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Sandi Adams lives in Berkeley, CA.  Interest in the visual arts has been a constant in her life.  At nine, she was introduced to watercolor at her Saturday Milwaukee Art Institute class. Watercolor has remained her primary medium, but she has also worked in ceramics, textile arts, photography, and now, acrylic and mixed media collage. Her art training includes coursework at Pomona College, Scripps College, UCSF Extension, CCAC in Oakland, and served as an Art Docent at the Oakland Museum. In addition, Sandi has taken workshops with local artists including Judy Greenberg, Jane Hofsteter, Kathleen Brennan, and Ann Baldwin.  She is affiliated with the California Watercolor Association, Marin Society of Artists, Valley Art Center, and Frank Bette Center for the Arts.  Sandi participates regularly in juried shows at these organizations and has had three solo exhibitions in the East Bay.  Last year she received five awards! Sandi uses her photography as inspiration for much of her representational work, but has been increasingly drawn to abstract layering and collage.  She says, “Involvement in my artwork renews and enriches me.  The doing of it, the process, is critical to my well-being.  An end product is almost secondary to the process! I am working toward achieving glowing, translucent color to convey an emotional impact and enjoyment for my viewer.”

Salma Arastu currently lives in Emeryville and owns a studio at Sawtooth building on 8th strret in Berkeley, after moving from Pennsylvania in 2006. She grew up in Rajasthan, India and was passionate about art since childhood. She has been painting for last thirty some years, since graduating in Fine Arts from MS University, Baroda, India in 1975. Her work with continuous and lyrical line is influenced by her native culture and her residence after marriage in Iran and Kuwait before coming to the US in 1987. Born into the Hindu tradition in her native India, she later embraced Islam through her marriage. Her personal triumphs have been defined and shaped by the simple principle of faith in The Divine, as the compelling force which has guided her life and work. As for her present work she states: "Folk art, miniature art and Arabic Calligraphy are three strong influences on my art, adopted along my journeys. All textures and all colors are assimilating on my surfaces. I am creating a body of work of through continuous, lyrical line, to express joy in the universal spirit that unites humanity". She has won many awards and has had more than thirty solo shows including New York, Philadelphia, and Internationally in Germany, Kuwait, Iran and India. Her website: www.salmaarastu.com.

Lili Artel’s roots are in New York City but she has flourished creatively in the East Bay area of California. She now lives in Berkeley, Ca.  After getting a bachelor’s degree (English Major, Social Studies minor) at Hunter College, NYC and after being wife, mother of two daughters, teacher and newspaper stringer, she went to California State University, Hayward to study Art. Her Art education was primarily in sculpture from ceramic to direct, metal and casting in metal.  She began working in non-art related materials: packaging papers, plush fabrics, nylon pantyhose, ropes and cords, leather and felt and found objects, i.e. feathers, bones and metal shavings. Her original intent was to be a writer, particularly of short stories.  Her fiction has appeared in anthologies, “Thursday’s Child”, “Across The Generations”, “A Baker’s Dozen”, and literary journals in California and Oregon.  Her poetry was published in the 25th Anniversary issue of “Room of One’s Own”, a Canadian feminist literary journal in 2003, making her a poet of international dimensions.  A retrospective show of almost 40 years of art work took place Dec. 1-17, 2005 at the Sun Gallery in Hayward. Both in her art and in her writing she has marched to the beat of a different drummer. She states: “It is a challenge to transform the ordinary and utilitarian materials into art though use of my imagination.” Her artwork is abstract from nature, heavy on texture and diverse in technique. She may sew paper rather than glue, tear it forcefully rather than cut it. Whe weaves, wraps, knits and knots, hammers, burns and distresses the materials--- “whatever it takes”, she states, “ I feel that I am spinning straw into gold.”

Kay Athos of Castro Valley became interested in drawing at a very early age and studied art in high school and college; she took post-graduate courses at San Jose State; The College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland; Cal State, Hayward; and at Guadalajara, Mexico. In hands-on workshops she studied with well-known artists in all media. She paints in both realist and abstract styles on canvas with oils and acrylics. Her paintings are in the collections of major corporations. Currently her work can be seen at Marin Society of Artists, Ross; and Valley Art Gallery, Walnut Creek. Her oil, “Lost in Thought” is on the cover of “Women’s Wisdom,” by Meg Bowman.

Satadru Sovan Banduri is a well-known painter and video artist from India. New Media Artist started his career like most other artists—by working toward his BFA & MFA in fine arts from Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan, west Bangal 1998 & 2000. Satadru was awarded a Fulbright fellowship, He is a research scholar at DANM University of California , 2007. Satadru has honour Indo-German Artists' Residency and Annual RPG art camp at Mumbai. Satadru Live and work in New Delhi,India.  In contemporary new media art practices, Satadru has attained a vibrant global position with his multi-disciplinary works. Satadru did six solo show  at India and US and several group show and project based New Media Art at India ,Germany, Malaysia ,Hong Kong ,South Africa , Netherlands  and  USA.Selected significance show , "EnGendered" , multi-disciplinary South Asia Arts festival at Lincoln Center Manhattan, 'Mellifluous Metaphors' Wei-Ling Gallery at Malaysia, IIE .west coast center, San Francisco, Galerie Muller & plate, Munich, " Emergence 2007" DANM, MFA, Exhibition,USA. "Invisible Boardwalks", The Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz, USA, "Cross Cultural Celebration" California,USA, "The Autoerotic Man" at Bridge Gallery,USA, Autonomous mutant festival, California, USA. "Rhythms of Illumination" Episode, Chandigarh and "Creative spirits",South Africa , Nitanjali Gallery. His work was Art  Auction at Khushi  presented by Nitanjali Gallery . His video-art online, at www.theoneminutes.org, and was telecast in Amsterdam.His Video Art was projected CC, organized by the Royal Netherlands Embassy & The Mondriaan  Foundation.His spacial video also show case  in Karachi, Pakistan National lecture , Bombay and Baroda as a part of lectures and screenings. And also broadcast on national television channels DD Bharati, DD1and DD Newsas a part of programme produce by Doordarshan, India. He was selected Indian Art Summit, India's Modern &Contemporary Internatinal Art Fair. Multi telented Artist was invited for lecture at "EnGendered" , multi-disciplinary South Asia Arts festival at Lincoln Center Manhattan. His work comes from global cyberspace, social networking and Phantasmatic visions of race and gender.

