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Miriam Abramowitsch was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, the daughter of a concert pianist. Following in her father's footsteps, she devoted her life to music and has experienced a long and fulfilling career as a singer and teacher of voice. She has also had a lifelong love for color, style and texture (as a child she wanted to be a clothing designer).   Two years ago, having never before attempted any visual art medium, she became interested in felting and took a number of classes at Deep Color in Kensington.  Since then she never looked back and has been creating and selling her colorful felted scarves throughout the Bay Area and beyond.  The artist states:  “Felt is created by the alchemy of wool fiber with warm water and pure olive oil soap to produce a versatile material that ranges from spider-fine and soft to thick and strong, depending on its intended purpose. My scarves are designed in a number of different ways. Some are crafted entirely of felt made from wool, or from fiber containing wool and silk or tencel, sometimes decorated with ribbon. Others are made by felting the wool directly onto silk chiffon or fine china silk.”  You can view more of her work on her website: www.miriabra.com

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

Lili Artel’s roots are in New York City but she has flourished creatively in the East Bay area of California where she now lives in Berkeley, Ca. An octogenarian, her original intent was to be a writer, particularly of short stories.  Her fiction has appeared in anthologies, “Thursday’s Child”, “Across The Generations”, “A Baker’s Dozen”, and literary journals in California and Oregon.  Her poetry was published in the 25th Anniversary issue of “Room of One’s Own”, a Canadian feminist literary journal in 2003, making her a poet of international dimensions. A late bloomer, at fifty in the last century, she opened a second creative door to become a sculptor.  She attended art classes at the California State University, East Bay. A retrospective show of almost 40 years of art work took place Dec. 1-17, 2005 at the Sun Gallery in Hayward. Both in her art and in her writing she has marched to the beat of a different drummer.

Nora Handel Aton currently resides in the East Bay enclave that is El Cerrito, having grown up in Youngstown, Ohio, and moving to the East Coast after college. Nora lived in Boston for 14 years, moved to the beautiful island of Martha’s Vineyard and stayed for two years, and has for the past 4 years been residing in the East Bay with her husband and 5 year old daughter. In college she studied Liberal Arts, focusing on Economics and Psychology, but in the latter part of her college years began to find she had deeper interests that lay in the world of art and philosophy. She started writing poetry and essays, and gradually found her way to the camera. From there it’s been a road of experimentation and discovery to find new ways to express more fully her thoughts, feelings, concepts and ideas. Basically self-taught in the media of photography and computer graphics, Nora has gained insight and inspiration from many great artists, such as photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, and painters Picasso and Georgia O’Keefe, to name only a few. Most recently Nora has been digitally manipulating her photographs to find new meanings that lie within the inner realms. The photographs become thought-provoking dreamscapes or images that conjure the dramatic interplay of forces in life. The Artist asks: “What can you see through the contortions of a real-time photograph? Can you see the essence of Life in motion and time?” Nora has shown her work in Martha’s Vineyard and San Francisco. This is her first exhibit in the East Bay.

Eric Bird grew up in Dublin, CA, but currently lives in Berkeley. As a result of a life-changing stroke at the age of 29 (Feb, 1999), he gave up his pursuit as a professional drummer with the punk band, Workin’ Stiffs, which had toured the country and produced four notable CDs:  “Dog Tired” in 1997; “Liquid Courage” in 1998; “Through Thick and Thin” in 1999; and “Dog Tired and Then Some” in 2001.  As part of his recovery from the stroke, Eric began redirecting his artistic talents to painting thanks to the support by the Clinical Director of the Aphasia Therapy Program at Cal State University, East Bay. Having been a long-term skater since youth, his first works expressed the skateboard culture, using acrylic paints on old skateboard decks.  His art has expanded to acrylic on canvases, painting primarily in the abstract mode, using acrylics, spray paint, marking pens and sometimes adding sundry items. He continues to explore the broader and deeper reaches of his artistic expression as he pursues art as a life profession. A piece of his art work was juror-selected for the  Cal State Art Students Exhibition two years in a row; and, in each of the two years he received a distinguished award in the “Most Off the Wall” and best “Mixed Media” categories, respectively. Eric had one of his art pieces selected for the Monterey Museum of Art’s Artists’ Miniatures 2004 exhibit; and, his art filled the retail window space of 510 Skateboards in Berkeley during the month of March 2006.

