The "Defend The Earth" digital art gallery is a eight-artist, thematic online gallery show curated as part of Santa Ana's participation in the global Placemake Earth movement to raise awareness between climate change and the power of our local communities to make change.

​Enjoy these artistic works by creatives in our city who are speaking to the ecological, social and psychological shifts imperative to building a climate resilient Santa Ana and world.

Untitled by Adriana Martinez

Scorched by Jonathan Martinez (9”x12” on Panel  / Mixed Media  / $550 )

Contaminated Playground by Federico Medina ( 16x20 / Print: $200 )

Organic Transformation by Manuel Cortez (palm frond sculpture)

SAVE EARTH by Gene Jimenez

Artist Satement: The elephant is an endangered species, and whenever I paint elephants, I’m actually painting what I reference as ‘family’ since elephants also are family oriented species, stay connected to family members for life and respect their dead and elders by actually burying them and visiting their graves annually. 

The butterfly, for me, is transformation of the human spirit. Our willingness to do whatever it takes, even like the butterfly in that it actually dies during its own transformation to become a butterfly and fly. 

Both of these were designed into poster prints that were never used to promote saving the earth. In SAVE EARTH, we must address climate change as much as we value the lives of our own families and for that matter, our own selves. Be willing to transform ourselves, however uncomfortable and by any means necessary. We cannot disrespect our fore fathers who fought, died and worked endlessly to give us the world we have, only to destroy it out of our unwillingness to care for each other and ourselves. 

SAVE EARTH is saving art. We are saving creation itself. No other creation is more wondrous on the planet than the planet itself. The planet has NO PROBLEM being creative. It is we who are the issue. We are in the way of its creativity and lest we be ignorant, it will find a creative way to continue its journey, with our without us. It always does.

La MamaPacha by Alicia Rojas / Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition

The "Defend The Earth" digital art gallery was one of 27 actions taking place in 14 countries as part of the Placemake Earth challenge. Through the PlacemakingUS network, our local efforts were connected to similar community-driven projects in New Zealand, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Mexico, Norway and beyond.

Local artists are invited to create and send-in an artwork to be a part of our "Defend The Earth" challenge as part of our city's participation in the global Placemake Earth movement.

In order to put our Santa Ana art community on the global map with other earth-conscious cities, we are providing a platform for Santa Ana artists and art organizations to engage with the the critical issues of the environment. We believe art has the incredible power of being able to reach people personally, establishing a deeper understanding and emotional connection with what is happening to our planet and right here at home.

Since Placemake Earth is calling for actions, and we are currently asked to exist during COVID-19 in a digital world. This call for Art is to create a collection of Santa Ana Artists for the Earth. An album will be created to display your images, videos and sounds online. The work should be centered on the environment and it will be shared with local educators to integrate into their arts programming and/or environmental curricula, as well as be shared on social media to expand its reach, and generate a global conversation about climate change.

By supporting the Santa Ana Artist community, this Defend The Earth challenge will help build consensus within our community, to begin dialogues on further actions that will to effect behavior change and the inspire us to act to protect the Earth.

SUBMIT CREATIVE ENTRIES TO mspencer@sabcinc.com
 
EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Submit your Earth artwork to be recognized as an "The Defend The Earth" Artist
• Invite artists engaged with the environment to your community, school, house of worship or business to exhibit their work on our online platform. 
• Create a short film or artwork about Earth Day or the environment.
• Design an Earth Day poster
• If you are a composer, write a song about Earth Day or an environmental issue. 
• If you are a community leader, sponsor a digital concert in your area with any proceeds donated to local environmental concerns.
• If you are a teacher or administrator in a school, get students to send in artwork in honor of Earth Day.
• Submit images of you trash to art designs.

​DISCLAIMER: This program is voluntary to participate in and is purely for the joy of sharing and caring about the Earth. No compensation is offered. Any of your content we share shall reference the author. ​

Story by Madeleine Spencer
Photo: Coloring with the Community Event with Dino Perez

Artists: Scott Sirag (@theinkdwell), Jose “EPIK” Flores (@epik73), and GENE (@artistgene)

Story by Breanna Policar
​

MEDIA CONTACT: Mary Castillo
marycastillopr@gmail.com

​Highlights of the 4th Annual Boca de Oro Festival include:

• Boca de Oro’s First Book Fair at Birch Park
• Oasis Arts Festival, theater and storytelling for young children at Birch Park
• Film Festival at the Frida Cinema
• The Elks Lodge will give away 150 free books to children
• The Newport Friends of the Library will donate books

• Arts OC to host Poetry Out Loud & Lit Con performances at the Wayward Theater
• The finale of Boca de Oro is a showcase by the by Breath of Fire
• Visual and Performing Arts Performances across Downtown by SAUSD & SAC Arts

WHO: Zara Raheem, author of The Marriage Clock - named a "must-read book of the summer” by Cosmopolitan, POPSUGAR, Bustle and Book Riot – will be this year’s keynote speaker. Festival attendees will also have the chance to meet and hear from Cuban Poet Susannah Rodriguez Drissi, local Author Marytza Rubio, founder of the Makara Center for the Arts and Hugo award-winner Foz Meadows.

