Create:Fixate Presents
Serendipity
At Lot 613 in Downtown Los Angeles
Saturday, May 17, 2014

LOS ANGELES, CA – April 25,2014
 – Arts organization Create:Fixate (C:F) presents Serendipity on Saturday, May 17, 2014 at Lot 613 in Downtown Los Angeles. For over a decade, C:F has established its unique signature blend of presenting vibrant visual art and music in an immersive cultural experience. These one-night-only events feature top emerging talent from around the globe, with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. The excitement begins at 4:00pm with a three-hour gallery preview. The main event starts at 7:00pm and closes at 2:00am. Admission is $15.00 before 9:00pm and $20.00 for the remainder of the night. Lot 613 is located at 613 Imperial St., Los Angeles, CA 90021. For more information, including an image gallery of participating artists’ works, please visit www.createfixate.com.

The evening begins with a preview of the exhibit from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. There is a $5 suggested donation during this period, however, children twelve-years old and younger are allowed free entry. Parents are encouraged to bring the whole family during the preview hours and take advantage of the Kids Kreativity Zone. Overflowing with art supplies, the Zone provides a supervised space where youth can dive into their own expression while parents explore the exhibit. While all ages are welcome during the preview, attendees must be at least 21 years old to enter after 7:00pm.

Curator and event producer Michelle Berc is motivated to inspire the community through creativity and each event’s theme is her playground to do so. The current theme, “Serendipity,” engages that precise moment when intention and inspiration collide, manifesting in the act of making art.

Proceeds from the exhibit benefit C:F’s nonprofit programs “Create:Fixate Exhibits” and “Young Creatives,” a program encouraging at-risk youth to express themselves through creativity.

Optical Lounge highlights include:

Rob Grad –
 The visuals in Rob Grad’s art pieces are inspired by epiphany-like moments as he takes in the surroundings of his daily ventures. His work tends to be heavily layered with paint and photography, often blended with common materials such as household items, fabric or industrial scraps.

Annie Terrazzo –
 Having graduated from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Annie Terrazzo began her career in trash portraiture, mostly focusing on using found objects, newspapers and magazines. Terrazzo notes, “There is great beauty to be found. Sometimes you have to go through the trash to find it.”

Gunner Johnson –
 Johnson passionately creates metal sculptures, jewelry and leather work that achieves outstanding depth and character.

Jules Muck –
 Jules Muck started doing graffiti in Europe and Great Britain almost twenty years ago. She began bombing in New York in the late ‘90s. Four years ago Muck moved to Los Angeles. Her murals are prominent all over the Venice Beach area and her work has already been shown in several local galleries. She’ll be painting live and exhibiting.

The Audio Lab, otherwise known as the music portion of the evening, completes Create:Fixate’s vision. Musical highlights for the evening include:

Garth Trinidad – 
Garth Trinidad is an award winning radio personality, DJ, and culture critic. Heard most weeknights on NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9fm, he’ll be playing his critically acclaimed international mix of music.

George Sarah –
 Electronic composer and multi-instrumentalist George Sarah has garnered much acclaim for his unique brand of electronic chamber music over the past almost three decades. Sarah performs his original compositions from a bank of synthesizers and electronic rhythms alongside live string musicians, bridging the normally discrete musical worlds of electronic and classical.

Echocell –
 Echocell’s sound is a combination of trip-hop and synth-pop. Think Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sia and Goldfrapp sharing a cup of Turkish coffee.

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Create:Fixate is an arts organization that has been serving the emerging art and music community of Los Angeles for over a decade. The organization is best known for its signature blend of art and music, along with thousands of art lovers and partygoers in massive, and, at times, intimate warehouse locations and alternative spaces on a quarterly basis. Founder Michelle Berc curates, produces, and hosts these ambitious group art shows that present creative beings from around the globe, with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. The production team also includes Music Coordinator Andrea Giardina, 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’s 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 one of the city’s most anticipated art events.

As part of Create:Fixate’s community outreach efforts, the organization continues to empower youth through art with its Young Creatives program. C:F has now been working with A Place Called Home (APCH) for two years. This organization serves at-risk youth through after school activities. Serendipity will feature student artwork from this program.

