LA Harbor ArtWalk
More
about The Artists/Photographers
(listed alphabetically)
Sam
Arno
THE LOFT STUDIOS & GALLERY
401 South Mesa Street
San Pedro, California 90731
After spending many
years as Art Director in advertising agencies, Sam is enjoying the freedom
to pursue his interest in fine arts.
He studied art and design
at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles,
and Harbor College in Wilmington, California.
Sam's paintings and
drawings have been exhibited in Century Gallery, Sylmar, California; Cabrillo
Marine Aquarium, San Pedro, California; Latino Museum of History, Art and
Culture, Los Angeles, California; Gallery Blu, Palm Desert, California; and
Angels Gat Cultural Center, San Pedro, California.
His paintings are in
private collections as well as the National Walker Collection in Kansas.
Based on the beauty
of nature and mystery of the universe, my paintings express a visual interpretation
of the wonders that surround us.
My work is predominately
abstract with thickly layered paint on wood. Color form and texture add dimensions
and a felling of space.
David
Bacon
dbacon@igc.apc.org
Berkeley, California 94703
David Bacon is a writer
and photojournalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an associate
editor at Pacific News Service, and his photography and writing has been
published in The Nation, The Progressive, LA Weekly, the San Francisco Chronicle
and Bay Guardian, as well as in many labor newspapers and magazines. His
documentary projects have been exhibited nationally, as well as in Mexico,
Germany and the United Kingdom. His series on the U.S. Mexico Border, Beyond
Borders, was exhibited at Kerkhoff Hall at UCLA this spring, sponsored by
the UCLA Labor Center. His project on farm labor and the United Farm Workers,
Every Worker is an Organizer, is currently at the Oakland Museum.
Bacon covers issues
on labor, immigration and international politics. He is a former factory
worker and union organizer, and belongs to the Newspaper Guild.
Slobodan
Dimitrov
sld@earthlink.net
Long Beach, California
Slobodan Dimitrov is
a photographer based in the Long Beach/Los Angeles Harbors. He is a contributing
photographer for The Dispatcher, LA Weekly, The Building Trades News, Random
Lengths. His work has appeared in The Nation, The Carpenter, Solidarity,
SEIU, UNITE, Machinists Int., America at Work, The Progressive, Los Angeles
Magazine, and The Economist, among many labor publications and newspaper.
Recently his work on
the Ironworkers has been exhibited at the Harbor College Art Gallery. Currently
images on the Piledrivers, UFW, and local boxing can be seen at the city
of Pico Rivera Municipal Gallery. In San Francisco he is currently exhibiting,
at the South of Market Cultural Center, images of Los Angeles Longshore at
work. To date he has had over 80 exhibits, nationally and internationally.
He was selected for
the Los Angeles Public Library Neighborhood Project to document the community
of San Pedro for the public archives. The photographic documentary is due
for exhibition this October 2001.
He maintains a studio
at Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, California.
Bob
Doughty
1951 26th Street
San Pedro, California
Statement
Interest in California
Regionalist Movement (Exemplified by Chouinard's Rex Brandt, Dan Lutz, Phil
Dyke) led to current compulsion to pain peninsula-scapes and harbor views.
Figure and portrait paintings in all media.
Education and Background
Chouinard Art Institute (four years plus).
Many years in aerospace art departments.
Freelance illustration and design.
Influential studies with Henry Fukuhara, Milford Zornes, Frank Webb and Don
Andrews.
Bob went to art school
in the late 40's and early 50's at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles
(now California School of the Arts in Valencia). He studied with many of
the now popular California Regionalists, including Tex Brandt, Watson Cross,
Elmer Plummer, and Dan Lutz. He worked for many years in aerospace art departments
doing commercial art which included satellite renderings, portraits, and
scenarios for military and commercial programs. Bob is a member of the Society
of Illustrators, Los Angeles, as well as several Palos Verdes peninsula art
associations. Having left aerospace behind, he now has the luxury to paint
the natural beauty of California and the West in his medium of choice-usually
watercolor. He specializes in painting boats and the L.A. Harbor; however
landscapes and figure studies are also a large part of his painting life.
He accepts portrait commissions, working in oil, watercolor and graphite
and will also provide caricatures for special occasions.
Robin
Doyno is a social practitioner who is both activist and photographer.
As a college stringer
in Los Angeles and early work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
to his current work with the Conflict Resolution Network meetings of peoples
from both Irelands and East Los Angeles, he feels he can be of greater value
with a camera than a picket sign.
