Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life.
― John Lubbock
Kim McDonald
I was very lucky to be born in Laguna Beach. It was and still is a somewhat sleepy artist colony along one of the prettiest stretches of the California Coast. My father was just out of Marine Corps training when the war ended. At 18, he was able to get hired by the City of Laguna Beach cleaning the seaweed off the sand each morning. My mom was a ceramic artist at that time, working for Kay Finch. Soon they had two little girls to raise so left paradise to afford their new family. Fortunately, our mom was able to follow her artistic dreams throughout her life and both her daughters were inspired to do the same. I have continued to walk in her footsteps and to visit that magical beach ever since.
My formal study of art took place at Pitzer College and Scripps College in Claremont California. I also studied how to teach drawing before I became an elementary school teacher and I volunteered in my son’s elementary classes as an art docent. Over my career I have focused on writing, quilt making, sewing, jewelry making, artistic scrapbooking, knitting, volunteering, photography, acrylic painting and finally watercolor. I paint daily and take in-person and online
classes every week. I love working with other artists and experimenting with new ways to communicate my visions. I often see colors even when I close my eyes and I love experimenting. I also enjoy working with the other talented artists in our MIVAL community.
Over the past few years, I have learned from some very talented art teachers. Here are a few of my paintings inspired by these talented local artists:
Jan Weigle
Hello everyone,
This is my story. Long, long ago (50 yrs) in a land far, far away (East Coast), I graduated from New York University with a degree in Art Education. From then on, I have been largely self-taught as an artist, by reading art books and copying those more gifted than I. I strongly believe in standing on the shoulders of giants in
order to see far. My choice of media changed as I slowly moved from New England to the Mid-West to the West coast. I started in oils, then went to acrylics, and now am working in watercolor. I truly love portrait work of all kinds.
My focus is to offer to others commissioned work of those they care about. I love capturing the expression, gesture and the heart of my subjects. I work from photographs that I edit in order to emphasize that spark of life and vitality that I feel is so important in my work. I love to display originals of my paintings so
that others may understand my style when they make a decision to commission me. I work closely with my clients and offer complete satisfaction. Much of my correspondence is by e-mail (jweigle@mac.com). However, I also enjoy meeting in person, as a good conversation can lead to an even better understanding of what my client may or may not wish to emphasize in the finished work. I absolutely love what I am doing, and I am very thankful to MIVAL in not only offering me a venue in which to display my work, but also in the camaraderie and support in helping me to establish myself on Mercer Island. Thank you again to all those who are part of MIVAL.
Gratefully, Jan Weigle
Pardis Bahmani
She was born in Iran and had Ph.D. of Art research with background of handicrafts and industrial design as a master and bachelor’s degree there. As an Iranian- American artist, she is interested in use symbolic motifs in her paintings. She wrote several books about art history element’s meaning. She is interested in old object’s design and how the motifs were designed with together to express especial meaning. She believe of four basic elements of old philosophy(water, fire, wind and earth), made fundamental of all symbolic motifs.
The sole of Persian art is based on nature. It can be easily distinguished on Persian carpet that most of its motifs are a plan view of traditional Iranian homes.
Iranian style of painting, “miniature” is just following the same concept which broken perspective of yard is being considered as paradise.
Now, the new Iranian paradise-Pardis, is seeking for a rope that connects the contemporary art to that old miniature.
Her PHD about 1000 AD Iranian art history shows her point of interest on making a bridge between that era to the today’s lifestyle.
Matthew T. Lazure
My artwork for the past decade has been an immersive exploration into the weaving of vintage, found images into an intricate mosaic of mixed media materials. By reinventing nostalgic images through adornment and context, my intentions are to alter an image’s narrative, reveal innuendoes, and provoke emotional response. My mosaics illustrate connectivity, intimacy, illness, humor, healing, and other human conditions.
I am currently focused on images from vintage health, safety, and medical guides and encyclopedias from the 1930’s – 1950’s, as well as comic book images from the early 1960’s. I select images that I find evocative, or humorous, or that I am moved by, and then adorn them using broken shards of glass from holiday ornaments, pieces of colored eggshell, ink, and paint. The torn paper borders of the images are then treated with an oxidized iron paint which will continue to rust over time. The finished mosaics are then placed into shadowboxes and treated as “modern artifacts”. These images are interpreted in ways not originally intended as they are seen out of their intended context and through a contemporary lens. A medical instruction photograph now illustrates an intimate moment between men; a knowing exchange between spies in a comic tells a new, erotic tale.
The materials I use, old broken glass and eggshell, are incorporated with specific intent. The fragile nature of both materials and the reassembly of them speak of taking care and consideration, repairing what is damaged, and presenting a manipulated but equally beautiful version of itself. I consider this adornment a reverence of sorts, coming from an acute dedication to the detailed processes of my work.
