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Sonya Popow

Visual Arts: Ceramics, Earthworks, Functional and/or Decorative, Sculpture

SONYA POPOW I’ve had my hands in clay for more than fifty years. I was rigorously trained as a production potter, spending two years as an apprentice to Charles Counts in Appalachia, then studying with his teacher, Marguerite Wildenhain at Pond Farm Pottery in Guerneville. In mid life I returned to graduate school and worked on a series of monumental sculptures. I enjoy making sculpture to fire in local atmospheric kilns. Many of my sculptures have come from explorations of the plants in my garden with various lenses. Lately I’ve been inspired by whale vertebrae and the amazing shapes of bones. I always wander in pictures of pots and sculpture ancient and contemporary. My wood fire pots are fired in either Leslie Campbell’s Albion/Aum Anagama or in Nick Schwartz’s Cider Creek Anagama. These Anagama kilns are fired entirely with wood for up to 7 days with a community of potters stoking constantly in 6 to 8 hour shifts. The pots may have a liner glaze, but the subtle ‘glaze’ on these pots is from the volatile atmosphere of the very hot wood fumes and ash in the kiln interacting with the clay body. SHAPESHIFTERS These small sculptures have no ‘right side up’. They can be hung, played with, turned and displayed in many directions. The series began as a symbolic Buddhist ‘mala’ of 108 prayer beds. Each piece is still made and fired with a quote from the Dalai Lama inside. During the firing process, the paper quote is burned but perhaps the energy remains or maybe you have some words of your own. “My religion is kindness” Dalai Lama I hope for pieces that evoke some mysterious found object – a seed, a leaf, a shell, a bone. If I am successful the viewer will ask, “Where did you find it?” and, “Can I touch? I continue to make medium fire (cone 5) functional pottery at my home/studio in Fort Bragg. Call for a visit at my outdoor showroom -707-964-5128.

Gail Porcelan

Gail Porcelan gporcelan@gmail.com Autumn Postcards – Fabric I am a retired Fort Bragg teacher. I have always incorporated art in the curriculum as a way to enhance the academic work of my students with creative projects which were relevant to the topic, time period and culture we studied. I began creating my own work 20 years ago which is rooted in fiber art and mixed media collage. Window Pane Fabric (detail) My textile wall hangings are made with a variety of Japanese woven and printed fabrics. I also lean towards batiks, Aborigine and African printed fabrics and up cycled natural fabrics. The hand sewing is inspired by the sashiko tradition of using contrasting color thread (usually white) to make running stitches in patterns. I often use traditional kamon motifs (crests). The embellishments vary from handmade buttons, pebbles, shells, wood, buttons, beads, ribbon and photos printed on fabric. The smaller pieces are hand printed or hand batiked and I have been incorporating traditional Adinkra symbols from Ghana. Recently I have enjoyed making macramé bracelets often using up cycled beads. Paper Collage – Handmade Paper, 6X6 You can contact me at gporcelan@gmail.com if you are interested in any of my pieces, I have many pieces on display in my studio, a selection in Ficus and Fern in Fort Bragg and Indigo in Mendocino and on the Pacific Textile Arts website. (https://www.pacifictextilearts.org/members-work-for-sale/)

Chris Pugh

Visual Arts: Photography, Printmaking

Chris Pugh (b. 1971, Ukiah, Ca) is an award-winning documentary photographer from Ukiah, California. He is a member of the Partial Arts photography collective, c0-founder of the Ukiah Photography Club, and the Deep Valley Arts Collective. He is currently the editor of the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon. Outside of photography, Pugh is known for his love of loose leaf tea, locally brewed craft beer, 80’s heavy metal music, and his fondness for useless trivia knowledge.

