Sean Diediker is a painter’s painter. His sweeping, faceted brushstrokes and painterly surfaces generate works that reveal the artist’s sensitivity to his medium and attention to the act of painting itself. Diediker assembles bold colors, chiascurro and a cutting-edge sense of design to create a highly original body of work that separates him from his contemporaries.

His imagery captures biblical allegories, narratives and concepts and renders them contemporary. Classical iconography, in Diediker’s hands, becomes a thoroughly modern symbolic language that is fresh, visually striking, and germane to our times. “To me,” states Diediker, “they seem to represent timeless ideas and situations. I have made an attempt to take these biblical concepts and, through contemporary subject matter, bring them closer to the viewer.”

What the viewer is brought closer to are portraits, still-lives, landscapes and combinations of these forms that are balanced and timeless. All of Diediker’s works are tied together by their solid sense of form and compositional structure. Whatever he paints, the same expressive vision and reaction to subject and medium are present. “I enjoy the whole creative process, taking an idea and constructing a painting around it,” states Diediker, whose father is a general contractor, “I feel paint much in the same way that my father would erect a building. Much thought in planning, careful design, step by step and layer upon layer…until the work is done and standing on its own.”

The oldest of four brothers, Diediker is originally from Newbury Park, California. After his formal training in Fine Arts, he has lived and worked in the Rocky Mountains of Utah and has just recently returned from a year-long trek around the world. Travel and environment are important to the artist. “I enjoy using subjects that are tangible to me,” states Diediker, “You might say that my work is directly affected by where I’m living, the people, city, landscape—the things I see every day. I enjoy observing the stimulus and reaction of different human situations. Environment should affect and artist’s work; If it doesn’t, you’re painting decorations.”

Kindra Fehr believes that hands and feet tell stories. They dance, sew, caress, make music and art, feed, nurture, jump, walk, run. Their veins and wrinkles map out a life as it unfolds and the palms are believed to tell the story of an individual.

“I’ve always been intrigued with the complexity of these extremities and how they are always portrayed as a secondary subject, so my thought was-what if I painted them large scale? What if I made my compositions about the stories that they tell and made them, instead of their possessor, the subject? This thought process is where her work originated.

Fehr was born in Salt Lake City, but spent her elementary years in Arvada, Colorado then returned to her place of birth with frequent sabbaticals to places like Europe, Asia, Nepal, and the east coast. She began painting at age fifteen under the direction of Bonnie Posselli, Dan Baxter, and Ken Baxter. She earned a BFA in drawing/painting from the University of Utah in 1990, and has studied at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally.

Willcox has always been fascinated by the human form. Her aesthetic decisions are based on intuition and driven by her obsession to constantly make and create art. She loves the creative process of problem solving.

Presently, she is creating 3-dimensional objects from transformed materials. Her sculptures have grown into kinetically alive figures that tell their story of renewal. Her ideas stem from the world around her-a blend of conscious and sub-conscious imagery.

Willcox has never been constrained to a single medium. She works within a vast range of materials and techniques. She loves to discover the unexpected and to leave a room just for spontaneity. Her goal is to create a unique art form that shares a seamless integration between the world and the human spirit.

Through excessive decoration, she examines the way we perceive domesticity and the contemporary home. The floral patterns she employs in her work are inspired by the patterns that appear on both printed and embroidered textiles. The patterns also borrow from contemporary advances in digital textile production that eliminate the need for repeat patterning. Floral patterned textiles have often played a crucial role in the creation of the home, yet the rise of Modernism relegated these patterns to the margins. The removal of floral patterned textiles from the home parallels the devaluation of domesticity and femininity in interior decoration. However, the recent outburst of floral patterned objects coincides with a renewed interest in the home.

By recreating furnishings and pillows using floral patterns rendered in steel wire, Auman eliminates the need for internal structure. Each object becomes a visual signifier of the ideals of the home, rather than a functional object. The loss of function highlights the tension between comfort and display in the contemporary home. She eliminates conventional indications of comfort such as padding and fabric through the use of steel. While her living room is intended for display, it creates the illusion of an inviting, comfortable space, through the articulation of subtle, curving surfaces.

Auman resides in Jonestown, Pennsylvania, where she maintains a studio making sculpture and jewelry. Her work explores the floral patterns found in textiles and decorative ironwork. Auman employs a torch welding technique to create her steel jewelry and sculpture.

Laura Robson and Benjamin Beamer are very excited to present to you fun jewelry that is fun to wear! They use bottle caps and vinyl records as the centerpiece of their jewelry and have a wide selection of designs to choose from. All designs are quality crafted in Sterling Silver. They take pride in transforming recycled items to a new beauty. The reason they create jewelry using alternative materials is to spark imaginations, indulge in a little silliness and just to see a few smiles.

They have been working as artists for over fifteen years. They have come to believe that customer service is the key to having a successful business. If you're happy, they are happy! They have been a Niche award finalist and are currently working with nearly one hundred retailers around the country including the Smithsonian.

Robson and Beamer give the bottle caps a second life by using a portion of them to highlight colors, designs and/or words that are often overlooked. They punch out a piece of the cap using a very large machinist tool to capture the perfect image, then give the cap dimension by doming it. They then set the bottle cap into sterling silver using a small rivet, a type of cold connection. The silver rivet is part of the design element and also has function by permanently attaching the bottle cap to the silver.

My work and ideas have evolved over the years from a confluence of traditions such as primitive folk art, expressionism, and abstract modernism, which is expressed in my colorful and eclectic paintings.

