Alameda Sentinels

Alameda Sentinels

Cover | Bill Jeng

Alameda Sentinels (11 x 14, acrylic on canvas). Bill Jeng is an artist whose interests include painting, cartooning, woodworking, surfing, motorcycling, and engineering. Although Jeng practices civil engineering during the day, he is often in his home studio/workshop tinkering with art projects on evenings and weekends. His current projects include found and recycled materials incorporated into paintings or constructs. He is a mostly self-taught artist, has exhibited in local Bay Area businesses and galleries, and is a member of Art Jam in Alameda. He is currently exhibiting mini-artworks at Rhythmix Cultural Works—K Gallery until Jan. 4 and will be exhibiting paintings and new work at Fog City Java in Pacifica through January. Alameda Sentinels, the artist notes, depicts the cranes along the Oakland estuary. Urban myth has it that George Lucas was inspired by these cranes for the Star Wars walking AT-ATs. Although Lucas says it isn’t so, they do look a lot alike. Jeng keeps a blog, https://CowabungaCraftsman.blogspot.com, where he ruminates about current work. See his at his website, sites.google.com/site/billjengstudio or email him at bjengcomix@gmail.com.


COMING SOON: Reese Erlich chews on comedy in the era of Trump with help from a few comedians, Paul Kilduff talks drag racing with a local 14-year-old female champ, and Ethan Fletcher pops into the Korean-American mash-up that is the Berkeley Social Club. Plus, our critics offer their hot picks in art, books, dance, film, music, and theater for February.

Faces of the East Bay

In the Philanthropic Swim

In the Philanthropic Swim

Rockridge residents John Bliss and Kim Thompson may live far removed the gritty flats of East and West Oakland. But this philanthropic couple see themselves as one with the citizens of Oakland, particularly those who are struggling financially, and they’re leading a campaign to get their “financially blessed” peers to invest in the community like they have by funding city programs to teach kids how to swim.