Ji Youn Chu was born and grew up in Seoul,Korea and lives in Fremont,CA. She has B.A. degree in fine art at Sookmyung University in South of Korea and M.A. in glass at University of Sunderland in U.K. She has worked with a variety of materials and has exhibited her installation works and crafts in many countries. After starting new life in the bay area, she shows her life experience as a newcomer and the process of adapting to the new surroundings in her works. Artist states: "Playing with glass is like witchcraft. With fire and water, hot melted glass is reborn in my hand. "Recently, Ji Youn is concentrating on glassblowing. She uses "Graal"technique which requires artistic sensitivity, intuition and great skill throughout the long, complicated and risky process. And each work represents freedom and beauty of nature.

Kathy Cronin is a resident of Oakland. She is a self-taught Photographer who uses the camera to capture small and fleeing moments of everyday beauty in ordinary things. Her work pays homage to the power of the forces of nature that are constantly reclaiming and remaking the man-made.

Tina Curiel,  born 1991 is an environmentalist and student by day, artist by night. Tina grew up in the hills of Lafayette, California. Her grandmother noticed her artistic talent at a very young age, and consequently, she spent hours painting and drawing in her grandmother's studio before the age of five. Being her biggest influence, her grandmother would take her to zoos and wildlife centers where Tina spent hours sketching the animals. This is also where she gained a passion for preserving endangered species. Tina is a senior attending Campolindo High school in Moraga, California. Today, she prefers mixing her own paints from pure pigment and linseed oil, and she continues to spend hours photographing animals at zoos, and researching endangered species for her paintings. Tina plans to attend California College of the Arts this fall.

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 "Day 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. Elizabeth is moved and inspired by the cubist movement and the work of Fernand Leger. She also admires Modigliani’s elongation of the human body.

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.

Mark Fischer lives in the Bay Area in California and was born in Pennsylvania, Stationed in Amberg, Germany in the US Army and earned a B.S. in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University. For 10 years he worked in software development, defense and telecommunications and since 2002, has been doing independent research in cetacean and more recently, avian acoustics. He states: “There are any number of paths to an environmental epiphany: For many people it was the first time they heard the song of the Humpback whale. While on a "walkabout" in Baja California Sur, I became fascinated by cetacean acoustics during an especially vivid encounter in the Sea of Cortez. As a trained computer engineer, I soon realized that the visual representations of the songs of whales had not advanced much beyond crude graphs and spectrograms. There was nothing that adequately captured the sheer beauty of sounds that can be louder than a jet engine and as melodic as the human voice. Researching the issues lead to the mathematics of wavelets, and the development of a process for visually expressing the sounds of whales and dolphins.” Recently artist Mark Fischer has been widening the scope of this work, from initial forays with the acoustics of whales and dolphins, now including the songs of birds and insects. The result is AGUASONIC® art in the form of prints and movies made from these sounds. The prints can be finished as large as 4 feet by 8 feet using Alumin Arte, or more modest sizes on Crane Museo archival paper and canvas.

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 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. (expressionsgallery.org ) The floral art work in this show was strongly influenced by the work of Jasper Johns icons of the American Flag.

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.

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: Devine Justice, Devine Maternity, and Devine 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 Devine 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.

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. Influenced by her textile design, she finds freedom to incorporate patterns and design into her paintings as did Henri Matisse.

Susan Hall was born in Florida but has resided in the East Bay since age 5 and currently lives in Albany. She earned a BA and MSW at UC Berkeley. After 21 years as a juvenile probation officer, she retired in 1994 to pursue her life-long interest in art.  Her journey into painting began with watercolors in sunny Puerto Vallarta Mexico where she hangs out for a month every winter.  More recently she has turned to oil and acrylic painting and has taken art classes at Laney college.  She is a frequent world traveler. What inspires her most is color, design and value contrasts.  She is attracted by abstract organic patterns found in nature such as the graceful rounded shapes of fruit, trees or other plant forms.  And she is drawn to rich color combinations. She is also part of a local plein-air group that paints from nature. Her work has been shown in many restaurants, several galleries in the Bay Area and is on display year-round in a gallery in Puerto Vallarta.

