Art Lab in Italy

I do and like Figurative Art! I try to create big, bold, dramatic and sexy statements, something that grabs you from across a room. I like to combine realism with graphic boldness. The series I am working on now is about women just not taking it anymore, sexy women taking there power back, in other words "Bad-Ass Chicks"

I have been on the planet a long time, so I am thinking you don't want the whole thing. Since 1991 I have been working as an Artist doing Illustration, Graphics and 3dAnimation. I created the Viper Girl and branding for the Viper Room. I taught 3d modeling at Gnomon school of VFX for three years. After being laid off my last job I pretty much decided that I was kind of over working in a 3D Pipeline and spent a couple of years doing my own animated Short. When that was done I decided it was time to get back into Oil Painting and Traditional Sculpture which is what I have been doing for the last 2.5 years and taking workshops with really great instructors to up my technical skills. I have studied with Sean Cheetham, Daniel Bilmes and David Simon. I am just starting to show some of my paintings.

I have gone to school at Cal State Fullerton, Art Center, Gnomon School of VFX and LAAFA

Art has called to me as my expression of the things I perceive but cannot say. At first when I climbed the Catalinas in Tucson or the Rockies in Colorado, I sat on precipices, and gazed over the trees and rocks; my painting was a substitute for the camera I could not afford. Soon I found a meditative state in my visage, seeing not only the rocks and trees but other things. This was the birth of my connection with nature. Over 40 years ago, looking and using my eyes to fondle the landscape became my mantra for future paintings. The process of painting while backpacking limited me to watercolors. These were easy to carry, use, and light. So watercolor became my medium of choice out of necessity. I’ve improved my techniques, and find watercolors offer that piece of uncontrollable mystery that makes a painting unique. I inadvertently put the horse before the cart with my training in art. Raised in a family of purpose driven people, career choices had to do with earning money and not expression of artistic ideas.

On the weekends, art was my release, my place of respite. Why do artists create? I can answer with another question: what is creativity? But the essence of all of us, for me it is the string that lingers inside our communications, it sparks the mind from the hum drum of churning. Art can be a little bump that makes you feel the road.

My project, “California Oaks as Art”, is an artistic expression of the beauty of the oaks, and a historical, environmental catalog of their stories. Yes, there goes that goal driven orientation. Yet on a deeper level the oak tree of California, although one of the most common trees, it is also one that is very unique to its climate. It is everywhere, and even in some places considered a weed. It pops up and takes root and before you know it, those leathery leaves are all over your yard. Common but not so common. This project has taught me so very much about the California natives. We study Indians and early people of California, but not much is known about its early oaks and current oaks. Like my backcountry experiences in the Desserts of Arizona, and the mountains of California, there is a richness of nature that cannot be described in words. One quote I like about nature and the new generations, is that how can you expect someone to care about nature, if they have never experienced it? To describe sleeping under the stars, hearing the wind through the pines, smelling the morning dew of a meadow, tasting the clear clean water from a spring, and sitting under an oak, are all sensual and transient. Understanding the role oaks have played in history, in ecology, and their uniqueness is one of the goals of my art project. On one level, I want the audience to walk away and say, I never knew this about the oaks, I think I’ll take another look at the oak in my yard, I want to visit this oak, or on another level; although I am one of many like the oak, I have a unique story, nature is a common denominator, under the surface there is more, the roots of each being are what make them unique.

My project has stimulated conversation both in writing and in conversation. I have had an article in the California Poppy, a publication of all the California Garden Clubs. The President has contacted me and asked for a follow up article on the oaks and their stories. I have presented a short slide show to the Los Angeles District Arboretum in Arcadia. This exhibit has been shown in Thousand Oaks Community Gallery and received a lot of positive responses. I have even been commissioned to paint a significant oak tree at Caltech. The grand Engelmann Oak is fading and I was commissioned by Caltech to paint it as a memory of how it once grew. This painting is now on display at California Institute of Technology.

My paintings themselves represent my journey through painting and expression. I have found some of the oak trees are quite plain and have decided to use an unusual technique such as Chinese Brush Painting to make the tree more interesting. As in the case of the 13,000 year old Palmer Oak, it is a low growing scrub oak, which is far more interesting when I painted it using Chinese Xuan Paper, Chinese Brushes, and Chinese Paint. This painting has won many awards which leads me to believe that the medium helps to spark the interest in the subject. I use watercolors which are my first love for most of the works, sketches, and preliminary paintings. I have created oils from the watercolor studies which are in this exhibition.

My style of painting is what I call environmental impressionism. There is an overt goal to encourage appreciation and knowledge of California’s Oak Trees, and there is a subliminal goal to see the limbs of the oak as we see the limbs of our own bodies. And how can you not love your own limbs.

Jennifer Bentson

3181 Linda Vista Road, Glendale, CA 91206

Cell (818) 243-5405

Email: jb@jenniferbentson.com

Web: www.jenniferbentson.com

Mediums:

Watercolor, Oil, Sketch - Charcoal, Pencil, and Pastel, Print, Chinese Brush Painting.

