18th Street Arts Center aptly describes itself as ‘where art happens.’ And how. The complex in Santa Monica, now celebrating its 15th anniversary, has a dizzying array of exhibitions, performances and events, all anchored by the 18 artists and seven arts organizations that call it home. Each year, 500 artists participate in happenings there that attract close to 75,000 visitors to the complex at Olympic and 18th. 18th Street Arts Center offers an extraordinary point of convergence for artists and other like-minded souls. It’s a gathering place especially needed in Los Angeles, a city famous for being decentralized. About half of the artists both live and work there. ‘It’s a jewel,’ says one resident artist. ‘The only thing missing is a coffee/book shop,’ she jokes. ‘Then it would be perfect.’ ‘The artists pay rent that is well below market value,’ says Palisadian Clayton Campbell, the center’s co-executive director. ‘It’s essentially like being given a grant.’ The natural clustering of artists that once occurred on the Westside’most notably in Venice and Santa Monica’rarely happens now because of exorbitant rents. This complex, five converted industrial buildings located on an acre of land, stands at the forefront of residential art centers, revered among the 300 such centers now in the U.S., and viewed as a model by the international art world. On average, about two studio spaces become available each year, with applications for the highly coveted slots reviewed by committee. Once accepted, artists stay in the community for three to five years, sometimes longer, and for those coming from other countries, the stay is only three to six months. While artists come and go, a constant is having a diverse, multicultural community. ‘It’s really an experiment, a lot like L.A. is,’ Campbell notes. ‘The question is how can a city with so many ethnicities function as a coherent whole?’ Artists brought into 18th Street usually are emerging or midlevel in their careers. Residency promotes meaningful connections with fellow artists as well as provides training in how to successfully enter the marketplace. Instruction ranges from grant-writing and financial management to legal seminars sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts, one of the resident organizations. ‘This place is sort of a proving ground,’ Campbell says, adding that many artists, especially people who have performed at Highways’a well-known venue for alternative performing arts that has been at the center since its inception’have gone on to prominence. ‘We encourage artists to bring experiments here,’ Campbell says, adding. ‘You can try things here you can’t try in a gallery.’ All artistic disciplines are embraced by the center, from poetry and drama to visual and performance art. The multitasking artist’one who crosses over from one art form to another ‘is now the norm according to Campbell, who is himself both a photographer and painter, in addition to arts administrator. The support of artists and their art extends well beyond the boundaries of the center, with arts education in area schools being a major component of 18th Street’s mission. Arts instruction is not solely art for art’s sake, rather it follows an integrated path, with storytellers being paired with science teachers, painters with math teachers. ‘We wish to be accessible to the community as much as possible,’ says Campbell, who points to foundation and grant support as critical to the functioning of 18th Street. The center now owns rather than leases its facility, paving the way for eventual renovation and expansion. ‘The Leopard’s Spots: Between Art, Performance and Club Culture,’ a group show of visual and performance artists active in the L.A. club scene in the ’90s, opens at the center on Saturday, August 7 with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. A closing party and open house happens at 18th Street Arts Center on Saturday October 16 from 7 to midnight. Contact: 453-3711 or www.18thstreet.org. Christine Morla Christine Morla celebrates her one-year anniversary at 18th Street Art Center in August. The dramatic new studio space has allowed her work to grow in scale and become more expressive in material. A first generation Filipino-American, Morla grew up in a extended family household of 15, watching her parents and grandparents work magic with their hands by weaving beautiful mats, bags and hats. ‘Their color sensibility was fantastic,’ says Morla, whose contemporary wall installations are derivative of this traditional weaving of the Philippines. Morla’s uses an electric, unusual color scheme in composing her own intricately patterned weavings made from Coloraid paper. They are arranged like a ‘constellation of stars’ on her studio wall. The weavings also make their way into her mixed media works on paper, compositions that combine geometric forms with more fluid, curvilinear flower shapes. Ultimately, Morla, who will teach at Oxnard College in the fall, hopes her work radiates with the same celebratory atmosphere she grew up in. ‘There was always a lot of food, color and people,’ she says. ‘I want to recreate that vibrant feeling.’ Clayton Campbell Campbell, co-executive director of 18th Street Arts Center for the past eight years, knows firsthand how tough it is to hook into L.A.’s art scene. Before coming to 18th Street, he spent five years feeling isolated in a studio in Hollywood. When his studio was burglarized, he knew it was time to move on. ‘They stole everything but the art,’ he recalls with a laugh. On behalf of 18th Street, he travels internationally four or five times a year, often negotiating contracts with ministries of culture in other countries. Bringing artists from virtually every continent to come live and work at the center is Campbell’s strength as executive director. When he takes off his administrator’s hat, he assumes the role of photographer and painter in his own 18th Street studio. One of his most recent works, ‘Words My Son Has Learned Since 9-11,’ a photographic installation, was exhibited in Paris this summer. In the series, his son Nick, now 13, holds signs with words and phrases that have come to be associated with that horrific day, from ‘anthrax’ and ‘yellow alert’ to ‘freedom fry’ and ‘duct tape.’ Last year, Campbell became a Knight, or Chevalier, of the French Order of Arts and Letters. He and his wife, Leslie Glatter, a television director, moved with Nick to the Palisades eight years ago. Lita Albuquerque With an international reputation as a visual, installation and environmental artist, Lita Albuquerque doesn’t fit the standard profile of artist residents at 18th Street. Nonetheless, she reaps the benefits of close interaction with fellow artists just the same as those just beginning their careers. Born in Santa Monica and raised in Tunisia, North Africa and Paris, she arrived on the California art scene in the mid-1970s as part of the Light and Space movement. Collaborating with architect Robert Kramer, Albuquerque created ‘Celestial Disc,’ the white marble fountain in the entrance courtyard of ‘Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral’ that is inscribed with Jesus’ words from the scripture ‘I am the living water’ in 37 different languages. Albuquerque set up shop at 18th Street in 1995 and considers it the perfect place to have a studio. ‘It permits me to hone in on the work, but at the same time it’s transparent’the studio is open to the community and other artists.’ She describes her recent work as following in the long tradition of painting. Her paintings juxtapose large circles comprised of powdered pigment encased in glass against a background of gold leaf, compositions she hopes will evoke the vibrational quality of light with pure color. ‘This is really what painting is about, but done in a contemporary form,’ says the artist.

‘Who’s gonna write Coldplay’s story?’ Palisadian Gary Spivak jokingly asked the band’s manager, Dave Holmes, the day before the 2003 Grammy Awards last February. A 14-year veteran of the music business, Spivak had been ‘toying around with the idea of writing rock books for a decade’ and had dreamed of writing the story of how these four young Englishmen rose to superstardom. ‘[Coldplay’s management] called me from the Grammys to tell me the band wanted me to do it,’ says Spivak, who will be signing ‘Coldplay: Look at the Stars’ (Pocket Books, July 2004) Thursday, August 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Village Books. Spivak had already developed a personal relationship with Coldplay members Chris Martin (lead vocals, piano, rhythm guitar), Guy Berryman (bass), Will Champion (drums) and Jonny Buckland (lead guitar) during his nearly five years working in the promotion and marketing department of Capitol Records (Coldplay’s label). When he was laid off in January 2003, he saw an opportunity to write the story of one of his favorite bands. ‘I’ve been with Coldplay since Day One of their American existence,’ says Spivak, who traces their American debut back to September 2000, when the band’s hit single ‘Yellow’ was released to radio. Though he didn’t have any bookwriting experience, he says, ‘They’re true artists and they’d rather work with someone they know and trust.’ Spivak mapped out the plan of his book during a flight to Milwaukee, where he joined the Grammy Award-winning band last February on their winter tour through Minneapolis and Chicago. Yet, this wasn’t the first time he’d been on tour with Coldplay’it was the sixth. And he’s seen them live 30 times. ‘I had a tape recorder but every time I pressed ‘record,’ we all started laughing,’ says Spivak, who earned his journalism degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder. ‘Making [the interview process] formal failed miserably so I wrote from memory of the conversations I had with them.’ The tour bus would stop and Spivak would run into his hotel room to document these conversations. When he actually started writing the book, Spivak remembers vividly staring at the computer screen. ‘But once I got into it, it was surprisingly easy how it flowed…because I adore this band.’ By December 2003, he turned in his final draft. As a result of his insider status, ‘Coldplay: Look at the Stars’ includes never-before-seen photos (some taken by Spivak) and casually-spoken, honest quotes from the band mates who Spivak calls, in his book, both ‘old souls’ and ‘champions of modern music.’ In the introduction, Spivak writes, ‘The paradox of Coldplay is their magic. Confident but insecure. Ambitious but humble. Friendly but moody (see Chris Martin). Precise but unpredictable. Self-doubting but self assured.’ For example, Coldplay is not participating in the marketing of the book simply because overexposure is not their thing. ‘They’re an isolated group of private gentlemen and they remain so to this day,’ says Spivak, whose other favorite bands include Radiohead, U2 and, of course, the Beatles. ‘Getting into that circle was the hardest and most fulfilling part [of writing the book].’ The title of the book has triple meaning”Look at the Stars’ is a Coldplay song lyric (‘Yellow’), an ode to them as ‘bonafide rock stars,’ and carries sentimental meaning for Spivak, who writes that front man Chris Martin was the first artist on the Capitol Records label to call him after he’d lost his job. ‘I closed the conversation by saying the one thing I’d regret the most about having to leave [Capitol] would be not getting to work with Coldplay anymore. Martin’s answer is one that I will never forget. ‘Well, maybe we can find a way to still work together. Maybe it’s in the stars.” What also may be in the stars, according to Spivak, is Coldplay’s best album. ‘I don’t think they’ve made it yet,’ says Spivak, who is now a national promotion director at Geffen Records in Los Angeles, where he works with Blink 182, New Found Glory, the Cure and Papa Roach. ‘I think they’re about to make their Joshua Tree [U2’s hit album].’ Born in San Francisco and raised in Cheviot Hills, Spivak played as a drummer in an all-white roots-reggae-rock band called Riddim Bandits before going to work as a regional promotion director at Elektra Records in 1999. He went on to MCA, Atlantic, Capitol and Geffen. Spivak moved to the Palisades in 1999, where he resides with his wife, Jill, and two children, Jake, 7, and Emma, 5, who attend Marquez. ‘They’ve learned to appreciate Coldplay,’ Spivak says of his kids, to whom he dedicated the book. Village Books is located at 1049 Swarthmore. Contact: 454-4063.

