Jeff Long – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist
This episode features versatile painter Jeff Long. Equally at home in abstraction or realism, Long’s paintings draw from many different sources – landscape and nature, cultural traditions, tribal design elements, Modernist motifs – fusing these elements into uniquely personalized impressions of the world. His work is held in numerous public collections including the Achenbach Foundation/Legion of Honor, UCLA, the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska, and the U.S. Embassy in Manila.
“I started with representational work, landscape-based, connected to nature. Gradually that work morphed into geometric abstraction. In the last decade I’ve returned to representational art with a certain kind of political content. I think I’m going to continue to go back and forth between abstraction and representational work to work right on the edge of those two things.” – Jeff Long (Building 101, Studio 2412)
Thanks to Shipyard filmmakers Sean Karlin and Orli Damari of Damari/Karlin Studio for Art on the Edge, a series of micro-documentaries featuring Hunters Point Shipyard artists discussing being an artist and the influence of this unique site on their work.
Thanks also to The Point and the Spring Open Studios Committee for supporting this work.
Jump directly to a video:
Elvira Dayel | RONDOVAL | Ayanna U’Dongo | Carrie Ann Plank | Rob Cox | Rhonel Roberts | Rebecca Haseltine | Eric Joyner | Linda Larson | Martín Revolo | Wynne Hayakawa | Marti McKee | Stephanie Peek | Howard Hersh | Jeff Long
Back to top
Howard Hersh – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist
This episode highlights Howard Hersh, whose work embraces both painted and sculptural elements. The integration of two very differently defined disciplines – painting, which creates a two-dimensional illusion of the 3-D world, and sculpture, which exists wholly as a 3-D object – speaks to structure as both a metaphor and a reality. Hersh is a third-generation artist whose work has been exhibited in over 250 group and solo shows. His work hangs in public spaces in the US, Japan, China, Indonesia and Africa.
“Thinking about being an architect earlier in my life actually focused me on fine art. I went back to school and quickly decided that fine art is where I should focus. But some of my pieces are definitely very architectural. I’ve always used color in my work and I have to say as time as gone on I’ve moved more and more toward black and white. I think that’s because I’ve become more interested in sculpture. I think of of myself as a maker of things, not a painter.” – Howard Hersh (Building 117, Studio 3103)
Back to top
Stephanie Peek – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist
This episode highlights Stephanie Peek, whose florally-inspired oil paintings speak metaphorically of the lush but fragile beauty of the world. Her work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Prato, Italy; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, San Diego; the Museo Italo-Americano, San Francisco; and the Oakland Museum of California. Her artists’ books are in the collections of the Library of Congress of the United States, the New York Public Library, Harvard and Stanford Universities and the University of California at Berkeley, as well as many private collectors nationally and internationally.
“The content of my work is really about refuge. Refuge, as a place like Hunters Point Shipyard, to escape from all the worldly, mundane distractions and demands we have put upon us or that we put upon ourselves. I find that painting can be a site of meditation, suspending time, making time irrelevant, and can put me in touch with that which does not decay.” – Stephanie Peek (Building 101, Studio 2501)
Back to top
Marti McKee – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist
This episode highlights Marti McKee, a San Francisco native, who has pursued the study of the figure with intensity and commitment for many years. For the past two years McKee has focused on designing and printing silkscreen posters advocating women’s rights, immigrant rights, social justice and impeachment. She gives these away at marches, demonstrations and rallies.
“My art, I never intellectualize it, it is truly about feelings. It’s a process of letting the imagery come out through feeling and technique. I’m not trying to express a particular idea, a thought or feeling, but just let the imagery come out. It is just being with myself and using these tools to express my feelings.” – Marti McKee (Building 116 during Open Studios)
Back to top
Wynne Hayakawa – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist
This episode highlights Wynne Hayakawa, a painter best known for her mesmerizing abstracts inspired by trees and the light around them. Her creative process evolves from a fleeting experience in the field to her painted interpretation of the interplay of light, color, pattern and space inherent in that experience. Hayakawa’s work has been exhibited in galleries throughout California and resides in international collections, including The St. Louis Art Museum, Charles Schwab & Co., and the Target Corporation.
“When I go out walking on trails I get hypnotized by the light coming through the trees, and the shadows, the patterns and all that makes. I’m trying to record trees and my fleeting experience of them; these trees may not always be with us.” – Wynne Hayakawa (Building 101, Studio 1107)
Back to top
Martin Revolo – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (March 2020)
This episode highlights Martín Revolo, whose artistic expression finds many outlets, including photography, filmmaking, music, collage, painting and printmaking. Each project is realized using a different combination of media, but all Revolo’s work speaks to the connections artist and viewer have through “personal mythologies.”