The process includes laying down various mixed medias, especially old sepia toned papers and other found objects, on stretched artist canvas or paper and then laying down plaster and then painting/drawing on top. I then add and remove layers for a textured, dimensional aged look.

The most prevalent memories from my childhood have always been creating art. My mother continually offered projects for my sisters and I to do. A clay artist herself, she was always inspiring. Looking for a career in my college years, I always came back to art. It’s what has always made me the happiest.

I graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree where I studied metalsmithing. My artistic career started by making jewelry scale sculpture. During this time my work was shown and published.

In the midst of raising a family I wanted to find another artistic outlet that was more accessible. With the encouragement of my painter sister-in-law I started painting.
Following the style I practiced in metalsmithing, I paint in the narrative. Taking stories and vignettes from experiences and interpreting them symbolically. I enjoy using recognizable symbols in each work with the hope that the viewer can draw their own meaning.

Ben and Kate Gatski possess an uncommon vision—to honor agriculture through art. They established Gatski Metal to design and fabricate unique metal works that express their universal connection to art. The Gatskis’ use remnants of agricultural machinery to create funky and enchanting sculptures, using hand selected pieces of machinery found on local farms. The process often involves tearing apart very large (car size or bigger) pieces of equipment to get smaller, unique parts for the sculptures. Both Ben and Kate participate in the design process, always aiming for simplicity and uniqueness in form.

Ben started his own dairy business at the age of 19, he bought a herd of jersey cows and managed them organically. After earning a degree in Human Ecology, Kate worked for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture organizing educational events for farmers featuring organic and sustainable techniques. While Ben and Kate were professionally occupied by agriculture they were informally experimenting with artistic expressions. Their business, Gatski Metal, established in 2004, emerged from this work.

An artistically rich upbringing, contemporary vision and passion for the agricultural community shape the Gatskis’ metal work. The pieces represent the pleasure they receive from giving new life to metal objects that once were the pulse of rural farms. The pieces connect them not only with the rural agricultural world but also with an emerging world of metal art.

By the time I was eight years old I had discovered the love of making things with my hands. Right away I was knitting, stitching and sewing my own designs to give as gifts. I would ask my mom, who's creativity and talent I inherited, to take me to art classes and to antique shops to find treasures to work into my pieces. I remember having antique dish sets and collectibles while still in grade school.

My Passion for art and creating were here to stay! I studied art in college and art history in France. I met my husband in Paris and we moved to New York where I began designing children's clothes for 4 years. After our move to California with a dog and baby in tow. I began to look for creative outlets in sunny California. Within a couple of years I had a ceramic business with a friend. I continue to study ceramics under various teachers and have a kiln in my studio. My love of beads and jewels happened quite by accident when I attended a bead show to buy embellishments for my sculptures. I couldn't believe my eyes and a new love was born!

I seem to be unable to choose only one medium in which to express myself. I am equally inspired by painting, sculpting, sewing, and making jewelry! I find inspiration in everything I see and everywhere I go. The best part is that my three children have begun to show their love of art and creating! We can often all be found in the studio making things!

Jones is an active member of the Glass Art Guild of Utah and in 2006 was nominated Chair of Public Relations Committee. Sarinda was awarded 2004 “Best of Show” at Patrick Moore Gallery and was an invited artist to the 2006 Utah Arts Festival. She is also a member of the Glass Art Society (GAS), an international organization whose purpose is to encourage excellence, to advance education, and to support the worldwide community of artists who work with glass.She is currently working with Bad Dog Rediscovers America, a children’s art institute in Salt Lake City to set up a teen apprenticeship program in kilnformed glass.

“I use a phrase “ Left of Center” to describe the details in my work. This phrase is also used to describe the relationships of the visual line and emotional motivations. Much of my work is a manifestation of the emotions and events surrounding my son’s hospital stay, early in his life. We all experience a time in our life when we have been uncertain of an outcome and recall that moment when time stands still, the tipping point. I try to capture that moment and condense the elements of my work to their essence: to a sense of space that has a concentration of spirit, character and physical presents.”

Ben Behunin is a Utah artist, whoes work is found in galleries across the United States.

Behunin states, "Art, good art, makes people happy, makes them feel good about themselves and opens doors to their soul. Art is about sharing ideas, values and feelings. Art, if it has any value it must build up the souls of the masses."

When Martha started down this artistic path in 2000 one could not have imagined the amazing popularity and following she would have as she debuted with her Domino Effect™ line. Dominoes, hand painted and hand stamped with eclectic and artistic imagery are transformed into wearable art. But she didn't stop there. She continued searching for a way to share her creative spunk and she soon followed her domino art with Pop Culture™, a line of jewelry with vintage pop tops. Retro, classic soda pop tops are flipped over and filled with artistic and sassy images.

And the magic was only just beginning. Over a beer at the local pub one night, Martha conceived another line of wearable art on the back of a small cocktail napkin. Martha's keen sense of style, her attraction to anything retro, a little ingenuity and some old record albums…and voila! Vintage vinyl is transformed into original, traffic stopping handbags. Reborn Vinyl™ was officially "born" in 2005

Big Sister makes her home in sunny Bradenton, Florida. When not playing in her studio, she can be found shopping the antique markets and garage sales for something new to transform. She has won numerous awards for her unique creations, most recently Best of Show at the 2006 20th Annual Detroit Festival of the Arts. Martha can also be seen on DIY TV's "Jewelry Making", and in many magazines and publications.

In his furniture designs Freeman strives to convey a sense of energy. Made out of welded aluminum, his unique lamp and table bases are topped with polished concrete and recycled glass. Refusing to use any mechanical means of fabrication to form the metal Freeman bends and shapes each piece by hand on devices made from unique items in his shop. A complicated multi step process is used to form the polished concrete slabs that takes weeks to cure properly. This involved process allows many color options and when combined with the variables in the metal fabrication process each piece turns out to be delightfully unique.