By Mary Castillo

​“I couldn’t be more thrilled at the collaboration of love to pull off this huge arts and culture celebration between the businesses, downtown, and SAUSD,” said MacNair. “Students and their families were able to witness a true pipeline for what they could grow into. The ripple effect lives on beyond this event.”

“The poet said her grandfather loved citrus. She wasn’t able to have closure because he died 7,000 miles away. But he grew citrus and when she peels back the skin of a clementine, the spray of the fruit touches her face and she said it’s her grandfather kissing her goodbye,” said Annabella Pritchard, chair and curator for the Festival’s keynote address. “She says the dead live in the things that they once loved and we who survive must go to those things they loved, and we will see their faces.” ​

​Attendees of CHICANA: HER STORY were the first to screen a mini-documentary, Here to Stay about the life of Santa Ana Artist Marina Aguilera. The director Jenny Lynn and Aguilera were on hand to talk about their work. The session was moderated by Manny Escamilla of the Santa Ana Public Library.

Grand Central Art Center and X Artists’ Books presents
Cog•nate Collective: Regionalia

Reception: Grand Central Art Center will hold an event to celebrate the publication of Regionalia, co-hosted by X Artists’ Books on February 1, 2020, from 6-7 pm.
Regionalia is a bilingual catalogue that showcases the research projects, public interventions, and community conversations created by the Cog•nate Collective’s artist residency at GCAC. This book is the product of a multi-faceted collaboration done by students, researchers, and members in the community of Santa Ana. It explores issues of immigration, identity, and agency. Designed by Stephen Serrato of ELLA, the publication contains texts by Cog•nate Collective, Christian Zúñiga, and a dialogue between the artists and Karen Stocker. Exploring the community at ordinary sites, Cog•nate Collective was able to develop relationships with individuals and organizations to understand the issues, struggles, and achievements of the community. Regionalia offers an in-depth perspective of not only larger, institutional social issues, but also insight from individuals, giving them a voice and creating a wider, cultural dialogue.

The Social Neighborhood Art Project (SNA) was designed as an extensive approach to engage social art projects, workshops, and installations as a collaborative research project. Led by Karen Stocker, an anthropology professor at California State University, Fullerton, students in her Culture and Education course participated in the SNA project to develop an artistic intervention in a public space. One of the goals of this project was to show that community sites, such as a market or a swap meet, offers educational and cultural value that cannot be typically found in a classroom. The SNA project was an opportunity to expand and develop understandings of art in the context of social justice and politics within Santa Ana. This book is an extraordinary showcase of the culture of Santa Ana, bringing the experiences, social disparities, achievements, cultural values, and social struggles to the forefront of discussion.

X Artists’ Books, founded by Keanu Reeves, Addy Rabinovitch, and Alexandra Grant, is a small publisher of artist-centered books that highlights the values found in community, dialogue, and creativity.

Artists: Cog•nate Collective (Amy Sanchez Arteaga and Misael Diaz)
Authors: Cog•nate Collective, Christian Zúñiga, Karen Stocker, and John D. Spiak
Designer: Stephen Serrato / ELLA
Grand Central Art Center: 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701

Article by Breanna Policar
Photo from: https://www.xartistsbooks.com/ ​

​Our beloved Joesph Hawa passed away the morning of June 27, 2019 surrounded by family and the love of all his friends, artists from the Village and the Santora Building of the Arts.
​
Joseph moved to the United States from Lebanon in 1996 he attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago and also studied art at Northwestern University of Illinois. After studying in Chicago he relocated to Santa Ana with his mother in the late 1970’s.

Most of us who were lucky enough to share time, collaborate and be inspired by him got to know him from his 20 + years as a resident artist in the Santora Arts Building. Joseph has been an active member of the artist community in Santa Ana since the mid 1990’s.

Joseph’s lifetime art works capture light, color and feelings. He loved nature, animals and the beauty of the naked woman’s body as well. He had a loving and kind heart and his joy for life was evident in all he did.
 
The Santora will never be the same without him. It is definitely the end of an era. He leaves us countless memories of late night conversations about philosophy, life, politics, art and joy!

​In the early days you could always find Joseph at Memphis in the afternoons having a meal and he also loved his bowl of vanilla Ice Cream at the Gypsy Den. If you ran into him he always asked you to sit down and join him, he listened and he shared whatever was on his plate. He also loved to listen to classical music for hours, mostly while he painted.
 
