Diversity key in MAH’s ‘All You Need is Love’ exhibit

I love _______. After the breakup, I _______.  What is the craziest thing you’ve done for love? __________.

Filling in the blanks to these three questions is just one of the ways that community members are invited to interact with the Museum of Art & History’s current exhibition, “All You Need is Love.” On display now through July 29, the multimedia exhibition takes a “story first approach,” explains executive director Nina Simon. “It’s not just about the objects or what they’re made of.”

Late UCSC professor and origami pioneer honored with eye-catching exhibit

Few would see the beauty of an algorithm scribbled onto a page, but when that same math is folded into the paper, the result is something that could not have been created by the imagination alone; it exists thanks to the fortuitous whimsy of mathematics.

At “Origami: Art + Mathematics,” an exhibit which opens on April 8 and will run through June 16 at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at UC Santa Cruz, the art on display might be hard to believe, much less comprehend. The exhibit honors the late David A. Huffman, UCSC professor of information science and pioneer of mathematical origami, whose rarely seen artwork will be featured alongside work from multiple renowned origami artists.

On the passing of Adrienne Rich—a memoriam

With the passing of Adrienne Rich on March 27, the Central Coast lost an extraordinary poet: among her legacies is a vision of how to live as a public person.

I saw this first in 1975, as one of a group of women graduate students at San Francisco State who had begun organizing to change the rules of our program, rules that restricted the women writers we could study to a very few and very famous. Though she was already well known as a poet—“Diving into the Wreck” had come out the year before—she took time out to advise us. From there we went forward, individually and as a group, lit forever with the knowledge that poetry and politics were one.

Stripe Design Group rolls out Stripe Men. New men’s boutique embraces the masculine mystique

Consider this familiar scene: You’re shopping in a clothing boutique and you see a couple. Oftentimes, the woman is smiling, looking intently at the clothing, pulling hangers off the rack for closer inspection. “This is cute honey! What do you think?” she says to her companion. “Nice, babe,” the significant other might say, looking as though he would rather be getting a back wax than shop for even another minute. This all-too-familiar scene, though supremely common, may become a thing of the past in Santa Cruz.

Photography exhibition at local tattoo studio illustrates traditional world body art

A grayish tattoo streaks down the forehead of a middle-aged woman’s otherwise smooth almond-colored face. Her nostrils stretch wide over circular nose plugs inserted into her skin, and below her lips four more tattooed lines stretch down her chin. The woman peers out from a photograph within Chimera Tattoo Studio & Gallery in Westside Santa Cruz, but her body art is not the handiwork of a Chimera employee. The woman in the photo is a resident of the Apatani region in India, and her facial art is part of a tribal tradition.

12th annual Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival presents mixed bag of thought-provoking cinema

There are few locations in the world where you can find Muslim freedom fighters, a high jumper, a Holocaust survivor, a Catholic priest, a human rights lawyer, and a music producer, all in one place—aside from a “walks into a bar” joke, that is. But all of the aforementioned characters have a chance to shine at the 12th annual Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival, which kicks off on March 24 and runs through April 5.

Comic Erin Judge returns to Santa Cruz to record first live album

There’s a comedy boom happening around the country that hasn’t been seen since the 1980s when stand-up comedy was in its heyday. New venues are popping up like wild mushrooms, comedy clubs like Rooster T. Feathers in Sunnyvale are surviving the economic downturn, three-minute comedy sketches go viral every day, and political pundits are peppering their analyses with jokes and buffoonery.

Burning Man pioneer joins other local artists to present ‘A Festival of Fire and Light’ at the MAH
Spend an hour talking with local fire sculpture artist Lucy Hosking, and you’ll be inundated with stories about a childhood obsession with electronics and mechanics, making gunpowder as a teenager, working as a sound engineer for the Black Mafia in Philadelphia during young adulthood, and more recently, pioneering Burning Man.

A small sample of Burning Man culture—including Hosking’s well-known creative fire sculptures—will be exhibited at “GLOW: A Festival of Fire and Light,” on March 16 at the Museum of Art & History. The event will celebrate light, art, and performance, with glow-in-the-dark dances, flaming sculptures, LED light shows, and more.

United Way fundraiser at Chaminade offers a candid view of Marilyn Monroe’s private life
Most Marilyn Monroe historians play up the more sensational aspects of the film star’s life: the glamour, the mystique, the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death, the rumors of her affairs with this or that Kennedy. But beneath all the glitter and intrigue, Monroe was a shy, sensitive soul with a soft spot for humans in need, not to mention a strong belief in equal rights for minorities and the poor. Her compassionate side is evidenced by the fact that she supported several charities, all the way up to her last public appearance on June 1, 1962 (her birthday): a fundraiser to fight muscular dystrophy at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. 

Local muralist, Elijah Pfotenhauer, literally paints the town red

While most people would classify Elijah Pfotenhauer as a “working artist”—he makes a living by teaching art to children, painting murals, and painting live at local cafes—spend a little time with him, and it becomes clear that “living artist” is a more appropriate term. That’s because Pfotenhauer utilizes art whenever he can to interact with his environment.

“When I was young, I used [art] a lot more for awkward times, for looking at myself internally,” he says. “As I’ve progressed, it’s a way to escape, but it’s also a way to address your surroundings as well, and engage them.”