Process

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Copyright 2024 by Karen Gutfreund Art. The book author and each artist here retains sole copyright to their contributions to this book. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without prior permission in writing from Karen Gutfreund Art and the individual artists.

ISBN: 9798874022853

Catalog designed and edited by Karen M. Gutfreund, www.KarenGutfreund.com, @karengutfreundart Art on Cover: Wendy Ackrell

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Process Karen M. Gutfreund, Curator

Process, curated by Karen M. Gutfreund, showcases artwork created meticulously by hand with alternative mediums by 22 Bay Area self-identified women, non-binary and BIPOC artists. Process is a testament to the skill, and passion of each artist—every mark carries the artist's emotions, thoughts, and energy, becoming a tangible representation of the artist's journey. This exhibition is a celebration of human creativity and craftspersonship and embodies the artist's dedication, uniqueness, and connection to their art. Pushing back against the patriarchal canons of art, for what can be considered “women’s work,” these timeless forms of expression inspire and captivate audiences, reminding us of the profound impact that the human touch can have in the world of art.

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Process Essay by Karen M. Gutfreund, Curator Process is an exhibition showcasing the work of 22 Bay Area, self-identified women, non-binary and BIPOC artists with work that pushes back against the patriarchal canon of art, and elevating what may be considered "women's work” through the creation of art meticulously and beautifully produced through deliberate creative and unique processes.

senses. These tactile experiences contribute to a deeper connection between the artist and their work, resulting in an authentic expression of their emotions and ideas. These artists have spent years, if not decades perfecting their

craft and mastering the tools and materials they use. The dedication to the mastery of their chosen medium allows artists to create complex and intricate works that showcase their expertise, skill and vision.

Historically, the patriarchal canon assigns a hierarchical value to artworks, with certain genres, techniques, and mediums being considered more prestigious and worthy of recognition. Traditionally, works

associated with men, such as large-scale paintings and sculpture, have been deemed more significant, while art forms associated as “women’s work” refers to artistic practices that have traditionally been associated with or assigned to women. These practices often revolve around

This interchange between maker and material promotes the collaborative, inclusive, process-oriented tenets of feminist art, and it places these practices within

contemporary critical conversations ranging from identity to social commentary. These artists explore not only their identity through their art, but also their racial, queer, (dis)abled, and other aspects of self that inform who they are in the world.

work that is created through processes such as textile arts,

Artist Wendy Ackrell winds and unwinds,

embroidery, book and paper arts, clay sculpture,

spools and unspools hundreds of yards of vibrantly dyed

installation and other forms of applied arts. This exhibition

yarn, in a mediative manner—then covers found sticks from

seeks to elevate and celebrate the contributions these

hikes on Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, CA. She is

exceptional artists have made to bring beauty and

reliving moments in life and thinking of new possibilities,

meaning to our lives and the community at large.

and of the future. She says, “For me, the material and the

The thematic meanings and execution of the works are different for each artist—however, they share synchronicity with the attention to detail, precision, and technical skill involved in its creation. These art forms require significant skill, creativity, and technical expertise.

Each piece carries the artist's personal touch and reflects their individual style, skills, and creativity. This uniqueness adds value and authenticity to the artwork, making it stand out from simple 2-D artwork. The process of creating their art involves a direct engagement of the artist's physical 4

wrapping motion become both the act of accessing memory and the creation of hope.” African American artist Kristine Mays seeks to create change with her art, creating socially conscious works of beauty that speak

to social justice issues. Her work consists of sculpting heavy steel wire into human form. By looping, hooking and overlapping thousands of pieces of wire, she creates the essence of a body in movement. Japanese American artist Na Omi Judy Shintani creates assemblage and sculptural pieces that incorporate traditional Japanese arts

and crafts, creating assemblage and sculptural pieces.

subjects she paints. She exposes the vulnerable and

Her Wrapped Stones are meant to serve as talismans for

spirited nature of her subjects with the expressive paint

clarity and peace, as well as earthly touchstones and

strokes. Her art captures the feeling of confidence of the

steppingstones for one's life journey. Shintani’s art is a

strong, draped women and the passion of the inner self

mixture of ritual and innovation created as a meditative

through these minimalist compositions. Artist Geralyn

practice. Mexican American artist Pilar Agüero-

Montano

Esparza work begins with the materials and processes

emphasizing her Native American heritage: Dineh

specific to growing up in the craft tradition of huarache–

(Navajo), French, Spanish and Comanche. Her multi-

making (Mexican indigenous sandals), with repetitive

dimensional, mixed media works are inspired by personal

gestures such as the weaving of leather, the hammering of

experiences. She juxtaposes her drawings with subversive

nails, and the painting of finishing details that make up her

imagery—telling stories and combines the beautiful

current practice. Agüero-Esparza says, “Through my

aesthetic with thematic and technical skills. Montano

works, I invoke the viewer to consider the inequities of

states, “My lived experience inspires me to prominently

race, gender, and class by presenting them with specific

feature women and themes of my cultural heritage.”

cultural and aesthetic experiences. I call attention to marginalized cultural and aesthetic experiences to

validate them and acknowledge their power.”

artist

working

across

a

multiracial

contemporary

Marie Cameron has

artist

created

a

remarkable body of work by embroidering silk rainbows and more on interesting vintage photographs. She started

Non-binary artist Quinn Keck [they/them] is a multidisciplinary

Artist

is

this series during the isolation of the “shelter in place”

traditional

during the Covid pandemic. Cameron said, “I was

printmaking, painting, and digital mediums to create

desperate to find my lost connection to hope, awe and

dialogues on the human experience. Instead of portraying

even joy…I choose subjects that inspired me with

just the physical form of people, places, and objects,

happiness and gratitude.” With hand-made paper and

Quinn abstracts layers to discuss identity, memory,

embroidery, Valerie Constantino, is interested in

perception, and grief—exploring the absurdity of pattern

referencing the subtlety of whitework—an embroidery

making through their work in a chaotic world. Christine

technique of white stitching on white cloth, often used for

So is a printmaker, photographer and painter. Her

christening, bridal and ecclesiastic textiles. Her project

monochromatic, nature-inspired works on paper are not

evolved to create positive change within an atmosphere

printed with ink but are a form of photography from the

of catastrophic political, social and environmental shifts

1800s—the antique process of cyanotypes. She creates

through the beautifully handcrafted works.

the monotypes in shades of the cyanotype blue without photo negatives or stencils, rather letting sunlight etch lines

Pakistan born, Muslim artist Bushra Gill is

where one shade ends and the next begins. Rozanne

interested in finding order within the chaos of everyday

Hermelyn Di Silvestro, born in South America is

life through her mixed media, multi-layered art. In the

British Guyana, Portuguese, Chinese and Dutch. Working

process, dimensions of her subjects are simultaneously

in the mediums of both oil painting and monotypes, she is

revealed and concealed. She mentions, “This enables me

drawn to the energy around her, and also from within the

to explore ideas of that which is present, but veiled—much like my hair, which I cover with a scarf in public. Using 5

repeated geometric shapes that fit closely together

and building up a symmetrical system of intersecting

creates a sense of order through which I understand the

strands of cells. In applying thousands of tiny dots with

natural world and my personal experience.” Israeli born

acrylic, ink, and silicone, she creates an ethereal space

artist Rinat Goren works in the ancient technique of

where constellations gather and disperse in an endless

encaustic—Greek artists as far back as the 5th century B.C

cycle. Forging a connection between the microcosmic

practiced encaustic art. The inspiration for her work

and macrocosmic, the lush paintings push an imaginative

comes from people who use their mind and think. The

space, exploring tensions and relationships between

ability to form clear thoughts, make decisions, make

corporeal and mystical, body and mind.

choices and act accordingly is a unique attribute to human beings and she encourages us all to use and practice this quality. Goren comments “The Main Idea is an attempt to process the flood of information and ideas we encounter relentlessly.” Roberta Ahrens has created a proprietary technique of handmade, cracked linen surfaces, and molds it and incorporates it into her large canvases. She then paints the surface and gilds

each piece in copper, silver or gold leaf. The Water Series reveals the awesome power and force of the primordial element of water. She comments “My water series serves to express my reaction to the critical problem of climate change that is threatening the seas. These are literally the life blood of our planet and the life force for everything that exists on this big blue ball of water drifting along in the vacuum of space.”

