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Artist Biographies -
Through
the Eye of the Artist
Sept. 9-30, 2006
Click on Thumbnails to Enlarge Artwork
Bart Borland
Bart Borland lives
in Oakland, Ca.. Born in New York, he was influenced by his
parents in his choice of careers. His mother was an artist and
his father a scientist and businessman. Bart studied Chemistry
as his major and took art classes on the side. In 1967, he moved
to the Haight-Ashbury and by 1969, he had a one-man show that
was reviewed by Thomas Albright in the SF Chronicle and was described
as “hallucinations that follow the tradition of psychedelic
posters” and his work was compared by Albright to “Rauschenberg’s
silk screens”. His work was loaned to the SFMOMA and he
was represented at the Vorpal Gallery during this period. He
gave up art while raising a family and returned four years ago
when he discovered digital art. The digital medium opened a door
and gave him powerful new tools to create art. He states: “This
medium is revolutionizing art in America. It enables fantastic
composition of patterns, shapes, colors and images inviting the
viewer to closer inspection. Photographs are inset among amorphous
shapes to give the impression of looking through one reality
to another.” Bart seems to embrace the changing times and
take an enthusiastic lead in exploring new art tools and creating
new art forms that express the times.
Art Brandenburg
Art
Brandenburg has been creating art for over 60 years. He
received a B.A. degree in commercial art from San Jose State
University and a secondary teaching credential as well as a Masters
Degree in Art Education from Cal State, East Bay. After
teaching secondary art in Fremont schools, he retired and now
devotes his time to his creative work and to supporting the art
organizations in the Hayward area. He has worked in oil,
acrylic, watercolor and mixed media painting, printmaking, sculpture,
photography, video and performance art. His work has been
shown at San Francisco Art Institute, the Sun Gallery, the Green
Shutter Gallery, the John O'Lague Galleria, Adobe Art Gallery,
Cal State, East Bay Gallery, the SFUU Gallery, Mendocino Art
Gallery, DACA Gallery and is in many private collections. In
June of 2005, he had a retrospective show at the Sun Gallery.
Zwanda Cook
Zwanda Cook is
a Bay Area Artist who holds an AA Degree from the College of
Alameda and attended San Francisco State College and the College
of Marin where she studied dance painting, drawing and
jewelry making. Her work in clay and paper mache is self-taught. She
has exhibited her work at the Marin County Fair and won honorable
mention in their juried show; Marin Art and Garden Center
in Ross, CA., the College of Marin and the Finley Art Center,
Santa Rosa, Ca. Her “Going To Church” sculpture
exhibited at the Expressions Gallery show, Through the Eye of
the Artist, is made with plaster and the hat is made from paper
mache. It is the beginning of a series . “My "Going
To Church" series is my expression of the beautiful, colorful, hats
I saw when I would go to church as a child and be fascinated
by the women wearing these bright hats to church.”
Elizabeth Dante
Elizabeth Dante is
a master artisan who is highly skilled in all aspects of casting
and carving, She works in numerous media; notably bronze, and
other materials such as cast stone, aluminum, resin, concrete,
and carved marble. While a gemologist living and traveling in
Brazil, Panama and Southeast Asia, Ms. Dante attained an affinity
for the Third World. This ever-present influence has provided
Elizabeth with
stylistic inspiration for her work ranging from classical
naturalism to stylistic narration. Much of her sculpture explores
the dynamics between round organic forms and hard rigid angles.
By exaggerating this interplay, her work creates a sense of tension
that is both lively and sensual. Ms. Dante has said that her work
combines ancient and modern rituals, extracting archetypes and
stylized motifs. ”I pay homage to the many facets of the
human spirit, characterized by warmth, humor and sometimes political
commentary.” Although she utilizes an academic background
that includes the Gemological Institute of America, the San Francisco
Art Institute, and the College of Marin, Ms. Dante remains essentially
self-taught. She has honed her craft by working for established
sculptors, most notably Elio Benvenuto. While an artist assistant
to German artist Toni Bruchert in Pietra Santa, Italy, Ms. Dante
learned traditional techniques and methods for
sculpting/enlarging and casting/finishing bronze; patinas;
and marble carving. Most recently as a patina artisan, Ms. Dante
has worked with Bay Area Artists Steven DeStaebler, Bruce Beasley,
and Ruth Asawa. Ms. Dante has exhibited in
numerous shows in the United States and Italy. Her outstanding
works have been showcased in collaborative efforts such as “Art
on the Rock at Alcatraz”, and “The Day of the Dead” Exhibition
at The Museum of Mexican Art. In 1990, she received the prestigious
Art of Peace Award from the Artist Embassy International for her
sculpture “Woman's Liberation”, which was chosen by
the Oakland Art
Commission as a gift to Nelson Mandela and the people of
South Africa.
Arlene Diehl
Arlene Diehl is
a graduate of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and studied
with Michael Markowitz in San Francisco from 1997-2000. Starting
at age 16 she won recognition for her art work when she received
the prestigious Strathmore Award in Drawing, awarded annually
to one high school student nationwide. to current times where
Arlene was invited to participate in Art Auctions X and XI, curated
shows held at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 2003 and 2005;
she was invited to be in a three person show this past May 2006, “Gestures
In and On Paper: Original Works by Arlene Diehl, David Einstein
and Minjung Kim” at Modern Masters Fine Art in Palm Desert,
California and recently had a solo show “Figuration: Nineteen
Drawings and One Bronze” in June/July at Smith Anderson
North in San Rafael. Additionally, she was recently nominated
to participate in the Biennale International Dell’Arte
Contemporanea to be held at the historic Fortezza Da Basso in
Florence, Italy, in December of 2007. Arlene Diehl’s work
has evolved from a life-long love for, fascination with, and
sense of reverence for the human form. After years of working
in a slow, layered, meticulous way with colored pencil, she has
evolved an approach that more immediately and deftly expresses
what she is trying to depict: “ a sense of life force and
the particularity of a living moment. “ In 1997,
Arlene began working in charcoal for the first time. Her figurative
work transitioned during that year to a more dynamic and expressive
form that she continues to work in today, pushing out the parameters
of that work and exploring a fuller continuum between abstraction
and representation. Her work is included in private collections
across the United States and Canada as well as in Great Britain,
France, Austria, Ireland, Hungary, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. She
is pleased to be included in “From the Eye of the Artist” one
of the very first shows at Expressions Gallery with her drawings
that are charcoal on paper, matted and/or mounted on archival
board and drawn from live models.
Ella Driscoll
Ella
Driscoll is a native San Franciscan.
She attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated
with a B.S. degree in Public Health. For many years she worked
as a medical technologist in bay area hospitals and clinics. Regarding her formal art
training, she studied art at Berkeley Evening High School, City
College of San Francisco, and with Richard Yip , watercolor artist,
and with Rupert Garcia, Chicano artist. She also
studied photography with master photographer, Allen Stross and
at San Francisco City College and San Francisco State University
and continued her formal art education when she was awarded a
scholarship to the Academy of Art in San Francisco, California. Ella
has had a number of solo and group shows and has received a number
of prestigious awards for her work. Her work has been shown in
juried shows in New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Krakow in Poland
and locally at the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery. Her
awards include, Purchase Prize, San Francisco Art Festival,
Best of Show, San Mateo Art Festival, New Brunswick Bureau
of Tourism, State of Alaska, Photography, Pacifica, California,
Photography. She has several Merit Awards from the San
Francisco Women Artists. In this show, Ella uses does assemblage
pieces that comment on today’s changing world and states: “I
try to portray in my work the area between life and reality and
the unreal or fantasy, while still maintaining a sense humor. I
find this leads me to do collage, assemblage, sculpture, "shoe
art" and boxes.”
