RECAP - Painters and Musicians - Life's a Good Gig 9/25/2011

Chula Vista Community Arts Group and the Chula Vista Public Library in collaboration with All World Music presents:
Painters and Musicians - Life's a Good Gig
An afternoon of Art and Live Music
Featuring: Jenny Sercu, Joe Cruz, Marnie Cruz, R. Zanzinni

Musical Performances
Katie Cat, John Cain. Ossie Arcieniega, Kiko Jimenez, Dina Garcia de la Cadena.

Kiko, John and Katie.

I met John Cain through Dina Garcia De la Cadena at his weekly gathering at Shooters at the Sheraton in La Jolla. John and all his musician friends generously agreed to organize a free event for the community to celebrate art month. All of the musicians are professionals and are excellent artists it was a gift to have them come to the South Bay.

The artists arrived early on Sunday to set up the one day art show and set up the music instruments. John had envisioned playing throughout the day and he and several of the musicians each took turns singing and playing instruments.  There were three different sections of art that visitors could walk through.

Below is Joe Cruz's wall

Here we have a young visitor and her mom enjoying R. Zanzinni's art.

Artist Jenny Sue visited from Napa Valley. 

 Jenny Sue's work was purchased by Chula Vista Community Arts Group to add to the permanent collection for the community. Jenny Sue is a very kind and generous person. She gave one of her original paintings to our youngest visitor of the day.

 Visitors enjoying the performance.

 Visitors were delighted with the simple poetry from Carlos Tarrac's new book Poemas Sencillos-Simple Poems.

Contact Carlos Tarrac:

musicshowcase@att.net                                                                              

A special thank you to John Cain for organizing this event and to all the artists and performers for your participation. I would also like to thank the office of Senator Juan Vargas for issuing a certificate of recognition for the artists.

RECAP - Utility Box Painting Downtown Chula Vista

May 2011

Chula Vista Community Arts Group in collaboration with the city of Chula Vista's redevelopment department, artist Roberto Salas and CHIP painted several utility boxes in downtown Chula Vista.

I learned about this project at a CAC meeting presentation made by Dana from CHIP. I thought his idea of promoting a healthy lifestyle by creating art in public places would encourage people to go outdoors.


CVCAG volunteers attended a workshop with the collaborators and began to work on the designs of the boxes. Below is a picture with the group and a design made by Roberto Salas.

The workshop consisted of  projecting and tracing designs that we could paint on the utility boxes. Everyone picked a designs and began to trace them on the wall. We had one of the volunteers trace it by accident on a closet door...oops. The South Bay Community Service Representative was very nice and stated it was a cool design and we should just go ahead and finish  drawing it.

It was a very funny mistake!!!

At the following workshop held at a park rec center we learned that someone else had the same situation and so we now have two random drawings on closets in downtown Chula Vista.

The next meeting we gathered to paint. We started by cleaning the boxes which were dirty and had graffiti. After each volunteer took turns painting blotches of color on the boxes. As we worked on the boxes we got a lot of people honking and giving us thumbs up. Everyone that walked or drove by was happy to see more public art in Chula Vista. Below are the 2 boxes that CVCAG worked on. One is near the trolley station on H st and the other next to the Taco Bell on E St.

We did not get to attend the last day of painting because we were at the North Park Festival but Dana sent me the pictures of the finished utility boxes. I wanted to thank Dana and Carla for their hard work on this project and for promoting public art in Chula Vista.

I have been by a couple of times to see the boxes and as of my last visit there is no damage or graffiti on them. Dana  stated  in his presentation that when the community is involved in these type of projects they feel a connection with the community space and are more likely to respect it and not damage it.

Below are links to videos Dana from CHIP made regarding his work and this project.

The utility box effort is featured in the video documentary of the project (PV-HEAL).

