Gallery quality artists and craftspeople from the nation's best art fairs, craft shows and art festivals:
Norm Darwish - Hand-colored Photography
Norm Darwish's specialty is delicate and often whimsical hand-colored photographs. Using traditional printing methods the images are hand printed in his darkroom and individually hand-colored producing one-of-a-kind images.
A technically-challenging combination of fine photography and hand-painted enhancements, Norm's award-winning work offers glimpses into today's life, nature, and our Victorian past unavailable except through the eyes of a master photographer.
May 2014 - Kina Crow - Sculpture & 3D Mixed Media
Kina's work involves both clay sculptures, and two-dimensional mixed media panels. Each piece is hand built utilizing coil, pinch and slab construction methods. She may also employ glazes that she makes herself in the studio. This work is a narrative of her view of human behavior and the constant challenge of living with a wandering mind.
After an "accident" with a ball point pen that decorated her childhood home, the child in her mind waited for 30 years, patiently planning an escape from a long “time out,” which cleverly forced her to begin creating her own characters and speaking her truth. Odd little clay people let her tell her story of being human in sculpture and mixed media paintings.
January 2014 - Ron Roland - Contemporary Landscape Painting
Ron not only likes trees and color, but he likes perfectly shaped trees and beautiful, rich color. The Florida painter describes his work as contemporary landscapes in acrylic impasto style on birch panels, noting that he has a “love affair with color and movement...I want my paintings to evoke participation. I want the viewer to be plunged into the scene by the simple act of viewing.”
The trees are unnatural, topiary like, but they tower over the landscape in gigantic scale to show their perseverance. They are both majestic and dreamlike, with a synthetic sensibility and at the same time out of human control.
December 2013 - Bonny Hawley - Mixed Media on Wood and Canvas
Living on the Gulf Coast of Florida surrounded by water, these images explore the mysteries of the deep. Floating images barely seen peer out at the viewer and draw you nearer. What is the media?
This is true mixed media. Bonny is not limited to a specific tool but continues to explore and push the various materials to see what will come out onto the canvas or wood that is the palette that contains her work. The work consists of acrylic mixed media collage that is created with layers of papers, prints, metallic paints, asphalt, colored pencils.
November 2013 - Barbara & Rick Umbel - Jewelry
These jewelers live by the coast where many mornings you'll find them walking the beach collecting the sea urchins that are the inspiration and basic structure of their jewelry. Back in the studio, they use traditional metalsmithing techniques to create abstract settings that show off the natural beauty of their beachcombing finds.
Each shell is the beginning of a unique piece of jewelry, designed to complement what nature designed. The pieces are hand fabricated using 14kt gold and sterling silver, and set with natural seashells, freshwater pearls, and gemstones. They use traditional metalsmithing techniques to create abstract settings that show off the natural beauty of their beachcombing finds.
September 2013 - Maureen Roberts/Michael Lublin - Wearable Fiber
The minds behind the classic Sex and the City coat and Grammy dresses for a long list of celebrities, are husband-and-wife duo Maureen Roberts and Michael Lublin. They work primarily with silk charmeuse, silk chiffon and rayon satin combining tie-dye and batik techniques using artisanal painting that results in an instantly recognizable style that has come to define their label.
Long flowing dresses topped with spaghetti straps all have a unique tie-dye pattern that are reminiscent of watercolor paintings.
All of the collections pieces are designed by them, hand dyed by them, and they make the patterns by hand, with muslin, the old fashioned way at the table, no computer.
July 2013 - Elle Heiligenstein - Mixed Media/ Recycled Objects
Elle's "Characters" - are fun, whimsical pieces of art made from very mundane materials with unique personalities all their own. They are modeled around people and animals and viewing them you can definitely envision them living in a magical place somewhere. A pool ball becomes a head, a brownie camera, a body, old wrenches, arms, cookie cutters, feet. They are "Fine Art For The Young At Heart."
Solder, nuts and bolts and a blend of adhesives keep all of the pieces together building the Character, then acrylic paint to apply embellishments gives them even more personality and individuaism. Each is a unique, one of a kind work that will never be duplicated.
