Raven Partida doesn’t have any special camera equipment or training, but she’s been taking pictures for years. Many of her more recent photos are of homeless people, their dogs, and their environment. Prior to this new interest, she photographed a variety of inanimate things, especially abandoned buildings and homes. Partida says that she was one of those kids whose, “head was stuck in the National Geographic Magazine.” “The last 15 […]
Arts
The Girl From Our Town: Writer Supreme Angela Morales
Angela Morales was hired to teach English at Merced College in 1997. A graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writing Program, Morales proved to be a gifted teacher and valued associate. Few could have guessed, however, that their quiet and unassuming colleague would prove to be the writer extraordinaire she became a few years later.* A hint of things to come arrived when one of Morales’s essays was featured in The […]
Modesto Has Poets
Although it was a signal event in Modesto’s cultural history, last year’s publication of More Than Soil, More Than Sky gave only a hint of the rich vein of literary art our local poets have fashioned into a growing monument to regional culture. Though it contained the work of some fifty-one poets, the book, like all anthologies, was as remarkable for the superb poetry that was left out as for […]
Another Giant Step Forward for Modesto Arts Scene
Modesto’s burgeoning arts scene added another dimension on February 2, when the Chartreuse Muse kicked off its “Art of Tea” exhibit with a reception attended by over two-hundred local art lovers. Sandy Veneman and Ellen Roehne are the driving forces behind the Chartreuse Muse, which has long featured outstanding work by such accomplished local artists as painter Jack Morris and potter Randy Crimmel. Veneman and Roehne are themselves fine […]