Bernice Gross

Different People, Different Places -- A third-grade class of goofs, misfits, and buckteeth smiles at you from a wall in the Fourth Street Studio this week, demanding a smirk of recognition and sympathy. Berkeley artist Bernice Gross has a thing for '40s, '50s, and '60s portraits rendered large in acrylic pastels. Expect to meet those forgotten aunts and uncles in tacky formal dress from your childhood. And there's your fat jowly old social studies teacher! Gross' love for her subjects wafts sweetly from these horrifyingly accurate snippets of posed American arcana. If David Sedaris could paint, this might be the hilarious result. Bravo.

 

Art auction to benefit creativity of seniors

Oakland Tribune, Sep 29, 2006 by Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER

Some paint smiling, happy faces or stark nude figures. A couple of painters color canvases with floral and fauna or lonely landscapes.  The 20 artists who have donated works for Saturday's "Positively Ageless" charity auction all come from different backgrounds and have diverse ideas about what is art.

Some are painting their way through their golden years using heavy and thick oils. Others are middle-aged and rediscovering a love of watercolor, long sequestered because of careers, family and the demands of everyday life.  While their work is a mixed bag, all have one thing in common -- they want their artwork to make someone else's life just a little bit sweeter.

"For me, art is about stewardship, what we can do for each other ... not what we make for ourselves," said Bernice Gross, a 52-year- old Berkeley painter. Gross is one of the artists who have donated a piece to the "Positively Ageless: A Celebration of Art & Aging" art show and auction at the 4th Street Studio in Berkeley on Saturday to benefit Adult Day Services Network of Alameda County. Gross donated a 4-by-4-foot oil painting of a Chicago peace rose because she said it is an enduring classic, grown in gardens everywhere. "I donated that because (of) the theme of the exhibit. I feel that roses are positively ageless. I wanted to make a painting that is desirable because I want it to sell and I want the Adult DayServices to benefit from this."