Eric Thompson

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 sense of calm 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.”

Zach Hixson

Living in Portland, Oregon, he enjoys widespread representation by galleries 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.

Adam Thomas Rees

Adam grew up in the West with daily access to undeveloped spaces. A curios child, he was motivated to find out how the natural world worked. Familiarizing himself with the organic processes and cycles of the animal and plant kingdoms, Adam developed a deep respect for the complexity of nature, which is reflected in the vibrant colors, and intricate patterns of his sculptures.
Adam learned how to form canes with polymerclay as a teenager. Based on an ancient Roman technique used in glass blowing called millefiori — the making of polymerclay canes combines a colorful modern art medium with a long and interesting tradition.
Struggling to find a creative outlet in his early twenties, Adam experimented with drawing, collage, painting, but was never entirely fulfilled until the rediscovery of
polymer clay: the opportunity for design and structure seemed endless. Now, more than ten years on he is pioneering his medium, constructing sculptures unprecedented in scale and color.
Not wholly representational, Adam’s sculpture straddles the real and the abstract. He says, “These forms embody the old and the new, the material and the ethereal: polymerclay is a completely new medium but the canes trace their history all the way back to early Egypt and the bodies are modeled after an animal’s real physical form but the skins, made totally from canes, captures their character, their strength and power, that set of traits we refer to as the spirit.” And just as every animal is an individual, so too, each and every one of Adam’s pieces is unique and no two will ever be the same.

Kari Kaplan Rives

I have worked in various media throughout my life, studying painting and glass at the School of The Museum of Fine Art in Boston, as well as the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. My training demanded that I be held accountable for honesty of purpose and possessing a truly critical eye toward the quality of the work, which are necessary for a lifetime in art. My subject matter has generally dealt with animals and figures – imaginary and real – secured in safe places. I am also intrigued by the concept of inanimate objects having feelings and an inner life.

In recent years my work has focused more on animals. They play such an important part in many of our lives, and I have always been drawn to them: the way they express themselves, their shapes, and the fact that they almost always forgive. In my current work, my concern is less with details than with the feelings that the animal evokes. I try to say as much as possible with the least amount of refinery, striving to keep a sense of life breathing from my forms. The tactile nature of clay provides a great opportunity for expressive gesture, and I prefer to leave the evidence of my touch, moving quickly to maintain a sense of physicality. My aim is that my sculptures convey the energy and essence of the subjects they represent.

My pieces are often fired repeatedly from high to lower temperatures, offering me a huge color palette to draw from and an increased depth and layering as a result. The process offers so many surprises: one never knows exactly what will come out of the kiln ~

Rebecca Wagstaff

My paintings are kind of self-portraits in still-life. I don’t look for things to paint, but rather paint what becomes—usually over time—compelling and necessary for me to paint. I paint pottery I own and have lived with, “treasures” my daughters bring to me, fruit from my backyard (and my childhood), flowers, assorted poultry and weeds that grow in my yard, and objects I have picked up while walking out in the hills. Though my paintings are often formal in composition, and imply geometry, I don’t calculate my compositions, but paint intuitively. The elements in each painting are symbolic for me—basically, I paint my life. Or, in other words, the elements of my life reappear as elements in my paintings—and those elements, which often happen to have universal symbolic meaning—always have personal symbolic meaning.

Lane Bennion

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.

Shirley Ruuska Brown

A switch from ceramic to mixed media sculpture was made about fifteen years ago when I found myself without a kiln for a couple of years. Experimentation with mixed media followed and grew into a unique technique using layers of papier-mache and a plaster/papier-mache mixture built up over an armature. The final layers of papier-mache are twisted into a string-like thinness and clay and found materials incorporated into the piece. Color and texture have become an important part of the final structure with some pieces becoming close to a sculpture and painting in one. I describe the work as a juxtaposition of imagination and reality with a touch of whimsy thrown in.

A.S. Batle

The investigative nature of Agelio's work may stem from his background in the sciences. He received a BA in Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Not wishing to pursue a career in science, he returned to his lifelong interest in art and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from California College of Arts and Crafts, graduating with High Distinction honors.
Agelio's artwork includes stage design, art installation, performance art and drawing as well as sculpture. His work has been seen in museums and galleries across the United States. The following shows are just a few highlights of the body of his work. In 1988 his early ceramic sculpture was chosen by the American Craft Museum (New York) to represent the best work in the country by artists under thirty years of age in the Young Americans. This honor acknowledged the importance of craftsmanship and attention to detail that still pervades his work today. In 1994 Agelio was included in a show of contemporary sculptures entitled Next to Nothing at San Francisco's Center for the Arts in Yerba Buena Gardens. His Volume of Laughter Collected While Being Tickled was a body-sized cylinder of transparent vinyl, filled with breaths of air collected from the artist's laughter. The fifteen art works unveiled at that show revealed a more playful and spiritual direction to his work. In 1995, Agelio lead the Brick Project, a collaborative installation with the San Francisco Arts Education Project. Unveiled at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's opening ceremonies, twelve hundred local children constructed an impromptu miniature cityscape from wooden "bricks" that they prepared at their school sites. After class discussions and interactions, each child painted a brick filled with their own vision of "home". Participants and viewers walked through the resulting cityscape.

Various Glass Artists

Deborah Brinckerhoff

Never one to complicate the inspiration process, Deborah Brinckerhoff cuts through daily conflicts to contrast exuberance and ephemeral power.

Dream-like images appear to be colorful escapes from the humdrum life of raising a kindergartener and a toddler. But deep in the frivolity-laced images are moments of substantial deliberation.

A native of Vermont, Deborah graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been displayed from coast to coast and in Europe.

Terri Lindelow

Terri Lindelow’s distinctive handcrafted jewelry is the product of an internal reflection born from observing life and the environment around her. Her work manifests from conceptual to tangible subtle, organic shapes and natural materials.

Terri’s jewelry is quite simply a work of art. Each elegant piece is individually made so that no two are exactly alike. Whether you are looking for the perfect gift or a unique accessory, you will value the exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail in each piece.