Elizabeth Raybee

Visual Arts: Murals

Ukiah artist, Elizabeth Raybee has been creating mosaics for over thirty years; personal narrative work and commissions, public and private. Her work appears in several books of contemporary mosaic art and has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally. She has also taught painting, drawing, batik and Business for Visual Artists in the San Francisco and Mendocino Community Colleges. Raybee has organized many Community-Built mosaic mural projects in Mendocino County and beyond, which have engaged the participation of hundreds community members. She was frequently involved in the Get Arts in Schools Program by the Arts Council of Mendocino County, who chose to honor her with the Artist of the Year Award in 2010. In 2015 she was one of six Americans invited to join sixty mosaic artists from 22 countries who collaborated on a huge mosaic project in Santiago, Chile. In 2022, she was invited to give a presentation at the Community Built Association’s national conference about the Art From the Ashes project she led after the Redwood Complex Fire destroyed hundreds of homes and killed several people in her community. Raybee received a California Arts Council grant to give free mosaic weekend workshops to many strongly affected, most incorporating melted or broken remains of cherished items, created a large community mosaic on the front of the Redwood Valley Grange, where many survivors met and received help during and after the fire, and coordinated four exhibits of fire-related artwork displayed in the RV Grange, Ukiah Art Center and Library and in the Mendocino County Museum. Elizabeth Raybee’s work has also been exhibited at the San Francisco Crafts Museum, the National Jewish Museum, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens and Museo Italiano, Museum of Man in San Diego, Chicago’s Navy Pier and Ukiah’s Grace Hudson Museum. Her commissions include the San Francisco Arts Commission, Laguna Honda Hospital, Eden Housing Inc., The San Geronimo Valley Cultural Center, Willits Skate Park, Orr Hot Springs and numerous private homes. Her work has appeared in Bay Area newspapers, on the cover of Artweek Magazine, in television spots and in several contemporary mosaic books. Raybee continues to create residential works for people locally and out of the area.

Janet Rosen

Visual Arts: Illustration, Painting, Works on paper

Why make art? For many of us it is a way to mediate reality, to integrate and make sense of the world and then put it “out there” for others to experience. My aim is to create a narrative with enough space for the viewer to enter and find their own story. See more drawings & paintings in the gallery below and at www.janetrosen.com I enjoy working in series, some of which may be completed within weeks while others encompass years of intermittent work. Most projects end up being meditations on time, whether it’s capturing the play of light on moving water, the distortion of time created by illness or isolation, the passage of the sun and the seasons across an oak-studded hill, or the temporality of human life. During the pandemic I began a daily drawing practice focused on the faces of fellow artists on the Sktchy app and more recently this has led me to picking up water-soluble oils for portraiture. You can reach Janet Rosen at mendojanet(at)gmail.com

Lillian Rubie

Visual Arts: Illustration, Mixed Media, Painting, Performers and Writers, Photography

Owner/Artist at Lillian Rubie Photography & Illustration and co-founder of Deep Valley Arts Collective. Lillian is a photographer and illustrator. She has a love of children’s books, costuming, Old Hollywood photography, and all things Halloween.

Walt Rush

Visual Arts: Jewelry

Being a jeweler for over 40 years, I strive to make every piece I create, with the best quality of metals, stones and workmanship I can, so the end product is to your standards and satisfaction.

Micah Sanger

Visual Arts: Painting

Visionary Arts Gallery 45004 Albion St. #8, Mendocino At the Gallery paintings from my Traveling Museum Exhibit (https://www.perception4u.com/museumexhibit) are displayed along with the theoretical physicist quotes that accompany each painting. The exhibit is to encourage viewers to explore in depth the meaning of the words of these great insightful, intuitive physicists and to allow the paintings to lift them into new ways of looking upon their world, revealing its mystery and wonder. An enriching experience awaits the visitors to the Gallery who come with a curiosity and a wish to live life to its fullness and who know that there is much more going on here in this world than first meets the eye. 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 ____________________________________________________________ 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. FlatRock – Dimension III, 63″ x 82″ mixed media Visionary GALLERY OPEN DOOR HOURS Friday, Saturday, Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 11:00 to 5:00 11:00 to 5:00 And open by appointment. Please call number below. Open throughout the week for events and classes. Phone Numbers: Visionary Arts Spiritual Center Micah Sanger Sally Wells (505) 455-2867 (707) 357-3466

Serge Scherbatskoy

Graphic Arts; Visual Arts: Photography, Printmaking

Reclusive.

