Alumni showcase artwork at Alumni Center
Currently showcasing
Margaret Ann Eldred, Ph.D. ’86
I took a lot of art in high school but wasn't nearly as passionate about art as I was about literature. I became an English major in college, eventually earning a PhD in English from the University of California at Davis. I spent most of my working life as a lecturer in the writing program at UC Davis, specializing in scientific and technical writing and in advanced composition.
After retiring in 2002, I returned to art, originally to do illustrations for a never-published travel book I was writing (the agents I sent it to said it was good, but not good enough--and they were right). I took several art studio classes at Sacramento City College and private lessons from Philippe Gandiol.
Almost all my art focuses on the outdoors in some way. I'm a native of Berkeley and have lived in the Sacramento Valley for almost 60 years, first Colusa, then Davis. I love where I live—I like walking or riding my bicycle out to nearby fields and orchards, I like being able to hike year-round in the Coast Range hills and mountains enjoying the abundance of wildflowers, and I like making occasional visits to the big city and abroad.
My travels locally and to foreign countries inspire my art. I try to convey the power of the landscape, whether domestic or wild; whether in California, Mediterranean countries, or other far-off rural places. I've been inspired by such varied landscape artists as John Ruskin, Edward Lear, Albert Bierstadt, Rockwell Kent, Loie Hollowell (her Root Pile paintings), and Mark Bowles. I love that I am still learning, still developing my craft, still seeing the landscape with fresh vision, and not knowing where all this is leading me.
You can view more of her work at eldredart.com or connect with her on Instagram.
Qinqin Liu, Ph.D. ’90
Qinqin Liu is an artist and scientist with a Ph.D. in botany from UC Davis, and many interdisciplinary art accomplishments. Connecting humanity's heart and soul to art, science, nature, and culture is her life’s journey. Her early art inspiration came from rich art and culture as well as life experience as a village artist during the Chinese cultural revolution. Integrating Chinese calligraphy, culture, and design elements into Western art styles and connecting art, science, culture, and nature contribute to the unique character of her contemporary artworks. She was inspired by art and science during her Ph.D. studies from 1985 to 1990 in plant symbiosis around living art and watershed landscape from the UC Davis Arboretum. She began her first watercolor painting in the US by reflecting the Putah Creek beauty during this time. Her creative art-science experience at UC-Davis empowers her to continue exploring living art projects “Seeds Crossing Ocean” and “Echo Climate” for public engagement and social practice. The UC-Davis provided her lifetime memory including reading and painting stimulated by beauty and peace of Arboretum and Putah Creek. Creative student and faculty interactions offered rich soil for her to continue growing in her art-science life cycle from seeds.
Her cross-disciplinary experimental art-science investigations involve exploring contemporary languages, symbols, and unconventional nature materials and media from Eastern and Western cultures. Dr Liu has more than 10 peer-reviewed international publications tackling plant science, ecology and climate change. Her artwork has been selected for presentations and exhibitions including the National Science Museum in Taipei, California Art Center Museum, Crocker Art Museum, Duluth Art Museum, California State University gallery, Blue Line and Artistic Edge Galleries, Galway International Art Festival Open Studio, California science conference, and American Ecology Conference. To learn more about Qinqin, visit her website.
Some examples of her watershed artwork are selected for the current showcase at the Alumni Center for Cal Aggie Alumni Association.
Ashlee Peterson ’23
Ashlee Peterson is an artist and UX Designer from Davis, California. She started painting at 13 and has since used her art as a way to process her experiences with depression and SA.
Her latest piece, "Flower Fields," reflects her ongoing journey of healing and expression through impressionist painting, representing both a distorted view of the world, and a relentless pursuit to find beauty in it, no matter how obscure.
Ashlee works as a designer and barista for financial stability but finds true passion in painting. When not working, she dedicates her time to creating art that helps her navigate and understand her emotions. You can view more of her work at soulof.design or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Peter Shahrokh MA ’75, Ph.D. ’83, MBA ’99
I started painting in 2004 because I was looking for a new way to see the world. I began with watercolors because I had seen a poster of a beautiful photo of an Italian courtyard in the Ikea store in Emeryville; when I walked up to it, I realized it was a watercolor by the British painter Lucy Willis. What that meant was that wimpy, running watercolors could go deep and bright and fool the eye and create verisimilitude. I didn’t know how that could happen, but I said to myself, “I want to do that.”
I painted watercolors throughout the years after that, but it wasn’t until I enlisted a proper website developer for artists that things really jumped. The company, called FASO, allowed me to build and adjust everything on the site to my own standards. It gave me an internet domain (petershahrokh.com), email, and most importantly, a newsletter service. Without me being fully conscious of the fact, it challenged me to get more out of it constantly, even though I had no real desire to market my work, which is essential to most artists.
Please visit my website: https://www.petershahrokh.com.
Explore my bio at: https://www.petershahrokh.com/about.
The next painting I do is always my most challenging to date.
