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Featured Artist : Jodi Bade

 

Hello!  I'm Jodi, and I'm the creator and manager of this website, so I'm going to write this in first person....................

 

My passion is designing and making objects and spaces, and in particular - making things that make people happy.  I've tried over the course of my life to develop the skills it takes to make most anything I would want to make, and I'm still learning new skills everyday.  Some of the ways that I can make things are: woodworking/carpentry, sewing, painting, drawing, drafting, crafting, and computer graphics / media arts.  I love that I have the ability to really shape my world, and I like my world to be fun, whimsical, and full of possibilities.  I enjoy creating furnishings, accessories, or spaces for others who have a similar take on life.  Many people think of me as a designer for children, but in my mind I design for anyone who likes to have fun.

 

I have an undergraduate degree in Architecture, and a graduate degree in Visualization Science (computer graphics).  In my professional career I worked as a technical director at Blue Sky Studios in New York for a long time helping to make 7 beloved animated films, plus one Oscar Winning Short.  I worked as a Lighter on the Ice Age Series, Rio, and Epic.  Now I'm moving on to making things with my hands, in real life, and teaching others to do the same.

 

This summer I will be one of the instructors of the CAC's Summer Art Academy, teaching sewing and assisting with Art Naturalists.  If you are interested in seeing examples of my work, or seeing some of the other things I do, please check out my website.

 

 

 

 

Featured Artist : Maura Schaffer

Maura is an artist whose love of art was instilled in her at a young age by her grandmothers, and she has been sketching, painting, working with clay, and creating sculptures ever since.  Her sculptural work focuses on the dinner table as well as other furniture as a means of expressing ideas about human relationships. She is also working on developing sculptural relief works for architectural spaces that will be presented both on the interior and exterior of the structure.

 

Maura received a Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from Southern Illinois University- Carbondale and began her professional career as an Interior Designer working in architecture firms in Chicago and St. Louis.  She began the transition to a career as an artist at Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ceramics with a minor in weaving. She completed her Master of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University where she began working with sculpture and installation. She has taught at Purdue University, Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College, as well as at community art centers since 1998. While teaching she has remained active as an artist and participates in numerous national and international shows where she exhibits her sculpture and installations. 

The Lovers

The Lovers

Wire and fabric 42” x 60” x 45”

A Plate of Cherries with Cezanne

A Plate of Cherries with Cezanne

Acrylic on wood, wire, and fabric 36” x 48” x 8”

Heaventree of Stars

Heaventree of Stars

Wire, fabric, theatrical lighting, video of plums on bed, audio of plums and clock Dimensions vary

Penumbra

Penumbra

Acrylic on wood 28” x 37”

Cherry Blossom Dinner Set

Cherry Blossom Dinner Set

Ceramic Majolica

Featured Artist : Donna Neal

I have been making images since childhood. Mud pies, crayons, and water colors led to the University of Texas and degree in Studio Art (Painting). I use multiple media and shift styles in pursuit of liminal images from dream, myth, and memory.

 

I am currently working on the Arcana Project with my brother, Kelly Neal. It is a joint poetry/visual art project based on the Rider Waite tarot. My brother has written a poem inspired by each of the cards of the tarot deck. I am illustrating the poems based on the 22 Major Arcana or trumps. The giclee prints (printed on fine art paper with archival ink) are my response to reading his poems. All the “Arcana Project” images were created  on my iPad.

 

Images and poems can be viewed on my website.  More of my artwork is available for viewing at firethornstudio.com

No. 19, The Sun

No. 19, The Sun

No. 16, The Tower

No. 16, The Tower

No. 11, Justice

No. 11, Justice

Featured Artist : Deby Childress (Mixed Media)

My work is all about experimentation and the freedom of creating in a spontaneous fashion without the expectations of a particular image. I like to work with clay, wood and found objects. Half of the fun of making my art is the hunt to find those special objects and I never know where that will lead me.

 

Masters of Art in Art Education and BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. 35 years as an art educator - Art School Program Director at Austin Museum of Art-Laguna Gloria Art School, Artist-In-Residence and Art Consultant for Texas Commission of Arts , Art Teacher with Austin ISD, Round Rock ISD and currently teaching art with Lake Travis ISD.

Signs of Autumn
Mexico
Good Times
Dancing Calaveras
Blue Angel Triptych
AuntDot & UncleKenny

Featured Artist :  Leslie Addison | George Yerger Photography

Field Rows
Dominican Republic Batey Community
Cowboy Boots and Blues
Antigua Guatemala
Abstraction Wrought Iron and Balcony
Abstract

George Yerger and Leslie Addison are photographers and mixed media artists.  They are currently represented by Cole Pratt Gallery in New Orleans. Their work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston; The Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; The Louisiana Arts and Science Museum, Baton Rouge; The High Museum of Art in Atlanta and The New Orleans Museum of Art.

 

Their work has been featured at the Contemporary Art Center, in New Orleans and in exhibitions at the Mississippi Museum of Art, and University of Southern Mississippi Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Louisiana Arts and Science Museum among others. 

 

Awards include a Fellowship from the Pollock/Krasner Foundation, the Louisiana State Division of the Arts, Artist Fellowship (both artists, consecutive years) and two Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation grants.

 

Lifelong residents of the Southern US, they have completed several Art documentary projects about their own unique Southern Culture. For many years they have also been passionately involved in projects in South and Central America. This work has taken them to Peru, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Haiti. In addition, they have been under contracts by US and German based medical non-profits. They travel around the world, documenting their programs and the underserved people in developing countries that have been assisted.

 

George has a BA from Southeastern Louisiana University. His artistic insights have developed over 25 years of work and observation. He has an intuitive sense for creating complexly composed artwork and photographs, layered with ambiguous meaning.

 

Leslie attended the Art Institute of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico but her influences started practically at birth.  Her grandmother was the fine art photographer Dina Woelffer.  As a student of and then fellow teacher with Aaron Siskind and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Institute of Design, she formed life long friendships with them as well as other mid century photographers and painters. 

John Huke and

Randy Smith Huke

John Huke and Randy Smith Huke met at The University Of Texas Art Department in 1970.  And, they have been collaborating ever since. They raised two sons in Austin Lake Estates, and now have two grandsons living in the Cuernavaca area.  John and Randy have worked together, both teaching art at Laguna Gloria Art Museum and Austin Community College. In the mid -1980’s, they started working on films together, and separately.  John was a prop maker on Lonesome Dove, an art director on The Beverly Hillbillies and Empire Records.  Randy has been a Set Decorator on Miss Congeniality, two Chainsaw movies and most recently a Buyer on The Leftovers.

 

John and Randy both paint, John makes whimsical carved and coated Styrofoam, life size sculptures. Randy and John also make collaborative drawings.  They call this a Visual Conversation.  They both start drawing, and then switch paper. They have showed these drawings at Laguna Gloria Art Museum, now the Austin Museum of Art, The Mary Ryan Gallery, New York City and The Rodin Gallery, St. Louis.

 

In the fall, they are collaborating and teaching a class at Texas State in Art Direction & Set Decoration in film.

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