Art Through Sports January 13, 2007

ART THROUGH SPORTS
Marc Smith and Travis Craven
Opening reception January 13- February 3rd, 2007
6:00-10:00 PM
jFERRARI Gallery
The Complex
3015 Glendale Blvd
Atwater Village , CA 90039
A portion of the proceeds from art sales this evening will be donated to
Positive Coaching Alliance
Our honorary guests to benefit youth sports programs and opportunity to gain new members.
www.positivecoach.org
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LOS ANGELES, CA- December 11- The Youth of Today:

Americans grow up knowing they have choices and many of them choose to follow their passions. However, there are those who have many passions and the choice is not an easy one to make. Luckily for artists Travis Craven and Marc Smith synergism was their first choice.

Marc and Travis have known and encouraged each other for 15 years. Both coming from childhoods strongly influenced by team sports, they immediately connected with one another’s desire to express the feeling of sports and athletics in their art. It is important to these two artists that there is not a literal reproduction of athletics painted on a canvas or sculpted. They enjoy a beautiful synchronization of their passions for art and the human form in athletics and are excited to share their newest expressions of art form at their two-man show opening on January 13th, 2007.

After transferring his focus from athletics to sculpture in college in 1993. Travis Craven’s hands became a three dimensional machine. Initially producing several pieces in stone and wood in college, he exhibited his work in Venice, CA.
Selling just one sculpture, Travis needed a way to earn more money, so he took his talent to a commercial art world in hopes it will help him pay rent. He spent the next year and a half at a small theme shop in east L. A. There he built a one skill set, which paved the way for future success in commercial industry. By this time Disney Imagineering offered him a job where he sculpted and project managed for the next five years. Travis truly enjoyed his work load while working five years in Disney. However, with an ambitious mind set, he then looked at the movie industry to increase earnings once again. He became eligible for union status Local 755 (Plasterer’s, Modelers and Sculptors) working on well known movies, “The Cat in the Hat,” “Spider Man,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and most recently “Transformers” do to release in 2007. Travis credits Isamu Noguchi as his primary influence in fine art world. He is currently working on new stone carvings for a gallery exhibition in January, 2007.

Marc Smith life is pure synergy of art and basketball. His canvas is filled with energy you rarely find anywhere off the court. Just one must practice basketball arduously before it becomes playful; Marc works the texture of the canvas hard before he can play with his paints over the layers and layers of color. Marc is deeply involved with Positive Coaching Alliance and coaches’ basketball at a local high school. His pure unadulterated love for basketball is the same undiluted sensation he hopes his patrons take from his art. Marc debuts his “Colortree of Poetree” series at the show.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Positive Coaching Alliance.
jFERRARI Gallery focuses on its dedication to supporting emerging and established fine artists. The gallery is active with monthly exhibitions of diverse, unique and innovative works of art.
www.positivecoach.org
PCA Mission:
Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is a nonprofit organization based at Stanford University with the mission to transform youth sports so sports can transform youth. PCA was created to transform the culture of youth sports to give all young athletes the opportunity for a positive, character-building experience.
We have three national goals:
1. To replace the "win-at-all-cost" model of coaching with the "Double-Goal Coach" who wants to win but has a second, more important, goal of using sports to teach life lessons;
2. To teach youth sports organization leaders how to create an organizational culture in which Honoring the Game is the norm; and
3. To spark and fuel a "social epidemic" of Positive Coaching that will sweep this country.
There are many people in this nation who want to change the culture of youth sports, but they do not feel equipped to do so. Positive Coaching Alliance has developed practical tools to change the culture of youth sports and is making them available to coaches, parents, league organizers and others who will fire this movement.
More about our mission: www.positivecoach.org

Official Website: http://www.jferrarigallery.com