Santa Cruz artist Sarah Bianco’s work can be found at the intersection of fine and commercial art. As the owner of Painting by Bianco, her contract work includes interior painting and color consultations involving work from rolling paint and plaster to fine detail and murals. Her current studio practice at the Tannery Arts Center is quite literally built from her commercial practice, where she uses old drop cloths from her painting business as the foundation for her fine art. The cloth material retains a canvas-like texture and incidental marks, which Bianco views as abstract landscapes, guide her compositions.
Bianco views her studio process as meditative. She approaches the work intuitively, playing with color and imagination to develop ethereal worlds, allowing the paint and canvas to lead. Bianco describes, “I’m essentially trying to get out of my own way and allow what the painting wants to be shown to me”. She often combines open acrylics for fluid movement with oil-based paint bars to add a distinct, chunky texture to her pieces.
Bianco’s process often results in airy dreamscapes, some of which depict floating figures, jumping, and suspended in space. In many ways, this motif represents her artistic approach, taking risks and leaping into the unknown. That liminal space, the moment between when you jump and when you land, is also echoed in the ‘in-between” concept of Apricity, for which she named her gallery, which means the warmth of the sun in winter. She holds that once a piece is created, the magic is in its own relationship with everyone who sees it.
Bianco will be featured along with over 340 Santa Cruz County artists in the 2025 40th annual Santa Cruz County Open Studios Art Tour.
Featured in Content Magazine Issue 18.1, “Discover”
Artwork 1. Her Flowers Still Bloom, mixed media on wood, 18“x18“ 2. Feel, oil on used painters tarp, 30“x39.75“ 3. Respect What You Love, mixed media on wood panel, 32.75“x24.5“
Stacy Frank is a printmaker based in Santa Cruz. She has been working on paper since 1994. What Stacy loves about printmaking is the process and the technique involved. She did some darkroom photography in college, but after graduating, Stacy learned about printmaking which seemed like a perfect combination of her scientific illustration and photography processing.
“One thing I love the most about printmaking is the big reveal.” -Stacy Frank
Over the last three years, Stacy developed an entirely non-toxic techniques that are fast and get quick results—using a process of cutting out stencil boards and using those stencil boards as masking and printing elements. Stacy then runs them through the press several different times. Using various combinations of inks and layers, she achieves beautiful ghosting and offsetting patterns from the stencils. Though the results can be unexpected, that enhances her love of the “reveal. But that is what gives Stacy joy in her process. “You never know exactly what you’re going to get sometimes; it’s fantastic, sometimes it needs a little work, but it’s always so satisfying.”
See more of Stacy’s work and her workshop at StacyFrank.com
Each October, Stacy participates in Santa Cruz Open Studios, where visitors experience artist workspaces, watch art demonstrations, view and purchase original art.