Rinna B. Flohr
Rinna B. Flohr
is an interior architect and designer, artist and floral
designer. Rinna believes that in a world where we have become
so mobile and where we no longer have offices but rather, cubicles,
that walls have disappeared and that our bodies have once again
become the pedestals for art as in times long ago when we wandered
as nomads and wore our trophies and precious adornments. She
is also a floral designer and has had her floral designs exhibited
in the Legion of Honor Museum and as part of the San Francisco
De Young ‘Museum’s Bouquets to Art show. For
this show her jewelry and her floral art is featured. Her
floral art for this show uses silk and dried flowers. Her
arrangements compliment and express the artwork next to which
it is placed, as in the Bouquet to Arts shows. This is
one of the only galleries that features floral arts. Rinna
is also the founder and Director of Expressions Gallery.
Terry Furry
Terry Furry is
a bay area artist who has lived and worked in Oakland for the
past 20 years. Raised in the foothills of the Sierra
Nevada mountains of Northern Calif., Terry recognized art as
his true interest from early on in life. Terry has studied
at various Universities such as CCAC in Oakland as his first
college experience and the Art Institute of Chicago for 6 years
. Much of Terry’s past work has been illustrative,
but in recent years he has returned to oil paintings with figurative
art being his primary focus. Although, purposefully
lacking words to describe his paintings, Terry’s work is
at the same time both depictive and personal. Terry’s focus
is not on the likeness of his subjects but rather on the person's
energy and presence that takes precedence. He is intrigued
with the visual contradiction and enhancement of the likeness,
with the graphic line and modeling of the figure. Terry
shows his work throughout the East Bay and is currently working
on several commissions. His studio is located in Swarm
Studios in Jack London Square. His work is shown at Expressions
Gallery current show: Through the Eye of The Artist.
James Gayles
James Gayles is
a local Oakland Artist who attended Pratt Institute in New York,
where he studied under renowned painters Jacob Lawrence and Audrey
Flack He simultaneously pursued careers in both fine and commercial
art. As a commercial artist he established himself in New York
as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, becoming Assistant Director
of Graphics at News Center 4, NBC-TV. At NBC he won a television
Emmy Award for design and illustration. Other awards include
the Art Direction magazine award for both the News Center 4 logo
design, and editorial illustration for the New York Times, and
first place award for illustration at the California Newspaper
Publishers’ Awards. Most recently he won a public art commission
from the City of Oakland Craft and Cultural Arts Department,
in which he transferred his figurative painting technique to
ceramic tile murals. In 2003 he was honored at the Art of Living
Black by receiving the Jan Hart-Shuyers Award. James has illustrated
for NBC, the New York Times, McGraw-Hill, Random House, Essence
Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, as well as several advertising
agencies on both the East and West coasts. He has been selected
twice to show at the California Biennial Watercolor exhibit at
the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. He was recently commissioned
by the Alameda County Art Commission to create a series of paintings. James
currently works as an Illustrator for ANG Newspapers. We are
excited to present his amazing work as part of Through the Eye
of the Artist show at Expressions Gallery.
Sofia Harrison
Sofia is
self-taught; she started creating artwork in 1999 and since then
has participated in numerous gallery and juried exhibitions in
the bay area, with selected shows in New York. She lives and works
in Napa and has been commissioned by clients across the country. Sofia
uses glass and words with an entirely fresh perspective to create
a mixed-media piece that is visually pleasing, intelligent and
soulful. "I gather words in much the same manner as a painter
mixes paints," she explains. Magazine advertisements
are her favorite source for words and phrases: "When taken
out of context, they become either particularly funny or especially
poignant." Her work embodies the collective thought patterns
of our society: fractured but connected, expressing individuality,
desire, spirit and reason. She affixes the words
to the hand cut glass pieces and then attaches them to mannequins,
boxes, sash windows, baby dolls and furniture. The framework
chosen is often dictated by what she can, to put it plainly,
garbage-pick. "I was driving in Berkeley and spotted an
old stool half buried in tall grass in a vacant lot. I almost
caused an accident by making a b-line to nab it." Now encrusted
with verbiage, the work is entitled Tossed in Berkeley. "I
love the process of reincarnation."
Susan Hilgendorf
Susan Hilgendorf
is one of the students in Barbara de Groot’s class whose
work was so good that we accepted her as one of the main artists
in the regular exhibit at Expressions Gallery show Through the
Eye of the Artist. She has two landscape oil paintings in this
show. When asked how she got interested in art, she states: “While
cleaning out the attic moving my parents from the family home,
my grandfather’s painting box from his plein-air days in
the 1920’s came to light from storage. The tubes of oil
paint were still usable. What a message from the past. After
retiring from an academic career in English, I took the box and
joined an art class. Six years later, painting open spaces is
even more fun. I can’t seem to paint a thing in my studio;
it’s all about what happens outdoors.” We are happy
to offer her a place in this show.
William Hung
William Hung was
born in 1928 in China and immigrated to the US in 1980. In the
same year, he founded and operated Hung’s Art Studio in
Oakland. He has had numerous recognitions for his outstanding
work, In1983, he became a member of American Portrait Society
and was awarded certification by the society’s Credentials
Committee – Entitled APSC honor. He has had a number of
Solo exhibitions here and in China. In 2001, the Fine art book: “William
S. Hung, Oil Paintings” was published by the Chinese leading
government publishing company – People’s Fine Arts
Publishing House, Beijing. This book has been in over three hundred
library collections worldwide, including the US Library of Congress,
National Library of China, The British Library, Beijing University
Library, Qing Hua University Library, Harvard college Library,
Stanford University Library, the New York Public Library, San
Francisco Public Library, Shanghai Library and more. In 2006,
Mr. Hung compiled and published a commemorative book – “Back
to Motherland, Artist and Mrs. William S. Hung”, with abundant
contents, the book is very well received. Website: http://www.williamhung.com.
We are very proud to be able to present the work of such an internationally
renowned and accomplished artist as part of Through the Eye of
The Artist Show.
Athens Kolias
Athens Kolias known
as Athens K Designs, lives in the Bay Area and handcrafts elegant
and whimsical purses. A veteran of the fashion accessory
world, Athens started designing her handbags as an answer to the
need to carry some essentials when she went out dancing. She
uses many wonderful fabrics collected over the years. These include
fabrics from the window displays of the high-end fashion and interior
design worlds. All her bags are made individually, with no purchased
handles. All zippers are embellished with either a tassel
or a bead or something interesting. Linings are just as
important as the visible side of these purses, and many times present
a whimsical design sense. Tassels, beads and dangles frequent
these artful wrist bags. Athens fabric art is on exhibit
at Expressions Gallery from September 9-30, 2006.
