For Immediate Release: November 6, 2008
Create:Fixate Celebrates Its Seventh Year With
“Lucky 7”
Saturday, December 6, 2008
LOS ANGELES, CA – Arts organization Create:Fixate will celebrate seven years of art and music at their anniversary event “Lucky 7,” on Saturday, December 6, 2008. The event will take place at the Premiere Events Center where 2 large warehouses will be livened up with artwork and music provided by over 40 top local artists, DJs and musicians. The venue is located at 613 Imperial Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021. The full-blown event runs from 7:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. Admission is $15.00 before 10:00 p.m., and then $20.00 for the remainder of the night. All ages are welcome. For more information please call 310-590-7199 or visit www.createfixate.org.
The evening begins with a preview of the exhibit from 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. There is a $5 suggested donation from 4 – 7pm, and kids twelve-years old and younger are allowed free entry before 7 o’clock. Parents are encouraged to bring the whole family during the preview hours and take advantage of the Kids Kreativity Zone (4 – 7 p.m. only). Overflowing with art supplies, the Zone provides a supervised space where youth can dive into their own expression while parents explore the evening’s exhibit.
Create:Fixate started from its humble beginnings of a private downtown loft art party and has grown over the years into a full-blown arts organization credited for launching the careers of quite a few local artists and musicians. Beyond Create:Fixate’s events, the organization has hosted seminars for its community, participated in various art walks across Los Angeles, produced Create:Fixate Volume 1- a music compilation CD promoting local musicians, has expanded its programs to include community outreach directed towards high school students and at-risk youth through the 8 Sundays High School Program, and continues to offer the Kids Kreativity Zone at each event so families can explore art and their own creativity together. Earlier this year Create:Fixate launched its new website and is currently enhancing its features to continue promoting the emerging talent the organization dearly believes in. Equally important are the patrons! Create:Fixate is grateful for their continued support and is proud to assist in the cultivation of the new art collectors of our generation and music enthusiasts!
Create:Fixate’s Patron Program was also introduced this year and membership is on the up and up! Members enjoy special benefits such as admission discounts, private event entrance, discounts on art purchases, future member-only soirees, plus more depending on what level you join! Lastly, Create:Fixate’s newest program “Best in Show” brings out the art critic in all our event guests and allows patrons to vote for their favorite artists in the show. The top three artists are rewarded with prizes from participating sponsors plus patrons are entered into a drawing as well – it’s a win-win situation! At the ripe young age of 7, Create:Fixate is as ambitious as ever helping to keep Los Angeles thriving with art, music, and everything creative!
“Lucky 7” will highlight many returning artists along with a few new faces such as Rick Wahlstrom, who’s “Vapor” images are digitally captured shapes of motion and color, which inspire one’s imagination and emotion. Most of the raw images must be discovered and then pulled to the surface by enhancing the shapes and tonalities, allowing the eye to effortlessly follow the forms before them. Most recently, he won a first place in the “2008 PX3 Prix de la Photographie” Paris Competition. Farzad Kohan is known for his experimental approach to untraditional mediums like coffee and motor oil drawings. His latest collage series is images produced from newspaper ads and acrylics on canvas. Leyla Akdogan’s work is deeply influenced by mythology, fairytales, and a pathological desire to create spaces that satisfy a certain imaginative stream of consciousness – often creating watercolor worlds for her characters that she herself wishes she could exist in. Ever curious how the art at each C:F show gets made? Spontaneous visions will be free-flowing by live painters Carlos Vera, Michael Pukac, and Max Neutra, who will WOW crowds by giving them a behind-the-scenes peak at their creative process.
Not to be outdone, the Audio Lab portion of the evening boasts an impressive line-up of the city’s very best DJs and musicians. Among them, Chad Rock will be getting patrons pumped up with his unique brand of “Funk Rock,” which has landed him gigs throughout the continental U.S. and Mexico, Puerto Rico, London, Germany, Dublin, and Barcelona. Also performing will be Create:Fixate veteran, Kenneth Graham, known for infinitely combining equal elements of mind and machine, his sound is both clinical and funky. He has produced and remixed for such labels as Ovum, Stickman, and Eukahouse just to name a few. Representing for the next generation of L.A. musicians, Samuel Markus, at the age of 22, will surely be a crowd-pleaser, captivating his audience with his inspired, poetic musings. After opening for Cat Power in March 2008 at the Wiltern, Markus is on the up and up! These are just a small cross-section of all the great musical acts in store December 6th. Check out the Audio Lab section below for the full line-up.