Debbie Slack – Painter
My life in art began when I joined the volunteer Art Docent program at my childrens’ elementary school. Wonderful and imaginative art lessons were attached to all the prints we showed the children. The work the children created was stunning! Their art inspired me to take numerous art classes.
My favorite genre is abstraction. Abstraction seeks to express something of the essence of things. Common subjects are: (1) still lives or nature; (2) feelings, thoughts, reaction or experiences; (3) the elements of design ( line, shape, color, value, pattern…etc.) and principles of design (unity, variety, contrast, movement…etc.).
The experience of painting leaves me feeling refreshed and renewed just like exercising, an afternoon tea break, or visiting with good friends. In creating art to share with the public, I hope to impart these beneficial feelings to those who encounter my paintings.
Ellen Miller-Wolfe – Watercolors
I have rekindled a love for watercolor painting after many years of working as an urban planner in government and nonprofit sectors and am so appreciative of the warm welcome and support that I have received from MIVAL.
I grew up in northern New Jersey outside of NYC in a town that was steeped in its revolutionary war roots, nineteenth century railroad suburb prosperity, and in my youth, had become a modern ‘edge town’ blessed with buildings, street plans and natural landscapes that reflected this history.
Drawn to how these physical features tell a story, I began drawing and painting at an early age, and researching local history. I also developed an interest in handwriting, my own, the handwriting of my family, notably my mother, and the early handwriting and lettering I found in historical documents and artifacts. To date, this fascination with handwriting and calligraphy is evident in my art along with this celebration of place. My condensed list of ‘places of the heart’: Mercer Island, (my home for almost 30 years), Western Massachusetts (especially Lenox and Lee, Mass.), Naples, Florida, Eugene, OR and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Periodically I have studied art, including coursework at Skidmore College (B.A. English and American Studies), and workshops and courses in the Seattle area. I completed a master’s degree in Urban Regional Planning at Cornell University.
Artists that I have looked to for guidance and inspiration are Charles Demuth, Mark Tobey, Cy Twombly, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Merritt Chase and so many others.
Lorri Falterman
My artwork explores the visual environment that I live in while reinventing it through my sculptures, photographs and paintings. Originally trained as a classical musician, I make my art to move through space and time with rhythmic qualities which relate to my background in the performing arts. A second-generation artist, my art reflects the fleeting nature of our time on earth and our historically short opportunity to touch another human being such that self-reflection is inspired. I am currently working on a series of travel and nautical fine art photographs as well as a series of sculptures called the “Anna Maria” series. Anna Maria was Vivaldi’s star pupil and these sculptures represent the vividness and lightness of Baroque music. I am influenced by the varied art that I see throughout the world as well as the ancient art of the Minoans with its poetic repetition of patterns and what we can only imagine were very bright colors. While my watercolors express a fleeting quality using gesture drawing and bright colors, my figurative sculptures present a more lyrical view. I believe as an artist that I am honored to have the opportunity to challenge a traditional view of world and present my art as an alternate and contradictory view of reality. I strive to reach the viewer in a way that makes us take the time to examine ourselves, our lives and our values in a way that we might not otherwise take the time to do.
Mary McKelvey – Watercolors
From my earliest memories, I have always loved to sketch and paint. My mediums have changed, from my first endeavors with crayons, to acrylics, oils, charcoals, pastels and now watercolors.
My major in college was English, although I took art classes whenever my schedule permitted. Working my way through school did not allow too much free time for painting.
After marrying and raising my family, I found that I finally had the time to take the classes I wanted. In the mid 90’s I enrolled in several drawing, perspective and design classes at Bellevue College. Over the last many years I have been more specifically drawn to watercolors. I had initially heard that they were “one
of the hardest mediums” to work with. I took this as a challenge and wanted to learn more. Actually, I found that watercolors are not so difficult once you have learned a few of the techniques.
I joined MIVAL in 2006 and then the Northwest Watercolor Society. Through these two dynamic organizations, I found a bounty of terrific art instructors. So, I jumped into watercolors and have painted in that medium ever sense.
Anne Hritzay
Anne Hritzay is a former architect and children’s art teacher. Her personal work uses varied media such as encaustic, watercolor, photography and fiber. She is particularly inspired by geometrical views in nature and abstract forms created by the random patterns of light and shadow, and natures decay. She is especially passionate about bringing community together through art-making too.
Joni Johnson – Glass Artist
I have always been interested in design, form, and function. Early on, my glass art was greatly influenced by architect Mies Van der Rohe and his philosophy that less is more. Beauty exists in any object. In an attempt to maximize on clean lines of a piece and allow the radiance to shine through, I have experimented with many art forms.