Doyno has worked as
an organizer for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee on issues of
U. S. Intervention in Central America, reproductive choice and children's
advocacy. Robin's documentary film, First Strike! - Portrait of An Activist,
chronicling the nuclear disarmament action of Katya Komisaruk, won a Golden
Lion at the New York Cine Festival as well as other awards.
His work in this show
consists of the street illustration of the Clean Needle Network with 10"x12"
duratrans light boxes, 30"x24" scenes of the victorious Spring,
2000 campaign of Justice For Janitors in Los Angeles and the black and white
prints of the Candlelight vigil opposing the draconian Proposition 21 in
1999.
His work has appeared
in The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Washington Post,
FAIR!, In These Times and Random Lengths.
Robin's current work
on the children's prisons of Los Angeles County will appear in Harper's Magazine.
In his copious free
time Doyno also works for the railroad and as a longshore casual.
Jan
Lloyd Govaerts
Loft Studios and Gallery
401 South Mesa Street, 3rd Floor
San Pedro, California 900731
Jan Govaerts grew up
on the plains of Nebraska surrounded by vast open spaces. Very little interrupted
the line of the horizon.
She now lives in San
Pedro, California, where, looking out from the cliffs at the edge of the
earth, the horizon between sky and sea is the same uncluttered line. At that
point where sky meets sea, the feeling of open space is the same as it is
on the great plains. Her paintings explore her inner connection with the
space any place of her childhood and its relationship to the space of her
current chosen home
Govaerts also sculpts
with clay, which she says, is very much like making mud pies. Her mud pies
have become quite large. Guardian towers reach up to 6 1/2 feet tall and
figures are life sized. She has begun a series of outdoor fountains using
the tower motif.
Govaerts was selected
as one of the artists to pain an angel for the Los Angeles Community of Angels
project. The Liberty Angel is included in the book, "A Community of
Angels, Los Angeles, Angel City Press, Santa Monica, California, 2001.
Govaerts and her seven
studio mates founded the Loft Studios and Gallery and have been instrumental
in starting a lively arts scene in San Pedro's historic downtown area.
Govaerts' work has been
shown in private galleries and public spaces in Los Angeles, New Mexico,
New York, Kansas and Michigan. Her work is in many private collections including
the Walker collection in Garnett, Kansas.
Public Commission
Painted outdoor sculpture, Community of Angels Project of Volunteers of America.
Sponsor: Liberty Auditorium, San Pedro, CA
Exhibitions
2001 "Diverse Visions
- New Work by Art Department Alumni",
Cal State University, Dominquez Hills, Carson, CA,
September 27 - October 24 Group
"Really Big Sculpture", Palos Verdes Art Center,
Palos Verdes, CA, March 16 - October 6 Group
2000 "Members Only",
Ports O' Call Gallery, San Pedro, CA,
January 26 - February 28, Honorable Mention
"ok to touch", Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA
September 9 - October 22 Group
"Places of Power" - The Loft Studios, San Pedro, CA,
May 1 - May 31 Solo
"Of the Earth and Caldron of Dreams",
San Pedro Brewery Gallery, San Pedro, CA, April 1 - May 31 Solo
Neil
Nagy
Nagy Design
414 West 6th Street
San Pedro, California 90731
Anyone with a compulsion
for labels should not look for gratification in Neil Nagy's paintings and
sculptures. Nagy is primarily a figurative painter, but then again he is
capable of segueing into an abstract expressionist during the satoe work
session, on the same canvas. It seems to depend on his mood of the moment,
a shift in his model's gaze or a changing of the constellational guard. But,
such shifts of atmosphere and focus are what compel viewers to look at his
works again and again. They convey a sense of magic; now you see it now you
don't. In Nagy's case that magical happenstance involves the human form.
An arm, a leg, a breast or a headless torso might suddenly appear from a
serious of abstract, amorphous shapes. "No matter how hard I try to
get away from it, the figure seems to re-emerge throughout my work,"
said Nagy.