Virginia Sharkey

Visual Arts: Painting

Featured Exhibit at the Mendocino Art Center through October 29: Sublime to the Canine I’m an abstract painter because I love what is elemental and essential. I’m interested in creating a realm of mystery, surprise, serenity, and beauty. I use color, either oil or acrylic paint, for its feeling tone, each hue having a distinct emotional component, and line for its rhythmic possibilities and the awareness of gravity to indicate a possible intention, as in a “going toward.” I want to create a sense that there is in a work a “presence” that has its own life in a pictorial space that seems, however flat, empty and monochromatic, “full.” — Virginia Sharkey Also see my work at Partners Gallery, located at 335 N. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg, open Wednesday through Monday 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays 10 am to 4 pm. 707 962-0233 PartnersGallery.com Virginia Sharkey Box 20, Mendocino, California 95460 Telephone (707) 937-3021 virginiasharkey.com ~ vs@pacific.net Born: Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Education: Vassar College, B.A. cum laude Aspen School of Contemporary Art Exhibitions: If you are in Fort Bragg, CA you can see my work at Partners Gallery, 235 N. Franklin St, open every day except Tuesdays and the first Wednesday of each month. The website is http://partnersgallery.com Exhibitions: 2016 Chautauqua 59th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Chautauqua, NY, juried by Stephen Harvey and Jennifer Samet, Directors, Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects, Bellringer Prize Archaeology, Partners Gallery, Ft. Bragg, CA The Yosemite Series, Solo Show, Partners Gallery, Ft. Bragg, CA 2015 Crossing the Line, Partners Gallery, Ft. Bragg, CA Size, Partners Gallery, Ft. Bragg, CA 2013 ACCI Gallery, Hallowed and Haunted, Berkeley, CA 56th Annual Chautauqua Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Chautauqua, New York Juried by Janne Siren, Director, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 2011 Confrontational Art, Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA 2010 Imagining California, Curated by Philip Linhares, Chief Curator, Oakland Museum, Kevin Milligan Gallery, Danville, CA Mendocino Art Center Open Studio Tour Exhibition, September Yosemite Renaissance XXV, Yosemite Museum Gallery, Yosemite National Park and subsequent Traveling California Exhibition. 2009 Naturally Inspired, July 22-August 16, Flockworks, Mendocino,CA 2007 Tsunami of Recollections, Art @3G, Ft. Bragg, CA America’s Landscape,Art @3G, Ft. Bragg, CA Yosemite Renaissance XXII, Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park and subsequent,Traveling California Exhibition , Animal Art, Mendocino Art Center, Nichols Gallery, Mendocino CA Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA 2006 Waterfall Paintings, Solo Show, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA 2005 Members’Juried Exhibition, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA Wet Paint, Juried Exhibition, Gualala Art Center, Gualala, CA Friends Show Northcoast Artists Gallery, Ft. Bragg, CA Yosemite Renaissance XX, Yosemite Museum, Yosemite National Park and subsequent California Traveling Exhibition 2001 Gamel Fraser Gallery,( 3 person show) Mendocino, CA 2000 Members’ Juried Exhibition, Mendocino Art Center 1999 Members Juried Art Exhibition. Mendocino Art Center Fifth Annual Warehouse Artists’ Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, San Francisco, CA Yosemite Renaissance XIV Art Exhibit, Yosemite Museum, and subsequent California Traveling Exhibition, Yosemite, CA, 1998 Galerie Elecktra, Sausalito, CA Bartlett Fine Arts, Pleasanton, CA North Coast Printmakers: An Invitational Exhibition, Northcoast Artists Gallery, Ft. Bragg, CA Sly Dog Gallery, Portland, OR Members Exhibition, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA 1998 Gallery Glendeven, Solo Show, Little River, CA Scharffenberger Winery, Solo Show Philo, CA 1997 National Juried Exhibition Curated by Marisol,” Gallery 84, New York, NY Prints and Paintings, Art Hansen and Virginia Sharkey, Gallery Glendeven, Little River, CA Fourth Annual Artists’ Warehouse Sale, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Spring Loaded, Gallery Glendeven, Little River, CA ART a visual reality, Left Coast Art, Cyberworld Cafe, San Francisco, CA. Members’ Show Mendocino Art Center 1996 Artists’ Registry Exhibition, The Dog Museum, St. Louis, MO 1995-6 The World’s Women On-Line,Video/Internet Gallery, Commons Gallery, Arizona State University, Computing Tempe, AZ The