Well our Indian Summer was really hot last week and fairly cold this week. I’m hoping for some rain, since we’ve been in a drought for so long. I’m also hoping and praying all these raging fires here in California will soon be put out, and rain would sure help. One another note, I’ve added some new photo collages that I hope you’ll check out. Here’s one called “Boardwalk Del Mar Theater”. I also made another version using the Del Mar sign, but put ten photo collages on the marquee. That one is called “Eclectic Santa Cruz”. I guess you could say I used my artistic license! Have a great day!
August News
I’m very proud and honored to have my photographs chosen for the front cover of the Santa Cruz County Bar Association’s Annual Directory for the past two years. I also recently took a summer class at Cabrillo College to learn about how to make iMovies. Very soon, you’ll be able to see my newest video on my homepage. And I’ve added some new photographs and photo collages to my website. I hope you’ll check them out! Finally, as the summer winds down for most places, in Santa Cruz we’ll soon be in our “Indian Summer” with even warmer weather for enjoying the outdoors. I hope everyone is having a great summer!
July Members’ Exhibit
Hello Again,
I wanted to announce that I recently joined the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, CA. Even though I live in Santa Cruz, CA and I’m a proud member of the Santa Cruz Art League, I decided to also join this art league as I’ve been in a couple of juried art shows there and really like the inspiration I get whenever I’m there. The current membership show is July 3-30 and the gallery hours are M-F 9am-5pm. Their address is: 668 Ramona St., Palo Alto, CA 94301. If you happen to be in the area, I’d love for you to stop by and check out all the great artwork there. I have my acrylic (with sand) painting “The Earth is Flat” on display in this show.
Have a great summer!
Sincerely,
Susan Kessler
May Announcement
Hello Everyone,
Well it’s already May! The weather here in Santa Cruz is really starting to get warm, but believe it or not, June and July are usually a little cold. That’s because it gets so hot inland, the fog tends to stay around most of the day here in Santa Cruz. Not that I’m complaining, because I love it here, and I don’t like it when it gets really hot, but I do miss the sunshine though, when it stays foggy all day. Here in Santa Cruz, we have more of an Indian summer. It starts around mid August to October and even November is usually pretty nice. May is like our early summer, very sunny and beautiful. Even though California is beautiful, we are in a drought right now, so every bit of water that can be saved, should be. Let’s hope we (somehow) get some rain!
On another note, I wanted to say how honored I am to have two of my photo collages selected to be included in the Hidden Treasure Art Magazine Yearbook 2015! It’s published in Great Britain and distributed there and to many galleries in Europe. You can see this issue online. My work shows up on page #101. I hope you’ll check it out. Here’s a link: http://www.flipsnack.com/F6B6EE5C5A8/hiddentreasure-art-magazine-yearbook-2015-volume-i-fd1c5z7b5.html?b=1&p=98
Again, I’m grateful and honored to have my work included with so many talented artists!
Happy month of May!
Sincerely,
Springtime Art
Hello Again,
“Spring is in the Air”! This is the title of the juried art show two of my digital photo collages were chosen to be in. I am very excited and honored to learn that “Springtime Casino” has been awarded an Honorable Mention from the juror Catherine Clark of Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. My other entry is “Surfer’s Paradise” (the big 30” x 50” metal print). The exhibit takes place at the Pacific Art League of Palo Alto from April 3 – 23, 2015. And you’re all invited to check out the show this 1st Friday, April 3rd from 5:30 – 8:00 pm. The address is: 668 Ramona St., Palo Alto, CA. I’m proud to be able to have Santa Cruz represented in other areas of California and feel very lucky to get to live here! If possible, I’d love to see you at the show!
Susan Kessler
P.S. To see the whole picture, just click it, or for more information, go to the Photo Collages page. After the pictures load, just click on it.