When Tom Kelly, owner of Vitrix Glass went to work for Bob Rockwell in 1982 he had no idea that glass would end up playing such a major role in his life. Mr. Rockwell is the world’s leading collector of Carder-Steuben glass.

Under the guidance of Mr. Rockwell, Kelly had the opportunity to handle and examine the work of Frederick Carder.

After working for Mr. Rockwell for three years, Kelly’s attention was drawn down the street to the glass studios of Alex Brand and Thomas Buechner. After much persistence, he was offered part time employment at both studios where he had the opportunity to learn from two distinctly different artists each having their own unique talents. Eventually, Kelly found himself blowing glass full time with Thomas Buechner III at Vitrix Hot Glass Studio.

Over the next ten years, Kelly’s glass working skills and aesthetic sensitivity continued to develop. When Buechner made the decision to leave glass to grow in another direction, Kelly was ready to take over ownership of Vitrix.

“Hot glass challenges me constantly” says Kelly, “I don’t think I really control the molten glass, I just influence it” Each piece is made of uncompromising quality and craftsmanship. “I’m passionate about bringing the craft and design together to give each piece its own character”

Museum collections include the Corning Museum of Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum fur Kunst and Gewerbe, High Museum of Art, and others.

Ed Branson’s designs in hand-blown glass are distinguished by elegant, fluid shapes and jewel-like colors. Working alone, without the help of assistants, Branson creates unique vessels. "In my work I try to combine the most precise glassblowing skills with the freedom of motion of hot liquid glass, which I achieve by dipping, dripping and pouring the glass," explains Branson.

Many of his pieces are done in a single transparent color, which is then cased over with clear crystal for added depth and brilliance. By manipulating the glass while it is hot, he is able to create graceful, organic shapes that mirror natural forms.

Branson attended two of the country’s finest glass schools, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine and the Pilchuck School of Glass in Washington State. He has worked as a glass artist since 1981 and prior to forming his own studio in 1987 he worked as an assistant to glass artist Josh Simpson. In 1992 his work was one of a hundred selected from thousands of international entries for inclusion in the prestigious New Glass Review XIII, published by the Corning Museum of Glass.

Susan Madacsi uses both traditional and contemporary blacksmithing techniques to design and create her pieces in steel, copper, and bronze. The material is first heated to temperatures of up to 2400 degrees and then worked by hand on the anvil with hammers and other tools. For large-scale forgings, Madacsi works with a power hammer to create the forms.

After forging the individual elements of a piece, Madacsi assembles them by welding or using joinery techniques such as riveting or mortis and tenon. Madacsi's finishing processes may include any combination of filing, grinding, sanding, wire brushing, sandblasting, galvanizing, or painting.

"When designing contemporary work, it is important for me to keep the forms simple and clean, with an emphasis on quality."

As a classically trained sculptor, Hansen depicts the human condition by altering the perspective, shape, texture, and context of the figure. Her artwork incorporates the fundamental skills of traditional figurative sculpture in combination with abstract gesture, pose, and nuance to express life's triumphs, challenges, loneliness, and loss. The raw materials for her art are those daily experiences that have woven the tapestry of her life.

Hansen studied received her BFA at the Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1991.

A native Arizonian, Chelsea Stone of Eye Candy, has been making jewelry for fifteen years. Chelsea received her BFA from Northern Arizona University in 1995 and her MFA from Texas Tech in 2001. Her one-of-a-kind pieces have been exhibited in national competitions and museum shows, and she currently sells her work in over 50 galleries across the country. She has been featured in the books 1000 Rings and 1000 Glass Beads, both Lark Books publications, and Lapidary Journal and American Style magazine.

Living in Salt Lake City, Utah, he enjoys widespread representation by local galleries and throughout the region. His background has developed through his life experiences living in New York and Europe. It is during this time that he developed his appreciation and knowledge of art.

Founded in 1979 in Corning’s historic Market Street district, Vitrix Hot Glass Studio is highly regarded among America’s prominent contemporary glass studios.

“Hot glass challenges me constantly” says Tom, “I don’t think I really control the molten glass, I just influence it”

Each piece is made of uncompromising quality and craftsmanship. “I’m passionate about bringing the craft and design together to give each piece its own character”

“My team and I work together – we’re all involved in the creation of new pieces – we start with an idea and work the glass until it gives us something back”.

Museum collections include the Corning Museum of Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum fur Kunst and Gewerbe, High Museum of Art, and others.

Warren's involvement with opaque silver glass began during his training in 1970. Boyce Lundstrom’s strong background in glaze calculations (reduction colors, copper reds) led him to experiment with silver. Under his supervision, Warren mixed, loaded, adjusted reduction and oxidation levels, dumped batches, recalculated, reloaded—learning to perfect the glass in the furnace. Warren went on to use this knowledge to create colors and ‘Cats Paw’ Design in ‘Bull’s Eye’ Sheet Glass. Warren's focus is on finding all ways to create line designs and color ranges—most importantly, to control them.

Warren's work is a single homogenous mixture that can give a wide array of opaque colors. What’s in the glass is a mix of tin, silver, and copper. Knowing how to melt the batch is a start, more importantly is knowing how to work the glass during blowing. Each design and color range requires a different approach. In general, early in the process, Warren works the surface to create a memory that with heating/cooling will produce the desired results. Adjusting how he works, produces different colors and patterns in the next piece.