World’s Women On-Line!, United Nations Fourth World Conference On Women, Beijng,China (Touring Version). ADA: Women and Information Technology, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago Ill 1995-6 Oakland Museum Main Lobby, Oakland Museum Women’s Board Collectors GalleryOne 1995 Abrahamson Gallery, Solo Show, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino,CA Oakland Museum Collectors Gallery, Oakland, CA Fort Bragg Center for the Arts Members Show, Ft. Bragg, CA Art Alive in ’95 Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA Gallery Glendeven, Little River, CA Tangents Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA Fort Bragg Center for the Arts, Fort Bragg, CA 1994 The Dog Show, Los Gatos Company, Los Gatos, CA Different Strokes, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA From the Heart of Women, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA 1993 What’s Afoot Gallery, Solo Show, Caspar, CA Prints on Purpose, Village Theatre Gallery, Danville, CA Fish Schticks, What’s Afoot Gallery, Caspar. CA From the Heart of Women, What’s Afoot Gallery, Caspar, CA 1992 What’s Afoot Gallery, Solo Show, Caspar, CA Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA Mushrooms for Paper, Traveling Exhibit, Mendocino, CA Gallery Glendeven, Little River, CA Faculty Art Exhibit, College of the Redwoods, Fort Bragg, CA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental Gallery, San Francisco, CA, What’s Afoot Gallery, Caspar, CA Tangents Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA The Artists’ Registry Exhibition, The Dog Museum, St. Louis, MO 1991 What’s Afoot Gallery, Caspar CA 1990 Winona Gallery, Solo Show, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA The Magnificent Seven, Calloways, Santa Rosa, CA Tangents Gallery, Fort Bragg, CA 1988 Emerging Mendocino, Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, CA Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, CA 1987 Gallery Fair, Mendocino, CA Fort Bragg Center for the Arts, Fort Bragg, Ca 1986 New Work from Los Angeles, LAART, New York, NY 1980 Vorpal Gallery, New York, NY 1979 Berge und Volken um Meran, Solo Show, Amerika Haus Munchen, Munich, Germany Tanglewood Gallery, Solo Show, New York, NY 1978 Kuperion Gallery, Merano, Italy Bilder, Briefe, Noten, Autoren Gallerie, Munich, Germany 1977 Art Workers’ Guild Gallery, Vineyard Haven, MA 1976 Painted Images: Virginia Sharkey, Solo Show, College Center Main Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY Vassar College Art Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY Auction 393, New York, NY Eight from Vassar, Vassar College Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 1975 Lotus Gallery, New York, NY 1974 Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, NY Bibliography: Artists Speak Part 2.mov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhWg22ekl-k Auction 393, Auction Sale #5, Contemporary Art, June 12,1978,Art Bidders GalleryCorporation, #61, #62 Flugel, Rolf, Berge und Volken um Meran, Munchner Merkur, Sept. 8/9, 1979. Gilbert, Mervin, Artists Shared their Studios with the Public,Mendocino Beacon, Sept. 5, 1991. Gilbert, Mervin, The MAC Membership Show :Almost Everything for Almost Everyone, Arts and Entertainment, February, 1997. Halle, Howard, 59th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art at Chautauqua Showcases “Lively,Engaging” Works, The Chautauquan Daily, July 8, 2016. Lambert,Leeann, Tuesday People ,The Ukiah Daily Journal, Tuesday, April 7, 1998. Outlook. Cover Artist. February, 1996. Parsons Memorial Lodge Summer Series, Yosemite National Park, Poster,Image, Summer 2009 Rice, Miriam C., Mushrooms for Paper, Video, David Marks and Oleg Harenar Productions,1993. R.M.B. Austellungs Spiegel, Munchen: Virginia Sharkey, Die Welt, Sept. 21, 1979. Sharkey, Virginia, The Artists’ Registry Exhibition at the Dog Museum, St. Louis, MO 1/8-3/8,1992, p.39. Sharkey, Virginia, Rose Fellow, 1976, Vassar Quarterly,Winter, 1981, p. 15. Residencies: 2011 Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy 1981 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY 1979 Cummington Community of the Arts, Cummington, Mass Awards: 2016 Bellinger Award, Chautauqua Institution 2010 Yosemite Renaissance XXV Exhibition , People’s Choice Award Yosemite Renaissance 2007 XXII Exhibition, Second Place 2005 Yosemite Renaissance XX Exhibition, Second Place 1999 Yosemite Renaissance XIV Exhibition, First Place 1976 W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Fine Arts Collections: Private and Corporate Collections in the U.S., Germany, Italy and Japan

