Meet the “Decades” Artists
Jaxson Watkins
Largely self taught, Jaxson is 9 years old and a 3rd generation artist based in Petaluma. His work focuses on portraiture and figurative representation and explores the intersection of pop culture and childhood. This is his first curated exhibition.
Faith Raby
Faith is a young adult artist, born in March of 2004, whose current medium is acrylic on canvas. As a beginning artist, she is eager to experiment with other techniques and mediums, and curious to see how her style might change as she explores art. It doesn’t take much to inspire Faith to create, but what does the job easily is when she’s in nature. There is usually a trace of nature in her pieces, and you’ll be likely to find skies and plants in most of them. Not every painting will have a theme, but there are a special bunch that have helped her put her unspoken thoughts and feelings into something she can picture and process. She finds that they sit differently on the canvas, than on her chest.
Amaya Yoshikawa
Amaya Yoshikawa is a 22 year old (born March 25, 2000) up and coming African-Asian-American artist based in Sonoma County who strives to work on politically motivated pieces. Amaya has been studying art since the age of 6 and dedicating her life to art for the next 14 years. Due to the global pandemic, she had put her art on the backburner. She began working in hospitality to save money in order to eventually have the freedom to create again. As Amaya worked hard, she missed the feeling of allowing her creativity to run free. Growing frustration over current events led her to a boiling point. She had to express her anger. She is currently gravitating towards themes involving the environment, human rights, healthcare, class systems, etc. Amaya’s goal is to use her art to shine a light on humanities reckless nature, exposing how our actions destroy everything around us, including ourselves.
Soijana (Esaia Gonzalez)
Do you ever feel trapped in your own head? Living with the trifecta of ADHD, chronic depression, and generalized anxiety: all wrapped into the suffocating blanket that can be complex PTSD, that’s how Soijana often feels. Her works embody hope and pain, two states of mind she has spent 26 years swinging back and forth from. Utilizing various mixed mediums, to include acrylic and oil paints, colored pencils, ink pens, collage, and more, she finds comfort in letting her mind bleed onto paper, usually with intent set, though with little rigid structure to follow. The end results vary from expression in its purest form, to highly detailed and intricate works with hidden messages waiting to be found and felt.
Emma Logan
Emma Logan is an artist and educator based in Sonoma County, CA, USA. She combines a research and process driven practice with organic mediums like clay, wool, and paper to make sculpture and installation work. The tactile nature of these chosen mediums is an important link to her areas of focus: geographic identity, land use and access, agriculture, and sensory memory. Equally as important for her work is engagement with the viewer through touch, sound, smell, and taste. Recent works have highlighted disparities in land and water access for agricultural practices in the state of California, cultural appropriation of art and ideas through ancestral relationships, the overlap between community isolation and food scarcity, and the sensory relationship of memory to cultural identity.
Alli Thrower
Alli was first introduced to watercolor as a child by her late mother, Billie Thrower. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Alli’s mother was an incredibly talented painter who found the imperfections and unpredictability of watercolor to be both challenging and exhilarating. Alli has found the same to be true. During Covid she began to experiment with superimposing her watercolor against photographs— the contrast and juxtaposition of whimsical paintings against photos mimicking the fluidity of art and real life. Alli lives in Petaluma, CA with her husband, 3 children, 3 dogs, 4 chickens, and 1 unimpressed cat.
Matt Gaser
Matt, a graduate of Art Center College of Design, has 20 years of professional experience in the art world. Matt’s worked as a lead concept artist and designer for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Angry Birds Movie, Rugrats, World of Warcraft, League of Legends and stage design for massive EDM music festivals such as the Daydream Festival. Currently, Matt is working full time with Warner Brothers Animation on the animated feature: The Cat And The Hat. Also, Matt is producing an illustrated novel with Chronicle Books and many of Matt’s original art and stories can be found in his publish book Fantastical: The Art of Matt Gaser. See more at mattgaser.com and drzammsy.com.
Kristi Quint
Kristi Quint is fairly new to the medium of wheel throwing and clay work. She earlier dabbled in paint and had the honor to participate in the Black Lives Matter mural in front of the Petaluma Library. Her letter was the “B” and she tried to express the radiance she sees in her son, Jackson. After having taken a few classes at Petaluma Pottery, Kristi Quint has recently become a member to further her practice. She loves the uniqueness and possibility that exists every time she works with clay. She is a 12 year resident of Petaluma, is actively involved with Petaluma Valley Little League as well as her son’s school, River Montessori Charter School. She is a breast cancer survivor, 10 years out, and would like to urge women to get their mammograms!
Tina Rogers
Tina’s passion is to inspire reading by sharing the world with children using music, dance, movement, ideas, storytelling and culture. Her journey has led her to create programs for pre schools, elementary, middle, high schools, university classes, art/community centers, and Libraries all over the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Valley teaching multicultural music and dance. Her belief is that it takes communities, books and information to raise children to be positive, productive and responsible citizens of all cultures. This is her first time exhibiting her art, and she considers herself a novice artist.
Norma Giddings
Norma has deep roots with D’Eggery. Born in Petaluma, she is part of the family that started the original Eggery on this property. From her studio across the lane, Norma is a potter drawn to ethnic designs and shapes. The Japanese tea ceremony inspired her interest in teapot designs along with their teacup sets. Norma started gardening in earnest at the age of eleven, and has never been without a garden since. She grew up with music and dance, and has had the joy of dance and many rhythms throughout her life. For Norma, working with clay incorporates both worlds of dance and gardening into a singular point where focus and concentration are demanded. Just like dance, the clay has a rhythm, and like gardening, a connection to the earth. She focuses on functional forms, because she wants her pieces to be enjoyed and used.
Marguerite Elliot
Marguerite Elliot is an award-winning multi-media sculptor who works primarily in welded steel. Throughout her career, her work has focused on feminist, social justice, environmental and anti-nuclear issues. Currently her work addresses issues of environmental fragility, preservation, and interconnectedness. Her work has been exhibited widely across the U.S. Her large-scale sculptures are installed in sculpture parks in Finland, Denmark and New York. Her earlier work is archived at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Concerned with the current environmental destruction, loss of species, and irrevocable environmental changes taking place all over the world, Marguerite’s work functions as both a reliquary and a shrine, to what is lost or soon may be lost.
Sallie Latch
Watching chickens taught me to observe. As a kid growing up on a chicken ranch in Penngrove I watched and was fascinated how they can stand on one leg for hours. And the way they cock their head around to get a full-on view, or the beautiful line that traces down their back to their head as they bend down to peck at a piece of grain on the ground. These images honed my learning to observe detail and to draw it. Eventually I painted images that I saw and also conjured up in my head. Through the years these have been mostly portraits of women. However one painting that is not a portrait has gained most attention. It is a strong anti-war painting which has been chosen as the logo for a Tribunal coming up next year. I work in acrylics, and besides being influenced by my observations of chickens, I’ve been greatly influenced by Chagall and Matisse and their free flow of line and color. My work appears in collections in Europe and Asia as well as the U. S. And Mexico. Now as a retired teacher and world traveler, I’m living happily in Petaluma. The chickens are gone but beauty remains, especially in the flowing hills and the meandering river. Art flourishes here.
Let’s Work Together
However you approach the concept of community resilience, this space can offer you a place to share your thoughts, listen to others, learn from our past and create positive programs in Petaluma and beyond. Fill out our volunteer sign-up form if you would like to volunteer, donate, or partner with us. We can’t wait to work with you!