When foreclosures began to occur in the early 2000’s, as a former urban planner, I was acutely aware of the impact this would have on our cities. However, very little was mentioned in the news about the real causes of the crisis and how widespread it had become. I began to create quilts of foreclosures maps in the hopes of capturing people’s attention around the crisis. Quilts act as a functional memory, an historical record of difficult times. The quilts are pieced together using the block patterns taken from neighborhood maps. Within these, foreclosed lots are shown as holes in the quilts. The lot locations are completely random and they yield an unexpected beauty when laid out on fabric. These torn holes question the protective nature of a quilt. The neighborhoods shown are not an anomaly; they are a recurring pattern seen from coast to coast, urban to suburban neighborhoods across the US.

Kathryn also writes a blog to inspire and inform other artists who work in the unique genre called Articraft: artists who use craft in their work and craftspeople who make art:
www.kathrynclark.blogspot.com

Born in New Zealand, Linda is a long-time Bay Area resident, inspired by California's cultural and geographical diversity. The San Francisco Bay is her favorite subject: she observes and sketches the daily ship traffic, bridges, freeways, cranes, sunrises, sunsets, fogs, moon rises, tides, seagulls - and the occasional cruise ship and America's Cup boat. She distills her experiences into paintings, prints and objects that explore the constatly-shifting nature and restlessness of the Bay and its denizens.

I paint like a jazz musician improvises. Starting from the roots and a strong foundation, I branch out and make it my own.
From Abstract to Expressionistic, I like to push the envelope with bold, gestural brushstrokes and compelling colors. Whether I’m painting the figure, landscape or a still-life, I look for abstract shapes, stripping away the non-essentials to give a loose interpretation of form and movement, a strong interpretation of feeling and expression.
I paint in the moment.
If I start out with a plan, it most likely will change. If I stick to a plan, it will most likely fail. I let the canvas tell me where it wants to go.
I’ve been told that my loose and exuberant brushwork and lively pallet is reminiscent of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, yet that my work contains a freshness and sincerity that is all my own.

My work is process orientated. It reflects my interest in memory, impermanence, and the relationship between opposites such as order vs. chaos, structure vs. gesture and line vs. form. The work is meditative and I try to show those things that are unexplainable or unspoken. Each piece has its own history which is partially revealed through various layers. They are images and marks contained in layers of space and time.

Steve began a career as machinist and worked in the machining trades until 2005.  This experience is reflected in his mechanical assemblage works and large chamber pieces.  His love for throwing pottery began in 1985 at the Salt Lake Art Center and for sculpting while an undergrad at San Francisco State University, 2001-05.  Steve received an MFA from San Francisco State University in 2008.  His ceramic sculpture can be found in many private and permanent collections including the de Young Museum, Ceramics Research Center, Lincoln Public Library and Salinas Public Library.  He is an award-winning sculptor and has shown his work nationally and internationally.  He creates a variety of artwork from functional pottery to complex sculptural installations.

Visitors from the Past

Found Photographs from the Late 19th Century

For a brief span of only a few decades, from the late 1860's to the dawn of the twentieth century, ordinary people were photographed in a way that often yielded extraordinary results.

The durable, card-mounted albumen photo prints that were so popular during this period can still be found in antique shops. The larger size prints (usually 6.5" x 4.5") were known as "cabinet card" photographs and were often mailed to relatives for display in their homes. To fully appreciate the magic of this, you have to take yourself back to those days and imagine the wonder and excitement of seeing a photograph of a loved one for the first time! 

Unlike modern photographs where the moment of exposure is nearly instantaneous, these images were recorded on glass plate negatives that required long exposure times, sometimes as long as five minutes. Compared with sitting for a painted portrait, this may not have seemed like such a long time, but it still required that the subject find a facial expression that could be held comfortably for the duration of the exposure. 

In the best of these photographs, this requirement helped to create natural, truthful portraits that have an uncanny feeling of presence. These long exposure times captured a succession of moments — almost like a short video — during which the person remained still, but also very alive and present. 

