RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The 55th Art at City Hall exhibit reception was held on Wednesday, April 29, at Rancho Cordova City Hall. An abundant turnout of artists and guests viewed artworks exhibiting artists’ interpretations of the theme Wonder and Whimsy, featuring the unexpected and fanciful.

There are four Art at City Hall exhibitions each year, three with assigned themes and in the fourth exhibit of the year the artwork may be any subject. Each exhibit remains in place until the next one replaces it.

Prizes were awarded, and this quarter’s winners are as follows: Best of Show, Tina Maier for “Illogical Flower.” First place, Linda Nunes for “Lavender Hill and Lemon Haze.” Second place, Lucille van Ommering for “Excess Capacity.” Third place, Ron Hall for “Pick’in Up on That Feline Beat.”

Sheryl French won an Honorable Mention with “Off-Kilter Cake.” Photo by Rick Sloan

Honorable mentions: Jyenny Babcock for “Merhen Contemplates Life,” Elaine Schaefer-Hudson for “Build-A-Cat,” and Sheryl French for “Off-Kilter Cake.”

Youth first place: Susanna Hope DiSilvestro for “Open Silence.”

Best of Show winner Tina Maier has been doing art her entire life. She said her favorite medium is “Fabric, fabric, fabric!” About her winning piece at City Hall she said, “It’s illogical because it  has five main petals, and most flowers don’t have that; they have even numbers . . . When you mix sewing with art, you go ‘no rules’ – you can have a lot of complexity.” 

Maier recently also got Best of Show at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center in Carmichael with an art quilt.

Tina Maier received the highest award, Best of Show, with “Illogical Flower.” Photo by Rick Sloan

First Place winner Linda Nunes’ winning work, “Lavender Hill and Lemon Haze,” is from a large series she is doing, “probably 20 pieces,” called Ordered Chaos.

“It brings me so much joy to be in my studio creating,” Nunes said. She put off dedicating herself to art until her children’s education was taken care of, then went to Folsom Lake College, Sacramento State University and “hit the ground running . . . So I’ve been busy ever since, really busy!”

Sheryl French’s Honorable Mention was for “Off-Kilter Cake.” She said that her mother was an artist, and when French came home after being born, “The first thing I smelled was turpentine.”

Juror Debra Kreck-Harnish (left) gives Jyenny Babcock her Honorable Mention for “Merhen Contemplates Life.” Photo by Cheryl Gleason

About her winning artwork she said, “I think it is really a metaphor for life, because no matter how well you plan, things are a little wonky, right?  Nothing ever quite goes, and yet it still sticks together. So the cake is there to remind you that nothing’s perfect and you should be having a good time and have a sense of humor about it. Because life should be sweet.”

The Juror for this show was Debra Kreck-Harnish, who is a lifelong creative recycler: “Trash,” she believes, “is simply a failure of imagination.” She said deciding on the award-winners was definitely a challenge.

Wonder and Whimsy can be viewed on the walls of City Hall during open hours, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through July 24, 2026. Rancho Cordova City Hall is at 2927 Prospect Park Drive, Rancho Cordova.