The Friends of Sharon Art Studio (FOSAS) is devoted to sustaining and enhancing the Sharon Art Studio’s (SAS) goal to promote artistic development, craftsmanship, and creative expression. FOSAS is proud to be a partner of the SF Recreation & Parks Department (SFRPD) to bring Sharon Art Studio’s outstanding art programs to you. FOSAS believes that art education is an essential component of a healthy community and strives to ensure that quality, noncompetitive art programs are affordable and accessible to all.  Sharon Art Studio offers classes for youth and adults at two facilities: the beautiful historic Sharon Building in the Eastern end of Golden Gate Park, and now at Mission Arts Center. To register for classes and workshops, visit www.sfreconline.org.

I experiment with characters and screens to explore and create alternative experiences in video sculpture. My characters are pigments, fluids, and electronics on the micro scale and despite the unorthodox cast, my films follow narrative structure and are shot using established film lighting and editing techniques. The result is a collection of images and sounds which appear very similar to natural phenomena but have no scale, and therefore transcend the boundaries of their literal setting.

I'm currently laboring over heaps of textiles and artifacts, some from my personal collection, some rescued from the urban environment —all on the verge of reinvention.

My work, like my mind, floats between the abstract and the surreal. The struggle is often to make sense of the initial chaos created by abstraction, and thrust elements into the surreal. Within this dynamic, each art piece essentially designs itself. Shapes form, light dances, and a story begins to unfold.

I want my work to create an emotional and spiritual link between my audience and myself—a union that "arouses" the viewer, resulting in feelings of happiness and joy.

I believe the concept of art embraces any human activity in which an individual, by means of external signs or cues, intra-personally communicates previous emotional experiences. For example, after a person has experienced color, movement, shape, and texture while snorkeling, diving, or even seeing a children's film like "The Little Mermaid" they can relate that experience to my art.  Hopefully, by reliving experiences of freedom, bliss, and elation, the viewer can be mindful of release and pure joy, and I've accomplished what I was meant to do. I've established a relationship between my art, my audience, and myself.

Currently, the majority of my work is in private collections around the United States. Private showings can be arranged by contacting me by phone or via my website.

--Perry David Tennyson--

It is only a matter of time.  San Francisco will be hit by “the next big one” and a major earthquake will return our city to dust.

I was living in New England where natural disasters melt in the morning when I heard about Hurricane Katrina. I could not understand.  New Orleans is in a precarious position. It is likely that it will be hit again. Why rebuild?
Then I moved to San Francisco, equally precariously perched on the San Andreas fault. I fell in love with the city.  And now I get it. When the next earthquake comes I’ll be here rebuilding. When the next big earthquake takes our buildings down I will be here to rebuild.  Here’s the plan:

Anyone can go onto underscoreg.com/quake and submit a location-based memory.  What places in San Francisco are important to you? Where do you walk your dog? Where did you get proposed to? Where do you get the best avocados? Put these memories on the map. I’m pulling together a group of artists working in all mediums who will make original commissions from these memories.  I am compiling these works in neighborhood based shows, online, and in a book.  This book will be our guide. The morning after the next big earthquake we will get up, dust off this book and look to it as our guide for rebuilding the city.  We will rebuild San Francisco from art.

In accordance with this project my work is almost entirely inspired by San Francisco and the stories I hear here.  I work primarily in paint. I have found it an effective language for translating stories into art.  I do not restrict myself to a style or school as different memories and places hold different demands. By allowing anyone to submit a location-based memory I have opened up the commission process to a new audience allowing those who can not purchase art a deeply personal art experience.   I am always looking for other artists who want to adopt the mission of artistically capturing San Francisco. If you want to get involved as an artist or submit a location-based memory check out underscoreg.com/quake

We will rebuild San Francisco from art.

My preffered medium is dry pastel on paper, I am mastering and constantly challenging myself with it; I also paint.  I prefer to work in large scale or multiple surfaces at once: I always feel like there is not enought space on a piece of paper or canvas to "say & express" everything I want to.  

Instead of a full artist statement, which you can read on my website (www.elvira-artist.com), I would like to capture a thought about one of the works presented in this portfolio: esrevinu travelers: She Is Bridge.  Here goes it:

A woman of landscape - 
She acts as a bridge.
A bridge to a steep, deep
Canyon - the way to escape & a way to connect
To view the abstracted & the city's landscape.
She holds it together with her body, her flesh.
She holds them together: the edges, the earth;
She lays in the landscape relaxed yet steadfast.

For me, she is larger than I,
For her, she is taller than sky,
For them she is deeper than emerald, green, grey, blue & the high.

Rob Anderson is known for the emotive power and exquisite execution of his art.  Whether drawing, painting, or multi-media installation, content is of great importance to him.  He works primarily with the human figure rendered from life incorporating it into environments, both abstract and real, actual or imagined.

 In his first open studio in 20 years, Rob will be showing a selection of artwork spanning his professional career including works from the Man-in-the-Box series, the Pergamon Altar Project, Rattlesnake in a Moving Car: Life with HIV, and his iconic 1982 Gay Olympic Games print.