The art of college radio: KZSC in Santa Cruz

By now just about every radio station has put together a website. This poses a challenge: how to be visually appealing as well as listenable. Luckily for college station  KZSC at the University of California at Santa Cruz, it can tap into the skills of Lois Rosson.

Lois has a double major: history and art. As an instructor at UCSC, I can testify to her talents as a student of history. Now she has put up a sampler of her prints, paintings, and drawings. These include a variety of pieces for KZSC’s zine Anonymous Caller. Here are cover designs on the top right and below.

Other KZSC pieces can be found on Lois’ public service art page. But there’s a lot more on her site. I especially like her Sister Wendy homage drawings and her oil on canvas pieces, such as “Mechanical Progress” (see both below).

“I paint pictures with exaggerated and garish colors because I am a product of gendered mass-consumption,” Lois writes on her About page:

“I like these colors. I exist wholly within the structure I critique. Beige, peach, salmon, gray, and olive were the colors that glossed my ultra-suburban southern California neighborhood. The shrieking pinks and yellows that appeared on my television screen offered escape, and I was drawn to them: Barbie Pink! Lemon Drop! Violet Sparkle! Sangria! Ballet Slipper! These colors signify what belongs exclusively to MY feminine identity, functioning as legitimate social cues.”