Tim Brinton was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah and currently resides in Carlsbad, California.  Tim was born to be an artist.  He has been drawing and painting ever since childhood.  This passion led to his enrollment in the University of Utah where he studied fine arts and the Utah where he studied fine arts an he Utah Technical College where he focused on commercial art.  As a staff artist for the Salt lake Tribune for seven years, Tim had the opportunity to fully develop his skills for editorial illustration.  Since leaving the newspaper in 1983, Tim has earned his living through the syndication of his work.  His drawings and illustrations have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines around the globe, from San Diego to Boston, from China to England, Tim’s gift of capturing American political sentiment in pictures makes him a favorite with many notable magazine and book publishers.  Originals of Tim’s work grace the offices of well-known state and national politicians.  In keeping with Tim’s typical tongue-in-cheek humor, he realizes that it is also likely to grace “the bottom of birdcages”.  Modest about his gift, Tim credits others with his success.  “Due to the warm hearts of opinion page and editorial editors I’ve been able to do what I truly love.” He adds “I am truly grateful and indebted to all those who find value in what I do … except for maybe the birds!”

Carol Jones Brown of Castro Valley, grew up in Sacramento, began painting in oils more than 40 years ago. She graduated from the University of Oregon in journalism and later became an arts educator, teaching local adults to paint and draw.  She attended many workshops and classes by regional and national artists, is inspired by the colors of Matisse, whimsy of Chagall, and quirkiness of Jaspar Johns.  Although not a sculptor herself, she admires the madcap colors of Niki de Saint Phalle and the freedom of Magdalena Abakanowitz. Carol now works in acrylics and mixed mediums in an abstract manner, frequently beginning with no objective in mind.  She craves strong, bright colors, saying, “I love to attack my blank canvases with globs of hot color or luscious cool tones, then try on a variety of textured papers or fabrics to see what will happen. My goal is to create a surprise, for myself and for the viewer”.  She has shown in many galleries and her pieces are in private collections around the world.  She is a member of several active Bay Area art organizations and currently president of A.R.T., Inc. in Castro Valley. Her website is www.silktreegallery.com

Aaron Carter lives in the East Bay. He works in various mediums: ceramic, drawing, sculpture, design and painting. He went to Castlemont High where his drawing teacher put one of his works in an exhibit at the Oakland Museum. This spurred his interest in learning more about different forms of art and he took classes at Laney College (drawing, design, silk screen, advertising art and art history); at  San Francisco State (advanced drawing, metal arts, film, advanced ceramics, and Raku and at Merit College (advanced ceramics}.  He is continuing his studies and is very close to a degree in art. He was hired as part of the college staff doing the firing for one class and helping students as a mentor.  A teacher gave him a Raku kiln and he also bought a small kiln and started doing his work from home and selling his ceramics on Telegraph Ave and in Street Fairs and art galleries. As a Member of the Richmond art center since 2003, he had a one of his pieces displayed with the featured artist that year.  In 2006 he became one of the featured artists and won the Jan Hart-Schuyers Artistic Achievement award.  Currently, he is a member of Pro Arts and is now also showing his work at Expressions Gallery.

Lidia Colman was born in Belgium of Polish descent. Early childhood was spent in Poland infused by the Drama of WWII in a family of musicians and painters. She attended the Academy of Art School Krakow for a year before arriving in the USA. She had formal instruction from various artists and attended workshops held in the USA, Hawaii, Bali, France and Mexico. She has had two solo shows in Honolulu Hawaii and held and open studio in San Francisco in 2007. She has been greatly influenced by Matisse, Gauguin, and Frieda Khalo. She states: “I love color and fall in love with animals, people and places. Once touched by their magic, I am compelled to paint. I use various media entering into a kaleidoscope of shapes, colors and fantasy, a form of meditation, a restful moment away from the mundane day-to-day world. I love the process and hope the viewer will enjoy the product.

Elizabeth Dante was raised in the rural south and now is living and working in Richmond, Ca.  Dante has worked and traveled in Central and South America, Southeast Asia, Germany and Italy.  She has attained an affinity for the third world, and acquired the skills of the old world This ever present influence has provided Dante with a stylistic inspiration for works ranging from classical naturalism to primitive stylistic narration. Much of her work explores the dynamics between round organic forms and hard ridges angles, and the spaces in-between.  By exaggerating this interplay, her work creates a sense of tension which is both lively and sensual.  Dante states, "My world combines ancient and modern rituals, extracting stylize motifs and archetypes, ancient and I pay homage to the many facets of the human sprit, characterized by warmth, humor and sometimes political commentary.  Her works have been showcased in "Art on The Rock At Alcatraz" and "Dead of the Dead" exhibition at the Museum of Mexican Art. In 1990, The City of Oakland purchased her sculpture "Woman’s Liberation", as a gift to Nelson Mandela. She also received the Art of Peace Award the same year.

Barbara de Groot started her artistic interests when she was in grade school. By the time she was a teenager and had devoured the book Lust For Life, a biography about Vincent Van Gogh given to her by her nanny the dye was cast.  She was drawing whenever the opportunity arose.  In her early High school years she drew and painted from live models at the Brooklyn Museum Art School with Isaac Soyer, one of three brothers who worked with figurative imagery. She also was fortunate to study in high school with very talented and comprehensive artist/instructors. Much later in Berkeley, CA she joined a group of artists and drew weekly from live models for about 12 years.  Barbara de Groot is a local Berkeley Artist and teacher of art who works in various types of media such as monotypes; Chine Colle with other media; Wood Block prints; Linoleum Block prints; Mixed Media Collage, as shown here; Drypoint; Transfer Methods; painting and drawing. She was an Art Major in Hunter College in New York. Where she learned basic printmaking under noted printmaker, Gabor Peterdi and later attended Academic Goetz in Paris, France where she learned many of her specialized printmaking skills. She also takes photos to capture inspirations for future paintings and prints and has developed her photographic skills as well and enters some of her photographs in Around the Globe.  Her work is in many private collections and has appeared in many exhibits in various galleries here and abroad and is archived in the Women’s Museum in Washington, DC and in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Joan Di Stefano-Ruiz is a working artist who has maintained a studio that primarily does liturgical arts. She works primarily in the mediums of stained, leaded glass and mosaics. She has exhibited in Venice, Brescia and Bologna, Italy; Tepic, Mexico and Paris, France. She recently finished restoration work on the stained glass windows that were once part of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral in Oakland, Ca. These were then shipped to a new church, St. Paul Catholic Church, in Pensacola, Florida. She also made angels for the tabernacles plus mosaics for the wall and alter. She states: “My spiritual life and art life are entwined. The various faith traditions of liturgical work have expanded my awareness, reverence and appreciation of other faith traditions.” She is half Jewish but also embraces Buddhist philosophy and she is a professed Secular Franciscan established by St Francis of Assisi in 1221. In searching for one’s faith she states: “Fundementally, I believe what we know to be true, deep in our hearts is what is right for us.Faith is not a ‘one size fits all’ “.