Commissions

California Technical Institute, Engelmann Oak, 2011

State of California, Air Resources Board, 2004

Publications

Six Visions, Wapshott Press

Storylandia, Wapshott Press, Cover 2013

Erotique, Wapshott Press Cover 2013

Chevy Chase Garden Cub, Member’s Directory, 2012

California State Garden Clubs, California Poppy, 2012

Current Correspondent for Art Quench Magazine, www.artquenchmagazine.com

Exhibits:

Chevy Chase Country Club – Solo Show 2009

Highland Taffy Art Assn., Summer Art Shows 2009, 2010, 2011

Brand Library, Glendale, CA , 2010

Modern Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, March, 2010

Descanso Gardens Art Gallery, La Canada, CA 1995, 1996

Montrose Art Walk – 2010, 2011

Bluebird House Art Gallery, Juried 2010

California State Air Resources Board, 2000-2010

The Advocate Gallery, 12-6- 2010 to 1-20-2011, Hollywood, CA

Segil Fine Art Gallery, Juried 2011, 2012

North Hollywood Performing Arts Center, Juried 2011

Gallery 800, Juried 2011, Juried 2012 winner of watercolor award. Juried 2013

Bonham and Butterfields 2011, APLA Juried 2012. 2013, 2014, 2015

California Institute of Technology, Permanent Collection 2011- present

Thomas Payne Foundation, Juried 2012

GAA – Silverlake Citibank Gallery - Group Show 2012

White’s Gallery 2012 – ( Two Shows) Fall Salon and October Show

Huntington Gardens and Library – Juried Show, 2012

La Canada Library – 2013 April Show

Anzoh Gallery – GAA – June 2013 Show

Burbank Creative Arts Gallery – July 2013 – Winner 2nd place, Watercolor

Glendale Youth Alliance, Juried Show, Nov. 2013

Valley Visions, Juried Show, June 2014, Winner “First Place Watercolor”

Thousand Oaks Gallery, “California Oaks as Art” 27 pieces with interpretative information.

Theodore Payne Foundation, Juried Art Show, 2014

GAA, Juried Show, October 2014, Winner “Honorable Mention” Sculpture

Lark Gallery, Brea Show, 2014-5

Aquarium of the Pacific, 2014, One of 20 artists juried into show.

Aquarium of the Pacific, 2015, One of 23 artists juried into show

Glendale Youth Authority, Juried Show, 2015

Far Niente, Curator, Oct. 2014 to March 2015, over 40 pieces of art hung on a rotating schedule, combining the artwork of two organizations.

Glendale Area Loves Art, Curator, Spring Show, 2015

White’s Gallery, GAA Spring Show, Juried, Winner “Honorable Mention” Figurative 2015

Blick Art Store Gallery, Pasadena, May, 2015

Exhibitions Produced

2013, Love of Art, Gallery 800, 50 participants, 95 pieces of art, SFVAC

2013 Masters of SFVAC Exhibition, CSUN Gallery, May, 2012, 22 artists, 34 pieces of art

2013 Small is Beautiful, White’s Gallery, 31 artists, 76 pieces of art

2014 Theodore Payne Foundation, Paint Out and Subsequent Gallery Show, 22 artists

2014 Thousand Oaks Gallery, open call, 43 artists, 87 pieces

2014 Thousand Oaks Gallery, 6 Visions Show, 6 artists, 95 pieces of art, published catalog created featuring the artists.

2014-5 Far Niente Restaurant, Glendale, CA, negotiated management of the walls of art for the restaurant. New show every two months, since October, 2014

2015 GALA, Glendale Area Loves Art, As GAA President, I curated and organized this show in a short period of time.

2015 GAA, White's Gallery, Spring Salon, Winner Honorable Mention, Figurative

2015, Children's Network Art Auction, Juried

2015 Bonham's, Art Project Auction, Juried

Presentations on “California Oaks as Art” Project

Chevy Chase Garden Club – 2012

Los Angeles County Arboretum – 2013

Delegate to China representing SFVAC – September 2014

Education:

BA Education, University of Arizona

MS Post Graduate Coursework in Educational Psychology

Professional Art Courses

Chinese Brush Painting, Xiamen University, Gulangyu Island, China

Figure and Portrait Painting – Animation Guild, Burbank, CA

Ceramics – La Canada Adult School – 2 sessions

Watercolor Painting – Glendale Adult School (7 sessions) and Monrovia Adult School (1 session)

Oil Painting – Glendale Adult School (3 sessions)

Figure Drawing – Glendale Adult School (3 sessions)

Perspective, Animation Guild, Burbank, CA

Leadership Roles

President, Glendale Art Association, 2015 - current

President, San Fernando Valley Art Club (2013-4)

Highly influenced by artists like Hopper, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Diebenkorn, I paints multicultural urban Los Angeles with all its contradictions and poetry.

I am trying to blend my classical European artistic background with contemporary conceptual approach. In the LA urban environment I am looking for and finding manifestations of eternal human values, such as love, faith, longing, and the strife for a better life. I try to see real people and their life through the facades of the buildings depicted with much love and connection.

Born in Moscow , Russia /f. USSR/

Moscow's Art School at Kropotkin St.

MA graphic design from Stroganovskaya School of Art and Design, Moscow.

