Yes!

My work reflects life experiences through varying degrees of abstraction.

My inspiration comes from nature and my travels in South America. Using bold colors and patterns I am constantly exploring new territory

I am interested in the creative process and shaping raw materials into expressive statements. I utilize both technology and hands-on manipulation of acrylic paint, mixed media and digital imaging to create my work.

Born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, my memories of life in that country merge with my life here, in Southern California. I am members of the Silver Lake Artist Community (SLAC)

Style: Erna Avan is an Armenian artist who moved from Armenia to US in 2010. She is one of the Abstract art representatives who started painting in 2009. Her style is mostly abstractionism and her art expresses departure from reality. Erna mostly works with acrylic and gouache paints. She uses mixed technology. Her style varies from one work to another and is very complex to explain. The dominant part of her work is psychological expressions of abstract portraits. In her work Erna also used some elements from her childhood (Fairy Tale abstract representations). Another part of her work represents the life of another dimension such as her cosmic and space metamorphosis representation. Many of Erna's works have religious foundation because Christianity was a defining part of Armenian history.

Erna Avan was born in 1961 in city Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan. Her father was a Geography teacher and her mother was Director of Scientific Library of Baku. Erna started attending teaching practice at conservatoire when she was 5 years old. Her major was piano. In 1982 Erna completed conservatoire with exceptionally highest grades. She is a very talented musician and composer. In 1983 she had her first and the only son Roman. She lost her husband in 1994 and continued raising Roman alone. As a result of enormous creative energy and a stressful period of her life in September 2009 (48 years old) Erna suddenly started showing her talents in fine art. She was very inspired by famous painter Edvard Munchs art work "Scream" and the next morning she created her first art work (The Beginning). Erna has worked individually starting in 2009 and already had a chance to be introduced to Union of Armenian Painters in 2010. In 2010 due to circumstances she has moved to US. She has about 300 art representations. She had her first exhibition in July 2010 at XPress Art Center Royale Gallery located in Glendale, California. She continued to create new art works. In 2012 unfortunately she was diagnosed with cancer, and went through required procedures and now is hoping to continue to work towards expressing herself and her feelings in art.

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.

Images that are subliminal appeal to multiple levels of our awareness. The figures in my work speak to your unconscious; rather than representing something literally. Detailed or expressionistic these figures merge with water based mediums, mostly Sumi ink on paper. The work is a way for me to engage directly with my imagination from point zero, inspired by over three decades in the study and teaching of Zen.

Study and practice in meditation and the Japanese sword, and my work with people in hypnosis and NLP (Nero Linguistic Programing) inspires me. Simple moments that wake us up from a different kind of sleep, moments that connect us back into our lives in an empowered way.

I am a multiracial woman whose art is greatly influenced by my Japanese ancestry and Moroccan and European Roots.

Co-founder of Five Changes and Manzanita Village Retreat Center in Southern California. I mentor and certify coaches, healers, artists, people in leadership roles, conscious business owners and entrepreneurs, in Hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programing) Constellation work, and mindfulness, facilitating workshops and retreats throughout the US.

Born in 1955 in Southern California. I am of mixed Japanese, North African and European-American heritage.

A self-taught artist, with artist parents so I was encouraged to paint and draw for as long as I remember, selling my art as early as age 9.

I was hired by Zox Studios, a thriving commercial airbrush studio in the San Fernando Valley while I was still in high school. After graduating in 1972 I continued there until 1976 as head designer, supervising up to twenty other artists. From 1976 to 1984 I became a freelance commercial artist.

I began teaching mindfulness and Zen meditation, and Iaido sword and Aikido around 1984 which greatly influenced my move from illustrative work to the fine arts.

From 1984 I focused solely on Fine Art, working in various mediums: watercolor, oils, pastel, pencil and sumi ink. I have my artists studio and Retreat Center in Warner Springs, CA.

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.

My photographic career began in the 70s when I was working for Michael Childers as his Studio Manager. One day Michael asked me if I wanted to buy a camera, a Leica CL. I did, for $80. I took a photography course at Fairfax High and was soon hanging out in the darkroom. I discovered then that I love to print.

Since the late 70s, I’ve roamed the streets, malls, markets and public gatherings of Los Angeles. I’m drawn to places where large groups of people tend to congregate. I take my camera with me every day, shooting “from the hip” because I don’t want people to be aware of me.

I never studied the art of making pictures in an academic setting, but if there is anyone who has influenced me or defined my work, it is Henri Cartier-Bresson. I, too, search for what he so aptly called “the decisive moment.”

Another photographer I worked for, Lou Stoumen, and I used to talk about what we referred to as “the nun.” Lou had a shot of Taos where there was a tiny dark figure off to one side, a nun. Without her it would have been a boring shot of Taos, with her it caught your attention. My photographic project consists of “decisive moments” and “nuns.” May they be plentiful.

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

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

Born in Moscow , Russia /f. USSR/

Moscow's Art School at Kropotkin St.

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

Graphic Design Workshop Artist Union USSR

Group Show at Bienalle/ Chekhoslovakia, Praga

1989- Came to USA, Los Angeles

1990-2009 Decorative painted furniture and murals

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

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

2012 Group show at Santa Monica Art Studios

2013 Group show "Seen and Unseen"Downtown LA

Phantom Gallery

curator and artist

2013 Group show "Oneness"Phantom Gallery

2015 Group show at Civitella d'Agliano

2015 Group show at Nuremberg ,Germany

2016 Solo show at Lark Gallery Hawthorne

and curator for CALIFORNIA show

The photography for me is the way of self expression and my investment in the process of saving mosaic of the past for future.

