Gallery 'N' Gifts September guest artist, John Rand

TVAA Gallery 'N' Gifts presents its September guest artist John Rand and his exhibit, "Photos and Paintings."

John received his Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in 1982 from California State University, Fullerton. He has over 17 solo exhibitions that includes several museums and galleries through California and Germany. He was selected to exhibit this year at the Bakersfield Museum of Art during the exhibition "Saturation." His work has traveled throughout California, Japan, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Australia and Germany.

From the artist: "Much of my art training was in drawing and painting, and for a while I focused on landscapes. At about the same time I explored street photography and the possibilities of black and white film. When I finished school, I was hired to teach photography and my interest and practice switched primarily to portraits that were informed by my training in life drawing. Gradually my photographic interests shifted back to the landscapes where I had left painting.

"Technology has helped bring photography much closer to painting and drawing, as image editors make it possible to modify and enhance the raw photographic image, and my training in drawing and painting directly influences my photographic work. Conversely, the graphic nature of photographic seeing directly informs my current paintings.

"A few decades ago I began collecting Mexican Folk Art in large part because it was removed from my life experience. Contemporary art is relatively easy to understand, being created by others with similar life experiences living in the same world. The further one looks back in time the more removed are art and the life experiences of the artists. Such art is more elusive and mysterious and yet still evocative to modern viewers. The carvings and cave paintings of our Pleistocene ancestors are, for me the most fascinating because of this distance in time."

Come and join us to welcome John Rand on Sept. 1 from 4 to 7 p.m. at our First Friday reception at Gallery 'N' Gifts, 100 W. Tehachapi Blvd. Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served.

John's exhibition "Photos and Paintings" will be on display during September at our Fine Arts Gallery. Learn more about his work at his website: http://www.johnrand.com/. Make sure to stop by to admire his work and support our local artists. Gallery 'N' Gifts is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.