Portrait of the artist as a young woman

Jose J. Santos

In college, missing class is missing class, period.

When UCLA freshman Alexandra Nechita needed to skip one of her

classes recently, the 18-year-old artist knew her professor probably

wouldn’t care whether her alarm clock didn’t go off or her calendar

was booked with a speaking engagement. An absence was still an

absence.

“You can’t just say that you’re going to Tennessee to give a

lecture,” Nechita said. “You can’t do that here. The professors teach

thousands of kids each week. They don’t care what you do.”

Not the typical day off for a first-year art major, but there are

many atypical things about Nechita. The painter and prodigy has been

in the spotlight of the art world since age 10.

Nechita will be making an appearance at the Wentworth Gallery in

Fashion Island today, promoting an exhibit of her work.

THE JOY OF ANONYMITY

The daughter of Romanian immigrants, Nechita burst into the

national spotlight as a child and attracted enough media attention to

be labeled “the petite Picasso.”

She has appeared on talk shows and is collected by such Hollywood

luminaries as Whoopi Goldberg, David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey; she

has been exhibited everywhere from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and

Museum to the Vatican; and she even has a performing arts center

named after her at her alma mater, Lutheran High School of Orange

County in Orange.

Right now, though, she is relishing her anonymity on the big

campus.

“A lot of people remember me from when I was 10 or 11 years old,

so they can’t put a face to my name now,” Nechita said. “It’s so much

better this way. I can walk into class like any other art student.

That’s exactly what I wanted.”

It has been her dream since fifth grade to attend UCLA. Now that

she’s living it, she is ecstatic about what she’s learning and the

“godly” professors she gets to work with, many of them working

artists she admires.

CONFESSIONS OF A

‘SUPER, SUPER NERD’

Nechita is “looking forward to the transformation” she will

undergo after her tenure at the university.

Time will tell how much evolution her already famous technique

undergoes -- a distinctive style that has generated critical

attention, good and bad, for being a dead ringer for Pablo Picasso’s

cubism.

For Picasso, the technique was years in the making -- a conscious

choice to forge a new road and abandon the conventions of his

stylistic predecessors.

For Nechita, it was a matter of instinct.

As a child, people would ask Nechita why she painted the way she

did, going as far as asking her whether there was something wrong

with her eyesight.

“That used to make me mad,” Nechita said. “I would just have to

tell people, ‘I don’t feel as you may feel.’ I don’t know why I paint

this way, I don’t know how I do it. It’s something that just

happens.”

Picture an 8-year-old girl in a studio with her paints and a

canvas. A self-described “teacher’s pet” and “super, super nerd”

locking herself away in a room, needing to be alone with her work.

“I thought everyone should understand,” Nechita said. “I used to

freak out when I was bothered. Painting, it’s such a sensual moment,

an amazing emotion. I become one with my medium, and there’s nothing

else.”

Her love for painting grew, and while other artists her age are

clamoring to be on MTV or featured in the next teen flick, Nechita

has found creative freedom working in a medium that is hundreds of

years old.

“I still believe painting can capture delicate, sensitive

sentiments that no other medium can,” Nechita said. “There is a

connection between the viewer and artwork that doesn’t exist anywhere

else.”

‘IDOL’ CHATTER

Nechita has been in the public eye for most of her life and

credits her parents, Niki and Viorica, for helping her develop her

strong sense of love and respect.

“I know my parents would do anything for me and I would do

anything for them. It’s so important for parents to establish a firm

friendship with their children. That’s what my parents have given

me.”

Nechita’s 9-year-old brother, Maximillian, whom she calls “the

love of my life,” rounds out her family. She adores the boy -- he’s

the only person allowed in her studio while she works -- and he

serves as a means of escaping the collegiate pressures of class work

and paper deadlines.

Maximillian recently pulled his big sister away from her studies

to partake in his current obsession, “American Idol.”

“I nearly thought I was going to die,” Nechita said about her

impromptu dose of reality television. “My motto is if you have a

dream, do it. I can honestly see myself in some of those rejected

people trying to live out their dream.

“But then again, these people can’t sing,” she said.

GIVE ME TIME AND

GIVE ME SPACE

The maturity of Nechita’s artwork and the success of her career

can sometimes cause people to forget that she’s still a teenager -- a

young woman who rocks out to Coldplay and Radiohead in her car, a

“movie freak” with her Blockbuster card always ready to go, and

someone who gets a good laugh out of an episode of “The O.C.”

Most artists spend a lifetime trying to achieve what Nechita

already has, yet she is still evolving. She’s now experimenting with

glass and sculpture, and plans to study in Europe regularly over the

course of her college career.

When talking about the various challenges she experiences in her

everyday life and what may be ahead in her future, Nechita sounds

wise beyond her years.

“I have nothing to complain about. Everything’s wonderful, even if

it’s not. It’s all about picking the pieces up and putting them back

together -- that’s what strength is, walking around and being tough.

That’s what it’s all about.”

Then, she pauses.

“I love waffles.” Another pause, and then a laugh.

“I know, I’m very random.”

Not random, just energetic and 18.

* JOSE J. SANTOS is the art director and news desk chief. He can

be reached at jose.santos@latimes.com. For a review of the Alexandra

Nechita show at the Wentworth Gallery, see Friday’s Happenings

section.