Lauren Brown's motto is 'making art my 6-year-old self would love,' and her upcoming exhibition, Efemmera, reflects this perfectly. Brown's work explores identity and the factors that shape how we see ourselves. She looks at how our self-image is reflected in our interactions with others, our surroundings, and social structures. This exhibition features sculptural artworks made from fabric and found objects. In the artist's words, "Efemmera is a love letter to the urge to collect little trinkets, the feeling of discovering precious finds in forgotten purses and pockets, the nostalgia of love notes from long gone bag lunches, the practice of making every scrap count, and all the tiny trash that is really treasure."

The Opening Reception will be on Saturday, May 25th from 2-5pm at Sylvan Gallery, 613 Ortiz Ave, Sand City, 93955. 

The exhibition will be on display at the Sylvan Gallery from May 25th to June 9th with the following open hours: 

• Weekends from May 25th to June 9th from 12-4pm

• First Friday, June 7th, from 6-9pm (During the 831 Night Market)

Join us into the ether, where the tangible and intangible intertwine. Edges and Depths celebrates the intersection of ceramics and textiles, showcasing the profound ways in which two artists, Jessica Bovert and Vanessa Cowdrey, navigate the liminal spaces between craft and fine art, journeying through the nuanced territories of mending, traditional craft, and the innate human connection to tactile mediums.

The exhibition features an array of works including woven tapestries, functional and sculptural ceramic work, and collaborative works which blend the two mediums. Stoneware and porcelain sculptures begin to embody the ethereal through an exploration of form and surface, while cotton threads evoke a sense of intangibility as they are manipulated on a loom. Each piece serves as a testament to the artists' mastery over their materials and their ability to push the boundaries of conventional craft techniques. The artists, both working at the junction of craft and fine art, engage deeply with their mediums to explore themes of repair, memory, and the cyclical nature of life. Witness the beauty that emerges from the space beyond our grasp.

Join us for an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 13th from 12-4pm

Jessica Bovert will be hosting Weaving Workshop that will take place on Saturday, May 11 from 1pm-4pm

Welcome to the artwork of the Advanced/AP Art class of Marina High School. These artists are mostly juniors and seniors who have spent two years in high school art experiences. They were invited to create a piece of artwork that places a meaningful being into a meaningful place. The work could be real or imagined. The perspective for these pieces was intended to demonstrate an understanding of a “worm’s eye view” - a perspective from a low camera lens angle.

Collectively, this artistic community is curious, courageous, and joyful. Some took to this work by immediately forming ideas and setting to task while others grappled with their composition. An important moment for students was when they became aware of the internal dialogue that happens during the painting process. Needless to say, they persevered.

Jen Shayani has been a teacher in the Marina community for more than 20 years. She has had the absolute pleasure of knowing each of these humans and watching them grow into thoughtful, expressive young adults.

This show is dedicated in loving memory of Lenore Masterson, a beloved Marina Youth Arts Board Member and artist who generously supplied all of the canvases for this show.

JonPaul Magan's artistic passion ignited when he moved to the Monterey Peninsula from River, Massachusetts. The ever-changing beauty of the Central Coast inspired him to explore the boundless spectrum of color. Now a Sand City resident, he experiments with acrylic paint to create mesmerizing works that captivate the visual senses.

The Opening Reception is Friday, November 3 from 5-9pm. This event is aligned with Sand City’s Night Market.

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 16 from 2 - 6pm

Collaborative Exhibition featuring the stunning watercolor paintings of Julia Esdaile and the majestic ceramic kelp impression of Mike Morris.

Be a doll and dress for a ball. It’s a rainbow disco darling! A day to be fabulous with live music, cocktails, small bites, and fabulous art.

Photography exists in a place between the physical world and the inner world of the mind. The light that reflects off the subject creates a direct photographic representation, but our interpretation of that image is rooted in experience, emotion, and memory. Some photographers look to be inspired by the external world, a beautiful sunset, or a charismatic model. Others look inward and form an image in the mind’s eye, and seek to recreate that vision through the photographic representation of objects, people, and spaces.