Adam Heffler is an east coast expat currently rooted in Oakland. He’s been a doodler since way back when; he started looking at his art as a "serious venture" shortly after leaving the academic womb. He is a self-taught artist that specializes in a very precise, detail-oriented pen and ink style that he has cultivated over the past few years. He feels that his art is somewhere between linguistic and totemic, and absolutely loves it when people tell him what they see in his art. Sometimes they see things that he saw too, sometimes, it's something completely unexpected. You can see the rest of his artwork at www.fredadamart.com

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 art of tile 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, she can make custom bracelets or tiles 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 he 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 direct manner rather 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."

Ann Jasperson lives and works in Stamford, CT but grew up north of Chicago the youngest of a large family. Always drawing, the fire that is art was started when a family friend gave her a Paint by Numbers set-then it was off to the races. Nurtured by her sister Joan and many wonderful teachers she attended the Cleveland Institute of Art and graduated in 1981 with a BFA in Drawing/illustration. Moving to New York soon after graduation, she “fell” into the toy business, then became a toy inventor which is her “day job”. But always in the background was a love of stones. Designing and creating jewelry has become a word of mouth business that has grown over the last five years. One of a kind pieces inspired by the natural beauty of stones and pearls done just Once makes for wearable art. Other interests include her internet cartoon Cranky Bears, her garden, dogs and husband G.C. Stone.

Jeffrey Carter Kelling, a native Californian, resides in the East Bay with his family, a constant  source of inspiration and support.  He received his degree at The San Francisco Art Institute and Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Art.  His passion for art has been a part of him for over 40 years. Color, light and shadows that is what his work is all about.  Taking the ordinary and making something extraordinary. His paintings are like fireworks of color, his drawings reflect his love and mastery of pencil, pen and ink.  In style, subject and creativity, Jeffrey reaches to treat us to his exciting and new vision of people, places and things. Jeffrey has shown his work extensively throughout California, in galleries, local shows and commissioned private sales. The two works he places in this show speak to using found objects to create new forms of artwork and also encourage us to bicycle and get exercise rather than use fuel.

Jon Kerpel was born in New York City in 1950.  After high school he attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.  Then in 1980 he had a life-changing experience when he attended a workshop in the Arizona dessert called Arcosanti, an experimental passive energy system city.  While at the workshop he met his future wife, who also lived in Manhattan.  They both left New York City permanently and lived near the Arcosanti site for two years before moving to the Bay Area.  Jon’s focus had been primarily as a figurative artist; however, while at Arcosanti he began to learn the meaning of ecology.  His artworks have evolved over time to become affirmations of living creatures as well as affirmations of those people who have fought for earth’s survival.  He calls these people “earth saints” - God’s chosen people - not unlike Dorothy Stang, who several years ago was shot dead at point blank range.  Her trying to help people in the Amazon jungle was seen as a threat to logging operations.  Also Julia Butterfly Hill, who sat in a 1500-year old redwood tree for two years trying to keep it from being cut down.  These people have risked their lives so that we can have ours.  Greenpeace is yet another group of people engaged in this struggle for earth’s survival. Our environment is everything, without it we have nothing  The affirmations Jon creates are sometimes in the form of temples or shrines.  Others are animal images displayed as divine creatures with aluminum and jewels.  Living creatures are the web of life of which this planet is made. If we loose too many pieces of this delicate web, the rest cannot survive on its own. He composes his artworks from found and recycled objects gleaned from the local environment in Alameda and beyond.

