Mission Fed ArtWalk Returns for the 36th Year to Little Italy on April 25-26 and Announces 2020 Featured Artists

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Parisa Bukhowa
Olive Creative Strategies, Inc.
o. 619.955.5285 ext. 107
m. 619.221.4201
parisa@olivecreativestrategies.com

  Mission Fed ArtWalk Returns for the 36th Year to Little Italy on April
             25-26 and Announces 2020 Featured Artists
   -The power of art will come alive once again with artwork from over 350 renowned artists and new
                talent from around the world, stretching across 16 blocks in Little Italy-

SAN DIEGO (Jan. XX, 2020) – Mission Fed ArtWalk announces its return to San Diego’s Little Italy on
Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26. The weekend-long premier arts and culture event will bring
together every facet of visual and performing arts. The free arts festival will feature more than 350 local,
national and international artists including both familiar and new participating artists. Locals and visitors
alike will have the opportunity to meet and purchase one-of-a-kind art directly from the creators. As the
largest and longest running arts festival in Southern California, the event will showcase every medium of
art including painting, sculpture, glass work, photography, fine jewelry and more. Attendees will also
enjoy live music, dance performances, interactive art experiences, street food, family-friendly art
projects at KidsWalk and more.

“We are thrilled for the return of the 36th annual Mission Fed ArtWalk festival, and look forward to
bringing a fresh experience to this year’s event. There will be something artistic for everyone in the
family to participate in and enjoy,” said Sandi Cottrell, Director of ArtWalk San Diego. “Mission Fed
ArtWalk has become a tradition that unites San Diegans, connecting them through the different facets
of creative expression.”

Mission Fed ArtWalk unveils this year’s eight Featured Artists who demonstrate a strong dedication to
the arts. Check out the talented and diverse list of artists ranging from wax sculptors to a variety of
painters across all mediums.

Anna Van Fleet
Anna Van Fleet, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia and now a resident of San Diego, is a self-taught
artist who learned to paint oils while living in Germany. Van Fleet’s craft utilizes multiple layers, mostly
from a dry brush technique or sometimes transparent layers with a hint of pigment. The brushstrokes
and the luminosity of her panels are reminiscent of traditional paintings. The details, quality of shading,
and softness of the shapes complexion are presented in a masterly manner. Van Fleet’s artwork
perceives beauty and reflects undulating specters of individual or collective conscious.

Duke Windsor
Born in Texas, Duke Windsor works with various media including pastel, oil, acrylic, watercolor and block
print, and his artistic scope ranges from plein air to abstract. Returning to ArtWalk for his 5th year, the
award-winning artist’s inspiration is derived from time spent studying traditional work, specifically the
old masters of the Renaissance period. His career in the arts began as a freelance illustrator after leaving
the U.S. Marine Corps followed by 15 years of experience in museum exhibition design and installation
across San Diego. Duke’s unique point of view often elevates the grungy alleyways of San Diego in his
paintings. Windsor is now an instructor of art and painting and runs artist development workshops
throughout San Diego County.

Jeremy Sicile-Kira
Currently residing in San Diego’s Little Italy, Jeremy Sicile-Kira is an abstract painter. He was born in
Paris, France in 1989 and diagnosed with autism at an early age. Sicile-Kira’s gift of painting wasn’t
discovered until the age of 24 when he described to his parents of colorful abstract portraits he was
painting in his dreams. Jeremy’s unique gift is being able to see words as colors. His expressive and
vibrant use of colors make his art a joy to behold. His work has been covered by major media outlets
such as People, NBC and Good Morning America.

Lee Hendrickson
Lee Hendrickson has worked as a professional artist for 15 years and has a combined 35 years of
experience as a research scientist creating fine art photographs of crystals. Hendrickson’s photographs,
made by using techniques developed in his lab to grow and view crystals, reveal the beauty in the
hidden world of microscopic nature, where the prism-shaped crystals refract light. The result is an
infinite array of crystalline patterns and colors similar to a kaleidoscope. His artwork is included in
private and corporate art collections worldwide, including a photographed crystalline of caffeine on
display at the Starbucks corporate headquarters in Seattle, WA.