Born in in the former Soviet Union, Alex Cheremisov started his photo career at high school in Odessa. He continued his love affair with photography at military service as an air-photographer. After that he got involved as still photographer in movie industry, news media and advertisement. At the same time Alex devoted himself more and more to fine art photography and received numerous prizes, awards and reviews by prestigious art critics.

Sandra Cohn

It has been said that poets and artists, in their highest calling, are the ones who express Being itself; who enlarge human consciousness by inviting the viewer to engage in an experience that inspires a deeper search for an understanding of the nature of existence. Even as a young child, my inner world was absorbed in an encounter with the immense mystery of the Universe. At six years old, I spent endless hours lying on the carpet in my playroom with eyes closed, imagining (unsuccessfully!) the borders of an infinite Universe. Trees, to me, were portals of Light. I pondered the meaning of who we really are and what we are doing here while the rest of the children happily made mud pies and ran through the streets. I spent most of my adult years reading, peering, studying, working in the field of neuropsychology, hospice and grief work, and advanced clinical hypnosis; absorbed in a meditative quest for higher truths. Key to my experience was a near death encounter at 26 years old while giving birth to my first son, which both surprised and delighted me with a direct experience of an all encompassing joy and beauty. My work as an artist and writer reflects this journey, both from compassion for each of us as we reach for heightened clarity and awareness during our often challenging journey of life, and in direct relationship to the translucence of the mystery itself.

I engage with my art and writing as metaphor for deeper wisdom, a portal to an encounter that hopefully uncovers insight and acts as a gateway linking us to the greater universe of conscious.

Sandra Cohn

As an artist, I have a wealth of experience that permeates my work. For most of my life, beginning as a young child , I have been fascinated by consciousness, where it arises and resides, and how it affects our understanding of reality and beyond. This interest shows up in my work as an artist, compelling my work forward into deeper discovery.

At the age of 26, I had a near death experience. During this profound experience, I pierced the veil of our everyday consciousness. Additionally, I worked In Neuropsychology at UCSF Medical Center in California, studying the effects of brain conditions that affect personality and the nature of consciousness. Throughout my life, my defining interest has been exploring spiritual consciousness as our true nature; the embracing of the Whole, of Light and Dark. Art as a window to expansion is deeply interwoven in my work.

Along with my love of clay, and my love of color and texture in paint, I am drawn deeply to story, to words. I write poetry, perform, and mix it into my work or remix others poetry to reflect my work.

I am drawn to exploring the mix of these three mediums as well as sound. The materials I use reflect the history of our lives, Rusted found metal pieces mixed in with sculpture each have their own story to tell and are used in a new form. House paint on roofing paper forms the texture of our daily life used in an artful form. It is in these multitude of mediums that the viewer drops the veil and begins to experience deeper truth and understanding.

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

Self expression and awareness, inspired by others, by ideas; by the effects of light, color, and texture, is satisfied within me by the creation of paintings. I have always been attracted to patterns of color more then the detail of objects, explaining my attraction to abstraction.

While painting, I often find myself taking my eyes out of focus in order to simplify the work. Paint is applied in a thick and forceful manner in order to convey energy and movement. I choose light and temperature of color as a tool to create a specific fee.ling. Acrylic, metallic, permanent marker, and oil paint are combined as a means to achieve contrast.

By painting impressions and abstractions, I believe the viewer becomes involved in a process to understand the work, to contribute to the work, making a connection between my art and the viewer.

2013 Sulkin/Secant Gallery, Bergamot Station, group show. Curated by lark. 2012 Harveys Gallery, L.A., 3 person show. Curated by Mr. Tony Clark. 2012 Love Birds Gallery, solo show. Curated by Star and Martha Higgins. 2010 - 2011 Disneyland, Anaheim, created an exterior mural.

2008 - 2009 Four Seasons Hotel, Westlake, created murals. 2006 - 2007 Lincoln Library, Illinois, created paintings and murals. 2005 Caesars Palace Hotel/Casino, Vegas, created murals. 2004 Venetian Hotel/Casino, Vegas, created murals. 2003 Disneyland Gran Californian Hotel, Anaheim, created paintings. 2001 - 2002 Disneyland, Japan, created paintings and murals. 2000 Ritz Carlton Hotel, Atlanta, created murals.

Private Collections

Mr. Rod Stewart Ms. Janet Jackson Mr. James Earl Jones Ms. Beverly Harris American Red Cross

Review

Paintings by Nigel Cooper appeared to be seen through the dark prism like Le Sidenier with illuminated figures and buildings in the distance. The technique of painting was very original in that the pigments appeared to be drawn with some force across the surface of the canvas.

Mr. William A. Emboden, PhD, FL.S. Art-to-Art palette Journal, 2013

Education

Attended California Art Institute

BIBI DAVIDSON - ARTIST STATEMENT WWW.BIBIDAVIDSON.COM

One is born to a certain talent and passion, which either is in his/her genes, past life or the influence of their environment. At a very early age I observed my surroundings around me and put them on paper,

At a certain point I started to paint my stories, like a diary,

In my stories I often appear as a girl, as a bunny, as a cat or even a flower, this is how I connect with my planet.

Bibi Davidson’s Bio

www.bibidavidson.com

bibiearth@aol.com

Bibi was born in Israel where she discovered her ability to draw and paint at a very early age, through the years she attended private teachings, and went to an art institute.

When her second daughter was born, bibi moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a film editor for 10 years.

At a certain time bibi decided that painting was her calling, she quit everything and started to paint her stories. Since then, she kept painting her subject, the girl who represented herself and tell the story of her life and her dreams.

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.

I have always enjoyed the creative process. In addition to being a means of expression and a source of great enjoyment, art is a means of healing ourselves and facilitating the healing in others. I have worked in a variety of media, including printmaking, pen and ink, colored pencils and markers, watercolors, acrylics and oils. My favorite themes include Judaica, landscapes, leaves and doves. I also enjoy exploring the abstract.