John Lewis King III grew up in Vancouver, Washington in the 60’s.  Fishing, frogs and bugs filled his pastime.  In the 80’s while living in Central Oregon he found an interest in photography.  Raising two boys at that time, it was back to fishing, frogs, bugs and photography.  In the 90’s it was time for a couple of black and white photo classes at Community College.  A friend of John’s was a master printer which exposed John to more Art forms.  Recently John’s son Kennen King came to visit him in Brisbane, California.   Kennen enjoys close up photography, which came in handy when he noticed some mushrooms on the hillside right across the street.  After getting down on hands, knees and elbows Kennen showed his dad the interesting world of Mushrooms.  Spending time together in the Redwoods and around town finding “New to them” Mushrooms and Fungi are a real treat for them both.  They hope sharing these images are a treat for you as well.  

Roberta Loach is a fourth generation Californian living in Kensington.  She has an M.A. in Painting from San Jose State Univ.  She also has two teaching credentials, one in art and one in political science and history. She taught art history, design, drawing and etching at West Valley College, Saratoga, and design, art appreciation and etching at DeAnza College in Cupertino. She showed her work with the Michael Himovitz Gallery, Sacramento from 1990 until it's closure in 2000.  She had four solo shows there.  She also showed with the Smith Andersen Gallery in Palo Alto where she had one solo show, and also showed with d.p. Fong Gallery in San Jose where she had one solo and was featured in several other shows.  She edited and wrote for Visual Dialog magazine from 1975 to  80.  She will have a very large solo show at the Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, in 2012.  She is a member of the California Society of Printmakers and a well recognized etcher. Her works in "The Modernists" show at Expressions Gallery all show the influence of the various artists in the works.  All of the artists whose works have inspired her were wonderful designers as well as colorists, especially Frida Kahlo and Max Beckmann.  All of the artists in the art reference works were totally original and refused to be a part of any movement or school All were content oriented artists, but in different directions.  All of the artist referenced in her work in the show did work of great power and feeling and always marched to their own drummers.

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 the 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.” He seems to be experimenting with cubism now in the style of Picasso. Quite something different for photography.

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, and The San Francisco Gem and Mineral organization. Many say she uses the paint application process of Jackson Pollack but unlike Jackson Pollack her intention is to have images emerge as in her painting of the BIG LILY, Her intent is not just process.

Tom Mahon lives in the Bay Area. After 30+ years writing about technology in Silicon Valley, he became interested in another use of silicon: creating art glass.  After all, crystal vases and microprocessors both start out as sand.People have been making decorative and functional glass objects for thousands of years, either by cold working (etched, carved and stained glass), or by blowing hot glass with a pipe.  But there is also warm glass work (fusing pieces together and then slumping them in a mold) that pre-dates glass blowing but was set aside and largely forgotten in antiquity when furnaces got hot enough to melt glass to blow it. With the development of new technologies for working warm glass over the last 20 years, such as the introduction of iridized and dichroic glass surfaces and computer controlled kilns, it’s now possible to create glass pieces that are as alive when lit from the front as traditional stained glass is when lit from behind.  So he applies these new technologies to the ancient craft of glassmaking to produce works that speak to the eye, the mind and the heart - seeking to infuse soul into silicon. You can visit http://web.me.com/tmahon3/GlassRoots Gallery/Welcome.html where Tom has a Gallery of his glasswork alongside some essays he's written in recent years.  He also has a YouTube video at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr0mr7RQelk showing his work in motion set to music by J.S. Bach.

John Mallon grew up in the East Bay Area being born in Oakland, his present residence. Arts and crafts have been an interest since early childhood. While in the Navy, pencil portraits were a hobby. From there sculpture and painting became an interest as time went by, resulting in private painting instruction from a bay area teacher. A long list of “How To” art books have helped along the way with sculpture and pencil drawing, as well as a teacher in woodcarving. Awards came from Art shows presented by the Oakland and Alameda Art Associations the past 20 years.  Mallon is still a Member of both and has been President of both Associations. Mallon states: “Monet, Dali and CA painter George Otis are an inspiration to me.  Color and graphite pencil is my favorite and best mediums. In this show he presents artwork that uses dots of acrylic paint to build up texture and create a landscape. This method is similar to pointillism a technique used by George Seurat but unlike Seurat, he does not stick to combining the primary colors to create the image, rather his work is also similar to Australian Aboriginal work that uses large dots of paint to create the image.  I also have fun decorating hats and t-shirts using fabric paints and making fun clocks.”