June 2013 - Rebecca Hungerford - Contemporary Pewter
What is exciting about the work of Rebecca Hungerford is that she takes this modest metal and creates exciting contemporary objects. It is not your great-grandmother's pewter! Her long apprenticeship of creating traditional pieces has led to her current work, amazingly modern objects that push the boundaries of the materials and imagination.
Who knew pewter could be organic and feminine? Rebecca's enchantment with the medium, plus the hammering, soldering, welding, etching and engraving the pewter yields exactly that. She loves to color it and add pearls and semi-precious stones to it and describes it as "jewelry for your home."
April 2013 - Archie Smith - Wooden Musical Instruments
Archie Smith's mission is to create museum quality instruments in which the visual beauty of the wood, the haunting sound of the strings, and the subtle feel of the vibrating wood combine to offer multisensory stimulation.
These one-of-a-kind instruments are not only functional but are works of art created to be heirlooms that will give pleasure and joy of art and music to following generations.
In the tradition and spirit of the fine Old World Craftsmen, he works alone with woods with “character” that “tell” you that they want to be part of an instrument and sing.
March 2013 - C. L. Cunningham - Mixed Media
Cunningham's mixed media drawing involves the intricate layering and mixing of 28 different materials, including graphite, colored pencil, gouache, iridescent pastel, crushed and pulverized glass and school chalk applied to handmade watercolor paper.
Self taught, Cunningham considers this effort, plus an ongoing study of art history, the most valuable training available in addition to countless hours of actual work. She describes such discipline as "...the clarity of experience."
January 2013 - Geoff Coe - Photography
A former freelance commercial photographer and photography columnist, Geoff's move to Florida changed his life. Kayaking in the quiet rivers near his home in Florida he became fascinated by the behavior and beauty of the birds.
After loading his expensive camera and telephoto lens into a kayak he spends his hours shooting, then researching the species and dreaming of the next quiet morning when the next great photo will appear before him.
November 2012 - Leslie Emery - Painting
Leslie's current work is reverse painting on sheets of acrylic, a technique she developed after years of using acrylic as a palette. Looking at the old palette at the layers of paing she was pleased by the clarity of the color as it came through. Not just in terms of the actual physicalness of painting, which is part of it, but what happened visually when the paint was dry. This view enabled her to break out into a completely different way of painting.
"My work was getting stiff and predictable and the reverse painting opened up a spontaneity that was getting lost in my older work. There is a kind-of "blindness." Each layer is painted behind the previous layer only to be fully revealed when the painting is turned over and viewed from the unpainted side. This whole way of working has brought me back to a sort of "roots" of painting."
September 2012 - Chris Dahlquist - Photography
By employing the best characteristics of both eras, she creates anachronistic images that are metaphors for the “in-between” places in our lives. The ones where we must be mindful to appreciate the subtle beauty and richness that quietly reside there.
Her work stops you in your tracks at an art fair with its strong composition and the subtlety of her subject matter.
July 2012 - Marti McGinnis - Felted Fabric Art
A lifetime of exploring, living the expected life and finally choosing the unexpected and expressing it exuberantly in an outpouring of color, Marti's current body of work focuses on the ancient art of fabric felting with a decidedly modern twist. Her self-styled "happy art" reflects her love of texture, coloration, friendly animals, cartoons, writing, designing -- this girl does it all! A Renaissance woman? Maybe so.
With a decidedly new-folk feel she hand dyes and blends her own compilations of all the soft fibers she can get her hands on such as merino wool, bamboo and tussah silk. She needle felts all manner of useful and purely decorative pieces. Colorful, durable, waterproof and light as a feather - the perfect medium for outdoor art shows!
June 2012 - Karen & Jim McCollum - Photography
Specializing in fine art photography, Karen and Jim travel the world taking photographs that capture the subtle nuances of the towns that they visit. Their current body of work is a photo documentary of the John Lennon Peace Wall in Prague – a collection of images spanning eight years. The images are vibrant, colorful, inspiring and thought provoking.
In part the photos are a documentary of that revolutionary spirit and a testament to love and peace. On another level the graffiti-filled images are modern art to fill any contemporary art lovers soul.