Michael Hudson

From a young age Michael always had the urge to create. Michael was introduced to glass in 1999 while attending Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In 2003 he received a Bachelor in Fine Arts and Design with a specialization in glass. After graduating Michael moved back home to Louisville, Kentucky where he helped to start the University of Louisville glass program. In 2007 Michael founded Hudson Glass where he strives to bring nature and design elements together in creating one of a kind glass objects.

My paintings navigate and comment on the historical space of 1950’s America as seen in discarded snapshots and slides. Paint and brush become the tools for possessing a photograph and the memories of people and places. The camera captures a moment of frozen time, but by slowly remaking the photographic image into a painting the viewer is compelled to reconsider what is depicted and to search for its inherent meaning. In my work, the discarded snapshot is manipulated and given new life in a new context in order to comment on the ever-changing American identity. 1950s images possess a stylistic look bound to a specific and recognizable place in history, a time in our collective American past that made us who we are today.

It is the glimpses of the everyday – the shape of a chrome bumper, the stylized design of kitchen objects and period fashion, or the odd positioning of figures in personal snapshots- that remain connections to real people and speak to a collective national identity born in post-war America. In many ways they are icons; instantly recognized representations of the decade’s ideological connotations. I am actively exploring this ideology as both American history and pedigree. Through painting, archival images of the everyday become a means to explore the mystery of the past and its implications for the present.

My art is a relic of my existence.

The process by which I generate my art is simply by living through the experiences of my life. My work takes place simply through being, and my own inherent desire to express my creative energy through a physical medium. I am working on art during most moments of my life. From the small to the large--- all behavior, emotion and interactions are the energy making up and appropriating themselves into the pieces. My work is a lifetime of these appropriations.

Marketa Sivek's work is part of many private and corporate collections. Oprah Winfrey has recently acquired a painting from the Dress Series. Miss Sivek's work can also be found in the collections of Tom Hamilton of the band Aerosmith, Deloitte & Touche, and The American Restaurant Association.

Miss Sivek's work has been featured in Chicago Home magazine, CS Interiors, ELLE Decor, as well as on the Rachael Ray Show, I-90 North, WGN, and Fox News Chicago.

Marketa Sivek was born in Vsetin, Moravia (Czechoslovakia). She grew up under communist rule and experienced the influence of the Soviet Union on the freedoms and lifestyles of the people of her country and her own family. Marketa was accepted to Charles University in Prague to study Archival Science. After the peaceful Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism, Marketa made a decisive move to immigrate to the United States and later on dedicate her life to painting. She is a self taught artist living and working in Chicago. Her art is represented by galleries in Chicago, St Louis, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Marketa spends considerable time traveling to distant destinations in search of an understanding of the visual representations od inner and outer experience. Her painting series are a constant evolution of the growth of feelings and sensations emerging from these newfound experiences.

Marketa's hope is for her patrons to experience her paintings as part of their lives. She hopes that they will enhance the emotional aesthetic that color and texture bring to one's life.

The smallest things are often what connect us as human beings. The calming presence of a sibling or friend, moments of anticipation, tenderness, and personal triumph are realities we share. These paintings are based on memories, both personal and borrowed. They are an attempt to explore a collective human experience. Details and features remain ambiguous inviting the viewer to seek something of themselves in the work. The figure (human and animal) has provided a generous vehicle for color, form and surface to evolve. Paint and wax are layered, dripped and scraped to create a sense that the subject is still emerging…
still ‘becoming’.

Education

1998 BA Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN
1997 MS Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN
1990 BA University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

Awards and Fellowships

2004 Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Fellowship in Rural Ireland, Ballycastle, Co. Mayo, Ireland
1998 Merit Award, Centennial Student Union Exhibition, Minnesota State University
1997 Best of Show, Prairie Lakes Regional Exhibition, Arts and Heritage Center, St. Peter, MN
1997 Best of Show, and Merit Award, Centennial Student Union Exhibition, Minnesota State University

Laura Robson and Benjamin Beamer are excited to present their special brand of fun-to-wear jewelry! 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 Niche award finalists and they 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, and 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.

Kit Carson
Carson grew up on a dude-ranch in Arizona with supportive and energetic parents. He later attended the University of Oregon where he studied engraving, drawing, and sculpture. Influenced by his childhood the themes in his work include the southwest, cowboys, Art Nouveau, desert animals, dragonflies, and the Day of the Dead.
Kit Carson creates one-of-a-kind jewelry hand-engraved in sterling silver and 18k gold often with colored gemstones. Carson’s work includes earrings, necklaces, rings, buckles, cuff-links, and bracelets with messages such as “Life is Good” and “Don’t Fence Me In.” Carson uses “rusty relics” found in old ranch dumps, abandoned mines, and tractor graveyards and transforms them to give them new life and function. Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, his work pays homage to the romanticism of the 1950s American West. Kit Carson currently lives and works in New River, Arizona with his wife, artist Aryana B. Londir.

After many years of jewelry casting and fabricating the shift to larger pieces seems a natural progression. My work in steel with ceramic or stone elements is fabricated in my studio in southeastern Arizona. I enjoy discovering and exploring new materials to use in combination with the steel and love searching for rusted metal treasures to add to tables, dividers, and mirrors. Inspiration comes from the forms and colors of the desert and the multi-culturalism of the people of the Southwest.

Sketches are translated into welded steel utilizing tubing and rod that is bent, or sheetmetal cut and formed, or I sometimes just start with a heap of weird rusty parts and start welding. The welded metal pieces are then ground and sandblasted prior to patinas being applied. The patinas are applied hot or cold and colors are layered by brushing, sponging, or spraying; then the pieces are sealed, waxed and buffed. Most finishes are suitable for outdoor use with some maintenance. The birdbaths are produced to function in an outside environment. Production of the ceramic bowls became necessary to complete the birdbaths. I hand build the bowls and have begun sculpting ceramic elements to add interest to other pieces. The bowls are glazed with colors to complement the bases and fired to over 2000 degrees for durability.

Ron, my part-time studio assistant, keeps me supplied with metal cut to my specifications and prepped for welding. He also applies some of the base patinas, seals and waxes the finished pieces, rolls the clay slabs for bowls, and, helps get me on the road.

