What is 108 A&D?
Housed in the most modern storefront in town at the edge of the Sebastopol Plaza, 108 Art & Design was conceived as a locus for design and education about the built environment.
While primarily the headquarters of our architecture office, the space is also a gallery showing local artists, a space for lectures and events, and a teaching venue. It is also the birthplace of The Core Project, A Study to Vitalize Sebastopol.
Join Us In the Studio
Get to know the artists currently on display. Open to the public.
Featured Artist
Cynthia Sumner
mixed media artist
Cynthia Sumner paints abstracted elements of nature to evoke a deeper connection with our internal and external worlds. A tangle of textures, intertwining swirls and circles at play with color and light reference the natural systems that perpetuate life.
“I paint to satisfy an infinite curiosity. There’s a drive to sit with the unknown as it leads to comprehension. Catharsis is both a theme in my work and the energy embedded within it. I work quickly and intuitively on many pieces at a time applying several layers before scraping them back to see what’s revealed as a way to access subconscious information.”
She is a lifelong multidisciplinary artist with a background in art education and design. Graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute with a BFA in sculpture/installation in 1989, she started painting with encaustic (hot wax) in 2016, segued into oil and coldwax a few years after and incorporates mixed media in her current work. Her multiple mediums include: joint compound, acrylic, paper, ink, coldwax and oil to build layers and textures that can be excavated/scraped back. She uses palette knives, squeegees, and her hands more than paint brushes to have a sensory experience of painting.
