depARTures

Have you ever traveled, and found that you really can’t take it with you, or at least a photograph simply fails to convey the intensity of the experience? These three extraordinary artists have each found a way to commit the flavor of the expedition onto the canvas. Encompass their explorations first hand through depARTures.

Opening Party with live music by didjeridu artist Outlaw Dervish/ aka Travis Wernet  

 January 23^rd 6-9pm

Show has been extended through February 27^th

About the artists:

Martin Webb:

“In his negotiation of a foreign land, Webb uses cement and objects found in travel to explore humanity and naturalism, time and timelessness, the intangible and the concrete.” 

Webb came to the East Bay from England in 2003. Previously a painter and art teacher, he worked as a designer and installer for commercial concrete art projects in the USA, Canada and Mexico. His studio work has been exhibited in the Bay Area and beyond, and his commission work includes private, corporate and public art projects.

Much of Webb’s art reflects on the experience of travel, man’s interaction with the natural landscape, and individual stories of migration. He has developed a simple vocabulary of abstract forms, patterns, representational symbols and figures. He has an aversion to art-stores and prefers to work with construction materials – cement, industrial pigments, reclaimed wood, and found metal objects. quicksandstudio.com

Anna W. Edwards:

The sights and sounds of the Urban Landscape weave a distinctive tapestry of color, texture and geometry throughout all of Anna Edwards early work. The journey started with her grandmother Edwards traveling up and down the east coast and has continued. Walking city streets connects her with a timeless energy that she endeavors to impart in her paintings.  A parallel Spiritual journey is being reflected in this later work, resulting from periods of contemplation and reflection exploring the inner landscape. The urban and inner landscapes both reflect order, harmony and beauty as well as the tension and pathos we all experience.

Edwards a transplanted New Yorker, growing up in Harlem was her first love affair with the sights and sounds of an urban landscape. She started painting in the early 1990’s with Takeshi Nakayoshi in San Francisco. She studied printmaking and drawing at Laney and Merritt Colleges, in addition she has worked with outsider artists at Creative Growth ctr., NIAD and arful steps since 1995. Edwards is owner of the annawedwards.com http://www.annawedwards.com/in San Leandro.

Nanci Price Scoular:

The “urban still life” pieces are part of my ongoing “journeys” series, combining original photographs with acrylic and mixed media.  The process is an attempt to revisit special places, to assign new meanings and context and to link the past with the present.

The photographs reveal moments frozen in time, each one a reminder of a passage or fork along the path I have travelled from Africa to North America.
The rusted iron rings and gates, bound to concrete, are a recurring theme, symbolizing the yearning of an immigrant to gain entry, commit and belong.
Each piece starts out strong and bold and then fades away like a memory, blurring into the background – a reminder that one can never go back and
revisit a place and point in one’s life. There will always be a new context and meaning. pricescoular.com  

Plasma Scultpure by  Michael Pargett.

About the music:

Travis Wernet has been playing  for 11 years and performs in a variety of groups. He currently fronts the band project also known as 'Outlaw Dervish' and performs his own original Spoken Word Poetry with musical accompaniment. One such event gathered the group "Darkshine" for an evening of sacred music in the popular and highly coveted musical venue, Grace Cathedral (April 2007). Travis has also appeared with his band at several festival events in San Francisco, California and beyond, including Sea of Dreams, Harmony, Spectra Ball and Howeird.  cdbaby.com/cd/outlawdervish