Sally Pilcher grew up in a little town in Illinois, near a farm. “I had a totally unstructured childhood, playing in the river, collecting arrowheads, being awed by nature.” She had her first encounter with ceramics in 1972 at the University of Illinois, but raising a family put her passion for ceramics on hold. Rather, […]
Randi Markowitz has always been steeped in design. She earned a BS in design at Buffalo State Collage, then worked as a graphic designer in New York City. “This was before computer design became the norm, and graphic design actually involved cutting and pasting physical materials.” She continues to work as a designer and photographer […]
In his Oasis Studio at Meadowview in a rural community near Pittsboro, photographer Bobby Izquierdo creates images reminiscent of Duch master’s still life or contemporary abstract paintings. He named his studio in honor of his family’s heritage. His father came to the U.S. from Cuba in 1956 to further his education as a classical opera […]
Even though Barbara Hunter first tried her hand at oil painting just after high school, it took a global pandemic years later to ignite her exciting art career. To add to the excitement, her new studio addition recently achieved national acclaim when it won the Best in American Living Award from the National Association of […]
As a child, pastel artist Bridgette Comellas was always drawn to the details in the illustrations of classic stories like “Beauty and the Beast.” “I believe this is what inspires me now as an artist. I tend to lean into details when I am creating a piece.” Having drawn and painted since childhood, Bridgette went […]
Jody Nash moved to her home and her Jody Nash Studio in Chatham County from California in 2020. She grew up in San Rafael, California, her family’s home tucked away in a eucalyptus forest. “My parents encouraged me in the arts from early childhood, recognizing my passion. However, despite my desire to be an artist, […]
Mixed-media artist Donna Stubbs creates amazing abstract compositions from a plethora of diverse materials she has accumulated through her everyday life. “I love to search for discarded items in thrift stores that speak to me in some way. I take photos everywhere I go and use these images in my work. Searching for such ephemera, […]
Janet Place, of Janet Place Glass Designs Studio in Pittsboro, creates brilliant utilitarian and decorative fused glass art and jewelry. She assembles glass fragments and fires the designs in a kiln. The designs can be molded into three dimensional objects by further firing. “I am inspired by the colors and flow of the glass. Further, […]
A little over a decade ago, Pam Freese stopped in Monnda Welch’s shop on the Chatham Studio Tour. She purchased a piece of jewelry and asked whether Monnda gave metal smithing instruction. She was still working as a pharmaceutical project manager, so she was not ready to begin her metalsmithing journey then. Now however, Pam […]
Karen Greager Hall has a passion to paint wildlife and landscapes that evolved from her childhood of nature adventures with her family in the country near Philadelphia. Those endless nuances of color, light and shapes now inspire her use of watercolors and colored pencils. She and her sister were encouraged to appreciate artistic activity. “My […]
Sculptor Julio Alberdi was a founding artist in Chatham’s first Open Studio Tour in 1993. In the intervening years, Alberdi served as VP of a construction company building high-end residential and commercial properties around the area. During the entire time, he worked in his studio in the home in Chatham County that he built himself, […]
Laura’s V Studio is a rustic building on Chicken Bridge Road. It was built by her husband Tom and adjacent to their home, also built by him. They moved to the rural property in 1995 from Chicago, where she practiced Clinical Psychology. They lived in a trailer while the buildings were constructed. Laura had grown […]
In her Kaline Studio near Pittsboro, Aline Kala creates artistic bridges summing up her life experiences and cultures. She was born in France near the German Border. Her parents were Polish immigrants, and because of her father’s ill health, the family moved to the South of France — a village near Montpellier. “I was never […]
Darcy Szeremi ‘s artist journey started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her father was an entomologist at LSU. The family soon moved to Athens, Georgia, where he continued his research at UGA. It was there that Darcy acquired her life-long love affair with metal. “I was one of four daughters, and my parents didn’t quite know […]
Painter Nancy Ann Moore shares a rural Chatham County home and studio with her photographer husband Timothy Dowdall. “As long as I can remember I have been an artist. Growing up I was always drawing, painting, making things and thinking up new ideas. I was fascinated with any medium I could get my hands on. It didn’t […]
Photographer Timothy Dowdall shares a rural Chatham County home and studio with his painter wife Nancy Ann Moore. Timothy started taking pictures as early as age of 11, his first camera was a Kodak instamatic camera purchased with blue chip stamps. Timothy was struck with photographer Robert Freeman’s photograph of the Beatles on the cover […]