Debora Gillman has studied art at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Otis and Los Angeles City College.

Exhibits include a group show in the Adult Education Division of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; individual and group shows at Park La Brea, including their annual “Art in the Park” events,where she has contributed a variety of award winning banner art and Tower Art designs. Other venues include The American Museum of Science & Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; the Don O'Melveny Gallery, Los Angeles and The JAN Gallery, Los Angeles. Her work is also part of the permanent collection at Cedars Sinai, Los Angeles.

Debora has taught workshops for children and adults at Park La Brea and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. She has also coordinated and help put on numerous local community events. “Debi Doodles” is her popular coloring book creation for kids for the holidays as well as other themes. Debora has written and illustrated three books for young readers: THE PAINTER'S DREAM; DRAWING FROM THE MASTERS; and AN UN-BEAR-ABE SITUATION: BEARS AND THE ENVIRONMENT. She co-wrote and co-illustrated the third book with her mother, Miriam Gillman, who is also an artist/writer. Debora thanks her mother for "sharing her creative gene with her." All books can be seen at www.Xlibris.com and at www.barnesandnoble.com. More information is available on her website at www.DebiDoodlesART.com.

I’m a painter and a mixed media assemblage artist. Conceptually, the idea of inexhaustible life has emerged as a common thread in my work. Often consciously but other times not.

My pieces are inspired by a sense of reverence for the beauty of life, with its decay and erosion, and then the emergence of, or rebirth of what grows from that. They reflect my fascination with nature’s ever-changing pantheon of shapes, patterns, surface qualities and colors that go along with the cycles of life.

Being influenced by mixed media artists like Joseph Cornell, Louise Nevelson, and George Herms, I create hand-built assemblages to explore my interest in an ideology associated with the destiny of change and transformation. I keep in mind the concept of one’s renewed growth, after allowing the collapse of old structures and outgrown values. My work represents the ability to move forward without being trapped by any outmoded perceptions and belief systems of the past. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes myth, I use parts of the old to build something new. I’m fascinated by the imagery invoked by the vision of a life force that’s not in our control, which shakes us from our complacency, and pushes us to a renewed life... if we want it or not.

These ideas also lead me to create painted pieces where I cut up, break apart or paint over, one of my already existing art pieces. In this way a new piece emerges from the old.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Brenda Hurst received a BA degree in

Art, with an emphasis in photography, from California State University, Northridge. She has always worked in creative fields, whether it was as a scenic artist for the television & film business, as the Assistant to the Director of the Craft & Folk Art Museum, or later as a Director of Still Photography and Photo Producer at NBC Universal.

Brenda continued her exploration of various materials and methods at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and now works as a full time artist at her studio located in northeast Los Angeles.

The focus of Brenda’s work is not only on painting, but also on mixed media assemblage, encaustic & photography. While incorporating a wide variety of materials and found objects, she’s interested in the process of discovering ways to bring them together in intriguing textural relationships, patterns, thoughts and inspirations.

Being an artist is pouring one’s soul onto the canvas, carving it into a stone or molding it into clay. It is being able to free the mind to create beauty, to create mysteries and, to create long-lasting emotion and passion for the viewer.

My paintings are created through combining acrylic, fabric dyes and oil on canvas. Using layers of one or all mediums, I create texture and depth within the space. This results in fluidity and translucency on the surface, complemented by organic lines to create movement and form.

I am inspired by nature, where I am pulled into experiencing every curve, movement, texture, and fragrance by being present in any given moment. I paint intuitively, capturing the essence of light and positive energy of my experiences. In the process, I explore unlimited options that present themselves and a variety of elements from nature become prominent in my work. I do not paint the actual objects but my experience of the space and the undercurrent and core of what seems to be visible.

I create from the heart. Through my art I intent to touch the hearts and souls of my viewers, to bring them joy, lift their spirit and transcend the moment to one beyond this world.

Aazam Irilian was born in Iran and has resided in Southern California since 1977. Her extensive experience in a broad range of mediums is led by her passion for painting and sculpture. Aazam received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Art Education from California State University, Northridge. She has been a working artist and art educator for over 20 years—sharing her passion with students of all ages. Aazam has shown in galleries throughout the Southern California as well as Oregon and her works are in various private collections around the world. She is a member of Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art, Women Painters West, LAAA and Fusionart International.

It began while I was working with event planners & vendors. I would try to artfully photograph the venues & the details such as the food, the flowers & the favors. After a while, I realized I was amassing a nice collection of photos that seemed worthy of exhibition. I rarely tilt my camera & I usually like my compositions PERFECTLY centered. I guess that's the graphic designer in me! My latest photographic endeavor is

I grew up in Southern California & was a nationally ranked figure skater during my teens & early 20's. While studying graphic design at Cal St. Long Beach I made the switch to fashion photography. I have lived & worked shooting for editorial & advertising clients in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Milan, Chicago & Miami. Publications include: VOGUE Mexico, TV Guide, USA Today, Women?s Wear Daily & W Magazine. Ad Clients include: Bugle Boy, Joe Boxer, Coldwell/Banker, Miss Universe Corporation, Vuarnet/FRANCE & the Walt Disney Company. I am also a contributing writer/reviewer for the Yahoo Network & the Zagat Guide and was once chosen their

My art is imagination of created things which do not exist in everyday life. The purpose of my life - is creation of the fantasies. I was always attracted to science fiction books and movies. I put my images of my fantasy’s creatures in paintings and sculptures.

Faina Kumpan was moved from Odessa, Ukraine as a political refugee. She graduated from the Theatrical Art College in Odessa. In her not very exciting childhood, she was dreaming of other worlds. She was obsessed with science fiction.

