Guest artist Scott Sewell developed a love affair with the Mendocino Coast in 1979 when he passed through on vacation and took a photograph of the Point Arena Lighthouse which hung on his parent’s wall for forty years. Many years later, in search of a professional project and remembering that image, he recalled the rugged wildness of the coast and spectacular geography and returned to the area to explore. Initially, he struggled to find an approach, an artistic point of view, or a method for his photographic expression. Through happenstance and experimentation, he began to see that the tonality, contrast and grandness of the coastal landscape would allow him to craft strong images in black & white (and occasionally color).

Hurley grew up in Point Arena and spent every possible moment exploring the wilds of beach, river, and woods. Art projects were dragged outside and she used the natural world as her muse; this remains the trend of her adult life.

Moving to Prescott, Arizona to attend college, Hurley gained a bachelor’s degree in Conservation Biology with a marine emphasis. She worked as a fisheries biologist and an ocean environmental educator until a job offer on her beloved Gualala River prompted a move back to the coast that was always her home. She currently works as a watershed environmental scientist and during the short months of salmon season, as a deckhand on a Point Arena cove based commercial salmon boat.