Elena E. Maroth lives in Kensington, California. She was born in Havana, Cuba and emigrated to the U.S. in 1960. She attended San Francisco State University, then worked in Marin County as an adult education teacher; since 1985 she has been Art Director of the non-profit classical record label Music & Arts in Kensington, where she lives with her husband. Born close to the sea in Cuba, Elena Maroth has been surrounded throughout her life by nature, music, and visual beauty. The rhythms of the ocean and the culturally vibrant life of Havana  inspired Elena early on to dance and paint. She studied ballet with dancer and choreographer Alberto Alonso at Pro Arte Musical, continuing at the legendary Alicia Alonso Ballet School in Havana; she also studied art at the Escuela San Alejandro, but is largely self-taught. After moving to the U.S., Elena’s art has continued to be inspired by her early environment as well as by her ballet training. She has brought to her visual art work the joy and rhythm of color and movement. She works mainly with acrylics. Most of her canvases are 3x3 or 4x4 feet in size. She has exhibited at SF Zen Center (2), Fourth Street Gallery (Berkeley), Green Gulch Farm (Muir Beach), La Pena Cultural Center (Berkeley), Berkeley City Club, and San Francisco Women Artists Gallery. Her published work includes a University.of New Mexico New Music Festival brochure cover painting and several CD cover pictures for Music & Arts.

Barbara Milman is an El Cerrito printmaker and book artist.  She grew up in New York.  Although she was always interested in art, she became a lawyer.  However, she continued her interest in art, taking art class0es in many places, from the Art Students League in New York City to UC Davis, and for many years she combined an art career with the practice of law. Since 1994 she has been a full time artist.  She has focused on social justice issues in both careers. Her innovative prints combine traditional relief printing (usually linocuts) with untraditional methods, such as hand stamped type and collaged digital images.  Barbara Milman’s handmade artist books can be found in the collections of Stanford, Yale, the Getty Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Cleveland Art Institute, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, and many others. She also has work at the Zimmerli Museum at Rutgers University and the Art Museum at Yad Vashem, Israel. She has won many awards, has had over 25 solo shows. and has been in hundreds of group shows since 1980. Her work is included in The Best of Printmaking: An International Collection (1997).  She is a past president of the California Society of Printmakers.

Maj-Britt Mobrand was born  and grew up in Stockholm,  Sweden and  has been weaving and teaching weaving at her Glimakra Weaving studio in Berkeley for over 40 years. Her work has been shown in various  juried and other shows over the years, and is in many private collections.“I can think of  several  ways of thinking green.  The color, of course, and also to do something good for the environment, like reusing.  I made one weaving using various green colors:  ‘Green, Greener, Greenest’. ‘All My Ducks in a Row (more or less)’ is a tribute to my running career.  My running club, LMJS, had three running ducks as a logo, so I cut up a bunch of my old t-shirts and placed the ducks on a weaving of Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe, around which I have run in many relay races. ‘Rags to Riches’ was a fun project using up an old leftover warp (the yarn stretched in the loom before you can start weaving).  I did a double weave pick up and then stitched on various old woven samples, etc.”

Malcolm Nicoll was born at the foot of the Rockies in Colorado on September 26, 1959 earning a BFA in Art History from UNC and a BA in Art Education from CSU. He lived in and traveled extensively in Europe and is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been exhibiting his large-scale paintings and fused mosaic glassworks in Europe and the Bay Area for over fifteen years. He is currently  creating highly colorful and expressive glass bowls, plates and jewelry and looks forward to showing his new works in the coming year.