During my journey, I discovered my true love for glass blowing. Since then, I have studied under many of the best and talented glass artists at the Pratt Fine Arts Studio in Seattle where I had the pleasure of working with Kathrine Gray, Sabrina Knowles, Jennifer Pohlman, Karen Willenbrink- Johnsen and Mitchell Gaudet who have all shared their love of glass and glass techniques with me.
I also had the honor of studying New Bohemia glass techniques with Master Glassblower, Josef Zubac. I studied Italian and Swedish techniques with John Collins and Denis Mullens.
I have always believed that life and art are on-the job training. As my life progresses so does my art. In recent years I have used my glass art to help raise money for various charities, a passion that has grown and one I continue to expand.
Lydia Ho
I came to art-making later in life. During my career as an engineer, I was always drawn to museums, galleries, and all manner of art books. After a period of soul searching, I decided to dip my toes into art by taking some random art classes. Then I fell in love with abstract art. For me, it opens up a whole new world of thinking, communication and synthesizing. It gives me the freedom to explore the language of shape, form, color and line to create an image and assign my own meaning to the piece. The challenge is that now I have to make my right brain work as hard as the left one.
I have an open experimental attitude towards materials and tools. At this time, I am exploring cold wax medium. All of the following, and more, can be found in my work space: tube paints, pigment sticks, carbon discs, brayers, rags, twigs, scrapers, palette knives, and bits of plastics. I find that the cold wax surface is super malleable. You can layer, scrape, gouge and burnish it, and you will be surprised every time by the result. I feel each layer is a snapshot in time in the long running dialogue with myself.
Judith Roan – Photographer
My interest in photography took a big leap forward when I retired from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 2002. At that time, I was using medium format cameras with black and white lm. I had a darkroom and was able to print my own images. Photographic workshops took me and my husband, Ron, to the Northwest and Southwest. There I absorbed the lovely landscapes, learned much about composition and the use of light. When digital cameras came along with a quality similar to what I could get with film, I embraced the new technology and abandoned my darkroom. Adding a telephoto lens to the equipment gave me the power to do wildlife photography.
In addition to wildlife, I love taking landscape photos. Over the years, I am drawn to manipulating those landscape images into how I want them to look rather then what they were at that moment the camera captured the image. With computer tools such as Lightroom and Photoshop, I am able to process true landscape images, or create something totally dierent. I refer to this process and end result as “photomontages”. Basically, I layer images on top of each other and select the parts that I want. It gives me freedom to take images of things that do not make a composition. A stock of images stored on the computer for later use is quite liberating. Photography over the years has gotten easier, and yet ever challenging.
I need to give credit to my husband for all the help he has given me over the years in Photoshop skills. And, I give MIVAL credit for allowing me to show my work. My first hanging was with the Holiday Show where I sold my first piece. My advice to novice photographers is to check out the work of as many photographers as you can. Inspiration comes from many sources. Begin in your own backyard!
It is the light and shapes of nature that catch my eye. Photography freezes in an instant what the mind tries so hard to remember. I enjoy altering nature to reflect my creative vision. Lately, I have enjoyed layering images to create a feeling that is not static, or real.
Marcela Kofranek – Painter
I have been interested in art almost all my life. I always felt deeply connected to art, but I fully discovered my passion for art when I began to explore pastel and oil painting. I like to play with light, colors, shapes and composition. I love to be creative. The process of creating for me starts with a scene, that carries a certain energy and evokes an emotion. I find myself drawn into the subject matter with soft colors or intriguing light. The vignettes of everyday life inspire me to paint. Painting is a delight, a meditation, and makes me aware of the present moment. By using the brush, paint and canvas I can share my observations of the beauty around us with friends and others.
Marcela Kofranek was born in Czech Republic – formerly Czechoslovakia. She graduated from the College of Architectural and Structural Engineering in Prague. After the Soviet’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 she emigrated to the United States with her husband Jan and settled in Seattle, Washington. She worked in several architectural offices in Seattle and Honolulu, Hawaii. Later she studied interior design at Bellevue Community College.
She started to paint 14 years ago, took classes in pastels with Peggy Braeutigam at KAC, then oil classes with Ned Mueller and Larine Chung at the Eastside Artists Collaborative.
Shirley Cherberg – Mixed Media
Born and raised in Seale, I attended Roosevelt High School and then the University of Washington as an “Art,Textiles and Clothing”major. I met and married my husband, Clyde, at the end of our college careers. He was an ROTC cadet and soon aer graduation and our wedding went on to serve in Korea. He eventually rose to Major General. I kept the home fires burning raising three girls, Diana, Teri and Claudia. In those days I was sewing up a storm – these days mostly shortening and repairing clothes for my granddaughters Alex and Natalia.