Preventing Violence - Healthy Eating Active Living Part 1
http://youtu.be/VB95Vqfx0oA

Preventing Violence - Healthy Eating Active Living Part 2
http://youtu.be/babUzvkMpm8

RECAP - North Park Festival of Arts 05/15/2011

North Park Festival of Arts

http://northparkfestivalofarts.com/

05/15/2011

Chula Vista Community Arts Group's first project initiated with an invitation from a chair of the North Park Festival of Arts. CVCAG was asked to provide a free children's art activity for the Kids Art Block. At that time the group had no funds so we had to work with limited resources. I contacted several potential sponsors and Serena from the Lake Shore Learning Store was very supportive and immediately said yes to the project. Lake Shore Learning Store generously donated 4 gallons of paint, several containers of glitter and glue. I was happily surprised that we got a sponsor especially because at that time we did not have non-profit status. Thank you Lake Shore Learning Store!!!!

My initial idea was to use as many recycled materials and create a walk in cardboard structure that the kids could decorate. Home Depot in Eastlake was very helpful and not only did they donate ALL the cardboard for the structure but they helped us load it into the car. This project looks very simple but it was very labor intensive just loading up the cardboard and supplies and building the structure took a lot of effort. I am very grateful to all our volunteers from the local high school: Alanna, Janelle, Chelsey, Rose, Taylor, etc.

 At 7 am on Sunday the volunteers gathered to start putting up the structure.

CVCAG did not even have funds for a sign so we made our own with cardboard and collage the front cover. Our goal was to use as little new materials as possible and I feel we achieved our goal!

While I was researching online potential designs for the project I came across a structure that had holes cut out so that kids could stick their head out and take pictures. I decided to incorporate this into the design and eventually it became more of an interactive structure in which the kids could play in. Some of the volunteers worked all Saturday to paint a cat so that the kids could take pictures and decorated the structure.

As soon as we had put the structure together parents and kids had already started to arrive and  participate. What I liked most about this project is that it encouraged parents to participate and get creative with their children. Kids got to have fun and make a mess. The project was multi media and included paint, coloring with crayons or markers, collage, glitter and stamp the walls.

We started with blank walls!

By mid day kids had already covered most of the walls.

All ages were included and participated together.

We also had the outside of the structure to decorate and CVCAG volunteers spent most of the day making a collage on one of the sides.

The only hard part for parents was getting the kids to leave.

Most parents were ok with the messy project and encouraged their kids to go all out and be creative. All the parents congratulated and thanked CVCAG for providing such a fun project. I was very happy that this project made so many kids happy and cost very little money and used mostly recycled materials. I feel that for our first project we were very successful and achieved our goal of providing a fun, inexpensive, creative and environment friendly project.

UPCOMING FALL ART SHOWS

Chula Vista Community Arts Group will be hosting the upcoming shows:

 

 

Jaime Jimenez Cuanalo
Photographer and Painter
Tijuana, Baja California
http://www.jcuanalo.com/

CHULA VISTA COMMUNITY ARTS GROUP

ART & MUSIC SHOW

IMAGINARY FRIENDS

Exhibit of photography and paintings

by Jaime Jimenez Cuanalo

10/30/2011 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

389 Orange Avenue Chula Vista CA 91911

Music by Project Kassandra ( SOFT FLAMENCO)             

FREE EVENT Coffee and Dessert will be served.

Show will be at the library until the last week of November.

South Chula Vista Branch
389 Orange Avenue
Chula Vista CA 91911
(619) 585-5755

Library Hours:

Monday to Thursday	10am 8pm
Friday & Saturday	10am-5pm
Sunday	1pm-5pm 10/21/ 11  5:30 to 7:00 FREE CONCERT Chula Vista Center 555 Broadway, Suite 1019 Chula Vista, California 91910-5342 Name of players:                  AJ  Arciniega  (Drums)                                                Marshall Holland  (Guitar)                                                Preston  Holland   (Guitar)                                                Adam Rodriguez  (Bass)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd3H6bLEPxQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVppjry9sGs&feature=related Hugh Noble Concert 10/29/11 -Pending details