Create:Fixate continues with its community outreach by exhibiting student artwork from Youth Speak Collective (YSC). The non-profit and youth-driven organization was founded in 2005 with the initiative to empower low-income communities in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. The program’s goals aim to foster creativity, civic-mindedness and education. YSC aims to shed the stereotypes associated with “at-risk” youth by helping them grow into resilient and pro-active leaders by creating spaces for them to learn about their community while empowering them to take its future in their own hands. Approximately ten youth participating in creative expression afterschool arts classes at Discovery Charter High School will be making the art pieces. Most of the these youth have artistic aspirations beyond high school and hope to go on to become professional sculptors, actors, painters, designers and street artists. The themes within the paintings will encompass the ideas of hard work, passion, community, luck, success, and other personal ideals associated with the words “Lucky 7.”
Create:Fixate is dedicated to showcasing the work of emerging and mid-career artists in a unique environment. Usually, every three months, Create:Fixate founder Michelle Berc curates, produces and hosts these stunning group art shows that present creative people from around the globe with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. The production team also includes music coordinator Andrea Giardina, technical producer Andre Freimann, and a core team of volunteers and dedicated advisory board members. Awe-inspiring painters, photographers, sculptors, and multi-media artists exhibit alongside an equally impressive array of Los Angeles’ finest DJs and musicians. Each event’s aural artists are poised to create a soundtrack for the night that transforms this from a simple ‘art show’ into the city’s most anticipated Art Event.
PHFE Management Solutions (PHFE) helps to provide a comprehensive administrative and fiscal structure for Create:Fixate’s nonprofit division. PHFE Management Solutions, also known as Public Health Foundation Enterprises, is a 37-year-old 501(c)3 nonprofit organization providing back office support and management services to other nonprofit organizations.
~ Optical Lounge ~
Andre Freimann
Andre Freimann was born in Germany and has been painting professionally for 13 years. At a very young age he was busy creating and building things with his hands. He started working with cut metal and acrylic to create sculpture and large works on canvas in an attempt to capture artwork that has infinite possibilities, infinite choices of color and movement that eventually form and take final shape.
Annabel Ruffell
Annabel Ruffell is a British artist who currently resides in Los Angeles. She has traveled around the world and lived in Germany, Spain, South Africa and Australia. These experiences have inspired her art; the nature she encountered on her travels, it’s beauty, it’s ever-changing form, the light and dark and all the extremes it encompasses. From an early age, Ruffell was fascinated with the power and beauty of color; the blending of shades and textures and the cohesion of all of these elements to create something expressive and unique.
Anne Carmack
Anne Carmack is a Los Angeles based, self-taught painter and digital photographer. Her organic approach to creativity leaves the process up to fate, accidentally allowing her to have something certain to hold onto when the moment has gone and disappeared and all that is left of it is color.
David A. Knudsen
David A. Knudsen (aka DAK) studied architecture in college for two years before switching to a BFA program with an emphasis on photography. Architecture remains one of his most significant photographic subject matters, along with Textures & Patterns and Dynamic Lights.
Although traveling always offers unique experiences and opportunities to shoot, DAK is never at a loss for intriguing subjects. It’s really a matter of just seeing what is before us at any given time. His unique perspective incorporates a certain “wow” factor that viewers sense upon realizing what they’re looking at. His large gallery-wrapped canvases are vibrant and surreal, often being mistaken for paintings.
Erin Allen
While studying photography in New York and San Francisco, Erin Allen discovered that layering her photos with text and texture brought to life an image more satisfying than a photograph alone. When she picked up her first diary at the age of 7, she began a tradition, which she continues to this day. Her daily writing leads her deep into her deepest self, with all of its shadows and light, and this inner world begs to be released visually. Allen’s most complete expression continues to evolve in combining and juxtaposing a variety of images, words, techniques and mediums on one surface – to illustrate who she is, who she is becoming, and who she longs to be.
Farzad Kohan
Farzad Kohan is a Los Angeles based, mixed media artist. His works range from conceptual sculptures and installations to drawings and mixed media paintings. Kohan’s works have been featured in many TV and movie productions and in numerous galleries and shows throughout Southern California. In this show Kohan, whose work is known for its experimental approach to untraditional mediums like coffee and motor oil drawings, will be featuring his latest collage pieces made entirely of newspaper ads and acrylic on canvas.
