Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in western art, possibly after Hilma af Klint. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession—he was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat —Kandinsky began painting studies at the age of 30.
Albert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not the first artist to record the sites, but he was the foremost painter of them for the remainder of the 19th century.
Alex Grey is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting. He is also on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department. He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organization in Wappingers Falls, New York.
Caroline Myss is an American author of 10 books and many audio recordings about mysticism and wellness. She is most well known for publishing Anatomy of the Spirit (1996). She also co-published The Creation of Health with Dr C Norman Shealy MD - ex Harvard professor of neurology. Her most recent book, Archetypes: Who Are You? was published in 2013. Her work has been criticized for being unsubstantiated, and is widely regarded as pseudoscientific. Myss describes herself as a medical intuitive and a mystic.
Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting. Unfixed sand paintings have a long established cultural history in numerous social groupings around the globe, and are often temporary, ritual paintings prepared for religious or healing ceremonies. This form of art is also referred to as drypainting.
The Surf Punks were a pop punk band formed in 1976 by Malibu residents Dennis Dragon (1947-2017) and Drew Steele. Dragon recruited the additional talents of Malibu residents Tony Creed AKA the "Hulk", for lead guitar and blues harp, fellow bodysurfer/frisbeeist John Hunt on the bass, and South Bay resident John Heussenstamm for lead guitar. This was the original core group, produced and engineered by Dragon in his garage studio across the street from Zuma Beach, his favorite body surfing spot. Mark Miller joined them on "Locals Only." Jeff "Ray Ban" Eyrich joined the Surf Punks on bass when John Hunt left the group.
Paul Jenkins was an American abstract expressionist painter.
Henry Barnard Wesselman (1941-2021) was an American anthropologist known primarily for his Spiritwalker trilogy of spiritual memoirs. In them, he claims to have been in contact with "Nainoa", an ethnic Hawaiian kahuna (shaman) living some 5,000 years in our future. The books envision the imminent collapse of Western civilization as a result of global warming. On a more positive note, Wesselman perceives an ongoing "wide-spread spiritual reawakening" which he dubs the "Modern Mystical Movement."
Albert "Alby" Falzon is an Australian filmmaker, photographer and publisher in the surfing sub-culture.
Chitrakar is a caste within the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The Newar caste system is divided according to profession. Accordingly, Chitrakars were painters and mask makers. In Nepal Bhasa, this caste is called "Pun" (पुं) or "Puna". The literal translation of the word Chitrakar from Sanskrit is image maker where "Chitr" in Sanskrit means an image, and "akar" the maker.
Antonio Roybal is an American fine-art painter and sculptor from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Zachary Selig was an American artist, author, interior designer and celebrity spiritist.
Marco Almera is a Southern California artist.
The terms California Impressionism and California Plein-Air Painting describe the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors, directly from nature in California, United States. Their work became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California in the first three decades after the turn of the 20th century. Considered to be a regional variation on American Impressionism, the painters of the California Plein-Air School are also described as California Impressionists; the terms are used interchangeably.
Kevin A. Short is an American painter and printmaker, recognized for his modern landscapes of the Pacific Coast and American Southwest. He is considered an integral observer and portrayer of the surfing subculture there. His use of heavy brushstrokes and vivid pigments are a recognizable trademark of his painting style.
Chris Dyer is a Peruvian–Canadian artist based in Montreal, who exhibits, performs and teaches his art worldwide. Some of his broader artistic themes include consciousness, truth, oneness, introspection, personal development and kindness. He paints using acrylic, pencil, pen, spray paint, gouache and other media on a variety of different forms, including broken or blank skateboards in his early years, various sculptured and recycled items, and now commonly fabric or wood canvas. He is also known for his murals, logos, album covers, posters, illustrations, comic books, travel diaries, and YouTube adventure vlogs (Artventures). He was the art director and brand manager of Creation Skateboards/Satori Movement for three and a half years, creating designs for hundreds of skateboard decks. He teaches many art workshops and classes on technique, spray painting, traditional medicinal healing, and the business of art, as well as offering an online class. He has created his own brand of conscious clothing and other goods, Positive Creations, which features some of his most well-loved art. Though his styles, mediums and subject matters are always in flow, the main theme seen through his artwork is cultural and spiritual oneness of humanity and beyond.
Gregory Burns, MFA, is an American athlete, painter, author, motivational speaker and member of Art of the Olympians. As a competitive swimmer, Burns represented the USA in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Paralympic Games, winning two gold, two silver and one bronze medal; he has set 5 World records and numerous American records. As a contemporary artist, his paintings have been exhibited in over 80 solo exhibitions and group exhibitions in 15 different countries; Burns has conducted 40 Artist-in-Residence programs around the globe. He is the recipient of the United States Sports Academy’s 2016 Sport Artist of the Year award, (painter). As an author, Burns has published three books in English and Mandarin. As a motivational speaker, Burns has inspired thousands of adults and children while covering a wide range of interests such as sports, arts, motivation, mental wellness, business, culture, and creativity.
Kev Dab Kev Qhuas is the common ethnic religion of Miao peoples, best translated as the practice of spirituality. The religion is also called Hmongism by a Hmong American church established in 2012 to organize it among Hmong people in the United States.
John Heussenstamm is an American guitarist and music educator. He was the original lead guitarist in the Surf Punks, toured with the Deniece Williams Band in 1977, and was a band member of Innocent Bystanders. He is the author of Guitar Workout, a book published by Hal Leonard Corporation in 2010. He is featured as an author and guitarist in The Gold Mine Series, as a coauthor with Chad Johnson in 100 Blues Lessons and with Paul Silbergleit in 100 Jazz Lessons. Heussenstamm was also a featured guitar instructor in three DVDs published by Hal Leonard: 200 Blues Licks, 200 Jazz Licks and 200 Country Licks. His YouTube channel has received over 10 million total hits and has over 15,000 subscribers since 2008. As of February 2015, Heussenstamm resides in Laguna Beach, California.
William Lumpkins (1909-2000) was an American artist and architect best known for his abstract watercolors and pioneering solar adobe architecture. He was a founding member of the Transcendental Painting Group and cofounder of the Santa Fe Art Institute with Pony Ault.