Kristin Lamb
Kristin Lamb started
producing and studying art in high school. She became interested
in mural painting in 1996 and she painted her first mural that
same year. Kristin graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art
from California Polytechnic State University in 2004. While
in college she extensively studied painting and drawing, although
she also had a chance to learn about graphic design, ceramics,
glassblowing, photography, costume construction and jewelry design. Her
work usually consists of a combination of several mediums and has
been described as surreal fantasy-scapes. Kristin had the
unique opportunity to study textile conservation at Hearst Castle
during her senior year in college, during the course of the internship
she fell in love with textiles and her most recent work reflects
her passion for the medium. In this show, Art: Recycled and Found,
Kristin offers us three types of artwork: 1) textile art with recycled
materials in the form of scarves, 2) 3-D Art Boxes with fantasy-scapes
using recycled papers and objects and 3) Greeting Cards. Kristin
currently works as a Product Development Coordinator for Bentley
Art Publishing Co. and as the Expressions Gallery Coordinator.
Coral Lambert
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.
Rafael Landea
Rafael Landea is
a local Bay Area Artist who came to the United States from Argentina.
His works are exhibited and admired in galleries around the world. He
exhibits a series of painting that come from his childhood memories
of gazing on his parents Italian coffee pot and imagining it to
be a number of different wonderful things: A radar station, a Samauri
and many others. His works are on exhibit at the Expressions
Gallery show Through the Eye of the Artist where he transforms
still life into a wonderful journey of childhood creative memory.
Sandra Lo
Sandra Lo was
born in China in 1953. She grew up in China and Hong Kong and immigrated
to the US in 1989. She started learning drawing at a very young
age. Her father, William S. Hung a famous oil painter, has been
her teacher. Sandra took some workshops, figure drawing and painting
classes but other than that, she is mostly self-taught. She
is following in her father’s footsteps, and has become an
accomplished painter who works primarily in oil and pastels. Sandra
has a full time job in another field but still finds time to paint
on lunch hours, evenings and weekends. She is a member of
San Francisco Women Artists and her paintings are exhibited at
SFWA Gallery in San Francisco, every month.
Jennifer Wallace Mack
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 are her mixed
media paintings and her magnificent jewelry. Jennifer has
served on various Board of Directors for long standing Artist
Organizations such as the San Francisco Women Artists where she
was a past President and continues n the current Board as Vice
Treasurer and The San Francisco Gem and Mineral organization
where she is currently Treasurer. Jennifer has an eye for
detail she can work in minute scale with tiny beadwork or large
scale with paintings. She has a desire to and accomplishes finding
new ways to use the tools of her art to create beautiful and
out of the ordinary pieces of work. She exhibits both landscape
paintings and intricately woven gold bracelets in Through the
Eye of the Artist show.
Patricia Meyer
Patricia Meyer graduated
with a BFA from the University of Witwatersrand, Johanesburg, South
Africa. She studied ceramics with Vaughn Scott and etching with
Guiseppi Cattaneo, artist and lecturer in fine arts, and lithography
at San Francisco State University. She exhibits one work in Through
the Eye of the Artist show at Expressions Gallery. Patricia has
exhibited in major galleries and museums throughout South Africa
where she gained considerable recognition. In California, she has
had one person, two person and group shows. She has been written
about in various articles and has numerous commissioned art sales,
two of the more notable were a Watercolor for the Consul General
for France of a home and a Pen and Ink study for the ORT Commission.
David Miller
David Miller has
lived in the Bay Area for most of his life. His formal education
and training was as an Engineer, but from age 6 he wanted to be
an artist. “Grandpa told me I didn’t want to be an
artist — artists smoked cigarettes and lived in attics.
I should be an engineer instead and build bridges. So I became
an engineer, and built electronic circuits.” But in high
school, he took a correspondence class in art and when he finished
engineering school he studied with the Berkeley and New York artist
Joan Finton for a couple of years. However, for a while he gave
up in frustration because he couldn’t reproduce what he saw
on museum walls and tried to ignore his passion for art. He took
some classes from Michelle Cassou who helped him learn to ignore
the self-criticism when making art and returned to studying with
Joan Finton as well as taking many other classes, wherever he could
find them. Teachers who have influenced his work include Connie
Smith-Siegel, Larry Robinson, Glenn Hirsch, and Jane Rosen. Current
explorations include the landscapes of California. He has
lived in the Bay Area for most of his life. As an avid hiker and
bicyclist, he states that he can never get enough of the exquisitely
beautiful and varied terrain of California.” He
so beautifully captures this vision in his paintings. His current
work is shown at the Expressions Gallery current show: Through
the Eye of the Artist.
Dawn Ming
Dawn Ming was
born in New York City. Her parents immigrated to the US from China. She
attended Ohio State University where she completed a degree in
Fine Arts. She painted and exhibited in New York and Long Island
where she lived and raised her family. When she retired to San
Francisco, she took up printmaking. Dawn is a painter and a printmaker.
She enjoys working with the richness and intensity of color and
texture in oil painting; where, in printmaking there is the beauty
of the paper and many techniques. The results can be varied and
different. Her subjects are things from nature to images of her
Chinese Heritage. As an artist, Dawn strives to make a picture
bring pleasure to the viewer. Dawn Ming has won numerous awards.
Her art can be found in private collections all over the US and
world. At the 4th World Conference on Woman in Beijing, China 2
etchings were selected and exhibited in Moscow and then traveled
all over the US and now in the achieves of The National Museum
of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. A monotype was selected
for exhibition at The Yerba Buena Center for the Art’s. Her
work can be seen at the San Francisco Women Artists and Oakland
Museum Collector’s Gallery and currently at Expressions Gallery
show, Through The Eye of The Artist where her landscapes are featured.
Udi Peled
Udi Peled is
a local artist whose work has been purchased for exhibit at the
Berkeley Jazz School. In addition, his work adorns many a
catalogue cover for UC Berkeley. He has shown his art at
various select galleries. Born in Israel, he is now living
permanently in the United States. Udi blends expressionism with
a style based on raw talent. Udi’s versatile works
are a favorite amongst local art collectors. He is available for
commissioned art works as well as the artwork that is displayed
in this show.
Kimiko Sakuma
Kimiko Sakuma is
an innovative artist who experiments with various mediums and material.
She finds inspiration in the re-use of objects, such as newspaper
and recycled material, because it is the process of transforming
an ordinary item and redefining the way that people identify with
it. She holds a B.A, from the University of California,
Los Angeles in World Arts and Cultures and a M.A. in Instructional
Design from San Francisco State University. She is currently the
Artist and Founder of Work Art World (www.workartworld.com), a
program incorporating Art within the office and cubicle space.
Her work is currently in various office buildings and restaurants
within the Bay Area. Her Artwork is currently on exhibit at the
Artist Exchange Gallery in San Francisco. Kimiko has also been
selected to create an Art piece depicting Fisherman’s Wharf
at the eleven-mile mark for the San Francisco Marathon 2006. Kimiko
has been an Art Editor for Tea Party and Arts and Culture Magazine
and a promoter of Mastertee.com, a website which supports Japanese
Art and Folklore. Her work is in mixed media and is on exhibit
at Expressions Gallery as part of Through the Eye of the Artist.