Garret Suhrie
Garret Suhrie is a Philadelphia trained, Los Angeles based photographer exploring ways to capture a more honest image of the subjects he shoots. When looking through the viewfinder, it often seemed to him a restrictive and inadequate frame. While having the ability to represent life, it is often unable to accurately describe it. By shifting angles and altering perspectives, he strives to show the world with more dimension than the three we routinely acknowledge.
Gus Harper
Gus Harper was born and raised in Santa Monica and graduated from U.C. Santa Barbara in 1995 with a degree in Studio Art. Harper began his career as an artist while studying with Rick Stich in Goleta and for the past eight years, Harper has worked full time as an artist, both in Los Angeles and New York City. His first solo show was in 2000 at Ground Zero in Marina Del Rey and since then he has shown at Don O’Melveny Gallery, Robert’s Art Gallery, Paramount Studios, DFN Gallery, and most recently at Robert Bruno Gallery in New Orleans. Harper currently maintains a studio at the Santa Monica Airport.
Hagop Belian
Hagop Belian was born in Syria, where he lived until his early teens before moving to the United States. His creative process began while studying at UC Santa Cruz where he earned a BA in Mathematics. However, he was pulled by a strong desire to create. He began to experiment with different mediums in order to find an outlet to express his passion. His mixed media work is rooted in the realm of what is felt rather than what is seen, and is an exploration of emotions based on reminiscences of the past. Belian’s work represents rebirth, transformation, truth and change. Currently Belian lives in Los Angeles where he continues to explore his creativity using his intuition and environment as inspiration for his work.
Jeff Bughouse
Jeff Bughouse’s ADD-DIY aesthetic is dark-humored and inspired by 1950′s cartoons, commercial ephemera from the 60′s, pharmaceutical paraphernalia and nothing currently available. He is a mindful jokester – humor beating the bushes and flushing out the mental, social and intrinsic. “Hopefully these are one-panel comics orbiting the dark side of the moon – coming around the corner towards the light melting away in your brain like ice cream with an after-taste of a Hendrix solo.”
Jennifer Perlmutter
From her childhood in rural parts of Napa, California, to living in the high-energy cities of Boston, Manhattan and Los Angeles, artist Jennifer Perlmutter subtly balances the influences of nature and civilization in her work. She combines environmental character with urban features in a complex layering to create a push-pull of color, figure and texture. Her lifelong interest in the creative merging of art and crafts led her to work with gilding, paint and other media as shown in “Projection,” a mixed media painting with marks made utilizing a metal film reel to depict the psychological projecting that takes place when viewing abstract art.
Jessica Seaton
Jessica Seaton is a Los Angeles based, self taught sculptor inspired by the immortality of the soul. Focused primarily on the forgiveness of clay, Seaton’s sculptures pay tribute to all the lives she’s ever lived.
John-Keith Wasson
John-Keith Wasson is a Venice-based artist and filmmaker. His current work is a series of self-proclaimed emotive doodles that explore the rhythm and balance of a nomad’s journey. The mixed media work presents a series of abstract snapshots into this state of flux. The resulting canvases seem to change with each viewing, much like a nomad’s surroundings.
Jorge Oswaldo
The excitement and energy created by Jorge Oswaldo’s work addresses the catastrophic concerns that face us everyday. Using a vector based format, Oswaldo has found a way to stitch the tapestry of his own creations to the familiarity of specific images to create a backdrop for inspiration. The driving force behind his ideas lies at the epicenter of technology, business, and consumerism as he often reconstitutes familiar corporate logos to create an über-cluster of subliminal advertising. His relentless desire for excellent
craftsmanship, carefully chosen colors, and visual seduction are trademark elements that comprise Oswaldo’s style.
Josh Reiss
Josh Reiss has used imagery for expression throughout his entire life. His talents in drawing and computer graphics led to a career spanning over a decade in special effects. Reiss has worked on productions for Pixar and Sony Imageworks, as well as taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Reiss uses photography to examine moments and motion as a refraction of a greater lyricism. His current work involves finding significant personal moments amidst the chaos of a large scale gathering. It is in these ‘intimate spectacles’ where Reiss finds the sublime amongst the fleeting moments and subtle details of human experience.
