10 Great Tahoe Artists

by Chérie L. Turner

David Foster

"My tenure working in Pietrasanta, Italy has provided me the opportunity to not only develop my passion for sculpting in marble but to become intimately involved in the international community of sculptors working there."

Since 1976, David Foster has been making an artistic impression on Tahoe, as both an artist and a teacher. It was in that year that he was invited to start the art program at South Shore's Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC), a post he has overseen ever since.

Looking back, Foster recalls the college's early days: "We were in a converted motel. And the art studio was in an old ice rink where the ceilings weren't even eight feet tall." At that time, and for many years thereafter, Foster was the only art faculty. Today, the art department resides in modern facilities and has three full-time faculty members as well as a number of adjunct professors. And come January 2007, the school will introduce a new state-of-the-art gallery. "For me," says Foster, "the new college gallery will be one of the capstones of my vision for the art program."

Foster's teaching for LTCC has extended far beyond the walls of the school; in 1995, he created a summer study-abroad program through the college. He has been taking students back there ever since. In 2007, he'll be teaching the entire spring quarter in Paris.

While teaching, Foster has also pursued his lifelong passion for making art. Although he has worked in a wide variety of media, over the last several years, Foster has settled primarily on sculpting marble (and to a lesser degree, bronze, which he sometimes incorporates into his marbles). Foster's foray into marble began in 2001 with his travels to Pietrasanta—a town where artists have been carving for hundreds of years, including Michelangelo. Foster has been returning to Pietrasanta to carve ever since; he is currently spending his sabbatical there.

In 2005, one of Foster's sculptures won an annual competition in Sculptural Pursuit magazine. In that same year, he formally opened his studio and personal art gallery in South Lake Tahoe: David Foster Studios. He also works with two studios in Italy. Going forward, Foster plans to put more emphasis toward exhibiting his sculptures both in the U.S. and Italy.

Madeline Bohanon

"I like trying to fi t different shapes together. I've always liked buildings and architectural things."

Madeline Bohanon, 87, has been a beloved instructor and artist in the Tahoe area since she arrived in 1970. Though primarily considered a watercolorist, she has explored, both in instruction and in her own work, varied media and styles that, once digested, all carry the thread of her seemingly inexhaustible curiosity and talent.

Bohanon has taught all around The Lake (including a 10-year stint at Sierra Nevada College) and as far away as Arizona and Colorado. But her impact has been especially strong in North Lake Tahoe, where in 1989 she founded the Sierra Artist's Network (now North Tahoe Arts, or NTA). The organization started small—the first meeting counted only 24 people—but has grown steadily since its inception; today, housed in the old Public Utilities District building in Tahoe City, NTA boasts over 300 members, 2 galleries and a gift store.

Bohanon has exhibited her work locally since 1973, including over 13 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows. Much of Bohanon's early watercolor work focused on landscape, the subject matter for which she is best known. But for many years, Bohanon has ventured beyond landscapes into large abstract canvases, underwater scenes and Southwestern-themed works. The latter has been fascinating to Bohanon since she started visiting the Southwest in the early 1980s and was inspired by the colors of the landscape and Native American symbology and ceremonies—specifically those of the Hopi.

Most recently, Bohanon, who paints every day, has been working on Southwest landscape commissions, a series of paintings based on her favorite Sierra backpacking trip and a work that will be auctioned off to benefi t Arts for the Schools.

Jeremy Mayer

"I find the most difficult thing I can do with a medium, and I work with that. If it looks difficult, if it looks like I can't do it, then I work at it until I can."

Jeremy Mayer has an unwavering dedication to meticulous detail in a wide variety of media: He paints, works with typewriters and resin, draws, sculpts and assembles. And he has no intention of settling on one cohesive style or specific media. In fact, he's going in just the opposite direction. Following in the footsteps of multifaceted greats like Gerhard Richter, Richard Tuttle and Pablo Picasso, Mayer's intensive artistic interests are growing and multiplying, fueled by an undying curiosity.

The work of this North Shore resident has been featured in many regional group exhibitions; he had his first solo show last year at Rhino Studios and Gallery in Issaqua, Washington.

The best known and most sought after of Mayer's works are his typewriter sculptures. He has explored the use of antique typewriter parts as sculptural media for over ten years. Each machine is meticulously deconstructed piece by piece. He then reassembles the parts to form everything from full-sized human figures to torsos, dead cats, grasshoppers and masks. And, for the most part, pieces are not altered. "I avoid even bending the parts," explains Mayer. "Generally, I also try not to glue, weld or solder."

A more recent focus has been on the use of pastels, which Mayer uses to depict self portraits, works based on old family photos, blown-up images of things microscopic and other subjects.

Mayer grew up in rural Northern Minnesota, the only one in his family to be an artist. And though he has never centered himself in an urban area to pursue his passion, his works reflect a sound connection to cutting-edge technology—a result of an interest, hovering on obsession, in science and science fiction. While keeping with current art trends, he remains completely his own due to a rigorous pursuit to not copy what anyone else is doing.

