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Susan Blackwelder

Visual Arts: Ceramics, Painting

I am primarily a painter but enjoy dabbling in ceramics, especially clay sculpture. I specialize in portraits of people and pets in oil or pastel though I also enjoy doing landscapes and still life painting. My training in drawing has given me skills that I use in every medium. See more on Susan Blackwelder’s Corner Gallery web page.

Diza Hope

Visual Arts: Murals, Painting, Works on paper

Diza Hope is a Northern California painter working in oil, acrylic and pencil. She studied at California College of the Arts and draws inspiration mostly from natural forms. Lately she has been interested in investigating the architecture, rigidity and beauty of animal skulls juxtaposed against the delicate, undulating and graceful shapes found in flower petals. Besides the formal interest; the distillation of the skull becomes a symbol of our universality and basic oneness, being that we are all made of the same carbon, calcium and stardust and the flower, a symbol of our impermanence, but also the beauty we all have the capacity to create and share. Color plays an important role in her painting process as well and she enjoys pushing the boundaries between harmony and discord through her use of it.

Happy/L.A. Hyder

Performing Arts: Spoken Word; Visual Arts: Mixed Media, Photography

I am celebrating 48 years of making images. My desire to photograph began in the 1950s as I became aware of the power of photographic imagery (although I wouldn’t have been able to articulate it at the time) through the Life magazines that came through our door weekly. A self-taught photographer, I count Margaret Bourke-White, W. Eugene Smith, and the myriad other pictorialists in Life’s pages, as my mentors. Shortly after moving to San Francisco in 1969 and two days after using a friend’s 35mm camera, I had my own Nikkormat with a 105mm (portrait) lens. At a camera store, I learned about film and how to load the camera. I joined the SF Photo Center, and, following their two-hour fundamentals in developing and printing class, was let loose in a darkroom. Within two years, I began working with a Hasselblad medium format camera (the negative is 2 ¼” square and there are 12 shots to a roll of film) with a 150mm lens (equivalent to the 105mm) and had my own darkroom. I grew to love the square format and credit the twelve shots per roll of film with the honing of my style of shooting – I spend much time setting up my shot, using my negative as a painter would her canvas, in order to print full frame. I walk away without shooting if my framing cannot achieve what first attracted me to look through the lens. I still credit those Life photographers for helping me hone my visual perspective. While the Hasselblad remains my most cherished tool, in 2009 I was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age. I find the lightweight digital cameras I’ve been using feed my creativity. Able to carry one at all times, I am able to capture those images that earlier would only be captured in my mind since the heft of the Hasselblad meant I would only carry my camera when I was focused on photographing. With digital, I am also enjoying, and getting very interesting results, working with movement to produce abstract images. I also work with mixed-media assemblage, most often using my own images within the piece. Although taking more images using a digital format, I retain the habit of setting up shots with precision and printing my images full frame, and continue to retain a strict sensibility when choosing what to print. I also use an Epson 1400 printer and the immediacy of these digital tools is truly a wonder to my years of working in film, first in a darkroom during my 22 years working in b&w, and, with a switch to color exclusively in 1997, in having film developed and working with a professional printer.

Nancy MacLeod

Visual Arts: Constructions/Collage, Crafts, Functional and/or Decorative, Painting, Textiles

I grew up in the beauty of oak trees and yuccas in southern California’s chaparral. From the time I was a little kid, I drew and painted and made things every day. By High School, which had a fabulous art department, the format was such that I was able to take 8 art classes my senior year. The year after high school I spent studying with painters Ed Seagaitz and Jo Mahoney in Claremont, Calif. I then moved north and put myself through Calif. College of Arts and Crafts making one-of-a-kind art-to-wear garments, and graduated with distinction with a major in Fine Arts, emphasis in painting. I lived and made art in the Bay Area until 2003, when we moved to Philo, where we still live. My main goal in creating art is to make political, social and spiritual commentary in a way that is playful and fun to have around. I like to paint pictures about things I think have an important message. Some of those things are really very ugly, like war, injustice, environmental destruction- but I don’t like to paint ugly things. The idea I want to convey is often, though not always, serious. The execution is meant to be fun, playful, so as not to scare the viewer away, but to give them pause to think on it without being beaten over the head. I paint in what I call “Primitive Narrative”, or “Folk Art Fantasy”. My husband and I also make furniture together, mostly cupboards, which we call “Folk Art Fantasy Furniture”.