Graphic Design Workshop Artist Union USSR

Group Show at Bienalle/ Chekhoslovakia, Praga

1989- Came to USA, Los Angeles

1990-2009 Decorative painted furniture and murals

2008-1st Solo show TALK TO ME LA1 Modern Art Gallery

2010-2nd Solo show TALK TO ME LA 2 at Modern Art gallery

2012 Group show at Santa Monica Art Studios

2013 Group show "Seen and Unseen"Downtown LA

Phantom Gallery

curator and artist

2013 Group show "Oneness"Phantom Gallery

2015 Group show at Civitella d'Agliano

2015 Group show at Nuremberg ,Germany

2016 Solo show at Lark Gallery Hawthorne

and curator for CALIFORNIA show

Artist Statement:

I have two quite different styles: the first one is studio painting, always based on a live female model, expressionistic and whimsical yet somewhat figurative. The second one is what I called "The Perplexed Animals Series": a series, in fact, of exuberant, magical and anthropomorphic creatures that I also reproduce on cards, art prints, and fabric. What they have in common is my struggle and desire to give these creatures (human and non-human) an identity that resides mainly in their eyes, and that never belonged to them in the first place but is a combination of me, them, and the mystery that evoked them. It is my joy and my intention to create worlds that have a foot in a recognizable reality, and the other in an intriguing and inspiring unknown one.

I was born in Varese, Italy on June 7, 1979.

I attended the European School of Varese where I learned English, french and Spanish; in 2002 I graduated in History of Theatre at the Catholic University in Milan where I also got a Masters' Degree in Writing and Producing for TV in 2003.

I spent 2004 reading and analyzing feature scripts in Rome, and enjoying the sweet life.

When I moved to LA in 2005 to study film at UCLA and UCLA Extension, I met art teacher Joe Blaustein who became my mentor and told me I was an artist. I have been drawing and painting in his classes for 10 years now. He is 91 years old.

Along with intense painting I did an MFA in Film Directing from the American Film Institute, graduating in 2010.

I am currently wrapping post-production with my first full-length documentary "The Dog and the Duck", a film about art and mentorship, and finding your own voice.

I belong to several art associations (LAAA and Pacific Palisades Art Association), and are becoming more active in the art world. FOX TV bought the rights to display my art in an episode of the now airing TV show "Weird Loners"; I got a first prize in a recent exhibit with PPAA, and I am one of the 240 artists in the Beverly Hills Art Show on May 16 & 17, 2015.

I was born in Peru where my mother, father and 2 brothers lived before emigrating to the United States. I became fascinated with painting when I was in Junior High School and have continued to paint to soothe my mind and spirit for many years. I am inspired by vibrant colors and geometric shapes to make my canvases come alive. My paintings are the reflection of my inner life and I look forward to the opportunity to share them with the world.

My paintings are lyrical, atmospheric abstractions that explore those moments when we release our tensions and ease into that clear, quiet space of meditation. They are meant as resting places, serene escapes from our hectic, fragmented, complex world, glimpses of the rhythms and quiet mysteries of our fractured lives and entry points to peace and our search for deeper connection. These paintings, with their subtle complexity, are layered translucently in search of radiance, nuance and depth. They evolve through a process of improvisation, experimentation, revision and intuition.

With a life-long passion for art, Karen Hansen spent 22 years in the field of animation. The film making took her to studios all over the world in a fascinating and challenging industry but painting full time was always her dream. She has done just that since 2001.

Hansen's paintings have been exhibited worldwide in both group and solo shows. Her work can be found in public, corporate and private collections across the United States as well as Europe. She has received numerous awards and commissions. In a Minneapolis “Art for Architecture” competition she submitted a drawing for a manhole cover design reflecting life in the city. Her award winning image was cast in brass and is installed in the sidewalk outside the Minneapolis City Center. In 2006 she was published in the book, Best of California Artists and Artisans and was awarded second place in the Acrylic Painting category. Every year since 2011 each of her entries has been awarded in the American Art Awards International Competitions. Her latest entries placed second and sixth in the Minimalism category in a competition that drew artists from 51 countries. In 2012 she was invited to be included in the book, Best Of Presents America Acrylic Artists Volume I, as well as Sue St. John’s ebook, A Walk Into Abstracts... How Did They Do That? In 2013 she spent three weeks as an Artist in Residence at the Mark Rothko Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia (Rothko’s birthplace). Her work is now in the museum’s permanent collection.

Hansen is a native of Chicago. In 1985, after many brutal winters in the Midwest, she came to the Los Angeles area and fell in love with sun-drenched Southern California. She now lives in Burbank with her husband and her cat.

She is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA) / Gallery 825, Women Painters West and a signature member of International Society of Acrylic Painters (ISAP).

