GDCA Gallery proudly announces our JULY, 2024 Group Exhibition: "ELEMENTAL".
Painting, Photography, Mixed Media and Digital Photo-Collage.
Featuring Artists: Susanne Belcher, Richard Bell, Carol Cirillo Stanley, Elizabeth Decker, Karen Hansen, Cheryl Hrudka, Stan Johnson, Sondra Jolles, Suki Kuss, Crystal Michaelson & Christina Ilene Thomas.
GDCA Gallery proudly announces our July, 2024 Solo Exhibition:
SONDRA JOLLES "A Life In Layers".
SUSANNE BELCHER
"My floral photo collages in this show are a new, ongoing series called “Secrets In The Garden.” I began photographing the beautiful, floral abundance in my own yard several years ago along with bouquets given to me at special occasions. Many of my images found their way to my heart and I knew that I had to do something new and exciting to honor them. Each flower, each image, seemed to yearn to tell me a secret they were holding dear within their petals. But, their narratives didn’t reveal themselves until I captured a multitude of glitches while watching a movie on TV and began layering, combining, photo collaging them together. I experimented with several different grounds including canvas on which to print them, but they didn’t come alive for me until I installed them on Acrylic. Their stories are magical, dreamlike, spiritual, sensual and romantic along with a bit of vanity and playfulness. However, I defer to the imagination of the viewers to be swept away by the stories they see. – Susanne Belcher
RICHARD BELL
CAROL CIRILLO STANLEY
Each piece in this portfolio was created to examine the unique personality and characteristics of the subject. Every candidate presented itself to me in a very unsuspecting manner, not searching, just appearing. Once I noticed the often-hidden prospect, there was no way to go but forward! After obtaining the model release, I would ask that they pose in studio to which they agreed. It was there that their true selves began to unfold.." - CCS
ELIZABETH DECKER
DAVE GRAHAM
I began painting in a Monastery in Ireland, at a time when I believed that this was the life I was meant to live, guided by a deeply spiritual monk who was able to convince me despite my own doubts and insecurities, that artistically, I had a gift which I was obliged to pursue. He was and is the only Art teacher I have ever known.
KAREN HANSEN
"Years ago my painting practice melded with my meditation so that the very act of painting has become my meditation. As I work, I ease into a clear, quiet space in my mind. The paintings then evolve through intuition, improvisation, experimentation and revision. I seek radiance, nuance, depth, elegance and mystery in each piece. Their subtle complexity is created by layering transparent and translucent veils of color. The results are lyrical and luminous atmospheric abstractions. They are reflections of the rhythms and quiet mysteries of our lives."
- Karen Hansen
Cheryl Hrudka & Stan Johnson
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SONDRA JOLLES
"If You Know My Work, You Will Know Me."
- Sondra Jolles
SUKI
“Art is not art. Art is life”. SK
CHRISTINA ILENE THOMAS
“Expansiveness, heart-centered generosity, spirituality, the inexpressible mystery of life, the paradoxical sense of joy and sadness. I hope that my work will elicit a range of emotions in the viewer, to touch or soften people’s lives in some way, no matter how small. My paintings change moods, just as we all do and as nature does. My intuitive, sensitive process takes time to fully express what the painting wishes to be, as I contemplate and listen to each piece. My landscapes are sometimes invitations to stillness and meditation,sometimes expressions of joy, sometimes of drama and mood. I create my titles in hopes that each piece will be further enhanced, the mood, the feeling of it.To me, the titles are just as important as the painting itself."
Christina has a spontaneous approach, experimenting with colors and textures, allowing her to explore the effects of each step taken. In this way, each painting unfolds and evolves in its own way, and her contemplative, interior life is translated onto the canvas.
SONDRA JOLLES
"If You Know My Work, You Will Know Me."
- Sondra Jolles
MARK BROSMER
"The places I’ve created in my paintings are representative of our earth as we know it, yet more distant than we would care to imagine. My work lives in a silent environment where time fails to exist, where focus is shared between symbols and their surrounding areas." - Mark Brosmer
ROBIN CHAPPELL
Always looking for the road less traveled, Robin hasn't been content to tread the well worn ruts of centuries old images. He also hasn't wanted to pursue the What's New' just because it is ‘outre’ stretching the boundaries. Instead he developed a medium and style that, while borrowing techniques which are both traditional as well as timeless, were treading new ground and creating images which are both naturalistic as well as impressionistic.
He came upon the medium of China Markers as if by accident (although he does not believe in ‘accidents’). After using ordinary Crayola Crayons (and having been doing pencil and pen and ink crosshatch — in the Old Masters style), he sought out a more opaque medium that had the same quality of colors and luminosity. Spending several years working on white paper, he began to use black or darkly grounded paper (and masonite or canvas), in order to get the darkest darks and work towards the Light.
For he sees Light (and often hidden light sources) as (are) used as a metaphor for Spirit, where we see the effect of the Infinite on the world but not directly the Source. His work strives to find that Light and seeks to bring changes in perception because of it, en-light-ening (using his Art) with sometimes often not seen light and images. His aim is to shift consciousness as to what is all around us.
Even in the darkest Night, there is always some source of Light.