Colombian and Salvadoran artist, Tessie Barrera-Scharaga, finds many ideas for her work in the creative tension between private subjective values and social concerns. She is a mixed-media installation and assemblage artist who draws a direct correlation between her artistic process and her experiences growing up in South and

Central America.

Tessie notes,

“My

assemblage alludes at how an idea or emotion can take hold of a person, affecting their life and work.” Priscilla Otani is an artist whose mixed media works explore the myths, taboos and histories of her Japanese birthplace and

her

naturalized

American

culture.

As

an

interdisciplinary artist, she uses readily accessible materials to create visually striking installations that compel the viewer to examine polarizing issues such as class, politics, abortion, immigration, and racial prejudice.

Lucky Rapp is an artist with a background in

Otani says, “It is my desire to draw the viewer into

both fashion and art. Her self-taught style that

discussion of class, race and gender through this visually

incorporates resin is challenging and requires great

pleasing installation.”

technical skill that is highly process-orientated and physically demanding. Her methodology uses multiple layers of resin, paint, and acrylic forms. Combining inquisitive statements play creatively with language and

the potency of graphic communication—while the threedimensional nature of the layered resin fosters a sculptural reflective quality. Michelle Mansour’s work is a meditation on the space between science and spirituality. Her process includes layering translucent color

Sawyer Rose uses her beautifully soldered metal artwork to shine a spotlight on contemporary social and ecological issues. She says of her process, “Both

sculptural and painterly, the botanical forms in my work are clad in layers of silver solder and copper, as if their delicate bodies are growing the armor they need to flourish in the environment humans are leaving for them.

Using the texture of the metal as my primary mark-making medium, the liquefied silver morphs into bark, or feathers,

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or scales. There is eloquence and beauty in the act of self-

inherently conveys a narrative facet derived from a lyric,

protection.” Argentinian artist ZaHaVa Sherez is a

phrase or sentiment that beckons for visual context...They

spiritual activist who has been using her art to give voice

are not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on

to

the gifts we have to provide each other.”

social justice,

human

rights,

immigrants, and

refugees. InBodied Light is a large sculptural project which is a visual representation of the message We Are One! The sculptures are made from resin, pigments, mixed media, bronze, and light. Sherez notes, “I chose resin as it interacts well with light allowing it to flow through and bounce off the textured surface of each piece connecting the pieces to each other and to the viewer.” Black artist Lorraine Bonner began practicing art and was selftaught in learning clay and mixed media sculpture. A retried medical doctor, she works with health care providers and other artists, many of whom also had traumatic histories such as her own. Bonner mentions “We

were hurt people but we were not hurting anyone, and

Through the exquisite, beautiful works and lyrical story-telling, these artists have created art that reflects their experiences and highlights women's stories, struggles, and achievements. These eloquent and expressive art

practices will gradually reshape the art world, and create more opportunities, visibility, and recognition for other women, nonbinary and BIPOC artists. Process seeks to bring awareness and elevate the work of these artists and to celebrate their contributions. These exhibitions provide a platform for their voices, perspectives and their lived experiences to be seen and heard. This will lead to a more inclusive and diverse representation within the art world and the world at large by showcasing their artwork.

the clay was a voice I was beginning to trust. Wounded World Healer started out as a simple figure mending a broken world.”

I hope you enjoy the beauty of these works and their powerful, healing messages as much as I do. I am indebted to the artists for sharing their individual stories

Demetra Theofanous is a Greek American artist. Of her stunning, intricate works she says, “My signature is a technique I developed for weaving glass, which allows me to create large scale sculptures by

with me and also very grateful for the support of the staff and opportunity to showcase these works at Art Works Downtown. It is truly a special place that amplifies the

voices of our creative community.

melting glass in the flame at a table top torch. Technique merges with narratives in my work, to express

Karen M. Gutfreund Curator

metaphorical bridges between nature and human beings.

Inspired by the storytelling tradition of woven tapestry and basketry, I see myself as weaving with glass to connect the viewer with the story of the natural world.” Dianne Hoffman, native Californian, living in San Francisco, is a

self-taught artist creating intricate assemblages with a focus in found objects and recycled materials. Her work delights the senses, the creations both whimsical and dark simultaneously, making one want to submerse yourself into the story behind it. She says of her work, “Each piece 7

About Karen M. Gutfreund, Curator

Karen M. Gutfreund is an independent curator and artist with a focus on feminist and social justice art. She has worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group, the John Berggruen Gallery and the Pacific Art League, and is an

art consultant to both corporations and individuals. She served on the board of the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Pacific Art League and the Petaluma Arts Council. She was the National Exhibitions Director for the Women’s Caucus for Art, is a member of ArtTable, the Northern California Representative for The Feminist Art Project, and Curator for UniteWomen.org.

To date Gutfreund has created over forty national exhibitions— recent exhibitions include: Process, The Space Between, Agency: Feminist Art and Power, Deadlocked and Loaded: Disarming America, Not Normal: Art in the Age of Trump, and Embedded Message, Debating the Dream: Truth, Justice and the American Way. She co-curated F213, F*ck U! In the Most Loving Way, and Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze. She has been an exhibition director for dozens of exhibitions.

Karen is partner in Gutfreund Cornett Art, with curator Sherri Cornett, a curatorial partnership that creates art as activism exhibitions, with the motto “changing the world through art” with national touring exhibitions. GCA exhibitions included: Beyond Borders: Stories of im/Migration, Social Justice: It Happens to One, Happens to

All, Rise: Empower, Change and Action, Vision: An Artist’s Perspective, What’s Right, What’s Left: Democracy in America, Visural: Sight, Sound and Action. Gutfreund is a consultant to artists and documents and creates art catalogs for galleries and individual artists around the country, and frequently juries exhibitions, participates in panels and gives lectures and classes. Lastly, she is an artist and has exhibited extensively around the country.

She has a BFA in Photographic Design and a BA in Art History, and studies towards a MA from New York University. Gutfreund has lived in all four corners of the United States and now lives on a ranch in the Sierra Foothills.

KarenGutfreund.com, GutfreundCornettArt.com @karengutfreundart karenmgutfreund@gmail.com

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ABOUT THE GALLERY: Art Works Downtown, Inc, a 501(c)3 corporation, is Marin’s premier non-profit art center. Located on Fourth Street, our 40,000 square-foot building houses four galleries, 33 art studios, a jewelers guild, frame shop, a ceramic center, a restaurant, 17 affordable apartments and more. We feature new exhibits and events every month including the popular 2nd Friday Art Walk.

Mission: To provide an environment for visual arts to thrive for the well-being of community.