Narine Isajanyan was born in Armenian and began drawing and painting at the age of five. During her childhood she visited many museums and galleries in Armenian and St. Petersburg, as well as receiving training in music and dance. In college she continued her training in art and received a Bachelors degree in 1987 from the College of Architecture in Yerevan. She moved to Moscow to study at the Moscow Architectural Institute but found Soviet regulations with architecture too restrictive and sought more freedom to express her ideas through her art. She returned to Armenian and studied art with Manvel Bagdasaryan and Samvel Bagdasaryan and later received a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the Yerevan University of Art and Theater. She first started exhibiting her art in 1990 in Armenia and has participated in numerous shows in Moscow, Beruit, Abu Dhabi, Croatia and Belgium. She came to the United States in 1998 when she was invited to participate in an art exhibition and since then has exhibited her paintings at many galleries in the Los Angeles area.

Inspired by the impressionist painter Monet, Narine's work is expressionist, minimalist and conceptual by turns. Whether on canvas, paper, board, wood or actually made of metal, her pieces become abstract landscapes that are as fluid within as they are consistent and organic as a whole.

About her art, Narine says, "When I paint, I feel like I am flying and dancing; I hear music in my mind. Through my art I want to express the freedom I feel in my soul."

The land has always been a reference and source of inspiration for my art. My first paintings were watercolor landscapes. But wanting to work more conceptually, I began to ask questions regarding issues that combined formalism, globalization and those concerning the environment. These queries led to using both abstraction and representation in an attempt to bring an awareness of the earth’s profound beauty and fragility. However, deciding to do something more proactive about the environment led to a four-year gardening project; one that fed artist/gardeners and built community within a community.

The projects that followed began my investigation of perception using photography, but always viewing it from the eye of a painter. Photographing the garden, I created close up images of the heirloom tomatoes and their insides.

Then began my experimentation with process and perception. The first series realized a life-long dream of combining painting and photography in the same image, using photographs of walls and natural objects from my travels. The second series experimented with emulsion, releasing the translucent image of a photo from its paper background. Current bodies of work use the emulsion technique, in addition to archival pigment prints on Slickrock creating a synthetic three-dimensionality.

Kunik was originally a plein-air watercolorist, but wanting to work more conceptually, she returned to school, earning a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Informed by environmental and global issues, Kunik’s abstract paintings began referencing these same issues, prompting a four-year community gardening project, which also explored photography and perception. Thus began her investigation of process: combining photography and painting and a unique emulsion process for photographs.

Kunik has been in more than 100 exhibitions in galleries and museums in California, New York and internationally, including Italy, Germany, Japan, Thailand and Peru. She recently received three Gold Awards and five Awards for Excellence for her work at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. She has shown at Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, and Photo LA. Kunik was born in Chicago, Illinois, earning a BA degree from the University of Illinois and an MS from DePaul University. She moved to California in 1978, where she currently resides.

I paint what touches me most. Something in my life or in the world around me that moves me deeply. It may be joy or it may be sadness and worry.

Just painting what I feel brings me closer in touch with who I am and what I feel, it helps me process what I might not otherwise understand or be able to digest or let go of.

My artwork always had to do with feelings, my feeling about the world, people, and my relationship with them. I always have put it on paper since I can remember.

Like the feelings between mother and child, that are our most complete bond, or portraits of an emotional mood, that seem to come just out of me when I feel a certain way and sit down with a brush and canvas, to capture the emotion.

Regine Legler Bio

Regine Legler was born in Berlin, Germany during the last days of World War II.

Her first exposure to art was a dark, brown door her mother allowed the family to draw on with chalk, which Regine did frequently. Everything was a canvas, including her schoolbooks, which lead Regine to her first commission; being asked by her fellow classmates to help them with their homework assignment to draw Napoleon.

Regine’s formal education in fine art started at age 17 when she enrolled at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt/Main Germany. There she began a two-year study of figure drawing, portraiture, landscape and still life under Walter Hergenhahn, a student of the renowned Max Beckmann. Later, she underwent three years of intensive study in oil painting, acrylic and watercolor at the Freie Academie in Mannheim, Germany.

In her early years, Regine drew and painted scenes of dreams and emotional situations in a style called Fantastic Realism. Then, in 1994, her interest shifted to wildlife and American Indian scenes. Today, Regine’s style has evolved from Fantastic Realism to a more realistic and personalized technique to create a very bold look and tone to convey strong emotions.

Regine holds juried membership at Women Painters West, Southern California Women Caucus of the Arts, Venice Art Forum, and has taught college-level classes at Santa Monica College and the Fashion institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.

My art investigates the range of ideological, social, economic and political fundamentals of rapid contemporary global development. Having grown up in a small town in Siberia where folk customs are still the norm, and then adapting to cosmopolitan Los Angeles, I observe and analyze the recent and rapid changes in both societies. This allows me the unique ability to integrate observations of value and loss in both social contexts in order to critique the comparative mentality and cultural attitudes between the two with the aim of gaining greater global understanding. These conceptual formulations are visually translated and expressed through drawings, ceramics, sculptures, videos, and installations. In addition to contemporary formal aesthetics the work incorporates old craft techniques such as sewing, weaving, and pottery that have been utilized out of necessity for centuries by common folk for simple livelihood. Discarded postconsumer materials employed in my work are reflecting fascination with the immediacy of contemporary consumer culture with its aspects of production, consumption and then waste. Addressing the contemporary topic of basic recycling of items formerly thought of as trash is a reminder of the forgotten practice of repurposing items out of necessity. This purposeful artistic action ultimately turns rather grim waste materials into a playful and redeeming process of continued transformation and wonder.

