The Malibu Art Association raises funds for Malibu High School scholarships.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu Art Association will hold a weekend fundraiser on June 2 and 3 to benefit “distinguished artistic talent” grown in its own backyard at Malibu High School.
Since 1963, the MAA has raised scholarship funds for worthy artists graduating from Malibu High, with exhibits of members offered for sale and auction. Approximately 15 percent of artists’ sales and 100 percent of the ticket sales go toward the scholarships. This is the first year that a combined fundraiser/art show, featuring the MAA’s artists and the high school students’ work, is taking place. A pastel seascape of Malibu by local artist Bruce Trentham will be raffled at the event, which will be held at The Hamilton and Tracy Park Galleries in Santa Monica.
“The Malibu High School submissions were prepared entirely by the students themselves,” said MAA President Jackie Blue. “From mounting and framing to submitting their work for jurying, we wanted the students to see what it is like in the real world to compete with other artists and prepare their work for public presentation.”
The students’ works were juried by the art, photography and ceramics instructors at Malibu High and the MAA members’ submissions by local artist Ruth San Pietro, who has a studio in Venice, Calif.
San Pietro, a graduate of Hunter College in New York, works in sculptural “paintings” of three-dimensional relief, cast from 100 percent recycled paper fiber, which she makes herself.
“My work supports the re-use of paper fiber, which is good for our planet,” San Pietro said. “It takes a lot of time to create my paintings and I am using this medium to raise awareness of the need to protect not just our natural resources, but our wildlife habitats as well.”
The artist said she was pleased with the diversity she found in the MAA exhibit. “Art must involve you immediately,” San Pietro said passionately. “It must come from the heart and there should be an immediate gratification.”
The theme of this year’s exhibit is “Dreams and Reality,” and San Pietro said she looked for work that “not only was of great quality but was well done within the theme in its essential impact.
“I tried to select pieces that give you a fresh look at the subject,” she continued. “With real art, you never get tired of looking at it. It should always give a new and present impression.”
Arriving in Southern California from New York City, San Pietro has taught for 37 years at Emeritus College, a program affiliated with Santa Monica College designed to serve community seniors through arts and skills development classes.
This follows programs she designed to teach within prisons, in an effort to channel inmate rage and frustration into positive and creative avenues. “Once you teach people to engage, the creative process is unlimited and unlimiting,” San Pietro said. “You realize that it is not just a product you are after, but a step-by-step experience. That opens up so many doors.”
Carla Bowman-Smith is the photography teacher at Malibu High. She said it was easy to select which photos to submit from her student roster. “I chose photos from my students who are really, really into photography,” she said. “They love their work and their works shows that.”
Most of the work she submitted was from students in her advanced placement classes and were shot on film rather than digital SLR. “My advance students have been with me for three years now and they have their own divine interpretation,” Bowman-Smith said proudly. “So I hope that what you will see is their own true personality.”
Her students’ approach to their work is diverse. “One young man is into shooting rock bands and he goes out on his own to secure press credentials so that he can go after that spontaneous, backstage shot, and he plays with long exposures and light,” she said. “But another student I have travels to Europe each year and tends to focus on landscapes that look untouched by humans.”
The contributing Malibu High students and their teachers will be on hand for the MAA opening reception June 2 from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at the Gallery on 1431 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. The fundraiser is open to the public with a $20 donation and valet parking is complimentary.
More information on this event can be obtained by calling Maria Bleyberg at 310.45.4903.