Artists | CreativeSonoma.org

Maya Khosla Film, Literature, Media, Poetry Maya Khosla is the Poet Laureate of Sonoma County for 2018-2019 and is working on The Local Legacies Project. Her new poetry book, “All the Fires of Wind and Light,” is forthcoming from Sixteen Rivers Press in 2019. Maya’s previous wildfire and fire safety films have made an impact on communities and non-profit groups across California and other parts of the United States. In 2016, 2017, and 2018, rough-cut and final versions were screened and/or discussed at over 60 venues, including a public event held at The Sitting Room (October 14th, 2017, during the Sonoma Fires), where Firewise and related materials were presented along with a poetry reading. The poems were inspired by traditional herbs used to enhance the body's ability to treat smoke exposure. The screenings and post-film discussions resulted in a sense of hope, joy, and also immense public support for our natural areas that are rejuvenated by wildfire. Immediately after the October 2017 fires, KRCB Public TV aired parts of Firewise, Maya's ongoing film project, and they recently aired her first fire film, Searching for the Gold Spot: The Wild After Wildfire (night of August 7th, 2018). The powerful visuals in the film have inspired a new perceptions about our natural areas, brought an understanding about focused fire protection measures and leaving natural wildfires in the wild to their natural processes to dramatically reduce risks to homes - as been shown by thousands of case studies. A trailer for one of the fire films can be seen at https://conbio.org/publications/scb-news-blog/fire-works. Maya’s work has been supported by grant-awards from Patagonia, The Sacramento Audubon Society, Fund for Wild Nature, and Environment Now. Maya has since written essays devoted to post-fire forests, including “Forests Rebound on Their Own “Faith in Rejuvenation” and “Pioneers of the Post-Fire Forests.”

Christina Klauenburch Teacher/Instructor, Teaching Artist for Youth, Visual Arts Christina Klauenburch is a visual art teaching artist offering a variety of relevant arts programming for students. Christina has been sharing her love for art with children for the past fifteen years. She has taught students in school arts residencies through the Luther Burbank Center for the Performing Arts during the school year. Christina has also worked as an art teacher at the Luther Burbank Center for the Performing Arts' Summer Visual Arts Camp, helping students discover their love for arts. She has also volunteered as an art teacher at Cali Calmecac Language Academy. Christina worked and taught in the Arts and Trauma Teaching Artist Residency Program offered through Creative Sonoma. Her trauma-informed training has led to a deeper and richer understanding of how she can used arts education to help students identify, heal, and feel empowered. She is currently pursuing a teaching credential at Sonoma State University and in her free time, she enjoys photography, gardening, and spending time with her family. Contact Christina to learn more about arts and integrated arts lessons she has to offer students of all ages!

Marsha Klein Painting, Recovery Fund Grantee, Sculpture, Visual Arts I have been making art for over 40 years, large format oil paintings and sculptural ceramics. Studied art in my native New York City and at the University of California, Berkeley: ceramics with Peter Voulkos and Ron Nagle, and Painting/Drawing with R.B.Kitaj. I have maintained my own art studio in Sonoma since 1973. My ceramics have been exhibited nationally, the paintings mainly in California. I have been an artist- in- the- schools and community for over 35 years, and designed /directed several large community mural projects.

Mirka Knaster Artisan, Fiber Art, Mixed, Visual Arts Natural environments, East Asian aesthetics, the places I've lived and traveled, 20th-century abstract art, and my meditation practice are the most important influences and inspirations for my art. Growing up cross-culturally, I am drawn to learn and appreciate how people around the world create with a wide range of materials--plants, clay, wood, stone, metal, glass, hides--and equipment, especially their own hands. After many years as a writer and editor using words to convey ideas and emotions to others, I began to also communicate with fibers because it's exhilarating to engage with color, texture, line, shape and space, pattern and design. I approach the creative process as an open-ended improvisation. Works emerge intuitively, even serendipitously, as I feel my way into each piece, choosing this color or that textile, dyeing cloth with indigo or rust, incorporating paper, metal or wood, adding another layer for transparency, working up texture, stitching another mark or brushing on paint or ink. Along the way, I embrace and celebrate the surprises.

