Artists in Focus – to see all, click HERE.
This is a selection from the current collection of Focus On The Masters artist documentation. Click on the picture or artist name to view the portrait, biography, media presentations and website of the artist.
All artists’ portraits are by Donna Granata. The photographs and artworks shown on this website are copyrighted by the artists and may not be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner. By entering this website, you agree to these conditions.
Michael Cullen Todd
Sculptor
Michael Cullen Todd’s biography abounds with accolades: Woodrow Wilson and Fulbright Fellowships. Exhibits in major galleries throughout the US. His work is found in prestigious...
Merion Estes
Painter
Merion Estes states: The beauty and fragility of life and the tragedy of man’s intervention is my subject. The tools of her trade have included fabric, glue, acrylic and spray paints, glitter, photo downloads and...
Matt Furmanski
Sculptor & Land Artist
Matt Furmanski -- educator, artist, public arts commissioner and, oh, yes, surfer dude.– is driven by passion -- passion for his art, passion for teaching, passion that drives him to make...
Mary Michel
Painter/Printmaker
Mary Michel remarked that she had been an artist as long as she could remember. Known for her bold yet delicate paintings and serigraphs, her signature style was an elegant and refined technique...
Mary Kennedy
Ceramist
RTK Studios are tile artisans steeped in the architectural ceramic traditions of the early 1900’s. The partners, Richard Keit & Mary Kennedy have brought back the old world techniques of the exquisite Malibu...
Mary Beth (MB) Hanrahan
Muralist
While attending a field trip from Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California, Mary Beth toured the Foster & Kleiser Billboard manufacturing facility. Later that day, staring at the awesome billboards as...
Marta Nelson
Painter/Printmaker
Since winning her first art scholarship at age 10, Marta Nelson has continued a career in fine arts. A life-long love affair with drawing the human figure developed when she attended her first...
Margaret Nielsen
Painter
The canoe, encased in golden vines, floats in darkness, illuminated by stars, anchored by vein-like roots. Is the canoe waiting to take you on a journey through the unknown? Through memories? Will it navigate a...
Marcia Cummings
Sculptor/Painter
Marcia Cummings' assemblages deal with social issues in an intellectually stimulating and witty way. Her award winning work grapples with contemporary topics including women's issues, sex, hypocrisy,...
Maggie Kildee
Sculptor
If you’ve ever been accused of being an uppity woman, you will love the work of Maggie Kildee. Her resume includes jobs as mother, teacher and politician; jobs that require talent, perseverance and a sincere desire...
Lynn Hanson
Painter
Lynn Hanson’s work stems from a rapt attention and visceral connection to the natural world: from a childhood spent stalking garter snakes at Whiskey Ditch in rural Minnesota to a daily ritual of exploring...
Lynn Creighton
Sculptor
Lynn Creighton believes that life is a spiritual journey and that it is this quest which allows artists to connect with the ideas they hope to express. The contours of her bronze and clay works reveal captured joy...
Luther Gerlach
Photographer
Luther Gerlach is a photographer whose work captures modern images using old-world techniques. He is an ambrotypist who has built his own camera and who produces negatives in the waxed paper collotype...
Lorraine Serena
Assemblage Artist
Lorraine Serena is the Artist/Founder of Women Beyond Borders, an unprecedented, cross-cultural exhibition which celebrates and honors women's voices and...
Lindsay B. Scott
Painter
Lindsay Scott was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and grew up among the green hills of Africa. As a child, she was constantly exposed to African wildlife and its habitat. She has been drawing for as long as she can...
Linda Vallejo
Painter/Installation Artist
Oil on canvas…found tree fragments…tinker toys...recycled Styrofoam. Add a deeply-held conviction about humanity’s relationship to the world and you enter the world of Linda Vallejo....
Linda Taylor
Printmaker
Is it fair to say that a talented printmaker’s most visible work takes up one side of an old grocery store? Yes, if that print-maker is Linda Taylor who spent many months restoring the mural on the exterior wall...
Linda Elder
Sculptor
Linda Elder was first introduced to her favorite art form when an art teacher in high school allowed her to do sculpture in the back of the class while the rest of the class worked on drawing projects....
Linda Ekstrom
Sculptor
Linda Ekstrom’s work is anchored in the book as a cultural and symbolic object. Through her altered books and other mixed media works, she seeks to uncover and articulate a profound sense of mystery. She explores the subjects of narrative, person, place or event through the perspective of larger religious thought, history and ritual. Ekstrom received both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts from UCSB and is on the faculty for the College of Creative Studies at UCSB.
