Meet the Artists: Creative Space Gallery

Meet the Artists

We are proud to showcase the work of these Vermont artists and artisans.

Painting

Eloise Beil, Carol Calhoun, Libby Davidson, Robert Deyette, Sean Dye, Fiona Cooper Fenwick, Georgina Forbes, Karin Hardy, Bonnie Melnick, Pamela Murphy, Celia Oliver, Kathrena Ravenhorst-Adams, Julner Remy, Judith Rey, Ann Sage, Janet Seaburg

Print Making

Jean Kerr-Lewis, Lyna Lou Nordstrom, Janet Seaburg

Glass

Cherie Marshall, Alyssa Oxley, Lori Pietropaoli, Diane Rippa, Bud Shriner, Catherine Suiter, Micaela Wallace

Pottery

Judith Bryant, Laura Fall, David Meath

Jewelry

Joan Burt, Cherie Marshall, Kathy Mitchell, Jane Nevins, Micaela Wallace

Textiles and Fiber Arts

Deb Allen, Marsha Chase, Celia Oliver, Tamara Wight, Lizzy Woolf

Metal

John Arthur

Furniture and Wood

Dennis Grage, Peter Jensen

Photography

Lynn Clauer, Daniel Doyle, Louise Giovanella, Janet Seaburg, Gary Tobler

Mixed Media

Marilyn Gillis, Janet Seaburg, Gary Tobler, Lizzy Woolf

Beeswax Candles

Karen Emerson

STUDIO PARTNER SEAN DYE

Award winning multimedia artist Sean Dye welcomes visitors to view new works at his Vergennes studio at Creative Space Gallery.

Founder and past president of the Vermont Pastel Society, Dye is author of Painting with Water Soluble Oils and several inspiring DVDs covering Palette Knife Painting, Water-soluble Oils, Oil Painting, Pastel, Oil Pastel and Watercolor. Sean received his MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. He taught painting and drawing at The University of Vermont from 1991 - 2015, and conducts workshops throughout North America. Sean's paintings have been exhibited widely and are in numerous private and corporate collections. They have appeared in The Artists Magazine and International Artist Magazine, Pastel Artist International and The Pastel Journal. Sean splits his time between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack region of upstate New York.

FEATURED BOOK ARTISTS

Elissa Campbell
In my studio in beautiful Montpelier, Vermont you will find me hand-binding journals, photo albums, and guest books using traditional bookbinding techniques. I also design and create custom invitations and announcements. I work with handmade papers and materials from both local artisans and from around the world. I have a special interest in using “green” materials that contain recycled content. I strive to create books that maintain the beauty and integrity of the materials with which I work. The books in this exhibit were created during a project called "the Book Arts Improv," a four-week stretch of improvisational bookmaking . . . Each week, themes were submitted by my blog readers and the ones I used were chosen at random. By the end of the project I had created twenty different artist's books.

Marilyn Gillis
I make art as a visual record of my life, thoughts and feelings. Fiber is the medium I choose because it is an integral part of our lives – every day, from birth to death. Fiber has a tactile quality that has universal appeal. In my work I explore the qualities of color that suggest or produce feelings and ideas. Elements of line and texture have immediate visual appeal to me; stitching produces both at once. My art begins with surface design. I dye, paint, and print fabric and I make silk paper and felt. In this culture of mass production, it is important to me that my art shows ample evidence of my own hand. My ideas emerge from the textiles I create and I work intuitively as pieces evolve. I work without a plan, but within loose parameters that are subject to revision as the design progresses. I approach my designs by acting and responding, unbound by constraints of “should” and “shouldn’t”. I use a wide range of materials and techniques – whatever works to translate my ideas to the piece I am making. My primary inspiration comes from the natural world.

Vera Ryersbach
At age four I drew constantly on sheet after sheet of repurposed paper from friends' businesses. Back then, a pencil and a box of crayons was all that was needed. In high school I took multiple art courses, both in school and at the Junior School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I continued taking art classes in college and as I worked and raised a family . . . when my husband said I seemed happier than ever when I returned from art classes, I knew I needed to change the direction of my working life. I became certified to teach art and was an art teacher for 22 years. Recently I have begun to create visual memories or memoirs through art, including bookmaking. The combination of words and images can powerfully convey a moment in a person's life. The book with knitting hands and knit pieces on the cover is part of my mother's life. The book with the cross-stitched cover speaks to the straddling of two cultures and trying to find a balance.

Marcia Vogler
I am a book artist working in mixed media and collage. I came to book work as an extension of my career as an apparel designer. My practice combines my love of fabric and paper, and includes books, small structures, and postcard series. Images of my work can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pizza_on_earth/. Marcia is a Board member of the Book Arts Guild of Vermont.

