Kay Carlson glances at her painting “Sausalito Horizon” at her art studio in Sausalito, California on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. The oil was chosen for the Art2Life annual online exhibition. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)
Sausalito artists featured in international exhibition
By: Giuseppe Ricapito
Three Sausalito artists were selected for an online art exhibition that drew more than 1,800 entries.
Art2Life, a Sausalito art company that holds educational workshops and underwrites the exhibition, organizes the annual juried event, which features pieces from international artists. Anita Rogers, the proprietor of a gallery in New York, chose 54 of the submissions for the exhibition.
“I was happy to see a nice mix of figurative and abstract works in the entries,” Rogers said. “I encourage all artists to keep working, to keep experimenting, and to keep putting their work out there. It’s essential.”
Art2Life is located in the Industrial Center Building, a landmark historic space in Sausalito that contains art studios and other workshop areas.
Nicholas Wilton, founder and owner of Art2Life, said the online exhibition elevates talented local and international artists to wider exposure.
“What we do is we help artists, we help people discover their authenticity through art,” he said. “We teach them and we coach them, and one of things we do is encourage them to promote their art. It’s a learning experience for these artists while also being a self-promotion event.”
Wilton said 100% of the money goes to artists if their pieces are purchased.
Kay Carlson was among the Sausalito artists to be selected. Carlson’s piece, “Sausalito Horizon,” features the city in a heavy storm during the most recent rain season.
“I was very shocked,” she said of her selection. “I just threw the dice and applied to it. Generally, the paintings were more abstract than mine, but I appreciated being selected.”
“Sausalito Horizon” is a 40-inch-by-30-inch oil painting. The piece is priced at $4,500.
“I usually paint from a sense of place, and the waterfront is very precious to me,” she said. “My paintings used to be just about the beauty and this great light and the golden hour, and now they’re kind of shifting to being more what I feel about what’s going on, that the beauty and our way of life along the waterfront is threatened. It’s not just pretty, it’s serious.”
Another Sausalito artist, Andrew Faulkner, was selected for “Tiffany Sky,” a 48-inch-by-60-inch acrylic and mixed media painting. Its price is $8,600.
Faulkner said he began his career in graphic design, but pivoted with the assistance of Art2Life and a workshop led by Wilton.
“Over two years, I phased out of my design business and started to improve my skills and sharpen my artistic vision,” he said. “I was fortunate to find my ‘tribe’ at the ICB art studios in Sausalito, where Nick Wilton also has a studio.”
Erika Parrino was the other Sausalito-based artist to be featured. Her piece, “Fields I’ve Seen,” is a 20-inch-by-20 inch acrylic painting on a birch panel. Its price is $975.
The exhibition opened on Aug. 29. Debbie Mueller won first place and a prize of $2,500; Lianne Yael Jedeikin won second place and $2,000; and Jeff Horton won third place and $1,500.
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