He makes his own color. Images are created and controlled during the blowing. After cooling, many forms are cut, ground and shaped before all are acid-etched.

Tsunami Glassworks believes in the integrity and the essence of pure form. Simple, clean shapes resonate with vibrant color as glass is transformed into a tactile object. Design integrity is achieved through the intrinsic nature of the material and the hand-crafting of every piece in the collection. Each piece is unique; the work of Tsunami Glassworks could never be mass produced.

All of Tsunami’s glass products are made and designed in Canada and reflect the spirit of quality manufacturing and design seen in the big glass houses of Europe. Tsunami’s beautifully designed glass objects, both functional and decorative, stand apart through merit of design, quality, and attention to detail along every step of manufacturing.

Garcia was born in San Francisco, California in 1957. He works and lives in rural SW Washington.

Form 1978 to 1980, while working on his landscape architecture degree at Louisiana State University –Baton Rouge, Garcia became interested in glass, both flat and hot, and studied stained glass with Paul Dufour. Upon returning to San Francisco in 1981, he resumed his glass studies at San Francisco State University with Jon Leighton and, in 1982, briefly studied hot glass at the California College of Arts and Crafts under the tutelage of Marvin Lipofsky. In 1983, Garcia began working independently out of Shaun Wiesbach’s studio and founded and built his own hot glass shop in 1987. Today his work is exhibited and collected throughout North America and Europe.

Licensed to practice landscape architecture and the son of an architect, Garcia admits that his work is a times reminiscent of cityscapes through his use of line and lutilaye4red geometric shapes. But he also imbues his work with a sense of life and movement by missing together brilliant colors, random pattern, and changeable, evolving forms. His philosophy? A guiding influence is his strong belief in relating the ancient art of glassblowing to our contemporary world. And on a more subconscious level he supposes his attraction to hot glass originates from humankind’s perpetual fascination with fire. The allure of molten glass is that it resembles fire. Intensely hot, fluid, and volatile, it must be handled with finesse, strength, and speed. Yet, unlike fire, it can be blown and crafted into permanent, intricate forms.

In the summer of 1992 Anthony was introduced to the world of blown glass. He worked maintenance on the graveyard shift at the well-known Glass Eye Studios in Seattle, Washington.

Famous for its ornaments, flowered paperweights, and for being the starting point for many established glass artists-including the likes of Date Marioni, the Glass Eye would be Anthony’s springboard into blown glass. He eventually traded his broomstick for a gathering iron and worked on the “pad” for the next two years.

After a one year detour in Florence, Italy, Anthony returned to the Emerald City and to glass. He spent a year at Dale Chihuly’s Boathouse studio, mostly working on the “Chihuly Over Venice” chandelier project as the Boathouse, Anthony was given an opportunity to assist the gaffers at BMI, Benjamin Moore’s glass studio in the heart of Seattle’s Chinatown. Within a few months he was offered a position and left the Boathouse to work at BMI full-time.

For the past twenty years, Scott Hegan has been making the finest contemporary glass for the best American designers. During the nineties, he was regularly on the glassblowing teams of Dale Chihuly, Martin Blank, Jim Mongrain, Jim Nowak, Cliff Goodman and Randy Strong. During that period, he did individual projects with Therman Statum, Leon Applebaum, and Flo Perkins, as well as being a gaffer at The Glasshouse, Seattle’s first studio glassblowing operation, leading the glasshouse team.

Scott has been enrolled in postgraduate design and production classes with Dante and Paul Marioni at the Haystack School. He has a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s degree in business.

In 2004 Scott’s work was featured in the New Product Showcase of San Francisco’s Harvest Festival and the Fifth Annual Exhibition of Decorative and Functional Art at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco. In 2005 he was selected for a group exhibit at Poppy Fine Art in Columbia, MO. And the Buyers market of American Craft in Philadelphia, PA. In 2006 he further extended his professional recognition by being invited to exhibit at the American Crafts Council Baltimore show and the Oakland Museum of California, as well as receiving the Mayors Award at the Los Altos Rotary Art Show.

Scott’s work is exhibited internationally. He owns and operates a private studio that produces, in limited quantities, contemporary sculptural glass objects, large-scale architectural casting, and individual commissions.

Antol produces work that reflects the beauty and frality of life. His main body of work is built in layers of colored and clear glass. Different opaque and transparent colors are added and subtracted to create variation in tone and mark. The resonating color is richly textured and unique, much like the surface of a canvas painted with oils. The poetry of the color finds compliment in form. The symmetry of the vessel is often subtly augmented to respond to the color, creating a delicate balance within the work. Antol's glasswork references the Italian tradition of glassblowing in craft and aesthetic while maintaining a distinctly personal expression. Influenced by the work of DaVinci, Monet, Tagliapietra, Degas, and Rosin, he bears strong consideration to their historical innovations when conceptualizing his own pursuits. Antol's artwork is consistently changing and developing in both conceptual content and formal aesthetic, growing with time, and with knowledge.

Glass has been a medium of expression for me for more than 25 years. Kremer began as a stained glass enthusiast, but glass art gradually took over, evolving from a hobby to a full-time obsession.

His experience has included glass blowing with several Hudson Valley studios in New York and workshops in blown and fused glass at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and Urbanglass in Brooklyn, New York.

Over the years his work has included Japanese-style art glass lamps, elegant jewelry boxes and decorative hanging panels. In the last few years he has concentrated on creating fused glass bowls vessels and sculpture of stunning form, color and texture.

