510.644.4930
	2035 Ashby Ave. Berkeley, California, 94703

Kay Athos of Castro Valley has lived in the Bay Area all of her adult life. She was born in Fresno, Ca. of Greek immigrant parents. She became interested in drawing at a very early age and took art classes in high school and in college, She took post-graduate courses at San Jose State; The College of Arts and Crafts; Cal State Hayward; and at Guadalajara, Mexico. In art workshops she studied with well known artists in all media: Watercolor, JaneBurnham; Pastels, Thomas Leighton; Acrylics, Ed Betts; Oils, Catherine Hagen, and Collage, Virginia Cobb. She taught art at the High School level. Currently, her art work can be seen at Marin Society of Artists, Ross, Ca; and Valley Art Gallery, Walnut Creek in addition to Expressions Gallery, Berkeley, Ca.  Kay paints in both realistic and abstract styles. Her preferred medium is acrylic but she also paints in oils. Her awards  include Best of Show, First Place, Purchase Award, and many Merit Awards. Her work is in the collections of Adobe Systems, IBM Corporation, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, Syntex Corporation, Xerox Corporation, San Ramon City Offices, and Hayward Area Recreation and Park District. Some solo exhibitions have been at the Lakeview Club, Kaiser Center, Oakland;  Art Concepts Gallery, Walnut Creek; Hewlett Packard, Palo Alto; Jalbert Gallery, Saratoga; Worley Smith Gallery, Nevada City. Her oil, “Lost in Thought” is on the cover of “Women’s Wisdom” by Meg Bowman.

Bob Bralove, a San Francisco artist, is playing for both your eyes and ears. Bob Bralove moved to San Francisco in the late 1970s, where he began studying Jazz with pianist Art Lande.  Eager to refine his musical communication skills Bralove earned his masters degree at San Francisco State University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Wayne Peterson.  It was there that he began his early explorations into electronic and film music and soon made the leap into Rock and Roll.   First in an eight-year stint as Stevie Wonder’s head of computer music, and then as the Midi Wizard for the last eight years of the Grateful Dead, Bralove gained the experience and mastered the technology that brought him to the visual arts. During the Drums and Space sections of the Grateful Dead shows Bralove was playing a keyboard whose sounds were coming out of the sound system, and whose notes were connected to the lights.  This experience opened his eyes to the power of connecting image and sound in a unified gesture. For the past few years Bralove has been exploring that connection through the performance of musical keyboards.  Mapping images into virtual, visual synthesizers Bralove is able to use the language of music to organize visual thought. Two Faced Blues is an up-tempo blues piece in E major., displaying the conversation between  my left and right hands. The paintings displayed here are painted in guache and ink, mapped to the notes of the keyboard, and then performed live to create  the animation. Notes played by my right hand appear on the left side of the screen while notes played by my right hand appear on the right side of the screen.. Each diptych is accompanied by a signed limited edition printing of the DVD.In addition to Bralove performing his art work and music live across the U.S. and in Japan in solo concerts, with Dose Hermanos, and with the The Psychedelic Keyboard Trio, Bralove's paintings and prints have been featured in exhibitions at The Dogwood Center for Performing Arts in Fremont, MI, at the Newago County Council of the Arts Gallery, and a multi-source installation of his art was featured at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California.

http://bobbralove.com/video.html

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

Nancy Calef was born in Bronx, New York, completed Bronx High School of Science at age 15 and received a scholarship from the College of New Rochelle to study painting and sculpture. In 1977, she moved to San Francisco, where she has continued to paint and exhibit nationally in solo and group shows. Calef lived in Europe and Thailand, traveled throughout the U.S., Mexico, Central America, Southeast Asia, India and Nepal, all of which served to develop her painting style and sharpen her understanding of the cultural and spiritual diversity of the world landscape. She’s moved to paint society from her imagination, often juxtaposing challenging social and political issues, while incorporating humor, using her unique 3D process (sculpture & found objects) to weave together a story. Calef realizes that art is a universal language. “After 20 years of serious art-making, I know that I must create to feel whole. And everyday, when I take the brush to canvas, although I’m confronted with fear, I also tap into a limitless source of imagery. When I'm fortunate time falls away and it seems that the work is creating itself.”,Nancy Calef ;  “Brueghel meets the underground stylings of artists like Spain and S.Clay Wilson in the oil and mixed-media paintings of Nancy Calef . .” SF Chronicle; "Now here's an original idea.' . . . Nancy Calef’s subject matter and palette express a view of the world beyond her years." Jack Levine-- former President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
http://nancycalefgallery.com

