Art Transforming Spaces

Education

California State University, Los Angeles 1976-1978 M.A., Fine Art

California State University,Fresno 1968-1972 B.A., Fine Art

Awards and Honors

Second Place, cash award, “Without Alarm III: Custody, Captivity, Containment”,

LAPD Experience Museum and Educaton Center, Los Angeles, CA, sponsored by Arroyo Arts Collective, July, 2003

Honorable Mention,“Member’s Exhibit”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, May, 2001

Student Art Council Award, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, September, 1977

Kappi Psi Honorary Art Fraternity, Gamma Tau Chapter, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, 1978

Dean’s List for Academic Excellence, California State University, Fresno, CA, 1971

Installations ( in partnership with Victoria Taylor Alvarez)

“Dia de los Muertos”, ”,2nd City Council Gallery, Long Beach, CA, October, 2008

“6th Annual Women’s Festival”,2nd City Council Gallery, Long Beach, CA, March, 2007

“Offerings/Ofrendas”, mixed media installation , The Acorn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, November, 2005

“Home and/or Homeless, installation piece in patio, 2nd City Art Gallery +Performance Space, Long Beach, CA, October, 2005

“BID” (Business Improvisation District), installation piece at Botanica Madre De Agua, Highland Park, CA, sponsored by Arroyo Arts Collective, May-June, 2004

“Without Alarm III: Custody, Captivity, Containment”, installation piece at LAPD Experience Museum

and Educaton Center, Los Angeles, CA, sponsored by Arroyo Arts Collective, July, 2003

“Trail Markers 2: What Desert?”, on site installation at Lower Arroyo Park, sponsored by New Town, Pasadena, CA, September, 2002

“River Visions”, on site installation along the Los Angeles River, sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective, Los Angeles, CA, April, 2000

\"LArt Exhibition\", outdoor installation piece in the piazza, California State University, Los Angeles, October, 1998

\"Downtown Lives! \'98\",enviromental room installation piece,sponsored by DADA, Los Angeles, CA, October, 1998

“Without Alarm II: Public and Private Security”, installation piece in Lincoln Heights Jail, Los Angeles, CA, sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective, 1998

Online Exhibitions

“Five Women Artists”, millenniumartgallery.com, Millennuim Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, October, 2002

“Six Artists”, millenniumartgallery.com, Millennium Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, July 2001

Solo Exhibitions

“Openings”, solo exhibition, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, March, 2002

“Complex Boundaries”, solo exhibition, Studio 343, San Pedro, CA, November 2001

“Project Red Line”, Gallery 25, Fresno, CA, 1980

“Local Girl Makes Good”, solo exhibition, Gallery 25, Fresno, CA, 1976

Gallery Exhibitions

“ Venus, Goddess of Love”, juried group show, LAAA/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, March, 2009

“Gem”, special group exhibition/auction, LAAA/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, April, 2008

“Penumbra”, group show, LAAA/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, February, 2008

“Off the Wall”, group show, PalosVerdes Art Center,PalosVerdes, CA, September, 2007

“Summerstock”, LAAA/Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, August, 2007

“Member’s Exhibition”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, July, 2007

2007 Juried All- Media Exhibition, Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA, July, 2007

“Puppets on the Wall”, Arroyo Arts Collective, The Acorn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2007

“ 6th Annual Women’s Festival”, 2nd City Council Gallery, Long Beach, CA, March, 2007

“Hausguests”, The Brewery, Los Angeles, CA, February, 2007

“Petite Works”, LAAA, Gallery 825, Los Angeles, CA, December, 2006

“The Bird Show”, Arroyo Arts Collective, The Acorn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, July, 2006

“Member’s Exhibition”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, July, 2006

“Petite Works”, LAAA/Gallery 825 at Bergamont Station, Santa Monica, CA, November, 2005

“Offerings, Ofrendas”, The Arroyo Arts Collective, The Acorn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Oct. 2005

“In The Abstract”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, February, 2005

‘‘Critique LA”, group show, Roark’s, Los Angeles, CA, January, 2005

“Impressions of LA”, members’s exhibit, SCWCA Brewery gallery, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2005

“In The Abstract”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, February, 2005

‘‘Critique LA”, group show, Roark’s, Los Angeles, CA, January, 2005

“Voyages and Explorations”, members’s exhibit, SCWCA Brewery gallery, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2004

“Members Exhibit”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach , CA, May, 2004

“The 50/50 Show”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, May, 2004

“White Planes”, juried group show. Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, April, 2004

“$200.00 Takes Any Piece” Andrewshire Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, December, 2003

“Petite Works”, Gallery 825 at Bergamont Station, Santa Monica, CA , December, 2003

“It’s A Fine Line”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2003

“Small Works”, members’s exhibit, SCWCA Brewery gallery, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2003

“Members Exhibit”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach , CA, June, 2003

“The 50/50 Show”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, May, 2003

“Found Object Exhibit”, juried group show, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, May, 2003

“100% Natural”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LAAA, Los Angeles, CA, February, 2003

“Members Exhibit”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach , CA, November, 2002

“Members Exhibit”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach , CA, July, 2002

“Earth Alchemy”, juried group show, Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park, CA, April, 2002

“Color Outside the Lines”, juried group show, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, February, 2002

“Members Exhibit”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach , CA, November, 2001

“2001 Juried All Media Exhibition”, Palos Verdes Art Center, Palos Verdes, CA, June 2001

“Lofty Ideas”, group show of SCWCA members, Loft Gallery, San Pedro, CA, June 2001

“A Circle of Altars: Women Celebrate the Feminine Divine”, The Women’s Center, California State University, Northridge, CA, May, 2001

“National Open Juried Show”, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, January, 2001

“Grotesque Art”, juried group show, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, October, 2000

“Paint”, juried group show, Gallery 825/LA Art Association, Los Angeles, CA, September,2000

“Abstract Exhibit”, juried group show, Long Beach Arts, Long Beach, CA, July 20,2000

“River Visions”, an exhibition of photographs and documentation of the April, 2000, Los Angeles River artists’ event,The River Center, Los Angeles, CA, June, 2000

Jewelry painting on stone is a synthesis of ancient technology and modern trends. It is based on lacquer painting, which appeared in China over 2000 years ago. Traveling the world, it transformed into a completely unique high art. Today it is the finest multi-layer painting with oil paints using the technique of classical masters.

I like this particular direction of painting, because it is fiddly, elegant and beautiful. It reflects not only the inner world of the artist, expressed in the drawing, but also the energy of the stone on which the painting is made. I really love to draw angels and gods in my own interpretation. I feel their love, blessing and support, and all this magic remains in stone. My connoisseurs receive not only a beautiful interior piece of high art, but also a real Object of Power that harmonizes space and transforms life.

I was born on January 14, 1988. In painting, I am self-taught, my professional higher education is NRNU MEPhI, specializing in human radiation safety.