Priscilla Birge, born in NewYork City and raised in New England, moved to Berkeley, California to continue her art education at the San Francisco Art Institute (then the California School of Fine Art) and U.C. Berkeley where she earned an M.A. in painting. She received her B.A. in art history and painting from Brown University before studying briefly at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.  By the end of her kindergarten year she knew she wanted to be an artist and was fortunate to attend an art-oriented high school. Birge works in multiple media including digital.  Many of her photo based images become abstracted in the creation process and live in a mixed media, shallow space environment. She works with watercolor, graphite, oil pastel, collage, assemblage, and traditional and non-traditional printmaking processes. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and she has work in private and public collections. magpie7arts.com

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 “Rauschembegr’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 retuned 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 crating new art forms that express the times.

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

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

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

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

Rinna B. Flohr lives in Oakland, California. She grew up on the East Coast in New Jersey and New York. She graduated from Syracuse University with a B. A. in theatre arts and a Masters of Social Work. She also completed a Certificate in Psychodrama at the Moreno Institute of Psychodrama in New York. She received her license as a clinical social worker and for 37 years she 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.

Chandra Garsson lives in Oakland, California. She grew up in Los Angeles, California. She has two degrees in fine art, including a Master of Fine Arts from San Jose State University, with her B.F.A. from U. C. Santa Cruz. After making perhaps two thousand or so paintings, sculptures, etchings, and mixed media works, shown nationally and internationally, Chandra has returned to an earlier and more ornamental mode, that of jewelry making. Her work has been most recently shown at Deep Roots Tea House Gallery, in Oakland. Before that, in the last show in the old space of Pro Arts Gallery (the first solo exhibition of the gallery at the time), over two hundred of Chandra Garsson’s works were shown in the exhibit, Insomnia (Awakening).  For now, after many years of work observing problems concerned with our human condition, she finds joy in the simplicity of beauteously decorating the people of our world. Artist states: “a Google search of my name and a click on my websites will confirm the radical nature of the change I have made in my work when I began making jewelry.” Her jewelry has been exhibited at Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, The Gem Gallery and Bill’s Trading Post, Berkeley, and Itsy Bitsy, Rockridge.

Tara Gill lives in Fremont, CA. She grew up on Canada's West Coast. Her interest in art began in 1997 when a camera from her mother arrived in her rural mail box. Eroded sandstone, the shadow play of foliage on the female form, and the mystical scenery of the Islands were her first inspirations. Leaving Galiano Island in 2002 to be with her now husband marked a shift not only in her physical surroundings but also in her photography. Uprooted from a semi-wild place, she at first wondered where to find inspiration in the paved suburbia of Fremont. Her current series is a testament to her belief that beauty is everywhere (and particularly so here). Artist states "Are the patterns of our past, the imprints of our experience, indelible? The creation of Botanica: Patterns of Growth revealed the answer. I came to understand how the forms revealed in nature remain constant even as our creativity reconstructs them.... and if we are to evolve we must accept what is indelible, embrace what is, and find beauty in what nature has bestowed upon us. " Tara has taught Photography Basics and Pinhole Photography through Continuing Education.  She is a graduate of Taking the Leap, a Professional Practices Program for Artists in Emeryville.  Currently she is enrolled at Chabot College with aims to receive an Associates Degree in Graphic Media Design.  Tara has received numerous awards including 1st place in a continental contest held by Ilford.  She exhibits in Canada and the US and is represented in private collections worldwide. Self-taught, she has been graced with some wonderful mentors.  She admires the work of Pentti Sammallahtti, Gregory Colbert, Michael Kenna and Georgia O'Keefe.

