Visual Arts

2014 Program:

BAR SHACTERMAN – clay artist. “I am a sculptor. All my life I have been fascinated by materials: their hidden properties, their potential, and the unique way in which each material expresses its properties. For the last 10 years my primary media is clay. I am drawn to its unique combination of strength and fluidity. My interest in clay was originally inspired by traditional Japanese clay work. In many of the traditional works, I could feel the clay expressing itself. I like to modify my clay by mixing different kinds of clay and adding sand, rocks, paper or chips of wood – anything that works in the moment. This gives the clay more life and personality.” More info: http://www.barbotic.com 

BRET ARENSON – multidisciplinary artist. Bret Arenson is on the vanguard of ecstatic behavior and experience as artistic expression. A multidisciplinary artist, he uses his honed ecstatic skills for the creation of both visual arts and art performance. His artistic trajectory is to reintegrate this natural and profound part the human experience into our modern day culture, a culture challenged to even recognize the ecstatic when it transpires. “tiny eyes making sacred” is a piece on the fundamentals of the act of sacred making. More info: http://tinyeyes.bretarenson.com

CAROLIN RECHBERG – visual artist. “We are the work of Art. My Path is informed by drawing Correlation, of how the interaction with Nature and resulting Sensory Creating, Nurtures the State of well Being, Advocating Conscious Interaction and Compassion. Nourishing my Equilibrium and Harmony through Trust of Process, Allowing the Fruition of Intuition, the Spontaneity of Serenely Playful Creativity. Gazes curious Intricacy, Revealing hinges and bridges, Interconnecting the thought, felt, and enacted, with the realm of the world, supplying Understanding of our Cycle and how our Presence is informed, initially Revealing Myself to the Self to find Allusion to Life Itself. More info: www.carolinrechberg.com

CARTER BROOKS – ice sculptures. ‘The aesthetic loss of loosing the world’sThe aesthetic loss of loosing the world’s grand ice – be it tens of thousands of years old frozen water of glaciers, or the sea carved icebergs from their droppings – will be the thing I know I can’t stop, yet will witness, and lament, while I myself drift to rain before it is all gone. Which makes me wonder, while we all scramble to look out for civilization, “Who will cry for the ice?…” On the other hand, who cares? I’m not going to give you some crap about how the melting ice represents the melting glaciers of our planet and the effects of global warming. The ice is not melting to motivate you to get off your ass and buy a hybrid, change your light bulbs, or stop flying in airplanes. God, what a bore. Not to mention a burden our collective creative imagination.  It’s just cool to see how it melts. It’s fun. That’s all.’ More info: http://www.carterbrooks.com 

 DANIELLE SIEMBIEDA is an Alter Eco Artist the San Francisco Bay Area. She has over 15 years of experience building communities, executing creative campaigns and developing digital strategies around social media, SEO/SEM and web development. Her art practice is in the intersection of Social Practice, Institutional Critique, Intervention and New Media. Most of her work includes an emphasis on the environment and technology. Her most recent project, “The Art Inspector” began in 2009 as a method to reduce the carbon footprint of art. This project has been funded Silicon Valley Energy Watch to conduct energy assessments on artist studios and take them through an eco-art makeover. She has been an artist in residence at the TechShop SJ where she create a body of work around cyborg politics and the anthropocene. Some of her other roles include being Digital Marketing Specialist for Forest Ethics, Affiliate Program Manger for Leonardo/ISAST, a board member of the Women’s Environmental Art Directory; art consultant to the San Francisco Department of the Environment, and outreach coordinator for CODAME Art + Tech. Siembieda has a MFA in Digital Media Art at San Jose State University at the CADRE Laboratory for New Media with a focus on green technologies, sustainable materials. More info: www.siembieda.com

JONQUI ALBIN – Bird Arting. This eco-project is dedicated to inspiring connection with the kindred spirit of wild birds to promote preservation awareness. Public events, classes and exhibits are to raise bird appreciation and foster group collaboration. As the project evolves, we are sharing photos and artwork from these events. Please follow us for updates. The Bird Arting practice of live/field studies personalizes bird relations. Focused observation of unique mannerisms that characterize individual birds and their ancient family lineage inspires meaningful artistic interpretations of bird commonality with us humans. Appreciation and stewardship of birds may be analogous with our own destiny. Our involvement in their preservation could build better odds for our future. More info: www.BirdArting.com