1337 Fourth St., San Rafael, CA 94901 www.artworksdowntown.org info@artworksdowntown.org 415.451.8119

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ARTISTS Wendy Ackrell Pilar Agüero-Esparza Roberta Ahrens Tessie Barrera-Scharaga Lorraine Bonner Marie Cameron Valerie Constantino Bushra Gill Rinat Goren Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro Dianne Hoffman Quinn Keck Kristine Mays Michelle Mansour Geralyn Montano Priscilla Otani Lucky Rapp Sawyer Rose ZaHaVa Sherez Na Omi Judy Shintani

Christine So Demetra Theofanous

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Wendy Ackrell SAN FRANCISCO, CA @wendyackrell wendyackrell.com Biography: San Francisco-based artist Wendy Ackrell has worked as a painter for over two decades, primarily exploring abstraction but returning to figuration over the past few years. Originally a writer, she incorporates fiber art, poetry and mixed media into her work. Along with painting, her first love, Wendy animates and transforms natural materials such as river stones, trees and fallen branches with paint, wool and wire, leaving them to be discovered in situ. She is of the firm belief that joy in the act of creation—and the wonder in alchemizing the quotidian into something precious and perceived anew—is a resounding yes to life. She is currently investigating kintsugi, the Japanese art of repair, both as artistic metaphor and a celebration of resilience.

Her great passion is making public art. Wendy was chosen to interpret works by five renowned poets for San Francisco Beautiful’s Muni Art 2020 Project, Hidden Gems in San Francisco. Wendy’s paintings were displayed on Muni buses throughout the city. More recently, Wendy created a 400-pound heart sculpture, Labyrinthine Heart, for SFGH Foundation’s Hearts in San Francisco 2023.

Wendy received her B.A. in English from Duke University. She is currently studying at The Alternative Art School, an online community of artists founded by art writer and curator Nato Thompson.

Statement: I began creating woolen sculptures in 2009 after a tumultuous period in my life. Out in the peaceful woods of Sonoma, I began gathering large, gnarled branches that had dropped onto the forest floor. A week of total quiet and a huge skein of yarn led to the creation of my first wool wrapped branches. Eventually, my thoughts turned to exploring other elements, and I became drawn to the idea of softening traditionally male-oriented objects with beautiful, colorful yarn.

Yarn, historically used in women’s work, tempers items which have prototypically masculine or violent connotations. For me, the material and the wrapping motion become both the act of accessing memory and the creation of hope. As I wind and unwind, spool and unspool, I am reliving moments in life and thinking of possibility, of the future. Working with fiber lets my hands bear burdens for me, permits me to fumble around in search of new insight, and guides me in searching for answers I might otherwise never find.

Gentling these pieces with plush, richly colored wool while pushing them into new sculptural forms allows me to establish an extremely different, almost familial, relationship with them. The repetitive, meditative, and transformative nature of fiber art is one of the most healing and hopeful acts of renewal I know.

In Bloom (2021) Sticks wrapped with yarn, installation in container ~50 x 24 inches

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Pilar Agüero-Esparza SAN JOSE, CA @pilar.aguero.esparza pilaraguero.com

Biography: Pilar Agüero-Esparza is a mixed media artist working in painting and spatial processes through which she explores issues of colorism and social hierarchies while engaging with ideas of materiality, meaning, and the handmade object as entry points for discussions on race, equity and empathy. She received a BA in Art from the University of California Santa Cruz, and MFA in Spatial Art from San Jose State University. Agüero-Esparza has exhibited her work in numerous institutions including the San Jose Museum of Art, Triton Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, MACLA, Palo Alto Arts Center, Galeria de la Raza, the Lawrence Arts Center, the De Young Museum, Cabrillo Gallery at Cabrillo College, and the Montalvo Arts Center. In 2017, her work was featured in the exhibition “The U.S. Mexico Border: Place, Imagination, and Possibility” at the Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles as part of the Getty Foundation Southern California initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art. In 2019, the U.S.-Mexico Border exhibition traveled to Lille, France as part of the Eldorado Lille3000 arts festival.

Sponsored by festival organizers, Agüero-Esparza traveled to France and worked with community members teaching huarache-making workshops at the Maison Folie Wazemmes. In 2022, as an artist-in-residence and Lucas Artist Fellow, she was commissioned to create a largescale outdoor work for the exhibition “Claiming Space: Refiguring the Body in Landscape” at the Montalvo Arts Center. Currently, she is working on a series of large-scale leather paintings as part of her upcoming exhibitions at the Kondos Gallery at Sacramento City College and the Santa Clara University Art Gallery.

Statement: The process of weaving huarache sandals relies on the warp being three-dimensional and formed on a last. The weft is not a straight line but an ever-changing curve, woven around the last that eventually forms the shoe. I adopt this and similar leather working processes in making my works. In lace/her, I capture the undulations of the weave three-dimensionally to mimic the contours of a female belly.

Acrylic, leather and nails materially create the work; color suggesting flesh provides the painting its content.

lace/her (2023) Acrylic, stretched leather, nails, on wood panel, 14 x 11 x 2 inches

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Roberta Ahrens PETALUMA, CA @robertaahrensstudio robertaahrens.com Biography: My career as a Fine Artist began 37 years ago when I arrived in San Francisco to work with my older sister and immediately leaped into the world of creative decorative painting and finishing. I began my career with commissions for work in high-end, corporate locations such as the Westin St. Francis and Harry Denton’s and major design work South of Market at Club DV8.

In 2005, I began to develop my unique style of fine art painting, working on personally handmade cracked linen canvases, seeking universal themes of beauty, nature, and peace in and through the world. I paint primarily in acrylics and watercolors and then carve the pieces, etching lines into the plaster. Through these works, I seek to call attention to the beauty inherent in the natural world.

Statement: I create most all of my artwork on a special canvas called “Cracked Linen.” I have perfected this process through many years of creative experimentation and permutation.

I begin with a piece of linen (or similar light fabric) and I apply two to four layers of ”my mud,” a clay based mixture that I’ve developed over the last 30+ years and that I understand completely. I know how it will dry and I know how it will crack when I roll and manipulate the cut piece. Depending on the piece I am working on, I unroll and crack the material vertically and/or horizontally to form a fractal base of textured material upon which I create each piece.

My water series is only broken horizontally, and it really was by accident one day that I discovered the very special wavelike patterns that are created by this process. I enhance the wave shapes of the sculpture by lifting and supporting parts of the cracked linen and allowing them to dry in ways that resemble incoming surf and wind rippling on a lake or stream. I then paint the surface, or gild each piece in copper, silver or gold leaf. I occasionally paint on the gilded surface to add additional touches of colors, flowers, leaves, or branches adding a botanical element to the work.

The pieces in this exhibition are the very first two in my water series created in 2015, now numbering fifteen and counting. Many of these pieces are very large and viscerally reveal the awesome power and force of this primordial element. All of my work serves to express my reaction to the critical problem of climate change that is threatening the seas that are literally the life blood of our planet and the life force for everything that exists on this big blue ball of water drifting along in the vacuum of space.

White Water and Black Water (2015) Mixed media, 60 x 48 inches each

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Tessie Barrera-Scharaga SAN JOSE, CA @tessb_art tessbscharaga.com Biography: Tessie Barrera-Scharaga finds many ideas for her work in the creative tension between private subjective values and social concerns. She is a mixed-media installation/assemblage artist who draws a direct correlation between her artistic drive and process, and her experiences growing up in South and Central America. Catholic nuns introduced her to the poems of Ruben Dario, Gabriela Mistral, and Pablo Neruda, and thus began a lifelong addiction to poetry and an appreciation for symbolism and metaphor. Her themes move from love and loss, to desire, transformation, and transcendence. Born in New York City of Colombian and Salvadoran parents, Barrera-Scharaga followed her family’s trajectories through the Americas (North, Central, and South) in her childhood and teenage years, returning to the U.S. to attend college. Though she has resided in California for most of her adult life, she continues to maintain a deep connection to her Latin American cultural roots. Tessie Barrera-Scharaga received a BFA in Spatial Arts from San Jose State University, and an MFA in Studio Art from Mills College. She lives and works in San Jose, California, and has shown her work extensively in the US and abroad.

