Our 19th Annual “Virtual” Art Gala & Auction features several nationally and internationally acclaimed local artists who strongly support our chapter’s mission to protect our coasts. Let’s take a closer look at this illustrious group of talented artists and what drives them to create art that inspires activism and environmental consciousness!
Marissa Quinn
Marissa Quinn’s delicate and inimitable penwork guides the viewer through an emotional journey of nature’s paradox of growth through decay. Her work is a glimpse into the deep caverns of the internal mindscape, based on personal visions and dream states. Known for their stunning detail, Quinn’s pieces are as recognizable as they are thought provoking.
Her work was recently shown at the Oceanside Museum of Art in Oceanside, California through July 2020, and at Sparks Gallery in San Diego, California. In addition, her work is included in the permanent, private collection of the Lancaster Museum of Art in Lancaster, California. Quinn has permanent mural installations in Michigan, Maryland, Ohio, California, and the Island of Bali.
Quinn lives and creates in San Diego, California. She obtained both her Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art (BFA) and her Master’s Degree in Fine Art (MFA) from Azusa Pacific University in California and holds a position as Adjunct Professor of Art at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California.
Aaron Chang
“People always ask me who the best surf and ocean photographer is,” says Surfer magazine photo editor Jeff Divine, “and I’ve always said it was Aaron Chang.” Chang spent 25 years as a senior photographer at Surfing Magazine; he was an early photographer to practice the act of shooting waves with a wide angle lens from the water. Chang later focused on fine art photography, and now has galleries in Solana Beach and Carmel by the Sea. He originally hails from Imperial Beach, CA!
Taylor Gallegos
Taylor Gallegos is a local Carlsbad painter specializing in murals, live art, and studio painting. His work focuses on connection, unity, creativity and flow. “I’m donating artwork to this event because it is doing exactly what I want my artwork to do in the world. I want it to raise awareness, and push for conservation and preservation and protection of coastal land wildlife landscapes. Surfrider is doing exactly that.”
As a young child, Victor would receive art pieces through the mail from his uncle. Each drawing was in pen but the surface would vary. Victor later discovered that his uncle was sending these to him from San Quentin. The drawings helped ground his uncle and keep him connected to life outside prison throughout his long years of confinement. It was the beautiful craftsmanship and extreme detail of his pieces that inspired Victor’s love of art and which you can see echoed in the art Victor produces.
Victor Roman’s passion for expressing himself through art motivates him to sketch and paint whenever he can. On most days, you will find him painting in his studio until late into the night. Painting at night after work shows his dedication to his craft, and after 3 years of study at Palomar College and countless hours in the studio Victor’s talent has grown exponentially. The subjects he paints evoke complex emotions in the viewer, who are challenged to consider their feelings and develop their own interpretation of his art.
Michael Walrond | SHDWSOFDUST
Michael Walrond is an internationally celebrated fine art analog photographer and visual artist based in San Diego, CA. His work is about transformation, connection and perspectives.
“I believe when we are lost within “The Space Between.”
His use of light and organic manipulation to capture the emotion and essence of a person to engage the observer and allow them to forget time and place.
In his work you will find pure immersion of a moment. The lines of reality disappear, and raw true vulnerability exists.
Masabo is an internationally acclaimed Fine Art Artist / Eco Artist based in Baja Tijuana, Mexico.
“Art and Nature. Art and Society. Art and Community. This is what I identify with. Social activism through art.”
Silvestre Miranda
Based in Tijuana, Miranda is a graphic artist, silkscreen painter, oil painter, swimmer, teacher, and traveler. He has been featured in many shows on both sides of the border.
Tony Larson
Tony Larson possesses an impressive, well-burnished résumé. For many years he was an art director at Girl Skateboards, perhaps the most culturally sophisticated skateboarding company in history. He also served as an art and advertising director at DC Shoes, one of action sport’s most commercially successful brands. He is an accomplished painter.
Larson is based in San Diego and Los Angeles, CA. A native of Southern California, Larson’s aesthetic vision has been heavily influenced by his surroundings and his background as a graphic artist. He cites early exposure to subdivided tracts of land, concrete house foundations, terraced dirt plots, troweled stucco surfaces, and asymmetrical grids of plywood, as being important touchstones of his visual education. These reference points of empty, undeveloped spaces show up in his work as a fusion of information and potential. Ultimately, Larson believes that the space of art is uniquely capable of expressing the divided and contradictory nature of contemporary communication.