St Louis Artists’ Guild Members Exhibition

Artwork and Statements

Bill Abendroth

Statement:
Segmented woodturning is where engineering and art meet. Sometimes this is a difficult marriage where practical needs are in conflict with the artistic vision.
If done properly, precisely cut wood segments are glued into rings and the rings are glued into the rough shape of a bowl or vessel and then . . . the magic happens!

Hawra Almashhadi

Statement:
With the fast pace of modern life, I paint the subjects that deepen my inner peace, intuition, thoughts, and serenity. Observation of the subjects allows me to engage and communicate with them to find inner beauty behind their appearance. Through extensive observation, the stronger the relationship I build with these subjects, the more I appreciate them. Behind these subjects is a beautiful story that needs to be told.

Website: http://www.hawraalmashhadi.com

Keith Baizer

Statement:
Woodturning. Found wood of personal significance. Simple functional forms. I do not operate the lathe as I do other woodworking equipment. I play the lathe like a musical instrument to create art that is dictated by each unique piece of wood.

Eve Bayer

Statement:
Exodus 20:13 Blue Series is a very personal response to increasing gun violence and death in the United States. The multiple gun images symbolize immunity in our society to gun ownership and gun violence, but the death statistics overlaying the images reveal the true nature of the gun controversy and its political ramifications.

My work is the product of emotion and corresponding reflection, resulting from the experience of social, political and cultural conflict. I find my projects challenge my own ingrained and hidden beliefs, and likewise provoke the viewer to examine and question their own beliefs. For me, art is the courage to reveal those things which are intimate and secret, yet still engage in a respectful and meaningful dialogue.

Sarah Blumenfeld

Statement: Sarah Blumenfeld is an American studio artist working in charcoal and oil. Her artwork combines classical figurative training with more contemporary expression. Painting within the tradition of realism and often from a full-frontal perspective offers a powerful moral counterforce to the world’s current climate of false narrative and dissociation. Sarah’s artwork presents the urgent observations of an artist awakening and sharpening her senses. Both her naked gaze, and her gaze at nakedness, signify the dropping of veils and looking boldly at the world.

Robert Bolla

Statement:
I have had a life-long interest in photography beginning in the days of film photography using fixed lens bellows camera. My photographic interests grew when I was mentored during two summers while I was in college. I learned the techniques of film photography in depth beginning with painted glass plates through various film types. I also learned darkroom techniques such as cyanotype, selenium gold, gelatin silver and platinum printing . During my career in academics, I used photography as a tool in my research and teaching. As times changed so did my photography moving from film and the darkroom to digital photography and postprocessing management of images. I now use photographic software to emulate different printing techniques, however, I shoot mainly in the manual mode so that I can control how I see the image and reproduce it.
My photographic interests range from street photography to wildlife and landscape, and I view my photographs as my novel using them to write a story developed and read by the viewer. To achieve this, I use software to emulate traditional photographic techniques or to develop digital paintings from the photograph. I print on a variety of papers including metal, linen paper and canvas. I have shown my work locally, nationally and internationally and I compete in international juried art competitions for gallery showings.

Website: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-bolla

Marilynne Bradley

Statement:
My painting requires endless change, experimentation, and variation both in content and technique. I begin blocking out the darks and details of the composition. The action of the brushwork is part of my energy to establish the movement of the subject matter. Color, contrast and composition are the key elements to any of my paintings.

Website: http://www.marilynnebradley.com

Emily Choi

Statement:

As a native of South Korea, my work reflects the influence of my early experiences with the East Asian style of ink painting, I have always been intrigued by the idea of leaving space for breath in my work.

I want my artworks to draw the viewer into a relaxed and flowing space, so I work to create a subtle interplay between the positive and negative spaces in my work, inviting the viewer to engage freely with these flowing landscapes.