Carla Caletti lives in San Francisco. She was born and raised in Sonoma County and became interested in making art when she was in college at John F. Kennedy University. Her science professor allowed her to submit a final project in the form of a series of paintings, using wax and acrylic on canvas, to address different paradigms of reality. As a self-taught artist, these were her first paintings and expressing complex realities of physics seemed most natural with a visual language. Today, Carla is inspired by folk art and mythological stories from around the world and they inform the bold colors of her representational style. Some of her paintings are portraits of women and animals from the imagination. Other paintings take on more narrative, with symbols from her dreams and the unconscious that surface on the canvas. Carla uses metaphor to suggest that anything might happen; that reality is fluid and layered. The artist says of her intentions in making art, “I paint to bring the past into the present and to restore a reverence for things lost or displaced.” More of her work and information about past exhibitions can be seen on her website at www.carlacaletti.com

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

Attila Cziglenyi is a contemporary artist in watercolor, acrylic and oil media. For the past two and a half decades, the subject matter of his paintings ranged from landscapes to aviation and still lifes. Always interested in art, he started his art education in Texas at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, then continued at Chabot College, Hayward and participated in workshops and classes given by well-known artists.  Attila has participated in numerous juried group shows in Texas and California and was accepted in the Oshkosh EAA Air Adventure Museum exhibit. He is a member of the Hayward Arts Council and ART Inc.  “With my paintings I try to express the exhilaration one feels at the sights and sounds of whirling propellers, roaring of a rocket or the moods created by the changing lights in a landscape. I am always looking for unusual shapes, lines or colors to best convey this message”

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

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

Craig P. Fairburn has been painting since 1988. He made the transition from jewelry and engraving to impressionistic themes of jazz and blues in oils. From 1989-92 I lived in New Orleans where the city and club life in general was a rich influence on me. Meeting local musicians like Charles Neville, Dr. John, Danny Barker and brass band people like Eddie Beaux etc. led me to many others; a great gumbo of mysterious sounds and colors, all this influenced my growing creativity, which I draw from today. When returning to California I showed in rental galleries in L.A. and coffee shops in San Francisco. My cane carving evolved from meeting two of the Neville brothers and a foot injury I sustained at a warehouse in San Francisco in the late nineties. The art studio is a much safer place.

Joan Finton, a Berkeley artist and teacher of art, was born in Buffalo, N.Y. and educated at Vassar College and Syracuse University, from which she received an MFA.  She taught art in NYC high schools for many years and, after moving to The Bay Area, has continued teaching in institutions for elderly and disabled people. She also conducts a weekly art class in her home studio. She is a member of The Blue Bay Press, a small printmaking cooperative. As a painter and printmaker Finton’s work ranges from abstraction to figurative and often reflects her love of music stimulated by her former marriage to a classically-trained big-band pianist. She describes the jazz etchings shown here as starting by “drawing with a small sketchbook in my lap in a darkened club where I can barely see…..the trick being to get so involved in the absorption of the musicians that my lines mimic their movements and their passion”.

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 work as a licensed psychotherapist in private practice and as Deputy Director of Mental Health for Alameda County 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 background she began doing remodels and interiors that later led her to floral designing. She studied floral design with Ron Morgan. Her floral designs ere part of the Bouquets to Art Show at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco in the past and she is 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 rubbe from inner tubes of tires or cement from building site. Currently she is founder and Director of Expressions Gallery in Berkeley, Ca. and is President of San Francisco Women Artists in San Francisco.

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.

