Charles C. D'Arezzo
My formal education is through the PhD, with a minor in Art. The credentials allowed me to have an academic career for thirty four years as a College Professor and Dean. I have also served a formal apprenticeship for Jewelry Tool making. Supplementary courses for the apprent iceship were taken at Rhode Island School of Design.
I have been working with wood as a form of art for the past seven years. I find the organic quality found in the tree transcends the art form I am creating. This inspiration allows me to tell many stories.
My work has been displayed in galleries in New Hampshire, Maine, Louisiana, and Virginia as well as private collections. I hope my original art design and crafting will find a special place in your life.
Paula R. Melton
Paula's full time work in watercolor painting has been a lifetime effort. Growing up in Carroll County and spending a great deal of time in the rural setting of both sets of grandparents, she soon learned to express herself through art, drawing and painting the things they discussed and used. She learned a great appreciation for their life and times, and she still carries that special feel for all positives in life, great and small. An art major at Radford College, her background includes advanced training with local artist Ruby Sumner, and workshops in various techniques including those conducted by Greg Osterhaus, Hiener Hurtling, Elsie Dinsmore Popkins and many other noted artists. Paula has developed a realist style of her own. Whether painting old barns, dilapidated trucks and farm equipment, various wildlife or pets, and landscapes, she always tries to capture the warmth and unaltered detail of the subject. Using a strict adherence to the actual current appearance and color, her floral work reflects a "living" reflection of the plant and insect life that surrounds it. She has created a unique line of angel portraits, and is in the process of developing a new line of early American scenes.
Paula has received many awards for her watercolor work. She has 4 Best in Show awards, including the prestigious Waterford Foundation yearly event. She has conducted 16 one woman shows and has presented work at various invitational shows, as well as national and regional juried shows including the Festival of Flowers at the Biltmore Estate and Things With Wings shows. Paula's current portfolio includes 14 limited edition prints.
Kathye Mendes
A native of Northern California, I began an odyssey in the early 70's that brought me to Southwest Virginia and has allowed me to express my passion for life in art.
My artistic goal is to bring joy to my clients with the result of a painting that is full of life and feeling. I love to paint whether it is a landscape, a flower or a face. Childrens portraits and scenes with children and pets are especially enjoyable for me. I feel that capturing the expression and feeling of a piece is one of my strengths.
For 10 years I participated in selected art festivals throughout the Eastern Seaboard and received many awards. I have also hosted numerous one-woman shows. My work hangs in both corporate and private collections in the United States and Europe.
Bill Nuckolls
I have been a wood carver for 25 years. Having worked and studied under some of the best carvers in the world, I have carved over 500 original pieces. My work is done in tupelo and jelutong wood. Burning pens and high speed grinders are used to create texture. I have won awards at the World Carving Competition and the Southeastern Wildlife Festival. I have been a member of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild for 23 years. My work is now on display in the shops of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild and at City Gallery in Galax, Virginia. Visit City Gallery at www.citygallerygalax.com.
Brenda Moore
Brenda Moore has been working in clay since 1990, but chose it as a full-time craft in 2006. Although she began by throwing functional pots on the wheel, she now creates unique hand-built sculptures for the garden and home out of earthenware clay using slab, pinch, and coil techniques. Other materials such as copper and rock are sometime incorporated into these sculptures. She also works with construction foam and a fiberglass-enforced cement to create deck and patio plaques and large, lightweight sculptures for the garden. Other interests include fishing, traveling, reading and glass beadmaking. She is a handbuilding instructor at the Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem, NC. Owner of Mossy Rock Creations.
Todd Price
Todd Price is an artist in both fine and commercial arts who creates in Elk Creek, Virginia. A graduate of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Todd draws on over thirty-five years of professional art experience to bring a high level of quality and maturity to his work.
The son of a professional artist and art educator, Todd’s interest in the arts has been life-long.
