Bring Them Home! - a Call for Entries.

Four Oceans Press recently released a Call for Entries for the show Bring Them Home!

The Deadline to enter is October 15th, 2010, the show sates are December 1 - December 31, 2010 at Creative Framing & Gallery in Oakland.

The Idea:

July 2011 is set as the date to withdraw troops from the war in Afghanistan. This is not the first time a date has been set and will not be the last...

Regardless of what each of us may think of this or any war - there are many problems in our own nation that could be solved or at least improved by bring our troops home - failing infrastructure, slumping economy, families divided due to deployment - to name a few. Not to mention the lives lost and billions of dollars spent with little result.

What if we spent that money here? Wouldn't we be better to help other nations - who want our help - if we took care of ourselves first?

Send us your artwork related to or created around this theme. Keep an open mind. If our troops came home now: What would be the impact - on us - on the rest of the world? How might families - military and civilian - be better off? Could our nation - and the nations we are fighting in - be made whole and how?

This show is open to all artists working in any media. Check out the details of this exhibition and send us your work. 

Read all of the details and join the effort.

Watch for more coming soon from Four Oceans Press and join one of our new Hand-Pulled Print Exchanges.

Framing a picture-perfect job for local Artist

Article on Heather Piazza of Four Oceans Press from the Oakland Tribune.

Dave Newhouse: Art's a frame job
05/26/2008 06:28:38 AM PDT

The artist sees beauty in a painting, but so does the framer. Heather Piazza understands this comparison fully because she is both painter and framer.

Piazza makes a living framing paintings and photographs, but she sees herself first as a painter. Either way in her mind, it's all art.

''The framing enhances what's in the picture,'' she said. ''Depending on the colors you pick in the frame, you can create different moods or enhance various elements of the artwork.''

Why would the greatest artists — Picasso, Rembrandt, Matisse — even want a frame when
they obviously felt their paintings were classics?

''To hold it all together and pop it out from the wall,'' Piazza pointed out, ''and to give it something to showcase it, so that it stands out.''

Indeed, a memorable painting without an appropriate frame would be like an expensive suit without just the right shirt and tie to set it off.

Piazza, 33, grew up in Modesto and has been a custom framer for 14 years, the last 5-1/2 years at Creative Framing & Gallery in the Oakland hills. Dave Sommers has owned the store for 33 years, but Piazza is the store's manager and its only employee.

Get the picture? Piazza is a one-person show. She refers to Sommers as ''semi-retired.'' He takes care of the books, and she takes care of customers.

''I really love helping customers,'' she said, ''and helping them pick stuff that's going to be on their wall for a long time. And I pick up ideas from them for my own art.''

The framing shop is open Tuesday through Saturday. Piazza paints after work and on days off. She also uses her workplace to showcase her art. On June 7 and 8, and June 14 and 15, she will join Kathe Welch, both members of Four Oceans Press Artists and East Bay Open Studios, in exhibiting their paintings at Creative Framing, located at 5015 Woodminster Lane.

Piazza describes herself as an ''eclectic artist.'' She paints, she makes printings, she does sculpted glass and photography.

''I'm a Renaissance woman — in art and in life,'' she said. ''I can do most things for myself, and I'm not scared to try new things.''

She could decorate wedding cakes as a girl or fix the plumbing. Sky-diving and bungee-jumping are still on her list of adventuresome things to do.

Obviously, she doesn't think in black and white, whether it's art or exploration.

''All of my work is very colorful,'' she said of her paintings. ''I love color, and it's always really bright. I almost call it childlike, because it's very vibrant, happy and fun.''

A painting takes time, but so does framing.

''When someone comes in with their piece of art,'' said Piazza, ''I ask them a few basic questions to get to know them and their style. That gives me an instinct of what would look best on their art.''

If that instinct doesn't happen, she'll then experiment with different samples to figure out the customer's style. Basically, she prefers Earth tones for ''casual'' individuals, and gold, baroque frames for ''elegant'' people. She has a ''95 to 100 percent'' success rate in pleasing others.

''People say I have a really good eye,'' she said.

She does remarkable work. I know; I'm a regular customer. I have a hobby of collecting restaurant menus from my travels. She has enhanced them — with frame or frameless. She's artistic even in matting, including a tattered poster I have from a 1930s Oakland boxing show.

Piazza wants to be remembered, though, for her paintings, not her framings.

''I would love to be a full-time artist because I like to create art,'' she said. ''And I'd like people to enjoy my art. I'm not at a point where I've sold a lot of it yet.

''But I would frame my own art.''

Why would she trust anyone else?


Dave Newhouse's columns appear Sunday, Monday and Thursday, usually on the Metro
pageof the Oakland Tribune. Know any Good Neighbors? Phone 510-208-6466 or e-
mail dnewhouse@bayareanewsgroup.com

Michael Smith at Bucci's

This photo is by Michael Smith.



We went to the opening for Marie Ali and Michael Smith show at Bucci's in Emeryville. The two photographers had very different images which complimented each other quite nicely.

Michael Smith's work is most large sweeping panoramic shots that show the dynamic beauty of naure.You can almost feel the early morning mist as you watch the sunlight rise through.

Marie Ali photographs show a differentkind of intimacy with nature. All of her images are close shots of large turtles swimming and playing in the water. It is rare to get that close to wild nature and beautiful that shehas done it to share with all of us.

The Show runs October 27 - November 30, 2007 at Bucci's in Emeryville.