To our friends, supporters, partners, art lovers & local artists,
Seasons Greetings & Happy New Year!
Your ongoing support has helped us build something truly special— an intimate space where art, culture, and community come together to spark conversation, connection, and change. As we move into 2026, we’re shifting our focus towards the act of creating art and supporting DEI-focused events & projects. (Left Photo: Center for Women & Gender Equity Art Project with ArtPush.org)
You may have already seen this in action through events like the Art of the African Diaspora Alameda Satellite Locations curated by Eric Murphey, The East End Filipino Festival presented and hosted by Grey Starr/Pretty Frankenstein, and our collaborative art project with The Center for Women & Gender Equity. (2nd Left Photo: Artist’s Wesley E. Warren’s Pyramid installation at Autumn Lights (@sutchatmosley and @danceavision)
We would like to extend a BIG THANK YOU to Oakland’s Autumn Lights & Reap Climate Center! This year Studio 23 Gallery installation “Pyramid & Swarm (USO) LED Installation Art” were included in the 2025 Autumn Lights Festival and were displayed again at the West End Arts District’s DeepDIVE event. *Thank you to all the artists who helped with the installation: Justin Iredale, Eric Murphy, Yolanda Cotton Turner, Szonic Allure & Joe Hudson.
What’s Next?
Eric Murphy (@eric_m16) hosts our 3rd Annual Art of the African Diaspora Satellite Location at Studio 23 Gallery 2026! Be sure to come out and support this very important program. It is more important than ever to show up and support multi-cultural events. Celebrate African American artists right here in Alameda with us.
Be sure to congratulate Eric on his 2025 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award! Dates: Opening March 21st 7:30-9:30/ Closing April 18th 7:30-9:30
If you have an event or meetup idea we would love to hear it! We are excited to keep evolving with our community and would love to hear your ideas or ways you’d like to be involved.
In Loving Memory: Our Loved, Appreciated, Cherished Friend and East Bay Artist Judith Threadgill, passed away in September. A memorial is being held Dec. 6th at https://jingletown.org and is open to all.
With gratitude, Wes & Jess | @Studio23Gallery
The Board @ArtPushORG: Justin Iredale, Yolanda Cotton Turner, Cheryl Harawitz, Wesley E Warre, May Lo & Jessica Warren
Simply make your payment via Venmo & you are registered. Leave the Venmo comment “Love Your Life & Set Your Goals”. 2 Day Workshop = $100. Per Person (Your workbook is included in fee) Registration closes February 1st.
Our Loved, Appreciated, Cherished Friend and East Bay Artist Judith Threadgill, passed away in September. We miss her dearly and mourn her loss and would like to show our love and appreciation for all she’s given to Art and to her friends and family.
Please join us to wish her well on her new Journey at a Dia De Los Muertos Ceremony- including sharing stories around a bonfire and honoring her memory with notes to burn to her in her epitaph.
Studio 23 celebrates artist Judith Threadgill Jingletown Art Studios on December 6th. 4-6pm
This is an open event to all artists in the Bay Area and an opportunity to celebrate the artists who make living in the Bay Area so magical, and this night to celebrate one particularly beautiful soul and talented artist.
Important: Due to minor refurbishments at Studio 23, we will be hosting this event with gallery owner Chuck Diguida at Jingletown Art Studios. Please do not come to Studio 23, no one will be there!
Located at: Jingletown in Oakland Jingletown Arts, Businesses & Community (JABC) is a neighborhood group of volunteers, artists, galleries, musicians, merchants, small businesses and other residents, working together to foster and nurture community, to encourage and promote the mutual exchange of ideas, creativity, resources, expertise, sponsorship, productivity and patronage.
At the 2025 Autumn Lights Festival in Oakland, artists Wesley Warren and Jessica Warren introduced two interconnected light installations: Pyramid and Swarm(aka USOs).
The works later appeared again on November 8th, 2025 at the REAP Climate Center during West End Arts District’s DeepDIVE event, where they were incorporated into a broader exploration of ecology, oceanic mystery, and technological interconnectedness.
Together, these installations combine sculpture, illumination, and networked behavior to create immersive, intelligent environments of light.
The Works:
Swarm — also known as “USOs” (Unidentified Submerged Objects)
The installation Swarm consists of 20–40 suspended lanterns whose colors and patterns shift in relation to one another using Bluetooth communication. In some showings, the artists described the lanterns as “USOs — Unidentified Submerged Objects” to evoke the feeling of mysterious, living forms moving under the surface of an unseen environment.
