November 2023: San Francisco Open Studios x ArtSpan
Karii Rürup-Coleman (painter): I paint my world as if it’s configured of tiny little pieces—stories folding and unfolding, therefore molding living things, tangible things, into more than what we see with the naked eye. I thrive on the richness of simplicity when creating art. I love pushing my lines towards the edge, tipping over from the complexities of urban living, plunging into water, sticks and dirt.
The myriad abstract lines that comprise my work, allows the viewer to create their own experience, to play in the waves of positive and negative space. Lines turn into waves that morph into roots that transform into figures.
Liz Bloomfield (ceramicist): I have spent much of my adult life teaching science and art to children in museum and studio settings. I love the endless energy from young humans, their beginners mindset and how eager they are to figure out how and why things work.
I studied neuropsychology as an undergrad and conducted research on human and animal behavior. I have also had the pleasure of working as a biology technician for aquatic animal exhibits at the Exploratorium, bringing me once again up close and personal with the animal world in a scientific setting. After enrolling in community college classes for sculpture and ceramics, I fell in love with clay because of its wonderful malleability, the immediacy with which I can execute ideas in a three dimensional form, and clay's endless avenues of exploration during the working process.
Sam Galison (photographer): Sam Galison is an artist, designer, and technologist based in San Francisco, and the founder of Studio Galison, a transdisciplinary creative production and design studio. He combines digital and traditional craft practices to create compelling, immersive, and focused experiences in a wide variety of media. Sam works in all kinds of media – ink, pencil, optical glass, music, video, photography, experimental electronics – always prioritizing how these disparate methods can come together elegantly to elicit a meaningful, affective engagement. Much of his work deals with empathy, interactivity, mythology, and the intricacies of our human perception. With this raw material, Sam forges unexpected connections between humans and examines our relationship to the nonhuman "natural" world we collectively inhabit. His work is often intimate and subtle; this quiet closeness provides a safe pathway into unfamiliar territory.
Sam holds a BA in "Affective Engineering" from NYU Gallatin and an MFA in Digital + Media from RISD. He currently works as an experiential designer and creative technologist at Muse & Co.
In both his studio and design work, he strives to find meaning in the noise of everyday experience, and clarity in the chaos of an oversaturated media environment.
Sarang Byrne (painter): Sarang Byrne was born and raised in Miami, Florida. She had the opportunity to attend public schools that allowed her the resources and opportunities to focus on art. Encouraged by family and teachers from a young age, she went on to receive a Bachelors of Fine Art in Illustration Design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. She now resides in San Francisco, CA where she manages a photography studio and continues to paint. Her medium of choice is currently watercolor on paper.