Hand Carved Wood Work

Mitchell E. Robles is highly regarded for his bold blend of abstract expressionism and contemporary Native American design. His powerfully primitive and vibrant images are both a revelation and a celebration of his Chumash Indian ancestry. "My paintings are my personal quest for my cultural and spiritual identity," says this 11th generation native of Santa Barbara, California. Since early childhood, his love of history and the outdoors led him to continually explore and photograph indigenous ruins and sacred sites in California and throughout the Western United States. It was through these explorations that he developed a deep sense of connection to his own ancient lineage which is expressed powerfully in his art.

Robles, a nationally recognized and accomplished artist, has exhibited in galleries throughout California, as well as galleries in Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Park City, and Jackson Hole. In addition, his art has been featured in Southwest Art Magazine, the Ritz-Carlton Magazine and textbook publications throughout the United States. Robles' art has also appeared in several Sundance Film Festival documentaries and in 1997 was the featured artist for the American Library's annual celebrity READ poster, A Global Newspaper Rock.

His ceremonial War Shirt series is inspired by the traditional ceremonial was shirts of the Lakota and other Plains tribes. He has created these three-dimensional images as symbols of tribal honor and power. Robles uses the rich textures of layered canvas and heacy impasto to evoke the feeling of buckskin, and decorates his shirts with the authentic ornaments that were sewn onto original war shirts: porcupine quills, horsehair, beading and feathers. Pictographs and petroglyphs from many Native American sites througout the southwestern United States are also embedded in the paintings as a statement of the artist's wish for unity and connectedness among all tribes.

His contemporary expressionist Longhorn Series features Southwestern-style Texas longhorn cattle that confront the viewer with a profoundly masculine soulfulness. The wide range of symbols and imagery in his Rock Art Series dance with a vitality and mysticism tht entice the viewer into a magical spiritual journey.

These paintings emanate from a sense of remembrance of a
landscape or a specific event that with time have become hallowed
places in my memory. My paintings often begin from a single color
or form. They are reflective of the world around me contrasting the
beauty of nature and the way in which we perceive it. Reducing
the landscape to a transcending image resonates deep within my
methodology of painting.
Movement and fragmentation coalesce to create a sense of
wholeness in the finished piece. Within the layers of each piece are
expressions and implications of elements that I find in nature. Our
connection to the land is undeniable, and by reducing and
simplifying the landscape I feel that I can present a different
perspective of its power and mystique.

Founded in 1979 in Corning’s historic Market Street district, Vitrix Hot Glass Studio is regarded among America’s prominent contemporary glass studios. Glass Artist Thomas P. Kelly, owner of Vitrix; along with Robert Kelly, business manager; glassmakers Manny Quinones and Mort Klepacz, and a few dedicated others, are committed to uncompromising quality and craftsmanship and the satisfaction of our customers.

When Tom 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, Tom had the opportunity to handle and examine the work of Frederick Carder.

After working for Mr. Rockwell for three years, Tom’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, Tom found himself blowing glass full time with Thomas Buechner III at Vitrix Hot Glass Studio. At Vitrix, visiting artists such as Lino Tagliapietra and Fritz Dreisbach educated and influenced him.

Over the next ten years, Tom’s glass working skills and aesthetic sensitivity continued to develop. When Buechner made the decision to leave glass to grow in another direction, Tom was ready to take over ownership of Vitrix. “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”. Tom has been integrally involved in the production of works that have been published and exhibited internationally and can be found in fine stores and galleries across the US and in Canada, Europe and Japan.

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

Madacsi Metalwork uses both traditional and contemporary blacksmithing techniques to design, develop, and create original pieces in steel, copper, bronze and other materials. As in traditional smithing, a piece is first heated to temperatures of up to 2400 degrees and worked by hand on an anvil with a hammer and other tools. After forging the elements of a piece, they are assembled by either welding and/or using traditional joinery techniques such as riviting and mortis and tenon. Once the pieces are put together, there is considerable time invested in the finishing work. Finishing work includes filing, grinding, sanding, wire brushing, sandblasting, galvanizing, and painting. Oftentimes, this attention to the details of finishing can equal the time taken in the forging and fabrication process. We utilize both modern and traditional tools and methods in our work, believing the best result is achieved through their complimentary use.

Emily Rossheim's bowls are so exquisitely luminous that you don't know where the bottom is. You want to put your finger in to make sure that there really is depth to the vessel.

In her own words, Emily says, "My decorative vessels are studies in simplicity and grace of form, the juxtaposition of textures and colors which enliven each other and the luminosity of soft, non-reflective surfaces."

“It’s my desire to present objects familiar enough to evoke personal associations, yet subtle enough to raise questions in the mind of the viewer. Both draw the viewer in, to verify their initial impressions through touch and visual investigations. Is it light? It is heavy? Is the depth actual or an illusion?”

Emily slab-constructs her bowls of white earthenware clay and leaves the inner and outer surfaces entirely matte. The sheer inner color comes from airbrushed underglazes. The result is a surface that seems to absorb light and intensify it into a matter glow. “I bring a graphic eye to a tactile medium. Appreciating the intrinsic earthy, organic quality of clay as a material, I treat the surface with texture that invites touch, and the edges with a spontaneity that suggests motion and vitality. Of equal interest to me is the exploration of the use of visual effects, which belie the nature of the material and serve to create an atmosphere of mystery. Thus, a simple ceramic form takes on a living presence.”

The sheer simplicity of her bowl forms, and their inner vibrancy, seem to echo Rossheim’s own life. She works in solitude in her private studio, yet is surrounded by a supportive community. The slow pace of life in her Vermont town suits her. “I’m meditative, inward-looking. I think my work reflects that. It’s spare. Every detail is taken care of. I really am a person who puts huge amounts of time into a piece. I like detail.”

The archetypal vessel is Emily Rossheim’s muse and the results of her efforts in the studio are truly inspiring. Her vessels are “studies in simplicity and grace of form, the juxtaposition of textures and colors, and the luminosity of soft non-reflective surfaces.” They will lift the spirits daily.