The lanterns behave like bioluminescent creatures drifting in a dark ocean. Their synchronized pulses suggest intelligent, perhaps even organic communication. They become not just decorative lights, but an entire ecosystem of signals, suggesting unseen life below the threshold of human perception.
Whether conceptualized as a swarm of airborne signals or a submerged network of glowing USOs, the installation invites viewers to feel surrounded by a living, moving intelligence.
Below Photo: Building Swarm & Perfecting Pryamid 2025 Szonic Allure helping with tenticals, Jess making tenticals, Wes testing out consensus, Wiring the LEDs, Jess spray painiting the USO design, Wes adding protective shrink tubing to the pyramid.
Pyramid
In counterpoint to the distributed behavior of Swarm, Pyramid stands as a singular sculptural form—geometric, stable, and architectural. Where Swarm pulses, shifts, and reacts, Pyramid anchors the environment.
Dancer from @danceavision / Dancer featured below: @sutchatmosley Lake Merritt 2025 Autumn Lights Festival in Oakland
Presentation at Autumn Lights Festival 2025
Set within the Gardens at Lake Merritt, the installations interacted with trees, pathways, and the reflective surfaces of the garden at night. Swarm’s lantern-USOs seemed to hover between branches like luminous organisms, while Pyramid formed a visually grounding focal point.
Visitors experienced the works as a kind of illuminated ecosystem—a constellation of lights behaving collectively, contrasted against the simplicity and certainty of the pyramid structure. Amid the natural setting, Swarm’s “USO” identity became especially evocative: the lanterns felt as if they were rising from or sinking into unseen depths among the foliage.
Re-Presentation at the REAP Climate Center (November 8, 2025)
At the DeepDIVE event—a multimedia journey into themes of climate, ocean depth, and environmental interconnection.
The REAP event emphasized the ocean as a site of mystery, depth, and fragile ecological balance. Here, Swarm’s USO identity directly linked to the oceanic theme:
The lanterns became submerged entities, drifting through conceptual “waters.”
Their communication patterns echoed sonar, bioluminescence, or deep-sea species signaling in blackness.
Visitors walked among them as though entering a light-based reef or the threshold of an unknown ocean trench.
Pyramid, meanwhile, acted as an anchor—almost like an artifact or a monument—against which these mysterious USO-lights could be read. In this context, the Pyramid became a symbol of human structure and interpretation, set against the fluidity and uncertainty of nature.
Visitors were also invited into discussion with the artists, highlighting the works not just as visual installations but as interactive thought-spaces about climate, communication, and interdependence.
Whether encountered as a shimmering swarm of lights or a school of mysterious USOs drifting through conceptual waters, Swarm—in dialogue with Pyramid—stands as a compelling example of contemporary light-based art that merges technology, ecology, and sensory immersion.
The shift from the Autumn Lights garden landscape to the climate-center oceanic framing reveals the installations’ versatility and depth, showing how light, environment, and narrative can transform each other.
Take a look from over the year; Big thanks to those that helped with installation and during the buiding process including; Yolanda Cotton-Turner, Szonic Allure, Eric Murphy, Joe Hudson & Justin Iredale.
Thank you to those who work so hard to put on these events in the community and for including us! Tora Rocha, Jonathan DeLong, Ethan McHugh Merrill, Tara Pilbrow, Rachel Campos de Ivanov & many many more!
Wes and Jess from Studio 23 brought a fresh creative perspective to selecting winners. They evaluated not just the spook factor, but also originality, how the theme was executed, how the house design engaged the neighborhood and passers-by, and how decorations reflected Alameda’s original creativity and community vibe. Their involvement helped bridge the artistry of Halloween decorations with community engagement and philanthropy.
This year marked the 20th anniversary of Alameda Haunts, a week-long celebration of Halloween and community spirit held October 24–31, 2025. The house-decorating contest, in which residential homes across Alameda transform their yards and facades into spooky, creative displays and open themselves up (via map or self-guided tours) for locals and visitors to admire.
Proceeds from map sales and the event support the Alameda Food Bank, which adds a meaningful philanthropy component.
Beyond the house-contest, this year’s festivities included:
The “Fête de Rattlin’ Bones” week of free Halloween-themed community events (including a Lil’ Goblins parade, Boo Bake Sale, storytelling by candlelight, Carve-O’Rama pumpkin contest and a Krampus-style carnival night).
A map of participating decorated houses (available via purchase) so visitors can self-tour the island and see the displays.
A strong sense of neighborhood involvement: many Alameda residents noted that dozens of homes “went all out” with decorations.
See some of our favoriate houses from the two nights of judging that took place.