April 2012 - David Bjurstrom - Pencil Drawings
Known primarily for his work in graphite pencil, David Bjurstrom is well regarded nationally for his imaginative and highly detailed drawings of a broad range of subjects. '“I don’t like to classify my work into a particular genre. While I often work in what might broadly be called “western art”, my subject matter is far wider than that. I would really rather my collectors see the work for what it is and for what it touches in them rather than being classified into one particular style or subject.”'
A recognized master in the medium of graphite, David will surprise you with what is possible using only a pencil. On his technique, David explains, “While many artists draw with an emphasis on lines, I use light and shadow—contrast—to delineate surfaces, much like a painter uses color. In that respect, my approach to drawing is more like painting."
February 2012 - Jay McDougall - Contemporary Wood Sculpture
Jay McDougall’s wood sculpture is produced in the classic reductive method where material is removed to reveal the form, much like the process used to carve marble. Jay strives to cut away all that is ephemeral to yield only that which is essential.
Wood is his medium as a carving material for its intrinsic warmth and life. All of his pieces are carved from a single block of material.
All of the work is carved and does not involve any lathe work, yet another feature that solidly positions McDougall’s pieces in a very select group. All of this contributes to the common occurrence on the part of many who are first introduced to his work of mistaking his material for stone or marble.
January 2012 - Lynn Fisher - Ceramics
Lynn Fisher's work is sculptural, decorative, varied and entirely unique, reflecting the
traditions of hand built potters throughout time. Its fanciful nature is a result of a childhood steeped in studying Army survival manuals, forestry and a belief in fairies. Each piece is entirely handbuilt from leaves, enmeshed in clay, fired, glazed and waxed.
If you have a love of the romantic you will be "lost" in her booth at an art fair with the delightfully imaginative shapes of her work.
December 2011 - Brian Jensen - Painting
Brian Jensen's paintings show a deep affinity to illustrative art from the 20th century, depicting homes, iconic cars, motorboats and motorcycles depicting an idyllic American life. His roots in graphic design are clearly apparent with a clean contemporary look totally created by Brian whose hands-on emphasis includes the wood working to create the complementary framing.
August 2011 - Ginny Herzog - Architectural Art & Mixed Media
The architectural collage work done by Ginny Herzog is a combination of watercolor and photography infused with her lifelong interest in the elements of geometric design found in architectural drawings.
She thrives on a combination of art fair collectors and commissioned site specific work for homeowners and corporations. Working from images taken on visits to a client's space she develops one-of-a kind pieces that reflect their setting.
July 2011 - Nancy Strailey - Wildlife Drawings
Nancy's one of a kind drawings are created using colored pencils on hand-made papers from around the world. She studies animals at sanctuaries and preserves, and most recently through trips to Africa, in an on-going exploration of her place in a 300,000 year long continuum of animal and cultural image-makers, that began with the earliest people.
Meet her at an art fair where she will enthrall you not only with her fine imagery but her tales of adventure and misadventure as she travels through Africa to capture endangered species with her imagination and art supplies.
June 2011 - Carla Fox - Metalsmith
With her dad in his workshop Carla learned a love of tools and how they can work for you. Behind a sewing machine, her patient mother taught her always-impatient daughter Carla the gift of meticulous craftsmanship.
As a result Carla says, "I have become part artist, part scientist – perfecting my craft through trial and error, creative thinking, and dogged problem solving. Every finished piece of jewelry is built from many smaller pieces of metal. Gold, bi-metals, silver, and copper sheets are cut, hammered, filed and soldered. They go from 2-dimensional building blocks to 3-dimensional forms." Textured layers of color, diamonds and pearls are used with restraint. Each piece of her jewelry holds quiet surprises - gifts to those who seek them out in the details.
May 2011 - Beth Crowder - Pastel Paintings
Beth has been a full-time artist since 1975 . Until 1990, I was primarily a portrait artist. I've been doing the art shows selling landscapes, since 1990 and have not had a job since the minimum wage was two bucks an hour. Being an artist is the best job." Her pastels reflect her life in rural West Virginia, but even more they are universal reflections of an idealized life in a pastoral America. Artists spend long hours on the road as they trek from show to show. Beth's work is continually fed as she travels.