Evelyn Glaubman is a resident of Berkeley, California. She attended the Art Students League, NewYork. Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, holds a BA Ed and a BFA, California College of Arts & Crafts, graduate work at lnstituto d'Allende on scholarship awarded her in an International Competition. She has exhibited locally in galleries and at the San Francisco Museum of Modem Art, Oakland Museum, Richmond Art Center, Palace of the Legion of Honor, Berkeley Art Center, nationally and internationally.Of her art she says "The motivating force of my work has been two-fold: the expressive embodiment of joy, grief and caring; concern for and comment upon social problems we face.Her work is featured in Art of Engagement, by Dr. Peter Selz, University of California Press, 2006

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.

Patti Heimburger lives in Alameda and grew up in Long Beach, California. Patti had her first painting class at thirteen, and later received a BA in Studio Art from the University of California in Santa Barbara. She certainly has had a real lifelong love affair with art. Patti chooses to show optimism, caring and goodness in her artwork. These paintings are created through fabric and yarn which is then attached to a canvas surface and then painted over in oil. Rich textures and colors are most definitely the hallmarks of her artwork, clearly permeating her collection of delightful, whimsical paintings. These textured surfaces have no reference to the subject matter other than adding complexity. She is currently exhibiting at Hotel Nikko San Francisco (8) paintings and Christensen Heller Gallery (10) paintings in Oakland. She has had many solo and group showings in California and Washington, in galleries, art centers, universities, and the Oakland and Triton (Santa Clara) Museums. Her artwork is part of a corporate collection, and private collections in many states. Patti enjoys depicting dancing in whimsical surroundings. You can view more of her artwork at: www.artistpatti.com.

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 video piece, The Color of Jazz, and her custom 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 her work in other mediums, she offers custom image transfer services to tile and Italian charms.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sandra Lo was born in china. 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 a accomplished painter who works primarily in oil and pastels.  Sandra has a fill time job in paint on lunch hours, another field but still finds time to paint on lunch hours, evenings and weekends.  She is a member of San Francisco Women Arts and her paintings are exhibited at SFWA Gallery in San Francisco, every month.  Sandra’s portraits are extremely well executed and she offers commissioned portraiture through Expressions Gallery.

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

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. I also have fun decorating hats and t-shirts using fabric paints and making fun clocks.”

Loren Means is a filmmaker, painter, musician, writer, and editor who lives in San Francisco, Ca.He pioneered in making found footage films in the early Sixties, showing his films with Bruce Conner's found footage films at 1090 Page in San Francisco, with live soundtracks by Big Brother and the Holding Company. One of his found footage films, "Wolfenstein Franks the Meetwoman", won a prize at the Saginaw, Michigan 8mm Film Festival in 1968. In the late Sixties he started painting on film, and founded the f8 Filmaker's Cooperative, which held the first 8mm film festival in 1967. He has shown his films recently in Visual Music shows at RX Gallery, 21 Grand, Artists' Television Access, and Luggage Store Gallery. In the Seventies he played improvised electronic music with the Henry Kaiser Quartet at such venues as Keystone Korner and the Oakland Museum. The recordings he made with Henry Kuntz, Russel Baba, and Dennis Saputelli, among others, constitute his film soundtracks. He is the Executive Editor of the YLEM Journal, a periodical about art, science, and technology, and has delivered papers at the International Convention for the Fantastic in the Arts. He has curated art shows at Alta Bates Gallery, Marin Civic Center, Artisans Gallery, and Yoga Moon Studio, and had one-man shows of his painted and digital works at Castro Photo, Gallery House, and Pacific Grove Art Center, as well as being featured in group shows in Los Angeles and New York.

Rebecca Meredith is a San Francisco transplant from Chicago.  Her work explores interpersonal relationships as they are experienced in different social spaces.  She describes these relationships in her work through spatial arrangements and highly subjective color harmonies.  Her graduate degree in illustration from the Academy of Art University grounds her work in classical training and narrative storytelling. Her undergraduate degree in comparative literature from Reed College and her work experience in other countries and languages broadens her view of the variety of structures through which interactions are supported.  Her work belongs to the Triton Museum as well as international collections, and has been awarded for merit by the Alliance of Visual Artists, the Top 100 by Paint America Association, and Oil Painters of America. 