I always loved to paint, I went into free creativity in 2012 and I have been working professionally as an artist since then. I paint with oil paints on canvases and semiprecious stones.

In 2016 I mastered the technique of jewelry painting on stone and since then I have been painting, mainly in the technique of lacquer miniature.

My works participated in an international exhibition in Los Angeles with a genuine relic of Buddha in 2017. I won the XXVI Russian Art Week competition, spring 2019. Participate in the international exhibition Visionary Art trip 2019.

Member of the Union of Artists of Decorative and Applied Arts of Russia since 2020.

Charity trip with a master class on art therapy to the Orphanage in Moscow, summer 2017.

My artworks are in private collections in different parts of the world:

Russia, USA, countries of Europe and the East.

My miniatures live with stars and art lovers.

The panel "Paris for Two" was presented to the Russian singer Elena Maksimova for a wedding in Nice at the Rothschild estate.

The Ruby Buddha pendant was created for the princess of Thailand.

My work is dedicated to spiritualized art, beautiful both in semantic content, and in external expression, and in a subtle, invisible, no less significant energy component. I believe that true art is meant to awaken and warm hearts.

My work tells stories – my stories, other people’s stories and stories not yet told. I use bright colors and work in large scale, focusing on the most important subject in the narrative, which may be a portrait or an inanimate, everyday object. I leave the viewer wondering about what is happening and the meaning behind each work.

Melissa Arostegui recalls having a strong interest in shape and color as a child. She spent a lot of time looking at the shapes and outlines of ordinary objects, which shows up in her work. Much of her inspiration came from studying the work of David Hockney and Elizabeth Murray while attending SAIC. This is evident in her large paintings, primarily of bold still life objects and portraits.

Since receiving her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Melissa has participated in several art shows in Illinois including a solo show at the Mission Gallery in Elgin called “A Place She Calls Her Own.” In addition, Melissa participated at Bare Walls, a live event at the Art Institute of Chicago and has been involved in other exhibitions across the country. In 2018, Melissa Arostegui’s work was featured in the magazine Art & Beyond and she was also featured in an online article by Artsy Shark in 2023.

Recent group exhibitions include Refreshing Feminism, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; and Evolve.Women.Wisdom, Long Hall Gallery, West Hollywood, California.

Uma Aslam has now been painting for over 25 years and is self-taught, originally from Manchester, United Kingdom. Exhibiting both here and Internationally as well as receiving numerous accolades for her works.

Uma Aslam draws much of her inspiration from her personal spiritual experiences and her connection to nature. Her paintings have a sense of wonder and intrigue that not only captivates the audience but engages them into delving deeper into mind and spirit sometimes even awakening subconscious memories of who we really are, of what we have long forgotten as our true inherent nature, which is the Divine spark that exists within each and every one of us.

Sometimes she will tell a story in her paintings, and at other times she will paint what she receives and experiences through dream states, meditations, and visions in the way of forms, symbology, and color.

My goal is to creatively display a story through the glass of imagination and capture the enchantment of dissociated reality. I work with different mediums, including watercolor, oil, gauche, pencils, ink, artist pens, pastel, digital applications, coffee, and pretty much everything that can be used for drawing and creating.

Elena Baydina (aka Anoriel) is an artist and author with background in Psychology and Education. Her inspiration comes from exploring universal archetypes, legends, myths and folk tales.

Elena was born in Moscow, Russia, in the midth of the cold December. She now creates, lives and teaches in California, San Francisco.

Both my work are especially driven by a need for texture, and feature a level of impasto that indicates a sculptural value. I work with paint, canvas, papier mache, wood and other media to create pieces that do not subsume the materials within the content, but instead make the materials I am using part of the subject matter. Whether abstract or figurative, my work will often integrate tactility into a design or pattern, but it is not the product of a conscious or intellectual plan. No one said this better than the art critic Tony Cavanaugh, who wrote that I create "with an intuitive feeling, as though the imagery springs directly from the artist's unconscious in the manner of automatic writing." Another way of saying this is that my work comes from a part of my psyche that is hidden from me. Or more recently this is a side of myself I find when it is as if I have entered a magical forest, or a magical forest that is always waiting for me; a forest that as Baudelaire says, is filled with things that “look at me with familiar eyes.”

Influence/affinities: Leonora Carrington, Judy Scott, Yayoi Kusama

Meg Boe Birns is an artist, poet, and literary critic living and working in the East Village. She has studied privately with Lenora Shargo of the Maryland Institute of Art, Henry Pearson of The New School and Pennsylvania Academy of Art, and has also been a student in a number of art classes at The New School. She has exhibited her work in a variety of venues in and around New York City, including the Small Works at the Washington Square East Gallery, the TNC Gallery, the Ridge Street Gallery, the Lynn Prince Gallery, and the Art for Healing Gallery. Her drawings have been published in the Art Times, Collages and Bricolages, The Creative Woman and on the cover of the premiere issue of I, The First Person. She has been given awards by the Rockland Center for the Arts and the National Art League.

Born in Latvia, citizen of Iceland and Latvia, living and working in Nice, France Senior member of Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts de France

Main exhibitions

Beijing International Art Exposition China 2008

Olympic Fine Arts 2008 Beijing China

Gallery “Ceres” 2008, 2009 New York USA

Ward-Nasse Gallery 2008, 2009 New York USA

Solo exhibition Gallery “Imagini Spazio Arte” 2009 Cremona, Italy

Salon “Art en Capital” 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, Grand Palais, Paris Solo exhibition Gallérie Everarts 2009 Paris France

Salon Société des Beaux-Arts de France 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Louvre, Paris France

Salon d’Art Contemporain 2011, Cannes

Solo exhibition Gallery Oscar 2011 Nice, France

Art Monaco 2012, 2013, 2014 Monaco

International Flag Art Exhibition 2012 Beirut Lebanon

Gemluc Art 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 Monaco

Art of Prom 2013 Nice France

Museum of Young Art 2013, Vienna, Austria

Consul Art 2013, Marseille France

La Galleria Pall Mall 2013, London England

ArtExpo 2014 New York USA

Salon d’Automne 2014, 2015, 2017 Champs- Elysées, Paris France

Salon International 2015 Palais Constantine, St Petersburg, Russia

Mostra Internationale d’Arte 2015 Venezia, Italy

Passagi di Luce, Mostra Internationale di Arte Contemporanea 2015 Palazzo Zenobio Venezia Italy

Le Graal 2015, 2016 ST Raphael France

AUB Art Collection 2016 Abu Dhabi, UAE

Traditions & Contemporaneity 2016, 2017 Moscow, Russia Personal structures, 2017 Biennale Venice Italy

Solo exhibition, 2017 Nice France

Salon des Artistes Indépendants, 2

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

Mike B. Davies

I am personally present in every piece. It’s all an autobiography, whether I plan it that way or not. I’ve never had the problem of knowing when to stop in the production of a work of art. When I can live with it in the long term, (even in a commission), it is finished.