Jim Stipovich
Jim Stipovich is
a photographer who lives in the Kensington, Ca. and works with
medium format cameras (Hasselblad and Rolladex) and all black and
white film using natural light to create these startlingly unique
photos. He processes them by hand in his private darkroom. Archival
prints are silver gelatin. Jim began photography at
age 15. In high school he worked as a photojournalist for the Humbolt
Times/ Standard in 1962, while also attending photography classes
at Humbolt State College. From 1965-1970, Jim was an undergraduate
a the University of California, Berleley. He studied
photography under Margaret d’Hammer and Ruben Samberg, majoring
in design Design/Photography. He was editor and art director
of The Pelican, an on campus magazine. Post college work
included a fellowship at Anatoila College, in Thesolonika, Greece,
and work as a freelance photographer and professional black and
white darkroom technician. Jim creates vital, direct pictures of
people and places that grab the eye of the viewer. His ability
to capture detail and definition with high resolution in low light
situations is captivating. He exhibits both landscapes and
portraits in Through the Eye of the Artist show.
André S. Wagner
André Wagner was
born in 1980 in Burgstädt, Germany. Trained as a photographer,
he creates unique photographs of landscapes of his travels around
the world. The photographs in this show are taken in India, Spain,
Eastern Europe and New Zealand. The pictures are composed by means
of long-term exposure and in some cases, the help of a fire-artist.
His fascination is with light and the landscape. He photographs
the natural movement of light and also creates light with fire
kept under control. The fire artist wanders through riverbanks
spinning a fireball at the end of a long baton. With long-term
exposure, the fire appears to be dancing in circular patterns through
the landscape producing a surrealistic effect of energy that when
combined with the rotation of the earth as Andre puts it “leads
man to delve into the mystic knowledge down deep in his soul.” Andre
has entered prestigious competitions and has won several distinguished
prizes. Perhaps the one of which he is most proud is the International
contest 13 Hasselblad Austrian Super Circuit where he won a gold
medal and thirteen recognitions. His work has been published in
a book, in many magazine and other publications and in art catalogues.
His unique gift is the sensual way of perceiving the surroundings.
With his photographs he shares theses with us. As David Hernández
de la Fuente, Author and Poet, Spain states, “The real journey
is that of a man who is thirsty to travel towards his own center
who leaves an unforgettable impression on the retina of a new view
of the world and its elements."
Margaret Cheng Ware
Margaret Cheng
Ware was born and raised in Hong Kong. She holds a B.A.
from Wellesley College and an M.F.A in Modern Dance from the
University of Utah. She was a teacher and choreographer until
she turned to art. As a result of this background, and widely
traveled thanks to her studies and professional pursuits, Margaret
brings not only a finely trained eye, but an international sensibility
and interdisciplinary perspective to her art. Margaret is an
academically trained realist painter whose work has already been
recognized by several significant awards in the art world. In
her second year of graduate studies at the Academy of Art University,
she won second prize for portraiture in the student division
of The Artist's Magazine’s annual international competition.
In 2006 another self-portrait won a Fredrix Artist Canvas Award
of Excellence in the Oil Painters of America's 15th National
Juried Exhibition in Missoula, Montana. Her paintings
have been chosen for numerous other prestigious juried exhibitions
throughout the country. She has had two solo shows in Northern
California and her portraits and figure paintings, still lifes
and landscapes are in private collections in the Bay Area, California,
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Tallahassee, Florida, and in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her paintings are featured
in two books from the publishers of International Artist: How
Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Favorite Subjects, volume
1, and How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint People and Figures,
volume 2. Margaret is a member of San Francisco Women Artists,
Oil Painters of America, and the Portrait Society of America
where she is honored to serve as California State Ambassador.
The artist lives and works in San Francisco, where she has a
studio on the ground floor of the Victorian house she shares
with her husband, daughter and their Norwich terrier.
Sara Waugh
Sara Waugh has
studied painting and drawing at Columbia University and the New
York Studio School in New York City, The University of the Arts
in Philadelphia, and SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz, New York. Her
paintings have been exhibited in solo shows and group shows across
the United States. Waugh graduated from Columbia University
with a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology and a Minor in Mathematics. Both
of these subjects continue to influence her paintings. Waugh
works primarily with mixed media, including watercolor, ink, gouache,
and acrylic on archival paper. Waugh’s works on paper
are elegant and ethereal, often depicting the female form. Waugh
also enjoys oil painting on canvas. Her oil paintings are
rich in texture and color, celebrating the voluptuous beauty of
life. Her painting subjects include still-life, landscapes,
and figures. Inspiration for all of Waugh’s work comes from
the female form and the beauty found all around her in the world. Her
goal is to encourage the viewer to recognize the fleeting nature
of life and to appreciate the fragile beauty that comes with that
impermanence. Artists including Richard Diebenkorn, Frida
Kahlo, Pierre Bonnard, and Willem de Kooning further inspire Waugh. She
lives and works in San Francisco.
Thomas Yarborough
Thomas Yarborough was
born in Iowa in 1968. He states: I started my creative career as
an 8 years old composing songs and inventing a morose code to jot
them down, so I would not forget them. Laying around my
house at that time were 1000's of my father's books, among them
was a curious little paperback on visual illusions. Among
the Rorschach test-like examples on the pages was a whole
chapter on double-imagery; my love-affair began. In 1984,
at Ithaca High School located in Upstate New York I began to fully
apply myself to the pursuit of symbolic art and poetry. He
received Artist of the Year Award during his senior year in High
School in1986 and in the spring of 1996 he was awarded Best Artist
from Iowa State University where he earned his BFA in 2000. This
collection of drawings was created between 1986-1988, the very
earliest period were I had reached a certain level of maturity,
when my drawings became more than mere scribbles. The influences
are quite apparent, heavily inspired by Picasso, Dali and M.C.
Escher. “One here can gleam through these 10 drawings
the movement I made from Representational Cubism to Surrealism.”
Mary Melissa Younkin
Mary Melissa Younkin is
a bay area transplant from Orange County, CA. She graduated
with distinction from the California College of the Arts in 2004
with a BFA. She now lives and works in Oakland. She did an internship
at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland from Sept. – Nov. 2005 and
spent some time in 2003 at the Lamar Dodd School of Fine Art in
Cortona, Italy for the Spring semester of college.
She has had some solo and group exhibits around the Bay Area. Mary
Younkin’s current focus has been on creating figurative
paintings and drawings inspired by a growing collection of found
photos. Photographs allow her a launching point from which
to enhance narratives of family, relationship, color, and expression
in the medium of painting and drawing. Generally
said to have a nostalgic or timeless feel, the figures in her
work have become, for her, a sort of album. Her choices
of color, pattern, and composition create scenes that are awkwardly
happy. There’s a factitious quality that invites
the viewer in to participate in the curiosity. Mary has
experience working with a variety of mediums including oil painting,
acrylics, graphite, pen & ink, woodcut, and monotype.
Student Work
We are proud to present the Class of Barbara de Groot,
an Expressions Gallery Artist student work that was created at the Richmond
Senior Center.
Susan Hilgendorf
While moving my parents
to a retirement home, my grandfather’s painting box from
his plein-aire days in the 1920’s came to light from storage.
