Issue 12
Winter/Spring
Lynn Leatart notes, “I have enclosed a photograph taken in May 2022. A city plaque was dedicated to Chouinard and placed in front of the Chouinard building on Grandview. I am standing [to the right of] Kim Wong and Peter Shire. I was on the New Chouinard advisory board.”…
Dennis C. Brown says, “I finally feel that I am fully retired, which frees me up for all sorts of musical adventures. The last TV show I composed for was the first season of B Positive in 2020, and then I decided I’d had enough. As that door closed, a glorious picture window appeared, and…
Lenny Horowitz writes in, “Having a wonderful life creating designs that make the world a better place.”…
Jon Barlow Hudson has been commissioned by the Ohio Arts Council’s Percent for Art Program to create a large-scale stainless-steel sculpture project for the Clippinger Chemistry Lab at Ohio University, Athens. It references aspects of chemistry, physics, geology, and geography, which are studied there and will include an Ohio stone installation….
Llois Jeanne Miller, Maui, now online with Singulart….
Marc Smason studied classical and jazz trombone with Stu Dempster, Ken Cloud, Julian Priester, and Slide Hampton, and voice with Jay Clayton, Yo Jin Chong, and Ki Wasitodipuro. Based in Seattle, composing and playing for film, TV, theater, and dance, Marc has performed throughout the world, encompassing many styles, with such luminaries as Benny Green,…
Leda Siskind says, “I’ve become a playwright and have had several productions at LA theaters. Two of my plays (All My Distances Are Far and Surveillance) have been published by StageRights, and a third will be coming out in the fall in an anthology of COVID plays by FlowerSong Press. I also help run Fierce…
Megan Anderson Bohigian checks in, “I’m the city of Fresno’s poet laureate and author of several poetry collections, teacher of writing workshops, and advocate for the arts. I curate a seven-month annual author-reading series called Respite by the River, for the San Joaquin River Parkway Trust. I regularly visit classrooms, do public readings, and provide…
Dori Atlantis writes, “I Tried Everything—a 1972 collaboration of Suzanne Lacy, Jan Lester Martin, Nancy Youdelman, and myself—was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for their permanent collection in 2021. WOMANHOUSE 2022, a revisit of the 1972 feminist installation, was at Anat Ebgi Gallery in East Hollywood, California. While I wasn’t part…
Jeff Conner reports, “Still active in publishing, having set up a modest operation at Alcon Entertainment, where I’ve been since the summer of 2017. We are partnered with Titan Books for a line of comics, graphic novels, and artbooks centered around in-house properties, such as Blade Runner and The Expanse. Next year we will begin…
Ron Light writes, “I’m proud to announce the recent release of my book Pedal Culture: Guitar Effects Pedals as Cultural Artifacts (Backbeat Books), derived from a 2017 design exhibition I curated at San Francisco State University. The book is a themed exploration of eight different object displays richly illustrated in approximately 100 original photographs. Exhibits…
Adam Stern is the music director/conductor of three Washington State orchestras: the Seattle Philharmonic, the Sammamish Symphony, and the Federal Way Symphony, as well as associate conductor of the Oregon Coast Music Festival in Coos Bay, Oregon. His programming continues to highlight works that have been unjustly ignored or forgotten, particularly those by women composers….
