Liu Miao Chan

Born in 1946 in Taiwan to a very poor farming family, Chan toiled in the fields with his father and grandfather learning humility and discipline through hard work. Unable to suppress his artistic nature and with no money for pencil or paper, he drew endlessly in the dirt with a stick. Through a government Teacher Training Program he was able to get an education and was finally accepted at the National Art College. Gifted, he became a woodcarver, sculptor and painter.

Then fate stepped in and he became intrigued with the long lost art of leather sculpture. It took him five years of research and experimentation before he perfected his craft. In 1986, Chan was declared a "Living Treasure" by the government of Taiwan. They sponsored a tour of his work to Seoul, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Paris. His works are in the collection of the Heads of State of Hungary, Japan, Argentine, Poland, South Africa and Panama among others.

Chan's all leather sculpture reflects his expertise in creating life-like figures to scale which express depths of emotions and captures the color and movement of the soul.

"Leather is soft, alive, like skin. It is warm and allows for movement. It gives life to the work," explains Chan. And fortunately for us, Chan's genius gives unique, artistic life to the leather, to feed the world's soul. Chan does all of his own leather sculpting, which takes an inordinate amount of time.

Steve Kaufman

Renowned faces and classic logos are vitalized in electrifying hues. Crisp color blocks are broken with swaths of liquid intensity. Comic book characters weep and worry, leap and conquer. The viewer is part of a continuum of activity, preceding and succeeding a particular moment captured on canvas. The extent of Kaufman's ability to interpret popular culture is unquestionably impressive. Reflecting his early dream of being a comic book creator, familiar characters, such as Superman, play a significant role in Kaufman's art. While works focusing on the well-known images of Marvel and DC Comics answer our wish for super-human rescue from the demands of daily life, Kaufman's canvases of newly created participants in a "Mary Worth" world mock society's superficiality in a world where all is askew.

Beyond comic book characters, however, are the famous and infamous...figures of legendary repute. The tremendous influence of Beethoven or Napoleon so surpasses the bounds of their individual lives that these mere mortals are gifted with a form of super human existence even greater than that of the comic book heroes. "In selecting these figures, I am giving long overdue credit to their importance," states Kaufman. It is the impact of the individual upon society that catches the imagination of Kaufman, resulting in art of great scope and drama.

To deliver his perspectives, Kaufman has refined the silk-screening process, allowing for greater fluidity and definition in expression. Returning to the silkscreen canvas to add hand-painted touches, Kaufman's unique works reflect his changing thoughts and perspectives during the creative process. According to Kaufman, "I try to catch the spirit of the individual I've depicted. When working on the Beethoven images, I play Beethoven's music and strive to essentially become Beethoven." Each work is individual and truly captures the emotions of the creator.

Inventive by nature, Kaufman has always been intrigued with the unusual application and interpretation of the ordinary. It was the combination of inventiveness with tremendous artistic talent that actually led Kaufman to create works which would result in his first exhibition. An architect acquaintance showed Kaufman how to project images on other surfaces. Kaufman collected rounds of wood from trees cut down in the neighborhood, then projected his grandfather's pictures of the Holocaust on them, using the tree rings to symbolize the tragic span of years. Kaufman's debut exhibition opened at a Bronx bank and the Holocaust series was subsequently donated to the Jewish Holocaust Museum of art in Brooklyn.

By the age of 12, Kaufman was working at Macy's painting dog and cat faces on customers' Pet Rocks. In 1976, then just 16, Kaufman was part of a group show at New York's prestigious Whitney Museum. Having developed a highly respected reputation for his technical ability, Kaufman was offered an opportunity to work with Andy Warhol. Kaufman attended the School of Visual Arts on a full scholarship.

Leaving the Warhol Studio to commit himself fully to his own creative expression, Kaufman sought innovative opportunities to bring his are to the general public. Even though demand for his work was growing daily, Kaufman wanted to remain in touch with a broad audience. Inspired by the accessibility, Kaufman opened a one night exhibition on four New York subway cars. Using the sides of abandoned buildings, retaining walls, and other highly visible surfaces as his canvas, Kaufman completed 55 "Racial Harmony" murals in New York and made numerous media appearances to promote understanding and tolerance.