Artist states: “George Bernard Shaw once said, "without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable." To deal with this crudeness we can either engage creation or destruction; to walk the artist’s path is to engage creation. Through painting and working with glass, I am supported by dreams and visions that steer me toward existence beyond the ordinary. Whether I’m creating in 2 or 3 dimensions, I have a heartfelt, spiritual connection that takes the work beyond beauty, dreams and aesthetic visions, beyond color and line on a surface into deep unity. From this place, humanity’s inherent potential becomes visible, reminding viewers of their own divinity and the promises of their creativity. Regarding the influence on his style of art, he says that he is greatly influenced by Neo-Expressionism.

Danute E. Nitecki was born in Lithuania. Her family fled the second Soviet occupation at the end of the Second World War and spent next six years as Displaced Persons in Austria and Germany. In 1950, they immigrated to Chicago, where she attended the University of Chicago, and received Ph.D. in chemistry in 1961. She worked for 20 years in UCSF Medical School doing research in immunochemistry. In 1982, she left UCSF to work on pharmaceutical research in a biotechnology firm. She has over a hundred scientific publications and forty patents and has contributed chapters to several scientific research books. She started drawing and painting for her own amusement in 1987. Since then, her work has been shown in a number of juried art exhibitions and has won awards and ribbons. One of her botanical paintings of Heracleum lanthanum (22x26) was selected for the bi-annual California Species exhibition in Oakland Museum. She contributed to a book on unusual backgrounds in Color Pencil Explorations (North Light, publisher; J. Gildow, editor, 2002). Her contribution describes a somewhat novel use of colored pencil images painted on watercolor backgrounds on sheets of polyester vellum (drafting film). She has always enjoyed painting botanicals with colored pencils (CP), but covering large background areas with CP is very painful, hence the combination of WC/CP on drafting film. Currently she works mostly with watercolor (CP requires very acute vision, which she is losing).

Pat Philipps currently lives in Davis, California.  She grew up in Great Falls, Montana.  Although she has no formal art training, she has been interested in weaving since her late teens.  For the past five years, she has been a student of Maj Britt Mobrand at Glimakra Weaving Studio in Berkeley, California. 

Deborah Robins is a real live folksinger who lives in Berkeley, CA.  She makes fun and wearable jewelry out of repurposed and found objects like paper clips, safety pins, and sea glass, with the addition of colorful vintage buttons gathered from flea markets around the worlds.  Originally from Chicago, she was exposed to fine art through innumerable trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, where the colors and shapes from several Grant Wood landscapes, captured her imagination.  For two years in a row, Deborah has been selected to participate in the unique Maker Faire as “Folkiedokies: Repurposing with a Purpose”.  Deborah Robins is the Executive Producer of a PBS/WETA television series about the history of American folk music, “THE MUSIC OF AMERICA: History Through Musical Traditions”. www.themusicofamerica.org  Deborah is the sister of Laura Olear.

Selma Rockett lives in Berkeley, California and was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine. As a very young child, Selma learned to use “make believe, fantasy, whimsy and pretend” to enhance her days and this is what influences her art. Many wonderful people she has met in life inspire her work. Hats have always had a role in her life. Selma is primarily self-taught however she did study briefly with Bertha Underwood in Oakland, Ca.  Her mediums include fabric, straw, yarn, wool and “lovely trinkets, feathers, buttons and all things shiny.”  The hats are hand molded, using an art medium to set the design. The hats are not ‘named’ as most are one of a kind—therefore ABSOLUTE WHIMSEY.

Stanford Rose spent his childhood in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Utah. He now lives in Oakland, California. His style has evolved from simple landscape photography toward emphasis on perspective and formal properties at the expense of subject matter.  He states, “I want to free the viewer from the habits of perception that attend the recognition of subject.  It’s especially delightful when you see the esthetic values first, which then may evoke different images and emotions, then perhaps say irrelevantly, “Oh, it’s a---.”’  These photographs were taken in Indian Valley, Plumas County last winter in the backwaters of a small stream where unusual and unpredictable conditions of freezing occur.  Scientists at the Earth Sciences department, Washington State were unable to account for some of the phenomena in these pictures.  As a physicist states, “Phase change is imperfectly understood.”

