Karen Marshall

Karen Marshall

Kate Verna Photography

Karen Marshall has been a resident of Columbia since 2003, graduating in 2007 from Mizzou with an interdisciplinary degree in Women’s Studies and Photography.

She has had a lifelong love of photography and began taking photos in grade school. Her work covers a wide range of subject matter, although she particularly enjoys taking pictures of animals, interesting textures, and places that are seemingly lost in time such as long forgotten ruins on Route 66.

Karen’s other passion is travel. She has been to every continent except Africa and Antarctica, and hopes to one day take an extended around the world trip and document it in photos. Karen always has her camera with her on trips and has an extensive body of work from her travels.

Black and white and sepia photography also interest Karen. She experiments with making some street photography and landscape photos black and white or sepia evoking a timelessness.

Why Kate Verna?

The name Kate Verna came from combining a nickname with her grandmother's maiden name as a tribute to her. Karen’s photos of Italy were taken during a trip to visit the Verna side of the family.

Awards

• 2012 - Honorable mention in the Columbia, Missouri, Visions Photography competition.

• 2013 - Photo selected to be in a juried show, the Visions Pho-Rest, at Art in the Park in Columbia.

• 2014 & 2015- Two cat photos selected to appear in the Baker Taylor Publishing cat calendar, one in 2014 and one in 2015.

• 2015 - Missouri State Fair honorable mention in the open photography competition for a photo of Westphalia, Missouri.

contact:
W: www.katevernaphotography.com

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Jennifer L. Market

Jennifer L. Market

As a photographer, I have found the natural beauty contained within Missouri and beyond to be my inspiration. I have been toting a camera along as part of my everyday life and my travels for over 20 years and strive to take that extra time to capture what others may miss in a hectic busy world. As one who was trained originally to shoot images onto film and has now transitioned to digital equipment, I still strive to perfect the image before pressing the shutter and not embellishing afterwards in the darkroom or via computer. I keep those methods in my photographic toolbox, but I try to frame and edit an image onsite naturally, using available light and shadow, and let the compositions speak for themselves.

In some ways photography has become an integral part of all of our lives, whether it is a way to remember a special moment like a child’s birthday or to capture a trip and keep the images in a scrapbook to share with others who weren’t there. Some also consider these moments to be art and frame the images to be mounted on walls to enhance their everyday life. I hope that what I showcase here now, and in the future, leaves you inspired to take the time to find and appreciate the hidden magic in your everyday life.

contact info:
T: 573-443-7710
W: jlmarketphotography.com

Parhelion

Alley Spring Sluice

Lost in The Garden

Sun Diamonds

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Bill Manion

Bill Manion

Returning to regular work with brush and pen has been an experience to which I have long looked forward. Now time and a fun place to work give me the opportunity to try styles and combinations.

I don’t have any rules going into a painting or a cartoon. Sometimes I have an idea of what I want but most of the time I just let the abstraction happen or the humor of the character build. I love the shape of bottles and vessels and work these into much of what I do. I am interested in cartoon outlines and the flows of abstract. All figure paintings start with a cartoon. Under all paintings somewhere there is an abstract. Some of my work blends the two. As an abstract grows with layer after layer of color I begin to see a form or a shape, or I will sketch out a form and begin, looking for the energy of color that makes a work pop.

Works of art should brighten and highlight every wall, so I like to play with color. I am not afraid of color, especially the deep hues and tones of red and its compliments. A blend of red and yellow, wet into wet, makes me smile. A black and white painting or drawing can gain dimension with that splash of color that gives it life or makes a mood. I love watching how light changes through a wine bottle. I love the colors of sunsets over the water. I will keep trying to capture those colors, tones, humor, moods, and the great feeling of forever sunsets that a work of art brings to me and to others.

Designs, cartoons, and the love of fine art has been a part of my life since high school. The dream of learning to draw and paint showed in air brushed T-shirts in college. Later, a cartoon, “Catch Pen,” laughing with the Cowboy life by “Billy Bob and friends,” was in rodeo news and horseman magazines for several years. A time to get serious with a business career delayed regular art work for several years. I continued to study with artist friends around the country while building a major art collection and working with art support groups in several cities. Moving back to Missouri with a fun studio overlooking the Lake of the Ozarks, I have returned to drawing, design, and movement of color. Paintings have placed in juried shows along with character development and design for commercial operations.

in studio with Mystique

Bill Manion

Summer Beach

Chateau Mouton Rothschild

Bacigalupi Vineyards

Shudda Hadda Chardonnay!

