I create photograms: photographs that are made without the use of a camera. This 19th century process has an immediacy, rawness and truth that is not found in images created with a camera. I layer natural and man-made elements such as water, plants and rope on the surface of silver-based photographic paper. The paper is exposed to light from an enlarger to create a shadowy silhouette image. Then I lay myself and others on top of the photo paper and make another exposure, which results in a collage effect.

Ramekon O’Arwisters lives and works in San Francisco, California. He was a recipient of a 2002 Artadia Award and is 2014 Eureka Fellow, administered through the Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco. He has exhibited at the Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, California and the Kato Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. His numerous group exhibitions include Past Forward: African Spirituality in Contemporary Black Art at the African American Art & Cultural Complex (AAACC), San Francisco, California and Decoding Identity: I Do It For My People, Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), San Francisco, California. O’Arwisters was honored with his second San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant in 2011. He has been actively involved in residences and guest lectures at Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Vermont Studio Center, and Sonoma State University. His works are included in the public collections of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke University and the Achenbach Foundation, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California. He is currently working on an exhibition about art and spirituality for Communing With The Unseen: African Spirituality in Contemporary Art as an artist-in-residence at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California.

I have been very fortunate to have been able to attend painting workshops all over the world.  During my many Open Studio experiences here in San Francisco one of the questions asked was "Why not stay here and capture this beautiful city".  As a commercial artist working with the real estate community I have actually drawn and or painted over 8,000 of San Francisco's most beutiful homes.  I am currently photographing many of the same homes and agree that this is indeed an incredible place to live and paint.  I am now looking to combine my passion for drawing and watercolor painting with my love for San Francisco,  my home now for 38 years.

My current work is highly influenced by my work performing wildlife monitoring. I am interested in the interaction of parameters imposed upon a system and the chance observations made within those parameters. Most of my work involves repetition and/or ritual to some extent.

Derek lynch was born in Englewood NJ and currently lives and works in San Francisco CA. Solo and Group exhibitions have been featured at: Schneider Museum of Art, Ashley Oregon, Bedford Gallery of Contemporary Art, Walnut Creek, CA, SFMOMA Museo gallery, San Francisco,CA, SFMOMA Artist Gallery San Francisco, CA, Gallerie Citi, CA. .

Artist Statement

My new work involves the creation of urban based Idealized landscapes in dream like circumstances. Ambiguous relationships and unsettling juxtapositions.

I am focusing and dissecting, rearranging forms derived from the architecture of the bay area to create new perspectives.

My text are idioms of my perception of reality base on the Current social political life we live.

The outcome can be whimsical and yet it offers a serious sociopolitical commentary on the changes to our urban landscape.

My perception of reality, and how I interpret it, was shaped by the implications of the housing scandals of the last decade.

I am attempting to combine these observations to create a compilation of connective awareness.

In 2006, I began working with architectural forms using ink, pencil markers, acrylic paint, and archival pigment. My use of these materials has become a prominent feature of my work..

I was fortunate to attend the School of the Visual Arts in New York City in the early 80’s with artists such as Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.

As a musician my band played at CBGB's in 1986 & 87 at the Christmas special as the 'Special Guests' after the performance in 1987 we performed live on WFMU radio.

My film debut was at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, BAM in Berkeley, CA, and The Kitchen in New York City in 2000.

My film debut was at the Castro Theater in San Francisco, BAM in Berkeley, CA, and The Kitchen in New York City in 2000.