Her emigration to New York opens the new opportunities. She worked as a designer and changed a lot of different professions. After moving to LA she returned to her love for art and Science Fiction. She attended numerous classes at UCLA Extension and many private workshops. She exhibited in many important galleries in LA and NY. She creates a fantasy world that is a once surreal and abstract, whimsical and vibrant. Whether creating painting or sculptures, her subjects are mystical creatures from another world, like fantastic figures stepping out of the pages of the futuristic fairy tale. She was participating in many group exhibitions.

She was awarded as a creative artist by City of LA for working together to celebrate Los Angeles as Creative Capital of the world. Her works are in many private collections.

I relate to the canvas by composing landscapes of irrealities. Rooted in emotional ties, and transposed by interchanging the concepts of design, I attempt to create a meaningful composition for the eye. The purpose being that the project becomes a story, and the story is told in an abstract, yet emotional manner. Each story of the irreal is given a sense of realism by my use of abstraction.

I use abstraction to create an image. The character of the project, urban but organic, becomes a playground for representation, suggesting its theme. The placement of each element changes the entirety of the project. From my experience, character, obvious or underlying, embodies the vision, circumstance, or situation within. I express this dialogue of character with images, not words.

I superimpose images that the eye can distill, complete, reinvent, and/or canonize by using the image to explain what is seen as a kind of narrative.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes.” –Marcel Proust

Meaning is found through imagery and/or other conceptual devices adding to the work. The environment of the image is telling. It helps define what is in front of you.

With each project, my ideas grow. Conceptually, there are many intertwining ways in which these images can be connected. My work is an exploration of such a journey, a journey that is ongoing and reinvents itself through constant change.

My work has an amorphous form and function; encompasses an evocative use of light, shape, and form; and, each composition is different depending on the project and the message. I visually identify with a space and its components through the relationship of the project to its entirety. My projects embrace the mundane, the intellectual experience, and the passions of my life.

Born in South Africa, Teresa Lakier currently lives/ works in Los Angeles. Teresa is best known for her Geometric Abstractions, and her Digital Art. She received a Bachelor of Arts for Art at California State University at Northridge and studied at the California Institute of Art, Westlake.

During her career as an artist, Teresa has exhibited at Bergamot Station in galleries: Secant/Sulkin and Beyond the Lines Gallery. She has also exhibited at Gallery 825, Hale Arts, LACDA, Lark Gallery, MOLAAA, TAG Gallery and Wallspace LA. Teresa has received awards in shows/publications, including Circle Quarterly Art Review Magazine, LA Municipal Art Gallery, MD Art Gallery, Mujeres al Pincel y la Lente, Phantom Galleries, West Hollywood Pop-up Gallery, and VIVA Gallery. Teresa has been represented/affiliated with Hale Arts, LAAA.org, and Wallspace LA. Online she is/ has been represented/affiliated with Artist.com, Bslog.com, Fineartamerica.com, and Saatchi.com.

Teresa is currently working on three bodies of work: Geometric Abstractions, Digital Prints and Portraiture.

Through her work, she reinvents herself using images, the correlation of line, shape, form, and perspective. She challenges the viewer enough to affect them, confuses them enough for them to ask the question, and then, again, challenges them enough to respond to what they see in front of them.

In the past, she has collaborated with three artists: Karen Kinney, Liz Duer, and Odenis Vitorelli.

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.

Assemblage

I am a mixed media artist and work in the Found Object genre of Assemblage. I repurpose and recycle the detritus that has been relegated to the bottom of the junk drawer, closet or attic. I use everyday objects that are referred to as found objects, but more correctly they are selected, sourced and collected. I prefer vintage items with their history and patina. I enjoy rummaging through boxes of miscellaneous knickknacks that I purchase by lots from wholesalers from estates, like a box of costume jewelry or broken bits of porcelain. Also, I love using found objects, really anything that speaks to me. Items originally used for one purpose will be repurposed in a new way. I see these items as elements from which wondrous constructions are possible.

My constructions are inspired by the objects themselves and through their juxtaposition I let them tell me a story create a new reality. I am sure there are reasons for some of my work that have deep psychological meaning but I prefer to leave that to the viewer or critic. I would prefer to work unencumbered by the deep meaning that could be created and try to avoid obvious and trite combinations. I just prefer to work until the piece feels right to me and leave it at that.

EDUCATION

California University of Santa Barbara, B.A. with a major in Fine Arts, 1980

SOLO SHOWS

2014 Carr Winery, Santa Barbara, CA

2014 Curious Cup, Carpinteria, CA

2013 Anacapa Brewery, Ventura, CA

2013 ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL

INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

2013 Carnival, Flow Art Space, Minneapolis, MN

2013 Rebirth Through Time, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland CA

2012 FISH 2012 International, Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History

2012 Modern Masters Group Exhibition, Art in Focus: Broken Boundaries, Chelsea, NY

GROUP/ EXHIBITIONS

2014 CA 101 3rd annual, Pier Plaza Galleries, Redondo Beach CA

2014 Art Comes Alive, Art Design Consultants’ Gallery, Cincinnati, OH – Award, Sculptor of the Year

2014 Petite Landscapes, Santa Barbara Tennis Club, Santa Barbara, CA

2013 Compass, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA

2013 UnHinged, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY

2013 26th Annual September Competition, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA

Honorable Mention

2012 PINNACLE, Foster Tanner Fine Arts Gallery, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL

First Place

2012 LaGrange National XXVII Exhibition, Lamar Dodd Art Center, LaGrange, GA Purchase award

2011 98th Annual Exhibition, The National Arts Club, New York, NY Sculpture cash award

2011 PINNACLE: National Juried Art Exhibition, Foster Tanner Fine Arts Gallery, Tallahassee, FL, 3rd Place

2006 International Assemblage Artist Exhibition, Gallery

A person has truly lived once their creativity finds a way out of the solitude within, and becomes part of all who encounter it.

