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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.” 

Elke Behrens is a local artist whose paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries in the Bay Area as well as in Santa Fe, Germany, Switzerland and Singapore. Behrens has studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of Arts and Crafts and the Cecil Graves Studio in Florence, Italy. Her work is internationally recognized and has been purchased by collectors from 17 states and 8 countries world-wide. Some of her collectors include The Honorable George Seymore from Canada/Singapore, Thomas Horn, former President of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, and Sultan Hassanal of Brunei. Her work can currently be viewed at the 4th Street Studio in Berkeley, CA, the MOMA Artist Gallery in San Francisco and the Fine Eye Gallery in Sutter Creek, CA. She has been mentioned in a number of publications and reviews such as Focus Magazine, Santa Fe, 2001; Contemporary Women Artists Engagement Calender, 1998; Hamburger Staatszeitung, Hamburg, Germany, 1993; Artspeak, New York, 1984 and Strait Times, Singapore, 1983.

Helen Breger currently lives in Berkeley, Ca.  She has a MFA and a long and varied career in the arts.  She spent many years as a fashion illustrator and artist at a time when illustration not fashion ruled the fashion world.  She also did sketches for the Chronical features on prominent poets and writers.  Later, she taught art as part of the faculty at UC Berkeley and California College of Arts where she taught for 27 years before retiring in 1987.  She is now 90 years old and still going strong making monoprints in a newer more abstract style which are on exhibit at Expressions Gallery.  “I love my work”, she says, “Working is not pure joy because sometimes it’s such a struggle.  But, I get from art a great solace, a solace that helps one get over the kinds of things that can happen in life,.”  Helen is a survivor of the holocaust in Germany.  She is one of the lucky ones. Of her mother’s 13 siblings who stayed behind, nine were exterminated by the Nazi’s.  Her story as recorded by the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, recalls having her body cavities searched by the German agents at the Dutch border on the train to Holland and being interned in a camp in Trinidad for five years. For Helen, here Art has given her the peace and solace to go on and find new beginnings and new hope despite huge obstacles and life experiences.

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

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

Nancy Calef was born in Bronx, New York. She 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 since continued to paint and exhibit in national and international 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 shape her understanding of the cultural and spiritual diversity of the world landscape.  Capturing the changing light and rich colors of many unique tropical surroundings, Nancy’s work illustrates her fascination with the complications inherent to beautiful vistas. “Art is a universal language, as I've carried my paints around the world working in plein air to capture its wonders. This is a meditative and instructional process forcing me to observe with a sharper eye in preparation for my peoplescapes, which, paradoxically, are created from my imagination.”

Hagit Cohen is an imaging artist who works primarily with digital image manipulation, using divers source materials such as paintings, sculptural objects and photographs. She is drawn to communicate her own inner reality through layering of images and meaning, creating poetic visual constructions that express her feeling about the world around her. Hagit holds a BA in Photography and Art History from State Art Teacher Training College in Israel, and an MFA in Imaging Arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she also taught fine art photography for several years. Upon completion of studies at Rochester, she developed her career in interactive multimedia as an illustrator, art director and producer. She participated extensively in high value productions of interactive educational games. Ms. Cohen has exhibited her artwork in Tel Aviv, Rochester NY, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and at the Judah Magnes Museum in Berkeley. Her images have appeared in New Media Magazine, Computer Artist, On Line Design, The Color Mac, I.D. Magazine and others. The image Ritual, shown here, expresses beauty and hope in the midst of violence. The exaggerated digital look of the image has tapestry like quality, which contributes to the contradiction of the subject matter.

Zwanda Cook is a Bay Area Artist who expresses herself through dance and creating sculptures. She works in clay, plaster, paper mache, and recycled objects.  Her artwork represents her inner spirit as well as her passion for the human figure, music and dance. She has a background as an artist model as well as a dancer and costume maker.  Her exposure to music, as well as coming from a very artistic family,  influenced her interest in art and selection of the human form and dance as the subject of her art series called the Dancer Series.  Zwanda attended College of Alameda, College of Marin, and San Francisco State University.  She has studied with various Bay Area Sculptors.  Her work has shown at Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, CA, Marin County Fair, College of Marin, Marin Civic Center, Finley Art Center in Santa Rosa, CA, Treasure Island, Richmond Art Center, and Expressions Gallery in Berkeley, CA.  She is the Educational Coordinator at Expressions Gallery.

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.