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MEMBER ARTISTS

John Arthur
Home for me is in the beautiful Champlain Valley of northern Vermont. When making nature pieces I look for ideas in what may be observed hiking on Vermont’s Long Trail and canoeing its quiet ponds and rivers. Observations serve as inspiration in creating a sculpture using a combination of plants found in nature along with plants of my imagination. By combining reality with whimsy, both the beauty of a natural setting and the beauty inherent in the metals used are highlighted. In other pieces, (mailboxes, bikes, carts etc.) I take a slice of everyday life, usually rural in theme, and from that try to create something unique. Copper, bronze and brass are used for leaves, wings etc. and steel for the “structural” elements. No paints are used, all coloration is achieved by “flame-coloring”- using the torch flame at various temperatures to bring out the natural colors of the copper. Due to the amount of hand manipulation used as well as the flame-coloring no two pieces are exactly alike.

Eloise Beil My tranquil studies of the Vermont landscape are informed by my work in art and natural history museums, and profound respect for the intricate web of nature. Painting landscapes enhances my awareness of the world around me. Daughter of a Vermont schoolteacher and a New York naturalist, after graduate school in museum studies, my involvement with art for many years was as a museum professional. While in charge of collections and exhibits at Shelburne Museum, I attended open studio classes at the Shelburne Craft School and began to make painting a central activity of my life. My work can be seen in regional galleries, juried group and solo exhibitions.

Carol Calhoun expresses her creativity in many media, including oils, pastels, acrylics, and mixed media.

Marsha Chase My love of fiber began at a very early age. I’ve been told at the age of 3, my mother’s sewing basket was like a magnet to me. At the age of 6 I discovered commercial patterns to make clothes for dolls. Heaven for me was a shoe box of material pieces, threads, buttons, ribbons and other trimmings. By the time I was 8, I was making many of my own clothes. My favorite class in high school was home economics where I learned advanced sewing skills, including tailoring. My tactile and visual attraction to fiber is what led me to felting. Felt is an incredible versatile medium to work with. It can be worked as a fine gossamer fabric or material that is sturdy enough for hats. Other fibers and fabrics can be encapsulated in the wool during the felting process allowing infinite design possibilities. I do not have a formal education in the arts, but have completed many workshops from other skilled designers and crafters, including clothing design, color theory, and many kinds of felting. I have also had some training in both oil painting and watercolor. I am always inspired by nature, whether the astounding visual feast of color of the flowers in June, the vibrancy of fall in Vermont or the restful neutrals of our winters. Wool is a gentle fiber from gentle animals that is gently manipulated into many forms.

Daniel Doyle The works presented here were created using 35mm Fuji 200 film and processing. They were printed in Giclee mode on an Epson printer using Epson velveteen paper. No digital modification was made to the original files.I am presently exploring the ability of the camera to capture different aspects of time—long exposures, low light, high speed—exposing not only the camera but myself to experiencing the atmosphere of different times-- early morning, late night-- exploring the realm of contemporary photography. Using light where there appears to be little or none, finding the colors in the night, and the motion of stillness, and realizing the dynamic balance of opposites keep propelling my direction. All of the prints I exhibit appear as shot, without cropping or digital manipulation.

Fiona Cooper Fenwick is a landscape and still life painter in the Impressionist tradition – working primarily in oil and pastel. Fiona grew up in Upstate New York, the youngest of four children. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, graduating in 1980 with a degree in Visual Art. In 1982, she moved to northern Vermont, making a full commitment to painting 1990. Fueled greatly by the New England landscape, as well as her mentors along the way, (Jeneane Lunn and Frank Mason) , she continues to pursue her artistic goals – painting color, light, atmosphere and composition in the landscape – and focusing on the balance of these elements in nature and in art. Although she primarily paints plein-air, the studio is where she will develop paintings and create additional paintings that push beyond the “on-site” experience. Fiona lives in Hinesburg, Vermont with her husband and cats. When she is not painting, you can find her in the flower gardens or hooking a rug.

Georgina Forbes states: "Through color, water, light, pattern and shape, I work to integrate landscape images which are at once explicit, symbolic, and expressionistic. These are unabashedly emotional paintings. Creation is, by nature, about transformation; birth, and death. Painting is my way to explore the frontier where risk, intention and conscious use of skill lead to expressing light and elemental forces manifesting spirit. Earth, air, fire, and water—these elemental forces are all powerful, even as ‘civilization’ puts all at risk. We are connected to all life, and heir to the powerful truths that govern all beings. We are called to walk through fertile darkness, to walk in light, to find healing, and to allow our feeling selves to breathe consciousness into the acts of living that form our lives on earth."
Exhibiting since 1972, Georgina Forbes has work in Vermont's Fleming Museum. Her work was featured in Old House Interiors magazine. She studied with James Gahagan, Director of the Hofmann School of Art in Provincetown, teacher at Pratt Institute in New York City, and later at the Vermont Studio Center. She lives in Norwich, VT.