Michael Grbich lives in Oakland, Ca. He graduated CCAC with a Bachelor’s of Education and went on to teach High School Art for approximately 30 years. He became interested in art at the age of 5 enjoying drawing. He primarily works in mixed media now with found objects and recycled materials. Tight-rope walking and balance influence many of his images which are often inspired by dreams.  His work makes a statement about trying to balance our lives and our budgets. He uses humor and levity in his work as is seen in his image of the ironing board and iron marks which he titles: “Bored with Ironing”. He is a survivor of the Oakland firestorm and has learned to not take life too seriously and passes on this wisdom to others through his art. Recently, he was mentioned in the SF Chronicle as he tap danced his way across the Golden Gate Bridge to celebrate his 75th birthday.

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.

Denise Hart began painting the large flat rocks in front of her beached house at the lapping edge of British Columbia's rainforest when she was a young girl. Much of her schooling has been focused on gaining a scientific understanding of the natural world and on a political understanding of how we manage and interact in it, with degrees in resource management and environmental planning. She has taken many classes in watercolors, drawing, painting, landscape architecture and design. Denise began to paint full-time in 2004, first in acrylics and more recently in oils. Denise particularly enjoys exploring color as a means to express her understanding and love of the remote places she loves to frequent. In 2006, Denise received an Honorable Mention for her painting “North of Saddlebag” in the Yosemite Renaissance XXI juried exhibition. She has also shown work in juried shows at the Olive Hyde Art Gallery in Fremont, the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery at Bakersfield College,  the Sacramento Fine Arts Center, the Coastal Arts League Museum in Halfmoon Bay, the Alameda Arts Center and the Laredo Center for the Arts in Laredo, Texas. This will be Denise's fourth time exhibiting in Expressions Gallery. Previous shows included Abundance and Joy (2005/06), Amazing Blooms (2006), and Around the Globe (2006). The pieces in this exhibition show her exuberant use of swirled paint to capture the energy inherent in wave, water and plants forms.

Derek Hobbs currently living in Oakley, California, grew up in the farming community of Woodland California. With artistic parents and an appetite for creation constantly driving him, the artist always finds himself looking forward to the next canvas.  As an artist who had always prided himself on being self taught Derek had the opportunity to attend and graduate from the California College of Arts & Crafts.  Majoring in illustration the artist has turned away from the commercial world and is trying to create a niche in fine art.  The coffee & acrylic medium as well as the technique Derek has been developing since 2000, using a middle ground to work from to create some of the transparent and lighting effects have been greatly influenced by such artists as Marshall Arisman, & Barron Storey.  Some of the surreal elements have always been influenced by Salvador Dahli. Commonly asked about the recipe, process, and brand of coffee used the artist will often reply “What kind of coffee do you use?”

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 had the privilege of attending one of the original Bay Area "Free" Schools, Pinel, of the 60's where she was able to create artwork to her hearts content.  At Pinel and later living in Berkeley as a teenager, she was immersed in the Psychedelic culture of the era. This influence has manifested itself in her current abstract digital video work that is featured in this exhibit.  Melanie's digital video work was also featured during the Shotgun Players performance of Arabian Night in the spring of 2005. The play, including references to the projected artwork by Melanie, received favorable reviews in Bay Area newspapers that included the San Francisco Chronicle. In other mediums, 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. In addition to her digital video work, Melanie is showing prints and Italian Charm bracelets in this exhibit. Custom Italian Charm bracelets are available by special order through the gallery.

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."

Carolyn Jones resides in Marin County, CA. Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, Carolyn obtained a degree in nursing in 1974. It was when she moved to Colorado that she purchased her first single lens reflex camera and pursued photography. In 1996, lured by the dream of ocean sailing, she moved to Sausalito, California. In 2000, Carolyn retired from the nursing profession and began to formally pursue private instruction and a career in photography. “My art is about dancing with light… finding it, feeling it and living in it,” says Carolyn. Carolyn has had several solo shows in Northern California and has been published in several art publications. Carolyn’s abstracts have been awarded first and second place and a curator’s choice award in three on-line international shows. Her gates series is reflective of a journey through the bars of the heart and mind into the light, while her abstract images are symbolic of her discovery of the light and magic which is in and around us all. To achieve the abstract images, Carolyn constructs an environment in her studio and photographs, in macro mode, the energy of light as it is shined through glass. The beach scenes you see displayed are actually photographs of white light through a series of colored vases. She continues to experiment with the interaction of light and glass, and her quest for unique gates.

