SAN LUIS OBISPO ART CENTER
BUSINESS ART EXHIBIT

The City is an active participant in the San Luis Obispo Art Center's Business Exhibits.  Through this program member organizations and businesses like the City are able to display a variety of art created by different local artists.  Three times a year, new artwork is displayed at City Hall and the Senior Citizen's Center.  These paintings are generously loaned by the artists and are available for purchase.

PRESENT ARTISTS 
(click here for past artists)

Mary Ratner - 805.541.6110
marysden@aol.com

Mary Ratner has owned a camera and traveled with it for as long as she can remember, playing it "by ear" for most of her life and capturing, as her first subjects, sand dunes, trees, and driftwood - simple images that continue to captivate her.  For the past decade, she has been a member of both the Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo Art Associations.  She has consistently exhibited in the annual VISIONS show sponsored by the SLO Photo Society.  Mary has been a member of several local galleries and she also exhibits regularly in local cafes and businesses within the county.

Accord to Mary, "My journeys to Africa and India profoundly affected my vision of humanity, as well as my interest in photography.  I have always been drawn to the effect of light on architecture and in nature and I see my work as an attempt to 'freeze' time.  I hope to represent the beauty and mystery of the cultures I visit through the frankness and simplicity of my images."  

"No Butts About It"

You can view Mary's artwork through the end of May at City Hall, located at 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo in the Council Hearing Room (viewing in this room may be limited due to meetings in progress) and the Finance and Information Technology Department.

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Robert Dodge - 805.528.0704
bob@studiodoor.net

Bob was raised in the Chicago area.  His father was a commercial artist and a weekend painter and Bob's art education consisted primarily of watching his father paint.  After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.  Upon his discharge from the service, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as a computer programmer/system designer/systems analyst for 22 years.  It was only after he and his wife moved to Evanston, Illinois that Bob began painting.  In 1990, Bob and his wife moved to California and since then he has devoted full time to his art.  Bob's art has been exhibited many times in galleries up an down the Pacific Coast and in Texas and Illinois. 

"My concern as a painter is not to create a literal record, but to trigger a visceral reaction."  Bob goes on to say, "Inspired by nature's intensity of light, color, and dynamic form, I let my emotional response have full play in the application of the paint, the use of color, and the interpretation of form.  I depart from literal realism to encourage the viewer's active, imaginative participation in the creative act, intensifying the experience." 

"Saint Lucia Mountains

You can view Bob's artwork through the end of May at the Senior Citizens Center, located at 1455 Santa Rosa at Buchon Street, San Luis Obispo.  

Past Artists 
Doris Goodill
Page Graeber
Judy Chapel
Loretta Ramseyer
Dotty Hawthorne
Miss Lindy
Glynis Chaffin-Tinglof
Trude Kyle
Greg Simmons
Judy Shuster
Deborah Velkamp
Gerda Caldwell
Jamie Hodoian
Gale Lipton
James Crawford   
Paulette Perlman    
Marcie Hawthorne 
Rosi Lusardi  
Dorothy Riggs 
Peg Grady 
Mary Meng Wade 
Gene Elsdon 

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