JOHN COVENEY – visual artist. John has been bringing together people to connect and play in nature all his life. From celebrating the solstices and equinoxes by creating medicine wheels with the Wakwa Society for more nearly a decade, to most recently teaching labyrinth making on the tide exposed sands of a local beach. He has helped put on the Green Music Network’s Cave Concert Series for several years as crew, stage manager, and lighting designer, most recently with Samavesha to create Hang Rhapsody. More info: http://about.me/johncoveney

JUDY SHINTANI is the Narrator of Culture. The unspoken compels her to create. Shintani’s art depicts family stories, honors history, showcases women’s issues, earth concerns, and offers viewers ways to participate and become art collaborators.  She works with found and organic objects, video, and words. She has exhibited throughout California and the Pacific Northwest. She owns and runs the Kitsune Community Art Studio in Half Moon Bay, CA, and curates the Coastside Artists Doctors Without Borders Benefit. Shintani is a creativity facilitator working with artists from 2 to 101 years old. She has a MA in Transformative Art from JFKU, Berkeley, and a BS in Graphic Design from San Jose State University. More info: www.judyshintani.com

LAKSHMI LIGHT was born into a family of healers and artists.  From a young age she was called “magic hands” and many came to know her for her healing and artistic touch. In her coming-of-age, and was given a full scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design’s weekend art program all through her high school years, which gave her access to all mediums of art exploration. She became a published poet at age 15 when her poem Wisdom was selected to be published in a poetry anthology.  Around 16, as she dove into her art classes, she also began studying alternative healing methods.  After more than a decade of research, internships and study at Antioch College and Naropa College, Lakshmi is well versed in many healing arts including Tai Chi; Qigong; Aikido; Massage Therapy; Harmonic Healing and Vocal Energetics; Reiki; Aura Repair; Chakra Chelation; Dance Therapy and Somatic Psychology; Traditional and Contemplative Psychology. In 2004,Lakshmi became a Certified Reiki Master. Dance for healing has been one of her offerings to the community. The past few years have brought about a natural blending of healing and art, especially on canvas. Each paintings is a prayer and provide powerful healing benefits. Using her artistic sense as well her knowledge of the healing properties of crystals and gem stones, she creates custom healing Talismans  infused with Reiki to aide people in their healing journey. Her most recent venture has been Siddha’s Star Designs- a branch of art created directly onto clothes.  Most of her designs are for babies but Siddhas star is expanding to adult clothes as well. Creating handmade one of a kind mandalas on clothes not only creates beauty but also a healing, in-wholing vibration for those who wear them. Each moment of life when infused with ones inherent creativity becomes a gift of healing and joy. Enjoy the artistic expressions of Lakshmi Light and find yourself naturally inspired to express your own creativity! More info: www.LakshmiLight.net

Lars Howlett builds, walks, and photographs labyrinths as a practice in mindfulness. He is a Veriditas Certified Labyrinth Facilitator having trained with the leader of the labyrinth movement, Lauren Artress, at at Grace and Chartres Cathedrals. He is the apprentice to master builder Robert Ferre, designing and building labyrinths for universities, offices, churches, health centers, retreats, and private residences. In 2011 he traveled to France, Scotland, and Sweden to study the history and spiritual resonance of sacred labyrinth sites. Lars creates labyrinths for personal and public use including recent installations for Sofia University, Bonny Doon Winery, the Friends of the SF Public Library, and a Coastside apple orchard. He has been an invited speaker at high schools, yoga studios, art galleries, and at Grace Cathedral, as well as the 2011 and 2012 international conferences of the Labyrinth Society. He specializes in the design and installation of semi-permanent and temporary labyrinths, leading workshops and meditative walks in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond. Lars recently published “Steps Along an Unfolding Path” (http://www.blurb.com/user/findlars) a book of photographs and footpaths he created from 2005-2011. More info: http://discoverlabyrinths.com