Driven to create, Kaufman considers himself a workaholic, often rising before dawn and retiring in the early hours of the day. From dreams, Kaufman frequently derives art; as quickly as a thought flashes through his mind, Kaufman visualizes art and then acts to make the image a reality. Very focused, Kaufman states, "I usually have a clear vision of the art I am creating and don't do studies or drawings in advance. Any changes I make, I do as I cut the film at my light table."

Kaufman enjoys knowing his audience becomes integrally involved with his art. "I see one thing when I view my finished work, and you may see something else...that's okay, the meaning of any work of art should be personal and not the result of my telling you what I want it to mean. I always want to encourage questioning. I do not believe there are absolutes--one should always evaluate."

Even though Kaufman is committed to his artistic endeavors, he is also tremendously involved in efforts to assist those in need. Independently creating and financially participating in campaigns promoting such themes as AIDS awareness and racial harmony, Kaufman is not just an artist, he is a philanthropist.

"In the future, I hope I can make a difference in the world, not just artistically, but in a broader sense. I hope that when I speak out regarding a cause that it carries clout. I hope that I've helped people and changed points of view because of my position. I'd like to think that even thought I am able to expand my artistic abilities to include film making, monuments, etc. that I still can prompt a smile and the acknowledgement that I'm a nice guy."

Andre Desjardins

The essence of life emerges with every stroke of Desjardins' brush, every texture and nuance, transforming the empty canvas into a statement about the mysteries of life, love and our universe itself. His thoughts are made real and hidden faces break free from the chaos of life, giving an almost serene and tranquil feeling, while muted and subtle colors coax one into a dreamlike state of viewing the mysteries that Desjardins has revealed. Born in the small Canadian town of Hauterive, Quebec, Canada, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River on March 2, 1964, Desjardins earned his bachelor's degree in Art from the University of Quebec in Montreal and owned a successful marketing firm before making the decision to pursue the freedom of painting full time. Andre's passion for life and the stories told in the faces of humanity developed early and have continued to evolve. Today he devotes his time, energy, and passion to translating emotions into images of timeless beauty and humanity as the founder of "Visual Emotionism."

Andre's passion turned to painting early this century with the encouragement of friends like Pierre Bernard who urged him "to get out of the frame." Such advice was just the right thing to say to a man who freely admits that "I love to be challenged."Desjardins has embraced the freedom that pigment and canvas provide, to develop his "Visual Emotionism" style (simultaneously expressionist and humanist) that fuses the figurative with the abstract and tells the stories of those he has encountered.

Although Desjardins credits the Spanish painter Antoni Tapies with having the greatest influence on his artistic style (primarily because of Tapies devotion to making the insignificant significant and his evolution from surrealist to abstract impressionist), it was the death of his father when he was only twelve years old that was the most profound influence on his life and his art, for it has motivated Andre "to make him live again in my own accomplishments." The art of Desjardins, the founder of "Visual Emotionism," reaches out to touch the soul as it awaits the emotional reaction of the viewer for its completion. Like the conductor of a great symphony, Desjardins uses his hands to add both emphasis and nuance to his works, for each is a representation of humanity energized by the emotions of the artist himself. As Desjardins' paintings continue to evolve, the melding of the old and the new, the Da Vinci with the Jackson Pollock, becomes more and more apparent. The fact that Desjardins chooses to create directly on the canvas serves to intensify the emotions instilled in each work as it tells its story with eloquence and passion and, through a closely guarded proprietary technique, crackling is induced to emphasize the fragility of life and add the feel of the old masters to each creation.

"Art is important because it is a universal and timeless language... it makes me feel immortal... to leave something that will last. It's my way to communicate that kind of emotion."

Renzo

"I saw what I Dreamed and the Pigment Ran"

Renzo was raised in a strictly religious environment.

As the father of "Lucid Realism", an artistic style that draws heavily on Renzo's experiences with the indigenous cultures of Australia, Costa Rica, and Mexico as it expresses the commonality of the human experience through symbolic, abstract, and figurative expressionism, he encourages the viewer to perceive the cohesion between the waking and dreaming states.

Renzo's paintings and sculptures express and communicate his observations of what he believes to be the basic qualities that separate humanity from the inanimate objects that surround it while maintaining their interconnectivity.

"Over the years I have developed an affinity to communication through symbols/pictographs; visual language."

