Art @ ONT

Artist Biography:

After retiring from a 35-year career as a nurse and geriatric nurse practitioner, Terry Flanigan began painting full time. She works primarily with acrylics though recently expanded her palette to include watercolors. Her subject matter is varied and includes architecture and landscapes, though she has discovered that her true passion lies with painting living beings – animals and plants. Pet portraits are her absolute favorite.

Artist Statement:

I create acrylic paintings on canvas for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of others. I strive to improve my technical skills as a painter. Art has been used historically and in the present for healing. Scientific studies have shown that creating and viewing art helps reduce stress. I hope my paintings have put a smile on your face.

Artist Biography:

Jack Flanigan won his first drawing contest at age 5. Because he suffered from dyslexia, academic learning was hard; painting and creativity were his escape. A sympathetic teacher asked him to create her bulletin boards. She gave him tools and an opaque projector to work with, building confidence and self-esteem. It also helped him see the joy and happiness his work brings to others. He hopes that those who admire his art will take away the wonder and elation of light and space that he plays with as he paints.

Artist Statement:

I create acrylic paintings that capture primarily desert landscapes and structural subject matter through expressive brush strokes and exceptional color. I use acrylic, water-soluable paints, brushes of varying sizes, and canvases of varying sizes. I enjoy painting plein air as well as less restrictive, more imaginative studio painting. I am inspired by architecture, landscape and flora of the Coachella Valley. I use fast brush strokes, an impressionist narrative, and draw on my observations and experiences to create my paintings. I often paint at La Quinta Resort because it exemplifies Southern California’s landscape and architecture. Recent works have more intense brightness and color due to the saturation of light in the desert.

Artist Biography:

Robyn MacNair is an arts educator, administrator, advocate and champion working in a large urban school district in California. During her career, she has supported and created opportunities for children, young adults and educators, enabling them to pursue creative interests, passions and aptitudes. Her most recent work reflects her internal grappling with how she views what she has always known. She seeks new narratives while embracing ambiguity and curiosity. Her intent is to invite the viewer to reimagine what is on the surface as worn, past usefulness, or destined to stay frozen in time and a second act.

Artist Statement:

I use creative play, investigation and expression as a critical life force for my own well-being. Encaustic painting is a perfect medium to manifest the multiple layers and complexities associated with letting go, resilience and good fortune. My work is infused with layers, rewarding those willing to look more deeply and discover surprises in the nuances of my work. I am inspired by travel, artistic experiences as well as all types of artists and art forms. I continue to study, learn and hone my craft in studio practice.

Artist Biography:

Clarine Commins was born in Brooklyn, NY, raised on Long Island and in Los Angeles and now lives in Palm Springs. Fiber arts were a strong presence in her childhood home – her mother taught her to knit and to appreciate the functionality, versatility and beauty of fibers. Her father, an architect, instilled in her the importance of shape and form. Both taught her to be rebellious and curious, themes that are ever-present in her work. After retiring from a long career as a designer/manufacturer of women’s accessories and clothing, Clarine dedicated her time to exploring and furthering her artistic voice. Her knitting evolved into sustainable and functional art vessels and her felting techniques expanded to include wet felting, fulling and dry felting.

Artist Statement:

My textural pieces represent today’s fascination with color and the desire to challenge traditional rules of form and function. My art includes elements of contrasting vibrant colored fibers, purposefully applied to evoke movement and vibration. My pieces are meant to evoke an emotional response in the viewer. I use different felt-making techniques to create malleable pieces of sustainable wool fabric that I shape into colorful, durable, sculptural 3-D wall hangings.

Artist Biography:

Mark has been painting and drawing since his youth. He studied art at Chaffey College (AA degree) and the University of California Riverside. He is a member of Associated Artists of the Inland Empire, Pomona Valley Art Association, Chaffey Community Museum of Art and Riverside Art Museum. He has won numerous awards for his art. Since retiring, he has actively pursued his interest in art, exhibiting at museums, galleries and local art exhibition.

Artist Statement:

Art is a predominant influence in my life and the creative process is inherent in me. I enjoy painting in watercolor, acrylic, oil and mixed media. My subject matter includes landscapes, architecture, figure studies, still life and abstract expressionism.

Artist Biography:

I made my first pot in 1964 when I gathered clay from a puddle after a thunder shower in Mesa Verde National Park. I fired it in an evening campfire shared with graduate students in archaeology working as ranger/archeologists. I did not stick with anthropology, but switched to a career as a psychotherapist. I continued to pursue ceramics as an avocation. Following retirement in 2007, he made ceramics a major undertaking of my retirement years. In 2018 I became a resident artist at AMOCA (American Museum of Ceramic Art).