SIRI FRANCE
“This bougainvillea outside my studio window were fascinating to paint. The more I looked the more I saw in terms of shapes, shadows and patterns. I kept going and the picture grew from one canvas to two. I look at it now and it represents a very strong memory of place - my studio in Silver Lake.” – Siri France
RICHARD REINER
LINDA STELLING
ALEXANDER GRAMM
KATHE MADRIGAL
NOAH JAMES SAUNDERS
A New Series Of Wire Portraits and Their Inspiration
In spring of 2022 I completed En Vie - a wire portrait eight feet by six feet; the largest, most complex sculpture I have ever created. Looking into En Vie’s eyes, I could only think, what next? What could possibly come after this?
Creatively exhausted, I spent weeks in my studio looking around the space. Finding a postcard from an art show I did twenty years earlier, I began to ponder the trajectory of my life with wire. I could remember how I felt as a young artist - that insatiable desire to create - a desire so stifled by fear. I remembered a series of sculptures I had then so wished to create, and the fear that stopped me from fulfilling this desire.
I set the card down, and with a raised eyebrow, I asked my younger and my present self: Is it not possible now?
Looking back into the eyes of En Vie, I understood. En Vie worked so well because I had discovered the power that came with marrying the size of a wire portrait to a specific gauge or thickness of wire - thin enough to allow me to infuse the face with emotion, not so thin as to bend under its own weight. Twenty years ago I worked exclusively with 18 gauge wire, no matter the size of the portrait. I had seen portrait after portrait fail from trying to force a line that was too thick to hold the delicate emotions I so wanted to convey. This simple insight fully opened my creative universe.
I began to gather images of models but felt something was missing. If this was to be a series, I realized I needed an emotional well from which to draw, not simply images. I needed a story arc to unify the series.
Turns out that the emotional well I needed was in my mailbox! My friend and poet Marc Zegans had mailed me his latest book Lyon Street - a book of poems about coming of age in San Francisco in the ‘70’s. A book in which his wiser self speaks with his younger self. It could not have been a more perfect inspiration!
As I read Marc’s verse, certain words really spoke to me - 'as I catch and throw him to the salt'... 'tonight, I turn and remember'... 'I ignore him and break'... 'a thin line of love tethering you to shore'... ‘no plans of moving on. You look out’
I was amazed at how easy it was to marry Zegans’s poetic lines to models I keep in my files. Each stanza that moved me had its own precise set of needs. Some required only a face staring out. Others wanted more, an arm, even a tattoo to round out the meaning embodied in the chosen string of words. Over the next twelve months my studio began to fill with diverse personalities. The wire portrait series, that I had dreamed up in my youth, was coming to life. After much meditation I named this series: “Wire and Shadow - Portraits of Poems.”
MARLENE CAPELL
These paintings start with the image of a portal which is the dominant motif. They often evolve over a period of several years. I may paint over old paintings leaving some parts exposed because it goes with my attitude towards life; not to obscure what has gone before. This painting process is one of covering, scraping and redrawing in order to challenge the existing state of the work as multiple layers are built up and then partially obscured. This leaves evidence of what went before in the process of creating a rich and textured surface. I believe our lives are a process of building one experience upon another. As many of these paintings are painted over previous ones, revealing the history of themselves, they become a metaphor for growth and evolution.
SUKI
“Art is not art. Art is life”. SK
"My love of Japanese art and culture started a thirty-year journey of exploration of the kimono. Silky textures, clean lines and dramatic form resonated deeply in me.
My very first pieces were created in dichroic glass. Throughout the years I continued this aesthetic with paper, paint and pen.
I explored other media and themes, but always came back to the kimono.
To me, it represents courage, beauty and feminine strength."
STEPHEN SCHUBERT
“Day Awakens” (green Flash). I frequently went to Carmel,CA. to deliver my art to a gallery. Making new friends there I was repeatedly invited to walk down Ocean Ave to watch the sun drop below the horizon. A tradition which included wine drinking and cheering when the “green flash” was seen....an optical illusion that appears on a water horizon at sunrise and sunset that truly looks like a green flash." - Stephen Schubert
BILL SHERWOOD
Adria Becker "KIND OF BLUE"
Portraiture and figurative nudes. Becker offers exploration of traditional rendering starting points to highly experimental, cross-contouring representation. These figures and faces all succeed in the ultimate goal: capturing the soul.
TERI DRYDEN
"With an emphasis on process I create textured surfaces by responding to the changes in the picture as I explore and interact with my materials. Moving between intuition and logic, chaos and order, I reunite and record fragments of thoughts, feelings and memories. By creating an ephemeral path between internal experiences and external encounters, I ask: Who am I? Who are we?"
MAUREEN HALDEMAN
Paysages du Ciel (Cloudscapes)
Seeking a respite from the relentless pace of modern life and the concrete landscapes of urbanity, I have always found comfort and inspiration in the boundless expanse and ethereal beauty of the sky. To me, the sky possesses a unique magic, one capable of soothing the soul and rekindling the spirit. A symphony of light and shadow dances across the expanse of mother nature’s canvas; a spectrum of tones and hues are found in the transitions between dawn, dusk and nighttime, interpreting an ever-shifting tapestry of moods, colors and textures, all created by nature.
Through my skyscapes I endeavor to forge a connection between our artificial surroundings and the transcendent beauty of nature. Many of my most contemplative images capture the essence of the sky. Each image tells a story of constancy intertwined with perpetual change, serving as a reminder of the profound therapeutic potential inherent in the natural world, particularly in the limitless expanse above.
My photographs celebrate the sky's soothing influence and acknowledge its power to heal, inspire, and restore balance and harmony and balance in our lives - a soothing balm for the human spirit, offering solace and rejuvenation to those who pause to gaze up and contemplate its wonders.
Maureen J Haldeman
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