Renzo's painted images are opaque with transparent overlays to form composites, ranging from the figurative to abstract expressionism. He always uses highly fluid paints, because of his connection with their unique qualities on the canvas. Building layer upon layer in a process of construction and illustrated depth, Renzo depicts metaphors and variables on relationships, spirituality, intent, and even tribal similes. His practice of artistic alchemy, use of brush strokes, and habit of scratching at the surface of the canvas to produce a primal nature to these imaginary vehicles help to convey an ever illusive inspiration through each painting.

His sculptures, on the other hand, are bold three-dimensional translations of his paintings, bringing them to life with 360 degrees of unmistakable Mezzo-American flavor replete with symbolism and deep meanings to be discovered by the viewer. Rock or stone, for instance, are used as metaphors for emotion and history, as they have been here since the beginning of time, while ropes and other bindings are used to convey the truth that our emotions, feelings, culture, and history is always with us and masks represent the facade that we present to others, our outer self, that hides our soul and spirit, sometimes even from ourselves.

Renzo has shown his work throughout California and is in the permanent collections of the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. His work is also represented in the ongoing exhibition for the Kaiser Corporation, as well as public and commercial galleries in Florida, Nevada, Texas, Germany and Mexico.

While creating his art over the years, Renzo has held various positions within the visual arts arena including: illustrator, art director, graphic designer and exhibit designer. He has also worked as an instructor and career development administrator at The Art Institute of California in San Diego, California, where he was responsible for faculty management, curriculum development and undergraduate instruction.

Now painting and sculpting full time in Southern California, Renzo's "Lucid Realism" creations portray a level of tactile skill and competence that evoke a personal involvement from the viewer. By incorporating pictographic symbols and the metaphoric properties of objects such as rock, stone, masks, rope, and other bindings, Renzo amplifies his "Lucid Realism" and at once poses and answers provocative questions.

Max Gold

Max Gold created his first "Fusion Art" painting at the close of the 1990's, appropriately welcoming in the new millennium with the fulfillment of his personal quest for an original idea - an as yet uncharted way to transform his life's visions into unique works of art.

"There was a piece I had in mind that couldn't be created with the traditional mediums, so I invented a way to fuse digital art and hand painting as a means to an end."

After introducing the concept in 2001 at the New York International Art Expo, Max Gold is today embraced by the commercial art world as "The Father of Fusion Art." His pioneering artistic signature, this bold merger of digital art and hand painting, has placed him at the vanguard of the burgeoning digital art revolution, and his work is exhibited at over 100 galleries nationwide. Visually, Gold's vibrant and idiosyncratic style - distinguished by universal icons and vivid colors - evokes the best of the Pop Art tradition and 20th century masters.

Gold's original works of Fusion Art are three-dimensional assemblages that layer multiple pieces of hand-painted acrylic glass to produce one compound vision. When aligned in a finished 3-D construct, the separate images are choreographed into a single interlocking whole, vibrant with intense brush strokes and elegantly clean lines. Before painting, Gold always first marks the glass with his fingerprints, authenticating the luminous pieces in his own personal way.

Dyslexic, and diagnosed with ADD and hyperactivity, Gold doesn't see those challenges as obstacles, but rather another element about himself that he channels into his creative expression.

"It gives my art a unique perspective. I experience things differently, which makes for a form of communication that's completely my own."

Mark Story

"The photographs for this portrait series were taken in various locations around the world between 1987 and 2005.

The Gerontology Research Group estimates there are 250,000 centenarians (people 100 years and older) currently living in the world. In rare instances, people live to 110 years and beyond, inspiring a new demographic label: supercentenarian. The Gerontology Research Group, through rigorous investigation of records, acknowledges about 65 supercentenarians, and estimates that about 350 are alive worldwide today.

The idea to photograph people who have lived in three centuries evolved over the course of the project. First, I was simply interested in taking portraits of people who appear worn beyond their years by living extraordinarily hard lives. Those experiences drew me to centenarians, and on to supercentenarians and their stories.

People consistently ask the same questions when viewing the portraits: How does a person live to be 114 years old? What do these long-lived people have in common that makes many of them look younger than people in their 90s, 80s and even 70s? The notes on aging is a short review of the current research on longevity.

The experience of talking with a 110 year-old man whose father stood next to Abraham Lincoln during the Gettysburg Address does not easily lend itself to words. A photograph seemed appropriate."

