Calling all Richmond Art Center friends and supporters! We’d love your help in getting nominated for the Parents’ Press Best of 2016 Awards!
Last year, we were proud to be recognized in three categories: Best Arts & Crafts Summer Camps, Best Art Classes, and Best Enrichment & Afterschool Programs!
About the interviews: The Richmond Art Center is fortunate and proud to work with a diverse and growing number of artists and teachers who work with our students at the Art Center as well as in our local communities. We want to share some of these wonderful people with you, to inspire your own artistic path, take a class, or learn more. See all of our interviews here.
In this interview, meet Joyce Shon, a long-time Richmond Art Center instructor who’s teaching our upcoming Handprinted Textile Workshop and Material(s) World (which teaches basic screenprinting techniques). You can register for both of these classes now (see links above).
Joyce Shon is a Berkeley-born artist with a particular fondness for screen printing. She would probably rather sketch her bio than try to write it. She attended UC Berkeley and worked in construction for many years, supplementing her income and retaining her sanity with her artwork. Her unofficial job title for herself is Semi-professional Dilettante, constantly trying new techniques and attempting to integrate them into her artwork. Joyce loves not only creating art but also adding to her collection of the work of local artists.
Q. What do you find most inspiring about teaching art?
A. It might be easier to answer what is not inspiring about teaching art. In particular, I am always amazed at the way ideas multiply exponentially in a class. So much creative inspiration! Although most of my personal work is done in a solitary setting, the energy and inspiration I get from students and other teachers is simply phenomenal. And I love to solve problems, so when a student asks, for example, “Can I print with patinas? Can I print on glass? Can I print an image of the moon on green cheese?”… I’m instantly trying to figure out how to do it. Those sort of challenges really jazz me and expand my repertoire as both a teacher and an artist.
Q. How did you become involved with the Richmond Art Center?
In 1998, I was recovering from nearly two years of treatment for cancer. I spent a lot of that time in “solitary confinement,” and being able to draw and journal saved my sanity and possibly my life. I really wanted an arts community and found the Richmond Art Center through the recommendation of Patti Kjontaas, who was teaching there at the time. My goal was to learn enough basic ceramics skills to move on to meshing it with screen printing. Curtis Jones was teaching a screen printing class, and I took that because I love learning other artists’ tips and techniques and approaches. When he left to teach at the University of Oklahoma, he suggested that I take over his classes. I was hesitant (scared!) but agreed to teach one class. I loved it! But I still love being a student, too.
Q. What was your path to becoming an artist? Please share some of your favorite work (captions below).
A. Wow…my path is now 67 years long, and very meandering. My family was very hands-on. We did these very un-suburban things in suburban California. Making our own soap in a big kettle outdoors, pouring concrete for patios, building stairs and retaining walls, canning our own food, picking berries for jam, digging clams, sewing our clothes—we were always Doing Something. And I was one of those children who was constantly drawing on everything, always making something: Ballpoint pen tattoos on my friends, costumes for the family cats, papier-mâché dragons and castles for my little sister’s Barbie dolls, little mud figures that I would bury to be discovered in future eras as Items of great Archaeological Interest. I sketched while babysitting, which led to my first commission work: watercolors of toy soldiers for a little boy’s room.
Then my father gave me a screen printing kit for my 12th birthday. He had an ulterior motive—labels for his homemade beer. I really got into it, though: labels, posters, cards, yearbook covers. I attended the University of California in the ’60s (!) with a mind to transfer to CCAC but got waylaid by politics and ended up in Vancouver, Canada with a community of conscientious objectors.
Eventually I returned to the Bay Area and worked in construction, did custom sewing and screen printing and raised a daughter. Regardless of the direction I was headed at any point in my life, there was always an element of art. I remember washing new towels once and being intrigued by the lint in the dryer. It was so beautiful and soft, I decided to felt it into wall hangings. Meanwhile, at my day job, I was operating heavy equipment, turning the Berkeley Landfill into Cesar Chavez Park. Large scale sculpting! I could go on and on and on, but you’ve probably got the drift by now. No particular favorite work—after all, I am a semi-professional dilettante. But I am sorta more jazzed by fiber than paper. May my path continue to meander.
Q. Who are your inspirations?
A. That’s a tough question, because inspirations are everywhere. But what comes to mind first is all the hours I’ve spent in museums looking at marvelous magical works by unnamed artists from cultures all over the world. Masks from anywhere, cloth of bark or fibers, painted or printed, kachinas, carvings, ritual objects of known and unknown purpose. Our human history is full of everyday people recording their visions in marvelous ways.