Born in Siberia, Russia

Education UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, BA, 2012

Awards/Residency

2014 Artist in residency at Mount St. Mary College, Los Angeles, CA

2013 Feed Us Fund US Art Grant

2011 Steward and Linda Resnick Scholarship

2009 Stiefel & Dockweiller Foundation Scholarship

Solo and Two-person Exhibitions

2014 Dancing and Dueling: Lena and Joe Wolek, SAC Gallery, Santa Ana, CA

2014 Lena Wolek: A-Wearness, Jose Drudis-Biada Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2009 Santa Monica College Theater, Santa Monica, CA

Group Exhibitions

2015 Texas National 2015, Cole Art Center, Nacogdoches, TX

‎['''''''shelf''''''''life'''''''] 1748 West Adams, Los Angeles, CA

Boiling Process 2: LA X TJ, Jaus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

MAS Attack, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA

2014 Cats-in-Residency, 356 S. Mission Rd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

MAS Attack-7, Santa Monica, CA

Impermanence, Brand Library Art Center, Glendale, CA

Another Cats Show, 356 S. Mission Rd Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

MAS Attack, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA

Summus, Minan Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Transit, SAC Arts at Santora Art Center, Santa Ana, CA

ArtCrasher, Venice Arts Gallery, Venice, CA

Monster Drawing Rally, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA

6x6x2014, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY

MAS Vegas, VAST Space projects, Henderson, NV

To Klingon or Not to Klingon, Project LALO, Campbell Works Galler

Juried exhibition, Gallery 110, Seattle, WA

C- Note, Jaus Gallery,, Los Angeles, CA

My work explores connectedness and the fragility of life. The pieces reflect a childhood very rich in family warmth under the Australian sun, stories encountered across countries in adult life, and a desire for more reflection on the place of humans within nature. My main body of work is bright and dark acrylic on small portable wood panels, developed during 13 years at home in three continents. Increasingly I also produce large watercolors on paper, which means one chance in each layer of paint, and sculptures, in order to play with viewers from all perspectives.

Libbet Loughnan spent her childhood in Australia's Barrabool Hills. She has always loved drawing and painting. Having trained at Robert Drummond’s Geelong Fine Art School, Loughnan then worked for a time with a state gallery in Mexico to run an art program among street children.

Loughnan now attends the life drawing classes at the National Arts Club in New York. She is inspired by artists Frida Kahlo, Brett Whitely, John Olsen, Françoise Gilot, Robert Drummond, Hunt Slonem, Brenda Napaltjarri, Robert Ingpen, her family –including its professional and innate artists– and by scuba diving and exploring. Loughnan is also interested in collecting art and dead little (cleaned) sea creatures, to have some inspiration in her Aussie home where she paints.

Loughnan has exhibited in New York, Geelong, Point Lonsdale, Melbourne, London, Berlin, Mexico city and Oaxaca.

Recent/upcoming exhibitions:

• February 2018: Solo exhibition, Ceres Gallery, New York, USA

• February 2017: Solo exhibition, National Arts Club, New York, USA

• October 2016: Ballerine Open Studios, Victoria, Australia

• March – April 2016: Qube Gallery, Cebu, Philippines

• March 2016: Golden Plains Open Studios, Victoria, Australia

• March 2016: Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival, Puerto Galera, Philippines

• February 2016: The Wintergarden Gallery, Geelong, Australia

• October 2015: Obracodobra, Oaxaca, Mexico

• September 2015: Affordable Art Fair NYC, New York, USA

• July 2015: Osaka Art Fair, Osaka, Japan

• May 2015: New York Select Art Fair, New York, USA

• May 2015: Etch Gallery, Geelong, Australia

• April 2015: Toronto Love Art Fair, Toronto, Canada

• April 2015: Gordon Art Gallery, Geelong, Australia

• March 2015: National Arts Club, New York, USA

Awards/Other:

• 13 March 2015: Awarded Prize at the National Arts Club Exhibiting Members Exhibit, National Arts Club, New York, USA

• 1 – 31 March 2015: Starry Night Artists’ Residency, New Mexico

My recent series attempts to integrate penned-up, internal emotional energy, through visually exploring the elegance of the female form in painting.

I channel emotions from every part of my body towards paint and brush and the connection begins with the piece. Allowing color to overflow and tangle up with texture; forming shape upon shape relationships. Crisis after crises burdens the body and heart, the weight is unbearable.

The women figures collapses in parts. Taking the punches put before her, tousled to decomposing, and she is left standing.

Educatiion

2015 Arizona State University, Tempe,

AZ,2 BFAs, Sculpture and Painting

2008- 2009 International Association of

Color Consultants and

Designers, San Diego, CA

2008 Joanne Day Studio, Oakland CA,

Mastery of Color

2006-2010 Yavapai College, Prescott, AZ.

