Rick Albertson is retired freelance documentary photographer. View his photography at rickalbertson.com.
Collette Budd is the owner of Brier Rose Design. With over ten years experience in the event and floral design industry, Brier Rose Design is dedicated to the art of creativity and curate, specific to your styling needs, installing weddings from San Luis Obispo to Temecula and everywhere in between.
Jamie Crooke Powell is an artist, educator, and administrator with a MFA degree in visual art. Her art practice consists of project-based artworks utilizing a service-based model exploring the intersection of urban planning and public health. The artwork is often participatory in nature, which utilizes performance, installation art, video, drawing, social sculpture and event planning as formats for her artwork. Throughout her projects and professional practice she aims to create moments of reflection using pedagogical models, poetics, and a public practice. For more information, visit her website.
Gayle Dowling grew up in an artistic family that appreciated and loved art and music. She recieved her first instruction from her grandmother Mary, who was a well known seascape artist in Laguna beach. Gayle later studied art in high school and college, winning many awards for her work. She later became a teacher and was nominated for the prestegious Bravo award for her art instruction. After retiring from teaching, Gayle founded The Loft in Wrightwood, California where she displays her watercolors, graphite and pen and ink works. She also holds art workshops and private lessons for children and adults. The dates for the workshops can be found on The Loft calander, and private lessons can be set up individually. Email her at: gayleandco@gmail.com or view her artwork at gaylesArtWorks.etsy.com.
Born in New Jersey, Patricia Saviano Farrell came west to the University of San Francisco for a B.S. in nursing. She married Bill & together they raised 4 children. Her art journey began with pen and ink, followed by watercolor, photography, life drawing, logo design, and landscaping with stone. After retiring, she enrolled in a sculpture class at a university, beginning a journey into the world of stone and bronze. Patricia enjoys the opposite mindset of working with bronze and stone, alternating between building with clay to create a bronze, and chiseling away at stone to reveal an artwork within. The process delights her as much as the end result. For more information on her work, visit psfarrellart.com.
Katherine Flores specializes in acrylic paintings of dreamscapes and the beauty of the natural world. She dreams in vivid color and fluid movements and expresses her unique visions in each piece of art. Katheryn’s artistic philosophy involves the desire to broaden perspectives in ways to help the viewer to see all that is possible in a simple image…to show how even the mundane can contain magic. Her art conveys bold, brilliant, thought provoking images that turn normal perception on its head and push the viewer toward new internal vistas by means of imagination.
Timothy Green was born in Rochester, New York. He worked in an mRNA research lab, and as a group home counselor for mentally ill adults, before moving to California to serve as editor of the poetry magazine Rattle. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Connecticut Review, The Florida Review, Mid-American Review, and Nimrod International Journal. Green has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Rhysling Award, and his first book, American Fractal (Red Hen Press, 2009), won the Phi Kappa Phi award from the University of Southern California. He is a contributing columnist for the (Riverside) Press Enterprise and co-founder of the Wrightwood Literary Festival. Green earned his B.A. at the University of Rochester and graduated with a Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California in 2009. He lives in Wrightwood with his wife and two children. More information can be found at his website.
Greg Jones is a professor of Communication Studies at Victor Valley College. He holds a PhD in Higher Education Leadership, a Masters in Communication and a Bachelor’s in English Literature. A pianist and vocalist, Jones has been composing, performing and recording music for three decades. He has won an Inland Empire award for musical theater and is a master of ceremonies for the annual Idyllwild Jazz Festival. He’s lived in Wrightwood since 2006, and is founder of the Wrightwood Blues Society.
Joan McCandless was born in Washington, D.C., where her mother was an artist. Art was an integral part of Joan’s early life, creativity a part of her surroundings. Joan has lived in Wrightwood since 1988. It was not until semi-retirement that Joan found the time to explore her artistic ability. Initially working in watercolor, Joan painted Native American & nature-inspired work. Pastel is her current medium of choice because of its vibrancy and playfulness. An avid hiker and traveler, being in wilderness has always grounded Joan. Most of her art is drawn from her nature photography and is often inspired by long-term friendships.
