April Ibarra Siqueiros, the curator of the exhibit and a user experience librarian at Cal State San Marcos, does indeed dream of zines – short for “magazine,” the term refers to handmade publications in booklet form about any topic, presented as an alternative to mainstream media.

Siqueiros dreams about the zines she wants to make. She dreams about the zines she wants to add to her growing collection. And she dreams about the zine community that she wants to cultivate at CSUSM.

Her current exhibit in the library – part of the biannual Context Exhibit Series, it’s on display in person or online through Dec. 15 – is a big step in that direction. Subtitled “publishing in your hands,” the exhibit is essentially a love letter to zine culture told through Siqueiros’ creative eye and curious mind.

It features about 60 zines from her personal collection – covering such topics as borders, immigration, art, gender and sexuality – and a dozen more that she has made, either by herself or with a group. It also includes information about the process of zine-making, the history of zines and the local zine community.

“Zines can be a way for marginalized and oppressed voices to use a format to share their stories, make calls to action, teach something and build community,” Siqueiros said. “They can also be random, silly and made to bring joy. It's a format that is open to all, regardless of skill level.

“Sometimes I hear someone say they aren't an artist or ‘creative’ when it comes to zine making, but in my experience teaching zine workshops, that doesn't matter. If someone intentionally explores zine making, it is likely a cool zine will come out of it.”

Growing up in the South Bay, Siqueiros says she was always a crafty child. She remembers first hearing about zines from a Nickelodeon cartoon in the early 2000s, and she bought her first one in 2008 – a Mexican cookzine called “Vegan de Guadalupe” (a play on veganism and the Virgin Mary), it’s included in the exhibit.

Siqueiros crossed over from simply collecting zines to making them about a decade ago when she was pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at the Pratt Institute in New York. Inspired by attending the Brooklyn Zine Fest, she created her initial zine as part of an art collective with some friends. A year later, she displayed her first solo zine at the same festival.

“Having been an artist and crafter, I’ve always gravitated to making things,” she said. “Zines opened up another realm of creating for me, which stuck 10 years later.”

Most of zines Siqueiros has made fall under the general theme she conjured up called “Valley of Paradox.” Of those, she’s proudest of one named “Celestial Hearts: deep connections with deep space,” which is about her love of astronomy. It represented a leap forward for her in ambition, creativity and research, and about half of it is contributed content from fellow zinesters who responded to a call for submission. She’s working on a second and third part of the series, which will focus alternately on her personal astronomical adventures and stories, and research about astronomers and space explorers.

Siqueiros has worked for the CSUSM library since 2019, and during that time she gradually has become exposed to an interest in zines by the campus community – whether it’s professors incorporating zines into their assignments or colleagues who make them or are just intrigued by them. She began thinking about curating the exhibit two years ago, and her desire to pursue it was reinforced as she taught zine workshops for a few instructors, including Dominque Harrison, who works for the Office of Institutional Planning & Analysis but also teaches a seminar for first-year students. Three zines created during Harrison’s class last summer are on display in the exhibit.

“While zines are not mainstream, it just takes a zine point person to open up this format to someone’s world,” Siqueiros said.

She would like to be that person for any number of students who stroll by her exhibit this semester. But she doesn’t want “Zine Dreams” to be only a passive experience. The goal is to unlock others’ zine-making potential. On Oct. 9 from 1-2 p.m., Siqueiros will collaborate with the Common Read program on a workshop in The Makery where students can create a page in a collective zine that highlights their identities and stories.

“It might take someone years later to make one like it did for me,” she said. “Minimally, my hope is that anyone who sees the exhibit reflects on the power of DIY publishing and how zines provide a way for us to learn about things that we may never be exposed to otherwise.”

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

“Through the partnership with CHABSS, Hidden City Film Festival has provided students with the opportunity to share their work on a large scale to the greater North County community, gain professional experience and make valuable connections within the art and film communities in San Diego County,” said Leslie Foster, a CSUSM art, media and design faculty member who has been involved in the planning of HCFF.

“We're so grateful for the work of art, media and design alumnus Kelly Dexter, who played a significant role in forging this relationship; and we are excited to see the festival feature work by several students and former students. We're also delighted that alumni like Joshua Kim, who now works at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, were able to serve as members of the film festival's jury. We look forward to growing this relationship, especially in connection with the annual Festival of Arts, hosted by the university's art, media and design department each May.” 

