Artist's Statements

Joy Bertinuson

I consider myself a narrative artist who uses the still-life arrangement, and self-portraiture, assubjects, in order to convey a range of concepts. I tend to work thematically, and I developideas in the process of creating the work. I draw upon personal experience, along withinvention, to create artworks that are at times humorous, absurd, and dark. With a love of arthistory, I often reference, or appropriate, the images I’ve absorbed through the many years oflooking, and lecturing.Some of the varied themes that I’ve approached include the seven mortal sins, cautionary tales,and boxing as a metaphor for the creative process. Most recently, I’ve been exploring distortionas a means of expressing ideas about interiority. The world, as we knew it, changeddramatically, in a short amount of time, and it has affected our thoughts, and behaviors, inways that we couldn’t even imagine just six months ago. Like many, I have experienced a senseof disconnect, of strangeness, and feeling “out of sorts”, that is best expressed though thedistorted form.

Natasha Fratello

Linda Gelfman

Laura Hohlwein

Jodie Hooker

A dear friend sent this poem to me after the death of my brother. It says everything I care to say:
Dirge Without MusicBY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. CrownedWith lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curledIs the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the graveGently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Scott Kirchner

I enjoy making things to wear out of artifacts I collect while traveling. The few pieces I have provided for this exhibit are some representations of my travels, things I have made, and the type of stuff I wear daily including while teaching (my colleagues seem to have gotten used to it and it provides opportunities to engage students who are intrigued/curious).
I never really considered myself an artist until someone offered affirmations about my work. I’m not sure what that is about other than the usual self-esteem issues, but now see my work as art. Selling my art is a new thing to me, I have always just made things as gifts and as donations to non-profits for silent auction. Recently, my friend and photographer encouraged me to open an online store which has been well received. I encourage you to visit my store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SKwearableart?ref=seller-platform-mcnav.
Though any money made by my “store” goes towards travel to gather more art materials, five percent of my gross sales go to Joshua’s House, a Sacramento non-profit whose mission is to provide end of life (hospice) services to persons who are homeless https://joshuashousehospice.org/.
Please note that I provide an ARC student/faculty discount of 10% for items between $100 and $250, and 20% for items over $250. Contact me through the Etsy platform for your “coupon.”
In addition, should you be involved with a non-profit in need of donations for a silent or other benefit auction, please contact me at kirchner23@comcast.net.
Peace

Craig Martinez

Sarah Solis Mattson

Exhibits by the name S. S. Solis, is a California native and now lives in the city of Fair Oaks. Sarah earned her M. F. A. in Drawing and Painting at CSU, Long Beach and currently teaches studio art courses at American River College.Sarah’s artmaking takes on a variety of roles; for example, works created from LIVE observation and large, narrative-figurative paintings created with a sense of assembly. Sarah says about the Live Observational works, “I respond to the mood andtemperament of the subjects I work from, usually live models.Composition and media embody my creative process. Working from live observation is vital to my entire vision as an artist. This keeps me practiced, like a musician who habitually plays notescales. Many of these ‘observed’ works are created with the materials I make myself, for example, pastels, inks, and paints.Another motif that appears in my art-making is the traditional Encaustic technique: hot molten bees wax with colored powdered pigment(s). It is aesthetically pleasing to my senses because of thesculptural process I use; I incorporate direct painting, found objects, and wax transfer techniques.” You can see these Encaustic type works at ACAI Gallery and Studio where Sarah is aGallery Artist, https://acaistudios.com/gallery-members/To view more, purchase, or to hire Sarah for private commissions and art lessons, contact Sarah directly at (916) 390-5374 or by email at s.s.s.olisfineart@pm.me, you may also visithttps://sssolis-fine-art.business.site/

Shadieh Mirmobiny

Shadieh is currently a part-time instructor at Sierra College, Folsom Lake and American River College, as well as California State University, Sacramento. She has received her M.A. in Art History from UC Davis, with the focus on European Renaissance and Baroque, particularly with regards to the Middle Eastern influence in the European art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; her Ph.D. is in Philosophy and Critical Theory in Art from Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. Her most recent work is a documentary on the importance of arts and humanities education called “The Stories Art Can Tell.”

