The Rediscovery of Wonder

I have always possessed a great affinity to nature, thirst for knowledge, and a deep appreciation of beauty in all of its forms. These innate qualities have found expresssion in many areas. In my paintings, I have seen patterns emerge that express harmony, joy, order, and beauty. My belief in the fundamental unity of all cultures and peoples has led me to create art pieces that relflect the depth of our collective souls, the beauty of our beings, and the ability to expand to fully embrace our lives.

I was born and raised in a small city in the northern region of Iran called Rezahyieh. In 1978 I moved to the United States to attend college and received a business degree from California State University Sacramento. I then traveled extensively for several years encountering various cultures in different countries. I developed a feeling of expansion that included all of humanity. While living in Brazil, I was inspired by the European and Brazilian artists I met, so began creating one of a kind garments and bags that were sold through high end boutiques in Los Angeles. While working with fabric dyes on hemp canvas, I shifted my artistic direction towards painting. Over the years, I have experimented with a wide variety of mediums and cherish the discovery of something new. My work has evolved over time, allowing me to switch forms of expression as I feel inclined. My most recent pieces I call Nouveau Surrealism - ordinary printed photos that have been transformed to reflect unseen realms. Over the past four years, I have shown in the Topanga Artist Studio Tour and have participated in numerous shows in various venues around LA. The most recent show was called Down the Rabbit Hole, representing portals into the mysteries within each of us.

Edouard Alabilikian was born and received his art education in Russia. After moving to United States he continues to take classes in Art College and creats art in different media

One of my life mottos is to inspire others in ways I wish to be inspired myself. My work is a representation of altered reality, harmonizing multiple images to convey an abstract, inexplicable work of art. Magazines are the tools I use to navigate my creativity. I start by flipping through a magazine and examine all the images it contains, and meticulously cut out the images that have ?collage potential? and compose them together ? a process that is left for my instincts to recognize and my hands to follow suit. What one observes usually requires a journey into ourselves to find peace with accepting something we can?t understand. My artwork encourages taking that journey.

On a Thursday afternoon in May 1985, Lebanese-American artist Jack Azar was born in Santa Barbara, California. Raised in the sleepy town of Summerland, Jack lived a modest life in a house too small for his creativity. Being the eldest of three, Jack always found he was different from his family in ways that were obvious through his actions.

While on his bedroom floor back in December 2002, Jack experienced a moment of self-awakening, an already existing reality emerging with the aid of scissors and glue. He would flip through fashion magazines and admire the clothes since, at the time, he was interested in fashion. In this particular moment, he saw the humor of combining two images together, located in two different magazines. The only option for him was to cut them and merge, known today as his artwork medium: collage.

What most people envision when they hear the word ?collage? does no justice when referring to Jack?s artwork. Each one is concocted with familiar, preexisting magazine images. These familiarities combined as a whole exude an altered reality so alluring you cannot help but stare and try to make sense of it.

For the past ten years, Jack?s life has taken him on many paths to becoming a well-rounded, enlightened person and has come to realize his calling as a professional artist. Jack had been accepted to membership with the Santa Barbara Art Association as of March 2011 and works on a weekly basis in his studio to expand his collage repertoire.

Explores the connection between aroma and memory, in the setting of a Zen-style Japanese laboratory with a 4 seasons theme. (Construction is ongoing: displayed is Quadrant 1 of a future 5 total.) The premise of the 5 section piece is what would things look like if a group of Zen Buddhists decided to run a lab that studied aroma and its effects on memory....and it took place in the 70?s. The ?Smell Lab? nick name refers to the famous Sky Lab of the 70s era

The piece is interactive...you have to spin the discs, choose an aroma, choose a season, etc, and experience them together.

A native of Boston, Paul moved to San Francisco 15 years ago. He has been producing art in different mediums for the past 25 years; in 1991 he settled on assemblage sculpture, perhaps latently influenced by a boyhood passion for collecting shelf after shelf of what his mother called \\

In 2004, I was finally able to realize my goal of creating a Composite Art. Due to advances in computer technology, I could create composite images from my mind’s eye by altering pictures found on the Internet, on TV, and in movies. My most recent series of work is based on my interpretation of "Structuralism." I am interested in exploring the underpinnings of reality. World views are based on Linguistic Structuralism. Architecture is also a "structure" that influences culture and society. In my new work I deconstruct architectural forms and reassemble the basic elements into structures. I'm creating imaginary cities using digital imagery and creating wall reliefs.

Born: Detroit, MI

Schools: Wayne State University; University of California

at Long Beach; Arizona State University.

B.A. in Art and Sociology.

Graduate Certificate in Counseling.

I have been working and exhibiting as a fine artist for twenty years. I am also a poet and performance artist.

For fifteen years, I worked as the Director for a mental health program. I emphasized the benefits of art and writing to help clients control symptoms. I developed and facilitated several art and writing workshops for mental health consumers.

Since 2003, I have devoted my full attention to art. I work in collage, assemblage, painting and digital imagery. My work has been featured in several Palm Springs galleries including Evocative Arts, M-Modern, The Vault, and Gallery Mystere. I was represented by the Karen Long Gallery in Long Beach, CA. My newest art combines both assemblage and digital prints. Recently I've also experimented with more traditional abstract painting.

In my current series, \"Architectural Play,\" I explore the power of historic architecture through still life paintings of wooden toy blocks. Having grown up in the midwest where the tallest structures were mostly cottonwoods and silos, these buildings represent adventure and history to me. The exaggerated perspective gives the blocks a monumental feel. Three large paintings put the blocks in the context of a room interior. Twelve 18\" x 14\" paintings were inspired in part by the travel journals of John Singer Sargent. Through a child\'s eye, I sought to show how architecture is a lasting reflection of our culture, and an emotional connection to our past.

Kate Barrengos maintains a studio in Marin County, California, were she has lived and worked since 2000. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she moved to San Francisco after graduating from college with a BS in Biology in 1988. She studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and art history at several institutions before receiving an associate\'s degree in Fine Arts at College of Marin. Selected exhibitions include: \"Architectural Play,\" Thompson/Dorfman Partners, Mill Valley, California. \"Marin Arts Open Studios,\" Mill Valley, California. \"Delicious,\" Studio Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2011. \"Sweetheart Show,\" College of Marin Gallery, Kentfield, California, 2011. \"Tiny,\" Studio Gallery, San Francisco, California, 2011. \"Small Wonders,\" Marin Arts Gallery, San Rafael, California, 2010. \"Local Production,\" Noci, Mill Valley, California, 2010. \"Conversations,\" Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, California, 2008. \"Faces of the Fallen,\" College of Marin, Kentfield, California, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, 2004-5.

Elena Barsukova is a contemporary Russian artist, who lives in Moscow.

She was born in the village Vostryakovo Moscow region. In 1994 he graduated from

the Moscow State Academy of Printing, Department: artistic and technical design

of printed materials. Teacher: Professor MGAP V. Pertsov; Photographer V. Kupriyanov. From 1996 to 2009 - Art director of Seven Days TV-Programme. Elena - a member of International Federation of Artists and national Artists Union of Russia.The artist created the series Central Asia(1991)Dolls(1992),Silver Russia (2009-2010) and Portrait of a goat(2011).

I - a realist - speaks of himself Elena Barsukova, I love to dream, a dream for me - it is a step towards the real objective. After a very long preparation, Elena quickly wrote his paintings. In some paintings, Elena, for example in a series of Silver Russia, when you change visual angle, you are able

to see different images of the same object or place.

My creative process is about play. It is about seeing the world with the childhood qualities of wonder, awe, and curiosity. It is my hope that my work reflects the type of joy and wonder a child feels when looking at the world.

My work is informed by the space and energy between people, animals, and objects; images and patterns in nature; chaos and motion vs. symmetry; dreams and the collective unconscious; indigenous art, especially African and Tlingit; child-led learning; play = work; the evolution of the human spirit onto a higher plane, and innovation/science.

When a child is drawn to my work, I consider it a success.

Rachel Becquer is a painter residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

She lived in Alaska for three years while attending the University of Fairbanks. She obtained a BA in studio arts from the University of Minnesota.

She has worked variously as a racehorse groom, personal chef, home health aide, journalist, and homeschool teacher.

Future goals include opening up a school for special needs children.

Art Shows:

Art A Whirl Art Crawl annually 2007-2011,

Fall Fine Arts show 2007-2011,

Spiritual Arts Show 2009,

Wadena Arts Fair 2010, 2011,

West End Arts Fair 2010,

Upcoming Show at Create Caters May -August 2011.

