One of the best things about living in the Bay Area? We're never at a loss for amazing, inspiring art to brighten up our lives. Just across the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito is the historic, landmark Industrial Center Building, which is home to some of our region's most creative visual artists. Their annual free Open Studios event begins on this weekend on December 3rd which, for art lovers, is the perfect time to scope out these exceptional artists (including 100 painters, sculptors, fabric artists, jewelers, photographers, and multimedia producers) in their natural habitats–not to mention their works of art! Here are eleven creative minds to keep your eyes on.

First Floor:
Jay Graham: This award winning photographer specializes in commercial, travel, and fine art work.

Gail Sterling: Working on a large scale, Sterling’s works resonate with a strong combination of first impressions, memory and continued reflection.

Second Floor:

Mort Golub: The uses of collected objects to create sculptures amplified in a modern context.

Paul Norwood: A combination of sensation and social themes through the figure using bold graphic elements.

April Dawn Parker: Each abstract painting inspired by aerial photography is a mini-map exploring how the natural world intersects with the manufactured.

Carolyn Wheeler: Varnish, gold leaf and ancient nature images inform this interesting photo process on canvas and sheets of glass.

Third Floor:

Anne-Marie De Rivera: In her string of interior landscapes, De Rivera brings the organic into the world of the abstract.

Ann Curran Turner: Fascinated by people and their endless complexities, Turner’s large figurative paintings capture the common vulnerability in all of us -- a life force.

Jennifer Fearon: A more moody spin on the landscape and it’s intersection within contemporary society.

Stephen Ehret: Trained as a fine art painter, Ehret illustrates the effects of light on simple everyday ele- ments recreating bright reflections and shadowy undertones.


Philip Moyer: The haunting, shadowed portraits in his paintings are fragile, vulnerable and endlessly complex.