Opening reception Saturday, March 3rd, 1-5pm

waynesclark.com

Wayne Clark, American Painter

By Jane Rogan

Wayne Clark

Some people know how to live well. They are gifted with a pragmatism that guides them. They choose their life work easily. They do what they were put here to do. No questions asked. Wayne Clark is this kind of person. Wayne was born in 1926 in Vesper, Kansas. He likes to remind us that Vesper no longer exists, but he does. Upon seeing his work, one instantly knows these paintings are American through and through. One even knows they emanate from the heartland of our country. His pictures are the work of a true American craftsman, a man as honest and straightforward as a farmer or a wood worker. He creates realistic landscapes and portraits that –while amazing the viewer with painstaking technique – do not brag.
When asked about his gift, Wayne is humble. He always liked to draw. He never thought much about being good at it. It was just something he did. As a young boy he drew cartoons to amuse his friends and family, and himself. While serving in WWII, he drew to pass the time in the army barracks and to send letters back
to the states. He drew the way some of us pick up a novel.
When Wayne was an illustrator in Kansas during the seventies and eighties, the tremors began to grow slowly in intensity. He was unaware of what might be causing them, and it was not yet interfering with his profession. He consulted doctors in the mid-1990’s, while living in California and still working as a commercial illustrator. Doctors then diagnosed him with “essential tremors,” and told him nothing could be done to alleviate his symptoms. Shortly after he moved back to Kansas in 1999, he was correctly diagnosed with Parkinson’s. At that time he began taking the appropriate medications, (Levodopa). He learned to work with and adapt to the tremors and resume his passion for painting.
Over time, the shaking in his hands increased and a predominant amount of head bobbing began to occur. Wayne never thought to give up painting. Instead he learned to make adjustments in his equipment and technique. He modified his easel through a series of trial and error adaptations, and created a series of permanent maul sticks for the steadying of his hands. He discontinued the use of the palette knife as an application tool [in his earlier work] and moved to the brush. He says he finds the bristles of the brush absorb the shaking from his hands and the head bobbing doesn’t interfere with painting “It’s just a nuisance. As far as drooling, I keep a towel close by until I get a proper fitting bib.”
His wry and pointed humor is as much a part of who he is as his uncanny ability to see and depict fine visual detail. Wayne’s advice for others dealing with Parkinson’s is “adapt.” When pressed for a little for deeper meaning of adapt, the painter paused and said plainly, “don’t be embarrassed.”

February 4th – 29th
Reception for the Artists February 12th 2pm – 4pm

Bolinas-Stinson Middle School Students

Joshua Tree National Park
2010 – 2011

Dec. 31 thur. Jan. 31, 2012. Reception January 8, from 2 to 4:30.

Sculptures in steel, stone, and bone.

October 1 – 31, 2011

Opening Reception Sunday October 9, 2:30 – 4:30pm

“Twenty one works of art are in the show which include paintings, ceramics and prints. The large back wall is painted dark grey green and another smaller wall is painted brilliant deep blue.  These colors reflect the tones that are in the title painting “The Window”  which is a lighted window at night. The sky is dark blue and there is a reflection of light off a giant cactus by the side of the window.  Many people don’t know how many cacti there are in West Marin.  This cacti is on the side of a building on a West Marin Ranch.” – Susan Hall

 Susanhallart.com

Divine Pastimes

New Works by Amanda Giacomini

August 4 – 31, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, August 6th, 2 pm – 4:30 pm

June 3rd to June 30th

Opening Saturday, June 4th – 5 – 7pm

Four Mexicans and A White Girl Walk into A Gallery…

a show of original cartoonist art work,
May 6 – May 31

and…

The Earth Was Made For Radio: The Heroes of West Marin

a presentation by Red Cross Award Winning Hero, Richard Dillman
May 15 and May 19

Art Opening and presentation by cartoonists Jaime Crespo, Gabrielle Gamboa, Janelle Hessig, Isis Rodriguez and Javier Hernandez 6 PM to 9 PM on Friday, May 6.

Artists show their work and hold a panel discussion with Q and A. Refreshments will be served. Please join KWMR and the artists in celebration of this event.

Artist and KWMR Programmer Jaime Crespo has been making art for over 30 years, and has hosted Faultline Radio on KWMR nearly thirteen years. Jaime’s work has graced KWMR materials for years. Jaime coordinated this show and invited some fellow cartoonists to join him.