Steven Levinson is a professor of media production in Monterey, California. He has a BA in Fine Arts and an MA in Broadcasting - both from San Francisco State University. He works in clay and emphasizes textures, making bowls, vases, masks and wall hangings. Instead of forcing a texture onto the clay, he slowly and carefully works with the clay, so that the clay cracks - in effect, texturing itself. The resulting textures appear organic and earthlike - reminiscent of tree bark and dry riverbeds. He rarely uses glaze, as that would soften and hide the texture. He appreciates the natural beauty of the clay and uses stains and oxides that enhance the texture of the pieces. His primary interests are how texture can accentuate emotion and how the clay collaborates in the artistic process because the quality and responsiveness of the clay material strongly affect the look of the completed pieces.

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 Cerito at the Tassajara Studio to a great group of students.

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 have fun decorating hats and t-shirts using fabric paints.”

Doris Villadsen Mendell is a Piedmont, California native, now living in Albany. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Art from the University of California, Berkeley. She studied also at Mills College on a fellowship, whereby she assisted teaching Art. She is now retired from teaching stitchery at the former Vista College and ceramics, stitchery, painting, block printing and other subjects at the Berkeley Adult School. She has done drawing, ceramics and stitching throughout her life but has only recently resumed painting. These particular paintings were inspired by reflections and light at the Berkeley Doubletree Hotel fitness center where she swims. Her 2007 shows have been through the auspices of the El Cerrito Art Association:  a one-woman show at the El Cerrito Library, the El Cerrito Department of Motor Vehicles and the El Cerrito Association's annual where she earned three awards.

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’.”

Judith Mortensen currently resides in Oakland. Initially from the Minnesota, and except for short stays in Los Angeles and Norfolk, Virginia she has lived most of her life in Northern California. She began her career as a physical therapist, graduating from UCSF but when her children began school Judith started school again, too. She enrolled at CCA and studied painting part time until she earned her degree. Many years later she continues to paint and to continue her studies. She has shown her work at LA Artcore and at the University of Oregon. She recently won "best of show" award at Frank Bett gallery in Alameda. Her current work is an expression that evolves from the impact of visual stimulation i.e. the phenomena of the physical environment,  and of social and cultural influences. A big part is the process itself which results in a pictorial manifestation of the internalization of those influences combined "with my own neocortical hardwiring".

Gabriela Nunez moved to the East Bay in her late teens. She was born and raised in Lima, Peru. Since she was young had love for art. After she arrived in the Bay area, she began to appreciate her culture to a greater extent. All her paintings are inspiration of the Peruvian indigenous women. She obtained most of her art training at Contra Costa College and Laney College. Gabriela has been greatly influenced by Diego Rivera and Vincent Van Goth, who both use brilliant colors and giving movement in her brush strokes. She likes Diego Rivera because he also painted native Mexican.  Gabriela uses different mediums to express herself. She paints with oils, acrylics and water colors. Her favorite medium is colored pencils. Today, she is learning the art of print making and has made several etching and block prints. She has shown her work at the Peruvian Consulate, San Francisco; Galeria Tonantzin, San Juan Bautista; La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley and Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco.

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.”

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

Betsy Rick is a residential interior designer and fiber artist living in the San Francisco Bay Area, originally from Boston. She began weaving in the 1970’s and has exhibited in galleries and at craft fairs. She created a line of pillows and blankets sold at the San Francisco Design Center. Betsy has served on the Board and as President of The Marin Interior Designers’ Association, and has served as Vice President/Marin of the Wine Country Chapter of the Interior Design Society, of which she is an Associate Member. She has won many awards for her design work. As an artist, Betsy is self-taught. She is inspired by the pioneering spirit and the work of artist Louise Nevelson to utilize the process of assemblage to create pieces both abstract and dimensional that retain the messages of their varied and individual shapes and found materials. Betsy’s wall hangings reflect both literally and figuratively her interest in color and light and bring not only joyous color but also texture, pattern, movement and dimension to a room. The use of Mylar reflects light, bringing a twinkle to the spaces where they hang.  Visit her website, www.betsyrickinteriors.com

