Stockton's Art Expressions works to paint the city

Painting the City Header

By Joseph Munoz

On April 6, Art Expressions partnered with the Shades of Color studio to hold a fundraiser for Parkinson’s Disease, an cause close to Ana Vera.

Shades of Color, an art studio in Stockton, provides materials for people of all ages to come in and work with clay, brushes, pottery and paint.

Over food and drinks, donors recreated an abstract painting from the walls of the studio, teaching participants how to shade and mix colors, as well as the importance of keeping brushes separate for different parts of the painting.

The charity had special meaning to the Art Expressions group, because the board president Arturo Vera suffers from Parkinson’s.

“My husband has been affected by Parkinson’s for the last 10 years. He continues to do photography, the good thing is that Parkinson’s normally affects the muscles and gives a lot of people tremors and in his case he had an operation so he doesn’t get the tremors,” Vera said.

Arturo Vera continues to do photography today with the help of his wife.

“Well when his was in Vietnam in the service, he took up photography and has been doing it ever since,” Vera said.

The Parkinson’s charity was chosen to bring more awareness to the cause, so more people could get the kind of help that Arturo Vera received.

Art Expressions and Shades of Color are doing what both can to bring attention to the arts, specifically to get younger generations interested in art and providing a place for artists to express themselves.

Art Expressions of San Joaquin is a collaborative group that creates pieces for prominent Stockton locations, such as the San Joaquin County Administration Building, which held the organizations most recent featured artist event.

Alicia Valenzuela was the featured artist for the month of April. Her artwork focuses on the inner being and nature, while being as eco-friendly as possible.

“I’m dabbling with materials that are either re-used or refurbished and I’ve collected many bottle caps to do bottle cap murals,” Valenzuela said.

Her favorite painting she’s worked on is “Dreaming Escape,” a painting with many names that she says best describes how she feels about her own abilities.

“It’s a expression of a lot of different things and its kinda changed for me over the years. It expresses the point of letting it out,” Valenzuela said.

Valenzuela has been a member of Art Expressions for about six months and thinks that importance of local art groups is highly valued among members.

“They have so many opportunities to get their stuff out there. There’s venues like the San Joaquin Administration Building and Hilton, so I think they help foster space for artists and children to show their work,” Valenzuela said.

Arturo Vera and his wife, board member Ana Vera, were also present at the exhibit selling pieces to interested patrons. Ana Vera sees the bi-monthly art shows as a way to give artists an opportunity to see results from their work, but wishes the group had a more diverse group of artists.

“We sort of dress up the city with art to bring more awareness to the arts. I wish there were more younger artists that would join our group because my focus is to have the veteran artists mentor the up-and-coming artists,” Vera said.

Other art educators also wish that the youth were much more involved in the arts than they currently are.

“One of the biggest challenges is finding the time to familiarize kids with he history of various art forms, specifically with performance arts, finding ways to teach students to build their confidence so they can realize that they can actually do it,” said Delta College Professor Allen Amundsen.