Timothy Williams was born December 7, 1968 in Newbury Park, California. He was enrolled in a music academy at age four and was a child prodigy on clarinet by age ten.

Timothy moved to the drums and into surfing, skateboarding, punk rock, and black and white photography. In college he studied more photography and then majored in art at Pepperdine University. “Pep was a surreal experience. When I studied art there the school had the worst art facilities in the state for a university. The art department had nothing; I had about just as much so I drove around West LA and went through trash cans and alleyways collecting car hoods, rusted pieces of metal, fire extinguisher boxes, broken chairs- anything interesting to paint on or display my sculptures with.” Timothy received BA In Fine Art in 1990.

Timothy then moved into an art studio in Venice, began painting and sculpting and collecting/recycling old door and window frames and placing his oceanic-stained glass paintings behind the glass. Most often the paintings themselves were painted on found objects: ping pong tabletops, weathered wood, signs, etc. These works caught the eye of his artist friend Terrell Moore who gave Timothy his first one-man show in his legendary Westminster Garage Gallery in 1996.

In 2001 Timothy opened the Black Cat Gallery in Culver City with soul mate/actress Rainbow Underhill. Black Cat featured multi-dimensional art shows including fine art, live music, film, DJ’s and live fashion shows which grew into festivals 5 buildings long. Black Cat was listed as one of LA’s best galleries in Los Angeles Times and given a full page rave review in LA Weekly.

Some of Timothy’s art collectors include museum owner Michael Hammer, film director Alan Mindel, and Weinstein Gallery Director Michael Miller.

www.blackcatart.com
myspace.com/enterthecat

Sebastian Copeland is a photographer, filmmaker and environmental activist. His photographs have appeared in hundreds of publications worldwide including GQ, Marie Claire, The Face, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, and Interview magazine.

A personal commitment to fight for the protection of the environment has lead to a seat on Board of Directors of Global Green USA, the US arm of President
Gorbachev’s humanitarian and environmental organization Green Cross International; and a relentless pursuit of a sustainable future.

In 2005, Sebastian lead a trip to the Arctic town of Iqaluit to raise awareness on the Inuit people’ struggle for survival and to put a human face to Global Warming. Enlisting the participation of Salma Hayek and Jake Gylenhal, as well as California politicians, the trip raised global awareness through a press conference and the creation of an aerial image realized by John Quigley of Spectral Q deploying 500 Inuit on the ice to spell a message of Global Warning.

Following this effort, in February of 2006, Sebastian joined a group of scientists and environmentalist in Antarctica, for three weeks on a privately operated
science research ice breaker—the Ice Lady Patagonia—to realize another image, again in partnership with John Quigley. Shot from the air, the image deployed the crew of the Ice Lady onto a forlorn iceberg in the Gerlach Straight to spell a message of SOS.

A collection of photographs taken from that trip were assembled into a gallery show in New York, in July 2006. The show was a preview of his upcoming book: Antarctica—The Global Warning. With an introduction by President Gorbachev, and a foreword by Leonardo DiCaprio, the book will be released in September 2007, and translated in multiple languages. In 2006, Sebastian won two first place awards at the prestigious International Photography Awards for some of those images. Additional shows are planned in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and London over the next year. In addition to his work with Global Green, he is also a founding member of Shine On Sierra Leone, an NGO providing education for the children of war-torn nations.

Sebastian lives in Los Angeles.

www.antarcticabook.com
www.sebastiancopeland.com

“Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption”
Exploring around our country’s shipping ports and industrial yards, where the accumulated detritus of our consumption is exposed to view like eroded layers in the Grand Canyon, I find evidence of a slow-motion apocalypse in progress. I am appalled by these scenes, and yet also drawn into them with awe and fascination. The immense scale of our consumption can appear desolate, macabre, oddly comical and ironic, and even darkly beautiful; for me its consistent feature is a staggering complexity.

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

As an American consumer myself, I am in no position to finger wag; but I do know that when we reflect on a difficult question in the absence of an answer, our attention can turn inward, and in that space may exist the possibility of some evolution of thought or action. So my hope is that these photographs can serve as portals to a kind of cultural self-inquiry. It may not be the most comfortable terrain, but I have heard it said that in risking self-awareness, at least we know that we are awake. -c.j.