APCH is a safe haven in South Los Angeles where underserved youth are empowered to take ownership of the quality and direction of their lives through programs in education, arts, and well being; and are inspired to make a meaningful difference in their community and the world. www.apch.org

Optical Lounge

Annie Terrazzo
Annie Terrazzo grew up in Breckenridge, Colorado where she spent most of her time writing plays on a 1970’s typewriter, watching old movies and dreaming of Paris. Terrazzo grew up around art with a plein air and silversmith family who taught her how to make beautiful things. While, in sharp contrast, her mother (a schizophrenic porn actress) and her father (a formula one race car driver) created nothing but chaos.

After Terrazzo graduated from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, she began her career in trash portraiture, mostly focusing on using found objects, newspapers and magazines. Terrazzo enjoys creating work that lets the viewer not only see it visually but read it as well.

Terrazzo’s statement says as much about her work as it does about herself. “There is great beauty to be found. Sometimes you have to go through the trash to find it.”

Arpi Agdere
Artist Arpi Agdere is interested in the breakdown of an image and the entropic nature of photographs. Agdere has also explored the idea of disintegration and chance operations with imagery. It is very important to Agdere that while distorting her images she still retains the essence of her subject.

Agdere is interested in understanding how an image is made, what it means, and the difference between making and destroying that image. Agdere is an alchemist, and will work relentlessly to find out what certain combinations and methods will produce.

Arpi Agdere is currently working and living in Los Angeles, CA.

Curtis Brooks
Curtis Brooks is a Southern California native and self-taught artist living in Santa Monica. A carpenter and house painter by trade, Brooks’ work has evolved out of his lifetime of experience in the construction industry.

Brooks’ wood sculptures and paintings, each with their own unique visible history, are inspired by and created with the ‘leftover’ paint, paint sticks, and scraps of wood used in his work as a home improvement contractor.

Dave Bondi
In addition to his award-winning animation and designer toy work, Dave Bondi also creates self-described “Pop Action Sculpture” – elaborate constructions of brightly colored lines in plastic and polyurethane foam.

Bondi’s process-based sculpture attempts to capture the spontaneity and energy of abstract expressionism in three-dimensional form.

Elizabeth Zaikowski
Elizabeth Zaikowski is a Southern California artist and graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in Art Education. Zaikowski has taught and shown art at many locations in Southern California including the Sawdust Festival.

Zaikowski’s work portrays themes that originate in the spiritual character of the mandala and the world of magical fantasy and illusion. Connection and participation with nature’s cosmic world order are inherent themes in much of Zaikowski’s painting and communication. Her paintings are a reflection of the symmetrical nature of the universe. Through her art, she strives to create more balance in our sometimes chaotic world. Zaikowski believes that art enriches our lives and spirits.

Gunner Johnson
Gunner Johnson is an artist of great instincts when it comes to finding beauty in the dark, ugly and strange. This natural talent has led him to his passion of creating metal sculptures, jewelry and leather work that achieves outstanding depth and character. Gunner’s portfolio consists of pieces conjured in his highly original imagination with inspirations ranging from mystical creatures to a beloved old friend, a dog named “Charlee.” Many of his intricate works are produced from reused materials that he has collected himself, directed into their destined forms and slowly brought to life. Gunner reflects a certain spiritual intensity into his art that never fails to make someone stop and wonder.

Jules Muck
(see bio under “Live Painters”)

Laure Cuvillier
Laure Cuvillier is a visual artist currently residing in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Paris, France, she moved to New York to study art at Hunter College and the Arts Students League. She later relocated to San Francisco where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking at the California College of Arts.

 Cuvillier’s extensive fine arts background includes illustration, etching, lithography, silkscreen, woodcutting, figure drawing, painting, ceramics, and mixed media.
 She has exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Paris.

Lola Mitchell
Fine art portrait photographer Lola Mitchell utilizes textures and digital painting to create stories through images. Heavy manipulation through digital editing and movement are elements found throughout Mitchell’s work. Her photography is best described as feminine, painterly and dreamlike.