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

Julia L. Montrond lives in Berkeley. She grew up in New York City and was involved in all the arts: painting, acting, dancing & singing. She majored in Theatre arts at Hunter College and studied art at U.C. Berkeley, CCAC Extension, a studio in Florence, Italy & another in Guanajuato, Mexico, as well as numerous workshops in the Bay Area.  Painters she most admires: Turner, Sargeant, and most of the Impressionists.  About what inspires her, she says:  "I'm intrigued by the challenge of trying to capture the effect a scene or other subject has on me--of creating different moods; and of course the joy of working with color."   She works primarily in watercolor & has begun painting with oil.  Awards won in Art Shows include: Napa County Fair 2x.; El Cerrito Art show 3x, and being exhibited in numerous juried shows of: Marin County Art Fair; The Giorgi Gallery, Berkeley;  Shadelands Gallery, Walnut Creek; and the MTC Gallery, Oakland.

Norman Moore lives in Alameda, CA. He trained in neon and glass work at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY. He received an MFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute and lived in New York City from 1983 to 1996, where he made sculpture, mosaics and furniture. He attended undergraduate school at Columbus College of Art and Design and graduated with a BFA in Sculpture. Norman has been creating and showing light sculpture in the Bay area for the past ten years, and has taught classes at the Crucible in neon, plasma and light sculpture since 2004. In collaboration with Nancy Mizuno Elliott, he is currently designing a light sculpture installation for the Castro Valley Library to open in 2009. He has also made commissions for the New York Subway System and private residences. He has collaborated with Carol Kueffer Dance in New York and California, making sets and light costumes for dance, including a performance at the de Young Museum in San Francisco for L'Oreal of Paris in 2006.Norman's work uses the play of light and color on forms in space to bring attention to the energy and vitality that is world all around.

Udi Peled is a California artist, who was born in Israel in 1956, and began painting at an early age on the kibbutz where he was raised. An expressionist by nature, who paints mainly oil on canvas, he had his first showing at the Beeri Gallery in the Negev, and has turned his focus to painting jazz legends since he moved to the USA. His works have been shown at the Ariel Arts Gallery in Berkeley, and recently at the Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary Art. His work was commissioned for the cover of the University of California Berkeley, Graduate Chemistry Book four years in a row, and his art has been featured at select exhibits, in both San Francisco and Oakland, California. Blending expressionism with a style based on raw talent, Udi’s versatile works are a favorite amongst local art collectors. Udi’s art can be seen at http://www.zhibit.org/ehoudpeled 

Michael Perez, is a California native, born in Los Angeles in 1955 who grew up in Fresno, when it was a nice little town, and went to California College of Arts in Oakland. “About 30 years ago, I was living in a warehouse space, South of Market, in San Francisco with several other artists.  One night, as we were tearing out a wall, we found an old telephone utility closet which had a couple of lengths of 200-pair telephone cable.  We cut it open and all took some to play with.  I never stopped.  I love this material and keep finding different ways of using it.  Although it is made in only a few colors, the combinations make the palette seemingly limitless. An important aspect of this material, to me, is that none of it is new.  It has all been reclaimed, after it's original use.  Recycled 2nd or 3rd generation is what this wire is. The actual construction of the sculptures is tedious and time consuming, but I like the resulting works.  The organic shapes suggest different materials than what they actually are.  And you can touch them too.”

Heli Perrett is a sculptor, and the creator of the Geo Jewels line of ‘wearable wood art.’  A resident of Rockridge, she has lived in Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Australia, Turkey, Peru, Venezuela, Canada and England and worked in many more as a ‘poverty expert’ for the UN and the World Bank. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Art studies have taken place in New York, Istanbul and Oakland. Her involvement in creating, exhibiting and selling sculpture spans over 20 years. However, Geo Jewels are more recent, dating back to late 2007.  Each piece in this jewelry is unique, influenced by the natural wood, tribal arts and the Art Deco style.  The pendants ‘dance’ as the wearer walks.  As a sculptor, Heli has created works of art in a variety of media, including stone, sheet metal, scrap metal, multi-media combinations and limited edition bronzes. She agrees with Paul Cezanne, who said ‘A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.’  Each sculpture expresses feeling through soft, sensuous shapes, movement and negative space. But to quote Francis Bacon, ‘The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.’ The materials employed in the sculpture filter the artist’s emotion and enhance mystery. Heli Perrett’s gallery shows include her ‘Wind and Water’ exhibit of 30 abstract metal forms, depicting waves, gusts of wind, sails, and floating forms that may be fish or human, or perhaps, both.  More recent examples of sculpture are included in the ‘Dream Series’ and ‘Africa Series.’  Buyers include corporations, museums, and private collectors in several countries (including the USA, Italy, England, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Venezuela).

