SANPEDROWATERFRONTARTSDISTRICT.COM

MEDIA CONTACT: Linda Grimes [email protected] 310 732 0010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SAN PEDRO WATERFRONT ARTS DISTRICT MURAL PLACEMENT ON WELLINGTON SIGNS

San Pedro, CA – The San Pedro Waterfront Arts District is pleased to announce their newest project, in collaboration with the artists of the 4th Street Lofts and Wellington Signs. The vinyl mural placed on the 5th and Mesa side (402 W 5th Street) of Wellington Signs displays images representative of the artists who work in the 4th Street Lofts Studios, located in the next block. The artist’s work presented on the mural (in order of their appearance) include: Ben Zask, Angelica Sotiriou, Jan Govaerts, Nancy Towne- Schultz, Peggy Sivert Zask, Candice Gawne, Carol Hungerford, Sam Arno, Annemarie Rawlinson, and Meeson Pae Yang.

Wellington Signs has been a fixture in downtown San Pedro for several years and their building on the corner of 5th and Mesa, welcomes a bit of color and adornment. Owner Randy Weston has been working with the San Pedro Waterfront Arts District to come up with a way to feature San Pedro’s talented artists and hopes this newest addition to the art scene will entice visitors to visit the 4th Street Lofts. Weston says “Wellington Signs is proud to do our part to help the arts in San Pedro be more accessible and expose more people to the terrific works of the 4th Street Lofts artists.”

Arts District Managing Director, Linda Grimes explains “Our goal with this particular vinyl mural is to highlight the artists of the 4th Street Lofts and put some art on the outside for the community to enjoy on a daily basis. The Arts District has been collaborating with the 4th Street Lofts artists for several years. We are happy to include Wellington Signs as one of our sponsors for this project and we hope the community will enjoy this colorful addition to their building.”

ARTISTS STATEMENTS (in order of their appearance on the Mural):

BEN ZASK: I collect old things that were once functional and/or beautiful with the intention of creating a piece of artwork. After careers in picture framing and education I have been creating mixed media assemblage work since 2009. I enjoy the process and the results from my work.

ANGELICA SOTIRIOU: I have gone full circle. For the first twenty years I created large narrative bas-relief figurative sculptures. Working in such a large format required tremendous physical tenacity, which took its toll and, as if by “plan”, brought me back to where my art began many years ago. Over the last decade and one half, drawing and painting, line and color, contemplative compositions have become my ‘voice’ again. My recent drawings and paintings have been a personal journey of uncovering and revealing pathways, windows and portals of light and of spirit. These days, when I face my canvas, I seem to be standing on a precipice. I am a witness to voyeuristic conversations exchanged between my mind, my heart and my artist hand. Each new work has illuminated another section of a path that takes me further into un-chartered visceral silence. Creating these works has become a wordless cry to find my way back home again. I am grateful.

JANICE LLOYD GOVAERTS: After retiring as District Chief of the Torrance Superior Court, Jan Govaerts received her Bachelor of Arts in studio art in 1991, and has never looked back. Her paintings and ceramic sculpture have been shown in galleries across the and abroad and are in private and public collections, including the Artcolony Galichnik collection in Macedonia. Ms. Govaerts’ work reflects her deep connection with the earth. Her 6' tall towers of coiled clay have been likened to trees, termite mounds, stalagmites, and the towering hoodoo rock formations of Utah. Other ceramic sculpture includes her seed pod series and current stone series. Four of her towers are at the Junior Art Center in Barnsdahl Art Park in . She is past president of the Board of Directors of Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, and is now teaching ceramics at the Center. Govaerts and her seven studio mates founded the Loft Studios and Gallery, and have been instrumental in starting a lively arts scene in historic downtown San Pedro.

NANCY TOWNE-SCHULTZ: The emotional punch color can give is wildly exciting to me and I hope, to my audience. My love for that impact pushes me to experiment with combinations of media and thought in order to create intensity of mood. Abstract expressionism allows me to explore freely and a child’s innocence for the purpose of unleashing the creative process. Nancy Towne-Schultz’s landscapes, interiors and mixed media abstract expressionist pieces are joyful and exuberant, incorporating elements of Los Angeles cultures. Her work is in in private and public collects throughout the US and in several locations in Australia, to name a few. She is also on

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the Library of Congress for her extensive book illustrations. Nancy studied at Ohio Northern University and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Her paintings were exhibited for 8 years at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Phoenix gallery in Park City Utah and at the Modern Masters Fine Art/Melissa Morgan Gallery in Palm Desert, CA

PEGGY SIVERT ZASK: Peggy’s art is ever changing in appearance but the ideas behind the images remain constant. Concern and outrage for social injustice and the environment is ever present in her work. Zask’s focus on horse imagery has become a metaphor for her view of life often showing the proud and beautiful, as somber and reconstructed. Her paintings layer images and fragment forms often adding found objects and reconstructing the canvas structure. Now working in San Pedro, the issues of the Harbor ecology and community have become part of her art focus, a signal for change. Born in Los Angeles, Peggy worked as a high school Art teacher in Manhattan Beach for 20 years. She has run art galleries for 15 years and is currently director and curator of the non-profit art organization, South Bay Contemporary in San Pedro, CA., hosting art exhibitions and events in the 4th St Loft gallery. She received a BA in Art Education from CSU Long Beach and a Master’s degree in Humanities from CSU Dominguez Hills.

