Artists

Bob Coletti

Bob Coletti has had 40 plus years of experience in Photography and the Arts. Originally from Boston, his early years as an Impressionistic Painter, soon turned to his other passion, Photography and many years working in the commercial world.

He now combines his painting background with his lifelong career as a photographer to produce what he calls "Photo Illustrations".

He has had one man shows of his work in galleries from coast to coast, including the following:

The Boris Gallery / Boston, MA Micarelli/Warner Gallery/ Boston, MA
EMC Gallery Boston, MA
Aura Gallery / Santa Fe, NM
The Peter Grau Gallery / San Diego, CA

Now residing in San Diego, California his work has been displayed in various local San Diego art associations, galleries and web sites including the Del Mar Art Center, San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild, Sargent Art Group venues, The Front Porch Gallery, and L Street Fine Art.

Check out more on the artist website bobcoletti.com.

Steven Fruzyna

I lived in Chicago for a few years and recently moved back home to Southern California. I have been painting for a couple years and recently got into portraits. My influences for my art work derive from graffiti, tattoo art and street art. I'm really excited about being a part of the art community in Oceanside.

Check out more on Facebook havesomeSAF

Kathleen Strukoff

Painting “alla prima” or “at the first” is what thrills Kathleen most about painting. Capturing the essence of a scene on location in one quick and energetic session when possible is the idea but she often takes those on location smaller paintings and develops them into larger ones in her atelier. Kathleen uses a combination of palette knife and vigorous brushwork with bold colors to express her translation of the scene..
Kathleen’s love for painting landscapes began as a young girl growing up in New Mexico where she first started painting in the beautiful environment of northern New Mexico. Like many artists, she was moved by the spectacular vistas and colors that you see in nature on a daily basis when you live in the high desert areas of this state.

After starting out as an art student in college, Kathleen took academic and professional paths that led her toward the business world but never lost her passion for oil painting and trying to capture the beauty of a landscape. In recent years, she has become obsessed with the spirit and challenge of plein air painting. She loves the spontaneous nature of this form of painting and the effort of trying to capture the momentary impression of a place, time of day and the weather that is occurring at a moment’s notice.

Check out more at the artist website fineartamerica.com/profiles/kathleen-strukoff.

Tia Walker

I have been doing music since the age of 6. I play 3 instruments, sing, compose, and write my own songs. I have played in various venues in and around San Diego and Los Angeles. My most notable, was my performance in this years San Diego Pride Festival for which I did a 45 minute set. I am in the process of writing an album for a client that is due to be out later this year. This year I will also be releasing my long awaited album "The ReBirth" which is already available for digital download on CDBaby and it's affiliates.

Check out more on Facebook tia.twalker.3

Vanessa Christie

A San Diego native, and graduate of UCLA Vanessa Christie has created art all her life. She studied art at City College, and Studio Art Center International, in Florence Italy before transferring to UCLA. Her art is inspired by music, poetry, mythology, the natural world, and especially by imagination and dreams. Her work is also influenced by her travels both in the United States and Europe. Much of her work features natural images such as trees, and constructed objects such as masks. Each of her paintings is an attempt to tell a story without words.

Mikaela McLeish

In her vibrant oil paintings, Mikaela McLeish contains solitary figures in psychological spaces. Combining realism with expressionistic brushstrokes, McLeish’s paint application and process of painting mirrors her struggle for control. McLeish describes her imagery as, “a façade of serenity, which upon closer inspection breaks down into chaos. The distortions of the body created through the refracted motifs represent erasure and a loss of self.” McLeish explores the in-between space of reality and dream, public and private, absence and presence; trying to understand the psychological walls set by society.

Mikaela McLeish, born in 1992 in California, is a Pilipina Irish American painter. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014. Mikaela has exhibited in San Francisco and San Diego, including the Diego Rivera Gallery, Cell Space Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute Courtyard Gallery, and Gotthelf Art Gallery pop-up show.

Mikaela is the recipient of the 2013 Gamblin Painting Prize, 2012 Allan Stone Painting Scholarship, San Francisco Art Institute Dean’s scholarship, Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship candidate for the Art Division of the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, Davis Projects for Peace alternate candidate. McLeish lives and works in San Diego teaching Continuing Education classes at the Art Institute of California- San Diego, hosting social painting events with Paints Uncorked, and creating new work in her studio.

Check out more on the artist website mikaelamcleish.com.