Ken Church

Statement:
NO STATEMENT IS A STATEMENT

MaryJo Clark

Statement:
St. Louis Artist, MaryJo Clark

Since childhood, art has been an integral part of my life. I have always enjoyed the creative process and have made the study and practice of art my life's work; from my art making to my more than 30 years as an art educator.

Drawing has been the foundation of my artistic endeavors and, more recently, I have turned my attentions to design through the technique of collage.

My collage pieces are rooted in the arrangement of shapes, colors and textures as elements for creating unique compositions. The additional embellishments of beads, tiles and/or other media add a dimensional aspect to each design.

I particularly enjoy expressing myself through the non-objective and abstract subject matter of these pieces that, in turn, evoke unique responses from each viewer.

Website: http://www.clarkart-stl.com

Kathy Corey

Statement: 
Originally from Key West, a descendant of seafarers, adventure seekers, and rapscallions lured by the ocean, her art is inspired by her heritage and love of the sea. Her artwork reflects nature's glory, the vastness and power of the ocean, and all things therein. The ever-changing sky with its grandeur of colors, clouds, and space takes her breath away. Island life, sundrenched children, and tropical gardens fill her canvases. 

Website: http://www.bextraordinaire.com

Jerry Cox

Statement:
I let classic original concepts evolve into stylized designs that give a narrative. In my Sculpture I usually invoke some Sci-fi theme, sometimes subtlety and sometimes blatant. I work mostly in wood, combining turning, carving, construction, and assemblies. My work is highly refined and finished to the best of my woodworking abilities. I choose subjects for their challenges to learn some new technique.

Website: http://coxstl.com

Michael Daft

Statement: 
Good images should speak for themselves in their own language. I hope the images I've captured and worked speak to you and encourage you to look deeper, and to see more. 

Website: http://www.mdaft.smugmug.com

Jacque Davis

Web site: http://www.jacquedavis.com

Jo Jasper Dean

Statement:
I find nature inspiring and color intoxicating. Beginning with a detailed realistic grisaille executed in sizzling red, I adhere to the reality of defining the form of the subject I am portraying, but, reality stops there. I then layer on an imaginative color palette of saturated amplified colors, igniting visual electricity sparked by the interaction and tension between complementary colors. Using impressionistic expressive brushstrokes to capture the textures of nature, I always leave a hint of the grisaille showing to add an element of heat.

I enjoy painting in this style to convey my emotional connection to the image, and to communicate how I see the scenes and subjects that move me.

My subjects are an exploration of nature’s vegetation, inhabitants, and materials formed by human contact and creativity.

Website: http://jojasperdean.com

Mary Drastal

Statement:
My childhood was spent in Webster Groves, Missouri. I discovered my love for art very early in elementary school. I obtained an undergraduate degree in art from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I also hold a Master?s degree in painting from Fontbonne University, and an MAT in gifted art education from Maryville University. Both universities are located in St. Louis, Missouri.
My career has involved teaching art for 30 years in the public school districts in St. Louis County. I am the founder of the Summer Arts Institute at Maryville University, I directed and taught in this visual arts program for middle and high school gifted artists. I was on the founding team of the Arts Ahead Gifted Academy in the Ladue School District. I also taught art foundations for Fontbonne University.
My painting experience includes the media of oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pastel. My work includes portraiture, landscape and still life. I belong to several regional art associations and exhibit work regularly. Supporting artist groups is very important to me. I want to live in a community that has a strong arts council.

John Dyess

Statement:
I am a native St. Louisan, with a BFA from Washington University School of Fine Art. I am a painter, illustrator, photographer and teacher creating art and illustration. I have been self employed since 1980.

My clients include many major corporations and companies throughout the United States, including Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, General Electric and the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals to name a few.

My work has been published in many widely distributed magazines such as Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and North American Fisherman.

I have been represented in numerous local and national shows including the Foundry Art Centre, the National Parks Service and over thirty shows at the St. Louis Artists’ Guild.
I have also been recognized by the New York Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts Magazine.