Pastel artist Daphne Boder has enjoyed drawing and painting since childhood, she has specialized in pastels for about five years. “My son was working in a gallery and sent me pictures of new work. One painting caught my attention and he told me it was done with soft pastels. I was intrigued. I purchased some […]
“I was chatting with my friend just before church,” Kathy reflects. “She was contemplating doing something different and interesting and I was excited by the idea.” The something different and interesting turned out to be painting classes given by Chatham Artists Guild member Kathy Flood, who lived nearby. The two friends attended watercolor classes and […]
Fiber artist Kristin Bergsten has been weaving since she was 6 years old. “I was at home sick, and my mother went to the Woolworth’s Five and Dime. She came back with little kits to make potholders.” Born in Evanston, Illinois, Kristin was living at the time with her adoptive parents in Iowa city, where […]
Hamidou Sissoko immigrated to the US in 2001 from the Francophone West African country Mali. “I grew up fixing cars and bikes. As I got older, I learned more and more, I started fixing more complex equipment. We never wasted any materials in Mali and would always find creative ways to repair things.” In the US, […]
Anna Julian hails from Cherryville, NC, about 40 miles west of Charlotte. “My fascination with pottery and art started as a young girl.” Anna’s grandmother lived in the mountains of Montreat, NC and took her to the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville. “It was there that […]
When Brooklyn born Steevie Parks was growing up on Long Island, she dreamed of being either an artist or an actress. She studied classical oil painting as well as theater from the ages of 9 to 22. Then studied anatomy, sculpture, printmaking, painting and drawing at the Arts Student’s League of New York, Syracuse University, and Sarah […]
Nestled in the rolling hills near Chatham’s Bear Creek is Inspired Earth Pottery. There, ceramic artist Lynn Flyer, responding to her surrounding natural beauty, creates her own world of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, birds, and other delights in the form of functional pottery. She has been seriously making pottery for about 12 years. She and her […]
Working as a Molecular Biologist at the University of Maryland, Quimby had always had a strong interest in creative avenues. “As a child my mother took me to museums and plays, instilling in me a life-long love of the arts,” she recalls “I think that I had always wanted to be an artist.” Boots (her father’s […]
Carolyn is a creative that has been involved in some form of art all her life. Her degree is in Fashion Merchandising and she worked in retail, becoming a buyer for a women’s clothing chain in Chicago. After her children came along, she switched to a more family-friendly career in marketing. Upon moving to North […]
Painter Cally Curtis’s Chatham studio is a kaleidoscope of color and pattern. Her acrylic and mixed media creations reflect deep seated inspiration dating back to her childhood. “When I was about four, my parents were commissioned as United Methodist missionaries. They were stationed in the subtropics in what was then called Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. I […]
“I love wood,” says woodturner Greg Wandless. ”I love the feel, the warmth, the look, the way it warms up a home.” Greg has been working with wood for as long as he can remember, creating beautiful wooden bowls, art vessels, peppermills and custom writing instruments. “My father had a shop in the basement,” he […]
“I just love to make something useful and beautiful with my own two hands,” explains potter Amy Wandless. “It is even more thrilling when a pot that came from my eye and my hands appeals to the eyes and hands of someone who lives with it, uses it and loves it.” Amy and her woodworking […]
“I am fascinated with facial expressions and the eyes of the people and animals that I paint,” explains Kathy flood. She works in graphite, watercolor and acrylics in her Briar Chapel studio. Kathy became an artist in a non-traditional way around 27 years ago. “I was first and foremost a mother, a job I took […]
Jane Eckenrode drew a picture of her father at the age of 6, at about the time her parents enrolled her in her first art class. As a child, she and her dad spent time together walking in the woods and fishing. She still has the cigar box of natural treasures she collected as a […]
Minnie Gallman took her first photograph, with a brownie box camera, at the age of 4. “It was a picture of my newborn sister,” she remembers.” I’ve been taking pictures ever since.” Folks who come to the 2020 Chatham Studio Tour will see the results of Minnie’s life-long passion in the nature-inspired photographs that she […]
“I have always been fascinated with tools and machines and working with my hands,” says studio potter Vince Pitelka. “I had a little shop at our house as a kid,” he remembers. Pitelka had a formative experience with clay at the age of four. A friend of his parents was a potter, and she turned […]
Taking inspiration from her ancestral farming roots and her garden, watercolorist Linda Watkins captures blossoms and bees, birds and berries, bugs, frogs and fish in her work. Her grandparents were farmers and gardening has always been an essential element of her life. “I am fascinated both by color and detail,” Linda explains. “I like to […]