I have always enjoyed entertaining and try to make it special with a theme. Thus, my art background comes into play. I began to have fun working with silk flowers, cones, pods and shells. Later this led to “totems” (gluing fun pieces together) creating unique decorative pieces and later serving dishes. As I have a huge collection of seashells, I occasionally return to shell wreaths and mirrors and still make an occasional cone wreath.
Photography is another interest (quite untrained – more point and shoot) and I use my pictures for cards. I’ve been a MIVAL member for some years. I’ve made many friends there and appreciate it as a wonderful outlet for my creativity.
Jerry Johnson – Photographer
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area (Half Moon Bay) and moved to Mercer Island 10 years ago, where I live with my wife, Sue and our dog, Winston. Professionally, I work full time in the Insurance Industry, while photography is my passion. In the near future, I plan on providing local workshops to those who also wish to pursue their passion, as this area has so much to offer.
I joined MIVAL in 2017 and it has been a wonderful experience and opportunity to be able to show and sell my art along with all of the other talented members.
Although I have been photographing wildlife, nature and landscapes for a long time, it wasn’t until I moved to the Pacific Northwest, that my enthusiasm for photography really took off. I started taking classes, attending workshops and broadening my knowledge of my craft. A majority of my work is definitely influenced by the West Coast, but I love to travel and take my “gear” with me everywhere. My primary focus is photographing birds but I try to find and capture the beauty in everything, even my own backyard.
Susanne Foster – Fiber Artist
My Prussian grandma taught me to knit and crochet by age 6. My Rhenish grandma taught me to never waste any paper or fabric scraps, ever! Blame her for my sincere, almost clinical ability to ‘make something out of nothing’. My mom exposed me to Egyptian, Roman and European art with many visits to art museums.
My favorite artists are Albrecht Duerer, Paul Klee, Judit Reigl, Lyonel Feininger, Emil Nolde, and many Bauhaus artists. And then there is Josef Beuys – ‘enfant terrible’ in Europe’s post WW II art – German art professor – he ‘dared’ art – my idol for courage!
I create in ‘fiber arts’ as I never took to learning to draw, paint or sculpt well. You will find knitting, sewing by machine or hand, dried plant parts, technical fasteners, zippers, photos and doilies in my works. I memorize textures and images easily, from decades ago even, each for a special art piece. My art can come in any size from 3” x 3” small embroideries to 8 ft x 8 ft hanging art, 2D and 3D, framed at times. It can be knitted, sewn, embroidered, recycled or assembled but rarely glued or wired.
I sketch with my phone – my biggest joy! Some art becomes reality within an afternoon and some will be labored on for months or years.
Poignant, expressive colors and textures as well as open spaces are important in my art as I use contrasts to guide the viewer into and around an art piece.
My hands enjoy techniques and textures and delicate materials. My brain works with the ‘golden cut’ proportions. My heart loves to work with fibers (in the widest interpretation from wire to feathers to fabrics to found objects) because they are a life necessity for man, in order to engage viewers, to humor viewers, to document history of historically female occupations and to commemorate donors of materials and their inspirations.
Daily questions: When, where and DID I cross the threshold from ‘crafts’ to ‘arts’? Can I fully endorse what I just created? Will the viewer find a point of attraction to start looking closer into my art? Can you find treasures that make you visit your own memories of people, events, and feelings?
Always: Thank you for your enthusiastic support!
Pat Aitken
I have been making things for as long as I can remember. At a young age I began sewing my own clothes and square dancing costumes. Sewing clothes lead to sewing draperies and upholstery.
Found objects and recycled things are a constant source of inspiration. Broken dishes for mosaic projects, old clothes for braided and hooked rugs and soft furnishings.
Beautiful cakes inspired me to learn to make frosting roses. From there I made all the birthday and wedding cakes for family and friends.
We have a cabin in the woods and I am always collecting. I forage for moss, lichen, pods, and cones for wreaths and arrangements. Branches and cones inspire wood carvings and other projects. I collect oyster shells from the beach to transform into “Santa on the Half Shell” pins. I am inspired by Folk Art and Craft. I enjoy trying different techniques and am constantly finding new projects on which to work.
Roberta Wyde – Glass Artist
Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, I have lived in the Seattle area since 1988. I have had three careers in my adult life: public health (a PhD specializing in Epidemiology), parenting (fraternal twin sons), and glassblowing (since 2010). Today, almost 8 years later, my main focus is on glassblowing. I love how much there is to learn and the challenge of trying something new. The possibilities are endless. Whether I’m teaching beginners or practicing a new skill, shape or color technique for myself, every aspect of the process excites me.