My influences are largely fluid, always changing. Faces, architecture, the natural world, theatrical influences, mood, or just something I want to see that no one else has produced -all give me ideas for future works.

Being self-taught has allowed me the freedom to explore new mediums and subjects without prejudice, preconception, or fear. It may take a bit longer to teach myself a new medium, but the results have been fresh and individual. My latest works have been mostly in acrylic paint, colored pencil “paintings”, and sculpture in both construction and deconstructionist techniques. Although I get deeply involved with each individual piece, my ideas are often too broad to end at its' completion, so I work nearly exclusively in series of between 3 to 10 pieces, or until I’ve exhausted the subject.

I continue to show my work in juried shows, shows with a small group of artists’ friends, and individually in one man shows in galleries and alternative spaces in Nevada and California.

Not limiting myself to “fine art”, I also design tattoos, do commercial art, large scale outdoor murals, indoor decorative work in concert with decorators, and commissions of all kinds.

Mike B. Davies

Award winning artist Mike B. Davies is truly a triple threat, with amazing skills in sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking. Displaying many styles in each discipline, his subject matters are as diverse as his talents with examples in his paintings; such as animal and human portraiture, land and seascape, along with abstract works and design. His sculptural works include wood, metal and polymer clay. He often employs movement by way of electric motors and built-in lighting in many pieces.

Though very serious about his work. he doesn’t hesitate to incorporate his sense of humor into many of his pieces, often hidden in the fine details. Mike’s work lends itself to a long look in order to discover these details.

Mike is an exciting artist to watch and keep up with throughout his journey in the art world.

“EliZe” da Jose – Artist Statement

I understand art as a way of emotionally experiencing reality and a universal language of

communication.

Without conscious e?ort and thought, I try to fill my paintings with expressions strong

enough to let the spectator feel the energy put in the depth of the canvas, transforming the

perception of picture into his own art act.

Most recently, I find myself inspired to focus on developing and exploring the connection

between iconography and abstraction in light of Cosmism philosophy. The inspiration of

this uniquely blended style came about as briefly explained in the following.

I believe that abstract painting was and still is an artist’s attempt at capturing and

expressing Plato's world of ideas which is invisible to the earthly eyes. Then, at the

beginning of the 20th century came the avant-gardism of Filonov and Malevich which was a

rebellion against physicality, materialism and petty-bourgeois consumption.

Iconography takes its roots from the symbiosis of antique vivid imagery and spiritual

practices of Ancient Egypt. From ancient times to the present day, man has never stopped

asking himself questions about who he is and what his true role in this world is.

My newfound unique style of blending iconography and abstract painting is somehow an

endeavour to continue humanity’s perennial e?ort and desire to capture and express the

depth of the invisible world via visible materials, to have a glimpse of the heavenly realm via

earthly instruments, akin to Plato and Malevich’s line of thinking.

In my work, I try to find an image of the elusive other shore - where every soul aspires to go -

and trying to find artful means to communicate what is di?icult to express in words.

ELIZAVETA DAJOSE (Artist Name: Elize)

Elize daJose is a professional artist, sculptor, iconographer and illustrator.

Her artworks primarily consist of a unique blend of abstract art and icon painting, experimenting with various materials, although her favorite media remain acrylic painting and ceramics.

Born in Moscow, Russia, her life as an artist started at a very young age. One day on a snowy street in her hometown, she bought Kazimir Malevich’s book from a peddler which turned her consciousness upside down and defined her entire life path.

From 1996 to 2000, she religiously undertook painting, sculpture, and graphics in various workshops of Moscow artists.

Since 2001, she has been working in the creative workshops of the Babushkinsky Sculpture Combine and in 2002, she became a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, sculpture section.

From 2002 to 2010, she actively participated in group exhibitions at the Central House of Artists, Gallery on Kuznetsky Most, Darwin Museum, and Timiryazev Museum.

In 2010, she participated in the Annual Art Juried Competition in Los Angeles, CA, and became a laureate.

In 2011, she took part in the collective exhibition "Woman Day Art Exhibits" at the Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA, and in 2012 she had a solo exhibition "Three Artists" at Liz Loft Gallery, LA, CA.

In 2016, Elize moved to California and actively participated in collective exhibitions, including the "Summer Exhibit" at Bergamot Station Art Center in Santa Monica (2016), "Brain Art Event" at Lark Gallery/The Chiari Project in West Hollywood (2017), and "The Art of Transformation" at Brick & Mortar Loiter Galleries in Long Beach (2023), among many others.

In 2025, Elize was awarded the Silver Medal at the New York International Art Juried Competition, "The Light from the Other Shore."

In 2026, an essay featuring Elize's creativity and spiritual development was published in the book "Revelations of the Artist - Deep Calls to Deep", curated by ArtServe International.

Elize is an active member of the Los Angeles Art Association and Riverside Community Arts Association. She is currently represented by Lark Gallery in West Hollywood and Literary Engineers, LLC in Benicia, CA.

My inspiration is to love, engage, and elevate the human spirit, one heart, one paintbrush, and one community at a time.

Nooshin Farahpour was born in Tehran and grew up close to the Albert mountains. Her childhood was cultured, her father was a prominent architect, her late mother was nascent artist and poet; yet her memories of those years are being immersed in nature.

Nooshin paints lived experience exalted as memories yet manifested as buoyant abstraction, saturated in the pursuit of the natural world.s authenticity.

René Galassi began painting late. However, he always needed to express his emotions related to the strangeness of his relationship to the world.

He will never attend an art school, although he always feels drawn to art.

However, during his high school years, he began to draw in ink or ballpoint pen motifs on a white background that appear today as a tear in the fabric of accepted meanings.

Instinctively hostile to any pre-programmed thought, he will never be part of any movement, aware of the obvious antagonism between his uninspired accounting training and his vital need to escape the uneasiness of everyday food.

inherited from ancestors, who were cabinetmakers, the satisfaction of manual work well done and the beauty that emerges, it gradually appears ß

Henri Baviera introduced him and made him work alongside him as a soft press. In 1999 René took engraving lessons, digested the influences of the artists he attended and he prints the works and begins to create his under the benevolent eye of Henri Baviera.

In 2001 René opened his own workshop. From now on he creates and draws his own engravings. His subjects are abstract but everyone will find figurative. His engravings inspire imaginary worlds, ancient world maps. He gives his engravings names derived from agronomic terms.

He continues his path and goes to the creation of Toiles where clay, clay, gold leaves, ochres are mixed. The work of canvas and engraving become for him complementary techniques. Rene lives in Nice.

"My art allows me to see the beauty – the color and design – in ordinary everyday objects, in buildings, in clothing, in nature.

We are all surrounded by beauty. All we need to do is stop, look and take it all in."