Margaret Batiuchok teaches swing, ballroom, solo jazz, and other dances in person and on Zoom (groups, privates, singles, couples, wedding couples). She will be teaching outdoor events at the Queens Botanical Garden July 16 and at Lincoln Center Aug. 5. You can see her on YouTube. She won the Harvest Moon Ball in Lindy in…
Chris Woods checks in: “Earlier this year my latest feature-length documentary To What Remains, produced by Imperative Entertainment, was released in theaters for a limited engagement. It is now streaming on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu Fandango, Spectrum, and XFinity. It’s an important subject matter so please check it out. Go CalArts!” chriswoodsdirector.com…
L. Martina Young relaunches her aesthetic-activist work integrating Myth, Oratory, and Somatic Knowing. She offers diverse communities, illuminating experiential workshops, and cultural critiques grounded in physical intelligence in order to set the stage for “a grammar of empathy.” Her animated film short, “How Swan Bridged the World,” is in development. Since 2000, Martina has maintained…
Sherri Katz McEuen shares that two of her bronze sculptures are currently on view at Musée d’Art Moderne in Palm Desert, California: Understudy, which stands next to a $50 million Jackson Pollock, and Elle, which is “all about seeing a woman’s inner beauty before seeing her outer beauty.” McEuen is also exhibiting her ceramic sculptures…
Dean continues to apply the myriad of skills that the early years of CalArts so uniquely inspired and supported in a field she never thought would become her destination. She divides her time equally between one-on-one disability-focused advocacy for individuals and families while working on improving public health policy and systems delivery. The pandemic, although…
Youdelman checks in: “My bookwork Water and Power was shown in Possibilities: When Artists’ Books Were Young, curated by Kathleen Walkup. Feb. 11 – May 1, 2022, at the San Francisco Center for the Book.”…
Donald Beagle’s forthcoming collection, Hexagrams: A Poet’s Journey Through the I Ching, will feature 64, six-line poems written in broken and unbroken lines of text that embody the lines of the I Ching’s corresponding hexagrams. The book has been contracted by LP Press@Wake Forest University, and has already received several advance reviews two months before…
Lisa Popeil shares, “In 2019, I had the amazing experience of touring with ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic singing on his 65-city tour through the US and Canada with costumes, dancing, and a full orchestra every night. Getting to sing centerstage for a quarter-million smiling faces was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. These past few years, I’ve concentrated…
Emily Hay recently relocated to the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina—after 40-plus years of living in Southern California. She now lives near a river with her two large, spunky dogs. She will perform a concert of improvised music for flutes/vocals/electronics with guitarist Kris Gruda at the Center for Connection and Collaboration in Asheville,…
Writer and director Sharon Greytak is a 2022 New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artists grant recipient for her current dramatic feature film project. In 2021 she co-authored/co-presented with Siqiao Ao at two conferences: “Resilient Creatives: Experiences of Filmmakers During Covid-19” at Media Asia, the 12th Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film…
Erik Fransman directed the documentary, The Spectacular Absence of God. “Funny and emotionally gripping.” “A very personal story, universally told.” “An Atheist search for his Jewish roots, unorthodox told.” “Packed with Jewish (?) wit.” These were some of the reactions after the TV Dutch broadcast of The Spectacular Absence of God. If you ask the…
Laurie Raskin checks in: “My artwork was in the USC Fisher Museum of Art in Exposition Park—Art and Hope at the End of the Tunnel—during winter 2021 and at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring of 2022.”…
Alexis Krasilovsky’s new book, Watermelon Linguistics: New and Selected Poems (Cyberwit, 2022—available on Amazon) is a finalist in the 2022 International Book Awards. The book includes poems from the soundtracks of several of her documentary and art films (available on Kanopy.com and through Canyon Cinema), including Exile, the film she made for her MFA thesis…
Ann Telnaes was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer in the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category….
