Painter Gary Janis (b. 1953) was influenced by early abstractionists like Miró, Kandinsky and Kurt Schwitters. Janis moved to the Bay Area to start San Francisco Art Framing and was soon working for top galleries and museums. “Handling art was like an education in itself. One day I’d be framing a 500-year-old Renaissance woodcut by Albrecht Durer and the next I’d be cutting a mat for a 1914 drawing by the Russian Cubo-Futurist Kasimir Malevich.” With numerous visits to Japan he became enamored with the Ukiyo-e prints of Japanese woodcut masters. “I became enamored with the Japanese ukioye prints, woodcuts by masters like Hiroshige and Hokusai. Their curious patterns and colors influenced my work, but I missed the energy of the USA.”