Biographies
Kathy Askijian
Kathy creates contemporary objects of adornment in silver, copper, bronze, steel and precious stones, using both traditional and non-traditional fiber and jewelry techniques.
"In my work I intentionally blur the distinctions between metal and fabric. I weave silver and copper filaments into a flexible fabric, create a fabric-like surface texture on silver, or form hard metal into gentle ruffles and folds. The beauty and intimacy of textiles are translated into metal."
Body Adornment
"I'm fascinated by the earliest forms of adornment, beginning with seeds and bones worn for protection and self-expression. I'm intrigued by how and why we choose to adorn our bodies. More than personal self-expression, choices may express a cultural history and perhaps a primitive consciousness."
"I began by considering the necklace as a form of protection. I explored the connection between contemporary jewelry and indigenous breastplates and headdresses. For example, I was inspired by the movement and emotional impact of a flicker band worn on the brow by indigenous Californians."
"Using heat-treated copper, brass, and silver, I create objects for the brow, chest, and shoulders. I find the body a wonderful palette for creative expression. Objects of adornment move with the body and are imbued with the spirit of the wearer."
Education Kathy has a BA in Art from Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and has also trained at the Penland School of Craft, the College of Marin, California College of Arts in Oakland, CA and the Mendocino Art Center in CA.
Helen Caswell
Helen Caswell is best known for her paintings of children, but she is interested in many facets of life. She says: "My first concern in painting is the recording of an instant when several lives may touch briefly, or when one soul is suspended in a private world. A lonely old man, two lovers, a child roller skating-all may be sharing one sunny half-hour in autumn, or a rainy day in April. It is a moment that happens and then is gone. I look for the pattern of it, the movement and interaction of people with each other and the environment. Especially I look for the uniqueness of each person, for I am primarily a portrait painter."
Approximately a quarter of her work is commissioned. Commissions might be of a boy and his dog, a young woman and her horse, or a man in a business suit, destined for the wall of a boardroom. Sometimes the subject is a place, rather than a person, as in the "portrait" of a beautiful and historic Sonoma County farm.
The children in Caswell's paintings never seem to be surprised to see their fantasies appear in the pictures: the sandcastle they are building becomes a "real" castle in the background, fairies and dragons are imprisoned in the soap-bubbles they are blowing, squirrels and raccoons show up, as well as other fabulous creatures.
There are some places she likes to paint again and again because they are always different, such as the seashore, vineyards and redwood groves, and she is influenced by the sunny California climate to the extent that she often sidesteps the real-life colors for a palette of yellows and golds. She is not a plein aire painter. She says: "I love to explore the countryside, at home or abroad, but when it comes to getting it on canvas, I prefer my studio. Working on the spot confuses me. There is too much to see. For me, it is better to work from my memory of the feeling of the place, with photographs to refer to, not copy."
She does not usually make preliminary sketches. Instead, she takes several dozen photographs of her subject, sometimes traveling across the continent to do so. Children, with rare exceptions, do not sit, and if they do, they look miserable. Adults are even more difficult. As people grow older, they tend to mask their feelings and project a protective image. What Caswell looks for is what she calls the essential expression-the likeness-and she finds that she can capture it with a high-speed lens better than she can with hours of posing. And she is not so much interested in how people look to strangers as she is in how they look to those who know and love them. She starts with a charcoal sketch, directly on the canvas. The first drawing, she finds, has a spontaneity that loses something in translation or transference. This first drawing is minimal, with no shading and little detail, but she sometimes works more hours on it that on all the painting that follows.
When she is satisfied with the drawing, she goes over it with a small sable brush with a warm tone in acrylic. When this is dry, she wipes the canvas clean of charcoal residue and sponges on a deep tone of acrylic, which sets the color mood of the painting, and is consistent with her preference for a limited palette. Next comes a color sketch in either acrylic or oil, and after that a layer of opaque oil colors applied with a palette knife, followed by layers of oil glazes.
She went back to school in her fifties to learn printmaking, and has her own press, on which she enjoys printing her stone lithographs. More recently she began working in watercolor, doing mainly landscapes and botanicals. Her first love, however, remains working in oils.
In addition to her artistic talents, she is an established writer with over thirty books published, including twenty-two books written and illustrated for Abingdon Press, one for Broadman Holman, two for Thomas Nelson, one for Loyola, and a Doubleday Crime Club Selection. Some of these books are now out of print, but are available on the web. Literary awards include the James D. Phelan Award for Narrative Poetry, The San Francisco Browning Society Award for Narrative Poetry, the Roberts Writing Award, and a number of smaller poetry prizes.