Georganne Aldrich Heller, daughter of the famous fashion designer and art collector Larry Aldrich and a successful designer is an artist in her own right. She makes collages building on the vision that drove her long career as a theatrical producer in New York. Each collage and boxed construction represents a setting of evolving mysteries, opening the way to surreal dramas inviting viewers to enter the world of her dreams, yet unruled by any sort of literary content. Instead, Heller favors a lucid, iconic approach where the “thingness” of shapes and substances is allowed its own expression, her visual reasoning riding on the dynamic that powered western art through a half century of experiment, from cubism to De Stijl.

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."

✨ My Mission ✨

Through my art, I seek to help others experience a spiritual awakening — to rediscover inner harmony, hear the heart at deeper levels, and remember the Song of the Soul. My intention is to assist individuals in reconnecting with the soul of our planet, Gaia, and with the consciousness of plants, animals, and the greater cosmos — the galaxies and stellar systems that mirror the vastness within us.

With my paintings, I strive to create spaces that invite reflection, transformation, and healing. Each artwork becomes an environment for exploring certain states of mind and energy — helping to release negative patterns, restore balance and confidence, and awaken intuition and higher awareness.

My aim is to awaken, inspire, harmonize, and fill hearts with beauty, wonder, and a sense of the sublime.

With my art, I seek to create environments and settings that invite contemplation and transformation. Each painting becomes a space for working with certain states of mind and energy — helping to release negative patterns, restore balance and confidence, and awaken intuition and higher awareness. My aim is to inspire, harmonize, and fill hearts with beauty, wonder, and a sense of the sublime.

Each of my artworks is born with a particular intention, setting, or mood — I embed frequencies of emotion and meaning within the paint itself. Thus, my paintings can serve as portals for meditation, reflection, and inner alignment. Through them, I also express my admiration for the beauty and diversity of life on Earth and the infinite expanse of the Universe — its stars, galaxies, nebulae, constellations, and unseen worlds beyond.

✨ Oil Paintings of Night and Light ✨

Space • Cosmos • Other Dimensions

Angels • Archangels • Ascended Masters

Spirits of Gaia • Animal Totems

Sacred Places of Power on Earth

Paintings for Meditation • Inspiration • Healing • Harmonization

✨ Energy Portraits • Color Therapy ✨

Izabel Raa is an award-winning Russian-born American artist, music composer, and author. Her paintings serve as gateways to meditation — vivid portals into states of balance, serenity, and awakening. Drawing on years of spiritual practice across diverse traditions, Izabel creates works that transport the viewer into a higher emotional and energetic resonance. Her intention is to restore love, wonder, and healing to one’s life through art infused with presence and soul.

A true citizen of the world, Izabel follows the call of movement and inspiration, creating wherever she feels resonance. Her creative path has led her through many Places of Power across the globe — from the Himalayas and Mount Uluru to Mount Fuji, the ancient temples of Nepal, Thailand, and Bali, as well as the mystical landscapes of Sedona, Mount Shasta, Monument Valley, and Hawaii. She has also journeyed to the Amazon jungles of Peru, the Egyptian pyramids, and the sacred dolmens of Russia. Each of these places nourishes her art, infusing it with the spirit of the Earth and the infinite Cosmos.

Her artistic journey began in 2013 in California, where she started painting in oil while simultaneously composing music — crafting electronic, cinematic, and meditative soundscapes that evoke both intimacy and vastness. From ambient and experimental sound worlds to piano and string compositions filled with emotion, Izabel’s music transcends genres, exploring the mysterious bridge between sound and color. Her works can be found on all major platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

Izabel’s first exhibition took place in 2017 in Sedona, Arizona — the mystical heart of North America. Since then, her artworks have been exhibited in the United States, Italy, India, and Russia, featured in numerous shows, art events, and spiritual festivals dedicated to mindfulness, Buddhism, yoga, Hinduism, Orthodoxy, and Shamanism. Her paintings now reside in private collections and meditation centers worldwide.

She also creates energy portraits — personalized paintings attuned through meditation to the unique vibration of each individual. Working from a person’s photograph, Izabel channels their energy onto canvas, crafting custom artworks delivered globally.

Exhibitions and Events

2017

• Jerome (Sedona), Arizona, USA - Art Walk Event, Yester Day’s Gallery (Jan 2017).

• Jerome (Sedona), Arizona, USA - “The Love of Art,” Art Walk Event, Yester Day’s Gallery (Feb 2017).

• St. Petersburg, Russia - Participation in Budart Art Retreat for Artists (June 2017).

• San Francisco, California, USA - Solo Exhibition, San Francisco Zen Center (Aug 1 - Sept 9, 2017).

• Los Angeles, California, USA - Meditative Art Exhibition and Performance, Budart Meditative Art Festival (Sept 16 - 21, 2017).

2018

• Los Angeles, California, USA - Yogananda Fest “Change Yourself to Change the World” (Apr 28, 2018).

• Lake Forest, Los Angeles Area, USA - Exhibition-sale, Thanksgiving Event, Gallery “Olympic” (Nov 2018).

2019-2020

• Moscow, Russia - Mini Exhibition, Gallery & Tea Club “Arteafact” (Nov 2019 - Jan 2020).

2020-present

• Divnomorskoye, Gelendzhik, Russia - Permanent exhibition, Private Gallery of Eco-Villa “Sea Chalice” (Oct 2020 - present).

2021

• Los Angeles, California, USA - Lark Gallery Online Group Art Show and 2 Artists Zoom Meetings “SoulRise”; publication in Art & Beyond Magazine (Jan - Apr 2021).

• Moscow, Russia - “FreedOM’art,” Group Art Exhibition of Artists of the Spiritual Art Style (July 4, 2021).

2022

• Gelendzhik, Russia - Solo Exhibition “Soul’s Flights” (Jan 7, 2022).

• Gelendzhik, Russia - “Universe of Soul,” Solo Exhibition with music album presentation and guided meditations, SMART Anti-Gallery (Jan - Feb 2022).

• Los Angeles, California, USA - Lark Gallery Group Art Show “Art Transforming Spaces” (Feb 1 - 15, 2022).

• Florence, Italy - International Prize Leonardo da Vinci - The Universal Artist (Feb 6, 2022).

2023

• West Hollywood, California, USA - Lark Gallery Group Art Show “The Art of Wellness” (Mar 2023).

• Gelendzhik, Russia - Solo Exhibition “A Journey Through Inner Places of Power and Resourceful States of Consciousness” (Aug - Nov 2023).

2023-2024

• Divnomorskoye, Russia - Group Art Exhibition “Lumen” (Nov 2023 - Jan 2024).

• Gelendzhik, Russia - Solo art show during various music and art events (Nov 2023 - Mar 2024).

• Gelendzhik, Russia - Solo Show in Café “Na Chile” (Dec 2023 - Apr 2024).

2024

• Los Angeles, California, USA - Lark Gallery Group Art Show “Harmony Within” (Feb - May 2024).

