I mostly make photography the 'old fashion way' capturing the images on film and printing them in a darkroom. I found that by using a film camera I can more fully engaged with the subject of my pictures, the mood of the scene, the feelings I resent. I take my time driven by the intent to capture an emotional dimension if at all possible. I found freedom in this process becoming more part of the image than being an observer.

Rather than looking for achieving perfection thus, I choose to embrace the imperfections of our world - an exercise in accepting what is. A week later, a month later, when ever I get to develop the films, the angst I know fed by the thought that all might be fogged due to the airport x-ray machines is always eclipsed by the anticipated excitation of what I will (re)discover.

I often start with a figurative painting or a portrait. Then I adapt to the particular situation by subverting the picture plane in a variety of ways. Usually I either contract or expand the depicted space using one or more floating, intruding, or incongruous objects or subjects. My aim is to develop the classic genre of figurative work or portraiture into something more psychologically expressive and amusing. I chiefly work in pastel, oil pastel, or watercolor.

Through the lens, everyday life is captured and heightened to convey a myriad of moods and impressions. Using varying combination of light, form, motion, and grain, these fleeting moments are edited to offer a view of the mundane, the romantic, the brooding, and the surreal.

These images are captured primarily on film, then printed through traditional process on sepia-or selenium-toned black and white silver gelatin paper, or through converting to digital files and printed with archival pigment ink.

A 2009 review by Michael Yokum for Open Studios can be accessed in the archives of SF Art News http://sfartnews.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/burnt-kettle-the-art-of-rebecc...

For almost three decades Sharon Steuer has pioneered the merging of traditional and digital art forms. Sharon's recent work weaves together her oil paintings, drawings, digital paintings, photographs, and personal artifacts to explore and reflect fragmented memory. Awards for her artwork include the national Faber Birren Color Award, a Windsor Newton Painting award, and a Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her studio is in the 60-artist building Workspace Limited, studio 14a, 2150 Folsom Street (between 17th and 18th).

Sharon is also is an author who teaches how to use digital tools to create artwork in books (The Adobe Illustrator WOW! Books, Creative Thinking in Photoshop), videos (lynda.com/SharonSteuer), and as a regular contributor CreativePro.com.

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.