Fade – Reception

December 7, 2017

I had such a wonderful time at my Fade reception at Vargas Gallery last night! I was told that it was the best attended solo show in the history of Vargas Gallery (since 1986)! A BIG THANKS to everyone who came out – artists, friends, curators, students, collectors and faculty! I feel very honored to show in this space and to have such a great community come out and support me! A special thanks to Lynne Todaro for inviting me to exhibit this work which spans a decade, to my collectors who lent back some key pieces for this show and to Ashley for her help with the install and staffing the show! All the albino deer cookies were snapped up and three more paintings were sold!

An albino deer cookie and it’s inspiration, Bed of Ghosts.

With George Rivera (Artist, Instructor, Curator), Kristin Lindseth-Rivera (Sculptor, Instructor), Marianne McGrath ( NUMU Curator) and Lynn Todaro (Sculptor, Instructor, Director)

With Tamera Avery (Painter), Kathryn Arnold (Painter), Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Painter, Graphic Designer), Karen Gutfreund (Artist, Curator) Susan Kraft (Painter) and Hadi Aghaee (Painter) to mention a few.

I love it when people take a pic with a painting, it is such a compliment! This student had an interesting take on the deer in the nest feelings like birds eggs – such a great fragility association!

Tamera Avery & Kathryn Arnold at the Fade Reception – Vargas Gallery.
I know both of these wonderful artists through the Triton Museum of Art. Tammy has two fabulous figurative paintings in the Salon currently, one (which I’m personally in love with) took first in painting! Kathryn had a stunning solo show, monumental assemblages of abstract painting on sheaves of paper inspired by specific selections of poetry and prose as I remember….how great to see and gab with you both!

Loved seeing my collectors David and Carol Ann!

My dear friend (and collector) Judy who has to be one of my biggest supporters!

Hadi was sweet to help me carry in my albino deer cookies!

Suki Ma has one of my Bird and Teacup paintings and kindly shared the reception with her Art Experience group!

Show continues at Vargas Gallery in the Gillmor Center of Mission College through to the 14th!

Fade Reception Date

November 15, 2017

Yay!

Director Lynne Todaro and I settled on a date for my Fade reception at Vargas Gallery, Wednesday, December 6 from 4-7 pm. Perfect timing for students, between classes and between holidays. I’m delighted to hear that the show, which began Nov 8, has been getting a great response and I am looking forward to entertaining visitors at the reception! I hope you can join me if you are in the area!!!

These are some of the “artist with her work” shots taken at the exhibit to come up with a show promotion…

Such a lovely space! Vargas Gallery is located in the Gillmor Center in the middle of the Mission College Campus. Gallery hours are Monday & Wednesday 11 am – 2 pm and Thursday 3:30 -6:30 pm.

Installing Fade my Solo Show at Vargas Gallery

November 8, 2017

I was so delighted to throw together a last minute solo show for Vargas Gallery at Mission College! I’m calling it Fade – it’s a collection of my Fade to White work, exploring albinism and leucism in our flora and fauna, laced with larger pieces I’ve done over the years that touch on themes of vulnerability and tenacity, beauty and mystery.

The show will run November 9 – December 14 (Reception TBA) Thanks to Director Lynne Todaro for the opportunity and to Ashley at the gallery for her help setting up!

Figures and Faces

May 7, 2016

The Figures and Faces exhibition on at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto untill the end of the month looks great! Juried by Lynne Todaro (sculptor and director of Vargas Gallery at mission college) selected a wide variety of media with diverse approaches but all very emotive and expressive!

Lynne Todaro, director of Vargas Gallery at Mission College and sculptor in some opening remarks.

First place was awarded to GayLynn Ribeira for her oil Stages.

She could have picked up a co-first for her second piece, Memory!

I was awarded second place for my oil, bugatha1!

Here I am with juror Lynne Todaro, so honored that she chose three of my portraits for the exhibit, bugatha1, Tiny as the Universe and Eden!

The gallery manager Stephanie Amon asked me to give an artist’s talk about my People in my Neighborhood series.

Third place went to Tanya Larin‘s oil Christoph Köln at the Age of 50.

Cherryl Pape received an honorable mention for her graphite drawing Omonike seen here with her lovely model.

Jiajun Lu , was also awarded honorable mention for his ceramic sculpture, S.J. in 3D.

Connecting with Ganesha, an archival pigment print was awarded an honorable mention.

Archival pigment print.

Maura Carta and her self portrait in oil.

Maura Carta and her handsome model.

The man and his portrait!

Carol Bower and Her pastel Kami

Weijue Wang and her Graphite powder on paper, Now You See Me.

“la Dance” Revisited: This Side / The Other Side archival pigment print photograph by H. Dogus Akaydin.

Venus and the Dark Veil of Censorship an Arista print digital photograph by The Antic Staatsoper.

Judy Kramer with her digital photograph and her darling model.

The Age of Wisdom, oil by Ayelet Gal-On.

Lamentation: A Sculpture for my Mother the Dancer by Ciaran Freeman a steel, nylon, spray paint and wood sculpture.

Ciaran Freeman gave a talk about his concept, research and process. His sculpture is much like a drawing in the third dimension welding together lengths of steel like individual lines from a pencil. He had looked toward Martha Graham and her work with jersey for insights into his mothers dancing practice and designed this sculpture for her.