Lauren Sinnott

Visual Arts: Graphic Arts, Murals, Painting, Works on paper

See a detailed description about Lauren’s latest mural From Finland to Fort Bragg complete with photos & videos here. I am an artist, historian and former politician. www.historymural.com will show you how so many things in my life and work have recently come together in the perfect project: my monumental history mural on the north wall of the Ukiah Valley Conference Center. But let’s back up a little. My diverse portfolio is partly the result of making a living through art in the modern world. Before photography was invented, everyone would want me to create their image. Now, it’s really only dogs that people commission portraits of. I even paid a vet bill once with a mural of dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, and mice. At Point Arena High School, I painted a face that gets walked on: the sports mascot, a 6 ft. grinning pirate on the floor of the basketball court. A local big wave surfer modeled. Art entwines with life… and also its loss. That surfer was part of my California family and I portrayed him as a life-size 3-dimensional winged angel after his death at sea. The lady who commissioned this work died recently and now the angel has come back to me. It all started in Wisconsin’s dairyland, where I was raised by an artist mother and poet father. My mom supported us on graphic design, and as a toddler I worked at a little table alongside her. Our house was filled with paintings and books. It was the Age of Aquarius and I knew I was supposed to be at Woodstock, but it was impossible. I was ten. I spent my senior year as an AFS exchange student in Belgium, speaking only French and learning to take class notes in perfect outline form. I discovered the art of conversation, four-hundred year old homes and good coffee. It was there that I began to feel the pull of an old culture living still where it had always been. Back from Belgium, I attended Rice University in wonderfully hot and humid Houston, TX. I earned a BA in Art and French, then a BFA in painting, and an MA in Art History. During graduate study, I encountered a work whose untold story began to open before me, becoming the subject of my thesis, The Double Portrait of Two Men in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. And the story blossomed again with stunning new research on the part of several scholars, leading to my recent paper, Beloved Disciple: Vittore Belliniano and a Double Portrait of Two Men, which explores the possibility that the exalted Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini and his head of studio were lovers. I taught art history for several years at the museum school, painted one of my most exquisite mural in a private bathroom, and became a single mother of two. But I yearned for the ocean! Not the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, which I had never even seen. And Northern California to be specific, because friends had told me “Your kind of people live there.” My boys and I left town in a converted school bus with a wood stove and beds. We found Point Arena located with its lighthouse on a jutting tip of land WEST of the San Andreas fault. This is the other California, where populations are dwarfed by the ridged landscape and pounding ocean. This is exactly what I was looking for, except I forgot that it was going to be impossible to get my PhD. The consolation prize was my life in politics as City Council member and then Mayor of one of only four incorporated cities in Mendocino County. Point Arena is the seventh tiniest city in California, which meant the city staff was small and overworked, and our jobs as elected officials were large and unending. On top of legislative activity, we also had the tasks of employee hiring, evaluating, and firing. It helped to have an eye for detail. It didn’t help to earn only $100 a month. (See more about fights and triumphs in city government and much more of my artwork on my main website www.artgoddess.com which will be sleek and modern by Christmas!) My boys and I lived in our bus in the fragrant manzanita forest for a year and when we moved to town I supported us with art and rent. I took jobs ranging from art cars to tombstone design, from wedding dresses to sewing a life-size brocade torso complete with all female reproductive parts for a doctor. I created the Velvet Vulva line of purses for the lesbian, feminist and enlightened market. I painted curbs and hemmed pants. Business signs and design services were a mainstay. I picked blackberries, ate wild mustard greens, baked my own bread, and gleaned apples from the ground. We took in a parade of roommates to make ends meet. My house was teeming with the boys and their friends, and was full of books and paintings. Recently my son who learned Mandarin and now lives in Taiwan paid me a compliment. He said, “Mom, I never knew we were poor.” And of course, in real terms, we weren’t. All of these experiences have caused me to reflect on the ultimate purpose of the artist and the historian. Art history is a jeweled necklace, a string of masterpieces threaded on inspiration from around the world. Yet art was made by, for, and about real people who led complex lives. A man who loved men and didn’t have wealth or a noble patron in 15th-century Venice could be burned alive in the Piazza San Marco. Ghosts walk in those grand cities and on the quiet streets of my own town, where no more than a century ago, it was permitted to shoot an Indian after dark. Forced servitude, kidnappings and massacres took place across California, including multiple occurrences here in Mendocino County. During the 1850s, the new state government’s official position was denial of rights and extermination was seen as inevitable. Depravity haunts exaltation, and the sacred charge of the historian is to give voice to the fallen, to shine light on the common and hidden, as well as the great. As a Renaissance painting mutely accomplishes merely by surviving, the historian keeps a subject alive with his published words, and the muralist with her imagery. I love the motto of Yale University: Lux et Veritas. Light and Truth – with one we find the other. My latest and largest project, the huge historical narrative mural on the north wall of the Ukiah Valley Conference Center, is the result of these threads interweaving. I could use all those hours of life drawing, all of that house painting, all my knowledge of narrative art through the centuries, and all my experience working with the public in administration. This is a public work for everyone and about everyone. It contains over two-hundred portraits and tells many stories of people who live here now. People can see why this art has meaning. They understand the argument I once presented to a dear friend over dinner: “You will be fascinated,” he was informed, looking doubtful as he questioned art history and the importance of such things. “History is to humanity as memory is to the individual,” I said. We are each of us walking backwards into the future. “Would you want to do that with your eyes shut?” My companion smiled, saw it was true, and ordered champagne, since he was about to hear what had been revealed by a Venetian inventory from 1569.* *That the great collection of Gabriele Vendramin included a little box portrait of Giovanni Bellini with the portrait of Vittore, his disciple, on its cover.