Glass artist Josh Gelfand lives and works in Los Angeles, where he operates Revolution Glass Studio, specializing in hand-blown Italian-style glass pieces for interior design, architectural lighting and custom commissions. The one-of-a-kind pieces created by Gelfand celebrate the beauty and functionality of glass art.

Gelfand takes a precise, personal approach to his work, and has focused for several years on a uniquely Minimalist style. Each piece produced at Revolution captures the intrinsic properties of glass: light, form, fluidity and color.

Prior to opening Revolution Glass Studio in 2002, Gelfand trained in glassblowing at San Francisco State University, Pilchuck Glass School and Penland School of Crafts. He has been the recipient of several scholarships in glassblowing and in Summer 2001 apprenticed with artist Italo Scanga. His work is exhibited at galleries throughout the United States.

Gelfand is personally dedicated to teaching the art of glassblowing, and was a popular teacher during his three years at Public Glass in San Francisco. He continues this tradition by offering group classes and private lessons in his own studio.

A select collection of original art, some hard to find, by various artists.

Tommie Rush is a well-known glass maker. Her specialty is acid-etched, hand-blown glass, often vases. Reminiscent of the Art Nouveau period, glassmaker Tommie Rush creates vessels ranging from small vases to spacious bowls. Her translucent sandblasted surfaces make the work appear to be illuminated from within. Her work is in the collections of the Mobile Museum of Art and the Bank of Nashville Corporation. Her exhibitions include the Ringing Museum of Art in Florida, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

“I want my work to convey the human touch and a link with nature. I work in the vessel format because I enjoy designing and using well-made functional objects. There are many considerations that come into play when I start to work on a new series such as the color palette I will use, the interplay of form and the surface treatment and ultimately how the object will be used.”

“I feel we live in a world that is becoming less personal and I view my objects as a link to something handmade and very individual and personal. I want my pieces to be held, touched, and used to make the everyday more enjoyable. The pieces of course stand on their own as objects. I also have to confess to the fact that I am an avid gardener, especially of flowers, and I am selfishly on a quest for the perfect vase for every flower.”

“Each piece that I make is unique, no molds or preformed parts are used, and I feel it imparts to each vessel and individualistic feel. It is a combination of timing, teamwork, skill of execution and many hours spent developing a vocabulary with my medium that enables each piece to appear effortless.”

“I am an abstract painter. Simply said, I paint what I feel not what I see. It needs to be raw, never before seen, and completely original in thought. When looking at something for the very first time, as is the case with abstract art, we get to add body to our cognitive, visual and emotional collection. I think that is quite remarkable.
I have lived in Utah, Arizona, and New York. I studied art at the University of Utah and Parson’s School of Design. I take enormous pleasure in traveling; being able to take personal part in other people’s lives and their cultures, spend time in as many museums as possible and simply absorb as much as I can that’s out there… increasing my appreciation and passion for all art.”

-Carlisle

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.”

Cathy Broski includes both archetypical and personal symbolism in her work. She chooses to create vessel forms, because they have several levels of meaning that she finds intriguing to explore. Broski states, “Figures, houses, boats, and pottery are all vessels that contain things we hold dear, and sometimes those things we would cast off.”

Broski strives to instill a story of a journey into each piece, by adding wear and tear marks. To accomplish these telling marks, she uses a layering technique. Layering slabs and coils, and then working back into the piece by carving. The base color is then applied and the piece is fired. After this first firing is complete, Broski applies and wipes off a combination of terra sigilattas, slips, stains, and glazes, and then fires again. She repeats this process until the desired affect is achieved.

Receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kansas City Art Institute in 1990, Broski has continued to work in the ceramics field in many capacities. Teaching pottery classes, instructing workshops, publishing her work in my magazines, and participating in art festivals, Broski is very involved. She simply states, “Life is good.”

In the artist's own words :

"While pushing through the complex process of creating significant art, I believe it is the lack of direction that proves to be the most favorable in the pursuit to create meaningful and transcendental art. I find infinite meaning in my work by being attentive and observant of my surroundings, while following my subconscious intuition. My sculptural compositions resonate the human condition, past, present and future, in arrangements I envision as metaphorical and symbolic of the struggles and wonderments of life. I involve aspects of modern design, architecture, technology, and the systematic growth of the human spirit to illustrate these interactions. Occasionally, this undefined path presents new discoveries that in turn, present new questions. These works are the evidence of my continuing travels on this path."

- Christopher Schulz

In the artist's own words:

"Despite the fact that art was always my calling, I earned a law degree in 1989. Immediately upon graduating, I asked myself, 'what was I thinking?' and became a painter and sculptor.

"The goddesses arrived in 1997. To this day, they emerge from my head in every imaginable shape, size, and color: each one unique. For the first time, the art I made looked back at me, and for that reason, I continue creating and have never looked back."

- Harry Leaf
San Francisco, CA

In the artist's own words:

" The West – it’s mountains, wildlife, glaciers, horses – it’s Remington and Russell – it’s big sky country. The West is a place rich in history and images. Rich in subject matter for my work.

After 25 years of image making I wonder if I live here because of the work I do, or if I do the work I do because I live here. It’s an interesting question for which I don’t have an answer. I do know for certain that my art is a direct result of my experiences in this place I call home.

Peaks I’ve climbed, wildlife I’ve pursued, the sound of the wind and the drums. The smell of a lodge campfire, people I’ve loved, these experiences make up my cache of inspiration. I don’t believe I could have created the art if I had not first lived the life.

The West – her people and her places, are my muse."

- Marshall Noice
Kalispell, Montana

Marshall studied at the University of Montana and the Banff School of Fine Arts in Banff, Alberta, as well as an independent study with Ansel Adams.

Jack Morford was born in Saginaw, Michigan. As children, he and his older sister drew from the Walter Foster “How to Draw” books for hours at a time. He attended Chicago Academy of Fine Arts after graduating from High School. In addition to his schooling in Chicago, Jack earned his Associate Degree from Ricks College in Idaho and has a BFA & MFA from Otis Art Institute of L.A. County. After teaching Art at Ricks College for 7 years, Jack owned an Art Gallery in California for 4 years.

