Alumni

Professional Title: A/V Artist and Technician

Areas Eva is able to mentor in: Multi-disciplinary, audio/visual, sound art, and performance

Professional Bio

Eva is the founder and Artistic Director of Coaxial Arts Foundation, an artist-run non-profit space dedicated to experimental sound, video, and performance art located in DTLA. Coaxial provides residencies, studio space, technical support, and public exhibition space for live events to showcase underground artists whose works are often overlooked. Aguila is also an active sound and video artist. In 2005, she started her solo noise project as Kevin Shields. She has toured extensively throughout Europe, the US, and Asia, and Mexico. In 2010, she started the experimental public access television show Experimental Half-Hour (EHH) with her husband Brock Fansler. EHH served as a collaborative platform engaging worldwide musicians and performance artists via broadcast.

Best advice you can give to someone trying to enter your field: Don't be scared to go into a field you know very little about; your skills and talents can are relevant in many fields.

Best CalArts Memory: Running around naked making video art.

Relevant Professional Links

www.linkedin.com/in/eva-aguila-fansler-38537166
www.experimentalhalfhour.com
http://coaxialarts.org/
http://evaaguila.com/

Professional Title: Video Engineer, Videographer, Photographer

Areas Brian is able to mentor in: Media Production (Film,Video,Photography)

Professional Bio

I came to Cal-Arts in the Fall of 1971, the Campus just opened and it was the first Semester of classes. I transferred from the Photo department of Pasadena City College. I was admitted as a Junior into the School of Critical Studies, C.S. at the time was the school that allowed study in any disciplines, I wanted to sudy film and photography. The Institute phased out the Critical Studies at the end of the 71-72 school year. I then transferred to the Photography dept in the School of Design. I graduated with a BFA in 1973 and an MFA in 1975. Because of my experience with Film Equipment, I was hired to run the Film Cage and later I took over the position of Production Manager of the Film School. In this role I oversaw all of the Film/Video production and post-production equipment use. During my time at CalArts I was able to continue to work in both photography, film and video, including many music video projects. In 1984 I was hired as a Technical Faculty in the Film School. I taught Film Production for Film Graphic students which consisted of basic 16mm production and editing, sound, lighting and some specialized production techniques such as time-lapse photography and high-speed cinematography. In addition, I taught Basic Video Production/ Editing to students in the Live-Action Program. I also taught an Advanced Video Production course, it was a course the included the use of the most advanced equipment that was available in the Film School at the time, as part of the class students were able to gain experience in the use of the first digital field recording equipment in the Institute. I arranged the purchase of two of the first Sony PCM-F1 Digital Audio adapters in the USA. The Sony units were so popular that they were never in the cage, and the recordings sound like they were made last week. In 1988 I left the Institute when my contract was canceled. In the fall of 1988 I took a staff job as a Video Engineer at a post-production company in Burbank. I then made the rounds of post-production companies in Los Angeles, my last job was as Chief of Video Engineering at Westwind Media where I designed a Video Facility that included three HD Film transfer/color-correction suites as well as editing suites and VFX, dubbing, and a shared- storage fiber channel network with high-speed internet file transfer to do network delivery. Westwind Media did TV shows for ABC and CBS, Disney Channel as well as MTV and others. I left Westwind as their video business slowed down and took a job as Video Engineer at Apple in Sunnyvale working at the Marcom Video Production Group.  supported their video production projects and their editing and VFX systems. I left Apple in 2017 into semi-retirement. I have been in a constant process of keeping current on the hardware and software used in modern production and post-production projects. My wife is a Prop-Master who has over 30 years in the union. My wife and I produced our own 35mm short film in the 90's. I have worked on many projects in all types of formats. For the last 40 years I have been shooting photographs/video of motorsports of all types, using some of the most crude 1/2” Reel-to-Reel B/W Sony Video Portable Recorders to Sony 3D- HD Cameras, Homemade 3D Red camera, and all forms of video/film systems. I have been doing 3D Photography/Video as well as starting to experiment with 360/180 3D degree Photography/Video. I have lived Santa Clarita since I was a student. I was a member of the CalArts Alumni Board for many years before it was disbanded in 2011. I have been busy lately finishing a book of my photos from my years at CalArts. I also have a large video archive of footage that I had shot at the Institute during my time there. Many of the videos were on formats that no longer exist, I have spent many years dubbing them on to misc tape formats and lately into digital files. That's about it"

Best advice you can give to someone trying to enter your field: Start making contacts in your chosen field.

