Wednesday, June 2, 2010

June Artists - Zofia Kostyrko and Catherine Yu

The Coffee Gallery is pleased to present our June artists, Zofia Kostyrko and Catherine Yu.

In the main room we have Zofia Kostyrko's wonderful portraits of local residence from Altadena and Pasadena. 




Zofia Kostyrko, the Brainy Brush Diva: Fine Artist

Exploring the Yin & Yang Between Portraiture and Commercial Conceptual Design

A native of Warsaw, Poland who  escaped communism as a child.  Zofia Kostyrko has spent a lifetime telling stories.  A classically trained fine artist and designer and a graduate of the Art Center College of Design and the WDI Disney Masters workshops, she uses bold lines and dynamic colors on both digital and cloth canvas as her creative playgrounds.  Under her two separate companies, Zofia Kostyrko-The Brainy Brush Diva and deZign sKape, LLC, the artist offers fine portraiture and commercial conceptual design services respectively.

Lauded as an award-winning conceptual and experienced designer, illustrator and creative director, Kostyrko, as the creative lead behind deZign sKape, LLC, boasts an impressive career spanning over 20 years with a variety of international entertainment-based clients ranging from theme park, exhibit and stage design to network children's programming children's publishing and brand development.

Through Zofia Kostyrko - The Brainy Bush Diva, she is committed to using fine art portraiture as a catalyst to shatter stereotypes and social barriers to celebrate the human spirit and acceptance of others.  Her paintings are held in pultiple private collections and exhbited in both group and individual gallery shows.

Kostyrko has resided in Altadena with her family since the early nineties, where she continues to tell stories through art; drawing inspiration from her loved ones, her community, nature with all of its variations and quirks, music and modern pop culture.

For more details regarding these wonderful portraits please click on the following link:

www.youchangemyworld.com
 
ARTIST RECEPTION:


Sunday, June 13th, 7 pm - 9 pm.


Artist Website: www.brainybrushdiva.com
Artist e-mail contact: zofia@dezignskape.com
Artist Studio Phone #: 626.296.8686


In the conference room we have the lovely oil paintings of artist Catherine Yu.


Catherine Yu, an up and coming Taiwanese American artist, had shown talent in art since she was a little girl.  throughout her childhood and adolescent years, she won numerous art contests and plein air painting competitions in her homeland of Taiwan as well as in the United States.


She's a lady with a diverse background.  She holds two bachelor degrees from UC Irvine - one in Studio Art and the other in Environmental Analysis and Design.  During her time at UC Irvine, she was featured in many group shows as well as having a solo show on campus.  she then attended UCLA for a masters degree in Urban Planning.  Since graduation in 2004, she has been working full-time as an urban planner.


Although art is not her current full-time career, she continues to cultivate her art by taking classes, workshops, and association with other artists.  In recent years, she has studied with California artists Steve Criqui, Kevin Appel, Steve Metzger, and Tom Brown.  She is a permanent member of Gallery So Ho, a co-op gallery located in Pomona.  She also exhibits her paintings twice annually with the Taiwanese American Association of Art.  In May 2008, her paining was published by the City of Los Angeles.  In March 2010, she was invited to exhibit her work in her native country, Taiwan.


Her inspiration comes from American landscape, her travels to different countries, as well as simple daily happenings.  She hopes her art can evoke awareness to the daily blessing that we so often take for granted.


Both artist's work will be on exhibit through June 29th