Luke Perry narrates an intense, riveting look at modern-day bull riding in David Wittkower’s documentary ‘Cowboy Up: Inside the Extreme World of Bull Riding’ that will screen on Thursday, July 29, 6 p.m. at the Pacific Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real. A behind-the-scenes look at bull riding, Wittkower enlisted the help of bull riding stars Tuff Hedeman and Cody Lambert, among others, but also journeyed into areas that had never really been successfully explored. He even took his camera to Dr. Tandy Freeman at Health South in Dallas to film knee and shoulder surgeries. Wittkower explored all that surrounded famous bull rider Lane Frost’s death as well as a fatal accident involving Brent Thurman. Frost died when thrown after a successful ride aboard Takin’ Care Of Business at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in 1989. Wittkower also went to John Growney of Red Bluff, California., where he discovered perhaps the most overlooked aspect of the sport: the bulls. One poignant moment shows Lane Frost standing next to arch rival Red Rock, a rough and tumble bull that had never been ridden until Frost accomplished the feat. To date the film has won eight film festival awards for excellence in editing, directing and sports programming. The film has been selling in several locations across the country including Canada and Australia. More information about the film can be found on the www.lanefrost.com Web site. Wittkower’s previous film, ‘Firefight’Stories From the Frontlines,’ is a 50-minute video wherein filmmaker and certified wildland firefighter Wittkower goes behind the lines and explores the lives of ‘Hotshots,’ the firefighters who fight wilderness fires.

Palisadian Lowell Crist will be the featured photographer in an exhibition at the Palisades Branch Library, 861 Alma Real, running from August 2 through August 27. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, August 7 from 1 to 5 p.m. Crist became interested in photography as a young kid. He helped his dad take movies on their vacation trips, although his interest was more a fascination with the technology than producing lasting works of art. After training as a classical musician in college, he received a second-hand 35 mm SLR upon graduation, and has been taking still photos ever since. ‘I enjoyed the process of capturing interesting locales, but basically I hadn’t progressed beyond the snapshot stage.’ Now, over 40 years later, all that has changed. After retiring in 2001 from a working life analyzing, designing and implementing computer software systems, Crist began hiking and backpacking with his life partner Suzanne, and found the scenery so spectacular that he wanted to somehow bring back that experience and share it with others. Photography was the way to do this. ‘But I needed to improve my skills, so I studied the images of famous photographers, read many books, and took some classes at Santa Monica College, which has an outstanding photography department. This helped me progress from snapshots to taking more interesting photos, and finally to fine art photography. Much to my surprise, I discovered that making a fine print can be just as difficult as capturing a good image.’ Crist’s initial sojourns were to the Eastern Sierras. He had been traveling to Mammoth every winter since 1970 to ski, but had never realized the richness and variety of the scenery just a few miles away from the main highway. ‘My first trip to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest (just an hour from Big Pine) made a real impression on me’I had never seen trees like these before. They have the distinction of being the oldest living things on our planet, and their shapes are the most varied of any tree anywhere. I’ve returned there many times to record my favorite trees in different seasons and lighting conditions. There is something quite humbling about these trees, some of which have been around for nearly 5,000 years. No matter what other photographic subjects I find appealing, these trees will always remain special for me.’ Crist has visited many other interesting areas in the Eastern Sierras which offered him limitless photographic possibilities. ‘The Alabama Hills border the highway around Lone Pine. This area has been used in hundreds of Westerns, yet I had never stopped to enjoy it.’ And of course, he’s climbed Mount Whitney, explored Convict Lake, Mono Lake, and the town of Bodie. ‘I’m always looking for the unusual: interesting light, composition or texture to draw the viewer into the scene. Since there are thousands of wonderful pictures of Yosemite by well known photographers, I’ve tried to avoid the ‘famous’ standard shots which everyone immediately recognizes. There are millions of other opportunities and places, if one is constantly aware and looking for them.’