I have been an instructor for illustration and drawing in the St. Louis area at Washington University,
Webster University, Meramec Community College and Jefferson College.

Website: http://www.studiodyess.com

Suzy Farren

Statement:
As a writer for my entire career, I focused on my intellectual self to identify the precise words to communicate a concept. My art evokes a very different side of me. When I create a piece, I rely on emotion and intuition. I feel rather than think. I allow myself to be imperfect and spontaneous. I incorporate mistakes into my finished pieces because they are the voice of my subconscious. I am drawn to the raw, the unfinished, the ragged. I relish the physicality of ripping canvases into rectangles onto which I stitch, paint, make marks and glue objects.

Janet Fons

Statement: 
Contemporary Landscapes in Oil
A landscape painting should set the scene for a moment of déjà vu. I want my audience to discover they?ve stood in that very spot, whether in real life or in a dream. And if they haven’t been there, it’s a place they want to visit. 

As a contemporary impressionist, I play with the composition, using bold shades and broad brush strokes, to make the scene a destination, not simply a location.  I hope each viewer will adjust the scenes in their own manner and time frame, to visually complete the story, decipher the forms and fill in the empty spaces with memories associated with an unforgettable place.

Website: http://www.janetfons.com

Nancy Galvin

Timothy Hamilton

Statement:
Though I have produced 2-dimensional art since 1970, I have concentrated on Landscapes since 2016. Most of my paintings are based on photographs I have taken. I intend my art to have both immediate attraction and long-term interest and enjoyment. I want my art to draw people in from a distance for a closer examination. I hope to share my delight in the beauty of nature, and the fun of painting.

Website: https://www.i12create.com/

John Hardecke

Statement:
I love the serendipitous outcomes I get from painting, starting a piece with little or no preconception and simply enjoying the process of exploration and discovery. My Sonnet series takes a step away from serendipity and asks the viewer to see 'poetry' or more specifically, the structure of various sonnet forms through line and color.

Website: https://www.instagram.com/hazel_mopes/

Valerie Hosna

Statement:
My passion for nature photography began in 2014 after a major medical scare. I started by taking photos with my iPhone and since then it has blossomed into a ministry that continues to touch many lives for Jesus. Over the years my abilities have advanced through God?s guidance and He has been faithful to bless me with the equipment I have needed along with many wonderful photo opportunities.
While I enjoy photographing many different subjects, when it comes to flowers my favorites are Water Lilies, because to me they are reminders that like them we all live in very adverse conditions, but these amazing flowers rise above them, because they focus on reaching their life source which is the sun and by doing so they bloom into their fullest potential. When we decide to put our focus on God, and seek a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ we have the ability to do the same and then we can become the beautiful creations He made us each to be. 'For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.' Jeremiah 29:11-13
The above promise is conditional though, because we have to seek Him out, which is easy because He is always near and ready to receive us.

Christine Ilewski

Statement:
Christine Ilewski lives in Alton, IL. She received her BFA from the Univ. of WI-Eau Claire. She did masters work at Lindenwood Univ and SIUE with a K-12 teaching certification. Christine has been the Visiting Artist for Liquitex for 20 years. She works in acrylic and mixed media describing her current work:

'My work has always been personal, the introspection of my experience as a woman, a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter; a domestic, intimate life.
My work often contained a narrative set against the landscape of the Mississippi River. But since beginning the Faces Project that narrative has almost completely left the page.
My studio is now filled with the Faces portraits, many pairs of eyes quietly imploring and a subconscious stream of mixed media abstract landscapes that bubble up from my center a place of reflection, a still point from which everything else revolves.

She is the founder/director of the Faces Not Forgotten (www.facesnotforgotten.com) project, a memorial portraits of young gun violence victims. Christine was awarded the 2013 Critical Mass Stimulus Grant for this project. The FNF quilts have been exhibited at Rutgers Univ., Northeastern IL Univ., Univ. of MO St. Louis and many other venues.