Lee Kazanas has been making pottery for over 40 years. “I was in college at SUNY in Plattsburgh and my roommate was taking a ceramics class,” he remembers. “I thought – You can actually take a ceramics class for credit in college.” Lee took that class and it was the beginning of his life-long passion […]
Selden Lamoureux grew up in Whippany, New Jersey not far from NYC and had a circuitous route to her Bynum, NC pottery studio. After receiving a degree in anthropology at Boston University, she continued her studies in archaeology in Mexico. “After that, I had my back-to-the-land period, living in the Virginia and Carolina mountains, raising bees and doing occasional […]
“I have always felt compelled to create,” stresses Andrew Wilson. “It gives me energy to create objects for aesthetic and functional use.” This desire came early. When he was a student at Chatham’s Northwood High, Andrew accessorized with macramé and began to practice photography. Wooden art is now the center of his creative life in […]
Not long ago, Nurse Bronwyn Watson lived on her 10 acre farm just outside of Siler City. Years ago, she had attended the San Francisco Art Institute, made baskets, did some printing and temp jobs to make ends meet. Then, at 40, she decided to attend nursing school and pursued a health care career, most […]
Janet Resnik has been in Chatham County since 1967. Her husband took a job with UNC and they moved to a farm with horses. “Our road (Collins Mountain) and Crawford Dairy were dirt roads back then. Ours was not paved until 1992”, says Janet. “I started making pottery and went to a lot of crafts […]
Michael Thompson made the natural transition from managing forests to working with wood grown in them. “I have a degree in forestry. My career focused on teaching people how to recognize what is in their forest and how to better manage it. I spent 31 years in my forestry career here in NC. When I […]
After retiring from a job in New Jersey, Jeff relocated to the area and moved 2 planers, 4 lathes, 2 band saws, a table saw, a jointer and more into a new building housing a 1,500 square foot shop dedicated to woodworking. “I really got going when I moved here. Colleague and fellow guild member […]
Whether her work of art is inspired from a personal photo, a patron’s photo, or as a form of play thru geometric design, Gretchen Niver receives great pleasure creating and sharing her paintings made of glass. “I grew up doing various crafts with my mom, went into Graphic Design in college, and continued doing crafts […]
Doug took his first pottery class while working as a Software Developer after moving to the Triangle area from Florida. And that was when his obsession with clay began. Starting with selling pottery at street fairs, he moved on to rent a pottery studio space from one of his teachers in Durham. Then, after a […]
Beginning in second grade, William Moore made a clay lion. He immediately realized that if he drew a picture, he could make it better out of clay. And so it began– digging clay up in the back yard and “cooking” it in the household oven. He started taking lots of summer classes, riding his bike […]
The first time Colleen worked with clay on a wheel was in 1989 at Pottery 7 in San Francisco, located near Golden Gate Park. Her earliest clay memory was as a child making a mold of her horse’s footprint from the earth in the dug out. “I’ve come a long way from those early mold-making […]
Martha Danek has exhibited her unique natural art in her Red Barn Studio in Bynum, North Carolina. It is the original barn down a grassy path behind her house that was built in the 1920’s by her great-grandparents. Martha became intrigued with decorated gourds in the early 90s, when her parents saw some in the […]
Annabelle Stein started out making little clothes out of felt for her troll dolls in pre -school. By junior high, she was sewing all her own clothes. She went to art school in Oakland, California, then moved to Oregon and continued her work there. Eventually returning to California, she earned a BFA in Textile Studio […]
One of Chatham Artists Guild’s founding members, Vidabeth Bensen, has “been there” and “done that.” And after 60 years of making art she is still doing “that.” An accomplished screen printer, Vidabeth says she has been pulling ink through original hand-cut stencils ever since her Brooklyn College days when she was asked to make posters […]
Lara O’Keefe has a “clay personality” or so she was told early on in her career. To be more specific Lara is earthy, warm, and has a rich common sense about her. When speaking to what excites her, she says it is extremely satisfying to look up and see racks full of pots at the […]
“Artists seem to like my work more than photographers do,” quips Eric Saunders, who lives and creates in Fearrington Village. Saunders’ images appear to represent the literal meaning of photography – drawing with light. “My studio is actually wherever I am taking pictures,” he notes. “I am trying to create compositions that are calming and […]
Marsha creates delicate hand-built and carved porcelain ware – vases, bowls and sculptural objects, each enhanced by her original carvings. She has been working with clay for over ten years, after taking courses at the Arts Center in Carrboro and Claymakers in Durham. Marsha’s journey in art was circuitous, but it was always anchored in […]
