Artist Name List

Tom Dowling, American, has an M.F.A. from UC Irvine with postgraduate studies in art history and film. Tom has taught in England, Ireland, Italy and the U.S., has exhibited his shaped canvasses and photographic collages nationally and in Europe. He dialogues internally with Picasso, Braque and Mondrian about lines, shapes and multiple views of images. He says, "To be allowed to teach art as well as make art is twice blessed.” The painting of him here is by Bradford Salamon.

Jorg Dubin, American, 1955, of Laguna Beach. Jorg is a widely shown and collected oil painter. Art reviewer, Roberta Carasso, Ph.D., wrote: "...we feel we have entered a personal space without permission, as people unmask themselves before us and reveal their private rather than their public self...With enormous painterly skill, sure brushstrokes, compositional and color tensions, Dubin cuts through to the core, presenting humans as profoundly tender beings or dark subjects."

Cheryl Ekstrom, American sculptor, living in Laguna Beach, has exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in numerous private and public collections. She has studied at UCLA, the New York Studio School and at the Cal State Universities. Cheryl wrote, "It is only during the actual making of my art that I can experience the freedom of self. A freedom of transcending into an unconscious state of addictive euphoria."

Greg Escalante, American, 1950's, is a lowbrow art expert - art that is derived from pop culture including underground comics, surf culture, hot rods and tiki structures, among other influences. He is associated with and often contributes to Robert Williams' "Juxtapoz" magazine, the lowbrow art movement's Bible. The former art student and very straight-looking businessman, recently curated the "Art Shack" exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum, a groundbreaking show that features 39 art structures.

Shepard Fairey, American, 1970, is a street/graffiti artist who emerged from the skateboarding scene. His first famous image/promotional campaign is "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign. His “Obama Hope” poster became widely known in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, especially after he was arrested for appropriating this image from a photo on the Internet. His work is in The Smithsonian, the LA County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Karen Feuer Schwager, American, is a multi-faceted artist, who currently expresses her emotions, experiences and dreams through what Karen calls a neo-expressionistic style. Working on canvas, Plexiglas or Polaroid film, her work has a sensual and highly tactile quality that has evolved over a lifetime of making art. A fine arts grad of Temple University, she has lived and exhibited in New York, France and Switzerland. She lives in Laguna Beach and exhibits widely in that area.

Sherry Ford grew up So Cal, living among apricot trees, corn, vegetable gardens and flowers. Living close to the ocean, she collected shells and reveled in the sea and tides. She graduated summa cum laude from Laguna College of Art & Design, taught in Laguna for 7 years, has taught at Irvine Valley College, Cal State Fullerton, Orange Coast College and France and exhibited widely. She says: “Water has found it’s way into my images, be it a horizon filled with ocean, to figures in relationship to the nourishment of water.”

Arie A. Galles, born in Uzbekistan, is Professor of Art, Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, California. Arie's work includes "Reflected-Light Paintings" and "Fourteen Stations/Hey Yud Dalet," based on aerial reconnaissance photographs of concentration camps. About the former, he states: "I work with light, with the glowing radiation of fluorescent color reflected onto a plain white surface. The image is created by light tinting the shadow, an 'Anti-Shadow.' His works are in public and private collections in the US and abroad.

John Gardiner, American, is a Shakespearean actor and performance poet. He has had 10 collections of poetry published and has read and performed in many different countries, including Brazil, Ireland, Italy, The Czech Republic and Russia. Gardiner has performed in more than 30 productions of Shakespeare's plays and is a long time resident of Laguna Beach. He currently performs in a touring show called Shakespeare's Fool with British songwriter, Jason Feddy.

Jacques Garnier, American, grew up in West Los Angeles with European parents, values and traditions. Jacques is an honor’s graduate from UC Santa Barbara and has a Master’s in French Literature. As an artist, lecturer and photographer, his formal and poetic images of abandoned spaces, concentrate on redistribution in the American landscape, on vestiges of populations gone and quickly-forgotten. His photographs are in museums, academic institutions and galleries in the U.S. and Europe. He lives in Orange County, CA.

