Meet The Featured Artists Of The 34th Annual Mission Federal ArtWalk In Little Italy
In April 2018 the Mission Federal ArtWalk will return to Little Italy for the 34th annual celebration of San Diego’s rich arts and culture landscape.
Each year the event selects featured artists from the hundreds of artists that exhibit at the event. This year’s featured artists stand out for their commitment to the craft, passion for inspiring others to create art and their unique styles.
The featured artists include:
AkZhana/ Maxim
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AkZhana and Maxim are a creative collective duo, hailing from the Soviet Union and Kazakhstan. AkZhana brings more than 20 years of art education, including time at Almaty College of Applied Arts, Kazahk National Academy of Arts and Mimar Istanbul University. Maxim also has a Masters of Fine Arts from Istanbul University. AkZhana and Maxim describe their genre as figuratively decorative expressionism using bright expressions of a complex emotional world to create art. Their paintings often incorporate a female figure they refer to as “she” that appears in different settings and conveys a variety of emotions.
Ann Golumbuk
Originally from Oklahoma, Ann Golumbuk attended the University of Oklahoma and earned a degree in interior design. She moved to San Diego in 1984, where she lives today with her husband and three children. While her artistic impression was constant throughout her life, her foray into the art world was developed over the past 15 years working as a volunteer art teacher for children at the elementary level. During this time, she was also the prop, costume and backdrop designer for the elementary school’s performances and directed the art and talent shows for many years.
Now coming full circle, Ann is once again involved in instructing new and aspiring artists on her painting methods. In her commitment to being a green artist, Ann creates vivid paintings using recycled materials, finding items of interest in her environment and using every drop of paint to add dimension to her paintings.
Harut Hakobyan
Harut Hakobyan is an abstract industrial artist, originally from Armenia where he attended Yerevan State Academy and learned from several of Armenia’s top artists. Harut expresses himself through the vast colors and abstract textures in his work. His work is owned by private art collectors all over the world, and featured in several interior design companies’ works.
Carolyn Johnson
Carolyn Johnson is a mixed media fine artist with her own unique multi-level process, incorporating everything from painting, free-hand drawing, design elements, hand dipped paint marbling and detailed textured gels, mostly depicting nature-inspired themes. She’s the only artist I’ve ever met that has a sign that says ‘Please Touch The Art’ on all of her work – I loved that! Carolyn is the communicator and voice of her work; she channels her creativity and passion to create a dimensional appeal on canvas that is expressionistic-ally unique.
Tesa Michaels
Tesa Michaels studied Fine Art and Graphic Design at The Art Institute of Colorado where she earned her degree. She worked in the graphic design field for some time, before re-discovering her roots as a fine artist. She picked up oils and found her true calling. Her work is inspired by nature’s abundant landscape and the energy and spiritual properties of earth’s beautiful semi-precious stones. Her unique paintings incorporate stones into one of a kind works of art.
Gedion Nyanhongo
Master stone sculptor, Gedion Nyanhongo was born into an artistic family in Zimbabwe, Africa. Gedion’s sculptures offer the viewer endearing elements of his Shona culture—the traditional values of the importance of community, positive and respectful human relationships and the sacredness of life with the intention to seek, evoke and inspire these same values in other’s families and cultures. His sculptures are created from Opal stone, Springstone and Zimbabwe Nayanga stone.
Dany Paragouteva
Originally from Bulgaria, Dany Paragouteva began drawing at the young age of one. She was raised in Plovdiv, Bulgaria until she was 15 and then she moved to the United States. Later she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration with distinction from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. Dany uses her European heritage and soulful appreciation of the power of fairytales to bring people into a fantastical world of the subtly surreal.
John Straub
John Straub is a photographer and current member of the Motor Press Guild, San Diego Museum of Art Artists Guild and the San Diego Art Institute, allowing him the opportunity to constantly improve his craft. John’s photography celebrates memories—rusted or old, shiny or new, and immerses the viewer in their soul, color, texture, and design. His interpretations of motoring emotions result in uniquely different vintage images, with attention to color, composition, and quality of light.
The Mission Federal ArtWalk returns to Little Italy this April, where you’ll have the opportunity to see the work of each of these artists first hand! Put it on your calendar now – this is an event you won’t want to miss.
See you there!