AA of Fine Arts

1983-1985 Palm Beach Community College

Psychology, Physiology

Exhibitions

2014 Chandler Art Walk, TechShop, Chandler, AZ

2014 Gallery 100, Form At 100, ASU Tempe, AZ

2013 Ice House Exhibit, Institutional Shenanigans Phoenix, AZ

2013 Walter Gallerey, Scottsdale, AZ

2013 Ice House Exhibit, Architectural Sculpture, Phoenix, AZ

2012 Ice House Exhibit, Slipstream, Phoenix, AZ

2012 Tempe History Museum, Unexpected Unions, Tempe, AZ

2012 Juried Prescott Valley Public Art, Prescott Valley, AZ

2012 Juried Student Art Spring Exhibit,Yavapi

College, Prescott AZ

Awards

2012-2015 Summa Cum Laude, ASU,Tempe,AZ

2013 The Special Talent Scholarship Award, ASU

2012 New Scholar Scholarship Award, ASU, AZ

2012 Outstanding Academic and Art Achievements Award, Yavapai College,AZ

2009 Recipient of Merit Art Scholarship,Yavapi

College, AZ

I am interested in the concept of the imagination, its representation in culture and the relationship to the idea of the self. I am always seeking to represent something which is felt on a personal and universal level. This is how I try to understand the world.

My reaction to beauty, cruelty, time. My reaction to love, confusion, life. My reaction to music, experiences and things that I have learned, all are some how reinterpreted in to a manifestation of paint.

Education:

Degree in Critical Fine Art - Christchurch University, Kent.

Masters in Critical Fine Art - Christchurch University, Kent.

PGCE in Teaching in Further Education.

Foundation in Yoga Instruction

Foundation in Buddhist Medication

Recent Exhibitions:

Horsebridge Art Center, Whitstable, Kent, England.

BCN Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.

Solo Exhibition - St Augustin’s Hospital, Kent, England.

Solo Exhibition - Respond Academy, East Sussex, England.

Mall Gallery, London, England.

I’m an abstract symbolist who works with color, texture, shape and storytelling imagery to convey my wonder and appreciation for this earthly experience we call life. I want to excite the sensibilities, to engulf, saturate. I have many messages but, mostly, my work invites others to address and confront the power of simple beauty, the incunabula, the unknown, rites of passages, epiphanies, rebirth. Transformation is a constant in life and essential to our evolution. Each step we take is sacred and decides the journey. Every breath requires a new commitment to courage. My paintings examine the personas, the bodies, the heavens, dark and mysterious corners, the stopping places and launching pads of the soul. I’m deeply affected by the style of the original artists, the cave painters. Scientists opine they were women. These days my studio features drawings by DaVinci, photos from the Webb telescope and undersea animals. I live in the crossfire of science, art and personal healing.

I am often thoughtful of unity and through-line, I seek to convey a freedom and visceral truth that is unencumbered by any one message or agenda. This allows me to construct each work with a joyful, exploratory energy.

Montealegre’s art education emerged under the tutelage of abstract painter, Robert Kingston.

She is a recipient of the Puffin Foundation Grant for her performance art piece: Portrait of the First Woman.

Montealegre has continued to win prizes for her paintings and her works are featured in several publications.

Montealegre’s recent BELLINGHAM'S WHATCOM MUSEUM presentation of her painting, Heal Thyself! was featured in the Lightcatcher building where Eva performed a joyful song to introduce the curator's presentation.

2015 Eva is included in the prestigious Latina Art Initiative founded by Linda Vallega. She is vetted as one of the best Latin Artists in the country.

2015 Eva Montealegre is named a BEST ARTIST when ARTAVITA chooses the BEST ARTISTS in an international contest.

HIGGS BOSON, PORTRAIT OF THE FIRST WOMAN, the original painting by Eva Montealegre, a 64" x 96" oil on canvas, is featured in FIRST POST to announce the Nobel Prize Award to Peter Higgs for his creation theory explaining the origin of the Universe.

Eva’s painting, MOON ONE, is featured in the art book, ART TAKES TIMES SQUARE. Her figurative painting of a woman titled, CREATIVE CALL, is featured in the art book, WOMEN'S RIGHTS: An Artist’s Perspective sponsored by UniteWomen.Org. Her work has been honored by the City of Los Angeles in calendars and catalogs. She has participated in a number of Los Angeles community events.

2012 Eva's painting of the sun, IT'S ALRIGHT, receives first prize from WOMEN'S CAUCUS FOR ART. That same year Eva's painting DEEP VEIN #3 is presented at MOLAA'S WOMAN FESTIVAL.

Nothing interestes me more than watching people on film and in person so I figured why not combine the two and make an art set. I recorded my friends in their natural states and later painted my imaginative visions of how i saw them.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yk2p2fwrxck9051/AABOAnnqhuH4IlGeu-QoZ5t_a?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ao3sim08177i6z9/AABKVDjNyXOY_mQEWi45MRdSa?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/awqqwxp3lw5yhy6/AABFzMf67ZPBLOVTd5uWchDJa?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kmn7efimhobtuem/AAAb4mGny1zwRlcHgDgf9paQa?dl=0

Elizabeth Parent

(702)832-6995

After moving to New York four years ago I quickly began to find my passion. A good friend of mine inspired me to make a collection of our imaginations. It took a while for me to find my medium but once I discovered the gopro I felt enchanted. My time in New York was a hazy reincarnation of everything I've ever studied. I hope that my pieces show a version of the modern mixing with the past.

