Beginning in September, we will offer something different. This time, instead of a single artist, we have a group exhibit featuring the work of the Art and Aesthetics Team. Our art is as individual as we are, so I will let each member speak for themselves:
Shanti Emerson
When I moved to Nevada County 25 years ago, I wanted pursue something different than I had done before–study art. I took classes in clay at Sierra College and the Mud Hut. I took painting lessons and experimented with collage. This journey awakened my creative potential, which had been dormant for far too long. I fell in love with my artwork and showcased it at the Center for the Arts, the Altar Show, and the Fair. Each week, I engage in artistic projects at the library. Creating art has not only enriched my life but has also become a vital and fulfilling aspect of who I am.
Mark Grove
I can remember loving many forms of art from a very early age – drawing, painting, pottery, woodcarving and music – mostly from classes in school. I really enjoyed Art and Music from elementary to high school and looked forward to those classes all throughout my school days.
As a teenager, music became my primary form of self-expression, and this eventually led me to an interest in building my own instruments (mostly, at first, because I didn’t have the money to buy them!) – I built my first banjo from scratch at the age of 15. Later in life, I took up stringed instrument building more seriously – creating guitars, dulcimers, banjos, and other works and performing restorations on old or broken instruments.
More recently, I’ve made a return to my youth by working in acrylics, drawing, throwing pottery on the wheel and even some glassblowing (which I find particularly satisfying).
Robin Hart
From the time I can first remember, art has always been the center of my life. At the age of three, I announced to my parents that I was going to be an artist when I grew up. Keeping to my chosen path, I have pursued both a professional career as a graphic artist/designer and expressed my personal creativity in fine art.
During my college years, I was encouraged by one of my professors to incorporate something I was passionate about into my art. I had always been fascinated with astronomy and the space program, and grew up following the missions of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. When I integrated that subject matter into my work, I had an explosion of creativity that has continued over the years.
I have participated in art shows and galleries, as well as having my space artwork on international tour, published in three books, and received awards and recognition as well. Over the years I have used a wide range of media; including watercolor, graphite, color pencil, acrylic, and airbrush with gouache and acrylic. When computers, software and printers became sophisticated enough to considered as a serious artistic tool around the year 2000, I began to move most of my creative endeavors over to that platform. I have found working in digital media liberating and it has allowed me to express myself in ways that would have been more limiting in traditional media. I now do all my painting digitally and have traded paint for pixels and brushes for a digital tablet with a stylus pen. I use programs such as Photoshop, Painter and Adobe Illustrator to create my work on the computer.
In recent years I have also delved into the world of art quilting and working with fiber materials and thread to translate my love of space in a new and exciting media. I am doing the majority of my art pieces today as art quilts, combining my digital artwork, output on a large format printer and heavily free motion machine quilted.
Laura Harter
Nature is at the heart of any image I create. I like the process of creating images whether I am composing a photo or painting. I love the clarity and simplicity of design and illustration. I love how documentary photography lets a person, place, or object reveal something of itself. But I’ve let go of the discipline of representational art to explore beauty and mystery that I find in abstract images. I enjoy the freedom of discovering an image, letting it emerge on a page. I hope you enjoy and find respite in viewing my photos and paintings.
Phil Horning
I have always had a great interest in observing nature close by and in natural settings such as National Parks and National Forests. Nature provides inspiration for me particularly when I am out hiking, biking, or skiing through the landscape. What I try to do with my paintings is to capture views, moments, or experiences that are particularly meaningful to me and hopefully share some of that experience with people viewing my paintings. My other interest is travel having lived in Iran and Tasmania and travelled through most of Asia. A couple of my portraits are from Iran and landscapes of Nepal and Tasmania.
My interest in art started as a young boy and it led me to become a landscape architect where I could use my design and drawing skills to implement projects in the field. I worked as a Forest Landscape Architect for most of my career after serving in the Peace Corps in Iran. After retiring I have returned to painting as a creative outlet. I hope you will enjoy these paintings.
Linda Siska
I have tried many art forms over the years — art quilts, felting, folk art painting, acrylics, watercolors, Zentangle — but one thing has always eluded me, my own artistic voice. I am currently experimenting with combinations of Zentangle, watercolor, colored pencil, and most recently, urban sketching, all in pursuit of that elusive voice. I think I may be getting closer, but I know I’m not there yet. Still, the journey is both delightful and enlightening; I am so grateful to have art in my life