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Melynda Lotven

Artist Statement

Living in the country is my heaven on earth, a magical place where gourds come alive and whatever can be dreamed can be created. I turn moldy gourds into keepsake treasures. Chinese culture believes that the gift of a gourd is a gift from the heart wishing all the best things in life.

If you are not familiar with gourds, there is no time like the present.  Dried gourds have been used for artwork, water containers, musical instruments, utensils, and more for thousands of years.  A properly dried gourd will last for years.  In galleries, museums, and private collections, you can find gourds that are hundreds and thousands of years old from cultures across the globe.  

Because gourds grow in various shapes based upon the seed, I obtain them from various growers around the country based upon shape and availability.  In my work I paint whole gourds and I have developed my own style of  gourd sculpting, using a combination of full gourds and cut pieces .  All finished pieces are sealed with a water based polycrylic sealer.  I give many presentations and conduct gourd art project classes for both children and adults.  Your comments and questions about gourds are very welcome.   

Bio

Melynda Lotven is an artist, wife, mother of three, founder and first president of the Show Me Gourd Society, member of the American Gourd Society, and a juried member of the Best of Missouri Hands. She has been featured in magazines, books, videos, on HGTV, on DIY Network, and as a visiting artist at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Prior to her discovery of gourd art in 1993 she was trained and schooled in watercolor, oils, and acrylics.  

Contact:
Enchanted Gourd Art
5401 O’Neal Rd.
Columbia, MO. 65202

573-489-1054
www.enchantedgourdart.com

www.facebook.com/enchantedgourdart

Email: mlotven@centurylink.net

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Ken Logsdon

Ken Logsdon

Around 1991, I met an artist in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, at an arts fair. Turned out this artist, Edie Dismuke, lived just a few blocks from me in northwest Denver. She made postage stamp jewelry and cards. One day when I was visiting her home studio, I suggested she add Churchill quotations (a passion of mine at the time) to her Churchill stamp cards. She declined but said something like "Be my guest." Thus Post-a-Quote was born. In two years time, I left a successful business partnership and moved with my wife Lynnette and two children to Columbia, Missouri, to pursue Post-a-Quote fulltime. I've been at it ever since.

Post-a-Quote was named before there was a worldwide web like today's. The name was a pun. On a blank greeting card I would handwrite a quotation to match an image on a postage stamp. The buyer of the card would then, in the British manner, “post” it to friends or family.

I have continued for the last 22 years to handwrite the quotations on each and every card. I'm often asked why, and I always say I do it because it further connects me to the words. I came to Post-a-Quote as a reader and collector of quotations, not as an artist. In that regard, I am self-taught. That's not to say that in addition to Ms. Dismuke there have not been people along the way who have helped me better myself as an artist.

Though I began with postage stamps as the anchor for the quote, over the years I began using vintage illustrations, artwork by noted Oklahoma artist D.J. Lafon and photographs by my sister, Claudia Hunter. Eventually my photo bug of earlier years was reignited. I discovered I could be my own illustrator for all those quotes I loved and for which I couldn't find a matching image. It is my own photos that I use now almost exclusively.

A couple of years ago I became involved with the Columbia Art League and have exhibited my photographs in several shows. The themed nature of the exhibits has challenged me and, I believe, made me a better artist. The Interpretations show of August 2013, dreamed up by Diana Moxon, the executive director of CAL, challenged me further artistically than anything so far. I look forward to more challenges in that venue.

In addition to quote cards I also do photo cards. Both are available in Columbia or can be purchased online. You may email me to see if I have a retailer in your area.

-Ken Logsdon
contact:
W:www.postaquote.com

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India Marie Knowles

India Marie Knowles

For as long as I can remember there has been an artist within eager to break free and express herself. Occasionally I have found an outlet for my high need to create, but jewelry making has captured my imagination as nothing I have tried before. Since retiring from my private practice as a licensed professional counselor in 2002, what I began as a hobby has evolved into an addiction and is now a small business. Most of my work incorporates semiprecious gemstones and sterling silver or 14K gold-filled wire and findings. I also enjoy using lampwork and other handcrafted beads.