Over the past four years, Reiss has developed a large online following for his photographs of the underground artistic community in downtown Los Angeles. His event photography is regularly featured in CityBeat, Metromix, and New Angeles Monthly.
Jyll Ethier-Mullen
Jyll Ethier-Mullen is an artist, illustrator, and painter of jovial characters in whimsical lands. The primary land is known as Sickfeet, and it is the contextual world in which her characters adventure and interact with one another. It is a world of joyful tones, organic emotions, reminiscent textures, and inspiring tales. There is a strange familiarity in her work, which reminds the observer of something in the past, while still offering a fresh and hopeful commentary.
Her aspirations include a Sickfeet book, more art shows on the East and West coast, and a plethora of creations varying from magnets to toys. Ethier-Mullen says of her work, “I want to express truths and real life experiences through an unreal world of extraordinary lands and characters.”
Kristen Eppley
Kristen Eppley studied art at the University of Salamanca in Spain and earned her BA in Studio Art from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. This is her first abstract series. She lives and works as an artist and musician in Venice, CA.
Leyla Akdogan
Leyla Akdogan moved to Los Angeles from Virginia in 1999 and received her Bachelor of Arts from USC in 2003. She continued her studies with SCAD in Lacoste, France as well as Art Center in Pasadena. She opened her own gallery/studio in Silver Lake and quickly discovered just how much work is involved in running a gallery and decided to leave this to the professionals so that she could dedicate her time to painting. Akdogan’s work is deeply influenced by mythology, fairytales, and a pathological desire to create spaces that satisfy a certain imaginative stream of consciousness – often creating watercolor worlds for her characters that she herself wishes she could exist in.
Linka Odom
Linka Odom’s interest in photography and imagery stems from a childhood of creek walking and exploration. This sense of adventure continues to influence her images, with a focus on extreme cultures and the surreal. Linka has been exhibiting and photographing for over fifteen years. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Linka Odom and Neil Kohanski will be exhibiting their images together at Lucky 7, juxtaposing two viewpoints of Guatemala. Displaying each of their unique perspectives together is an effort to enable the viewer to see and imagine Guatemala from a more objective and rounded vantage point.
Linley Eathorne
Inspired by the vibrancy and bursting diversity of Los Angeles, this New Zealand-born artist, who came to Los Angeles after two decades in Europe, has evolved from a classical art photography training into an innovative digital artist. Eathorne’s latest body of work is highly abstract and the themes are clearly metaphysical. She sees life as a constant flux and flow, a perpetual process of change and transformation. Oscillating between energy and subtlety, Earthorne uses strong colors in her images, which occupy the space where the human condition and its difficulties are balanced by the joyful and mysterious elements of existence. Her archival pieces are in limited edition runs of five or ten.
Mark Acetelli
Mark Acetelli is a Los Angeles based painter and photographer. His energetic, bold and introspective works are held in many private and corporate collections throughout the United States and Europe. He just has completed a new series of paintings and photography that will be shown at Create Fixates 7th annual show.
CHO aka Marshall Stokes
Marshall Stokes (CHO) was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a small factory town, in 1976. Like most artists, he started drawing young. After going to school in Boston for Architecture, he moved west, spending time in Lake Tahoe and Arcata, CA before settling in Portland, OR, where he currently resides. Stokes has been burning images into wood since 1998 and has explored themes including Japanese tattoo design and mythology, death, life, and the physical environment. While in Arcata, he became friends with the Empire Squared collective, and is still a satellite member. When not making art, Stokes designs houses, and is presently going to school for structural engineering at Portland State University.
Max Neutra
Max Neutra has been gaining recognition as one of the premier live painters in the Los Angeles area. After participating in his first live painting experiences onstage with various bands, he has been invited to participate in many large events such as the X-Games and Sunset Junction, as well as regular art shows all over the Southern California area. With a wild and frenetic painting style, Neutra quickly creates images that are bold and honest. His work has been described as, “A treat for the eye and mind,” “A cross between comics and fine art,” and “Definitely an amazing experience to watch.” Neutra describes his work as “Records of events, like rooms where very human acts of passion took place leaving stains on the wallpaper. You might be able to piece together what happened from the clues left behind, but only I know what really happened. I wasn’t merely a witness, I was the provocateur. I get to keep the experiences, you can keep the pictures.”