Awards:

2nd Place Sculpture in juried art show Alaska 1983

My style, consisting of many various ornaments, dictated by the concrete appearance of the environment, the presence of interesting combinations like faces, houses, flowers, and other things. These fragments you can find in most of my current work.

- Elena Beresnjak

Elena was born on November 03.1962 in Odessa, Ukraine, on the Black Sea, capital of culture, where famous artists, musicians and authors like the violinist David Oistrakh and the artist Wladimir Strelnikow had their start.

In Odessa, Elena Beresnjak attended Stolyarsky State Music School and gained a degree as a concert pianist from the Odessa High School of Performing & Applied Arts.

While studying Elena discovered her passion for painting and took lessons at the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art. The contemporary artist from Saint Petersburg Ilya Glazunov praised them most profusely after which Elena attended the Academies of Art in Saint Petersburg and Moscow to improve her skills.

In 1985 she won First Prize in a chamber music contest in Kiev, in 1992 she moved to Diekholzen (Germany) to rejoin her husband, the artist and violinist Oleg Zubarev.

While Elena has had many exhibitions of her art in Germany and Russia, her life still is very affected by art and music. So in 2004 she had the great idea not just to paint canvas but also to paint musical instruments. Elena's ten painted violins, violas and cellos, with their distinctive names and evocative musical associations, have already becoming prized collectors' items.

Of course, Elena always insists on time for playing the piano in Oleg and Egmont Heinzmann's salon 10-member Wir Salonloewen, organized "as a contrast to the otherwise usually more serious work in the cultural orchestra".

My new series is much evolved from my previous works. In the past, although I had a feeling of the intangible and of freedom when I worked, my quest was to cull the vivid chaos of color and forms by repeatedly sanding and repainting many layers of paper and paint into a more peaceful, organized surface. It was an expression of the infinite complexities that I found surrounding me, and my desire to tame them.

Rather than being spurred (on) by a categorical statement, I was following an unformed artistic thought through to the end, feeling freedom and energy from spontaneity, the love of form, composition and color and the nostalgia that these energies stimulated. Color, form and composition, and the harmony their combination can elicit, vibrate as a grouping of musical notes might do and touch the nostalgic thinking that first brought such experience into my sights – my musical and artistic family. They were the major creative influence in my life and provided the personal trials of the complex and puzzling world I grew up in.

In my latest series I have taken this need to embrace and contain my memories

a step further. I have develop/nurtured/ my reactions to color and form to

another level. I try to capture what I feel is the essence of my creative experience.

I render my love of form, color and composition down to it’s minimum and

present them in a purer, simpler context – the grid. No less emotionally complex

but perhaps calmer, subtler if a little more intricate and peppered with

a touch of subterfuge…

Helen Berger was born in London, England to Russian émigré parents. It was a family of musicians/painters/singers and she grew up surrounded by these artists, making her sensibilities pretty much pre determined. She has been an artist all her life. After years of family influence and guidance, independent study in Paris, London and Los Angeles, assisting established artists and attending numerous workshops, she considers herself self-taught.

After using many different mediums over the years - wood, paper, clay, found objects, fabric and the camera. – Helen then settled into working with wood, paper and acrylic.

Her previous process was to layer paint, painted and cut paper onto a wood panel, continuing in multiple sanded layers and finishing with a distinct application of paint to emphasize the negative spaces. This work started out as a chaos of color, she challenged herself to recreate a mood of coherence, clarity and harmony on the panel.

Her latest series, although still on wood panel and using vellum, gesso and acrylic, blends the simplicity of repetitive shape with simple color and textural contrasts to create a play between tension and harmony.

I spent over three decades drawing and painting people in places of communal exchange. My works brought opportunities to exhibit locally nationally and even internationally. Like Alice Neal I looked for the soul of each person.

In 2020 the pandemic brought change from the beauty and pain of each person to the serenity and spirituality inherent in nature. The world had become too overwhelming.

I had always added animals and birds and creatures into my works of people. Now birds in nature are the focus. I am blessed to have friends and others who offer their photography of bird moments from birding, hikes and moments catching a shot of a feathered friend. I am blessed with references that offer me inspiration. I embellish the backgrounds, interpreting foliage, trees, and skies with the patterns and forms from nature and my imagination. Insects both flying and otherwise are present or hidden.

Process is a huge part of my practice. I love mixing colors and relate to the colorist Pierre Bonnard. I never worry about the result, as this is a projection of a future, which none of us knows. I do the work and the shows follow.

My biggest joy and inspiration for all my artwork has and will always be my son. Being a mother forever teaches us the preciousness of all life.

Jodi Bonassi is from Los Angeles. Her narrative paintings and drawings explore diversity, and the human condition.

Exhibiting since 1991, her works have garnered reviews, awards and articles, locally and nationally. On “Chungking Alley” Mat Gleason quotes: “My impressions of the piece are that it asserts its own art historical narrative instead of submitting to academic structures and choices. An amazing dreamscape narrative with painterly precision”. (2015, Genie Davis, “LA Art Scene Mural-On Canvas”)

Bonassi’s work has been reviewed/published in the Boston Globe, LA Times, Flavorpill, Hair's How Magazine (Russia),The Chronicle Review, Art and Living, Harpers Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine (2012, 2008, Ocean Press) and Los Angeles Art Association Volume 1 Catalogue (2009, Samuel Hoi, President of Otis College of Art and Design). She has exhibited locally and nationally and has been published internationally. She is the recipient of the Hans Burkhardt Memorial Scholarship and other awards of merit. Curators who have chosen her works for exhibition include Franklin Sirmans, Head Curator at LACMA, Ali Subotnik, Curator for the Hammer Museum and others. She also was selected to paint on a 9 foot fiber glass guitar to honor Lou Adler and the other founders of the Sunset Strip. The guitar sold in the top ten at Julien's Auction House. This was part of a re-vitalization program. Her work has been recognized by esteemed Los Angeles art critic, Peter Frank, Mat Gleason (renown art critic and gallery owner), Betty Brown, Highly respected Art Historian, Art Writer and Curator and others. Other noted curators are Jonathan Greene, Director of exhibitions for the Hunterdon Art Museum (2012), Ann Philbin from the Hammer Museum (2006), Cliff Benjamin from Western Projects (2008), Marc Pachter from the Smithsonian Institute, and other noteworthy curators. Jodi Bonassi’s work has been selected for her unique take on the public narrative and how community links people in interesting ways. Her depictions of the world are slightly skewed based on her own vision. Jodi Bonassi has an extensive exhibition record in regional institutions and galleries and is fiercely committed to her painting career. Affiliated galleries: The Loft At Liz's, Coagula Curatorial and other LA galleries. jbonassi@aol.com. 818 274-7393

www.jodibonassiart.com, resume is available upon request

art is created through many tools, none more authentic than the other

Randy is an healer, artist, photographer and didgeridoo player living by the beach in Malibu. Randy has studied photography and art since childhood.

My works, for the most part, address societal issues that cover the spectrum from birth to death and everything in between. They have been produced in a variety of mediums, i.e.: small to mural-sized expressive figurative oil paintings; pencil or pen & ink line drawings; mixed media constructions, to name a few. I like to produce my works using a variety of mediums for it keeps my works fresh and exciting for me. Works may be viewed at: michaelchomick.com

Born in Vancouver, Canada, and was exposed the making of art at any early age since both parents sculpted and painted as a hobby. After departing Canada have traveled and lived throughout the southern states, eventually relocating to Los Angeles, where I have continued my commitment to being a contemporary artist for the past 25+ years.

"I dream, therefore, I am"

"I create art because I must.

It is a necessary extension of my life.

It identifies and substantiates my existence.

It is my profile and my legacy.

I want to intrigue and entertain.

I want to initiate wonder and questions.

I want to communicate my thoughts, dreams and desires.

Most of all, I want to be!"

Ione's art has shown nationally since 1998 when, after years of world travel, a successful television, radio, theatre and film career in the performing arts, she decided to focus her richly diverse talents on the visual arts.

Ione's artistic expression, creativity, and passion for communication have resulted in numerous awards for her painting, sculpture, mixed media, and assemblage. Her work has also been featured in several important publications. Ione maintains an extensive exhibition schedule in juried, non-juried, and invitational arts venues.

Ione is an avant garde artist whose artistic expression takes fantastic shape through her diverse oil and watercolor paintings, bronze sculptures, found object collages and mixed media assemblages. Her contemporary paintings and sculptures range from abstract to realistic to impressionistic - all visionary interpretations from her imaginative soul.