Cat Chiu Phillips

I utilize found materials and create displaced juxtapositions. This may include unusual mediums including recycled objects (plastic grocery bags), counterfeit designer bags, and other recovered items. I'm interested in the effects and evidence of post-colonialism, militarism, consumerism, the immigration experience and its process of assimilation and acculturation. Often I investigate stereotypes, the exploited, and the effects of history to today's contemporary culture.
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Cat Chiu Phillips has exhibited through California including the Torrance Art Museum, Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, Pico House Gallery in Los Angeles, Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, and Thoreau Center for Sustainability Gallery in San Francisco. She also has several public art commissions in Southern California including for City of Vista and City of Solana Beach. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Cat Chiu Phillips was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in Toronto, Canada, and lives and works in San Diego, California.

Check out more on the artist website catchiuphillips.com.

Robin Spalding

Robin Spalding earned a Fine Art Degree in Photography from University of North Florida in 2005. She found her passion in the photography genre of conceptual art.

Robin creates surreal and conceptual photography art using compositing techniques and editing them in a way to give an almost painterly feel. She draws inspiration mainly from her emotions, experiences, and moods. Favorite songs that she responds to on a deeply personal and emotional level sometimes become muses to her photos. She shoots mostly self-portraits and even when using models sees the images as a reflection of herself. “I am fascinated by this theme of things hiding underneath the surface. That things aren’t always what it seems. I am a bright and bubbly person normally when I am not worrying, yet I am fascinated by dark things, decaying matter, monsters in the shadows. I attempt to get these issues I am dealing with in my head out. So I can study them and understand myself, so I can show others who I am. In a way, my images could be considered my journal entries. Journal entries of an innocent girl wandering in a labyrinth of lost and lonely things but who is drawn to what’s lurking behind everything.” There is an undercurrent of hope in some of the images. That things might work out in the end. “I may be wondering a strange, dark land but I kinda like it here.” She feels finding ways to illustrate and express the thoughts, worlds and emotions in her head is truly an amazing experience.

I use conceptual photography to explore themes of infertility, depression and anxiety to help make sense and express what i am going through. I also use photography to create worlds of daydreams both light and dark, fairytales, and worlds unseen.

Check out more on Instagram @robinspalding, Facebook robinspaldingart, Behance robinspalding and the artist website robinspaldingart.com.

Falicia Ferrer

I was born and raised in the Inland Empire and moved here to Oceanside in October of 2014. I grew up loving art and have known how to draw and paint since I was younger. I paint with acrylics and love to use lots of bright color or just plain black and white. Art is such a perfect way to express emotions and the bright colors show such happiness. Black and white are my two favorite colors together and the silhouette of a female face or body expresses such simple beauty. I am a new out coming artist and Zen of a Woman will be my first show I will be participating in. I look forward to being in more shows in the future and any support will be very much appreciated.

Elizabeth Joy Nelson

My Art Brings out the positive energy we need in life. My life has brought many struggles and the art that I bring to life I show on Canvas. My art work draws the audience in to the canvas to feel, think and be in the art moment themselves. As an artist I work hard in developing artwork that speaks to both myself and the audience. I try to incorporate designs colors and ideas with different lifestyles we go thru. The canvas speaks to me and I answer with the strokes on my brush.

I am Joy and love bringing art to life for others may it be big or small. In my past I served as combat marine. I use art to help with PTSD . I went to Columbus Art and Design where I learned how to incorporate life into art.

Kimberly Gregg

I am the Artistic Director of Practice As Research And Dance Experiments (PARADE), an experimental dance project with present work in improvisation, site-specific performance, and contemporary partnering. I hold a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from California Institute of the Arts, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from California State University Long Beach. I have served on the faculty of Mira Costa College, Rio Hondo College, Santa Ana College, and California State University Pomona.

DANCE MOVEMENT RESEARCH
My creative practice is rooted in theory and propelled by experimentation. It is as much an intellectual investigation as it is a somatic inquiry. ‘Practice as research and dance experiments’ is a philosophy that guides my work. In 2006, I began using the acronym of this philosophy, PARADE, to give a name to the body of work it represents. I am committed to engaging the community in an active dialogue that explores performance theory as an embodied art practice.

My creative research investigates the relationship between choreography and improvisation. I examine improvisation as a method for maintaining excitement within the constructs of the choreographic structure, by providing opportunities for spontaneous choices by the dancers. Conversely, in rehearsal improvisation is often used as a tool to cultivate choreography. Spanning the range of dynamics between them, this interplay embraces the artistic impulse and negotiates between directorial and collective ideals.

My research examines the collaborative process in dance making. As each performer brings unique skills to the creative process, explorations are defined by the participants involved. Using structured improvisations, dancer creativity is sparked to find creative responses to kinetic problems, and their solutions influence the look of the dance. Through this cycle of exploration and direction, movement phrases are culled, eventually defining the vocabulary for the choreography, and the dance structure begins.