"I see beautiful places almost everywhere I travel to exhibit my work, so my subjects are of many parts of the US and Mexico. What interests me is the scene that seems everyday and yet evocative of somewhere remembered or not yet seen."
March 2011 - Eugenie Torgerson - 2D Mixed Media
An artist who is continually reinventing herself in different media, Eugenie describes her
present work as 2D Mixed Media. In the mix you will find paper scraps, digital images, handmade paper, steel plates, birch wood, pastels, textiles, rag paper coated with aluminum oxide for starters.
A few years back she taught herself bookbinding and box making techniques which brings the work to a 3D level and incorporates the skills she has acquired over her years as an artist allowing her to continue exploring new media for new work. On her website you'll find pastels, drawings, book objects and screenprints.
February 2011 - Deborah Banyas & T. P. Speer - 3D Mixed Media Sculpture
Many of the artists who have been successful in the art fair business are part of a couple, a husband and wife team who turn all their energies to nurturing the creative spirit in one or the other. Few though are truly collaborative. Deb and T.P. are one of those rare combinations who have used each other's talents to create a body of work. T.P.'s strength has always been in graphics, Deborah's has always been color and texture.
Working together they have developed a collaboration that incorporates their individual skills resulting in their signature mixed media pieces. All works are mixed media wall pieces entirely made by hand from stuffed cotton fabric, polymer clay, metal and acrylic and exhibit that something special that says to the viewer, "you've not seen this before!"
November 2010 - Marina Terauds - Intaglio Printmaking
Bringing her background in printmaking, book illustration for fairytales and studio animation for films to the U.S. from her native Latvia Marina's exquisite etchings and mezzotints have found an enthusiastic audience at the nation's art fairs. The images draw on the experiences of her youth and her fascination with old engravings and pen and ink drawings. The content of her compositions comes equally from nature and her imagination with the main themes being nature and fantasy with elements of symbolism and surrealism.
She says, " Traveling is my favorite part of this business. USA is unbelievable beautiful country, and I would never see so many amazing places if I have some regular job." We are so fortunate to have her with us. Follow Marina's developing work at her blog: www.StudioTerauds.com
September 2010 - R. Michael Wommack - Pastels
Finding his way after art school during a recessionary time led Michael into learning airbrush doing murals on commission on walls, vans, race cars and anything else that would hold paint. Although horrifying to his friends his work caught the eye of architect Robert Venturi that turned into a 25 year relationship with his office, leading to projects that included a 80' shark mural on the outside of the Camden Aquarium. Through this time he continued doing his own work, which was sold through galleries and art representatives.
Changing times and gallery closings have led him to art fairs where you can find his latest work, drawings made from soft pastels that are inspired by dreams about his childhood with a strong source of light. These are images of suburbia that are deliberately ambiguous allowing the viewer their own interpretation of what it means to live in American Suburbia. The colors in the dreams were incredibly vivid, and it turned out pastel was a perfect medium due to the pure pigment used in making them.
August 2010 - Mark Traughber - Drawing & Mixed Media
Do not expect to find the same media and expression of ideas in Mark Traughber's art fair booth year to year. Trying to pigeonhole Mark as an artist is not possible. Viewing his work one sees that the work is constantly changing, and his body of work over the years is varied in techniques and themes.
Drawing is his first love and a medium to which he often returns. His obvious fascination with line itself and the simple elegance and endless expressive potential is evidenced in his drawings. Lately he has been doing a lot of mixed media work, adding found imagery into paintings via collage and transfer techniques. Spray paint has become a favorite medium, with which he creates and use stencils to shape the work.
Beyond the nation's top art fairs he mixes the marketing of his art with gallery representation and producing art for his website and etsy.com.
July 2010 - John Leben - Digital Painting
A man with many careers involving art and technology, John's current body of work starts with pen and ink drawings, using the computer as an art medium and incorporating the Photoshop, Painter and Art Rage programs. His grasp of technology along with his art degrees in painting and printmaking combine to create imagery that is clearly the result of a long interplay between the two.
