Sculpturesite Gallery : Pamina Traylor - Reflections.

Comment by AB: Pamina Traylor explores her Japanese roots as well as the role of nature in Japanese art through a series of delicate glass and steel sculptures, the most sensitive of which approximate patches of grass blowing gently in the wind.

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Cartoon Art Museum : Briana Miller - Small Press Spotlight.

Comment by AB: Commendable cull of original illustrations and small edition comics by East Bay resident Briana Miller. The Small Press Spotlight exhibitions feature up-and-coming Bay Area talents in the field of comic art.

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Babylon Falling : David Ball - Libertine.

Comment by AB: Seamless blends of paint and collage by David Ball explore the intensities of human relations. Ball's allegorical compositions look like paintings until you get close and realize that they also include subtly nouanced elements of collage.

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Gallery Three : Mike Maxwell - Human's Nature.

Comment by AB: Mike Maxwell uses art as a vehicle not only to process and understand monster topics like history, science, religion, and war, but also to present them in ways that remind us all that there's more to life than TV and beer. Notable in Maxwell's work are his uniformly blue skinned "everyman" countencances-- completely lacking in identifiable race or ethnicity. Who knows? Maybe someday we'll all accept each other as "blue."

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Michael Thompson Framing : John F. Martin - In Character.

Comment by AB: This one takes me entirely by surprise. At first glance, it's portrait photographs of individuals fully tricked out in fabulous costumes-- uber costumes, you might say-- but what gets me is the resolution of their demeanors and facial expressions. Then photographer John F. Martin elucidates me. As a supernumerary (extra) with the San Francisco Opera, Martin has unique backstage access to the actors which allows him to photograph them in at the actual performances. The secret to the intensity of his portrayals? He photographs them moments before they go onstage, so not only are they in full costume and makeup; they're also in full character.

Martin's photographs are lavish, exceptional in detail, and striking in impact-- especially the oversized ones. Plus you never ever get to see operatic actors this close, which means the images are educational too. Perhaps one of them highfalutin downtown galleries might consider giving Martin a go-- he deserves it. FYI, his photographs come off far better in person than in this review; see for yourself.

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Paul Mahder Gallery : Yisrael K. Feldsott - Visions.

Review by Dennis C. Scherzer: "Not a concept or an idea. It's a message from the Spirit. There's a message that I'm given, then it's manifested?..a vision." -- Yisrael Feldsott

"All of my paintings begin with some kind of message-- directive from the Spirit." These are the words of Yisrael Feldsott as he introduces his exhibit at Paul Mahder Gallery. Although "vision" is a common theme in art, it has a unique dynamic gravitas when expressed by Yisrael Feldsott. Twenty years ago, he left his familiar world and embarked on a spirit quest to the Amazon rainforest. He ventured far off of the grid. While there, he was recognized as a person of vision; he became a shaman.

"Spirit is something that is embedded in the world-- everything in this world is a manifestation of spirit." Feldsott explains that this spirit gifts him with a message, a directive that embarks him on investigations, "some kind of serpentine journey" that is then manifested in his paintings. He explains this by stating that anyone who lives their life in a heartfelt manner is challenged by the current times. He says, "Everyone meets that challenge in some way-- I was born a painter."

His works genuinely resemble aboriginal art. Lines carved into the paintings, Spirit birds, wolves, spirit/human bodies transitioning life and death. The natural world held captive by soldiers and tanks. The forward edge of the forest, natural people, ancestral tradition, all however, in brutal tactile contact with the mailed fist of commerce and industry directed from afar.

Yisrael shares with us that each vision has a sound to it. Each painting has a tone. He says, "The only way I know a painting is finished is when it sounds like that to me." His paintings are "sung" into existence.

Ahhhh, the shaman does his spirit dance with an artist's brush. Do his ears fill with the silence of the deep forest or the cacophony of life there shaken by the mechanized approach of industrial civilization?

You are invited to experience the manifestation of the visions of rainforest shaman, Yisrael Feldsott, at Paul Mahder Gallery through October 6th.

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