We have been proud to showcase the work of local artists in our lobby over the years with approximately four exhibits a year.  Local artists interested in exhibiting their work should contact Vicki Vidaurri at v.vidaurri@2100webster.com.

Now featuring  works by Darcy Fitzpatrick

February 1st through April 30th

Jian Zhao

Little Beach Trail – Darcy Fitzpatrick

Darcy Fitzpatrick is a Professional Artist in Marin County, California with a BA in Fine Arts from UC Santa Cruz and a Graduate Degree in Education.

Early Life
Darcy has always been a passionate Artist. Some of her fondest childhood memories are of painting classes at the De Young Museum and painting wildlife at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco – where her Father was Chief Curator of the Steinhart Aquarium.

As an exchange student in Glarus, Switzerland, Darcy took numerous painting classes and traveled around Europe studying art of the masters.

Influences
While studying at U.C. Santa Cruz, Darcy was greatly influenced by her professor and mentor, Mr. Eduardo Carrillo. A renowned painter with a museum dedicated to his works, Eduardo was a source of inspiration and enlightenment.

Other artists that have influenced Darcy include Edgar Payne, Kevin Short, Erin Hansen, Georgia O’Keeffe, and mentor and founder of Marin Open Studios, Kay Carlson.

Intention and Style
Darcy enjoys working in several mediums, including intricate Goauche watercolors, whimsical children’s collages, and her preferred medium, oil on canvas. Her subjects are predominately flowers, landscapes, and wildlife.

The intention of Darcy’s art is to capture movement and patterns in nature in a way that evokes emotion. Using impasto techniques to deepen and layer texture and colorist methods to exaggerate palette, she hopes to inspire “a feeling”.

Darcy intends to grow as an Artist, exploring new techniques, mediums, and subjects. She’s happiest when painting in her studio in Muir Beach – dancing around joyfully with her headphones on.

Past Artists

Jian Zhao

Jian Zhao is one of the most accomplished and controversial artists to emerge from China in recent years. An honor graduate from the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, He has exhibited widely and collected many awards and scholarships during his career as an artist.

Since 1986, Zhao has extended his art to what he calls “Concept 21” multi-media theatrical performances, depicting the complexity and beauty of the human condition, which were viewed as controversial. He continued his trend setting with performances at the Great Wall and Ming Tombs in later years. In the United States, Zhao has exhibited at the San Bernardino County Museum, Triton Museum of Art, California Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, P.S.1 Museum and other galleries in the United States. His work has been purchased by collectors from Finland to Malaysia and can be seen in museums throughout the world.

On June 23, 2001, Zhao’s seven-mile long earth-art work “Olympic Dragon” was unfurled on the Great Wall of China in support of Beijing’s bid for the 2008 Olympics. The work is noted in The Guinness Book of Records as the longest artwork in the world, and the China Postal Service and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Game Bid Committee issued a cover to commemorate the event. Juxtaposed with the “Olympic Dragon ” was a 16-foot tall bronze dragon head sculpture, which is a permanent fixture at the Great Wall. A 40-foot tall duplicate of the sculpture will be located at a new Olympic Park in Beijing. The event had live coverage by national and international media. Zhao was also featured in the national media CCTV show, “Oriental Horizon,” which is China’s most-watched TV magazine program. “Olympic Dragon” has been called one of the ten most important events of the bid to bring the Olympics to China.

In the past he has performed 2 artwork memorials for 9/11 victims, It was covered internationally by CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, Japan TV, CCTV (China National),Span TV, Russian National TV and was listed in TIME magazine, making the front pages of many newspapers and headlining many TV and radio news broadcasts including NEW YORK POST, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, S.F.CHRONICLE, S.J.MERCURY, EXAMINER…

Nicholas Coley was born in Connecticut in 1971 and raised in Muir Beach, California. He hitchhiked around the states for a couple years after high school trying to find Don Juan and Carlos Castenada. He was sure he had a destiny to become a medicine man or a brujo, but after getting hepatitis in a hostel in Santa Fe, he moved to Europe and studied art at the Beaux-Arts plus another small school for painting in the south of France. He lived, studied, and meditated daily for a year in a Buddhist Monastery outside of Bordeaux. After reading ‘The Tropic of Capricorn’ by Henry Miller, he decided he was not meant for the disciplined, monastic life and went off in search for a more creative and spontaneous world, taking him to Prague for a year and selling paintings to tourists on the Charles Bridge. From there he took the Trans Siberian railroad through Russia and deep into China before having a complete spiritual collapse in the summer of ’94. The good news is it’s been a slow climb back up the mountain toward the beneficence and belonging of a higher power. Anchored by the love of a good woman he’s actually been able to support his family, three extraordinary little kids (and seven chickens) even putting a downpayment on a house…all exclusively with the proceeds from painting sales, which he’s damn proud of and still sort of in dumb happy shock. For almost 20 years now he has been painting full time, almost everyday. Turns out, he was something of a medicine man after all.
Upwards Over the Mountain by Nicholas Clay
Alex Friedman

Alex Friedman has been creating tapestries for over 40 years. After completing her degree in Art History at Skidmore College, she turned to creating textiles with passion. She worked on a huge commission
for Pan Am’s first fleet of jumbo jets and followed that with weaving commissions for corporate, liturgical and private clients.

As Director and Board member of the American Tapestry Alliance
(2000-2008), she chaired an international community of over
600 members.

Since returning to California from abroad, she maintains a studio
in Sausalito, is an active member of Tapestry Weavers West, and serves on the board of the Textile Arts Council at the de Young Museum of San Francisco.
She exhibits her tapestries nationally and internationally.

www.alexfriedmantapestry.com