Ione uses only one name but a variety of styles to soothe her wild imagination. A native of Chicago, she is a former television star and commercial voice-over artist. Now she wins awards and sells her creativity through her hands instead of through her larynx. Her art is as original as she is - bold, colorful and highly decorative.

the language of life.

The type of Art that I do is beyond the spoken words.

When it emerges spontaneously because of the process, I accept it with gratitude.

Jenik

No question but the painting of Jenik Cook - and hardly less the work she realizes in other media (most notably ceramics) -is abstract-expressionist. But it is not necessarily Abstract Expressionist. That is, however much it may evince the DNA of mid-century American "action painting," or even European counterparts such as tachism, l'art informel, or CoBrA, Cook's art only incidentally revives the method, much less the look, of these bumptious, scrappy art movements. Rather, to power her vision, she goes back to the roots of gestural modernism, finding dancing line, elastic contour, and fervid color in surrealism, in fauvism, in expressionism itself. The painting of Pollock and Kline, and of Fautrier and Jorn, gives Cook permission to work unfettered like this, and gives us the context to comprehend fully - even to empathize kinesthetically with - what she does. But she is not emulating, much less imitating, Afro or James Brooks in her graceful, muscular paintings on paper or rehashing Sam Francis or André Lanskoy with the rhythmic clots and scatterings of pigment that collect on her canvases (well, on a wide variety of more-or-less canvas-like support material). Look instead to Miro, Masson, Marc, or Münter, Pechstein or Picasso, Marcks or Matisse, for Cook's sources.

Indeed, look into Cook's own cultural heritage. The line that whips and loops throughout Cook's oeuvre, whether hurling forms across canvas expanses or tracing them on the sides of pots, whether describing slashing trails of pure pigment or the sinuous contours of human bodies, is no more a painted line than it is a written one. It is made less with the whole body - although one can sense a change of stance, a hip motion, in so many of these dancing whiplashes - than with the whole arm. These gestures issue from the wrist and the shoulder. They are in fact as much inscribed as painted. Their energy is not just telegraphic; it is calligraphic. If the vivacity of the image bespeaks Cook's Armenian blood, the rhapsodic curvaceousness of her line betrays her Iranian childhood. As comfortable speaking and writing Farsi as she is Armenian, Cook marries her disparate cultural sources -which of course now include the western European and American influences of her adult life - into an aesthetically cohesive mix with a surprisingly broad formal reach.

Perhaps the breadth of that reach, given the variety of sources, isn't actually so surprising. But it is always a bit startling to witness - that is, to be allowed to witness - an artist master such a conceptual and expressive range. Most artists have this range in them, but so many suppress it. For her part, however, Cook refuses to suppress her stylistic multivalency. Not only does she not limit her vision, but she uses that vision very consciously to drive her artmaking in as many ways as it needs to go. She may edit, but she does not self-censure. Her style, ultimately as coherent and personal as a signature, emerges from and among her plethora of approaches, approaches which themselves spring from her persistence, her prolific output, her knowledge of art, and her irrepressible verve. Jenik Cook's art springs forth -in several directions at once.

Peter Frank Los Angeles January 2010

Our life is a work in process, a spiritual journey. To me, art is a way of expressing the inexpressible. Through my art I would like to share this wonder of our existence.

In my recent paintings I have been exploring devotion, bhakti, divine love; and how this love manifest in our lives. Obstacles, and their lessons are the key. What is Grace? What came first: our love for God or God\'s love for us?

My paintings are my prayers and my thanks to the big creator.

Claudia Dose was born and raised in Northern Germany. Her early creative interests and talents brought her to study Art and Design at the Universities of Hamburg and Hannover where she received a BA in Design. Her fascination with texture, color and depth comes from her background in weaving.

After traveling a year in Asia/India (sketchbook) she returned home full of new inspirations and ideas. She came back only to find that she had won second place in the International Design Competition, of the Design Center Stuttgart. She took the prize money as a sign to keep doing what she loved, and accepted an invitation to visit Australia where she lived for five years. During this time she explored her creativity as a mosaic artist. (mosaics and sketches).

Her work for a non-profit organization and her interest in Philosophy led her to the United States, where she has lived since 2000. With a new focus on portraiture, Claudia won the 8th Annual Faces Juried Online International Art Exhibition in 2003.

Her paintings are in private collections all over the world. She has completed numerous commissions for private and commercial clients.

“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.

ARTIST?S STATEMENT AND PHILOSOPHY OF ART

In art and dreams you proceed with abandon, seeking the symbols, emotion and story. When using this method of selecting subject matter for my paintings, exploration of the emotional dream-like tensions engage my mind with images that subtly mix fact with illusion through the power of suggestion. Mine are that of subtle yet complex narratives I sometimes imagine in daydreaming that presents a need to push at an innately humanistic perspective to produce works, and to seek out artistic expressions that depicts the human condition, celebration, human suffering, and the everyday joys and concerns we all share. After all, in our dreams all the people and objects are YOU in the dream expressing refl

ABOUT THE ARTIST

MELINDA ENGLISH

Born in New Orleans into an Acadian French family, Melinda has experienced a uniquely rich culture of the South. She holds a strong Catholic heritage which creates a love for religious art from an early age. Her bachelor degree background is in Cultural Anthropology and Psychology from Our Lady of the Lake University. Ever-learning how culture and art are related, she began to experiment with narrative and interpretive portraiture. Landscapes and still life are also among her portfolio of paintings, and photography.

Her education was further pursued at Houston Baptist University, receiving a Master of Liberal Arts, and then the Certificate of Advanced Studies in the Liberal Arts. Encouraged by professors and peers, she continued her advanced studies at Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio graduating in 2010 with a PhD in Arts & Sciences, with a Specialization in Fine Arts & Visual Anthropology. Her career background has been in the importing and selling of period antiques and fine collectibles.

Her method of painting is a true form of Cultural Expressionism with an aim in art to convey the multi-layered meanings, symbolism and metaphoric association that involve themes of human social structures, allowing viewer consciousness to become more heightened. She combines the many cultures experienced firsthand in worldly travels. Many paintings arise from personal photographic images taken over the many years in her quest fo

I love to create art, and I do this in many media. I like a challenge. My gift is a sensitivity to the use of color, form, tone and texture in my work. I am delighted when a viewer interprets my work through his/her own mood, or find that it mirrors a hidden emotion. My color styles and combinations focus on enhancing reality---making it even more dynamic and exciting---reminding us of the powerful energy forces that dance behind all objects in nature. For me, one pivotal goal of art making is \"to uplift and transform the human spirit.\" Artists that have influenced my work include Chagall, Monet, Wolf Kahn, Keck, O\'Keeffe. These influences merge with my personality and result in a new artistic paradigm.

Emily Ann Freiman, MA, ATR, a Connecticut-born artist and Art Therapist, has lived in the California Bay area for 33 years, and has created art since childhood. She received fine and commercial art training at some of the finest schools, including University of Hartford Art School, Paier College of Art (Illustration major), and Massachusetts College of Art. Emily studied Chinese Brush Painting with Madeleine Fu in San Francisco, and textile surface design with Zeida Rothman in Berkeley. Her work, especially her one of a kind silk dyed scarves, can be seen at the Artist of the Valley Art Gallery in Napa, CA. Emily is now represented online by California Card Company RoRo Artworks:

http://www.roroartworks.com/Emily-Ann-Freiman.html

My photographic collages are layers of my reflections and observations, being personal, political or historical.

Like our life experiences, these thoughts accumulate on top of each other, to create my feelings and emotions that get expressed in the artwork.

The layering process coincides with the synthesis of creating visual pieces that invites one to investigate and explore the given information.

Like in previous works of mine, made on glass, the technique and the transparencies in my photographic digital collages are an important part of the art, they emphasis the build-up process and the blending which creates the images.

Vered Galor has been involved with the fine art world as an artist, curator and educator for over thirty years. She received her BA and MA in Fine Art from California State University in Northridge in 1975 and 1978.

Mrs. Galor started her career as glass sculptor. In 1981 she established a business doing curatorial projects and consulting in Contemporary Fine Art.

She lectured, participated in discussions and wrote art programs to encourage the collaboration of Art and Architecture.

Since 1989 Mrs. Galor has been concentrating on photography. She has been creating here own work, teaching photography and showing with galleries in Los Angeles California, Fort Collins and Loveland, Colorado and Las Vegas Nevada.

