Sanchez Art Center hosts Art Guild of Pacifica artists in their 59th Annual Members Show, opening Friday, Oct 20, with a reception from 7 to 9 pm. Art Guild members bring their best works to this show, filling both East and West Galleries, and making this a real celebration of art in Pacifica. The exhibit also celebrates 20 years of the Art Guild having a permanent home at the Sanchez Art Center. Music for the reception will be provided by harpist Lara Garner in the Main Gallery, and by Vivacé in the East Gallery, with Rob Hughes (flute) and Alan Lee (piano). Tiffany Schmierer, artist and Skyline College professor, will select this year's merit and exhibition award winners, and the four 2017 exhibition award winners will show their work in the Main Gallery in fall 2018.

Concurrently, the 58th Exhibition Award Artists will exhibit in the Main Gallery. The exhibition award winners from 2016 are Deborah Corsini, Denny Holland, Jenny Kahn, and Julie Stock. These artists were selected in 2016 by Jennifer Farris and Rab Terry of Studio Gallery in San Francisco. Both the 59th Annual Members Show and the 58th Exhibition Award Artists will run through Nov 12.

Deborah Corsini is well known as a talented and inspired Bay Area weaver, curator, and educator. She served as curator for the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles from 2006 to 2014, and curated a Loom & Shuttle Guild show at Sanchez Art Center in January 2017. One of her favorite mediums is wedge weave tapestry, which she has adapted from Navajo weaving. Her award-winning tapestry, titled Spring Romance, has about it the feel of earth and the wonderful pink and lavender colors of wildflowers. Corsini is showing four large tapestries in the awards exhibit, created with colors of autumn. You have only to stand quietly in front of her work to understand that the lines and shapes are deeply interwoven with meaning.

Denny Holland's award-winning work, a large oil painting titled Above the Heartland, captured an impressive aerial view of farmland and water. With a background in interior design and fine art, Holland embraces representational painting, blending it with conceptual ideas and personal narratives. His reach extends from the vast landscapes to smaller, more intimate interior subjects, such as a simple arrangement of chocolate truffles on a tabletop. The multi-talented Holland also works in sculpture, and teaches design and presentation. His works in the 58th Exhibition Award Artists show are based on a theme of ships in various stages of distress, or in transition from their intended use.

Jenny Kahn's work includes oil painting with resin and collage, creating multiple layers that express the significance and depth of history, both social and personal, and its emotional resonance. The artist hails originally from New Orleans, and her work in this exhibition captures some telling images of growing up with the African American maids who cared for her. The paintings have been recreated as archival metal prints of her original oil paintings. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina altered the lives of every New Orleanian, and Jenny was no exception. Her quartet of 2017 oil paintings, New Orleans in Pieces, expresses her story of that storm and its effects.

Julie Stock is an artist and teacher who lives in Pacifica. Stock works in diverse mediums, including ceramics, drawing, photography, painting, and printmaking. For this exhibit, she will show both digital prints and solar plate etchings, a fine art chemical-free printmaking process that involves creating a plate through exposure to ultraviolet light and then printing from this plate. Her award-winning piece was Through the Storm, a mysterious-looking abstract black and white image created by solar plate etching. Says the artist: "I've been trying to embrace the passage of time as a concept in the selection of images. I am attracted to story, mystery, mood, water, interconnectedness, and that which cannot be put into words."

On closing Sunday, Nov 12, at 3:30 pm, the four award-winning artists will talk about their work in the Main Gallery.

On Sunday, Nov 5, from 1 to 5 pm, Sanchez Studio Artists will hold Open Studios from 1 to 5 pm. Don't miss this chance to explore the studios, engage with the artists, and ask questions about their work.

Sanchez Art Center is located at 1220 Linda Mar Blvd in Pacifica, about a mile east of Highway 1. Following opening night, galleries are open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 1–5 pm, and by appointment, through Nov 12. To learn about and join the Art Guild of Pacifica, visit ArtGuildofPacifica.org.