Dark Totem

     Jana Opincariu is an award winning artist with paintings recognized across the southwest and paintings that have found their home around the globe. She creates surreal and fantastical images of human bodies, objects and animals. As a painter, she strives to exemplify what it means to become vulnerable and romanticize it. She does this by creating hyper-realistic portraits of people, creatures and bodies, illustrating lucid dreams and making delicate surreal images that demonstrate the lust and chaos we face in day to day life.In February, Jana won Best of Show and Most Meaningful artwork for her painting Fuck Vegas of the "Sensuality in ART 2022” show at Hellada Gallery.In her artist statement Jana said, “I imagine that there is no break from my creations and I am my creations and my creations are me. Therefore, every piece I do is a self-portrait.”      Daniel Kathalynas is an award-winning international artist. He works in painting, three dimensional art, sculptural wall hanging, hand-painted animation, music, and symbolic use of materials, 2D rendering, filmmaking and stop motion animation. In December 2021, his film  Flowering won 2nd place at the Santa Fe 3-minute Film Festival.Daniel’s method begins in a silent-mind meditation then he allows the first higher thought that enters his mind to forge the direction of the artwork. Currently, Daniel is traveling across the country and filming short videos called The Roaming Artist – American Odyssey where he discusses his inspirational process, the beauty of national landmarks, local culture and live painting.     The first Totem took place in Albuquerque at Factory on 5th in September, 2019. It was such a success they decided to bring it to Hellada in Long Beach.Dark Totem is about power imagery: such as animals, elements, or, representative of humans' higher aspect, or, walking into the new realm.Dark Totem brings dark themes and is not as light hearted. It's emotional, with undertones of the original Totem, including images of humans, animals and delicate things. Attendees will also see some of the artwork from the original Totem.https://www.janaopincariuart.com/ and https://danielkathalynas.com/