Her work can be seen in the Museum of Contemporary Art, New Harmony, IN, IL Artisan galleries and many private collections.

Website: http://www.ilewski.com

Erica Kaiser

Statement:
I have always been interested in drawing and painting, but I took a 5-year break after suffering burnout when I graduated from art school. I was not expecting much from myself when I returned, but I discovered I loved to create portraits of the people and things around me, especially as the pandemic limited my ability to leave home. I draw and paint mostly from life, and try to capture the identity of my subject through use of line-work and color.

Website: http://instagram.com/ericakaiserart

Jodie Kennedy

Statement:
I am currently a resident and local artist of St. Louis, recently relocated from Charleston, SC. I am an up and coming artist with a unique, eye catching style. I specialize in mixing acrylic paint with bold paint pen sketches!

Greg Kluempers

Statement:
My work explores the relationship of forms, textures and color in the everyday world. Many of my images are extractions from an old building, a distorted reflection, an architectural detail and the juxtaposition of adjoining buildings. I use these to create abstract geometrical images.

Website: www.greg-kluempers.artistwebsites.com

Ken Konchel

Statement:
As a photographer, I am drawn to the expressive power of buildings. Provocatively capturing architecture in an abstract, graphic way keenly interests me. My intention is to make compelling photographs that remove the context and distill architecture to nothing but relationships of shape, line, pattern, detail, tone and/or texture.

Architecture forms the physical environment of our lives. It connects us to the past, it helps define our relationships to one another, and it gives us a sense of place and identity. Architecture also embodies our values and expresses our individual and collective aspirations. And most importantly, architecture enhances and advances our creative legacy. Yet something so integral to the sense of who we are - something that contributes immeasurably to our quality of life – is often dismissed as mundane, taken for granted, or at worst ignored. My ambition is to raise awareness of and appreciation for architecture by presenting it as engaging and dynamic geometric arrangements and interactions. More concisely expressed, I use photography to substantiate the connection between art and architecture.

In its early days, photography was referred to as the art of fixing a shadow. What a novel, yet appropriate definition. Taking some liberty with that reference, I would describe my photography style as the art of fixing a building, portraying architecture in original ways that include:
- calibrating precisely the placement of all lines, shapes, forms, and shadows to end at the edges of the composition,
- showcasing the range and subtlety of black and white photographic values by depicting the interplay of lights and shadows buildings evoke,
- exploiting unusual vantage points to craft spatial ambiguities between buildings,
- flattening space, to fashion collages in which buildings are juxtaposed on the same plane,
- highlighting a building’s repetitive elements to suggest associations and contrasts between recurring facets,
- cropping negatives tightly to generate altered perspectives of buildings,
- concentrating on a building’s sculptural qualities to reinforce its design,
- utilizing the sky as an integral feature of a composition to accentuate a building’s contour, and
- isolating a distinct architectural component to emphasize a building’s essence.

My aim is to photograph buildings in arresting ways, creating compositions that do not immediately reveal themselves as architecture. Buildings present rich opportunities for me to imaginatively explore the angle, the cube, the curve, the triangle, and the rectangle. By examining these forms individually or by grouping them into unconventional configurations, I aspire to challenge and captivate people by introducing them to architecture’s intriguing visual possibilities. I strive to take photographs that disclose their content in layers of meaning that more richly reward with repeated viewings. I also hope to convey the value of patience and observation, and the power of making careful choices.

The celebrated photographer Minor White once said “I photograph not for what a thing was, but for what else it might be.” These words perfectly and eloquently express my own motivation in photographing architecture.