In the artist's own words:

"These paintings represent much more than just the act of rodeo. They reflect the changes in the American West, the slowly dying Americana. The image of the buckling cowboy is becoming a cliché. It is increasingly used as an advertising ploy like the bronco on the Wyoming license plate or the Marlboro Man. Yet, it is still a part of life to many people living in the Western United States. As an outsider, I do not want to make fun of the rodeo riders and their audience, but I also do not want to stress the heroic quality of this act.

I portray the rider and the animals in their struggle to overpower each other. The bulls become unwilling actors performing a learned act. The riders are their smaller, supporting acts, flopping in the air just to finally end up on the ground.

The spectacle confirms for us the value of life flashing in front of the bull riders’ eyes as they buckle crazily in the airy silence of the arena. The audience is as much part of the performance as the animals and riders. There is a chaotic charge in the air, fueled by the exhaust of diesel trucks and the smell of animals and human sweat. I like to catch these moments in my paintings.

I use photographic documentation as a reference. It represents a single fragment of life frozen in time; the moment of danger when a few seconds are a lifetime. Photos show the essence of movement--a quick glance, losing one’s grip--in shimmering colors, making the shapes dissipate into the air. The flash of the camera flattens the image, smudges the edges of shapes, while pulling out certain details that catch the actor in a primal moment of fear. Looking at the pictures later serves as an affirmation: 'We were here.'

I am more interested in images of cowboys falling than in their glorious eight seconds on top. The poses the camera catches are puppet-like, disjointed and comical; not those of a strong man in charge of his destiny. The body becomes vulnerable and breakable. The rider's fall represents a moment of open possibilities, full of disbelief and unreality."

- Lenka Konopasek

Bay Area glassblower and master craftsperson Guy Corrie created Union Street Glass in 1980 with the help of his wife and business partner Leanne. Based out of Richmond, CA, Union Street Glass studio is defined by its skillful integration of old world glassblowing techniques with contemporary design concepts.

Rick earned his Bachelors degree in Art with an emphasis on Glass and Valerie was awarded her degree in Human Services Administration and Political Science. Both went on to Southern Illinois University where Valerie completed Masters coursework in Educational Psychology and Rick earned a Master of Fine Arts with a specialty in Glass.

Between 1991 and 1994 Rick was Instructor and Artist in Residence at the Penland School of Crafts, NC. He also served as a teaching assistant at the Pilchuck Glass School, Washington State, and Artist in Residence at the Appalachian Center for Crafts, TN. In 1995 Rick was awarded a SAF/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship.

Rick started working in glass in 1978, Valerie in 1984. They established their own studio in rural North Carolina in 1991.

In 1991, the Becks were among only 100 glass artists selected from among thousands by the Corning Museum of Glass to be published in the prestigious New Glass Review 12. Since 1992, the Beck’s work has been featured six times in American Craft Magazine, as well as Glass Magazine.

Their work is included in numerous private, corporate and public collections throughout the world, including Dutton Lainson Company; Federal Reserve Bank, NC; Glasmuseum, Denmark; Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, WI; Mint Museum, NC; Johnson Wax Corporate Collection; and McDonalds’ Corporate Collection

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 an artist’s work, if it doesn’t, you’re painting decorations.”

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.

The most prevalent memories from 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 direction 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 in 1994 where I studied metalsmithing. My artistic career started by making jewelry scale sculpture with exhibitions at the Susan Cummins, Mobilia and Mia Gallery's from 1995 to 1998. In addition to a few private collections, my work was published in Metalsmith Magazine as well as Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing by Tim McCreight.

After this period my focus turned towards raising a family and finding another artistic outlet that was more accessible. With the encouragement of my painter sister-in-law I started to paint.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Zach Hixson Jewelry

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.

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.

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.

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.

Michael Lancester/Barbara Harnack

Barbara Harnack and Michael Lancaster celebrate 35 years together as a couple and more than 30 years as studio partners and collaborators in art. While Barbara’s work is figurative and hand built, Michael works with a potter’s wheel. Their collaborative work brings together the best of both worlds, while maintaining a rich expression of both individuals. Known for their Raku sculpture, they also work in mixed media as well as painting two dimensional work. Raku, a 16th Century Japanese technique of Rapid firing allows them to express the interaction of the elements with clay and empowers their bright and rich palette of finishes and surfaces.

Michael Lancaster Artist Statement

“I work on the potter’s wheel making forms that I can alter and reassemble. I am inspired by old industrial shapes, old equipment and farm implements. I fire most often using Raku as it enables me to give a patina of age and antiquity.

As I see it, industrial objects were once shiny and bright, with the aura of promise. Then after years of use they are worn and discarded, usually in a field or an industrial lot. It is there, in the arms of nature that they gain a second life and with a new patina, acted upon by the natural elements, they become beautiful works of sculpture. My aim is to give the feeling of those elements and parts, not to replicate them, but engage the viewer in a dialogue with such things to find that kind of beauty and enjoyment. Influences include Mark deSuervo, Hans Coper, Don Reitz, Willem de’Kooning and my uncle, John Warren, who could build anything out of anything.”

Barbara Harnack Artist Statement

“My work often starts with a slab of clay that I upright and sculpt. I am searching for the person within my medium. Each piece of clay seems to let me know who wants to come out. I draw on my clay, mark it, rip it, and construct it. Once this process is complete I fire it (first) in the electric kiln. It is then ready to be glazed. The glazing is my expression in painting. I glaze and paint the piece on and off for several days, until its myriad of colors and layers leads me to believe it will transform into something more alive after the final firing.

The main firing is American Style Raku. The pieces are placed in a kiln and fired rapidly until they glow red/orange. We open the kiln and place them (still red hot) in a steel container and pack them in straw. The process becomes an explosion of smoke and fire which gives it a patina of antiquity. Each artwork shows that moment of the fire and smoke. The result is a gesture of the foreverness of the human spirit. In the end it’s as if I have met a character for the first time. It is my aspiration that I can share that personal feeling with others through their experience of these characters. Influences include Marc Chagall, Pierre Pascal, Antique toys, Children’s art, folk art, and William Steig“

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.