Susan Duhan Felix lives in Berkeley, California and has been a serious ceramic artist for the last forty-five years specializing in ritual objects. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City, the Craft and Folk Museum in Los Angeles, the Oakland Museum in Oakland, California and at Christie's in London, U.K. In 1986, she had a solo show at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley and has a piece in its permanent collection. She has pieces in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia, and her work is owned by the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles and the Jewish Museum in the former Soviet Union. She is currently the Art Ambassador for the City of Berkeley, a member of the Berkeley Cultural Trust and has served on the Berkeley Art Commission for six years and as president for three of those years. She is a founder of the Jewish Arts Community of the Bay and served as its first Executive Director. In 1987 the California State Assembly passed Resolution No 1452 commending Susan Felix for her brilliant display of artistic talents and her exemplary record of community leadership. In 1989, the City of Berkeley honored her by declaring March 16th, 1989 Susan D. Felix Day and again honored her with the same award in 1999. In 1993, the Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women honored her as an Outstanding Berkeley Woman. Susan was selected for the special Millennium Edition of Marquis' Who's Who of American Women and has been in Marquis’ Who’s Who for the last three years. She was chosen by the International Biographical Center as one of the 2000 Outstanding Artists and Designers of the 20th Century.  Her work is pit fired ceramic. Pit firing, one of the most primitive of firing methods, requires surrender of control over results. Susan states: “I surrender my artwork and control to fire and trust in what will emerge. .Just as we can trust in the light returning on a daily basis, I have come to trust the possibility of powerful pieces emerging from the flames. I am drawn to the mystery and magic of the ancient and try to evoke similar responses in my art. The Hebrew words for faith,” emunah” and art, “omanut” come from the same root. My pieces represent the constant struggle to find the light amidst the darkness and chaos of our lives. “

Debbie Fimrite is a deaf, Japanese-inspired artist with over 30 years of experience studying, creating, exhibiting and occasionally teaching art. She enjoys painting, drawing, sculpture, computer graphics, photography, origami, creating art dolls and altering Barbies. Always interested in art as a means of inspiration, self expression and healing; she was fortunate to grow up in the presence of many supportive artists including her mother who is a painter and sculptor. Over the years she has exhibited in a number of Bay Area Galleries including the Fort Mason Art Center, the Nanny Goat Hill Gallery, Gallery Sanchez, The Tea Spot Cafe,  the Japan Center, Red Ink Studios, the Market Street Gallery,  Art 94124 Gallery, Age Song Gallery and participated in San Francisco and East Bay Open Studios.

Marin Fischer was born in New York City, lives in Berkeley, CA. and has been an artist as long as she can remember. She attended Brooklyn College in New York, Wayne State University in Detroit, and received her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Arizona State University. Ms. Fischer is a nationally known painter and muralist. Her drawings and paintings have been shown at U.C. Berkeley, the Phoenix Art Museum, and galleries throughout the United States. Her murals can be seen on the Claremont Avenue underpass in Oakland, California, the O’Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, and various locations in Phoenix, Arizona. She has also been a teacher of art, murals, and theatre; a scenic artist--painting sets for the Lyric Opera Theatre at Arizona State University; and designed, built, and painted sets for a local theatre production of the rock musical “Hair.” The artist states: “My watercolor paintings and colored pencil drawings of water/landscapes deal with the effects of light and shadow on smooth and textured planes, lines, and surfaces. These images are figurative reflections of the physical and emotional impact of light and color reflected onto the eye, and of the impact of civilization on our wild and beautiful earth; inspired by my impressions during the years I spent dazzled by the light of the American Southwest.” “Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.”—Suzanne Langer, Feeling and Form, 1952

Rinna B. Flohr lives in Oakland, California. She grew up on the East Coast in New Jersey and New York. She graduated from Syracuse University with a B. A. in theatre arts and a Masters of Social Work. She also completed a Certificate in Psychodrama at the Moreno Institute of Psychodrama in New York. She received her license as a clinical social worker and for 37 years she worked as a licensed psychotherapist in private practice and as Deputy Director of Mental Health for Alameda County, Director of the Center for Special Problems, San Francisco Community Mental Health and Assistant Director for San Francisco County Behavioral Health Services. In 1991 her house burned down in the Oakland fire, which led her to study Interior Architecture and Design in order to rebuild her home. She completed the program at UC Berkeley in 2001. With an interior design degree she started Design Ideas (www.designideas.us)  and she began doing remodels and designing new interiors that later led her to staging and floral design. She studied floral design with Ron Morgan. Her floral designs were part of the Bouquets to Art Show at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco in the past and she was a member of the San Francisco Museum flower committee. She also makes jewelry from recycled materials left over from interior design projects and later from other found objects such as found rubber from inner tubes of tires or cement from building sites. She was President of San Francisco Women Artists in San Francisco, one of the oldest women’s art galleries. Currently she is founder and Director of Expressions Gallery in Berkeley, Ca. (www.expressionsgallery.org )

Sue Mary Fox splits her year between her winter workroom in Berkeley, CA, and her summer workroom in the village of Robbinston, Maine.  Born and raised in a rural hamlet on the wild Maine coast, Fox spent her early summers organizing bits and pieces of nature’s “art parts” into patterns on 2- and 3- dimensional surfaces.  Much of her outdoor time was spent along beaches assembling installations of flotsam & jetsam that would become rearranged by time, tide, and weather.  Participating in the long term process of building & observing the progress of disintegrating beach installations has been a life long interest. Although she trained in ceramics at university, Fox spent 32 years in the field of design & construction using the sewing machine– at various times employed making Art to Wear clothing; costumes for theater, dance, opera, & circus; and more recently in creating site specific installations for commercial interiors.  A full time studio artist since 2001, Fox maintains a fully equipped sewing studio on each coast where she primarily produces boldly colorful quilts with an abstract contemporary edge. Her large format quilts have been exhibited across the United States and in Europe. Scarf making offers the joyful opportunity to play with color and texture.

