Jeff Klarin lives and works in Los Angeles as part of BUGHOUSE, an art and design studio creating limited edition artwork and furniture. Exploring and pushing the boundaries of conventional
fabrication and visual representation is what drives his creations.

Many of his mixed-media pieces utilize photography, painting, illustration and transfer techniques that create organic 'accidents' that unexpectedly alter and transform the creative process. Using recycled wood and found materials is a recurring methodology in his work.

Jeff has shown in both solo and group exhibitions in Japan and the US.
and has received extensive coverage in British and European publications. He is in the collections of numerous film and music industry professionals.

"The collective iconography of our modern culture can be used in visual representation to unite people to question how we interrelate and thus create commonality and compassion."

My current work has been focused on the of transformation and 'completion' of the weathered, decayed and discarded. Also present is the re-presenting of materials that are generally viewed as ordinary to reveal an unexpected depth and beauty both physically and in meaning. My work in sculpture and mixed media began during graduate studies in architecture with the exploration of the relationship and the connection or joining of varying material. These studies allow for the development of a kind of specialized language, a language in which the vocabulary and grammar are derived by my particular view of the materials. This allows for a unique statement about an issue or concept being considered told through the language of materials themselves.

Born and raised in Portland Oregon. He graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the University Of Oregon in 1980. In the summer of 1982 he became extremely stimulated from a visit to the New York Museum Of Modern Art and realized he was an artist. David moved to San Francisco and took various classes at the San Francisco Art institute over the next several years. McGraw is mainly known for large welded abstract figures. Lately, David has utilized mixed media including found objects to further his vision of Bauhaus inspired ‘” Total Art”.The artist lives and works in San Francisco and Sonoma County.

My sculptures explore and illustrate the parallels and interactions between these two worlds. Tree limbs—a material I use in many of my sculptures—illustrate this schism. I combine natural, organic materials such as wood with manufactured to create new hybrids.

Many pieces reference the human body to explore a variety of human emotions. Tree branches and trunks might be cut into discs and separated with blown pieces of glass to resemble a column of vertebrae, the natural sections of this structure being supported and augmented by manufactured glass-like prosthetics. In other pieces, steel supports will contain and extend the organic wooden components of the structures, in much the same way that braces or crutches support and stabilize human limbs.

Some of my finished artworks also acquire the form and function of tools. Tools are essential for a complete discussion about the process of making sculpture. They are the extensions of the human hand through which materials are manipulated and shaped, and they are the vehicles through which information can be unearthed. The tools we apply to nature—to contain it, shape it, understand it and categorize it—also have a profound affect upon it. It is this impetus to measure, understand, contain and manipulate nature that I enact through my work.

Annie Arrasmith: “Bits and Pieces”

When I was young, I lived in camps all up and down the Mississippi River as my dad followed the work on the levees. For play I made things out of what was at hand: sticks & stones & dirt. I can remember drawing whole worlds in the dirt out in the woods and then populating those worlds with little magical totems made of twigs & bark & moss & cicada shells, or making mobiles out of sticks & string & old lipton tea bags, and hanging them in the trees and leaving them.

In this current body of work, I’m still playing with what’s at hand: clay & ground earths & sticks & ceramic ‘stones.’ By ignoring narrative and presenting these odd bits and pieces of things in a formal way, I‘m asking you to slow down and attend to them for a moment: to be with this piece of old wood or that chunk of molded clay, and to see how beautiful they are in their odd imperfection.

To me these elements are like musical notes: I play & arrange & rearrange them until I feel a sense of satisfaction with the work as a whole; a sound or a note or a song I feel in my body—one that says, in the words of the great British actor Dame Maggie Smith:

“Yummy, yummy, yummy.”

I make art to bring the feeling that I get from being outside, in the natural world, inside.



The paintings and sculptures I create are inspired by organic forms, science, and rhythms and patterns found in nature. My process is intuitve, leaving me open to the exhilaration of discovery. A common theme that surfaces in my work is a feeling of lightness and balance; a place of contemplation. The paintings and sculptures are calm, slow, quiet. Objects float. Lines meander. Color is either soft or minimal.



I am a scavenger, a seeker, a collector. During my daily walks in the natural world, my eyes are constantly on the lookout for ideas and objects to use in my work. Morning dew drops on a leaf. Rocks split in half by nature’s forces. Driftwood and stones lying on the beach. These are some of the things I use as fodder to create. Being in nature fills the deepest part of me. I feel alive - my senses heightened - yet at the same time, completely peaceful.



The tactile quality in my paintings and sculptures is achieved through a combination of deliberate experimentation, fortuitous accidents, and an understanding of the inherent qualities of the materials with which I work. Gravity, the resist between wax and water, the introduction of organic materials, and my own hand drawing, erasing or scratching back into the surface are some of the techniques used to create the range of textures found in the work. The excitement that comes from experimentation, exploration and discovery is one of the most salient reasons I’m drawn to create.



Consistent with compositions in nature whose quiet rhythms give pause, my paintings and sculptures aspire to evoke a similar response.

I was first drawn to glass because of its inherent interplay with light and transparency, a liquid masquerading as a solid. Glass has its own personality: it is fragile in its material composition, yet incredibly strong-willed in its behavior. Playing with this dual nature, I like to see how far I can manipulate the medium while acquiescing to its stubborn side. 

What you are seeing here are portraits. You may not see many names, because the portraits have been given to the individual. Plus I’ve been accused of “outing people” (ie.- Gay’s in the Military Ken).
-You’re welcome Brian!

Everything I do is inspired by someone I've met. As you can clearly see, alot of my friends drink and smoke pot. I hope you see yourself or someone you love in my work.

After a mixed media show in 1997, was sued by a major toy company (that sounds like Motel, but will remain nameless) for depictions of Trailer Trash and Drag Queen Dolls.

Following that event, started Arsenic & Apple Pie, a toy and novelty company dealing in Trailer Trash and Drag Queen dolls and similar paraphernalia. The toy company was dissolved in 2008.

The insects started as pins for the Yuma Arts Symposium back in 2005. The opening night of this Artist convention is a pin swap. They were wildly popular and evolved into my current work over the years.

Have most recently showed at ArtShow 2010 (June), Levi's (August 2010), and Whatcha Doin' Wednesdays, in the Castro (September 2010).

I'm very proud to be a San Franciscan and a Member of ArtSpan! Enjoy Open Studios, and I hope to see you!

Paul

I strive to imbue anatomy drawings with life and clay figures with emotion. I am fascinated by the human body, amazing machines that are capable of so much and yet so fragile. Complexity exists within them and so much emotion can be expressed through them as we move.
I use tribal themes and designs to honor my ancestors and to express Universal concepts and ideas, concepts that can be felt in the soul, ideas that transcend culture and place, things that we all have in common.