Jennifer Murphy checks in, “I am celebrating the 10th year of Street Creature Puppet Collective, a processional arts organization that I helped found, based in Asheville, North Carolina. We are currently putting on a new family show The Earth Is Alive with giant puppets and songs about Appalachian medicinal plants. I was an artist in…
Nancy Floyd is the recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography. In 2021, Floyd’s 39-year self-portrait series, Weathering Time, was published by The International Center of Photography and GOST Books. A second printing, with new work, will be published in 2022. The book was shortlisted for numerous prizes. And in 2020, the work was…
Lynn Becker’s picture book, Monsters in the Briny, illustrated by Scott Brundage, came out in April from Sleeping Bear Press. Set to the tune of “What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor,” a ship’s crew has to contend with a coterie of mythical sea creatures, all demanding comfort and attention. As each creature threatens…
Sindy Fredrick checks in: “Hello, CalArtians! All these years later and I’m still involved in graphic design, printing, and marketing. Working for my husband’s real estate firm in Newport Beach, California. I’m very proud to say that my son attended CalArts in The Herb Alpert School of Music several years ago. It was so nice…
Carl Palmer writes, “I was busy this winter/spring Off-Broadway doing the Public Theatre and Audible’s remount of Coal Country at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The play’s written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen with music by Steve Earle. It was a Lucille Lortel Off-Broadway award nominee for Best Play. I played the role of ‘Goose.’…
Jung & Restless, a new film by Joanna Priestley, won the Silver Award at the Los Angeles Animation Festival, Best Animation nomination at the Barcelona Indie Filmmakers Festival and at the Maracay International Film and Video Festival (Venezuela) and was a finalist at the USA Film Festival (Dallas) and Lisbon Film Rendezvous (Portugal). www.joannapriestley.com…
Belladonna* Collective’s all gender, all genre, Lesbian All Stars chapbook series just published “Halloween In Edinburgh,” a chapter from Shelley Marlow’s humorous, queer, new manuscript, The Wind Blew Through Like A Chorus Of Ghosts….
Rushkoff writes, “I’ve got a new book coming out, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires (W.W. Norton, Sept. 6). Already in development as a feature film with 21Laps, it’s about men who believe they can break the laws of physics, economics—and to escape an apocalypse of their own making by building…
Scott notes, “ I am retiring this summer from my day gig after 28 years—working as a music editor and sometimes composer for Hollywood films and TV. My most memorable jobs were for Moulin Rouge!, The Thin Red Line, There’s Something About Mary, Drumline and Me, Myself and Irene. I recently built a recording studio…
Schwartz notes, “Invited by the Anibar International Animation Festival in Peja, Kosovo, to conduct an intensive hands-on animation workshop with a generous grant from the U.S State Department in July 2021. In this immersive workshop, participants will be able to get a first chance at creating an animated promo for the festival itself! By fully…
Kevin Dunayer is an associate professor of Theater & Event Production at George Mason University in Virginia. He has designed sound for more than 300 productions. His past sound design credits include: Alley Theatre (Houston); Colony Theater (Burbank, California); Dallas Theatre Center; Alabama, Colorado, Kentucky, and North Carolina Shakespeare Festivals; English Theatre of Frankfurt (Germany);…
Ann Myra Walton-Teter shares, “On Jan. 5, 2022, my memoir Amazing Grace ‘by Ann Myra’ was released. I also had two children’s books published during the pandemic: Annabel on the Ground, Annabel on the Sea, also under ‘Ann Myra’ with Austin Macauley Publisher. They are good for ages 3 to 8 years old. Living and…
Mellissa Tong says, “Growing up, there were two things I could have over and over and not get tired of them: one was McDonald’s french fries and the other was the hot fudge sundae. And on the days that I got both, I was in heaven. Little did I know that someday I’d get a…
Aaron McPherson says, “Married to Challen Cates and have two kids—Colton, 16, and Jasper, 13. Been acting and coaching since I graduated from CalArts. Most recently found acting in the movie Wanted Man with Kelsey Grammar, Dolph Lundgren, and Michael Paré. Been working with and coaching Seth MacFarlane for the last 10 years. Projects include…
Irma Sanchez notes, “I created a fun set of Wingdings (Dingbats) during the early start of the pandemic (2020), titled Formfeelings, inspired by my freeform ceramic sculptural trays and mid-century animations I saw as a child. Formfeelings can be uploaded for free from blogfonts.com, fontget.com, and fontriver.com.”…
Karen Martin, composer with Soundsculpture Music, scored the music for Charlie and the Hunt, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival’s 2022 Emerging Filmmaker Showcase….
