395 South Exhibit at the Investment Gallery November 3, 2008 - January 31, 2009

395 South, an exhibit of drawings on paper, inspired by my daily commute between Reno and Carson City, will be on display at the Investment Gallery November 3, 2008 through January 31, 2009.

The Investment Gallery located on the third floor of the Fitzgerald Student Services Building, on the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

For the last three years I have been commuting from Reno to Carson City. The hour and a half commute is not easy and it weighs on me physically and emotionally. Having a job that I love keeps me from dreading my early mornings but it is the landscape sweeping by my windshield that I look forward to each day.

Driving out of Reno on 395 South I leave the land of suburban sprawl and enter the high desert. I speed trough valleys and over hills. The meadows open and lengthen at each turn. Halfway through my journey Mt. Rose emerges and begins to tower as a snow capped giant and at her feet a new monument is raising, that of an un-built bridge. Pillars stand as ionic columns and images of a Greek tomb and Athenian hilltops rush to the foreground of my mind. The water of Washoe swells and subsides with every passing and the strip of road between the mountain and the lake brings with it the pleasure of speed and the straight open road. It creates one line connecting what-was to what-is-to-come. At the end of the path is Carson City, my destination for the day. The road beckons, “go faster,” “press on the gas,” and like a Siren’s call I am enchanted. The speed pushes on 70, 75, 80 mph. But with the speed comes danger even on this straight road, for the wind is traitorous, and the snow spins whiteouts, it eats up sound and blinds me with fog. Once I breach the hill and look down into the small capital city, tucked into the folds of the Sierras, I descend as a crusader having pushed my car and myself though another 30 miles. Though I repeat my journey to the count of 300 miles a week the road of 395 South between Reno and Carson City is never the same twice. It inspires my depiction of the road, movement, travel and unpredictable road ahead.

Special thanks to the Sheppard Fine Art Gallery, School of the Arts, Department of Art, and the University of Nevada, Reno.

Investment Gallery located on the third floor of the Fitzgerald Student Services Building, building number 94, connected to the Brian J. Whalen parking garage, and located just north of the Church Fine Art Building. Map

Visit my new website to view a gallery of my artwork. www.rossitza.net

Burn on the Black Rock Playa Exhibit

September 10 – 28, 2009 at the Truckee River Gallery 


Reception, Saturday, September 20th from 4 to 7pm.


The Burning Man festival is a celebration of creativity. For one week each year art of every kind fills the playa of Black Rock Desert, but it doesn’t end there. In celebration and response to the artwork that Burning Man inspires, the Truckee River Gallery in Downtown Reno hosts Burn on the Black Rock Playa, an annual exhibit of drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.

Phoenix, featured on the left, is on display at the Truckee River Gallery’s Burn on the Black Rock Playa exhibit. Phoenix is a part of a series of etchings and drawings depicting two headed woman with wings of fire. This work was created in the fall of 2002 after my first visit to Black Rock City. The woman represents an inter struggle of spirit and passion divided between two worlds of creativity and reality. Burning Man and the temporary city of Black Rock (BRC) inspire the same internal divide. For one week attendees are set free from the restrictions of the everyday life (money, cell phones, cars etc.) and are flung into a world of creativity and art. However, we are only visitors, and no one can stay in BRC forever. The city disappears with flames when the Man and Temple are burned. From the ashes the plan for the year ahead is formed and a population of 50,000 will come together to create it all again the following August.

Join us on Saturday, September 20th from 4 to 7pm at the Truckee River Gallery for the reception and help us celebrate art and to bridge the divide between BRC and reality.




Visit my new website to view a gallery of my artwork. www.rossitza.net

Black and White Exhibit at the Truckee River Gallery August 19 - September 7, 2008.

Two of my new drawings are on display in the Truckee River Gallery’s Black and White exhibit. This multi-medium show about black, white and all shades of gray features photography, drawings, paintings and sculpture by Christopher Blum, Dean Burton, Steve Cerocke, Amelia Currier, Mark Hammon, Sally Hanrahan, Maria Partridge, Andrew Sinclair and myself.

The Truckee River Gallery is located in the heart of downtown Reno on Sierra Street next to the Riverside Movie Theater.


For more information visit www.truckeerivergallery.com or www.rossitza.net.
Please stop by to take a look.
Thank you for all the support.

www.rossitza.net

I have a new website and I would love for you to check it out.
To visit, just click on the links below or paste the URLs into your browser.http://www.rossitza.net

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Add www.rossitza.net to your favorites list and check back for new artwork, announcements on upcoming exhibits, and art inspired experiences.