The tubes of oil paint were still usable. That was a message from
the past to try painting. After retiring from an academic career
in English, I took an art course. Six years later, painting open
spaces is even more fun. I can’t seem to paint a thing in
my studio, it is all about what happens outdoors in the light.
(Susan was invited to enter the main show. More of her work
can be seen there.
Joan Aiken
I joined the class because
I wanted to learn to paint flowers. After a few weeks I learned
so many other forms of art exist. Our teacher Barbara has such
a great personality, that I enjoy coming because of her and the
other students. I never in my whole life painted or have
drawn anything !!
Tazi Hirano
My method is gathering
of bits and pieces from magazines from which I select items to
place in a pattern depicting whatever strikes me at the moment.
Then one idea emerges to reflect a message of timely significance
and grows form there.
Linda Li
These are two pieces of
artwork that I copied from a Matisse book. Some people say copying
is a kind of creation, some people don’t agree. I copy good
pictures all the time. I choose pictures from greeting cards, Christmas
cards and so on. It is more like still life with outlined objects
or people.
Vaughn Kasinger
Came to class with some
formal background in art having studied at the Art Institute and
also taught some art classes. After the loss of her son, she stopped
doing art for some time. She came to class to get back to art.
Mona Ram
Came from New York. She
has had a background in many of the arts: theatre, music, dance
but never tried drawing and painting until recently. She enrolled
in Barbara de Groot’s class and blossomed intoan artist.
She enjoys making cards as well several are presented in this student
exhibit. (A special thanks to Mona for her help in hanging
the student show.)
Janet Rohrer
Born in Berkeley, I have
always been inspired to express myself through graphic art and
drama. I work with a variety of mediums and feel more inspiration
by the direction and support of instructor, Barbara de Groot .My
husband and I create a calendar of my images each year.
Artist Biographies -
Through
the Eye of the Artist
Sept. 9-30, 2006
Click on Thumbnails to Enlarge Artwork
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Bart Borland lives in Oakland, Ca.. Born in New York, he was influenced by his parents in his choice of careers. His mother was an artist and his father a scientist and businessman. Bart studied Chemistry as his major and took art classes on the side. In 1967, he moved to the Haight-Ashbury and by 1969, he had a one-man show that was reviewed by Thomas Albright in the SF Chronicle and was described as “hallucinations that follow the tradition of psychedelic posters” and his work was compared by Albright to “Rauschenberg’s silk screens”. His work was loaned to the SFMOMA and he was represented at the Vorpal Gallery during this period. He gave up art while raising a family and returned four years ago when he discovered digital art. The digital medium opened a door and gave him powerful new tools to create art. He states: “This medium is revolutionizing art in America. It enables fantastic composition of patterns, shapes, colors and images inviting the viewer to closer inspection. Photographs are inset among amorphous shapes to give the impression of looking through one reality to another.” Bart seems to embrace the changing times and take an enthusiastic lead in exploring new art tools and creating new art forms that express the times. |
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Art Brandenburg has been creating art for over 60 years. He received a B.A. degree in commercial art from San Jose State University and a secondary teaching credential as well as a Masters Degree in Art Education from Cal State, East Bay. After teaching secondary art in Fremont schools, he retired and now devotes his time to his creative work and to supporting the art organizations in the Hayward area. He has worked in oil, acrylic, watercolor and mixed media painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video and performance art. His work has been shown at San Francisco Art Institute, the Sun Gallery, the Green Shutter Gallery, the John O'Lague Galleria, Adobe Art Gallery, Cal State, East Bay Gallery, the SFUU Gallery, Mendocino Art Gallery, DACA Gallery and is in many private collections. In June of 2005, he had a retrospective show at the Sun Gallery. |
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Zwanda Cook is a Bay Area Artist who holds an AA Degree from the College of Alameda and attended San Francisco State College and the College of Marin where she studied dance painting, drawing and jewelry making. Her work in clay and paper mache is self-taught. She has exhibited her work at the Marin County Fair and won honorable mention in their juried show; Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, CA., the College of Marin and the Finley Art Center, Santa Rosa, Ca. Her “Going To Church” sculpture exhibited at the Expressions Gallery show, Through the Eye of the Artist, is made with plaster and the hat is made from paper mache. It is the beginning of a series . “My "Going To Church" series is my expression of the beautiful, colorful, hats I saw when I would go to church as a child and be fascinated by the women wearing these bright hats to church.” |
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Elizabeth Dante is
a master artisan who is highly skilled in all aspects of casting
and carving, She works in numerous media; notably bronze, and
other materials such as cast stone, aluminum, resin, concrete,
and carved marble. While a gemologist living and traveling in
Brazil, Panama and Southeast Asia, Ms. Dante attained an affinity
for the Third World. This ever-present influence has provided
Elizabeth with |
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Arlene Diehl is a graduate of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and studied with Michael Markowitz in San Francisco from 1997-2000. Starting at age 16 she won recognition for her art work when she received the prestigious Strathmore Award in Drawing, awarded annually to one high school student nationwide. to current times where Arlene was invited to participate in Art Auctions X and XI, curated shows held at the Long Beach Museum of Art in 2003 and 2005; she was invited to be in a three person show this past May 2006, “Gestures In and On Paper: Original Works by Arlene Diehl, David Einstein and Minjung Kim” at Modern Masters Fine Art in Palm Desert, California and recently had a solo show “Figuration: Nineteen Drawings and One Bronze” in June/July at Smith Anderson North in San Rafael. Additionally, she was recently nominated to participate in the Biennale International Dell’Arte Contemporanea to be held at the historic Fortezza Da Basso in Florence, Italy, in December of 2007. Arlene Diehl’s work has evolved from a life-long love for, fascination with, and sense of reverence for the human form. After years of working in a slow, layered, meticulous way with colored pencil, she has evolved an approach that more immediately and deftly expresses what she is trying to depict: “ a sense of life force and the particularity of a living moment. “ In 1997, Arlene began working in charcoal for the first time. Her figurative work transitioned during that year to a more dynamic and expressive form that she continues to work in today, pushing out the parameters of that work and exploring a fuller continuum between abstraction and representation. Her work is included in private collections across the United States and Canada as well as in Great Britain, France, Austria, Ireland, Hungary, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. She is pleased to be included in “From the Eye of the Artist” one of the very first shows at Expressions Gallery with her drawings that are charcoal on paper, matted and/or mounted on archival board and drawn from live models. |
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Ella Driscoll is a native San Franciscan. She attended the University of California, Berkeley and graduated with a B.S. degree in Public Health. For many years she worked as a medical technologist in bay area hospitals and clinics. Regarding her formal art training, she studied art at Berkeley Evening High School, City College of San Francisco, and with Richard Yip , watercolor artist, and with Rupert Garcia, Chicano artist. She also studied photography with master photographer, Allen Stross and at San Francisco City College and San Francisco State University and continued her formal art education when she was awarded a scholarship to the Academy of Art in San Francisco, California. Ella has had a number of solo and group shows and has received a number of prestigious awards for her work. Her work has been shown in juried shows in New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Krakow in Poland and locally at the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery. Her awards include, Purchase Prize, San Francisco Art Festival, Best of Show, San Mateo Art Festival, New Brunswick Bureau of Tourism, State of Alaska, Photography, Pacifica, California, Photography. She has several Merit Awards from the San Francisco Women Artists. In this show, Ella uses does assemblage pieces that comment on today’s changing world and states: “I try to portray in my work the area between life and reality and the unreal or fantasy, while still maintaining a sense humor. I find this leads me to do collage, assemblage, sculpture, "shoe art" and boxes.” |