Christine M. Rossi lives in Berkeley, CA and has been an artist for most of her life. Christine studied costume and stage design at SUNY Binghamton, illustration and color theory through the UC Berkeley Extension Programs but is mostly self-taught in the use of oils, casein and encaustic paint. She recently branched into photography and mixes photographic images within her pieces through collage and digital manipulation. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1980,  She began working as an architectural model builder and illustrator for a San Francisco architectural firm.  She branched out into creating illustrations, two and three dimensional, as well as models throughout the 80’s and into the early 90’s.  She started painting in 2005 after a twelve-year hiatus in which she pursued other interests. After being diagnosed with cancer last year her focus has taken on a new urgency and direction.  History, both personal family and the larger human legacy, has drawn her attention.  “Creating has become tuned to preserving the every day life of those that preceded me, capturing a day in human history, or telling a story through the imagery of the land and human interaction. My work is indicative of my love of the human form and the form of the Northern California land, particularly the hills of the East Bay.  I primarily work in oils and encaustic medium but also use acrylic when the subject matter needs to be addressed in mixed mediums and becomes more illustrative in nature as in the “A Day” series.”

Jane Sommerhauser -Oakland California -Born somewhere in Virginia, Jane was adopted by a military family and her childhood was divided by continuous travel between Woodbridge Virginia and Southern California. With her fathers work bench at her disposal she began to teach herself to draw and later to dismantle and reassemble household appliances and construct objects with scrap wood. She began her studies in fine art at Cal State Fullerton and in 1989 she moved to San Francisco. Her course work at City College of San Francisco has placed her on the Dean's List and in the Honors Program. Currently she is attending Laney College in Oakland and continuing studies in Sculpture, Woodworking, Welding, Gallery Management and Photography. Jane has participated in several group exhibitions in San Francisco and Oakland. Currently she is working on a series of metal sculptures and several mixed media projects which explore three dimension form.

Chaya Spector was born in The Bronx. She is a self taught Photographer and mixed media artist living in Oakland for the past 25 years. Nature has been a primary source for her images, being drawn in by the many colors and textures. Whether photographing nature, people, she fills her frame with both nuance and simplicity. Her newer mixed media works on canvas offer us a moment to stop and ponder. Chaya has shown her work in Ithaca New York, SF and Oakland having had pieces at the California Modern Gallery in SF,State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca, NY, the Napa Library, Go West, Richmond Art Center and SomArts, as well as various Cafes in the bay area. Her work has been published in Birders World 2004, Cal Photo Journal of Photography and on the www.magnoliacloudforest.com website, and www.cittiproject.org website.  You can see more of her work at: www.redeyephoto.com.

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

Ryoko Tajiri lives in San Francisco. She was born and grew up in Japan. She received a master degree from Academy of Art University in San Francisco and is an upcoming artist.  Her style is reminiscent of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. Her concept comes from both abstract and representative painting; in her painting she takes from the two disciplines. One can easily recognize the figure, but she relies more heavily on abstract. She enjoys finding the abstract patterns and shapes in any environment. She uses the figure, shapes, and colors to evoke the viewer’s personal feelings. She recently had a solo show at Art Foundry Gallery in Sacramento. Her art works were shown at galleries and museums in California, New York, New Mexico and Japan. Her monotype and painting were selected in The Artist Magazine and received prizes of one’s competition in 2006 among of thousands art works.