Nao Kobayashi Artisan, Design, Fashion Design, Fiber Art, Folk Art, Performance Art, Puppetry, Technical, Theatre Nao Kobayashi designs and creates puppets and costume for theater, TV and film, museums, institutes, and entertainment. Originally from Japan and recently in northern California, she holds a MFA in Costume Design and Technology in Theatre, TV and Film from San Diego State University, a BA in Technical Theater from Sonoma State University. Over the past decade she has worked on various projects with dance, theater productions, fashion and entertainment companies, as well as artworks with independent artists, dancers, musicians and performers in Japan and artists from other countries. She currently works as a fabricator at Images in Motion a TV puppet company in Sonoma. In puppetry, she utilizes skills of sketch, sculpture, fabric modification and fabrication, and martial art and dance as movement and body understanding. She often works in creative teams with interdisciplinary characteristics, by expanding ideas to cross borders, as well as deepening and refining details.

Evan Koch Artisan, Design, Functional Art, Recovery Fund Grantee, Visual Arts My name is Evan Koch. I am a 40 year old man with Asperger's Syndrome who has come up with some neat board game ideas that I am hoping to market. I am working with the Sonoma County Share Exchange and Local Works in this project. I hope you find the website and the games enjoyable!

Ron Koeberer Crew, Film, Film Office, General Services, Media, Photography, Production, Visual Arts Ron Koeberer is a Northern California based photographer who specializes in creative and artistic images for the motion picture industry. His office is in Sonoma County and works in Los Angeles as a local. Experience ranges from multi-million dollar feature films, to television shows, stage plays, and TV commercials. Ron's unique vision allows his photographs to be used in many different creative capacities including publicity stills, movie posters, advertising campaigns, and editorial stories. Between films he contributes to the largest stock photography agencies in the world where his iconic images have been used by National Geographic, The Economist, Life Books, Newsweek, Time Magazine and multiple book publishers (covers). His works have also been featured in gallery exhibitions and reside in corporate and private collections. Ron uses the finest Canon camera, EOS 1DX and L lenses and a Jacobson sound blimp. Examples of his work can be found at www.ronkoeberer.com

DENNIS KOHN Photography, Recovery Fund Grantee, Visual Arts

DENNIS KOHN, professional photographer, teacher, world traveler, image maker, pioneer, environmentalist, and student of life, is as diverse as his background indicates.

Graduated with Honors from Pennsylvania State University in l969 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Dennis continued his education through l971 with graduate studies in photography. In 1975, to follow his destiny, he left teaching to open the first DENNIS KOHN STUDIOS in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After a split in a business partnership, the first studio was closed and DENNIS KOHN STUDIOS in Laguna Beach, California was born. Several years later, Dennis would re-locate to the Bay area where he has been working for the past 30 years. In l982 through l985, Dennis returned to teaching by offering weekend photographic seminars to places as Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and Monterey and Carmel. These workshops taught the "Art of Photographing the Landscape".

DENNIS KOHN currently sells Photographic Art worldwide to individuals and corporations through art consultants, galleries, and prestigious outdoor art shows throughout the western states, as well as his own studio/gallery in Santa Rosa. Dennis has won numerous awards for his images: from the white-washed villages of GREECE, the remote villages of rural CHINA; to the wonderful waters of TAHITI, and the history of two European countries SPAIN and PORTUGAL; and the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts of TURKEY. Dennis' latest collections include images of the Buddhist monks and remote villages of THAILAND, and the rich history and multi-religious temples of ISRAEL and images of the wonderful Himalayan Mountains of NEPAL, and most recently extensive travel through some of the most sacred places in INDIA.

In addition to his worldly travels, his renown work of the SAN FRANCISCO landscape as well as his work from YOSEMITE, LAKE TAHOE and the SONOMA and NAPA WINE COUNTRY have made him a prominent figure in the Bay Area's extensive photographic world. The latest ARCHITECTURAL ABSTRACT COLLECTION, sponsored by one of the countries premier photo labs, BAY PHOTO, has been a major departure for Dennis from his landscape work. The Dimensional Overlay images that he produces are unique and have been featured in many of the trade magazines. Awards have been received from Professional Photographers of America (PPofA), Travel and Leisure Magazine, as well as awards of recognition and purchase awards from shows as: LA QUINTA ARTS FESTIVAL, BEVERLY HILLS, AFFAIR IN THE GARDENS, CHERRY CREEK ART FESTIVAL and the prestigious SAUSALITO ARTS FESTIVAL.