kb SOCORRO

Visual Arts: Constructions/Collage, Illustration, Mixed Media, New Media/Technology

A native of California, Socorro is an award winning fine art photographer and multimedia artist. Utilizing visual storytelling and experiential design, their interdisciplinary practice explores the effect of environments and objects on human interaction.

Janae Stephens

Visual Arts

Janae is a visual artist, educator, chair of the Arts Council of Mendocino County, and co-owner of Organic Attire with her husband, Gary Stephens. She has a B.A. in Fine Arts, a Masters Degree in Arts Education, and a California teaching credential in visual art. In addition to designing and creating her own line of organic cotton clothing, Janae also loves to paint. She has exhibited her acrylic paintings in the Bay Area and Mendocino County. Arts Council of Mendocino County members are able to enjoy a discount at Organic Attire. Please inquire!

Fred Sternkopf

Visual Arts: Film, Graphic Arts, Illustration, Painting, Sculpture, Visual Arts Instructor

Welcome to my world of art! Being born into a family with generations of German artists, I was almost destined to become an artist. At age 5, I had my first solo exhibition of paintings in Michigan . . . and Art continued thereafter as my central focus of life. I completed studies at Michigan State University, the University of Wisconsin, the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Art Institute. I live and work between the Northcoast of California and New Mexico. My work can be found in private, corporate, and museum collections throughout America and in Western Europe. Many forms of art have played a part in my world of expression. My sculpture ranges from figurative realism to minimalist abstract . . . monumental to minimal in size. Materials used include corten steel, stainless steel, wood, stone and more. Each new commissioned project dictates the range of expression. The rules come from the heart. Ravens have often been my muse. They’ve long played a role in the spiritual beliefs of many cultures worldwide, since the beginning of mankind. They’re considered the wisest of all birds, and often seem to express a special wisdom beyond the human realm. Since early museum exposure to the works of Alexander Calder, I’ve sought to expand in that direction with my own personal mobiles. Now often personal and corporate collections include my mobiles in addition to their Calders. Cartooning has played an important role in my life since the time I could hold a pencil as a small child. Over a thousand of my cartoons have been published to date in newspapers, magazines and books. For over 20 years my “Dr. Doo” political/social commentary cartoon strip has appeared in the Anderson Valley Advertiser, one of the last truly progressive independent publications. A weekly newspaper with distribution across the country and abroad, especially featured in college and university bookstores. “Dennis Rodman”Private CollectionChicago, ILAcrylic on Board Other graphic art has included portraiture of several well known sports and entertainment figures for their collections. Also I’ve worked with social activists, such as the Black Panthers. In addition to fine art paintings, I’ve done book illustrations …and several logo designs. My love of sports has taken me into commercial graphics for several professional sports teams, including Giants, A’s, Niners, Raiders and the Golden State Warriors. Film, video and photography have also played an important part in my creative life. My short documentary and docudrama films have won awards in several international film festivals, including the San Francisco, New York and Chicago festivals. I’ve also taught Film and Video Production with the assistance of a “California Arts Council” grant. In the commercial world of advertising, I’ve produced several TV commercials and corporate films for national distribution. “Women In Black”Sculpture CommissionStainless Steel & StoneCarolyn M. Owen CollectionMendocino Coast, CA Much of my work is political or spiritual in content. I strongly believe fine art should speak directly to the soul. With each encounter with a work of art, something new should be seen and realized…over and over. True art shouldn’t just be decorative, but add to the expansion of the inner self…the soul, and bring about personal reflection and insight. Every time one looks at the same piece of real fine art it should be a new experience…a revelation…helping to discover oneself. Frederick Sternkopf P.O.Box 743 Mendocino, CA 95460 (707) 962-0410 Frederick Sternkopf

Sophia Sutherland

Visual Arts: Ceramics

Sophia Sutherland has lived in Elk CA since 1968. She has wored in stone, clay, bronze and cement, adding watercolor and pastel to the creative equation. Now Sophia moves between the 2nd & 3rd dimensions, exploring, breathing and continuing to saunter through fields of paradox and possibility.