Diego Marcial Rios lives in the Bay Area and paints in acrylics. He graduated with honors with an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Department of Fine Arts Graduate School and  a B.F.A. from University of California at Berkeley. He received a number of honors scholarships for Academic study. His artwork illustrates many complex social-economic issues faced by contemporary society.  About his work he states: “I create art that is visually stimulating to gain initial viewer acceptance.  Once this is achieved, the viewer is confronted with ancient symbols of life and death.”  The figures and landscapes in the art are inspired by what I have experienced and later dreamed about. Diego’s work has been widely shown throughout the United States and Mexico and he is in a number of Museum Collections: The Auchenbach Foundation Collection at the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, Oregon; Laguna Beach Museum, Laguna Beach, Ca.; Museo National De La Estampa, Mexico City, Mexico, etc.. He has also illustrated a number of books and his work is part of a number of Public Collections: Harriet Taubman Gallery, MD; Mission Cultural Center, SF; The Collector Gallery of the Oakland Museum, Oakland, Ca.; Irish Arts Council, Belfast, Ireland and many more.  He has appeared as a speaker on Art and been interviewed on Television. His artwork has been included in many magazines.

T. Scott Sayre is an internationally acclaimed artist   residing in the Bay Area for the last 25 years.  He produces murals and fine art. His works include historical murals such as the Life of Jack London in Jack London Square, Oakland California.  He creates fine art, landscapes and portraits. He has worked with light show artists since the 1960’s and collaborated with dancer, Lucy Lewis on numerous projects.

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.”

Esperanza Surls has been making art and music all her life.  She studied with Bob Comings at Mendocino College and has a BA from SSU in Studio Art. She lives with her family in Canyon, California, where she makes art, plays music, writes, and teaches. She exhibits her work annually at the Canyon Art Faire. Her current favorite media are mosaic and mixed media on recycled format. She has had several Solo Shows (SSU Gallery, 1989, “The Politics of Experience” and Canyon, 2003.“ You Don’t Know the Half Of It”’. She has also participated in recent group shows: Giorgi Gallery, Berkeley, Ca., 2007, “Four Muses”;  Bedford Gallery, WC, CA, 2006 “Local Voices”; LP Gallery, Queens, NY, 2005, “Shades of Feminity”.

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. 

Peter Thaddeus was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs. Peter Thaddeus still resides in the Midwest.  He began schooling at the Art Institute of Colorado, and continued on and graduated from The Illinois Institute of Art, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design.  His interest in art began at a very young age.  Throughout the years, he gained much experience with acrylic paints, pencil, ink, watercolor, charcoal, ceramics and other mediums.  He has won awards and acclaim in each of these mediums throughout his early years. At middle school age he began to put greater focus on painting.  In 1999, at the age of 16, Peter Thaddeus began to sell his work.  He created a website in 2004, and has shown his work in over 30 galleries and stores in his years as a professional artist.  His focus is on acrylic painting and murals.  In addition, Peter creates quite a bit of commission work, miniature paintings, ornaments, accessories and much more.  He is currently expanding his scope of work to include public art displays. Inspirations for the work of Peter Thaddeus include his world travels to Australia, Mexico, Hawaii, and many places throughout the continental U.S.  More inspiration for his work is drawn from his design and architecture background, as well as his love of fashion and world events.

