Page 22 - the NOISE February 2015

22 • FEBRUARY 2015 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
ARTSBRIEFS:
OF FLUX CAPACITORS & CONTINUUMS
This February Rene Rivas will be displaying a selec- tion of his photographs at the Bookmans Café. At his home office, Mr. Rivas shows me some of the prints he’ll be displaying at the show, and tells me how he first be- came interested in photography. “When I was a little kid I would always take my parents point and shoots or their 35mm and take a couple pictures,” he says. “When my mom would get them developed I’d ask to see the roll to see how my shots turned out. In 1998 I had a video camera that had a photo feature. I’ve been doing film- making for a long time. That was the first time I had a camera that could take stills and I started dabbling with taking photos.”
Since then, Mr. Rivas has gone through a handful of point and shoots, until 2004 when he purchased his first DSLR and started to pursue photography as an art. “It’s always been a labor of love and a passion,” he recalls. “I’ve brought my camera everywhere with me since I was 12. It’s like an extension of my personality. There are scenes and compositions everywhere, and everywhere I look, I see a photograph. I still bring my camera everywhere.”
“This is the first time someone has given me the op- portunity to display my work,”Mr. Rivas tells me. “For the month of February I’ll be displaying nine original framed photographs of my work from over the last six months.”
While some of the prints capture the essence of life in Flagstaff: Snow covered pines at the top of the San Francisco Peaks, lightning breaking across a dark sky over Flagstaff from the vantage point of Mars Hill look- out, and a landscape photograph of Wupatki National Monument, Mr. Rivas will also be displaying Back to the Future themed photographs. I ask him to tell me more about this theme. “Back to the Future has always been my number one favorite film,” he says. “It inspires me in many ways as a photographer and filmmaker ... I took the photos because I’m a big fan and in honor of 2015, which is the premise of Part II. It was really gratifying to see the results on the camera. I want the exhibition to have a little flair.”
Mr. Rivas’ favorite scene from the movie is also the scene that inspired his Back to the Future themed photo- graphs. “My favorite scene form Back to the Future is the final time travel sequence because it not only gives clo- sure to the third act of the movie, but as a filmmaker I really like the special effects they use. It’s a lot of practical effects and computer generated effects combined into one. They used a lot of old special effects techniques and a lot of emerging techniques for 1985. It displays (at the time) top of the line special effects. Those pictures were
mimicking the end sequence of the movie. It made me want to tell stories through filmmaking. Essentially that’s what every film is — it’s a certain type of story. I think this film was done in such an extraordinary way it really height- ened my imagination on what you can do. Combining spe- cial effects, a stainless steel DeLorean car — it made me think as a kid Wow! I want to make a movie someday.”
Mr. Rivas plans on 2015 to be a big year for his photog- raphy, and his other love, filmmaking, as he focuses on growing his own production company and continuing to make films and take photographs. ReneRivas.com
A PLEIN AIR WINTER OF WONDERS
The Artists’ Gallery is featuring Marsha Owen, Billy Fefer and all of their jewelers for the month of Febru- ary — Nancy Foo, Ryanne Sebern, Melanie Erickson, Kelly Wirtenan, Christina Norlin, Tom Yazzie, and Zac Kothrade. The artists as well as the jewelers have varied styles and the show is a unique myriad of artistic talent.
Mr. Fefer is a contemporary ceramic artist that also works in paintings, pottery, and sculpture. He is originally from Philadelphia but now has a residence and a studio in Flag- staff. Mr. Fefer attended NAU, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in ceramics. He has previously been exhibited at the South Bay Contemporary Zask Gallery.
Ms. Owen, however, is a watercolor and plein-air paint- er. For this she particularly enjoys traveling to Monument Valley & Grand Canyon as well as Southern parts of Utah & Colorado. Ms. Owen has a lot of watercolor winter scenes and still lifes of floral scenes. Much of her work depicts the aspens of the region, as well as forest scenes easily recognizable to locals.
“I enjoy painting snow in watercolor because the me- dium lends itself to it. I can easily make the crystals look real,” she says about the show. “There will be a lot of lo-