Ernie Gerzabek, Australian, professional visual artist, painter of contemporary landscapes and abstracts and sculptor. The self-taught artist started painting in 1970 while practicing as an Architect. His main inspiration is nature, the unspoiled countryside, wilderness areas, wetlands, deserts, ocean and seashores. Recently, he started using environmentally friendly recycled materials in his bas-reliefs and 3 dimensional sculptures. His highly original artworks are decorative, vibrant and eye-catching. Ernie’s paintings are richly textured and overflow with dazzling color, charged with positive energy, optimistic and spiritually uplifting.

Larry Gill, American, grew up on a cattle ranch in Porterville, CA. As a child, he dabbled in the visual arts, often thought about life, philosophy and inventions, and pondered where art and science intersect. Later, he worked with Buckminster Fuller, helping build geodesic domes. He has used stainless steel, granite, fiberglass, brass, concrete and wood to craft sculptures, coffee tables and dining tables. In 1981, he started building "Lightfalls," waterfalls which use internal illumination as optical conduits.

William Griffith, American, 1866-1940, was born in Lawrence, Kansas, studied art at Washington University, St. Louis, then traveled to Paris with friends, Benjamin Brown and Edward Wurple, to study at the Academie Julian. He returned to the States, teaching at various universities in Kansas, and finally joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in 1899. He visited San Diego in 1918, ultimately settling in Laguna Beach, becoming a charter member of the Laguna Beach Art Association.

Robin Hall explains, "Growing up in a home of art had the most influential impact to my becoming an artist. Being surrounded by art removed any fear about pursuing it as a lifetime goal. My painting focus has evolved from looking, to capturing the raw, unaltered landscape of Southern California; to capturing the effect of light and how it affects any object it touches. Where once I thought fame was the goal, today it is about creating good paintings. Art is the journey to learn and see more."

Anna Hills, American, 1882-1930, was born in Ohio, spent her childhood in Michigan, and studied at the Chicago Art Institute and at Cooper Union, NYC. She later traveled to Europe, studying at the Julian Academy in Paris, traveling and painting in France, Holland and England. She moved to Laguna Beach in 1912, soon becoming a leader in the burgeoning art movement there. She helped develop the Laguna Beach Art Association and to the opening of its first gallery in 1929.

Marcus Antonius Jansen, American, 1968, was born in New York City, and later transformed his life from a soldier in the first Gulf War to an internationally celebrated painter. Marcus works with violent brushstrokes, often changing textures spontaneously. He is noted in Art Marquis and in Who's Who in American Art. His works, commissioned by Ford Motor Company and Warner Brothers, Hollywood are also in permanent museum collections around the world. He lives in Florida.

Rob Johnson, American, Southern California resident, is a photographer, musician, printmaker and educator. He is Photography Department Chair at Cypress College and former darkroom assistant to Ansel Adams. He teaches digital photography and imaging and its relationship to the larger field of photography. His images are largely landscape based and explore how reality is perceived and sometimes unintentionally altered through photography. He has exhibited at galleries and universities throughout the country.

Joseph Kleitsch, Hungarian, 1882-1931, studied art in various European locations, including Alsace-Lorraine, Budapest, Munich and Paris. He initially painted figurative art works, then traveled to Mexico in his 20’s, painting portraits of the country’s President, his wife and other prominent people. He traveled between Mexico City and Chicago for a while, winning an award at the Art Institute of Chicago. For his last 10 years, he lived in Laguna Beach, while traveling throughout the state and to Europe.

Julia Klemek was born in Washington, D.C., and has lived in southern California since 1975. Julia received her BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and her MFA from UC Irvine. She has created a series of sculptural/functional benches for public and private spaces throughout California. Her works also include abstract pieces that are reinterpreted natural forms, figurative sculptures and low relief ceramic walls for swimming pools. Julia teaches Life Sculpture at Orange Coast College.

Louis Longi, American, creates one-of-a-king bronze originals, including freestanding sculptures, benches and fountains. Louis has 10 public art commissions in the United States, including the largest public art commission for Laguna Beach, and has created sculptures for Cirque du Soleil and MGM Mirage Resorts. His largest work was created for the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas. His work is in several galleries in the U.S. and is in private collections around the world. He lives in Laguna Beach.