Ariyana is an interdisciplinary visionary artist who paints, writes, and creates sculptures & assemblages. During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Ariyana was an artist in residence in San Diego City Schools for seven years. She pioneered what she calls Eco-Peace Walls. Painting murals for about five years, these art and word murals had images and messages about global harmony, ecological sustainability, and universal friendship. This art series and her work with students was very well received and written about in the LA Times, San Diego Union, Whole Life Times, KPBS On Air Magazine, Better World Magazine and other publications. Her art has also been featured on the front cover of three publications. One of her murals in Santa Monica was commissioned by the California trendsetter Fred Segal. Nissan Motors commissioned a series of 12 drawings for a 1995 calendar which was distributed to Nissan customers in Asia. She has also worked with the United Nations Environmental Art Program (UNEP).

In October 1994, 20 years of art was lost in a fire that burned her home and studio to the ground. After this tragedy she became an artist in recluse. She returned to painting, writing, designing, yoga, and meditation. These activities helped heal the trauma of tragic impermanence and broken dreams.

Her current art work is a series of acrylic and mixed media paintings, stone sculptures, and mixed media assemblages. Mystical landscapes and Stone Spirits are the themes that she creates through a unique combination of paint, crystals, feathers, black coral, and other found objects gathered over a period of many years. Ariyana is also working on a series of mixed media works where the components came from her own fire side debris and from the Station Fire.

Ariyana sees beauty in everything. This ability fuels her love for mixed media, the art form that she has focused on. She has worked directly on the Earth creating Earth Art, and now she works on a variety of different textures, painted styrofoam, canvas, wood, and handmade papers.

For her, mixed media is like gathering the beauty and wisdom from different cultures, nations and traditions, bringing them together in one place where they meet and intersect in a harmonious way, creating something new, like the fusion of East and West or the combination of the ancient with the modern.

I have archived thousands of images from all over the world during my lifetime. Now we begin printing.

Doctor of Pharmacy 47 years, married to a wonderful artist, Father of three, Grandfather of four. Lifelong interest in the arts especially music and photography.

I am one of those people who can\\\\\\\\\'t stop drawing. I\\\\\\\\\'m the guy scratching out faces and shapes on the napkin while waiting for breakfast at his favorite old-school diner. The goal, then, becomes to translate some of those scribbles of imagination and visual musings into something beautiful or disturbing or thought-provoking to be pondered... the evolution of blank space into something meaningful. Or not.

R O Y G U Z M A N is a fine arts auteur: a painter, an illustrator, a graphic artist.

Trained at the famed Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he studied fine art, he quickly developed a love of illustration and his works can be seen in everything from company logo designs to children\\\\\\\\\'s tales to books and more. He eventually branched out into art and creative direction, creating print art for many different industries, including beauty, toy, high tech and produce. This experience also helped to fuel his love of color and the interlocking ideas of various shapes and textures.

Recently, Roy has returned to the canvas. He experiments with styles and ideas, and has trouble maintaining interest in just one direction. So the work is ever-evolving.

Roy is currently preparing to participate in a gallery show at the NoHo Gallery in LA for the upcoming Latin exhibit from Sept 24 - Nov 20, 2011

Born and raised in Southern California, Roy is inspired by everything around him, but mostly by what\\\\\\\\\'s in his mind. Imagination, then, is his ultimate medium, any blank surface his focus, and art his vehicle for expression.

I have jokingly said that the blood running through my veins is really red paint. I love to smell, stir and spread paint. It is my passion. Painting helps me to please others while I fulfill my need to add color to my everyday life.

Jo Hanks began painting watercolors in community art classes and has taught herself to paint landscapes, murals and portraits in watercolor, acrylic and oil. She has won local art contests and sold works in art shows. Her favorite style is realistic murals that attract a lot of attention.

I have lived in the Pacific Northwest all of my life. I am deeply connected with Nature, she is my mother, my father is adventure, my brother the mountains, my sister the sea. I have been involved with sculpting and carving wood ever since I could hold a carving tool. Wood has been my main medium. I began doing driftwood sculptures in June of 2003.

Recently my muse has been captivated by the \\

My eyes see the world formed by shape, color, line and contrasts. The details of reality are nearly beside the point, only that they contribute to the entire. I see forms dominating my environment as one might experience the blur from unfocused eyes. An anecdote may explain it best. Recently, I was driving along a very curvy road beside a hill, and came upon a design in the road: tire tracks going off at a diagonal, toward the hillside. It wasn’t until several minutes later when, still driving along, I felt my brain catch up with my eyes and was shocked to realize the implications of the dark parallel lines angled against the center line. Reality had escaped me.

Still, my unmanipulated digital photographs capture the real. Suggesting mystery within the reality is what inspires me. Representing facts on one hand, and enigmas on the other, the forms take me where they will.

Catherine Roberts Leach was born in New York City and currently lives in California. She is a self-taught, fine art photographer focusing on above and below, mood and mystery. Her images have been exhibited at the Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art Rental and Sales Gallery, the Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery825, and through juried exhibitions online, and at galleries in New York, California, Texas, Oregon, Washington DC, Georgia, Connecticut, Virginia, and Missouri.

Although primarily an abstract artist, her war protest photograph, “Imagine,” appeared on the front page of ImaginePeace.com, a website of Yoko Ono’s, at Ms. Ono’s invitation in 2008. Catherine’s images have won numerous international art awards, and have been published in the juried 2009 Artist Catalog, Los Angeles Art Association, The World’s Best Black & White Photography, 2008 (Black & White Spider Awards), and Best of Photography Annual 2004, Photographer’s Forum Magazine.

Among the jurors and curators selecting her work for exhibition include artist Chris Burden, gallerist Craig Krull, and curators Scott Canty and Mark Steven Greenfield of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Sarah Bancroft of the Orange County Museum of Art, and Samuel Hoi, President of the Otis College of Art and Design.

About the Art

Each art piece you see was created with the intent to bring positive energy to the viewer and to the space it is placed in. Each piece has an additional, specific intention such as providing protection, healing, prosperity,creativity, relaxation, and passion to the space in which it is placed. The artist took special care to be in a positive, meditative state while creating these pieces.

About the Artist

Anastasia Lebedeva comes from a family of experimental artists, she has been trained in classical schools of art since a very early age and exposed to a wonderful and eclectic collection of art and artists since birth. Anastasia also goes by the name Simrit Kaur and has been KRI certified to teach Kundalini yoga since 2007 and Prenatal Kundalini Yoga since 2008. The quality of the mental state that meditation brings influences her ethos greatly as she aims to translate that bliss into art that radiates the same. The aesthetic of her paintings is always to uplift both the space it is in as well as the viewer.

My creative process begins directly or indirectly in order to build a foundation or background underlying the final art work. Toning or layering color wet into wet may be followed by automatic drawing as two of the layers. An intuitive approach begins to take hold when more layers of paper, objects, words, combine with paint, and lines leading me from ideas and images as they appear to a serendipitous final result.

My intention is to explore what lies beneath my life experiences to arrive at the truth of those experiences. Understanding past historical human experience provides me with a better understanding of my own life experiences in relationship to other people. There is a greater truth to seek that is universal.

teacher: art/ academics

painter; layerist; collage

currently at Studio 345 at 345 W. 7th Street San Pedro CA 90731

i feel as if i\\\'ve come full circle in many ways, and all those influences in life and studies have sprouted and become something tangible in my art. the name of my paintings and inks on paper style is heavily influenced in Arabesque.

Arabesque is the anti-square, the non-Cartesian,

the irrational, the unpredictable.

It has no edges, no corners, like

a stream of water, it encompasses everything,

it surpasses all obstacles. Feminine in its

shape, gentle in its touch, its warm and

ensuring curves are no less a constant

source of surprises! Where will the lines lead you? To the irrational, the world of imagination, to the non-Cartesian, the world of dreams. This series is no more but a contemplation and reflection of the self and viewer. i hope the viewer will have the chance to c beyond what appears to be decorative dancing lines into a deeper reflection of beauty and contemplation.

i was born in taipei, taiwan; then at an early age,

my family immigrated to the United States

(southern Cal). growing up, we\\\\\'d always return to taiwan during the summers, continuing our education in chinese language. during this time, i\\\'m fascinated by chinese art, history, and culture. living between 2 cultures has influeced

me a great deal, even though at times, it has been very conflicting to be either 1. often asked which am i, chinese or american? these days, to me, i?m both. i no longer feel the need to separate out the 2 identities. i can switch easily between the 2, combining it to my own.

growing up, i\\\'ve always drew, painted,

and designed many imaginary

interiors and costumes for

imaginary characters. i

began my formal training

in college, studying

fashion design first, then moving into painting and computer graphics. i spent 6 years in nyc as book cover designer and returned to painting when i left and began traveling around to different parts of the world. as i settled into portland, oregon, i feel another shift in my life and am ready to share my work.