Creating each new piece involves a significant amount of time. Each project includes drawing and designing the piece, choosing the colors and patterns, creating the parts, setting up the parts and, finally, executing the full piece to the final stages which usually involves some level of grinding, polishing, sandblasting, or engraving. I often employ Venetian techniques such as cane, murrini, and incalmo when working on a project. Many of my pieces are functional vessels made to be used and enjoyed rather than simply viewed. More recently I’ve been experimenting with hot glass sculpture.
Whatever the functional purpose of my pieces, I think it’s important that people interact with a piece. It is best if they can see, feel, and hold my work so they can fully appreciate it. Because of this, I prefer not to be the one to choose a piece for a client or friend. I believe each piece should evoke a feeling or emotion without words and that the person it is truly meant for will find it.
I design my pieces by matching the right form with the ideal surface, color, or patterns. Even after careful planning, I often see new forms emerging from the ones I am currently creating. Exciting new possibilities also open up through experimentation and collaboration with others. Pilchuck Glass School and the Pratt Fine Arts Center have been instrumental in exposing me to new ideas and techniques. This has introduced me to the community of glass artists that I so respect, appreciate and am able to work with and learn from. I discovered glassblowing later than many, but now that I have, I will continue to learn about, design, teach, and create glass art for myself and others.
Margaret Li – Jeweler
Wanting to travel, I and a friend applied to Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. Here, I was sequentially a ward nurse, worked on a research project and taught nurses obstetrics.
I married a doctor trained at Hopkins and following his training and national service, we lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Portland. Finally, we settled on Mercer Island with our four children. After much travel, happily, three of them have returned to live on the island. We also have six grandchildren on the Island.
About 20 years ago I took classes at BCC in many subjects, including, making jewelry and photography, including an AA in Bio-photography. Twenty years later, my family are sufficiently adorned with my creations and I thought I would see if someone other than family would like my work. I enjoy all the different methods of making jewelry and like to incorporate interesting items or stones into my pieces.
At the 2016 MIVAL Holiday Show at the Community Center, I received an “Honorable Mention” Certificate.
Jim Carlson – Photographer
I grew up just east of the San Francisco Bay during the 1950’s when the skies were still relatively dark. My first experience with photography was with my father trying to photograph Sputnik. Although this was a failure, it led to a lifelong interest in astronomy and a pursuit of photographing the night sky.
During the early 60’s I was exposed to oil painting and took private lessons. Soon college and then a career in engineering interfered and photography and painting were put on hold. Throughout the years I have had a constant need to be creative and my outlet for this was my engineering work. I am now retired and am using the opportunity to revisit my creative roots, photography and art.
Although I still enjoy painting, I find the process of transfer printing digital photos onto various media and adding a hand painted component most expressive. This new process and special materials to support it were developed by Bonnie Lhotka and Karin Schminke of Digital Atelier. I like using this technique to produce pieces that are somewhere in between literal and impressionist.
For me the creative process starts with adventure in my life. These adventures provide a venue for my eye to see something new and different and the opportunity to photograph it. My choice of images is quite varied and is inspired simply by the way I see the world. My eye is drawn to scenes where the beauty of the natural world exists alongside our manmade landscape. I try to create pieces that evoke an emotional response in me. My hope is that they will trigger a response in others as well.
Claudia Zimmerman – Painter
Artist Claudia Zimmerman, has painted on both coasts, returning to Mercer Island ten years ago and returning to MIVAL 3 months ago. She shares a studio with 4 other artists in the Tashiro Kaplan Art Complex in Pioneer Square and also shows at the White Bird Gallery in Cannon Beach and the RiverSea Gallery in Astoria Oregon. She has taught art in the public sector since the early 90’s and now teaches privately. As a painter, she strives to create compositions that comprise both representational and visionary ideals. Allegory and metaphor are her passion.
As a painter of allegory, I am ever fascinated with fairytales and mythology. Rendering meaning and moral in visual form is a many layered endeavour I find challenging and frustrating but never boring. — Claudia Zimmerman, 2021
Carol Whitaker – Painter
In my abstract art, I challenge myself to answer artistic questions in the moment without the pressure of a planned result. The abstract forms and flowing paint free me to step beyond the specificity and structure of craft and the frozen-in-time nature of photography (both long time passions of mine) and discover a kind of movement and experimentation that is different than in my other work
Each painting is a unique journey — an exploration of artistic principles and an opportunity to discover new techniques and change approaches as I create. I begin with a visual inspiration — an item, image, or pattern, often something I photographed. I examine and reconsider the subject, framing and reframing it until there is a relationship and balance that I like. I commit paint to canvas without limiting myself to the parameters of the inspirational idea or image, but letting the process suggest new line and shape. From there, it is a dance, adding color, shape, pattern and texture, building new line, repeating until the piece says stop.
