Black Chicken

Black Chicken

Cover | Roger Shelly

Black Chicken (fresco on wood). Roger Shelly, whose work is directly influenced by his 30-year career as an award-winning advertising art director, creates pieces that are oversized TV commercial storyboard frames or print ad comps. For his frescoes, Shelly mixes liquid and dry pigments, using old boards from a barn as his canvas. The drying cycle allows the medium to be sculpted and burnished before it sets. He then embellishes the pieces with historical or contemporary objects, resulting in artwork durable enough to hang outdoors. For more info or to view Shelly’s work: mesart.com or rdshelly@comcast.net.


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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.