-Mark Story, September, 2005

M.L. Snowden

International art critic, Remo Nevi describes M.L. Snowden as a "Great figurative contemporary master whose profound and powerfully realized portfolio places the artist among the world's most respected representational sculptors at work today." In 1992 Snowden won the world's most prestigious sculpture prize, The International Rodin Competition in Tokyo, Japan, hosted in cooperation with the Embassies of Belgium, Finland, France, Israel, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, The United States and thirty other countries.

M.L. Snowden is the sole living inheritor of select 19th century marble carving, finishing, casting and bronze patination techniques from the Paris studios of Auguste Rodin and Antonin Mercie. Snowden sculpted alongside her father for seventeen years as an apprentice and as a professional in Snowden Studios. In 1990, Snowden inherited a collection of 38 of the original sculpting tools from the Rodin Studios. Rodin's tools were bequeathed to Snowden's Father by the Swiss sculptor, Robert Georges Eberhard, who was Chairman of the Yale School of Sculpture for almost fifty years and was a professional in Rodin's studios in the latter part of the 19th century. Eberhard was a mentor to the sculptor's father, George H. Snowden(1901-1990).

Over the last decade, Snowden has pursued sculpture as an expression of titanic geological phenomena and the impact of mankind on his environment. In 1998, she was awarded the massive multi million dollar Carano Gordon Atlanta Commission to create the sculptor's vision for the largest cohesive body of bronze extant in the latter half of the 20th century. The commission to date comprises 100 works ranging to four tons apiece with an edition to 800 works of completed sculpture. In this collection, notable explorations into extrusion, inclusion, advanced gravity pour techniques, innovative chasing protocols, recombinant jeweler and bronze techniques, Snowden's restructuring of proprietary historic wax and patina formulations and other ground breaking techniques for the art of bronze have been advanced. In Snowden's GEOLOGICAL COLLECTION, the fine art of bronze is shaped, redefined and celebrated. An ongoing 16 City national tour of M.L.SNOWDEN: THE LEGACY OF RODIN has been made possible by Advanstar International Art Group, Masterpiece Publishing Inc. and other sponsors.

In the year 2000, Snowden was commissioned to create the GREAT ANGELS OF THE MAIN ALTAR for the new $200 million Los Angeles Cathedral from a field of 8,000 international portfolios. In addition, Snowden is the sculptor of the ANGEL FRIEZE for the Cathedral's Visitor's Center, the first representation of a group of Angels for a permanent public setting in the history of the City of Los Angeles. In 1989, Snowden was named the inaugural winner of the Alex Ettl Grant for "Lifetime Achievement in American Sculpture" presented by the National Sculpture Society in New York City. In addition to creating the 14 foot high Glendale Police Memorial for the new $56 million civic plaza in the City of Glendale, Snowden's lifetime works have been collected by a worldwide investment syndicate to advance the formation of a museum solely dedicated to the perpetual exhibition of Snowden's ouevre and heritage. Most recently, M.L. Snowden was awarded the inaugural Presidential Order of Merit "In Recognition of Significant Contributions to the Betterment of Humanity Through Art," presented by the Fine Art Foundation with the sculptor's work recently added to the Presidential art collection at the White House. The sculptor maintains studios in Long Beach, Paris and Austria.

Ansel Adams

With more than half a century of camera work behind him, Ansel Adams stands as one of America's greatest landscape photographers. His career is punctuated with countless elegant, handsomely composed, and technically flawless photographs of magnificent natural landscapes. No contemporary photographer equaled the lifetime contributions of Ansel Adams in bringing public recognition of the art of photography or taught so widely the techniques of black and white photography. His strength as an artist is largely attributed to his tireless investigation of the methods of photography, developing a careful darkroom technique of exposure and development he called the Zone System.

Striking photographs of Yosemite and the surrounding Sierra Nevada capturing the elusive visual myth and mood of these wild places became the wellspring of Ansel Adam's consciousness and brought him widespread popular acclaim. His intimate understanding as well as passion for conservation of this pristine wilderness gave Ansel Adams the energy and tenacity needed to bring subjects to life for a wider public.

His reputation has been firmly established by exhibitions in virtually every major American art museum, three Guggenheim Fellowships and a score of publications. Photography West Gallery features The Ansel Adams Room with a permanent rotating exhibition of ever-changing images by this legendary master.