Website: http://www.kenkonchelphoto.com

Connie Lambert

Statement:
I have always been drawn to printmaking and the types of marks and layers of colors that can be achieved in the printing processes. I rarely use colors straight out of the can. Preferring instead to be mixing colors as well as mixing different printmaking processes. Monoprints with collagraph with linoleum prints adding ink to found objects and my own stencils to create a one of a kind print.
This recent series of small work is primarily collagraphs. During this past year when we have all been staying home and spending an unprecedented amount of time at home it has given me plenty of time to contemplate what home means to me. So many ever changing emotions ranging from happiness and comfort to sadness and unease. I’ve created different versions of the same whimsical dwellings to express these feelings and how ones version of home can be constantly changing.

Bob LaRossa

Statement:
I have been making custom designed wood furniture and other wooden objects for over 40 years. My goal is to design and build fine contemporary furniture that stresses simplicity, functionality and a high level of craftsmanship. My furniture is made using North American hardwoods and traditional methods of joinery and finishing.

Lisa Lockett

Statement:
My love for art started at the age of five when I was asked by a teacher, who resided with my grandmother, if I could draw his arm. That proved to be my talent. I would later work as a designer in St.Louis, my home town, and make another transition into drawing and painting. Portrait painting is my passion. I work in charcoals, graphite, acrylics, and oils with oils being my favorite medium. My paintings capture deep moods and feelings and often revolve around painting lines of the human form.

Website: https://instagram.com/lisalockett_fine_art_painter

Jean Lopez

Statement:
Color. Texture. Form. Relationship. Delight. Discovery. Dialogue.

These are the life elements that interest me and inform my art. How one shape influences another, the dialogue between them, the interaction of one color with another, how the parts make up the whole and collectively become more than each was individually, these, to me, are delightful metaphors for life, and make up the story I want to share through my work.

Website: http://jeanlopez.com

Barbara Marshall

Statement:
BARBARA MARSHALL LIVES IN CHESTERFIELD MO
I fell in love with photography in college and for years took mostly nature photos. I love the challenge of capturing a photo of an animal, insect or person in just the right lighting, at just the right time I began taking photographs of the ?pictures? that I find in the tar on streets, sidewalks and parking lots while on daily walks ten years ago. My “TarArt” photography is often abstract, and surprisingly rich with texture and color. I never stage or Photoshop a photo, and have been constantly amazed and surprised by the beauty that I see in the tar. Some photographs clearly look like a picture to me while others are more abstract. What other people drive over or walk on as non-descript tar and asphalt, I photograph because it resonates with richness and often profound beauty to me.

Website: Www.BarbaraMarshall.weebly.com

Ron McIlvain

Statement: 
My objectives are simple; but, creative work in paint for me has been and continues to be an intellectual process of applying paint to canvas in order to communicate a thought with line, shape, color, space and texture. I have no philosophical, subliminal or emotional agenda. My reward evolves as the statement is revealed. Hopefully, a person viewing one of my paintings has a positive experience, as well. 

Website: RONMCILVAIN.COM

Elizabeth Moore

Statement:
My journey as an artist growing up in Denver began at a very early age drawing and painting horses and landscapes. My love of nature has been a driving force in creating works of art in an impressionistic style that tell a story.

Website: http://www.stlouisphotos.com

Christine Ortbals

Statement:
I am a Fused Glass Artist who creates whimsical works of art for the weary, imaginative, joyful masses to give a voice to the child and memories in their soul and mine.

Website: www.bestofmissourihands.org/cortbals

Larry Page

Statement:
I am a Mixed-Media Artist working with fiber, colored wire, Rope, dyed string and reed, wooden and clay beads and other found and re-purposed material to create objects that reflect my Whimsical, Spiritual Personality and Interests.

Website: https://m.facebook.com/Larry-Page-Mixed-Media-Artist-684577181600052/

Alex Paradowski

Statement:
The satisfaction of being a multi-media artist is the freedom to explore and combine the endless possibilities available to create an image.

Website: www.alexparadowski.com

B. J. Parker

Statement:
As a contemporary realist artist, I am interested in using historic visual vocabulary to explore and understand the current world around me. I use graphite, charcoal, white chalk, and oil paint to make drawings and paintings that ask questions about the human experience and attempt to listen to the subjects, whether they are human or inanimate.