LEAH KORICAN is a visual artist, poet, and teacher. Her work includes site specific pieces using repurposed materials and solar power, air current activated installations, and community based projects. Building community through the arts is at the core of her practice. She teaches art at The Bentley School www.bentleyschool.net. More info: www.leahkorican.com

OPEN5 Group. Over the years the Open 5 Group has put its best efforts towards providing audiences with a contemporary, creative lens to confront important issues in the modern era. Using elements such as Water, Earth, Fire, Rock and so on and creating installations in unusual locations, the artists’ love of nature and attention to detail bring the viewer to new insights about the world around them. Their work is a reminder of the important matters facing all human beings—things we know exist but often lose track of in the hustle and bustle of daily life. The Open-5 Group got its name when five members—all visual artists with a passion for environmental concerns—began cooperating and collaborating with other performance artists to help ensure their creative visions were achieved. Traveling to different cities in Iran and the tendency to incorporate nature, and addressing contemporary environmental issues in their work is the defining trait of this group. The variety of locations and natural elements become a part of the concept and structure of their artistic impressions. The complex relationships between spectator and nature, impressionism and the fleeting nature of reality become self-explanatory in the Open-5 Group photos and documentaries. Each work is introduced as an indicator showing the course of nature, and the instability of our material world is exposed as a thing of beauty, as well as introspection, for the viewer to contemplate. The artists of the Open-5 Group strive to express a sense of searching—a re-discovery of what has been forgotten within, and the natural world that supports and sustains our culture, but which we all too often take for granted. More info: www.5baz.com

RAHELEH (MINOOSH) ZOMORODINIA is an internationally-exhibited Iranian photographer, and artist. Her exploration of different areas of art, such as video and installations, has had a direct effect on her primary medium: photography. She believes in and trusts the intuitive creative process to reveal and give form to unconscious and deeper mysterious truths. Nature itself is both the essence and the vision of her art. She serves on the environmental artists group Open Five in Iran. Her work has been exhibited in The Altered Landscape exhibition, and is part of the permanent collection at the Nevada Art Museum. Minoosh received MFA Fellowship from San Francisco Art Institute. She has a B.A. in photography and an M.A. in graphic design from the Art and Architecture University in Tehran. Currently, she is a MFA candidate in New Genres in San Francisco Art Institute. More info: http://www.rahelehzomorodinia.com/frames.html

RICHARD K BACON – Flower of Life: Community Earth Blessing. The objective of this artist installation is to create an interactive sculpture incorporating the sacred geometry symbol of the Flower of Life as a container for learning and self-expression. The installation will include a large suspended spinning mandala of 15 interlocking hoops. Two banquet tables filled with art supplies will allow visitors to write, draw, or paint a blessing to Mother Earth on separate leaves of paper that are then tied to Flower representing our hopes, fears and wishes for the World’s future well-being. The sculptural installation encourages education of sacred geometry, community co-creativity, ecological awareness, and healing of eco-anxiety. More info: http://ricoartist.blogspot.com

ZACH PINE – environmental art. “Using materials from nature, I create ephemeral abstract sculptures. Some of my work is made solo, but the majority of my art involves others, in the tradition of social sculpture. Healing, seeking balance, valuing interdependence, and accepting uncertainty and impermanence are important themes in my art and in my life. I host group art-making events and workshops, work in schools, provide training, and create participatory installations called Create-With-Nature Zones or Nature Sculpture Arenas. Collaboration with local environmentalists helps make my work responsive to local ecosystems and issues. Through group events, I aim to impart a sense of discovered knowledge, release creative energy, arouse a sense of delight in nature, convey the power of collective creative work, and inspire action on behalf of the environment.” More info: www.naturesculpture.com

ZARAH DARLING – arts and crafts. Crafters Local 415 is a new San Francisco-based creative collective! All artists and makers welcome to join in! We will host in-person meet ups to create together, share online inspiration, promote periodic workshops, and even exchange some show & tell! More info: http://crafterslocal415.blogspot.com