Maxwell Coppola
Maxwell Coppola’s work mixes youthful innocence with childish imagery to create ironic works of art. Coppola’s naive style combined with his nostalgic subject matter and sense of humor form something truly unique. His paintings depict common settings and relatable events, but with a twist. Coppola uses his paintings to establish just a snapshot of a particular story, where the full interpretation is unique to the viewer. He also creates ironic artwork out of school supplies, candy, blocks and toys among other nostalgic items. Coppola’s works are saturated with obviousness, mental inertia, clichés, and bad jokes.

Coppola received a minor in Art and Design from Northeastern University in Boston, MA in 2011. In July 2010, Coppola studied abroad at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland with Northeastern University under the direction of artists Mira Cantor and Sophia Ainslee. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Coppola is currently a resident of Los Angeles, California.

Patrick McPheron
Patrick McPheron is a Los Angeles-based artist. McPheron’s work is a retro-future universe made up of intriguing architecture, beautiful humans, and exquisite aliens all bathed in its eternal aurora. McPheron is currently working on a solo show of sci-fi inspired photography, which will exhibit later this year.

Robert Grad
Robert Grad is a multidisciplinary artist and musician currently living and working in Los Angeles, California. In his work, Grad blends various artistic mediums to express his exploration of how we constantly grow, change and move through life. This personal journey stems from his experience in the music industry, getting his first record deal with RCA Records fresh out of high school. Grad’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, and he has also received commissions for individuals and corporations. His most recent commission, “SF” hangs in the San Francisco International Airport. Grad was also a TEDx speaker in Culver City, California.

Saúl Escobar
Saúl Escobar started his artistic expression in Mexico City doing videos and installations. In 2005, Escobar moved to Los Angeles where he explores new techniques using recycled materials to create diverse objects.

Sheila King
Sheila King is a Los Angeles based artist originally from Chicago, IL. King graduated from the  Art Institute of Chicago with a double BFA in Painting and Fashion Design. From early on, both fields of interest, along with an intrigue of pop culture, highly influenced her various series of work. These influences can be seen in the body of work for this presentation at Create:Fixate.

Travis Mullen
Travis Mullen never thought his wild Arizona upbringing and childhood obsession with drawing wildlife would influence his art well into his thirties. In 2011, his original talent was awakened and returned with a vengeance after a 14-year hiatus from visual art. Capturing the majesty of wildlife, Mullen wrestles and scrapes through the layers of physicality and distress found in street art. His mixed media includes graphite, charcoal, acrylic, spray-paint/stencil, encaustic (beeswax), wheat-paste, fire, and oil pastels on wood.

Live Painters:

Jules Muck
Jules Muck started doing graffiti in Europe and Great Britain almost twenty years ago. Muck began bombing in New York in the late ‘90s where she was discovered by Lady Pink who took her on as an apprentice for the next 4 years.

At age 20 she was the first female graffiti artist invited to paint “the Wall Of Fame” at 106th and Park Avenue in Harlem. Under her tag name “Muck” she has shown at Tokyo Big Site, the Bronx Museum of Art, the Weisman Museum in Minneapolis, and the Fuse Gallery in New York. She has been published in Ganz’s Graffiti Women, Cey Adam’s Definitions, and both of the Murrays’ books Burning New York and Broken Windows.

Since moving to LA almost four years ago and adding her first name to the equation, Jules Muck has shown at The Pacific Design Center and Rivera Gallery in Hollywood. Her murals are prominent all over the Venice Beach area, where she lives and has her studio. Her works include a mural on Gelina Restaurant featured in Food & Wine Magazine and the Main St Lindsay Lohan portrait that received a large amount of press including a spotlight on Access Hollywood and an article in Newsweek’s The Daily Beast.

Muck is currently exhibiting new works at Lab Art Gallery in Hollywood. This summer, along with exhibiting at the Laughing Goat in Boulder, Jules Muck is showing in Pasadena California and at Phantom Gallery in St. Louis.

Johnie Thornton
Johnie Thornton was born and raised in Southern California and is currently living and working as an artist in Los Angeles. Thornton’s body of work ranges from medium format analog photography to photo realistic, pop, and abstract painting. His work is largely influenced by sociology, geometry, architecture, and their relationship to nature.