Cordelia DeVere lives in Richmond Annex and has traveled and lived throughout the U.S. She was born in Hollywood Calif and spent her early years in the L.A. area. Art was always a part of her life as both her grandmother ( a painter ) and her mother ( a sculptor ) were influential in her early years. Cordelia has worked in many mediums ( mosaic furniture, clay, glass, garden art, and painting ) but now has a passion for fiber art. Her day job as a designer and home stager got her interested in the idea of recycling and repurposing material and scraps of all kinds .On a visit to her friend Giselle's studio she picked up all types of scrap fabric and yarn , then a few trips to the Repo Depo ( East bay depo for creative reuse ) and the Gizzy doll was born. Each doll is handmade and is one of a kind. As they are being made each dolls individual personality begins to emerge, sometimes with unexpected results. This is the first show that that the dolls have participated in and they are proud to make their debut here at Expressions Gallery.

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

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.

Catherine Framm is from the Bay Area and now resides in Berlin, Germany. Painting and drawing have always been an integral part of her life as long as she can remember.  She studied Art and Music at Holy Names College and later studied advanced piano with Julian White and drawing with Carole Peel. Both in her music and in art the process itself is paramount and is conveyed in the final product, both in the performance of a particular piece of music at a particular moment in time, as well as in the artwork, the meaning of which is also dependent on the viewer and the time and circumstances of viewing. Framm works in watercolor, using glaze over glaze, sometimes as many as ten layers - finding, choosing, and again finding the images as they grow out of the play of colors. Her pencil drawings can be dynamic rushes of energy on the page, fluid and delightful. The drawings can also be slow and meditative, often filled with humor and irony. “Starting with a blank canvas I like to let the colors and forms guide me into giving birth to that which I did not know before. There is always the element of surprise and wonder as I allow something to emerge and at the same time actually form that which is emerging. Where is the interface between these two processes? Finding this place means striving for a state of being that is synchronized completely with the Now.”

Simone Guimaraes currently lives in San Francisco, where she has resided since she was 19 years old.  She was born in Minas Gerais, Brazil and displayed a natural talent for art from the age of seven.  Currently Simone is Majoring in Art at the City College of San Francisco.  One of the artists that inspire Simone is Frida Kahlo, in fact her art Instructor Rick Rodrigues has commented on this, calling her in class, “the next Frida Kahlo”.  She also finds inspiration from Joseph Cornell, the American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage.
Her medium for expression is Acrylic with Mixed Media, such as used CD’s, scrap wood, paper, beach glass and other items.  This particular Art Show she concentrated using Acrylic with cloth.  She has been on constant display at the San Francisco Office of Housing since 2006. She has also participated in a collaborative piece that was shown at the De Young museum during the Gilbert & George college night.  To quote the artist, “My artwork is a very organic style. By using different mixed media, bright and exciting colors and also incorporating natural items like shells, beads and fabrics I believe it gives lots of energy.”  She wants everyone to see in her painting a celebration of life and festival of dance.

Takuro Hashitaka was Born in Kanazawa, Japan and is currently living in San Francisco, Ca.  In 2005 he became involved with the Burning Man fire & metal artists community. After an introduction from Chris Simonini, Takuro taught himself, or rather, found his own lessons from the experienced metal workers through the projects for Burning Man ‘06, and '07, respectively called "Leaping Giants" and "Crude Awakening". Fascinated by the material, industrial tools and equipments, he learned to see them as one would see a pencil and notebook, which were his favorite drawing toys to avoid falling asleep during classes in his childhood. "Art is not what we make nor what we do, but what we are in the moment. Until the day I find out how to always be, I am, I don't consider myself an artist. However, the product of his effort is indeed Art.”

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 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.

Norma Piantanesi Kaline was born into an artistic Italian family in Chicago, Illinois during the depression. She now lives in San Francisco. Her father was a musician and accordion manufacturer who exposed the family to culture, and cultivated artistic sensibilities. In her grammar school studies under the WPA, Norma worked in charcoal drawing with Willard Best, a well known sculptor. She was an art major in high school and also participated in Modern Dance and Theatre. During WWII, she and her family moved to San Francisco. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute, taking painting and drawing. After the war, she received an Associate of Arts degree from City College. She credits her instructor, Richard Allman as being a strong influence on her and her studies. Norma married and while raising a family she continued to take classes in SF and helped her husband run his business. During the late 60’s, Norma chaired and coordinated Adult Art Education classes for the San Francisco Civic Center Art Exhibits. For a short time, she was a member of the San Francisco State University Dance workshop participating in performance and doing choreography as well. Currently, Norma is a member of the Marin Society of Artists and on the Board of Directors and Artist Council for the San Francisco Women Artists. She has exhibited her work in venues in San Francisco, Fort Mason, Virginia City and Novato.