Q. What do you like to do when you’re not at the Art Center?
A. Well, twenty years ago, I might have been racing camels or fueling up a backhoe. But these days you are more likely to find me working on a costume for an event past, present, future (or none of the above), baking cookies, reading anything in print, attacking weeds or packing my suitcase —the sketchbook and camera go in first.
Q. What’s on your bucket list?
A. I always thought it would be very cool to learn to fly a helicopter. And I am terrified of heights.
Q. If you could meet one artist, living or not, who would it be and why?
A. Unfair question! How ever to make a single choice? Any of the unnamed women who made those carvings, textiles, baskets, adornments that I have gazed at, enraptured, in countless museums. Maybe Susie Silook, a woman of Yupik, Inupiak and Irish descent. Her work, which combines traditional carving technique with a modern message, just takes my breath away and makes me feel my heart sending my blood to my brain. And she doesn’t live so very far away—can you get me an introduction?
Thank you, Joyce!
Be sure to check out Joyce’s class and workshop and register early before they fill up!
Images, from left to right:
1st row: screenprinted cats plates (set of 4), handmade bog coat, “Chat Noir” print, “Curios” print
2nd row: felt cuff, handmade journal,“Nostrum” print (from The Alphabet According to Kate series), screenprinted poppy pod plate
3rd row: ceramic sculpture—piece from “The Right to Bear Arms”,“Look Up Sam” mixed media piece—screen print on salvaged materials, “Tools” print, “Kilter” print
The people and places which mark a town as “Our Town” are as varied as our lives.
The histories and generations of schools and teachers, shops and customers, workplaces and co-workers, these populate our days.
As the Richmond Art Center reflects on its 80th Anniversary, we are asking for your views, impressions, thoughts on what makes a place unique, what gives a place its identity, what meaning can be drawn from experience, association, or memory. We invite artists to show us their art reflecting their town, our town, a better town.
Juror: Jack Fischer, director of the vibrant Jack Fischer Gallery in San Francisco, brings a unique point of view to this selection. Always fresh and direct in his response to art, Fischer extends a multi-textured and open approach to “Our Town.”
Important Dates
Submission Deadline: Monday, April 11
Notification of jury results (via email): Sunday, May 1
All accepted work must be Hand Delivered Friday, May 27 or Saturday, May 28 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Opening Reception: Saturday June 11 5 – 7 PM
Exhibition Closes: Saturday, August 27
Pick up of accepted work: Sunday, August 28, or Monday, August 29 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Eligibility/Jurying Criteria
California Residents only
All media except for Video/Film
Original work produced in the last three years
Size Limitations: no larger than 36 x 36 inches
All works must be suitably prepared for hanging or installation.
Entry Fee
Entry Fee is $40 for two works RAC Members Discount: $30 for two works $15 for each additional work
Images must be submitted online in the Entry Form. The images must be in jpg format at 300 dpi .
JPEG must be labeled with Artist’s first and last name and title
Insurance
The Richmond Art Center will insure the artwork while on site with the exclusion of any damage due to acts of God. Artists are responsible for insuring their artwork to and from the RAC.
Sales
The RAC will retain 40% commission on all art sales. Not for Sale work (NFS) will also be accepted but an insurance value must be stated.
Come make new art and new friends at the Richmond Art Center this summer!
$20 off any session of Spring or Summer camp at the Richmond Art Center when you sign up early! Register before March 31 with coupon code: RACAMP. Coupon can be used more than once and combined with other offers.
Signing up multiple kids? Use coupon code: SIBLING for 10% off registration
Our teaching artists will create wonderful opportunities for students to experiment, create, and make amazing art in our beautiful studios. Classes are organized by age and you can sign up for multiple weeks to experience everything we’re offering this summer. Full descriptions and instructors will be listed on our website. Students age 7+ who are taking a morning and afternoon class can break for lunch in our enclosed courtyard supervised by summer camp staff.
About our Art Camps
The Richmond Art Center’s Art Camps offer kids and teens a nurturing environment and creative atmosphere to experience hands-on activities including painting, drawing, clay, weaving and collage in small morning and afternoon classes during summer and spring breaks from school.
Parents have voted! The Richmond Art Center has won the Silver Award for Best Arts Camp in Contra Costa County and Gold Awards for Best Art Classes and Best Enrichment & After School Programs.