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Rinna B. Flohr is an interior architect and designer, artist and floral designer. Rinna believes that in a world where we have become so mobile and where we no longer have offices but rather, cubicles, that walls have disappeared and that our bodies have once again become the pedestals for art as in times long ago when we wandered as nomads and wore our trophies and precious adornments. She is also a floral designer and has had her floral designs exhibited in the Legion of Honor Museum and as part of the San Francisco De Young ‘Museum’s Bouquets to Art show. For this show her jewelry and her floral art is featured. Her floral art for this show uses silk and dried flowers. Her arrangements compliment and express the artwork next to which it is placed, as in the Bouquet to Arts shows. This is one of the only galleries that features floral arts. Rinna is also the founder and Director of Expressions Gallery. |
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Terry Furry is a bay area artist who has lived and worked in Oakland for the past 20 years. Raised in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern Calif., Terry recognized art as his true interest from early on in life. Terry has studied at various Universities such as CCAC in Oakland as his first college experience and the Art Institute of Chicago for 6 years . Much of Terry’s past work has been illustrative, but in recent years he has returned to oil paintings with figurative art being his primary focus. Although, purposefully lacking words to describe his paintings, Terry’s work is at the same time both depictive and personal. Terry’s focus is not on the likeness of his subjects but rather on the person's energy and presence that takes precedence. He is intrigued with the visual contradiction and enhancement of the likeness, with the graphic line and modeling of the figure. Terry shows his work throughout the East Bay and is currently working on several commissions. His studio is located in Swarm Studios in Jack London Square. His work is shown at Expressions Gallery current show: Through the Eye of The Artist. |
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James Gayles is a local Oakland Artist who attended Pratt Institute in New York, where he studied under renowned painters Jacob Lawrence and Audrey Flack He simultaneously pursued careers in both fine and commercial art. As a commercial artist he established himself in New York as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, becoming Assistant Director of Graphics at News Center 4, NBC-TV. At NBC he won a television Emmy Award for design and illustration. Other awards include the Art Direction magazine award for both the News Center 4 logo design, and editorial illustration for the New York Times, and first place award for illustration at the California Newspaper Publishers’ Awards. Most recently he won a public art commission from the City of Oakland Craft and Cultural Arts Department, in which he transferred his figurative painting technique to ceramic tile murals. In 2003 he was honored at the Art of Living Black by receiving the Jan Hart-Shuyers Award. James has illustrated for NBC, the New York Times, McGraw-Hill, Random House, Essence Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, as well as several advertising agencies on both the East and West coasts. He has been selected twice to show at the California Biennial Watercolor exhibit at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. He was recently commissioned by the Alameda County Art Commission to create a series of paintings. James currently works as an Illustrator for ANG Newspapers. We are excited to present his amazing work as part of Through the Eye of the Artist show at Expressions Gallery. |
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Sofia is self-taught; she started creating artwork in 1999 and since then has participated in numerous gallery and juried exhibitions in the bay area, with selected shows in New York. She lives and works in Napa and has been commissioned by clients across the country. Sofia uses glass and words with an entirely fresh perspective to create a mixed-media piece that is visually pleasing, intelligent and soulful. "I gather words in much the same manner as a painter mixes paints," she explains. Magazine advertisements are her favorite source for words and phrases: "When taken out of context, they become either particularly funny or especially poignant." Her work embodies the collective thought patterns of our society: fractured but connected, expressing individuality, desire, spirit and reason. She affixes the words to the hand cut glass pieces and then attaches them to mannequins, boxes, sash windows, baby dolls and furniture. The framework chosen is often dictated by what she can, to put it plainly, garbage-pick. "I was driving in Berkeley and spotted an old stool half buried in tall grass in a vacant lot. I almost caused an accident by making a b-line to nab it." Now encrusted with verbiage, the work is entitled Tossed in Berkeley. "I love the process of reincarnation." |
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Susan Hilgendorf is one of the students in Barbara de Groot’s class whose work was so good that we accepted her as one of the main artists in the regular exhibit at Expressions Gallery show Through the Eye of the Artist. She has two landscape oil paintings in this show. When asked how she got interested in art, she states: “While cleaning out the attic moving my parents from the family home, my grandfather’s painting box from his plein-air days in the 1920’s came to light from storage. The tubes of oil paint were still usable. What a message from the past. After retiring from an academic career in English, I took the box and joined an art class. Six years later, painting open spaces is even more fun. I can’t seem to paint a thing in my studio; it’s all about what happens outdoors.” We are happy to offer her a place in this show. |
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William Hung was born in 1928 in China and immigrated to the US in 1980. In the same year, he founded and operated Hung’s Art Studio in Oakland. He has had numerous recognitions for his outstanding work, In1983, he became a member of American Portrait Society and was awarded certification by the society’s Credentials Committee – Entitled APSC honor. He has had a number of Solo exhibitions here and in China. In 2001, the Fine art book: “William S. Hung, Oil Paintings” was published by the Chinese leading government publishing company – People’s Fine Arts Publishing House, Beijing. This book has been in over three hundred library collections worldwide, including the US Library of Congress, National Library of China, The British Library, Beijing University Library, Qing Hua University Library, Harvard college Library, Stanford University Library, the New York Public Library, San Francisco Public Library, Shanghai Library and more. In 2006, Mr. Hung compiled and published a commemorative book – “Back to Motherland, Artist and Mrs. William S. Hung”, with abundant contents, the book is very well received. Website: http://www.williamhung.com. We are very proud to be able to present the work of such an internationally renowned and accomplished artist as part of Through the Eye of The Artist Show. |
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Athens Kolias known as Athens K Designs, lives in the Bay Area and handcrafts elegant and whimsical purses. A veteran of the fashion accessory world, Athens started designing her handbags as an answer to the need to carry some essentials when she went out dancing. She uses many wonderful fabrics collected over the years. These include fabrics from the window displays of the high-end fashion and interior design worlds. All her bags are made individually, with no purchased handles. All zippers are embellished with either a tassel or a bead or something interesting. Linings are just as important as the visible side of these purses, and many times present a whimsical design sense. Tassels, beads and dangles frequent these artful wrist bags. Athens fabric art is on exhibit at Expressions Gallery from September 9-30, 2006. |
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Kristin Lamb started producing and studying art in high school. She became interested in mural painting in 1996 and she painted her first mural that same year. Kristin graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from California Polytechnic State University in 2004. While in college she extensively studied painting and drawing, although she also had a chance to learn about graphic design, ceramics, glassblowing, photography, costume construction and jewelry design. Her work usually consists of a combination of several mediums and has been described as surreal fantasy-scapes. Kristin had the unique opportunity to study textile conservation at Hearst Castle during her senior year in college, during the course of the internship she fell in love with textiles and her most recent work reflects her passion for the medium. In this show, Art: Recycled and Found, Kristin offers us three types of artwork: 1) textile art with recycled materials in the form of scarves, 2) 3-D Art Boxes with fantasy-scapes using recycled papers and objects and 3) Greeting Cards. Kristin currently works as a Product Development Coordinator for Bentley Art Publishing Co. and as the Expressions Gallery Coordinator. |
