Galleries - Ojai Studio Artists

Divide & Rotate

Richard Amend, oil on canvas

Division and rotation are elemental cornerstones of my visual practice. These mathematical procedures inform the structural process-where the paint lands and how the equation advances, random and arbitrary those decisions may ultimately seem. The most I hope for is the frictional conversation between the choices.

However, in this exhibition's context, black and white suggests additional possibilities, as can the marching arcs of primary color, slightly out of register, perhaps referencing the chaotic tendencies surrounding us all at this moment in time and space, culture, society, and of course, politics. All of which I actively insist on avoiding while painting.

Propulsion Drone # 19

Wyatt Amend, Stoneware, high fire glaze, epoxy

Conversations

Christine Apostolina Beirne
12x36, oil with cold wax medium on cradled board

Language defines us. Language divides us. Language brings us
together.

Rejuvenating Unity

Brian Berman, Italian Marble
This sculpture represents Unity with all our diversities. It’s a perfect representation for the theme of this exhibition. We are in challenging times where nationalism divides our countries by walls, borders, and wars with increased hatred and violence. We encounter prejudices on a daily basis, racism, sexism, ageism, and a host of isms creating separation. Rejuvenating Unity brings hope, that even with all our diversities we are all connected as one. May our Unity rejuvenate compassion, generosity, kindness, and peace.

Great Fullness

Ingrid Boulting, Oil on Canvas
"The Buddha represents the healing of separation, the bringing together of opposites, yin and yang, masculine and feminine, heaven and earth and there by escaping the wheel of samsara (the wheel of suffering.)
Burst open pomegranates symbolize fertility, beauty, abundance and eternal life."

Mending the Divide at LAX

Cindy Pitou Burton
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime". —Mark Twain.

Patches

Kent-Butler oil
"Outa Lappies" also know as "Patches" was an African artist who wondered the valleys and flatlands of South Africa. His artwork was created from collecting recycled materials.He patched together pieces of fabric to make his cloths.
Jan Schoeman, better know as "Old Patchman",
lived his entire life in poverty, but is a living legion in South Africa.
His smile, is "The Mending of the Divide."

Willie: SOLD

Sharon Butler, pencil
Willie Nelson, American musician, actor and activist, has won numerous prestigious awards during his career. Founder of Farm Aid, which has raised millions of dollars to aid farmers in need. Willie Nelson is also very activate in the Animal Welfare Institute towards the better treatment of horses and has rescued over seventy which now roam free on his ranch.
Willie also supports the LGTB movement...
For me, Willie Nelson stands for "Mending the Divide."

Bridge to A New World

Stephen Carter, Beringia, Ink and Gouache on Paper, 20X16

Mending the Divide

Gayel Childress, Acrylic and Charcoal, 30x40

Is this painting mending a relationship between Male and Female or mending relationships between Black and White.........?

The question is what does Mending the Divide mean to you..?
And how would you mend it.............?"

Sahara Girl

Leslie Clark, oil on panel
I went to the Sahara for the first time to find exotic subject matter to paint and met the nomadic Tuareg. I was immediately attracted by their beauty, strength, pride in their culture and love of their environment. I met this young girl at a well, hundreds of miles into the most isolated part of that desert. She at age 13 was tending her families’ principal wealth—12 camels. I first thought of them as exotic, but getting to know them compelled me to spend the next 25 years bridging our cultures and mending the divide between us.

Tears of Liberty

Ray Harding, , Mixed
"I love this county, the flag that represents it, and cherish our freedoms which the Constitution guarantees. I respect the rights and speech of others even when they differ greatly from my own. To me, that’s what liberty is all about.

Patrick Henry “Give me liberty, or give me death!”"

Circle of Understanding

Carlos-Grasso,Acrylic on Indian Khali Paper
Only Unity and Peace within can bring Unity and Peace for All.

Andrea Haffner_Passage, mixedmedia_5x14x1.5

Andrea Haffner, mixedmedia 5x14x1.5
This piece is a reflection on process and transition, on what we bring with us and what we leave behind when moving from experience to experience, and from one life state to the next.

Paradigm Shift

Duane Dammeyer, Travertine on Serpentine
Paradigm Shift represents the capacity of stone to heal itself. When stone fractures, over time minerals will fill the fracture, sealing the break through mineral precipitation.

Trans

Tanya Kovaleski, Acrylic paint, wood, glue
Bridges have always fascinated me — railroad bridges, wood bridges, iron, steel, concrete and suspension bridges — the how and why they are built — their structure and engineering often combine into visual masterpieces.
Then there is the joy of studying words and their derivation.

