D.Can you explain your relationship to your work. Do you think you embody some of the same attributes as your characters?
E.P.Like most artists, my work is very personal.  It usually pertains to what I’m going through at a particular time or what social phenomenon might catch my attention, my hobbies, etc. Some artists work from the outside in others from the inside out; I guess I’m the latter. All my characters have a little bit of me in them.

D.D. How is the process different between your illustrations and your paintings? Can you describe this process?
E.P. Illustration is an application, the visual enhancement to another person’s written concept. You are generally also coordinating with other people like an Art Director and Editor. Painting is a pure expression of an internal interest or idea.  Your only “client” is yourself and your audience. When I approach a painting I usually have a general idea of what I want to do.  Sometimes I make a few chalk sketches on the canvas and begin.  Sometimes I go straight ahead, other times I fumble around.  I often do a lot of repainting, sometimes completely over painting what I had done earlier. I spend a lot of time sitting back in my old beat up recliner trying to figure out what to do next.
      
D.D. What has been one of the most important moments of your career?
E.P. I guess early on it was getting a call to do an illustration for an important magazine like Playboy, or Time.  It’s always a big thrill when you get green lit for an animated series like Duckman or Squirrelboy.  I get a kick out of someone enjoying my sketchbook.  I like this show pretty well.

D.D.How would you describe your work? Satirical, humorous, ironic?
E.P.Yes.

D.D.What do you want people to take away from seeing your exhibit?
E.P. I hope people enjoy the work, and if they’re an artist, find some inspiration for their own art. And know that Oceanside is a pretty great place to be from.  Many years ago I picked up my Dad from San Diego to bring him home after he had open art surgery. He was well along in years and it was hard on him.  When we pulled off the freeway and into town he brightened a bit and said to me “Good old Oceanside”, yeah Dad, good old Oceanside!

Everett Peck

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

IT’S NOT MY FAULT: THE ART OF EVERETT PECK ll


Everett Peck was born in Oceanside in 1950 and has been passionate about comics and animation ever since childhood. After graduating from Oceanside High School in 1968, he attended Long Beach State University, where he ultimately received a degree in illustration. Peck’s illustrations have appeared in all major editorial publications, including The New Yorker, Time, Playboy and Rolling Stone. In addition to illustration, he has worked extensively in the entertainment industry where his credits include work on animated television series such as Ghostbusters, Rugrats and Jumanji. He is the creator of the animated series Duckman, nominated for two Emmy awards, and Squirrelboy (2006-2007, Cartoon Network). He has been featured in exhibitions and gallery shows worldwide and his work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Peck currently resides in Carlsbad, where he focuses his time on his painting and animation work.
Ol' Stumpy
 A preview reception introduces the exhibition IT’S NOT MY FAULT: THE ART OF EVERETT PECK Saturday, September 10, 2011 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Admission at the door is $10 and free for OMA members.
Join Everett Peck and guest curator Michael C. Gross on Saturday, September 17 at 2:00 p.m. for a free-ranging discussion of art and pop culture. 

IT’S NOT MY FAULT: THE ART OF EVERETT PECK

Duckman
Native son of Oceanside and Emmy Award-nominated artist Everett Peck unveils his never-before-seen abstract paintings in this comprehensive exhibition of his career. Although most well-known for his television series Duckman (1994-1997, USA Network), Everett Peck is a multifaceted artist: an animator, a cartoonist, an illustrator, and a painter. It’s Not My Fault showcases Peck’s work over the past thirty years and traces his evolution as an artist from his early concept sketches to his recent large-scale paintings, which explore the pop culture of modern America and its intersection with everyday life.  Also on display will be illustrations, sketch books and preliminary and concept drawings from Peck’s extensive animation work. Regardless of the medium, Peck uses his unmistakable illustrative style to humorously point out the quirks and eccentricities of our time.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

OMA Summer Soiree Art Auction Exhibition



This is your chance to acquire exceptional works of art and support OMA's dynamic exhibitions and programs at the same time. Forty local and regional artists have donated fifty original works of art including paintings, drawings, jewelry and sculptures, to support OMA's largest fundraiser of the year, the OMA Summer Soirée. The Summer Soiree Art Auction will be on view in the Groves Auditorium Gallery through July 23, 2011. For additional information or to place a bid on any of the below artworks in the silent auction please call 760.435.3722 or email danielle@oma-online.org.