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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. |
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Rafael Landea is a local Bay Area Artist who came to the United States from Argentina. His works are exhibited and admired in galleries around the world. He exhibits a series of painting that come from his childhood memories of gazing on his parents Italian coffee pot and imagining it to be a number of different wonderful things: A radar station, a Samauri and many others. His works are on exhibit at the Expressions Gallery show Through the Eye of the Artist where he transforms still life into a wonderful journey of childhood creative memory. |
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Sandra Lo was born in China in 1953. She grew up in China and Hong Kong and immigrated to the US in 1989. She started learning drawing at a very young age. Her father, William S. Hung a famous oil painter, has been her teacher. Sandra took some workshops, figure drawing and painting classes but other than that, she is mostly self-taught. She is following in her father’s footsteps, and has become an accomplished painter who works primarily in oil and pastels. Sandra has a full time job in another field but still finds time to paint on lunch hours, evenings and weekends. She is a member of San Francisco Women Artists and her paintings are exhibited at SFWA Gallery in San Francisco, every month. |
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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 are her mixed media paintings and her magnificent jewelry. Jennifer has served on various Board of Directors for long standing Artist Organizations such as the San Francisco Women Artists where she was a past President and continues n the current Board as Vice Treasurer and The San Francisco Gem and Mineral organization where she is currently Treasurer. Jennifer has an eye for detail she can work in minute scale with tiny beadwork or large scale with paintings. She has a desire to and accomplishes finding new ways to use the tools of her art to create beautiful and out of the ordinary pieces of work. She exhibits both landscape paintings and intricately woven gold bracelets in Through the Eye of the Artist show. |
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Patricia Meyer graduated with a BFA from the University of Witwatersrand, Johanesburg, South Africa. She studied ceramics with Vaughn Scott and etching with Guiseppi Cattaneo, artist and lecturer in fine arts, and lithography at San Francisco State University. She exhibits one work in Through the Eye of the Artist show at Expressions Gallery. Patricia has exhibited in major galleries and museums throughout South Africa where she gained considerable recognition. In California, she has had one person, two person and group shows. She has been written about in various articles and has numerous commissioned art sales, two of the more notable were a Watercolor for the Consul General for France of a home and a Pen and Ink study for the ORT Commission. |
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David Miller has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life. His formal education and training was as an Engineer, but from age 6 he wanted to be an artist. “Grandpa told me I didn’t want to be an artist — artists smoked cigarettes and lived in attics. I should be an engineer instead and build bridges. So I became an engineer, and built electronic circuits.” But in high school, he took a correspondence class in art and when he finished engineering school he studied with the Berkeley and New York artist Joan Finton for a couple of years. However, for a while he gave up in frustration because he couldn’t reproduce what he saw on museum walls and tried to ignore his passion for art. He took some classes from Michelle Cassou who helped him learn to ignore the self-criticism when making art and returned to studying with Joan Finton as well as taking many other classes, wherever he could find them. Teachers who have influenced his work include Connie Smith-Siegel, Larry Robinson, Glenn Hirsch, and Jane Rosen. Current explorations include the landscapes of California. He has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life. As an avid hiker and bicyclist, he states that he can never get enough of the exquisitely beautiful and varied terrain of California.” He so beautifully captures this vision in his paintings. His current work is shown at the Expressions Gallery current show: Through the Eye of the Artist. |
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Dawn Ming was born in New York City. Her parents immigrated to the US from China. She attended Ohio State University where she completed a degree in Fine Arts. She painted and exhibited in New York and Long Island where she lived and raised her family. When she retired to San Francisco, she took up printmaking. Dawn is a painter and a printmaker. She enjoys working with the richness and intensity of color and texture in oil painting; where, in printmaking there is the beauty of the paper and many techniques. The results can be varied and different. Her subjects are things from nature to images of her Chinese Heritage. As an artist, Dawn strives to make a picture bring pleasure to the viewer. Dawn Ming has won numerous awards. Her art can be found in private collections all over the US and world. At the 4th World Conference on Woman in Beijing, China 2 etchings were selected and exhibited in Moscow and then traveled all over the US and now in the achieves of The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. A monotype was selected for exhibition at The Yerba Buena Center for the Art’s. Her work can be seen at the San Francisco Women Artists and Oakland Museum Collector’s Gallery and currently at Expressions Gallery show, Through The Eye of The Artist where her landscapes are featured. |
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Udi Peled is a local artist whose work has been purchased for exhibit at the Berkeley Jazz School. In addition, his work adorns many a catalogue cover for UC Berkeley. He has shown his art at various select galleries. Born in Israel, he is now living permanently in the United States. Udi blends expressionism with a style based on raw talent. Udi’s versatile works are a favorite amongst local art collectors. He is available for commissioned art works as well as the artwork that is displayed in this show. |
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Kimiko Sakuma is an innovative artist who experiments with various mediums and material. She finds inspiration in the re-use of objects, such as newspaper and recycled material, because it is the process of transforming an ordinary item and redefining the way that people identify with it. She holds a B.A, from the University of California, Los Angeles in World Arts and Cultures and a M.A. in Instructional Design from San Francisco State University. She is currently the Artist and Founder of Work Art World (www.workartworld.com), a program incorporating Art within the office and cubicle space. Her work is currently in various office buildings and restaurants within the Bay Area. Her Artwork is currently on exhibit at the Artist Exchange Gallery in San Francisco. Kimiko has also been selected to create an Art piece depicting Fisherman’s Wharf at the eleven-mile mark for the San Francisco Marathon 2006. Kimiko has been an Art Editor for Tea Party and Arts and Culture Magazine and a promoter of Mastertee.com, a website which supports Japanese Art and Folklore. Her work is in mixed media and is on exhibit at Expressions Gallery as part of Through the Eye of the Artist. |
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Jim Stipovich is a photographer who lives in the Kensington, Ca. and works with medium format cameras (Hasselblad and Rolladex) and all black and white film using natural light to create these startlingly unique photos. He processes them by hand in his private darkroom. Archival prints are silver gelatin. Jim began photography at age 15. In high school he worked as a photojournalist for the Humbolt Times/ Standard in 1962, while also attending photography classes at Humbolt State College. From 1965-1970, Jim was an undergraduate a the University of California, Berleley. He studied photography under Margaret d’Hammer and Ruben Samberg, majoring in design Design/Photography. He was editor and art director of The Pelican, an on campus magazine. Post college work included a fellowship at Anatoila College, in Thesolonika, Greece, and work as a freelance photographer and professional black and white darkroom technician. Jim creates vital, direct pictures of people and places that grab the eye of the viewer. His ability to capture detail and definition with high resolution in low light situations is captivating. He exhibits both landscapes and portraits in Through the Eye of the Artist show. |