Website: http://bjparkerart.com

Kristi Ponder

Statement:
My artwork focuses on the commonalities that the human race shares, instead of the differences that pull us apart. Through serene landscapes with large colorful skies, I emphasize the vastness of nature and the smallness of humans. The colors and angles are reminiscent of German Expressionism, while the foreground speaks to Surrealism.

Website:ttps://sites.google.com/u/0/d/1AsohMHQuRLfgCZIH2TN82c_wno9xayGL/edit?authuser=0

Judith Repke

Statement:
The colors I choose reflect my emotional response to what I see in that moment. In my watercolors I use free mingling of colors and soft edges to allow areas to pull back from the center of interest which I paint in more detail. I give myself challenges, new parameters and new avenues of expression constantly. I paint my delight in the world God made.

My studio is in my home. I am a member of Missouri Watercolor Society, Art Saint Louis, Northside Art Association and Artists of Grace. I graduated from the University of Missouri as an Art Education Major.

My website is at: http://www.repkeart.com

I also have a blog at: http://judy-repkeart.blogspot.com/ and a Facebook business page at Repke Art

Website: repkeart.com

Bob Rickert

Statement:
The convergence of photography and digital imaging has created opportunities for images which no one really considered possible several years ago. It has also created more photographers than ever before. What separates photographers with various ability levels and training is their ability to see the various dimensions of the subjects. Being able to use a camera is not enough, one has to be able to see things differently in a way that viewers of images will find interesting or at least thought provoking. Hopefully, the way I see things differentiates my work from others and provides the viewer with a new and interesting perspective of everyday images.

Website: http://www.bobrickertphotography.com

Leigh Roberts

Statement:
Two concepts, an appreciation for beauty and individuality, have had the greatest influence on what I do and who I am. They have shaped the way I look at the world and helped me to grow as a person and as an artist. A passion for art, architecture, past cultures and nature has taught me to see and appreciate beauty. To me, beauty stems from the selection of materials; the arrangement of elements; and the weaving of textures and colors in each piece of jewelry I design.

Carefully hand fabricated, my work incorporates metalsmithing techniques including: perforation, synclastic/anticlastic forming, and a variety of metal surface treatments. Jewelry pieces are often accentuated with Kumihimo, the Japanese art of weaving silk threads into decorative cords. I love to combine the softness of the fiber with the hardness of the metal or stones to produce a yin-yang quality in my work.

My unique style allows me to create beautiful pieces with a contemporary aesthetic. Each design is a wearable work of art, an elegant personal adornment.

Website: http://leighrobertsdesigns.com

Marilyn L. Robinson

Statement:
'Capturing the infinite beauty of 'Nature' and 'Cultural Compositions' is the essence of my mixed-media artworks and photography. My artistic creativity is the ultimate visual avenue for celebrating my own spirituality, and deep appreciation and passion for capturing the beautiful complexity of 'Nature', and vibrant artistry of contemporary cultures that have emerged from African and Caribbean ancestry.'

Website: http://www.MLORCreations.net

Marceline Saphian

Statement:
My work is an effort to share with others feelings and responses that are difficult, if not impossible to put into words. Rather than copying nature, I use it to call on inner responses to what I observe. Subject matter is a point of departure rather than a destination. One of my interests at this time is using older work to add overlays of paint and collage. This leads me to new development as an artist, and I find it is a way of melding the past with the present and the future - a way of making time an unending continuum.

Thomas Sepe

Statement:
IT IS MY INTENTION TO EXPLORE WAYS TO
TO PRESENT THE NUDE HUMAN FIGURE IN A SEMI FANCIFUL BUT BEAUTIFUL POISE, LETTING THE VIEWER MENTALLY FILL IN ANY REALISM THEY MAY THINK IS REALLY ANATOMICALLY CORRECT

Judith Shaw

Web site: http://judithshaw.com

Douglas Simes

Statement:
I am a draftsman who focuses on the figure and portrait in a neo-classical figurative tradition.