The Artists – Four Mexicans and a White Girl Walk in to a Gallery…

Jaime Crespo
During the very early part of the 1960’s in Sacramento, California Jaime Crespo had his very first art show. It was held in, of all places, the Crespo family bible. He was a tender three years of age and had somehow managed to come into possession of a blue ballpoint pen, and felt that the family bible needed a bit of sprucing up. The composition he drew that day was what he believed to be a pretty good likeness of his father’s car and of the family cat, Pickles.
The critics were not pleased with this first effort and panned the entire show (in English as well as in Spanish) with extreme prejudice citing, of all things, that it was “destructive” and “Blasphemous.”
Jaime Crespo’s comix and his folk art pieces have appeared all over the U.S. and abroad in comic books, magazines, newspapers, anthologies, zines, chap books and art shows. www.jaimecrespo.com

Javier Hernandez
Hernandez is a comic book creator who publishes under his own imprint, LOS COMEX. He is the writer and artist behind Man-Swamp, Weapon Tex-Mex and his best-known creation, El Muerto. In 1995 El Muerto was adapted into an award-winning film starring Wilmer Valderrama , for which Javier served as Associate Producer. Born in East LA, Javier’s upbringing revolved around drawing, reading comic books and watching the best that television had to offer, such as ‘Speed Racer,’ ‘The Addams Family,’ ‘Gigantor’ and Spanish-language ‘Lucha Libre’. He is profiled in Frederick Aldama’s book Your Brain On Latino Comics. Hernandez and Ricardo Padilla co-founded the Latino Comics Expo; its debut is May 7 & 8, 2011 at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. www.javzilla.com.

Gabrielle Gamboa
Gamboa’s work employs a personal lexicon of symbolism pulled from family history, rock and roll memorabilia, catholic iconography, and underground comic books to explore issues of cultural and ethnic identity. The themes of myth and memory fascinate her. She prefers to use traditional materials such as oils, charcoal and chalks, ink, and graphite in contrast to the unconventional subject matter she enjoys. www.gabriellegamboa.com

Janelle Hessig
Hessig is a comics artist, animator, and over-the-hill punk rocker. She was born one dark and stormy night in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was Groundhog’s Day 1975, but she did not see her shadow on the way out.
Hessig learned the secret of life early on: stink lines + flies = superior art. For the past 20+ years, she has applied this fantastic knowledge in the creation of critically acclaimed fanzines such as Tales Of Blarg, Jank, and Desperate Times. When not working on her own projects, she frequently contributes writing, illustration, and animation to a variety of bands, record labels, books, and magazines. Hessig organizes animation festivals, recently curated a “punk comics” issue of Maximum RocknRoll magazine, and is in the process of finishing a comics collection to be published by Sparkplug Books. She strives to produce autobiographical comics where things actually happen and will gladly accept any challenges or proposals that will further propel this mission. www.gimmeaction.com

Isis Rodriguez
Rodriguez is a second-generation Mid-Western Latina who grew up in Topeka, Kansas and received her first lessons in art from copying Hannah-Barbera cartoons by hand. She attended the University of Kansas where she received her BFA in Painting in 1988.
Two years later, she moved to San Francisco to pursue her cartoon inspired artwork using various art forms: murals, paintings, silk screens, graffiti, flyers, and posters. From 1993 to 2002 Rodriguez worked on murals for the Clarion Alley Mural Project in San Francisco. As a result, she emerged as one of the artists from an ad hoc artistic movement known as “The Mission School” that included painters like Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Rigo, Carolyn Castaño, and Aarron Noble.
Since then, Rodriguez has had numerous art exhibits throughout California, including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Jose Museum of Art, and The McPherson Center in Santa Cruz. Her artwork has been critiqued and published in several books, such as Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie Smith’s “Women and Art: Contested Territory”, “Vicious, Delicious, and Ambitious: 20th Century Women Artists” and magazines such as LowRider Arte, Aztlan, Punk Planet, Juxtapoz and Mix Magazine.  In 2003, Rodriguez completed her first public art commission of designing cartoon mosaics for “Parque Niños Unidos” at 23rd and Treat in San Francisco, and received the Norcal Sanitary Fill Artist in Residency Program, San Francisco.  Currently, she is working on an animation short entitled “The Re Awakening” funded by the Individual Arts Commission Grant. www.isisrodriguez.com

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The Earth Was Made For Radio: The Heroes of West Marin – a presentation by Red Cross Award Winning Hero, Richard Dillman on two dates:

Sunday, May 15 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

and

Thursday, May 19 – 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

At Toby’s Gallery – 11250 Highway One in Downtown Point Reyes Station

Richard Dillman has been involved with KWMR from the very beginning. Along with Supervisor Steve Kinsey Dillman “threw the switch” to put KWMR on the air on May 2, 1999. Retired after thirty years with Greenpeace, Dillman is KWMR’s Transmitter Wrangler and Chief Operator. Dillman is also the President of the Marine Historic Radio Association and can be found most Saturdays at either the RCA Receiving or Transmitting sites, both located within the Point Reyes National Seashore.
His presentations will captivate the listener. Dillman is a natural and dramatic storyteller and his knowledge about the history of radio communications on the Point Reyes Peninsula is unrivaled. Come listen and learn about the heroes who made radio happen and learn why the earth is “made for radio.”
KWMR is merely the latest chapter in what has been a rich and relevant history of radio telecommunications in West Marin, from Marconi to Faultline Radio!

Contact Amanda Eichstaedt at 415-663-8068 Ext. 104 for more information.