Todd Simon has been busy in the studio with various artists, such as Flora Purim and the Bay Area rapper Andre Nickatina. He was also the music director for a tribute to the Miles Davis/Gil Evans album Sketches of Spain, featuring Hubert Laws, Ronnie Laws, Josef Leimberg, and Alphonso Johnson. Todd’s live outfits, Ethio Cali…
Tom Hiel notes, “Currently finishing scoring the feature film Homestead starring Leven Rambin, Jake McGlaughlin, and Shane West. Also working on the score for Six Feet Apart starring JJ Nolan and Chris Candy.”…
Since April 2021, Steve Knezevich has been the lead creative strategist at Eyestorm Creative, based in Los Angeles. In April of this year, he is leading social media content and strategy for Unlikely Collaborators. This philanthropic organization helps people discover their self-defeating thought patterns through storytelling and conversation. Steve also leads creative strategy for mobile…
Still Thinking checks in: “Aloha kākou! Continuing to live the good life leaning into the magic, wonder, and awe of the world. I am back dancing with a fresh intention studying hula and pairing this with entering my second year of studying Hawaiian enjoying connecting with these roots. Continuing on as a free-range maker in…
Javier Fuentes-León’s third feature film Las Mejores Familias (The Best Families), an upstairs/downstairs satire about privilege and prejudice, is now available in the U.S. and Canada on HBO and HBO Max, and in all of Latin America on Amazon Prime. His latest writing/directing effort—the miniseries Contigo Capitán—drops worldwide on Netflix this fall. Also, his indie…
Rick Minnich’s latest feature documentary The Strait Guys was released theatrically throughout Germany on June 2. The film tells the story of the 76-year old Czech-born mining engineer George Koumal, who is on a mission to connect the United States and Russia with a 100-kilometer long train tunnel beneath the Bering Strait. In the film,…
Amanda Kik runs an artist-centered nonprofit organization in Northern Michigan. Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology is currently building The Alluvion—a performance space in Traverse City, Michigan, which will act as a listening room for touring and local performers and an incubator for young artists. Crosshatch is also developing an artist residency program on 50…
Dana Marterella is a professor of English and Humanities at Glendale Community College. She is currently also serving as the art gallery director. She studied the intersections between culture and politics and is currently completing her dissertation in the Culture and Performance program at UCLA….
Regan Mozingo writes, “My dance company, Astra Dance Theatre, created a piece over the pandemic to speak to the ravages of the opioid epidemic. Our piece—Cod’ine—is based on the song of the same name by Buffy St. Marie. When we were ready to shoot, all the stages and professional shooting spaces were closed, so we…
Marco Neves is thrilled to continue to see the Pasadena International Film Festival through its ninth year as creative director. For more information, please visit pasadenafilmfestival.org….
Tim Stutts notes, “I’m excited to share that I’ve started in June as design director for Cognixion, an augmented reality/neurotech startup based out of Santa Barbara, California. The company is focused around accessibility. I will be working remotely from the Miami area, where I currently reside with my wife and our two young daughters.”…
Phil Chang writes, “I’m writing to share that I had a solo exhibition at M+B gallery in Los Angeles from March 5 to April 2, 2022, titled Pictures, Pigment and Canvas. I also participated in an online discussion of Brandon Lattu’s exhibition at the California Museum of Photography on Jan. 13, 2022.” Watch on Vimeo…
Tim Beard says, “Since 2017 I have been working as an artist on the WWE 2K game franchise. In March of this year we released WWE 2K22 to critical success. I was recently promoted to the position of senior artist, and I am looking forward to the future of the game.”…
Andrea Lambert’s Ripe Bruised Fruit was published internationally by Rochak Publications. Paperback available on Amazon….
Michelle Roshanzamir checks in, “I love working with creators and leaders to bridge the gap between the vision and business side of the work you do—and give you the freedom to keep doing the work you love! It’s the core of the consulting and grant writing work I do as part of MVR Creative. In…
Dunn notes that she’s “excited for you all to see Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, a live-action/stop-motion hybrid, on which her credit is On-Set VFX Supervisor….
