Vince Pitelka

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 […]