Participating artists include Irene Abraham, James Aitchison, Tania Alcala, Lizet Benrey, Nancy Bergmann, Don Borthwick, Sandra Chanis, John S. Culqui, Maxine Custer, Margie Darrow, Marianela de la Hoz, Irene Isabelle de Watteville, Alix Gonzalez Dumka, Peter Fay, Carlos Huerta, Ruth Jameson, Effi Karakaidos, Beth King, Susan Kopp, Susan Ludwig, Lawrence Murphy, Christina Navarrete, Robert Pendleton, Robert Perrine, Scott W. Prior, Allison Renshaw, Heidi Rufeh, Jiela Rufeh & R. Ramires, Philipp Scholz Rittermann, Joan Sebastian, Lee Silton, Irv Simpson, Tara Smith, Robert Alan Smith, Michael Summers, David J. Teter, Fritzie Urquhart, Valya, Jeanette J. Viera, Paul Weber, and Tracy West. 

Irene Abraham
Loose Connection
Opening bid $750









James Aitchison
A Kiss
opening bid $600










Tania Alcana
Liberty in Passion
Opening bid $1,025







Lizet Benrey
Moon Dusk 
Opening bid $350









Nancy Bergmann
Nude Study
Opening bid $175










Nancy Bergmann
Reflection
Opening bid $400














Don Borthwick
Untitled Blue 
Opening bid $175











Sandra L. Chanis
The Bride
Opening bid $600













John S. Culqui
Mellow Yellow
Opening bid $275









Maxine Custer
Ancient Gold
Opening bid $175






Margie Darrow
Jellyfish
Opening bid $600














Marianela de la Hoz
Closed Eyes Passion
Opening bid $350















Irene Isabelle de Watteville
Rabbit Cups
Opening bid $75










Alix Gonzalez Dumka
Romance in the Sun (diptych)
Opening bid $750



Peter Fay
Moon Over Winslow
Opening bid $300








Carlos Huerta
Time Machine
Opening bid $250







Ruth Jameson
Lorelei Transformations
Opening bid $175










Effi Karakaidos
Brick Arched Hallway, Adobe Guadalupe Inn, Guadalupe Valley
Opening bid $150













Effi Karakaidos
Sunrise Highway Landscape
Opening bid $150









Effi Karakaidos
Green Chair, Puerto Nuevo, B.C.
Opening bid $150













Beth King
About an Hour form Taxco
Opening bid $150













Beth King
Cook's Bay from Pao Pao
Opening bid $150













Susan Kopp
Burst of Light
Opening bid $175













Susan Ludwig
Tapestry of Life
Opening bid $150













Lawrence Murphy
Horses
Opening bid $200










Cristina Navarette
Two See
Opening bid $300










Robert Pendleton
Outside Corner of Left Side
Opening bid $150









Robert Pendleton
Three Lights
Opening bid $150











Robert Perrine
Spherical Light Tree
Opening bid $300













Robert Perrine
Candace of Xyfresh
Opening bid $200













Robert Perrine
Violinist
Opening bid $350













Scott Prior
Thursday Morning, Batiquitos Lagoon
Opening bid $1,275










Allison Renshaw
Untitled
Opening bid $1,575













Heidi Rufeh
Wishing Well
Opening bid $475













Jiela Rufeh & R. Ramries
Tree of Knowledge
Opening bid $490













Philipp Scholz Rittermann
Police Helicopter and Mission Beach CA
Opening bid $600









Joan Sebastian
Dahlias
Opening bid $125












Lee Silton
Jewelry
Opening bid $250













Lee Silton
South Beach
Opening bid $900















Irv Simpson
Dog
Opening bid $250











Tara Smith
Cover Your Neighbor 3
Opening bid $350










Robert Alan Smith
High Road
Opening bid $350







Michael Summers
Ganesh at a Crossroads
Opening bid $475













David J. Teter
OMA #3
Opening bid $300






David J. Teter
OMA #4
Opening bid $300













Fritzie Urquhart
Road Less Travelled
Opening bid $500













Valya
Watch the Sky
Opening bid $300












Jeanette J. Viera
Change Machine
Opening bid $175













Paul Weber 
Tall Bird with Egg
Opening bid $300














Tracy West
Gold Digger 2
Opening bid $300