Rosie Rosenthal lives in Berkeley and grew up in the Bay Area. Her grandfather was a rock hound, her grandmother crocheted and painted china and watercolors; her mother was an artist – she painted and made jewelry. As a child she took classes at Studio One. As a young adult, she did jewelry and batik before pursuing a BFA in Fine Arts at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1975. She states, “Alexander Calden’s Jewelry and Faberge inspire me.” She has received a number of awards for her printmaking, and is in Arthur Murray’s collection. Her current modality is unique jewelry with handmade beads, semi-precious stones, and pearls, that is whimsical and elegant which she is showing at Expressions Gallery.

Christian Schiess is a San Francisco bay area artist originally from New Mexico. His education spans several disciplines and institutions that include a B.A. from Univ. of New Mexico in Anthropology, a B.F.A. degree in Visual Arts from the Univ. of San Francisco, and an MFA in Sculpture from Mills College. Additionally, he completed a Fulbright Fellowship at the Royal College of Art in London and is the author of the book “The Light Artist Anthology.” His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. His awards include a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, an NEA/AFI Grant, three NEA/Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowships, several artist-in-residencies including the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Bristol Exploratory England, and a New York State Council on the Arts residency at Binghamton, NY. Most recently he has been chosen twice as a visiting guest artist at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Since 2000 he has been on the faculty of The Crucible, which is a unique non-profit sculpture education facility open to the San Francisco Bay area public that provides access and instruction to a wide range of sculpture tools and techniques. Although he makes use of a variety of materials and techniques in his art, the conceptual focus has been primarily concerned with luminous and kinetic materials and processes. His recent work explores the interface between technology and nature. From his perspective the competitive relationship between technology and nature runs from the beautiful and sublime to the absurd and malefic. The technology that causes injury and damage to the environment paradoxically becomes necessary for its repair and recovery.

Linda Sims lives in Bel Marin Keys.  She is a 5th generation Californian, born and raised in Alameda. Her first art teacher was George De Mont Otis, her great uncle. She is grateful for: 8 years study with Chester Arnold, travel,  museums, galleries, and life:  all great teachers. Linda Sims has had 18 solo shows, was an art therapist, had an interior design business for 15 years, and renovated real estate. Art allows her complete freedom and joy, and she hopes that it is contagious.

Angelica Spurigo lives in Oakland and grew up as a child of the military who has lived in many places in the U.S. She even had the opportunity to live in Belgium as a teen where she attended an international school and visited many castles in France and Germany. It was not until she moved back to the states afterwards that she became interested in art, when she received a blue ribbon in the Vacaville Art Contest for a portrait in graphite and ink. After getting another ribbon in the Fairfield Contest for a pastel drawing of lightning passing through a guitar, she knew she had to attend art school. That's when she found the California College of Arts and Crafts where she is now studying for a bachlors in Painting/Drawing. Her influence by works of Kandinsky and The Blue Riders lead her to create abstract landscapes, where she combines geometrical and organic forms in oil and acrylic.  Along with abstractions, she conrfonts music, love, dreams, and her health issues with paint. When asked to summerize her work an aquaintance mentioned, "She gives us these ackward presences that are just as real as anything else; just becuase they are strange doesn't mean they don't exist." For this particular piece artist states, "It was an early acrylic that expresses how music becomes a part of nature."

