"Give Me a Hand" is a fun painting of one hand of the model with many legs of models and chairs.  I enjoyed planning and executing this more graphic painting on yupo paper in strong variations of the primary colors!

approx 35x25"  © 2009

The Merced Art Gallery is featuring an exhibition of regional artists known as C.H.A.A., which stands for Contemporary Humanitarian Artist's Association. Their theme show is “Topophilia – Love of Place” which opens one to a variety of interpretations. Artists include Barbara Arnold, Frank Ayala, Cheryl Barnett, Gail Benedict, Abel Corchado, Rose Eager, Lisa Gilliland-Viney, Kate Jackson, Linda Salmon, Sue Thompson, and Ruben Sanchez.

"Topophilia" translates from the Greeks "philo" meaning love and "topos" meaning a place or region. The exhibitions theme was inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s book, “The Poetics of Space.” He writes, “Home, aside from being the building in which we live, is a state of mind. Home is an idea that has been silently, and uniquely, cultivated in us throughout childhood. It is where we experience many of our most personal and intimate moments and it is where our memories reside long after we moved on to other houses. Revisiting a home from our past always triggers a flood of forgotten memories that come back as we walk through the rooms in which they were formed. And just as we leave something of ourselves in a home, home leaves something in us.” Topophilia is a conceptual word used in his book.Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so i

C.H.A.A. liked the theme of "place" and found it both inspiring and challenging to build a show around this concept. The show opens Sept 27th and runs through October 21. The public is invited to a reception scheduled on Wed., September 29, from 6:00-7:30 pm. Gallery hours are 9:30 to 11:30 and 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., Monday thru Thursday, and by appointment. Call Susanne French for more information at 384-6064.