Gail Baker 

Gail grew up sleeping and eating with a box of 64 crayons.  The 64^th crayon was maroon.  It made her sick. She threw it in the trash. These days maroon is just fine…so are puce, chartreuse, and celandine.  She paints in acrylic paints with layers of acrylic medium for depth and texture. Oil pastels are added between layers and often gold leaf is applied.  She aspires to turn the paintings into sculpture….perhaps resin or clay. For now, the paintings often turn into leather wall sculptures, especially fish of the Northwest.

Gail has taught art for 28 years in public and private settings in Alaska and Washington. She’s worked with the Arts Ed Consortium in Alaska teaching teachers how to integrate art into the classroom. Teaching painting to teens at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp was her big adventure in June of 2008.  With knowledge of ADHD, learning styles, and multiple intelligences, she brings a unique teaching style to students.  

Since moving back to Washington after 8 years in Alaska, Gail revels in the green and warmth.  She teaches painting, mask making, drawing, visual journaling, and collage in her studio on Front Street in Issaquah and all over King County. Hiking and yoga recharge her creative batteries. She earned a master’s degree in Psychology with an emphasis on Creative Expression and the Arts in 2000 and realized that movement, dance, meditation, and visual art are a wonderful combination.

Ricco DiStefano

I feel my paintings should take the viewer to another place, and even another time. My landscapes give me the opportunity to interpret deep feelings and strong memories of valuable moments in my own life. Drawing on my love of my native Eastern Washington, many of my works are not literal views, but idyllic windows to a specific feeling. My work often takes into account the ambient sounds that color a moment, as well as the visual. I intend for collectors to be reminded of special times in their own lives. It's important to me that there is a feeling of movement or animation in my work. My use of shadows allows me to do just that, as the shadow represents a fleeting moment in time. The shadowman is not intended as a literal image, but rather a reflection or the shadow of one's spirit.

I was born into a family of artists, both visual and musical. As an artistic child, boredom was a foreign concept to me. My passion is to take the moments that happen in my mind and share them with the world. In doing so, I hope to provoke thought or inspiration, or just a momentary escape for the viewer. I feel stronger than ever that – as William Shakespeare wrote in Macbeth – "Life's but a walking shadow." We can only experience life, moments at a time. We cannot control time, and it stops for no one. As an artist, I try to leave my personal stamp on this temporary world, hopefully giving something beautiful as a gift for those who follow. I was educated in fine arts at schools in Denver and Seattle. I worked as a graphic designer, illustrator and art director for almost twenty years before finding my place as a painter.

My work has shown in galleries in the Northwest and on the East Coast. My paintings are included in many private collections around the U.S.

Susan Olds is an art historian, artist and curator with over twenty years of professional experience in the arts. Susan earned a B.A. in art history with honors from the University of California, Irvine. She attended graduate school at Cal State Long Beach where she continued her studies in art theory and contemporary art. Her teaching experience includes seven years of teaching Contemporary Art at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California, and fifteen years of lecturing on art and art history in the Seattle region. From 1994 to 2000, Susan served as the exhibitions curator for Cornish College of the Arts where she curated over 70 shows. She has written art reviews for Artweek, Visions, and Reflex Magazine. Between 1999 and 2004 respectively, Susan served as Head of School for the Bellevue Art Museum and Education Director for Pratt Fine Arts Center.

As an artist, Susan works in mixed collage and fabric collage and exhibits her work at the Up Front Gallery in Issaquah. Currently, Susan presents lectures on art history through the King County Library and artEAST in Issaquah. Susan lives with her husband David, their two cats and two dogs in North Bend.

Joel grew up in Sheboygan Falls, WI with his parents and two brothers.  He was always interested in art.  By age 10, Joel had started water-based painting lessons, much like the ones here at Museo.  As a teenager he began taking private lessons with Kitty Lyn Klitch, a locally renowned artist.  Joel gained recognition in a handful of National art competitions for teenagers.  

After a 3 year stint as a youth minister in Iowa, Joel earned his BA in Fine Arts with an endorsement in K-12 Art Education from Northwestern College.  Joel has 4 years of experience teaching in classrooms of all age levels, and private lessons for aspiring students.  Joel, himself, is continually growing and developing as an artist.  Originally trained in watercolor and oil paints, Joel now works primarily with encaustic and acrylics.  Although Joel is a young artist, he has a consistantly growing portfolio. Joel has shown his work in a variety of local galleries, including UpFront in Issaquah, Two Vaults in Tacoma, and Microsoft in Redmond. He looks forward to his current series being displayed at Local Color, a gallery in Pike Place Market.  

Joel believes that artistic expression all comes down to the need to communicate. Every human being has that one thing in their life that is too hard to express verbally. For Joel, art is coping, internalizing and expressing those things; it's therapy.