Artist Exhibiting

Mona Salminen,  Born in Norway 1967.
Exhibit: January 20th - February 10th

Mona has had a passion for expression through art from early childhood.  She has a BA in Fine Art from Art Academy in Bergen Norway and The Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen. Mona continued her art education earning a degree in Art pedagogue at Oslo College. She has exhibited in Scandinavia, Island and New Jersey. Mona has been rewarded grant from the Norwegian Art Counsel and done major art decoration at an Art Museum in Harstad, Norway.
Mona has a broad education through different mediums; painting, sculpture, performance, mixed media, printmaking and ceramics. The later years Mona has focused mostly on paintings.

In 2002 Mona earned a Yoga Synthesis certification and was teaching yoga for some years in NJ as well as Norway.
In 2007 Mona gave birth to her daughter Gabrielle. “Gabrielle is teaching me a new way of living my life and expressing me through my artwork. In some paintings we are sharing the same canvas and have a lot of fun together.

“Extensive traveling to the culture of the Hawaiian Islands and Mexico, have influenced the rich and bold use of colors in my paintings. Through my paintings I am expressing joy, wonder and love for life. The paintings have broadness from abstract to figurative.  Angels, women/men and birds are interacting in a dreamscape setting.”
“When I start to paint, I never know what I am going to paint.  Painting is for me a process. It’s a journey of discovery and fulfillment and let me be close to God and creation. “

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Photographer Janet Bongiovanni

Janet Bongiovanni

http://www.vaboomerviosks.com/janet.htm

Being born in 1952 in the San Francisco Bay Area provided me a poignant starting point for life.

The 1960s, this celebrated location, adolescence and the era's metaphysical emphasis shaped me into a melancholy and introspective young woman searching for realization. Throughout the following decades I introduced various behaviors to quiet the confusion and soothe the vacancy, some were insanely toxic, and some have been clearly sublime. With thoughtful gratitude, the tenor of my journey has softened.

Recent times have been nurturing a newfound balance and strength. My humbling love of nature, which frequently renders me speechless, and a longing for its expression motivate my passion for creating photographs. The photos here are taken in the East and I hope to include some new images on my trip home this summer. I believe photographs afford us a common ground to pause and wonder at the charming strangeness existing beneath our everyday experience.

Past Exhibits

Artist David Derr

Meet and Greet
Date: April 2nd
Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm

  Humanity is composed of creative explorers and symbol makers. We have been this way since the beginnings of our existence as a race and before. This is the cornerstone of what it is to be a thinking human being.

  My goal has always been to create works that contain the essences of good poetry. A balance of opposites, in a style that is recog- nizable, yet not necessarily realistic. I find the most effective way of doing this is by using a pseudo primitive style which on the surface seems simple, but in reality resonates deeper emotions.

  My studies of children's and primitive art, as well as symbols, have led me to the conclusion that these types of images speak on a deeper level that completely realistic images. Somehow they reach beyond the surface and touch the very essence of the object rep- resented evoking meanings and emotions the reside deep in our minds and bodies. The use of this type of content allows me to create pieces that contain layers of meaning, meaning which is integral to lasting art.

  Content is very important, and by content I don’t mean the objects in a painting but the meaning behind them. I fill each piece with subjects form music, dance, myths, mysticism, science and everyday life. I create pieces that will have the ability to have a lasting conversation with the collector and the public. A conversation that can take different and unexpected directions from my original inten- tion. Do my works tell a story....yes, but I will never completely know or be able to tell what that story is, for when a work leaves my hand it takes on a life of its own, creating a conversation that is between it and the viewer, each of which brings their own mysteries.

To learn more visit, http://www.d2studios.com/pages/THEART.html