Michael Gullberg
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” Frank Lloyd Wright.
Michael Gullberg has held a fascination with wood for most of his life. It started early at age 3, when his father made him a set of building blocks out of scrap wood to play with. Then at age 12, he built a fort in his backyard out of wood collected from the local lumberyard’s scrap pile.
After learning to paint for the past eighteen years and learning how to work wood for the past six, Gullberg is finding ways of combining the emotional expressiveness of paint with the sculptural qualities of wood. He is inspired everyday by the strength and beauty of trees, and while he works with wood he feels as if he is in the presence of a wise, old soul. With his art, Gullberg attempts to pay homage to that soul, that wisdom and that beauty.
Michael Pukac
Michael Pukac (poo-khash) is a Fine Artist who has painted for over 17 years focusing in acrylic and mastering a new technique involving reflective layering with metallic and reflective paints. Pukac was born on the gulf coast of Alabama and grew up in the swamps. He graduated from the Ringling School of Art and Design in 2003 in Sarasota , FL with a BFA focusing on painting. Thereafter, he has made painting a full time gig, traveling the country, making a living off of his fine art, murals, and illustrations. In the last 5 years, Pukac has co-founded three not-for-profit small art organizations, has hosted and curated art events, art walks, and produced other live performances around the country. He has participated in over three dozen art shows, starting from the age of 19, with close to a dozen solo exhibitions. These recent endeavors have brought him to Long Beach , CA where he now resides and continues to show his work and participate in live painting performances throughout Southern California.
Neil Kohanski
Neil Kohanski’s passion for photography derives from an abundant curiosity for life. He has an innate interest in cultural taboos such as body modification, suspension, revolution and political dissonance. These forms of expression have influenced his personal work for a number of years. The images to be exhibited at Create:Fixate continue to explore these ideas with the influence of traveling within a foreign culture. Neil has been exhibiting over the last six years. He currently works and resides in Los Angeles.
Rebecca Johnson
Rebecca Johnson was born and raised in Los Angeles where she runs an art and design business, Bughouse, with her husband. Her medium is chosen by what is most appropriate for the subject and mood of a particular piece, ranging from painting to mixed media to photography. Her subject matter often has a dark comedic sensibility usually siding with an underdog. The work is a reminder that inspiration is everywhere, directly underfoot and right under your nose – don’t be afraid of the dark, allow curiosity to kill the cat, seek out the odd and abandoned, have at least one bad habit and fight for your beliefs.
Rick Wahlstrom
Rick Wahlstrom is a well-known photographer based in San Francisco. His work has been recognized by award competitions such as, The Clios’, Addys’, Communication Arts,’ and has been displayed on more than one occasion at the Epcot Center at Disney World. Most recently, he won a first place in the “2008 PX3 Prix de la Photographie” Paris Competition with a portion of his series titled, “Vapor”.
His “Vapor” images are digitally captured shapes of motion and color, which inspire one’s imagination and emotion. Most of the raw images must be discovered and then pulled to the surface by enhancing the shapes and tonalities, allowing the eye to effortlessly follow the forms before them. In doing this, Wahlstrom tries to achieve the impossible, an ephemeral reality.
Tony Hong
Tony Hong is an artist enamored by all things rhythmic. His current series, “Blackwater,” highlights the most simple and overlooked patterns found in nature in hopes to inspire an appreciation for the world we live in. His preoccupation with every detail is conducive to the finest points of the most technical of ink pens. Tony Hong’s commitment to ink also lies in the obsessive challenge to build each line with new lines while never looking back nor editing.
~ Live Painting ~
Carlos Vera
Carlos Raphael Vera was born in Los Angeles, California on May 3rd 1973. He spent his childhood in Los Angeles before he moved to Boston in 1992 to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. After leaving the Museum school Carlos spent time in New York City and Louisville, Kentucky before returning to Los Angeles in 1996 to pursue a career in the art world. He began work in the film industry as a conceptual illustrator, which helped further establish his craft. Carlos continued to work on many group, as well as solo, art exhibits, which included his live painting shows. He opened an art gallery in North Hollywood in 2000 and in 2001 utilized the gallery as a springboard for a youth based entrepreneurship program in the arts (California Artists for Humanity). Carlos is currently working as a designer, fine artist, and an aggressive live painter. When asked the question, “What is your inspiration?” Carlos’ answer is…”all of you”.