Artist Statement:

These pots represent the range across which I work. I have two basic styles: one influenced by my background in archeology (a friend’s comment was “It looks ancient, but you know it isn’t”) and one more eclectic. The strongest influence on my eclectic style is my self-identification as a colorist and my background in psychology. On the Rorschach test, color reflects emotion – an idea I use in my most dramatically-colored works. Color is not easy to manage. The kiln does its own thing. Sometimes the flames yield wonderful results; other times they spoil the form.

Artist Biography:

Pamela Fall is a photographer and artist, fascinated by man’s expression through art, culture and architecture. She combines her love for Italy, art and photography by taking images to a new level – painting photographs with watercolors. She paints the entire image (including details), enhancing the three-dimensional quality of each photograph. The resulting high-definition texture creates a wonderful new perspective. Her art is in collections around the world; was featured on the Discovery Channel; and Italian art festivals. She also shows her work at the Laguna Art-A-Fair Festival.

Artist Statement:

After several visits to the country to see Italian friends, I fell in love with the history, culture, art and architecture of Italy. By combining my love for art and photography, I have chosen to take my images to a new level. Photographs are printed on high quality watercolor paper, then meticulously painted by hand with watercolors applied directly onto the entire image. The color placement enhances the three-dimensional quality of each photograph, resulting in color and texture that create a dimensional quality. Each “painting” is an original, one-of-a-kind work of art.

Artist Biography:

1950s rural North Dakota may not seem like an ideal environment for a “different” sort of child, but for Gorman, it fostered a sensitive awareness of the potential and needs within himself and others. That played well into his life career as an educator, and later, as an artist. Gorman lives with his husband in Claremont, California and exhibits locally in several venues. Artist Gorman Bentley with his exhibit in Terminal 2. Gorman took advantage of the new ONT+ program to view his exhibit.

Artist Statement:

I am an “intuitive” artist. As a child, I spent countless hours staring into the vast Dakota prairies, carefully noting the subtle colors, textures and forms of each season. The memory of those elements is now infused into my work on canvas. I am not typically interested in painting what has already been seen or what words alone can express. Each work begins with one selected color and evolves from the first brush stroke to when the work says it is finished. I invite you to enter the enormous and desolate world my young mind once imagined and use what is painted on the canvas to make your own unique discoveries of self.

Artist Biography:

Ichen Le is a self-taught alcohol ink emerging artist who began her artistic journey in 2021. As a very young child, she was once deeply in love with making art. Growing up in the academically competitive and results-driven culture in Taipei, Taiwan, she unconsciously denied her artist soul. In 2020 she had a transformative turn of life, started walking the inner path, and connected to her spirituality through meditation and Jungian analysis. After being a financial advisor for 17 years, Ichen finally worked up enough courage to call herself an artist in 2021. For her, art is the reclaiming of her original essence. It’s hanging out and having fun with her inner child.

Artist Statement:

I create images that come to me through intuition and dreams. The fluidity and highly intuitive process of alcohol ink is what mesmerizes me so deeply. Through the flow of the liquid ink, pushed by air or pulled by gravity, the creative process is especially freeing. Each piece is a unique existence that cannot be duplicated. The process of making alcohol ink art is a constant reminder of my favorite quote:
"You’re afraid to surrender because you don’t want to lose control. But you never had control; all you had was anxiety."
 - Elizabeth Gilbert

Artist Biography:

Ingrid Tegnér was born in Southern California and spent most of her childhood years on Air Force bases. Sonic booms dominated the sound landscape of her childhood. She traveled, lived in Sweden, then the Washington DC area, her home for many years. Her return to California was prompted by a need to be closed to her aging parents. A former social worker with a lifelong passion for art, she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2019. For Ingrid, making art is a means of spiritual development and soul expression. Her process includes deep reflection and meditation.

Artist Statement:

As a resident of Riverside, California, I sense the vibrations of sonic booms and earthquakes regularly. When I was researching the San Andreas fault, I was fascinated by the visual imagery of a simulated earthquake. I have created those visual patterns with suminagashi, a Japanese paper marbling technique. Literally, the word means “ink floating.”The suminagashi layers are placed under layers of wax, like the seismic activity we sense underground. I made the marks on top of the wax using a stencil I created with vintage player piano rolls – music from the past, from another time of great social inequity: 1929.

Artist Biography:

Being born and raised in Southern California, the diversity of its topography and culture have provided fertile breeding ground for my imagination and inspiration for creating digital fine art. I create sometimes for a living, and sometimes for fun, yet always as a passion. What inspires me? Anything and everything. I don’t represent a single theme. My work is the visual fruit of my varied and random interests. I follow no formalities. No vetting process is more important than my own. That’s the beauty of creating fine art when compared to my career in commercial design. There’s no single way to represent beauty provided it’s done with conviction.