Vladimir Vitkovsky was born in Leningrad, Russia. He now lives in San Francisco. From his humble Russian beginnings, he has never wavered from, nor lost touch with his roots, his family and his country. He studied art at the St. Petersburg Pedagogical School of Art and Graphics, the Mukhina School of Art & Design and attended painting classes at the Repin Academy of Painting, Sculpture & Graphics. Vladimir enjoys working in several mediums that include, oil, ink, pastel and collage. He is showing two bold and penetrating abstract oil paintings in this exhibition. He incorporates a "splattered paint" technique in his work that is used as a counterpoint representing the elements of chance and the irrational in human experience. Vladimir is the 1992 first place prizewinner at the Boston Copley Association of Artists. He has gotten honorable mentions at the 1994, 1995 and 1996 juried group exhibitions in Europe, as well as a Gold Medal in Sweden at the International Art Competition in 1995. His works appear in private collections worldwide. His patrons include the Most Reverend Aloysius Ambrozic, the Archbishop of Toronto, and the Dupont family.

DJ Whelan is the survivor of nomadic hippie parents that traveled throughout the U.S. during the sixties and seventies. After 42 residences, somehow 13 years ago she landed on the west coast and is currently a Berkeley resident. Her
family, childhood and itchy feet greatly informed the work she was destined to make. All forms of creativity were encouraged, but collage, assemblage, construction and environmental art have always been her primary means of self-expression, along with writing and embellishment. The work exhibited in this show illustrates her inclination towards the layering of life’s tiny yet significant details.

Robert Wolff, a bay area native grew up in Alameda and now lives in   Hayward. Before graduating from Long Beach State University, he served as a Marine in the Korean War. He then began a 25 year career as a High School art instructor in the Oakland School District attending Arts and Crafts College in the evenings. He and his wife were in the yogurt/ice creams business for 15 years before he retired in 1997 to devote more time to his art work. Robert's first major art exhibit was in 1956 at the Kramer Gallery on  La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles. He opened his own gallery on Foothill Blvd. in San Leandro, CA when he first started teaching. This was short lived as the property was bought to build the 580 freeway. Mr. Wolff now exhibits in Hayward galleries and the Adobe Gallery in Castro Valley. He participated in the open- studio exhibits in Hayward in 2006 and 07 where he exhibited from his home studio. The Hayward Sun Gallery will be featuring his woodcut prints in September, 2008. Beside woodcuts, he expresses himself in wire sculpture, watercolor, and acrylic painting. He attends life drawing classes Mondays and Thursdays at the Adobe Art center in Castro Valley. He is currently working on a recycling sculpture for a man who works for an environmental agency. German Expressionist painters and woodcut artists are his biggest motivators.

Marilyn Wylder, an ex-patriate New Yorker, now lives in San Francisco. With degrees in English and Creative Writing with an emphasis in Linguistics, she first became serious about a career in art in 2003, studying with Diane Olivier, Sharon Pierson, and Doug Restivo at SF City College. She creates works-on-paper using mixed media. Favorite subjects include the face and figure (“what is more interesting than the human condition?”) and cityscapes, like the two in this exhibition. She takes many snapshots around the city – using the photo as a springboard for invention. The cityscapes are quasi-realistic, hinting that someone has just left or might step from a shadow. The drawing hints at a story, open to the viewer’s imagination. Ms. Wylder’s inspirations include Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Tiepolo, Matisse, and Picasso.

Barbara Joan Tiger Bass received her MFA from Mills College (‘03) and her BA from Sarah Lawrence College (‘82).  She is a published writer and private creative writing teacher through her business, Enjoy Learning.    Her poetry has appeared in the anthologies Alternatives to Surrender, the Patterson Review, Peralta Press, VeRT and LiteraryMama.  Her children’s musical, Kochka, was performed in Sacramento and Davis in 2006.  She lives and works in Oakland, California.

Remi Barron is a local actor who  has appeared in Plays with the Shotgun Players in Berkeley, Pangs Theatre Ensemble, in Golden Gate Park, The Deer Hill Players at Ft Mason, The North Bay Shakespeare Company in Stinson Beach and Novato and with the Town Hall Theatre Group in Layfayette and others.

