Board of Directors
Based in La Crescenta, California, Evan LeGrande Wilson is in his eighteenth year of providing high quality art, art restoration, and site-specific decorative painting to a broad cross-section of clientele. His work can be seen all over southern California, as well as overseas in areas such as Tokyo, Cairo, and the Netherlands. Recent commissions include artwork for SBC, Barry Bonds, Brandy, Roy Disney, Jr., John Fogerty, Los Angeles City Hall, as well as churches, theaters, and hotels. Evan's early exposure to the arts came through music and theater and not until his days at UCLA did he realize he had a "thing" for painting. After seeking out a rather informal training from several sources, Evan produced a body of work that has earned recognition in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Pasadena Star News, The Glendale News-Press, Valley Magazine. Veranda Magazine, and various other publications. Evan recently had a painting selected to be a part of a temporary exhibition in the M.C. Escher Museum in The Hague, The Netherlands, and was also awarded first place in the 2006 Pasadena Art Walk. He also has been selected to do the artwork for the new La Crescenta Library that begins construction in November of 2007. Evan regularly donates his time to scouting, church youth groups and community when he isn't spending it with his family. Although commitments and family and community keep Evan busy, he somehow finds "easel time" to develop pieces of a more personal nature. He is currently working on a series of paintings that celebrate the "Craft of Musicianship", a subject that is deeply significant to him.
Sharon Hales was raised in Westchester County, New York in a family that lived and breathed music. She began studying the piano at age four, and grew up singing in various choirs, as well as participating in regional bands and orchestras with flute and piano. New York City's cultural offerings instilled in her a passion for the arts and a life-long pursuit of arts education. Her college years at Brigham Young University included an extensive six-month study abroad program in Europe, a bachelor of arts in English with a minor in Organ Performance, and a master's degree in Humanities. After moving to La Crescenta in 1990 with husband Kendall (a La Crescenta native), Sharon taught piano and organ and has since been helping to raise their five children. She has accompanied various school and church music groups, sang in and accompanied the Foothill's Women's Chorus, has taught in the art, music and literature docent programs at Mountain Avenue Elementary, and loves singing with her swinging vocal jazz quartet. Sharon also has served for many years as music director, organist and choir conductor in her church. Her most ambitious role, however, is driving her kids to all their music lessons. In 2006 Sharon completed a three-year term on the Crescenta Valley Town Council, including two years as president, and eagerly looks forward to promoting the arts in our community through the Crescenta Valley Arts Council.
One of Richard Toyon's earliest memories was helping his mother set up her painting easel deep in the valleys of the Verdugo Mountains and playing while she painted the beautiful landscape. That love of the Verdugos and his community, as well as a passion for painting and art, has stayed with him throughout his life. Trained in architecture and landscape architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he was project manager and project designer on many Southern California venues, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Getty Villa Museum, the UCLA Sculpture Garden, and the Los Angeles Actor's Theatre. He also designed for the theater throughout greater Los Angeles, which led to his career of production design in television and feature films. Richard is deeply committed to his community and serves on several council and boards, including the Haramokngna Native American Cultural Center, the Mississippi Arts Council, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Board, and the Foothill Design Committee. He is also sitting president of VOICE (Volunteers Organized in Conserving the Environment), which was largely responsible for the preservation of the Oakmont V property in the Verdugo Mountains. Richard and his wife Stacy are proud parents of three kids, and now Rich happily paints the Verdugos on his own canvases.
Advisory Board
Ken Grayson, Grayson's Tune Town
Kendall Hales, Technical Coordinator
Rowena Hammill, LA Opera and LA Chamber Orchestras, cello
Rebecca Harvey, Public Relations Coordinator
Rebecca Hillquist, Graphic Artist
William D. Johnson, Johnson and Crowder Law Offices, Legal Advisor
Helen Kantor, Fundraising Coordinator
Rick Lesemann, USC Professor of Composition
Rob Roy McGregor, Los Angeles Philharmonic (retired), trumpet
Jennifer Munday, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, violin
Sharon Raghavachary, Secretary / Treasurer / Webmaster
Dianne Thompson, Events Coordinator
Marie Yeseta, Information Coordinator