Sanchez Art Center is proud to host the 61st Annual Members Show and the 60th Annual Awards Artists. Both exhibitions open Friday, Oct 11, with a reception from 7 to 9 pm, with music provided by musical duo Vivacé with Rob Hughes (flute) and Alan Lee (piano). While Art Guild members display their work in the East and West Galleries, the four award winners from 2018 will exhibit work in the Main Gallery. The 60th Annual Awards Artists, Vadim Dymshyts, Nancy Hall, Andrew Leone, and Glynis Takalo, were selected by Jim Torlakson, Professor Emeritus at City College of San Francisco. Their Main Gallery exhibit is co-curated Janet Arline Barker and Susan Friedman. The awards juror for the 61st Annual Members Show will be Bridget Fischer, Art Professor at Skyline College. Both the 61st Annual Members Show and the 60th Annual Awards Artists will run through Nov 24.

Vadim Dymshyts considers himself a generalist. He has been sharing his masterful photographs at Sanchez Art Center for some time, by entering Art Guild shows as well as Fog Fest Photo Contests. His work often explores the nuances of atmosphere with some stunning shots of nature—trees, mountains, clouds—such as the beautiful sunset sky over the Pacifica Pier that won him this award. The photo was taken just as the sky was turning from its last gorgeous splashes of orange-gold to darkening clouds. Dymshyts' theme for this show is Journeys and Destinations. He plans to make his exhibit a journey viewers may take, "where every image invites you into a conversation with a fellow traveler, allowing you to reflect on the weather, near and far places, or anything else brought to your mind by the quick stories you witness along the way."

Nancy Hall is an assemblage artist whose exhibit invites viewers into a darkly playful world based on her childhood memories of a big old dark wooden trunk full of toys that was tucked away at her grandmother's flat in San Francisco. Hall titled her show Omnigatherum, a word she stumbled upon that means "A gathering of all sorts, a collection made anyhow." Says Hall, "What has been gathered here are all the ideas inspired by a found object over the last few years, made into talismanic objects we call toys." There is the Sun Cradle for a baby star, the Slide Curtain (1,200 slides lovingly taped into a wall of ribbons), hanging sculptures that shower down thunder or rain, the Grandmother Clock, Trilobites, Tiny Town, Starseeds, a Pensive, and a band of Gorillas trying hard to figure out what to do with a xylophone.

Andrew Leone will be showing works in glass, ranging from colorful stained glass windows to sculptural pieces made from found glass objects. Some of these framed, free-hanging glass panels are circular (traditionally called rose windows), and several are square. Some of them combine traditional techniques dating back to medieval times, such as glass painting that must be fired in a kiln, and contemporary approaches that use found materials like marbles and chandelier crystals glued on with epoxy. Leone will also exhibit sculptural pieces made from glass dishes, marbles, crystals, and other everyday glass objects. His show is titled Alchemy, which expresses the mystery of how these beautiful glassworks come together from disparate parts. Says Leone, "It always involves some alchemy animated by the underlying miracle of light—filtered, reflected, and refracted, always changing, always surprising."

Glynis Takalo is a painter who manifestly loves color and creates beautiful paintings using the fluidity of poured paint. She is a self-taught artist who worked in a number of mediums before she found her passion for fluid art and gourd artistry. These new mediums opened the creative floodgates, and what had been a part-time hobby became her vocation. Her work uses color to illustrate how subtle and dramatic changes can affect our emotions. Takalo says she has always been surrounded by art. Her grandparents were an inspiration with their ceramic creations, and her mother painted and created folk art. Takalo's other artistic influences are Van Gogh and Dali with their bold colors and abstract imagery.

At 3 pm on closing Sunday, Nov 24, the four award-winning Art Guild artists will talk about their work at a free Artist Talk in the Main Gallery.

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 24. For more information, call 650.355.1894 or email info@sanchezartcenter.org. To learn about and join the Art Guild of Pacifica, visit www.ArtGuildofPacifica.org.