Alexandra Nechita 1985 American Cubist Painter and Muralist

Alexandra Nechita 1985 American Cubist Painter and Muralist • Alexandra was born in communist Romania in 1985. • Her father, Niki, fled Communist Romania for the United States 3 months before Alexandra was born. Two years later Alexandra and her mom, Viorica, joined him in California. • At 2 yrs. old, she was working with pen and ink and at 5 yrs. old she started working with watercolor. When she turned 7, she began working in oil and acrylics. • When she was in 4 th grade, she had her first solo exhibition in a community library in the Los Angeles area. At this time she was attending a private school in Whittier, CA.

• Several more exhibits in the Los Angeles area allowed her work to be noticed by a CBS producer at Mary Paxon Gallery in 1995. • As Alexandra's career took off, her parents quit their jobs to travel with her and manage her money. She hired a publicist. She popped up in newspapers across the country as a child prodigy, toured Europe, met the royal family of Japan and received a commission for the Grammy Awards. • Her family, which once drove to Las Vegas to buy frames at a Los Angeles, California 70 percent discount, is now wealthy enough for Alexandra to set up her own foundation and donate regularly to charitable causes. Her publicist won't say if she's a millionaire, only that the family is financially secure. • One charity that Alexandra enthusiastically supports is the Special Olympics. In 1998, she created a special edition 39 th Annual Grammy Awards of 6 lithographs called “Winning Together” which raised 1. 6 Poster 2003 million for the “Athletes of the Special Olympics”. Because You Love What You Do

Lithograph. A print that is made from a design drawn on a surface of lithographic plate with a crayon or greasy ink then treated with chemicals to fix the drawing. Water is applied which is repelled by the greasy image. The stone is rolled with ink which adheres to the drawing only, then put through a press with a sheet of paper.

"Winning Together Collection“ "Earth is a Planet With One Peace Missing" "My Torch Shall Guide Me" "Brave in the Attempt" 1998 "No Bridge Too Far" "Victorious Spirit" "Winning Together"

• • Alexandra Nechita’s book, Outside the Lines, published in 1996, celebrates the art and remarkable story of the young artist. Hands and Dove, published in 2005, contains essays about her art by world-renowned art historians, a narrative by the artist herself, and photos of her paintings, drawings, sculpture and glass works. Proceeds from the book are being donated to Nelson Mandela’s 46664 Fund to fight AIDS. In 1999, she was chosen by the World Federation of the United Nations to lead a Global Arts Initiative involving more than one hundred nations worldwide. In 2005, Nechita presented her massive 16 -foot-tall bronze monument entitled “Let There Be Peace” to the people of Singapore. Nechita is creating seven monuments in all – one for each continent on Earth.

• Alexandra Nechita’s designs were chosen for a set of legal tender commemorative coins entitled, “Peace Is the Only Option!” Struck in pure gold, silver and platinum, the designs were specially approved by Queen Elizabeth II whose effigy also adorns the coins. • Alexandra earned her degree in Fine Arts from UCLA in 2004. • She identifies her style as expressionism. "What's the point of reproducing something? The camera can do that. Your own eye can see it. It's the emotion, it's the mood, that thing or that incident that brings upon you that you're going to paint. It's not the thing itself. If I'm painting this lamp, I'm painting what it means to me. “

Expressionism A style in art of depicting the subjective emotions and responses that objects or events arouse in the artist.

Alexandra’s work has been displayed throughout the world, including exhibitions in Romania, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, France, England, Singapore, Japan and New Zealand. Her art is in the collections of dozens of museums worldwide, including the Vatican Collection in Rome and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Alexandra’s work is also in the private collections of dozens of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Debra Messing, Calvin Klein, Whoopi Goldberg and David Letterman. • An elementary school in her hometown of Vaslui, Romania, was renamed in her honor. She's only the third celebrity in Romania to have a school named for her -- after tennis star Ilie Nastase and gymnast Nadia Comaneci. • • Lutheran High School of Orange County plans to name its new performing arts center after Alexandra as well. http: //www. cnn. com/exchange/blogs/ypwr/2 007/11/alexandra-nechita_26. html

Serigraph prints also called silkscreen printing – is a stenciling method in which the image is transferred to paper by forcing paint through a stretched screen of silk or polyester fabric. Forever Paris, 1998 Swimming with Dolphins, 1998