Lisa Bryson
San Diego native Lisa Bryson is a contemporary oil painter well-known across the globe. Through direct
and purposeful manipulation of the physical representation of the human form and media, Bryson’s
work examines the state of being. She paints with traditional palette knives and much larger masonry
trowels to evoke intense and pure artwork. Working in a reductive process, Bryson at once buries and
unearths narratives that speak out through the varied marks of quiet, articulate and calculated noise. In
2017, Lisa was awarded a Master of Fine Arts in Painting and granted a Teaching Fellowship from the

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her work has been featured in several publications and most
recently accepted into the International Painting Annual 9 publication.

Louise Lacey-Rokosh
This is Louise Lacey-Rokosh’s first year at ArtWalk. The contemporary impressionism artist grew up in
Canada surrounded by artwork in her childhood home, drawing her into the art world early on. Lacey-
Rokosh’s method is born from her life experiences having lived in Scotland, England and Canada. Her
training as an architect made her aware of how critical form, light and balance are to a composition. In
every painting, Lacey-Rokosh strives to capture a moment in time with a sense of light and space,
achieving this by carefully composing notan drawings before each painting. Lacey-Rokosh paints dark to
light using radiant colors like turquoise to make colors pop even more. Her paintings are in private
collections in Canada, USA and England.

Peter Dingli
Peter Dingli is a figurative wax sculptor who currently resides in San Diego. In 1974, Dingli moved to
Melbourne Australia to study photography and then transferred to sculpting where he forged and
welded steel. His work is inspired by Greek Mythology, and is hand molded using Micro-crystalline wax
then cast in bronze using traditional lost wax techniques. The aim of his work is to bring out feeling
sparking different emotions in each viewer through their own contemplation. Dingli’s art is held in
private collections around the world in Melbourne, Perth, Canberra, San Diego and La Trobe University
in Melbourne.

Robin Branham
Abstract artist Robin Branham primarily works with acrylic pigment and polymer to create large-scale
paintings. Her work is inspired by the world around her and typically results from intense dialogues she
has with herself about texture surface, color balance and opposites. Branham’s techniques involve the
application of multiple layers of acrylics mixed with different types of acrylic gels to create shapes and
texture. Each painting whether on wood, canvas or heavy paper is worked and reworked numerous
times to ensure the highest quality. Branham’s work is known to be spontaneous and intuitive. Her
paintings are in museums across the U.S. and Foo Fighter’s drummer owns several of her pieces.

Mission Fed ArtWalk will be located between Ash and Grape Streets in San Diego’s Little Italy
neighborhood. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26.
Attendance is free. More information will be released in the upcoming months. To stay up to date on
Mission Fed ArtWalk, visit www.missionfedartwalk.org.

                                                     ###

About Mission Fed ArtWalk
Mission Fed ArtWalk in San Diego’s Little Italy is the city’s first outdoor fine art festival. In 2020, it will
celebrate its 36th anniversary. Mission Fed ArtWalk will run from Saturday, April 25, 2020 to Sunday,
April 26, 2020, featuring professional artists from across the globe. Mission Fed ArtWalk offers
collectable and approachable art from all kinds of media, such as drawings, sculpture, paintings,
photography, metal work, woodwork and much more. More than just a visual arts festival, the event
also features five performance venues for music and dance, as well as interactive art projects for both
adults and children. For more information on Mission Fed ArtWalk, the featured artists or other details,
please visit www.missionfedartwalk.org. Become a fan on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Mission Fed Credit Union
Mission Fed Credit Union is San Diego’s largest member-owned, not-for-profit, full-service financial
institution exclusively serving San Diego County. Mission Fed has over $3.7 billion in assets, over 250,000
customers, 32 convenient branches, and 30,000 CO-OP ATMs nationwide.

Mission Fed enhances the lives of its customers through financial education and financial services such
as Checking, Savings, Loans, Credit Cards and Insurance. In addition, Mission Fed puts money back into
the communities of San Diego and helps hundreds of non-profits. Banking at Mission Fed means doing
good for San Diego. Federally insured by NCUA and Equal Housing Lender. To learn more,
visit www.MissionFed.com.