Artist Interviews

Bridgette Comellas – Story TellerInterview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade August 2023 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 […]

Jody Nash – Listening to the TreesInterview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade, May 2023 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 […]

Donna Stubbs – Making HistoryInterview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade May 2023 Mixed-media artist Donna Stubbs Art Studio 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 […]

Janet Place – Reflections of Her PastInterview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade, May 2023 Janet Place, of Janet Place Glass Designs Studio in Pittsboro, will make her Chatham Studio Tour debut the first two weekends in December 2023. She will introduce her brilliant utilitarian and decorative fused glass art and jewelry. Janet assembles glass […]

Pamela Couillard Freese – Couillard Cloisonne Metalsmithing 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 […]

Michael Stano – Photographer In the mid-50s, Cub Scout Mike Stano made a pin-hole camera from plans in Boy’s Life magazine. “The camera ‘body’ was a Folger’s one-pound coffee can. The ‘lens’ was a nail hole poked through the can, and the ‘shutter’ was a piece of electrical tape over the hole. The inside of the can […]

Karen Greager Hall – Grounded in Nature Karen Greager Hall will introduce her nature-inspired paintings at her Riverview Studio during the 2023 Chatham Studio Tour. Her passion to paint wildlife and landscapes evolved from her childhood of nature adventures with her family in the country near Philadelphia.  Those endless nuances of color, light and shapes […]

Julio Alberdi – Alberdi Studio Sculptor Julio Alberdi was a founding artist in Chatham’s first Open Studio Tour in 1993 and he returns now in 2019. 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 […]

Laura Wimbish-Vanderbeck — Searching for the LightInterview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade 2/24/03 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 […]

Aline Kala – The South of France Here in ChathamInterview 3/2/23 by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade 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 […]

In 1991 Chris Campbell attended a class given by Jane Peiser, a famous North Carolina potter at the Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh, thus sparking her 30-year career as a professional Colored Porcelain Artist. “I was thrilled by the vibrant colors I could use to create and decorate my pottery by using colored porcelain.” She […]

“I wandered into a Tandy Leather store in Lubbock Texas and came out with a starter set of tools and some basic projects,” Harber recalls of the beginnings of his serious work with leather in the 1980s. He had grown up on a dairy and horse farm in Oklahoma, and had experience in repairing halters […]

“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 […]

Kristin Bergsten – Handwoven Originals 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 […]

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 […]