Interview with Wendy Sussman: Real Painting Painter Wendy Sussman's untimely death in April of 2001 left a void in the San Francisco Bay Area artworld. Sussman was an artist of impeccable integrity and great depth. Following is perhaps the only interview on record with this remarkable artist. The interview took place in Sussman's studio just before the Fall Semester began at U.C. Berkely where she taught painting. We began talking about how certain painters utilized the shapes of elements in their paintings to resonate with and deepen the content of the image. Wendy Sussman:  I always have to find an image. Once I ... Sep 2, 2000, 50295 reads

An Interview with Betsy Damon: Living Water I first heard about Betsy Damon from Sam Bower of greenmuseum.org. Water is Damon's passionate subject. She was studying sacred springs in China when she began meeting individuals interested in water from many different angles. Amazingly, this eventually led to an invitation to review a major water project in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. Due to her critique, the project was scrapped. Even more amazingly, Damon, in spite of not being affiliated with any institution or group, was asked to design a new project. And it was built! According to her it's the first ... Dec 25, 2009, 48573 reads

Following Taya: As many readers of this magazine will know, Taya Doro Mitchell is unusual. [see issue #16] What readers won't know is that, at the age of 74, Taya left East Oakland and moved to a small agricultural community on the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It wasn't that Taya was tired of her practice of decorating the new bullet holes in her windows from nighttime activities in her neighborhood. She had lived there a long time and wasn't afraid, she told me, even coming home late at night-which was typical. And she was content with solitude, she assured me.       Taya ... Sep 22, 2011, 48480 reads

An Art of Joy: A Conversation with Gale Wagner:  Early in 1992 I got an unexpected call: "Why don't you come over to the studio tonight at 6:30 and bring some food. There will be lots of artists here." It was Gale Wagner. I'd met him only a week or two earlier at Peggy Williams' place in Alameda, the Courtyard. In those days her restaurant and gallery was where Alameda's art flame was protected and fed. One day a heroic statue of Peggy will stand at the foot of the High Street bridge, gateway to the island's East End. Or it should. If Gale wasn't an Oaklander, maybe his would be there, ... Jun 17, 2010, 47786 reads

Art 12: A Day in Drawing Class with Jane Rosen Rosen, a New York artist and teacher, after living, exhibiting and working in SoHo for twenty years, moved to a rural horse ranch on the San Mateo Coast to allow her work with nature—especially her interest in relating animal nature to the possibilities of our own "better nature"—to be informed in a new way. Rosen now lives in California full-time, has retired from teaching and offers drawing workshops at her 40 acre ranch several times a year. Following is a transcript from a day in one of her drawing classes at UC Berkeley. "I was driving up ... Mar 14, 2001, 46705 reads

The Sound of One Hand Clapping: An Conversation with Terrance Meyer One morning I looked up from my cup of tea in a local coffee shop and was surprised to see a man at work on a little painting sitting at a table nearby. Such a sight was a first for me in this particular neighborhood. I walked over, took a peek, and was surprised again. It was really good. I complimented him on his work and we struck up a conversation.        He was just passing through, he told me. He’d been in Seattle and had come down to the Bay Area where he was staying for a few days with a friend. It didn’t sound like his accommodations were ... Oct 2, 2000, 46663 reads

Interview: Erik d'Azevedo: Culture Shock I met Erik d’Azevedo at his home studio in west Berkeley. D’Azevedo is small in stature, intense and very articulate. As usual, there is too much to say, too many connections and failed connections. Too much experience, struggle and history—over 35 years of painting. And before long, we’re going back even further, to some of the artist’s earliest memories from the age of four and five. D’Azevedo’s father was an anthropologist, a fact which has had profound effects on the artist’s life. When Erik was quite young, his father took the ... May 3, 2004, 46168 reads

Carlo Ferretti's Cove: Mr. Ferretti was apologetic, but yes, if I didn't mind entering a construction zone, we could meet at his home which was not so far away. He was doing some remodeling, he explained. Something about the way he spoke reminded me of an impression I'd gotten from his email notes. A kind of gentility, a degree of understatement perhaps, a manner from a different culture. Of the photos he'd sent me of his work, one stood out, a piece of public art he'd completed in the town of Albany where he lives, a small community just north of Berkeley. On the phone giving ... Oct 6, 2003, 45797 reads

Interview: Milford Zornes: An Artist's Life I was in Claremont, California—a town I knew well from my college days. But in recent years my visits were to see my mother who was living there in a retirement community. We'd spent the morning together and I'd gone into town to pick up something for her and also because I wanted to wander around and look in on some old haunts. While strolling along Yale Avenue I noticed a sign: Claremont Fine Arts. Hmm. I didn't remember the place and peeking through the window, I saw a room full of conventional landscapes and still lifes. Stepping in for a better ... Jul 11, 2008, 45174 reads

Reflections and Reconfigurations: Conversation with Lisa Kokin Enjoying the sunset on a serene Bay Area country road in late summer while driving to interview Lisa Kokin, and pulling up the driveway of the secluded home she shares with her partner, I once again took note of how artists have a way of seeing the possibilities in things and places that others have overlooked. This was elaborated in our conversation about the many phases of her art career. Found and collected objects, the throwaways of our culture, have been the foundation of her work for many years now. After a tour in Lisa's recently built studio with many examples of her work, new ... Nov 21, 2010, 44593 reads