GOINGS ON / SANTA BARBARA : City Pictures : Artist Carl Cheng--a.k.a. the John Doe Co.--is planning a ‘self-portrait’ formed from photos brought to a public reception.

Los Angeles artist Carl Cheng (a.k.a. John Doe Co.) will bring some of his transportable work to the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum (CAF) for an exhibit beginning Saturday.

Those familiar with Cheng’s work know that not all of it is transportable.

His previous work includes a project for the Marine Avenue station of the Los Angeles Green Line transit system.

He also is the man behind the Santa Monica Art Tool, a 14-ton sculpture that is a kind of steamroller with indentations.

When rolled along the sand at Santa Monica Beach the indentations formed an imprint of a detailed city scene.

The exhibit will run through Oct. 19. CAF is located at 653 Paseo Nuevo.

For more information call 966-5373.

More about CAF: There will be a public reception for Cheng on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. All who drop by are invited to bring with them an unframed photograph of themselves with or without other family members, friends, home, office, or some aspect of the Santa Barbara environment.

Photos may be black-and-white or color, formal or informal, with or without a written statement attached.

The idea is to get as many submissions as possible for an exhibit titled “Self-Portrait of Santa Barbara.”

The photos will also be collected at CAF throughout the following week, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call 966-5373.

Glenna Hartmann met her first dolphin in 1978 when she and her husband swam alongside one in Baja California.

After just one swim she was hooked. Since then the artist has traveled to the Caribbean, Hawaii and Santa Barbara in search of various species of dolphins and whales.

Now the cetaceans are favorite subjects for her paintings, some of which will be on display through Oct. 23 at the Sea Center Gallery, 211 Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara. For more information, call 962-0885.

For those who may have been putting it off, this might be a good weekend to make the drive to San Luis Obispo. There’s the three-day Live Oak Music Festival (see accompanying story below) and the 9th Annual Central Coast Wine Festival on Saturday.

The festival, which will feature the products of about 35 wineries, will be held at the San Luis Obispo Mission, located on Chorro Street, between Monterey and Palm streets.

Along with the wines, there will be plenty of gourmet food and live music, as well as a silent auction for wine and artwork.

Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 the day of the event.

Call 541-1721 for reservations or more information.

The Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera has announced the program for its eighth season, beginning Sept. 19.

With the four Broadway-type musicals the lineup will span a couple of centuries. And here’s the list:

* “The King and I,” Sept. 19 to Oct. 20.

* “Anything Goes,” Nov. 22 to Dec. 22.

* “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” Feb. 7 to March 8.

* “Fiddler on the Roof,” May 8 to June 7.

All shows will be at the Lobero Theatre, 33 Canon Perdido St. Individual tickets are $19.50 to $26. Tickets for the entire series are $66 to $88.

Call (800) 366-6064 or 966-2324.

One of Santa Barbara’s distinguishing features became more distinguished recently thanks to a widely published national survey.

The University of Maryland ranked the city’s beaches No. 68 on its list of best beaches in the United States.

That’s 68th out of 650 beaches.

Santa Barbara’s beaches were the only ones in California to crack the top 100 of that list.