I have been creating art infused with color since childhood. my work is inspired by my lebanese heritage, by growing up in LA speaking spanish and arabic, by the beauty of my environment, my love of the earth, color, self expression, and the healing art provides to me as an artist, and to the world.

my spiritual life is an inspiration and an expression in creating beauty.

my work in many media reflects my diversity and love of experimentation and exploring a variety of ways to express myself.

working as a graphic designer for many years enabled my paintings and all of my art forms to have a strong design sense, and my love of color enables me to use color intuitively with ease.

my intention is to bring beauty and joy into the world through my art.

Linda Dalal Sawaya—artist, illustrator, writer, teacher, cook, gardener—is the fifth and youngest daughter of Lebanese immigrants from Douma, an archetypal mountain village overlooking the Mediterranean. Sawaya’s art effuses color, texture, and pattern like the Persian rugs embellishing her childhood home in Los Angeles. Her passions emanate from her parents and grandparents: her father an avid photographer and fig tree planter, yogurt-maker, teller of Joha stories; her mother and grandmother outstanding cooks and domestic artists; and her multi-lingual doctor grandfather, whose love of books, art, history, madonnas, Ripley’s Believe-It-or-Not, are preserved in layered, collaged journals. Following her grandfather’s love of books that he instilled in her while teaching her to read at 5, she made her first book—an illustrated autobiography—in elementary school.

After graduating UCLA in art, her first three month “roots” journey to Lebanon transformed her life as much as her years growing up in a Lebanese-American household full of the people, food, Arabic language, music, aromas, and furnishings of Lebanon intermingled with English, Spanish, and rock ‘n roll.

Following her father into photography beginning with her first camera a Brownie Starflash for her 10th birthday and moving into black and white environmental portraits, her work flowed into ceramics, then graphic design, painting mixed media, and illustrating children's books.

Blessed: living to creating healing art!

I am growing through art. I like to experiment with color, movement and light and see what this will bring to the universe in this moment in time.

Biography: Born in St. Petersburg into a very artistic family Peter Shpayer studied in " St. Petersburg Art School" and inherited knowledge of some of the best teachers and creative artists. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California, now. His latest art shows have been "Downtown L.A. Art Walk Show", "Eagle Rock Gallery" (L.A.), and Beverly Hills Art Walk. Art statement: My work depicts and implies the flow of versatile emotions of a human soul, with accents on the edge of feelings and experiences every one of may have at a certain time period of life. One word that would describe my painting is "ENERGY". I exert energy in its purest emotional form upon the colors in my paintings.The bright red colors, dominant in my work, emphasize the deepest emotions one may have, whereas more subtle colors represent hope, love, and faith. Each painting has an "energetically" influenced story that I want to tell.

MISTERIOUSLY ADDICTIVE UNBELIVEABLY INEVITABLE TO QUITE AFTER STARTING.

My greatest joy is to follow the guidance of my inspiration through every step of the process of creating a work of art, including the panic moments when I think all is lost, to rendering the gloriously satisfying final details. If, in looking at my work, the viewer is moved to hold his or her thoughts for even a few seconds and touch the feeling I tried to evoke, I feel gratified.

My education in art was comprised of my artistic mother's tutoring in the drawing of mainly portraits when I was very young, and my all-absorbing passion for studying the works of the old masters. Over the years I have attended numerous classes and workshops with successful artists whose work I admire, and I am most inspired by the works of the Tonalists and the Impressionists, as well as the beautiful figurative renditions of the Pre-Raphaelites, but in everyday life I am inspired continuously by the light patterns falling on the faces of the people around me and on tree trunks and rocks.

Through my association with several art clubs in the San Fernando Valley area I have received frequent awards at collective art shows, and secured several portrait commissions.

My art is more or less realistic according to what moves me about the subject, and the medium is chosen also according to the subject and how I want to express it. Although PrismaColor pencils had been my favorite since childhood, I currently enjoy acrylics and oils.

On my page you see my artwork of the past ten years. Techniquewise working with enamel i follow two directions.

My own technique – the base of the composition is figures cut out of copper and secured onto enameled wood.

The other technique is closer to painting. The copper or steel base is burnt, then I convey the exact pattern of the prepared composition. The enamel goes on layer after layer all of which are burnt separately on 800-850 degrees. Compositionwise all of them are made as table work.

A theme I’d worked on for several years is the Tree of life, based on archeological findings from the 7th century – this is what’s called the Permi-animal style (ancient Finno-ugrian mythology).

"Three Gods", " Totems District", " Hunting for Unicorn", "Progenitrix", "Regard of the past", "Large Fish", " Legacy" , " Milky Way" , "The Rivals".

In the past couple of years I’ve been preoccupied by the theme „Two-faced reality”. As the contrast of lightness and darkness, chiaroscuro or cold and warm is a part of the world’s entirety, there is just as much good and bad in the human soul.

"Two Face of Truth", "Lucifer", "Angel", "The Role Reversal", "Balance", "Connected", "Resistance", "In One's Heart".