Fusing, or kiln-forming, is an ancient technique that is currently undergoing a revival. In fusing, the piece is set up cold, using a variety of techniques in common with traditional stained glass and mosaics. Firing in an electric kiln follows at temperatures up to 1800 degrees F. As many as four firings may be required to achieve the desired appearance and form. Grinding, sandblasting and polishing complete the piece.

Corrie a designer, glassblower, and master craftsperson, with the help of his wife and business partner Leanne, carved out their vision for a contemporary art glass studio, and Union Street Glass was born in 1980. By fusing innovative design concepts with old world glassblowing techniques, Guy, Leanne, and their studio, continue to forge new interest in and appreciation for their unique art form.

Through this commitment to creating fresh innovations and the obsession with hand blown glass, Union Street Glass has grown from a tiny 600 square foot studio into a 10,000 square foot studio in Richmond, CA. Guy works with a small team of skilled artists who create home accessories, lamps, and light fixtures here in the studio. Together they produce about thirty pieces per day. A family of ten employees, ensures that each works toward commitment to quality, and that the pieces you purchase are made with loving care.

Over the years, they have developed a sister production team in the Czech Republic’s community of Bohemian Glass blowers. After years of producing stemware in house, their Bohemian partners have exceeded the stemware skills developed there and drastically improved the quality of their stemware. Guy explains, “They demonstrate the commitment to quality and detail I require of all my designs that wear the Union Street Glass mark. I personally train the artisans to create my designs, but usually discover I learn as much as I teach. These glassblowers have a 200 year tradition in mouth blown glass, passed down from generation to generation. Our partnership has allowed us to maintain our commitment to quality.”

Both Guy and Leanne grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they have always been inspired by the natural, urban, and human elements of this special region. Since Guy discovered the art of glass blowing, he has been dedicated to promoting the art and supporting the movement throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Union Street Glass has become a strong foundation for the Bay Area glass community, and continues to be a driving force in both the American Craft Market, Tabletop, Interior Design, and Lighting industries. Guy’s award winning designs have been seen in many prestigious galleries and museums in the United States and abroad. "We strive to create contemporary glass art that is as functional as it is beautiful, that is cherished as much as we enjoy creating it for you."

Elodie Holmes is the founder and owner of Liquid Light Glass, Inc. The name comes from the process of working molten glass in an intense torch flame of light. The unique glass of Liquid Light is hand-sculpted using traditional techniques of glass blowing, lampwork, cutting, polishing, and etching. Through these processes, she creates sculpture, jewelry, and ornamental furnishings such as vases, bowls, paperweights, and aroma lamps.

Holmes first came to Santa Fe in 1981 to co-manage a cooperative hot glass studio on Canyon Road. In 1987, she founded Liquid Light Glass. Her business goal to create and distribute a series of innovative and sculptural glass art for collectors continues successfully. Holmes effectively combines both flame-working and off-hand glass blowing to expand her innovative and unique designs. Her work is available in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally.

In 1997, Holmes was asked to participate in a four month exhibit of her work by the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie in Cadwalader park. This exhibition spanned four generations of Holmes artists: aforementioned Frank Graham Holmes, noted ceramicist and painter Graham Holmes, Jr., award winning design architect Stephen Holmes (Elodie's brother), and Elodie herself. Another highlight of the year was Elodie's acceptance of a White house invitation from President and First Lady Clinton to create a unique glass Christmas ornament which is now part of their permanent collection in Washington, D.C.

Holmes recently purchased the Baca Street Art Studios, in Santa Fe. She has renovated part of this art complex to house her permanent studio where all aspects of her glass art are created. The remainder of the complex is occupied by a variety of artists. The Baca Street Art District, where Liquid Light Glass is located, is one of Santa Fe's newest areas for artists. Holmes generously extends an open invitation to all those interested in visiting her studio, where they can watch her create her glass art.

Paul Willsea and Carol O’Brien are a husband and wife team. With their three children and an assortment of animals they reside and work in the beautiful Bristol Hills of western New York. By combining blown and cast glass they create classic contemporary bowls, tall vases and platters. The work reflects their interest in architecture, the effects of time, and the glass itself. Color is becoming more complex as they explore the different properties of colored glass and how it relates to form. Their work is elegant and refined. It is a stunning complement to a contemporary or traditional décor.

Caroline Ouellette studied at the University of Montreal and at numerous private workshops to perfect her glass technique. Ouellette enjoys the challenge of evoking the sensuality of hot glass even when the glass becomes cold. The question she asks herself when conceiving a piece is how does one create an object that you never tire of savoring and touching? How can glass have flavor? She explores these queries by creating simple shapes that bend, twist, and drip, infusing rich colors. Ouellette comments that she “lets the torrents of seeds gush forth, exploding into maturity, ripe fruits that burst and let their nectar flow forth.”

Nathan Hunter began making furniture in his father’s shop as a child, where he was influenced by an extended family of professional artists. He moved on to pursue fifteen years of intensive professional training as a classical pianist. At university, Nathan was given the opportunity by his teachers to expand on his background in visual arts, where he found a way to combine his diverse influences in 3-dimensional functional art.

“I have always found it impossible to isolate the various art forms. Sculpture, music, architecture, and mathematics make up a single pursuit in my mind. Functional art is a pursuit that satisfies my need to combine line, lyricism and logic into one integrated form.”

A central hallmark of Nathan’s work is a design sense which often explores the tension and harmony between opposing forms, ideas, and materials. The angular truncated trapezoid set against a group of flowing curves – the graceful scoop of a chair seat interrupted by a bold wedge of color – all invite the viewer to gaze at an object both sophisticated and direct.