Barbara Glynn Prodaniuk

"My dialogue with clay has developed over the past 25 years or so. I find working with clay to be a lifetime commitment that grows more rewarding with each passing year."

Sculptor and ceramicist Barbara Glynn Prodaniuk was first inspired to begin her artistic journey when she was on a field trip in grade school and saw a potter at work. She vowed to try working with clay; making ceramics has been her passion ever since. Formal training later took place at Cal State Northridge where Prodaniuk got her degree in ceramics. She followed that up with a two-year apprenticeship with a professional ceramicist. These many years later, Prodaniuk creates functional pottery as well as fine art sculpture.

Having moved to Truckee in 1981, Prodaniuk has been continually inspired by her surroundings as well as current events, both national and international. Some of her work is political, while other works are born of personal insights. Much of the imagery is inspired by nature, the oft-used raven image being an example. The shapes of the works are very organic and many times incorporate twigs and other items culled from nature.

The works are often assemblages of several different ceramic pieces. Prodaniuk works with a wide variety of fi ring techniques, each giving the clay a different appearance. The overall effect is both fresh and intriguing.

Prodaniuk is a member of two artist organizations: Wild Women and Clay and Glass Artists of California. She exhibits her work at their group shows several times a year. She also has work available through the gift shops at the Nevada Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, and occasionally hosts open studios.

Phyllis Shafer

"I have an emotional response to things in the landscape. I'm after that in my paintings, relaying that emotional impact."

Phyllis Shafer moved from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe for the sole reason of taking a teaching position at Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC). Having for years participated in the urban art scenes of the Bay Area and New York City, Shafer believed she'd only be in the area for a few years. That was 12 years ago.

A landscape artist, Shafer found an artistic freedom here that she didn't expect. Removed from the dictates of the urban art scene, she was alone to explore in any way she chose. And what Shafer chose was plein air painting.

The results of her work have become increasingly applauded throughout the region. Shafer's landscapes have been included in group exhibitions at Sacramento's Crocker Museum and Reno's Nevada Museum of Art (NMA), among many others. She will have her second solo exhibition at Reno's Stremmel Gallery in March 2007 and has been granted an artist residency in Yosemite. Her work will be included in the traveling exhibition Art of An American Icon: Yosemite, which will show at the NMA next year, among other venues.

In addition, Shafer is a full-time faculty member at LTCC, where she teaches everything from studio classes to art history. She also runs the college's new gallery, which will open its 2,000-square-foot facility in January.

A distinctive concept that Shafer works into her paintings is how the micro fi ts into the macro and the cycles of life and death that are shared by all. "Being in nature gives a sense of how we fi t into the universe," Shafer says. She expresses these observations with sweeping curved lines, representing the rhythms of life, and takes us from an up-close observation of a small element, like a fl ower, out to the vastness of a far-reaching landscape.

Dale Laitinen

"I like to construct, to think about the entire picture plane and subdivide space in an almost architectural way."

Landscape watercolorist Dale Laitinen's paintings are as unique in their bold color and strong geometry as in their range of subjects—both natural scenes and industrial constructs. Primarily a painter of the West, Laitinen strips down his subject to essential shapes and forms. Omitting excess detail, he creates arresting and complex works that speak as much to his talents with the brush and composition as to his attentive eye, honed during three decades of studying the vistas that surround him.

Laitinen, 54, lives in the Sierra foothills of Calaveras County but spends long periods painting the landscapes of the Tahoe region. As a young boy, he traveled extensively with his father, a heavy equipment operator who worked on large civic projects. As a young adult, Laitinen further developed his visual memory of the Western landscape by observing it from the window of his own truck. After graduating from San Jose State with a bachelor's degree in fine art, and struggling to make a living as an artist, Laitinen began driving an 18- wheeler. After 8 years behind the wheel, he embarked on the artist's life, thereby following his true passion: painting.

Laitinen began selling his work at area art shows and, in 1988, won his first best-in-show at the Central California Art Association (CCAA) spring show, an award he has since won many times over. These days, Laitinen's work is sold through Tahoe Vista's Pogan Gallery (his primary dealer), Fine Eye Gallery in Sutter Creek, The Vault Gallery of Fine Art in Sonora and, in the summertime, Kit Carson Lodge in Silver Lake. Most recently, Laitinen's painting White Diagonals was published as the poster for the 40th anniversary of the Art Directors and Artists Club of Sacramento.

Beyond his ability to render anew the natural landscape, Laitinen has a talent for rendering even the "dull" as captivating; some of Laitinen's most compelling work depicts the juxtaposition of industrial structures, like dams, against the natural environment. "I am especially interested in the infrastructure," he says, "of things like power dams, roads, road cuts, waterways."

Andrew Bolam

"I paint every day. It's something I need to do; I simply love the act of painting."

