The 26th Annual WAH Salon

Participants:
Ellen Alt, Ricardo Arango, Silvia Aviles, Ayako Bando, Bienvenido Banez Bones, JR. Beryl Brenner,

Linda Butti, Sunny Chapman, Charles Compo, Christopher, Craig, Theresa DeSalvio, Annemarie Dooley, Val Dyshov,
Debra Friedkin, Jeffrey Friedkin, Ayakoh Furukawa, Sandra Giunta, Risa Glickman, Glen Goodenough, Susan Handwerker, Tairan Hao, Richard Hatter, Gaelle Hintzy-Marcel, Miho Hiranouchi, Kumi Hirose, Susan Jacobs, Yuko K. , Heena Moo Kim, Frank Krasicki, Eric Kwan Tai Lau, Clarita Leipold, Drew Maillard, Daniel McDonald, Hilaida Minoso, Mieko Mitachi, Esther Mizrahi, Rachel Mondshine, Yasuko Okumura, Vinnie Patella, Ben Perini,
Monchanok Phon-ngam, Elisabeth Page Purcell, Nobuko Saji, Larry Scaturro, David Schulman, Jessica Schulman, Joel Simpson, Gail Tanaka,
Chantal Westby, Lawrence Zajac, Wei Zhang

Each annual Salon show always brings my memory back to when and how the WAH Salon Art Club was conceived and actualized back In 1998. Having founded the not for profit WAH Center in late1996 based upon my “Bridge Concept,” I was determined to ensure an enduring and long lasting high quality art center. To realize my desire, I came up with the idea of a membership program in which artists would become members of an art club and participate in an annual member’s group show. The very first meeting took place in 1997 with a small group of a dozen local artists who showed their interest in becoming members of the “Art Club” as we named it back then. Each artist expressed his or her wish to contribute democratically with shared responsibilities to make it happen. But the more they talked, the more disagreements they had so that nothing worked well. It was impossible for us to go forward to having the first annual show. So, I decided to take sole responsibility for the annual members’ show with the help of a coordinator. I named the art club the “WAH Salon”, and thus we started the “1st Annual WAH Salon” show in January 1998. Ever since, the number of the WAH Salon members has increased every year, and the quality of the annual show has improved over the years. Because many of the WAH Salon members have stayed with us for many years during that long period, everybody got to know each other better and they have enjoyed intimate friendships. I’ve also had great pleasure to get to know them well enough so that I consider them like my own family. They are indeed the WAH Salon family members. Thus, the Salon has been serving a very meaningful pivotal part of what the art center is about, giving artists an opportunity to show their works at the very beginning of each year to our audience. This is the time for our loyal Salon members to enjoy getting together with their fellow artists with good cheer and they can deepen their intimate friendships!

I enjoy seeing the happy healthy looks of the Salon members and am thrilled to view their new works!! This is also the time for me to welcome our new Salon members and to introduce them to our friends.

While many artists joined the Salon some years ago, some discontinued their memberships, but some new artists have joined. They have been contributing their youthful fresh visions, making a good balance with the mature member’s artworks. So, overall the Salon show presents one of the most unique, interesting and rich panoramas of what is going on in the minds and hearts of the current Salon members. Although It was never my intention to limit the number of the Salon members. It is interesting to notice that the number of the members has been quite steady and consistent every year. Due to the limited 2nd floor gallery space, each artist is allowed to exhibit 3 artworks in each show.

Thus I am very pleased and proud that the WAH Salon has grown to be a harmonious, healthy and even exuberant art club. We have proven that the joy of creating can be shared widely and openly with other free spirited artists. With their accumulated kindnesses and generosity volunteering for all the tasks needed for each annual Salon show, we were able to grow together to become today’s WAH Salon Art Club. I am very happy to celebrate the 26th WAH Salon show in good health and high spirits!!