Cover | Christos Spontylides

The Big Yawn (pastel, 38 x 31 inches). A part-time artist who has won awards at the regional and national levels, Spontylides describes The Big Yawn as a “snapshot at home in a leisure moment revealing, somewhat humorously, my relation-ship with my cats and their subtly cunning ability to wrest the use of the couch from me. I have since come to understand that such traits are not uncommon among our feline friends.” Spontylides, who earned a fine arts degree with a focus on drawing and painting from the University of Akron in Ohio, now paints and draws in several mediums and explores different styles. Currently, his work is on display at a local gallery in Northern California and on his website at mesart.com/cspon.

NEXT MONTH: Cruising the Bay, cool Cal profs, and a cartoonist’s upbeat story of failure.