Most recently, however, bead embroidery has become my obsession. Gemstones, small freshwater pearls, tiny seed beads and bugle beads lend themselves to unlimited designs and color. I love allowing the patterns to evolve as I work rather than utilizing a plan. Pieces that are asymmetrical in design almost always prove to be gratifying to me, as I like seeing the final coming together of seemingly disparate components.

It is always a joy to see people wearing and apparently enjoying pieces I have made, and I am especially pleased when items are purchased as gifts. A song by Harry Chapin entitled “Mr Tanner” comes to mind when I consider my work. Mr. Tanner, the owner of a dry cleaning shop, loved to sing but was panned by critics in his first New York concert. The line, “He did not know how well he sang; it just made him whole” is a poignant theme in the song. As I look at the works of other jewelry artists, I do not know how well I create; it just makes me whole.

Items are available for viewing and/or purchase at
Columbia Art League in Columbia and Missouri Hawthorn Galleries in Springfield, Missouri, or by appointment (contact info below).

contact info:
Tel: 573-449-7754

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Peggy King

Peggy King

Snow Flake Glass

An affirmed non-artist, I “found” glass at the age of 50. After working for decades as an office manager and then energy analyst, it was a complete surprise when the right side of my brain kicked in. I am unable to explain why, on a whim, I signed up for a lampworking class. Melting that glass over a torch to create a bead was pure magic. But I became frustrated when I didn’t seem to have the ability to make the bead look like I wanted. So I went back and took a class on fusing. Melting glass became an immediate passion and I bought my first kiln that very same day.

Early in my glass journey I learned that the skills I used in an earlier flirtation with patchwork quilting transferred directly to my glass work. I have become known for my ability to effectively combine color, texture and pattern in my artwork. My enamel pieces are a riot of color, demanding attention with their bright, saturated colors. My dichroic glass works make a distinct statement in their bold designs. I enjoy incorporating a variety of highly detailed decorative accents, including hand made lampworked elements and hand pulled murinni.

Following where my passion for glass took me, and with some gentle encouragement by a dear lady, I joined The Best of Missouri Hands (BOMH) and found a place for myself among the remarkable, accepting people there. Suddenly there were more doors open to me than I knew what to do with and opportunities to give something of myself back to the organization, including serving on the Board of Directors, and as President for two terms. Through my association with BOMH, I have been taken in, accepted and encouraged by all manner of artists, and been able to contribute to their journey even as they contribute to mine.

The practice of melting glass to create beautiful works of art is ancient. Today’s studio glass industry is ever changing with new technologies, products, and techniques. This gift was bestowed upon me as I began looking to retirement from my real world job. Now, as I look to the future, there are many ideas in my head and products or techniques on my list of things I want to work with, I know my glass art will continue to provide a rich and active retirement.

contact info:
W:www.snowflakeglass.com
Past President, Best of
Missouri Hands

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Jim Jones

Jim Jones

I have never felt really comfortable calling myself a Photographer.  I am more comfortable saying that "I gather images" - little bits of things that I see.  And then I 'do things' to those images and sometimes what evolves turns into something totally different and I hope more pleasant to look at.

I first remember taking pictures when I was in eight grade.  The first time that I can remember "seeing" a picture that I wanted to take was on a family trip from Wisconsin to North Carolina.  We were going through the Appalachians and I don't know if it was Kentucky or what, but there was coal mines everywhere and wild roses growing on the coal shale piled up along the tracks.  I saw this one huge, black, mountain of shale and there was this one beautiful rose growing on it.  It was on the other side of the railroad tracks from the road and I begged Dad to stop the car so I could get closer for a picture. I still can't believe that he actually stopped to let me do it.  I think he may have regretted it when a coal train came by and trapped me on the other side of the tracks.  My siblings didn't stop reminding me for a long time that there had 330 cars of coal, it was moving slow, there was coal dust everywhere and it was hot in the car waiting for me (no car A/C in those days).

Many people have been patient with me over the years while I was gathering images in one way or another.  I just hope that the images that I produce bring some joy to those who see them.

contact:
W: www.jonesartworks.com

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Hannah Hollister Ingmire

Hannah Hollister Ingmire

A stroke of luck started my art career when a kindergarten painting I did of an exhausted train climbing up a mountain was accepted in a traveling exhibit of Pennsylvania children’s art and hung in a Philadelphia art museum. After that, it was all downhill! Still, I loved making pictures and continued with private lessons until college. I graduated from Grinnell College with a B.F.A. in painting and did postgraduate work at the University of Iowa where I studied with Mauricio Lasansky, the printmaker. I also attended Quincy University where I got a teacher's degree in art and taguth at Quincy High School for two years. I have continued to teach adults throughout my career.