Trans — from Latin across.

transport
transmit
transfer
transform
transgender
transglobal
transit
transition
translate
translucent
transparent
transpire
transverse
transcribe
translate

and more,
they all help mend the divide."

Divided by Water

Bernadette DiPietro, acrylic on canvas
This piece was influenced by the Australian Aboriginal artist Edwin Pareroultjas’(1918-86) abstract style of the 1940’s to create a symbolic representation of a landscape.The copper hills of the Ojai Valley exhibits the boundless strength and determination of our community after the 2017 Thomas fire.From the Ojai mountains to the Channel Islands these same people will rise again to defend their beliefs and not be divided by water.The river WILL unite us -not divide us.

Intent and Impact

Eric-Dubnicka, encaustic wax on panel

Blue Wedge

Stephen Edwards, Furnace cast glass, steel
My recent sculptures in glass, wood and metal investigate place, material, color and light. We live in a world of forms and colors. Just stop and look. The crack in the pavement, the morning light and a glass of water all contain little miracles of color and light. I try to animate materials through the color and light that we see every day. A particular color can remind you of a place you have been or the way you feel. Glass conveys the feeling of fragility. Light and color give life to the work.

Dancer 8, Emma Rose

Duane Eells, The arts – painting, music, literature, theater and dance – embody a common language that nurtures our culture and illuminates our shared humanity.

Wailing Wall

Valerie Freeman, mixed media on canvas

Walls throughout the history of mankind, are used for security and protection and often become vehicles for creative expression and communication. For me, "Mending the Divide" is our spiritual connection for mending/healing via the divine through prayer and communication with God.
Thus, the joints between the spaces of rocks at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem are used to place prayers. As you reflect on this piece of the wall, please enter a prayer in your thoughts as you find a space to enter your prayer.
This series of paintings have been commissioned and placed in chapels/temples throughout the world.

Slice

Richard Flores, (12_x4_x4_), Stoneware
Mending the divide by different sides coming in on each other as if to wrap up into one unlimited potential encompasing a place for all

Tempest

Wrona Gall, acrylic metal paper on board
Life involves the coexistence of experience and emotion. In reality, tensions arise that demand we communicate and compromise to avoid the chasm of conflict and isolation.

Origin 3

Sooz Glazebrook, Lustred Earthenware Kintsugi repair 19" Diameter
An interesting coincidence...after reading about the Japanese art for repairing broken ceramic pieces with gold-Kintsugi, I open my kiln firing a few days later to see that this piece had decided to break into two pieces, so hence the perfect solution to Mend this Divide.

Peripheral

Mary Neville, mixed Media on Canvas
As you relax and soften your eyes your peripheral vision will come into focus and connect you to the parasympathetic part of your nervous system. Your field of vision will spread, allowing your awareness to expand. Melding the conscious with the unconscious.

Devin-Oatway_Down-Home, Gouache Acrylic on Redwood

Devin Oatway, Gouache Acrylic on Redwood
I just paint.

Heaven and Earth

Patrish Kuebler, Encaustic
"To me a MYTH bridges the divide between the KNOWN and the UNKNOWN.

I chose symbols of Egyptian myths. The Goddess
Nut, known as the goddess of the heavens, swallowed the sun in the evening and gave birth to it in the morning.

Isis is the Goddess of the earth, childbirth, and motherhood. She has magical powers and is often
depicted with the wings of a falcon.

Today existential questions are still being asked. Perhaps our science will someday be tomorrow's myths?"

Earthprayers, Equinox Seeding

Shahastra Levy, Acrylic on canvas
"It is the time of year—the Equinox—to plant new seeds.
Rooted in the salient waters of life, ongoing growth expands until it makes a breakthrough to new levels of understanding. Light fuels the entire journey upward, outward, inward..."

PATCH WORK

Karen K. Lewis
oil on canvas. 30" x 40”

Mending the Divide

With a beak and a bow
the eagle will sew;
patching, mending,
ever tending
the wear and the tear
of diversity.

Iron Will

Douglas Lochner, Hand forged steel, bound volumes

This sculpture, for the “Mending the Divide” exhibit, is a reminder that the freedoms we enjoy every day are the results of the mending together of ideals and action.

Ideas alone will not set us free and action alone, without ideals, leads to inequality. Real progress requires an understanding of what has gone before, coupled with vision, creativity and hard work.

In today’s toxic political culture, it is even more important that we learn from the past and work together, without malice or prejudice, to protect all the freedoms and liberty that so many before us have worked so hard to achieve.