“I have enjoyed watching Todd create over our 34 years together; it’s been an awesome ride. He developed a children’s exhibit at the Akron Museum of Modern Art in Ohio that is still being used, complete with a puppet theater. The kids and I made field trips to the billboards he painted for Patrick Media Group while living in Rochester, NY. Now I know that we watched a master at work as he painted massive pieces so life-like, either off a swing stage next to a busy highway or in a converted trolley car /billboard building. They were all done in the old style, with oil paints and brushes. He’s my Michelangelo, “ wrote Gloria.
He operates Signs Work, a custom sign company in Elk Creek. Todd paints in oils, finding inspiration from the bucolic surroundings of rural Virginia. Landscapes and skies of vibrant color and texture create a fluid conversation that describes the “humble beginnings” of life in the valley.
He can be reached at (276) 655-4047; signswork@ls.net
Brad Smith
Brad is an Appalachian folk artist who works in both greenwood carving and drawing and has established his own distinctive technique in the process. As a green wood-worker Brad gets his talent from his grandfather and uncle. Originally from Salisbury, NC, Smith moved to Carroll County Virginia to raise a family. Working with his hands for years, he has gone from sheet metal of aircraft carriers to green wood, creating Appalachian methods of crafting hay rakes, chair legs, axe handles and whimsical “green men.” The traditional Appalachian Rooster has been around many years; however, Brad’s renditions take the traditional art to contemporary in his application of paints. Brad’s professional background also includes log home building, specializing in hand-hewn log techniques. His drawings and handmade woodcraft can be found in galleries in Virginia and North Carolina.
Morris Schlesinger
After reading about the craft of wood turning in a magazine in the early ‘80’s, Morris Schlesinger bought himself a lathe and tools and began “giving wood a second chance” as he says.
Morris is one of a small group of wood turners in Virginia and of the less than 8,000 worldwide, from a craft that began in the Middle Ages.
And while Morris considers himself a technician rather than an artist, he has studied with some of the premiere wood turners in the world at various symposiums as well as week long classes at John C. Campbell Folk School.
As a full time U.S. Postal Service employee and Vietnam War veteran, Morris jumped at the chance to join the Freedom Pens Project, a nationwide effort to provide custom hand-crafted pens to American servicemen and women in Iraq. Morris’ contribution was 100 of the 20,000 pen goal.
Schlesinger also plants thousands of trees each year. He says, “Wood is grown for a reason, whether it is for houses, heating or bowls. This is a way to keep the cycle going.”
As with many artists, Morris believes in the healing power of art, whether for the patron who has purchased a piece of art or the creator of the art. “This has been a lifesaver for me. I look at this wood and think if I can change this and give it another life, there has to be something new for me, too,” says Morris.
Penelope Moseley
I describe myself as a painter. I’ve been painting and drawing since I was four years old, drawing pictures on scrap lumber as my Daddy, a carpenter, worked and watched over me. He became my first critic and fan.
As with many closet artists and especially a young woman in the late 1960's, I pursued a family and "just earning a living" as opposed to pursuing my artistic talents. After 30 years of career development, I decided it was time for self-development. I gave up my position at First Union Bank as a Mortgage Loan Officer and enrolled at Hollins College, Roanoke, VA. I graduated in 1996 with a Master of Art in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Studio Art.
I like to think that I pour my heart and soul onto the canvas as I endeavor to depict my love of life and the beauty of the scenery around us. My friend from France, Suzanne Lignon, wrote to me describing what she saw in my work, "Your painting reflects your happiness; in being able to express your joy and admiration for those unspoiled rural areas; to convey the natural harmony of light, the air, the delicate nuances of the mountains. It's like un couf de coeur as we say in French (a sudden and irresistible attraction). There is something so genuine and skillful at the same time, about it."
Vanessa Wright
23 year-old Vanessa Wright is the artist and creator of Spirit Inspired Works™. Having graduated from Salem College with a BA in Studio Art, her studies have taken her so far as Venice, Italy, as well as London, England. After graduating, Wright entered the commercial art world and found it bleak and empty despite the money and fame it offered.