I work predominantly in graphite, ink pen, sanguine pencil and black chalk; occasionally I draw in silverpoint. I’m particularly fond of sanguine pencil and ink pen, the former for its warm and classical appearance, the latter for the high-wire act of cross-contour rendering. My drawing technique references Renaissance and Baroque masters; it is grounded in the revelation of gesture, structure and topology. I strive for precision, both in the details of form and psychological expression.

My life in the arts includes work in architecture and as a professional actor, disciplines that inform my drawing practice in cogent ways. My inner architect trusts in anatomy as a fundamental generator of bodily form and keeps vigil over issues of composition and perspective. The actor in me seeks to establish an unspoken rapport with my subject that reveals a connection both intimate and palpable.

I prefer to draw from life. When COVID prevented working with models, I embarked on a series of “memory” drawings, expanding and reimagining images found in snapshots taken in 50’s and 60’s with my father’s Polaroid camera. This has been a profound journey, most recently exploring a portrait of my mother, who trained as a textile designer in her youth, caught in a midlife moment of depression. When referencing photographs in this way, I proceed only from an acute personal relationship with the image.

Whether from life or a photographic source, drawing for me is an act of engagement.

Website: instagram.com/dwsimes

Tom Sontag

Statement:
Wood is a beautiful material and in my work I simply try to highlight this fact. I make functional objects that are meant to be touched and used.

Barbara Suberi

Statement:
Once I realized I could draw, the hunt was on to explore every imaginable medium available. It was a totally selfish pursuit with nothing profound to say....just loving the creative process.

Ana Sumner

Statement:
It was through a crazy quilt workshop that I fell in love with fiber art, and became passionate about stitching landscapes of flowers, trees and ocean scenes that captivated my heart.
I was inspired to merge painting and fiber techniques together to portray naturalism through mixed media art. I study nature for my inspiration, and taking photographs for references.
By using a series of fibers, I begin by stabilizing fabric and then paint a backdrop on it with various techniques from watercolor, acrylic or oil pastels depending what I want the outcome to be. Next, I create a scene by layering fibers and use sewing techniques like appliqué, free motion draw with the sewing machine, hand stitch, quilting motifs, and felting. Then I hand embellish with silk ribbons, beads, specialty threads, and other fibers to create the subject matter with a textured look. Finally, I highlight aspect of the art with acrylic paint and fabric markers to shade it for an additional dimensional look.

Website: http://www.sewuniqueart.com

Irek Szelag

Statement:
Irek T. Szelag, b.1951, MS, Polish-American, work in Saint Louis since 1988, medium - oil, main interest - urban landscape, Saint Louis architecture, street scenes, and landscapes are the main subject. Work in art conservation as a freelance painting conservator

Bob Thomas

Statement:
I am a realism landscape painter who works primarily in oil. I visit each location I wish to paint, take in the experience and the light, capture the details with photography, and then complete the canvas in my home studio.

Nancy Van Ness

Statement:
Nancy T. Van Ness Artist…
Raw paint on the palette…where will it take me?
Who knows…what is going on in the universe…the planet…the world…my world…your world?
Let’s explore and see.
I communicate my feelings and emotions through paint. The meditative feel of moving paint around a canvas and the therapeutic application of color while creating a work of art is what I crave.
I love color and working with color. I am drawn to impressionist painting, inspired by Post Impressionism. Intending to show the viewer part of the story and letting them form their impression is my goal.
I find inspiration in animals, people. Animals and figurative portraits give voice to many emotions of the human condition.

Website: https://www.chairish.com/shop/nancytvannessart

Jerry Walters

Maggie Zografakis

Statement:
I get my inspiration for painting from my surroundings and my many travels.
Shapes and vibrant color always play a vital role in my work.
I love painting outdoors and use my sketches for developing my paintings.