Freedom is not free, it is earned by being informed and standing up for your ideals. Don’t be silenced by rhetoric and despair, use the power of your voice and vote.

The sculpture consists of a hand-forged steel needle piercing a World-Book Encyclopedia opened to the section on the history of the United States Constitution. The needle is threaded with red, white and blue ribbons embellished with the words of the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the Constitution and a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which states ” Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.”

Soledad de Perseverancia

Vera Long, pastel, ink, fabric, found wood
Menders, healers, weavers, wise wild women… Mothers, grandmothers, indigenous, “immigrants“ on their own earth, women of color, the 99%, working class, working poor, givers, the colonized, soul keepers, music makers, marginalized yet core backbone of nations, invisibles- the beautiful forgiving lush organic mind coping, shining through the millennium dust of oppression. Our menders... collective keepers of mercy, innovation, kindness, fruiting care and toiling support - Honoring them with Just Equity is our salvation. Viva La Raza. Honor Treaties. Rezpect. People over Profit. All people are Our People. Roots of Grass Grow Strong when Interwoven

Amidst Echoes

Deborah-Lyon, Archival Pigment Ink Print

Flotsam and Jetsam

Jeff Mann, Graphite Drawing on D'Arches 140# HP H20 Paper
"Oh! What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."
-Sir Walter Scott-

Often, one lie leads to more, similar to how a spider weaves a web, and as the lies multiply, the web becomes more and more tangled, and we become trapped in the dishonesty."

Invisible

Martha Moran, Recycled Materials

They do a scheduled "Homeless Count" each January like the Christmas Bird Count. In 2019 Homelessness increased 28% in Ventura from 1299 to 1669. More than half our nation's Homeless live in California.

Sale of this piece will go to the Homeless."

Mariana Peirano: For me ...oil on canvas

Mariana Peirano, oil on canvas
So that I may learn to care
For me . . .
so that I may learn to trust
For me . . .
so that I may learn compassion
For me . . .
so that I learn the value of peace
For me . . .
so that I always act with love.

Morning Clouds

Grabin Bruce, Oil,16x20
One can see the division between left and right sides of the forest in the painting. As the sun rises in the morning, clouds create a bridge between the two sides - Mending the Divide.

Leslie-Plimpton_Call to Friendship, Dry Point Etching with Hand Tinting

Leslie Plimpton, Dry Point Etching with Hand Tinting
While recently in Egypt, a group of eager young women approached me and asked to take my picture as they were fascinated by my light blonde hair. I said yes, but then asked if I could also take theirs. I was particularly interested in the colorful but still modest outfits the girls chose to wear with their hijabs. Daily I heard the five calls to prayer coming from the mosques and learned that 80% of all Egyptians are Muslim and are a friendly, educated and devout people. My experiences there rid me of any fears and preconceived notions I had regarding Muslim people. Travel truly breaks down barriers.

The Great American Wall

Sylvia-Raz, Mixed Media Sculpture
"Walls always divide, they never unite. Walls are ugly, they always offend, stressing the differences between have and have not. They deny us of our basic universal right: freedom. The ""mart leaders" create walls to ensure and protect themselves from the masses of sweating working poor. When the miserable poor realize that they are being abused they rebel and start a revolution. Innocents die, villains are slain, horror takes over life. These are the worst times humanity has to endure.Poor people need to have their basic needs fulfilled. Because they are the real heroes of our societies.

I and Thou

Carol Shaw-Sutton, wool, rust & linen, 50x 68x 2
This recent work has been informed by the forces swirling within all of us in this present moment in history as we all seem to have taken up sides and become enemies. I read the existential philosophic writings of Martin Buber many years ago and was moved by his distinction between I-Thou relationships compared to I-It relationship. The lessons of the non-violence movements of Gandhi and Martin Luther King also show that courageous empathy can serve to heal the divide between us before we are all destroyed.
I am hoping to practice this sense of a truly emphatic listening to another as I resist the urge to blame and judge. The image on these cloths appear to me as a kind of skin. They were made by residual staining from plants and reflect cell division, mirroring and growth common to within all life.

Red-+-Blue-=-Purple

Joe-Sohm, Photography & Graphic Design

Having photographed Presidential Campaigns since 1992 when I served as Bill Clinton's campaign for the DNC, I have listened and watched the leading political leaders speak to what divides us and unites us. It is time to focus on Unity and bring the American Family together again . . . before we go too far in our division. We need a little more Purple in our Politics.

