Artists

Perhaps if she didn't believe in angels, and destiny, and the pure, immigrants' version of the American Dream, Alexandra Nechita might be surprised by her success. Within nine months, she's had 16 solo exhibits of her paintings, at least $1.5 million in sales. There's a growing waiting list of people who have paid deposits of $10,000 toward the purchase of whatever she paints next. Maybe, you think, she would be a tad overwhelmed. National and international television crews trail her.

Most Beatle fans know that John Lennon first met Yoko Ono at a London art gallery in 1966, where he saw and was impressed by her work. Not quite so well known is the tale of how Ono first came into contact with Lennon's artwork. "I always remember the first feeling I had when I saw his work," she says, on the telephone from her New York home. "I saw it in a book shop.

Peter Oropeza tells how, as a teenager, he put a gun in his mouth, squeezed the trigger and . . . nothing. Until then, he had been all exaggerated machismo--a swaggering homeboy in a Mid-City gang clique. But his long-suppressed memory of having been sexually abused as a child burst from his subconscious, bringing enough guilt, shame and pain to make swallowing a bullet appear to be the only way out. Everything in his life seemed to have stopped working. Now, mercifully, so had his gun.

Jay Vigon's pen is hardly ever at rest. "Whenever I have a free moment, I sketch. When I get in bed at night, I sketch," Vigon said. "I have a backlog of sketches, so many I don't know what to do with them all." Vigon is no Hollywood celebrity, but his work has been viewed by millions. The Studio City resident was the creative force responsible for designing the album covers of artists such as the singer formerly known as Prince, Van Halen and Stevie Wonder.

For the past 14 years, Santa Clarita artist Valerie Sharpe has spread good tidings across Southern California by painting bold, eye-catching holiday displays on area storefronts. Sharpe's work can be found on car dealerships, drug stores and grocery stores. From Nov. 1 to December, she and her co-workers complete about five displays a day. "I love this time of year," Sharpe said. "People aren't just putting advertisements [on windows], they're more focused on putting out good vibes."

Lita Albuquerque was all ready to sketch a field of stars in desert sands near the Giza pyramids. Then, rumors started that she was actually drawing the Jewish Star of David. Now her project has been suspended, an indication of the tense relations between Egypt and Israel even though the two countries signed a peace accord 17 years ago.

For better or worse, blessing or curse, Synthia Saint James' most widely seen painting is the confetti of bold, celebratory colors that blasts from the dust jacket of Terry McMillan's 1991 bestseller, "Waiting to Exhale." Saint James' impressionistic rendering of the first sister circle, a regal collection of women titled "Ensemble," made the urban circuit, carted in handbags, briefcases and knapsacks from beauty shop to bus stop, from lunch hour to book group to airplane.

Though the full, snowy beard and sonorous baritone lend an air of learned elder, there's a mischievous twinkle in the eyes more suited to an impish schoolboy. Indeed, esteemed caricaturist and illustrator Al Hirschfeld seems equally playful and wise as he relates tales of his trade with a deep, easy laugh. Hirschfeld, best known for drawings featured in the Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times, has a remarkable body of work, essentially a sublime chronicle of 20th century pop culture.

Carson dedicates its first mural today, celebrating the city's mix of cultures. The mural, painted by 24-year-old Eliseo Silva, who emigrated from the Philippines seven years ago, is splashed across the side of the Manila Business Center at 22030 S. Main St. Called "Roots and Wings," it shows the Carson City Hall at one end and Rancho Dominguez and the city forefathers at the other end.