Statement: My passion for poetry started in childhood. In South America, poetry is consumed on a daily basis, and poets are venerated, their work recited and quoted from memory, in every type of occasion. Both my parents were poetry enthusiasts, each with their own favorite poets.

Their books could be found on shelves and tables all over our house. In social gatherings, in addition to food, music and dance, my parents and their friends recited their favorite works to each other. This early imprint has remained with me throughout my life, and it has inspired and informed a lot of my work. The great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote about how ordinary things become precious to us because of who made them, who gave them, or who touched them. My assemblage is composed of many ordinary things that have memories attached to them. In addition to providing structure, the frames give a reference point to images from the past, much like a photograph. All the objects are covered and connected by a poem, that simultaneously preserves but also absorbs them. These objects that were precious to me and the memories they carried are now protected, but they are also impossible to touch, they have been rendered out of reach.

In the words of Neruda: “these buttons and wheels and little forgotten treasures… …glasses, knives and scissors, all bear the trace of someone’s fingers on their handle or surface, the trace of a distant hand lost in the depths of forgetfulness.”

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Ode to the Bygone detail (2023) Mixed-media assemblage, 72 x 24 x 24 inches

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Lorraine Bonner OAKLAND, CA @lorrainesculptor lorrainebonner.com

Biography: Lorraine Bonner was born in New York and escaped to California in 1970. She practiced medicine for 35 years, sculpture for 25 years, and writing for as long as she can remember. Traumatized in her childhood, she is amazed that she has lived as long as she has, and might have flossed more vigorously had she known this would happen. She lives in Oakland, close to her children and grandchildren.

Statement: “Hurt people hurt people,” that is the standard phrase that people use to explain everything from a kid who bullies their classmate to the loyalists of the Third Reich. Hurt people hurt people, something bad must have happened to those people.

I was a true believer myself, in those days of the mid eighties and early nineties, when the consciousness raising power of the women’s movement allowed so many of us to recognize the trauma we lived through. Many yearned to help the perpetrators. If we could only shine enough love on them, their wounds, which we were sure they had, would be healed and they would stop hurting us and our world.

This was my understanding when I began practicing art, learning sculpture on the fly. I was a medical doctor and an artist, working with other health care workers and other artists, many of whom also had traumatic histories. We were hurt people but we were not hurting anyone, and the clay, whose voice I was beginning to trust, had nothing to say about the wounds of my perpetrators, but revealed only their relentless violence, my own innocence and powerlessness.

As I thought about wounded healers I also wondered if the converse were true. Are there people who had not been hurt themselves but who choose to hurt other people? Who are willing to set fire to the world which gives them life? Who are these people? How can we stop them? Could any amount of love change them? Was there any hope for healing them, when they don’t see themselves as being in need of healing?

Wounded World Healer started out as a simple figure mending a broken world. I was experimenting with the use of cloth dipped in slip for her robe, and she told me her head was to be shaved, like a monk. She is a spiritual being. She has our world in her hands, and she has marks on her wrists. I’m not sure if the scars are from restraints when she was being tortured, or if they are scars of her own self injuries from times of overwhelming pain and despair. Her scars give me a feeling of safety. She is a hurt person, like me. She is a healer, a wounded healer attempting to heal a wounded world.

I don’t know if she will succeed.

Wounded World Healer (2017) Clay, 19 x 12 x 16 inches 20

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Marie Cameron LOS GATOS, CA @mariecameronstudio mariecameronstudio.com Biography: Marie Cameron is an imaginative realist oil painter and mixed media assemblage artist based in Los Gatos, California where she works out her dream studio, in the garden behind her house.

Born in New York City, and raised in Maine and Nova Scotia, she earned her BFA with distinction at Mount Allison, in Sackville, New Brunswick where she minored in photography and sculpture and majored in painting. She was awarded a prestigious Canada Council Grant and worked in giftware design and children’s book illustration while maintaining her art practice.

Upon moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late nineties, she became heavily involved in the local art community. Working in various series, her work focuses on the connections we have to each other, to nature and to our environment.

Her award-winning work has been exhibited and collected internationally and featured in many publications, galleries and museums, including the Museo Diocesano, Triton Museum of Art, Marin MOCA, SOMArts, Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art, Santa Clara University Art and Art History, Las Laguna Gallery, Sanchez Art Center, Vargas Gallery, NUMU, Whitney Modern, Arc Gallery, Woman Made Gallery, Curated, de Young Museum of Art, Cabrillo Gallery, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Blue Line Arts and Jen Tough Gallery.

Statement: During the dark days of the pandemic I was desperate to find my lost connection to hope, awe and even joy… and it came in the form of a rainbow! I realized in that moment that I needed to see the rainbow in myself, in others, and in the world again. I sought to do this by embroidering silk rainbows onto found, vintage photographs and postcards. I choose subjects that inspired me with happiness and gratitude.

As I began each new day, I would begin a new piece. I would decide how best to use the rainbow to highlight joy. I would softly trace my plan in pencil on the front or the back of the photograph, using my window as a light box, making gentle indentations with a dull embroidery needle to plot my stitches and lightly pierce guide holes. Then, stitch by careful stitch and row by row, using the finest of beading needles, I would pull the floss through the fragile paper, carefully so as not to tear it or tangle and knot the threads. The subtle sheen of the hand dyed, pastel silk against the ephemeral images in tones of sepia or black looked truly magical. The entire, focused process was very calming, meditative and healing and it was something I could do in a small space, next to my radio and air purifier! At the end of the day I would take a picture of the finished piece and share it on social media under the hashtag #morerainbows! in an attempt to share the joy with others.

By the time we opened up in California I had some 200 pieces and hosted a Wall of Rainbows Pop-up in my studio which was a moving time to reconnect with community and share our stories.

I find I’m still making these, because we still need rainbows!

Rainbow Ride 2 (2020) Deconstructed Rainbow Skyscape (2021) Zigzag Rainbow Balloon Scape (2021) All found photographs, silk thread, 4 x 6 inches 22

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Valerie Constantino SACRAMENTO, CA valerieconstantino.net Biography: Valerie Constantino is a visual artist and writer, working with a range of traditional and contemporary hybrid art forms. Seminal studies in textiles led to a broad consideration of materiality, along with its implications regarding the malleable intersections of time, matter and identity. These ongoing and further investigations of shifting global ecologies and societal relations continue to inspire her creative research. An exhibiting artist and published writer, Constantino has received a number of notable awards in support of her interdisciplinary work. She currently lives and works in Northern California.

Statement: To love is to give what one does not have and to receive that over which one has no power. — Simon Critchley I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints.

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning With these two quotes, I began this series of fifteen handmade papers. Each 8 x 8 inch framed work offers a definition for love; love as a verb or love as an adjective.

Words were stitched onto the white papers with white cotton thread, and the lower edges of the papers were stained with an infusion of rose hips and beet powder. Each one was pressed between two acrylic squares, fastened with stainless steel book corners and silver pins.

This series evolved in conjunction with my exploratory integrations of tangible yet flexible materials such as paper, textile and thread, with writing and words. The overlay of these creative forms refers to their analogous structures, where writing is a network of linear and poetic elements relative to the reticulated underpinnings of matter.

For these works, I was also interested in referencing the subtlety of whitework, an embroidery technique of white stitching on white cloth, often used for christening, bridal and ecclesiastic textiles. Simultaneously, this project evolved within an atmosphere of catastrophic political, social and environmental shifts. And each work of the series attempts to set aside my susceptibility to these conditions, to locate and foster the best determinations within the human heart and mind.