Leslie Thompson
Ceramist
Leslie Thompson Leslie Thompson’s works delight the eye, both for the spontaneity of some pieces and the controlled precision of others. A black and white checkered pattern mimics water overflowing a jug. The...
Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo
Fiber Artist
When Leslie Freilich’s name was changed by a Tibetan lama to Rinchen-Wongmo it was not done to deny...
Leslie McQuaide
Sculptor
Clay, bits of old jewelry and thrift shop cast-offs are the tools of Leslie McQuaide’s trade. Her work can at first seem humorous, but humor is merely the door through which we enter into her personal history. ...
Leslie Clark
Painter
Texture is an important element in Leslie Clark's work that uses fabrics, rice and banana papers, watercolors, acrylics and oil paints to create soulful compositions depicting the nomadic peoples of Africa. Travel and...
Len Poteshman
Painter/Sculptor
Len Poteshman‘s dreams of being a concert violinist came to an end due to injuries sustained in World War II. He pursued an arts education at the Chicago Art Institute, the American Academy of...
Lee Hodges
Mixed Media
Lee Hodges combines disparate objects -- jewels, copper wire, recycled paper, cast-off plastics, and layers of iridescent paint -- to form artwork that shimmers. The fusion of her passions for art and her faith into...
Laddie John Dill
Sculptor/Painter/Light & Space Artist
Los Angeles native, Laddie John Dill graduated from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968. At 28 he was offered his first one-man exhibit at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York. Today he is an internationally...
Khaled Al Awar
Gallerist
Khaled Al Awar, a 1970 emigrant from Lebanon, moved to Ojai in 1982 from Chicago with his wife, Sheryl. He established the Primavera Gallery which featured international and local artists, both individually and in group shows.
Kevin Wallace
Curator/Writer
A funny thing happened to Kevin Wallace on the road to becoming a rock star. He became a curator and a writer and, in July 2007, director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts. Along the way, Wallace’s...
Keith Puccinelli
Assemblage/Performance/Installation Artist/Draughtsman
In a world that is increasingly chaotic, is it the role of the artist to eliminate chaos? Or, is he simply to pick up the pieces of a shattered world...
Kathleen C. Waggoner
Ceramist
Kathleen Waggoner shapes the song of woman - searching, triumphant and proud - in clay. It is the exploration and expression of human emotion, of feelings not easily put into words, that drives her work....
Katherine McGuire
Painter
Katherine McGuire, artist and advocate for the arts, captured quintessential Ventura landmarks with meticulous attention to architectural detail, not at all surprising when you consider that she...
Katherine Chang Liu
Painter
My work is like a map. Everything which goes in my mind that day sorts itself into some ideas. Working out those ideas, and consolidating them into something I feel rather...
Karyl Lynn Burns & James O’Neil
Co-Founders Rubicon Theatre
The Rubicon Theatre Company has established itself as a major cultural force in Ventura County and beyond. Respected by audiences and critics alike, the Rubicon stages a rich...
Karen Lewis
Painter
World War II. A Japanese prison camp in the Philippines. A girl passes the time cutting out and coloring paper dolls. Is this when the artistic career of Karen K. Lewis began? She earned her BA at...
Karen Kitchel
Painter
Karen Kitchel’s landscapes are definitely not traditional. Of her work Karen states: "I paint them with the traditional craftsmanship of the genre’s past, and a critical eye on the geography of the...
Karen Carson
Painter
Karen Carson, a major figure in the Los Angeles feminist art movement, has employed varied techniques and materials to reflect and comment on the turbulence of everyday life....
Joseph Piasentin
Painter/Mixed Media
Joseph Piasentin is a professor of painting and drawing at Pepperdine University. It has been said that Piasentin encourages his students to be responsible for every choice, every decision made...
Jordon Laby
Inventor
Credit for much of the vibrancy of our arts community can be traced to a pool vacuum. How is that possible? Jordan Laby, dyslexic and partly color-blind, knew from an early age how to take things apart and put them...
Jonny Kwan
Creative Director, Walt Disney, Inc.
Kwan was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Oxnard. He has been drawing for as long as he can remember. While attending Channel Islands High School, his art teacher, Mr. Don Burrows, encouraged him to further develop his...
John White
Painter/Performance Artist
Serendipity and playful fate led John White, a young man working in a brewery whose loftiest aim was to be a professional golfer, to achieve success as a working artist. White credits his early...