Artist Interviews

Sally Pilcher – A Love Affair With CeramicsInterview by Vidabeth and Forrest Greenslade, April 2024 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 […]

Randi Markowitz – The Art Of AspirationVidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade, April 2024 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 […]

Bobby Izquierdo – Painting With LightInterview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade, March 2024 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 […]

Barbara Hunter – The Silver Lining of the Pandemic  Interview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade February 2024 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Interview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade April 7, 2022 Darcy Szeremi will make her Chatham Studio Tour debut the first two weekends in December 2022, but her 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. […]

Interview by Vidabeth Bensen  and Forrest Greenslade April 11, 2022 Painter Nancy Ann Moore shares a rural Chatham County home and studio with her photographer husband Timothy Dowdall. They will exhibit their art together the first two weeks in December at the 2022 Chatham Studio Tour. “As long as I can remember I have been […]

Interview by Vidabeth Bensen and Forrest Greenslade April 11, 2022  Photographer Timothy Dowdall shares a rural Chatham County home and studio with his painter wife Nancy Ann Moore. They will exhibit their art together the first two weeks in December at the 2022 Chatham Studio Tour. Timothy started taking pictures as early as  age of […]

Chatham Artist Guild Member Interview, March 3, 2022 by Vidabeth Benson and Forrest Greenslade Pastel artist Daphne Boder will make her debut in the Chatham Studio Tour the first two weekends in December 2022. Having enjoyed drawing and painting since childhood, she has specialized in pastels for about five years.  “My son was working in […]

“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 […]

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.” Visitors to the 2020 Chatham Studio the first two weekends in December will have the opportunity of experiencing Greg’s beautiful wooden bowls, art vessels, peppermills and custom writing instruments. Greg has been working […]

“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 will display her […]

“I am fascinated with facial expressions and the eyes of the people and animals that I paint,” explains Kathy flood.  She will make her debut in the Chatham Studio Tour the first weekend in December, exhibiting her works in graphite, watercolor and acrylics in her Briar Chapel studio. Kathy became an artist in a non-traditional […]

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 […]