Suzi McKinney is a dental hygienist, yoga teacher at Live Yoga Wellness and jewelry designer for Sunanda Silver. Suzi took her first yoga class in 1984 at the Santa Monica YWCA while taking classes at Santa Monica College. She was looking for a way to find a sense of calmness and focus while keeping up with her studies and busy school schedule. After two years at Santa Monica College, Suzi transferred to University of Southern California Dental School to study Dental Hygiene. She graduated in 1987 and began her professional Dental Hygiene career. In 1999, Suzi moved to Playa del Rey and started taking classes at a local yoga studio and worked out often at a nearby gym. In 2007, she attended the Yoga Works 200-hour teacher training in Santa Monica studying with senior teachers Annie Carpenter and Birgette Kristin. Following training, Suzi volunteered at the Santa Monica YMCA for six months, teaching beginners. Over the years, Suzi has taught a blend of Hatha classes integrating Iyengar techniques focusing on the correct alignment with the use of props. Her practice and teaching has evolved to include Prime of Life Yoga® as well. She has taught classes at Body Wellness in Santa Monica and Curves in Westchester. She also teaches private clients in the Los Angeles area.
Ric Rice is an abstract painter investigating the placement of pigment values of color with harmonious balance combining hues of complimentary juxtaposition. Active brush strokes create a textured surface where color and form give way to unsuspected depth. His works allow the imagination to wander into an undefined yet lyrical abstract world.
Leslie Sikes has lived in Wrightwood with her husband, Darrell, for 25 years where they raised their only son, Derek. Recently retired from teaching at Wrightwood Elementary School, she previously taught grades 1-4 in Fontana and San Bernardino. She has always been a lover and patron of the arts and earned her Masters in Education while working in Integrating the Arts into the Curriculum. Growing up in San Diego she studied dance with many of the prominent local studios and performed with the Old Globe Theater and San Diego Civic Light Opera, aka, Starlight. She has been involved with Snowline Players locally and and has always infused her classroom teaching with art and performance as often as possible. Since retiring from teaching in the public school system, she enjoys gardening, yoga, walking and DIY projects around the house. She loves learning and has become a student of visual art, specifically painting at the Wrightwood Arts Center. She has always been an advocate for arts in education and appreciates the opportunity Joyce has given her to share her love of art with teaching young children.
Colleen Sparlin has been involved in the arts most of her life. She grew up in a family of artists. Her father was a watercolorist and her mother worked in oils and sculpture. Colleen worked for many years as a High school art instructor. As a working artist, she has given classes and/or demonstrations at the Hesperia Art Association, High Desert Cultural Arts Foundation, Corona Art Association, and others ; I have been a member of the Scholastic Key Alliance, the Riverside Art Alliance, California Artists, NAEA, and supported the arts as a local high school arts teacher. Her work has won numerous awards at various venues including the American Association of University Women and has been published in the Incite: Color Passions art book, published by Northlight books. For more information, visit her website.
Gary Thornhill has been a resident of Wrightwood for thirty eight years. During most of that time he was a high school woodworking instructor, which led me to become interested in extending my experience as a wood turner in retirement. He enjoys turning woods native to the western U.S., primarily local woods of walnut, pine and varieties of oak. As each piece of wood is unique so goes each turning; all are unique as is the wood’s shape and grain. “My joy comes from seeing the rough wood, very often plain reconfigured or damaged wood, become beautiful as the project progresses. View some of his artwork here.
Jan Vondra has been a longtime resident of Wrightwood. She grew up surrounded by music and art as her dad was a pianist/music teacher and her mother an artist/English teacher. Her grandmother, also an artist, lived in Montana and had a passion for replicating scenes of the wild Northwest. Since retiring from the local school district, Jan has had an opportunity to be a student of the arts, an activity she enjoys and continues to develop.
Liz Wolf-Spada is a retired Phelan Elementary teacher currently tutoring and supplying educational Discovery Toys. Learn more about Discovery Toys on its Facebook page.
Zachariah Budd Photography is a freelance photographer and videographer that shoots portrait photography, head shots senior photos, and film weddings, and event highlight videos. For more information visit their website.
Other Artists & Members
Marlene Bowman
Terry Botroff
Janine Brand
Rose Burcher
Charlene Canter
Lynn Crawford
Christina Birrer Fetzer
Laura Frame
Lynne Haile
Terri McCawley Hill
Nancy Kupka
Lori Lovett
Rick Lovett
Alexandria McGee
Dennis McGee
Susan McClosky
Laurie Piccolotti
Janet Thornhill
Bob Vondra
Joyce Wonderly
Pamela J. Wright