In the artist's own words:

"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."

- Carol Spielman

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.

Allison Willingham believes every instant is "as unique as a snowflake." Her visceral landscapes and still lifes awaken within the viewer a desire to stop and smell the roses; to feel the melancholy of moments lost and the anticipation of ones yet to be found. One can almost see the water running, feel the breeze blowing, and witness the blooming and wilting of flowers and trees in Willingham's paintings. She is drawn to the vastness of nature's elements--the desert, forest and sea--and the confined spaces created by suburban life. Her images evoke contradictory emotions—from the claustrophobic security of the backyard, to the romantic nostalgia of flower studies, to the 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.

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 Shows and gallery representation in Santa Fe, NM and Colorado. His work is in private collections in Paris, France and Colorado. The response to his work in bronze encourages his newest exploration of combining glass and bronze. By creating these forms, he invites you to look inside and around corners, as you redefine your perceptions.

Years of experimenting with different mediums and seeking new ways of expressing his creativity has led Davoud Khosravi to the wonderful world of wood. He is passionate about working with wood not only for the beauty and mystery of the material, but also for the challenges it presents, the invention of new techniques, processes, and tools to create objects. He incorporates several techniques in his work: inlaying, laminating, turning, carving, and sanding.

The many small pieces in each form are cut and aligned in stunning medleys of grain, color and pattern. Each form is hand sanded or shaped and polished on a large lathe then varnished to a high gleam. The sensual shapes are purely from his imagination. Khosravi uses a variety of North American woods such as maple, cherry, walnut, oak and intensely colored exotics: ebony, purple heart and padauk in his creations.

Clay Wagstaff loves the trees, rocks, sky, and clean dry air that surround him in Southern Utah. He resides in an old pioneer home near the rim of Bryce Canyon National Park, located in the rural town of Tropic, Utah.

Painting continuously, Wagstaff attempts to balance all the pictorial elements into a harmonious whole by employing Greek orthicons-mathematical formulas developed by the Greeks for use in architecture and art. Theses formulas are believed to invoke a strong emotional response in the viewer, and depend heavily on the idea that strict order and complete disorder should blend together to create a “wholeness.”

Besides employing these Greek orthicons, Wagstaff intends the elements in his paintings to be metaphoric representations, but does not feel it necessary for the viewer to understand these personal symbols in order to enjoy his work. Most importantly, Wagstaff desires that the viewer feel a strong sense of peace while exploring his work.

Completing his BFA from Brigham Young University and his MA and MFA from California State University, Wagstaff has been a professional painter for over fifteen years. He and his wife, Rebecca, also a painter, have recently been featured in Southwest Art Magazine.

Valentine is a Utah artist, who captures the personalities of mans best friend using acrylic. Her simple and fun style perfectly describes each dog, making the viewer smile.

A descendant of Utah Pioneers Sue Valentine grew up in the eclectic avenues area of Salt Lake City. Sue began painting in 1981 and is a member of the Utah Watercolor Society, having served as past President. She is adept at painting with various media including oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal and pastel. Valentine enjoys the process and discovery of art making. Art allows her to capture the beautiful side of life.

Valentine studied under numerous mentors, including Paul Davis and David Dornan, taking art classes at the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College, BYU, and Snow College. She also studied art in Italy during 2005.

"I began making clay towers and shrines in the spring of 2001 after a trip to Mexico. Inspiration came form the colorful and creative forms found in the local artwork and architecture. Soon, my work evolved and I started making Prayer Towers."

Included inside each tower is a folded piece of paper for writing down messages or prayers of one's choice-giving a special purpose for each sculpture.

In the artist's own words:

"Ten years ago I left a successful career as an artist in advertising and began exploring wood as an art form. I studied under nationally known artists at Anderson Ranch Art Center and Penland School of Crafts to learn carving techniques and woodworking skills. Soon after, I found myself creating colorful aspen sculptures and handcarved panels. By carving shapes and textures, I create abstract imagery on wood. The textures invite viewers in for a closer look. From a distance, the bold designs dance and play across the surface of the wood. Sanding away color to expose the wood leaves a warm, weathered, comforting feel, while my choice of vibrant colors, shapes and patterns are just plain fun. My work is whimsical, organic and has a truly unique style that is refreshing and often brings a smile. Wood allows me to use my imagination to its fullest potential as I strive to create imagery that pushes the medium."

- Mary Williams
Wildwood Art

Mary's aspen sculptures have led her to explore other wood surfaces to act as a canvas for her designs. Carved patterns layered with acrylic paint are applied to custom made wood panels, rubbed to expose the raw wood, and finished with either a satin or high gloss urethane. Even antique skis become works of art with Mary’s bold colors and textures.

Melissa Chandon is strongly influenced by the environment. Growing up in California, Chandon draws inspiration from her surroundings, often sketching and drawing the landscape. Her paintings act as a visual journal to her life. Chandon states, “I consider my paintings to be moments of expressed inspiration.”

Using the technique of applying multiple layers of red acrylic paint to canvas, Chandon makes the surface perfectly smooth. This red under tone gives her paintings subtle warmth that glows through the picture. She applies thin coats of oil paint combined with turpentine, thinned into a watery-like mixture, finishing the painting with a rich varnish.

Chandon perfected her art through study at the University of California Davis, mentoring under Wayne Thiebaud, a well-known pop artist. Through Thiebaud’s influence and her own personal style, Chandon has created what she likes to refer to as “abstract realism”.

Wayne Thiebaud comments, “She has developed an effective synthesis of abstract and representational elements in her works. This gives the works an intensity and raw graphic power to behold.”

My work is personal in that it reflects my life experiences as perceived through the filter of a specific religious background and set of spiritual beliefs. However, my intent in creating sculpture is more inclusive-to encourage a dialogue with the viewer concerning his or her own sense of spirituality, something, though often communicated differently, emerges as a significant cross-cultural commonality.