The rest of the pieces work around the „Reality of many faces”, because our reality is rather diverse and versatile.

I was born in Orel (Russia) in 1949 and was educated in art and restoration of oil paintings. I was head of the National Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Komi for three years. In 1991 I moved to Hungary and in 1994 began to work with enamel. Below you can see my art resume:

Awards

Award from Hungary Union of Artists and the International Hot Enamel Creative Workshop - 1997, 2006 and 2009

Award from Karel Wojtyla Friendship Center - 2012

Masters Diploma (Nesvady, Slovakia) - 2012

Award from International Enamels Exhibition in Slovakia - 2013

Award from International Enamels Exhibition in Slovakia - 2014

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

1995 - Merlin Theatre, Budapest

1997, 1998, 2009 - National Gallery of the Komi Republic, Syktyvkar

2002 - Cream Club, Budapest

2003 - The Church of Regnum Marianum, Budapest

2006 - Claudia Gallery, Budapest

2007 - Museum of the Hungarian Art Nouveau 19-20 centuries., Budapest

2009 - National Gallery of the Komi Republic, Syktyvkar

2009 - National Gallery of Mordovia, Saransk

2009 - Hungarian Cultural Centre, Moscow

2010, 2011 - Museum of the Hungarian Art Nouveau 19-20 centuries., Budapest

2013 - The Church in Nesvady, Slovakia

2014-2015 - The Museum of stained glass and enamels, Ravenstein (Netherlands)

Group exhibitions

1995 - Hungarian Cultural Centre, Paris

1997-2015 - annual exhibitions in the city of Kecskemet after the symposium

1999 - Ujpest Gallery, Budapest

2000 - Stephanie Palace, Budapest

2000 - Municipal Cultural Centre, Shalgotaryan (Hungary)

2001 - Raday Gallery, Budapest

2001 - Stephanie Palace, Budapest

2001 - International Trienalle Enamel, Budapest

2008 - The International Exhibition of Enamels in Ravenstein, Ravenstein (Netherlands)

2009 - The International Exhibition of Enamels, Nesvady (Slovakia)

2009 - Duna Gallery, Budapest

2009 - Cifra Palota, Kecskemet

2010 - Municipal House of Culture, Sekeyudvarhey (Romania)

2011 - The International Exhibition of Enamels, Nesvady (Slovakia)

2011 - City Gallery, Mezёtur (Hungary)

2011 - Art Gallery, Nadbanya (Romania)

2012 - The International Exhibition of Enamels, Nesvady (Slovakia)

2012 - Vizivarosi Gallery, Budapest

2013 - The International Exhibition of Enamels in Ravenstein, Ravenstein (Netherlands)

2015 - Biennale of iconography in the Cifra Palota, Kecskemet (Hungary)

2015 - International Exhibition of Enamels, Florence (Italy)

My artworks also in the collections of:

- National Gallery of the Komi Republic, Syktyvkar

- Church of Regnum Marianum, Budapest

- Chiksentdёrde Church in Romania

- Cifra Palota, Kecskemet

- Museum of International Creative Workshop Enamel, Kecskemet

- Museum of stained glass and enamels, Ravenstein (Netherlands)

My works are in private collections in

- Hungary

- Russia

- Denmark

- Canada

- Germany

- United States

- Bulgaria

- France

- India

- Austria

- Italy

- The Netherlands

- Slovakia

- Czech Republic

- Australia

One of my preoccupation as a painter is the wide range of visual possibilities that technology has given us. Everything is possible, the sky is the limit, and we can do anything we want, but it doesn't mean we should; it’s a personal preoccupation on today’s society. Technology gives us the liberty to do as we please with our food, appearance, nature, yet one of my concerns is that we are not living up to the responsibility of this freedom. This does not mean that my work is telling society how it should behave, but inside my little world, my work, my paintings, I can do as I please. With this in mind, I try to be responsible with what I paint, and how I paint it, keeping in mind the material, the subject, every single aspect, which guides the projects that I develop.

I consider what I can do, what I can accomplish, and if it’s worth the ambition or if it’s better to explore other simpler possibilities. Although my work is on a bidimentional surface, yet I’m always considering every possible aspect that it affects and the ones that affect it. The images are constantly a result of all the elements in my context and the time I am living in the moment of the production of the piece, but its true core is the following premise: "I know I can do it, but does that mean I should, and why?"

I was born in California, but both my parents are colombians, and all my life I have lived here in Colombia. I am 28 years, and I am a painter and a teacher. I gained my bachelor degree in the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, and I have lived for 4 years in the city of Cali since. I have been working on my painting very hard, and only began to show my work last year in a series of exhibitions in several cities in Colombia, Armenia, Cali and Bogotá. When I first moved to Cali, I started working as an english teacher in a kinder garden, and then as an art teacher, but I retired to work full time as a painter and promoting a cultural and artistical space called Casa Aislada, where we organize exhibitions and workshops to promote young art in Cali. Right now I have an ongoing project called An Exemplary Life, that uses the fairy tales imagery as symbols that altogether portray specific moments of my life. A first part of this project was shown in an independent lab in Bogotá and it will be shown completely in november of the present year in the Museum of Art in Armenia Quindío.