Works of Love (2020) Handmade paper, textile and thread, with writing and words, 8 x 8 inches each

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Bushra Gill LAFAYETTE, CA @bushradraws bushragill.com

Biography: Bushra Gill is interested in finding order within the chaos of everyday life through art. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and emigrated to Houston, Texas, with her family as a small child. Drawn to art from a young age, she graduated from Pratt Institute in 1994, with a BFA in sculpture. She spent many years of working as a museum educator at various galleries and museums including The Museum of Modern Art, The Drawing Center and The Rotunda Gallery, while also working as a studio assistant to various artists including Maya Lin, Ursula von Rydingsvard and Maria Elena Gonzalez, as well as a career as a clothing designer and boutique owner in New York.

In 2009, she moved to northern California with her family and returned to making art. In recent years, Gill has participated in many exhibitions in galleries.

Statement: Inspired by Islamic geometric patterns, I tesselate images from everyday life to create rich and complex surface structures in/ with paint, print, and wood collage. In the process, dimensions of my subjects are simultaneously revealed and concealed, enabling me to explore ideas of that which is present, but veiled—much like my hair, which I cover with a scarf in public.

Using repeated geometric shapes that fit closely together creates a sense of order through which I understand the natural world and my personal experience. Rather than constraining my freedom, this approach provides a scaffold for experimenting with color, texture, and spatial possibilities.

A few years ago, I began using laser cutting as past of my process, in the actual pieces, as stencils, and as printmaking plates. Carmel Shore and Mendocino Sunset are from a series combining the geometric lasercut patterns with floral lasercuts framing the images. While attachments between people in the pandemic years when physical contact was limited, I found the additional lasercut elements in the work lent the visual remove we were experiencing in our relationships.

Attachments: Carmel Shore (2021) Attachments: Mendocino Sunset (2021) Image transfer, collage, modeling paste on collagraph print on paper, mounted on wood 9.75 x 9.75 inches each

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Rinat Goren WOODSIDE, CA @gorenrinat rinatgoren.com

Biography: Rinat Goren is a San Francisco Bay Area artist, specialized in the Encaustic medium (beeswax & pigment). Rinat was born and raised in Israel where she grew up in a community of hands-on makers, family and neighbors were building, repairing, stitching, and creating around her and so from early age she was observing as well as creating art. However, only after graduating university, moving to California and raising a family, Goren responded to the urge to further explore art. She then decided to dedicate her time to a new path as an artist.

The inspiration for her works comes from individuals who use their mind to think and solve problems; people around her who are thinkers, inventors and decision makers. Goren admires the ability to form clear thoughts, make decisions, make choices and act accordingly as a unique attribute to human beings. Goren’s work encourages and invites us all to celebrate and apply this quality.

Her abstract and figure paintings are showing in residential and commercial spaces around the country and she participated in multiple art shows.

Statement: Encaustic is the use of beeswax and pigment as a medium. The medium has to first be melted and then applied in layers to a surface; most often wood panel.

Heat source is used to fuse the layers together into a cohesive piece. Paper cuttings are embedded in between wax layers in different depths.

This piece The Main Idea is an attempt to process the flood of information and ideas we encounter relentlessly. I find it necessary to sort out core ideas and essential pieces of information to make our world possible to digest and cope with. This work is made with multiple layers that create depth and represent the wealth of information and ideas we face daily. Paper cuts are added to symbolize louder pieces of data that grabs our attention. This piece invites the observer to clear their mind up and sort out the main ideas.

The Main Idea (2021) Encaustic (beeswax and pigment) collage on wood panel, 24 x 24 x 1.5 inches

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Rozanne Hermelyn di Silvestro SUNNYVALE, CA hermelyn.com @rhermelyndisilvestro Biography: Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro was born in British Guyana South America, raised in Los Angeles, and is Portuguese, Chinese, and Dutch. She is a San Francisco Bay area visual artist working in the disciplines of painting and printmaking. Exposed very young to the arts through her mother, a fashion designer and master seamstress, Rozanne followed her passion for the arts throughout her youth. Rozanne studied art and design at UCLA and Art Center College of Design and went on to form her own award-winning design firm in San Francisco. After her successes in the commercial art world, Rozanne pivoted her focus to express her own creative voice. A self-taught fine artist, she spent many years studying and exploring painting and printmaking, pushing beyond traditional techniques. Rozanne’s work reflects her love of the visual message and is inspired by lived experiences and people. Often painting the unheard voice, her art encourages dialogue on many overlooked social issues.

Awarded Best of Show and 1st place in numerous exhibitions, Rozanne’s work has been shown in Triton Museum of Art, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Sonoma County, Janet Turner Print Museum, The Art Complex Museum, Museum of Los Gatos, and can be found in the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums and the Library of Congress. Rozanne has also been published in Reed Magazine, California’s oldest literary journal and in The California Printmaker journal.

Statement:

While oil painting is my first love, I have a special romance with the monotype printmaking technique.

The spontaneous act of drawing and painting onto a smooth plate surface is a constant study of life and light. My first step is to add oil ink with brushes and rollers and then I remove the ink with my fingers, rags, sticks…anything really, depending on the type of mark I want to create. The final step is to transfer my image from the printing plate to paper through an etching press, creating an one-of-a-kind artwork.

Going backwards, now moving forward.

What has been silenced, has become a stubborn hope that moves us forward.

Her tears are my tears, my step is her step.

Moving Forward (2023) Oil on paper mounted to panel, 52 x 36 inches

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Dianne Hoffman SAN FRANCISCO, CA diannehoffman.wixsite.com/artist @diannehoffmanart

Biography: Dianne Hoffman is a self taught mixed media artist with a primary focus in found objects and recycled materials mingled with collage, paint and clay. Her work conveys personal and fictious stories with uncanny whimsy by unifying balanced aspects of light and dark.

She was born and raised in the suburbs of Southern California and moved North to become a resident of San Francisco in 1988.

The City by the Bay, with its loving embrace of everything extraordinary and endless resource of possibilities, came to cultivate and nurture her creative impulses. She has been a full time artist of salvaged and repurposed components since 2010 with work found in collections worldwide and maintains an abundant workspace at Arc Studios and Gallery in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco.

Statement: The medium of Assemblage allows me to repurpose discarded objects and salvaged materials to construct dimensional worlds of allegory where tall tales are told, jokes are cracked, emotions stirred, and ideas imparted. Each piece inherently conveys a narrative facet derived from a lyric, phrase or sentiment that beckons for visual context. I recently developed a small series inspired by pagan customs and practices celebrating the gathering of crops during harvest season by depicting fruit and vegetables that carry symbolic meanings associated with fertility, abundance, and vitality.

In this piece I referenced folklore that describes Faeries of agricultural rural areas living beneath ground and serving as soil spirits to help the healthy growth of plant life. These mythical sprites attentively pinch the roots, vines and flower buds to aid their bloom and make them ripen. Mother Nature’s nutrients are where we all meet to experience a shared lifeforce. They are not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on the gifts we have to provide each other.

There Are Faeries Among Us (2023) Mixed media assemblage, 19 x 10 x 4 inches

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Quinn Keck BERKELEY, CA @running.from.the.silence.press quinnkeck.com

Biography: Quinn Keck [they/them] is a multidisciplinary artist working across traditional printmaking, painting, and digital mediums to create dialogues on the human experience. Instead of portraying just the physical form of people, places, and objects, Quinn abstracts layers to discuss identity, memory, perception, and grief—exploring the absurdity of making patterns in a chaotic world in their work.

Their process is one of constantly iterating on new and old images, just as we all are a series of imperfect versions of ourselves improving each iteration but never fully finished.

They are currently a data scientist by day and use these skills in their artistic practice through creative coding and participatory projects.

Statement: Integral to modern life is navigating existence on the grid—people, algorithms, corporations want everyone labeled and put in boxes to play the role capitalism assigned us. The machine learning algorithms that run modern life in their essence are built on data with single labels as absolutes. It can be easy to be lost in the power these societal grids hold—but we are not defined by them.