Miriam Chase is a Bronx native who has had the fortunate opportunity of living in Connecticut, Detroit, and Paris before moving to San Francisco 18 years ago. As a child she remembers telling fantastical stories that riveted her elementary school classes-mates as well as writing stories that her mother would put to type. She says, ‘that later, as a young adult, and continuing to the present, poetry writing became a way of expressing my internal emotional life which helped me to clarify my thoughts about the world and my place in it. The writing of James Dickey, in particular his poem,’ Falling” focused me towards writing about life in a realistic manner”. To-night she will be reading some of her original works that span some twenty odd years, some of which are auto-biographical, others political, and still others that  are just plane whimsy. Additionally, Miriam has been a working actor for the past number of years having played Grandma Kurnitz in’ Lost in Yonkers”, Palace St. John in ‘Approaching Zanzibar” as well as doing studio scene work as Mother Superior in’ Agnes of God”, Mrs. Lind from ‘A Doll’s House”. This past summer Miriam studied at ACT Summer Training Congress performing scenes from ‘Collected Stories” as Ruth, and worked on a Pinter piece ‘Mrs. A”. Tonight she and Remi Barron will be doing an excerpted staged reading from Lovers & Other Strangers by Joseph Blogona and Renee Taylor. The scene is called Johnny and Wilma that was first presented as a Showcase production at the Phoenix Theatre, directed and staged by Bobby Wimple of Seydways Studios; they hope you enjoy this evening’s performance.

Morton Felix was born in new York City in 1935. he holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut. His fourth book of poetry, Gathering the Grace of Others, has recently been released by Beatidude Press. He received a fellowship in playwriting to the Squaw Valley Writers Conference, where his play This Side of Felony was showcased. The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco produced A Palette of Leaves in their Plays in Progress Series. He is putting together a new poetry book, The Lilacs of Yearning.

Barbara Hazard has lived in Berkeley for thirty years. She grew up in suburban Long Island but lived at times in New York City, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Illinois, Virginia, and Connecticut. Two additional socio-geographical influences on her poetry and her painting, which she considers her main occupation, are St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River: she spends her summers working in both places with friends and family. Hazard attended Swarthmore College, Columbia University, University of California at Berkeley, and eventually, three children in tow, graduated from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in graphic arts. She added a Masters Degree in art therapy at San Francisco State. She began taking her poetry seriously ten years ago, thanks to the encouragement of John Fox, poetry therapist and director of The Institute for Poetic Medicine. She describes her work in painting, poetry, and cooking as Intuitive/Expressionist, “You check in the refrigerator to see what’s there and try to make something elegant out of it.”

Donna Lane is a native San Franciscan, now living in the East Bay, who has been involved in the Bay Area poetry scene since the early  1970's.  Her book, "Where I Live" by RawArtPress that is going into it's second printing.  Her poetry has appeared in The New York Quarterly, Onthebus, Pegasus, The Haight Ashbury Journal, and several anthologies.  Her personal essays have appeared in The S.F. Bay Guardian, The S.F. Chronicle and the S.F. Examiner since 1991.She will read from a number of these works.

John Mallon who is one of our artists also enjoys poetry. He enjoys having fun and he has fun with poetry using Sesame Street characters in rhymes that poke fun at how we live and do things. He grew up in the East Bay Area being born in Oakland, his present residence.

Steve Martinot lives in the East Bay. He states, “I have been a machinist, truck driver, union organizer, human rights activist, university lecturer, philosopher, and historian.” He is the author of Forms in the Abyss and The Rule of Racialization:Class; Identity and Governance (Temple), editor of two previous books, and translator of Racism by Albert Memmi. He has written extensively on Sartre and his relation to other continental philosophers. He will be reading from his poetry at Expressions Gallery. He states, “My poetry is the music that runs through the foundation of all this. When I write poetry, I hear Coltrane in the back of my mind, and the words come out and tell me who they are in that music.”

David Melloy grew up in San Francisco and currently lives in Oakland, California. He became interested in writing poetry over 30 years ago when, after creating a poem for a twelfth grade class, he was accused of plagiarism. Taking this to be a backhanded reference to the excellence of the piece he went on to become a denizen of coffee houses where he has seen fit to jot down his musings and observations. Of his almost exclusive use of napkins upon which he records his work he states: “The napkins are an integral part of the café’s environment. I am including a physical part of the café in the work.” It has been said of David’s poetry that it has a zen-like quality and, indeed, he finds much of his inspiration in the great haiku poets such as Bashō, Buson, and Issa. Of the other great poets he has found Shakespeare, Naruda, Frost, Rilke, and Cummings to be the most influential. His poems have been published in the Sonoma Mandala volumes 19, 20, and 21 and in his chapbook December 9th to 14th napkins. David will be reading the poetry he created in December 2007 and January 2008.