Exhibit Opening at the Truckee River Gallery, Reno, July 25-26, 2008

Exhibit Opening at the Truckee River Gallery July 25-26, 2008

Please join me for an Exhibit Opening at the Truckee River Gallery on Friday July 25 and Sat July 26 from 4-7 pm in Downtown Reno.

Three of my drawings are featured in the current exhibit along side other regional artist’s drawing, printmaking, and mixed media artwork.

This exhibit is on display July 22-July 27, 2008. See you on Friday and Sat.

For more info visit: http://www.truckeerivergallery.com/

We he(ART) Bikes Art Show, Gray Space Gallery, Reno, April 26, 2008

Grayspace Gallery and Holland HQ We he(ART) Bikes Art Show The Reno Bike Project presents its second annual bike art show and fund-raiser.

Join us at Grayspace Gallery and Holland HQ and enjoy a variety of bike-themed art. Purchase paintings, photos and multi-media pieces from artists such as Ahren Hertel, Chris Carnel, Candace Nicol, Rossitza Todorova and many more. Profits help support Grayspace, The Holland Project and the Reno Bike Project, a nonprofit group that encourages cycling in the Truckee Meadows.

We will be auctioning off a bicycle rack made by Anthony Alston out of an organ.

Support provided by the Sierra Arts Foundation, the Nevada Arts Council and New Belgium Brewing.

When: 6 p.m. Sat., April 26.

Where: 26 Cheney St. Turn east at Recycled Furniture on South Virginia Street; next door to Salon 7.

Chalk the Walk, Harrah's Plaza, Reno, June 19 - 21, 2008

Chalk the Walk
Harrah’s Plaza, Reno June 19 - 21, 2008

By Jessica Santina
This article was published in the Reno News and Review on 06.19.08.

Around Reno, artists have spent weeks getting their bodies into tip-top shape. Hopefully, they’ve stocked up on gloves, sunscreen, hats and knee-pads. Because they’re about to spend three days performing a labor of love for the second annual Chalk the Walk Street Painting Festival.

As founder and director Erika O’Malley explains, street painting is an Italian Renaissance tradition in which artisans (madonnari) painted religious depictions on the streets in front of city churches. Street painting has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, due in part to successful events like Santa Barbara’s I Madonnari Street Painting Festival. After O’Malley, an art historian and native of San Antonio, Texas, moved to Reno a couple of years ago, she came to believe such an event could succeed here.

“We have so many talented artists here, and they’re always looking for ways to get their art seen by the public,” she says. “And we have great weather.”

After securing a sponsorship from the Reno Rodeo, several prominent regional artists were commissioned, and by the summer 2007, the inaugural Chalk the Walk kicked off at the City Plaza downtown.

This year’s festival runs three days, June 19-21, and will take place at Harrah’s plaza. Portions of the nearly 12,000 square feet of chalk-able space will be allotted to six commissioned artists, with the remainder being available to anyone who wants to participate, from accomplished artists to families looking to get outside together. Public plots range from 2 feet to 8 feet across; commissioned spots are 8-feet-by-12-feet. Always a western-themed event, this year’s festival celebrates “Where Art Meets West,” honoring artists of the American West, such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams.

Several commissioned artists are returning this year, including Genna Panzarella, an acclaimed international artist and teacher whose street paintings won top prize in a 2002 international competition in Italy. Also commissioned are Reno’s Youth ArtWorks organization; Wes Lee, a local artist and UNR instructor; Derrick Jackson of Sacramento; and Larissa Soklova, a Reno-based artist whose 3-D illusions have earned her two awards at the Tahoe Arts Festival Street Painting Competition.

Additionally, local artist Ray Valdez will return. With more than 30 murals throughout Nevada and a successful fine art gallery in Reno, Valdez is a certified art instructor who recently led a free pre-festival workshop on basic street painting techniques.

Street painting, Valdez explains, takes enormous physical stamina. It involves hours upon hours, knees on cement, with the hot summer sun beating down on your back as you sit hunched over.
“It’s hard work,” says Valdez, “You’re gonna get beat up a bit. I’ve seen artists use gloves, but when it gets down to it, your fingers are best. So they’re gonna get raw.”

Such physical issues, as well as artistic tips, were subjects of the workshop.

Valdez himself has been planning his own piece for weeks, intending to complete it before the morning of Saturday, June 21, and the Reno Rodeo Parade. The idea of such a grueling task makes one wonder: Why invest so much time and energy on something that’s only temporary?
To illustrate, he likens street painting to the Native American tradition of ceremonial sand painting.

“For ceremony, they grind the stone by hand to get those vibrant colors, and that’s even more work. But then, after they pray on it, they give it away. It doesn’t hurt to let it go. It’s about the experience, and it’s not meant to be permanent. It’s about the process of giving of yourself.”

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