“I try not to limit the design process by fixating on a single material or discipline of execution. Instead, I let myself play with the possibilities, working out the technical details of construction in the development stage. “

Nathan Hunter works in wood, metal, glass, and other materials, incorporating traditional joinery, hand carving and shaping, and more modern techniques such as vacuum-forming.

Nathan Hunter lives with his wife and two children. He performs his work in his studio in Bloomington, Indiana.

Steven Larson paints cities much the way cities themselves are created. The forming of rich texture through the application of multiple layers in many ways reflects the chosen subject. While capturing the gritty, multi-textured feeling of a large metropolis, Larson adopts a surprisingly lighter pallet, using colors of orange-peach and blue-green.

The cities in these paintings are, like the ghostly figures that inhabit them, transient states of evolution and change. There is a constant transformation reflected as forces from both man and nature build up and tear down the layers that can define or obscure them.

Often in Larson’s work, realism and abstraction co-exists together creating an atmospheric, almost ethereal environment. Both subtle and aggressive marks make up a rich surface quality, exploring numerous ways of getting paint from pallet to canvas. Though Larson's use of paint is free and energetic, the paintings develop slowly, often arriving at colors indirectly through glazes of transparent colors, allowing layers of color to run and drip.

After 20 years in the animation business sculptor Vicki Banks knows how to bring a character to life in subtle ways. Whether it is an introspective moment as an ice-skater ties a bootlace or the private thoughts of a giraffe as it perambulates the savanna, she captures fleeting moments in her subjects’ lives.

To Banks, bronze is the perfect medium. She loves it permanency, its range of colors and textures. Even in an edition of several bronzes each piece is lovingly and individually worked on until it is just right then matched to its own individual base, making each piece completely unique.

Originally trained as a sculptor, Banks spent many years in animated films working with companies such as Disney, Dream works, Warner Bros. and Jay Ward. More recently she returned to her first love, sculpture, and now exhibits in art shows and galleries throughout California, Arizona, Idaho and Utah.

Jade glass is a husband and wife team working together to build a beautiful quality piece of art you can enjoy in any room of your home.

One of the most exciting features of these glass flowers is the ability to customize each piece to your liking. Each stem is threaded and the glass flower screws onto each stem via a short screw which is attached to the back of the glass flower. This enables you to build your own designs from our selection of over 30 different glass colors as well as very safe and trouble free shipping.

Please browse through our site and look at all the different options available using or many styles of bases and colors of flowers. We have designed this piece of art in a way that allows you to be able to participate in the outcome of the final piece by customizing it to fit your own taste and style.

Working in Raku, Barbara Harnack creates magical, one of a kind sculptures that bring to life the character of people. Raku, meaning spontaneous dance, is a tea ceremony name dating to the sixteenth century. The works are pulled from the kiln when red hot and placed in a barrel of straw. Then, working with the fire, Harnack continues moving the piece in the fire until completed.

"My work has been a dialogue between a sense of humor and our own divinity as human beings. When I was a girl I studied with a wonderful puppet maker from Paris named Madame Sorrell. I never got over the experience of creating 'living beings' from nothing. As a result my figurative artwork has been a study of characters from dark to light.

Lisa Gordon was raised to ride and train horses in Southern California. Through working with horses her love of the animals grew. As California expanded the stables Gordon knew slowly vanished as tract homes moved into the area. Seeing the stables vanish became the meaning behind her bronze sculptures. Giving a voice to these graceful animals.

Gordon received her MFA from California State University. During her education she found her passion from bronze sculpting. Both the love of sculpting and the love of horses can be seen in her work.

Growing up on Long Island, NY, I spent the first 21 years of my life on the water, or beach. I relocated to Colorado in 1977. Almost 30 years later, still on dry ground, I find that I still think in a way based on those early coastal experiences. Constantly examining the relationship of human being to ocean and the separate but connected worlds we share. Being distanced physically from the ocean has enhanced my memories, and brought more meaning to these connections. I find the parallels of survival in water to that of survival in life profound. The most basic lesson that the water provided me personally was that of learning how to relax and trust it, realizing that once I did I would float.

My work is typically narrative, speaking of the things that I experience and surround me in my day to day life. I interpret these incidents using metaphor: imagery of things that mean something to me, but are also identifiable to the viewer. Although I personally may intend specific meaning and purpose to a piece, it is my hope that the work is flexible enough to allow individual interpretations by each viewer. I create art because it is the way I think, the way I share my thoughts, and the way that I strive to assist others in conceptualizing events in their own lives.
I work in clay and mixed media. Each piece hand-built, using techniques such as pinch, slab, coil or 2-part press molds into which slabs are pressed and the pieces assembled and altered. My work is typically finished post-firing, using a variety of mediums such as acrylic paints and washes, inks, wax pigments and metallic surfaces.

I was born in 1955, in Port Jefferson, NY. In 1977 I relocated to Alamosa, CO to attend Adams State College with the hopes of double majoring in Art and Special Education. After one year I had run out of funds, and rather than create more debt for myself decided to move to Denver and return to work in retail management, my previous career path. Several years, a marriage and two children later, I found myself yearning for the time to create art. I ‘dabbled’ and experimented, creating things for my own enjoyment. In 1992 I made the conscious decision to take my love of art into a more serious direction. This move towards being a professional artist was one that I had no reference point and began by researching the paths of other artists. This was the beginning - meeting and becoming friends with other artists, learning of other exhibition opportunities, etc. At that time I was working in metals creating hand fabricated jewelry pieces and found object sculpture. I worked in this medium for approximately 3 years while feeling pulled towards working in clay. I made friends with several clay artists along the way and loved their work and the possibilities that clay seemed to offer. In 1995 I was given a raku firing by a good friend, Bebe Alexander for my 40th birthday. That was it, I was hooked on this medium.

