Underwater Photography Winners

This just in! Announcing the winners of OMA’s first juried underwater photography exhibit, Liquid Capture: Masters of Underwater Photography.

April 28 – June 17, 2012

The art of underwater photography provides visitors a glimpse inside the vibrant ecosystems that lie beneath the water’s surface. This juried exhibition, organized by renowned photographer Lee Peterson, features 49 works by 25 different artists from around the world. The work on view invites the audience to take a fish’s (or dare we say mermaid’s) view of the vast ocean, an atmosphere which depths have only been explored a mere 3% by the human eye. Join us in experiencing the secret world of diverse life forms such as sea anemones, urchins, manta rays, squids, pygmy seahorses and beyond!

Get instant gratification with a sneak peak at the Best of Show and First Place winners below, then put some motion in your ocean and surf on over to OMA to see this breathtaking show of underwater-themed photography up close and in person. 

Featured Artists include:

Winner Best of Show

Todd Bretl, Bobtail Squid at Night

Above Water 1st Place

 

Scott McGee, Bioluminescent Surf at Fletcher’s Cove

Diver 1st place

Christopher Doherty, Feeding Whale Shark

Macro 1st place

 Nicholas Samaras, Alien Spaceship

Marine Mammals 1st place 

 Douglas Hoffman, Our World

Submersion 1st Place 

 Conor Culver, Ink of the Octopus

Underwater 1st place 

 Meaghan Ogilvie, Succumbed: Into the Depths

 

With other works by William Goodwin, Myles McGuiness, John Albers-Mead, Marie Tartar, Steve Eilenberg, Phil Sokol, Jim Rakowski, Richard Wylie, Meaghan Ogilvie, Pam Murph, Donna Goodwin, Michael Bray, Steve Gould, Gary A. Lindenbaum MD, Todd Bretl, David Lopresti, Brian McHugh, Nicholas Samaras and Akara Sasaki.

There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but this show is only available for viewing at OMA now until June 17th.  Make sure you catch it!

Contributed By:  Stefa Witt
Curatorial and Marketing Intern
Oceanside Museum of Art

Meet Sally Slocum, OMA Volunteer

Volunteers are a vital and valued part of OMA. This post is the first of many to come, introducing you to some of our wonderful volunteers.  

Meet Sarah “Sally” Slocum, one of OMA’s dedicated docents.

Sally has been volunteering at OMA for 6 years since she moved to Carlsbad from San Pedro in the Los Angeles area.  Before her involvement with OMA, she volunteered at LACMA, and the Long Beach Museum of Art, where she was a docent for eight years.  She was drawn to OMA because it was the premier art destination for North County and because she admired the stunning architecture of Irving Gill. According to Sally, “I love being a docent because it makes me come to the museum and look at the artwork a number of times. I enjoy the research and talking with groups since it makes me work a little harder. I enjoy the challenge.”

Sally grew up in Detroit, Michigan and fondly remembers always being interested in art. She was a junior explorer at the Detroit Institute of Art where she got to do hands on activities that related to the exhibitions and where she was fascinated by the mummies. She graduated from University of Michigan with a major in history. She studied accounting at Harbor Community College, UCLA Extension and Long Beach State University. She is a CPA. She worked for the Federal government as an auditor from 1979 to the 1990s and became an antique dealer specializing in mid-20th century California pottery before she retired in the late 1990s. Sally has 4 children: three daughters and one son.

Some of her favorite exhibits at OMA have been 50 years of San Diego painting, where she learned about many artists new to her, and the Francoise Gilot exhibit. She is constantly impressed by OMA’s high quality of exhibitions. Sally and Walt Peale, her companion of 26 years, joined the museum as Millennium Club members this year.

To find out more about OMA volunteer opportunities, contact Mitzi Summers, Manager of Programs and Events, 760 435-3730.

