CSUN Prof Promotes art online

CSUN Professor's Web Site Promotes Art of
Job Seeking

Friday, November 12, 1999

CSUN Professor's Web Site
Promotes Art of Job Seeking

By PATRICIA WARD BIEDERMAN

David Moon has long used computers to make art.
Now the Cal State Northridge art teacher is using
digital technology to help his students display their work
and get jobs.
Three weeks ago, Moon launched a new Web
site--http://www.freshportfolio.com--that is part
electronic gallery, part employment agency.
The innovative site, which allows students and
others to post examples of their work as well as their
resumes, grew out of Moon's frustration with the
clumsy, labor-intensive methods usually used to bring
students together with jobs.
An associate professor of art at CSUN, Moon has
helped organize the springtime job fair at which
advertising agencies and other prospective employers
come to campus and riffle through student portfolios,
hoping to discover a graphic artist of genius while he or
she is still available and still cheap.
But this spring, Moon recalls, "I said to myself,
'There's got to be a better way to showcase the
students' work and put their portfolios out there prior to
graduation.' "
Moon teaches courses in how to use computers in
making art, and he describes his own art works as
"computer/techno/fine art." It was a natural leap for him
to go from exploring the artistic possibilities of
computers and the Internet to imagining ways computer
technology could help his students and recent
graduates.
So far, 20-some students and others have posted
their work on the site.
"Every week, I'm getting two or three more."
There is no cost to the student for displaying his or
her work, nor is there a cost to employers or people
who might want to buy a particular piece that's up on
the site.
Artists in all media and forms, including illustrators,
painters and animators, are welcome. A musician has
signed up. ("We consider music an art," Moon says.)
And he also hopes to have the work of student and
alumni journalists posted in the near future.
Even though the site is less than a month old, it is
already getting about 60 visitors a day and an estimated
10,000 to 12,000 hits a week. Even more important,
he says, at least one person--an illustrator--got a job as
a result of her electronic portfolio.
One thing Moon likes about the Web site is that he
doesn't have to be the middleman between job seekers
and people offering jobs. He maintains the site, but the
talent and prospective employers or art collectors
communicate directly with each other.
So far, Moon estimates, he has sunk about $8,000
of his own money into the project. Most of that has
been for T-shirts, posters, stickers, postcards and other
items to promote the site. The motto on the promotional
materials: "Fresh Portfolio: The freshest work from the
most creative minds."
Although the Web site serves industry professionals,
Moon says, "I wanted to do this for students."
At Northridge and other local campuses, many
students don't have a lot of money to spend on
promoting themselves. Indeed, he says, many don't
have any discretionary funds.
"I've got students who work 30 or 40 hours a week
just to go to school," he says. "Those are the kinds of
students who give me inspiration."
Thirty-six-year-old Moon describes himself as a
Valley guy who grew up in Van Nuys and Granada
Hills and now lives in Northridge.
But like so many other Valleyites, Moon is here
because of the courage of his foreign-born parents and
their willingness to sacrifice even cultural ease to give
their children a shot at a better life.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Moon says, "mine's the
typical immigrant story. My dad came over by himself
with $200 in his pocket, and a year and a half later he
moved us over."
Moon's father worked as a maintenance man to
send his children to college.
"I wanted to be the next great Frank Gehry," Moon
recalls, "but I soon found out I wasn't good at science
and math."
He switched from architecture to art and graduated
from CSUN.
Moon is eager to build the image bank on the Web
site, but not so eager that he is willing to sacrifice quality
for quantity. He vets the portfolios before they are
posted.
"We may tell the artist, 'You submitted 10 works,
but we're only going to accept six of them.' "
Besides giving talented artists much-needed
exposure, the site serves an educational function as
well.
"There is not much understanding of what art
students do," he says. "People say, 'You doodle, don't
you?' They just don't take art seriously as a job, as a
career."
* * *
Even the university does not take art as seriously as
Moon would like.
"It's no accident we're still in trailers," he says, noting
that the art department has yet to be moved into a
permanent home on the Northridge campus.
Moon would be thrilled if a patron or patrons would
come forward to help support the site. Meanwhile, he
continues to dip into his savings to keep the site up and
running.
Twenty-one-year-old Carly Devery is a junior art
major at CSUN who has a portfolio posted on the site.
She thinks the site is especially useful because, even
though Northridge isn't an art school per se, "now
people can see what we're capable of."
She likes to check out the work of fellow students
on the site.
And, she says, "my mom lives in Washington, and
she was able to go online and view my work."
Spotlight runs every Friday. Patricia Ward
Biederman can be reached at
valley.news@latimes.com.