August 14 - September 25, 2005

Opening reception: Sunday, August 14, 2-4 pm
3 pm artist talk by Elaine Toland: "Intimacy and Art"

Oakland-based painter Elaine Toland presented new and recent work in the Downstairs Gallery at Angels Gate. The artist's abstract acrylics are responses to the landscape of the western U.S., the individual's microcosm of emotion and the "diversity of unity." In Ms. Toland's words: "The abstracted paintings focus upon personal and internal landscapes representing the emotions of intimacy revealed in layered pigment. Collective and social stories can change if there is a shift in how we see them. Our stories are for all to explore; the work of the diversity of unity is just the pathway for the possibilities of spiritual transformation and endless stories." The artist presented a public discussion at 3 pm, August 14th entitled "Intimacy and Art," focusing on the discourse between artistic and therapeutic work, and her experiences as an adolescent psychiatric nurse at Stanford University's Packard Children's Hospital working with at-risk teens.

Elaine Toland is a veteran of many solo and group exhibitions, as well as artist residency programs around the U.S., including the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest IL, and the Vermont Studio Center. Recent exhibitions include "Light, Canvas, Action" in San Francisco and "Bars, Barriers and Borders" in Long Beach.


Red Desert Sky


A Bird's Spirit


Beneath the Glaciers


Dancing Prairie


Diversity of Unity


Hidden Intimacy


Intimacy #2


Moey One


Night Sky


Primal Essence


Primal Essence 4


Secret Essence


Spirit of 11


Spring Snow


Wyoming Spring