Joseph was a mentor to many and a friend to all. He has touched so many lives along the way. He believed in us, he cheered us, he challenged us to be better artists, to create community, to care for each other. He said to me once “I have many children; they are all over the world, you are one of them Baby” His love and light had no boundaries.

It is a sad day in the village for all, but make no mistake that Joseph’s presence will forever last in the walls of the Santora and in the hearts of all he touched.

​We love you forever Joseph! To Infinity and Beyond my dear friend!

July 6th Artwalk Celebration of Life:

Santora Building
Promenade gathering at 7:30PM
Bring Flowers, Pictures and Candles to Share

Some quotes by Joseph:
 
“The most important work of a painting is to capture light.”
 
“Paint what you feel, not what you think you should.”
 
“Art is not brush and paint, It’s what we think … transferred
to the canvas.”
 
“Nobody does White on White like me”

 
Tribute by Alicia Rojas, Community Artist
Photos provided by Kathie Warren, Souls of Santa Ana and Alicia Rojas
​​

While Spring has called many Southern Californians out to nearby scrublands to observe Superblooms, we can stay right here in Santa Ana and find a world of color and beauty thanks to our vibrant arts community. But we can't just sit back and appreciate the arts, we have to support them and this month brings several exciting opportunities to engage local artists in community projects that give them visibility and enshrine them as part of our local arts legacy.

The Santa Ana Artists Village is home to dozens of galleries, artist studios, arts institutions and arts events like the monthly DTSA First Saturday Artwalk. If you've ever walked the Promenade or adjoining streets, you may have noticed around 40 street pole banners demarcating the area. Dowtown Santa Ana is refreshing these giant outdoor banners and local artists have the opportunity to submit their work to be on display outdoors. Please visit the Artists Village Banners Project for details and to submti your design. If you have questions, please contact the project curator, Andrea Harris.

The Painter’s Room is proud to present “Somewhere I Have Never Travelled”, an exhibition of
paintings and drawings by Katelynn Mills + Child Workshop. Engaging with a highly generative
mode of creating, Katelynn Mills has applied her systems theory, The Cybernetics of Painting, to
her studio practice and approach to education. For this show, Somewhere I Have Never
Traveled,” she takes images from the history of painting, and runs it through a system of
organization in which the picture is divided into ~50 to 70 cells. That system is then run through
a second ‘system’: children. Children contribute a strong element of indeterminacy and chance
due to their wildly different interpretations of color and scale as they work on their respective
cells. The final paintings, which take 1-3 months to complete by a workshop of 5-13 year-olds,
are then assembled after many hours of mystery and happy confusion. Adding a sort of
feedback loop to this exhibition, Mills will also be showing select closely observed drawings of
her kindergartner’s paintings as well as other works made outside the workshop which have
influenced, and been influenced, by the workshop pieces.

​Though the theory behind this project takes on a hard, critical edge, the viewer may not readily
perceive it upon first viewing. It is through the poetic nature and “serious play” of the process of
making these paintings that the ‘child-magic’ within each of us may be activated. Further, this
project speaks to the significance of trusting in the unpredictability of the creative process. It
requires an abundance of Good Faith for such young students to blindly follow the Teacher’s
instruction: work very hard and accurately on a strange, abstract composition for months on end
without any real perception of what all that focus will amount to. Similarly, it takes a great leap of
faith for an instructor to lead a group of over 100 children in such a state of organized chaos.
This project reveals the joy and beauty of traveling beyond the pre-determined.

The sun rises and three hundred thousand people, riled from their sleep, bring life and color to the streets and avenues of this city in the heart of Orange County, California. Santa Ana, on a mere 30 square miles, boasts a vibrantly multifarious history. And yet, in this city of shifting demographics, seemingly endless restructuring and gentrification, you run the risk of missing the depth of that history. And it is here that the role of art as an engine for conscious empowerment and change is made evident. You may, for example, walk downw the streets of Downtown, and catch, on the side of a building, or tucked behind a trendy eatery, perhaps even emblazoned onto an electrical box, the earthy tones of a mural by “The Heavy” art collective led by Bud Herrera and Kimberly Duran. You will notice the intricate color combinations elaborated using aerosol and paint. You may even be attracted by the playful contradiction between muted earth tones and vibrantly colorful hues which work so well in combination. Perhaps it is the subject matter that draws your eye, that synthesis of cultural icons that transgress the racial and national divides of this hybrid city. Frida Kahlo’s likeness dripping with indigenous beauty and articulation. The beautiful walnut skin tones of revolutionary women carrying the symbolic weapons of a forgotten revolution begging to be remembered, peaceful Buddhas floating through space or the reimagined Catrina, with an Hindu Ajna, or third-eye, agape, looking out beyond the confines of the canvas. Whatever lured your eye to this, their canvas, it has put you face-to-face with art that is in a dialogical relationship with its community.