• Gelendzhik, Russia - Solo Show in “Dom Dushi” (House of Soul) (Apr 2024).

• Divnomorskoye, Russia - Audio and visual art performance in Café “Lumen” (May 2024).

2024-2025

• Los Angeles, California, USA - Lark Gallery Group Art Show “Voices of Resilience” (Nov 2024 - May 2025).

2025

• Goa, India - Solo Exhibition “Whispers of the New Earth,” Saral - Café of New Earth (June 2025).

Publications

2017

• “Cathedral’s Magic” — featured in Jerome First Saturday Art Walk celebrates “The Love of Art”, Verde News / Kudos Magazine (Feb 2017).

• Articles and online features connected with the Jerome exhibitions:

– Jerome First Saturday Art Walk celebrates "The Love of Art"

– Jerome Art Walk, February 4, 2017

– Jerome Art Walk to have Valentine’s Day focus

• San Francisco Zen Center Blog — “August Art Show: Izabel Raa” (July 14, 2017).

• Artists on Art Magazine — “Beholders of the Night: A Summer Solstice Oil Painting” (2017).

2018

• Art & Beyond Magazine, July/August Issue — Feature article with paintings “Infinity” and “The Dance of Love”, presented by LarkGallery.

2021

• Art & Beyond Magazine, Summer SoulRise Special Issue — Feature article with paintings “Violet-Blue Heart of the Universe”, “The Way to the Abode of Masters”, "The Path Through Dimensions" and "Mysterious Night of Azur".

• Interview with Artist: Izabel Raa — LarkGallery blog (2021).

2022

• Art International Contemporary Magazine, Issue #1 (Jan–Feb 2022) — Feature the artwork “The Cat, Stardust and Cosmic Fireplace”, or “Where the Love Is”.

• Leonardo da Vinci – The Universal Artist, Florence, Italy — Award and catalog publication (Feb 2022).

2024

• Art & Beyond Magazine, Spring Issue — Feature article and paintings “Enchanted World” and “Alma de Primavera”.

• "Женщина Мира. Пробуждение истины" ("Woman of the World. Awakening of Truth") (Russia) — Printed almanac publication featuring artworks and an article about the artist (2024).

2025

• Art & Beyond Magazine, Winter 2025 — Feature article and paintings “Road to Monument Valley”.

Awards

• International Prize Leonardo da Vinci – The Universal Artist, Florence, Italy (2022).

Links

https://bio.site/izabelraa

https://izabelraa.com/

https://www.instagram.com/izabelraaart/

https://www.facebook.com/izabelraa/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/15QFm0wjlxvNIAO6UVWCkS

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/izabel-raa/1544850360

https://www.pandora.com/artist/all-albums/izabel-raa/AR5xV5gfJrmgwxX

https://music.amazon.com/artists/B08QMLLQGM/izabel-raa

https://www.youtube.com/@IzabelRaa

Ron Javorsky

PMB #232

375 Redondo Ave.

Long Beach, CA 90814

(562) 436-1224

ronjavorsky@hotmail.com

As Proust wrote: “Photography achieves singular images even out of something otherwise well-known, images different from those we are used to seeing, singular and authentic.”

Light is my way of showing the strange within the familiar—unusual illumination, bizarre distortion. As one who grew up in a gray industrial city, I’m especially drawn to yellows and oranges—colors that project warmth, that create contrast, that show us how every-day images can be shown with a luminescent and singular beauty.

I have been a practicing fine-arts photographer in Long Beach since 1995. My work tends to fall into one of four different categories: candid portraiture (especially of my fellow jazz musicians), night photography, floral photography and architectural photography. I work in both color and black and white. I also have a good working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop such that I can now do anything I want with a basic image, including the creation of composite images of individual and bands.

I have been shooting the architectural sights of Long Beach and Los Angeles for ten years now. I am attracted by unusual buildings. I shoot them but not as a documentarian. I look for strange details that jump out at me and beg to be photographed. I’m especially taken by reflections on the sides of glass buildings—I love the distortion in these images.

I do this to find the strange and different in the objects we all see every day. I want to

Ron Javorsky

(562)436-1224

www.ronjavorsky.com

Ron Javorsky was born and raised in Cleveland, a gray industrial city whose average of 250 cloudy days per year really teaches you to appreciate light. As a photographer in southern California, he is therefore like a kid in a candy store.

He learned photography professionally in a commercial portrait and product studio in Cleveland. After one year on the job, he moved to San Francisco where he took time out from photography to learn jazz bass. The Safe House show in Long Beach’s Lafayette Building (1998) reintroduced him to fine-art photography.

Among his specialties are night photography, floral photos, architectural shoots and catching his fellow jazz musicians in the act of doing what they do best.

More images at fineartamerica.com (search for Ron Javorsky)

I paint in the style of symbolism and through this direction in painting I open up an unlimited space. My paintings are a philosophical understanding of life around, the search for hidden meanings and a journey in the universe.

I create my works in mixed media. I don't do preliminary sketches, because how can you go on a journey, where I have never been before, by drawing it in advance? This is a special state comparable to flight. This allows me to discover new unusual solutions for working with color and light. This is how I best come to my subject in the picture.

The most beautiful thing in my opinion for an artist in painting is to see what is not there when it is. Depict what comes to life in the space of endless color spots. Extract a deep image hidden from the eyes and make it real.

She was born on March 7, 1991 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Khabarovsk Territory).

She graduated from the Art School with honors. In her native city, she received her higher education at KnAGTU, studied at the Faculty of Humanities.

The further path as an artist developed independently, even after graduating from school she began to delve into her own thoughts and ideas, looking for the most suitable figurative language of painting, trying different drawing techniques.

My paintings are a deep understanding of myself and the world around, the desire to step beyond the unknown.

Selected exhibitions:

2021: Indigo show, gallery DrewBow Creative, Richland, USA

March-April 2021: Watching the Earthlings exhibition, gallery Here on Taganka, Moscow

November 2019: Night of Culture at Almaz Palace of Culture "Refraction" Komsomolsk-on-Amur

May - August 2019: "Chudiki & Art", finalist of the competition, Khronotop creative workshop, Moscow

2018: "Army Kaleidoscope" (all-army exhibition-competition of fine arts), diploma for II place, Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Moscow

2017: "No Frames", Museum of Fine Arts,

Komsomolsk-on-Amur

2016: "International Exhibition-Competition of Contemporary Art", Exhibition Center of the Union of Artists, St. Petersburg

2015: "Skill and inspiration", Art school, Komsomolsk-on-Amur

2011: “Through the prism of the real world”, exhibition space of the reading room named after. N. Ostrovsky, Komsomolsk-on-Amur

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.

My art name is Lark - the bird that lingers between the earth and the sky. We artists do it at the moment of inspiration and meditation. That's how I create my art. I meditate and start with the spontaneous movements of my instruments; usually it is not a brush. A brush makes me think. My instruments are usually just pieces of cardboard. I also paint on any surface – canvas, board, plexiglass, glass, wood, etc – and I love to experiment and see what happens. My best creations take place in a state of no mind.

