2008 Woodie Awards
I talked to Vikki Cruz a couple weeks ago for a story I wrote on a show at the Bakersfield Museum of Art in California, where she works as an art instructor. Vikki is 28 and from Bakersfield, but she went to school at UC Berkley and then returned to town and has been working at the museum ever since. She had three paintings in the show. I gave her a call today to find out a bit more about being a young artist in Bakersfield and the general condition of the local arts scene.
Maggie: What’s the arts scene like in Bakersfield?
Vikki: I think it’s a little non-existent right now. It’s hard to find people that I really look up to and that are really going to motivate me and challenge me. I think that’s why I got involved with working at the museum — to try to find a more sophisticated art scene. I think that with the way the population is growing, it’s a little bit evident that there’s a need for an art community, and it has grown in the past few years. But with not a lot of places to exhibit work or find work it’s hard to find a lot of young artists working professionally.
M: Has working at the museum helped?
V: It has. You meet people coming through that have similar interests.
M: How was going to school at UC Berkley different than Bakersfield?
V: It was huge. The kind of people that you’re exposed to, the way of thinking that you’re exposed to — it’s almost like a big culture shock. You’re just inspired so much by your environment and people who are constantly doing these outrageous things. The art community was a bit stronger there because you’re so close to San Franciso. But at the same time, it was important to take what I got from Berkley and the city and try to bring it back to a community that is thirsty for it.
M: Where do you go locally to get inspiration?
V: I don’t know. I just feel like through the museum there’s shows that come through that can be inspiring. People have shown at the Empty Space theaters (a local venue). I’ve seen some good shows. Most of them are local. Those can be pretty inspiring.
M: Can you describe your studio?
V: I have a studio partner, and she works with me at the museum…it’s just a big open space, we have huge windows that face the north. It’s just a space to go and be creative and work on paintings and drawings. I like to get people, friends up there to work creatively and collectively to see what kind of ideas people have and to critique my things. My studio partner is a seamstress, and she also paints. Her style is completely different. She’s a huge inspiration, too.
M: Tell me about your work.
V: It’s usually oil on canvas. Lately I’ve been working on a smaller scale. My work is usually one single object, whether it be a figure, an article of clothing, or an air of shoes…the background is kind of an open color-field. The space is pretty shallow, so it doesn’t really give much of a background, foreground and middle-ground. The subject is really up in your face…It’s pretty representational. I have studied a lot from masters from the Renaissance, looking at their work and paintings. In college [my work] was more abstract and a little more conceptual, so the last few years I’ve just been working to get back to the foundation of painting and trying to master it in the more realistic way.
M: Do you plan to stay here in town?
V: I do. I’m working on a graduate school portfolio at the moment. I plan to go to grad school and get my masters in art and eventually teach at a college level. I’d like to be able to do that here in town. I’m born and raised here and I really want to help the art scene here and make it grow and really cater to the young, professional, working artists who are very serious and passionate about becoming successful in the art field.
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As for me…I went to Vegas last weekend. I did not get married under a giant neon heart.
I did not sell my car, clothing, hair, limbs, or first-born child for another round of craps.
And, sadly, I did not hit it big, which is why I am still writing this blog. But here are some things I did do:
• Enjoy gambling much more than I thought I would.
• Marvel at all the people who brought their children to Vegas.
• Pay $30 to get into a strip club.
• Eat a full meal at said strip club and then proceed to watch a gaggle of nearly nude women take turns dancing on multiple stages.
• Refuse a lap dance from one of these strippers with a thinly veiled look of terror.
• Get hit on by a man at the strip club who offered to buy me a lap dance. Result? Another thinly veiled look of terror.
My companions, however, both received lap dances. One was a guy, one was a girl. Here is how the conversation went with the girl who gave my female friend a dance — we’ll call her Sally:
Stripper: Your first time?
Sally: Yeah
Stripper: (Cackle, cackle, toss long brown hair in my face.) I have a stalker. Look, that girl over there, keeps following me.
Sally: Oh?
Stripper: F***. Yeah. (Cackle, smile, toss hair again.) So who am I dancing for?
Me: Her.
Sally: Me?
Stripper: (Smiles entirely too broadly and says to me) You’re next.
(Stripper begins dancing after some more cackling and swearing.)
Later I wandered into a normal restaurant that apparently was actually the strippers’ changing and freshening-up room. Whoops. There was lingerie scattered all over and about every kind of perfume and Altoids you could imagine.
Frankly, this place was terrible. The women were all beautiful, sure. But they were terrifying! Most seemed to be on something. And they certainly weren’t enthusiastic while doing their jobs. How can you be turned on by a girl who looks totally bored? Eeeewww. Otherwise, though, Vegas was fun. Next week, expect tales of 16-year-olds misbehaving — I’m covering a local version of Super Sweet 16.
Bye now!
Maggie
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