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":