CANDICE GAWNE: Candice Gawne is a Los Angeles Artist living and working in San Pedro. She maintains a studio in “The Loft” Building in Downtown San Pedro, . Gawne has studied at El Camino College and UCLA and has served as an art instructor at OTIS College of Art & Design, ISOMATA, the Cultural Affairs Department of City of Los Angeles, LACMA, PVAC, the Arts Council of Long Beach (for the last 10 years), and many other public and private institutions. Since 1975, her oil paintings, neon sculptures and art furniture have been exhibited in galleries and museums in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Berlin and Tokyo and Taiwan. She has original work in many corporate, public and private collections including those of Corning Museum of Glass, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Doug Simay, Janine Smith, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium at , Chuck & Lydia Levy, Bob & Sara Cannon, Dr. Cassie Jones, actor Robin Williams, dancer Paula Abdul, director Penny Marshall, and singer Dusty Springfield and artists Lili Lakich, Eric Johnson and D. J. Hall.

CAROL HUNGERFORD: Carol Hungerford began her art venture at Otis College of Art and Design in 1996 and the spent four years at Associates in Art, now known as Los Angeles Figure Art Academy, followed by another four years studying with Joseph Mendez. Associates in Art brought the figure to life while color became the focus under Mendez. She also was influenced by Dan McCaw whose beach work greatly inspired her and opened an area of focus for many of her paintings. She also paints portraits, still life and landscape. Her goal is to continue to grow and express herself with her paint.

SAM ARNO: Sam is a former art/creative director for various Los Angeles ad agencies. As a graphic designer, he received numerous awards for packaging, outdoor billboards and magazine advertising. Among his clients were, Caldwell Banker& Company, Wells Fargo Bank, Paine Webber, Boy Scouts of America and Lear Siegler – Anchorlok Division. Sam was a founding member of Angels Gate Cultural Center and was an exhibiting curator at the Sixth Street Gallery. He now shows his work in LACMA’s Art Rental and Sales Gallery. He has shown his work at LAX, the Bridge Gallery< Barnsdall Art Park and in galleries in Long Beach, Palm Springs, Idyllwild and Los Angeles. He prefers abstract art, but has also created landscape and cosmos paintings.

ANNEMARIE RAWLINSON: “Rawlinson is not out to make pretty scenes, but she manages to fling together assemblage work of poetic electricity.” (Josef Woodard, Los Angeles Times writer and art critic) Using found objects to create sculptures brings resources to my disposition that are as varied as the material realm of the world we live in; they provide an interesting mirror of our time and society. My work is frequently narrative or symbolic and deals with social, ecological and spiritual issues. I recently took up painting in oil and am enjoying this change of medium. (Annemarie’s paintings are currently on display at the Parkhurst Gallery in an exhibition that will open on Saturday, 8/15, 6 - 9 pm. )

MEESON PAE YANG: The work explores the convergence of science, technology, and mythology into a thickly layered stratum of images and objects reflecting systems within our natural and built environment

ABOUT THE SAN PEDRO WATERFRONT ARTS DISTRICT: (www.sanpedrowaterfrontartsdistrict.com) – In 2009, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, the former CRA/LA and a group of local artists, restrateurs and arts organization leaders teamed to create the San Pedro ACE District. This organization developed an ACE Plan and implemented a five-year, funded economic strategy for historic downtown San Pedro, designed to put the arts first. Since then the ACE District Advisory Committee and the Chamber of Commerce, have developed more than fifty projects/collaborations providing more than $321,000 in grant funding to assist San Pedro artists, galleries and arts organizations.

The San Pedro Waterfront Arts District is a new 501c3 non-profit organization with a five member, volunteer Board, an Advisory Council, and a ten member Design Advisory Panel to assist with public art related projects. The mission of the Arts District San Pedro Waterfront is to promote San Pedro's authentic arts, culture and entertainment character, through Advocacy, Marketing and Education activities. This San Pedro Chamber of Commerce Partnership Organization is transitioning from the CRA funded San Pedro Arts Culture and Entertainment (ACE) District to an independent nonprofit group supporting the arts in San Pedro.

For more information, please visit: SanPedroWaterfrontArtsDistrict.com

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