Greg Martin, American, grew up in New England surrounded by artists. His mother was and still is a still-life painter, creating large canvasses of flowers and fruit. As a teenager, he started working in his Mom’s gallery, and painted his own landscapes that often echoed the other works for sale there. In 2004, he began creating abstract works, working with a variety of mixed media. These spontaneous works are increasingly attracting a local following. He lives in San Clemente, CA.

Dennis McGonagle has been painting urban landscapes since 1974, blending the plein-air style with the gritty subject matter of the Ashcan school and with the magical realism of Mexican muralists. Dennis has painted numerous murals for Southern California schools, businesses, and homes. At Whittier College, he held the position of campus mural painter and he has taught visual arts for Whittier elementary schools. He also enjoys landscape painting journeys throughout California.

Claudia Meyer, Swiss,1961,trained as a graphic designer at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung und Kunst, Luzern, then worked as a graphic designer in Stuttgart with Anton Stankowski, the grand master of German design. Later, in NYC, Claudia studied at the School of Visual Arts and at Fashion Institute of Technology. Living in Europe, she devotes herself to painting, the creation of art objects and to commissions. She exhibits in Europe, Japan and the US.

Doug McCulloh, American, was an honors graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara and holds an M.F.A. in photography and digital media. Doug has exhibited in the U.S., Europe, China, and Mexico. Heyday Books, Berkeley, published his fourth book, Dream Street. He has curated 13 exhibitions of photography, including three for the California Museum of Photography, and has received funding from the California Council for the Humanities. He lives in Riverside, CA.

Hortense Miller, American, was born in St. Louis in1908, taught biology, married Oscar Miller in 1953, and completed her mid century home in 1959. She created her magnificent garden in stages while also painting murals inside and outside the house and creating woodcarvings to enhance the architecture. Miller's book "A Garden in Laguna: the garden essays of Hortense Miller" was published in 2002. The Hortense Miller Garden was open to the public in 2008.

Scott Moore, American, 1949, graduate of Cal State University Long Beach; illustrator, United States Marine Corps. Scott has won numerous awards including Walter S. Greathouse Medal, American W/C Society, Arjomari Paper Award, American W/C Society, National W/C Society First Award (twice), and Watercolor USA. Exhibited throughout the country and in the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts. Is in numerous collections including: Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, Missouri; Quaker Oats Company, Chicago, Illinois; and Laguna Art Museum.

Nancy Moure, American, is a freelance curator specializing in historic California art. She was Assistant Curator of American Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for 15 years, and has published more than 50 books and articles including Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900-1945, Drawings and Illustrations by Southern California Artists Before 1950, and Loners, Mavericks and Dreamers: Art in Los Angeles Before 1900, and California Art: 450 Years of Painting and Other Media.

Dr. Karl Paulnack, American, a pianist and frequent performer of new music, has partnered vocal and instrumental soloists, chamber groups, orchestras, conductors and opera companies in nearly 1,000 concerts throughout North America, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Macedonia, Norway, Romania, and Russia. He is director of the Boston Conservatory’s Music Division, music director and conductor of the Contemporary Opera Lab of Winnipeg, and chef de chant of the Orchestra de Picardie in Amiens, France.

Edgar Payne, American, 1882-1947, born in Missouri, left home at age 14 to become a painter, traveling through the country and into Mexico. He studied briefly at the Chicago Art Institute, but left to continue his travels, working as a sign, house and scenic painter, portrait and mural painter. With the latter, he earned commissions in disparate part of this country. He and wife, Elsie Palmer, settled in Laguna Beach in 1919, a departure point from which they continued their world travels.

Snezana Petrovic, Yugoslavian, now in Redlands, CA, is 2D, 3D and 4D artist, collaborator, curator and educator. Her paintings, video and installation works have been exhibited in Los Angeles, Singapore, Amsterdam, Belgrade and Prague. Snezana has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions and solo exhibitions. In 2010, she presented "ShapeShifterS" at University of Redlands and "PG 13: Strikes Again" in Old Town Pasadena. Her curatorial work is focused on the traveling exhibition "SoundMigrationZ."