Rhoda Teplow

Visual Arts: Jewelry

Jewelry studio is open by appointment by calling 707 964 2787. After graduating from the University of California in Berkeley, Teplow taught French at Saratoga High School before entering the Peace Corps. She was assigned to teach in Togo, West Africa. In her village of Lama Kara she became acquainted with African trade beads which were actually millefiori beads that had been brought from the island of Murano in the Venetian Lagoon of Italy. Her first necklace consisted of those glass beads. Returning to California she accepted a job teaching at the Summerhill School on Road 409 in Caspar. That house was used in the movie, “Over Board.” She began to teach the dances she had learned in West Africa and formed a dance company named “Ivory”. For 10 years Teplow was the founder and director of the acclaimed Mendocino Dance Series bringing dance companies from around the world to Cotton Auditorium. After her years of producing, she was asked to be the agent for La Tania, the world-class Flamenco dancer. She later promoted the jazz singer Scotty Wright and booked jazz acts into the Ocean Club at the Hill House. In the 1990s she began teaching all subjects at Coastal Adult School for the Fort Bragg Unified School District. Rhoda shows her jewelry at many Mendocino County Art Fairs and the Artists’ Collective of Elk, the Dolphin Gallery, and the Gualala Art Center. Her body of work incorporates her own porcelain beads, brass from the Ashanti tribe, recycled glass beads from the Krobo tribe in Ghana, and pendants from Katmandu, Nepal.

Catherine Vibert

Visual Arts: Photography

I’m an artist with a camera and a commercial photography business. I specialize in working with people to reveal their stories and capture imagery that promotes them and their work. While I’ve been a picture taker since I was 8, when I began using a digital camera in 2008 I excelled in skill and technical ability at a rapid rate due to an unstoppable addiction to learning my craft. That’s when I became a picture maker. I mentored with master photographers and took classes online and pretty much lived and breathed photography 24/7 in order to gain the technical skill and control to be able to pretty much realize any vision I wanted using my camera, lighting gear and sometimes Photoshop. Once I got past the technical stuff, it was time to figure out what I wanted to shoot. My love of working with people and of learning who they are leant me to choosing lifestyle and portraiture as a focus for my work. I specialize in telling people’s stories through dynamic and vivid imagery. Whether winemakers, artisans, executives or the lone wolf running a business from their cabin on the coast, everyone has a story. I reveal those stories through lifestyle photography and portraiture. My work is all about visualizing together with my subjects and playing together to make the images they need to promote themselves, their work and their brand. People use these images for websites, brochures, magazine and jury submissions, social media, and anywhere someone would need to be represented professionally and artfully. My college degree via Sonoma State University is in music and vocal performance. I have worked in the arts throughout my career as a performer, audio technician and through self expression in various artistic media. I chose to pursue photography after working many years as a sound designer and audio editor. My ears were not able to hear intricate tones anymore and I needed a different career path and had always been passionate as a photography hobbiest, so it was a natural choice. I worked as a journalist for a local newspaper near Asheville, NC, writing exposés and in depth articles with accompanying photos about local community members. I went freelance as a photographer in 2011 and after trying and failing to maintain interest in many genres, I found that commercial photography specializing in people, portraits, and what people do (lifestyle) was my passion — and I am very passionate about what I do and how it can help others reach their goals. I also enjoy and pursue landscape and still life photography when I don’t have my lens pointed at a person. As an educator, I teach Photoshop and Digital Photography, most recently at the Miami Ad School in San Francisco. I offer occasional workshops in basic photography and simple art captures and am available for one on one lessons.

Antoinette von Grone

Visual Arts: Murals, Painting, Works on paper

Born in 1954. Studied textile design and high fashion. Interneship in window decoration at Hermes-Paris. Currently working mostly in oil on canvas at my studio in Boonville. Represented by Erickson Fine Art in Healdsburg.

Larry Wagner

Media; Visual Arts: Photography

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!