Again, I had a stroke of luck when I was invited to have an exhibit at the Quincy, Illinois Public Library, who then commissioned me to do a 25-foot mural. At this time, I went into painting full time. I have had several one-woman shows and spent the next 30 years doing juried art festivals. Midwestern shows include: the Original Art Fair (Ann Arbor, MI), The Plaza Art Festival (Kansas City, MO), The Milwaukee Art Museum Lakefront Show, and several in St. Louis. Florida shows include: Los Olas Art Festival, Winter Park, Coconut Grove, Miami Beach, the University of Miami Art Festival, and Mainsail (St. Petersburg). During this period, I also was asked by the Bradford Exchange, an international collector plate company, to design 2 series of plates.

For 40 years my medium was transparent watercolor, and my subject matter was traditional realism. My work can be found in businesses, hospitals, and banks, as well as private collections.

In 2009, I had another stroke of luck - but the kind that led to tremors which meant that I could no longer paint with my past precision. Since painting is literally as necessary to me as eating, I found another way to express myself. Having trained at Grinnell College in the sixties with a wonderful abstract expressionist, Richard Cervene, I turned to big canvases and big brushes. Now, instead of meticulously preplanning each work, I wade in with my instincts. The result has been very freeing for me. Although my tremors have subsided, I continue to paint in this manner because it makes me happy and, I hope, my viewers!

For a private viewing, please contact me below.

Galaxy

Feathery

Square

Birch Trees

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Sharyn Hyatt

Sharyn Hyatt

Sharyn received her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia, her Masters of Fine Arts from Clemson University, and has studied and traveled in Europe. She has taught art at the secondary and college levels, has published in several journals, and has work on the cover of three books. Hyatt's work can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Asheville Art Museum, Southwestern Bell of St. Louis, Boone County National Bank, the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, and the collection of August Busch Jr. In addition she has shown in numerous group shows as well as in 14 solo exhibitions.

For the past 25 years, Hyatt has considered her most creative endeavor to be teaching and she has had the privilege of working with more than 2,000 emerging young artists. Sharyn feels most comfortable with the titles "teacher" and "mom" but as of 2008 could be found edging back into the art scene.

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Kerry Mulvania Hirth

Kerry Mulvania Hirth

Kerry Hirth uses her synesthetic experience of musical harmony as color to create visual music in vibrant linear patterns. Her work captures the complexity and richness of musical patterns, and explores the ways they point to the source of music in life experiences. By engaging the colors of real and enchanted landscapes, her drawings of music gain a unique sense of time, place, and the extraordinary relationship between music and the natural world.

Kerry Hirth was born in the Midwest and currently lives and works near Columbia, Missouri. Kerry's work has been presented in gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally, as well as closer to home. She collaborates with musicians, with noteworthy local projects including a live demonstration with the Missouri Symphony Society orchestra, creating backgrounds for live performance at the MU School of Fine Arts, and the permanent installation of a large scale work in the atrium of the Bond Life Sciences Center. Kerry's approach to music and visual art has been shaped by her unique academic background, which includes studying music, philosophy, and computer networks. Kerry works full-time as an artist in her studio "Mount Erebus Workshop" adjacent to her home, where she lives with her husband Andy Hirth.

contact info:
W: www.kerryhirth.com

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Jan Hager-Klein

Jan Hager-Klein

I’m a listener and a watcher...have been all my life. My professional life took me to 11 countries in Europe, Asia, all over the USA as a Human Resources manager, a counselor, and college professor.

Now I’m in Missouri and have enjoyed painting for the last 14 years, alone or with friends on destination painting experiences. Italy has called us twice; Hopetown, Bahamas was a great alone get away; and Carmel, California calls again and again. I’ve taken classes at Webster University and private lessons with Dong Feng Li, Billyo O’Donnel, John Porter Lasater IV, Qiang Huang, and with Ruo Li.

I paint because I like the process. Each painting is like a puzzle that I slowly put together whether is it a landscape, city scape, interior, or abstract. I come from painters with a mother, brother, and a son who all make their living as painters. I grew up with my mother - Helen Hager - painting to classical music when I got home from school. The smell of turpentine and open windows back then was a peaceful happy time.