Dave Woodard was the final talk of the evening. He told us the fascinating story behind his terra cotta sculpture with fishhooks, Dream of a Spontaneous Utterance. It was literally based on an actual dream he’d had after saying some things he’d regretted to a friend! How fabulous to dream in metaphor like this!

He had me at fishhooks!

Silicon Valley Small Art 2015

December 2, 2015

Tonight there was a reception at the Vargas Gallery for Silicon Valley Small Art 2015 which includes the work of artists Carmen Almlie-Martinez, Lynette Cook, Goran Konjevod, Dee Hooker, Diane Kreiter, Terry Kreiter, Won Ly, Adele Seltzer, Beth Shields, Peter Taber, Corinne Whitaker, Sheila Winner, and Tom Yacoe.

I knew my friend Tom Yacoe was in the show and I was eager to see his beautiful work. His acrylic paintings, Sierra Runoff, Russian River 3, and Seaside Looking South are on exhibit.

Tom Yacoe – Seaside Looking South – Acrylic on Canvas

I was happy to see Lynette Cook exhibiting as well, showing her oil paintings, I Can See Forever, City Geometry, It’s Always Time For Peace. The detail!

Lynette Cook – City Geometry – Oil on MDF

I asked Lynette Cook to show me the catalogue from her joint exhibit with her mother -“Mother & Daughter” – paintings and textiles on exhibit in Baltimore and coming to Stanford Spaces in May.

D. Hooker‘s mixed media pieces with Curator, Lynne Todaro.

D. Hooker’s mixed media on cigar boxes – so playful!

Goran Konjavad – folded paper.

A peek only of the very interesting 3D printed sculpture Jive by Corinne Whitaker.

Silicon Valley Small Art 2015 at the Vargas Gallery in the Gillmor Center at Mission College will run until December 19.

SWAN Day Exhibition

April 4, 2015

The SWAN (Support Women Artists Now) Day Exhibition showing at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore (a beautiful facility that will get a steady audience through on show nights) is the very first all women’s show I think I’ve ever participated in!

The show was arranged by SVWAC, the Silicon Valley Women’s Art Caucus and juried by Linda Ryan, Manager of the Bothwell Arts Center, Curator of the Bankhead Theater Exhibition Program and a member of the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center (LVPAC).

It was such a pleasure to meet so many interesting female artists working in a great variety of media with unique approaches to their art. Here is just a glimpse of the show from the April 2nd reception and a few of the participating artists. Links to their websites are provided by clicking on their names (where applicable and when I managed to hang onto their business cards).

The swanky VIP room at the Bankhead Theater.

Gerri Russell and two of her abstract mixed media pieces.

Marie Cameron with Dahlia Days.

Rachel Tirosh and two of her mixed media abstracts.

Sandra Myers and her acrylic Rain Dance.

Lynda Briggs and her acrylic Black Swan.

Kerry Joy McGehee and her photograph of a sunflower.

Lynne Todaro and her mixed media assemblage Homage to Louise.

Tina Maier and fabric constructions, Pop!, Noisemaker, Blue Thing.

Jane Peterman and her acrylic To Divorce or Not.

Lovely live music!

Marie Cameron, Nathalia and Susan Kraft.

There were party favors too!

To learn more about SWAN and SVWCA visit: www.womenarts.org/swan/ at www.svwca.org

Monumental Fiber

February 19, 2015

Monumental Fiber : Threads Mapping Man, Cities and the Cosmos is the brainchild of Dotti Cichon which features the work of three artists, Eszter Bornemisza (Hungary), Anitta Toivio (Finland) and Dotti Cichon herself (USA). This exhibition incorporates photography, installation, painting and mixed media fiber art to convey altered perceptions of our environments and each other. It’s running at the Vargas Gallery at Mission College from February 18 – March 28. I had the pleasure of catching the opening reception last night.

Monumental Fiber : Threads Mapping Man, Cities and the Cosmos – Vargas Gallery

Mission College’s Gillmor Center, in which the Vargas Gallery is situated, is quite a spectacle at night!

I love Cichon’s work! She travels extensively taking architecturally inspired photographs which she then manipulates into kaleidoscopic patterns – printed in this exhibition on silk banners. To me, these pieces transform the familiar into something that seems to reveal the spiritual core of its source material.

Eszter Bornemeisza, from Budapest, Hungary, works with bits of ephemera to construct labyrinth-like layered maps as a launching point for exploring personal and community narratives. It’s easy to get drawn in to the tactile details, threads and netting, maps and cryptic equations of nuclear physics.

Detail from Bornemisza’s layered panels, Mission College Instructor and Sculptor, Lynne Todaro and Dotti Cichon, Vargas Gallery

Finnish painter, Anitta Toivio paints people not as she sees them but as she senses them, through the energy they emit the memories they hold onto, their auras. Emotional Portraits are spiritual portraits on silk.

The Landscape in Us, a collaboration by Cichon and Toivo are photographs, a Finnish forrest printed on fabric and a video projection of a California seascape video on an overlay of organza, melding two landscapes representative to each of these artists.

As you can tell I’m a fan of Cichon’s work, sporting one of her silk scarves, the wearable version of one of the panels in front of which we are standing. Mine is based on graffiti from Florence!