I make paintings using thick shiny acrylic paint, squeezed out of a bottle. This series arises out of my immersion in the magnetic force fields of the Mojave Desert where I live.

Stevie Love 2011

SOLO

2006 Sequence, Andlab Galley, Los Angeles, CA

2003 Fluid Jam, Robert V. Fullerton Museum, California State University, San Bernardino, 2002 Previous Incarnations, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA

Solo Series of Four, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA

GROUP

2009 Primarily red, yellow and blue, Angels Ink gallery, San Pedro, CA

2008 Gwangwhamoon Int?l Art Festival, Beijing, China.

2007 Pillow Talk, Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles

2006 Hallways, curated by EJ Hauser, 139 Plymouth, Brooklyn, New York.

Painting?s Edge, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA

2005 All California Juried Exhibit, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA

Curator?s Award, Riverside Art Museum, Peter Frank, curator, Riverside, CA

Hey Doll, a collaboration, the Brewery Project, Los Angeles

2004 Uncharted Terrain, SOKA University, Aliso Viejo, CA

2002 Off the Wall, Coagula Projects, Los Angeles

Curator?s Award, Riverside Art Museum, Jim Reed, juror, Riverside, CA

2001 All About Abstraction, award. Roland Reiss, juror, Angels Gate, San Pedro, CA

2000 The Spurgeon Project, RAID, Santa Ana, CA

1999 LA National Juried Exhibition, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica,

1998 Robert Miller Fine Art, Los Angeles

Post Gallery, Los Angeles

The DADA Show, Los Angeles

1997 Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA.

EDUCATION

1997 MFA, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California. Merit scholarshi

My art is contemporary primitive, pure art with an edge. The drawings are colorful, whimsical, easy to understand and fun to look at and enjoy.

Blocks of color give you serenity as the eye travels from space to space. There is something comfortable and secure about knowing and understanding what you are seeing. I draw animals to show their beauty, their innocence and the joy and happiness they bring to us. I draw with a sense of delight seeing how color interacts, awakens the spirit, and pleases the senses. I call it primitive because I try to keep it spontaneous not to correct or overwork the art. My first lines are always my best.

Through art, I have been fortunate enough to have earned critical acclaim and an ever-increasing following of collectors. My art has been exhibited domestically and internationally in such places as Newark Museum, Christies Auction House, New York; Art Fusion, Miami; Trump International, Miami.

Born in Lvov, Russia, I lived and traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East before settling in New York City and very recently to Venice, California.

I began my formal studies in art while studying at the University of Texas in San Antonio and the School of Visual Arts in New York.

I attempt to celebrate mankind's creativity and ingenuity while at the same time offering a statement on the culture of disposability.

A native of Pennsylvania, Dorothy Magallon's early interests were in oil painting. Through art classes and studies at the Otis College of Art and Design, she discovered a new passion working in three-dimensional Assemblage. Both mediums have offered her fertile imagination the flexibility to pursue her artistic language.

Dorothy Magallon has received numerous awards and accolades for her work and currently shows in competitions and art galleries around the United States. Her artwork has been the subject of many articles and reviews in national and regional publications. She is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, Long Beach Art Association, and San Diego Art Institute.

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.

I cut free hand with scissors from my imagination & sketches to create the details that become my artwork. Each cut piece of paper has been painted with acrylics & glued together with rolled paper to give dimension. The building of the scene is the most satisfying part of the process. Acrylics allow for such color saturation that often times the color laid down dictates the subject of my artwork. Although the cutting can be tedious - it is a meditative. I appreciate handling the paper and being able to cut it up into whatever shape I need. It has been an amazing challenge to think in dimension and it is what makes me excited to move on to my next piece. I do the work individually and do not get help from apprentices or assistance.

Sine Morse was educated at the Univerisity of Colorado, Boulder, where she recieved a BS in Biology and a BA in phsycology in 1993. Leaving her MCAT studies behind, she opened a snowboard retail shop and ran her business for 7 years. She left retail to assist an LA producer and his family until her own family began to grow.

3 years ago, with 2 school aged children, it was time to pursue a creative career. With a love for paper, color and detial she began painting and cutting - creating dimentional scenes within a shadow box.

In a short time she has made her way into the art scene in OR and has since been juried into several art shows in Portland, OR. After being juried into the Art in the Pearl, she was written up in the Oregonian newspaper as \\

Photographing children is like a favorite treasure to me.

My journey into photography started with turning playtime into portraits -

www.SillyGoosePhotography.com

Johnny Nicoloro is an award-winning artist whose double-exposure compositions created entirely in his camera produce unique and visually compelling pieces.

Johnny\'s success reached new heights in 2010, culminating in December with a highly-acclaimed exhibition at The Latino Museum in downtown Los Angeles. Eight of his pieces from that exhibition - Las Virgenes - have been acquired for their permanent collection. It has been extended through April 2011. Another of his pieces - \"Freedom to Marry Mary\" - was also acquired for the museum\'s permanent collection.

His pieces were also featured in exhibitions and curated for three group shows in 2010: \"Hybridity: American Unity\" at the Latino Art Museum; \"Concentation: The Act of Linking Together\" at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts; and \"Gateway to Imagination: A National Juried Art Competition\" at the Farmington Art Museum in Farmington, New Mexico. Johnny also held a three-month long solo exhibition at \"Ed\'s\" on Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood.

In September 2010, Johnny was awarded first and second prizes in photography from The American Art Awards for his pieces \"While Steve Was Waiting\" and \"I was in South Pas today\", respectively. Additionally, the LA County coordinators of \"SoCal for Jerry Brown\" named Johnny the honorary photographer for Brown\'s 2010 campaign for Governor.

wil fill out later :))

will fill out later :)

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.”

Eric Pedersen was born in the Detroit metro area of Michigan in 1981. Twenty three years later he moved to Los Angeles where he currently lives and works. Eric has always had an affinity for a manual creative process, and as a result of such has ambitiously pursued an education primarily focusing on traditional mediums of art making. In 2010 he graduated from the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, where he continues to teach. Eric spends most of his time painting in his studio, and is best known for his large, dense paintings depicting the human form.

Over the years my work has changed greatly, from small watercolour flowers and landscapes to my present style which leans towards the simplification of shapes. I now find myself on the borders between figurative and abstract art.

I love to experiment with many types of media using natural pigments, various stains, collage, acrylics, etc., but always with lots of water looking for those \\\\\'happy accidents\\\\\'.

My latest work has been inspired by the tropical gardens we have visited on our travels. These paintings are watercolour pigment on canvas and have been an exciting development for me as it has enabled mne to work on a much larger scale.

After retiring, my husband, Keith, and I moved from England to live in France and spent our first few years renovating an old water mill. When most of that work had been completed and I was searching for a new hobby, I took up water colour painting. This led to my taking a number of courses and classes locally. Painting has now become a major part of my life and gives me a tremendous amount of satifaction. Much of my inspiration comes from the beauty of the countryside surrounding our home in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, and also from as our travels particularly in Africa and India.

I have had a number of successful exhibitions on my own locally in France and also in Spain and I have participated many times in local exhibitions and events on a group basis.

Working exclusively in charcoal, Dan uses a photo realistic style that mimics photography to the point that extra signage has been displayed with his work, confirming that these are drawings, not photos. He loves shadows, contrast, anonymity & using negative space in his compositions. His gifted eye catches timeless ?fragments? of life in his work----- whether it?s the intricate lines of the human hand, or the delicate folds of a garment, they are drawn in detailed simplicity. The mystery of his work lets the viewer use their imagination to interpret the meaning behind each compelling image.