Anthony Hansen is a metal artist that works primarily with found automotive sheet-metal. Born and raised in northern California he graduated with degrees in Liberal Studies and Fine Art and received his teaching credential in Elementary Education. His work has been shown nationally at different fine art festivals and galleries.

As an artist, Anthony has focused on using found and reclaimed materials. He uses automotive sheetmetal because it has such character and warmth. Every scratch, spot of rust and faded patch offers visual texture and interest. Text and type, through the use of old signs and license plates adds a dimension of interest and implied storyline. He enjoys creating pieces that are a patchwork of the past and the present, a mixing of the bright and shiny, as well as the dull and faded. Every piece of scrapmetal and license plate has a story. He enjoys trying to weave some of those stories together into my own metal poem. Creating hearts out of found/reclaimed elements constantly reminds Hansen of the humanity that we all share, and how closely all of our different lives and journeys are connected.

Originally from Traverse City, Mich., Justin Hayward (b. 1980) now lives in Casper, WY with his wife and French bulldog. Hayward studied Illustration at Brigham Young University and earned his MFA from the New York Academy in painting. He also finished a course at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy in 2005. Justin is a full-time professor of drawing and painting at Casper College.

Hayward’s art training started early and has been very diverse. “Throughout my academic career, I have studied at many schools and privately with many renowned artists who have taught me different techniques and presented new ideas, and my work is representative of this.” In addition, he has learned a tremendous amount by copying paintings and drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
It was while completing his MFA in New York that Hayward caught the attention of galleries, competitions, and clients throughout the U.S.

I extract my artwork from the experience of travel - not of a particular place, but from the velocity of travel itself - its visual bombardment, and its alteration of spatial perceptions. While traversing the urban landscape via car or bus, this hyper-fluid viewpoint engages me. My obsession with my environs compels me to notationally sketch architecture, cars, trees, and urban clutter flowing by - capturing elements in a state of flux and removing them from their original context.

In my drawings and paintings, I invent ambiguous scenes and spaces by accumulating and compressing miles of space and time into one image. This process creates a dense layering of geography, reflecting the current condition of complexity, simultaneity and disjuncture in our lives and society. As traditional time/space barriers break down, the distance between us and our natural origins ever-accelerates. As the land is reconfigured to suit our ambitions, the environmental quandaries facing us are ever-accumulating.

I feel a connection with the 19th century tradition of the urban ambler, the "flaneur," aimlessly strolling city streets, most notably Paris. Walt Whitman, James Joyce, Charles Baudelaire, and Walter Benjamin were prominent among them - observers of the urban scene, writing about their experiences. Riding buses and continuously sketching different neighborhoods, parks, schools, warehouse/industrial districts, and strip malls - I delve into the drawing process while recording what I see.

The way of the world by horseback is a wonderful experience. Growing up in the beautiful San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, my love of horses began with a bareback ride on the beach. The horse and I rode deep enough into the water to swim. It was at that moment, when the horse and I were totality in sync with each other, that we became one. I will never forget this profound event. It has greatly influenced the representation of horses in my work.

Developing a close relationship with the painting happens during the creative process. The art and I communicate as I explore chance happenings through experimentation and discovery. Texture embodies the color and captures the energy I feel, guiding me as I venture to unveil the tranquil, graceful and powerful essence of the horse.

Seeing profound beauty in simplicity, Eric Thompson seeks to evoke deep emotion from the viewer. Eric believes “a painting needs to remind someone of something in their life that they have forgotten.” Summoning that recollection is what Eric’s paintings do. They invoke, as Eric observes, “a beautiful, haunting memory”.

Eric uses light and shadow to communicate a quiet mood through humble and ordinary subjects. As a child Eric would “search out a patch of light entering the room and sit there forever, in total bliss.” Direct sunlight on an object “brings me peace” he reflects. Eric says “that every one of my paintings is essentially a study of light or lack thereof.” There is a calmness in Eric’s paintings. As human beings, Eric observes, “we need more quietness in this fast-paced, complex life.” He believes “in a world of pop culture that seems to be anti-silence, people seek the stillness they need without even realizing it.” Eric’s treatment of light and shadow, coupled with the elevation of unassuming objects creates that peace.

He chooses his media based on the moment he wishes to portray. He uses watercolor, oil, and egg tempera to paint a variety of subject matter from landscapes to the human figure. Eric acknowledges that “discipline is a struggle and inspiration is a necessity for me to create my best work.” When a painting “ceases to inspire me during the painting process, I abandon it for another, for I believe that the spirit of a painting is essential.”

Eric has been painting in the Utah valley since 1989. His body of work is a visual journal of his 36 years of life and travels through the Western states. He’ll continue to explore and shed light on the simple, modest objects and moments in our lives, by painting them, capturing our spirit in the canvas.

A quote hanging in Eric’s studio is by Elbert Hubbard: “Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.”

After thirty years of working in clay, I have reinvented myself, as clay and fire has reinvented me. Although I owe my roots to traditional pottery making and apprenticeship, I awoke on e day to the desire to take a bow saw to my thrown work, to take it apart and reassemble it. In this exercise I discovered that my art can represent transformation. That is us all, we have the ability to reassemble ourselves, thus recreating a new expression from an “old vessel”. I expect my new work to be at once recognizable and yet to cause the viewer to question. It is my intention to invoke questioning, but not to disturb the origins of pottery making. I use Raku as a force and technique of firing because of its spontaneity, and because it adds an element of old and new. My forms are inspired by industrial architecture and by primitive dwellings. In fluencies include, Don Reitz, Val Cushing, Willem dekooning, Chojiro, Peter Voulkus and Mark di Suvero.