Barbara Framm was born in Duesseldorf,Germany. She lived the first years of her life in Duesseldorf, and came to California and Marin County as a young child,growing up in the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais. She has devoted her life to the study and performance of classical Indian dance, both Bharata Natyam and Odissi styles, and has also performed Central Asian and Persian classical dances. She has been an avid disciple of the Indian arts and yoga, but until now had never painted. This painting is the product of a two-day workshop "Art as a Spiritual Practice" directed by Shiloh McCloud, attended as part of the required curriculum of the Women's Spirituality M.A. program at Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) in Palo Alto, CA. Barbara is grateful to Shiloh for opening the door of the art of painting, and to her teachers and their inspiration which helped to create this unique program (Women's Spirituality M.A.) of academic,experiential, ritual, and creativity-based study and research. This painting represents my 'visionary self': "Urania, Muse of Introspection, Inspiration, and Insight". www.catherineframm.org

Chandra Garsson lives in Oakland, California. She grew up in Los Angeles, California. She has two degrees in fine art, including a Master of Fine Arts from San Jose State University, with her B.F.A. from U. C. Santa Cruz. The mixed media sculptures presented in this exhibition are made from wire, bone, doll parts, mannequins, beeswax, fishnet, metal, wood, paper, paint, jewels, cheesecloth, nails, an antique toy bank, hands praying from a religious reliquary, gold leaf, a Barbie doll torso, an ancient red toy windmill, and various other materials. The “Three Wise Men” are actually a depiction of three little sisters: Divine Justice, Divine Maternity, and Divine Contemplation. They play divinely with notions of role reversal with the most powerful of our world, men, but with a sly twist, for they are wise.  "Worship” keeps spirituality in the troublesome box of all that we hold dear in most of our human cultures, namely money, alluding to the old saw, “all that glitters is not gold.” Finally, Barbie on a cross reminds us, along with the three little wise men, that we the woman, we the man, we the baby, we the people. No one is better than anyone, and we all must be the best that we can be, our own most Divine selves. In the last show in the old space of Pro Arts Gallery (the first solo exhibition of the gallery at the time), over two hundred of Chandra Garsson’s works were shown in the exhibit, Insomnia (Awakening), a mid-career retrospective of the artist’s work.

Dean Gustafson currently lives in San Francisco, has been an active artist in the bay area since 1986. He grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he became interested in art through a family of artists and the excellent fine art museums that exist there. Received a BFA in Painting & Drawing in 1990 from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Has maintained a creative life ever since, influenced and inspired by the beauty of the area, and activity of fellow artist friends. His main medium is oil on canvas of varying sizes, with a strong history of local solo and group exhibitions. His website gallery is filled with many years of diverse artwork at http://deangustafson.net . Artist states: “My work stems from the imagination and from life, with recent paintings increasingly influenced by an involvement with astronomy, combined with an interest in exploring unique compositions and a love for the rich color and textures than can be made with the time honored tradition of oil painting ”.

Rohilah Guy was born in Canada and moved to the Bay Area in 1964.  Rohilah works in pastel, watercolor, acrylic and sumi-e.  She has recently begun Learn, Inc. photography.  Rohilah has always been interested in art, studying it as a child and in university.  Encouraged by many people along the way, the artist continues to explore all facets of art.  She has been a weaver and a textile and clothing designer.  The artwork in this show depicts a homeless man, waiting and hoping for salvation.

Rev. Gina Rose Halpern, Founding Director of the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministries, is a Richmond, CA. resident who was born in Philadelphia, PA. She received her BFA, in Ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design. MA. Was begun with Cranbrook Academy of Art. MI. and completed at Holy Names University in Oakland, CA. She finished her Doctorate of Ministry Degree while on faculty for Matthew Fox and Naropa University, Oakland-The University of Creation Spirituality (now Wisdom University.) Her work, has been inspired, by artists, from every culture, who have created beauty in the service of the Divine. In addition her work has been inspired by her family of artists- first teacher, her father artist, Fred Halpern, his sister, artist Sylvia Barkan, and her grandfather folk artist, Nathan Halpern. Paintings for “Simply Divine” ware all created in the watercolor medium. She is recipient of “The Chrysler Award, Cranbrook Academy of Art” Earth Watch Artist Fellowship, for study in Nepal, The Culpepper Foundation Grant for Educators, and The Buckingham Browne and Nichols School Faculty Grant, for study in Japan, Nepal, India, Thailand, Bali & Java. She is Author and illustrator of "To Heal the Broken Heart," and the bilingual children's book "Where is Tibet?" Exhibitions include Marin General Hospital and the Institute for Health & Healing. In 1995 she toured Russian pediatric hospitals as a clown with Patch Adams, MD and in Gesundheight Institute. Rev. Halpern has been on the faculty of John F. Kennedy University. “May this art open you to the diverse ways that people come to know the Divine, and help bring Peace to our world.” chaplaincyinstitute.org

Mercie Harris lives in Hayward, CA. She was born in Canada. She attended classes at the San Francisco Art Institute and Chabot College in Hayward. She is a member of East Bay Women Artists, ART, Inc. of Castro Valley and Leonard Breger’s Critique Group. She has been showing her work in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1995. She works in oils, acrylic and clay.

Bruce Heppler was born in Berkeley 1955 (Kaiser).  He graduated Berkeley High in 1973 and  worked at Lawrence Berkeley Lab from 1975 to 1983 as a mechanical technician.  He moved to Covelo, Mendocino Country and opened a welding and repair shop.  Bruce has been working with metal all his life. He did an art sculpture for a benefit for a local music teacher whose mobile home burned (made a phoenix from trailer frame), got positive comments and started making other things.  He takes inspiration from many sources, notably Louis Armstrong, the Three Stooges, and the Marx Brothers.  When he’s not working on farm equipment, he’s making art.

Melanie Hofmann graduated with a BFA in Textiles from the California College of the Arts in 1996. Her home and studio are located in Berkeley.  She first explored the joy of creating art in pre-school and she has not stopped since.  As a teenager Melanie fell in love with fiber art, specifically with weaving and dyeing fabrics. Melanie has received awards from the Taegu International Textile Design competition and from Manhattan Arts International.  Limited edition prints of her digital art are in the corporate collection of Lifescan, Inc. in Milpitas. Melanie works with both textile and digital media.  For this show, she is featuring her textiles and Italian Charm bracelets. Her work has been inspired by a number of artists including, Jean Miro, Rene Magritte and Magdalena Abakanowicz. She was also influenced by the artwork of her maternal grandmother, Zura Young, an abstract painter. Melanie seeks to convey through her work the interactive process with her media and a visual representation of her inner world.  In addition to Italian Charm bracelets featuring her work, she can make custom bracelets with photos and artwork that you provide.