"Release the Peace“, 1996 “Caught between Love and Hate”, 2006

David Phelps 1956 American sculptor • David grew up on a family farm in California and attend elementary in a one room school house on Roberts Island. • He earned his BA in ceramics from Humboldt State University. Then in 1980, David moved to Norman, OK to attend graduated school receiving his MFA in sculpture in 1984. • In 1985, he was awarded a regional NEA (National Endowment for the Arts)Fellowship and a six month residency in the Kohler Arts/Industry Program in Wisconsin. • His first large scale commission was from Triad Developmental Co. in Knoxville, Tennessee called the “Oarsman”. • Some of his most recent large-scale commissions have gone to Minneapolis, Kansas City, Tulsa, and the Univ. of OK, and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. • His work is represented in many other collections across the US, as well as Europe, Canada, Mexico, and South America. • David is an internationally collected sculptor who lives with his wife, Patty, in Oklahoma City.

A highly visible public art commission is the Desert Wildlife series permanently installed in Gate D of the Mc. Carran International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada. The large scale installation depicts five giant desert animals native to the surrounding desert. The surface of each sculpture looks like dry cracked mud; evocative of the desert environment. Many of the sculptures (some call them statues) created by Phelps appear to be partly submerged or emerging from the ground. This somewhat surreal aspect of the image invokes Phelps' early years on the Roberts Island farm in the California delta. http: //web. me. com/phelpssculpture/Site/desert_wildlife. html

“Oarsman”, 1988 First large scale commission http: //web. me. com/phelpssculpture/Site/Oarsman. html

Bronze Sculpture “Daydreamer” by David L. Phelps

“Party”, 2008 Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation originally commissioned Phelps to create these large scale bronze mice. They are installed throughout the building, in hallways, on rooftops where they are seen through windows, in exterior gardens and peering through windows. Phelps said: “ I studied live mice for months before beginning the sculpting process. Sculpting was a challenge because unlike my former models, this group didn’t listen when asked to hold a pose. I liked these mice so much that I continue to incorporate them into new sculptures, combining them with fabricated steel and other materials. I started with slices of swiss cheese fabricated from steel and then http: //web. me. com/phelpssculpture jumped to the idea of objects that appear to be /Site/mice. html carved from swiss cheese such as the bomb in “Love is Strange. ”

Pastoral Dreamer, 2003 Pastoral Dreamer is a triple life size bronze sculpture originally commissioned by The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. http: //web. me. com/phelpssculpture/Site/pastoral_dreamer. html

Sal Salinero 1941 American painter • • • Sal was born in Key West, Florida. He likes to paint subjects that surround him such as wildlife and tropical foliage. He is also considered a master of still life and trompe l’oeil (deceives the eye – illusion). His realistic painting style enables one to imagine that one is actually there with the beautiful birds, flowers and sun-drenched landscapes of the rainforest and tropical regions with which he is so familiar. While stationed in the Republic of Panama as an Army Green Beret in 1964, Sal made numerous trips to Darien Jungle for survival training which exposed him to the tropical rainforest that he has shown fascination for and photographed to use for his paintings.

“Queen's Umbrella Blooms” The inspiration for great art, it is said, comes from the heart. For Salinero, the inspiration comes from the soul. In painting these magnificent rainforest landscapes, Salinero captures not only the physical beauty, but also the spiritual sense of perfection in nature.

"Toucans" Toucans are seen perched among luxurious tropical foliage. They seem to have joined the sun's light in a playful dance around a beautiful trio of white orchids. Their oversized bills and friendly winks in their eyes emphasize their cockiness, as they invite you to share the intense beauty of their tropical paradise.

"Eden's Hanging Garden" One of Salinero's most recognizable pieces. A stunning trio of graceful blue and gold macaws is perched on a high branch overlooking the tropical rainforest on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The luxurious vegetation surrounding the colorful birds is a careful rendition of the actual flora of the islands: bromeliads, devil's ivy, rubber tree plants and orchids thrive in the humid climate and create a lush tropical paradise that never ceases to inspire Mr. Salinero. With his paintings Salinero leaves us with a sharp appreciation of the beauty of the rainforests, as well as indicating everyone’s responsibility to help save them. He hopes that by painting these tropical paradises, a greater public awareness will result as well as a greater effort to stop their destruction.

"Macaw & Heliconia"