The exhibition The Inward Eye consists of photographs and a video that represent this inward perspective of artist Greg Mettler. The selected works exist in a space outside of conventional time, to reflect the inner verse of the artist’s mind. By merging photography and video with sculpture and installation, Greg Mettler seeks to create photographic artifacts and experiences rather than traditional documentations of the physical world.

You can find more of Greg Mettler’s work on his website: gregmettler.com and on Instagram @gmettlerart.

I create art to promote a kinder, more colorful world that embraces the spirit of wildness and the wildness of spirit. I love birds, fish, flowers, trees, animals, butterflies, dragonflies, and humans, especially children -pretty much everything alive on this miraculous planet, including the planet itself. I have always been attracted to the beautiful truths found in nature and spiritual symbolism. It is my intention not just to replicate them but to illuminate them. My art is my love made visible.

My solo show at The Sylvan Gallery is a rare opportunity for me to share in one place. some of the art I have been making over the past 20+ years. I will be showing paintings, prints, sculptures, and books. My most recent work is in ceramic sculpture and mobiles, pairing many of them with my airbrush paintings and pastels. Please join me in the gallery on any Saturday or Sunday 12-4 pm, January 8-February 7, 2022. or by appointment on Mondays, contact me by my cell (831) 241-0540.

Marcia Perry’s Bio:
We have happily made Monterey our home for 31 years. I began my art career in Colorado in 1973, designing book illustrations, fine art paintings, sculptures, and murals. I paint with airbrushed acrylics and pastels and sculpt with porcelain /clay and make found object mobiles. I designed “The Tarot of Love”. I am also a children’s book author and illustrator.; “Here on Earth”, and “maggie and milly and molly and may” by E.E.Cummings, both published by Pomegranate.

In 2000, my wife, Meg Biddle, and I founded Youth Arts Collective (YAC) in downtown Monterey. YAC is a successful community-supported non-profit, afterschool multi-disciplinary visual art studio and mentoring program for Monterey County young artists, ages 14-22. Along with the other YAC Artist Mentors, we have gratefully served and mentored 900 + local teens, so far.

Visit marciaperry.com to see more of my art and yacstudios.org to learn about Youth Arts Collective and/or contact me by cell (831) 241-0540

The Temple Sisters, Holly and Ashlee, work in mixed media to generate works on paper, canvas and create small assemblages. Each work they devise is meant to engage the viewer in questions about the temporal and fluid nature of image, memory, and cultural language of expression.

Collaboration, both in applied method as well as conceptually, is at the core of their work. They each find the implicit trust required by working in tandem to be one of the most  interesting and integral parts of their art. A shared history and shared aesthetic emerges as a partnership in paint  and paper. It is their deep belief that collaboration – artist-to-artist, art-to-observer – is at the heart of the creative  process.

The Artists

Holly studied art and art history at the San Francisco Academy Art, San Francisco State University and at C.S.U. in Florence, Italy.  She worked in New York for many years as an Art Director at Avon, Christian Dior, Estee Lauder, David Yurman, among others and currently runs her own freelance graphic design company in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Ashlee studied theatre at N.Y.U. and received her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. She continues to work in theatre as a director. 

Both of their backgrounds provide for unique perspectives on visual storytelling, which is a conscious, ever-present element of their work. When apart, they work independently on the same project, developing separate but parallel designs that are consolidated only when they reunite in their studio.

The Sisters have spent a lifetime studying art under their father, California artist Brook Temple.

For more information and work check out their website: templesisters.com.

You can also find them on Facebook: The Temple Sisters and Instagram: @temple_sisters

Field Spoils 

I get a feeling of nostalgia for dirt from when I used to work various agriculturally related jobs in the central valley during summers. Clay is the closest material that fulfills this nostalgic feeling as it allows me to get dirty, physical, and work with my hands.

The fields have been harvested and the produce has been processed, packaged, and is heading out for delivery. As we drive past the familiar fields of California’s Central Valley, we see the massive planes of land – the never-ending crops stretched to the horizon – and the farm workers who follow behind the tractor ahead, picking them. The abundance of crops gives us a great sense of comfort, a sense that is amplified as we casually stroll through the isles overflowing, abundant with produce; there is great value placed on the goods from the central valley.