Stan Huncilman was born in Indiana but he is a product of the San Francisco Bay Area art world.  He attended San Francisco State University where e was introduced to Funk Art and Happenings in the ‘70s.  He received his M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1984.  S.F.A.I. is the home of the Bay Area’s leading art instructors. He has been a sculptor for more than 25 years.  Stan works in a variety of materials.  As a matter of practice he uses the material that is most expedient to creating the sculpture he wants rather than “pushing a particular material.”  His sculptures often begin from a simple sketch.  He prefers to work in a in a direct manner tan her than making molds of models before the final sculpture. The artist states: “I combine a child-like playfulness with primitivism. This creates a wonderland of intriguing forms and convoluted messages.  When I enter my studio there is a mental sign post reading “Linear Thinking Stops Here.” Through my sculpture I create a world of nutritiously puzzling paradigms whose roots may be in religion, folk art, nineteenth century industrialisms or Greek mythology.  In this world, a whimsical sense of humor walks arm in arm with an obstinate determination to create.  The sculptures in this exhibition are part of his “All My Psyches” series, a whimsical yet intriguing observation of the complexities of consciousness.  His solo exhibits include Holy Names College in Oakland, California and the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

Diane Jacobson lives in Oakland, CA. She is a transplant from the Little League capital of the world, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. As a veteran teacher in the Oakland schools, she used many art projects and visual cues to instruct her English learners. Although she dabbled in art classes an undergraduate, her interest in glass art was not kindled until the 1990's.  Through classes at Studio One and the Crucible, she has expanded her areas of expertise to include kiln casting and working deep, as well as fusing and slumping glass.  Her pieces are represented in Pro Arts Open Studio as well as several galleries in the Bay Area.  Artist states, "What I like best about fused glass is its element of surprise.  Glass is a chameleon.  Observe the pieces as the light changes.  Glass is a fickle and somewhat undependable medium, as reactions to color and temperature cause a visual dance of light and texture.  Enjoy the dance."

Helen Jones lives in Berkeley, Ca and for 15 years worked as a professional tile setter. She installed wonderful stone and tile bathrooms, kitchens and fireplaces in so many houses but would never get to see them again. After she retired from the construction business, she found pleasure in doing ceramics for fun. She  participates in Diana Bohn’s class at the South Berkeley Senior Center where she is able to fire the pieces she makes. She also continues to work with tiles and broken ceramic pieces doing murals and other art works.

Jenny Sueyoun Kim lives in San Francisco, CA. A daughter of Korean immigrants, Jenny was born and raised in Los Angeles. She comes from a long line of artists, mostly painters, and she herself has been drawing and painting since before she started school. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Linguistics, her passion for art intensified, and her interest in three-dimensional media flowered from her “love of decorating the human body—from tattoo art to jewelry." In 2004, she began taking Metal Arts classes at the City College of San Francisco, and metal immediately became her favorite medium. She states: “What's so amazing about working in metal is its coldness and hardness, and with it, being able to create a sense of elegance, movement, and life--which really spoke to me like no other medium has.” Her jewelry pieces reflect her love of organic forms: floral and figural. Her work is entirely hand-sculpted from wax, which she creates in her home studio, and then casts into sterling silver at Scintillant studio in the SF Mission district. She does all steps of the sculpting and casting process herself, from start to finish. In 2007, she began working as a silversmith and jewelry designer on a full-time basis. Her website is at www.jennykim.org. Her website URL is www.jennykim.org.

Arianna Kordestani currently resides in Fresno, CA, having been raised in several Bay Area cities.  Her interest in art was realized in her teenage years in San Jose.  It was in this time that she began to teach herself techniques of painting with acrylics, through the harmonizing and repetitious act of painting geometric shapes. Eventually several techniques were grasped, and a style was able to emerge.  She has much admiration for the Fauvist movement, and in particular looks towards Raoul Dufy’s work for beauty and inspiration. She has worked in many mediums, including metal, wood, clay, and charcoal, but continuously finds herself gravitating towards paint.

Rafael Landea is an Argentinean artist who moved to San Francisco in 2002. He graduated in Art and Set Design from the University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and continued his education with some well-known Argentinean visual artists in the areas of Painting, Creativity, and Literature. From the beginning of his career, he has been interested in theater, music, literature, and murals.  Rafael joined a theater company as a set designer and later started to work in some of the biggest theatrical venues of Buenos Aires. Working as a muralist and set designer has allowed him to travel to different countries in Latin America and Europe, either to present plays in festivals or for mural projects. Rafael painted several murals in different countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Cuba, and the latest in Torino, Italy. Rafael has also held exhibits of his art in Chile, Switzerland, Spain, and the USA.  Since arriving to San Francisco, he has painted his first mural in the city (the façade of a City and County Clinic for Children) and has focused his work on painting and multimedia projects. His work is regularly published in different media, reviews, interviews, essays, CD covers, and books. Photos of his murals in Buenos Aires are commonly found in tour guides and other travel publications. Different collectors from Spain, Baske Country, USA, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay own his art. Lately he has been working on web based projects, websites, animations, and short films, one of them commissioned by the Museum of Art and Memory, which premiered in July 2007 in Argentina. The short film was done in homage to one of the most important political Argentinean comic strip writers, Hector G. Oesterheld, who was killed during the dictatorship ’76–’82. Most recently he has been working on a new series of large size oils called ‘Dress Rehearsal', where he explores the backstage world of opera houses.  Familiar parts of the plots of the selected operas are also depicted. The fictional opera characters and the theater workers ‘live’ the opera in a visual game that reminds us of the age old question, ‘Does life imitate art, or vice versa?’  For this show, he enters ink drawings and acrylic paintings all displaying his delightful sense of humor, which is almost always part of his art.

Coral Lambert, currently living in the US, was born and raised in England and studied at Central School of Art in London, Canterbury College of Art, Kent and received her MFA in Sculpture from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1990.  Since then Coral has shown her work extensively in England and America including The Barbican Center, London, Franconia Sculpture Park, MN, Convergence, in Providence, Rhode Island, Grounds for Sculpture and twice in Chicago’s International Navy Pier Walk. Coral Lambert has lectured as a visiting artist at the Royal College of Art, London and RIT, New York among many others. From 1995-1998 she held the position of International Artist/Research Fellow in cast metals at the University of Minnesota. In 2000 she was invited as the semester visiting artist at the University of North Carolina and has returned there several times since. Coral is the Founder of the US/UK Contemporary Cast Iron Sculpture Residency Program that has taken place in England and America annually since 1997. A recent recipient of the Jerome Fellowship and Gottlieb Foundation Award, she also has artwork in several private collections. She and her husband spent a brief time here in Berkeley, Ca after they were evacuated from the Gulf Coast hurricane Katrina where they lost much of their work. Coral is currently Co-Chair of the 5th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art. Her artwork references asteroids, standing stones and volcanoes; icons of transformation that careen between astronomy above and archaeology below. Central to her work is the exploration of concepts related to growth and form, with a particular interest to those specifically found in natural phenomena that contain some kind of metaphysical presence.

