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Community center adds six artists

 

Sonoma Community Center has added six distinguished artists to its arts education faculty. Artists Keith Wicks, Rhiannon Alpers, Catheryn Austin, Ditte Jensen, Nuala Creed and Arthur Gonzales will lead new classes and workshops during the center's spring and summer sessions.

The new faculty members will expand SCC's current class offerings in painting, printmaking, bookmaking, multi-media art and ceramics.

Wicks brings more than 30 years of teaching experience to Sonoma Community Center. He is a member of the faculty at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Wicks is also the founder and president of the Sonoma Plein Air Foundation, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding the role of art education for children in Sonoma Valley.

An artist member of the California Art Club, Wicks' paintings have been jury selected for such prestigious events as the 92nd Gold Medal Juried Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History and the renowned Sausalito Art Festival. At SCC, Wicks offers "The Figure's Mood in Plein Air," an intensive workshop on painting the figure outdoors.

Alpers is a papermaker, letterpress printer and book artist. She holds an MFA in book and paper arts from Columbia College Chicago and a bachelors in book arts from UC Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies. Alpers has taught workshops and college courses at San Francisco Center for the Book, Kala Printmaking Institute, Academy of Art of San Francisco, Stanford University, Filoli Gardens Estate, Center for Book and Paper in Chicago and Santa Reparata School of Art in Florence, Italy.

Alpers will offer a two-day workshop titled "Intertwining Patterns and Stitches: Mono-printed Artists' Journals" on Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Saturday, July 23, she will offer a workshop on Papermaking with Plant Inclusions from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

"We're delighted to welcome these new instructors," said Liz Treacy, arts education and program manager. "They will open up new creative avenues for students, including environmentally-savvy techniques that build on SCC's interest in sustainable art."

Austin will teach "From Trash to Treasure: Art as Object," an exploration of "green" design and mixed media techniques for repurposing found objects into works of art. The class will meet Thursdays from April 14 to May 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. A longtime resident of the Bay Area, Austin brings three decades of experience in fine art, design and commercial illustration to her classes. Her faux paintings have graced restaurants, commercial projects and private residences throughout Sonoma County, Marin and San Francisco. On Saturday, May 7 and 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., she will offer a pair of faux painting workshops.

Jensen is a Dutch painter whose practice centers on Old Master techniques. Jensen studied at the Akademie Minerva of Fine Arts in Holland and the Art Students League in New York City. She was awarded a residency at Vermont Studio Center and has taught at the Terpentign school of painting in Holland. Jensen will share her unique glazing techniques in a workshop for beginners, "Studio Painting in Oils," which will be held April 30 and May 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Nuala Creed earned her BFA in ceramics from California College of the Arts. She has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad. Her exhibition history includes the Gangjin Celadon Festival, Gangjin, Korea 2009; SOFA New York, N.Y. 2009; and Ceramics Annual America, San Francisco 2010. Creed is known for her ability to translate social and political narratives through expressive sculptures of the human figure. Creed will give a slideshow and demonstration entitled "Political Expressions: The Narrative Figure," on Saturday, June 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Gonzalez is a professor of ceramics at California College of the Arts. He is a four-time recipient of the National Endowment of the Arts award and has had more than 40 one-person shows over the last 25 years. Gonzales has participated in numerous artist residencies, including those at the University of Georgia, Athens; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina; the University of Akron; and, most recently, at Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan. He holds a BA and MA from California State University, Sacramento and an MFA from the University of California, Davis.

SCC will offer a one-day Weekend Workshop/Demonstration with Gonzales on Saturday, July 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Enrollment for spring/summer classes is now open. Students may register for classes and workshops in variety of media: painting, drawing, ceramics, printmaking, jewelry making, multimedia art, music and personal development. SCC also hosts three ongoing open studios in figure drawing, printmaking and ceramics.

A complete list of classes and workshops can be found online at www.sonomacommunitycenter.org. To register or request more information, call 938-4626, ext.1.

The Sonoma Community Center is located at 276 E. Napa St.