What Do Mormons Believe?

Many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints find themselves wanting to have resources with information about the church to share with curious friends.  These two links from the Church Newsroom (the "official resource for news media, opinion leaders, and the public") are full of great information and wonderful ways to share information about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Mormonism 101

Invite Mormons to Tell Their Own Story

Little Arrows Bangle

Open Studios are here again...

Its August!

Open Studios are here...come along to see the space we call work, almost as good as home! We'll have some little somethin' specials for sale too.

Our door will be open from 4 'til 9 Thursday 16th and Friday 17th, and Saturday the 18th from 11 to 5.

and ps. if planning to purchase, its cash only..i can always hold pieces on a deposit also.

NEW ART SHOW @ PUBLIC MARKET IN EMERYVILLE

In collaboration with the Public Market Emeryville marketing team, Firehouse Art Collective directors are curating monthly art exhibits, featuring emerging and mature local artists.

Everyone is welcome to join us for opening night on Feature Fridays.

Public Market Emeryville, 5959 Shellmound Street, Emeryville CA 94608
Friday 24th, 5-8pm August 2012

Featuring Firehouse Studio West artists
Elayne Ryder
Janet Yelner

You will find light refreshments
Meet the artists and each other, mingle and dance
Live music courtesy of Guitar Center
Emcee Tom Franco and
YOU!

Floral sculpture arrangement by Oaktown Blooms

About the artists:

Janet Yelner

Janet Yelner

Painting is an enormous part of my heart & soul… My pieces evolve and as I explore, there is an initial inspiration – a color, a crease, a shadow, a feeling, a shape. The impulse is to stay non-linear in story, to close in on letting go…but of what? Letting go of…expectation, control, perfection, representation, preciousness, ideas, criticism…
Medium
Acrylic, Mixed Medium

Elayne Ryder 
The intension of my artwork is to awaken in myself and in others the wonder of nature in all its mystery - clouds, trees, mountains, sunshine, waterfalls, stars, nebulas, planets. Each part of nature is a mighty force that speaks to me of surprise, play, becoming and place. I envision my art, as a manifestation of the hidden beauty of nature that surrounds us and that we are all a part of.

Elayne Ryder

I like acrylic paints because they are very pliable. I can paint over and over an image again and again until the image feels right. I like the texture and depth I can get from layering paint while also revealing what is underneath. Mixed media including water pencils, thick gesso, sand, pastels, textured cloths/papers and iridescent colors add to the depth of my paintings.
Art continues to be a process of exploration and trusting in the unknown. I often think I want to create this or that image, but what comes out is different and better than I imagined. I can’t force the process; its all about constantly trying, doing and letting go and becoming more sensitive to what’s working and what’s not working in a piece.

Elayne Ryder

Janet Yelner

American Family at Children's Discovery Museum

Yesterday we installed this little photography show in the art gallery at Children’s Discovery Museum and in the few hours it's been open, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Not only is the content of the show exciting to me, it was a particular pleasure to collaborate on a project that came together so quickly- just a few weeks, concept to install. With a quick timeline and the promise of a limited engagement, we were able to work in a way that felt much more experimental and responsive than what I'm used to.

I collaborated with art educator and gallery curator Lisa Ellsworth to plan, design and install American Family. She chose seven photographs from Courteney Coolidge’s American Families project to highlight one Bay Area family with two gay moms. To make sure the show felt relevant for all our visitors, Lisa developed an interpretive approach that focuses on the meaning of family and we wrote labels in the form of questions that invite visitors to talk about their own families.

The show opened just in time for San Jose Pride weekend, August 18-19. The Pride festival takes place on the Museum’s front lawn and this is the first year we’ll have Pride-related offerings in the museum itself.

The gallery is in a challenging space- it's part of a hallway that extends around a corner, framed by bathrooms and a defibrillator unit. Most visitors take a glance down the hall and if they don’t have to pee, say, “Oh, there’s nothing down this way- let’s go back downstairs.” Not exactly prime real estate.

But we made the most of it. We placed the larger photographs in strategic sight lines to draw interest from down the hall and positioned a table and chairs in the center to invite the kind of thoughtful lingering that we hoped would happen in our talk-back station. The photos are hung at kid-height so children know the photos are for them and for a bit of extra fun we extended the gallery experience into the rest of the second floor of the museum by including additional questions in places like the bathroom and the elevator.



As soon as the gallery opened, grown-ups were reading the questions on the wall to their children and the clips in the talk-back station filled up immediately. Many visitors have said they really like the photographs and Lisa and I are happy to see visitors spending more time in the art gallery. We're already talking about what's next.