**Museum of Art, Center for Women and Gender Equity, and ArtPush.org Present:
Día de los Muertos Collage Workshop with Studio 23 Gallery Artist Jessica Warren**
Mixed Media Collage on Canvas Board inspired by Offrendas
The Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Center for Women and Gender Equity and the nonprofit arts organization ArtPush.org, proudly hosted a vibrant and community-centered Día de los Muertos Collage Workshop led by Studio 23 Gallery artist Jessica Warren and Center For Women and Gender Equity’ Director Sharon Sobotta. The event brought together participants of all ages to honor loved ones & victims of gender violence, to explore cultural traditions, and experience the healing power of creative expression.
Held during the autumn season, the workshop celebrated the rich heritage of Día de los Muertos, a tradition that embraces remembrance, storytelling, and the joy of connection. Under the guidance of Warren—an artist known for her art, mostly paintings, collaborative art projects and dedication to community arts engagement—attendees were invited to craft altars in the form of collage on canvas-board.
A Space for Reflection, Celebration, and Creative Freedom Participants were encouraged to bring photos, meaningful symbols, or printed materials to personalize their collages. ArtPush.org provided a wide array of materials, including colorful papers, fabric, found imagery, and traditional motifs, tissue paper for marigold flowers, sugar skull templates, and papel picado pattern ideas.
The welcoming environment fostered by the Museum of Art and the Center for Women and Gender Equity made the workshop not only a creative space, but also a supportive one—particularly for those processing grief or commemorating loved ones. Laughter, stories, and thoughtful conversations filled the room as participants created pieces that were as unique as the memories they honored.
Community Collaboration at Its Best This multi-organization partnership underscored the power of community collaboration.
The Museum of Art offered an inspiring setting. * The Center for Women and Gender Equity ensured an inclusive, reflective, and affirming atmosphere for participants from all backgrounds. * Sharon Sobotta brought in news clippings, biographies that reflected those who were sadly lost too soon due to gender violence. The photos and biographies of those passed were featured, often framed in the mixed media collage art inspired by Ofrendas. * ArtPush.org continued its mission of making the arts accessible by sponsoring materials, outreach and artist support. * Studio 23 Gallery’s Jessica Warren created her Ofrenda inspired collage art alongside the students, honoring her Mother who was a victim of physical abuse.
The result was a dynamic workshop that blended culture, education, artistic exploration, and emotional connection.
Celebrating Identity and Cultural Heritage Participants walked away not only with completed collages, but with a deeper understanding of Día de los Muertos and its significance. The workshop was a safe space to connect with each other about ancestors, loved ones and victims of gender based violence. It was an opportunity to celebrate identity and heal through the language of visual art.
Looking Ahead The success of the event has laid the groundwork for future collaborations between the Museum of Art, the Center for Women and Gender Equity, ArtPush.org, and Studio 23 Gallery. Plans for additional cultural arts workshops and community programs are already underway.
For those seeking a welcoming space to create, reflect, and connect, the Día de los Muertos Collage Workshop offered a memorable and heartfelt celebration—one shaped by art, community, and the shared experience of honoring lives that continue to inspire.
It’s a garage sale, studio sale, and art sale! We have been shifting around and need to clear out a whole bunch of stuff. Tons of great deals and lots of FREE stuff too. Lots of stuff from home as well for men and women.
Mens/Womens Clothing Massager/Foam roller/Yoga Mat Costume Misc (20-35 Pieces) Computer Monitors (Several and many FREE) Misc. Electronics Office/Art Supplies Maker Stuff Canopies Tables Weird stuff Chairs A huge quantity Original Art Movies DVDs/CDs Collector Stuff Magazines (Obama collection) Records (45s) Comic Books (XMen/Misc) Crafting stuff Fabric Original Abandoned Art Old Projectors Art Books Books Misc Art Stands/Pedestals Art Supplies Jewelry Making Tools Music Equipment Decor A big ass wall safe Shoes Beauty stuff MadisonReed root touch up kit (unused was $40) Perfumes
When: Sunday 9/14/25 at 10AM – 2PM
Where: Studio 23 Gallery 2309 B Encinal Ave. Alameda, CA 94501
The Starfish Story is a participatory art installation created by artist Jessica Warren in collaboration with Sharon K. Sobotta, Director of the Center for Women & Gender Equity (CWGE), and students of Saint Mary’s College. Unveiled during the CWGE’s 25th anniversary Open House, the installation transforms the Center into an interactive canvas of creativity and purpose
The Starfish Story extends beyond a static piece—it’s a dynamic conversation starter that continues to foster empowerment and connection. Positioned in a high-traffic space, it remains a focal point for education, reflection, and engagement for future CWGE programs.
