I begin my paintings outside in nature. I initially scout for a location and subject which has meaning for me,  and then return to that site to paint. There, I am influenced by the all the elements. This affects my painting and the feeling I put into the paintings. Being at the site allows me to deeply experience the nature subject as I am painting it.  

I like to explore how humans affect nature and how nature lives in it's environments, with or without much human influence. Often, I am attracted to aged forms of life - old trees and vines or massive rocks have a kind knowledge beyond human understanding. And the delicate beauty of a wildflower and a field of grasses has equal allure.

My paintings are completed in the studio. At this point, I work from memory and feeling. As the work evolves, it sometimes changes from the original scene, taking on its own life. The painting eventually becomes a memory of my experience with the environment. There is a deep personal connection with each painting which always remains with me.

Zannah Noe is a San Francisco based artist since 1991. Originally from Concord, Massachusetts she studied art at The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and photography under Carrie Mae Weems at Hampshire College. She continued her painting studies independently with master painter, Doug Schneider.

Currently she is working on a project called American Bones that will be a three-year endeavor exploring America’s landscape and cultural identity. Funded by the crowd-sourcing site, Kickstarter.com. Noe was able to take a 5-month road trip covering 13,000 miles around the States, photographing and interviewing people and filming events.  American Bones road trip has resulted in a large body of photographs that will be published in a book in 2013. From her photographs, the artist has created the first iteration of the American Bones painting series in 2013. Eventually the work will be show together as a multi media project in 2014.

Narrative storytelling and mythology inform my work. I am so grateful to my teachers who gave me the skills to communicate in this way. Making art is the birthright of all humans.

My recent series of works on paper combines several different ingredients:  the leaves and flowers in my garden and nearby, abstract compositions which sometimes  incorporate objects lying around the house, and monotype prints.  I use a mixed-media and layered technique starting with a background wash of acrylics, followed by a stenciled layer, then a final layer of color pencils and/or Prismacolor art stix to render the leaves and other motifs.  

Aaron Vonk is a Canadian-American who lives and works in San Francisco. Aaron's art reflects his current outlook on life--sometimes it's dark and sometimes it's joyful and full of light. Aaron sees art as a way of life and has been drawing and sculpting since he was a child. He thinks in terms of images: Whenever he wants to describe or explain something, he grabs a pen and starts drawing to illustrate his meaning.

I am most drawn to narrative painting that looks at fact, fiction and fable to explore the parallel realms of reality in our everyday lives.

In my series, "Рудий ліс" (Red Forest in Ukranian), I explore a nuclear accident 25 years after the fact, looking at the fate of the flora and fauna surrounding it. In essence, I paint a contemporary Fairy Tale lived out loud of an ancient Forest. One day a happy forest blossoming into spring, the next, a dead forest turned ginger red from radiation poisoning.

Рудий ліс is my visual tale of a woods (the size of Yosemite) that was once buried alive in fact, fiction and fable, by a frightened government. It's a tale of how Рудий ліс has rallied into a new forest. A radiated Russian Eden, filled with an astonishing array of trees, flowers, birds, wolves, deer, insects, wild boar and more. All radiated! So radiated that no humans dare to disturb them...

I have been working with alternative process Polaroid photography for over a decade. I am drawn to the balance of technical precision and openness to unpredictability involved in creating this art. As ambient temperature and minute shifts in pressure affect the development of each image, I see each piece as a creation birthed from a particular constellation of variables at a particular moment. The Polaroid manipulations are made using an antique Polaroid Alpha - 1 camera and SX-70 film. The emulsion stays soft for a few hours, allowing me to apply pressure to the photo and gently move around the image, creating an impressionistic, painterly effect. For Polaroid transfers, I project a slide onto peel-apart 669 film, peeling it too early and pressing the negative onto watercolor paper, creating an antique, distressed-looking print. I also use Polaroid transfers in mixed media work. Both films have sadly been discontinued, but I have a stash of 669 film that I continue to use both for my own artwork and to give workshops in Polaroid transfers.

Very recently, I've felt called to express my meditations through painting. This devotional art is inspired by my spiritual practice. It's a departure from photography and very satisfying to feel this work just flowing out of me as I let myself become an unmediated vessel for Source: creative, free, and magical.

Since my first introduction to screen printing I have been enthralled by its graphic quality, bold colors, and they way it lends itself to layers. I studied the technique beginning at California College of the Arts in 2000, and work in this medium passionately creating limited edition prints as well as incorporating its ideas and techniques into my paintings. Through layering, collage and juxtaposition, I strive to make layered pieces that deal with the absurdity, poignancy and joy of our world.
     I use collages of photography, drawing, painting, patterning to create layers of images and meaning. My works deal with a variety of emotions about the coexistence of our urban landscape, nature and humanity. I am continually inspired by my surroundings, today\'s urban and natural environments, and have drawn some inspirations as well from Dada, Surrealism and Pop art. Along with exterior and interior architecture and urban life themes, in many pieces I also merge these with the rural and natural landscape, as well as its figures. There is always some humor, irony as well as melancholy in my pieces that continually thread through my work and ideas in some way. I desire to create a surreal vision of reality that incorporates the past, present, and future of our worlds landscapes and characters, causing reflections on where we are today.