Interview with William Glen Crooks

Geary and Leavenworkth

Interview with William Glen Crooks

This interview with artist William Glen Crooks (WGC) by Regina Wilson (RW) volunteer/intern under Danielle Deery, Director of Exhibits and Communications at Oceanside Museum of Art, takes place about 6 weeks after the opening of Crook’s exhibition, The Point of View: William Glen Crooks.  The exhibition opened on December 11,2011 with a preview reception on Saturday December 10,2011.  Join us on February 11,2012 at 2 p.m. for a Walk And Talk with William Glen Crooks and Guest Curator Scott White.  The luminous landscapes and nostalgic urban scenes of William Glen Crooks function as interpretive windows of daily life across the western United States.   Marking the first museum exhibition of his work, The Point of View is a retrospective that features over 40 works in oil, watercolor and pencil.

RW:  How did you start out as an artist?

WGC: When I was in the second grade I saw a picture of Fred Flintstone in TV Guide and learned to draw it from memory. I followed that with other characters from that series as well as from "The Jetsons".

As I grew older I graduated to Marvel Comic Super Heroes and began to learn to draw the figure. I learned a lot from Jack Kirby who drew many of the Marvel characters.

RW:  When did you start painting?

WGC: My first painting was around my sixth grade year, and it was from a TV Guide cover as well. It was of Marlo Thomas, who was in a TV show called "That Girl." I don't recall what medium that painting was in, but shortly thereafter my aunts gave me a Jon Nagy "Learn to Draw kit" and also a kit for painting. I remember painting a seascape with the painting kit but I used up all the white on the waves, so I finished them with toothpaste. 

RW:  What was/were the influencers on you?

WGC: I first became aware of "Art" when my parents bought a record album of Liberace's favorite classical music. It was a selection of famous orchestral and piano music. It had fine art reproductions slipped into the two record sleeves. There were a number of reproductions of artists such as Monet, Vermeer, Frans Hals and Da Vinci. I stared at them a lot. My favorites of the group were Rembrandt and Homer. I also listened to the records and became a classical music fan.

RW:  What teachers had an influence on you?

WGC: The person who has had the most influence on me was a teacher at San Diego State University. His name was Prof. Bill Bowne. It was the early seventies, and although I was not enrolled in the university I showed up and asked to be taught. Good man that he was, he took me in like I was an orphan in a storm. I already knew how to draw and paint, but I was missing something. He had a vast knowledge of not only drawing and painting but an extensive command of world art and cultural history. I showed up at his class at 6:00 am, five days a week. I drew, painted and learned then left at 6:00 pm. I did this for four or five years. In 1976, he organized a group tour of Europe and got an associate of his to pay my way. He introduced me to the history of art from Cave Painters to current modernism and showed me the possibilities they held for my work. I use what he taught me to this day. I owe Bill Bowne a great deal.

RW:  Can you talk about your landscapes?

WGC: Landscape was my next great teacher. Years ago my friend and fellow painter Malcolm Nichols asked me to go plein air painting with him. Painting a painting outdoors seemed simple matter to me, having never done one. I held landscape painting and plein air landscape in particular in low regard, so I said with a touch of vanity "Yeah, sure."  We went out to paint and I could not do it. I could not tell what color anything was. I had been using simple color mixtures in the studio but outside they were meaningless. There were no clearly mixable colors outside in daylight only tints of this and half shades of that. I did not know how to mix them. I was lost and the painting was a disaster. I could not stand the defeat. Day after day for years I went out to the Tijuana River valley and Otay Mesa that are near my house and painted plein air. Slowly, I learned how to mix what I was seeing and with that skill came a growing awareness of light. I did many plein airs. As time went on I wanted to paint bigger paintings of the scene I was seeing but it could not be done plein air. So I took photos and painted them on big canvases in my studio using my new knowledge. In the studio, I found that all I had learned about modernism from Bill Bowne now had relevance especially to Rothko. Things he did in his paintings I now stole for my own use. Most of my landscape work since then has been in the studio, and I have branched out to painting the suburbs, cityscapes and figures. I guess light has become my central subject.

RW:  Are you trying to tell the viewer anything?

WGC:   I get something from my paintings that are important to me. What that is can't be said in words only in paint. What other people see in my work should be their own without me spoiling it for them with my opinion. I thank them for looking.

Talking 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!

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.

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.

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