Micah Sanger

Visual Arts: Painting

New Video: “The Art of Theoretical Physics” FREE BOOK DOWNLOAD of “TOBE and the RIVER IS” In celebration of our courage and compassion during these times, and because, for many, it is also financially challenging, I would like to offer everyone a free download of my award-winning book https://www.perception4u.com/bookgift ____________________________________________________________ If You Feel Inspired to, please make a donation to the Arts Council of Mendocino County Explore with Tobe the power and wonder of the great River Is. Go on an adventure which is the discovery of yourself. Reviews: “Sanger has succeeded in writing the modern-day Siddhartha: an intricate tale of a deep spiritual journey, within and without. His artistic use of words and illustrations gently opens the door to truth and carries you to the living River; you will be hooked.” Joe Kittel, author of Spiritual Principles in Strategic Alliances and founder of SPiBR.org LLC. “Gorgeous phrasing, fully entrancing and sparkling with freshness. The author has a fine instinct for wowing the reader at the start, and throughout, with beautifully crafted sentences. Even better, the effect hides the effort. Nothing about this book seems forced which is what elevates it. And the wow factor of this book is masterfully-written. Beautiful visuals…engage our senses and place us in the scene. Well done. Stays with the reader.” Writer’s Digest Judge, 24th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards ____________________________________________________________ MICAH SANGER The best way to get an idea about my art and who I am is to go to my YouTube video: Tour of Micah Sanger’s Studio Biography I have been an active artist producing paintings since 1970 when I changed my major at Clemson University from engineering to art studio. That was when I discovered my true passion for art. I have been diligent and dedicated to my calling as an artist ever since. I continued my development as an artist when I apprenticed under the nationally known artist Richard Goetz in the early seventies for a brief time, followed by attending the University of Santa Barbara and Chico State University, CA, from 1980 to 1985. Plums – Unified Field, 7″ x 15″ mixed media In 1996 I pulled away from the gallery art scene to go deep into a contemplative life—a life of open-eyed meditation, studying the world 8 to 12 hours a day and often more for many days of the week while taking notes, making sketches, and developing paintings about what I was observing. Out of this exploration into perception and awareness, a rich new way of looking at my world and a new approach to painting arose. Besides objects becoming more alive and energetic in my perception, a sense of this world existing in a dimension, and what I call a “unified field” arose. These perceptions, I found, do not subtract from this physical experience but only add to its mystery and wonder. They also parallel, in many ways, the ideas of theoretical physics. Beyond Form to the Light, 56.5″ x 106″ mixed media I started working on an educational website, (www.perception4u.com) to pass on to others through the text and exercises the experiences and insights I was having. I used my paintings to give visual expression to the ideas I was relaying. Through the exercises on the website, I was attempting to open up to others their own revelations of deeper levels of perception. Over time a substantial number of paintings were created. I knew that one day they would be the source of future exhibits. Barn Jackson Hole, 54.5″ x 61″ mixed media As I watched people interfacing with the exercises of the website, I realized that some individuals needed a more emotional approach to exploring perception. So, in 2013 I began writing and illustrating my book, “Tō•bē and the River Is,” with the idea that through the life of the protagonist, people could experience new ways of looking at their world. The Dream of a World in a Holy Mind It is a whimsical fairytale full of living metaphor. The “River Is” is itself a metaphor for the matrix of the unified field that surrounds us. It was published in 2016 and has already won two Global eBook Awards, one for illustrations, The New Apple Book Award, followed by the prestigious Ben Franklin Award and the Nautilus Book Award. (The book website is www.4riveris.com ) Turtle Rock and Back View of Artist-Dimension, 28″ x 34″ In September of 2017, I started to exhibit my work publicly for the first time since 1996. It started with the Sausalito Art Festival, then the HarmonyUs Festival followed eventually in 2018 by the HarmonyUs Festival again and the Edgewater Gallery in Fort Bragg, California. Now my focus is on displaying my art as a cohesive whole in a traveling museum exhibit with the same purpose it shares with my website, my book, as well as my public speaking engagements—to inspire people to explore the life-enhancing nature of deeper levels of perception. It really is an exciting project of combining my paintings with the words of theoretical physicists to create a very powerful effect. I also mention in my museum proposal that I will give a presentation at a couple of the local high schools. Clear perception opens up a new and exciting world, creating a new enthusiasm towards living, something many of the students can use nowadays. If you would like to know more about this traveling museum exhibit there is a brief two-minute video and a typed description on my GoFundMe site: https://www.gofundme.com/traveling-exhibition FlatRock – Dimension III, 63″ x 82″ mixed media

Serge Scherbatskoy

Graphic Arts; Visual Arts: Photography, Printmaking

Reclusive.

Barbara Ware

Visual Arts: Mixed Media, Painting

I came to Potter Valley in 1973 and live quite remotely near the Eel River. My garden, the natural beauty of Mendocino County, and the plants and animals that surround me give me the majority of my inspiration. I work primarily with watercolor and acrylics and love experimenting with mixed media. I’m in love with my experience with color as I paint, the mingling and mixing of colors on the page. And I love the total engagement that absorbs my full concentration in the process of painting. It’s transforming!

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