Max Neutra
See Above
Michael Pukac
See Above
~ Installation ~
Ted Werth
Ted Werth likes to smile. He also likes happy art. So now he makes happy, smile-shaped art.
Derek Michael and Eric Hanson
The “Laser Whale” is a sculpture made from fiber optic Plexiglas, metal rods and RGB LEDs from the master minds of Derek Michael and Eric Hanson. The piece was built for the LA Arobridum and the Friendly Integration dance party, and will now make its appearance at Create:Fixate’s December show.
~ Video Projection ~
VJ Fader
VJ Fader visualizes music through live video mixing and manipulating of film, original animation and generative visualizers, thus transforming any space into an “audio-visual” environment. He’s the creator of popular VJ application AVmixer Pro and is the resident VJ at ResBox, a monthly experimental music showcase.
~ Featured Student Artwork ~
Youth Speak Collective
Youth Speak Collective (YSC), a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2005, is a youth-driven initiative empowering low-income communities in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. YSC provides area youth with the skills necessary to pursue higher education and create strong communities. The goal of Youth Speak Collective programs is to incorporate youth in the revitalization of their community, while empowering them to take its future in their own hands. Youth Speak Collective works to address these conditions by providing adaptive programs and services for youth and adults to actively promote social change. Dedicated to fostering creativity, civic-mindedness and education in low-income youth in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, YSC also aims to shed the stereotypes associated with “at-risk” youth by helping them grow into resilient and pro-active leaders
Students from Youth Speak Collective will create original artwork based upon a personal (re)interpretation of the show’s theme. The student’s work will encompass ideas of hard work, passion, community, luck, success, and other personal ideals associated with the words “Lucky 7.”
~ Fashion and Jewelry ~
Brooke Benson Designs
Brooke Benson is an emerging designer working and living in Venice, CA. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in Theater her creativity began to extend to other art forms. Her jewelry designs are inspired by her extensive travels throughout Southeast Asia, Nepal and the Middle East. There is a distinct style that is captured in the designs, revealing a uniquely raw, but refined style. Using spiritual symbols, gold, wood and semi-precious stones, her pieces are created to ignite the divine creative energy within each of us and enhance our awareness to the beauty that lies within. Each one of these energetic adornments carries a special essence that is felt by all who wear it. Recently written up in “Daily Candy” her creations, “blend the earthy with the ethereal.”
De La Luna Designs
De La Luna Designs is an expression of individuality and a celebration of life and the journey we travel through. The creative process begins with finding unique materials, which are combined to make a functional, one-of-a-kind piece of art. “This is the art of redesign.” The materials range from handbags, wallets, luggage, leather jackets, coats, fabrics and anything else that can be used creatively. De La Luna Designs strives to use recycled, second-hand clothing and fabrics, giving them a new life. This makes a contribution to the preservation of our planet.
Dugshop
Life’s too short for boring baths! Dugshop is a small collective of artists who specialize in vegan-friendly, novelty soaps, especially soap-on-a-rope, as well as other fun bath and body care products. Organic and wild-crafted ingredients are used wherever possible, and all soaps are free of detergents and chemical surfactants. If you’re looking to get clean, be kind to the environment, and smile simultaneously, Dugshop’s the clear choice!
Search+ResQ
Ando Pndlian, a graduate from Cal Poly Pomona in Architecture, has worked in his profession for 8+ years, receiving several design awards and establishing a multi-disciplinary design studio, Search+ResQ, as a clear and direct expression of examining design ideas.
The artist’s work reflects a continual interest in the union between research, design and culture. The apparel collection, ‘homeless/hopeful’ is inspired by the voices of individuals who live on the streets of Los Angeles. By sharing these personal stories through fashion and art, Ando hopes to inspire a dialogue leading to a solution to reach and teach others in ways to improve the existing human (homeless) condition. Search+ResQ donates to leading non-profit organizations, advocacy and humanitarian organizations.
Simone Schulz Designs
Simone Schulz designs clothes and accessories that are inspired by nature, imagination, and the people around her. Her hands connect to the soul of the materials and create translations, sometimes beauty grows from imperfection. She loves sustainable and recycled elements.
“As the eye travels over an outfit, we capture something about that person, an expression, communicating visually what we are about, setting the stage for ourselves.”