Paul Brigham paints intuitively, punctuating lush fields of saturated color with hand-drawn or silkscreened motifs. He is inspired by the natural world, and often borrows the silhouette of a sapling, flower, or fossil for his abstractions.

Paul's aim is to evoke the universe as a system of constant flux. Moment by moment, layer by layer, everything changes. By allowing us to excavate with our eyes the layers of paint that accumulate over months of work, Paul gives us a tangible record of time and transformation. Though inclined to draw boundaries between the elements that emerge as he paints, Paul invites chaos into his compositions as well, courting drips, spatters, and elisions.

Brigham studied at the University of Massachusetts and at the College of Marin. As an artist, however, he is primarily self-taught. Robert Motherwell, Asian art, haiku poetry, and the inherent mystery of nature serve as abiding influences. Paul has exhibited extensively throughout the Western states, and his work is in collections worldwide.

I believe there is a secret part of the self that hungers for adventure. Following the great pilgrimages of past eras, we too, seek the quest of something unknown as a way to invigorate everyday life. With the challenge of the venture, we may return to our old way of living with some new knowledge of ourselves or the world around us. Like our predecessors understood, the lure of discovery is compelling.

As a sculptor I seek to uncover this hidden desire for something new. I compose narratives in clay that give us a window into the mythical world of the traveler. Symbols from the nautical domain, such as maps and boats, are placed around clay figures. Each symbol is used to create a feeling of travel - arrival into an unknown place and departure from one's mundane experience. My mythological travelers portray the physical sense of travel as they may be seen peering through a large telescope or paddling through unknown waters, but the fanciful environment that surrounds them suggests this traveler is on an inward journey as well. The mental and spiritual aspects of the voyage become apparent in each sculpture.

Each clay piece is made separately and then assembled. Wood and metal are often included in the assemblages as a way to play contrasting surface textures off one another. The balance of the objects used in each piece is an important consideration when I am creating. I push the clay to look weightless and balanced, going against the very integral nature of clay and gravity. A balanced, weightless looking piece reflects the precarious nature of travel and all its unexpected challenges.

Allison Willingham believes every instant is as unique as a snowflake. Through her paintings you feel a cry to stop and smell the roses in an ever expectant world—the melancholy of moments lost and the anticipation of ones yet to be found. You can almost see the water running, feel the gentle breeze, and witness the blooming and wilting of flowers and trees in her landscapes and still lifes. She is drawn to the vastness of the forest, desert and sea and the confined spaces created by suburban life. Her images evoke contradictory emotions—the claustrophobic security of the backyard to the romantic nostalgia of her flower studies to the vastness and organized chaos of nature.

Vibrant colors thickly applied in energetically handled oil paint distinguish Allison’s expressionistic oil on canvas paintings. Patterns and textures ripple and weave throughout the images, drawing the observer to the artist’s interpretation of the world and its constantly changing reality of shadows, light and content. Her jarring use of perspective, willful distortion of forms and interpretative treatment of subject matter inform us that her statement is more than just a pastoral comment. It’s about the blurring of lines, both in the painting and our lives, that leave us wondering where one thing ends and another begins.

From large six foot canvases to small intimate pieces, Allison is poised and confident in her statement—a statement made with her signature vivid color palate and thick painterly brush strokes (always using a brush, never a palate knife).

After graduating with honors from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Allison left her New York and Boston childhood for the expansive Western vistas that inspire her work. She lives in Utah with her husband and three children.

Lane Bennion has been affected by many different influences in his life. The first painting he remembers was Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. He remembers seeing a small reproduction while he was thumbing through his high school textbook. He was so fascinated by the scene, he carefully cut out the picture to keep. At the time he didn’t know much about the artist, but he remembers the way it made him feel.

While studying at the University of Utah he mentored under artists David Dornan, Paul Davis, and Tony Smith. He later went on to graduate in Medical Illustration. Through the university’s art program he learned the technical aspects of how to construct a painting that would invite the viewer to participate in the scene, helping to “finish” the work. Bennion states, “The artist can set the scene, and present a few ideas for the viewer to ponder and dream about. A painting can be a dialogue or conversation between the artist and the audience.

Hopper’s “Nighthawks” worked in the same fashion for Bennion. He states, “The stage is masterfully set with powerful color relationships and a dramatic contrast between the warm inviting interior of the diner and the cool empty street outside. The four figures are mine to direct or control like game pieces, moving either backward or forward in time.”

Bennion feels that many movies, songs, and paintings seem to be afraid to ask the audience to ponder, study, or fill in the blanks for themselves. Bennion states, “ I love it when the credits begin to roll at the end of a movie and I say to myself-I don’t quite get it….I have got to go back and watch that again!” Bennion desires to create paintings that contain this collective thought process.

Errol Beauchamp, a highly stylized bronze sculptor, carves the clay with passion. The passion to create lines of undulating motion that emphasizes primordial forms and earthy textures, and the elegance and sensuality of the female figure. He also creates dynamic forms through layering clay before carving it, to allow the natural architectural forms to counter the man-made marks.

As a sculptor, Beauchamp defines his experiences of western landscape as a minimalist statement. He uses a graphic designer’s eye to simplify ideas into 3D forms of clay that will later become a patinated bronze in a public place or private residence. He lets the clay tell the story. He’s there to embellish and romance the visual and tactile experience of his work for all to see.

Errol is a past board member of the Art Students League of Denver, where he began his training in bronze sculpture. His first major gallery show was followed by three Invitational Sho