With the pieces presented for Field Spoils, I elevated the crop and the dirt by making it out of a new medium, by placing the ceramic dirt onto pedestals and attaching it to the wall. There are also in bins of ceramic that are erupting or flooding. The soil itself is valuable for the production and creation of the produce, but here, the dirt and soil are just seen in their most simplified form.

The work here is contradictory. Just like our relationship with produce. Although some forms are celebratory, others are decaying or ripped. While the bins are containers for holding the produce they also function as receptacles for throwing away that which is unused, rejected, spoils.

Bio

Abiam Alvarez grew up in Leon Guanajuato, Mexico for nine years before migrating to the United States in 1999 and settling in the small California town named Firebaugh, which is a farming community town surrounded by many fields of crop. Abiam Alvarez experienced some of the labors through the agriculturally related jobs available in the summers as he grew up and attended school.

After graduating high school, Abiam Alvarez attended California State University, Fresno from 2005 till 2011, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in art and design with an emphasis in ceramics and sculpture. He later went back to college to earn his single subject teaching credential in the art to be able to teach high school art. His summers were still spent working laborious occupations in the central valley as he attended college.

Abiam Alvarez is a first-generation college student in his family. Alvarez currently resides in the bay area as a ceramics and art high school teacher at Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill. His roots are closely tied to the central valley, where he grew up and makes work that speaks of the labors and political issues surrounding agriculture, consumerism, and immigrant workers while working on his MFA degree at San Jose State University.

Abiam Alvarez has been working with ceramics since 2005.

You can see more of Abiam’s work at: abiamalvarezsculpture.com and on Instagram @abiam.alvarez

Andrew Jackson b. 1970 Anaheim, CA
To capture what a place feels like at night, this is how I am inspired to paint since the age of 19. More than half my life I have applied my best efforts and attention to seeing and translating light on to canvas.

Education
At 20 I sought out mentors in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA and was accepted and taken in by John Mason. I was given every opportunity to learn and show my art in his gallery, as well as taken under wing by many gallery owners and artists alike. Willingness to learn and understanding of the value of these gifts was my education. The day came in my late 20’s, when I realized it was time to learn how to paint, not a collection of techniques, but a style of my own. I closed my self-named studio/gallery, in Carmel, after 3 years and moved to New York to attend Art Students League in 1997. In 1999, I returned to Monterey.

Other Education
Being fans of street art, my wife Sunshine Jackson and I opened Outer Edge Studio in 2004. The art form was new to the gallery setting and many of the artist were showing in this way for the first time. We wanted it to be the best gallery experience these artist would have. Word got out and the approval attracted the likes of Shepard Fairey, David Choe, BASK, and TES ONE. We began publishing these artists, and I took a break from painting.

Want to learn more about Andrew Jackson? Check out his website outeredgestudio.com or follow him on Instagram @outeredgestudio.

With Drift: An Art Expedition, artists Andrea Dingeldein, Emily Hess, and D.J. Jackson present a bridge between the worlds of scientific exploration and fine art. Drawing inspiration from the natural world around them, these classically trained artists – all three are graduates of the prestigious Science Illustration Program at California State University Monterey Bay – invite viewers to suspend reality for an expedition of discovery, leading them from the shallow coastal waters, into the Twilight Zone, before diving deeper and deeper to dark ocean depths where nature illuminates from within.

Scientific Illustrations from:

Andrea Dingeldein

Andrea’s fascination for the natural world was sparked by the diversity of life found in the backyards and neighborhoods of her childhood home in the piedmont of North Carolina. Her interests quickly expanded to the ocean realm, when she became a certified SCUBA diver at the age of twelve. Annual trips to the Caribbean to explore the warm, tropical coral reefs with her family inspired her to pursue a career as a marine biologist. She graduated college with dual bachelor’s degrees in Marine Biology and Studio Art and continued her scientific training by completing a M.S. in Marine Biology at UNC-Wilmington. Her thesis research was focused on larval development and post-settlement behavior of coral reef fishes in St. Croix, USVI. Peers and mentors in the sciences discovered that she had a knack for creating illustrations that could clearly communicate their scientific findings. Following the publication of her first science illustrations in academic journals, she attended the prestigious Science Illustration Graduate Certificate Program at CSU-Monterey Bay. She is now an Instructor and the Program Assistant for the Science Illustration Program, and also maintains her own freelance business (“The Local Naturalist”) creating engaging science illustrations.