My work explores the destruction and reconstruction of the grid, and the fight for self in late stage capitalism. I utilize a taxonomy of icons and layers of projections, paint, print and code to discuss layers of perception, memory and grief. My process is one of constantly iterating on new and old images, just as we all are a series of imperfect versions of ourselves improving each iteration but never fully finished.

Nexus Individual Response 001 (2021) Algorithmic digital art, 20 x 20 inches

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Kristine Mays SAN FRANCISCO, CA @kristinemays kristinemays.com

Biography: Kristine Mays currently lives and works in San Francisco, California. She has been an exhibiting artist since 1993. Mays seeks to create change with her art, creating socially conscious works of beauty that speak to social issues. She has participated in programming at the De Young Museum, the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD), and exhibited at the California African American Museum (CAAM). Mays is represented by Modernism Inc. Gallery. Her work is a part of the permanent collection at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA. Collectors of her work include Star Wars creator George Lucas and collector/philanthropist Peggy Cooper Cafritz, with her work also displayed in many private collections throughout the United States. Her exhibit Rich Soil, is currently touring the United States and moving on to it's sixth location.

Statement: Formed from hundreds of individual pieces of wire, Kristine Mays has developed a way of expressing the human form through wire.

“As an artist I am very aware of the impermanence of life.

With metal wire I have timelessly captured a fleeting moment that I hope will last for decades. My artwork points to the soul and spirit, transporting the viewer into another place. It's about reconnecting to a deeper purpose—the soul and spirit of our lives. I transform hard rigid wire into soft flowing movement. I create the outer shell, the exterior of a human being, but provoke you to see what's within. Memories and the way we have loved one another far outweigh our status or possessions—and yet sometimes a simple dress or a body in motion may trigger a memory from the past, allowing us to visit that which has imprinted our lives.”

My work consists of sculpting heavy steel wire. By looping, hooking and overlapping thousands of pieces of wire, I create the essence of a human form. Sometimes it emerges from a garment and other times it resides as a body, always in some form of movement as a testament to life, liveliness and vibrancy. While my work addresses a number of things, spanning many topics, I have found myself continually seeking to leave a mark of my existence. As an African American woman, I have witnessed numerous ways my people have been excluded and erased from history. In my own way, I am mending. I am pulling the pieces back together. Rebuilding. Reclaiming. I am pulling the threads back together in a way that is restorative. The work I make feels purposeful and life affirming and give honor to humanity.

Reveling in Her Assets (2019) Wire, 60 x 21 x 11 inches

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Michelle Mansour OAKLAND, CA @michellemansourstudio michellemansour.com Biography: Michelle Mansour is an artist, educator, and curator as well as the current Executive Director of Root Division, a visual arts non-profit in San Francisco. Her work as been shown in a variety of non-profit and commercial venues such as the DeYoung Museum, Bedford Gallery, Southern Exposure, McLoughlin Gallery, Morris Graves Museum, and Minnesota Street Project, including solo exhibitions at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, RB Stevenson Gallery (La Jolla), Berkeley Art Center, and Fourth Wall Gallery. Mansour has work in a variety of collections including Nordstroms, Hilton Hotels, Kaiser Permanente, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, and the El Camino Hospital. Mansour is the recipient of an Honorary Fellowship and multiple residencies from Djerassi Resident Artists Program and has had residencies at Cow House Studios (Ireland), Casa Na Ilha (Brazil), Chalk Hill Artist Residency (Sonoma, CA), and Cycladic Arts (Greece).

She has also curated and co-curated several exhibitions including 2x2's at ProArts and Metaphysical Abstraction: Contemporary Approaches to Spiritual Content.

Mansour received her MFA in Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received a BA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University and a Post Baccalaureate degree in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mansour has given lectures and been on panels with the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, The Lab, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, University of San Francisco, and Sonoma State University among others.

Statement:

My work is a meditation on the space between science and spirituality. Through the lens of perception, fluctuating between the miniscule and the grandiose, we find fear and wonder of the unknown, the invisible, and the uncontrollable. Based initially on investigating the microscopic world of the body’s interior where beauty and illness mingle in the same fluids and membranes, my work has become a broader ontological reflection of where the physical and the metaphysical intersect. Growing up in a family of scientists, this focus intensified when my mother—both a nurse and devout Catholic—was diagnosed with and lost to cancer.

Forging a connection between the microcosmic and macrocosmic, the paintings push an imaginative space, exploring tensions and relationships between corporeal and mystical, body and mind. My process includes layering translucent color and building up a symmetrical system of intersecting strands of cells. In applying thousands of tiny dots, I create an ethereal space where constellations gather and disperse in an endless cycle.

Particles accumulate, and I layer globules of silicone to emerge from the surface as tissue-like prayer beads. The result is the juxtaposition of jewel-like fields and manipulated surfaces, creating a tactile element for counting countless meditations. While the initial impetus for these compositions is a controlled symmetry, the mutability of the materials often disrupts a perfect equilibrium. This exponentially cyclical process of repeating marks becomes a devotional practice in contemplating the exquisite balance between matter and spirit, certainty and faith, presence and loss.

Little Warriors of Courage, Clarity, Renewal, Balance, Light, and Devotion (Red Amethyst, Blue Topaz, Emerald, Citron, Peridot, Sapphire) (2022) Acrylic, ink, and silicone on muslin on panel, 12 x 9 inches each 38

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Geralyn Montano SAN FRANCISCO, CA @geralyn_m_montano geralynmontano.com Biography:

Geralyn Montano was born in Colorado. She is a multiracial contemporary artist emphasizing her Native American heritage; Dineh (Navajo) from her fathers lineage, French, Spanish and Comanche from her mothers. Montano received her formal art education from the San Francisco Art Institute, graduating with a BFA in interdisciplinary arts including drawing, painting and sculpture. Montano has a strong interest in working with under-represented members of her community. She is currently a visual art instructor for developmentally disabled adults. Her work has been exhibited at Crocker Art Museum, Galeria de la Raza, MACLA San Jose, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Incline Gallery, Humboldt State University Goudi’ni Gallery, San Francisco State University, Luggage Store Gallery, and University of San Francisco Thacher Gallery. Montano’s work is inspired by personal experiences relating to cultural or feminist themes. Her work juxtaposes aesthetic qualities with subversive imagery; combining aesthetic, thematic and technical skills, Montano impresses emotional and powerful ideas on the viewer; never shying away from controversial or taboo subjects.

Statement: I am a woman artist of Native, Latinx mixed heritage. My lived experience inspires me to prominently feature women and themes of my cultural heritage. I was raised apart from the Dine’ side of my father’s family. Like tens of thousands of Native Americans, my paternal grandfather was forced to attend a boarding school where he endured government-mandated pressures intended to stamp out that culture and language. The trauma of this was intergenerational, passed on in my family. I was raised in estrangement from Native culture and encouraged to embrace and emulate mainstream “American” culture. This left me questioning who I was and where I fit in—an all-too-common experience for many Natives I’ve met. As an adult, I later became fascinated with my ancestry and began to read widely about Native cultures and contemporary women’s issues.

In 2011-12 I was researching human trafficking and sex trafficking. Human trafficking is a global epidemic. I discovered it was occurring with women and girls in Native American communities. The media rarely gives voice to the Native community. I was compelled to create a series I titled, Traded Moons. The artworks shine a light on this violent underworld occurring in Native American communities.

Fishing in the Underworld is a work from this series. I chose to be bold and honest with this work depicting the danger of a precarious life, with a girl walking a tightrope. I carefully drew a young Dineh (Navajo) girl in a traditional velvet blouse and squash blossom necklace. She is both vulnerable and strong. She is seen within a red and pink, feminine circle of acrylic ink, and collaged dark fish in an explosive arrangement. She is defiant, using her hair as a rope she is determined to save her sisters caught in the downward spiral of sex trafficking.