I hope you enjoy my work.

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Elle Hinnah

Elle Hinnah

Elle has been passionate about art and creating things all of her life. It started out with sewing when she was just 4 years old. Her grandmother, who hand-stitched elaborate Barbie Doll clothes, told her she could learn to sew when she could thread her own needle. Elle, never being one to think she was unable to do anything, accepted the challenge and relentlessly attempted to thread the needle until the task was accomplished. That drive and passion is still ever present in everything she does.

Elle’s focus now is metalsmith jewelry made with copper, silver, or brass and features gemstones. She also enjoys making wire-wrapped jewelry with silver, gold and rose gold wire. She has always had a fascination with gemstones and enjoys working with natural stones. She also enjoys working with different metals, her favorite being silver.

She finds inspiration for her pieces in many different places. For gemstone pieces, she tries to think of what will complement each individual stone best, making each piece a unique creation. Sometimes inspiration comes from the shape of a piece of metal. Other times, it’s none of those things. It could be a piece made with a specific person in mind. These are her favorite pieces to make: pieces that compliment a person’s character and personality.

Elle is accepting commissioned worked through appointment.

contact:
W: www.kre8vstudioz.com

Metal Cuff

Pendant Blue Stone

Copper Necklace

Orange necklace

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Diane Epstein

Diane Epstein

I have been a freelance graphic designer for more than thirty-six years throughout the Midwest. I have designed print materials for many fields including television, magazines, small business, educational programs, and the non-profit sector. I have been involved in all stages of the graphics process from design to final print.

Over the last few years I have been drawing/painting with pastels and watercolors, creating portraits of people and animals. My passion is drawing portraits for the parents of children who have either passed on or have a terminal illness. These are sent to the parents as a condolence gift.

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Cynthia Durost

Cynthia Durost

I paint because I am struck by the multitude of colors and sights of Nature. I paint as a form of meditation releasing my energy, joy, sadness, or love. I paint as an expression of my relation to the whole, to Nature. The browns, blues, ochres, reds, purples, blacks, and yellow are so vivid; even the snow presents color in reverse. I also have a longing for the space of Nature: the sky, the water, the trees, the rocks opening up. I see the relationship between forms and space - two trees stand juxtaposed leaning and finally encircling each other, two friends. I want only to keep recording my feeling in the natural space. The best of my painting experience exists in my being present spontaneously painting with the flow of water and color.

Sometimes, I paint a scene over and over, later to learn a message exists. In New Mexico, for instance, I paint a mountain scene again and again, later to learn Zuni women ascend the heights of this mountain to gather a ceremonial flower which grows only on this mountain. I am drawn to certain places, the fields and marshes and woods of New England, the canyonlands, rivers, and mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, the islands of Cape Verde, or the rainforests of Costa Rica. There is for me a connecting force between mind and Nature, a play of consciousness and spirit. I acknowledge land and wild animals, and especially the space without the importance of humans. The artist in me follows instinct and intuition, is connected to all peoples, crosses all boundaries, is open and searching.

I also believe firmly in sharing and passing on the tradition and experience of painting and being an artist. In this exchange with many others, I continue to learn and grow and play.

contact info:
T: 573-355-2294

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Nancy DeClue

Nancy DeClue

by Lindsey Howald

Although her content can vary from meditations on religious texts to vibrant abstracts from nature, Nancy DeClue’s work is consistently alive. The beauty of her painting is that while deeply influenced by the innate ebb and flow of nature’s energy, it seldom depicts the very landscape that inspired her. Rather, it is the fuel of conceptualism that drives her work, and the way it is translated onto the canvas often seems completely separate from the moment that inspired it.

“The work takes on its own life,” she says. “Like going from air to a molecule, it’s an evolution.”

DeClue, born in 1954 in Jefferson City, originally came to the University of Missouri to get her art history degree: “I was going to be the best damn curator ever,” she laughs. However, practicality called, and DeClue put this dream aside to begin what would be a lifelong, devoted career in nursing. Currently a nurse at the Missouri Cancer Associates, DeClue admits, “It has turned out that I do love it. But it’s not my passion.”

Like all true artists, DeClue cannot remember a time in her life she wasn’t creating. She began to pursue her work in earnest in 2002, when complications from a neck surgery forced her to slow down life’s obligations, allowing her art to flood in. In 2005, she was selected for an intensive period of study at the prestigious Santa Fe Art Institute. For two months, DeClue lived and worked in community with other artists in art-infused New Mexico, which helped her develop her own personal style.