Recent Art Shows
Hello Everyone,
It’s been a while since I updated this page, so here goes. In February, my painting “Chocolate Sky” was exhibited in the membership show called “Local Essence” at the Santa Cruz Art League. Currently (from 3/6/15 to 3/22/15) my digital photo collage “Cement Ship Sunsets” is on display at the Santa Cruz Art League in an exhibit called “Coastal Spirits”. If you happen to be in Santa Cruz, you should definitely check it out. There’s lots of great artwork! Let’s all have fun this spring as the weather warms up and all the beautiful flowers start blooming!
Sincerely,
Let The New Year Begin!
Well, here it is 2015! My resolution is to be as creative as I want, in any type of medium I feel like. Most people in the art world will tell you it’s good to stick with one kind of art, and that may be, but I don’t want to be tied down. If I want to paint, I will. If I want to go out and take pictures, I will. And as far as my photo collages are concerned, I’m in the process of experimenting with new ways to do those. So stay tuned, and soon, you may see exiting new works of art. And who knows, possibly new mediums. For now, I’ve already got lots of exciting and different types of work on this website. I hope you’ll take a look. To the left is one of my many geometric abstract paintings called “Dancing Moons”. I hope you enjoy it, it feels rather “freeing” to me!
Happy Holidays
Hello Everyone,
First of all, I’d like to say HAPPY HOLIDAYS! We’re all really busy at this time of the year, but in the end, it’s all worth it! Just to update everyone on what I recently found out. Two of my photo collages, “Springtime” (at left) and “Red Flower Lighthouse” were accepted to be in the 2015 Hidden Treasure Art Magazine. I’m very honored and excited! Also, since it’s that time of the year, I wanted to remind you that I do offer Santa Cruz affordable gifts for sale, right here on this website, in the form of magnets and mousepads. Once again, I wish everyone Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Susan Kessler
Holiday Cheer
Fall is a beautiful time of the year here in Santa Cruz. Recently, we had some much needed rain in the morning, breaking way to a crisp, autumn sunny day.
Well the holiday season is upon us. If you’re like me, you’ve probably found that shopping online is a lot easier than fighting the traffic on the roads or in the stores. Not to say that I won’t also be doing a lot of that, but my other option is to sit in my own home, and get a lot of my shopping done online. I’m happy to say that although you can buy fine art on this website, you can also buy affordable Santa Cruz magnets and mousepads. I hope you’ll check that page out too.
As far as the art world goes, I have a couple of things in the works, and I’ll keep everyone updated as I know more. Happy Holidays!
Susan’s Art News
Thanks for visiting my new and improved website. This has been quite a journey to get to this point. As a lot of you already know, I had an art studio at the Tannery Arts Center for two years. It was a wonderful experience for me and I met lots of great people! The newspaper article (below) about me was obviously written while I was still there. Even though I loved my time there, I decided to explore new options. And right now, this new website is somewhat of a fresh start. If any of you miss the old studio, my husband and I took some videos of my artwork before I left. Since we’re not videographers, they are by no means meant to be professional looking, but instead just give you a little online virtual tour of my work. And yes, they’re right here on this new website.
Here’s an update on what’s been happening this year so far:
For the first four months I was still in my studio doing 1st Fridays every month.
Since I’m a current member of the Santa Cruz Art League, I participated in the Annual Membership Show in January.
From Mar. 7- Mar. 23, I participated in another show at The Santa Cruz Art League called “This is Santa Cruz”.
From May 2- May 21, I participated in a juried art show called “Photography Writing With Light” at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, CA. I was also there for the 1st Friday opening of the show.
From Sept. 9 – Sept. 14, I had two paintings displayed at The Santa Cruz County Fair.
Currently, three of my photographs are featured on the cover of The Santa Cruz
County Bar Association Membership Directory July 2014 – June 2015.
And like I said earlier, this website has been my main focus for the last couple of months. I hope you enjoy it!
Below the newspaper article is a picture of my grandchildren I took last year at Natural Bridges State Beach. I dressed them up to look like they were in Hawaii and they posed accordingly. It was fun, but windy! Anyway, I entered that picture in the Photography section of The Santa Cruz County Fair last year and it won 1st place!
Stay tuned for more updates in the future and have a great day!