www.chrisjordan.com

Legendary platinum music producer GEZA X helped invent Punk Rock producing seminal acts Black Flag, The Germs, Dead Kennedy’s, etc. and performing/recording his own art damaged music since punk’s beginning in the late 70’s. His productions of "Holiday in Cambodia" for the Dead Kennedys and "Lexicon Devil" for The Germs separated California's punk sound from others at the time with its eccentricity, humor and spunk, making Los Angeles very different than the scene in New York or London. In the 90’s Geza produced Meredith Brooks’s song “Bitch” which went platinum ranking #2 on the charts and the musical bible Billboard Magazine voted Geza “Best Producer of the Year” in 1997. Since the 80’s Geza began taking pictures of the early punk scene. Geza now takes those pictures, such as a 1979 photo he shot of Red Hot Chili Pepper singer Anthony Keidis, dramatically alters it via computer, prints the altered photo on canvas, adds paint to the canvas and frames the completed works with copper tubing. He describes his artworks as “Biomorphic Shutterings.” The neo-Warhol, pop-iconic, and vibrantly colorful style work comes across as contemporary to the core with harrowing whispers of yesterday. Geza has shown in several group shows including Track 16 and Black Cat Galleries. Geza’s art collectors include Tool manager Victoria Blake, Philanthropist Cameron Melville, and famed artist manager and collector Peter Hursch.

www.myspace.com/geza_x

At a time when a lack of funding and public understanding, in addition to environmental concerns, threaten the world’s ecosystems and wilderness, particularly our country’s national parks, Ian Shive has put together a collection of photographs that is focused with an eye towards conservation.  Ranging from sweeping majestic landscapes such as Yellowstone’s Grand Tetons, to the magically enchanting close up of a spider-spun web, to the watery solitude of a silent underworld, Shive’s photographs inspire, causing one to stop and take a deep breathe before moving onto the next “wild” world within a frame.  Raised on the east coast, Shive’s affinity for western skies shines throughout the exhibit as well as his unique appreciation for the exotic lands of Malaysia and its canopied rainforests.

In a competitive field of photography dominated by older contemporaries, Shive, 29, is a not-to-be missed talent who has forged significant relationships with a notable list of international clients, as well as with many prominent environmental organizations.  His images have appeared in numerous prestigious publications spanning the globe, including National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal and Outside Magazine.  In addition to the NPCA, he also works regularly with groups such as The Nature Conservancy and The Sierra Club.

Shive is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Society of Media Photographers in Los Angeles as well as a member of the Travel and Outdoor Photographers Alliance and North American Nature Photographers Association.

www.waterandsky.com

At the age of 16, Erik Anders Lang left high school to photograph trees and experience the wilderness of nature. Later, he would be drawn alternately to the wilderness of fashion.  Erik's journey took him around the world, first learning from David LaChapelle and then on assignment for magazines such as FLAUNT, ICON, ELLE, and CONDE NAST TRAVELER. His photographs are well-crafted and amusing. They tell  stories of iconic people interacting in familiar environments. They are spectacular yet unpretentious. Erik describes the images in his "Build What You Will" series as making "humorous statements about the absurdity of human habit."

www.eriklang.com

Alexandre Orion grew up in some of the busiest streets in Brazil. As a child in São Paulo, he became accustomed to sidewalks thronged all day, and the din of traffic at night. Orion was quick to respond to the appeal of the streets and his first graffiti was done at the age of 14. While adolescent instinct drove him, the hard reality of the streets called for new ideals. Now he draws inspiration from multitudes; silence and thought; experiences and memories; happiness and suffering. An artist amid the crowd, the many found within him. Humanity lives in Orion: his time unique, his universe collective space.

www.alexandreorion.com

In 1976 Mark Griffin was a painting and sculpture student at the San Francisco Academy of Art. During the same period he was deeply involved in two other areas of study, which continue to be central influences in his art. Griffin was studying musical composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music . He was also a student of Tai Chi, and meditation. His meditation teacher was Swami Muktananda, a famous Indian Yogic Master, who taught a particularly potent form of Kundalini meditation, a practice which was based in the mystical Yogic worldview. He merged into Nirvikalpa Samadhi in 1983. Griffin has been a Mystic and practicing Artist for these past 25 years.

Mesha Kussman was born and raised in the Haight Ashbury in San Francisco where she started acting and dancing at the age of five. She received a BFA from the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. In New York, Mesha worked with accomplished directors, Annie B. Parson (Big Dance), Michael Counts (Formerly GAle GAtes), and Kate Whoriskey. Her original dance-theater works include: Brass Logic, a modern retelling of Alice in Wonderland set inside the landscape of a video game, BAZAAR, a musical chronicling the history of women's fashion over the 20th century, and CRASH, a dance project sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Her work has been featured in the LA Weekly and the Village Voice. She has created dance advertisements for Kellogg's, American Apparel, and ELOPE. Acting credits include: The Studio (WB), Benchwarmers (Happy Madison- Sony Pictures) and Mary Dolores McGinnis (NYC Off-Broadway). Mesha's ongoing project, Vital, is a documentary about an artist collective formed in pre-September 11th, New York City, that follows the participants in 5-year increments. Her most recent project is Club Zig-Zag. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

www.meshakussman.com