She has taught privately, has led workshops in both painting and writing, and has been Artist in Residence at the Franciscan Life Process Center in Michigan on four separate occasions, and also at the Foundation for Biblical Research in New Hampshire.
She has done Murals for St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, Saratoga Federated Church, Villa Sienna in Mountain View, and St. Elizabeth Seton School in Palo Alto, (all in California). She recently designed a stained glass window for the Methodist Church in Sebastopol, California. She has also painted murals for hospitals and private homes. Her works are in private collections throughout the United States and Canada.
Hitomi Jacobs
Hitomi was born and raised in Japan, where she graduated from two different Art Schools in Tokyo, majoring in Textile and Apparel Design. She spent 26 years applying her education as a Clothing Designer. In 1996 she moved with her new husband to his home in the United States. Then with her lifestyle change, she decided to explore new dimensions of her creative talents.
Having a professional sense of design and style, designing jewelry was a natural extension of her training and experience. Now, with elements like silver, turquoise, coral, and pearls, Hitomi can turn her designs into finished pieces that reflect her observations of nature and life.
Hitomi is part of the Marin Jewelers Guild, which operates a storefront gallery in the town of San Rafael, California. She has been successfully selling significant jewelry designs now for 7 years, and has a customer base extending throughout the United States.
Hitomi feels that her future and designs are limited only by imagination!
Craig Nelson
For over 30 years, Craig Nelson has been depicting figures landscapes and various environments in rich vibrant oils. His passion for the subjects relates directly to his brush work, weaving mood and emotion into each work of art.
After graduating from Art Center College of Design with distinction, Craig began his career working in Los Angeles for recording companies and motion picture studios, creating portraits and other subjects with strict deadlines. Craig's countless movie posters include "The Cowboys", "Slapshot", and "Homeward Bound" among many others. His album cover credits include, "Sammy Davis Jr. Live", "Rick Nelson, Country" and "Natalie Cole, Thankful" along with many more.
Collectors include, James Garner, Neil Simon, Toyota Corporation, UCLA Dental and Law School, the U.S. Air Force, UCSF Dental School and many more. He has won over 200 awards of excellence and several gold medals. The "Arts for the Parks" national competition awarded Craig the Grand Teton Natural History Award for a painting entitled "Dining Alone". He is collected in the United States, Asia as well as Europe.
In 1974 Craig began teaching at Art Center College of Design and for the past 13 years has been sharing his knowledge at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco where he is Director of Fine Art, Drawing and Painting.
Craig is currently a signature member of the California Art Club, American Society of Portrait Artists, and Baywood Artists. Craig's book entitled "60 Minutes to Better Painting" published by North Light is now available. He teaches two to three workshops a year which have gained in popularity attracting students from all over the United States. His annual January workshop held at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, California is in its 24th year.
Ken Rossi
Imagine a world where your only visions were the ones of your childhood. Where your sight is based only upon remembering sights from your past. Ken was born and went to school in Santa Rosa, California. As a child he loved the outdoors. Even though he had limited vision, he went hiking into the mountains. He loved creeks, ponds, rivers, oceans and flowers. In his senior year of high school Ken went completely blind from glaucoma. Shortly after that he had mobility problems, and now exclusively uses a wheelchair. Ken lives independently and uses his wheelchair and bus systems to travel at will around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ken discovered his talent to paint while attending Santa Rosa Junior College in 1989 through the helpful aid of a disabilities resource instructor. Ken's ability to place objects in correct proportion and size on paper is uncanny, and he uses vibrant colors that seem to jump off the paper. There is great depth and power to his art. His landscape images come to life, frequently with mountains and water. Many of his paintings feature vibrant skies depicting sunrise or sunset. Even the bright shining of a full moon over a mountain brings the snow-covered peak to life.
In Ken's own words:
"I have been legally blind since birth. I have been totally blind since I was 18 in 1982. My artwork represents my dreams. My dreams are in color and leave me with vivid impressions. Some of my dreams are from childhood memories. I loved going hiking and playing by the water. Others are from a different dimension that seems to come from a higher source. A recurring theme is nature and the environment.
I use oil pastels because I can feel them on paper and they can be blended. My mother lines up the pastels on a table in the colors of the rainbow. I have memorized the sequence and always have them in the same place. I must concentrate very hard to do the picture, and need to finish it in about an hour or I may lose the pattern."