This most recent body of work evolved through the exploration of material, process, and relationships of contrast that exist between translucent and opaque forms. I am drawn to steel as a medium for the rich earth tones created on its surface through oxidation, a process with strong metaphoric parallels to the natural process of physical entropy by which we as humans are also bound. Glass intrigues me because of the way it appears to receive, contains, and gives off light-a substance often associated with spiritual themes. In an effort to encourage the viewer to focus his or her visual investigation on the metaphorical relationships that connect these contrasting materials, I have restricted my use of form to the relatively simple, and geometric.

It is my hope that the work might provide the viewer both a catalyst for the contemplation of the significance of spiritual experience, which he or she has amassed along his or her own life journey, as well as a time and space where questions concerning these spiritual accumulations, and how they relate to those of fellow humans, tough possibly not definitively answered, might at least be asked.

In the artist's own words:

"What we cannot see…we can feel-hear inside. A universal language that speaks silently.

The world is exposed to evil and goodness. Where there is darkness, there will always be light. Where it is ugly, beauty will somehow arise.

In war-death-and love I paint in layers to represent this language. The “Horse” being a metaphor for beauty…the light…that somehow arises in the End.”

My background as an artist started when I was a child in Texas painting with my father in his studio. His creative edge and guidance influenced me from an early age. My studies have taken me all over the globe from an Art League in Puerto Rico to New York, Italy and France. Man’s link to horses is ancient. So, it is no surprise that as an artist I am passionately intrigued with their spirit. I love the horse’s spirit, the clairvoyant energy that envelopes them; their eyes evoking an unseen aura of awareness - ancient, timeless. I try to convey that in my paintings.

Painting hypnotizes me and time is forgotten.

My paintings combine oil, mixed media collage with vintage papers, newspapers - pages out of old history books (centered on the west) and music sheets. Splashes of mixed media paint over the subject create an energy and spirit through each piece. Each has its own story. Finally, I apply a clear resin on top to protect the subject and give the abstract feel of a glass sheet or falling rain. Some paintings contain hidden messages and poetry buried within the collage. The blocked words express the deep feelings each work brings to me."

Patricia Kimball can be found most days in a classroom sketching a model from life. Eagerly, she tries to capture the essence of movement and the body in motion-free falling in space and time. She relays that we are all free falling and likes to refer to the quote by Edmund White, “We move so slowly we imagine we can hold onto certain things. If we fell faster we’d call out in panic. But our speed is slow if constant-some things and people are falling at the same rate. Relative to them we don’t seem to be moving at all. But then something we are holding onto accelerates and slides out of our grasp, and suddenly we glimpse the black night rushing through the gap.”

Kimball began her professional art career after graduating with a Masters of Fine Art from the University of Utah in 2000. She earned the first place Juror’s Award at Springville Museum’s Spring Salon in 2005. Her work can be found in many public and private collections. Kimball continues to teach, learn, and show in numerous galleries.

Portraying the figure in a free falling state demands the mastery of drawing the human form. Kimball uses her solid drawing skills combined with her use of color, line, and shape, to convey the lightness of her subject matter. The viewer catches a glimpse of time in slow motion, only left to wonder where these figures will fall.

In the artist's own words:

"I was born in 1962, in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a mother of various artistic inclinations and a father who enjoyed a career as a 'B' movie character actor/writer. I found my self growing up in the television and film industry, to which I inevitably fell into. Since 1980 I have worked as a costume supervisor on numerous commercials, films and television shows.

In 2000 a wonderful friendship with another artist lead me into clay, and the rabbit hole just seems to continue. I have since then had the great fortune to have other wonderful artists share and bestow me with some of their precious secrets, and knowledge. That is pretty much the extent of my 'training.'

I have always been interested in the face and figure as a subject. Anything that I made or drew as a child had to do with faces. Figurative objects somehow hold a special magic for me. Although technically inanimate, they are typically narrative, and therefore take on their own life. I tend to bestow them with iconic honor and love to imagine little stories about their existence. They tell me secrets and teach me many things.

My newest work is a combination of my passion for paint, color, texture and the delight I have found in working w/ clay, it also allows me to incorporate certain text and poetic ramblings that I’ve become attached to.

My pieces will almost always hold slices of my subconscious and are a window into my personal sense of humor and an exposition of all that I must confess." - Kina Crow

Joel Bless first began working with hot glass at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the early 1970s in the School of American Craftsmen’s newly opened glassblowing program. Having been interested in lighting from an early age, he found it natural to incorporate glassblowing and light. By 1977, he had built his own hot shop and was producing vases and lamps, which he sold through craft shows around the country.

In 1985, together with his wife Candace Luke-Bless, he moved to St. Peters, PA, set up a larger glassblowing studio and showroom, and began training other artists.

During the late 1980s, Joel explored a unique technique of vertical casting he eventually used for Glasslight Menorahs, Shabbat Candlesticks, and Seder Plates reflecting different aspects of Jewish faith. He uses the same technique for other candlestick designs, as well as vases. "Creative processes build on each other," he says, "fostering the evolution of new ideas and techniques."

In 1993, Joel began combining glass-blowing and dripping to create freeform spun bowls. These led in 1995 to the graceful Two-Lip Vases, Ribbon bowls, Splash Bowls, and Ring Bowls, all constructed using cast glass with spinning and off-hand techniques.

Joel currently makes a wide range of hand-made glass lighting products in a variety of styles and is always working to develop new techniques for creating functional art.

When viewing James Baker’s mixed media works, people are usually struck by the aggressive lines, vibrant color, and texture instilled in each piece. Every color featured within the piece, seems to resonante off each other as if in contention and harmony at the same time. Baker builds up the panel by thick applications of gesso and acrylic paint. Before it dries completely he works back into the piece, using a metal pottery needle, digging out his aggressive lines.

These lines were influenced by his background in printmaking and encouragement in drafting. Baker studied at the University of Utah and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997. While attending the university, Baker was strongly influenced by one of his professors, David Dornan. Dornan suggested to Baker to explore printmaking because of his aggressive style, and this suggested has stayed with Baker’s style. After graduating from the university, he traveled Eastern Europe, finding new ideas and interest in his art.

Baker states, “I have always been drawn to all of the beauty that I see around me. I am quick to study the colors with my eyes, the texture with my fingers, and the composition with my heart. My paintings tie me closer to the beauty I perceive and develop out of ideas that symbolize growth, rebirth, peace, and whimsical hope.”