Lucy Lewis, grew up in Los Angeles, Ca. She began her career as a dancer at the age of 10. She studied with Bella  Lewitsky and Masami Kuni, and Murray Louis before coming to San Francisco State College. There she met John Graham and began performing with Anna Halprin, The Dancer’s Workshop, in the 1960’s.  She has lived and worked in the Bay Area ever since. She created her own company bringing together artists, musicians and dancers, in what were some of the first multimedia productions in the Bay Area.  She incorporated masks, visual arts, and inspiration from nature, animals and dreams into her work.  She produced full-length compositions, Dreamscapes (1985), at the Matrix Gallery and Between two Worlds (1998) and many shorter pieces, The Planets (2005), Waters of Life (2006), The Voices of Earth (2007). She is now working with dance as a healing art, looking at dance from a cross-cultural perspective. Lucy has a masters degree in cultural anthropology and the role of arts in healing. Her love of art and painting came from her mother who was an accomplished painter. For the last 10 years she has been painting and drawing.  She is especially inspired by the human figure as a study of the beauty and depth inherent in the human form the expression of human emotion. She has exhibited her work at, ECLECTIX GALLERY, 2006, ADDISON STREET WINDOWS U.N. SHOW, 2007, EXPRESSIONS GALLERY, 2008. GEORGI  GALLERY. You can contact her at,  dancinglights@earthlink.net

Kay Licina lives in Berkeley, Ca. She was born in Gary, Indiana and grew up on a farm surrounded by the cornfields there. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago at such a tender age that she was banned from the nude figure drawing class. Later she graduated from U.C.Berkeley. Her first ceramic teacher was Kenneth Dierck, who guided her well for the next twenty years.  Michael Jean Mathieu, who had a fine artistic sensibility was her touchstone for beauty. She greatly admires the work of  Remedios Varo (Spain/Mexico), Odilon Redon (France) and Paul Delvaux  (Belgium) for their sense of the mysterious.  In the present show, the work is handbuilt and thrown ceramics. Presently, she teaches ceramics for the city of El Cerito at the Tassajara Studio to a great group of students.

Roberta Loach lives with her husband, William in Kensington, Ca. She had two children, a son, Robert who is deceased and her daughter, Judith who is Deputy Attorney General, Oakland, Ca.  She has an M.A in painting from San Jose State University and two teaching credentials, one in art and one in history and political science. Roberta taught art history for many years at West Valley College in Saratoga and etching, drawing and design at DeAnza College in Cupertino. She edited and wrote for a visual arts journal from 1975 – 1980 using an interview format. From 1990 – 2002 she exhibited her work in the gallery of Michael Himowitz, a major art dealer and close friend. Here she had four solo shows and a number of group shows. She was also in Smith Andersen Gallery in Palo Alto, the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara as part of their Bay Area Masters Series and her work is part of a number of private collections, most notably, Hunk and Moo Andersen of Atherton. She has curated many shows herself and has also served numerous times as a juror. Her work is currently at the SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery in San Francisco and at the Collectors Gallery in the Oakland Museum of Art. She is a member of the California Society of Printmakers and exhibits with them often. She had a solo show with Smith Andersen and with d.p. Fong in San Jose.  Roberta states “ My major artistic influences are Francisco de Goya, Bosch, Dix, Kallowitz, Beckman, Daumier, Matisse, Picasso,Robert Colescott, Leon Golub, Ben Shahn, Paul Cadmus and others.”

Charles Lucke lives in Hercules, CA. He began borrowing his father’s cameras while growing up in Stratford, CT, and has been a freelance photographer since the 1970s. He added a darkroom to each of five consecutive residences, and though he shoots mostly digital today, he continues to mine an inventory of thousands of slides and negatives for images to exhibit. His first solo exhibit, “Four Ways to Abstraction,” was on view at the XZIBTit Gallery in Hercules for two months in 2007, and in July 2008, the Hercules City Council awarded him First Place in the first annual Hercules Photography Contest. Charlie’s inspirations include Hugo Steccati and Ruth Bernhard, who, though their work is very different, were both creatively involved in photography to end of their long and interesting lives. Regarding his interest in abstract photography, the artist states: “There’s a desire in me to create something that no one else has created (or at least, not precisely the way I have created it.) It’s a way to free the form and change it from a visual reality to an unreality. It’s a way to free the process from the precise reproduction of tone, colors, and forms and let the right brain reign.”

Jennifer Wallace Mack has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute.  She works in various media: painting, photography, mixed media, and jewelry.  Her work is consistent in the quality and detail in each medium she applies.  She has exhibited at a number of solo and group shows, many of which were juried.  Shown at Expressions Gallery is her magnificent jewelry.  Jennifer has served on various Boards of Directors for long standing Artists Organizations such as the San Francisco Women Artists, where she was a past President and continues in the current Board as Vice Treasurer and The San Francisco Gem and Mineral organization where she is currently Treasurer.

Janet McGill is a sculptor, interior decorator, and a freelance artist with over thirty-five year’s experience and is currently living in Moraga.  Janet grew up in a family of artists, attended the University of Washington earning a BA degree in fine arts.  Her digital images have a basis in a painterly tradition, a tradition of art making built from her own background in the study of composition, color theory and the handling of subjects.  She turned from the practice of painting with canvas and brush years ago to pursue digital imagery. Her digital art is created using a variety of digital source images.  Each piece usually begins with previously collected images from magazine prints, photographs or scans of objects, from her extensive digital archives.  From this collection she extracts the component pieces that will then be digitally manipulated and combined using a multi-layer compositing technique.  Bringing this disparate variety of individual components into the finished worked requires pixel level detail management in order to create the seamless look of the finished image, which is then output using archival quality inks and paper.

Sonia Melnikova-Raich was born and trained as an artist and architect in Moscow, (former) USSR, and has been living in San Francisco since 1987 where she first exhibited as a painter in 1988. In recent years she turned to photography as her main medium but her training and “inner eye” as a painter and architect show throughout her works, many of which have a remarkable resemblance to painted media. Sonia is a winner of several national and international juried art and photography competitions and exhibits her work locally and nationally. Currently her works are on view in the “Industrial Art” exhibit at the City of Berkeley Planning and Development Department (on loan from Expressions Gallery); in the “After Life” international juried photography exhibit at Watson Studio Gallery, Johnson City, TX; the “Formerly and Thereafter” annual photography exhibition juried by Plates to Pixels magazine, a project by Pacific Northwest Center for Photography; O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA; and at the Elizabeth and Alvin Fine Museum of Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco. Presented in this exhibit are several examples from the artist’s “Zenscapes” series which is comprised of images captured at Green Gulch Zen Center's farm and garden at Muir Beach, California. “It is said that Oriental artists are not interested in a photographic representation of an object but in interpreting its spirit. In my art I strive to do just the opposite: to interpret the spirit of an object or landscape through photographic representation. I hope that in my images I have managed to capture the sense of mystery and illusion which is usually easier to convey through poetry or music,” says the artist. All works are signed individually produced original high-resolution photographs printed using the state-of-the-art Epson technology using non-fading inks on archival-quality Somerset Velvet paper. The artist avoids mass-producing her work by printing on-demand a limited number of pieces (some are one-of-a-kind) while maintaining full control of the quality of each individual print.