“I have this inner call – it’s very important – I would even call this ‘art,’ and it could be translated as an inner calling. It is to go back to my roots, to where my family comes from, Peru. Some of them are from the mountains. I have this connection with the traditions of the mountains.” – Martín Revolo (Building 115, Studio D)
Back to top
Linda Larson – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (March 2020)
This episode highlights Linda Larson, an oil painter who is inspired by the transformative power of nature. Her paintings evoke deep watery worlds in which recognizable and ethereal forms appear and vanish, creating an experience of both calm and a palpable tension between the translucent and the mysterious.
“I love the experience of the alternative dimension that water brings to things. On the surface, it’s very calm; underneath there’s an entire other world, an ecosystem. What I like to imagine in my work is that strange space between what we see and what we can imagine is underneath the surface. I find being near the water absolutely essential in my work, which is why Hunters Point and the Bay are so important to me. ” – Linda Larson (Building 101, Studio 2514)
Back to top
Eric Joyner – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (February 2020)
This episode highlights Eric Joyner, a painter well-known for his iconic scenes of robots and donuts, which range from deadpan to self-assuredly absurd. A member of San Francisco Society of Illustrators and New York Society of Illustrators, Eric’s paintings have been featured on album covers, as set backdrops for TV’s “The Big Bang Theory,” on “The Stephen Colbert Show,” and in exhibitions across the U.S. and internationally.
“On a very basic level, I try to entertain myself. A lot of my paintings have to do with Earth and space . . . things I wish I could do, or places I’d like to go. So I paint those things and get lost in those worlds. Always keep in mind, art makes life worth living, it really does.” – Eric Joyner (Building 101, Studio 2206)
Back to top
Rebecca Haseltine – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (February 2020)
This episode highlights Rebecca Haseltine, whose somatically-inspired work sources experiences and sensations from the body, translating them into fluid visual renderings that can take any number of forms, including paintings, installations and collaborations. Haseltine’s work has been exhibited at SFMOMA, Adobe, and SJICA, as well as various galleries and alternative spaces.
“With my artwork I want to invite a perceptual shift: self-recognition and embracing our fluid nature can potentially change the way we regard both our own health and the health of our environment.” – Rebecca Haseltine (Building 101, Studio 2118)
Back to top
Rhonel Roberts – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (January 2020)
This episode highlights Rhonel Roberts, a California-born “color expressionist,” whose vibrant and ever-evolving work has been featured in the posters for The Fillmore Jazz Festival, at home decor retailer Batch, and in the book Love Your Color.
“What I love most about being an artist is the freedom it gives me. The freedom to be who I am as a person and not apologize for it. Being an artist gives me the opportunity to impart inspiration and empower other people.” – Rhonel Roberts (Building 101, Studio 2223A)
Back to top
Rob Cox – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (December 2019)
This episode highlights painter Rob Cox, whose representations of urban landscapes, figures, and everyday objects showcase the process of painting itself. In Cox’s pursuit of the unique essence of his subject how to paint is as important as what to paint.
“My body of work evidences one strong through-line: the capturing of a moment, whether it’s the way light is cast on a hairbrush, the curve of an arm, or the solidity of a tree or building. That simple sense of something in the moment feels timeless to me.” – Rob Cox (Building 116, Studio 10)
Back to top
Carrie Ann Plank – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (November 2019)
This episode highlights Carrie Ann Plank, an artist working in the mediums of installation, printmaking, painting, and glass. Plank’s work is included in many private and public collections including the Fine Art Archives of the Library of Congress, SF Fine Arts Museum and the Iraq National Library in Baghdad.
A large portion of Plank’s work considers reinterpreting and reorganizing visual information systems and how content changes meaning.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how principles and equations can be visually rendered and how these translations impact the comprehension of data, be it obfuscation or clarification.” – Carrie Ann Plank (Building 101, Studio 1409)
Back to top
Ayanna U’Dongo – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (November 2019)
This episode highlights Ayanna U’Dongo, a video artist and photographer whose work has been featured in public venues including The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Ayanna works in Studio 2314, Building 101.
“Provocative and edgy experimental narratives explore cultural collisions, trauma adaptation and the transformative power of the human spirit.” – Ayanna U’Dongo (Building 101, Studio 2314)
Back to top
RONDOVAL – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (October 2019)
This episode highlights RONDOVAL, a mixed media artist whose work transforms objects and elements of timeless nostalgia into a distinctly modern aesthetic.
“Harmonious Contradiction made in RONDOVAL, explore, allow & accept.”—RONDOVAL (Bldg 104, Studio 1213)
Back to top
Elvira Dayel – Portrait of a Shipyard Artist (October 2019)
In the video series’ inaugural release, Elvira Dayel talks about her personal history, her inspiration and how the Shipyard shapes her work.
Elvira thinks of herself as a minimalist, using only as much as needed to convey an idea. She re-invents environments by deconstructed, flattened and re-assembling, thereby creating new realities.
“Making art is my oxygen, it’s the breathing medium in which to exist. While my process of art-making is a way of life, my finished work is how I communicate. I speak through my work and my work speaks through me.” – Elvira Dayel (Bldg 117, Studio 3205)