About the Baystudios artists;

Denise Rojas spent her early years as a professional model, Screen Actor's Guild Actress and pioneered her clothing line of hand painted original garments in the mid 80's with clients including Mass Bros. Over the past 16 years she has co-owned one of her businesses Rojas Productions (a full scale digital advertising and graphic arts studio). In mid 2005 Denise returned to painting after being inspired by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina's wrath. Among her first paintings were "The Weeping Angel", "Lafitte's", and "Jazz Gumbo" all New Orleans landmarks. Photorealism, an extremely tedious and advanced technique where the artist attempts to recreate a photographic image using only paints on a blank canvas is Denise's specialty.

Her newfound passion is recreating lighting from the glamorous black and white motion picture film era. She has an ever expanding collection of famous celebrities including a 30" x 30" original painting of Lucille Ball appropriately titled "I Love Lucy" currently on display at the Bright House Networks' main office that will be taking part in the 2006 Art for Live silent auction. Because Denise's original paintings usually sell as fast as she can paint them, she has developed limited edition Giclée reproductions of all her previous work to keep up with the demand.

Dan Rojas has been an artist most of his life, also a former member of Screen Actors Guild, Dan pursued his natural talent of photography at the age of 15. Influenced by photographer Harold Edgerton Dan's first roll of film ever developed on his then state of the art Cannon AE1 included several successful attempts at high-speed stop motion photography. Self-taught, Dan soon was using high speed light as his shutter and several other experimental techniques. By the age of 18 he was getting work as a "professional photographer" shooting 35mm, 2 1/4, and 4x5 large format.

From 1991 through early 2001 Dan created a business with his wife Denise pioneering the technique of digital photo restorations. Working together the couple soon gained national recognition as the most experienced digital artists, restoring over 12,000 images for clients of 350+ national photo labs including CPI One Hour, Fox Photo, Wolf Camera, Ritz Camera, and chains owned by Eastman Kodak. With the introduction of digital photo technology the one hour photo lab quickly disappeared consolidating to only a few remaining giants. Rojas Productions left the business of photo fixing behind and continued focusing on advertising.

Dan started displaying some of his early works of digital abstracts he created during the down slop of the restoration era in several shows throughout the Tampa Bay Area. While many art patrons enjoyed his work and gave good feedback, "the market of digital art was still before its time" Dan explains. "People were under the false impression that the computer did all the work and that it was an artless medium". Dan began painting in early 2001 and his acrylic on canvas works started selling. An ironic twist, as he gained recognition as an acrylic artist, collectors showed a strong interest in his earlier digital works. Dan is now in the process of slowly converting his large digital library of over 2,000 abstract images into painted acrylics and mixed media originals.

Dan's most notable art series includes "Desire", acrylic on canvas impressionistic images of vibrant red lips and his "Tropical Fish Series" including a 20" x 30" acrylic original of a grouper fish titled "Grouper Paradise" in the Raymond James Collection personally purchased by Tom James.

Hurricane Katrina also influenced Dan. As an animal rescuer and dog lover, Dan, along with most of the nation was deeply saddened by the images of so many pets left abandoned and starving during the aftermath of flooded New Orleans. Desperate to help, he created a series called "Animal Compassion" consisting small 8" x 10" original on canvas paintings of homeless pets. With the help of eBay and Mission Fish (a fundraising arm of eBay), Dan's works instantly sold out with the proceeds benefiting rescue organizations taking part in the relief efforts of the battered Gulf Coast. Noah's Wish (one of the largest disaster animal rescue organizations in the world) took notice of Dan's efforts and he was soon very busy creating "Animal Compassion" paintings raising funds for the California based organization. They soon commissioned Dan to create 3 large paintings, which are now on display at their home office in El Dorado Hills CA.

Aside from being professional artists, Dan and Denise Rojas have been curating art venues in the Bay Area for over 5 years representing over 7,000 works of art created by over 600 different artists. Past and present venues include; 21 shows at Tampa City Center (Verizon skyscraper), 3 shows at Rivergate Tower (new Sykes skyscraper), Tampa International Airport, several shows at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, a YMCA fundraising auction at the Italian Club and Brandon's largest rotating art show at Mandalay Mist Spa and Boutique. They are also active as the art committee for McDonald Training Center's "All That Glitters" annual show at the Florida Aquarium, are core members of Gala Corina, and take part in several other fundraising charities in the Bay Area and nationally.

For more information about the artists and a list of venues currently on display please visit their websites at www.baystudios.com and www.danrojas.com