As a self-taught artist, Thornton draws inspiration from experience and environment. Thornton has developed a unique painting style while experimenting with many different mediums both traditional and unconventional. His current work is a combination of medium format analog photography, for which he uses a chemical ink-transfer printing technique, and acrylic/oil paints on cradled birch canvas.

Thornton’s work has shown at multiple galleries, events, and fairs in Southern and Northern California. His paintings and photographs are a part of several collections, both UK and US. His work and commissions have appeared in numerous television shows, movies and commercials.

Fashion / Jewelry Designers:

3rd Season – Alycia & Mabel
3rd Season specializes in hand made textiles and fine goods. The designs of Alycia and Mabel are inspired by classic hand dying and printing techniques. These techniques are combined with contemporary imagery and applied to timeless silhouettes in fashion.

Adina Mills Designhouse
Adina Mills Designhouse is a woman/artist owned and operated adventure. For the past ten years Mills’ collections have blurred the lines between art and fashion and have opened many eyes to the beautiful juxtaposition that can happen between urban and organic worlds. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mills has been rockin’ the road in her vintage motor home for the past three years where she gains her inspiration from city and nature alike. Every rock, found object, and mineral is unique and specifically selected to be hand sculpted and painted by Mills. To this day, every single Adina Mills Designhouse piece is visualized and executed by Mills herself. She continues to expand the knowledge of her work daily… one rock at a time!

Delevo
Deborah Leigh Vogt (DeLeVo) describes herself as a creative alchemist. With Vogt’s jewelry she aims to create timeless beauty to adorn women and men, and in effect, allow them to express their creative selves more powerfully. In addition, the stones and combinations of stones that are used possess healing properties and super powers to enhance the wearer’s connection to the ethereal, spiritual realm. Using the highest quality materials, gemstones, sterling silver, 24 karat gold and gold plate, Delevo creates spectacular one of a kind pieces for special occasions, as well as the classic go-to pieces to dress up everyday wear. Currently Vogt creates mostly beaded pieces using gemstones, sterling silver, gold, copper, leather, and silk. Every item sold supports Vogt’s music, both her band, Early Bird Circus, and her solo project, delevo.

Fahmina
Topanga Eco designer Fahmina creates heart-throbbing designs from selvage leather.

Lioness Jewelry – Designs by Christine Loeffen
For the last 7-years Lioness Jewelry has designed pieces that are soulfully inspired, meticulously created, and delightfully crafted. Designer and creator, Christine Loeffen, is motivated by bold colors and ethnic designs.  In addition to being a native of Los Angeles, Leoffen is an artist, educator, activist, mother, and wife.  Loeffens love for jewelry came at an early age and was followed by her passion for handcrafting jewelry at age 11. Leoffen loves the spice of variety and uses stones, crystals, beads, shells, fabric, leather, feathers, silver, copper, gold, and precious metals in her work.

Loeffen specializes in the following techniques: wire wrapping, crocheting, macramé, unique coloring, hammering, sawing, cutting, sanding, polishing, and soldering. Lioness Jewelry creates eye-catching designs, which are urban, tribal, chic and handmade with exceptional quality. When Loeffen isn’t designing, she is enhancing the lives of youth and families in social and educational services.

MAES Jewelry & Accessories
MAES Jewelry & Accessories presents new ways to experience jewelry design. Wrought from carved cuttlebone, sculpted wax, and repurposed found objects, MAES handcrafted lines of gold and silver rings, necklaces, earrings, bangles, belt buckles, and even cuff links are innovative and beautifully textured.

Moon Temple Dreaming by Jason Levitt
Jason Levitt, a recent transplant to LA’s westside, is the owner and CDO (Chief Dreaming Officer) of Moon Temple Dreaming. For more than 20 years Levitt has shared a passion for teaching dreaming as a skill-set with friends, family, and clients alike. The benefits, blooming from a renewed relationship with their dreaming, run the gamut from vastly improved dream recall, nightmare resolution, unleashed intuition, and witnessing dream work having physical-world results. Through coaching (personal and business), workshops, and an herbal blend of his own design sold as Dream Tea & Dream Eye Pillows (they work!), he seeks to help you dream it real. Where night dreams meet life dreams, Moon Temple Dreaming.

