ARTIST'S WONDER YEARS IN THE VALLEY CRAIG AVNER'S EXHIBIT DISPLAYS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INFLUENCE.

Byline: Rick Coca Valley News Writer

As a youngster growing up in Sherman Oaks in the 1960s, one of Craig Avner's favorite things to do was to play with his mother's art books. While other boys were playing with their GI Joe action figures and Tonka trucks, Avner was marveling at the works of O'Keeffe, van Gogh and da Vinci.

It's no wonder that Avner became an artist, but the life he's led to get there is varied and in many ways, reflected in his art.

Three of Avner's paintings are currently on exhibit in the Norton Clapp Library at Occidental College in Eagle Rock through March 3.

Avner said he knew at a young age what he wanted to do with his life.

``They asked me in kindergarten; I distinctly remember saying, I want to be an artist.''

Avner said his parents had an interest in art and encouraged their son's natural gifts through school and some of the experimental programs so popular in the 1960s. Avner remembers attending art classes as a young child in a studio at ``The Flemish Art Shop'' on Ventura Boulevard and re-creating ``an architectural footprint of an ancient Egyptian house'' in third or fourth grade.

Avner reflected on the Valley of his youth.

``When I grew up, the Valley was a lot different, sort of rural in the middle of the city.''

Avner said through the natural beauty that surrounded him, going to museums such as the Southwest Museum and his love of indigenous pottery, he developed an affinity for the Chumash Indians and Los Angeles' indigenous roots.

But Avner wasn't just a sedentary kid, sitting at his easel in his early years.

An accomplished athlete while attending Grant High School, Avner was a gymnast, surfer, skateboarder, skier and even ice-skated with the Ice Follies shows for five years. He said Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus bought the Ice Follies and sent him to clown school and turned the show into a circus on ice. Avner said that experience, as well as attending carnivals at Notre Dame High School earlier in life, added to his love of the circus, as well as rides and contraptions, which continue to influence his work today.

Another early influence on Avner was the pop culture that he grew up with.

``When I went to school, I went to school with the first 'Valley girls' and that type of speech.''

The pop-culture influence grew when Avner spent time in New York at the Warhol Factory, where he worked as an assistant after the famed artist's death and where Avner's appreciation for Warhol's work grew immensely.

As an artist, he's interested in interconnecting seemingly unrelated things, which he said is what he's done with his life and, in some ways, what all people do.

``We're doing things that don't relate, but they relate because we're doing them,'' Avner said.

``What I'm trying to do with the work is to blend all these different ideas, representational in how I've navigated my life,'' Avner said.

Avner works in the abstract. He wants his audience to bring its own experiences and interpretations to his art pieces.

``What excites me is when people stand in front of the work and they're making connections and they're navigating through it.''

For information on Avner's art or exhibit, call [phone].

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Craig Avner says growing up in the San Fernando Valley is a big influence on his art work.

(2 -- color) ``Multidimensional Flatness,'', currently on display at the Occidental College library through March 3.