While researching, I often came across stories of resilient sex trafficking survivors who escaped to heal and become advocates for survivors and victims in their campaign to put an end to this form of violence against women.

Fishing in the Underworld (2011) Graphite, acrylic, ink, collage on paper to mounted board, 16 inches diameter Courtesy of Trotta-Bono Contemporary 40

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Priscilla Otani SAN FRANCISCO, CA @mrpotani mrpotani.com

Biography: Priscilla Otani is a San Francisco-based artist whose mixed media works explore the myths, taboos and histories of her Japanese birthplace and her naturalized American culture. As an interdisciplinary artist, she uses readily accessible materials to create visuallystriking installations that compel the viewer to examine polarizing issues such as class, politics, abortion, immigration, and racial prejudice. Her works have been selected in Bay Area, national and international exhibitions and included in numerous private collections.

Otani has curated many local, national and international exhibitions. She was President of the National Women’s Caucus from 2013 – 2015 and currently serves as the President of the Board of Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art. Otani received her BA in Psychology and Asian Studies from Mills College in 1974 and MA in Japanese Literature from Columbia University in 1976. Born in Tokyo, Otani is a bi-cultural, naturalized United States citizen.

Statement: The Pleasure Quarters installation consists of a cluster of paper-covered structures surrounded by waxed paper shoes. The structures represent mizushobai or the water trade, named as such because houses of prostitution, theaters and drinking establishments were built along the shores of rivers.

Although life in the pleasure quarters was depicted romantically by ukiyo-e artists such as Utamaro, Sharaku and Harunobu, in reality, the women who worked in these houses were sold by destitute farming families and had to work off onerous debts for much of their lives. The shoes symbolize the unspoken world of burakumin, historically living in segregated villages within cities because of their livelihood in tanning, curing, disposing of the dead and other defiling occupations. It is my desire to draw the viewer into discussion of class, race and gender through this visually pleasing installation.

Pleasure Quarters (2010-2013) Mixed Media Installation, size variable

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Lucky Rapp SAN FRANCISCO, CA @lucky_rapp luckyrapp.com Biography: Lucky Rapp is a San Francisco based visual artist with a background in both fashion and art. Her selftaught style is often characterized as being text-based. Her methodology incorporates layers of resin, paint, and acrylic forms that create texture and depth within the dialogue of her work. Lucky’s approach is process-oriented and physical. The end result combines inquisitive statements that play with both language and the potency of graphic communication, while the three-dimensional nature of the layered resin fosters a sculptural reflective quality.

Lucky’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across the United States and Europe, including: Adeeni Design Galerie, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, ARC Gallery, Art Market San Francisco, ArtHaus Gallery, ArtZone 461 Gallery, Campfire Gallery, DVC Gallery, DZINE Gallery, Gallery 35, Houston Art Fair, h u g o m e n t o, James Bacchi Contemporary, Los Angeles Affordable Art Fair, Minnesota Street Project Editions, Museum of Sonoma County, NY Affordable Art Fair, Palette Gallery, Palm Springs Museum, Playground Global, Poliform, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Slate Contemporary Gallery, Sloan Miyasato Fine Art, StARTup Art Fair San Francisco, Themes & Projects Gallery, Voss Gallery, and Wescover Gallery. Lucky’s work is in numerous private and corporate collections, including Springline Melo Park and all of Michelin Chef Dominique Crenn’s restaurants (Atelier Crenn, Bar Crenn, and Petit Crenn). An active member of the San Francisco art community Lucky regularly donates works to annual auctions at Art for Aids, Hospitality House, and ArtSpan.

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she resides, Lucky has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, and has lived and worked in Mannheim and Paris.

Statement: The ‘Braille’ works were created for the group exhibition ‘Cracking Nutshells’ at DZINE Gallery in San Francisco. Conceptually, ‘Braille’ is about deconstruction and reconstruction. Each piece in the 12 part series reflects the deconstruction and the reconstruction of the written text word, its conversion to braille, and how we as the viewer interpret this form of communication. As an extension of my current body of text based works utilizing a variety of font forms and languages to articulate the power of the word, ‘Braille’ was created as a means to encourage individuals to reconsider how we experience art and language through touch, instead of sight. By encouraging individuals to interact with the works by touching them, ‘Braille’ also acts as a deconstruction of traditional art world ‘rules’.

The more marks one makes, the more real our existence becomes.

– Lucky Rapp

Yes, Smile, Bright, Wish (2018) Gesso, paint, plastic, mixol, resin on canvas, 8 x 8 x 2.25 inches each 44

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Sawyer Rose FAIRFAX, CA @ksawyerrose carrying-stones.com

Biography: Sawyer Rose, FRSA, MRSS, is a sculptor, installation and social practice artist. Throughout her career, Rose has used her artwork to shine a spotlight on contemporary social and ecological issues. Her work has been featured by The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, and Bust Magazine. Rose has been a resident artist at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, Moulin à Nef in France, Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale Foundation, and Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco. She has been awarded grants from The Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation, The Creative Capacity Fund, The Awesome Foundation, and ArtistGrant.org.

Rose is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (London), a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors (London), and the Sculptors Guild (New York). She is the Past President and current Communications Chair of the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (San Francisco).

Born and raised in North Carolina and a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, she currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Statement: Both sculptural and painterly, the botanical forms in my work are clad in layers of silver solder and copper, as if their delicate bodies are growing the armor they need to flourish in the environment humans are leaving for them. Using the texture of the metal as my primary mark-making medium, the liquefied silver morphs into bark, or feathers, or scales. There is eloquence and beauty in the act of self protection.

The surfaces of my soldered metal pieces draw inspiration from unexpectedly diverse sources— typically a mash-up of California native flora and Medieval weaponry—though I’ve also tapped into the organic patterns of coral, fungus, and lava flows for fresh ideas.

When building these works, I begin by covering the areas I want to solder with thick copper foil. Next, I lay down the first layer of texture in silver solder—like painting with molten metal. I add dimension to the work by placing beads of solder to create depth and contrast. The pieces are covered with a rich black patina, and burnished with steel wool to bring out shining highlights on the raised peaks, while leaving dark in the valleys.

Mandala (2015) Silver solder, copper, industrial polystyrene, 30 x 30 x 6 inches

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ZaHaVa Sherez OAKLAND, CA @zahava_sherez_art zahavasherez.com Biography: ZaHaVa Sherez is an international contemporary artist and spiritual activist who has been using her art since 1992 to give voice to social justice, human rights, immigrants, and refugees. ZaHaVa was born in Argentina, grew up in Israel, and moved to the USA in 1985. Since 2018 she has been living and working both in Oakland, California and Jalisco, Mexico.

Being multi-cultural and multi-lingual has enriched her life in indescribable ways. Experiences such as immigrations, wars, and oppression have been implausible teachers who deepened and shaped ZaHaVa’s worldview to understand that humanity is One Race. Having lived in multiple cultures, witnessing the rich differences between them, she was able to see the fundamental similarities that make divisions obsolete. As an artist she draws from her life lessons and has used stone, clay, resin, bronze, mixed media, and color, to convey her messages.

Her latest work, InBodied Light is a large sculptural project which is a visual representation of the message We Are One! To best illustrate this concept, Sherez chose to use a material that has a transparency and lightness to it, so that light becomes a central element. This places the emphasis on the common field and on our connectedness with all and everything through Light and Vibrational Energy. Darkness cannot exist when light shines on it. That is the purpose of this work—silent and powerful Beings transforming with their presence.