Through volunteer opportunities and festival events, students can connect with industry professionals to expand the opportunities already provided on campus. HCFF runs Sept. 26-28 at the Regal Cinema in Escondido, where CSUSM alumni Kate Clark, Adriana Carmen Alfaro and Paul Bacaj and current student Amara Abaquin-Brown will be screening their films. The festival's mission is to unite the community through the power of film by giving both local and global filmmakers the chance to highlight their creative talent.

“We have a great selection of films to kick off the inaugural year, including lots of local and international selections,” said Nicole Mendez, department coordinator and filmmaker, who is serving on the jury for the festival. 

Carmen Alfaro said her intention in directing her film “Behind the Scenes” was “to tell the kinds of stories that often go untold; the real, everyday experiences of people whose voices aren’t always heard.”

The festival will include curated short film showcases, feature film spotlights and live Q&As as well as a closing awards ceremony.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs
ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Neufeldt hosted about 40 people at her house on April 27 for a reception to unveil the third exhibition of student art in her home gallery. The exhibit features 11 pieces of art and was curated by Sarah Bricke, a professional artist and CSUSM alumna. Bricke also curated the previous display, which had hung in Neufeldt’s home for the past year.

The four student artists are Emma Dill, Adel Bautista, Kaia Pappas and Erin Wilmot.

More than 800 CSUSM students have a major or minor in the arts. A priority of the College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences and the School of Arts is to increase space to showcase student artists, and to teach, rehearse and perform.

Here’s the language that Bricke used in describing the exhibit, followed by artist statements:

This exhibition brings together four emerging artists whose practices engage forms of portraiture as a site of experimentation. Though grounded in distinct mediums, each artist reimagines the portrait as more than likeness, exploring how it can function as a record of presence and experience.  

Dill’s photographic work, while not traditional portraits, centers the experience of live music and the ephemeral intensity of performance. Her images in this exhibition can be read as a “portrait” of a moment in time and associated emotional experience. Bautista utilizes nature photography alongside self-portraiture to convey internal states over physical representation. Her compositions reflect an engagement with the landscape as an element of portraiture. 

Pappas approaches the portrait through the labor-intensive process of woodblock printmaking. Her repeating images distort photographic clarity, reconfiguring familiar forms into graphic abstractions that invite multiple interpretations. Wilmot pushes the boundaries of the photographic portrait, layering found objects and expressive mark-making over photo substrates. Her tactile surfaces mirror the nonlinearity of childhood cognition, rendering portraiture as a fragmented, sensorial field of discovery. 

Together, these artists challenge conventional boundaries of the portrait, privileging intuition, memory and material play over realism. Their works collectively demonstrate how portraiture can serve as a flexible and generative framework for exploring identity, environment and the ever-shifting relationship between self and other.

Emma Dill

Music has been a constant presence for Dill – from singing pop and punk with a sibling to listening to alt-rock in the car with her parents – ultimately inspiring an eclectic taste that continues to evolve through college. With over a decade of experience in photography, she focuses her work on both live performance and conceptual image-making. By photographing concerts, she aims to capture the joy of shared musical experiences, offering fans the chance to relive the energy of their favorite artists. Her experimental and creative projects seek to introduce reflection and variation within an increasingly saturated visual culture. Whether through the thrill of live music or the stillness of constructed imagery, her practice explores the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of sound, performance and visual storytelling. 

Adel Bautista

Baustista is a photographer and digital media artist based in Vista. Her work draws from travels across the United States and internationally. These journeys serve as emotional outlets, offering opportunities for reflection, clarity and well-being. Her practice is rooted in emotional awareness and the pursuit of balance – socially, emotionally, spiritually, environmentally, intellectually and physically. The resulting images are shared with the intention of encouraging positive ways to manage the stresses and challenges of daily life. As a survivor of physical and emotional abuse, she makes art that’s a declaration of resilience and strength. Bautista’s work champions emotional mindfulness as a foundation for personal health and communal empowerment.

