Contemporary San Francisco painter Henry Riekena fuses the energy of graffiti and graphic art with the deep, meditative mindset of abstract expressionism, resulting in mesmerizing canvases that one can wander around in for hours. “The first thing you need to understand about my work,” he says, “is that I'm not painting a 'thing,' I'm creating an effect. You spend some time, let your eyes start to flow around the piece, your focus shifts back and forth between all of the different compositions, and once you get a little bit lost and your brain clears out—that's when the magic happens.”

Looking at Riekena's work, the viewer first notices the energetic quality of his line and composition, and the balance and subtle control of color learned over a lifetime spent obsessed with visual art. But taking his cue and spending a little more time with the work, another dimension opens up, as the visual space becomes plastic and hypnotic, and the viewer begins to feel almost intoxicated. “There is a very intentional mental element to it, I am very consciously trying to take your brain into a certain state. I see a lot of my peers obsessed with irony, surface, and the minutely specific and personal, but I'm maybe old-fashioned—I'm trying to be earnest, go deep and universal, to get people on kind of a zen level and share something that's really hard to describe.”

This idea is most completely expressed in his recent monumental work A Nice Way to Travel 3 Hours Into the Present, a “Walk-in painting” consisting of a single 7' x 60' canvas that wraps around the entire inside of an 18' diameter circular yurt. Nearly a year in the making, the installation cuts the viewer off from the outside world, enveloping them in an environment of endless pathways that swirl through the work, shift, and re-emerge, creating a space that is as incomprehensible as it is beautiful.

Riekena still considers himself an emerging artist, but has shown his work throughout the Bay Area, as well as showings nationally and as far away as the Chianciano Museum in Italy. The 32-year-old cites many varied influences in his work, including the graffiti art prevalent in his adopted hometown, the meditative abstract expressionist works of Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko, the playful juxtaposition of line and color in the work of Paul Klee, and contemporary masters such as Mark Bradford. "I don't think of abstract expressionism as a mid-century movement.  That's maybe when a lot of the parameters of it were laid out, but there is still a lot on the table there, a lot of opportunity to take the goals and mindset of those seminal abstract painters and continue to push them forward with new ideas, new tools, and create really powerful contemporary artwork.  And I'm not the only one who is proving it."

I am a San Francisco based artist.  My work is a reflection of the dynamics between the external environment and my internal world.  I find inspiration in the elements of nature and the patterns that reverberate through all forms of life.

My love of photography began in my youth during a summer job in Yellowstone Park. The incredible majesty of the Rocky Mountains provided an inspiration that remains to this day. It soon became apparent that photography would be the center of my life, so I decided to study at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. I graduated in 1978 with the technical skills that are mandatory to produce quality work. 

My commercial photography led to the establishment of studios first in Los Angeles, and later in San Francisco. Much of my effort over the last 30 years has been in nurturing my commercial business, in order to succeed in an incredibly competitive arena. That success has allowed me to pursue my first love, the landscape. 

My photographs are the result the artist’s eye combined with the latest technologies in fine archival printing. An artist's vision will always be the most important element in the creation of beautiful imagery. For a photographer, this translates into a sense of awareness of light and design, of finding simplicity in chaos. In the random explosion of shape and color that is all around us, one must discern those brief moments that will result in a strong two dimensional image. 

Vision alone, however, will not yield elegant results. A photographer must have an extensive knowledge of his tools and craft to reproduce his concepts. My earlier images were produced with film up to 4x5 inches in size, but I now work exclusively with very high end digital cameras to produce the high resolution, finely detailed prints I demand. The digital file is refined to reproduce what I visualized at the time of exposure, much the same as traditional photographers might use filters or darkroom techniques to accomplish their vision. 

Numerous test prints are then made to determine the final image. Prints are made with a Lightjet printer onto Fuji Crystal Archive paper, producing true silver halide images with a color gamut and sharpness that far surpasses traditional photographic prints, with an estimated minimum life of 70 years. 

All prints are mounted using acid free rag board and signed by the artist, to provide years of enjoyment.

I try to keep my life as creatively balanced and chaotic as much as I can--hoping they may cancel each other out. I am an evolving creature and need the room to evolve in life. 

I have attempted and dabbled in many forms of the art realm from sketching, painting, sculpting, spoken word, and performance art in an audio-digital format but photography has always nudged me along the way. Asking me to dance and refused each time.

It was intimidation that kept me at bay. I found a box of old photographs from the earlier years in the Navy/ San Francisco days and saw another world unfold. I have been on a constant experimentation of being a viewer through the lens. My connection to the freeze frame became solidified and captured my soul.

  My paintings are an ongoing exploration of the spaces where "inner" and "outer" meet, whether the setting be human or celestial. From the mysteries and metaphors that I find in familiar subjects, such as my ships and dancers, to my cosmological studies of a complex and seemingly impersonal universe -- in the heart of my creations lies the familiar made abstract, and the distant made intimate. 

A note on the "Inner Space" series:
I am fascinated with the analogy of space with human consciousness. The vastness of space, with its mysterious and oft-dazzling beauty, and the highly complex "inner space" of human consciousness form the focus of my work. Layers of color and texture illuminate my visions of planets and stars as points in a vast continuum, radiating life and emotion of their own. I think of each painting as the result of various “encounters” with these places, revealed in boldly colorful, multi-dimensional and sometimes sensual paintings that simultaneously evoke a sense of space intertwined with psychic tension. 
 

Michelle Peckham is an artist who explores perception through painting, photography and mixed media installations. Inspired by weathering, decomposition and discovery, her work is often fueled by found objects revealing worn life and layers of use.  As a designer, she investigates the existing conditions of buildings and place, focusing on details that connect and separate.  

Michelle Peckham earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art from Scripps College in 1998 and a Masters degree in Interior Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2010.  She grew up in New Mexico and currently lives in San Francisco, California.

I like ducks.

When I walk around with my camera in my hands the whole world looks different. I notice the tiniest details. The strange angles. The hidden shadows. When I look through the viewfinder the too big world becomes manageable. Magical. I can take a moment in time and make it last forever. These days we spend so much energy in our journeys from here to there distracting ourselves (cell, mp3, laptop) that we miss the little things. We miss being in and reacting to the present. Now more than ever it is the task of the photographer to capture the present for everyone that missed it the first time around.

For my collages, I use small pieces of paper as my palette and “paint” colorful and detailed pictures. They are composed of images of ancient manuscripts, totems, petroglyphs, tapestries and urban graffiti. For each collage, I consciously use source materials that represent different religions, languages and styles. The collages pay homage to those who came before and celebrate the uniqueness of our varied heritages. At the same time, they illuminate the human interconnectedness and cultural melding that define our global society. For me, this cultural amalgamation characterizes my secular and humanistic worldview.