Sonoma County Art Trails, by Lucy Liew, Anna Rybat, and Kay Young
The speakers for our October 3, 2024 meeting were artists Lucy Liew, Anna Rybat, and Kay Young speaking about their art and Sonoma County Art Trails. All three are professional artists who work from their studios at Fulton Crossing in Santa Rosa. Lucy Lieu is from Borneo in the rainforest of Malaysia and moved to California in 1996. She paints vibrant compositions of California flora and fauna. After the 2017 fire in Santa Rosa, she has focused on themes of resilience and hope, including fire adaptive subjects like the Fire Poppy. This flower doesn’t germinate until it is subjected to the heat and smoke of a wildfire. Much of Lucy’s work is inspired by her hikes in California open spaces. In 2014, President Obama presented her artwork to the President of Malaysia! Kay Young is a self-described Southwest hippie who moved to San Francisco and ultimately Sonoma County. She has a long artistic history, including work in textiles, embroidery, glassware, and macrame wall hangings. She now creates vibrant artwork on glassware. Anna Rybat is a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy. After retirement, she used the G.I. bill to help obtain a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Her current work includes sculpted colorfield paintings. Much of her work is inspired by one of her passions, marine themes.
Art Trails will celebrate its 40th anniversary on the weekends of October 19-20 and 26-27 with tours of art studios throughout the County. Art Trails was founded in 1985 by a group of local artists who wanted to create an open studio program. In 2014 the program was adopted by the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Art Trail’s Collector’s Guide for this year has been published and provides an overview of the 123 participating artists. The Collector’s Guide has a photo of each of the artist’s work, as well as maps of the artists’ studios that will be open for the tour. There will be a pre-event party at Fulton Crossing on October 19 from 12:00 to 4:00. We are invited! Fulton Crossing has won the Press Democrat’s award for best gallery three times. It is open from Friday through Sunday from 11:00 to 4:00.
Thank you to Lucy, Anna, and Kay for their terrific presentations. Art Trails is a Sonoma County gem! By the way, Sunrise has a great history with Fulton Crossing. Our former member, Rami Batarseh, is an owner of the studio and we had a great party there back in 2019! Fulton Crossing is always worth a visit.