Kaia Pappas

Pappas is a woodblock printmaker based in East Los Angeles. Her work explores photographic, posterized imagery translated through the tactile and deliberate process of hand carving. Influenced by artists like Shepard Fairey and Barbara Kruger, Pappas draws inspiration from portraiture, everyday life and the subtleties found in seemingly ordinary moments. Her compositions – often rendered in black and white – embrace ambiguity and interpretation, inviting viewers to engage with the image beyond surface clarity. Some works intentionally obscure their subject matter, reflecting the artist’s belief that little in life is ever truly black and white. Her work challenges perception while celebrating the emotional and visual power of contrast, process and reinterpretation. 

Erin Wilmot

Wilmot is a mixed media artist whose recent work explores the emotional landscape and imaginative depth of childhood, inspired by a single moment captured at a family celebration. A spontaneous encounter with a child’s uninhibited play – particularly in the aftermath of a piñata explosion – served as the catalyst. Photographic prints from that day were later translated into hand-painted compositions. To foreground the painted medium, Wilmot first converted the photographs to black and white, creating a quiet visual pause for color, shape and texture to speak more vividly. Working intuitively, she incorporated found and local materials – spray-painted feathers, broken ornaments, string beads – to construct layered, tactile surfaces. With no strict blueprint, the process unfolds organically, reflecting the way children assign meaning to even the most ordinary objects. 

Media Contact

Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist

bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

The event is at 6 p.m. on April 14 in the USU Ballroom. Reserve tickets online via the Arts & Lectures website. 

The event includes showcases, instructional sessions and practice for all skill levels. In a bonus panel discussion, get to know your instructors and discover how they use movement to enhance their well-being. The panel will be moderated by Daja Marks, a CSUSM alumna, artist/activist and experimental documentarian. 

CSUSM’s Arts & Lectures series offers a diverse lineup of artistic, cultural and scholarly events every semester based on input and proposals from students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. 

What: Art & Lectures event, “Xtreme Wellness: Keep It Moving” 

When: 6 p.m. Monday, April 14 

Where: USU Ballroom 

Who: Daja Marks, a CSUSM alumna, artist/activist and experimental documentarian 

Tickets: Visit the Arts & Lectures ticket webpage 

Cost: Free for CSUSM students; $5 for faculty, staff and alumni; $7 for community members 

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs
ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

The Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) announced that Julia Lewandoski, a Cal State San Marcos assistant professor of history, is the recipient of the SHEAR Dissertation Prize, which is awarded to an exceptional unpublished dissertation pertaining to the history of North America from 1776-1861.

Lewandoski was honored for “Small Victories: Indigenous Proprietors Across Empires in North America, 1763-1891.”

Established in 1977, SHEAR is “an association of scholars dedicated to exploring the events and the meaning of United States history between 1776 and 1861.”

Physics department honored

The physics department is among the recipients of INSIGHT Into Diversity’s 2020 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award, which recognizes unique and innovative efforts for improving access to science, technology, engineering, and math for underrepresented students.

Among the areas highlighted by INSIGHT Into Diversity was the department’s ranking for being sixth in the nation among undergraduate-only programs in awarding physics degrees to students from underrepresented groups.

Professor’s art collective on Lumen longlist

Allochronic Cycles, by the art collective Cesar & Lois with contributions from CSUSM arts, media and design students, is on the longlist for the 2020 Lumen Prize for Artificial Intelligence. CSUSM students engaged in independent studies with professor Lucy HG Solomon, who began Cesar & Lois with Brazilian collaborator Cesar Baio, contributed to the project’s research last spring.

The shortlist will be announced on Sept. 9 with winners announced on Oct. 22.

$1 million grant for chemistry professors

Robert Iafe, an associate professor of chemistry, and Paul Jasien, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, have received a grant of almost $1 million from the National Science Foundation that will support the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students in chemistry and biochemistry.

Rankings

• CSUSM is 22^nd on Money’s list of “Most Transformative Colleges” and 202^nd out of more than 700 schools on Money’s list of “Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value.”
• The university ranks 27^th in the Great Value Colleges list of the “Top 30 U.S. Colleges That Are Excelling in Community Outreach.”
• CSUSM is ranked 97^th in the country and seventh in California by LendEDU for having one of the lowest student loan debt figures for the Class of 2019.

Media Contact

Eric Breier, Public Affairs Specialist

ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314