Fred L. Berensmeier masterful printmaker

On September 11 the San Geronimo Valley Community Center celebrated the 2nd annual International Day of Peace Festival. It was a great event ( International Day of Peace is a U. N. initiated global event dedicated to strengthening the ideals of peace among nations).

We featured live music by jam band The Rock Collection (Melvin Seals, Greg Anton, Stu Allen, Dan Lebo Lebowitz and JP McLean) as well as Barry "The Fish" Melton Band (Banana, Roy Blumenfeld, Peter Albin and Dave Aguilar) along with other activities, guest speakers and workshops.

Running in tandem with the festival, we’re hosting a great body of work by printmaker Fred L. Berensmeier in the Maurice Del Mue Galleries at the Center (The exhibit will continue through the month of September).

                                                                                                                                                                          photo by Michel Kotski

The show is titled “Gifting My Legacy” and for good reason. Fred is donating all proceeds from the art sales to the San Geronimo Valley Community Center. (His wife Jean founded the Center in 1969).

                                                                                                                                     photo by Michel Kotski

Fred, is a master printmaker --studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and received his Masters of Fine Arts from San Francisco State.  He was the head of the fine arts printmaking department of City College of San Francisco from 1968 until 1993.

Cloud Shaman Calling

His work has been exhibited in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brants Klaedefabrik Museum, Denmark, Yerba Buena Center,  the Audubon Artists 53rd Annual exhibition, National Arts Club of New York and Pacific Grove Art Center.  Fred’s work is in the collections of the Legion of Honor's Achenbach Collection and the Library of Congress.

Sea Shaman Dreams

Although his earlier work was influenced by Edvard Munch and later abstract expressionism his more recent works have focused on images from personal connection with the environment and his years of work with Native Americans and study of petroglyphs and pictographs.

Star Shaman and Raven

Medicine Bear Carrying Pure Water

Here are a few shots from Fred's printmaking demo:

Here's a detail of the lino block "Cloud Shaman Calling":

San Francisco Zine Fest 2016

I dropped in on the 15th annual San Francisco Zine Fest this last Sunday in Golden Gate Park. It's a lively event with a lot of creative energy and lacking the corporate aura surrounding most 'comic' cons these days. The focus is on do-it-yourself print media by local Bay Area creators.

             Here's the illustrious Jaime Crespo and publisher Francis Kohler

                             Here's the equally illustrious Mark Badger

I only picked up a few items at the Fest and didn't notice until I got home the curious aquatic theme to my purchases.

A nice strange book by Anna Zusman

                                  Sea Creature Story is by Skip Wrightson

           
    The all-Creature of the Black Lagoon edition of Monster Nerd

But I did get a copy of David Enos' enigmatic Bat-Man is Lost in a Woods

This poster I saw at one of the booths probably best spells out the Zine Fest ethos:

For future reference:

Jaime Crespo: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEt8jtT5Cxw

Mark Badger:  markbadger.org

Anna Zusman:  AnnaZusman.com

Skip Wrightson: skipsflips.com

Monster Nerd: facebook.com/primitiveprimatepress

David Enos: davidedwardenos.blogspot.com

San Francisco Zine Fest: sfzinefest.org