U-Nite

          April 10th 2014 was the third annual U-Nite at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento.  U-Nite is a celebration of the arts that showcases original works from the nationally celebrated faculty of Sac State's College of the Arts and Letters.  The event was created to unite everyone together to celebrate the arts through dancing, music, performances, photography, film and other forms of art. I have never heard of the U-Nite, and was curious to see what it was all about.  I brought my mom, MaryAnn Suan, along with me for the event.

The band, Rogue Scholars, exits the court.

          When I walked in, there was a band playing and the museum was crowded with people.  The atmosphere was very festive.  I picked up a pamphlet to see what events were taking place.  as I walked into the Friedman Court area, the tables and chairs had all been moved to make room for a large stage where a band called Rogue Scholars was performing. In the courtyard behind the glass windows was some strange see-through inflatable structure.  There were people holding a bunch of balloons.  I wanted to check out the installation but I didn't wanted to miss some of the events scheduled for U-Nite.  One event caught my eye: comic art presentation by Mario Esitoko held in the auditorium.

Mario Estioko introduces himself

         Mario Estioko is an associate professor teaching graphic design at Sacramento State University.  His hobby is making comics and he states that this art usually gets no respect or recognition. Estioko and his friends would do "push nights", a time where they would doodle until 2 to 3 in the morning.  One night, his friend came up with a character of a man with one huge pectoral.  Estioko expanded on his friend's design and that was when his comic book hero, Dent, was born.  Estioko also created the city called Sactown, a cross between Detroit and Sacramento.  This will be Mario Estioko's first reading of his comic titled Peck: The Man Without Neck.  The comic is about how an old man named Cornelius Bacon and his teddy bear Billy Trudare found a man named Dent in the Sactown dump who had lost an arm and his memories.  Bacon and Billy nurse Dent back to health, and teach him Gar Bag Do, the way of the can.  Under the training of Cornelius Bacon, Dent will become a freakish crime fighter by night and will try to take back Sactown from the villains that have plagued the city with greed and corruption.  Estioko's presentation was very unique; he prepared a slide show of his comic, frame by frame and provided the diverse voices for his characters and even included some sound effects.  His characters and story were unique and I like that he took inspiration from Sacramento city.  I enjoyed his presentation and was impressed with his voice acting skills.

slide show from Maria Jaoudi's art presentation

       After the comic art presentation we walked over to the Works on Paper Study Center for the next event: an art presentation by Maria Jaoudi.  The room was on the second floor of the museum in a small room packed with people; most looked to be students.  The presentation was titled Spirit and Nature: The Paintings of Maria Jaoudi.  Jaoudi is a professor at Sacramento State University who teaches humanities and religious studies.  She is a published poet and her paintings have had many exhibitions in France.  The exhibition is titled Spirit and Nature or Inner and Outer Space. She works in the mediums acrylic, oils, and enamel.  The first ten minutes was just a slideshow presentation of Maria Jaoudi's many works.  Classical music was playing in the background.  Her works are very colorful and usually there are no recognizable forms, though sometimes you can make out a form of an animal or human.  Each slide had about seven seconds on the screen, I thought it was too short of a time to really appreciate the art.  Jaoudi painted at a young age, earned a BA and lived in a cabin in an area where not many people lived.  She described it as living in a natural setting in silence.  Whenever she paints, she needs large blocks of time because these paintings happen all at once.  Uncomfortable with untitled pieces, Jaoudi puts a lot of time and effort into the title itself.  She takes a holistic approach to her art. I asked if her paintings are planned and she replies that when she paints, she has the color in mind and everything else is formed along the way. 

          I enjoyed looking at Maria Jaoudi's work, though I wish the slides were longer or that she had some paintings there to look at.  What the presentation did do was let me see a large body of her works, and get an idea of Jaoudi's style and approach to her paintings.  Her paintings seemed to be entirely focused on color, and in this way they felt spiritual.

          When we left the room, we heard drums playing.  People  were gathering around the second floor balcony.  We found a spot to stop and watch the performance taking place in the Friedman Court below.  A group of people were playing drums, one was standing and playing.  It was the live drumming performance by Tyehimba Kokayi.  A girl was on stage, dancing to the music.  To the side were people dressed in masks and crazy costumes dancing.  My mom commented "I don't get it".  To me, there was nothing to get.  It was music and dancing performed in celebration of all that have gathered here to appreciate art.  The music was not traditional western style; it is from a different culture by people of African ethnicity who wish to share their music.  The dances were spontaneous and free, I liked that there were people getting into the music.  Like art, music and dance aren't just one thing.  I embrace the diversity of art from traditional impressionist style to more contemporary forms like installations and think it is a wonderful thing to see the variations.  It may not suit everyone's taste and I think that is okay too.  We all like what we like after all.

girl on stage dancing to live drumming by Tyehimba Kokayi

       U-Nite was a fun experience, filled with many presentations and performances in celebration of the arts.  There was so much going on that I could not make every event, but I loved the feeling of liveliness and celebration.  I will definitely be checking out U-Nite again next year, hopefully next time I will have more time to check out the different events.