
Art Wall Opening Reception: Sunday, April 7, 2019 - 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Phillip Timper decided to become an artist very early in life. A Midwestern boy, he started landscape painting at age 9, lived in the art room during high school, and painted his way through college. He moved into a design and illustration career as an adult. However, his love of art and painting persisted and he continued to paint and make art to this day.
he April Art Wall Opening Reception on Sunday, April 7, 2019 from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm will showcase works depicting themes of exhilarating colors and familiar images to Timper, a prolific oil painter, and muralist from Prescott, Arizona.
Timper chooses oil paint, watercolor and pencil as his choice of media to reflect the world around him, focusing on capturing images to explore subjects of quiet moments filled charged emotional moments of everyday life. Although the perspective in the matter changes from work to work, Timper presents an unforgettable array of colors that tie these themes together at this exhibit.
"Think of painting as you might think of language. There are thousands of languages spoken today all with the same purpose, communication,” Timper said.
Timper’s current works depict his gritty devotion to capture his fellow humanoids in natural habitats that can be observed in the Blues n Brews Festival Series, The Abstraction Series, and the Desert Animal Gift Collection.
The opening reception will be from 12 noon to 1:30 pm in Forbes Hall, April 4, after the Sunday morning services. The exhibit will go through the end of April. For appointments, contact Cyndee Hayes at assistant@uusm.org or 310-829-5436 x102. Accessible parking is available behind the church.
About UUSM: The Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica (UUSM) is is part of a religious movement committed to Seven Principles that include the worth of each person, the need for justice and compassion, and the right to choose one’s own beliefs. Our congregation and faith community promotes these principles through regular worship, learning and personal growth, sharedconnection and care, social justice action and service, celebration of life’s transitions, and much more. The mission of UUSM is to build a congregational home that supports our vision, that provides opportunities for spiritual and personal growth in an interactive and intergenerational community, that is welcoming and inclusive and that assumes an active responsibility for our community and world. - Ratified by congregational vote, May 20, 2001.



Diana Spears’ work will also be featured during the month of March. Spears’ work will center around the UU principle of the interconnected web of all creation — animal, mineral, vegetable. The pictorial essay-style exhibition brings significant attention to the way humans hurt themselves and still survive by forgiving despite not forgetting the pain. 

Fansler said, “The paintings in this series function as hypnotic meditations and puzzles. The goal of each is a glimpse at how strange and ever changing color really is. I used colors that pulled deep within a wall and bright hues that pushed into the middle of a room. In the process of arranging these dollops and strokes of color I began to think of color in terms of stacking floors in a sky scraper. I also started to see individual colors as having moods or personalities based on their pushing/pulling positions in the room.”
The last Art Wall of the year, Now & Then by Bettye Barclay, kicks off with an opening reception on Sunday, December 2 from 10 am to 1 pm. In collaboration with the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica, the exhibit showcases the human quest for truth and knowledge through various stages of life.
Barclay’s paintings were exhibited in both solo and group shows at many local venues including the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine, the Pete and Susan Barrett Gallery, and L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex among others. Her artwork is featured in collections throughout multiple states including California, Hawaii, Texas, and Colorado.
The Now and Then exhibit will run through the end of the month of December. It follows November’s Art Wall feature, Reflections, by Poverny. During the reception on December 2, many other pieces of Barclay’s work will be available for your consideration.
The Opening Reception for Sculptures On the Wall by Reed Poverny will be held on Sunday, November 4th from 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm. Poverny will be showing five of his recent sculptural wall hangings and will be available to discuss the inspirations for his work at the reception. The exhibit will be open every Sunday from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm and on weekdays by appointment. It will run through November 25th. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
Our Art Director, Beverly Alison, found Povery’s work at an Art Show in Anaheim. She was taken by his work, but the pieces she saw were freestanding and she didn’t know if they could be displayed on our Art Wall. Poverny came to the church, made sure that our hanging hardware could bear the weight of his pieces, and figured out a way to attach his art to our cables. He will be displaying five pieces that will fill the entire wall.
Join us for the September Art Wall Opening Reception for ZAP (the Zimbabwe Artists Project) on Sunday, September 2nd from 11:00am to 12:30pm. ZAP roots go back to 1982 when a social activist created a training center to bring badly needed income to the Weya region of Eastern Zimbabwe. The show is open every Sunday from 9:30 am until 12 noon and on weekdays by appointment. It will run through Sunday, September 30.


Join us for the Opening Reception for The Cosmos on Sunday, August 5 from 11 am to 12:30 pm. Three artists with very interesting talents will be showing their recent works. The show is open every Sunday from 9:30 am until noon and on weekdays by appointment and will run through August 26.
Raoul de la Sota received his Bachelors and Masters of Arts from UCLA. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for a year art studies in Peru, which changed his life by exposing him to a culture rich in folklore, cosmological beliefs and artistic marvels. He taught painting, drawing and Mexican Art History at Los Angeles City College until 2015. “My interest in cosmic subject matter came from the myths of various cultures that I discussed in my Art History classes. These stories have influenced my work for the past six years in which I have artistically explored the Northwest Coast, Inuit, Navajo, Mayan and Incan sky beliefs,” says de la Sota. “The work in this exhibit illustrates the sky from the Far East to the horizons close to us in the western world.”
Olga Seem says, “As I reach my autumnal years my work has segued from ocean subject-matter to the celestial. My choice of subject is always in flux. Current work is involved with interpreting the world of planets and their counterparts. However, I have not abandoned my interest in sea life, as I see a metaphorical relationship between sea and sky.”
Howard Swerdloff describes himself as an eclectic artist who has created original, non-mainstream works of art for the past 40 years. He mixes media from painting to wood sculpture to ceramics to gourd art with fluid dexterity, intersecting cultures and disciplines without barriers. As an artist and designer he has become a favorite resource for many celebrated artists in the Los Angeles area, including the renowned artists Frank Romero, Charles Dixon, Raoul de la Sota, Pat Boyd and many others, creating design elements, fabrication, and presentation design. He has been a gallery owner and curator for numerous exhibitions, performances and artist dialogues.
Artists for this year’s UUSM Member Art Wall include: Jeremy Arnold, Bettye Barclay, Ralph Martel, Tom Peters, Carol Ring, and Greg Wood.