Dutch-born painter Willem de Kooning was a leading figure in the abstract expressionist movement.

Paul Wonner's parents hired a local California artist to teach him painting while he was still in high school. He lived briefly in New York, working as a packaging designer to support himself, then moved back to the West Coast to study library science.

Paul Soldner was one of the first students of Peter Voulkos, an influential American ceramist who taught at the Otis Art Institute in the 1950s. Soldner taught for many years, dividing his time between Aspen, Colorado, and Scripps College in Claremont, California.

Ronna Neuenschwander graduated in ceramics and became an office manager of a glass factory, working on her sculpture during her free time. After surviving a plane crash in 1979, she reconsidered her priorities and quit her job to devote herself to art.

Carl Dern learned to use different media at the San Francisco Art Institute and at the University of California, Berkeley. He creates single sculptures and assemblages that offer a chair or a ladder as a stand-in for the human figure.

Michael Graham studied theater arts at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He lives in Laguna Hills, California, and creates functional furniture, jewelry boxes, and abstract sculptures from wood and steel.