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.

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.

Tony Lee started his passion with photography as a young teen in San Francisco where he was born and raised, and where he lives now after returning to the Bay Area, after 15 years living in southern Spain. Self-taught in photography and darkroom techniques, he now carries his vision to the digital format. His work has been shown extensively throughout Andalucia, Spain, and has collaborated in creating exclusive images which are now part of the permanent collection in the Barcelona Erotica Museum, Spain. His work has been shown in Karlstad, Sweden and most recently in Eugene, Oregon. Selected work was also previously featured in the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival. There isn’t one aspect of life or of the world that Tony does not capture through his cameras; rather, he does not limit himself to any one style nor subject. The various scenes show here were captured as part of documenting the Ballet Fantastique of Eugene, Oregon during a live performance at the Hult Center, and the excitement and intensity of long hours rehearsing by the Loong Mah Sing See Wui Dragon Horses Lion Dance group involved in performing their dragon and lion dances during the San Francisco Chinese Years celebrations. www. fototaker.net

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.

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.

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

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

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

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. 

David Miller is a Berkeley painter who has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life. His formal education and training was as an electronics engineer. In high school, he took a correspondence class in art and when he finished engineering school he studied with the Berkeley and New York artist Joan Finton for a couple of years. The gap between his aspirations and skills overwhelmed him, and he stopped studying art.  After wandering in a creative desert for 20 years, Art grabbed him by the throat and would not be denied. He began taking classes wherever he could find them. Teachers who have influenced his work include Joan Finton, Connie Smith-Siegel, Larry Robinson, Glenn Hirsch, and Jane Rosen. Current explorations include the landscapes of California.  As an avid hiker and bicyclist, he states that he “can never get enough of the exquisitely beautiful and varied terrain of California,”  and he paints plein air as often as possible. He also paints other themes that the muses suggest.  He primarily paints in oils, and follows the advice of Apelles of Cos (painter to Alexander the Great), “no day without a line.”  His work has appeared in a national juried show at the Berkeley Art Center.

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.

Le Duong  is a famous Vietnamese painter who has painted Danny Quynh Nguyễn and his dance troupe. Danny is donating these paintings to raise money for several orphanage organizations in Vietnam. Danny is a pioneer – the first Vietnamese modern dancer, teacher, and choreographer in the United States to receive his B.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from California Institute of The Arts and his M.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from Mills College.  In early spring of 1999, Mr. Nguyễn was recognized as one of the seven best, creative choreographers in the San Francisco Bay Area by Paul Taylor, who came to San Francisco to present this special award. Nguyễn Dance Company was also formed in June, 1999 by Danny Nguyễn. In 2005, Mr. Nguyễn and NDC were selected to participate in the 27th International Choreographers Showcase in Paris. They were also invited to teach Modern Dance workshops and present his choreography in Vietnam at the Vietnam Disabled Children’s Aid Association, the Hồ Chí Minh Ballet, and the Bong Sen Dance Company. Ashley James, Searchlight Films, is currently in the process of finishing a documentary about Mr. Nguyễn. Building a small school for the orphans in Vietnam where he can teach them what he is passionate about – dance – is Mr. Nguyễn’s dream. He has traveled to Vietnam fours years in a row to teach dance and distribute gifts and toys to the orphans. Please visit dannydancers.org to read more about NDC’s trips to Vietnam. All of proceeds from the sale of these paintings will be donated to several orphanage organizations in Vietnam.

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).

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

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

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.”

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.

Wynette Weaver, RN, BS, currently living in Albany, was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah at the foot of the magnificent Wasatch Mt, Range to the East and a vista stretching to the horizon in the West. After receiving the usual brownie camera at age 11, Wynette took out a bank loan to buy a “good” camera in order to take better pictures. She became curious about what was on the otherside of the Wastch Moutains so as soon as she could drive, she took off down the winding, narrow mountain road to find out. Her love of photography and travel blended seamlessly. Wynette seeks to take a scene from daily life and convey that atmosphere for vicarious enjoyment. When digital imaging became available, she recognized the infinite possibilities for more deeply conveying the mood and sense of the place through color and technical work with the basic photo. She has taken a number of photography and art courses, entered many shows, won prizes, sold images, and published photos in travel brochures and articles. Her most recent journey to Australia, New Zealand and McLeond Ganj, home of the Dali Lama, produced 120 images entitled “ The Tibetan Buddhist Way” , shown at the 2006 Pro Arts Open Studios Tours. She presents on piece from this collection of dancing for this show.