? 2011 ? Celebrations of the Equinox, Group Show ? Long Beach

? 2011 ? Permanent Installation ? Executive Office, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas

? 2011 ? Selected Works ? Insolito Home, Palm Springs

? 2011 ? Spring, Love Life, Group Show ? Yorba Linda

? 2011 ? Spring, Love, Life, Group Show ? Long Beach

? 2010 - Permanent Installation ? Corridors, Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas

? 2010 - Selected Works - Mimo Gallery - Santa Monica

? 2010 - Get Lit-Words Ignite - Fundraiser Auction - Los Angeles

? 2010 - Art Project Los Angeles - Charity Auction - Hollywood

? 2010 - Group Show - Affinity Gallery - West Hollywood

? 2010 - Six Pack 3 - Group Show - Jack Miller Assoc. - Los Angeles

? 2010 - Solo Exhibit - Santiago Art Walk, Santa Ana

? 2010 - Group Show - Antebellum Gallery, West Hollywood

? 2009 - Group Show, APW Gallery, NY

? 2009 - Solo Exhibit - Santiago Art Walk, Santa Ana

? 2009 - Solo Show - Continuum gallery, Palm Springs

? 2009 - Group Show - Continuum Gallery, Palm Springs

? 2008 - Six Pack 2 - Group Show - Jack Miller Associates, West Hollywood

? 2008 - Group Show - Continuum Gallery, Palm Springs

? 2008 - Walk of Art & Design - sponsored by Emerson Hall Fitness, West Hollywood

? 2008 ? Solo Exhibit ? Continuum Gallery, Palm Springs

? 2007 ? Six Pack ? Group Show ? Jack Miller Associates, West Hollywood

? 2007 ? Walk of Art & Design ? sponsor

Using found objects to create sculptures brings resources to my disposition that are as varied as the material realm of the world we live in; they provide an interesting mirror of our time and society.

My work is frequently narrative or symbolic and deals with social and spiritual issues.

A recent series – 18” x 18” squared – aims to explore the energy of matter and its relationship to the action/manipulation of the artist.

Annemarie Rawlinson, an award-winning artist, works primarily in mixed media and collage and has shown her work nationally and internationally. In 1994, she founded the L.A. Assemblage Group. This group currently has 17 members and networks and exhibits at least once a year together.

Using discarded objects as art materials, Annemarie aims at raising public consciousness of the need to conserve resources and preserve the natural environment. These objects, once useful, bring their own beauty and vibrations with them, expressing symbolic or narrative content.

Randall Reel was born in Hollywood, CA in 1967 and was taught oil on canvas painting beginning at age 4 by his grandmother who was an accomplished painter and oil painting teacher. Randall painted an impressionistic version of her landscape and still life work until about the mid 80?s. In his teens and early 20?s Randall developed a strong connection with the abstract expressionist?s work and was inspired to developed his own precognitive and non-mimetic style to relate moods, insights, and atmosphere utilizing oil, acrylic and textural materials on canvas through approximately 2000. His style has since evolved integrating texture into an architectural vocabulary to convey intuitive introspections and reflections often with juxtaposed and overlapping planes and fields.

Lisa Roche searches for depth of soul in all that is around her, and finds it most often in the face of another, which in her words is “the reason she is so drawn towards portraits”. In addition to oil portraiture, Lisa is known for her rich, vibrant paintings, predominantly depicting a wide range of subjects, always focusing on the human element.

Lisa is an award winning artist, residing in Carlsbad, California and has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions in the Southwest and Northern California. Her paintings are found in private collections throughout the United States and can be seen at her web site, http://www.gypsycreations.com.

In describing Lisa\'s paintings, the well regarded artist/teacher, Marshall Vandruff states, \"They have a bold, fun, uninhibited quality to them like strong drinks, candies and desserts, and some mystery in there too.\" - Marshall Vandruff, 2008.

Collectors of her work proudly display their love of life and color!

Born and raised on the beach in Malibu, I spent my childhood treasure hunting in the tide pools and high tide lines of the sea. I have never given up my love of found objects and take quite a lot of meaning from the things that I find. Now I use discarded objects and unimportant throwaways to talk about important things: social and political and personal concerns that I hope touch and resonate with others. Bringing up thoughts and feelings that lie just beneath the surface to conscious realizations, is my objective in what I do and create.

Having studied and practiced various medium; clay, bookmaking, acrylic and watercolor painting I fell upon my creative gold mine when I attended a workshop with Alexis Smith at OTIS. I had collected found objects all my life but had been completely unaware of the medium of assemblage. It was such an exciting opportunity to meet other assemblage artists and discover a community of like-minded artists. The group 8Women was formed and we exhibited twice as a group at the Helms Building.

I have drawn upon my graduate degree in Art from Cal State University, Long Beach and it has deepened my work and widened my perspective. I have been exhibiting locally and nationally in juried shows for the past three years and recently received an award from Peter Mays of Gallery 825 in Los Angeles.

Caitlin Rose is an illustrator who lives and works in Baltimore, MD. She graduated from Saint Olaf College in 2006 with a B.A. in Studio Art and Psychology.

Referring to myself as an \"American Expressionist\", I find that if I need a \"label\" it is with the philosophy of the early Expressionists that I hold the greatest affinity.

Dipping into the vast array of ideas, people, and vitality of my world, I seek a configuration or movement, color or atmosphere that corresponds with my innermost emotions. I use this as my vehicle, bending it and developing it until it speaks for me and meets others with whom it can have a conversation. I am interested in using nature, not copying it. The turn of a head, the wrinkle in a sleeve, the flip of a finger, the transition of a color to another can be unbelievably expressive of attitudes and emotions. I attempt to grasp these as I perceive them and bring them together into a moving and powerful work of art.

I believe that a true work of art transcends time barriers and that an imitative picture with nothing more exciting than correct proportions and acceptable composition will, in very short order, mean very little to anyone. But I think that a true work of art contains an indefinable element that touches a main spring of intuitive response within a viewer and effects a very intimate meeting. It\'s that intimate meeting that I seek when I paint.

I believe that if I have expressed myself adequately, the viewer is invited into the painting. This is my purpose and if I am successful then it is my achievement.

In 1943,at the age of fifteen,Abby Rubinstein began her studies at the art school of the Brooklyn Museum in New York.Having won a scholarship after her first year, she continued her studies with Rufino Tomayo, Joseph Presser, George Pippin, Francis Chris and water colorist, John Bindrum.

She also spent many hours studying the paintings at the New York Museum of Modern Art.She was moved by the color of the Impressionists and the emotions and movement of the Expressionists like Soutine, Nolde, Roualt, and Hyman Bloom.More than anything that she had learned from her formal studies, the works of these artists became of major importance to her throughout her painting career.Unaware of the labels,She was instinctively drawn to the diverse school of Expressionist painting. Over the years her philosophy became more defined until she consciously became an Expressionist painter.

At twenty-three she moved to California where she studied briefly at the Otis Art Institute and with muralist painter, Leonard Herbert. In 1966, she and her late husband, Jules Rubinstein, moved to a small pueblo in Mexico.There they painted for the next ten years and developed reputations as fine artists that brought a steady stream of international visitors and art collectors to their home and studios.

During the 1968 Olympics, they were chosen to represent the city of Guadalajara,s cultural team with an inaugural joint exhibition of their works. In nine days over three thousand people came to view this exhibition.

My work draws on and translates my unique cultural background into these paintings. An intuitive approach underlies these paintings: by suggesting rather than detailing, exploring the possibilities of the medium and the idea, connecting the disparate and giving substance to the implausible, I invite the viewer to contribute their vision.

Painting is primarily visual communication. If a piece does not initially pull in and seduce the viewer, any underlying message may be lost.

My method is direct in approach (no sketching), and in application (color directly onto painting surface without brush or palette). By gestural strokes and deliberate marks, I demonstrate the freedom and sense of wellbeing that occur when I work.

Regardless of the subject matter, art is autobiographical. The allusions and commentary in my work relate to present-day culture and its rapid changes. At the same time, the symbols I employ hearken to my growing up in an ancient land. Arabic calligraphy and the earliest alphabets from which it sprang fascinate and supply me with a rich iconography. Sometimes these initial calligraphic marks are painted over partially or completely. But they are there.

The Enchantment Chronicles. I have created a collection of celebratory marching and clapping lights in honor of old fairytale characters returning to their forest, older, modern and wiser. My works involve the psychological experience of recognizing accomplishment. I explore the set of emotions encountered through self acceptance. Like the lessons taught in a fairytale, we are cautioned to avoid the pitfalls of life. Outdated as the tales and our stories get, we still like to re-visit them. By abandoning learned behaviors, emotions can overwhelm and sabotage us. My art links the relationship between long held traditions and contemporary freedoms. I symbolize seeking balance between the two with combining objects of nostalgia posed with the modern figure in a position of empowerment and encouragement. Unconventional scale and proportion heightens the humorous effect and underscores uncomfortable learned ideals of “proper”. I encourage the viewer to explore the sensation of clapping for their past, present and future and ask what is the level of comfort experienced?

