artist profile: selene perez

From the Creativity Explored studio in
San Francisco—a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell art—comes artwork by Selene Perez.

Born in 1982 in Mexico, Perez has created a vast bestiary of strong, graphic drawings of animals. Ranging from seven-legged cats to flocks of geese in flight, she makes her creatures with the simplest of marks across an array of media.

The influence of printmaking is evident in all of her work—vivid contrasts between dark and light, fine lines and densely black forms, all skillfully balanced. In a similar vein, her three owls pillow is executed with wisps of ink that expertly and simply catch and express the essential elements of the owls: eyes focused and finely feathered.

To spend a minute with Selene in the Creativity Explored studio, go here.

artist profile: ka wai shiu

Ka Wai Shiu was born in 1964 and was one of
the first artists at the Creativity Explored studio
in San Francisco—a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell art.

Shiu creates elaborate, detailed drawings and paintings—often complicated natural environments populated by many figures, or very specific stories ranging from the path of a Chinese New Year parade to an epic voyage of ships across the sea.

She sometimes integrates text into the two-dimensional space using many languages—including Cantonese, her first language—to narrate or give clues to the scenes she depicts.

To spend one minute with Ka Wai Shiu in the Creativity Explored studio, go here.

artist profile: lance rivers

Born in 1967, artist Lance Rivers is a participating artist at the Creativity Explored studio—a nonprofit visual arts center in his hometown of San Francisco—where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell art.

No aspect of the processes that make a city function has escaped him, and this—the sharing of his attention to the beauty of simple, industrial elements and compositions—is how he shows his love for the city.

Buildings, large-scale construction machinery, street cars, train lines—even the escalators within the MUNI and BART stations fascinate Rivers. He admits his obsession with architecture was first realized as a teenager as he began simply sketching the local bridges and tunnels he saw around him. Not surprising, the bridge architecture and landscape prints reflect a large portion of his work.

Go here to spend a minute with Lance in the Creativity Explored studio as he creates a new piece and reflects briefly on his love of architecture.

artist profile: kevin chu

Through our continuing partnership with the Creativity Explored studio in San Francisco—
a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell art—comes the optimistic artwork of Kevin Chu.

In Kevin’s enthusiastic and vibrant world, dragons are not only alive but they’re always smiling—the same for vultures—and penguins happily offer a tired swimmer a lift across the sea.

His calm, sensitive demeanor is earnest and he’s motivated by the need for connection between all life-forms, regardless of species—or breed. For perfect example, a variety of dogs play nice together on the dogs pillow, so much so they
seem to be smiling as well!

To spend one minute with Kevin in the Creativity Explored studio, go here.

artist profile: thanh diep

Thanh Diep was born in Vietnam in 1977 and since 1998 she’s been creating art at the Creativity Explored studio in San Francisco—
a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit and sell art.

An accomplished artist in traditional media—as well as film and animation—Diep captures dramatic impact in a charcoal scene of ascending evergreens that grow stark in the secluded forest of the foggy landscape pillow.

Although she speaks with the assistance of an augmentative and alternative communication device due to cerebral palsy, she has created soundtracks for animated films and written a book, Thanh.

The first graduate of The Bridge School in Hillsborough, and is the first Bridge School alumna to graduate from college, Diep received her BA in 2005 from San Francisco State University where she majored in Liberal Studies.

Media works include short films and—along with her artwork—have been featured at MadCat Women’s International Film Festival, Artists Television Access, The Mission Cultural Center, Noh Space/Theater of Yugen, Brava Theater as well as at the Picture This Festival in Calgary, BC.

To spend one minute with Thanh Diep in the Creativity Explored studio, go here.