The technique he used initially for his stairway drawings is almost identical to comic book art. The painting is made up of a detailed black line drawing with flat colors in between the lines. He starts with a digital photo, or a combination of photos then creates the composition with photographs. Sometimes a single photograph, sometimes several photos cut and pasted together.
May 2010 - Valerie Hector - Beaded Jewelry
Valerie's widely coveted beaded jewelry not only wins top awards at art fairs around the country and she is also a noted scholar and historian, equal parts maker and researcher. Her passion is figuring out how to put beads together, and looking into how other people put beads together.
The beads are sourced from all over the world and woven together by many intricate techniques and supported by an underlying armature. She has made 16 trips to China to study ancient beadnetting methods, then reverse engineers what she finds to teach herself new ways to design her jewelry.
She is the author of The Art of Beadwork: Historic Inspiration, Contemporary Design and her designs are featured in publications that showcase the work of master beadworkers.
March 2010 - Amy Flynn - Mixed Media "Fobots"
A "victim" of the changing economic times Amy Flynn has taken her career to the streets! Illustration clients lacking Amy's twin loves of flea markets and robots (shopping and creating art) has coalesced into turning scrap into robots bringing her to the top art fairs in the country. In her studio a pile of junk can become a body or a head. She starts adding and subtracting stuff until it just looks “right”. This can take minutes, or it can take months.
She says, "I’m soooo much happier now making my new little metal friends. And that’s something that never would have happened if things hadn’t first gotten so bad. I keep hearing that the Chinese characters for “crisis” and “opportunity” are the same. I looked it up—turns out, they’re not, that’s just a myth. But they SHOULD be."
February 2010 - Nels Johnson - Photography
The photos of Nels Johnson clearly reveal his deep Florida roots, reflecting his life growing up in sun-drenched Florida. Nels says, "I love the water and do a lot of work along the Gulf, especially the Florida panhandle. When I'm shooting my photos I try to capture the feeling that you are right beside me and I look closely at the relationships between colors and look for the designs in nature."
November 2009 - Linda Chamberlain - Mixed Media Painting
Linda's seemingly sweet imagery is full of icons discovered in childhood: moons, trees, hills, boats and endless blue skies while the dark underpainting gives depth to the ideas underlying the paintings. "Tangible objects connect us to our mortality. Childlike figures lead us on the path of our own introspective journey. Man’s fascination with his surroundings is examined within these confines."
An art fair participant since 1978 her media has moved successively through weaving of women's clothing to doll making, mixed media assemblages to her current two-dimensional work available as greeting cards, giclee prints and one of a kind paintings.
September 2009 - Bruce Holwerda - Painting
Bruce's paintings are a blend of primitive design and machine helping to express energetic poses with special attention to the portraiture. Their cool graphic nature and originality of thought stops people in their tracks at art fairs and brings him his fair share of awards and notice. After more than forty years of drawing he still prefers creating to most other forms of relaxation.
Of his fifteen years doing art fairs he says, "I realized that talking with others about my art was rewarding and helped my work improve. I also understood the possibility in actually making a living at doing the thing you love."
July 2009 - Madeline Kaczmarczyk - Ceramics
Her pottery is slab-built low-fire white or terra cotta clay objects that are variously functional and sculptural. The surface is airbrushed with matt glazes, often fired up to five times for an interesting glaze surface. Some pieces are embellished after firing with mixed media, including thousands of seed beads.
Her pottery career includes not only participation in art fairs since l975 but also she is an assistant professor in clay, manages a studio, consults, is regularly interviewed by arts publications and displays her work in a wide variety of invitational group exhibits that include the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum.
June 2009 - Daryl Thetford - Photography & Digital Art
Daryl's photographs are straightforward captures of Americana, mostly from the rural South. His digital art is built on this base, layering additional photographs onto them and thereby transforming them into something complex, richly textured, and painterly.
About his Americana inspired work he says, "My influences include vintage matchbooks, posters, postcards, graffiti, and pop artists Rauschenberg, Johns and Warhol. My goal is not to present nostalgia, but to revisit existing artworks and then re-vision them into a wholly new and original form.
May 2009 - Ginny Herzog - Architectural Art, Mixed Media
The architectural collage work done by Ginny Herzog is a combination of watercolor and photography infused with her lifelong interest in the elements of geometric design found in architectural drawings.