Currently living in Los Angeles, a former fashion designer for Yves Saint Laurent, Burberry, DKNY

and BCBG, I took a leap of faith in September 2009 to become a full time artist. By listening to my gut

and following my heart, I am overriding my fears. Enjoy my journey.

I have been painting now for 8 years after retirement from research and teaching in the fields of Structural Optimization and Design Theory at California State University, Northridge. All the while enjoying abstract art as one of the purest forms of creativity.

My approach to painting is just to follow an inner spark which moves me forward - a joyous and satisfying experience, difficult to put into words.

I really enjoy experimenting with the blending of multimedia on canvas to create novel and thought provoking effects. Visual impact is what I strive to achieve.

I have also experimented with the computer manipulation of my painting images.

All my work can be seen at www.spuntart.com

MSME USC 1966; Professor CSUN 1965 - 2007

DUAL PROCESS ARTWORKS:

The Synthesis of Collage and Photo Processing

Understanding the photage process gives insight into the unique abstract images I achieve in digital painting. Photage is not the odd juxtaposition of visual language you generally associate with collage. For me it is an expressionistic, painterly, problem-solving process that begins with finding a rich and cohesive palette of fragments from recycled magazine pages. I then help each piece find its niche based on light and shadow, color, and texture dynamics. This focus on cooperation and symbiosis of parts is what paradoxically imparts a sense of calmness, strength of structure, and serenity in an otherwise very busy environment, a metaphor of my vision for a healthy earth.

"In a future series I expect to explore many more interesting color combinations and visual effects and perhaps create more loose, dynamic photages with more simplified patterns. However, since unpredictable is part of the definition of photage, I will be as surprised as my patrons to see what comes out next," I wrote in a previous artist's bio. Rereading this today, imagine my pleasant shock of realization that I have done just that, but not in the way I imagined. Digital painting has allowed me to push the photage images in the direction my artistic sense wants to take unfettered by the physical limitations of cut paper. I find that the interests piqued by photage, such as experimenting with light and shadow, depth of field, the balance of space, visual porosity of elements, mood and interaction of color, simultaneous micro/macro perspectives, and the commingling of straight lines and curves, can all be indulged using a stylus and powerful photoprocessing tools.

Traditional art training has been an immeasurable benefit in creating abstract depictions of qualities and sensations found in the collages and digital paintings. But while I can draw and paint, I consider myself more a constructionist and have always been inclined towards building, layering, combining found material, and the frugal and resourceful person's excitement in making something new and different out of something else. This seems to be the Nature's way of creating, and these new media dual-process artworks are my homage to and idealization of its many mysteries.

For a view of both photage and its spawn, digital painting, please visit: www.marlenestruss.com

Life-long artist Marlene Struss is a native of California. She received her bachelor's degrees in fine art and social sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara and found the climate, both physical and spiritual, so conducive to creativity that she never left the area. Since that time she has produced a large body of work in a variety of disciplines, including drawing, etching, painting, surrealistic and political collage and, most recently, digital painting. She is best known for the striking collages she calls "photage" to distinguish the unique technical process and the visual effect achieved.

Ms. Struss's collage and photage has been widely exhibited and acclaimed in group and solo shows throughout the United States. She is the recipient of the coveted Independent Artist Award in Collage/Assemblage from Santa Barbara Arts Fund. She is an award winner in the National Collage Society's 23rd annual Juried Exhibition and a juried member of the National Association of Women Artists. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Kennedy Publishing's juried books Best of California Artists & Artisans and Best of America Mixed Media Artists & Artisans. Recently she has been selected by invitation to participate in Kennedy's Best of Worldwide Genre volume.

She started learning and experimenting with digital photo processing in early 2010 using high-resolution images of her photage as starting points. She soon realized that she had a natural affinity for this state-of-the-art technology and the stylus "paintbrush." It didn't take long for the new media artworks to be selected for several competitive group exhibitions.

She refers to these large abstract organic-looking scapes printed on canvas with archival pigment as digital paintings. They are distinguished by their lively fluidity, sophisticated color, impression of dynamic space, and dramatic use of light and shadow. In addition to her experience with layering paper, the meticulous interlacing of layers involved in her new method harks directly back to the layering technique she was noted for in her early etchings. And like all her previous abstract work, she prefers to allow the image to evolve without preconception by means of a series of aesthetic decisions. The beauty and mystery of the final creation then becomes its own message.

To view examples of both photage as well as digital paintings, please visit www.startran.com/artweb.

As an artist and writer, I feel that all we see and do in life is worthy of some form of documentation.

Ultimately I am drawn to the grace of nature, and all other subject matter. I am keenly aware of the simple refinement in the compositions I see. We are always in a state of transition, and all of life is ephemeral. Having captured a fleeting moment, or discovered something very simple, yet unique in my mind s eye reminds me that there is value and worth in everything.

Susanne Swanson-Bernard has had a camera in her hand since the age of 7 yrs old. She was born in Germany and has enjoyed visiting much of Europe, including Spain, Italy, and Switzerland.

Early on Susanne learned that she had the drive to write, paint, and take photos. Ms. Swanson-Bernard knows of the healing power of art, and writing, and she s helped many causes by permitting her art to be auctioned off at various fundraisers.

Susanne has had her own struggles and is the single parent of a wonderful son named Trevor, who is now an emerging writer/filmmaker, and shares Susanne s artistic talents.

Ms. Swanson-Bernard is a true believer in the power of one image, and the power of film. She is an active member of Shoot 4 Change, and donates her images to raise awareness of the Global Landmine Crisis and other causes such as the fight to protect dolphins and other whales, as chronicled in the film - The Cove - a film that moved Susanne to pick up the phone and become a great advocate for Ric O Barry and the dolphins.

As an award winning artist, primarily a photographer, Susanne feels that everything we see and do in life is worthy of some type of documentation. Ms. Swanson-Bernard continues to write poetry, books and freelance articles. She also works in multi-media collage art.

With 3 published children s books on the market, and more to come, this author, photographer, poet and activist keeps busy.

Susanne currently lives in Boise, Idaho.

Sallie-Anne Swift (a Graphic Designer) moved from Melbourne, Australia to Long

Beach, California in 2008 and started exhibiting in the USA in 2011. With a keen

awareness of her environment, her great love of nature, wildlife and music, she

expresses herself on canvas with an interesting approach using acrylic and

clever use of other mixed mediums giving a fresh approach to her contemporary

abstract art that highlights and reflects our ever changing environment, nature

and wildlife.

For many years she focused on realism and began exhibiting her work in Australia in 1984 and had numerous successes in some of Melbourne’s most renowned Art Exhibitions.

She has exhibited in Art Galleries throughout Melbourne, Victoria and acquired commissions for her paintings both Australia wide and Internationally. In 2001 The Equestrian Federation of Australia

commissioned the artist to do an oil painting of world cup winner, “Kyra Kirkland” for Emirates Airlines who sponsor the prestigious, “Dressage With The Stars” competition held in Melbourne each

year.

Since focusing on her abstracts Sallie-Anne the artist has won several international awards. She was an exhibitor at Miami Red Dot 2011 and this year she received invitations to exhibit in galleries in Florence, Italy, New York and Las Vegas. Her work has been published in Southwest Art Magazine and American Art Collector 2011 and can be seen in “INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY MASTERS V”, 2012.

These five images rediscover wonder by making unexpected connections between real scenes and imagined contexts.

Mexican Dream recalls various facets of a recent trip to New Mexico. Just a few pieces from Alexander Girard’s Folk Art Collection form the basis of a hallucinatory dream set within New Mexico’s remarkable skyscape.

Jain Lions at Play shows the fierce guardians of the Shree Sheetalnathji Temple, Kolkata, in a gentle and playful mood. Transported, in a child’s imagination, to a mythical fractal landscape, the lions can forget, for once, their onerous duties as temple guards.

Ascent to Salvation Mountain gives expression to Leonard Knight’s lifelong work in creating his Salvation Mountain, made out of mud, straw and paint. Located in the desert of Imperial County, California, this vision sees Leonard floating aloft amid towering azure skies.

Flying Elephants illustrate a story that hasn’t yet been told. They are from Sonagir, a Jain pilgrimage site in Madhya Pradesh, and here they have been given an aerial life which belies the heavy and static reality of their normal existence.

Kite Sky shows stills from a moving artwork built with Processing. A cloudy New Mexican sky forms the backdrop to an imagined kite flying festival in which a multitude of shapes with variegated patterns and colors perform a complex dance.

