Featured Artists
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Harold Sakamoto
Harold Sakamoto grew up in Sun Valley and has been participating in Tierra del Sol Foundation’s programs since 1985. Harold has created an impressive body of work over the years and is a naturally gifted fine artist. Harold’s work includes replicating photographs, reinterpreting other artist’s works, and creating fantasy portraits or narratives from his imagination. Working in a realistic yet whimsical style, Harold masters many mediums. Some of these mediums include pastels, color pencil, charcoal, and watercolor. Harold’s unique style also translates wonderfully in his three-dimensional ceramic work. The arts have proved to be the area where Harold communicates the most. Harold has received outstanding recognition from his community and has exhibited his work regionally and nationally.
Clare Zeitlin
Clare has been with the Tierra del Sol Foundation since 1984 and has received much recognition for her achievements in the performing and fine art fields. Clare has an admirable ability to express herself and creates a wonderful world for the viewers to share through her artwork. Clare’s work includes portraits inspired by popular figures in the arts and entertainment industry. These portraits become humorous restatements of the character portrayed; examples include Mick Jaeger, Justin Timberlake and Will Smith. Other portraits serve as memorials for loss and remembrance such as a recent piece titled “Tribute” which portrays Tony Randall.
Clare cites Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia O’Keeffe as artistic influences. Clare has reinterpreted their works and enjoys their use of color. Clare’s portfolio also contains fantastic, boldly colored landscapes and vibrant still lifes. This brilliance is achieved by multimedia application of oil pastels, markers, and watercolor paint. Clare is a skilled manipulator of various media achieving desired effects. Clare’s work has been included in numerous regional exhibits and has been commissioned for her portraits.
Trina Kirkman
Trina Kirkman’s works on paper are decorative and saturated with both vibrant and subtle color. A remarkable colorist, Kirkman focuses on mixing interpretive hues, whether working directly from life or adapting an image from a reference. Trina gathers her main inspiration from nature, with a concentration on flowers and botanicals. She approaches her unique compositions with a loose painterly style and uses a variety of media, including, acrylic paint, watercolor and mixed media. Trina’s artwork has been turning heads since she joined Tierra del Sol’s studio in 2004. She has been creating artwork for years and has participated in exhibitions at Tierra’s Sunland Studio and at the First Street Gallery in Claremont.
Isabel Diana Vartanian
Diana Vartanian is a visual artist working at the Tierra del Sol Art Studio in Sunland, CA and at her home in Granada Hills. Born and raised in Glendale, California, Diana remembers creating artwork when she was young. The art books she found in her parent’s house still inspire her to produce inventive compositions. Vartanian is now creating her own visual narrative.
Diana is a gifted observer of the visual realm; Vartanian locates a rich plethora of imagery from her everyday life, her dreams and imagination. She rearranges and weaves the subject matter together using pattern, vivid hues and distorted scale to realize her dynamic, playful compositions. The application of medium is bold, heavy and definite, creating wonderful worlds for the viewer to enter and contemplate.
Sarit Halo
Sarit entered Tierra del Sol’s program in 2002 and quickly captivated viewers with her colorful imagination, and playful reinterpretations. Sarit’s work ranges in style from realism to abstract. Sarit translates imagery from reference or creates decorative drawings from her imagination. These can be densely patterned with color and a myriad of small shapes such as hearts, fish, flowers, and geometric shapes. The intricate detail pieces are reminiscent of quilted patterning. Sarit has a sophisticated understanding of the materials she uses, whether traditional to art making or computer graphics. Sarit works independently through all aspects of the creative process and is very consistent in creating exhibition quality artwork. Sarit has received recognition throughout the community and by her peers for her wonderful work.
Sarkis Keushkerian
Sarkis rejected traditional studies at a young age and found his love of painting. This Syrian born artist moves the viewer through a landscape with familiarity and portrays a figure with passion. Sarkis draws his inspiration from memory and imagination. His works are subtle expressions of his own emotions, executed with great skill. Although capable of manipulating many different kinds of media, Sarkis is true to his medium of choice, which are oil paints. Often, he sketches with color pencils on paper first to solve color decisions and to configure elements of the composition.
Sarkis’ paintings have been in numerous exhibitions and continually grace the offices of many local officials. Sarkis has contributed many works of art to the Tierra del Sol Foundation. These donations are in appreciation of the continued respect for the arts promoted by the Tierra del Sol Foundation and its’ community.
Gustavo Cruz
Cruz has drawn his entire life, working from varied areas of inspiration, amassing stacks of paper that contain the stories and unique characters that live in the multidimensional compositions of his imagination. He has honed a style that pays homage to classical elements while executing a contemporary work of art. His work is a stream of continuous images that contain dissected figures, morphed faces and isolated shapes, both geometrical and natural. They are blended seamlessly with clever shifts of shadow and light, creating an arena where positive and negative spaces are all active ground. His work shows influences from M.C. Escher to contemporary graffiti and underground artists who have no formal training like him, only drive and desire.