Allison Queen, American, assists non-profits, creative artists, organizations, restaurants, city municipalities, public relations agencies, and businesses identify their target audience and develop interesting and newsworthy information. As a personal publicist for television, theatre and stage actors (among other clients), Allison has worked with iCare Foundation, Quincy D. Jones, III (aka "QD3"), Keshia Knight Pulliam ("Rudy" from Cosby Show), Adilah Barnes (Actress), the Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival, Public Affairs International, Inc., The Sierra Group, PR Squad, and Young Communications and many others.

Chitra Ramanathan, (from India) creates acrylic and mixed-media paintings with intense colors and multiple layers of textures that interact with light to challenge the boundaries of their two-dimensions. They are inspired by short-lived garden blooms and cyclical seasons that Chitra compares with the continually evolving, ephemeral, fleeting happiness of "formless form." Hints of circles signify the human life cycle, which allude to trying times followed by happy phases, as a continuous cycle of life and rebirth influenced by her roots from India.

Bradford Salamon, American. The Orange County, CA based oil painter has evolved from a portrait artist working in an expressionist, style to his current classical approach, depicting people and interiors. Bradford paints passionately and academically, demonstrating his admiration for and inspiration by masters as John Singer Sargent and Henri Matisse with a nod to Edward Hopper. His underlying theme is classical beauty in technique and subject matter.

Mira Lisa Schiratis, American, creates brightly colored, abstract expressionist paintings using oils, acrylics, palette knife and brushes. After studying art with Francois Gilot, Picasso’s former lover and apprentice, Mira’s works became mystical and iconographic, filled with symbolism and figures, reminiscent of jewels. She says, "Primitive people created art to connect to the spiritual world. They were in rhythm with nature." She grew up in Southern California, lives in Laguna Beach, and often runs alongside the ocean and breaking waves.

Jen Schichi, grew up in Los Angeles, attended the Art Insitute of Chicago and the Laguna College of Art and Design. I addition to her career as a tattoo artist, she is a spiritual healer and painter. She says, “When time allows, I enjoy painting in acrylic, watercolor, and oils. Spiritual, psychedelic images of beauty and the natural world inspire me. I travel to tattoo conventions throughout the year and spend as much time vacationing as possible.

Clayton Spada, American, has more than 30 years of formal training and practical experience with digital techniques related to applications in digital signal processing, still and motion-based imaging, desktop publishing and the visual arts. His works have been published in annuals, periodicals and textbooks, featured in cable and network television spots in the U.S. and abroad, and are held in several institutional collections. He lives in Orange County, California.

Pat Sparkuhl, American, 1948, creates art that is most often political. Using a diverse mixture of media, techniques and methods, he assembles complete objects that he selects because they best convey particular themes, and promote curiosity and philosophical discussion. The issues he addresses in his works include the human condition, effects of war, religion, inhumanity, and the impact of societal changes. No topic is off limits; no topic is too sacred. He lives in Laguna Beach.

Tom Swimm began painting at a very young age and developed his self-taught painting methods by experimenting with various techniques and by studying the works of Van Gogh, Hopper, Gauguin, Cezanne and Monet. Tom worked in advertising on the East Coast for several years, relocating to the Laguna Beach area, renewing his passion for painting, and has exhibited widely since then. He writes: "Light is the most important aspect of my work. To capture its elusive qualities on canvas offer great personal satisfaction."

John Szabo, American, from San Clemente, CA, paints exploding galaxies and other organic shapes on square canvases, using inks, paints, resins and finally polymer to create luminous effects, They remind the viewer of stargazing on a dark, clear night or of staring at the heavens just before dawn. John explains that he has spent many nights looking at stars and often records his ethereal dreams. These works have a new-age vision of the possibility of greater worlds beyond our own.

Mia Tavonatti, American, established Svelata to recreate creativity by revealing the true nature of creativity and the transformative power of beauty! She has studied art in California, NY and Europe. Her work is in numerous private and corporate collections. She has exhibited extensively in the US, Italy, France and Greece and has created art for dozens of books. She has taught painting at Laguna College of Art and Design; there, she and her students have created five public murals.