About the interviews: The Richmond Art Center is fortunate and proud to work with a diverse and growing number of artists and teachers who work with our students at the Art Center as well as in our local communities. We want to share some of these wonderful people with you, to inspire your own artistic path, take a class, or learn more. See all of our interviews here.
Dawn Gonzales is a Richmond based artist specializing in surface design, illustration and mixed media. She received her BFA from the University of Arizona. After many years working in Marketing and Design for apparel companies including Gap Inc and lucy Activewear, she’s returned to her passion for art and good ol’ fashioned analog sketching. She is a collector of “stuff” and delights in re-purposing gently loved items into treasured new art objects. These days she loves the work of late collage artist Rex Ray, hand drawn typography, duct tape and pom-poms. A lover of all animals, she also enjoys creating custom embroidered pet portraits for friends and family. http://www.dawngonzalesillustration.com
Q. What do you find most inspiring about teaching art?
I believe that art saves lives. Not only visual art, but music, theatre, and performance. When I was a child in elementary school, our art teacher, Mrs. Spearo, would wheel her “art cart” full of glue sticks and tempera paint into the classroom on Wednesdays and all the kids would start clapping. We went crazy! That’s how much we loved it! So, it’s very concerning to me that the first programs cut from school curriculae is usually art. It makes me very sad. After a dry spell of many years, I am recapturing that joy I once had in making art as a child, and I want to share it with others. I want to help others, especially adults, find their joy in “creating” and when I see people get excited about it, being compelled to make art… well, that inspires me!
Q. How did you become involved with the Richmond Art Center?
I have lived in Richmond Annex for over 10 years and always knew about the center. But since I spent the last two decades deeply entrenched in corporate America, I felt that I never “had time” to explore, visit or learn more about RAC’S offerings. When I started freelancing two years ago, my friend suggested that I try teaching at the center. I had led creative workshops in my previous life, but teaching in a formal capacity really wasn’t on my radar at the time. The more I thought about it and the more I created my own art, the more the idea appealed to me. So in 2015, I pitched some class ideas to Erin and here I am! My introduction to teaching at RAC was my Pom-Pom booth at Skeletonfest 2015. What a blast! (Click on the images below to enlarge.)
Q. What was your path to becoming an artist?
I have always been artistic. As a child, my sister and I would busy ourselves for hours just drawing, and making things with any materials that we could find. I remember I even made a pair of high heeled shoes out of cardboard once. Eventually, I studied art in college and received my BFA from the University of Arizona. After school, I moved to San Francisco to “become an artist” and promptly took a job in retail, of course. But that led to many other creative opportunities for me, career wise. I discovered the world of Visual Merchandising and environmental design which is a genre that encompasses all sorts of mediums, especially if you are working on a shoestring budget! It was a very hands on job, and I found myself splattering paint, hammering nails and chopping up astroturf to make my ideas come alive. It was innovative work for a retail environment, and, even though I was not drawing or sketching, it kept my creative juices flowing and I learned a lot technology wise. So, I guess you could say that I took the long way around!
Q. Who are your inspirations?
Of course, I am inspired by the late David Bowie who was a true artist in every aspect and showed us all that being different is okay. That being unique is, in fact, quite special. I admire people who are true to themselves, kind, and hard workers. I’m really inspired by the talent, work ethic and attitude of illustrator, Lisa Congdon. She’s worked very heard to pursue her heart’s desire and she’s a very nice person. She also didn’t hit her prime until her 30’s. I’m also really inspired by other “late bloomers” like David Sedaris and Julia Child who didn’t begin their careers until mid-life. And who can forget Grandma Moses, an embroiderer whose arthritis inspired her to take up painting at age 78 because it was “easier for her hands.” Grandma Moses is my spirit animal! Ha ha.
Q. What do you like to do when you’re not at the Art Center?
I’m either working on pattern designs for clients, art journaling, building up my own accessory design business, or doing something fitness oriented. I also spend a lot of time at home with our 12 year old Bulldog, Cookie. She is the light of my life. http://www.dawngonzalesillustration.com/sketch-book/.
Q. What’s on your bucket list?
I have never been to Europe! I would definitely love to go one day. I would also like to run a marathon. I did a half marathon a few years ago, and it felt great. I love challenging myself. If I won the lottery, I would build my own English Bulldog sanctuary and care for all the wayward pups.
