Georgette Osserman

My introduction to artificial intelligence came through a friend who works in the field. When he introduced me to ChatGPT three years ago, I was immediately intrigued by its clarity and responsiveness. Over time, I began using AI as a tool to help refine my own communication—quietly assisting with language while allowing my voice to remain central.

More recently, I invited AI into my studio practice. I often combine multiple visual languages within a single image, and I became curious about collaborating with a tool that could suggest alternate compositions or conceptual directions. Color, intuition, and final decisions remain entirely my own.

This body of work grew out of that spirit of curiosity and play. These paintings blend the visual language of vintage romance comics with the optimism, humor, and questions of our digital present. They are not intended as satire or critique, but as affectionate explorations of connection—between people, ideas, and the tools we use to communicate. The work is meant to be lighthearted, hopeful, and joyful.

This group of oil paintings and mixed-media collages reflects my interest in both still life and abstraction. Begun during the Covid years, this body of work offered an opportunity to take a familiar subject and create a visual language of my own.

There was also a desire to fill my studio with delightful objects and cheerful color. Flowers are an endless source of joy. As the world has grown more anxious and unsettled, my work has become a quiet search for beauty and peace.

Georgette Osserman was born in 1950 and raised in New York.

She grew up surrounded by the large exciting fast pace of Manhattan. Her parents, who both adored the arts, took her to theaters, museums, and concerts. In her youth she studied dance and showed an early facility for color and design. This large energy has carried through to her style of painting. Influenced by action painting, surrealism and automaticism, she developed a style which echoes both the action painters of the 1950s, exemplified by Jackson Pollock, as well as the innovative colorists, exemplified by Milton Avery. She received her bachelor degree in psychology graduating with honors from South Hampton College. While there she also studied sculpture with Peter Lipman Wolf, whose sculpture adorned the MOMA garden for many years. After moving on to photography and exhibiting at the college, she was accepted at the University of Southern California graduate studies in film. At that time she was one of only six women in a department of four hundred men. Disheartened by what she saw as Hollywood’s old boy club she and a friend turned their attentions to clothing design.

Their company, “georgette,” began on a shoestring budget of 500 dollars and soon caught the attention of buyers across the country. In New York their clothes were exhibited in the Fifth Avenue windows of Bergdorf Goodman, and Elizabeth Arden, and appeared in the editorials of Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Mademoiselle, California Apparel and Women’s wear Daily. Though only in their 20’s, Ms Osserman, and Mr. Brown achieved what many in the fashion industry had strived for all their lives. In 1979 they parted ways and Georgette was hired to work at Ranch la Puerta in Tecate Mexico as the assistant to the director. It gave her a chance to reexamine her life and decide on the next chapter.

In 1983 while running a fitness studio in Pacific Heights she decided to resume her passion for the arts and enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. She was accepted to their Graduate program and attended both the San Francisco Art institute and later the California College of the Arts. She subsequently was invited to study with Christopher Brown and Wayne Thiebaud. Georgette has been teaching in Marin and across the country for the past 25 years. She was recently a guest instructor for the Drake and Redwood High School advanced placement art classes and created a workshop for all the art teachers in Marin. Along with teaching she has gained the respect of her fellow artists by curating and judging competitions like the prestigious Sausalito Art Festival and The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival.

In 2006 she was invited to be the opening exhibition for the new Sam the Butcher gallery in Ross, California, where she will again show in October 2010. In 2009 she had a show at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Georgette continues to work and exhibit in and around California as well as in galleries across the country.

Georgette Osserman

Solo Exhibitions
2026- Avenue 12 Gallery, San Francisco CA
2019 – Madrigal Family Winery Gallery, Sausalito, CA
2017 – Madrigal Family Winery Gallery, Sausalito, CA
2016 – Madrigal Family Winery Gallery, Sausalito, CA
2015 – At the Top Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2012 – Crome Architecture, San Rafael, CA
2010 – Sam the Butcher Contemporary Art, Ross, CA
2009 – Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA
2008 – Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley, CA
2006 – Sam the Butcher Contemporary Art, Ross, CA
2003 – The Claremont Hotel, Berkeley, CA
2001 – California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
1992, 1997 – Sausalito City Hall, Sausalito, CA
1992 – Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, Sausalito, CA
1986 – San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

