New Art Exhibit To Open At Senior Center

ALAMEDA, CA — The Mastick Senior Center's "Fall Art Exhibit" opens to the public on Tuesday, the center announced Friday.

The new exhibit, on-view starting at 11 a.m. in the Mastick Lobby, features Alameda artist Carolyn Vey Mason's paintings. It also includes artwork from Mastick art students and instructors, such as jewelry, ceramics, weaving, stained glass and brush paintings, shared Sylvie Schmid, Mastick Senior Center administrative assistant.

Mason said that her paintings, featuring birds, flowers, butterflies, bees and other images, reflect her "great love for nature."

Her interest in art took shape during her youth when living with her family in Berkeley and, later, Alameda, where she took art classes in high school. She then attended Chicho State University and pursued art as a field of study.

After working as a legal secretary for over 30 years and raising two children of her own, Mason took up long distance cycling. Her two-wheeled travels took her throughout the United States as well as abroad, such as to Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Italy and France.

"It's a great way to see the world," she said about her cycling.

She also returned to creating art once her kids had left the nest.

"I first drew flowers, being inspired by Georgia O'Keefe," she said. "Then when I drew a cat and put a spot of white in its eye, it magically came alive and I switched to painting animals."

She's glad to be a part of the exhibition — and the Mastick Senior Center.

"It offers such a variety of quality classes," she said. "I think it is the best senior center in the Bay Area."

Mastick Senior Center is located at 1155 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda. It's open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.