Our Ceramics studio, with master teacher Barbara Andino Stevenson, is a vibrant tapestry of collaboration and friendship, where the art of clay comes alive through collective creativity. Within these walls, hands mold raw earth into expressions of beauty and meaning. The kiln's transformative embrace mirrors our shared journey, firing bonds that strengthen with every piece. Through shared ideas and supportive hands, we shape more than clay – we shape connections that endure, celebrating the profound resonance of human expression fired into every ceramic piece.

Water is a precondition for human existence. It is a finite, irreplaceable resource, playing an intrinsic role in every culture. River Mumma invites the audience to return to a respect for nature and the power of water and highlights that which is being lost and devalued in our modern world. Sharon Virtue is a British artist of Jamaican and Irish decent. Her residency has been impacted literally by the current issues of climate change in particular those concerning water.

“Like many artists, I'm fascinated by the forms and textures of natural objects. Some time back, I launched into a lifelong project to capture and unite them into works of art I call "Juxtamorphs". This has taken me on a journey of exploration and discovery through many media, starting with ceramics, through castings in metal and other materials, direct assemblies of found and made objects, holograms, rubbings, 3D prints, and CNC carvings.”– Andrew Werby

Effluxes/Outpourings: Color & Light Works for Sublimity, Wonder, Awe and Delight Visual Antidotes in an Age of Uncertainty and Human Vulnerability

My creative journey has spanned many years and miles. Formerly a native of Montreal, I enjoyed a career in advertising and graphic design before moving along the coast to Portland, Maine, the shores of North Carolina and ultimately westward to the Bay Area. The bodies of water and rolling hills that filled me with inspiration became the subject matter of my oil paintings. Today, as a studio artist in Marin, I paint intuitively, gravitating towards an interpretation of nature that is pared down, fluid and serene.

Steep yourself in a cornucopia of creativity by perusing three galleries inside Art Works Downtown.

In my works, the sculptures will sometimes take on their own shapes. This can happen through something as simple as the pressure of my hands or something completely out of my control, like the firing or glazing process. There have been many happy and some not-so-happy accidents throughout this process. But, as my hands dance with the clay, I find a way to communicate and express how I see and experience the world. This process is sometimes joyful, painful, or disturbing, just like life and the world around us. I'm always captivated by the interaction between myself with the clay. It's as if I'm not entirely in control of what is created. I now find beauty in the mystery of what the final product will become, as if something came through me of its own desire.

Over the last two years, I have designed funky, narrative, gestural spaces through my lens as a painter. The spaces likely do not create a functioning architecture as they are only built inside my small laptop but they participate in a radical sensitivity to experience. My recent studies in the realm of architecture gave rise to a love of the tactility of painting pigments as well as established a re-valuation of the handcrafted tectonics that can evoke basic human emotion.

I tend to paint people in moments of introspection or concentration when they show their real character and mood which are normally behind the mask they put on in public. My painting is also about story telling. I try to tell stories that show the hidden truth that I sense exists deep within their own experience of the world, and reflects their living condition, their mental state, their interests, and other aspects of their disposition of being. My goal is to search out the humanity within these situations.

Marianne Owens Photography recent artwork is inspired by Surrealism because of its power to invite each of us to create our own story from the images we see. Each image is its’own story depending on the viewer. As a landscape and found-object photographer, I play with the possibility of creating new meaning through combined images.

I was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. At the age of seven I would look up at the stars and I dreamed of a better life that was different from the one that I had. So I moved to Mexico City to live with my grandparents. Even though I was not encouraged to pursue art, my passion bloomed in Mexico City. Exposure to Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo inspired my painting style.

Steep yourself in a cornucopia of creativity by perusing two galleries in the sub-terranian level of AWD. Visitors and holiday shoppers will surely discover unexpected inspiration amongst the variety of mediums, compositions, and expressions.