“I had to leave behind everything that had been drilled into me via society and school about the preferred road in life,” Vanessa says of her exchange of the commercial world for a home based endeavor. Moving from a high profile photography studio to a non air conditioned barn, Wright created Spirit Inspired Works™. Art and faith are continually separated in today’s world, and Wright seeks to unify them and show their interdependence. Her stained glass and oil paintings have now been recognized as far as Minnesota. Wright received a commission for the Mayo clinic to paint a reproduction of Albrecht Dürer’s ‘Praying Hands.’ It was presented as a gift on behalf of the 2005 Hand Specialist Fellowship Group.
Robert Lazo
Robert Lazo, M.D. was born and raised in the mid-west and has lived in southwest Virginia for the past 30 years. He has an active family and obstetrics practice in Galax and has been painting since he was a student at Virginia Tech in the 1970’s.
“I may always feel better treating diabetes or helping a heart attack patient recover than I do with a paint brush in my hand, but I do love painting. And like medicine, painting is rewarding in ways hard to measure. Finishing a new painting and hearing a baby’s first cry at delivery are two experiences that give me great pleasure. I am blessed to have work I so enjoy.”
Kathye Mendes
A native of Northern California, I began an odyssey in the early 70's that brought me to Southwest Virginia and has allowed me to express my passion for life in art.
My artistic goal is to bring joy to my clients with the result of a painting that is full of life and feeling. I love to paint whether it is a landscape, a flower or a face. Children’s portraits and scenes with children and pets are especially enjoyable for me. I feel that capturing the expression and feeling of a piece is one of my strengths.
For 10 years I participated in selected art festivals throughout the Eastern Seaboard and received many awards. I have also hosted numerous one-woman shows. My work hangs in both corporate and private collections in the United States and Europe.
Karin Saul
Karin Saul is a full-time jewelry artist and instructor based in Galax, Virginia. A native of Bland County, Karin strayed to Alabama for several years, where she worked as a beaded jewelry artist, beading instructor and, after an apprenticeship, as a bench jeweler for a fine jewelry business that specialized in custom design.
Upon returning home to Southwestern Virginia in 2001, however, she decided to strike out on her own and start her own jewelry design business, Night Owl Designs – so named for her habit of staying up all night to work on her own creations during her bench jeweler days.
Karin has a special love of silver and of flowing, natural shapes, and she works in a wide variety of materials, including sterling, brass and copper, precious metal clay, semi-precious stones and her own hand-made lamp-worked glass beads.
Becky Webb Guynn
A life long Galax native, Becky received a BFA from Longwood University, Farmville Virginia, with an emphasis on printmaking and graphic design.
As Becky’s nest empties after rearing three children she can once again devote her time and energy to honing her artistic skills and not merely using art as an escape tool. While she may have painted only sporadically over the last several years, she has been able to continue to grow artistically through photography and graphic design. With every photograph that she takes, she sees her next painting through the eyes of her camera. Her work has evolved by using all her skills, drawing on her background in graphic design and photography for inspiration.
Becky Guynn strongly believes that creativity is the key to the self-actualized person, as stated by Abraham Maslow, “My feeling is that the concept of creativeness and the concept of the healthy, self actualizing, fully human person, seem to be coming closer and closer together, and may perhaps turn out to be the same thing.”
Kathleen Hill
I have been weaving for approximately 25 years – what began as a hobby has become a pursuit and constant study of structure and design for me. I have taught many classes in guild situations and have taken classes myself at weaving/fiber conferences and the John C. Campbell Craft School, from many well known professional weavers.
My main emphasis is color and texture. I believe hand-wovens should be well executed and easily distinguished from machine woven fabrics.
Before retiring to Troutdale, I was able to travel extensively and always made it a point to visit museums and craft fairs to discover the worldwide variety of hand-woven fabrics.
I have recently been awarded prizes for weaving at the Fiber Arts/Virginia Highlands Festival, Florida Tropical Weavers Conference and the Yadkin Valley Juried Art Show.