Although I begin the way abstract expressionists do and use some sumi-e techniques, eventually most of my creation starts shaping as abstract or impressionistic landscapes as ocean, sky, trees, flowers and mountain views start appearing from the formless. Nature is my source of inspiration, but instead of landscape details I channel nature's moods, the feeling of being one with nature, and swimming in its atmospheric light.

Light is what drives me to continue working. My mission is always to bring more light to people around me with my art, poetry and meditations. I know that viewers feel joy, peace and harmony when they look at my work, enter and settle inside it because it heals their emotional wounds and it makes me happy. Being an artist is an opportunity to express the fountain of my creative energy and at the same time serve people's needs in beauty that will heal the world.

When people perceive the light, the high and playful energy that my paintings emanate, they start feeling they are back in the fairy-tale world of their childhood, when their soul was open to transformations and miracles, and they feel like Alice in her enchanting wonderland.

From the beginning of her art career, Lark’s art caught the attention of art lovers and gained recognition from art jurors including LA Weekly critic Peter Frank, Santa Monica Museum Art Director Lisa Melandri and MOCA curator Alma Ruiz.

Fusing classical and contemporary art traditions, Lark's award-winning artworks carry her signature gestural brushstrokes and vibrant color palettes. They have been featured in the many prestigious exhibitions, art catalogs and sold globally in France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, Armenia, Canada, Sweden and many other countries. In 2021 - 2025 Lark's art was exhibited in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and the Shiba City Museum of Art In Japan where Lark got two Gold Awards in the group shows.

Medvedeva Varvara was born in 1982, lives in Minsk, Belarus and travels a lot around the world, most of small art pieces were created on the road. She completed a fine art+design degree in Belarussian State University Minsk, 2002-2007 and have painted since she was three years old. Favorite materials are mixed-media of acrylic paints and pastels. Varvara has many artistic influences, such as Impressionism, Semi-Abstract, Ethno art.

Whatever the subject matter, her work is characterized by lots of details and bright colours, different patterns and textures. The main inspiration - vibrating colors of nature.

Usually Varvara works in an impressionistic style with many layers of paint, colorful strokes and dots.

Exhibitions

2011 - the winner of XX International Festival of Art & Photo "Mill of Fashion"

2012 - Participant of the First Minsk Triennial of Contemporary Art «BelExpoArt-2012»

2014-2018 - 21-fold winner and awardee of the Republican Belarussian professional photography contest (RBWPA).

4-fold finalist of the international MyWed Award.

2014 - "The Best Debute" prize on art & sculpture exhibition of National Center of Modern Arts

2014 & 2015 - International Art Exhibitions "Panna Doll'a", Minsk, Art Palace.

2018 - winner "Photographer Of The Year" by the Republican Belarussian professional photography contest (RBWPA-2018)

2019 art exhibition "Fairytale Time", Minsk. Winner of the "People choice" Awards.

2020 art exhibition "Monet, Shishkin, Malevich"

Abstract is an emotion. It is the purest form of expression for me. I found absolute freedom in Abstract Art, because it is honest! It is a diagnostic mirror of self.

Born in Azerbaijan during Soviet times, grew up in Moscow, and moved to the United States in the late 1990's. During senior year of high school realized a great interest in art. Went to receive B.A. in Studio Arts from CALSTATELA.

Art is a journey of self discovery for me. It eventually led me to the path of meditation.

When I lived in Puerto Rico I studied art at the Instituto De Artes Plasticas in San Juan. After moving to California I entered the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design and received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts. I was involved with various art performance groups and exhibited in group shows.

Bright colors dance on my canvas is coming from my optimistic attitude, energy, faith, dreams and visions of life. When I start to draw, I never know how will be the final painting. While drawing I let free all my positive emotions and wisdom.

During creation process of my artwork, I believe that my hand is moving by Creator. We create amazing art world where people love to travel. The world increases to the size of the art universe where I have honor to be co-creator.

Bright and vivid colors, heroes full of energy and emotions, picturesque, unrepeatable, charming images. The paintings of artist Kristina Oganezz can be described in a variety of ways, but it is a little bit difficult to present the whole palette reflected in her paintings. Her works are a combination of classic and modern techniques.The themes of her paintings vary from unique animals to colorful flowers, from Armenians of the world to spiritual topics. Her paintings are based on love for the universe, for people and for the nature. Her paintings are revealing the images enclosed inside the painter, the artist’s imagination seems to rise moving her to a completely different world of art … And that is how the miracle is created.

The Armenian-born artist Kristina Oganezz started her practice in the Art world at the age of 3 attending Henrik Igityan National Centre for Aesthetics. In childhood, she participated in many exhibitions as a talented child. In her teenage years, she continued to draw paintings, and later on, she also learned graphic design and photography. She took private art classes from famous Armenian artists to master her painting skills. She also has 2 degrees in linguistics and economics.

Kristina Oganezz is a member of the International Union of Artists (Estonia) and an honorary member of the Union of Artists of Armenia. The Armenian artist has had a solo, group exhibitions in Armenia and abroad. Her works are housed in private, state-museum collections. In

My hope is to move someone in one way shape or form.

Craig Pady was first exposed to the world of visual arts while attending public school in Toronto, Ontario. Raised in Don Mills, Craig had his first taste of success in the visual arts milieu when his work 'The Baron' won a competition and was displayed in shopping centres across Canada.

Later, as a musician and Dj and Music Supervisor for Television and Radio broadcaster, he spent many hours in bars, clubs and sound studios, surrounded by fellow enthusiasts, musicians, engineers and producers. But Craig never completely eschewed the visual arts. When time could be spared, the hours were spent in the studios of sculptors, photographers, illustrators and painters. Craig is known for his passion and very intense reaction to music. And recently, when he put his pen back to paper after an extended hiatus, he noticed that the sounds he heard were driving his pen. Then evolution took over and soon thereafter, he shifted his medium to paints and canvasses.

His approach is unique in the sense that he literally paints the music he hears by allowing the brush to follow the notes as they are being played. The sounds that drive this unique method of creation are often emanating from his extensive vinyl collection. It is something you have to see ? and hear ? to truly understand.

I hope to create work that reveals the organic foundations of humanness.

As a woman, I believe there are always parts of ourselves that carry the innocence and curiosity of a little girl. That energy—the wonder, the fearlessness, the vulnerability—still lives within us.

"Mirror Twins" are characters that many people can see themselves in. I choose not to reveal too much about them—I’d rather let viewers discover their own meaning and stories within the work.

Now more than ever, artists and creatives must stand up for the value of art. Even when the world isn’t ready to hear our voices—especially as some are being censored, edited, or erased—we must keep creating. It’s painfully clear that many of our communities are being silenced and pushed to the margins.

