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GUEST SPEAKERS
Each month at the Riverside Art Alliance meetings, we have a different speaker on an interesting topic.
Our featured artists and their area of art:
​September 18, 2025
Riverside Art Museum
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Andrew K. Thompson, Photographer
The speaker for our September program will be Andrew K. Thompson, a photographic artist from the Inland Empire. His work has been exhibited at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, the Riverside Art Museum, the California Museum of Photography, the Cheech Center for Chicano Art and Culture, the Walter N. Marks Center for the Arts and the Center for Fine Art Photography, Gallery1/1 and Klotz Gallery.
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Andrew was a competitive bicycle motocross (BMX) racer. He has been a member of Incredibly Strange, a punk rock pro wrestling performance group and was the founder of Punk Rock Pillow Fight, a national pillow fighting tournament.
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Thompson co-founded The Little Gallery of San Bernardino (TLGSB) an artist run space focusing on San Bernardino and the greater Inland Empire. TLGSB has presented over 30 solo and group exhibitions featuring artists of various ages, genders and identifications for six years and counting.
​October 16, 2025
Riverside Art Museum
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John Sumner, Artist/Author
Our speaker for October is artist John Sumner who hails from Lake Elsinore. John was born in England and raised in Canada. He studied and worked in hotel and restaurant management before moving onto the business end of artwork: production, distribution and publishing. Over time, John expanded his focus internationally and transitioned to art dealing in the Soviet Union (Russia).
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In 2003, he made a dramatic change away from the business of art and started painting on his own. His initial artwork was largely "representational" and has transitioned to being more graphic in style. In addition, he has progressed from solely acrylic work to oils with occasional incorporation of wax. The addition of wax gives the work a sensuous texture and John feels like he's sculpting a picture. Adding to his repertoire of working in the field of art, John has added sculpting. His first works have been in granite and alabaster which he found in the Anza Borrego Desert.
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Presently, John is writing a memoir of his art experiences called "A Painter's Palette: Confessions of an Art World Insider."
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​November 20, 2025
Riverside Art Museum
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Jonathan Godinez, Artist
The featured speaker for the November is Jonathan Godinez. Jonathan is an interdisciplinary Mexican-American artist born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. At the age of eleven, he and his family moved to Riverside California in search of a better future. He attended Norco and Riverside City College for his foundational studies before transferring to California State University, Long Beach, where he earned his bachelor's degree in Studio Arts in 2021. Jonathan continued his art education and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate University in 2024. Presently, Jonathan is teaching at Scripps College in Claremont, CA.
Jonathan’s interest in art was first sparked by the vibrant graffiti murals that decorated the streets of his childhood neighborhood. This early exposure fostered a deep appreciation for street art, which continues to influence much of his work today. While studying at Cal State Long Beach, he was introduced to woodworking and sculpture, discovering a passion for creating with his hands that rivaled his love for drawing and painting. This newfound interest led him to explore 3D modeling and printing, where he found he could design intricate sculptures on the computer and bring them to life as physical 3D prints. Halfway through his master’s degree, Jonathan decided to pause his painting work to focus on digital 3d scanning and modeling, resulting in an impressive collection of 3D-printed sculptures that added up to his Thesis.
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Presently, John is writing a memoir of his art experiences called "A Painter's Palette: Confessions of an Art World Insider."
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