MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - At this month’s Theater Art Gallery opening reception you will meet not one, but two outstanding local artists, Jennifer O’Neill Pickering and Sara Sealander. Join these fantastic artists and other arts minded folks at the Gallery at the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts’ exhibition opening reception on Friday, July 21, starting at 5pm, 754 Plumas Street in Yuba City. Appetizers, beer, and wine will be served. The show is on display through the month of July.

Jennifer O’Neill Pickering is a visual and literary artist who grew up in Tierra Buena and Yuba City and now has a studio in Sacramento. She works in several mediums including watercolor, encaustic mixed media, photography, chalk pastel and charcoal. She works from life, intuitively and from memory. She uses photographs, and sketches as references for further work and often creates patterns to use in her works. Color and the juxtaposition of images are also themes in Jennifer’s work.

“I believe art is empowering and living in the country around nature and spending many summers in the Sierras and at the Pacific Ocean in Southern California influenced and inspires my artwork still,” said Jennifer.  Jennifer studied art and poetry at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo and then received an MA in Studio Art at C.S.U. Sacramento. Her art has been published in Persimmon Tree in WTF, Poetsexpresso, Inside Publications, News & Review, Blue Moon Literary & Art Journal, Sacramento Bee, and other publications. Some exhibits of her work include The Brick House Gallery, Fe Gallery, Red Dot Gallery, California History Museum, and the Crocker Art Gallery.

Sara Sealander will offer a reprise of her show from last year featuring drawings from her “Trash” collection.  As the retired Yuba College Art Department Chair, Sara has often been heard to say, “The only down-side of teaching art was the lack of time that studio teachers have for the creation of their own art.” 

After completing her MFA at UC San Diego and participating in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in Manhattan, Sara was hired to teach both Art History and Studio Art classes at Yuba Community College in Marysville. She taught fulltime for 38 years, became the head of the Art Department and then taught for several years as an adjunct professor of Art History, teaching courses exploring the lives and works of early women artists. Sara has been recognized as a “Woman of the Year” by Congressman John Garamendi for her decades of arts advocacy, activism and excellence and leadership in arts education.  

The Theater Gallery located inside the Sutter Theater Center for the Arts is also home to several Anchor Artists. See original works of art created by metal sculpture artist, Dude Green, indigenous jewelry and beadwork artist, Jesse Harris, photographer George Unpingco, ceramist Drew Sallee and textile artist, Pam Nowak. Your purchase of a work of original art helps support the artist as well as Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture.  For additional information about this exhibition, contact Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture at [email protected].