As an artist, cartoonist, creator, and teacher, I’m committed to encouraging others to stand boldly and make art that speaks truth. My own journey is always evolving. Maybe it’s okay that I don’t reveal everything. Maybe my role is more about connection—and keeping a few secrets of my own.

—Cristina Natsuko Paulos

Cristina Natsuko Paulos is an award-winning artist, animator, cartoonist, designer, and educator. She currently teaches commercial arts and digital media at a high school in the Clark County School District, and works as a freelance artist and workshop leader. She also likes to remind people: she’s a good human.

A BFA graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Paulos’s work blends fine art and illustration, often featuring mirrored or twinned characters, expressive portraiture, and imagery inspired by real life. Her style draws heavily from cartoon aesthetics and deeply personal themes, creating a space where vulnerability, identity, and duality intersect.

Her original animation work has appeared on Sesame Street, and her artwork has been exhibited in prestigious galleries including La Luz de Jesus, Giant Robot, and the Cirque du Soleil Contemporary Art Collection. She has also been featured in two published books: Garden of Eye Candy and La Luz de Jesus 25: The Little Gallery That Could. Her films have screened at festivals in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and she has collaborated with puppeteers to create toy theatre performances.

Since relocating from the San Fernando Valley to Las Vegas in 2002, Paulos has received multiple grants from the Nevada Arts Council, including two Jackpot Grants, a 2008 Artist Fellowship, and a 2005 Sesame Street Workshop Scholarship.

Paulos works with a wide range of materials—ink, paint, dye, handmade paper, canvas, wood, and mixed media. Her process is rooted in the philosophies of drawing, aiming to expose the raw, often hidden elements of identity.

“My artwork derives from life, juxtaposed with the cartoon world,” she says. “Using drawing philosophies, I try to reveal the marks we often try to erase—the flaws, the discomfort, the quiet parts of ourselves. Whether through cartoons or figures drawn from life, I explore what it means to be fully seen, completely vulnerable—naked, beyond form.”

Every painting offers me an opportunity to express myself creatively, make meaning with my materials, and deepen my understanding of myself – three pursuits that I cherish. Through color, line, texture, and abstraction, I make paintings that I want to see and that are meaningful to me. My paintings, which I liken to jazz-like improvisations on canvas, are a gift to viewers in that they offer one the opportunity to enjoy an emotional experience and gain a deeper understanding of oneself. Just as art speaks to me, I want my art to speak to others.

Born, raised, and currently living in Los Angeles, Marc is a self-taught abstract expressionist painter who painted his first abstract works in 1991. A 25-year career as a K-12 classroom teacher, working in Watts, South Central, and the San Fernando Valley, left Marc limited opportunities to pursue his passion for art. Then, in January 2020, he transitioned to painting full time.

For 18 months, Marc practiced his art in his sister-in-law’s garage where he further developed his action painting technique and deepened his understanding of the properties and behaviors of acrylic and latex paints. His art education and growth as a painter grew from museum and gallery visits, watching other artists’ demonstrations on YouTube and Instagram, constantly reading articles and biographies on various art topics and artists, and listening to podcasts such as The Curator’s Salon, The Savvy Painter, and Art Bound. Over the past six months, he has taken two workshops with Lesley Grainger (a local artist in San Juan Capistrano) and one 4-week online course through the Mendocino Art Center.

The most important decision on his art journey occurred in August 2021 when Marc began to rent studio space in the Hawthorne Arts Complex, a 44,000 square foot artist community with over 100 artists. Five days a week, Marc works in his studio, painting, building stretcher bars, stretching canvases, and making frames. Developing relationships with other artists has strengthened his confidence, expanded his knowledge of craft and the business, and provided a support network that has steeled his courage to expand his presence online and in galleries.

At age 57, Marc can attest that it is never too late to make your dream a reality.

Billy Ray is an art photographer who has a unique way of capturing light, shapes and shadows.

Having lost his sight for six months during the summer of 1988, Billy truly believes his work reflects things we see every day but don't take time to see.

Billy's images have an atmospheric and sometimes gothic quality to them. His work is often described as mood evoking.

Edy Seaver is a second generation Los Angeleno. Her life has been an adventure of left brain verses right brain, traveling from the corporate world to the artistic. Her art encompasses the environment around her and takes it to the abstract with rich colors, textures and intuitive markings. She feels that the purpose of her work is to help the viewer take a pause and wander into secret spaces of the mind.

My new series of mixed media is allowing me to explore, layer and experiment with found organic papers from shopping bags, vintage notes, wrapping papers, cardboard and anything ready to "trash". Combining these texture with house paint, mark making and oil sticks will definitely create surprises for the viewer to find. Playing with these new materials on cradled panel boards have brought my creativity to a new level.

I have been painting since 2015 after closing my lifestyle boutique and clothing manufacturing company. Finally have time to focus on my creative process full time. I am basically self taught drawing on my design skills, use of color and texture. I have attended many workshops from well-known accomplished abstract artists. Combining mixed media, into my work has really sparked an exciting goal to develop my artwork deeper. I have been shown in many juried gallery shows throughout the US.

Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.

Revision in progress

Notes About My work as an Artist & Poet

Statement by Ambika Talwar

“…We have burned all trace of work and profession:

We have nothing but poetry and love songs now.

We sing of heart, soul, and the Beloved—

Only to burn all trace of heart, soul, and Beloved.”

~ Rumi

***

A self-taught artist, I began to paint several years ago to channel my hopes, loves, desires, narratives from the subconscious into a new form. A particular emotion or idea evoked in my mind an image or a series of images. *** I would transfer it to canvas attempting to remain as true to these as possible. Now my naïve and expressionist canvas has become a playground for gestures my inner and outer world, hence the continually changing styles in the marriage of colors, dynamic and passionate.

***

Sometimes my paintings are obtuse, as is life. We would like life to be without conflict and complication, but that is not possible. Conflict feeds our art so that we may move towards a greater awareness on all levels. *** While I may deal with certain aspects of the shadow, I cannot help but introduce an element from the light—how can it be otherwise? Both-and co-exist simultaneously. My younger sister pointed out to me that despite the dramatic, intense, and sometimes serious quality of my works, there is a tender something, like a softly curling leaf or smile lying hidden somewhere.

***

What emerges for me, even as images reveal themselves to me, is the sense of an intense and deep connection between all living presences, as deep as the umbilical cord connecting to our deep profound core. They reveal mythical motifs and archetypes.

***

I urge you to see these images as mirrors for your own “symbolic unfoldment,” for your sightings of your own mystery, for the mysterious is universal.