There is something in these pictures that is not found in later photographs. They capture light, but they also capture presence. This is a distinct subjective feature, and it gives these portraits their striking combination of immediacy and timelessness.

If the subject maintained good eye contact with the camera during the exposure, the resulting photograph would then convey the impression that he or she was actually looking out into the room from the cabinet card print when it was put up for display! The presence of the individuals in these pictures is not diminished by time. Even though we now have almost no information about who they were, we can still feel who they were. 

This means that we can feel their qualities of character. This feeling can grow over time, and perhaps even tell us something about the wisdom of their day. As members of the human family, we are all related to the people in these pictures — they are all our "relatives."

In spite of their durability, most cabinet card photos have suffered significant deterioration over the past hundred years. Painstaking digital restoration is very much like cleaning a window. It gives us a clear view into the past, undiminished by spots, scratches, fading and discoloration. Given the nature of the original process, these photographs often contain rich detail, which allows the making of large life-size prints.

This would not be possible without high-resolution digital scanning and today's image editing software tools. These finished pieces thus represent an unusual bridge across time that is anchored at each end by very different, but uniquely complementary, possibilities.

I sculpt beautiful, voluptuous, fierce women. My raw material is emotion. My medium is clay and I cast the finished piece in bronze, to give it strength, texture and color.

French-American artist, I put femininity into three dimensions, capturing the power, glamor, beauty and vulnerability of the female form in bold yet sensuous bronze. A biochemist by training, an artist by heart, my love for the human body evolved from a molecular level to an emotional one when I decided to pursue my passion as a sculptor. My work has recently evolved to represent some of the powerful and fierce women. Those who could be seen in fashion magazines or in daily life: entrepreneurs, businesswomen, mothers and spouses who need to fit in so many different roles that they forget their own self to become object of desire and admiration. 

Raised in the heart of Paris, I was surrounded as a kid by fashion designers like Coco Chanel, Sonia Rykiel or Yves Saint Laurent. I could see a beautiful model walk on the street everyday and she would be just another regular woman. From that time, I love Fashion as an accessory in the beauty on any woman. Couple of years ago, after looking through the page of Vogue magazine I was inspired by some photos to create my “Sassy ladies” series. Fierce in bell-bottom pants, their look is universal. They seem to come from the 70s but I discovered in 2010. They are young and mature enough to know who they are. They are sexy and strong. They are proud and vulnerable. And they  are definitely going somewhere. 

Esthetic, tenderness, attitude, translated in colorful, emotional bronzes sculptures has allowed FaB’s artwork to be shown in New York, California, Colorado, France and represented in collections worldwide.

As an adult I’ve continually been drawn to the forest. Studying and working as a Translator and Interpreter, I’ve visited 25 countries on 5 continents and during my travels, I’ve hiked the forests first and time permitting, I would then explore the cities.

My dream has always been to own a large parcel of land and spend my spare time planting trees to personally contribute to the reforestation of this beautiful planet.

What began as a very personal desire to experience nature has now become a campaign to bring attention to the plight of the deforestation and the damage that the activity is causing to this planet and its biosphere.

as a visual artist I am open to different series of work, keeping my creative process fluid open to a variety of ideas and explorations, free of considerations of style, the craft the quality of it, is the challenge I seek. Inspired by materials as well as subject matter relating to the human figure, lines around the body created by clothing designs and structures. The produced object has a sculptural dimension a decisive edge much like in a bas-relief. In this state of mind I have along the way produced works with wood, metal, paper, wire and charcoals. One common material to many of those works is the resin which is applied with different casting techniques, often born out of experimentation and necessity to bring forth the initial idea.

Shimmy's Beach is the name of my company, derived from many years of playing restaurant, store and the like with the name "Shimmy."  Shimmy’s Beach is a collection of items made from a variety of materials and inspirations from the Northern California Coast and Ocean Beach in San Francisco in particular. All of the items that are displayed are designed and made by Phylis Johnson-Silk.