Karin Hardy grew up in Europe, experiencing great art at an early age. Drawing and painting were always part of her life and she was inspired by many artists: Van Gogh, Munch, The Bauhaus and the Impressionists, particulary Monet. Having moved to Vermont from New Jersey in 1989 after years of visiting, she explores this beautiful area from her home in Addison County. Pastel and oil are her favorite mediums. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous shows in the area: the former Artisans Guild in Ferrisburg, the Fine Art Gallery in Stowe, the Southern Vermont Arts Center, several shows at Basin Harbor and most recently, the Quadricentennial Show “Champlain’s Lake Rediscovered.” “The light and landscape of Addison County are an artist’s dream. I paint for the love of painting and for my sanity, showing and selling my work is a morale booster and it keeps me in the necessary materials. For me, painting and grandchildren are the dessert of life”

Bonnie Melnick
I enjoy painting because I am continuously fascinated and surprised by the interplay of colors. Whether it’s laying down a glaze on a watercolor painting, or scraping away a layer of encaustic wax, something unexpected and delightful is bound to happen. The paintings seem to know how they want to look, and I just help them to get there. During the past twenty years, I have taken watercolor workshops from a variety of local and visiting artists. I spent a few years studying watercolor painting with Sean Callahan, and recently studying pastels with Sean Dye. I started painting with encaustics after seeing them in a gallery in Santa Fe. The depth and brilliance of the wax was amazing. The colors and ever-changing light of the natural Vermont landscapes provide me with ongoing inspiration.

Cherie Marshall
https://www.facebook.com/Cherie-Marshall-Glass-1572625213020810/
I have been working with glass for about 4 years now at the Davis Studio with Alyssa and had my jewelry at the Southern Vermont Arts Center last summer. I don't yet have a website but you can see some of my work on Facebook at Cherie Marshall Glass.Judith Rey After majoring in art and art education in college, I taught art in public schools, sold my work at national craft shows and then became an arts administrator. Within a few years, I transitioned to the business world, which left me no time to paint or do my own creative work. Now I have returned to painting and showing my work in Vermont. My work is becoming more abstract, and I use landscape and other subject matter as a point of departure. I have been selected for a number of juried exhibitions in the past few years and was recently awarded a residential fellowship for 2010 to the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT. I live in Ferrisburgh, VT.

Celia Oliver
Celia works primarily in fibers, pencil and pastel. When drawing and painting, her favorite subjects are flowers and landscape. As a fiber artist, she enjoys combining various printed and textured fabrics to create 3-dimensional fiber sculpture and wearable art.
Celia grew up in Vermont and currently lives in Shelburne, where she operates her business, Historic Textiles & Interiors, specializing in the design and fabrication of window treatments, bed hangings, slipcovers and other textile accessories for museums, historical societies and private clients. She studied Art History at the University of Vermont and received a Masters Degree in American Material Culture and Textile History.

Alyssa Oxley
https://www.alyssaoxley.com/
Alyssa Oxley pursues every opportunity to expand her understanding of the material and achieve proficiency in giving shape to her ideas in glass. Alyssa has been working with kilnformed and cast glass for about 15 years. She has experience in commercial art, interior and graphic design and despite her paying jobs, has always maintained an active, independent fine art studio of her own. Her current work in glass is strongly driven by time spent outside, along the Otter Creek near her home in Vergennes, Vermont, or walking the nearby school campus. These experiences are transformed into Memory Boxes, evocative containers that echo the landscape through abstract forms and patterns that evoke an urge to explore what might be hidden within. Oxley learned a lot of what she knows about glass working in the Kremer Glass Studio in Pound Ridge, New York. She currently teaches kilnforming glass classes at South End Glass at Davis Studio in Burlington and summer intensives in places like the Corning Museum of Glass Studio, Corning, New York, Snow Farm Craft School, Williamsburg, Massachusetts and Helios Glass Studio in Austin, Texas.

Lori Pietropaoli
Lori Pietropaoli is an emerging artist in Williston, VT. She began working in glass at Davis Studios in Burlington soon after moving to Vermont in 2014. She is inspired by colors and patterns, especially stripes.