She thrives on a combination of art fair collectors and commissioned site specific work for homeowners and corporations. Working from images taken on visits to a client's space she develops one-of-a kind pieces that reflect their setting.
April 2009 - Robert Bridenbaugh - Oil Paintings
With a passion for color and a love of light, Robert creates landscapes that transcend reality. He combines impressions from actual scenes with modified sketches to make personal images that highlights the atmospheric aspect of nature.
The subject matter of his work revolves around light, mood, and water. The early morning, or late evening light is what he tries to capture in his paintings.
Robert lives in Michigan where you are never more than five miles from water. When viewing his work you are caught by the reflections found around the water. Influenced by the Fauvists and by modern landscape artist Wolf
March 2009 - James Eaton - Sculpture
James Eaton creates unique, fanciful, painted aluminum weather vanes and whirligigs, which are suitable for either exterior or interior use. His pieces incorporate expertise gained from a comprehensive art and design background especially in the use of color, materials and processes. He has been a practicing artist/designer for over 30 years.
His objective is to create unique objects that are enjoyable to be with for a long time. February 2009 - Kathrine Allen-Coleman - Mixed Media Painting
& Scott Coleman - Watercolor and Drawing
This month you get a two-for-one, the work of a couple active in the art fair world for many years. Kathrine is known for her innovative mixed media painting and Scott embraces traditional watercolor as his media.
Kathrine's current body of work is her "dress series", mixed media paintings where she basically "glues" a dress to the canvas and then paints over the whole thing, sometimes embellishing it with stitches and beading.
Scott has been working in watercolor for approximately forty years. Watercolor is considered to be the most difficult painting medium but he embraces the excitement of not really being in control that comes with this medium. He loves working with paper and transitions easily between drawing and painting.
December 2008 - Pamela Hill - Functional quilts pieced and quilted of silk and cotton
Each quilt is individually made, one of a kind and often a special order designed to enhance the space in which it will be displayed. Made to be used as bedcovers, though they are frequently hung as art pieces as they do have extensive internal and external construction to render them as durable, everyday, functional pieces.
November 2008 - Lynn Krause - Pastels
If you live in the Midwest you have undoubtedly seen (and hopefully purchased) the fine work of Lynn Krause of Woodstock, IL. Lynn's pastels have been exhibited at the nation's art fairs since 1967.
Pastels are pure pigment with no liquid binder that can cause discoloration. Pastels from the 16th Century are just as bright today as the day they were painted. This quality is what drew Lynn to the medium. The colors are rich and warm, touching your senses with their vibrancy.
July 2008 - James Parker - Photography
"Listen to the land, " is what Jim Parker tells viewers when asked how he gets his striking images of prairies, mountain ranges and abandoned architectural artifacts. As the son of a Western historian, Jim grew up around ghost towns and old mines. His father gave him a camera early on and taught him the basics.
Years spent in the advertising business honed his eye for carefully composed images. "Years of reading the light and the weather tells me where to go and when to go...coming into a new place for the first time gives you a fresh perspective that's totally different from shooting near home."
May 2008 - Steve Uren - Woodworker
Steve Uren specializes in original, custom-created pieces of furniture and art that includes beds, dressers, desks, tables and hutches. He primarily uses high figure domestic hardwoods that are purchased from a sustainable forester in his neighborhood the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and enjoys the challenge of crafting a special piece from your a customer's salvaged wood.
Each piece of furniture or artwork is an original - from the design to the hand-crafted creation process.
April 2008 - Debra Groat - Heirloom Seed Jewelry
In our ecologically-challenged times it is very exciting to feature the work of Debra Groat, who not only creates art but grows it! Debra's jewelry is handcrafted from certified, organic, hand-harvested and heirloom seeds grown on her family's centennial farm in rural Michigan.
“My jewelry has a story to tell. Most of the seeds I use have a documented history; some we grow for their beauty, as their past remains hidden.”
