Foster Beigler's Discoveryscapes After Insecta
In Little House Galleries in September

Foster Beigler is a multi-media artist. She spent twenty-five years in international television as a photojournalist, an occupation that allowed her to travel the world extensively. She documented and published worldwide on twelve sets of Olympic Games covering the advances in television technology.

Mid-way in her photographic career she attended San Francisco Art Institute to study painting and drawing. This became a life changing activity to annex additional media in the creation of her imagery. This was expanded with a continuation of workshops in traditional printmaking.

From 1988-1991 she co-founded with Marta Thoma, the South Bay Area Women's Caucus for Art Chapter of the national WCA. In 1992, she attended the 25th Anniversary of the Tamarind Institute in New Mexico and was inspired by the collaborative process in printmaking that came out of this great institution.

In 1995 she founded Rocky Vine Press in Sonoma County, availing her studio to a weekly life-drawing group. She conducted monotype workshops and invited professional artists unfamiliar with the printmaking process to work with a master printmaker.

Her solo exhibitions include, Montruex, Switzerland, Indianapolis and Zionsville, Ind., Palo Alto and Santa Rosa, CA., and multiple group exhibitions in Europe and the U.S.

Discoveryscapes After Insecta
In the on going series, Discoveryscapes After Insecta, I am working with traditional linoleum and woodcut materials. I have a sense of connection with what went before, and also a connection with the digital age. I derive a sense of pleasure and exclusion from the world around me as my hands guide me while carving out thousands of little pieces of material from the flat surface of wood or linoleum. 

Initially, my innocent curiosity to play with an image of a beetle in a woodcut catapulted me into the arena of entomology. My continuation to greedily seek information on this significant species led me to other insect orders. I admit, I am not an academic, but an artist. Discoveryscapes After Insecta is my expression of wonderment of coleopteran (beetles), whose fossil records date back to and over 350 million years.  Naturalists and entomologists for several centuries to the present focused on the phenomena of the Coleopteran’s exquisite productive and destructive evolution into their environments.  My objective is that the viewer will also sense the wonderment of these little animals that are under our feet and rule the world.

If ancient lineage and priority in solving the problems of existence on this planet are of interest, then one should not fail to make the acquaintance of the insects.  Julie Closson Kenly, 1940

This art series, Discoverscapes After Insecta, is a continuation of the mind, heart, and is my plowing field of exploration. I struggle when astray and discover new visual experiences off the comfortable pathway.  This art is an extension of my knowledge, feelings, and visceral expressions.  The challenge for me is to move forward as an artist, and not stay comfortable with technical skills, that can be a trap in safe and sane art.  Foster Beigler, 2011

Martha Castillo Clayprint Studios

From July 17th through the end of August, Peninsula Volunteers Little House Galleries will be pleased to be showing the clay prints of Martha Castillo. Come visit and view these unique works of art.

Martha Castillo's life reflects many facets of the arts. Starting with classical ballet as a young girl, she later discovered a passion for theatre, along with ceramics, collage, and the visual arts. She holds a BFA in theatre arts, and a Master's degree in Art Therapy.

In the mid 70's, Martha embarked on an exploration of ceramics as a sculpture medium, and continued her studies in England where she lived for seven years. In 1993, Martha returned to California. She focused for a time on collage and mixed media, and continued her studies of various other art techniques. During an investigation into fine art printmaking, she was introduced to Mitch Lyons* and his innovative new technique, clay monoprint, or "clayprinting". Now working almost exclusively in this medium, she sets some time aside for teaching.

n addition to gallery representation, Martha shows in alternative spaces, including her own studio. Martha's paintings have been compared to Richard Diebenkorn, and Hans Hoffman, among others.

For a visual demonstration of how she creates her prints, go to Martha's website: http://www.marthacastillo.net/workshop-demo/

We'll Always Have Paris - Photography Show at Little House

Little House Galleries is pleased to host a colorful photography show, "We'll Always Have Paris".

If you've always hungered to have tea with Gertrude Stein, drinks with Hemingway and Fitzgerald, have your portrait painted by Matisse, sip an absinthe while Eric Satie tickles the ivories for you, dance to Django Reinhardt's "gypsy jazz" - well, then this show may spark some more daydreaming!

No, we can't pay for your plane fare. So do come and visit the show and dream of walks along the quais of the Seine.....

Eric Zane Shapira: The Art of Creativity

Retrospective of Paintings
May 1 - June 30, 2011
Monday - Thursday 8am-9pm
Friday, 9am-5pm
Closed Weekends

Artist Reception
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 5pm-7pm
RSVP - 650-326-2025 x231
Refreshments served

About the Artist

I have been artistic since I was a child studying dance, piano, theater, painting, working in clay, carving rock and doing bronze work. I took art courses in college and studied sculpture, painting and drawing. I am basically a self-taught artist. I studied Art with: Every Woman's Village, Van Nuys; John Raymond, Sculptor, Painter, Topanga Canyon; Bethany College Art Department, Bethany, West VA; Ed Stanton, Artist, Pacific Arts League, Palo Alto, CA.

Phone: 650-728-5827 | Email: eric@drshapira.com | Web: www.ericshapira.com

Frances Freyberg: Around the World In 30,000 Photographs

In 2008, emerging photographer Frances Freyberg left her job in high-tech communications to travel the world for a year, taking photos and writing about her experiences. Over the course of the year, she took more than 30,000 photographs across 41 different countries. This exhibit includes some of her favorite photos from Asia, India, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and North and South America.

While traveling, Freyberg encouraged people to follow her journey through her educational weblog (www.wheresfrances.blogspot.com), which featured weekly photos, as well as historical and cultural information about the countries she visited. Upon her return to the Bay Area, she published a 400-page book of her blog, available through blurb.com (www.blurb.com/books/1374124).

Through her photography, she hopes to educate people about our world, and to inspire them to get out and experience it for themselves. She's particularly drawn to scenes that express beauty, excitement, humor and diversity, whether through a brilliantly colored blossom or a poignant face in the crowd. Freyberg's photos can be found in galleries, publications and private collections worldwide, as well as online at www.francesfreyberg.com.

William Szarowicz: Exploring Character and Spirituality

Bill was a gallery owner in New Orleans for 30 years and was recently displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He has had an interesting journey that has taken him across five different continents over six decades.

From his time in the clergy, to his entrepreneurship in the French Quarter, he has gained an intriguing perspective on life and the human condition which is reflected in his art. It is these personal life experiences that give his exposition of human character such power and depth.

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Peninsula Volunteers, Inc.
800 Middle Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Telephone: 650-326-0665
Fax: 650-326-9547