Artist Statement:

Victoria Johnson, known as The Sketchie Beast, is a career designer and illustrator, now emerging as a digital fine artist. She entered her first painting in a public competition at seven years of age, and then began indulging her passion for art. Since her first fine art showing at the prestigious Art-a-Fair in Laguna Beach three years ago, she has participated in many local exhibitions including the Ontario Festival of the Arts and has been juried into exhibitions, both physical and online, throughout the nation.

Artist Biography:

Terry’s art combines her love for the Afghan hound and the great outdoors. She is noted for her dog show scenes, her sculpture and her palette knife work when painting in plein air. Traveling the world to judge the Afghan hound has given her the opportunity to paint the landscape in many countries. A favorite place to paint is the Inland Empire where there is such diversity between winter, summer, spring and fall. Palm trees and snow-covered mountains is a particular favorite.

Artist Statement:

Terry Chacon is a sculptor (bronze and ceramic) and an oil painter (studio and plein air). She has received awards in national and international competitions, and her work is in over 25 countries. She has bred Afghan hounds for over 40 years, and uses their antics, elegance and ancient history in both sculpture and paintings. She has had two solo exhibits at the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in St. Loius, and her plein air work can be seen at the Catalina Art Gallery on Catalina Island. Her studio in Redlands is open by appointment and for her annual studio tour in December.

Artist Biography: Britney Lu was born in Arcadia, California. She currently is a senior at the Webb Schools of California in Claremont. Her first experience as an artist was in elementary school, preparing for an art showcase where she was taught how to work with clay. Her mom, who was an art teacher, was her primary influence, helping Britney improve her clay pieces. When Britney recognized her ability to create life-like pieces of art by hand, she began self-study and learned slowly through trial and error. Britney wants to bring forth joy to her audience and show the world her creative dedication.

Artist Statement: I created these art pieces during COVID. They are all inspirational, to bring forth hope and comfort during the harsh times of the pandemic. They have a warm tone to convey a feeling of happiness, and I have used many elements of spring, my favorite season of the year. My primary medium for art is clay. All my pieces include clay, whether as flowers or other things. My art pieces all represent a new cycle of life, a new birth, a new ray of hope in the world.

Artist Biography: Cj Jilek is a studio artist and educator who has worked in the ceramic field for over 25 years. A faculty member at California State University San Bernardino, Chaffey College and Mt. San Antonio College, she holds an MFA from Utah State University. Besides an extensive exhibition record, Cj has taught ceramic workshops in Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and throughout the United States. Her ceramics career has transformed from wood fire utilitarian wares to mid-range biomorphic sculpture. The natural environment of plants, insects and creatures inspires Cj and informs her uniquely animated sculptures and signature surfaces.

Artist Statement: Inspired by the sensuality of the natural world, I use botanical forms as metaphors for human sexuality. Eliminating the presence of stems and leaves removes the physical context of the plants, allowing the view to focus on the form specifically in terms of its sexuality. The forms of the stamens and pistils create a visual language, making direct correlations between the botanical forms and the human body. These biomorphic forms are designed to lead the viewer to a subconscious association between nature and the human instinct of attraction. Through my work, I am questioning ideas of beauty, adaptation and desire.

Artist Biography: Darrel McPherson has painted over 1000 works of art in the last 30 years. He works in oils on canvas, painting from daily scenes of nature and beautiful forms from life. He has exhibited locally at galleries and exhibitions in Escondido, Carlsbad, Solana Beach and San Diego, and nationally in Memphis, Kansas and Arizona.

Artist Statement: I consider the California School to be my school of influence, with touches of the French School. My artist influences are Edgar Payne, Maurice Braun (San Diego), Pissarro, Gauguin and Monet. My work has continued to evolve over the years. I want my art to be seen as ever-changing and human in scale.

Artist Biography: Native California artist Kate Joiner uses instinctive loose brushwork and color palette as a representation of her surroundings. She received a BFA in multimedia from San Diego State University. An award-winning artist, her work has been shown at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park and the Oceanside Museum of Art.

Artist Statement: I make art from what is around me physically and mentally, past and present. The unmitigated range of my work is a statement of me, my observations, broken down into sections of my personality, and depicted in series, connecting these varied interests in my art to coexist. As a native Californian, I am concerned with the development/destruction of our coastal community.

Using unobstructed nature as a base point, I add figures, objects and architectural lines which manifest in my work. Whether in structured or intuitive work, composition and color are very important and my final objective is achieved when the piece can be viewed in different directions.  My work feels complete when the balance of loose paint application and reinforcing lines create a synergy that is contrasting but also harmonious.

“As a painter and multimedia artist, I often explore how the human persona connects with our California landscape, considering its development and destruction along the way. I am equally happy working on small works or large-scale, as long as a message and intrigue can be conveyed within each one.”

Artist Biography: Natasha Patel is a self-taught abstract artist. Growing up, she was fascinated by the energetic expressionism of Jackson Pollock and the underlying feminism portrayed by the flowers of Georgia O’Keefe. In her recent works, she has been heavily influenced by the patterns and structures found in nature. She is currently working to combine these into one cohesive abstract style playing on all influences.

