Mary Lee Rybar Mixed, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Visual Arts Biography Mary Lee Rybar is a painter, printmaker and lifelong artist of creating things in many different mediums. Sparked with an appreciation of all things handcrafted and unique, her work ranges from abstract and representational, working in many disciplines. She attended Kent State University and the American School of Paris as well workshops, fellowships and residency experiences. She is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been featured in museums and exhibits as well as Williams-Sonoma, Gump’s of San Francisco, Hall's of Kansas City and H Frank on the Historic Sonoma Plaza. After spending many years in the travel industry, she is now grounded and devoted to making art from her studios in Sonoma, California. Artist Statement My concern as an artist has been in the observation of line, light, color and movement in the routines of daily life and then to translate that moment into a visual statement. Daily common iconography holds enduring interest for my inspiration. By elevating the ordinary, heralding the common place, I attempt to explore and chronicle the extraordinary beauty within the routine boundaries of life. My art practice is rooted in doing the work and allowing it to lead me.

Peggy Sebera Painting, Visual Arts colorful landscapes and seascapes of Sonoma County. See website for images. peggysebera.com I look forward to welcoming you to my home studio. Peggy

Aparna Sinha Painting

Aparna Sinha was born in Jaipur, India. Her family moved around various parts of India and Nigeria while she was growing up. Her work reflects her travels and experiences. Now she is Sonoma, California local.

Aparna’s work is influenced by impressionism; the works of Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh, to name a few. She loves working with the playfulness of light and shadows. Archways are her current obsession, thanks to her visit back to her birthplace.

Her love for watercolors began at school and she had a great teacher who helped her realize her potential. She later took a liking to oil pastels and discovered their vibrant and rewarding nature on sandpaper.

In the past she has held an exhibition of her work at the Sophia Bhabha Hall, Mumbai. Her work was on display at the local Nepalese restaurant and at Sunflower Cafe in Sonoma as well as Honey Badger Coffee in Rohnert Park, California. She was creative director for her College festival in Mumbai, and was responsible for designing the festival logo and overall theme.

A portion of her art sales goes to helping local children’s charities in India.

William Smith Printmaking, Teacher/Instructor, Visual Arts

William Smith (b.1970) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with an emphasis in printmaking from Sonoma State University, CA. in 1996.

As an undergraduate student at SSU, he collaborated with many artists as a printer and technician at Aurobora Press, in San Francisco and independently around the Bay Area. In 1998, he received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from West Virginia University.

After completing his graduate studies, he returned to California where he continued to work at Aurobora Press and teach part-time at Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College. He has taught all levels of drawing (including figure drawing), foundations courses in design as well as printmaking. He still teaches part time at Santa Rosa Junior College while making and showing his art.

In addition to art, he is a music enthusiast and has played drums in various punk and hard rock bands since the 90’s. William Smith lives and works in Santa Rosa, CA. Passersby may hear anything from classic jazz to hardcore punk and metal bellowing from his studio.

Cathleen Swanson Ceramics, Dance, Folk Art, Improvisation, Media, Mixed, Painting, Photography, Recovery Fund Grantee, Sculpture, Teacher/Instructor, Video, Visual Arts I am not limited to one medium nor style. My art is an exploration, an adventure and a spiritual journey. I love to share art-making with others. The Spirit Houses are made by hand from clay.

Kathleen Thompson Mixed, Painting Using fluid acrylic, I work these color-field gestural abstractions to a sense of resolution. In my explorations and attention to the present, meanings occur as actions arise through the process. What is revealed, through gesture and alteration, becomes a metaphor for the passage of time, shifting internal states, changing perspective, retrieval and integration. The paintings are evidence of a journey... material and engagement the carrier of meaning.

Kathleen Truax Illustration, Painting, Visual Arts How many times did I choose a career path? The first time: My major. Art was my preference, but disliking the attitude of the art department I abandoned it for psychology. It turned out the professors were behaviorists, and that didn't suit me either. I settled on history, a good place to start when you are only 18! But art wasn't forgotten. I married at 21 and while my children were young I took 10 years of studio art classes, enough to constitute a minor, if anyone was counting. The second time: An advanced degree: Again I looked at an art degree. Still no. Psychology won and this time it was a better fit. I became a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and practiced for 29 years. Possibly the all of this was necessary to mature as an artist. The third time? 5 years ago when I retired. I was itching to paint more than ever before! Now I have the time--and perhaps not the worry about starvation! I have not settled on a style nor narrowed my subjects of interest. Portraiture, Figure & Landscape still predominate in my work. Since retirement I have embraced abstraction and surrealism as well. Because of my background as a therapist, both are far more interesting to me than they might have been earlier. I have a lifetime storehouse of sights, ideas and feelings: shapes, colors, lines, concepts, symbols, images, dreams, & fears that may emerge on a canvas— sometimes surprising me--when I play with paint and then develop whatever shows up, almost unbidden. While it is true that we don't get to return to an early choice and re-do it, I feel as if I have had the opportunity to do the next best thing--return to an early love, painting, and go at it with even greater enthusiasm than before!

Arthur Waligora Illustration, Literature, Painting, Poetry, Visual Arts

Hi there!

I moved to the Bay area from LA working as a Digital Art Director for a major enthusiast publishing company. Since relocating I have been eager to start working with paint and other mediums to express myself. Very grateful to have been invited by Petaluma Arts Center to speak at one of their Idea Lounge events.

