Talented photographer Gayle Ketzel has an intriguing collection of photographs of birds, particularly crows. Working out of Seattle, Washington, Gayle has become very fond of the plentiful Northwest crows. She worked out a process of shooting digitally through the viewfinder of a vintage camera that creates an otherworldly, cinematic quality to her photographs. We picked out a selection of her spooky crows that put us in a Halloween mood.

Please visit Ketzel’s online store to see more.

As autumn approaches, leaves falling all around, it leaves us longing for the new breath of spring time. When we saw the recent creations of Thea Schrack, we felt alive with the renewal of spring again.

Thea Schrack’s latest works have gone in a new direction. Inspired by flowers found in her weekly farm basket, some as small as a little fingernail, Thea has intensified her attention to detail with these exquisitely crafted pieces.

Thea referred to this series as "Slow Flowers," like the Slow foods movement – a way of living and eating, good for the people and the planet. One could also see it as slowing down to experience all the small details in nature’s gifts.

Visit Thea Schrack’s Web site to see more: www.theaschrack.com

Alan Mazzetti is showing his most recent series at the Art People Gallery in San Francisco this month. Read the following to get a feel for Alan's thought processes and inspirations behind Particles.

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By Alan Mazzetti

I’m very excited about this new series – Particles.  It’s an evolution of the themes I was working with previously: showing changing relationships by depicting matter and energy. Within each painting, you’ll see different relationships between the circles: they’re single and in groups; they change scale; some are flat, some dimensional; some are mathematically precise while others are organic and accidental.

That’s why I use circles as an icon – it’s elemental enough to stay true through these different incarnations. The big difference technically – and visually – is that I previously started with a digital transfer of my circular icon representing matter and energy.  Replacing that is what I call an event – a circle made of smaller circles that suggests a dimensional object and simultaneously a reflective light source.

In addition to the changing relationships within the painting, each one is composed so that you can change the way it hangs.  Every new orientation will emphasize different elements within the piece and change your perception of it. You continue the creative process begun in the studio.

I think one of the most important functions of art is to encourage us – both the artist and the viewer – to see things in new ways.  These paintings are meant to continually change your perspective.

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Visit Alan Mazzetti’s Web site to see more.

We found Ivy Jacobsen's arts at the Hunters Point Ship Yard open studio. Since then, we have been visiting Jacobsen's Web site and continuing to admire her art. Shown above is one of her recent paintings, titled "Finding Home in a Tree" – private collection, 36×36", oil, bronzing powder, & mixed media on canvas.

In celebration of the grand re-opening today of San Francisco’s very cool and very innovative California Academy of Sciences, we feature Rob Dunlavey’s animal ABCs series.

Thank god we decided not to brave the crowds to go to the Academy of Sciences today, as about 25,000 people showed up. We will wait until the crowds die down, and in the meantime, we can get a great animal fix from Rob’s art work.

To see more, please visit Rob Dunlavey's Animal ABC's.