Terry Trickett is an architect who has recently developed an interest in digital art. His architectural and design projects http://www.trickettassociates.com , which focus mainly on exhibitions and interiors, demonstrate a close involvement with graphic design and often incorporate photographic or illustrated imagery.

As a result of one particularly fruitful relationship with a significant client, the Wellcome Trust, Terry Trickett instigated a wide-ranging project (Sci-Art) in which scientists and artists, working in partnership, are encouraged to pool their ideas and, thereby, maximise one another’s creative potential. This initiative is now poised to enter a second stage, Sci-Art Lab http://www,sci-art.org.uk

Terry Trickett exhibits his digital artworks, viewable at http://www.trickettimages.com , at a number of venues world-wide:

Three artworks produced under the title ‘From Bucky to Gehry’ have recently been on display at the New York Hall of Science. These works are viewable on line http://www.asci.org/index2.php?artikel=1072 and in October of the same year they were on display at the Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, NY.

\\\\\'Cubic World at Sea\\\\\' was selected for display at PRINT NOW, an exhibition of innovative print, held at the London Art Fair 2010, 13-17 January 2010.

\\\\\'Ascent to Salvation Mountain\\\\\', \\\\\'Datia Heptagon\\\\\' and \\\\\'Varanasi\\\\\' were accepted for inclusion in the 9th Lessedra World Art Print Annual 2010 (Produced in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Interesse an Esoterik und meditative Kunst und Tarotkartencollagen

born: 21.11.1950, Abitur 1968, Kunstlehrerin (Kunstpädagogik)

ART FOR CHILDREN

The Burghers Collection is Art For Children and is based on my original character, a Burgher (meaning townspeople) named Buddy and all his friends. He appears in each original themed musical painting aimed at further involving the child viewer with the artwork itself through sight, sound, and touch (the ptgs. are resin coated for durabilty). To further the interactive purpose through art and this particular venue, each painting has matching stuffed characters for children to recreate the ptg. in 3D, either identically or in their own way. The first book addresses an elementary topic to introduce the character and artwork and is followed up by another book with encreasingly more complex topic to read about, think about, and discuss. Each book is backed with a teaching aid for parents and grandparents on how to use this work and the entire concept in the most educationally fun way.

Bonnie Ulrich

400 chambers St.

Apt. 14G

New York, New York 10282

greensceneart@aol.com

EDUCATION

1987-1992 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, BFA

Cum Laude Art Education, K – 12 Certification

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1991 Elm Creative School of the Arts Training, Show Design: Reception

1991 Student Teaching Holmes Elementary School

1992 Student Teaching South Division High School

1992-94 Art Specialist/Special Needs Students, Craig Alternative

1995-98 Visual Art Specialist, Lincoln Center Middle School of the Arts

2000-06 Visual Art Specialist, South Division High School

2007-present Retired/Door County Sled Dogs Inc.

PROFESSIONAL ART EXPERIENCE

UW-Milwaukee Foundations Exhibit

Milwaukee Senior Show

Posner Gallery, “Come on a Whim” Exhibition

Milwaukee Journal feature, Alternative Teaching

Milwaukee Area Teachers of Art Show, Best of Show

Channel 12 “Peace in the Neighborhood, “ commercial

Creatives for Charity, Pfister Hotel, received Highest Donor Bid

MATA Member of Board of Directors

Gwendolyn’s Gallery, Fish Creek, Door County Wisconsin (Solo show/July-August)

William DeLind Fine Arts, Milwaukee – Exclusive, Solo show Oct. 97

National Scholastic Art Educator Award, New York City

Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, Exhibition

Milwaukee Journal exclusive article, “Teaching Through Art”

Picture Perfect Gallery, Milwaukee

Geneva Artists Gallery, Lake Geneva, WI

Owner, “Once in a Blue Moon Gallery”, Fish Creek

My work strives to:

depict the grace, wonder, and complexity of the colors surrounding us

in order to:

communicate the thrill, sublime, and awe that the raw elements provoke

so that each of us may:

focus on a momentary experience, unburden ourself temporarily, and allow us to savor a simple yet profound reconnection to nature and the emotions that constitute our core.

My paintings are large-scale, expressionistic landscapes and element studies

with a focus on color fields and architectural negative space.

My paintings recreate form with a gradual build-up of color

with the use of oils, acrylics and occasional mixed media.

Born and raised in the Midwest,

I relocated to Portland in 2002 and have loved every moment of it.

Studies in art history and Dutch roots steeped in a rich,

cultural history inspired me to begin exploring my own work 12 years ago.

A Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy has deepened my exploration

of internal causality as well as my pursuit of what can be known externally,

both of which play large roles in my work.

My work is consistently inspired by an interest in the natural world and the collision of that world with the world of architecture and human beings. There is no literal reference to these influences. However, there is an emotional reference, distilling and merging the elements that make up the complex landscape of our modern experience whether urban or rural. The people, places and things that reveal themselves are nonspecific and yet perhaps are recognizable as something known or remembered. like that name or that word you struggle for on the tip of your tongue. A non-pictorial representation that is deeply intimate and suggestive, where the tug of sensation comforts, or pinches, stirring up emotion and memory: mind photographs that reflect everyday life and the way it impacts one: sunlight and shadows: stillness and movement: sound and quiet.

The pieces themselves are created from water mediums and other mixed media on a multitude of surfaces usually in series. I begin by laying down a gesture, which leads to color, shape, and form until something in it moves me, like a Rorschach inkblot but infinitely more subtle. Images are built layer by layer through translucent color washes, scumbled paint, markings and collage made up of bits and pieces of cast off materials that enrich the surface to reveal a lyrical, magical and often mysterious world.

A native of southwestern Michigan, Stephanie Visser relocated to sunny southern California. Educated at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids Michigan. She continued her education in fine arts and painting at Western Michigan University and Pasadena College of Art and Design working with artist and painter Mary Winterfield a well-known painter and educator.

http://www.genesiscards.com/2011/04/pictorial-synchronicity/

http://www.genesiscards.com/about/

The work I’ve done so far depicts the emotional landscape of my childhood as I remember it—a blur of color and movement flashing by the static iconography of the past: the company houses where the roughnecks lived, old-style telephone poles and pumpjacks. And enveloping that landscape, out of balance in scale, space, and perspective, are these figures that seem to dominate and subdue, not with violence, but with curiosity and playful interaction. Interrupting the flow of abstract shapes with simple flat black and white houses and telephone poles breaks the viewing pace, as if a light bulb pop across the setting of the implied narrative —pulling the viewer into a space undefined where they can figure out the story or pretend a new one.

Margaret Withers was born in Austin, Texas in 1965. Her father worked in the oil industry and because of the nature of the work they moved frequently, Withers’ dealt with this constant change by casting herself as both playwright and lead actor in countless fictions. She attended Texas A&M University where she received a BA in Literature. She moved to Colorado in 1991 and worked primarily in hand-built porcelain. In 1998 she started a series of mixed-media oil paintings with cast porcelain heads pushed into the canvas. In 2004 she attended CU Boulder’s MFA program but did not matriculate, instead deciding to move to New York City in 2006. In 2011 she started working primarily on paper with watercolor, ink and enamel on an overlapping series that explores migration, identity, belonging and the American anti-story.

These painterly collage pieces are a continuation of my Beach Rock painting series. I was initially inspired by rocks on a deserted beach. Submerged in water, they reminded me of strange creatures pulsating with spirits, and inspired me to reimagine them on my canvas.

The idea behind my collages was to bring out the mysteriousness I felt about these rocks and make their strangeness even more vivid.

Each collage piece has several vignettes generated in the process, either intentionally or incidentally. They are like mini dramas within a bigger show and, when viewed as a whole, meant to heighten surreal feeling.

The way I see and express nature might have been influenced by shamanistic spirit that I had witnessed as a youngster in my old country.

Young Yun Summers is a Los Angeles based artist. She was born in Korea and came to USA as a high school student. She inherited a love of art from her family and always knew she would be an artist.

Majoring in design in fine arts, she earned her BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and worked in retail advertising for many years. However, her passion to be a serious fine artist was not pursued while she was working full-time and raising a family.

After her son went off to college to study piano, she finally decided to fully commit herself to art.

Young started out painting her favorite subjects, such as her family, trees, rocks, things in nature. Then, she began to incorporate collages, as a way to enhance her paintings. Soon the painterly collage took over and became her signature medium, garnering great responses and awards. Lately, her collages have become more sculptural and experimental. Finding beauty and harmony in most unexpected way from items soon to be discarded, while reducing waste and recycle are important aspects of her artistic life.