Emily Hess

Emily Hess was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, but was an ocean lover right from the beginning. She became a certified SCUBA diver at age 12 and spent much of her land-locked childhood drawing ocean creatures that inspired her and learning as much as possible about them. 

She attended the University of Tampa in Florida, where she began her BS in Marine Biology, and transferred to Seattle Pacific University in Washington during her senior year to complete her final credits. This gave her a valuable marine science education with experience in both cold-water kelp forests as well as coral reefs. 

Following graduation, Emily took a position as a marine science instructor at the Catalina Island Marine Institute, where she taught labs, led snorkels, kayaks, and other ecological adventures. As assistant director of the program several years later she was able to bring her affinity for art to her work and began creating educational tools for the different science labs in the facility. Creating murals, interactive visuals, and illustrations made Emily develop a deep appreciation for effective and compelling visual aids in the service of science. 

This led her to apply for a coveted position in the Science Illustration program at CSUMB, which she attended in 2016-2017. Since completing this program she has worked on a number of gratifying projects for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, California State Parks Department, Communities for Sustainable Monterey County, and others, and she also currently works with the local community-supported fishery Real Good Fish and is completing a Masters in Design Management from the Savannah College of Art and Design. 

Life in Monterey, being a part of both the artistic community, as well as the marine science community, is incredibly fulfilling and Emily is committed to continue bringing attention to the vast and wondrous natural life that exists in our little corner of the world and moving scientific awareness and sustainability forward in the process.  

D. J. Jackson

D.J. was born and raised in coastal South Carolina, and spent most of his childhood in or near the ocean, always exploring and looking for wildlife.  Taking inspiration from all around him, he was captivated by artists, naturalists, archaeologists, and adventurers.  

He got his BA in Fine Art from Eckerd College in 2012 and completed the CSUMB Science Illustration program in 2014.  

He creates for a variety of clients both in and outside of the scientific community.  From technical illustration to abstract painting, to sculpture, D.J. balances many different styles of visual art/communication.  

His work has taken him as far as Australia, where his work was used in research projects and informational signage for The University of Queensland.  He has been featured on the Mission Blues website, created content for conservation programs in Yosemite and Zion National Parks, and taught marine science and scientific illustration at camps and schools across the United States.  

But That’s No Way To Tell You is an interdisciplinary installation which explores the ways in which both technology and academic thought affect our ability to communicate. Through the use of photography, machine writing, and printing techniques both archaic and contemporary, Mason Hershenow asks the viewer to consider how they separate fact and opinion in an age where it has never been easier to combine the two.

Mason Hershenow’s Bio:

Mason Hershenow is a photographer, writer, and institutional critic working to highlight redundant and exclusionary systems in academic art and beyond.

Influenced by the tools we build and use to interact with ourselves, each other, and the world around us, Hershenow's work focuses on the relationship — and distance — between contemporary photography and the academic art world. Originally trained as a straight photographer, Hershenow’s practice frequently blends candid, often personal images with elements of modernist design, traditional and contemporary typesetting, and the use and misuse of academic language in order to challenge the viewer’s notions of who and what establishes expertise and validity in galleries, lecture halls, and other formal spaces. Far from an anti-academic, Hershenow’s goal is to use institutional critique as a means of illuminating and weakening the most harmful mechanisms of exclusion built into contemporary academic, artistic, and social systems.

Hershenow is a northern California native. He earned his Bachelor of Art in photography from Sacramento State University in 2014 and his Master of Fine Art in photography from San José State University is 2020, where he also taught a number of introductory photography courses. In September 2020, he founded it's no sam studios and began hosting Meaning What, a podcast exploring conversations missing in fine art and culture.

Find out more about the artist at: mhershenow.com