Leah Statman grew up in Lorain, OH and now lives in Albany, CA.   She majored in architecture in college.  Soon after graduation her focus turned towards childrens’ issues and she returned to school to obtain a MSW.  She is now a parent counselor and a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner.  In the early 70’s she began producing art for political causes--designing flyers and books and producing silk-screened posters.  At the same time she began producing loom woven figurative tapestries.  After being sidetracked by the demands of raising her three children she returned to art about three years ago and taught herself quilting.  Her interest in traditional quilt patterns only lasted through the early learning phase and she quickly began to design her own pieces.  She has exhibited in the juried shows of the Pacific International Quilt Festival in both 2008 and 2009, where she was awarded a Judge’s Choice ribbon, and in the World Wide Quilt Festival in 2009.  Her more recent work is mostly images of people--a friend’s children, children running in a field, and old women sitting on a park bench.  The vegetable quilt is a scrap quilt made with the remnants of other quilting projects.

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.”

Terry Telles is a native of Oakland whose art has been influenced by the multicultural atmosphere of the bay area. He took art classes at Laney college, worked with local artists and developed his own personal images and style. He started painting Mandalas, drums and music related images and has recently expanded to other visual areas.  He has exhibited his work at the Alameda Art Center (Members exhibitions & Sacred Images), Alameda Art Association (Museum show, Art In the Park, Cross Currants), Javarama Coffee House, new Alameda library, Frank Bette Center. for the Arts, and has had solo shows at Market Place (Mandalas) Coffee For Thought, Julies coffee & tea shop in Alameda. He has also participated in Festivals at Montclair Art-Wine & Jazz Festival, Laurel District World Music, Festival and his works are in private collections. He is a member of Frank Bette Center, Alameda Art Association, and is now showing his work here at Expressions Gallery

Susan Trubow lives in San Mateo, she grew up in San Francisco and attended San Francisco State University graduating with an Elementary Teaching Credential in 1972. Always interested in art Susan joined the Peninsula Serigraphers under the tutelage of Anne Kendall Foote who was a great influence in her becoming a professional artist. The printmaking process of serigraphy interests Susan and she has developed an unique approach to it. Her work has been exhibited world wide including Japan and Great Britian and is part of private and corporate collections including the Bank of America, and Peoria Universiy. Susan attended the California School of Arts to enrich her skills and graduated with a BFA in 1989.  Susan has taught art to childern in public and private schools on the Peninsula. She has a studio at the 1870 Art Center in Belmont were she creates her prints and teaches private lessons.

Harry Weisburd was born in New York City and now lives in Berkeley, Ca.  Harry became interested in Art when at the age of 6 years old. He attended the School of  Industrial Art, Manhattan.  Today the school is called School of Art & Design. Harry continued studying Art at top art schools in the country, Parsons School of Design, NYC.  He went on to receive his MFA and BFA degrees at Calif College of Art, Oakland and San Francisco, Ca. After receiving an MFA degree, and graduating, he obtained a position as an Assistant Professor of Art, University of Connecticut. He taught, Painting, Drawing, Color Theory. From UCONN he went on to teach Sculpture as a Professsor of Sculpture at Westfield State College, Westfield, Massachusetts. He became a Tenured Professor.  He relocated to San Francisco, and taught at the De Young Museum of Fine Arts, San Francisco and numerous private schools including the Tiburon Art Center, Tiburon, Calif. Harry has exhibited in Art Galleries nationally  including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle , Washington. He is  listed in Who;s Who in the West, 1997, 1998. Harry's Art has been published in Yellow Silk, Journal of the Erotic Arts.  Award Winning Literary Journal, published for 10 years in Berkeley, Cal.  He was the Featured Artist, for the entire 5th Anniversary issue, Harry has also been  published in PLAYGIRL magazine; GALLERY magazine, (pen and ink drawings published monthly for one year and a number of additional erotic magazines. Harry also exhibits Internationally including, England, France , Italy and Beijing, China.

Emmryss Wren currently lives in Berkeley and was raised in London, England.  She has received no formal training in art, but has always considered herself creative, making art out of things that were available, at the time.  Her current art uses hubcaps and sticky backed vinyl sheets of color, old jewelry etc:  The artist states that she always starts at the rim and works inward, with no actual conception of the finished outcome. She says the pleasure, for her, is in the end surprise. One could say she is a Pop Artist who takes the hub cap (an article from popular culture) from its natural context, solates it, merges it with other materials and presents it in a new context for contemplation as an art piece –an icon of contemporary life.