February 2008 - Ted Gall - Sculpture
Ted is a master of both welded and cast work. His contemporary, representational pieces adorn parks, corporations and private collections. Looking at his monumental work one doesn't get the sense of the playful man who created it, yet slow down and look at his signature enigmatic bronze heads and you see his offbeat imagination at work, influenced as much by Monty Python as by Giacometti, and as open to serendipity as to creativity.
"I knew when I was very young that art takes commitment and a willingness to learn," says Gall. Urged by his teachers to pursue industrial arts rather than liberal arts, he learned to weld, work with power tools and think in three dimensions--all of which, in fact, would come in handy later on in his career.
December 2007 - 
Dolan Geiman - Contemporary Art with a Southern Accent
Armed with a silk-screen press, a studio brimming with wood, and enough paint and fabric to swath his Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park, Geiman creates aesthetically alluring yet functional works—many of them imbued with a rustic, folkloric sensibility.
He terms it "reco-design." It stands for reconstructed design, a process whereby he disassembles something ordinary to get all of its useful parts, and then reconstructs them into a work of art, culminating in a body of work that's unexpected, yet warmly nostalgic.
October 2007 - Ray Jones - Fine Wood Boxes, Since l982
Ray says, "I enjoy making wood boxes, turned or otherwise. A wood box should be just that: wood. So, as much as possible I use only wood in my boxes, including the hinges, fasteners, and drawer slides. I'm fascinated by wooden mechanisms, and the intersections of various geometric shapes.
The tremendous variety of woods that exist in the world fascinate me. I try to use sustainably harvested, plantation grown, salvaged, or otherwise "environmentally friendly" woods whenever possible.
September 2007 - Don Ament - Photography
Don Ament has been known at art fairs for his fine large format color photographs handprinted in his own darkroom. He is one of those fortunate people who has been able to turn a serious avocation into a profession.
Coming from the demanding background of a commercial photographer he has turned his love of nature into a means of support as well as self expression. His portfolio of images is varied but mostly is dominated by sweeping landscapes, exposing the planet at its most beautiful.
August 2007 - A.E. London - Endangered Species Art
Anne’s work and concern for endangered species is the heart of who Anne is. Making her way on her own you may meet her in an airport in Nairobi or Johannesburg as she travels to study the subjects that give meaning to her life. Her body of work contains paintings, drawings and etchings that tell the stories of the animals that she has met.
July 2007 - Kathleen Eaton - Painting
Kathleen Eaton's paintings will take your breath away, an exciting body of work that encompasses urban life as few see it. Kathleen's vision captures architectural spaces that pour light out into the twilight manifesting a quietness and solitude that are both intimate and detached.
Her subject matter is the city, most specifically Chicago, but truly, many American cities reside in them.
March 2007 - Ray Hartl - Photography
Ray's dedication to the 4X5 view camera as a creative tool lends itself to a slower, more thoughtful approach to the medium.
As more and more traditional photography and its skills are lost to posterity because of the digital revolution it is particularly satisfying to find men like Ray who carry on this master craftsmanship and who continue to explore with these age old tools, large format cameras, enlargers and wet darkrooms.
February 2007 - Patricia Hecker - Mixed Media
Patricia calls her work "Low Dimensional Wall Art," assemblages that mix color and texture which allows her to "paint with shapes." The work is based upon inspiration from many sources, from textiles to exotic woods to industrial materials, all with minimalist undertones.
She has several intriguing bodies of work worth your exploration
January 2007 - Michael Weber, AWS - Watercolor Painting
Have you seen Michael at the art fairs? Have you seen his luminescent paintings? You will remember it if you have. Using traditional still life forms there is a freshness and radiance to the colors that is his alone. This man is a demon for painting, disciplined and creative, always at the easel. Lucky for you he leaves his studio to attend the nation's art shows on weekends.
Dale Rayburn - Paintings, Monotypes & Etchings
Dale Rayburn is well known for his Southern-inspired fine paintings, etchings and monotypes that he exhibits at top art fairs throughout the country.
His wife, Mamie Joe, a printmaker, usually exhibits in the next booth.
Cynthia Davis - Hand-altered Photographs
Cynthia Davis uses a unique, personally developed technique to alter her Polaroid photos into haunting but beautiful images of the world around us.
Twenty years of work with this process have made her a master of the craft and her work is widely collected.