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André Wagner was born in 1980 in Burgstädt, Germany. Trained as a photographer, he creates unique photographs of landscapes of his travels around the world. The photographs in this show are taken in India, Spain, Eastern Europe and New Zealand. The pictures are composed by means of long-term exposure and in some cases, the help of a fire-artist. His fascination is with light and the landscape. He photographs the natural movement of light and also creates light with fire kept under control. The fire artist wanders through riverbanks spinning a fireball at the end of a long baton. With long-term exposure, the fire appears to be dancing in circular patterns through the landscape producing a surrealistic effect of energy that when combined with the rotation of the earth as Andre puts it “leads man to delve into the mystic knowledge down deep in his soul.” Andre has entered prestigious competitions and has won several distinguished prizes. Perhaps the one of which he is most proud is the International contest 13 Hasselblad Austrian Super Circuit where he won a gold medal and thirteen recognitions. His work has been published in a book, in many magazine and other publications and in art catalogues. His unique gift is the sensual way of perceiving the surroundings. With his photographs he shares theses with us. As David Hernández de la Fuente, Author and Poet, Spain states, “The real journey is that of a man who is thirsty to travel towards his own center who leaves an unforgettable impression on the retina of a new view of the world and its elements." |
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Margaret Cheng Ware was born and raised in Hong Kong. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.F.A in Modern Dance from the University of Utah. She was a teacher and choreographer until she turned to art. As a result of this background, and widely traveled thanks to her studies and professional pursuits, Margaret brings not only a finely trained eye, but an international sensibility and interdisciplinary perspective to her art. Margaret is an academically trained realist painter whose work has already been recognized by several significant awards in the art world. In her second year of graduate studies at the Academy of Art University, she won second prize for portraiture in the student division of The Artist's Magazine’s annual international competition. In 2006 another self-portrait won a Fredrix Artist Canvas Award of Excellence in the Oil Painters of America's 15th National Juried Exhibition in Missoula, Montana. Her paintings have been chosen for numerous other prestigious juried exhibitions throughout the country. She has had two solo shows in Northern California and her portraits and figure paintings, still lifes and landscapes are in private collections in the Bay Area, California, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in Tallahassee, Florida, and in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her paintings are featured in two books from the publishers of International Artist: How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Favorite Subjects, volume 1, and How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint People and Figures, volume 2. Margaret is a member of San Francisco Women Artists, Oil Painters of America, and the Portrait Society of America where she is honored to serve as California State Ambassador. The artist lives and works in San Francisco, where she has a studio on the ground floor of the Victorian house she shares with her husband, daughter and their Norwich terrier. |
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Sara Waugh has studied painting and drawing at Columbia University and the New York Studio School in New York City, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz, New York. Her paintings have been exhibited in solo shows and group shows across the United States. Waugh graduated from Columbia University with a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology and a Minor in Mathematics. Both of these subjects continue to influence her paintings. Waugh works primarily with mixed media, including watercolor, ink, gouache, and acrylic on archival paper. Waugh’s works on paper are elegant and ethereal, often depicting the female form. Waugh also enjoys oil painting on canvas. Her oil paintings are rich in texture and color, celebrating the voluptuous beauty of life. Her painting subjects include still-life, landscapes, and figures. Inspiration for all of Waugh’s work comes from the female form and the beauty found all around her in the world. Her goal is to encourage the viewer to recognize the fleeting nature of life and to appreciate the fragile beauty that comes with that impermanence. Artists including Richard Diebenkorn, Frida Kahlo, Pierre Bonnard, and Willem de Kooning further inspire Waugh. She lives and works in San Francisco. |
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Thomas Yarborough was born in Iowa in 1968. He states: I started my creative career as an 8 years old composing songs and inventing a morose code to jot them down, so I would not forget them. Laying around my house at that time were 1000's of my father's books, among them was a curious little paperback on visual illusions. Among the Rorschach test-like examples on the pages was a whole chapter on double-imagery; my love-affair began. In 1984, at Ithaca High School located in Upstate New York I began to fully apply myself to the pursuit of symbolic art and poetry. He received Artist of the Year Award during his senior year in High School in1986 and in the spring of 1996 he was awarded Best Artist from Iowa State University where he earned his BFA in 2000. This collection of drawings was created between 1986-1988, the very earliest period were I had reached a certain level of maturity, when my drawings became more than mere scribbles. The influences are quite apparent, heavily inspired by Picasso, Dali and M.C. Escher. “One here can gleam through these 10 drawings the movement I made from Representational Cubism to Surrealism.” |
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Mary Melissa Younkin is a bay area transplant from Orange County, CA. She graduated with distinction from the California College of the Arts in 2004 with a BFA. She now lives and works in Oakland. She did an internship at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland from Sept. – Nov. 2005 and spent some time in 2003 at the Lamar Dodd School of Fine Art in Cortona, Italy for the Spring semester of college. She has had some solo and group exhibits around the Bay Area. Mary Younkin’s current focus has been on creating figurative paintings and drawings inspired by a growing collection of found photos. Photographs allow her a launching point from which to enhance narratives of family, relationship, color, and expression in the medium of painting and drawing. Generally said to have a nostalgic or timeless feel, the figures in her work have become, for her, a sort of album. Her choices of color, pattern, and composition create scenes that are awkwardly happy. There’s a factitious quality that invites the viewer in to participate in the curiosity. Mary has experience working with a variety of mediums including oil painting, acrylics, graphite, pen & ink, woodcut, and monotype. |
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Student Work
We are proud to present the Class of Barbara de Groot, an Expressions Gallery Artist student work that was created at the Richmond Senior Center.
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While moving my parents to a retirement home, my grandfather’s painting box from his plein-aire days in the 1920’s came to light from storage. The tubes of oil paint were still usable. That was a message from the past to try painting. After retiring from an academic career in English, I took an art course. Six years later, painting open spaces is even more fun. I can’t seem to paint a thing in my studio, it is all about what happens outdoors in the light. (Susan was invited to enter the main show. More of her work can be seen there. |
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I joined the class because I wanted to learn to paint flowers. After a few weeks I learned so many other forms of art exist. Our teacher Barbara has such a great personality, that I enjoy coming because of her and the other students. I never in my whole life painted or have drawn anything !! |
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My method is gathering of bits and pieces from magazines from which I select items to place in a pattern depicting whatever strikes me at the moment. Then one idea emerges to reflect a message of timely significance and grows form there. |
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These are two pieces of artwork that I copied from a Matisse book. Some people say copying is a kind of creation, some people don’t agree. I copy good pictures all the time. I choose pictures from greeting cards, Christmas cards and so on. It is more like still life with outlined objects or people. |
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Came to class with some formal background in art having studied at the Art Institute and also taught some art classes. After the loss of her son, she stopped doing art for some time. She came to class to get back to art. |
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Came from New York. She has had a background in many of the arts: theatre, music, dance but never tried drawing and painting until recently. She enrolled in Barbara de Groot’s class and blossomed intoan artist. She enjoys making cards as well several are presented in this student exhibit. (A special thanks to Mona for her help in hanging the student show.) |
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Born in Berkeley, I have always been inspired to express myself through graphic art and drama. I work with a variety of mediums and feel more inspiration by the direction and support of instructor, Barbara de Groot .My husband and I create a calendar of my images each year. |
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