Harry Weisburd was born in New York City and now lives in the East Bay in California. His art education includes graduating Parsons School of Design, New York City and the California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, Ca. He holds a BFA and MFA degree.  Mr. Weisburd was a Professor of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Ct. where he taught painting, drawing and color theory. He taught sculpture as a Professor of Art, Westfield State College, Westfield, Mass.  Mr. Weisburd exhibited his paintings, drawings and sculpture in art galleries nationally including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, Washington.
Mr. Weisburd's art is in numerous public and private collections including the Bank of America, Executive Offices, Santa Clara, Ca., American Savings and Loan Association, San Francisco, Ca., Holiday Inns, San Francisco, Ca.
and in the private collections of Mr. Robert Lehan, award winning playwrite and Mr. Jerry Rojo, award winning, stage designer. He was commissioned for 20 landscape paintings for Benchmark Restaurant, Westin Hotels, and San Francisco Airport and for 14 landscape paintings for South Coast Plaza, Orange County, Ca. Mr. Weisburd is listed in Who’s Who in the West,1997 and 1998.

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

Robert Wolff, a bay area native grew up in Alameda and now lives in   Hayward. Before graduating from Long Beach State University, he served as a Marine in the Korean War. He then began a 25 year career as a High School art instructor in the Oakland School District attending Arts and Crafts 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.

Tati Argue's formal dance training began with ballet under Oakland's Raoul Pause at age 4. She subsequently studied jazz, modern, Elizabethan court dancing and other genres in studio settings. Tati's "training" in Hip Hop began with watching Soul Train in the 1960s, continued in the playgrounds and cafeterias of Berkeley public schools
during the 1970s, and was refined at numerous nightclubs and house parties in the 1980s. Her formal training began in 1997 with veteran instructor Aarin Burch at the Berkeley YMCA, where Tati has also taught since 2002.

Barbara Framm was born in Duesseldorf, Germany and grew up in the Bay Area. Even as a small child movement and dance were her innate forms of expression. She went on to study Bharata Natyam and Odissi, classical dance styles of India, and has spent her life moving between her two homes: India and United States. A yoga practitioner and teacher, she draws on several disciplines in her creative work, seeking a synthesis of music, movement and spirit. She has a B.A. in South Asian Studies from U.C.Berkeley, and was the recipient of a Performing Arts Fellowship through the Smithsonian/AIIS. In 2003 she completed the documentary “The Golden Thread: From Kalakshetra to California” on the lives of her dance teachers K.P. and Katherine Kunhiraman. She is the Director of "Saraswati Kala Nilaya", school for Indian dance.

"Music is the matrix out of which my movement emerges. After a lifetime of immersion in the ancient traditions of classical Indian dance, I find joy in letting inspiration arise out of other forms of music. As the movement unfolds I allow my body to become a channel for the numinous."

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.

Lucy Lewis grew up in Los Angeles, Ca. Her love of dance began at an early age.  She began her formal study at the age of 10 with ballet, and modern dance.  She studied with Bella Lewitsky and Masami Kuni, and Murray Louis before coming to San Francisco State College. There she met John Graham and began performing with Anna Halprin, The Dancer’s Workshop, in the 1960’s.  She has lived and worked in the Bay Area ever since. She created her own company bringing together artists, musicians and dancers, in what were some of the first multimedia productions in the Bay Area.  She incorporated masks, inspiration from the elements of nature, animals and dreams into her work. Producing full length compositions, Dreamscapes (1985), at the Matrix Gallery and Between two Worlds (1998) and many shorter pieces, The Planets, Waters of Life (2006), The Voices  of Earth (2007). For the last eight years she has collaborated with light artist and painter, T. Scott Sayre. In 2000 she returned to her other great love of painting the figure and has been including  painting in her work.