Audio Lab                                          

Charles Guilterre (House of Fronds)
LA’s Charles Guilterre (producer/musician/DJ) has been focused on creating new music since arriving from Brooklyn in late 2010. Best known in NYC for his HumpWednesday parties in the East Village in the late 1990s, his electronic sound incorporates elements of lounge, experimental, electro, synthwave, heady house, and a hint of industrial. The latter heavily influenced by music from Chicago’s WaxTrax! label from the mid-1980s. His electro/alternative band Fallen Fronds has released two EPs, Thermal Breakdown (2012) and Pleather Grip (2013). He has also remixed tracks for a number of artists, including LA-based bands OOFJ and Aime. While Fallen Fronds is on hiatus, he is currently concentrating his efforts on his dance project, House of Fronds, whose debut single, “Let’s Hit The Town” features Alana Johnston and will include a remix by Adam Collins of Euphoria Records, drops May 27, 2014. www.fallenfronds.com

Echocell
Los Angeles band Echocell’s sound is a combination of trip-hop and synth-pop. Think Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sia, and Goldfrapp sharing a cup of Turkish coffee. A labor of love between Istanbul-born/L.A.-based singer/songwriter/front woman Belinda Kazanci and L.A.-based songwriter/keyboardist/programmer Adam Beltran, their chemistry comprises an instantly winning formula.

With songs from their recently-released Babylon EP already garnering radio airplay across the U.S., and press features on prominent music blogs including Kevin Bronson’s Buzz Bands LA, 2014 is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for this buzzworthy band. www.echocell.com

Garth Trinidad (KCRW)
Garth Trinidad is an award winning radio personality, DJ, and culture critic. Buoyantly molded by a novel 1980’s hip hop skate punk upbringing in Los Angeles, his creative approach is philosophical, psychedelic, and sophisticated. He has introduced the world to such artists as Little Dragon and Janelle Monae, interviewed the likes of Quincy Jones and Yoko Ono, and is credited in part with shaping LA’s modern music landscape. Trinidad is currently crafting a new genre of music dubbed Lit-House with DJ/production partner Mateo Senolia, with a debut EP release titled Postcards From Strangers on Yoruba Records from 2013. He can be heard most weeknights from 8pm to 10pm on NPR affiliate KCRW 89.9fm playing his critically acclaimed international mix of music.

George Sarah
Electronic composer and multi-instrumentalist George Sarah has been a mainstay on the Los Angeles music scene since 1985. He has garnered much acclaim for his unique brand of electronic chamber music. Sarah performs his original compositions from a bank of synthesizers and electronic rhythms alongside live string musicians, bridging the normally discrete musical worlds of electronic and classical with over 10 albums and hundreds of songs/scores featured in film and TV. George brings a deep introspection to the ethos of electronic music. www.facebook.com/GeorgeSarahMusic

Joe Con & The Real Thing
Reinventing the blues to the beat of L.A. From Woody Guthrie to Wu Tang Clan, from Kerouac and Rimbaud to Hendrix and Howling Wolf, Joe Con & The Real Thing blend soulful Southern swagger, sun-drenched blues, and live hip hop to create a potent brew of musical flavors. Acoustic and electric guitars interwoven with raw beats move seamlessly beneath waves of melodic poetry, like prophetic amplified lullabies sung by the lovechild of Leonard Cohen and Mos Def. www.joeconmusic.com

Leisure Listening Lounge
The Leisure Listening Lounge (LLL) is a mystical journey into another world. Like an amusement ride, 12-people step in, put their headphones on, and take off together. Hosted by SuperTallPaul, a multi-instrumentalist and National Loop Champion, and street performer, the audience is reminded of the sacred yet fleeting nature of this very intimately shared moment. NOW, is really happening and will never happen this way again! A complete song is magically created as layers of instruments, beat boxing, and vocal harmonies build into a familiar tune instigating synchronized movement and unified smiles. Due to the quiet nature of the instruments used there is virtually no sound without the headphones. A strange yet marveling sight as spectators around the room eagerly await their turn with curiosity as to what is happening on “the inside.” You have just experienced, and helped create, this moment in the Leisure Listening Lounge. supertallpaul.com/?page_id=202

For more information, photos or to schedule an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.