“I didn’t realize until several years ago that all people didn’t see the world the way I did,” she says. “It was like an epiphany – I realized that what I do is truly different.”

DeClue’s lack of formal art training has both its advantages and disadvantages. Though she admits she sometimes gets in over her head with a project, never having learned the limitations of certain media allows her to work purely from the visions that appear in her head. As with Small Wonders (upper right), the 2005 work to thank for her acceptance to the Santa Fe Art Institute, DeClue had never been warned a 48”x54” linoleum block print would be an ambitious project, and therefore didn’t think to shy away from it. Small Wonders, which is a cry for this culture to reverse its de-mystification of Nature, now hangs in DeClue’s downtown coffee haunt, Lakota.

Rather than settling for representation, DeClue entreats viewers to enter her state of mind. In a recent multi-media collage series she has nicknamed The Word (bottom right), she writes or pastes text from altar prayers, a German Bible and other cultural religious influences, creating chaos from structural antiquity. By forcing these concepts to collide, she disrupts the mutual exclusivity these old religions have claimed.

“The concept is, God is God,” she explains. “What is the difference between religions? Why are we pointing the finger and damning one another? There is a universality here.”

Freed from the burden of defining her work in art historical terms, DeClue allows her art, simply, to be what it is. When asked about her influences, she shakes her head firmly. “I look at all other work, and there’s nothing I find that I don’t like. I take every opportunity to see every piece of art I can.”

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Artist Statement

‘the image chooses the artist’, Evri Kwong to myself, 2005.

The ‘image’ has always chosen me. It can be triggered by a dream, a concept, an event, a social reality, a tiny bloom, an insect with gossamer wings-something touches my soul.

The ‘image’ or idea stays with me. It gestates. It then chooses a medium. It grows in intensity until I have to let it out. The resulting work or works often take on a life of their own. Almost self determined.

This is how a series or large piece is conceived. This is my motivation-love colored with passion.

My thirty plus years as a nurse, and especially my years in oncology, place these constructs within my unique life experience and philosophy.

Deep respect and acute appreciation for all forms of life are interwoven with spirituality. Often a statement of society and its ‘norms’ or direction (especially when childishly self-serving) are veiled in my pieces. It is what drives my production.

Sometimes-sheer breathtaking beauty is the muse.

Sometimes-the attempt to grasp quantum mechanics. Perhaps-music, or the laugh of a child.

ART IS THE REPRESENTATION OF PASSION.

Contact:
T: 573-590-0162

Small Wonders

(detail)
Santa Fe Art Institute residency
signature piece

Ann's Vision Epiphany II

detail

The Word V

detail

The Word V detail

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Marilyn Cummins

Marilyn Cummins

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there lay in me an invincible summer." – Albert Camus

I’ve loved to sketch and paint since I was a young girl on the farm, and I was fortunate to have a great art teacher (Mel Panter) in my small-town high school. But art was one of many interests, and not the one I pursued as a college major and career (ag journalism, in newspaper, magazine, PR/advertising agencies, and my own business for the past 26 years).  Still, the latent artist in me was always there: taking me into art museums on every business and vacation trip; collecting art supplies too rarely used; and, visiting galleries and meeting artists whose world my creative soul wanted to join. 

It wasn’t until I was in my late 40s and settled back in Columbia, that a magazine assignment to cover the local art community in word and photos led me to learn of the first painting workshop offered by an artist I greatly admired: Joel Sager. It was time to get serious about creating art, and with Joel’s encouragement, I followed up the 2007 summer workshops by studying with him nearly every week for close to five years, soaking up his expert guidance and being inspired by observing his process in the studio we shared for a time.

I began working in a favorite technique of Joel’s at the time: layering oils, acrylic, collage and tar washes in multimedia paintings, sometimes based on watercolor sketches inspired by my own photography of the land or of people. I needed to find my own voice, though, and in time, my rather minimalist landscape studies and other watercolor works began to stand on their own and became a trademark of mine. This still amazes me, after fearing and avoiding the medium for so many years.

As I continue to work and experiment with a variety of media – oil, watercolor, mixed-media in two and three dimensions, Chinese brush painting, photography – I strive to let go vs. trying to control the medium or create exact representations. When I’m successful, the invincible summer in me is able to find its voice and reach out to others in ways that are sometimes peaceful and serene; other times edgy and ironic.