Jim Wilbat - Glass
Jim Wilbat's work is known for its sensual use of glass in colorful and creative applications. The combination of color, form and delicate hand blown glass creates delicate one-of-a-kind works delightful to own.
Dawn Adams & Dale Steffey - Glass
Beautiful glass panels incorporating stained glass and hand painting, Dawn and Dale's work is a visual treat.
Their unique and complex production process draws upon a variety of influences including but not limited to folk and ethnic art, icons, mosaics and a large group of painters from many eras and movements. Often their themes stress growth, nature, spirituality and joy.
Michael Kopald - Chinese Brush Painting
Michael's paintings, done in the tradition of the Southern school of Chinese painting, have won him many awards and been exhibited worldwide.
All of his paintings are originals, painted with traditional Chinese materials: ink stone and stick, brushes and rice paper.
Bonnie Blandford - Mixed Media Jewelry
A fascinating combination of metals fused to create limited edition and one of a kind wearable art is what you will find when you enter Bonnie Blandford's booth at an art fair.
A 20+ year veteran of the art fair business, Bonnie's delicate and creative work has won dozens of awards and is prized by collectors nationwide.
Jerry Berta - Ceramics and Diner Sculpture
Jerry, and his work, are a perennial art fair favorite. Along with his partner, Madeline Kaczmarczyk, he has been traveling the country showing his one-of-a-kind pottery since the early hippie days.
Jerry will never grow old nor will his work. A man who has worn many hats and dabbled in many businesses, it is hard to believe that you can still see the work at a show and have the opportunity to take it home with you.
Chris Maher - Photography
Chris is an photographer whose work changes so fast that you have to show up in his booth periodically to catch up! A man clearly in love with the media of photography his enthusiasm will keep you staying longer and longer in his booth. The images are amazing and push the edge of what you expect of a photograph. Stop, take the time and see if you can figure out how he got that image.
Chris travels with his wife, Annette Morrin, a jeweler, who can usually be found in the next booth with her gold and silver jewelry.
Derek Youngquist - Metal Work
A master of unique finishes and textures, Derek Youngquist works primarily with mild steel to create commanding metal wall sculptures. Typically, one of his pieces will be 48 inches by 60 inches and weigh approximately forty-five pounds.
Armed with a laser torch and his inspiration, he must move precisely as he cuts, shapes and molds the hot metal. His work is so diverse that it can be categorized as sculpture, as metal art or as mixed media depending on the piece.
Michael Hamilton & Dee Roberts - Fine Woodworking
Michael and Dee look at their boxes as small pieces of furniture that can be held in the hand. The boxes display their attention to detail and love of the wonderful variety found in wood. The boxes in their present form came about, as much good design does, from a slow evolution and refinement of design.
The Hamilton-Roberts boxes are prized by collectors because of their precise craftsmanship, exotic woods, use of fine materials, and creative use of traditional materials.
Allan Teger - Bodyscapes© and Handcolored Photographs
Allan was one of the first photographers to show traditional handcolored photography at the art fairs, thereby leading to its’ revival.
What he is best known for, and has brought him a bit of notoriety, is his Bodyscapes®. Audiences are alternately delighted, amused and scandalized as they filter through his booth at a fair. What at first glance seems to be merely titillating turns out to be something more.
Julia Swartz - Oil and Watercolor Paintings
Julia is best known for her impressionistic landscapes painted with a palette knife using oil on canvas. She paints the life around her from a wide variety of subject matter, with an emphasis on capturing the immediacy of the light and emotion of every day life.
John Gunther - Contemporary Fiber Designs
John's latest work is what he calls "framed landscapes," reflecting his continuing interest in interpretations of natural phenomena. These are wall and floor pieces that provide beauty and sound absorption in contemporary homes, office and public spaces.
Susan Sturgill - Drawer, Printer, Illustrator
A well-published author of books, calendars and illustrations, owning a piece (or more) of Susan Sturgill's original work is a must!
She draws, illustrates, and etches using plates, pen and ink, colored pencils and watercolors, whatever suits her needs.These images, though traditionally done, adapt to today's world and are a wonderful recapitulation on the experiences of a modern day woman.
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