Performance cognition is an area of specific focus in my research as an integral facet of solo, partner, and ensemble work in performance. I am interested in the application of somatic education to develop a greater embodiment in performance practice, to promote cognitive awareness and authentic responsiveness. Using sensory directive and task driven improvisations for experiential learning, dancers cultivate heightened sensitivity, energy projection, and spatial awareness. Through this investigation, I apply somatic concepts to develop the performers’ ability to recognize their presence wholly, cognitively, physically, spatially, and aesthetically, to find and project their somatic embodiment.

I am particularly interested in the nature of 'liveness' in performance. This has led me to investigations of the relationship between performer and audience, performative intent and everyday actions, and the expectations assigned to 'place'. By engaging in opportunities that highlight the flexible nature of these constructs, through site specific improvisation, I raise audience awareness of the integral role it plays in performance, and engage in the fluid relationship between art and life.

Technology furthers these explorations in exciting ways to create new experiences. I have used small wireless electronics onstage in performance; worn a live microphone with amplifier to blend voice and feedback as a tense soundscape in Bob; held LED candles for a shifting dreamlike environment in Some Will Bring Flowers. I have used hardwired equipment to project images onto a perforated scrim downstage that created a virtual 3D environment in Landscape. I use digital video editing to create dance films. I am eager to undertake long distance collaborations that are facilitated with present technology, live video feeds, and new media.

I place my work within the socio-political framework of contemporary dance. My research investigates the empirical study of performance, with context, meaning, and representation considered. With place providing the context for understanding, I create dances for human and natural environments, stage and screen, and juxtapose contradictions to stretch expected perception. With the nonverbal communication of dance predating language, I examine the complexity of its inherent meaning, often using humor to frame the eccentric nature of the dance vocabulary. This is complemented by comparative studies of the aesthetic and the everyday, the represented and the real, its implication and consequence.

I am fascinated by the many functions that performance plays in our contemporary society. Performance is an expression of our intangible cultural heritage that transmits information broadly, engaging the community in a dialogue of shared human experience. Performance is a metaphor for empowerment. It is a catalyst for change. It is fleeting and immediate, visceral and intelligent, emotional and cathartic. I value the capacity of performance to serve as a conduit for ideas, a vehicle for cultural exchange, and am eager to continue this dialogue.

Check out more on the artist website kimgregg.com.

Anne Fagan

Anne Fagan paints people caught in the act of being themselves. Her love of life is reflected in the relaxed calm and contentment of her guileless subjects: friends, family and random strangers who pique her interest. Simple, quirky, direct, with minimal background and a light palette, Anne’s paintings convey a mood as much as a story.

Much of Anne’s work derives from the sunny beach towns of North San Diego County where she grew up and still lives and paints. Her collection also includes subjects from her travels in Europe, Mexico, and the Hawaiian Islands.

Anne Fagan’s paintings are in private collections around the country.

Patrick Brown

Patrick Brown is a trained artist living in Southern California. His new work is large format abstractions, heavy with textures and multiple layers of oil in the style of abstract expressionists reminiscent of Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning and Adolph Gottlieb. Brown’s work is purely abstract but imbued with a deeply felt humanism--a sense of the sublime--derived from his own struggles living with HIV/AIDS. While Brown’s work does not directly address the AIDS crisis or his own health, the subtext is always present. His work is similar in aim to the work of Ross Bleckner, whose dark paintings with floating images evoke memory or loss, functioning as memento mori to those lost in the AIDS epidemic. Like Bleckner, Brown creates paintings that invite contemplation rather than confrontation--a kind of visual slow release, drawing the viewer close and revealing their formal complexity over time.

Check out more on VisualAIDS.org

Firelight Ladies

Amalia is originally from Chicago,IL and moved to beautiful Oceanside one year ago. Amalia brought with her a deep passion for flow art which is a type of interpretive dance using various props and dancing styles. It all started at a young age when she participated in many different forms of dance and baton twirling. Amalia got her hands on some fire poi when she was 18. After being active in the Chicago music scene she evolved into a fire performer by the time she was 21. Unlike many physical arts, learning flow arts (poi, fans, hoops) does not usually involve formal education. A strong sense of community and self-teaching are key elements of modern flow art. She found herself performing for music festivals and clubs in Chicago along the way she keeps adding to her list of props to dance with. Fire is the passion element and Amalia has a passion for dancing with fire. Being new to Southern California she is determined to start a fire flow performing group. She's currently reaching out to the San Diego flow community looking for others to perform with. During the the day you can find Amalia working at Apotheque spa where she does hair and teaches a fitness Hula-Hoop class in the spring and summer.