In the end, each finished piece embodies its many steps, but also stands alone – process and result equally and interdependent, but also separate and independently valid. Carol is a new artist, a former attorney and an ardent teacher and mentor.
Abbie Birmingham – Printmaker
Although I became a printmaker later in life, a background in architecture and urban planning provided the basis for much of my current work. A random class at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle set me on the path to becoming a printmaker, and Pratt is still my “home” studio. I love combining a variety of printmaking techniques in my work, and the pieces can include etching, screen print, monoprint, collograph and shellac plates as well as collage. I’m inspired by organic forms from nature and from the built environment, and the impact of the passage of time on each.
We moved to Mercer Island in 1991 and raised our two kids here. Most of my career has been spent as a real estate and construction lawyer, but printmaking has provided a much needed creative outlet and gives me great joy.
I feel so fortunate to have tapped into this rich creative flow, and I tell people being in the studio is my “happy place”. The possibilities are endless and the only constraint is not enough time.
Lesley West – Encaustic Artist
I am inspired by the organically occurring colors and textures found, but usually overlooked, in everyday objects – weathered wood doors, rusted steel drums, peeling paint on a building, moss covered sea walls.
The unique nature of the encaustic medium allows me to recreate and share my interpretation of these elements as rich, textured three dimensional art.
Pat Howie – Painter
Every day, art opens a world of beauty to me. Roaming through a museum or gallery, looking at the lake from my living room, or sitting at the easel with a paintbrush in my hand, the affirmation that I am doing what I love fills my senses. During the three years when nine of my family and extended family members (as well as my three cats) died, and I was unable to concentrate long enough to read or write, I turned to painting. At the University of Washington’s Certificate Program and Ilona Rittler’s School of Fine Arts, through the encouragement of Barbara Fugate and my dear friend Alden Mason, and the friendships from MIVAL, I painted my way out of the darkness I carried inside of me.
During that time, I worked to capture the beauty of life on canvas, first through portraits, then through landscapes. I looked for “life” in everyone and in everywhere that I went, and I used bright colors to express the joy of the continual existence I witnessed around me. Now, a new body of work called “WANDERLUST” chronicles my recent road trips, hikes and flights. It can be seen at the MIVAL Gallery through Sunday, June 29.
June Lindsey – Ceramic Artist
All my life I have busied myself as an artist, therefore I have never been bored and am usually happy. In high school my spending money was earned doing pen and ink drawings for a stationary company and murals and signs for the shops in my small town, Watertown, Wisconsin. At the U. of Wisconsin, Madison, I majored in Fine Arts then finished my degree at U.C. Berkeley in 1958. After starting out in the two dimensional world of painting and printmaking and six years as a graphic artist in the print industry, I found my true home in the 3-D muddy world of clay. In 1966 I took my first classes from Jane Wherrete and Maxine Gorton , Mercer Island potters. Since 1978 I have been affiliated with Seward Park Clay Studio as a student, occasional teacher, resident artist, board member and its president. I have been a member of MIVAL since the 1970’s and recently a member of the MIVAL Gallery. Since the 1980’s, I have been a member of the Washington Potters Association and have exhibited regionally including many juried and invitational shows.
Although I began throwing functional pottery on the wheel, I now exclusively hand build. I am intrigued with the asymmetry and the infinite variety of shapes that coil, slab, carving and pounding can produce. Most of my work is high fired to cone ten in a gas kiln. Occasionally I do raku, saggar, pit firing and low fire oxidation for special effects. My art has gone through many phases over the 48 years including female forms, birds, rocks, carved eggs, fruit and gourds and large vessels. What has remained constant is an emphasis on earth related forms and voluptuous round shapes with minimal color to allow the texture and form to be the interest.
Currently, most of my work is inspired by the artifacts, pottery techniques and vessel shapes of the Native American cultures of the Four Corners. My fascination with the ruins and petroglyphs of the Anasazi led to research and classes with Pueblo potters. In my pieces, I attempt to evoke a feeling of cliffs, rocks and deserts of the Southwest while incorporating designs based on ancient drawings. My intention is not to duplicate the art but to be influenced by it and add my aesthetic to that history.
