I am an artist interested in the visual psychic story of the human race, our struggle to understand universal emotions that cross over to all genders, races, and cultures. Our stories are born in history. My ceramic sculpture is about MEMORIES, in homage to our ancestors. Visual images of trees, roots, bones, locks, & chains are metaphors for family, secrets, stories, growth, life, death, both past and in the future. I see my sculptures as “offerings” to deepen the engagement between remembrance and (un) forgetting. 

My printmaking images are political. My objective is to challenge the myths of human issues and record changes with positive visual images that can help us view the world as a global effort. I often like to make very pleasing and colorful images to bait the viewer to SEE only to realize the narrative is a ‘warning’.

My paintings are a cross over of both memories & political and tend to be more abstract. I am dedicated to the visual arts as a way of giving back to our social environment with cultural images that enhance and deepen our care for human beings.

Dimitri Kourouniotis paints boldly, exploring contrasts of visually engaging swirls and loops set against a background of broad brushstrokes. “I try to make landscape and cityscape pieces that are simultaneously energizing and soothing,” he says, "using a combination of bright colors with abstract city or plains settings." Inspired by the visual poetry of everyday life, Dimitri’s art clears the mind, as he adds momentum to intention and emotion. Loose, confident gestural forms are his vocabulary, giving the viewer a sense of immediacy and presence. “My art is about the passion of expression, living joyfully in the present.” Born in Athens, Greece, 1965, Dimitri Kourouniotis has lived in both Europe and the United States. After finishing his graduate degree in business studies in the UK he spent the next 12 years as a management consultant and computer programmer. He currently lives in California with his wife. Having decided to pursue the course to his true happiness, he became a full time artist in 2001. His influences include Diebenkorn, Da Vinci, Kline and Zen calligraphers. His paintings are created as he relates energy and momentum into color, intention and emotion. He creates art with oil & charcoal on canvas.

I was always intrigued by the idea of mixing construction or industrial materials with the fine arts to achieve a dream-like beauty and that combination is exactly what my new artwork encapsulates.

In my series of metal meshwork, I use industrial materials such as stainless steel mesh as my main material. With a blow-torch, I employ visual language to express organic-based themes with botanic, arborist, and even oceanic influences.

When it is finished, my artwork seems to be made of soft silk. But when it is touched, it is surprisingly cold and sharply metallic. I believe these kinds of illusions reflect life. And when I burn the metal screen with a flame from the blow-torch, it is all free-hand without any back drawing. This technique is similar to what my Asian ancestors did with Sumi ink over the last thousands of years, and when I work on my pieces, I feel the spirit of the ancient art coming through to me from long ago.

I would use various organic themes to accentuate this industrial element in the work: maritime elements as sea kelps, sea anemones and often abstract giant botanical forms and simplified tree lines—tangled and overlapped as if there was a permanent breeze in the air. I add colors by letting the background seep through the mesh as if you were to see the world through a magic veil.

With harsh industrial materials and tools, I am to recapture this unusual beauty, inscribing the ephemeral existence of sublime nature onto shimmering metal mesh.

My current work marks the beginning of my artistic explorations into local Bay Area landscapes. I feel drawn to water and light, and how these elements create a mood. I want you to see what I see, to experience the feeling of being there as I do. The paintings range from realistic to abstract expressions of my intentions.

The media I use are Oils,and Pastels.

Kim Smith has shown at George Lawson Gallery and Inclusions Gallery in SF.  She is the recepient of several Jurors Awards for ArtSpan auctions and shows.  She was once first sold at the Visual Aid auction and also sold within the top 10.  She published a book (real printing, not on-line) of her work in 2008.  The book, Where Quirky Meets Menacing: an autobiography in collage, won several nationwide awards.  She sells her work through galleries, open studios and her business, Smith & Co. (www.VintageSmith.com)

My collages are meant to be intimate and should evoke a peaceful, quiet and simultaneously compelling response from viewers. Many of the collages are of a serious nature, specifically my recent series "Series For a Better World."  But, one can often find a humorous or unexpected element within the frame as well. I use art to voice opinions and ideas that I often don't have the courage to say aloud.  It is also a form of relaxation and I often spend days exploring galleries and museums. Artwork can have an overwhelming impact on me and strike me with a breath-stopping raw energy that makes me want to produce my own work. Having the time and space to feed this desire is enriching. I was born in Seattle, Washington in 1961 and spent 10 years of my childhood in Germany. I now call San Francisco home. I have degrees in Design, Economics, and an MBA.

I use vintage and antique materials in my collages, rather than modern copies.  I believe using the vintage materials maintains the integrity of the work.  To the greatest degree possible, I treat them in an archival manner.  My work is professionally framed with acid free matting and ready to hang. I usually use museum glass.

my new work deals with the way sensuality is expressed through the act of painting and the ability of fabric to veil and reveal our desires.