Artist Statement: By blending abstract expressionism with science, I make contemporary paintings with bold colors and patterns that create a visual and sensory experience. I let science and gravity be my guiding force while creating. By layering fluid acrylics with inks, spray paints and glass paints, the different opacities and viscosities of the media interact, creating specialized effects and texture. Gravity takes over when I tilt the wet paints over the surface of the canvas, and the media stretches out to make abstract shapes and lines. The results are often reminiscent of mountains, skies, water caustics (patterns of light) or animal print (the fur or skin of animals), depending on what is inspired at the time of creation.

Artist Biography: In the 1990s, Quincey Grace created wildly-painted pieces of furniture that she sold in New York City; San Antonio, Texas; Scottsdale and Sedona, Arizona; and Laguna Beach and Malibu, California. In 2020, she switched to ceramic sculpture, which she has exhibited extensively in local venues.

Artist Statement: I love bright colors, fabric textures, glass beads, flowers, butterflies, lace, geometric patterns, fanciful headdresses and pops of the unexpected – like a fish inexplicably perched atop a human head. I enjoy weaving all these elements into my pieces.

My sculptures are often inspired by paintings and photos of other artists. Through my sculptures, I invite the portraits to step out of their canvases into the 3D world, and become our friends. Come meet my friends!

Artist Biography: Howard L. Smith was born and raised in Windsor, Connecticut and migrated to California in 1974. He began making photographs at age of 12 and continued while a music major at the Hartford Conservatory of Music, making photographs with the same zeal and intensity as his music.

His interpretation of a scene or subject startles the viewer into seeing the details and creates a mood that stirs the viewer's inner being. When photographing wildlife in a natural habitat, they seem to perform for him and, water, clouds, sunlight and shadows seem to dance for his lens.

Howard's work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, and he has stock images with National Geographic Magazine. He is a founding member of the Inland Empire Photo Club (IEPC).

Artist Statement: As a former musician I believe that being able to play multiple musical styles is an asset. This attitude carries over to my photography. Because I create images in different genres, it may not always be a specific subject that excites me, but more the idea of capturing a moment in time whether a landscape, portrait or, wildlife. For me, it's seeing an unusual subject, beautiful light or a beautiful scene, and having the ability to freeze that moment in time.

Artist Biography: Grey Matter is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, illustrator and muralist whose works range from traditional illustration, graffiti and street art to graphic design, motion design and 3D printing. While growing up in Southern California during the 1990s, graffiti took hold and became an outlet beyond mere rebellion. It inspired the decades of creativity that followed. Today inspiration comes from his love of comic books, science fiction, nature, anthropology and the rapid advancement of technology.

Artist Statement: I blend methods learned from years of doing graffiti with traditional illustration techniques to explore humanity, nature, technology and how they interact with each other. To achieve this, I layer spray paint, acrylic and ink into composites of cartoonish imagery and incorporate stripped-down elements of comics, science fiction, fantasy and pop culture. I take a similar approach of layering with my digital work. It’s my way of trying to find the meaning of life and existence in the universe – answering the big questions by drawing and painting what’s in my head.

Artist Biography: Born in 1976 in Jackson, Mississippi, Hollis Cooper grew up in New Orleans and Houston before moving to New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and finally, California. She received her undergraduate degree with high honors from Princeton University, a Post-Baccalaureate certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, an MFA from Claremont Graduate University, and a Master of Computer & Information Technology from the University of Pennsylvania. She received a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Award nomination from the CGU Art Department in 2006, and in 2007 was selected for the Drawing Center's Viewing Program in NYC.

Artist Statement: Her work has been featured/reviewed in publications such as New American Paintings, Art Papers, and Alarm magazine, and has been included in gallery and museum shows throughout the United States. For 7 years, she sat on the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Art Resources, a non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting non-commercially viable art and artists.

Artist Biography: Jessica Csanky was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1988. She moved to Los Angeles for her undergraduate studies and has lived in Southern California for fifteen years. Her love of travel led her to study abroad in Japan in 2010 and to her first international artist residency in Budapest, Hungary in 2019. In 2020, Jessica received her MFA in Art from Claremont Graduate University and was the recipient of the Karl & Beverly Benjamin Fellowship.

Artist Statement: Jessica's art celebrates life through her use of vibrant colors, wide-ranging textures, and flowing lines. Knowing that our time on earth is precious and limited, Jessica hopes that her art encourages viewers to pause for a moment and reflect on life's abundant beauty - visible in nature, through our relationships with others, experienced through music, dance, movement, and travel, or in quiet moments of contemplation. Often connected to place and memory, Jessica transforms thoughts and observations on her experiences into visual abstractions.