Nagy's paintings reflect
a search for intense expression, for a determination to avoid the hackneyed
aspects that are too often associated with figurative art. He does not get
hung up on the idiosyncrasies of faces, body shapes or gender. Rather, his
subconscious mind seems to guide his brush. There is no road map for viewers
to follow and no message to look for. He is a painter's painter, meaning
that the process of applying paint to surface is layers of dense color to
thin washes, can vary considerably within the same composition. His figures,
by contrast, are often suggested rather than fully realized and tend to be
mostly massive and earthbound. One might compare his forms, be they painted
or sculpted, to the work of Constantin Brancusi or Henry Moore. While the
majority of his figures are decidedly female, a few males emerge. However,
they are largely overshadowed by androgynous "beings" that represent
the spirit in an increasingly secular world (Allegory VII).
Nagy's paintings are
loosely brushed and heavily layered, reflecting a precision of thought that
is fueled by a passion to express his inner vision. Thus, even though one
canvas might contain three or more paintings, things rarely get confusing.
He said that his artistic sensibility is rooted in the Bay Area Figurative
School and New York Abstract Expressionism, but it would be simplistic to
place his work into any category.
He applies a similar
passion to his ceramic sculptures. They appear to build a bridge between
the here and now and his fascination with ancient cultures, Greek, Roman
and particularly Mayan and Aztec. He builds sensual, earth mother-like figures
that recall the roughly hewn, energetic vessels of Peter Voulkos and the
nearly abstract, mournful and often otherworldly figures of Stephen de Staebler.
Yet, his long-stemmed, mythical creations recall the fantastically elongated
forms of Alberto Giacornetti.
The more things change,
the more they stay the same, the saying goes but for Nagy everything evolves.
A treasured Tang Dynasty horse sculpture fuels experimentation with line
and color but, it hardly matters if man, woman or beast or a well-tended
garden brings further inspiration. Nagy's creative journey is far from finished.
By Daniella Walsh
I am a figurative artist.
Specifically, an expressionist with an interest in the figure as a device
to personalize my work and create the connection between my thoughts and
the image.
In painting, I work
as freely as possible so that the only conscious moves are in the editing.
I will paint over a complete canvas many times carving into the surface and
building layers until it is resolved. The work, therefore, has a richness
and character underlying the finished piece.
I believe that art is
the symbolic expression of thoughts, feelings or events. My art is internal
and not so much about ideas as it is about my emotions. The source of my
art exists in the never ending frontiers of my own mind.
Education
San Jose State College,
BS Industrial Design 1959-1963
El Camino College Painting 1988-1990
Otis Parsons College Advanced Painting 1991
Los Angeles Harbor College Advanced Painting 1991-1994
Instituto Allende, Mexico Advanced Painting 1993
Selected Exhibitions
2000 LEFT BANK GALLERY
Dove Canyon, California
"Neil Nagy, New Work" Solo
1999 LEARSI GALLERY
Palm Desert, California
"Neil Nagy, Painting and Sculptures" Solo
PORTLAND CRAFT MUSEUM Portland, Oregon
"Ceramic Sculpture" Solo
1998 STEVEN A AUSTIN
STATE UNIVERSITY Austin, Texas
"Texas National" Invitation
ANGELS GATE CULTURAL CENTER San Pedro, California
"A Work In Process" Solo
1997 MENDOCINO ART CENTER
Mendocino, California
"Biennial Figurative Exhibition" Invitation
LEFT BANK GALLERY Laguna Beach, California
"Legends And Allegories" Solo
Muriel
Olguin
3440 Patton Avenue
San Pedro, California 90731
Statement
My work points to the
relationship and equality of all life whether birds, fish, humans, horses,
or manatees. I show this by putting animal and human parts together, such
as a bear with human hands, horses with human legs, etc. The imagery of my
work shows the multiple states of being in each of us. Figurative symbols
represent the distortions and centers of wholeness that we struggle with
and strive for in our search for growth.
We all have a special
place in the universe. We all have come from the beginning of time and have
made it this far into the present together. My work depicts this respect
and care for this unity. This is what I try to bring out in my work.
Biographical Sketch
Muriel Olguin lives
in San Pedro with her husband of fifty years, John. She has three children
and four grandchildren. She graduated from California State University in
Long Beach with an M.A. in drawing, painting and printmaking. She received
a California Woman's Caucus of the Arts, Harbor Area. She is a board member
and founding board member of Angeles Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro. She
was president of the Rembrant Crew of the Palos Verdes Art Center for two
years. She enjoys rowing with her husband. They have rowed from Monterey
to San Diego and to Catalina Island fourteen times. She has climbed Mt. Whitney
and her children twice. She has a spacious studio in a hundred-year old converted
warehouse in San Pedro, where there are seven other artist studios and a
large gallery.