Best CalArts Memory: My own graduation in 1975

Relevant Professional Links

 

Professional Title: Director of Visual and Performing Arts

Areas Cindy is able to mentor in: Art Education in Museums, K-12 Art education in independent schools, 9012 art education in NAIS, equity and inclusion education and leadership, interview process, leadership, art education partnerships, progress education

Professional Bio

Cindy Santos Bravo (b. 1978) is a San Diego-based interdisciplinary artist and educator. Bravo explores the language of the peripheral and is rooted in the philosophy that identity is in constant formation and awareness of fluctuations enables emergent experiences to deepen life purpose. Unrestricted by media, she has orchestrated exchanges involving music and dance practitioners, collaborated on sculptural designs with custom boot makers in Mexico, designed wall scale paintings with the influence of master rotulo producers, and constructed videos addressing introspection, meditation, and persistence.  Her work as an artist, educator, and leader shapes how she sustains herself and other art educators who are grounded in a commitment to serve and activate inclusive curricula that infuses progressive and proven research. Possessing a resilient growth mindset is the freedom gained when youth access information through multiple lenses. In order to sustain learning environments that support how students see, feel, and interact within the world, educators must first believe that art is an ongoing dialogue and experiential learning is the fundamental resource they expose to youth. Bravo grew up in Dallas, Texas where she received her BA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Dallas, and went on to receive her MFA in Art at CalArts in 2006. Bravo’s work has been shown in international and national group exhibitions in Goods to Declare in Tel Aviv, Israel (2006); two Mexicali Biennials (2006 and 2013) in Mexicali and Monterrey, Mexico; Here, There, and Beyond (2010) Dallas Contemporary in Dallas, Texas; Unpopular In Between (2012) Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts; Ejercicio del Diálogo #1, Casa Vecina, Mexico City; and her work was recently selected for a group exhibition in Mexico City at Museo del Arte Carrillo Gil.

Best advice you can give to someone trying to enter your field: Remain open-minded about what art is, and be diligent in communicating nuances within an art education model.

Best CalArts Memory: Post-Studio Critique Class with Michael Asher.

Relevant Professional Links

www.linkedin.com/in/cindysantosbravo
www.cindysantosbravo.com

Professional Title: Professor of Practice in Interactive Media and Games at the University of Southern California

Areas Peter is able to mentor in: Game design and development, teaching digital arts at a large university

Professional Bio

Peter Brinson is an artist and educator living in Los Angeles. He teaches computer programming within arts practices, game design to computer science students, and cinema production to game designers. He makes games and films that explore the aesthetics of cognition, feature documentary play, and celebrate collective ownership. He has exhibited in numerous venues, including the Independent Games Festival, Ars Electronica, Museum of Modern Art, Slamdance, Indiecade, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Games for Change, A Maze Game Festival, The Kitchen, and SIGGRAPH.

Best advice you can give to someone trying to enter your field: Ask people naïve questions. You’ll learn an enormous amount about them from their response.

Best CalArts Memory: I have vague and multiple memories of walking the CalArts halls at night, unable to determine the time or the day of the week.

Relevant Professional Links

http://peterbrinson.com/

Professional Title: CEO Six Point Harness Studios, Mondo Media

Areas Brendan is able to mentor in: Getting a job, Production, 2D digital animation

Professional Bio

Brendan Burch is CEO of the animation studio Six Point Harness. After graduating from the CalArts Character Animation program, he worked as an Animation Director for Romp Films where he met many future members who now make up Six Point Harness. Since its beginning in 2003, Six Point has been behind renowned TV shows including Nick Jr's Wow Wow Wubbsy, Drawn Together the Movie, and Cosmos for FOX. 6PH is a pioneer in the digital space having produced a wildly popular animated show Dick Figures, developed, sold and produced the animated series Apollo Gauntlet to Adult Swim and will soon be announcing three original projects in 2019.

Best advice you can give to someone trying to enter your field: Get out there into the community early by joining groups like Women in Animation.

Best CalArts Memory: My favorite memory was driving around in early, undeveloped Valencia and getting security guards to chase us in the Walmart parking lot.

Relevant Professional Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanburch/
http://www.sixpointharness.com/