Ken enjoys the artistic process and has typically given or sold his work to friends. He has participated in formal showings of his work at several blind/disabled organization presentations, such as:
*Insights exhibit sponsored by the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind
*The Sister Kenny Institute in Minnesota
*Making A Mark sponsored by the Cultural Arts Council in Santa Rosa
*Learning Skills Program Art Show at Santa Rosa Junior College
*Next Level Communications Art Gallery
JOYCE SWAN
As a former Art Gallery owner, Joyce has extremely broad artistic interests, and has served as an inspirational and promotional guide to many artists. Her loyalty and support for Gallery artists creates solid business and personal relationships.
A description of Joyce would not be complete without including words like passionate, visual, caring, creative, and dedicated to her beliefs. Joyce's flare for the dramatic has permeated her eclectic life (collections from diverse sources), with art interests ranging from quiet elegance to flamboyant drama. Taking a variety of art classes and training received in modeling school developed her early passion for accessorizing with scarves, hats, jewelry, and purses. Wearable art has been the natural evolution of her clothing also. For a period she specialized in collecting jewelry, including artistic pieces involving gemstones, beading, carving, ivory, and pearls.
Ultimately, in Santa Rosa, CA, Joyce opened Cygnet Gallery, which featured a wide range of art forms including paintings, sculpture, glass, carvings, pottery and jewelry. For several years the Gallery flourished under her leadership, until a personal illness forced closure. During the Gallery period, there were many artistic and promotional triumphs: a well known seascape artist (featured on four Readers Digest covers) introduced landscapes, exclusively through Cygnet Gallery; Joyce obtained a commission for a mural in the lobby of a local hotel; Gallery artists regularly appeared on local television; a painting was delivered personally to Diane Feinstein (then mayor of San Francisco) by Joyce and the artist for public display; the Gallery was featured on the national show of Evening Magazine; sketches were being done live in the Gallery by the creator of the nationally syndicated Brenda Starr comic strip, Dale Messick (a scholarship fund created by Dale was presented by Joyce to some local high schools in their award ceremonies); an Oscar winner from Disney displayed his sculptures, plus the usual routine of Gallery events featuring exhibiting artists and others with unique talents. Joyce was also a member of Zonta International (professional women's service organization), and at the local level assisted in promotion.
The new on-line galleries featured in JTSwanGalleries.com website, are fulfilling a personal desire to bring to a larger audience, the opportunity to obtain selections of Original/One of a Kind/Numbered pieces of Art by exceptional artists. With Joyce's love of art and distinctive taste, customers can obtain specially selected/created pieces representing the Best of the Best.
Joyce's personal statement to her customers is:
"Express yourself….. YOU are unique!"
YASUKO
After studying fashion design in Tokyo and working as a designer of contemporary clothing for ten years, Yasuko moved to the United States in 1987. She worked as a fashion designer in Los Angeles for 4 years before starting her own line, "Yasuko", with her husband.
Yasuko's original designs have always reflected the influence of the Japanese aesthetic. Since opening her store in Healdsburg, California in 2002, however, Yasuko has finally broken free from the dictates and demands of the wholesale clothing business, and has returned to her cultural roots. While her clothing still has the contemporary flair of timely and timeless fashion, Japanese traditional line, form and blance have re-emerged as the dominant motif.
Yasuko's original one-of-a-kind Japanese inspired fashions utilize the recovered artwork of vintage and antique kimono textile in exciting, wearable styles. Each kimono that she uses is disassembled, hand spread and hand cut, the pattern placed to best emphasize the craftsmanship as it was intended in the original garment, then hand tailored. The resulting garments are casual and elegant, ethnic and contemporary, traditional and modern.
The craft and artistry that went into the textile of a forgotten garment are reincarnated in a new form. Her "samui" inspired wrap jacket is elegant over flowing silk crepe, or casual when worn with jeans. Her front tie jacket, reminiscent of the "hanten", is good to go with pearl or puka. Her long vest, which recalls the rustic farmer's "sodenashi", would not look out of place at a casual dinner party or a social event.
The recovered textiles used to create these garments may feature fabulous hand loomed "kasuri" or the "yuzen" and hand painted artwork of a beautifully preserved but no longer worn "tomesode" from pre-war Kyoto. The Japanese artisans of that era no longer exist to create textiles or artwork of this quality, but their work lives on as intended, to be worn again.
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