Julner Remy
Julner’s acrylic and watercolor paintings capture images of Haitian life, from people in everyday life to images of celebration. Julner’s artistic talent was noticed at the orphanage in Port au Prince where he and his brother lived after the death of their parents. Julner studied with several well known Haitian artists. In 2004, he was appointed the art teacher at Trinity House, a home for boys in the Southern city of Jacmel, where he taught acrylic, water color, pastel and drawing techniques to children and adults. An iconographer visiting Haiti noticed Julner's talent for icon painting, and secured a grant from the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration to fund his travel to the U. S. to study with Virginia Lee Crippen and Phil Zimmerman, a master iconographer. Julner now lives in Vermont with his wife and three sons.

Diane Rippa
www.etsy.com/shop/VTGlassJewels
I have been creating fused glass for the past three years. I initially trained at the Davis Studio in Burlington and now have my own studio at home looking out at the mountains and sunsets. I am inspired by my surroundings and use the colors from the mountains and sky in my work. I love the feeling when I open my kiln and see my finished creations. I create jewelry including earrings, bracelets, pendants, barrettes all in bright dramatic colors. I also create Judaica including stunning menorahs and mezuzot. I am a member of Vermont Handcrafters and I have exhibited at Art hop for two years. I participated in the BCA Holiday Market in December 2015. I participated in a show at Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in the fall of 2015. I have a shop on Etsy called VTGlassJewels.

Janet Seaburg has been a freelance artist and educator since 1960. She taught in public and private schools in Connecticut until she retired to Button Bay in 1994. There, she started her home business Imaginistics, teaching and selling Art and Crafts. She works in many different media including acrylic, watercolor, pen & ink, photography and natural materials. Her favorite is using wood to produce woodcuts and bird carvings. Janet has had several solo shows and has exhibited in Fairfield and Westport Connecticut, as well as Vergennes and Middlebury. One of her woodcuts won Best in Show at the Poultney Fine Arts Show and her photography has won several first places at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s annual juried photography exhibit.

Bud Shriner, Church & Maple Glass
http://www.churchandmaple.com/
Bud Shriner was introduced to glassblowing in 1970 while working in a neurochemistry lab. There he learned the techniques of scientific glassblowing with borosilicate and quartz, leading him a few years later to seek out his first experience with off-hand glass blowing. A graduate of the University of Vermont Medical School, Bud practiced emergency medicine for fifteen years. Throughout this period he continued experimentation with various crafts: blowing glass, building furniture, and working with copper sculpture. He has studied at Corning Studio with Josiah Mcilhenny as well as at the Haystack School of Crafts with Fritz Dreisbach, Jan Erik-Ritzman, and David Levi. In the mid-1990s Bud left medicine to devote himself full-time to glass-blowing, opening the glass studio at Church and Maple in downtown Burlington. Several talented glassblowers and apprentices work together to create the Church and Maple line, with elegant transparent forms and distinctive patterns including Ferris Wheel, Quilted, Emerald Sea, Confetti. In the winter of 2007, Church and Maple Glass moved its production facility to the beautiful landscape of Charlotte, Vermont, where Bud's creativity and artistic growth flourish.

Catherine Suiter
cksuiter@gmail.com
Catherine has been a self-described “glass addict” since she was a child and watched the sunlight make rainbows on her grandmother’s crystal glasses. Having collected glass in many forms (perfume bottles, blown glass, sundry domestic art, including a glass countertop) she finally has the chance to work with fused glass herself at the Davis Studio in Burlington. It is the curious contrast between the hardness of glass and its fluidity that she finds endlessly exciting and occasionally disappointing. Straying from the usual cutting and pasting in glass, she has explored different uses of frit, slumping and sand blasting techniques to give a sense of movement to the glass.

Micaela Wallace
wallaceinvt@aol.com
Known for beautiful and unique functional items made with fusible glass, Micaela creates plates, platters, bowls, coasters, candle lights, and transforms dichroic and iridescent glass into sterling wire wrapped jewelry and belt buckles. Micaela Wallace is a Vermont native but lived away for 12 of her adult years. She began her glass craft life about 20 years ago studying stained glass at the Oglebay Institute in West Virginia. She continued studying stained glass upon moving back to Vermont at the Shelburne Art Center. Micaela expanded into fused glass more than 10 years ago and studied at The Studio of the Corning Glass Museum and the Bullseye Glass resource center in Mamaroneck New York. Micaela is currently a juried member of Vermont Handcrafters and teaches kilnforming glass at the Davis Studio in South Burlington. Micaela draws much of her inspiration from the beautiful mountains and gardens that she views outside her workshop.

Stay tuned as we share more about our local and regional artists!

214 Main Street, Suite 1, Vergennes, VT 05491
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