Jerry Ratch lives in Oakland with his wife, artist Sherry Karver. He was born and raised in Chicago and has a BA from U. of Illinois at Chicago and an MFA from U.C. Irvine. He started writing at the age of 19 after his first failed love, when he began writing for his life. Early influences were Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, and T.S. Eliot. His first published book of poetry was PUPPET X, written years before the advent of Gen X and published in 1974. A Selected Poems entitled HOT WEATHER was issued in 1982. He has published 12 books of poetry so far, as well as the novel, WILD DREAMS OF REALITY, about which Richard Ford said: “The almost, but not quite innocent directness of Ratch’s savvy little novel is irresistible to me. I read it in a sitting. I’m glad real writers still want to write books this way.” He is currently writing the prequel to that book, a novel entitled: BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS. He will be reading a number of poems from a new manuscript entitled: A SMALL GLASS OF LAUGHTER. Some of his books can be found through his website www.jerryratch.com. Some newer works have been posted recently on authornation.com/jerryratch. Books may be purchased directly from the author. Inquiries are warmly welcome.

Stanford Rose is a photographer who has shown at Expressions Gallery before and has some works in the current show and he is also writes poetry.  He states, “About ten years ago I was walking on a foggy beach in northern California when a poem popped into my head vividly describing the scene as I felt it.  This was surprising, since I never had any interest in nor had studied poetry.  So I began a study of poetry, trying to figure what it was all about.  I never did.  I like best what Borges called it—magical writing.  The Greeks attributed it to the workings of a Muse, and that’s good with me, as I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a poet.  Meanwhile the poems keep popping, two or three a month.” 

Paul Watsky lives and works in San Francisco. He grew up in New York City and began writing poetry when he was in high school. Although he earned a doctoral degree in English and taught for five years at San Francisco State University, he has had little formal training in the craft of poetry. Among the many influences on his work are Shakespeare, Swift, and Wallace Stevens. His forthcoming reading will include selections from his book manuscript Counterofferings, newerpoems, haiku, andcotranslations from Chinese and Japanese. He is cotranslator with Emiko Miyashita of Santoka (Tokyo, PIE Books, 2006), and his poems have appeared in various journals, including Poetry Flash, The Cream City Review, and onthebus.

(N-Side aka Norman Woods) - poetry
Mandy Flowers - upright bass
Si Perkoff - Electric Piano
Who is this N-Side? I never heard of him? Where did he come from?
N-Side aka Norman Woods is a performing jazz/poet, screenwriter and music publisher from the S.F. Bay area. A native of Berkeley, CA., he has always had aspiration to express himself artistically and has always supported the arts in some way emotionally, financially and resourcefully. N-Side's poetry covers a variety of subjects ranging from education to hope and healing to personal empowerment. With his band “the tribe” He describes his concept to be modeled as if Red Garland, Donald Byrd, Roy Haynes and Langston Hughes got together and jammed. N-Side’s work, was first introduced on his compilation CD: “Three Voices from the N-Side”. After receiving numerous compliments, it was time to release a full CD. In the semi-documentary style CD: “Jazz Opera” which features N-Side’s poetry, backed by “outside” jazz from early-recorded sessions and valued commentary of legendary drummer William “Smiley” Winters and Ed Kelly. Influenced by his favorite artist listed above as well as Gil Scott-Heron, Sekou Sundiata and his favorite poet, Kamau Da’aood plus hard work, the N-Side sound brings to you a beautiful example of the symbiotic relationship between poetry and jazz music.  Other N-Side projects: “A softer view from the N-Side” (classic jazz) CD and “Just a broke brotha’ tryin’ to come up!” (neo-soul, nu-jazz)CD, video

So let me welcome you to the N-Side