Richard Weiss

Media; Multi Arts; Visual Arts: Media and Visual Communications, Painting

The common thread present in all of my paintings is playfulness. By engaging the viewer to interact with my paintings, I put them back in touch with a childlike frame of mind. I have developed three styles of interactive kinetic paintings. In the first style, the image seems to be in motion but the movement is in the viewer’s mind. The work is in relief but is painted to appear like a conventional ﬂat picture. Tintin & l’Affaire de l’Orbe Pourpre – 3D Reverse perspective – acrylic on wood – 40.25×24.25×6 inches vimeo.com/241112870 In the second style, the viewer can manipulate the image into a myriad of possibilities. The Empire 3D acrylic on wood panels 50×50 inches In the third style, the image changes depending on your position to the painting. The experience is ever changing relative to the angle from which the paintings are viewed . Viewers are able to create their own experience by directing how they wish to see the image morph into another. This active participation provokes a playful complicity between the artwork and the viewer. The King & The Duke – kinetic painting – acrylic on wood- 22 x 37 inches I place cultural icons and other elements of contemporary popular culture into a new context to illustrate thought provoking social, political or cultural issues. Le Dejeuner revisited – Kinetic painting – acrylic on wood – 36×44 inches My goal is to provoke an element of surprise and playfulness. Nuns with Guns – acrylic on wood panel – 37 x 37 inches _________________________________________________________________ PDFs TO VIEW: Artist Statement Bio PDF Exhibitions Awards Publications PDF 3-D paintings – acrylic on wood 3-D KINETIC Paintings 1 – acrylic on wood 3-D KINETIC Paintings 2 – acrylic on wood 3D_Kinetic_Paintings_3 – acrylic on wood 3-D KINETIC Mona Series 1 – linocut printing 3-D KINETIC Mona Series 2 – linocut printing 2D Cat Series – acrylic on canvas.pdf 2D Cowboy Series – acrylic on canvas.pdf 2-D Mona Series 2D_CAT_Series.pdf 2D_COWBOY_Series.pdf 2-D Alice Series – pencil & acrylic on paper 2-D Canvas 1 Lightbox Water Soluble Color Pencil + Pencil Work Pen & Ink + Whimsical Sculptures Glass Painting ______________________________________________ LINKS TO VIDEOS OPTICAL_ILLUSION_PAINTINGS (07:28): https://vimeo.com/659623113 COWBOY SERIES https://vimeo.com/687543720 https://vimeo.com/659599777 Short presentation (5:48) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82oXqi_omn4 Tintin & The Case of The Purple Orb (00:49) The King & The Duke (00:48) Nuns With Guns (00:46) Mona Blue Sky (00:35) Mona Purple Sky (00:39) Pandemonium Fairyland 2 (01:37) Fine Arts Achievements Born in Lyon, France, I worked and lived on three continents before taking residence in California. A freelance graphic artist for businesses and corporations, I have designed movie sets and costumes and illustrated children’s books. I make use of my previous experience in different art forms to develop optical illusion paintings. Previous Achievements A performing musician on three continents, I have written movie soundtracks in France and in the USA. A nominated screenplay writer in America, I have gathered thirteen US movie awards as a movie director and producer. Music: I have performed as a singer/song writer in Europe and Africa and worked as a music producer, writing jingles and film scores in Europe and America and creating Dedicace, a conceptual album reuniting internationally known musicians from four continents. Cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky used Dedicace extensively in his film Tusk. Film: I wrote, directed and produced The Book, a kitsch science fiction feature film (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers meets Flash Gordon) that pays homage to the sci-fi classics of the 70s and 80s. Official Selection in festivals in America, Australia and Asia, The Book won 13 awards and was hailed as “cult material” by critics and festival audiences. Watch the trailer and selected scenes from my film The Book Short morphing video created for The Book https://www.facebook.com/richard.weiss.942

Mark Whitcomb

Visual Arts: Painting

I’m an artist working here in Ukiah. I have lived here for the past 30 years. My art training is as an outsider. I focus mostly on still lifes and figurative painting.

Laura Wiecek

Visual Arts: Crafts, Mixed Media, Painting, Textiles, Works on paper; Book Art

Go to my website ShesNartist.net for all information

Linda Wolfard

Visual Arts: Jewelry

I have always loved to create things. At this point in my life I am focused on handcrafted metal and stone jewelry and the endless possibilities of design and construction. I am often inspired by the stones to create a setting that compliments them or sometimes I concentrate on shapes and textures. I use silver, copper and bronze in my designs and a variety of metalsmithing techniques including hammering, hand patterning, rolling mill, soldering, fusing, and wirework. I am an artist/member of the Corner Gallery in Ukiah. You can find my jewelry on display there and also my acrylic paintings. I have an ETSY shop: www.StudioWolfard.etsy.com. You can also find me at Safari in the village of Mendocino.

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