Andrew Bolam—who primarily paints in oils on canvas but occasionally ventures into gouache on paper—enjoys the freedom of artistic exploration he has created for himself by owning his own gallery. While this artist is adept at capturing the magic of Lake Tahoe in his popular, large landscapes, he also paints many other scenes and subject matters and whole series of exquisite miniature paintings, the subject of an annual show in his gallery.

British-born and art school trained, Bolam moved to Tahoe in the late 1990s and opened the Bolam Gallery (which primarily sells his paintings). At press time, the gallery was preparing for the close of its familiar Tahoe City location and a move into a brand-new space in The Village at Northstar.

Bolam's loyal clientele will seek him out wherever he opens shop. The strength of his work can be traced to his passion, training, talent and countless hours spent behind the canvas. He is prolific, painting daily, often at an easel set up in the corner of his gallery. He never tires of working with the brush, and his enthusiasm shows through in luminous landscapes, delicate figure paintings, scenes of natural monuments and whatever else captures his unending curiosity.

"Everywhere you look there's a painting," Bolam says of his Lake Tahoe and Sierra surroundings—he particularly loves capturing the beauty of the East Shore. But he also has an interest in painting the fi gure—a favorite subject in his earlier years—as well as scenes often overlooked or passed by: an aged truck, a dilapidated barn.

And then there are his miniature paintings. Each one of these gouache on paper works is a small treasure that relays a vision much larger than its size.

Going forward, Bolam's goal is to spend more time painting outside as well as creating still lifes. Stylistically, he has been taking more and more to the palette knife layering paint, wet over dry, to create textured, looser, more impressionistic works. Bolam's commitment and undying passion to create art seems destined to continually build on itself, promising increasingly varied paintings.

Mary Kenny

"In printmaking, you have so many options, so many possibilities."

Mary Kenny first discovered printmaking while pursuing her studio art degree at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. She went on to earn her master's of fine art in printmaking at Kent State, Ohio, and was then hired to teach printing and drawing at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village, where she has been for the past four years.

"I like the idea of found printed material," she says. "I get most of my images from children's books, science books and experiment books from the '50s to the '70s. I also use photocopies. I find images I like, and I take them out of their environment and pluck them into another—in some cases, sinister—environment, or something that people have to think about. And what they come up with is up to them."

Having prolifically created over the past several years, Kenny is focusing more energy on exhibiting her work. Most recently, she was part of a two-person show at Rhino Studios in Issaquah, Washington.

The form of printmaking Kenny most often employs is collography. She currently sticks to the four basic colors employed in commercial printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and black, known in the printing world as "CMYK." To emphasize repetition, Kenny often employs stamping to mesmerizing effect, producing works as appealing as they are unsettling.

Diane Hub

"For the artist, making art is just something you have to do. It's a drive, a gift... definitely an obsession."

Plein air painter Diane Hub has been capturing the beauty of landscape for many decades. "My mother jokes that I was born with a crayon in my hand," Hub says. But although she has painted throughout her life, with many accolades, she came to the commercial world slowly and, it sometimes seems, reluctantly.

"When I think about selling commercially," she says, "I start to lose that spiritual connection to my art." Nevertheless, 16 years ago, Hub began selling her work commercially through Frames by Ryrie. It is still her only gallery outlet, and she is Ryrie's top-selling artist. This is certainly because the gallery gives her the freedom to create what she wants at the pace that suits her.

Although she is a representational artist, Diane Hub's work reflects the emotions she feels about a place as much as its physical beauty. "I have to feel an emotional connection to what I'm painting," she says. "In my paintings, I want to convey that emotion to the viewer." Though she relies on the framework of what she sees, Hub takes artistic liberty to heighten and extract those elements that are most interesting to her. "What I paint is not a detailed copy of what I see. I'll change the composition slightly or change the shape of particular elements, like a tree, to make them more appealing."

These days, Hub, who has been a Tahoe local since 1964, says that she is experimenting with different types of colors to more precisely relay her feelings. She paints almost daily in the field or in her Tahoe City–based studio. Her favorite places to paint en plein air? Wherever she's just been, be it the Sierra or the cityscapes of San Francisco.

Jenny Palu

"When you're in the creative moment, it's like its own dance; it has its own movement."

Jenny Palu, 28, is part of a new generation of Tahoe artists. A true Tahoe native, she grew up in Tahoe City and began painting at age 7, taking classes from Lola Owen at Lakeside Gallery in Kings Beach until age 12. She then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in painting from UC Santa Cruz.

As a young artist, Palu has explored numerous paths. She painted landscapes as a child, psychedelic themes in her teen years, and during college, feminist issues became a focus. For the past few years, Palu has concentrated on mixed media pieces that incorporate a heavy dose of painting. "I paint moments," she says of works that incorporate a collage of memorabilia, like a concert ticket, layered with painted images. The real meshed with the sublime—just like a memory of a moment.

Palu has shown her work at various Tahoe area locations as well as venues in Santa Cruz, Singapore and Barcelona. In addition to working in the Tahoe Quarterly graphics department, she is currently creating a cohesive body of work for future shows.