MEET THE ART
MEET THE ARTISTS,
Saturday May 2 / 2pm to 4pm
Buena Vista Branch Library
300 N Buena Vista St · (818) 238-5620
See their art and discuss their work in-person
The Burbank Public Library in partnership with the Burbank Bla Bla, Living Arts Magazine present a Meet-and-Greet with local artists where you can view their unique artwork and creative process. Attendees are encouraged to discuss and ask the attending artists questions about their work.
Sponsored By:
Dina Belenko
Dina Belenko is a still life photographer whose work explores the emotional and symbolic weight of ordinary objects: how mundane things — broken porcelain, scattered leaves, found keepsakes — can hold complex emotions and reflect human experience.
Born in a small town in the Russian Far East, she discovered photography through a simple film camera gifted by her parents. What began as casual snapshots soon evolved into a deeper exploration of visual storytelling. She earned a Master’s degree in Publishing and Editing from the Far Eastern University of Humanities, a background that shaped her approach to composition and narrative photography.
Initially, her work leaned toward playful, whimsical still life: fairy tales told through levitating coffee cups and playful arrangements.
Belenko’s photography has been exhibited across Russia, the United States, and Europe. She has authored multiple books on creative still life photography, including Composition as Visual Storytelling (2024).
She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, navigating a new creative landscape while continuing to explore the unseen stories hidden in everyday objects
David Orr
Following in the brush strokes of an eighty year tradition of
abstract expressionism, David Orr continues the perceptive vision originated by Ukrainian born Jennie Olechovsky.
David Orr has extensively studied contemporary art, and after 35 years in the motion picture film industry, is selling and exhibiting his paintings, most recently in the Encino Terrace Lobby gallery. He also exhibits his clay work with the American Ceramic Society at The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai.
With non linear painting, his exploration while somewhat unstructured is carefully guided in an effort to capture the excitement of the viewer with an interplay that does not contain a traditional focal point, but remains faithful to techniques of an attuned and fitting color pallet.
Susan Spohr
I opened my first studio teaching ceramics and porcelain painting in Pasadena in 1990, I still actively teach, and serve as a guest speaker at various colleges and galleries on these subjects. My work is also available for purchase from Etsy at Chinapainter1.etsy.com.
I am President of the American Ceramic Society of So.Ca., and participate in exhibitions with the Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center, the Burbank Art Association, California Creative Arts, Creative Arts Group and The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in Ojai.
My porcelain painting covers a range of subjects; from small animals and birds to, tropical themes and landscapes, but the blooms of flowers I find the perfect subjects for painting from memory. My current work blends rough, rustic clay vessels with this beauty and refinement of delicate floral visions, glowing with luster. My naturalistic watercolor painting presents a similar feeling to porcelain, and while challenging, is its own special reward. The fulfillment derived from the watery blend of pigments and natural themes is an atmospheric style I dearly love.
I have inherited the knowledge of many great artists, and have benefitted from the teachings of Nan Rae, Solange Moberg, a student of Paul Soldner, Michael Hirsh and Jack Miller, both fantastic artists in their own right, Brazilian artist Carlos Spina, Irene Graham, Susan Hertzberg, Dolly Chu, Richard Scott, Robert Sherrill and Pam McDonald.
My work has received awards and acknowledgements at Mc Gogarty Arts Center, Descanso Gardens Strut Haaga Gallery, The Los Angeles Arboretum, and Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts.
Pashur
Burbank body paint artist, Pashur, is known for his innovative full body artistic masterpieces. One of the pioneers in modern body painting, this world-renowned, award-winning artist has been body painting for 29 years and his artistic influence can be seen throughout the industry, worldwide. Pashur's body painting work has been seen on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, at Cirque du Soleil shows and the Playboy Mansion, as well as for projects for Buzzfeed, Depeche Mode, Nikki Minaj, Smirnoff and the WWE to name just a few. Pashur's body paint art has been published in hundreds of magazines around the world and has body painted for feature films, numerous music videos, television shows and luxury fashion brands. He was featured on the SyFy Channel TV Show, "FaceOff" as a body paint expert, and as a consultant helped develop the body paint reality TV show "Skin Wars". Known as the “Picasso of Body Painting” he brings his art to life, on a canvas that is alive.
Tito Proano
My name is Leonardo Tito Proaño. Most people call me by my middle name Tito. I was born in Quito, Ecuador, on the 20th of February in 1966. I am the youngest of eight children. I lived in Ecuador my entire childhood until the age of fifteen when I moved to the United States. I started high school at Sylmar High in the fall of 1981. I graduated earlier than expected, so I was among the class of 1983 graduates. My father was a poet. One of my brothers is an artist in Ecuador; he paints and creates beautiful sculptures with various materials and metals.
After high school I worked as a grease monkey, mechanic’s assistant for four years. I have had many jobs since then: a pool man; a vinyl repair man; a sales representative; a valet at the Bonaventure Hotel; a server; a tutor for Spanish families with a deaf or hard of hearing child; a Sign Language interpreter for nine years for the Burbank Unified School District; a substitute teacher for the same district; and currently a Spanish teacher at Burbank High School since 2012.
I went back to school in 2004; I received my AA degree in 2007 at LA Valley College. I then immediately transferred to California State University, Northridge where, as a Matador, I earned my bachelor’s degree in 2009 and later my master’s degree in Spanish literature in 2012. While I was working on my Master’s, I taught Spanish at CSUN in a part-time position. I started an Internship Teaching Credential program while I worked as a Spanish teacher at BHS and eventually, I earned my full Teaching Credential in 2014.