Elementary Neon Isn’t a Pop Star’s Name- It’s a Fullerton Art Class

Richard John Jenkins grew up, quite literally, in the glare of Hollywood--an experience that left him burning with a love of neon.

“As a kid, I loved looking at the classic neon signs and marquees around Los Angeles,” said Jenkins, 32, a professional neon artist whose designs have added flash to everything from Oingo Boingo rock videos to new-product presentations for Apple computers.

“To me, neon is like self-contained fire,” he said. “I’m attracted to the color and animation. I still love going downtown on a rainy night and seeing the colors reflected on the wet streets.”

Jenkins will bring his glowing artistry to Orange County on Tuesday with a five-week beginner’s workshop in neon design at Fullerton’s Muckenthaler Cultural Center. The classes are designed for “people who want to add color to their life,” he said.

The series will combine lectures and hands-on demonstrations and will teach students the basic steps for designing and creating a piece of neon art. It will culminate with a visit to a North Hollywood neon studio where a professional glass bender will turn students’ designs into glow-in-the-dark art.

Jenkins, who established neon design programs for UCLA Extension and Los Angeles City College, comes to Orange County at the invitation of Muckenthaler curator Norman Lloyd. According to Lloyd, the class indicates a growing trend toward more non-traditional classes at the center.

“We’re trying to offer a balance of programs to the public with a blend of the unique and the traditional,” he said.

“Neon is an industry that’s next to impossible to learn,” said Jenkins, who mainly learned his craft from fellow neon artist Lili Lakich. “That’s why I teach . . . and do everything I can to promote the medium. In a way, I think Lili and I were really the first people to start putting (neon art) out there for the general public.”

In 1981, Jenkins and Lakich founded the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) near L.A.’s Little Tokyo district. Under Lakich’s direction, the museum features exhibits in neon, electric and kinetic art by local and international artists and houses a large collection of vintage neon signs and memorabilia that dates from the 1920s. MONA also sponsors workshops and seminars in neon art.

Neon fuses imagination with technical know-how. The first step, Jenkins said, is inspiration, followed by a detailed sketch of the finished piece. The sketch, or pattern, is then enlarged by an overhead or slide projector to the work’s actual size. Because neon signs and art pieces are generally viewed from the front, the pattern is then reversed and the design is constructed in mirror image.

The glass neon tubing is then bent into its final shape through a complicated process that takes years to perfect. Once shaped, the tubes are pumped with gasses with exotic-sounding names like krypton, xenon and argon, then sealed with electrodes. In most cases, the shaped tubing is then mounted on a background or base and wired. A high-voltage neon transformer is applied to the finished piece to excite the gas and make it glow.

Jenkins said movement or animation can then be added to the work to “tell a story, like a dragon that rolls its eyes and shoots its tongue in and out or an airplane that spins its propeller.”

Several of his students’ projects, including a larger-than-life neon waitress, have brightened videos, parties and even the occasional bar mitzvah through Nights of Neon’s rental program. His UCLA students also created a glowing Mona Lisa, designed by Lakich to smile benignly on visitors to MONA.

Richard John Jenkins’ neon design class will meet Tuesday s, 7 - 10 p.m. , Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern Ave., Fullerton. Fee: $85 , plus $12 lab fee. For registration and information, call (714) 738-6595.