Doris Kleemann-Fischer – Photographer
I was born and raised in Germany, studied science in Germany and Switzerland and in 1997 moved to Seattle to work as a postdoc at the University of Washington. A few years later I left the world of scientific research and followed a new creative calling, photography. I studied Photography at the UCLA, the Learning Tree University and with CA nature photographer Tom Gamache. My images are the reflection of me “Smelling the Roses”! They are my attempts to capture the inherent beauty of a moment in time. My photographic objects of interest represent mostly the two northwest landscapes, which have influenced my life the most, the plains of Northwest Germany, Ostfriesland, and the Pacific Northwest, my newfound love and home. These days I find myself more often using photos only as my canvases, my starting point for something new. They are my inspiration for my creativity. I present most of my photo graphics on metal (aluminum), which has an exceptional archival value, beautiful reflective light properties and in combination with the translucent dyes used for the metal printing, enhance my images and their subtleties. All my photo art images are printed as very small limited editions (2–10). At the present time my work can be found at the MIVAL Gallery on Mercer Island, Studio 103 at Pioneer Square in Seattle,MI Physical Therapy, JuJubeet in Bellevue, and online at my webpage www.fisheye-art-of-light.com. “Let’s smell the roses every day!”
Lucia Neagu
In my youth I earned a graduate degree in Applied Art, however, with children to raise and a job to hold, I found no time for artistic pursuits. I hoped that later in life I would be able to find the time to express myself as an artist. That time came in 2006 when I moved from Romania to the United States, where my kids lived. Here I started a new phase of my life – a late painting journey. As a beginner I was overwhelmed and scared about the whole process. I spent a lot of time in the library reading books about art, materials and process. Soon I acquired a new visual vocabulary and I tried to implement what I had learned into my work. I started with watercolor and discovered by chance the pleasure of painting on Yupo – a type of synthetic paper. Two years later I moved to acrylics. A visit to Puget Sound’s Jones Island enabled me to discover unusual beautiful rocks that triggered a series of paintings. Later I found a good source of inspiration in stumps and bark, observed while hiking in the forests. Painting them, I proved to myself that nature is the best teacher. Later, a fascination with “abstract” energy got a hold of me.
From the very beginning I was attracted to abstract art. I dreamed about painting in an painterly style, but it came much easier to have a stylized, decorative, design style, somehow colder and rigid, determined from within by my architecture/decorative studies. While working I learned that I am mostly attracted to expressing myself spontaneously, to develop my ideas directly on canvas, without prior sketches. The more bold and uninhibited I start, the more gates I unlock for imagination to flourish and bring out details. The result, most of the time, is abstracted with an organic touch. I am still fascinated by the way the creative process works; the way it extracts information from my intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual background, and expresses itself through intuition – like coming from nowhere.
Now, eight years later I am still chasing the state where my native openness and lyrical predisposition will freely translate into a spontaneous expression of flowing masses of colors and energetic, restless brush strokes. I want my art to be abstract, ambiguous, spontaneous, and full of energy and flooded with colors. I am working on it, wanting to please my lonely spirit on this journey without a destination. http://www.lucia.neagu.com
Raleigh Nowers
In my past life, I was an Operating Room nurse and very left brained! When I retired from Nursing for the first time in 1993 I took several art classes to awaken my right brain. I started with watercolor and over the years I have taken classes from Chuck Webster; Cathe Gill; Michelle Cooper; Carol Strecher Jones; Susie Short and Anne Breckon. My Sumi-e classes were with Hiroko Seki, Lois Yoshida and Y. Zhu. While developing my ‘artistic inner self’ I find I look at my world in a different way. I am now more aware of color, texture and the atmospheric environment of the Pacific Northwest. I like to paint landscapes, flowers and animals and play around with different techniques and media. I have a Muse but she is very undisciplined and seems to take too many breaks from our art studio. I’m hoping we’ll become more disciplined in 2014.
I joined MIVAL in 2005 and sold my first painting at the 2007 Summer Celebration Show. What I have found belonging to MIVAL is that there are so many opportunities and events in which an artist can submit their art. This group is supportive, helpful and encouraging. I am one of the original artists who joined the MIVAL Gallery in 2010 and have had many successes selling my cards and paintings there. It is wonderful that we have MIVAL to support and encourage us. But you know what? MIVAL is us!
I’ve been a ‘left brain’ person most of my life. In 1993 I retired from nursing and started taking art classes to get my ‘right brain’ engaged. Over the years I have taken watercolor classes from Chuck Webster, Cathe Gill, Michelle Cooper, Carol Strecher Jones, Susie Short and Hiroko Seki (Sumi-e). I’m am mostly inspired by nature’s colors and natural light. I also have a ‘Muse’ who sometimes shows up to nudge me away from my left brain.