Maj-Britt Mobrand lives in Berkeley, CA but was born and grew up in Stockholm, Sweden.  As a little girl, she saw her grandmother’s loom in the attic and was very intrigued by it and knew she wanted to master one of those.  She has taken weaving classes both in Sweden and the U.S., but is for the most part self-taught.  She has been teaching weaving here in Berkeley since 1968.  Some of the juried shows she has participated in are U.C. Berkeley and Live Oak Art Galleries in Berkeley (1969); Artist League of Vallejo Gallery (1975); Olive Hyde Art Gallery in Fremont (1988); and Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland (2006 and 2008).  She has also participated in many Open Studios and has shown her work at various local venues and as a result has weavings in many private collections. Artist states:  “I enjoy using traditional weaves and patterns in a non-traditional manner and am striving to find a harmonious balance between the natural and the artificial or planned.  My inspiration is derived from music, nature, travels, and from my students.  It’s wonderful to see the enthusiasm of my students as they develop their projects on their looms after I’ve given them the ‘know how’.”

Richard Quinn was born in Ohio and studied at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the California Institute of the Arts. Currently, he is living in Sonoma, California. He is trained in theater and music as well as painting. He brings a multifaceted sensibility to his creations. His strong interest in Eastern and Western cultures are evident in the ceremonial and meditative aspects of his work. Richard Quinn believes that Art is the "language" of the Unknown. He has a distinguished record of solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami, La Jolla, Sausalito, Las Vegas and Carmel.  Richard Quinn's list of corporate collectors includes such companies as: AT&T; GM; IBM; Johnson & Johnson; Lipton; Smith Barney; Prudential; Pfizer; CBS; NBC; Seal and American Savings; Christian Dior; New York Telephone; Time, Inc.; Rose Pharmaceutical; The New York Times; Holiday Inn - Time Square; Calvin Klein and UPS.

Mona Ram has been living in the Bay area for the last 40 years and is mostly known for performances as an actress in Marin and San Francisco. Mona is an experimental (self-taught) visual artist and most of her works are done with watercolors, pen, ink and oil pastels. Gifted with a “good eye”, her imagination falls easily from her mind to the paper. She loves to create holiday and celebratory cards with recycled materials and to reuse findings and collectibles that “walk” into her life. Mona also creates gourmet bath products which she creatively packages. Inspiration and support come from singing with the World famous Glide Ensemble Choir in S.F. every Sunday; from her dear friends and her brilliant and beautiful daughter.

Neshat Rezai was born in Shiraz, Iran and moved to the U.S. at the age of 14 where she completed undergraduate and Dental School.  She currently resides and practices in Berkeley. Neshat is a glass artist specializing in kiln form glass fusing.  She uses glass as her medium with occasionally incorporating metal and gold leaf.  She finds glasswork very similar to dentistry where one needs to have artistic ability and precision.  Her work is largely inspired by Persian patterns and nature. “My work is a celebration of colors–LIFE.  Glass is truly a medium that is limitless.  Since childhood art has always been part of my life.  When I found glass, I found my passion. Glass is so fragile, yet so powerful.” You can see more of Neshat’s work at http://www.neshatglass.com

Christine M. Rossi lives in Berkeley California but originally comes from a rural area in up-state New York. Christine began exploring art at an early age winning several art competitions while in high school. She was influenced by Japanese art and theater while on an exchange program to Japan. Christine later studied costume design at SUNY Binghamton, illustration, oil painting and color theory through the University of California Extension Programs and has explored the mediums of Casein and Encaustic paint on her own.  After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 80's she began working as an architectural model builder and illustrator for a San Francisco Architectural firm. She branched out into creating illustrations, two and three dimensional, as well as models throughout the 80's and early 90's. Other career pursuits took her away from her art practice; however, she returned to creating pieces that reflect her philosophical reactivity to her personal world and the world at large.  The works are secular in nature but draw heavily on religious and mythological imagery. "Creating has become tuned to preserving the every day life of those that preceded me capturing a day in human history, or telling a story through the imagery of the land and human interaction. My work is indicative of my exploration of the human experience through spiritual and mythological cycles and interaction with the natural world. In this new series I primarily work in oil and casein with three dimensional elements created through the addition of recycled and natural materials."

Susan Sanford is a sculptor living in Oakland, California, where she was born. She graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a degree in printmaking. As an editorial illustrator, she has had work in Car & Driver, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report. Currently she is working with mosaic sculpture, which has been shown in galleries in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma.Her web site is http://www.mosanford.com  Artist Statement: sculpture involving the use of broken dishes pursues the question of the afterlife of objects in our throwaway culture. A fascination with putting what has been broken back together in unexpected ways is one theme the artist pursues. She attributes a lifelong taste for the mock heroic to early exposure to the cartoons of Saul Steinberg in The New Yorker.

T. Scott Sayre is an internationally acclaimed artist   residing in the Bay Area for the last 25 years.  He produces murals and fine art. His works include historical murals such as the Life of Jack London in Jack London Square, Oakland California.  He creates fine art, landscapes and portraits. He has worked with light show artists since the 1960’s and collaborated with dancer, Lucy Lewis on numerous projects.  This series of paintings and photographs are inspired by the dance s choreographed by Lucy Lewis. Lucy Lewis is a dancer, artist, anthropologist and choreographer from the Bay Area. She has created multimedia events using dance light and the environment for many years. The photographs   are site specific dance projects, with Lucy Lewis and Cathy Meyer, Photographs by, T. Scott Sayre

Rita Sklar is an award-winning artist.  She took up art seriously only 11 years ago, attending classes and workshops throughout the Bay Area and training with a private watercolor master in Madrid for a year. She draws inspiration from her life in the multi-cultural Bay Area.  Previously, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa and worked for corporate giving programs and foundations serving the Bay Area’s non-profit community. Recently awarded a commission by the County of Alameda, Sklar has also received a grant from the City of Oakland.  Her works are in private collections across the country and in Europe.   Her paintings of animals and birds have been shown at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, the Oakland Zoo and other venues.  Her landscapes have been shown at Filoli Gardens. Expressions Gallery presents Sklar’s spiritual works in water media on paper. Sklar skillfully juggles organic and geometric forms, transparent and opaque paint - all held together by a basic abstract underlying shape. It is this intricate dance, rendered in strong color and value, which produces her exciting paintings. Solo exhibits featuring Sklar’s works have been held at the Montclair Gallery, Tilden Park Nature Center, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Wente Vineyards Estate Winery, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Pro Arts Gallery’s Broadway Windows Project, and the Albany Community Center. Currently, Sklar’s work are featured at the Solano Grill in Albany, Bucci’s in Emeryville, the Kensington Library, the San Francisco Women Artists’ Gallery and the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto. More of her work can be found at www.ritasklar.com. Go to www.ritasklar.com to see my watercolors, current shows, and awards.