Soy’-Ka Designs
Natalie Sojka found her first elements of inspiration for this line at an antique shop in rural Pennsylvania. After seeing the unique blend of metal shapes and textures she was inspired to produce her current line of jewelry. With this line her goal is to give her clients something unique, authentic, and edgy to wear, as well as a conversation starter.
Sunny Rising Leather
Sunny Rising Leather is a love letter to the glorious art found in nature. Vegetable-tanned leather is hand-cut and tooled into the shape and essence of flora and fauna. Tooled pieces are mixed with gemstones (turquoise and boulder opal are favorites) and hand-stamped blessings using sterling silver and brass. The resulting wearable art elicits strong feelings of covetousness and calm, simultaneously.
YevArts Handmade Jewelry
Designer YevArts’ works have many influences fusing industrial and ethnic, bold and dainty, simple and complex shapes in a brave, modern statement. It is an exquisite range, perfect for the woman with individual style. All the pieces are unique, one of a kind, and handcrafted with the finest materials available including high-quality, untreated stones and metals that often cannot be found again. Therefore, once the pieces are out of our hands they can only be closely replicated, but not exactly duplicated.
~ Audio Lab ~
Aime (Room 208)
Fran Dominguez a.k.a. “Aime” composes, mixes and produces music for different mediums ranging from film, television, documentaries, video games, online broadcasts and even art installations and theater performances. Borrowing from genres of Electronica, Classical, Avant-Garde, Jazz, Dance and Rock, Dominguez creates a unique mix of sound and vision.
www.myspace.com/aimespace
AquaVee (MissDreamedia, Hale, C:F)
Andrea Giardina aka DJ AquaVee has been DJing since 1992. After inspirations by
such LA clubs as Flammable Liquid and Sunday Love, her passion for house music grew. Many know her from her BeatNonStop records days, where she was a music buyer from Oct. 1999 – 2002. Giardina has been the Music Coordinator for Create:Fixate since day one. Nowadays you can hear her spinning what some might call “Deep Tech,” a combination of house and techno. With a dash of electro and a splash of good vibrations, AquaVee always surprises.
www.myspace.com/missdreamedia // www.djaquavee.com
Chad Rock (L.A.B.A)
Since beginning his DJ career at the age of 18, Chad Rock’s music is the medium he uses to speak to the world and keep its people rocking. His style is self categorized “Funk Rock”: a next generation hybrid of booty-shakin’ funk blended with warehouse-rockin’ breakbeats. U.S. gigs have included LA, SF, Austin, NYC, Baltimore, and Miami, and he’s toured beyond the U.S. to Mexico, Puerto Rico, London, Germany, Dublin, and Barcelona. When in Los Angeles, Rock plays for LABA, Space Island, The Do Lab and Insomniac and is the head music buyer at Grooveriders. Major 2008 gigs included a tour in Reno/Lake Tahoe, Coachella, Lightning in a Bottle, Temple of Breaks and the Nocturnal After Party for Insomniac. With bags packed with skills and a mind filled with devotion, he is definitely one to watch in the days to come.
www.myspace.com/chadrockone
Kenneth Graham (Ovum, Plastic City, AV8, Immigrant, Controlteam)
Always infinitely combining equal elements of mind and machine, Kenneth Graham’s sound is both clinical and funky. It’s no surprise that since his introduction to electronic music in 1984, Graham has gone on to become one of the most influential dance music producers, and was named “Next 100″ for 2000 in URB Magazine. But Graham’s music exceeds the limitations of restrictive titles; it is simply good music. He has produced and remixed for such labels as Ovum, Stickman, and Eukahouse just to name a few. His music has also been licensed to various mixed CDs including Peace Division & G-Pal. Graham is primarily driven by a desire to create timeless moments and the diversity of his sound is simply a reflection of that same desire. Booked from Chile to Switzerland, his live performances are always a treat. This producer’s talent inspires spontaneous creative activity and intense body movement, so beware.
www.myspace.com/djkennethgraham // www.halemirco.com
Le Femme Digitale
With over 10 years in the music industry, Le Femme Digitale (Alicia) is able to bring her music alive while radiating the energy and soul to take her listeners through an unforgettable audio voyage. Trained as a pianist, violinist and also on the clarinet and drums, her education was strongly influenced by classical music. After graduating in an accelerated program with a degree in fashion design, Alicia began to pursue her music career on a full time basis. As a resident DJ at Hollywood hotspots such as Spundae LA, Le Femme Digitale teamed up with Groove Radio’s DJ Holly Adams and DJ Sheila where they developed the highly successful “Chicks In The Mix” monthlies-which featured an all female House DJ line-up. With a residency at El Divino, Ibiza, she was acknowledged as a leading female resident DJ.
