Winning photographer was ripe for picking
By Leo Stutzin
Bee arts editor
(Published: Sunday, March 28, 1999)
TURLOCK -- Randy Magnus knows an intriguing orchard when
he sees one. For the past 20 years, he has
worked for Tri Valley Growers, mostly doing research on tomatoes,
apricots and peaches; for even longer, he has been making
photographs.
So it was natural for him to be stopped
by the sight of a well-tended grove of papaya trees
in Hawaii a few months ago. And it was just
as natural for him to pull out his camera --
a pocket-sized Olympus XA -- and snap a picture.
As he printed it, the resulting image reveals a
canopy of brilliant green leaves above a thicket of pale
brown trunks. The ground beneath them is virtually unseen, creating
an oddly disorienting effect.
To the judges of the Turlock City Arts Commission's
17th annual Spring Juried Art Show, it was the most
impressive sight around. So they ranked it No. 1 among
the 163 entries.
The judges were David Olivant, who teaches at California
State University, Stanislaus; Flora Carter, who teaches at Modesto Junior
College; and Ellen Van Fleet, who teaches in Sacramento.
Magnus, a 44-year-old Modestan who also produces the Art
Television series on cable television, describes the picture's origins.
"I usually spend three weeks a year in Hawaii,
probably on the Gauguin theory of searching for paradise.
"It was on the east side of the Big
Island, in the Puna Rain Forest. I just stumbled across
it down a side road."
What struck him visually were forms and colors, Magnus
says.
What struck him as an agricultural researcher was the
state of the crop.
"Papaya trees take two years to start maturing to
the point where they can produce fruit," he explains. "Then
they produce for about four years ... and then they
start getting real scraggly and you have to take them
out.
"This was a field in its prime. I was
just so amazed that they were in such perfect form."
The best-of-show prize was worth $300. In addition, Magnus
won another $100 for first place in the photography division
-- a picture of the Stanford University Marching Band at
the annual Battle of Marching Bands at the University of
California at Davis.
The prize money could take him back to Hawaii.
"It may go toward a plane ticket so I
can be at the Kona Coffee Festival in November," he
says.
His participation in the Turlock show, which allowed only
two entries per artist, wasn't especially planned. He says the
entry was his first in a local show in three
or four years.
"If I have something ready, then I'm happy to
put it in," he explains.
"These shows are wonderful for the local audience to
see what's happening around here ... but I'm not one
of those artists that's going to spend months doing one
piece for a regional show."
In recent months, Magnus says, he has been assembling
a portfolio to submit to the Oakland Museum. The museum
already has several of his images -- black-and-white, color and
Xerox -- in its permanent collection.
Magnus has plied his varied arts -- photography, audio
art for radio, and video art and documentation for television
-- in Modesto since the early '80s, when he opened
a small gallery on H Street.
He called it Leonard's Artspace, in deference to its
former incarnation as a shoe repair shop named Leonard's, and
he filled it with exhibitions that introduced local viewers to
challenging visions that were rare in the valley.
Most of his shows featured local painters, printmakers and
photographers; a few drew entries from around the world.
That ended in 1990, when Leonard's was destroyed by
fire, the result of an arson attack on the grocery
next door.
Although Magnus lost most of his audio materials --
recordings that he had painstakingly assembled over many years --
he was able to salvage most of his negatives.
He was heartbroken, but kept at art, making photographs
and broadcasts.
Last winter he dropped out of radio, in frustration
over the minuscule range of the station at California State
University, Stanislaus. His television efforts are still going strong after
13 years.
He tells of adopting that medium for a practical
reason: "I realized people can watch art on TV a
lot more easily than going out to a gallery."
These days you can see his Art Television on
cable channel 8 in Modesto and Oakdale at 7 p.m.
Wednesdays, 9 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. Saturdays.
It's also shown in Mendocino, Redding, Davis and Kona,
Magnus notes.
"What you see on Wednesday may not be what
you see on Friday," he says.
His subjects have varied widely, from esoteric artists to
punk rock bands to the off-the-wall songs of Kid Guitar.
"I do about five shows a year featuring Kid,"
he says. "He's just such a wonderful Modesto personality. He's
a little off-center, but he does have a viewpoint."
Most of Magnus' recent efforts have had a social
undercurrent.
"I've been showing a lot of things of the
cultural diversity that we have in this area," Magnus says.
"You can see anything from belly dancing at an
Indian restaurant to the celebration of Chinese New Year by
the Stanislaus County Chinese Association to hula dancing in Hawaii."
Asked about the coming week, Magnus would promise only
that Art Television will be on the air.
"I have four shows that are almost done," he
tells. "If I can get them done, they will be
on."
If not, there's lots of videotape in the archive.
The 17th annual Spring Juried Art Show runs through
April 16 in the Carnegie Arts Center, 250 N. Broadway,
Turlock. Hours are 1-4 p.m. daily and by appointment. Admission
is free. 668-5698.