Christa Grenawalt

Serpentine Gold

APRIL - AUG 2025

Closing Reception , Groupmuse , Lower Haight Art Walk & Retreat’s 8th Anniversary party.

Saturday, August 2nd 5-8pm

Serpentine Gold

Named for the serpentine rock beneath my feet, and the winding path of return, this work follows the shape of transformation—layered, imperfect, alive.

This show marks a return—to the neighborhood where my painting practice began 25 years ago, and to the elemental forces that continue to shape it. Painted outdoors where I now live, on serpentine rock beneath native oak trees in Marin, these works hold the presence of place, memory, and time.

Working with rainwater, gold, and gravity, I collaborate with the environment to create layered compositions. Circular patterns echo Coast Miwok petroglyphs etched into stone, as well as the cycles of healing. My paintings explore forces beyond our control in the natural landscape—wind, water, fog—and how they mirror what moves within us: breath, emotion, the body’s own tides.

Iridescent pigments evoke sea mist and evaporating fog—transient, luminous, alive. Through texture and movement, oak leaves, pine needles, and weather become part of the work itself. This is a practice of return, of listening, and of transformation.

Christa’s paintings explore the forces out of our control in the vast natural landscape and how they are tied to the air we breathe and the cells in our bodies. She paints outside on the ground overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Northern California and Kauai. Her kinesthetic response to the confrontation between the cliffs and the crashing waves is a meditation on the relationship between land and sea.

She paints spontaneous cycles, both generative and destructive. She tracks details from a plastic bag howling in the wind by the ocean to a decomposing whale at Point Reyes. Beauty can be found in the toxicity of the environment. Elements of water, soil, and air enter bodies resulting in health or harm: ocean mist, water, particulate pollution, and microbes impact the shape and development of cells.

For the past decade, she’s focused on acrylic paint—plastic on canvas—to share an emotional response to the natural environment. Being outside, allowing her body to move with the wind and water, she searches to find something tangible in the chaos to recover the lost sense of meaning.

The land is painted with metallic copper pigments connecting the iron in the soil to the blood cells in the body. The iridescent pigments represent the spray of the sea against the shore connecting it to oxygenating breath in the lungs. Through texture, layering and movement of paint, the material in the environment is brought into the work itself. Ocean water, rain, sand, grass, and dirt pigment are included with the paint. She further explores layers, painting cellular forms in her studio. She uses gold, charcoal, and plastics as representational of the beauty and trauma of our time.

The past few years have been framed by environmental disruption—from floods, fires and smoke to toxic air and virus—navigating a new way to move through the world. During shelter in place, she printed reflections on the computer screen and windows, layering images to navigate the uncertainty of being separated from natural environments. The past and future virtual vision obscures a present need to connect.

Serpentine Gold, mixed media 2025

RAMON FERMIN

Ramon Fermin is a classical guitarist and music creator whose work has spanned multiple genres, including chamber, orchestral, and commercial music, as well as alternative rock and the contemporary avant-garde.

Ramon has served as a guitarist with artists on national and international tours, performing extensively throughout North America, as well as: Germany, the Netherlands, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Montenegro, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Chile, and Brazil.. As a session musician, he has contributed guitar and bass performances to studio albums, film scores and commercials, and has played on many live theatric and spoken word productions.

Ramon is the founder, creative director, and composer for the instrumental chamber rock ensemble Hunters Chorus. Combining elements of classical and fingerstyle guitar technique with an expressive lexicon drawing upon alternative rock and improvised musical traditions, Hunters Chorus presents a contemporary folkloric soundscape in a spirit of homage to the American primitive guitar tradition. To date, Hunters Chorus has released two full length albums, two EP’s, and several singles and live performance videos.

During his early career, Ramon played on the first performances of many concert works for acoustic, electric, and classical guitars. Ramon was a co-founder of the electric guitar ensemble Ignition Duo and was a member of the acclaimed San Francisco Guitar Quartet. He has also performed and/or recorded with: Magik Magik Orchestra, Frances England, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, among other artists.

Ramon is an Adjunct Professor of Music at Pacific Union College, where he teaches private guitar lessons and class guitar.

Ramon holds degrees in guitar performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Master of Music) and the University of California at Santa Barbara (Bachelor of Music).

ELYSE ADER

Elyse began playing the viola at 9 in her elementary school music program. When her Dad asked her to choose between the violin or the viola (because he thought the cello would be to big) she asked what everyone does..“What’s the difference?” After explaining the unique role of the viola, Elyse immediately felt called to the instrument. After hearing it’s rich, dark sound, she was hooked. Since then, Elyse has gone on to perform all over the world. Since settling in San Francisco, she has had the opportunity to play with artists such as Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Father John Misty, Portugal. The Man, Il Divo, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Evanescence and Il Volo.

Elyse is a member of the Indie folk rock band Hunters Chorus, who she has recorded three albums with— “The Boy Ain’t Right”, “Live at the Atomic Garden” and “The Ping Pong Ball Career Center.” These albums can be found on Bandcamp and Spotify. http://www.hunterschorus.com She can also be heard with The Robin Yukiko band on the album “Love War” and Redwood Tango Ensemble’s “We Become the Night Sky” vol. I and II.

An avid orchestral musician, Elyse has played with many orchestras throughout the country, including The Colorado Symphony, Symphony San Jose, Santa Rosa, Berkeley, Monterey, California, Santa Cruz, Stockton and Modesto Symphonies. She has also performed with the National Repertory Orchestra, New World Symphony, National Orchestral Institute Festival Orchestra, Lake Tahoe Music Festival and Mendocino Festival Orchestras. She continues to play regularly with many of these orchestras and is a member of the Santa Cruz Symphony, and is Principal Violist of the Peninsula Symphony.

Elyse earned her Artist Diploma in orchestral studies in 2016 from the San Francisco Academy Orchestra. As the winner of their 2015 Concerto Competition, she performed as a soloist with them in their 2016 season finale concert. She holds an M.M from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a B.M from the University of Denver. She is currently training to become a Certified Clinical Musician through the Harps for Healing program.

AMI NASHIMOTO

My name is Ami Nashimoto (she/they)

I am a San Francisco based multi-instrumentalist with a diverse background in the music industry. I am available for live performances, events, and private lessons in cello and piano.

I teach students of all ages and abilities and specialize in the performing arts, music education, composition, and arrangement.

Learn more about me through my feature on CBS