For many years, I called Columbia’s Orr Street Studios home, but due to COVID-19 and other issues, I’ve moved back to my home studio with a peaceful view of my yard and woods. I encourage you to come visit Invincible Summer Studios virtually (for now), and also to pursue your own creative dreams, no matter your age or time in life. I believe there is an invincible summer in each of us.

Marilyn Cummins
Invincible Summer Studios

contact info:
Tel: 573-239-1229

www.invinciblesummerstudios.com

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Peg Crawford

Peg Crawford

It would seem artists have always played a tug-of-war between intent and medium: what they want to say and how they want to say it. Traditionally they have looked to their surrounding environment to satisfy this. Wood, stone, clay and reed were the materials they used to express their creativity. Their environment was reflected in, and utilized as, their art.

Today, we have the richness of the world available to us in the time it takes to drive to the art supply store. Overwhelmed by this choice, I wanted to return to these roots of expression. In my journey, no matter where I lived or traveled, I found one material in almost embarrassing abundance: Paper.

In exploring this material, I found incredible strength along with delicate flexibility. This lightweight, low-tech, and eco-friendly material offered artistic challenge along with unexpected durability. It’s the perfect medium in a modern, mobile society.

I blend my own paper clay using mostly recycled papers, producing a soft, fibrous clay. I then sculpt using some of the same methods of earthen clay sculpture, along with a few improvised ones to accommodate the texture and workability of the clay. My sculptures are made of solid paper, without the use of wood or metal armatures. This extra challenge forces me to slow down and immerse myself in the process, which I count as an added bonus in a busy world.

After 30 years of living and traveling throughout the U.S. and overseas, my husband and I have quite happily settled in Columbia, where we plan to stay. 

Declining Nude Serenity

Declining Nude

Falling

Falling, detail

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Jan L. Coffman

Jan L. Coffman 

I love to walk in nature settings. That is where I find my paintings. I call my paintings contemporary realism as I paint my digital photographs with my digital bushes and sketching tools. As I paint, I relive the feelings I had at the time I was taking the picture. I hope you can enjoy the color, light, and breeze with me as you view my paintings. 

My training has been in technology design and education. As a technology trainer and web designer, I developed my digital skills of sketching and watercolors in my web design work. In retirement, I am now able to devote more time to my passion of digital painting. 

Let me describe some of the similarities and differences in digital painting and traditional painting. I paint layer upon layer as I am painting on the computer which is similar to a traditional painter; but if I wish, these layers can each be removed individually if I choose. My photographs can be hidden at the bottom of all of the layers so that they can be used as reference. With my digital brush, I may pick-up the color from the photograph or go to my digital pallet for a new color. I have an endless number of painting tools and an endless number of sizes for each tool. With the aid of my Wacom drawing tablet that is attached to my computer and my electronic painting/drawing tool, my brush can make narrow or wider strokes by the way I turn my hand. Lines can be drawn dark or light with the pressure I use with my hand. If I want to experiment with an idea, I can add a layer and delete it if it doesn’t work. When I’m finished with a picture, the layers can then be compressed into one painting. 

I do my own printing and framing. I print my art using archival pigment-based inks and acid-free watercolor papers. I use quality mats that are pH Neutral and backing boards that are acid free. They are matted and framed 16x20 or 21x27 inches with black frames.

contact info:
W: jcoffman.home.mchsi.com

Color of Midday Heat

Essence of Morning Dew

Flavor of Fragrant Food

The Perfect Lunch

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Joel Chrisman

Joel Chrisman

As an artist and musician, my interest is in the study of patterns in light and sound. 

Observing the separation of light and shadow in a landscape, a window-lit room or from the lights of my studio as they shower my tools and workspaces, compels me to record those fragments in mostly realistic impressions. 

Whether working from my photographs or from life, my subjects are almost always happened upon, never assembled or constructed, although I may make decisions of omission and inclusion. The elements of chance and discovery are the primary contributing factors in these compositions. 

The moment of creation for me is in the visualization of a possibility, discovering that viewpoint in space where the dance of shapes and shadows falls into a rhythmic balance of light and dark. Then, with my camera or a simple mat board viewer, the image is isolated and I enter the dance and become a participant as I record the moment.

contact info:
T: 573-657-2055

Pond Series/Twilight

First Cutting

In the Ferris Wheel

Over Campus

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