Eve A. Ma is the principal producer and director of Palomino Productions which she founded in 2004. She often works with others including Antonio de la Melana and Richard R. Lee. Eve, a former history professor and non profit administrator as well as a lawyer, turned to video and DVD production in 1990 and has created over 30 shows including two series. Her shows have won a number of regional awards. The air regularly in Northern California and have screened in a UNESCO-CID international conference in Athens, Greece. Eve will be screening four of her recent show at Expressions Gallery: "Arts that Cross Borders" about the arts--mostly music & dance--of Ecuador, Mexico and Peru and her show "Improvising Jerez-Style" about flamenco on April 20.  She'll also give a short demonstration-dance lesson in Jerez-style bulerias (a flamenco form) at this screening and on Sunday, April 27, she will conduct a release for her new show, "Pearls from the Sea:  Music & Dance of Tahiti."  This fun show features the Bay Area performing group Te Mana 'O Te Ra.  This is a FUN show with fine musicians, and dancers who are really having a great time. "Arts that Cross Borders" includes the well-know Bay Area Afro-Peruvian group de Rompe y Raja (and is led by world famous Lalo Izquierdo).  Another fine artist on the show is the cartoneria (paper mache) artist, Ruben Guzman of Mexico.  Ruben is the man who made the large dragon heads for Dynesland.  He's also been exhibited at the Oakland Museum and elsewhere.  The video combines performances, shots taken in the cartoneria artist's studio, and interviews. "Improvising Jerez-Style" is about the flamenco form called bulerias--a form danced at the end of almost every flamenco show everywhere in the world.  There are some famous performers on this show including cantaor (singer) Antonio de la Malena, dancer Mercedes Ruiz, and guitarist Moraito--and teacher Ana Maria Lopez.  The show was shot in Spain. FOR MORE about PALOMINO Productions, see www.PalominoPro.com or e-mail us at PaloPro2004@yahoo.com.

Danny Quynh Nguyễn is a pioneer – the first Vietnamese modern dancer, teacher, and choreographer in the United States to receive his B.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from California Institute of The Arts and his M.F.A. in Dance, Performance, and Choreography from Mills College.  In early spring of 1999, Mr. Nguyễn was recognized as one of the seven best, creative choreographers in the San Francisco Bay Area by Paul Taylor, who came to San Francisco to present this special award. Nguyễn Dance Company was also formed in June, 1999 by Danny Nguyễn. In 2005, Mr. Nguyễn and NDC were selected to participate in the 27th International Choreographers Showcase in Paris. They were also invited to teach Modern Dance workshops and present his choreography in Vietnam at the Vietnam Disabled Children’s Aid Association, the Hồ Chí Minh Ballet, and the Bong Sen Dance Company. Ashley James, Searchlight Films, is currently in the process of finishing a documentary about Mr. Nguyễn. Building a small school for the orphans in Vietnam where he can teach them what he is passionate about – dance – is Mr. Nguyễn’s dream. He has traveled to Vietnam fours years in a row to teach dance and distribute gifts and toys to the orphans. Please visit dannydancers.org to read more about NDC’s trips to Vietnam. Danny will be dancing at Expressions Gallery on Sunday June 1, from 3-5 PM. Throughout the month of the show we will be having a Silent Auction. Danny has contributed fine art painting done by Le Duong, a Vietnamese Artist who painted Danny and his dancers. Proceeds from the sale of these paintings will be donated to several orphanage organizations in Vietnam.

Jeanne Lupton lives in Berkeley, CA.  She grew up in Arlington, VA, and was writing as soon as she could read.  Her teachers include Linda Joy Myers, Mary Webb, and Clive Matson.  Janell Moon is a friend and mentor, and Marc Hofstadter is an encouraging friend and brilliant poet.  She loves the poetry of Mary Oliver, Raymond Carver, Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel, James Schuyler, and many others.  She will read from her collection of tanka, but then you danced, and also read some new free verse skinny narrative memory poems.  She has been published internationally in tanka and haiku journals, and has free verse poems currently in Haight Ashbury Literary Journal and www.languageandpoetry.net.  She often reads at Bay Area poetry readings and hosts Second Saturdays Poetry and Prose Reading Series at Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda, CA.  She takes her motto from Muriel Rukeyser:  “Breathe in experience, breathe out poetry.”

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.”