I have always loved art and I started painting a few months ago. It has become my passion.

Sergei Milokumov - master who created the picturesque luxury of the modern world . His unique works, as icons, radiate warmth and inner light . Paintings Milokumova , woven of sunny emotions and philosophical knowledge , captured audience in a New and Old World , Russia and the United Arab Emirates (by invitation of the Governments ). In his works, one can find answers to the most profound questions, and the whole Universe fits on a small canvas. The reason - the ability of talent to penetrate into the essence of things and pass it through a simple matter ...

Art of Milokumov has it’s own dynamics of color, it lives under own laws of time - nature comes alive. You can actually see how grapes ripens in front of your eyes.

Honored Artist of Ukraine,

Associate Professor of Humanities at the University of the Crimea,

Member of the Union of Designers of Ukraine,

Member of the National Union of Artists,

Member of the League of Architects Yalta,

Sergei Milokumov born in 1961. in Cherkassy (Ukraine). He graduated from the Art Academy of Kharkov (cum laude). Was an intern at the Higher School of Art & Design HIF (Halle / s) (Germany).

In May 2002 Sergey Milokumov received from the President of Ukraine title of the Honored Artist of Ukraine.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Essentially a figurative painter, I am currently working on the influence graphic arts and the media of the past century has so vividly contributed to our culture of quick-fix, super-heroism and gratification. I am particularly interested in the superficial presentation clothing as costume defines and evolves in culture; geographically, historically and genetically, and illustrate the social and racial undertones recognized by such manipulations.

"In search for the ultimate marking that best describe our responsibility to life on Planet Earth, I make art/support art."

JACKIE NACH

jnachart@gmail.com

www.jackienachart.com

Tel: (310) 980-9161

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, I trained as a graphic artist at The Johannesburg School of Art. After working in advertising for J.Walter Thompson, I later freelanced in Fashion Illustration for ten years. Political consciousness propelled both my husband and I to immigrate to the United States in 1973 where he continued his studies. I attended various art classes at both The Decordova Museum School and Boston University.

My studies in Printmaking, drawing and painting continued at UCLA and The Brentwood Art Center when we relocated to Los Angeles in 1978.

Working professionally since 1984 I exhibited and sold work throughout the United States as well as internationally.

I have introduced and taught new techniques of solar plate etching, Gum Arabic Lithography and other forms of non-toxic printmaking as well as Drawing, Papermaking, Mixed Media and Acrylic Painting.

I love that art has no boundaries and that anything is possible.

About the Artist:

A self-taught, accomplished artist, Lily is influenced by the Fusionart style of painting, derived from mysticism, a Near-Eastern meets West spirituality, and a foundation in European painting technology. Lily’s one-of-a-kind finished works takes viewers on a spiritual, dream-like journey with techniques developed by using rags, brush and “hands on” the canvas painting. Lily is also an accomplished designer of several product lines of functional art. Lily paints from a soul level inspired by the essence of what she sees in others and nature.

I am an artist and filmmaker living and working in LA.

I currently work with the full range of photographic processes, both

digital & chemical, as well as with paint and pastel, often alternating

between media--each influences, informs, and provides some

relief from the other. I consider my paintings to be

physical representations of everyday visual impressions, whereas the

digital images—presented as large-scale c-prints--are visual

representations of everyday physical impressions.

After working digitally for nearly 2 decades, using a flatbed scanner

as a large format digital camera, I returned to paint as a way of

once again having my ʻhandʼ in my art.

While growing up in New York City fostered much of my fascination

with the urban setting and its components, the ever-changing colors,

geographies, patterns, shapes and shadows encountered during my

daily life generally serve as the impetus for the work.

Education

BA Studio Art - Photography, Stanford University. Stanford, CA 1989

Professional Affiliations:

Los Angeles Art Association – Artist member.

Group Shows:

May 2010 Branches & Leaves - SMAS Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA;

Feb 2011 Back to Basics: New Paintings - SMAS Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA;

May 2011 - SMAS Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA;

June 2011 - The Happening Gallery, Venice, CA;

Oct 2011 Baked - SMAS Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA;

Sept 2012 The Style's the Limit - SMAS Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA;

March 2013 - SMAS Hangar Gallery, Santa Monica, CA;

March 2014 - Hale Arts Space, Santa Monica, CA.

Other Recognition:

Winner "Open Theme" Competition - artquench.com online gallery, Nov 2013;

Featured Artist - artsyshark.com online art e-zine, Nov 2013.

My work has a decidedly feminine perspective. I paint figurative and still life paintings that address themes, of private pain vs. public persona, fight and submission, gravity, identity, time, sex and perseverance. I work in oil on panel or canvas, as well as mixed media charcoal on cotton rag paper.

I also write, direct and perform in short performance/concept art videos.

EDUCATION

2009 - 2011 MFA, Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD), Laguna Beach, CA

Twice Awarded Albert K Murray Art Scholarship for artistic merit

1991 BFA, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

1988 AA, Cottey College, Nevada, MO

Here is an edited list of exhibitions and awards.