Betty Nelson

These drawings are a selection from the series I refer to as “The Corona Diaries”. I am growing weary of the phrase “unprecedented times”. We’ve had so many of them that the phrase has lost its meaning from over use. My intention has been to go into the studio and draw whoever shows up - that is, the part of myself is stepping forward when I am drawing. Sometimes that is an even, steady experience and sometimes the emotions rise and fall during the time I am drawing - and then the drawing follows the ebb and flow of experience. Unlike drawing from a photograph, standing in front of a mirror creates a drawing that becomes a compilation of multiple experiences.

Laura Parker

My work is usually of a personal nature. A fellow artist once asked “isn’t everything a self portrait?” I tend to agree. Although my work emulates my own trials and tribulations I have been surprised how many of my “musings” are universal. Often as artists we feel we are somehow more sensitive than the rest of the world when in reality I have come to believe that we all have soft underbellies. Some of us just choose to express those thoughts/feelings through art.

Dan Samborski

Res ipsa loquitur.

Craig Norman Smith

“…. no ideas but in things---”__ William Carlos Williams
I believe it’s a mistake to dwell too much on the meaning of our own artwork. Picking a big importantidea does not fix poor unity and badly realized form. An idea does not insure any level of visual quality.Our work should be expressive because of the way it looks, not because some idea is attached to it.If our artwork is solely about that big important idea we’re simply illustrating something, not expressingsomething. A brushy little every day painting of a landscape can be just as rich and complex as a piececoncerned with politics or the ills of society or any other “important” topic.Did you ever get goosebumps when a piece of music switched from a major to a minor key? That’s afairly common physiological experience and it’s created by sound itself, not some great “meaning”.Visual art can create a similar experience but once again, it’s generated by the appearance of the work,not by a big idea.A big idea cannot make up for bad form. Ever hear someone sing out of tune? There is definitely a“right” and “wrong” way of organizing something visually, just as certainly as singing a series of “off”tones is obviously “wrong”.Kings and queens are a familiar topic and have a variety of possible associations. Any given examplemight “feel” differently because of its appearance. We should all develop our ideas by working and re-working the visual character, (or flavor, or personality,) of the object. Starting with an idea and endingup with the same idea is illustration, not art.Nothing wrong with illustration. There are better and worse illustrators just the same as there arebetter and worse painters and sculptors. Illustrators have the same training as artists but their intentionis to tell a specific story, not to express complex or layered emotions. An illustrator wants everyone tosee the same story; an artist wants the work to make people feel something and think about whatthey’re seeing.Developing our ideas through working on objects such as paintings or sculptures or drawings is notalways pleasant and it’s sure as hell not easy. It is real work. But it is also endlessly fascinating andopen-ended and often progresses in an unexpected or challenging fashion. The “questioning” nature ofthis visual process is what sustains an artist, not some glib satisfaction about the “meaning” of the work.I started casting hydrocal in the late 1970’s and have been working with it ever since. (Hydrocal isgypsum cement; it mixes like plaster but sets up 10X harder.) The works for this show are cast replicasof a clay original, and in this case the three pieces are all “variants” or “states” of the same piece of clay.I work the clay, make a cast, and then go back and re-work the clay; sometimes radically, sometimesonly slightly. Then make another cast, re-work the clay again, make another cast, etc.They’re all unique casts, meaning that there are no copies. The plaster molds I used to make these castsare “waste molds”. They create a cast replica of the clay piece but are destroyed in the process.

Elise Weber

Patricia Wood

This series of drawings is a continuation of images I have been creating as an attempt to capture the feeling of doom surrounding the years of the cold war. The intent is to depict the feeling of isolation and fear that existed as a back drop to the school days of the 70’s and 80’s. How strange it was to be in classroom with smiling photographs of the new president surrounded by jellybeans while practicing duck and cover drills as we prepared for the world to end.

Brandy Worsfold

While I am a photo professor, I also work in other mediums in my free time. Lately I have been very involved in silversmithing; using a saw, hammer and torch to create talismans and totems that hold meaning and intention.

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