Carlea Warren-Rossi Illustration, Mixed, Other, Painting, Visual Arts Carlea developed an interest in art from an early age. As her family would say, she was born with a pencil in her hand. Due to her shy nature as a child, she had difficulty communicating with others solely through words, so art became her form of communication with the outside world. It existed as a way to openly express her feelings, emotions and beliefs, since images could cross over so many linguistic and cultural barriers. Born and raised in California, Carlea went on to receive her B.A. in art studio from the University of California, Davis. Currently, her focus is combining art with social justice and community building.

Barbie Watts Artisan, Creative Sonoma Grantee, Functional Art, Illustration, Mixed, Multi-Media, Other, Other, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Youth, Visual Arts Living through some iconoclastic times, I feel like the truth seeker and the magician, asking viewers to see what I see in my drawings, paintings, sculpture, video’s and writing about it all. I grew up in a family of exceptional people. Trained in painting and ballet from a young age, I would move on to different mediums and styles of art for the the rest of my life. I would pour myself into every style, medium and philosophy I could afford. Having to find alternative sources for the necessities of, say, painting, I scoured alleys and dumpsters at businesses, looking for and finding paper for drawing or mat board, wood for stretching canvas, sometimes the canvas. I also found canvas and more, not at the art store, but discount fabric stores or hardware store. I still reuse today, making paper mache containers, boxes and pencil cups, using plastic clamshells, soup cans, as molds. Old aluminum foil makes great armatures for my smaller pieces, the mermaid candlestick holders or boxes and such. Water is my current interest and being able to make air to water collectors in a way it would catch the public s attention. I think there power in having some control over those things that are normally out of our control, like the drought in California. Water from Air collectors on’t depend on anyone or any company, to work. They can be made from the simplest materials. WHY aren’t there more?

Asherah Weiss Arts Administration, Creative Sonoma Grantee, Folk Art, Illustration, Improvisation, Mixed, Multi-Media, Muralist, Other, Other, Other, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Puppetry, Sculpture, Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Adults, Teaching Artist for Youth, Theatre, Visual Arts Asherah Weiss is an educator, community artist, and organizer. Since graduating from California College of the Arts in 2011, she has helped start many projects that bring people together around arts and placemaking, in Sonoma County and the Bay Area, including the PLACE for Sustainable Living in Oakland, and womb space collaborative arts in Santa Rosa. Her belief in the democracy of the arts has inspired her to bring creativity to people of all ages and abilities, including as a credentialed art teacher at Healdsburg Junior High through the first school years of the pandemic. In 2022, she co-created the globally known project Peptoc, a hotline and series of posters with uplifting messages from kids (call 707-8PEPTOC), and is now continuing the project with Jessica Martin in the form of a book full of young people’s wisdom and humor from around the world. Her excitement lies in what creativity can do for the world— making things more collaborative, sustainable, beautiful and meaningful. Current Projects include:

Co-creator of the Peptoc Project, currently taking submissions for a book of uplifting messages from young people around the world. See peptoc.net
Programs Director at Artstart
Coordinator of Earth Protector Parade at the 1st Climate Fest on April 22nd, 2022 in the Healdsburg Plaza
Artist in Residence at West Side Elementary School

Richard Wizardsky Audio, Design, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Media, Mixed, Painting, Photography, Visual Arts

I have been illustrating and painting all my life and have been painting on glass for about 20 years.

I graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania USA. I graduated with a triple majors in Graphic design, Illustration, and 3 dimensional design. With that education I embarked on a carrier as a graphic designer for Mellon Bank, Bd&E, A.Magazine, In Pittsburgh newsweekly, and produced and Edited Further Magazine,and then short stint into movie graphics for Disney and Lions GateFilms. I have been showing in galleries since 1989 from One Taste Gallery in San Francisco, a group show at the Buddha"s Palm Gallery, Coffee Bizarre, Frame of Mind Gallery, Main Street Coffee,Coffee Bazaar and Slice of Life, Peace in Medicine Gallery, The Pine Cone, Aubergine Emporium, Tiny Town, Hardcore, Guyaki to name a few in West County.. Then in Pittsburgh At Lascquax Gallery, The Beehive, City Books the Zenith Gallery, the Pittsburgh regional history museum as well as the Bloomfield Gallery, my works also adorn Theresa Heinze's foundation for fine arts, More recently showing at Tiny Town, hardcore, Guyaki,Fat heads Gallery , Polk street Gallery, Aubergine after Dark Emporium, Live painting at Festivals and local concert venues such as hop Monk and Lupin Lodge. I focus my artistic sights on the Images and objects of nature, using vivid color to convey their most exuberant form. Through my art I hope to bring people closer to the spiritual relm of the natural world they are immersed in.

Artist Highlights

ArtWanted.com Gallery: Fine Art
Represented By: FurtherImages
Past Clients: Mellon Bank, Disney, Inn Pittsburgh Magazine, Further Images and words, Film Joey coyle, Heinz Foundation, DDf&m etc

Hillary Younglove Painting, Visual Arts After experimenting with a variety of traditional media such as oil painting, photography and film, Hillary Younglove turned to mixed-media to explore modern aesthetics that incorporate techniques and narrative elements based on the human figure. In the last two decades, Hillary has been studying and experimenting with techniques used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans (encaustic, mosaic, fresco). Through these explorations, ancient techniques are anchoring modern sensibilities into a body of work where layering, texture and color dominate. The tactile nature of the artwork relies on a physical, labor intensive effort that helps to materialize the emotions through a natural and organic process. Mirroring her own work, Hillary time travels a lot, in a world where esoteric research and guided study feature prominently. She is the founder of Trompin’ Manikins, a puppet making laboratory.

CREATIVES

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Artist Highlights