My work explores subject matter that is often considered ordinary, uninteresting, or insignificant. Specifically, I am drawn to subjects that include various kinds of machinery, man-made objects, and letterforms. Most of these subjects exhibit evidence of an intriguing past, such as the possibility of heavy use, human and environmental interaction, or years of neglect. I want to visually engage the viewer to take a closer look, to see the subject’s unique qualities, to contemplate its history, and to feel the emotion and life in that which is generally overlooked, unnoticed, or discarded.

Shill studied at the University of Utah where he received his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1996. After graduating he continued to produce art, exhibiting at the Springville Museum of Art and the statewide exhibit for the Utah Arts Council. He has received numerous awards for his work, including first place in the 2005 Spring Art Show in Utah County.

Christopher Shill takes ordinary subject matter and creates images that are both thought provoking and visually interesting. The content of his paintings include objects in which the focus is a section of the object rather than the item. These sections create forms that divide the picture plane, creating a visual dialogue between both shape and content. This is the point for Shill where the creative process becomes a repetition of both observation and response, until a harmony exists somewhere between order and chaos.

Joseph Carter remembers as a child his strong connection to objects, where in his mind salt shakers would fly and items had their own personality. Carter brings this connection into his present artwork. Visualizing the object and its’ many characteristics, the scratches and dents that tell a story, rather it be a simple pencil or as complicated as a blender. When painting Carter approaches each object in an intimate matter, because being up close allows him to know his subject and see its unique charm. By adding all its characteristics, the object becomes valuable and more than just ordinary.

To create his extraordinary pieces, Carter first draws the object on canvas, taking the time to get all the exact details needed to record the subject matter perfectly. He then proceeds to paint in the values, by only using one color. After putting down the values he goes over the top of them with color. This process takes hours, allowing each thinly painted layer to dry, but Carter finds it necessary in order to accurately capture his subject.

Carter finds that his career in Electrical Engineering was similar to painting, in that each has a process in which he enjoys examining intricate pieces to create a whole. He has always enjoyed painting and considered studying art in college, but decided to go the route of Electrical Engineering. After years of working in this career, Carter decided to pursue the arts. He went back to college, studying at the University of Utah, and eventually obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 2000. Carter’s work is now part of the Springville Art Museum permanent collection and has been acquired by various businesses and private collectors.

In the artist's own words:

I enjoy the outdoors—plein-air painting is a lot about surviving the elements. Feeling the heat or cold, the bugs, the wind, all somehow become translated into the paintings. I also work in the studio, but all my work is based on time I have spent outside.

Keeping my work fresh, I have found, is a challenge. I often worry that it will be hard to continue to be a landscape painter in a place where you have lived and worked all your life. But I have found that what used to seem to be a limited resource is, in fact, quite limitless. The more I paint, the more options for paintings are opened up. While I am constantly looking for new motifs to paint, I have also noticed that working from the same places over and over again has infinite possibilities--in that the light changes throughout the day, as well as throughout the year, and offers endless subtle changes in mood and personality.

I find myself re-examining many things that I have worked already or passed by in times past and finding that there is something there that I didn’t see or maybe was not capable of expressing before. I find it very interesting to try to understand what it is about a place that causes me to stop and paint. For the most part, I stop because I like what I am looking at, or there is a certain color that jumps out at me. I also believe that there is a certain geometry and/or rhythm that may be some of the underlying influence.

As I strive to move forward in my work I try to understand and express these things. I am constantly looking for the balance between the abstract quality of a satisfying paint stroke verses the accumulation of paint strokes that add up the visual expression and hopefully then to some kind of an emotional experience for whoever stops to look.

Angela Bentley Fife works with the viewer’s perception of stereotypes, roles, and expectations that surround us and shift with time. Fife questions cultural ideals and why emphasis is placed on certain characteristics both male and female. Bentley Fife often chooses to visually express these ideas through her feminine still life paintings.

Being surrounded by many sisters in her family, Bentley Fife’s paintings often take on a feminine quality. She enjoys including dresses and items that portray a certain aspect of a woman’s personality. In creating her paintings Bentley Fife constructs the pictures on panel, layering gesso underneath with broad brushes, which create texture in the background. After the gesso dries she begins to draw in graphite and slowly moves onto painting over the drawing, creating a value study. Covering the value study with thin glazes of liquin and oil paint, gives the work subtle gradual tones. She lastly works into the piece using solid thick brush strokes to add visual impact.

Graduating from the University of Utah in 1996 Bentley Fife has pursed her art career diligently entering numerous art shows. Her work was recently featured in Utah’s prestigious Springville Museum’s Spring Salon show. She has also been featured in Art and Soup’s juried show and participated in art festivals around the country. Angela Bentley Fife continues to create in order to fulfill her “underlying drive and urge to paint, because of the physical process as well as the emotional development of a thought.”

Christopher Perry often sees striking images in his daily life, and from these images he creates his paintings, using his visual memory. By using his memory, his paintings carry a dream-like essence- similar to our own memories of distance faded images. Using the process of reduction, Perry applies layers of paint, and then gently wipes them away, exposing the color underneath, creating a blurred edge. He then lastly coats the finished piece with a high-gloss varnish to increase the vibrancy of the colors.

Perry has perfected his technique through earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1993 from Marylhurst University in Oregon. He then proceeded to exhibit at the Butters Gallery in Portland, Connextions Gallery in Sausalito, and has participated in arts festivals around the country. Living on the urban growth boundary in the Pacific Northwest, Perry has observed how much nature has changed from its original form. Whether it be cropping of trees to create an empty space, or just the day-to-day atmospheric changes, Perry sees a diminishing margin between human progress and nature. He looks at these margins and sees the impact of the elements that are being constantly added and subtracted. The more he observes the borders, the more the transformations of nature and city reveal themselves. As Perry internalizes these transformations, the boundaries become increasingly indistinct. Perry states, “Environments have been altered to the point where the edges have blurred away. Throughout my work there is a constant theme of transformation.”