Arts DEVO

Wait, what day is today? Every semester I say that I am not going to miss the Chico State Art Department’s Open Studios event—where art students working in all mediums get a chance to show off the art they’ve been creating—and every semester for the last several years I have managed to miss it. I don’t know why I’ve blocked it, but on the day of the spring 2014 edition (Tuesday, April 8), I almost spaced it again! And I am so glad I didn’t. I only caught the early BFA portion—which is spread out among the studio classrooms on both floors of Ayres Hall (the MFA tour is later in the day in the Fifth Street graduate studios)—and it was a wonderful mix of ideas and mediums.

Each room functions as a mini art gallery, and there was something different, and often surprising, through every door. Cortney Berg showed off her large, charred (as in, burned with an acetylene torch) sheets of watercolor paper. Marie Collar presented sculptures and other installation pieces (like the listening station playing four separate pieces of vinyl pie glued together into one album spinning very slowly). And Kuya Dyte offered rotoscoped cartoon loops of improv comedians. A great lunch break, capped by the discovery of a mysterious bit of street art on a Wall Street sidewalk.

DEVOtions

• Schoolboy Q: Thankfully he didn’t, but it would’ve made sense if the MC whose just-released album (Oxymoron) is blowing up on the charts and with the critics would have ditched his Friday, April 11, Chico show (at the Senator Theatre) in favor of a spot on a late-night talk show or festival stage. But more incredibly, tickets are somehow still available at www.jmaxproductions.net … for only $20!

• CAMMIES Finale & Awards Show: Just the cold facts should be enough to get you there: a free show, a sunny Sunday afternoon (April 13, 2-7 p.m.), 13 local bands, two stages, the bright and beautiful Chico Women’s Club, and beer and food trucks in the parking lot. You couldn’t ask for a better way to cap off your weekend.