Q. If you could meet one artist, living or not, who would it be and why?
I would love to meet painter, Martha Rich. She’s wacky. I think she would be a fun friend. I love her talent and her incredible sense of humor. http://cargocollective.com/martharich/ABOUT
“Howard,” wrote Jeff Kelley, “is trying to hold something together in her works, some moments of recognition, perhaps, when keepsakes become art; when vernacular speech becomes titular and punny; when the given histories of found objects cede to the emergent content of the artist’s process; when family storytelling combusts into modernist black magic; when incongruous juxtapositions of objects and media become easy exchanges of history and memory; when an artwork asserts its aesthetic privilege while remaining open to worldly influence. Howard has been waiting alertly for decades for the objects in the studio to tell her what to do. She recognizes their metaphoric potential in relation to each other, the way words and images add up to a story. Then she ‘tells’ them.”
During the Holiday Season, the Richmond Art Center will be closed from December 24th through January 3rd. See you on Monday, January 4th! We will be closed on Sundays through January 9th.
On Saturday, December 5, the Richmond Art Center hosted our 53rd annual Holiday Arts Festival. The Art Center bustled with artisans, teachers, and members of the East Bay communities. Studio Arts hosted fun, creative activities for the kids, Ceramics held its famous sale, and our pop-up cafe served delicious paninis, desserts, and lattés. Both the silent and live auctions successfully raised vital funding for our core programs thanks to your generosity. We raised over $30,000 to support the many programs we offer to people of all ages. Our Fund-A-Need drive raised over $5,800 for the Kato Jaworski Scholarship Fund, which will provide kids and teens with need-based scholarships to take our classes and workshops in 2016!
The annual Holiday Arts Festival had a triumphant return, and everyone at the Richmond Art Center, myself included would like to extend our deep appreciation to our dedicated committee of Board Members, generous donors and Art Center supporters, our teaching artists and students, and more than 90 devoted volunteers. A special thank you goes to Board member Ellengale Toki Oakley for chairing the committee, to our Deputy Director Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez for organizing the project, developing numerous job descriptions and scheduling the volunteers, and to our Exhibitions Director Jan Wurm for acquiring a magnificent collection of donated art for auction.
We could not have done this without you–thank you for making this event memorable.
Best,
Ric Ambrose
Executive Director
***
Photos by John Wehrle. All of our Holiday Arts Festival images can be viewed here.
The Holiday Arts Festival at the Richmond Arts Center is a great place to find unique gifts for the holidays for friends and loved ones! We’re proud to showcase so many local artists, including several of our own instructors. Below is a collection of some of the items that will be for sale here on December 5 from 11am – 3pm. Please join us to support the Richmond Art Center, our local artists, and our wonderful community.
Our incredible Holiday Arts Festival on December 5 features a Live Auction. All of our auction items are featured below, with descriptions to entice art collectors and people seeing unique lifestyle experiences. We hope to see you at our event! A limited number of tickets are still available… please call us at 510-622-6772 to purchase your tickets.
Auction #1
Artist: Hung Lui, Mission Girl – Red Shoes, Mixed Media, 2013
Value: $6,000, Donor: Hung Lui
Born in China and immigrated to California in 1985, Hung Lui is regarded by many as the greatest Chinese painter in the U.S. This mixed media work features her typical style of dripping paint and layered brushstrokes. Combining a mixture of Chinese culture, contemporary and ancient visual language, Lui addresses history, gender, identity and Chinese politics and culture. With a focus on women and their place in society, Hung Lui elevates her central singular figures and emphasizes their dignity imbuing her richly decorated subjects with hope.
Auction #2
Five day retreat for 12 people at Dillon Beach House
Value: $3,500 Donor: Tracy Freedman
Dillon Beach has a fairy tale atmosphere with the far-far-away charm of time suspended. This is a chance to partake of a fabulous 5 night vacation in a gorgeous Dillon Beach House with stunning ocean views from every room. The house features 5 bedrooms, sleeps up to 12 people. Stroll the 7 minute walk down to the beach, soak in the hot tub, lounge on the sundecks, whip up magic in the gourmet kitchen, then settle down to a cozy fire. 2 satellite TV’s and wifi for those who stay connected.
Auction #3
Dinner for Four with Mildred Howard in her Studio
Value: $800
Donor: Mildred Howard
Internationally known Berkeley artist, Mildred Howard invites you and your guests into her studio for an intimate dinner for four surrounded by her art and peppered by her stimulating conversation. In the hands of a great cook and deep thinker, dinner with Mildred Howard promises to be an event you will never forget! Bring along your closest friends and the four of you will get to know this deeply important artist and her powerful art as you share a meal she has prepared for you in her home. The considered influences of music, literature, community, and art will all pull up a chair at this table for an engaging evening!
