![\"Arboretum](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Arboretum_Hours.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Image of Arboretum by Vincent Mattina, courtesy of Vincent Mattina.<\/em><\/p>\n The First Fridays Beach Streets Kick-Off<\/a> will feature myriad activities, musical performances and fun things to see and do for both kids and adults. Here are three notable art-related events you shouldn\u2019t miss as you stroll, skate or ride your bike down Atlantic Avenue the night before Long Beach\u2019s first Open Streets event.<\/p>\n Mattina\u2019s impressively detailed works introduce an alternate, yet seemingly plausible reality that take the viewer on an otherworldly, thoughtful journey of the mind. Science, nature and spirituality come into play within the brooding, moody, fictional environments created with the artist\u2019s most recent works in mind, entitled Sentinels<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started off being more of a commentary on the NSA and loss of privacy, and it also addressed coming technologies,\u201d said Mattina. \u201cIt’s a bit of a mix of the two, but more about privacy, the loss of it. I was actually watching a couple documentaries on Edward Snowden and of what he’d exposed and thinking about everything that I send through email or what I post or things I have on my Facebook page, or information about me or what can get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Viewers are encouraged to get lost in these worlds and contemplate the idea that \u201cthe guards that were created to watch over us may not have our best interests in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Alongside his work from Sentinels<\/em>, Mattina will be constructing an installation two hours before the gallery opens.<\/p>\n \u201cI just have a couple hours to do it so it\u2019s going to be pretty spontaneous,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich is fine. I like stream-of-consciousness. The theme I was going toward is kind of dedicated to my mother who passed away last year and it\u2019ll be about loss.\u201d<\/p>\n Tokotah Ashcraft of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association who lent a major hand in bringing the year-long project to fruition, said that during last month\u2019s First Fridays \u201cprobably a couple thousand people walked through that alley just to take a look at what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLast Friday was such a winner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The four interchangeable panels on the south side of the alley now display artwork by Christian Hernandez, while the panels will be rotated every couple of months to feature different work from different artists.<\/p>\n Van Patten\u2019s mural, however, will be a lasting facet of this community-oriented project.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Allery is a cool little art nook now,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore at First Fridays art walk, you had to either have an exhibit in the EXPO, or have a booth somewhere randomly on the sidewalk, but now it’s more centralized. It almost feels like a secret backdoor party. Soon people will know to come there to buy good art, hear a good DJ, and see good street art.\u201d<\/p>\n “It’s hard to be entirely proud of the mural at this point because my detail work always happens literally the last day,” Van Patten told the Post<\/em>. “So until that day, everything looks fairly blank, which is kinda humbling when people who know nothing about my process are able to walk by and judge it at its unfinished stage.\u201d<\/p>\n The artist said he hopes those who view the finished mural on Friday and beyond will understand his point to not take themselves too seriously. He hopes people will be reminded that their childlike imaginations still exist.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a rainbow-colored toy train with an elementary school kind of look to it,\u201d he said. \u201cI love injecting childlike images with hints of disturbing realism though, but not too much because the intended feeling of this mural is to be inviting to the community rather than alienating.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"unfathomable\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/unfathomable.jpg\")
A solo exhibition in the North Gallery of EXPO Arts Center<\/strong> will feature local artist Vincent Mattina\u2019s<\/strong> steampunk-inspired digital art. It will also highlight the return of the locally-revered improvisational performance duo Toaster Music<\/a> after a month-long hiatus, featuring Chapman Stick player, Art Valdez and Maha and Company as special guests.<\/p>\n![\"allery1\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/allery1.jpg\")
An equally exciting highlight of this First Fridays will include the completion of Dave Van Patten\u2019s<\/a> mural on the north side of The Allery<\/strong> on Burlinghall and Atlantic Avenue. The grand opening of the alley-turned-community-gathering-space was celebrated last month.<\/p>\n![\"11327839](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/11327839_1507157212857107_418726274_n.jpg\")
The mural\u2019s train image weaves fluidly in and out of the building\u2019s windows, while a cyclist appears as a representation of the neighborhood bike shop. Van Patten added readers, giant shoes and a \u201cgood amount of beer\u201d to showcase the nearby businesses, including his favorite craft beer bottle shop, Stateside. Other images were chosen by the artist to evoke imagination.<\/p>\n
![\"11080254](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/11080254_598898556892043_8846213266913533543_o.jpg\")
Women featured in the exhibit include Patricia Lofland, the first black member of the Long Beach City College Board of Trustees, Evelyn Night who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma to Montgomery and Vera Mulkey, the city\u2019s first black Chief of Staff.<\/p>\n