Sherez is the recipient of numerous awards, and her work has been shown from California to New York and all the way to Paris, China, Corsica, and Mexico, and Havana, Cuba. Private and corporate collectors in the USA, Israel, The Netherlands, Australia, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England, Chile, and Mexico, own her art. ZaHaVa is fluent in English, Spanish, and Hebrew.

Statement: By holding the possibility that the division of humanity into ‘sub-races’ is a man-made fabrication, we can look at ourselves with new eyes grasping the notion that we are one race. Based on my own life experiences, and being a citizen of four countries, I know for sure that our similarities as humans are far greater than our wonderful differences. The similarities are fundamental and belong to One People.

The complete InBodied Light project consists of 50 Beings made from resin, pigments, mixed media, bronze, and light, ranging from two to seven feet tall. Each Being is faceless and genderless becoming no one and everyone at the same time. Light is a core element of this work as it depicts the vibrational energy that runs through all and everything connecting us as one. I chose resin as it interacts well with light allowing it to flow through and bounce off the textured surface of each piece connecting the pieces to each other and to the viewer. This series continues to be produced, planned as an international traveling show beginning January 2023.

Being #2, 9, 13 InBodied Light Project, (2018-2021) Resin Polymer and mixed media, 21 x 3 x 3 inches each 48

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Na Omi Judy Shintani HALF MOON BAY, CA @judy.shintani naomishintani.com

Biography: Na Omi Judy Shintani is an accomplished community artist who creates a safe environment for inquiry and connection. Her work is a powerful exploration of hidden stories and exposes social injustice.

Shintani’s unique assemblage and installations often incorporate traditional Japanese arts and crafts.

She has exhibited extensively throughout the US and internationally, including solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, the San Francisco International Arts Festival, the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, and Towson University in Baltimore.

Shintani was awarded the prestigious California Arts Council Established Artist Fellowship award in 2023, recognizing her outstanding artistic achievements. She holds an MA in Arts and Consciousness from JFKU, and a BS in Graphic Design from San Jose State University. Shintani resides in Half Moon Bay, where she continues to inspire and teach as a faculty member at Foothill College.

Statement: Na Omi Judy Shintani's art is an exquisite expression of her love for cultural tradition and her desire to overcome cultural loss. Through her work, she creates talismans for clarity and peace, earthly touchstones, and stepping stones for life's journey.

Her Wrapped Stones carry on the Japanese tradition of gift wrapping as a way of showing respect and wrapping one's heart. Shintani's art is a beautiful blend of ritual and innovation, created as a meditative practice. Her work inspires us to honor tradition, find peace, and carry on the beauty of cultural heritage.

Wrapped Stones (2023) Rattan and stones, installation variable

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Christine So OAKLAND, CA @christinesogallery christineso.gallery

Biography: Christine So is a native San Franciscan printmaker, photographer and painter living across the bay in the hills of Oakland, California. Her calm, monochromatic, nature-inspired works on paper are not printed with ink but are actually a form of photography from the 1800s. She works in the antique photographic process of cyanotypes, creating both abstract and botanical monotypes in shades of blue--and other atypical colors—as well as landscape photographs of the foggy woods where she lives.

Statement: My technique is a form of experimental action photography, like the action painters Morris Louis or Jackson Pollock. My abstract cyanotypes appear luminous like watercolor paintings but are actually photographs. I start by coating paper in a dark room with the same photography chemicals used to print a cyanotype from a photo negative. But I use no photo negative, no stencil, and no solid objects to create my patterns. The abstract design is a multiple-exposure photograph made through my deliberate movements and covering and uncovering of the light-sensitive paper during its exposure to light. Different sections of the paper were exposed to light longer, which yields darker and lighter shades of blue. The areas left uncovered longer are darker blue.

I have devised my own method of printing abstract cyanotypes using water’s surface as a solid object to block light, letting the sun etch the lines where one shade ends and a new one begins. I work quickly with a design in mind beforehand. I form subtle gradations of darkening blue as I submerge the lightsensitive paper for carefully timed exposures under water, counting the seconds in my head, turning, bending and lifting the paper and holding it still as long as needed to shape the lines and then have them etched by the sun’s light. I do not merely stand at the surf’s edge and wait to see what the water does. I control the water’s movement and my own. Through extensive practice, I am able to control much of the intended pattern, but when working with moving water under severe time constraints the number of variables cannot all be controlled. That is part of the adventure.

Tidal Wave (2022) top Blue Valley 2 (2023) bottom Original cyanotype on paper, 30 x 24 inches each

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Demetra Theofanous PALO ALTO, CA @demetra_glass_sculpture sculpturebydemetra.com Biography: Demetra Theofanous is a Greek American artist, living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received a business degree from the Haas School of Business, at UC Berkeley but graduated and spent time working, only to realize there was something missing in her work and she needed to find a way to return to her creative roots. She attended the Corning Museum of Glass in 2010, to learn the ancient technique of patè de verre, and began creating natural elements like leaves and butterflies, utilizing this technique.

Demetra has been internationally recognized for her woven glass nest and flora sculptures, and is included in numerous private collections, as well as in the permanent collection of the Racine Art Museum, the Imagine Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, and the International Biennale of Glass touring collection, in Bulgaria. Notable awards include: an award from the Chinese government, a Juror’s Choice Award from renowned collector Dorothy Saxe, a merit award from Paul Standard, two jurors awards from Carol Sauvion (executive producer of Craft in America), a NICHE Award, a Juror's Choice Award at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Grant, an Award of Excellence juried by the Detroit Institute of the Arts, and an Award of Excellence juried by E.D. Charles Shepard of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. She has exhibited internationally, including at the National Gallery of Art in Sophia, Bulgaria, the Ming Shangde Glass Museum in China, the Triennial of the Silicate Arts in Hungary, San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design, National Liberty Museum, Imagine Museum, Alexandria Museum of Art, and in the Crocker Art Museum’s prestigious Crocker-Kingsley Biennial. In 2017 she was an Artist in Residence at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art with Dean Bensen, where their exhibition “Intertwined”, showcased the environmentally sensitive work created during their residency period. You can hear more about her art and collaborative practice with Dean Bensen in the June 2023 edition of the Talking Out Your Glass podcast by Shawn Waggoner.

She has served as lecturer, juror and educator, teaching at top educational institutions such as Pratt Fine Arts Center, Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Bay Area Glass Institute. Demetra was a 2015 demonstrating artist at the Glass Art Society Conference, where she also served as a Conference CoChair. She is current Board President of the Glass Alliance of Northern California, and is the President of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

Statement: Inspired by the storytelling tradition of woven basketry, I weave with glass to form an emotional connection with the viewer. Patterns in the natural world are abstracted, to explore contradictions inherent in our transformative journey—fragility/strength, precariousness/stability, vulnerability/ resilience. In utilizing a process imbued with repetition, action gives way to form, transforming an often simple pattern into a complex whole. Abstraction serves as a vehicle to express metaphors for the human experience, as identity and the push/pull with our environment are explored. Glass, with its inherent contradictions, is a material well suited to express these tensions that exist.

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Tangled Landscape (2023) Flameworked glass on stone, ~12 x 10.25 x 8 inches

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FEATURING:

Quinn Keck

Wendy Ackrell

Kristine Mays

Pilar Agüero-Esparza

Michelle Mansour

Roberta Ahrens

Geri Montano

Tessie Barrera-Scharaga

Priscilla Otani

Lorraine Bonner

Lucky Rapp

Marie Cameron

Sawyer Rose

Valerie Constantino

ZaHaVa Sherez

Bushra Gill

Na Omi Judy Shintani

Rinat Goren

Christine So

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro

Demetra Theofanous

Dianne Hoffman

by: Karen M. Gutfreund