Currently on Display at the Main Library
Displays are free and open to the public during regular library hours.
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Ellie at Machu Picchu

A LITTLE TASTE OF THE WORLD Taneka Washington March - April 2010 Upper & Lower Exhibit Galleries & Display Cases The Main Library welcomes a selection of photographs by Taneka Washington. Ms. Washington grew up in Carson, CA. She graduated from Occidental College with degrees in Psychology and Art History. She obtained her Masters degree in Art History at Cal State L.A. She has traveled to 14 countries, using her camera to "preserve fleeting moments of beauty." She travels with her childhood pal, Ellie the Elephant, who is featured in many of her photos. She mostly enjoys photographing nature, ruins, monuments and empty roads. For more information visit www.tlwashington.com or email her at TLW@TLWashington.com.

Previously on Display at the Main Library

ABSTRACT VISUALIZATIONS John Shipp January - February 2010 Upper & Lower Exhibit Galleries The Main Library welcomes a selection of paintings by artist John Shipp. Since taking an early retirement from the architectural field, John Shipp spends his time reading and painting, working primarily in acrylic on canvas. His style is eclectic, from the human figure, to landscapes and abstract visualizations of everyday objects, places, and ideas, experimenting with textures and colors. For further information or to purchase original paintings or Fine Art Glicee prints, please contact the artist at http://www.johnshippartist.com/ or by email at lbartist2009@live.com. Rollercoaster by John Shipp

JEWELRY Vicki Williams January - February 2010 Display Cases The Main Library welcomes a selection of jewelry by artist Vicki Williams. Coming from a creative background of 22 years in advertising, Williams developed a sense of what catches the eye ands stands out from the crowd. She specializes in the art of adornment as it mixes a variety of textures, colors, sizes, and shapes. She collects beads from all over the world, which gives her pieces an ethnic appeal, sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical. For further information visit www.thegemstory.com/.

WATERCOLORS AND CHINESE BRUSH PAINTINGS Gloria Whea-Fun Teng November - December 2009 Upper & Lower Exhibit Galleries The Main Library welcomes the botanical watercolors and Chinese brush paintings of local artist Gloria Teng. Come experience these beautiful works for yourself. For further information, please contact the artist at gtengart@hotmail.com. Close-up of Carnelia Reticulata by G. Teng

THE WORLD OF COLLAGE Catherine Davis November - December 2009 Display Cases Upstairs The Main Library welcomes collage artist and CSULB student Catherine Davis. Her work is "fueled by a curiosity about how ideas evolve, a love for books, for reading, as well as objects in their own right and an interest in the library as a social and archival space." For more information about the project as it evolves, please visit http://bookmatter.tumblr.com.

SELECTED PAINTINGS Joseph Van Hooten Artist Statement Through the juxtaposition of unlikely or contrary subjects, content is realized. My work includes symbolic and multiple meanings, meanings that often oppose one another: obscurity vs. clarity, inference rather than revelation, irony instead of literalness. My paintings are an attempt to convey a sense of narrative through spatial arrangements and implied psychological relationships. They have generally focused on a single human figure. More recently, I have become intrigued with multiple figures that interact with each other in staged and heightened environments -- sometimes masked -- suggesting attitudes of surprise, expectancy, uncertainty, violation, and ritual.

NIGHT PEOPLE: PHOTOGRAPHY Ron Javorsky Artist Statement They say the camera doesn't lie, right? But does it tell the truth? Or does it tell us what the photographer wants us to know? As Proust wrote, “Photography achieves singular images even out of something otherwise well-known, images different from those we are used to seeing, singular and authentic." Light is my way of showing the strange within the familiar – unusual illumination, bizarre distortion. As one who grew up in a gray industrial city, I'm especially drawn to yellows and oranges – colors that project warmth, that create contrast, that show us how every-day images can be shown with luminescence and unique beauty. www.ronjavorsky.com

WINDOW SCENES & SOVIET POSTERS
Bill Collins, Photographer

Artist Statement

Window Scenes
The entry Lobby displays images made by photographing through the windows of closed second hand stores concentrated in the frequently termed Retro Row area of 4^th Street in Long Beach. The work features aspects of the found object while also making reference to the classical still life.

Soviet Posters
The lower display wall uses multiple exposure to create images derived from Soviet posters.The underlying posters were photographed in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) just before Glasnost and Perestroika and the fall of the Soviet Union. I have observed that posters often forcefully present regional characteristics.The generally recognized strong Russian graphic art ability here is turned with force to the parochial purposes of the Soviet authorities.

UNDERSEA
Mona Zillah

Artist Statement

I attended art schools in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. My work has been included in national and international juried shows, public and private collections, and rented for television. I currently work in my Long Beach and Oregon studios. I have dedicated a portion of the proceeds of my series, entitled Undersea, to AIDS related charities. Please visit my website at www.monazillah.com.

BEADED TEXTILES
Michelle McNeil

Artist Statement

I use beads on fabric, like paint, to create texture and dimension in the world around me. Each piece depicts a small view into my past experiences and the things I am interested in. In this way, I am able to express my vision through beads, buttons, yarns, threads, and found objects.

Earlier pieces refer to my travels in China, with an emphasis on my interest in Eastern philosophy and the I Ching. In my later work, I used many small beads to envision imagined creatures beneath the surface of the ocean water. My most recent use of beads and objects is based on games I love to play, such as daily Sudoku puzzles.

I was born and raised in Long Beach, California. I have a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. For more information or to contact the artist, please visit www.michellemcneil.com.

CALIFORNIA MOODS: PAINTINGS IN WATERCOLOR AND ACRYLIC
Paula Tay

Artist Statement

I greatly enjoy our own California landscape and I look for special places that have no become highly urbanized. I like to be there, sitting on the grass with a small canvas on my lap, trying to catch the mood of the day. I frequently take snapshots of spots that interest me to be used as painting ''starters". I am told that I have a keen sense of color, and the surprises that happen in watercolor are a delight.

When my three boys were little, I took an occasional community college art class to keep my sanity and I have been interested in painting ever since. Today, I'm studying regularly with B.J. Wilson, M.A., in a class at South Coast Village.