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image003Born in Seattle, U.S.A. in 1952. Attended Whitman College, majoring in mathematics; the University of Washington in mathematics, art history and studio art; University of California, Berkeley. Studied art history with Rainer Crone, painting with Jacob Lawrence and Michael Spafford, sumi-e with George Tsutakawa, Chinese brush with Hsai Chen. Wrote on art for Vanguard, ArtExpress, High Performance, ArtWeek, Bellevue Journal-American, Seattle Voice. Seattle Arts Commission Special Task Force for media, and Special Task Force for educational Institutions in the late 70s. Taught art history, color theory, life painting, and design at Seattle Central Community College for 5 years before leaving Seattle in 1984. Current studio is in Ventura, California, north of Los Angeles.
Website URL: http://erikreel.com/
Sunday, 13 September 2015 00:00

Review: Rubicon’s Copenhagen

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Review
 
Michael Frayn’s play, Copenhagen, is a rare treat for anyone who is remotely interested in finding intellectual stimulation in Ventura. There is great art and then there is important great art. Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen is the latter.
 
 
(L-R) Peter Van Norden, Linda Purl & Brett Rickaby photo credit: Christopher Brown
 
Saturday, 05 September 2015 00:00

REVIEW: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Living Room

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Review

Mad Gravity, the latest zany comedy presented by Flying H Theatre is set "in a strip mall home" [read modest mid-to lower-middle class suburban California home, aka Flying H's strip mall theatre] that has been altered in a certain manner not to be disclosed here. On opening night it played to a fully engaged, enthusiastic audience typical of the young, hip, and savvy audiences Flying H attracts.

Taylor Kasch, Brenda Evans Photo Credit: Jesse Perez

 

Saturday, 18 July 2015 18:12

Review:Twisted Trouble

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Flying H Theatre Delivers Hilarious B-Movie Parody in “Women Behind Bars”
VENTURA – After a prodigious beginning--15 full-length plays in its first 20 months,
exploring some of the most provocative theatre of our times--Flying H Theatre jumps
off into a new direction with Tom Eyen’s Women Behind Bars. Eyen’s play is a loose,
full-steam-ahead comedy based on one the most quality-averse, tasteless, and overexploited
genres in world cinema: the women-in-prison B-flick.
A funny-enough concept in itself, but in the hands of Founder and Artistic Director
Taylor Kasch’s direction and a large, able cast, this production is hilarious.

Wednesday, 03 June 2015 18:41

Review: Other Desert Cities at the Rubicon

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Ventura, CA - For those locals who follow American theatre, it was great good news when the Rubicon announced it was going to produce Other Desert Cities this season.  This is a great play.
 
A fabulously funny, yet serious play.It was a sensation when it opened off-Broadway at the Lincoln Center Theatre and then later re-opened on Broadway in November 2011. And the Rubicon theatre company has delivered a top-notch, not-to-miss production that gives this play everything it deserves.
RodgersHartReview
Ventura, CA – As of this writing, tickets are still available for the remaining concerts in the Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Musical Concert Series at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura. If the remaining concerts are anything like the previous presentations in this series, they will be not-to-miss
events.
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#Throw Back Mondays (originally posted 6/7/13)
Society805 interviews Mara De Luca in conjunction with her exhibition at Luis De Jesus gallery in Culver City.

 

 

Mara De Luca, Elegy II (Night Clouds), 2012,  acrylic and collage on canvas, 96  x84 in, Luis De Jesus LA

 Myron Freedman has been named the new Executive Director of the Museum of Ventura County. Freedman assumed his new duties Monday 8 April and will be directing both the downtown Ventura location near Main and Ventura Avenue and the Agricultural Museum in Santa Paula.  Freedman joins the museum from the Hayward Area Historical Society, where he served as Executive Director since 2008.

Monday, 17 July 2017 07:00

#TBM Pistol Productions: Firing Away

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#Throw Back Mondays (originally posted 10/1/12)
Christina Diaz, 805 visionary, publisher, curator, producer, Renaissance woman at large, has been crossing boundaries and bringing diverse art worlds together across the 805. Her production company, Pistol Productions, has put together a string of strong art shows, primarily in Oxnard and Ventura, bringing together artists and audiences from both towns to the benefit of all. Recent shows curated for the Stoneworks Studios, in the Ventura Avenue art zone, have repeatedly drawn large, enthusiastic, and diverse crowds.

TracyHudakpicSociety805 recently caught up with artist and arts advocate extraordinaire Tracy Hudak between projects to find out what she is thinking and doing these days regarding the arts in the 805. Tracy is noted for having her finger on the pulse and designing effective partnerships between public and private entities and the arts. In an area where cities and organizations often make expensive mistakes, Tracy has excelled in helping people get the most bang for their buck by creating successful programs that excite artists and public alike. Find out what is working and not working in the arts these days and how that relates to the arts here in the 805.

heitmannPro-arts candidates sweep the recent Ventura City Council elections by overwhelming margins, with the top vote count going to the director of an arts non-profit, affirming the ongoing vigor and electoral strength of the arts in Ventura.  It was an instructive test, as the “arts slate” crossed party lines and was not the slate supported by any of the official party

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