2014 Torrance Art Museum, MAS Attack 3, Juror Kio Griffith, Torrance, CA

2014 Studio C Gallery, Annual Women’s show, Juror: Ada Brown, Los Angeles, CA

2014 “Honorable Mention Award”, Contemporary Art Center, 25th AJS, Juror: John Seed, Las Vegas, NV

2014 Warehome, Solo show, Orange CA

2014 University North Carolina Ashville, 5th Annual Drawing Discourse, Juror: Tim Lowly, Group Show, Ashville, NC

2014 City of Brea Art Gallery, Made in California Exhibition, Juried Group Show, Brea, CA

2014 Saddleback College Gallery, Faculty show, Mission Viejo, CA

2013 West LA College Art Gallery, Group Show, Culver City, CA

2013 Garboushian Gallery, Group Show, Beverly Hills, CA

2013 USC Hillel Center Art Gallery, Group Show, Los Angeles, CAUSC Hillel

2013 Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Wide Open 4 National Juried Show, NY

2013 Nude Nite, National Juried Nude Art Expose, Orlando, FL

2011 “3rd Place Award” The Amarillo Museum of Art, National Juried Biennial: Figurative Painting, TX

2010 TAG Gallery, California Open Juried Exhibition, Santa Monica, CA

2009 “President’s Choice Award” Redlands Art Association, Juried Group Show, Redlands, CA

My artistic goal is to illuminate the feelings that can be evoked by the colors;

The main thing for me is the expression of fluid motion, reflection of the movement of internal energy.

Born in Argentina, he has resided in California for more than thirty years. He graduated from the Universidad del Aconcagua with a Psychology and Art degree applied to Advertising and Communication Media. He has been painting since a very early age but is in the last few years that he starting dedicating himself full time to paint.

Hugo’s paintings represent a unique fusion of powerful energy of expressionism, intense personal symbolism. Pictorial, fluid and emotional components are of equal significance in his works.

The main thing for him is the expression of fluid motion, reflection of the movement of internal energy. When asked to describe his work he replied, ''I paint my Insides my guts, my feelings''

Review by Paola Trevisan from Trevisan International Art Ferrara Italy:

Hugo’s vibrant, intense, powerful art research together with his creative imaginary; add personal and unique inputs to any art exhibition. His singular abstract language where the interaction of spaces, forms and colors connection, create such rich and emotional results able to go beyond the physical limits of the canvas.

The high level of his paintings are full of vitality and experimentation; multicolored yet harmonious patterns, freedom of thought, purity of expression and above all, free creative energy of art.

Currently showing at International Contemporary Masters

Future shows: Las Vegas - Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Arts - USA

My work is a visual dialogue between the discarded and the resilient. I find beauty in "fragments"—crushed metal, torn envelopes, weathered stamps, and forgotten notes—transforming these remnants of urban life into harmonious compositions.

In the series submitted for "Bridging Through Colors," I use mixed-media assemblage as a metaphor for healing. Just as a crumpled piece of paper or a discarded object can be integrated into a new, balanced whole, our fragmented experiences and diverse backgrounds can find unity through the universal language of art.Each piece serves as a "bridge": between the industrial and the organic, the personal and the collective, the chaotic and the serene. My process involves layering textures and colors to create a space for quiet reflection. By giving a second life to materials that have been cast aside, I invite the viewer to see the possibility of rebirth and transformation in the world around us.

Tatiana Savchenko is a Los Angeles-based mixed-media artist whose practice explores the intersection of urban materiality, personal memory, and emotional resilience. Her work is characterized by a "visual dialogue" between found objects—such as industrial remnants, vintage correspondence, and discarded fragments—and expressive layers of acrylic and watercolor.In 2026, Savchenko’s presence in the Southern California art scene was highlighted by several key exhibitions. She was featured in the "March/Forward" showcase at Shoebox Projects within the Brewery Arts Complex and participated in the StARTup Art Fair at Venice Beach. Her collaborative artist book, LA: Two Voices, One City, created in partnership with Gregory Desgouttes, exemplifies her commitment to exploring unity and connection through shared creative narratives.By transforming everyday debris into layered, atmospheric compositions, Savchenko invites viewers to find tranquility and "healing" within the chaotic textures of modern life. Her work serves as a bridge between the mundane and the spiritual, aligning perfectly with the global call for empathy and connection through the universal language of art.

Is it more than the sum of its parts?

I work in a variety of media and forms such as collage, artist’s books, drawings on silk and the quilt. I look for visual coherence. I seek lines that are worth repeating, that feel experimental and fresh always looking for a rhythm, a good composition. My goal is a harmony of lines and colors that join to make a new ‘whole’. Erasures, fragments and layering come into play as do found images mixed with personal photos.Textures that I create by erasures and peeling are an homage to Rauschenberg's erasing of de Kooning's drawing. I find things are more interesting to me if they are elusive and poetic. Mark making is often part of the construction.

BS Edu, Univ. of Illinois; 7th International Fiber Art Biennale, Nantong, China; Colorida Art Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal; Beyond Function, de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, CA; Poetic License, San Jose Museum Quilts & Textiles; 4th Riga International, Museum of Decorative Arts & Design, Latvia; Art by Women, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE; Quilt National '13;

Ararat Regional Art Museum, Victoria, Australia, solo; Puke Ariki Museum, New Plymouth, NZ; Renwick Gallery/Smithsonian 25th Anniversary Exhibition;

Awards: Rochester Institute of Tech, The Art Quilt, Best of Show; Tokyo International Forum, World Quilt, Gold; Southampton, New York Silk Institute Purchase Award; City of Palo Alto Purchase Award; 2009 Skylark Prize, Los Angeles; Quilt National, The New Quilt, Innovation Award; State Fair CA Fine Art Exhibitions, Silver Award;

Jane Serebrenikov’s narrative graphical art works reflect her deeply lyrical and uniquely poetical vision. All her life she is interested in visual art and, grown up on fairy tales, combines magic, vivid imagination and sense of humor in her art works. She also inspired by the arts of Mark Chagall and Reno Magritte.