Terry Thornsley, American, of Laguna Beach is a professional sculptor and painter. Hundreds of Terry's bronze, marble, stone and mixed media sculptures, as well as paintings, are held in private collections throughout the world. His subject matter comes from the sea, including marine mammals, sea birds, fish, coral and the ocean. The self-taught artist creates works that celebrate nature and movement.

Janice Tieken, American, studied Classics at Brown University, has a BFA from Otis Art Institute, an MA and MFT license. For 10 years she worked as a therapist using art AS therapy with seriously mentally ill patients from 2 to 92. She has received many awards including the 2003 international Silver Prize for Art and Science of Color in Kyoto for her Orchid Requiem series, has had her poetry published and writes socio-political satirical pieces. Janice lives in Ventura.

Leah Vasquez, American, creates site specific design, fabrication and consults for public and private art institutions. A Cum Laude Graduate of UC Irvine, Leah has her artwork in numerous public and private collections, including the Los Angeles Arboretum, and has exhibited in several museums. She has taught art in private schools, colleges and museums, has won several awards and is currently board member/Art Director at the Hortense Miller Garden, Laguna Beach.

Roger Weik, American, 1949, was an abstract artist from a young age. He studied at Southern Illinois University, receiving a B.S. and an M.F.A. He has always created non-figurative pieces, and has for years worked with thickness, texture and organic forms, with oils, acrylics, silicone, oxide powdered pigments and asphaltum. He creates paintings, sculpture and monoprints, has exhibited Internationally and currently has his works in 42 museum permanent collections. He lives in Orange County, CA.

William Wendt, German, 1865-1946, immigrated to the United States in 1880, taking evening classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He traveled often to California, painting the landscape, then traveled back to Europe, spending significant time in England, looking at art and painting his own works. He moved to Los Angeles in 1906, then built a studio in Laguna Beach in 1912, spending increasing time there. He won numerous art awards in Chicago, San Francisco, New York State, among other places.

Barbara White, American, has been an architectural photographer for 25 years and a fine art photographer for 10. Barbara studied photography at Orange Coast College and took many workshops with Vincent Versace, David Muench, and others. She is a world traveler, especially to Asian countries, has taught architectural photography at Orange Coast College, and has won several awards for her fine art photos. She is mother of two, grandmother of three, and lives in Laguna Beach.

Robert Williams created "Juxtapoz" magazine in 1994, paying homage to lowbrow art that is figurative with pop, narrative, surreal and occasionally psychedelic themes, in a variety of media and art styles. It is today one of the most successful art magazines nationwide. Artists Robert features include Sandow Birk, Shepard Fairey, Mike Kelley, Margaret Kilgallen, Paul McCarthy, Barry McGee, SHAG, Jeffrey Vallance and Von Dutch. "Hail the voyeur, the only honest connoisseur," is one of his favorite statements.

Andy Wing, 1931-2004, six feet five, was born in Connecticut to writer parents who believed in gardening and promoted victory gardens in World War II. He received a B.A. in art from Bard College, NY, and an M.F.A from Cal State Long Beach. He settled in Laguna Beach in the late 50’s where he lived for the rest of his life. He devoted his life to creating shaped canvasses, often in the color field style, to gardening, his friends and relatives, bicycling and spreading radical ideas.

Tanya Wilkinson, American, worked for years in hand papermaking, making paper from any conceivable fiber. Then, Tanya made large collages, experimenting with printmaking, working in assemblage, using paper cast into sculptural forms, incorporating found objects. Many of her pieces with feminist themes have been shown in the Bay Area where she lives. She also makes unique books/sculptural objects, and is currently writing Joy in the Making: Artist’s Dreams and the Recovery of Delight in Art-Making.

Eadweard York, American, has constantly pushed the boundaries of contemporary art with a confrontational, avant-garde, crude pop punk surreal, anti-art style that is unique, easily recognizable, and visionary. Eadweard is the founder of what he calls the “Destructionist Art Movement,” and has had numerous exhibitions with loyal underground fans. His paintings, performances and art installations are often outrageous. He lives in and exhibits in Southern California.