Tag Archives: Tony Luna

An early peek at Art Center at Night’s newest offerings for makers, change-makers and career-changers

Waiting_KristinKirgan

Need a career makeover? Ready to explore a new path? Have a dream to fulfill?

Consider your wait over.

Next Wednesday, Art Center at Night (ACN) is holding its annual open house at Art Center’s South Campus from 7–9 p.m. At the event, visitors have a chance to explore the broad range of opportunities available through Art Center’s continuing education program.

At Experience Art Center at Night, visitors can: sit in on classes (see participating courses); observe student presentations and critiques; meet ACN’s instructors; see student work; register for Fall courses; learn about Art Center’s full-time degree programs; enter a raffle to win a free ACN course; and share their ACN experiences in the event’s first ever video confessional booth.

The event is also the perfect opportunity to learn more about and sign up for ACN’s newest courses. This coming Fall term, the program is offering more than a dozen new courses, including:

Digital Painting for Entertainment
Painting can seem complicated. But by understanding the medium and combining foundation skills with more lateral approaches, you can discover the joy of digital painting. This introductory digital painting course is designed specifically for aspiring entertainment design, entertainment arts, and illustration students. Instructor: Justin Pichetrungsi

Dimensions: Exploring Dynamic Objects
Before you can successfully create sculpture or make art, you must expand your definition of objects and object-making past the notion of craftsmanship. This course will challenge you to consider how objects can engage us emotionally and conceptually and offer you the opportunity to work with new tools and materials. Instructor: Mason Cooley

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Tony Luna: Making Change Happen

Change naturally occurs as careers evolve. Sometimes change is forced upon us; other times we have to make it happen.

Based on the principles laid out in his book, How to Grow as a Photographer: Reinventing Your Career, creative consultant, artist and educator Tony Luna created Crafting a Meaningful Career, a series of Art Center at Night courses aimed at helping mid-career professionals revitalize their career perspectives.

Luna

We recently took a much-needed break our day-to-day assignments to talk to Luna about these courses.

Dotted Line: Tell us about Crafting a Meaningful Career.
Tony Luna: The course is loosely based on my own personal life. Looking back at my career, I realized that every five to seven years there was some change that had to take place. Sometimes it was caused by the economy, sometimes it was caused by technology, and sometimes it was caused by boredom. I started talking to other people, and virtually everyone I spoke with experienced the same challenges. The basic tenet of the course is that we have to change and we have to grow, so the Crafting a Meaningful Career courses are about taking control and creating a new path for yourself. It could be a small change, or it could be a large one. I advocate that people take a serious, mature look at what they’ve accomplished, give themselves credit for all they’ve been able to achieve, and then plot out a plan for where they’d like to take their career.

Dotted Line: Do people commonly feel like they need to start all over, and that all they’ve done up to this point is useless?
Luna: People acquire skills along the way that they don’t even recognize. They pick up organizational or communication skills, learn new languages or become computer savvy. And they think that’s just what they had to do. We often float through life and not recognizing the impact our personal experiences can have in expanding our business opportunities. I have a class assignment called “asset matching,” in which I ask students to examine their personal skill sets, experiences, interests and influences. They write down what they have going for them, and then as a group we try to find new options for how they can turn their career into something that makes them excited about starting each day. That’s the “meaningful” part.

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Stopping by Art Center at Night’s Open House


Art Center at Night, the College’s continuing studies program, held their biggest event of the year last week—Open House.

“Open House is the perfect opportunity for people to become acquainted with educational opportunities offered by ACN’s nearly 200 innovative courses in art and design,” says Public Programs Managing Director and ACN Director Dana L. Walker.

Held at South Campus, several hundred attended the annual summer event, which gave participants the opportunity to sit in on classes, view student work and speak with faculty members. Among the various classes open to the public were Motion Design 1; Still Life Drawing; Letterpress Printing; Shoes: Fact and Fantasy; and Unplugged: DIY Graphic Design and TEXTure. Class demonstrations, including an Artist Trading Card workshop, were also open to Open House attendees. A prize drawing awarded ACN goodies and the grand prize—a free ACN class—was won by both John Reager of Irvine and Marsekal Tirtadji of Santa Monica.

A wide variety of people attended the event, including current, prospective and past students, parents, ACN faculty and community members. Holly Hofgaarden attended Open House to learn more about ACN and the classes offered. “I want to eventually attend Art Center’s degree program in Graphic Design,” she explained. “I came by Open House to learn more about the ACN courses that they offer in that subject. I want to build my portfolio, and think that I can do this through ACN classes.”

“Open House gives potential students the chance to have a conversation with their potential instructor, which is really nice,” says ACN instructor and Art Center alumnus Ronald J. Llanos. “Also important is the fact that they can see the physical work that comes out of the classes, especially in classes like mine, Composition and Painting and Introduction to Figure Drawing. I think it helps potential students get the vibe of the class they’re considering, and what to expect.”

Tony Luna has been an Art Center instructor since 1985, teaching in both the degree and Public Programs. Luna teaches three popular ACN classes: Crafting a Meaningful Career: Parts One, Two and Three. The courses aim to help creatives rediscover their passion, examine the interconnection of their personal and work histories, and analyze their creative strengths and weaknesses.

“There is nothing like having the opportunity to sharing your enthusiasm for ACN classes face-to-face with prospective students,” says Luna. “In these uncertain economic times, it is refreshing to offer classes which help the students to rediscover their potential get back to what is important to them in their careers. Open House provides that interface and gives hope to those who want to do more with their lives and livelihoods.”

It’s not too late to sign up for the Fall 2010 term of ACN. Classes begin September 13—find out more about ACN, and register for Fall classes today.

Designmatters Project Creates Solar Water Distiller

 Adjunct professor Tony Luna writes on the Designmatters blog about the Agua Pura project, which tackled the problem of finding clean water in Guatemala.

The project arose from a joint class, Product Design for the Developing World, participated in by students from Art Center, Caltech and Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala. The goal was to create useful products for populations that make less than two dollars a day.

Luna explains: “What transpired over approximately the next ten months was truly amazing as our four students, together with their Landivar University counterparts, took the most basic low-tech concepts, built prototypes, did field studies and tests, and refined the products. Most importantly, they learned from each other.”

Read more about this exciting project on the Designmatters blog.