Mexican Dubweiser (GalleryTen)
Hailing from Monterrey, Mexico and touching down in Los Angeles as one of the city’s most promising DJs, artists, photographers, producers, designers, journalists and promoters. Mexican Dubweiser, a former member of the Sistema Local Sound Crew, is known for putting on some of the best after-hours events and parties in downtown Los Angeles. His unique worldwide Dub Latin sound has taken him to share the decks with DJ Krush, DJ Vadim, Manu Chao, Federico Aubele and many more.
www.myspace.com/mexicandubwisermuzik
Nalepa (Bass Science, Native State)
LA-based electronic musician, multimedia artist and mad scientist collector Steve Nalepa combines deep dub bass, glitchy breaks, bio-acoustic atmospheres and beautiful sinewave melodies to create his patented brand of ambient glitch dub. Nalepa has performed at festivals around the world, produced tracks with such legends as Bill Laswell and Pharoah Sanders and was featured in the prestigious Visionaire 53: Sound. When he’s not in the lab or rocking dance floors together with Tokyo-based MattB as Bass Science, Nalepa can be found teaching Ableton Live, ProTools and Reason to his students at Chapman University Conservatory of Music.
www.myspace.com/nalepa
Samuel Markus
A new generation has found their poet/muse in the songs and voice of Samuel Markus—a truth-teller who articulates the hope buried beneath the despair of the human condition. He has the rare gift of hitting a universal nerve that transcends his age of 22. Markus started a band called “The Only Ones” and started performing in the Los Angeles area in notable clubs such as Hotel Café – and in March of 2008 opened for Cat Power at the Wiltern Theatre to a sold out audience.
www.samuelmarkus.com
S.O.U.L.-O (West Coast Unknown Productions)
S.O.U.L.-O’s specialty is music and the art of making it. He has been emceeing for 17 years, DJing for 16, and producing for 12. With a no-limit-mixing mind state, his grooves seem to cross-pollinate into various genres. Whether incorporating the rarest of Jazz grooves to the funkiest Afro or Brazilian beats, to the illest original Hip-Hop or Jungle remixes, S.O.U.L.-O gives the people not only an auditory listening treat but keeps the dance floor moving as well.
http://www.myspace.com/soulovs
Viktor Carrillo (Droid Behavior/Vibration Institute/S.A.G.E)
Viktor Carrillo is a Los Angeles-based techno DJ and musician who has been immersed in the local electronic music scene since its heyday in the 1990s. He is a well-known DJ in LA and has been performing and promoting his own events for more than a decade. A member of the Droid Behavior crew, he has performed at many Droid events including legendary sets at their ‘Black + Silver Open Air’ desert throw down, ‘Blue + Silver Open Air’ beach shindig and ‘Interface 16.0′ warehouse event. He has also been working with his bandmates, John von Seggern and Matt Piper, from End of Daze, through Vibration Institute Music to bring a new flavor of technology to his tech-house sound. Carrillo is a graduate of the Recording Engineering program at the Musician’s Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, and his resume includes a 6-year stint as the manager of Higher Source Records, helping source music for cream-of-the-crop LA DJs. Carrillo currently works for Berlin-based music software powerhouse Native Instruments in their LA office.
~ Live Tango ~
Mitra Martin & Stefan Fabry
In 2003, Stefan Fabry saw Mitra Martin dancing the Tango on the street in Santa Monica and made the decision to refocus his career as a contemporary choreographer to include Argentine Tango. Martin’s decade-long immersion in Tango built on her own extensive experience in performing arts at Princeton University has led her over the years to work with some of the finest and subtlest Tango dancers in the US. Together, Martin and Fabry have developed an inspired partnership dedicated to taking the Tango into new spaces while maintaining deep respect for its roots. Their collaborations make the power and depth of the Tango experience real for audiences. Their drive to share the Tango has led them to develop a vibrant community of dancers in West LA, through The Global Tango Mar Vista Center for Tango Arts & Extremes.
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For more information, images or to set up interviews please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Hasty at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.
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