Silence!
Can you hear my heart?
Opening party July 13th 6
– 9pm
With live music by woodwind renegade Cornelius Boots
Show runs through September 28th 2013
In a world that revolves
around money, money that is entirely imaginary, existing only in our
minds, as humans we manage to enslave all forms of matter on this
earth, living or not. Oakland artists Thomas Lindahl Robinson and
Victoria Skirpa are uncovering this silence. With live music by woodwind renegade Cornelius Boots
Show runs through September 28th 2013
Thomas Lindahl Robinson documentary photography
Often confined to a box of silent voices, whispers abound, as sentiment for the revolution dissipates like the summer rains falling on the Caribbean Sea, “What can we do, but open our eyes and look beyond our window shades, beyond the iconic images of what has been left behind of our revolution, past the horizon where we dream.”
And when we dream, we dream all things Cuban, as we accept the reality with which we are presented – government handouts of sugar, beans, and rice. Despite our decaying roof-tops, our, crumbled side walks, long hot days without water and electricity, and many moments of frustration and despair, yet even in chains, we Cubans still learn how to dance.
Somewhere between melancholy, tranquility, and non-sobriety, in a place so surreal, fiction is truth. I remain silent, without a Spanish voice, invisible, and like a fly-on-the-wall; I leave without a trace, my existence in the here and now fade into the fiction, as I too, begin to dream in Cuban.
Thomas Lindahl Robinson is documentary photography, who lives and works in and around the Bay Area, and continues his photo documentations of families in Cuba and Asia. His works are held in private collections, and have been exhibited domestically and abroad. Thomaslindahlrobinson.com
Victoria Skirpa, sustainable jewelry & sculptor
Victoria’s interest
in the body and visual forms led to a deep exploration of jewelry as an
intimate sculptural medium. In 2009 VRS by Victoria jewelry design was
founded. Jewelry is so special, says Victoria "because it is intimate
and can foster human connection." The love of beautiful objects, and the dismay over human and environmental destruction that often accompanies the supply chain, brought Victoria to the shores of sustainable jewelry, and Sulusso Custom Sustainable business. For Victoria, the foundation of sustainability is to value, facilitate, and sustain relationships over time, between human beings and the environment. It is simple. When we wear sustainable jewelry we commit and trust both beauty and meaning.
"Designing custom sustainable jewelry for clients is a delicious opportunity for collaboration and engagement with those committed to sustainability in a profound sense." - Victoria Skirpa
Victoria is an entrepreneur and artist of incredible creative and material breadth. As an experienced visual artist, her work dialogues between contemporary design and visual archetypes; contemporary, yet anchored in history. While Victoria respects craftsmanship and is meticulously attentive to detail, her work also radiates energy, movement and life. Studio 106, Victoria’s first successful business, produced sculpture for galleries, museum pieces, as well as architectural metalwork for select clients in the wine country of California. VRS, victoriaskirpa.com
Opening night music by Cornelius Boots
East Bay reed renegade Cornelius Boots is a progressive rock com
poser, bass clarinet performance specialist, wu
wei woodwind instructor and Zen flute adept. Since 1996, he
has led and released two albums with Edmund Welles, the
world’s only composing bass clarinet quartet, for which he
has composed and arranged over 60 pieces of virtuosic “heavy
chamber music.” Recent projects include Sabbaticus
Rex (elemental sound-structuring ensemble) and mukyoku etudes: 27
Training and Performance Pieces for Taimu shakuhachi (large Zen bamboo
flute). He has three music degrees (clarinet, audio, jazz) and is
currently working towards his shihan (master teaching license) in
shakuhachi. CorneliusBoots.com
Slightly curmudgeonly, a bit on the eccentric side, with a maniacal enthusiasm for the automobile since his early youth, Bill Silveira enjoys making art out of discarded auto parts, rusty scrap metal, and other unique items that seem to find their way into his vast collection of interesting and eclectic junk. A business owner and resident of Oakland's Jingletown arts district since the early 1990's, Silveira likes to think of himself as "Sanford and Son-ish with a slightly twisted bent." 
Laurel True is a Bay Area artist specializing mosaic, mixed media and public art. She is the co-founder and director of the 
Capturing the spirit of the Carnival contingent will be the hand processed black and white photography of Craig Riedel, a 
As Professor of Art at San Francisco State University, Cherie Raciti has won multiple awards over the years. Her work is included in many permanent collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Raciti will be presenting acrylic, mixed media paintings of simple shapes and patterns derived from both the sacred and the secular found in many cultures. Part of this work is her Buddha Head series, a 2 1/2 D take on traditional views of the Buddha figure that invite intimacy with the viewer. 
After 20 years of an amazing international photography career that included teaching at the Academy of Art University, and the publication of two monograms: "Outside of Time" and "Recomposed". Nina Glaser has completed the body of work she felt she was destined to do. Although she no longer creates art, she has graced us with a return showing of a few of her images for this show. Glaser's work is both haunting and extraordinarily powerful, a personal favorite in the private collection of the FLOAT curator. Glaser has transferred her story telling and creativity to the Art of Hypnotherapy. 
Marianne Hale firmly believes in the power of positive change on a global level, and does everything in her power to send out this message. Development Associate by day, an amateur photographer all her life, she is entering the gallery scene with an intention to share her message of nature revealed with as many people possible. Strongly under the influence of fairy dust, she quite literally writes her messages of empowerment and belief in the sand, revealing what nature already knows. 