Carroll writes, “My new EP, Voices, will be released on Aug. 19. It can be described as melancholic dance music, inspired by the sounds of UK garage and house. The first single, ‘Heartbeats,’ is out now and has received widespread support, including spins on BBC Radio 1, RTÉ FM Ireland, and international radio.” IG: @marleycarroll…
Martin and Kerstin L. Hovland (Experimental Animation 12) aka Electronic Countermeasures were out in the desert with Danny Elfman to screen produce, animate, direct, and program the visuals for his once-in-a-lifetime performance at Coachella 2022. The show was initially slated for 2020 with Martin and Hovland animating, directing, and designing two songs: “Spiderman” as a…
Natalie Metzger produced a feature documentary called It Ain’t Over that had its world premiere this June at the Tribeca Film Festival. She is also the producer for feature film Under the Lights that won the Fan Favorite Award at this year’s Untold Stories program at the Tribeca Film Festival, and she will go into…
Charles Levin co-authored Times Remembered: The Final Years of the Bill Evans Trio with retired Music faculty member Joe La Barbera. The book is La Barbera’s memoir, telling the story of his 20-month stint with the iconic jazz pianist Evans. It was published in September 2021 by the University of North Texas Press and sold…
Sara Martin notes, “Within the past two years, I was the post production manager on multiple shows (MODOK and Crossing Swords S2 for Hulu, Ultra City Smiths for AMC, Santa Inc for HBO MAX, Robot Chicken S11, and Alabama Jackson S1 for Adult Swim, The Summoner for SyFy, Blark & Sons S2 for Comedy Central)…
Mage Lockwood writes, “I have never been so career-focused in my life. For summer ’22, I have numerous conferences and training that I must attend: ⭐️ 2022 National Association of Music Merchants Show ⭐️ 2022 Association for Popular Music Education Conference ⭐️ Music for Young Children Training in June 2022 ⭐️ Avid Sibelius Certification Training…
Cody Putman writes in, “Hey y’all, I miss the CalArts community! I hope you all are thriving, growing, and exploring. Currently living in the Bay Area working at a bar and a winery. I’ll be moving back to Sonoma County this fall for a winery job and to continue learning to make wine. A totally…
Olivia Hauser released her debut album, Slug Dreams under the moniker “Dolly Dirtbag” in September 2021 on all streaming platforms. She currently also has an online shop where she sells one-off reworked clothing designs and is working on a minicollection of original pieces….
Steve Horowitz, a prolific bassist and composer, has released two albums of new and exciting music. A creator of odd but highly accessible sounds and a diverse and prolific musician, Steve Horowitz is perhaps best known for his original score to the Academy Award-nominated film Super-Size Me. The artist behind 29 albums of mind-bending original…
Hovland and Emery C. Martin (Experimental Animation 06) aka Electronic Countermeasures just wrapped up designing video for Tears for Fears’ 2022 North American/UK tour. It was their first time working with the legendary act and despite a compressed timeline, created a show that seamlessly moved from animation, live-action, and practical visual effects. Hovland, having grown…
Tofte writes in: “I just completed writing/directing my first feature film, and I’m currently in post-production. I have a book coming out in September called ICONS & INSTINCTS. It’s a creative memoir about the life of legendary choreographer/director Vincent Tofte writes in: “I just completed writing/directing my first feature film, and I’m currently in post-production….
Karie Jacobson writes, “Fellow CalArts alum Drew Kowalski and I have created the music for an immersive art installation opening July 9 in Oakland, California: Christiane Cegavske’s Cottonflesh Sacrifice. On July 10 we participated in a Q&A about our music, sound design, and development of character voices for Cegavske’s stop-motion animated feature in progress, Seed…
Whitmore checks in: “2022 has been an eventful year so far! I stepped up my game as a freelance writer and as a public speaker; I was commissioned by American Composers Forum and Translash Media to write op-eds on accessibility in music and T4T relationships respectively, I joined the permanent roster of Stage Raw theater…