AMBIKA TALWAR is an India-born educator, author, artist, and wellness consultant whose ecstatic poetry is a “bridge to other worlds.” Winner of the Great India Poetry Contest (2018) and Pushcart nominee, she has authored "4 Stars & 25 Roses" (for her father); "My Greece: Mirrors & Metamorphoses," a poetic-spiritual travelogue. Her poems appear in "Breathe," "Timeless Inspirations," "The Roseate Sonnet," "We Are Here," "Grateful Conversations," "River Paws," "Beyond Words" and other collections. She is board-member of CSPS (California State Poetry Society). ~ Published in "Aatish 2," "Kyoto Journal," "Chopin with Cherries," "On Divine Names," "VIA-Vision in Action," "St. Julian Press," "Tower Journal," "Enchanting Verses," "Quill & Parchment," "Collateral Damage," several GloMag issues, and others.

***

Ambika also won an award for a short film titled, "Androgyne" in 2000 at a film festival in Huy,, Belgium. Following completion of the film, she has also written 2 screenplays - they are safely tucked away for a future manifestation.

***

She practices IE:Intuition-Energetics™, a fusion of holistic modalities and teaches English in college. “Poetry and holistic practices work beautifully, for language is intricately coded in us.” She lives in Los Angeles & New Delhi.

***

http://creativeinfinities.com

Ayhan Yavuz considers his style of art a combination of Expressionism, Symbolism, Pointillism and Art Nouveau. His artwork, filled with beautiful faces, intricate patterns, and hidden images, is done in acrylic paint.

Yavuz sees himself as a spiritual being. He likes the idea of bringing beauty, peace, joy, and harmony into the world. It is important for him to remain connected to his heart, as he believes that creating a beautiful piece of art is a way of giving back to life. To channel the energy from the subjects of his paintings, Yavuz communicates with his pieces during the creation process. Yavuz, paying close attention to what his subjects are willing to reveal, does not stand in the way of how his artwork chooses to come to life.

Those who have seen Yavuz’s art have expressed with such sincerity that his paintings contain fantastic energy, as if they truly are alive and interactive. The detail of his pieces have even caused some to mistake them for meticulously crafted fabrics. The collectors of his paintings are delightfully surprised as they continue to come across hidden images within the patterns Yavuz has painted.

Yavuz gets his inspiration from anything he is lucky enough to experience. Perception is the foundation to the intricacy of Yavuz’s work. Each piece is a monument to his love of working with patterns, symmetry, and unity among colors.

Ayhan Yavuz was born in 1965 in Izmir, Turkey. He currently lives in the greater Seattle area of Washington, USA.

Yavuz’s path to creating a career in art was not a direct one. The artist in him was put on the back burner as he pursued his profession in finances to support his family. Even though he wasn’t actively creating anymore, Yavuz knew that the artist within him was there and needed to be freed. It took hard work and quite some time for Yavuz to get back to his passion for art.

Through this journey of returning to calling, he learned that turning your back on your true self will cause you nothing but pain, regardless of how successful you are at fooling everybody else.

His life’s journey led him to become a Buddhist monk for a short period of time. He practices Mindfulness which is one of the most helpful tools he has learned, as he found that through creating he was able to experience a powerful deep meditation that connected him back to his imagination and love of art. While he started painting he also fulfilled a childhood dream of his and worked on writing books. He has published two books, titled “In the Cradle of Umbra” and “Azra’s Labyrinth”.

As he began his journey of rediscovering himself as an artist, Yavuz started exposing his art to the world. His artwork has been published in Rêve de Femmes for several years in a row. He has participated in multiple juried art shows along the West Coast and has exhibited his work in WA, MT, CA, and NY.

My paintings come out as attempts to "translate" from ideograms and fantastic hieroglyphs that I see in the patterns of nature, most often in the tree bark.

It is like listening to a song in an unknown language. Everyone will have their own guess of what the words might say, but the main theme of the song will be recognized.I am so thrilled by the moments of gazing into the patterns of nature when intuition gives a glimpse from the world of archetypes. I think that trees are books and libraries that can be read, perhaps as well as any thing around if we attune to it…

My paintings are sort of "snapshots" from the process of reading the Book of Nature by the mind;these "snapshots" are somewhere in between the imagery and the language.The mind projects meanings onto the shapes and lines, but they are being reflected back, startling and puzzling… there is always a sensation of a mirror dialog, of having been "read" yourself by the Book of Nature...

born in Baku, Azerbajan, lived in Moscow since 16 years old, moved to L.A. in 1992;

M.F.A. in Film &Tv( Animation major) from UCLA;

involved in painting, writing and illustrating, cartooning, mixed media, paper theatre, small size dioramas

My paintings focus on creating insight into movement with interactive colors that blend into a natural environment or landscape. I attempt to express the celebration for the dramatic colors with organic brushstrokes rather than the accuracy of specific representation.

In my recent work, I am exploring the pouring technique with different wet or dry media and touchable textures on the surface of the painting. I am obsessed with the random movements of the pigment. I am also seeking to incorporate more abstract elements to give the viewers like being in nature and my experience deciding to be an artist from a designer. Besides, I am exploring new series on long-scale canvas, allowing the viewers to appreciate art as if reading a book.

I started receiving art education from a very young age, including graduating from specialist art high school, BFA from Jilin University in China, becoming a senior graphic designer and brand manager at 4A Advertising Agencies and tech giants in China over eight years. For most of my past career experience, I focused on creating imagery characters and advertisement scripts using digital tools, which continuously developed my painting and other art skills. When I realized I still fell in love with making art without using computer technology, I changed my direction towards fine art and decided to study painting in the US. I am fascinated to develop my favorite abstract art, which involves my style and past experiences.

My art brings pleasure and happiness to my heart. The concept is to share and express these feelings with others. The color combinations that I use are vibrant and the shapes are simple. They are fun images that reflect my Brazilian background.

According to an eclectic opinion, they are conversation pieces.

I am grateful to be exposed to and appreciated by a large diversity of people. In all, I consider myself fortunate to be able to work with what I enjoy most, ART.

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sandra Zebi received her Bachelors of Arts Degree in Industrial Design, also studying Architecture and Classic Sculpture. In addition, she studied fine art for 2 years in London, England. She moved to her current home, Los Angeles, California, in 1986.

Zebi has traveled throughout Europe, Asia and the Pacific Islands. Her artistic eye led her to acquire a comprehensive view of the diversity of these cultures. This, in turn, led to the fascination for different cultures that resonates in her unique, distinctive, graphic style - and her use of colors - all of which are enhanced by her tropical Brazilian personality.

Zebi’s work has been featured in several magazines and newspapers. Zebi’s creative ceramics and art have been on display and have sold nationally in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Honolulu, Dallas, Miami and the greater Los Angeles area. Zebi’s custom design tiles can be found in bathrooms, kitchens, pools, and fireplaces. She has painted various permanent murals and sculptures in Los Angeles and abroad. Throughout the years Zebi has participated in numerous exhibits, completed various backdrops, and freestanding sculptures for the African Market Place in Los Angeles. Currently, Zebi’s work combines clay, metals, and wood. Zebi works out of her Marina Del Rey studio where she is constantly exploring new avenues to expand and elevate her creative vision.