Sonya Ziegler
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BIO

Born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1965, my family moved to Los Angeles when I was 5 years old and then a few years later to the Bay Area in California. In 1989 I moved to the Sierra Nevada Mountain foothills of Northern California and have been here ever since.

I was a solitary and sensitive child, preferring to be alone with my books, art, animals and music.  I would draw and paint incessantly and dream about a world more gentle and beautiful.  I always felt like an outsider-- that I didn't really fit in anywhere.  Making art became my refuge from the harsh realities,  unjustness, and stressors of life that seemed to encroach faster than I liked as I grew into my teenage years.

During college in the mid-1980's, I had the good fortune to take several art classes taught by the late Eileen Gilbert-Hill.  She was very active in the Bay Area art scene. She taught me to see that there were many ways to render a subject...painting wasn't just about faithfully drawing what I saw in front of me--- true creativity begins with imagination and a vision.  Anyone can copy... but it takes courage and a fire in the soul  to "imagine" and inject a blank canvas with memory, feelings, logic, and intelligence.

In addition to  painting, I am also an avid photographer.  I built my own darkroom when I was 15 years old-- back in the days of analog film and SLR cameras.  Today I shoot mainly in digital, but I maintain a full darkroom set up in my studio.


I have a penchant for gourmet  vegan cooking, veterinary and human medicine, English literature, biology and the natural sciences, reading, organic gardening, creating and listening to music, vintage drum restoration, and traveling. 

I am an advocate for animal welfare and I frequently donate my art  to various animal rights organizations across the United States for their silent auctions. Currently, I have three doggos that I absolutely adore!  

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