Rosiland Solomon, a San Francisco artist, was born in Los Angeles, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up in the still-green and forested fields, Rosiland fell in love with all the teeming plant and animal life, and did her best to capture their images vividly with her shiny box of crayolas at every opportunity. After graduating high school and after only a year of art training at Oxford University in Miami, Ohio, Rosiland moved to California and apprenticed in a movie poster studio learning airbrushing from Ron Kriss, a well-known local artist. Rosiland then went on to develop her own style as an illustrator, specializing in children’s nature books and Science textbooks. Rosiland has painted illustrations for eleven children’s books, countless textbooks, magazines, posters, puzzles, games, and even a Tarot Deck and Astrology Calendar. Her love of all parts of the natural world, as well as her studies of comparative religions, traditions and spiritual philosophies, led to her interest of paintings for her own spiritual growth in a more eclectic vein. In her artwork you can see influences of Hindu, Buddhist,,Tibbetan, Jewish, Christian, Pagan ,Wiccan, and other traditional-and not so traditional- archtypes.
Currently, Rosiland still paints illustrations for children’s science textbooks, as well as designing Art Print Sets for licensing. She exhibits her work every fall in San Francisco Open Studios, winning a Juror’s Award last Fall. She also had an Opening in Carmen Chu’s Office in City Hall in San Francisco. Her artwork exhibited here is a combination of airbrushed guache and guache and prismacolor detailing printed on canvas as Giclee prints. Each Giclee is original in that it is stretched on canvas, and then certain parts and areas are painted with acrylics to “look exactly the way she envisions it.” Leap of Faith is what she calls an “Eclectic Multi-Archtypal Thangka Wall Hanging”. She got the idea from Tibetan Thangka paintings that are all “Yantras” meant to teach the viewer thoughts too deep for them to achieve understanding in mere words. Rosiland believes that art can teach both the painter and the viewer spiritual Truths equally in this way.

Ervin Somogyi was born in Hungary in 1944 and is a Holocaust survivor.  He has lived in Hungary, Austria, England, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.  He speaks four languages (or five, if you count Pig Latin).  Somogyi has been a professional luthier for 40 years and is one of the most prominent of the postwar generation of American guitar makers. These wood carvings and inlays are made by Ervin Somogyi, a longtime professional lute and guitar maker.  This particular kind of artwork is inspired by the traditions and techniques of lutherie (fretted string instrument making) as it was practiced before the advent of electricity and power tools. Somogyi’s wooden plates are usually “bookmatched”, which is the traditional manner of preparing the soundboards of lutes, mandolins and guitars.  “Bookmatched” means that a plate of wood is cut in two, opened up like a book, and glued edge-to-edge.  This results in a single plate of wood with uniform mirror-image working and visual properties.  If the center joint is skillfully rendered it’s invisible, leaving the appearance of a single plate; or, one can insert a centerstrip of one or more pieces of contrasting woods.  You can easily see the bookmatches if you look. He works in Oakland, California.  More information about him is available on his website at www.esomogyi.com

Arlene Risi Streich, grew up and lives in Oakland, Ca. and cannot remember a time that she has not been interested in art. She received her B.A. ED and A.B. F. A. (Painting) from California College of Arts and Crafts (Now CCA) and has lived and spent much time in Mexico doing painting and photography. She has taught in the Oakland Public Schools, Diablo Valley College (Painting, drawing and fashion illustration) and CCAC (Children’s classes). She is presently exhibiting her glass jewelry, a medium started four years ago, and her painting. Her Jewelry work is influenced by her background in painting incorporating a bold use of color and line. Her painting and jewelry work has been shown in numerous exhibits around the country and in private collections. Artist states: “Our role as artists is to continue to amaze, provoke, stimulate, delight and agitate the senses. The fact that we continue to do so is a testimonial to not being complacent, while trying to process the internal/external creative dialogue.”

Vera Tour (Вера Тур) was born in 1979 in Moscow, Russia, and currently resides in Alameda, California. She grew up in the former Soviet Union and did not have any training in arts. However art was always a point of fascination for the young child. Curiosity and sense of adventure in the year of 2000 moved Vera to the USA. In 2006, while in California, she started painting so to visually start expressing "the inexpressible, define the undefinable never-ending ever-changing beautiful illusion of Life". She chooses acrylic paint as her medium but claims that anything will do when it comes to creating - pen, pencil, spoken word, beets and cabbage... Vera states: "Anything I do I consider Art. "Anything" that is nothing but only a way of expressing my eternal bewilderment and awe about Life and the beauty within all Creation. And by expressing Life I become one with it - its amazing particle in the vast wholeness of Everything That Is".

Lawanda Ultan lives in Berkeley California.  She was born Oklahoma, and grew up in California. She became interested in art to express herself. Her brother was the natural artist in the family, and it was his influence that gave her the courage to pursue artistic interests, which ranged from music, to clay, to painting. She traveled in Europe and states: “I saw at first hand the magnificence of Rembrandt, Picasso, and all the painters that touched me, making me hope that I could speak the same language”. She graduated in art from Berkeley, and has taken many workshops and courses. She sas: “My statement is stolen from a great poet.  ‘This shaking keeps me steady this I know. I go by going where I have to go.’ "

Georgia Whitaker lives in the Hayward hills and grew up in Sacramento, Ca. where she graduated from high school with a scholarship in Art. She graduated from California College of Arts with a Bachelor of Arts degree and worked in the field of graphic arts for five years.  She taught color theory and gave college classes at the adult school in Castro Valley, Marin Society of Artists and Valley Arts Gallery in Walnut Creek show her work.  She received best of show at the Alameda County Fairs. Georgia loves fine arts and is an accomplished artist with many exhibit and honors behind her. She has plunged into the world of fashion and is now designing wearable art. She will custom design orders in different sizes.

Robert Wolff, a bay area native grew up in Alameda and now lives in Hayward. Before graduating from Long Beach State University, he served as a Marine in the Korean War. He then began a 25 year career as a High School art instructor in the Oakland School District attending Arts and Crafts in the evenings. He and his wife were in the yogurt/ice cream business for 15 years before he retired in 1997 to devote more time to his art work. Robert's first major art exhibit was in 1956 at the Kramer Gallery on La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles. He opened his his own gallery on Foothill Blvd in San Leandro, CA when he first started teaching. This was short-lived as the property was bought to build the 580 freeway. Mr. Wolff now exhibits in Hayward Galleries and the Adobe Art Center in Castro Valley. He participated in the open studio exhibits in Hayward in 06 & 07 where he exhibited from his home studio. The Hayward Sun Gallery featured his woodcut prints this past September (08). In addition to woodcuts he expresses himself in wire sculpture, watercolor, and acrylic painting. He attends life drawing classes twice a week at the Adobe Art Center in Castro Valley where he is currently exhibiting in the recycling show.