My paintings are a continuous exploration of color, form and texture. Lately, I've been wrapped up with blues and greens that tend to look like skyscapes on a larger scale.

Bio: Scientist by education, programmer by trade, artist by necessity, Mr Rogers has been creating art for most of his life. After spending 15 years as a photographer, both journalistic and artistic, he put away his camera in 2000 in favor of building, painting and creating art featuring Bunnymatic and friends. These characters have served as subject matter and inspiration for Mr Rogers to experiment with different media (including paint on canvas, wood sculpture, collage, recycled material constructions and more).

Most recently he's been focused on wall hanging sculptural pieces with wood, paint and other recycled materials.  

My recent paintings are driven by process and improvisation. My initial compositions are informed by photographs of cellular or satellite images chosen for their color and complexity, but I depart from the source imagery as a a painting takes on a life of its own. Building upon material phenomena and accident, I consciously incorporate unpredictable elements into the work. In balancing spontaneous mark making and drips with controlled calligraphic line, I create structure and beauty from chaos and uncertainty.

My palette is connotative, evoking states that range from violent transformation to calm serenity. Building layer upon layer of color produces atmospheric depth that reinforces these sensations by implying history and location.

Partly a meditation on light and form within macroscopic and microscopic worlds, my work is an intuitive reaction to the process of painting itself: an inward search for presence and immediacy. 

Lately, there seem to be more and more disasters in the world. With earthquakes, hurricanes, oil spills and wars permeating our daily consciousness, it appears that the speed of modern life does not give us time to consider and plan for critical situations. In this scope of the Earth's power, we become little ants and flies, dying by the thousands in disasters and conflicts. The shell as a protective vessel has always been an enigma for me; how does the mollusk transform such tiny particles into such a beautiful dwelling? How has it stumbled upon such intricate yet effective architectural structures? The shell represents the enigma of all creatures - the urge to live. When I hear the latest news, my urge is to hide, to escape, to find a secure place to find my shell. My sculptures, the shell dwellers, are beings conjured from an alternate universe where that urge can be immediately gratified; everyone carries their security around with them at all times. But more than that, they also carry around their stories for everyone to see. People they met float around their face while beaches, bridges and city-scapes cover their shells. Their fresco-like shell surfaces are modern-day versions of the ruins of Pompeii, where a language of pictures communicated to people from all walks of life and many parts of the world. Although I may want to hide at times, I know we can find common understanding among our stories if we show them to others.

The new series 'Loop de Loop' is a sequel to my former series 'roller coaster'. With its layers of materials my new art collection shows the complexity of my artistic life in the United States influenced by a never ending visa bureaucracy. Unbeknown to most Americans, the process of obtaining a work permit for the US can be rather challenging. While highlighting associated emotions in my former series 'roller coaster' in bright colors, contrasts and bold brushstrokes, my series 'Loop de Loop' appears more subtle yet shiny. The use of self made wood boards, stain, paint, silver leaf and shellac gave me the freedom to create a distressed yet polished look. This enabled me to express the contradiction of rationality and creativity of my life dealing with endless visa paperwork to its extreme while following my creative profession as an artist.

The visa forms with numeric codes (titles of the paintings) present a seemingly never ending potential of combinations. This process is cold, confusing and stressful. Ironically, after all the work was done, and the last of six petitions was filed into a four inch and six pound stack of multicolored papers, it presented itself in some comforting beauty.

I have translated my emotions associated with those layers of recurring visa applications and stacks of papers into my paintings by repeatedly adding material, sanding some of it away, then fixing it with shellac just to scratch some of it off again only to add new material and sand it again, repeating the cycle.

My tumultuous emotions of the 'roller coaster' grew into a sense of accomplishment and almost acceptance, which is expressed in the more subtle tones of my 'Loop de Loop' and the object of choice - beautiful roses. At the same time, the color selection of red, yellow and green, represent the continuous cycle of stop, wait and go that is so typically determined by the rules of visa application.

Cynthia Tom is a visual multi-media artist, passionate about social justice, women’s issues and playing with the accepted norm. Surrealism is the platform for her ideas to ruminate, take form, solutions discovered and color to inspire.

    A seeker and philosopher about issues in her life, her ancestors and the community of women, she is inspired by dialog with friends and family, forming new themes and stories for her work. Collaboration and brainstorming are her playgrounds.

    Her work has been exhibited at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the De Young Museum, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and various other galleries from New York to Washington to San Francisco. She lectures on her work, issues related to women, feminism in the arts and Asian American women in the arts, most recently for the College Art Association’s Annual Conference.

 Cynthia is included in the text book, “Women Artists of the American West”, edited by Susan Ressler, University of Purdue and “Traces of Migration and In-Betweeness: Poetics and Politics in Post-colonial Asian Women Artists”, by Laura Fantone PhD, SF Art Institute ,University of Padua Press, Italy.  Cynthia is currently Board President, Exhibitions Curator and Programs Chair of AAWAA, Asian American Women Artists Association.

    A third-generation Chinese American, Cynthia draws inspiration from divergent

cultures. The resulting contradictions are expressed in a variety of ways. Eastern and Western symbols often share space on the same canvas. Fanciful dresses portray a prophetic wish for people to raise their consciousness and her strong female images evoke a longing for freedom of expression and a life of choice.

    Symbols, cues and clues fill her art, which is described as “Cultural Surrealism”.

Cynthia’s paintings and installations persuade us to look beyond the aesthetic--to challenge stereotypes and traditional roles, questioning paradigms and

encourages our internal dialogue.

Drawing and painting portraits has always been at the core of my artwork. In my portraits I strive to express the passion and personality of my subjects and capture an inner aspect of who they are. My portraits evolve like improvisational dance. I sculpt in color and form, continuously transforming and remolding my image, like working with wet malleable clay. I am influenced and inspired by great Impressionist and Fauvist painters such as Monet and Matisse.

Equally obsessed with the built environment and the human figure, my figurative paintings are based on sketches and photographic studies and heavily influenced by architecture.

Working simultaneously on large canvases and experimenting on small boards, allows me to investigate a topic for months.  

In the end a body of work encompasses many pieces, while exploring a single subject or place.

It is not movement or narrative that interests me. Rather than illustrating a momentary idea I want to emphasize the essence of a time and place one can fit into.

Originally from Germany with a background in architecture and art, Katja Leibenath has been painting in San Francisco since 2006.

Her work is part of several private collections nationwide and has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Atlanta, in addition to San Francisco.