About the Artist

He major theme of my work is exploring the ways we live around the world, searching for our commonality and delving into the separations of culture. In working in mixed media I am able to articulate different nuances through various methods. With paper cut-outs, I play with imaginative spaces. Illustration lends a graphic element to details of architecture. I use oil painting when I want to add heft and brevity to historic subject matters, or to further explore color. Watercolors offer a frailty in their delicacy, making them the perfect medium for exploring “the beyond”, the remote places that are threatened politically, environmentally, and geographically. As music is the sound of culture, I research historic instruments and what makes a genre (be it revolution, punishment, racial silencing and maintenance of tradition), and with writing, I explore the voices of the areas of interest while adding mine. With COVID came a pause for international travel and an immense sense of isolation. While exploring our global community, I have also turned inward. With oil paint, I have been exploring what it truly means to be living through this time through self portraiture.

About Artist’s Work:

Whitney Sanford is a San Francisco mixed media artist, with a focus on the history of civilization. Recently included in the de Young “Open” exhibit, Sanford is looking forward to upcoming residencies with D’Clinic in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, and Dentro La Terra in Arielli, Italy. Having worked as a student voice for a large art purchase at Portland Community College and as a research assistant for the late Photography Curator of the Portland Art Museum, Terry Toedtemeier, her work is expansive in productivity, international influence, and a deep root in art history.

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About the Artist

Yijun Ge was born in Xiang Yang, in the province of Hubei, China. She received her Bachelor’s from Hubei Institute of Fine Art. During that time, she taught art workshops for oil painting, charcoal drawing and printmaking, and assisted instructors at Hubei Institute of Fine Art University.

Yijun received her MFA in painting from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, California. Her work included multiple galleries across the U.S, such as Hilliard gallery, Kansas, Blackhawk gallery, Danville, Louisiana Art and Science Museum, Louisiana, Ocean Shore Gallery, Seattle, Fe Gallery, Sacramento. Also, her works has been featured in art magazines in 2021, and won the first place award called “Northwest reflections“ during art competition. At the same year, Featured Muralist ” Mural Artist Takes a Stand on Violence against Asians.” Asian American Press.

And she is actively creating commissions for private and public companies. Currently, she is teaching workshops at Museums and Galleries in San Francisco.

Artist Statement

Yin and Yang is the basis of my visual language, representing passion and calmness. The contrast creates balance and tension, often represented through warm and cool colors. High color contrast is intriguing and is visually more pleasing than low contrast. Dreams are the inspiration for my art. The elements that show up in my dreams such as spiders, sailboats, cats, and dragons help to create a painting’s theme. They are a unique symbolic language representing larger concepts. 

I begin by sketching and move on to under-painting, and at that point I am open to new ideas jumping into my mind. The process always leads to new explorations and discoveries. I explore different substrate including wood panels and canvas. Oil paint is my medium of choice, allowing flexibility and depth of color. I fill in under-paintings with big brushes, and then refine it by adding multiple layers of paint. If I stare at the piece for 20 minutes without wanting to clarify anything, then I know it’s done.

Artist Bio

Karla Thomas holds a degree in Painting and Art History from Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They also attended the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland. Karla lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three small children.

Artist Statement

Karla Thomas creates ceramic work that focuses around themes of sexuality, gender and identity. They have exhibited paintings, sculptural work and printmaking in New York City, Ireland and Pennsylvania. Karla’s work is heavily informed by her personal experiences as a neurodivergent, queer and non-binary person. Their current body of work explores the historical feminization of tea and the concurrent dehumanization and objectification of women and vulvas.

What does “Gaze” mean to you & how do you connect it to your work?

In this current body of work the phrase “Gaze” is reflected in the objectification of the vulva. The predominant gaze of our society is the Male Gaze that simultaneously devalues the human connected to the vulva and objectifies the vulva as a commodity intended for male consumption. The viewpoint, or gaze, that is celebrated and promoted within a group shapes the way that even the owner of the vulva views themselves.