Jane is started etching 5 years ego and has been taken part of several exhibitions. She sold her arts nationally and internationally. She makes aquatint etchings. This is where the plate is immersed in acid and the lines and tones achieved when the acid “bites” the areas which have not been masked. Than color applied manually and print on printmaking press. Each print is unique.

Jane was born in Moscow, Russia and immigrated to Los Angeles in 1995 with her family. She graduated college as a graphic designer, holds AA degree and contentious working in printmaking studio.

My focus is on fine art photography, with occasional detours into other related branches that I find interesting. I'm drawn to images that capture my imagination, spark an emotion, rouse my curiosity, and stir my intellect.

My inclination is to let each image speak for itself and elicit in the viewer whatever it might, allowing it to stand alone in a Rorschach-like fashion. One of my joys is seeing or hearing whatever that might be as someone looks at it for the first time.

Some of my photos may feel somewhat disturbing to a viewer, and that tells me I've succeeded in evoking some emotional or psychological connection. Sometimes the response is not disturbing but more curiosity or puzzlement, as someone asks, "What is that?" when the image presented is actually as it came out of the camera and without any major Photoshop manipulation. My preference is to be shooting what I see as I go out into the world, without studio setup or extra lighting. In this sense, it is to be capturing what I sometimes call “found images,” which is more of a combination of street photography and photojournalism, even when it may happen in a studio.

I started taking photos during college. I began working with film, but discovering digital jumpstarted my becoming committed and dedicated. It freed me up to be more adventurous in following my being inspired by what I saw, without having to worry about costs of processing and buying film. Now I shoot digital only.

I began having photos shown in juried exhibitions in 2011. Since then, I have been in several juried exhibitions, and I have a solo exhibit now running.

How color affects me is an important issue in my paintings. Certain color combinations can cause an immediate emotional response. This might happen while looking at flowers, photographs in a magazine, or simply selecting colors of paint that capture my attention at that moment.

I create my paintings outdoors, under the California sun, where I have the freedom to work physically, without restraint. There is an organic quality to the process, utilizing fluid color to create movement. I never use brushes. Paint is applied to the canvas by dripping, pouring and splashing, with water sprayed onto the surface. Painting for me is about capturing the physical and emotional energy that I experience while being completely lost in the process.

My paintings are open to interpretation. Each person will find their own meaning in the work.

Born St. Petersburg, Russia

Lives and Works in Los Angeles, CA

Education

Bachelor?s Degree in Economics, Institute of Soviet Trade, St. Petersburg, Russia

Fashion Design, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, California

Self-Taught Artist.

Member of Laguna Art.com. Member of LA FAN group of artists

Member of Aleatoric Modern Artists /MAMA/

Solo Exhibitions

2012-2013

Divided Sky bar, South Lake Tahoe, California

2011

Chrysalis, Gallery GoDo, Glendale, California

Elements Restaurant, Santa Barbara, California

Krystal Salon, Studio City, California

Group Exhibitions

2013

Townley Gallery ,Laguna Beach ,California

2012

Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art, Laguna Beach,California

Gloria Delson Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California

Walk Art Way Gallery GoDo, Glendale, California

January 20th,March 23 rd Gallery Godo, Glendale, California

2011

Florence Biennale Internazionale D?Arte Conetemporanea, Firenze, Italy (catalog)

Happy 2, Gallery Godo, Glendale, California

Spring Brewery Art Walk, Diavolo Theater, Los Angeles, California

Save Japan, Gallery GoDo , Glendale, California

American Art Salon, Finalist, Juried Internet Exhibition, www.artjury.com

Projekt 30, Finalist, Juried Internet Exhibition, www.projekt30.com

Erotica, Gallery GoDo, Glendale, California

2010

Hotter Than July, Gallery GoDo, Glendale, Californ

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.

Please watch these YouTube videos so you can hear it directly from me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jijpx1kL6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0J9TJMaTgE

Originally from Michigan, Maria was trained in Advertising and Graphic Design, but throughout her life has loved art. She began oil painting at 12, progressed into photography, and any other form she could get her hands on. Maria met her husband Scott through his mother and an oil painting class, and he sparked a whole new phase of artwork and experimentation. Together they created a line of masks that were sold in the Lake Michigan resort community of Grand Haven. While attempting to simulate a beaded mask, Maria discovered a technique that she has not yet stopped - Dimensional Pointillism.

The love of the desert and the Southwest has been a recurring theme in many of her works. Her unique style combines fabric, paint, markers, and found objects into pointillist works reminiscent of Australian aboriginal dotted paintings.

Maria has been a Board Member of the Vegas Artists Guild for three years, and is a strong supporter of Arts in Las Vegas. Her work as been shown at the PeaceNart Studio, La Chica Gallery, Jenny Valdez Gallery, and Jana's Red Room in the Arts Factory, the N.O.I.S.E. Project, the College of Southern Nevada, Southern Nevada Center for the Arts, City of the World Gallery, Dinosaurs and Roses, Studio 810, Circadian Gallery, RAW Vegas (2011 and 2012 Semi-finalist), FAM by JimiCTO, City of Las Vegas Celebrating Life Show and Guild shows throughout Las Vegas.

I paint about the beauty of change, inspired by my own personal life experiences, and expressed through images of the short-lived butterfly and the progression of its existence. The colors in my paintings symbolize feelings and emotions that cannot be expressed in words while the traces of pure white untouched canvas represent hopes, dreams and desires that are now unknown but will become clearer in the future. The process of painting nourishes my soul by revealing cocooned memories of life. My art is complete once I feel I have recalled certain stories, capturing and preserving them forever in my images. In similar ways, we all recall our feelings, emotions and experiences, reliving and enjoying them again. Holding onto certain aspects of our pasts and sometimes letting go, we dream of tomorrow.