Janell Moon Riding Free in a Blue Studebaker is Janell Moon's sixth book of poetry selected for publication as part of the Main Street Rag's Editor's Select Poetry Series. With a grant from Poets and Writers, San Francisco Center for the Book letterpress artists printed a broadside of Moon's poem Language Is.   Her poetry books include The Mouth of Home by Arctos Press and Beyond Midnight by Raw aRt PRESS, Lesbian Speaker's Bureau by Stonewall Press, Snakeskin Boots by 33 Club Press, and Woman with a Cleaver by Small Poetry Press. Janell Moon is the author of four spiritual nonfiction books including Stirring the Waters: Writing to Find Your Spirit (Tuttle), The Wise Earth Speaks to Your Spirit by RedWheel/Weiser, The Prayer Box by Redwheel/Weiser, and  How to Pray Without Being Religious (Elements, HarperCollinsUK). She is a reader for the Bay Area Poets for Peace Project and has been published in many literary journals including Americas, Runes, Calyz, The Michigan Review, and GSU Review.  She is a graduate of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and is a San Francisco bay area counselor and hypnotherapist in private practice and an instructor at the College of Marin Community College. She lives in Emeryville, California.

Garrett Murphy was born in 1957 in Alameda and raised in Oakland, where he resides.  He has written ever since he can remember, largely a prose writer most of that time, he began writing poetry in the mid-1990s.  He is considered a preeminent political and human nature satirist.  An alumnus of Laney College and San Francisco State University, he holds Bachelors (Broadcasting, 1984) and Masters (English/Creative Writing, 1988) degrees from the latter.  His strongest writing influence is Langston Hughes, but his influences also include Gordon Parks, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, Jessica Hagedorn, Amiri Baraka, Janice Mirikitani, Ishmael Reed, Lorraine Hansberry, Salman Rushdie, Naguib Mahfouz, Maya Angelou, Lewis Carroll, Zora Neale Hurston, Carlos Fuentes, Nawal el-Saadawi, Ralph Ellison, and countless others. He has been published in Milvia Street, the Peralta Press, the Sacred Grounds Anthology, and the New Now Now New Millennium Turn-On Anthology, among others.  Prizes for his work include those from the International Black Writers and Poets, the National Library of Poetry, and the Dancing Poetry Festival.  His published chapbooks include None Dare Call it Making Sense in An American Lesson (Dreamsmith Ink, 2001); Call 9-1-1 (and Mister Punch) (Beatitude Press, 2004), and the self-published chapbooks Dinner is Served! (2007) and the prose piece Up in the Attic As of Many Years Later (2008).  A fifth chapbook, Mother Nature Has Become a Terrorist! (Dreamsmith Ink) is scheduled for publication in mid-2008.  Murphy is also a skilled artist (he illustrated the covers for all his chapbooks so far) and a “very amateur” photographer.  He describes his work as “a means of pointing out the foibles of what could otherwise be a truly altruistic society it claims to be.”

Jeanne Powell lives in San Francisco.  She was born in New York but spent most of her childhood in the Great Lakes area, near the Canadian border.  Weekending in Canada and speedboating with other college students past international freighters in an international waterway were part of growing up. Although she graduated from two universities (on scholarship), she did not begin her writing career until15 years ago.  After taking a couple of writing courses at CCSF, Jeanne Powell began haunting coffee house readings
and library shelves filled with poetry books until she found her voice. She is the author of three chapbooks:  February Voices (1994), Cadences (1996) and Tangerine Dance (1999).  Her full-length book, My Own Silence (2006) was shortlisted for the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize.  Her new collection of poetry, prose and art, Word Dancing,
is scheduled for publication in spring 2008. Jeanne Powell created and hosted three spoken word series in San Francisco. One of them, "Celebration of the Word," ran weekly for ten years and was voted "best series" in the City.  She also created a small press which has published 18 books by 14 authors since 1996.  Her Living Treasures series caused the works of four poetic elders, aged 72 to 82, to be published in 2005. Her vibrant story poems spin dramatic filaments into poetic gold, according to one critic.   Come celebrate her word dancing at Expressions Gallery.

Devon Gaster lives in San Francisco and is a florist and floral design instructor with 26 years experience in the Floral industry. He had his own retail floral store for 13 years and taught floral design classes in Hawaii and in San Francisco. For the last two years, he has been teaching classes at the San Francisco Flower Market. Devon Gaster presents his interpretation of Abundance and Joy as part of this current Expressions Gallery show. He will also be doing some demonstrations and classes at the Gallery and will Jury a couple of floral artists, student and public entrant floral art shows and contests during the run of the show. Expressions Gallery is proud to take the lead from the San Francisco Museums who have brought us the Bouquet to Arts Shows at the Legion of Honor and De Young Museums over the years and feature floral arts as another regular art form offered for viewing and sale in its Gallery and as part of its educational program.

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 donated to several orphanage organizations in Vietnam.