Muriel Schmalberg Ullman has lived in Sausalito for over 30 years.  She grew up in Queens and attended Hunter College in New York City.  She decided to major in Art thinking it would be easy and fun, and it was, and gave her a lifelong passion for her work. She has a B.A. and M.A. in Art Educatiion.  Her creativity covered many bases and each was expressed at different times of her life.  She designed clothing in the 60’s and had her own business.  She wrote and illustrated for newspapers and magazines in the 70’s.  Around 1980, she decided to just paint.  She admires and is inspired by many artists, too many to name.  Place and visual beauty inspire the artist.  She generally paints on location, in California, TheHamptons, southern France, and wherever else she travels. Her main medium is watercolor, though she has expanded into acrylic and water soluble oils.  For this show she is exhibiting romantic musical fantasy in watercolor and ink on crushed Arches paper.  Her work is part of the collection of Kaiser Permanente in Terre Linda, Scharffenbeerger Cellars in Philo, Ca, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Margrit Biever Mondavi. Jewish Family and Children Services in San Francisco, and Sausalito Historical Society Art Collection.  She has shown extensively in California , two solo shows in France, and several group shows in The Hamptons.  Her work hangs in many homes around the world.  In 1981 she was awarded Best In Class, PAINTING at the Marin County Fair.  The jurors were Henry Hopkins, Jay DeFeo, and Ardys Allport.  In May, 2008, she had a solo show of California Paintings at the John Wilmer Studio in Caledonia Street in Sausalito.  Her paintings can be also seen at Lady Bug Flowers on Bridgeway in Sausalito.

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

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

I have been a studio potter (member, Berkeley Potters Guild and ACCI) and pottery teacher (ASUC Studio on UC Berkeley Campus) for nearly 40 years. I have been teaching people how to hand build ceramics at the South Berkeley Senior Center through the Berkeley Adult School through much of that time. I’m enjoying the spark of new and energy this year that inspired this public showing of work by class members.

Elaine Belkind has a B.A. in Art from Brooklyn College. She studied printmaking at the Pratt Graphics Center on scholarship.  She has adapted art projects for people with disabilities as well as curating an exhibit for disabled artists at the Addison St. Window Gallery for several years.  Her work has been at small exhibitions, fairs and private collections.  Some of her subject matter of late has been influenced by the classical ballads of England, Ireland and Scotland.  She is now successfully getting her grandchildren hooked on art.

Pearline Butler is 86 years old. She is one of 9 siblings whose parents passed on when she was 6 years old. She and her sister Corinne were eventually taken in and raised by an older sister and have been together all these long years ever since. Pearline loves the South Berkeley Senior Center and the ceramic work she is doing there. She began to work with clay with such enthusiasm that she soon had an exhibit at the Center. She has made many ceramic guardian angels, which have a prominent place at home. Pearline is very religious, prays the Lord ’s Prayer every day, and goes to prayer meeting regularly.

Ranger Mud in his long career
Met grit and grime in their many forms
From slipping around in landslides
To raising swarms of worms.

His present fascination
Is with glazes, slips and clays
Which passion he is confident
Will last for many days.

He loves the grotesque creatures
Which emerge from primal mud
And wonders, were they everywhere
Before old Noah’s flood?

Matt Hammond was born in 1949. Matt says, “It was an exciting life by rules of the artist (his dad) and the dancer (his mom).” At present, one day, he deals with pottery, and the next day he deals with music. Matt has been making sculptures and sculptural vessels for many years as well as composing music.

Song by Matt H.

Everybody is a song.
Everybody is a melody.
Everybody is a songbird waiting to be heard.
From every cornier of the world,
There are different voices that express
How people feel about their lives,
Their hopes, their dreams, their happiness.
refrain:
Everybody is a song.
Everybody is a melody.
Everybody is a songbird waiting to be heard.

Leonor Hurtado is from Guatemala, but has lived in other countries which she says have enriched her with their cultures. She says she sees beauty in every element of life. This is what she tries to produce to enjoy and for others to enjoy with her. The music of Guatemala is sad. It reflects the tragedy of the peoples’ history.
In her own words:

Soy Guatemalteca y he vivido en varios paises; enriqueciendome con sus culturas. Encuentro belleza en cada elemento de la vida. Trato de reproducirla para gozar y que gocen conmigo. Amo la musica, aunque la musica de Guatemala es triste:  refleja la tragedia de nuestra historia.

Helen Jones
Sunrise Over Oakland by Helen Jones, Alan Bretz and friends Mosaic 20" x 30"