I was born to Armenian parents in 1979, in Beirut Lebanon. At the age of seven I discovered my passion for art and began creative adventures. Surrounded by different cultures, I adopted painting as a universally understood language of expressing my inner thoughts and emotions. While living through the regional and civil wars of Lebanon between the years of 1982 - 2006, I found refuge and beauty in my art as contrasted with the chaos of my circumstances. In 1993, at the age of 14, I won a first prize in painting from the Armenian Cultural Center, which encouraged me to attend academic art courses and to later develop my talents at Emmagoss Art Center. After graduating high school in 1998 with a diploma in Philosophy, I pursued my passion by specializing in Fine Arts at ALBA (Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts), where I received my Master's Degree in 2003. From 1995 to 2007, I participated in collective art exhibitions in Lebanon. In 2008 I moved to the States with my family, where I currently work and exhibit my art.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inspired by fluid movement and organic form, my drawing centered practice is informed by automatic drawing and intuitive mark making. My drawings are the material result of an ephemeral exploration of the connection between all life forms. Automatic drawing provides a point of entry into a metaphoric world of intuitive, invented, and imagined imagery that reflects upon the relationship of the visible exterior landscape of natural forms to the invisible internal landscape of the body. It allows me to access the personal, biological, environmental and formal relationships between landscape and the body. My work results from the process of exploring growth, renewal, transformation and the connections between all life forms. Interaction with nature and interaction with one another motivate opportunities for growth, renewal, and transformation.

Collaborative performance and the resulting interactions have had a profound effect on my studio practice. Improvisation and meditative movement greatly inform my drawing process. My drawings are now the size of my reach as I move across the floor with my entire body, pressing wide graphite sticks with my hands and feet in multiple directions, in continuous, overlapping marks of varying density. Each drawing is a mapping of a moving meditation and the emerging unexpected. Now, instead of responding to the movement of another, I respond directly to my own movement as it evolves in its own time and space continuum.

Cheryl Walker has been actively exhibiting her work in Los Angeles and nationally for three decades and her work is held in private collections internationally. She has created live visual effects in collaborative performance at REDCAT and MOCA. Walker has performed with Emilie Conrad, the founder of Continuum Movement, Rachel Rosenthal’s TOHUBOHU! Extreme Theater Ensemble, Simone Forti, and many others. Walker was recently commissioned to create a nine-venue participatory public art project in Minneapolis, MN and, she has created numerous public art installations in the greater Los Angeles region.

Walker completed an MFA in Drawing and Painting at California State University, Long Beach as well as graduate studies in Design at UCLA and English at the University of Minnesota. She currently teaches at Long Beach City College and Santa Monica Emeritus College. Through her long affiliation with the MOCA education department, Walker has also facilitated numerous educational partnerships and collaborations with LA Master Chorale, LA Opera, LA Philharmonic, UCLA Live, LAUSD Teachers, LA County Museum of Art, Craft and Folk Art Museum, Japanese American National Museum, Torrance Art Museum, CityLife, Armory Center for the Arts, LA Municipal Art Gallery, and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Creative projects have been my driving force from the beginning; it’s where I’m most comfortable. Being an artist has never been a choice, it’s just what I love to do the most. I’m inspired by color, beauty, line quality, textures, fluidity, and form; and when I’m amidst these allurements coupled with the aroma of paint spread through out, I can allow myself to escape this reality through my creative endeavors.

I consider myself a skillful colorist. Whether it’s about mixing paint for faux finishes or matching paint colors or transitioning from one color to another on canvas, I do it distinctively and with fluidity. I create transitions from one hue to another using a brush verses any other instrument as my tool of choice. I love and prefer using the paint brush as a sensual extension of my arm and knowing how to use it. Color and color-blending is my thing, it speaks to me in a language I can related to, the language of color.

The subjects of my paintings are self portraits of me at that place and time in this incarnation. And the farther I get from my college days the more spiritual my paintings become. I choose to paint images that offer levels of beauty, humor and spirituality.

Barbara Wurdens' creative talents are expressed in several ways; she's an entrepreneur, fine artist, decorative painter and video producer.

Wurden was raised on a farm in northern Minnesota and graduated from college in 1985 from there she began to pursue her passion as an artist. She began by developing a decorative painting business and her creative signature is found in homes and commercial businesses throughout Southern California.

Friends and clients loved to watch her work and frequently inquired about the processes which consequently inspired her to create an instructional video to show them the steps. The idea blossomed into a ten title Faux Fun DVD series and the decision to be a one woman production company came from her thriving on the artistic challenges of product creation, packaging and design and sales and marketing, which lead her to selling her video in Home Depot.

She then went on to creating and producing a home improvement web show. It?s delivered with a feminine twist and she tags herself The Handy Goddess. She?s the Diva of Demolition and Design and has even managed to land her face on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where she pitched to America.

However, Wurden expresses herself best through her fine art. It is on canvas where you can see her creative energies in a more mystical manner as her paintings go beyond packaging and design. In her portraits the expression of her life is mirrored in that point in time. Her paintings are abstract or abstractly coupled with realism and reflect vibrant colors with lively gestured brush stokes.

As an artist I am fascinated with creating a heightened reality.Whether painting recognizable imagery or abstraction, I am always in search for what can't be seen with the 5 senses. I'm looking for the intangible. The space between dreams and the waking state. I am always searching for the poetic,the ethereal and rhythms that create mystery in my work. The paintings take there cues from nature and reflect my inner connections,responses and observations of being part of the human experience. There meanings are not literal, but are meant to evoke a response in the viewer.The paintings are left as an open ended story that the viewer is invited to make his/her own conclusion.

Hal yaskulka was born in Brooklyn Ny.

Studied at School of Visual arts,Taught at Art Center College of Design ,Pasadena

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.