Group Exhibitions (Selected)
2025 – Tiburon Library, Tiburon, CA
2024 – Marin Art & Garden Club, Ross, CA
2023–2025 – Gallery at Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Gardens, Knne‘ohe, HI
2023 – Sausalito Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2022–2024 – Ruby Living Design, Mill Valley & San Mateo, CA
2021–2022 – Bay Model, Sausalito, CA
2016 – John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
2015 – Google Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 – John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA
2014 – Morris Graves Museum, Eureka, CA
2010 – Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA
2008 – Art Zone 461 Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2005 – Borsini–Burr Galleries, Half Moon Bay, CA
2002 – Anthony Kelly Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1999 – Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
1998 – Bradford Smock Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1996 – California Culinary Academy, San Francisco, CA
1992 – Sausalito Art Festival, Sausalito, CA
1992 – Udinotti Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 – Rebecca Rutledge Gallery, Venice, CA
1992 – Christopher-John Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1992 – Lillian Paley Center for the Visual Arts, Oakland, CA
1991 – ACCI Gallery, Berkeley, CA (Merit Award)
1991 – Spirit Wings Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1991 – Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
1990 – Michael Himovitz Gallery, Sacramento, CA (Merit Award)
1990 – Midwest Pastel Society, Chicago, IL

Teaching & Professional Experience
2017 – Guest Instructor, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Mill Valley, CA
2015 – Guest Instructor, UC Davis Extension, Davis, CA
2007–2015 – Guest Instructor, Redwood High School AP Art, Marin County, CA
2007–2013 – Guest Instructor, Drake High School AP Art, Marin County, CA
2007 – Instructor, Staff Development Program, Marin County School District
Recognitions & Professional Activities
2020–2023 – Winner, Artavita International Online Exhibition
2015–2021 – Senior Curator, Marin Open Studios
2015 – Judge, Sausalito Art Festival
2006 – Commissioner, Sausalito Commission for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2002, 2005 – Juror, Mill Valley Art Festival, Mill Valley, CA
1999 – Album Cover Artist, Nina Simone: Nina’s Back!
1995, 1999 – Chairman, ICB Winter Show, Sausalito, CA
1993 – Curator, Sausalito Centennial Mural, Sausalito, CA
1993–2015 – Juror, Sausalito Art Festival, Sausalito, CA
1990 – Public Mural, San José State University, San José, CA

Education
1973 – BA, Psychology, Long Island University
1975 – Graduate Studies in Film, University of Southern California
1984 – Graduate Studies in Painting, San Francisco Art Institute
2001 – Independent Studies in Painting, California College of the Arts
2003 – Independent Studies with Wayne Thiebaud, University of California, Davis
Selected Bibliography
2025 – Marin Independent Journal
2023 – Marin Magazine, February
2016, 2019 – Storyteller, WineAdvisor.com
2013 – Masterful Curations, Mill Valley Herald
2010 – Cover Story, May, Marin Magazine
2006 – SNAP – Grand Openings, Marin Magazine
2006 – Pouring Creativity, Marin Independent Journal
1999 – Sunday Datebook, San Francisco Examiner
1997 – Best Bets, San Francisco Examiner
1997 – Weekender, Marin Independent Journal
1996 – Artist of the Week, Marin Independent Journal
1996 – Weekender Cover, Marin Independent Journal
1987 – Herb Caen Column, San Francisco Chronicle

Private Collections
Marcel & Liora Houtzager, Ross, CA
Peter Clothier & Ellie Blankfort, Los Angeles, CA
Allen Edwards, Encino, CA
Don Enright & Cheryl Rowley, Victoria, Canada
Pierre & Maureen Guidetti, Novato, CA
Ray McDonald & Oscar Alvarado, El Paso, TX
Peter Sullivan, Chicago, IL
Caroline & Dani Bleier, Chicago, IL
Judy Ets-Hokum, Belvedere, CA

Public Collections
Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Berkeley, CA
The Ojai Resort & Spa, Ojai, CA
Shoshone National Headquarters, NV