Photos and Concept by Joe Sohm
Design and Graphics by Peter Green Design"

Amy-Lynn-Stevenson_The-Revoluntists, Acrylic on Canvas

The Revolutionists

Amy Lynn Stevenson, Acrylic on Canvas
“Sometimes a revolution needs a woman’s touch.” -Marie Antoinette

Revolutions led by Men have not gotten us anywhere. Divisions and inequalities have always existed - perhaps the mending needs to begin with Women: the true Peacemakers. It's our time to become truly Equal. Equality in the home, in the workplace, in the government.

A Man's Chair

Susan Stinsmulen-Amend, kiln-fired paint on glass, paint and graphite on wood panels, 24x32
“A Man’s Chair” reflects my relationship with my Father. The oldest of five, I was the first in line for expectations and discipline, lots of rules to follow.The comfortable chair in our home was his, and we pretty much stayed out of it.An armless woman amidst a decorative flower environment occupies the chair in this piece. The man is angry; flames bursting forth in the background.The left portion of this diptych is a doodle, rendered in multiple scales. Reminiscent of a knitting pattern, the repetition elicits meditation, passage of time and a calmer mind.

The Geography of Hope

Spark Taylor,oil, silver & gold leaf-24x36
"When I was a young person, I spent my time backpacking in the wild places of the American West. Those days instilled in me an everlasting love and reverence for the Creation—the natural world as it was meant to be.
Because my heart ever resides with the earth and its beauty, I still spend my time there. I paint the wild places—as I see them—as I hope to keep them.

Can we mend the divide between Man and his planet? Can we respect, protect, restore—that which we have broken?"

Absinthe Drinker

Douglas-Tharalson, Acrylic on Canvas
Being an artist isn't a job or even a calling. Instead it is an entire lifestyle. Living that lifestyle is the difference between producing good art and inspired art. It takes courage to live the life of an artist means to continuously live in the moment, be prepared to grasp the moment whenever it appears. You can't schedule inspiration and without inspiration there is no art!

Peace Begins at Home

Lindsay Thomson, Photograph
This image imagines Ojai as a Little Planet. Photos were digitally manipulated to create this unique composition. It was inspired by the people of Ojai who care so deeply for the community and the planet.

In 2014 Ojai was honored as an International City of Peace. This designation reminds us that the tenants of peace begin at home. We must live our lives accordingly, treating others with love, kindness and compassion.

Through living the principles of peace, we can begin to HEAL THE DIVIDE on our planet.

Beyond

Myra Toth, ceramic, wood, acrylic kinetic globe
"In Ceramics, when I think about Mending the Divide I think about repairs first - scoring, patches, filler, glue, staples, stitching, technology, interweaving. Then my mind travels to intermingling, compassion - and beyond.Life and existence are complex on many levels. As I observe and learn, it all becomes ever more intricate, infinite and interconnected.Answers are elusive.So evolved this sculpture.

Sandy-Treadwell_Lincoln, Charcoal on paper

Sandy Treadwell, Charcoal on paper
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1865

Connections

Elaine Unzicker, Stainless "Authentic Metal Lace"
Mending the divide can only happen with connections. I purposely used various sizes of connecting rings to emphasize differences, along with varying sizes of stainless mesh. Connections happen in ways we cannot predict, creating community. Coincidental, I can only venture to guess. But, I do hope each one of us continues to open to the possibility of connection and building community.

Watershed

Jules Weissman, Mixed Media on canvas, 30x24
The City of Ventura is suing property owners in the Ventura River Watershed for their water rights. Summonses were sent to thousands of residents of the Ojai Valley and West Ventura at an enormous cost to tax payers. One has to wonder how many millions of gallons of water have been removed from Lake Casitas for oil and gas extraction.

Code Blue

Lucinda Yates, Acrylic on canvas 12X48
I have challenged myself to see past the symbols and names which we use to claim recognition for what's in front of us. I see a divide between labels and reality.
I have deliberately altered the model to challenge myself to mend this divide.
Do you see a man or woman? Can you imagine this person wearing different clothing, lipstick, dangling earrings or work boots? Each label distracts me from the person in front of me.
I see you."

Three by Two Succulents

Elizabeth White, pastel
Perhaps if we remember that in spite of our apparent differences we are part of a single humanity it will help us move past this difficult time.

Mending the Divide

Soni Wright, mixed media on wood
This piece represents the forced joining of opposing elements. I prefer to let the viewer decide what those elements might be.

Why

Richard Franklin, acrylic
"The absurdity of human intolerance requires a shift in attitudes addressed by the international Peace movement.
“May Peace Prevail on Earth “"

OSA Panels for Fundraising

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