Raleigh Nowers
Wanda Hughes – Watercolorist
Gamze Seckin
I was born in Turkey and moved to US to study my Fulbright sponsored doctorate degree in computer engineering. I spent more than 20 years working full time in telecom industry.
While working full time and raising two kids, I found peace in playing with watercolors. I paint simple portraits, flowers and landscapes. I paint because it makes me happy!
You can follow me on Instagram or check out my website http://gamzeseckin.com or contact me via email gamzeseckin@gmail.com
Surya Gaertner
I was born and raised in Germany and came to live in the United States in 1987. When I was ten years old, I painted from memory, a journal in 24 small colorful pictures of us children on a two weeks long school field trip. I remember posing in front of a mirror to get the right image of a girl picking blueberries in the forest. Not much has changed since then. I love painting and drawing the world around me, the people, their houses, gardens, fields, and towns. For my figurative work, I often rely on posing models, unless I work completely from memory. To paint a landscape in plein air alters my state of being. I get overwhelmed by the constantly changing light and colors in the scenery around me.
Besides painting in oils, pastel or watercolor, drawing in various media, etching and printmaking, I also do 3-dimensional work. I braid vinyl straps and wire into sculptures, which can be placed in the house or garden. With my life size, almost abstract sculptures, I want to surprise the viewers, to confront and inspire them to form their own individual association with the image in front of them. The interplay of changing reflections on the partially shiny material, the light penetration through gaps and the openings and breezes moving free flowing straps allow my sculptures to take on their on lively expressions. Only recently I recognize increasingly my North European background in my art work.
Nancy Abel – Photographer
While my art roots were planted in the media of paint and clay, I find digital photography gives me new methods to approach making art. I love to combine multiple images and I find endless inspiration in elements of nature and the urban landscape.
Although a single photograph often satisfies me as a final image, I find combining layers of photographs and textures is a lot of fun and often better conveys the emotion of the captured moment. Similar to multiple exposures or applying paint glazes to canvas, for me, combining images, texture, and color is like mixing a bit of abstraction with reality. In either case, whether the final image is a straight photograph or a composite, my goal is to create an organic image which reflects the original subject with both visual depth and spirit.
More work on my website www.nancyabel.com and Instagram
Ken Claflin
Black and white photography was my passion for over 2 decades. The black and white dance photographs are from around 1986. My camera: the Canon AE-1 with Kodak Tri-X (black & white film) and I were inseparable. Whether I was hiking, sailing, or traveling, I took thousands of black and white photos. I love to travel and take street photography. With the technology of modern digital cameras, I am able to shoot street photography at night without a tripod. I love to capture how people live, work, and play at night. These Paris Café scenes at night are examples. When I was pursuing my photography degree, I fell in love with color night photography. My urban landscapes are about capturing the city at night creating an image with accumulated time – not something one can actually experience … but something more. My earliest memories are from my apartment in Seattle on 6th and Yesler watching the shimmering water from the sunset on Elliott Bay and the lights starting to glow after dark. Twilight has always been a magical time of day for me.
My urban night photography series is about capturing the urban environment at night, creating images with accumulated time, not something one can actually experience in an instant, but something more. I find a special beauty in this alteration provided by night and night lighting. The unexpected rich color of night light transforms the city in which we work, play and live. Photography captures a moment in time but long exposures capture a sense of duration. People become ghosted or disappear as they pass through the frame. Elongated exposures can soften nature. Harsh waves, driven by the wind, are transformed to a soft velvet glow but the stillness that which does not move remains sharp and crisp. Man and nature co-mingling with the city lights create a ghostly amusement park.
Bellevue Pond
I find a special beauty in the blending of city lights where we work, live, commute and play. The night has the ability to transform a place bringing life to the mundane with excitement, making it mysterious or romantic, or making it a dark and lonely place. My latest series is making High Dynamic Range (HDR) Panoramas. It takes at least 6 exposures to create one photo. First I create multiple HDR photographs in Photoshop and stitch them together to create the panoramas.
Zeynep Alev – Printmaker
Zeynep was born in 1969, in Istanbul, Turkey. She studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University and finished her master’s degree in architecture at University of Arizona. After practicing for a couple of years in Atlanta and Seattle, she found herself busy with kids at home. Since then she satisfies her itch for creation and design by working on small scale projects and painting at her home office.
Since her childhood she has immensely enjoyed drawing and painting. Art always became a way to express herself, a way to anchor memories and a way to enjoy life. She is inspired by her kids, her dreams. Her background in architecture perseveres in her compositions. She likes to focus on where and how things exist in space and light. She likes to experiment with different mediums besides pencil, acrylic, watercolor, oil, and soft pastel. Her recent interest is in printmaking.
Contact Nancy Abel if you’d like to update your information on this page.