Painted Bears of Los Altos

I  will  talk about  the Los Altos  Rotary Painted Bears  Project

 

"Bringing the Bears to Life”    could be my title  or  “Los Altos Rotary Painted Bears Project”

 

Bio:

 

My Rotary name tag says I am a Community Activist. I owned my own  Catering  and event planning business, "Celebrations and Innovations," from  1980-2000. To celebrate my retirement  I went on an around the world trip  for 3 months. When I got back  I decided I wanted to try painting. I got my training free by running water-media  workshops with the best water-media  instructors in the USA for the San Jose  based  Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society for 10 years. Then I  chaired their Exhibits team for 10 years.  I won  local, national and statewide  awards , and one of my paintings  traveled  around the  USA for a year as  part of  the  Yosemite Renaissance Gallery  exhibit.I was accepted into the Triton Museum’s  state-wide painting  competitions a number of times. I joined  galleries and participated in Silicon Valley  Open Studios. Currently I am painting ever larger and more abstractly.

I was art curator  for the Los Altos Hills Town Hall  for 10 years, and art curator of the Palo Alto based Environmental Volunteers  headquarters , the EcoCenter . Currently I am Art  Curator  for the Los Altos  Main Library . I founded  the Los Altos Hills Art in Public Places  Committee. I am also a philanthropist, donating or getting artists to donate  over 100 pieces of art and sculpture to  Sutter Health’s Palo Alto Medical Foundation and it’s satellites. . Recently the Foundation accepted  2 of my large works for installation  in Radiation Oncology.  My late husband was CEO and President  of PAMF.

 

I painted 5 of the 3’ bears for The Los Altos Painted Bear  Project, and sponsored one, and  got  artist friends to paint  9 of the  bears. I painted a Sutter Health bear, a construction worker bear, a handyman bear, a  gardener bear and a banker  bear who was literally made of money!  I felt that the project  brought life and fun and business to a  downtown which  was depressed by Covid. The project turned  downtown  Los Altos into an art  destination.