Auction #4
Artist: Terry St. John Model on Floor, Mixed Media, 1999-2001
Value: $8,000, Donor: Terry St. John
This study of Model Seated on the Floor will hold you captive, locked in the inky dark space which pulsates with life and emotion. His exuberant black and white studies of light and dark, shape and space, fuse his sense of Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Working with brush and washes of ink, St. John builds the surfaces of his works to present the figure in and of the cconjured space. Former curator at the Oakland Museum, Terry St John brings decades of work and influences from the Bay Area Figurative painters to his plein air studies and his female nudes. The Richmond Art Center is excited to be mounting a survey exhibition of his powerful work next summer.
Auction #5
Two tickets to a Golden State Warriors game
Total Value: $ 500
Donor: Tim Ilario
Bring a friend and enjoy a once in a lifetime up-close view of MVP Stephen Curry and the NBA World Champion’s Golden State Warrior face off against its archrival Miami Heat at the raucous Oracle Arena on Monday, January 11, 2016.
Auction #6
Artist: Ric Ambrose Op-Art, graphite, 2010
Value:$3,800, Donor: Ric Ambrose
A large graphite drawing of an urban landscape contrasting a broody old balustrade stone building dwarfed by a minimalist modern high-rise Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco. Ric is the Executive Director of RAC and has exhibited his work throughout the U.S. and is included in many public and private collections including the Getty Family, City of Littleton, Coos Bay Art Center and the Colorado Fine Arts Center.
Auction #7
A day of sailing on the Bay and lunch for four people
Value: $1,000, Donors: Ellengale Toki and Owen Oakley
Enjoy a day of sailing on the Bay for four people on Sambolo, a 40 foot Sabre, starting at the Richmond Yacht Club in Point Richmond. The picturesque venture includes a lunch with wine and cheese.
Auction #8
Drinks and Tidbits for a party of eight with legendary art historian Peter Selz.
Value: Priceless!! Donors: Carole and Peter Selz
Drinks and tidbits for a party of eight with Peter Selz in the home of Carole and Peter surrounded by their contemporary collection of art. Be prepared for salty anecdotes and anchovies. Founder of the Berkeley Art Museum and former Curator of Contemporary Art of Museum of Modern Art, Selz has curated seminal exhibitions of new art over the past five decades.
Auction #9
Artist: Hung Lui Shan-Mountain, Color etching & aquatint, 2012 edition of 40
Value: $2,500, Donor: Paulson Bott Press
Working with some of the most expressive artists of our time, Paulson Bott Press has established a record of producing some of the most beautiful and nuanced contemporary color etchings. This very large print by Hung Liu is a tour de force of etching technique displaying extraordinary visual clarity and exquisite design and surface. Internationally renowned, Hung Lui has received numerous awards, including two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Joan Mitchell Fellowship, and the Pollack-Krasner Award. Her work is represented in major museum collections in the U.S. and Asia. The Richmond Art Center mounted one of her first solo exhibitions in 1991.
Auction #10
Artist: Richard Shaw
Studio Drawing, ink on paper, 2010
Value: $1200, Donor: Richard Shaw
A unique figure in the work of contemporary ceramics, Richard Shaw is nationally known for his experimental trompe-l’oeil sculptures. Humor and irreverence play a large role in his still life ceramic work and spontaneous drawings as he inserts stuff of daily life into his whimsical narrative. His work in housed in major museum collections throughout the U.S.
Auction #11
Three hours with handyman and Contra County Supervisor John Gioia
Value: Priceless, Donor: John Gioia
Here is your chance to have a few home repairs done and have an engaging conversation with John Gioia, long-time District Supervisor of Contra County and chair of CC Board of Supervisors. No small repair can’t be done by this multitalented Richmond resident.
Auction #12
FUND-A-NEED Youth Scholarship
Your donation to Funded- A–Need will provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for dozens of youth to participate in Richmond Art Center’s noted youth classes.
The Kato Jaworski Youth Scholarship Fund offers partial funds for at risk Richmond youth to participate in one of our studios’ art making classes providing the wonder of discovery and building self-esteem.
In this interview, meet Joyce Shon, a long-time Richmond Art Center instructor who’s teaching our upcoming 
In this interview, meet Dawn Gonzales, who’s teaching our upcoming Story Book Cigar Box Diorama Class in March (and 