Louis Cuneo was born in New York City and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in his early twenties. His literary career spans over 40 years, beginning in Greenwich Village where he honed his skills as a poet and continuing to the Bay Area where he has worked as a poet, photographer, editor/publisher, coordinator, teacher, playwright, producer, Haiku expert and grants recipient. Cuneo founded Mother's Hen in 1971 and is founder and coordinator of the Berkeley Poetry Festival, Muchos Somos Series and the Touch of a Poet Series. As a well known haiku poet, he helped establish the unique form of American Haiku. Currently he has turned his attention to haiga, the visual aspect of haiku. He now spends most of his free time capturing the intimate moments of Berkeley and Northern California in his photographs. Cuneo has had ten of his books published which include: Haiku Revisited (Celestial Arts, 1975); Godzilla Attacks A Truck (Lean Frog, 1981); Passing Moments (Mother's Hen, 1991); and Splash (Malthus Press, 1999). His poetry, haiku and articles have appeared in Gypsy Table, Peace & Pieces Anthology, American Pen, Love Lights, Word Hustlers, Bachy, California Poets, New World Haiku, Lean Frog, Poetry Flash, Berkeley Monthly, Artery, 100% Pure Rag, Aldebaran Review, Dragonfly, Free Poems for the People, Suttertown News and more. Cuneo's collection of personal and literary writings, events, & publications, along with his magazines & anthology credits, is on view at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. Contact Ms. Bonnie L. Bearden at (510) 642-8171, (510) 540-5579 (FAX) or bberden@library.berkeley.edu.There are also samples of the following at the Bancroft Library: books by Louis Cuneo; videos of the weekly poetry series, Touch of A Poet; books published by Mother's Hen; articles from special events; instructional books and drama.

Marc Wilson is a writer, performer, and (rumor has it) animator who is author of “Platitudes for a Life in Hell,” a collection of satirical shorts, as well as a number of other books which are all rather weird or disturbing and fortunately unavailable to the public. His animation has appeared in film festivals including “Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted,” and on their DVD collection “Full Frontal.” Let's see, what else? He wrote and acted in the sketch comedy show “Love the One You Whip” in the 2009 SF Fringe Festival, and periodically blogsphemes – to coin a really stupid term – at biblefunfacts.com. Between nervous breakdowns, Marc is busily at work on a new animated short about an angry little man attempting to commit suicide in his office cubicle. He has a cat. Marc does, that is. Not the angry little man.

Linda Chappo lives in El Cerrito, CA and grew up in Northern Indiana. She officially started writing about 20 years ago, after she sold her hair salon business. Needless to say, her first book was entitled “How to Open a Family Hair Salon.” She soon enrolled in a creative writing class at Columbia College in Chicago, but dropped out to move to California. Since that time Linda studied writing at City College of SF, adult ed. classes, and writer’s conferences, but she’s basically self-taught. Linda is the author of a new non-fiction book entitled, “Marry Your Self First: Your Key to Manifesting Loving Relationships.” She asserts that loving yourself first is a prerequisite to happy, loving relationships. She has a background in holistic health, hypnotherapy and spirituality. Linda has also written fictional stories, songs, a comedy skit, and other non-fictional works in the area of business, spirituality, weight reduction and children’s stories.

Kirk Lumpkin is author of two books of poems, Co-Hearing and In Deep. His poetry/music ensemble, The Word-Music Continuum (all 3 members of which were in the Bay Guardian "Demo Tape O' The Week" winning band, DETOUR) has released two CDs, the first was self-titled and the second is Sound Poems. He has done featured performances of his poetry in the San Francisco Bay Area and all around Northern California, in Los Angeles (Beyond Baroque), New York City (Bowery Poetry Club), Colorado, Toronto, Canada and has also done readings in England and Scotland under the auspices of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He is on the Board of PEN Oakland.