About the Artists

Norma Clark
     A native and resident of Texas, Norma Clark is an abstract artist who received in 1997 a B.A. in Visual Arts from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and in 2000 an M.F.A. from Vermont College of Norwich University in Montpelier, Vermont. Clark was a co-professor at Southwestern University and currently works as an independent artist.
     The objective of Ms. Clark's artwork is to create paintings that contain ambiguities of space, color, and form. Each painting is a personal reflection on a range of internal emotions and complexities of life. Clark does not have a vision of the final painting in mind when she initially begins its creation, but, instead, she responds to the marks made on the canvas that inspires and reveals the next step in the painting's evolution. Although Clark has no final image in mind for her paintings, she does have specific intentions about each piece's message. Norma's work has been exhibited throughout Austin and surrounding areas.

Fidencio Duran
     My artwork is inspired by personal experiences. These experiences are of my family in a rural part of central Texas. They celebrate everyday events that, through the use of heightened perspective and richness of color, are transformed into artwork. When developing the works, I start with a salient moment in my personal history. These memories are developed initially with only paper and pencil. As more resources become available, their influence is seen in the finished works. Recently, I have been able to cull images from a greater number of sources via the Internet and books.
     The works in this exhibit continues the exploration that began at least twenty years ago. As a member of a first generation American family, I have attempted to identify my values through my family's experiences. Perhaps it started as a way to feel complete in a society that can seem distant. There is scarcely a way to not feel like an outsider. Although I speak and read the language fluently, am able to survive in the predominant Anglo culture? These works serve to support my sense of self and are a part of the experience of Mexicans in America. I aspire to have these works affect the viewer by supplying images that are palpable in an era when most artwork is vague and serves primarily as decorative objects.

Tonya Engel
     My paintings are always a process. I often do not plan on making a certain image--if I do begin with a particular thing in mind, it often mutates in the course of working. I often even turn my paintings sideways or upside down to find something more interesting and fresh than what I
had already begun. I try hard to push beyond the things I already know. The female figure always seems to find a prominent position in almost every piece because I inevitably experience the world as a female--the only perspective that I know how to articulate. It is a vehicle for exploring my major concerns: issues of identity, gender boundaries, power and vulnerability, questioning the notions of beauty and ugliness. Many of the norms upon which we build most of our identities and form our ideologies are narrowly constructed. For me, each painting is a process of peeling away those outer layers and finding the core of the elusive self--the full, richly diverse and complex beings that we are.

T. Paul Hernandez
     T. Paul Hernandez is from South Louisiana and received a B.F.A. from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and an M.F.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Art at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas and resides in Manchaca, Texas where he operates a sculpture studio.
     He works mostly with mixed media sculpture and drawings and is known for creating fanciful and allegorical images. He pieces have been featured in many group and solo exhibitions. He has been awarded several Art in Public Places commissions in Austin and has served as juror for numerous public art projects. Hernandez has also been the recipient of the Mid-America/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award in Sculpture. He has served on the state advisory visual arts panel for the Texas Commission on the Arts; on the Louisiana Division of the Arts; on the Cultural Arts Council of Houston; and he was a recipient for an artist residency at the New Orleans Green Project.

Shou Ping Newcomb
     Shou Ping creates her art with watercolor, but her specialty is "paper sculpture." Through these unique three-dimensional paper sculptures, she expresses her imagination, and takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. There is nothing ordinary about this artist or her art. One look at her works and you are drawn into her world. Her love of nature, birds, and her many fish ponds and gardens are recurring themes. Her designs are as varied as nature itself. Her loving attention to each detail will entice the viewer to reach out and touch the life-like flowers and birds. As one can imagine, each intricate piece is created over a lengthy period of time, and each is different and original.
     Shou Ping has been invited to give demonstrations to more than twenty art groups, schools, and organizations in the San Antonio area. From 1996 through 2000, she has participated in over thirty art shows and received numerous awards for her works. She has appeared on the "San Antonio Living" television show, was recently showcased on the "Texas Country Reporter" television show, and was published by the Koi USA Magazine.

Rama Tiru
     Rama has enjoyed photographing people and places all over the world. She became the first woman industrial photographer of India. She also was the first woman founder member, treasurer, and vice chairperson of the Advertising and Industrial Photographers Association of India-South. She emigrated to the United States in 1997 and established RTgallery in 2000. Her art works have been shown in many venues.
     From commercial photography, Rama Tiru's work has transformed into art photography. She experiments with various lighting techniques and photographic installations of specific themes to interpret her creativity through the lens. Her signature is highly saturated photographic images, painterly in effect. She likes to keep her lines simple and rhythmic. She has expressed her thoughts and philosophy through her art.
     Since 1995 she has continuously worked with digital media and numerous print materials, ranging from art papers to canvas. Her own photographs are the base images for her artwork. They are digitally painted over, manipulated or hand painted over to create unique collages. She has produced huge digital photo-murals for corporate walls and hotel lobbies. Her new passion is to capture images in a camera, print on canvas, and paint with acrylics to make one of a kind art images.