Krista Jefferson of Wild and Whimsical Art Joins Lady Nin's Art Festival!

Meet Krista Jefferson of Wild and Whimsical Art

I think one of the most wonderful things about art is the ability to bring joy to those who see it. That motivates me to strive to make my pieces unique and uplifting. One of the comments I hear most often about my work from people is that it just makes them feel happy. Happiness is a simple but powerful thing and I feel very fortunate to have the ability to bring a little more of it into the world. Which is why creating art is my passion! I have found great pleasure exploring different creative outlets ever since childhood. In school I took every art class available and have immersed myself in books on a wide variety of techniques and mediums ever since. Once it got to the point I was creating more than I had friends and family to gift them to, I started doing shows in 1998 as Simple Heart Crafts. As my style and designs evolved so did my business and in 2004 I began operating under the name Wild & Whimsical, which seemed a perfect fit to the eclectic and fun spectrum my work encompasses.

About the Artwork All of the designs are my own original creations. Many start from carefully thought out drawings in my sketch book, while others seem to come to exist faster than my mind can guide my hands. I paint in a variety of styles, from traditional Rosemaling, to children's designs, folk art, abstract, Asian and more, but always having my stylized and whimsical feel come through. I work only with professional quality acrylic paints and protect each finished item with several coats of a water based sealer. I use a bold and vibrant color pallet on much of my work and like to embellish many of my pieces with unexpected elements like shells, stones, beads, and corks, to make them truly stand out from the rest.

"Art Washes Away from the Soul the Dust of Everyday Life" ~Pablo Picasso

Click here to view Krista's Work

Vicki Hamilton, NW Potter Joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Meet Vicki Hamilton of Millennia Antica Pottery.

I have been making pots for many years and successfully built my reputation as an artist through shows and gallery openings in Northern California until 1999. The patrons who collect my work have brought it to Japan, New Zealand, Australia and many other areas of the United States. After a brief hiatus, and coming to Seattle, I began my work newly in 2000.

My work, particularly the surface decoration, is inspired by the colors and textures found in nature (with my love of Japanese and Italian ceramics as contributing factors). I am passionate about, challenged and delighted by, and fulfilled in my work. Each piece is unique.

I am a Studio Artist at Moshier Community Art Center in Burien, where I do my work and teach classes.

When I first took ceramics and pottery classes many years ago, our instructor took the class to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. I was hooked - I fell in love with Japanese pottery; particularly the folk pottery that was being produced in Mashiko. I learned about Shoji Hamada and Bernard Leach, and tried to ascertain what was behind this particular kind of expression - pristine simplicity and poetic at the same time. I learned everything I could about what actually went into the production of a piece of pottery, and I said I would go to Mashiko - and 30 years later, I did. In April 2002, I had the pleasure of accompanying my husband, Dennis, to Japan. One of the things we did there was to visit Mashiko. Shoji Hamada lived and worked there for many years - his home, workspace, kilns and reference collection museum are still there. Visiting there was an extraordinary, and blury experience - I was in tears a good part of the time. Inspiring is, I think, the word I am looking for. In the middle of Mashiko, on April 20, 2002, I was returned to what it was that had me want to be a potter in the beginning - working with all 4 elements (air, earth, fire, water) to create an expression born of the earth and brimming with life.

All my work is functional, to one degree or another, and is fired to Cone 10 (approximately 2400 degrees F) in a reduction atmosphere.

Click here to view Vicki's Work

Kristin Love, Pacific NW Painter and Potter joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Meet Kristin Love, Painter and Potter

HELLO!!

My name is Kristin Love and I am an artist and designer residing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My father was in the Marines, so I spent my childhood moving quite a bit, and when I flew the coop at 18, I ended up in Boston at the Massachusetts College of Art. I majored in Illustration and Photography and over the past 25 years I have traveled extensively throughout the United States and a dozen foreign countries capturing the diverse traditions of arts and images through my photos, sketches, and journals to use as inspiration in my own designs. I consider myself a painter, more than a potter and it was through a happy accident – KISMET! – that I began to paint on clay. I look upon my clay pieces as a 3 dimensional, geometric canvas, therefore whatever design I draw in pencil on that piece is inspired by its form, and, actually, on numerous occasions I have built a piece with a particular painting in mind. It's a very wonderful and symbiotic relationship between 3D form and 2D image! ALL of my clay pieces are ORIGINAL hand built, press molded or slip cast by me. The only exceptions to this are the wheel thrown pieces which are created for me by a wonderful friend and master potter, Vicki Hamilton. ALL of my clay pieces are bisque fired first to cone 05 so that I may have a solid surface on which to do my paintings. In order to achieve the brilliant colors you see on my finished work I use 3 layers of underglazes when I paint and then, using a teeny, tiny little brush with about 2 bristles, I outline the design with black to really make the images POP!! Since I view each of my clay pieces as a painting, I title each and sign and date it before applying 2 coats of clear glaze and then firing it again to cone 06. I NEVER use decals, stencils or any other prefabricated images, insuring the individuality of each piece and because each is unique, my prices reflect the time I give to each not necessarily the size of the clay art.

I hope you enjoy looking at my colorful art as much as I loved creating it!! My work is a celebration of the eclectic, colorful, and passionate world we all live in, and a joyful salutation to the artist in all of us.

Click here to visit Kristen's work: in Handcrafted Ceramics & Pottery at Lady Nin's Art Festival

Peter Cucchiara, Pacific NW Woodworker and Artist joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Meet Peter Cucchiara!

I have been woodworking for many years and it is my passion. Hours pass without notice when I am in my workshop.

I own a laser engraver and use it to add detail to my woodworking creations. I design the art on the computer with a graphic design program and send it to the laser to complete the engraving process.

I also use a lot of different media with the laser including metal, glass, plastic and paper products along with marble and wood veneer.

I create custom signs for businesses and individuals and would be happy to take custom order projects for my customers.

I am very focused on all details of my creations. I want to create items that are not only perfect in craftmanship but also orignial in concept.

Click here to visit Peter's work: Wood Art at Lady Nin's Art Festival

Frank Coble and his Bad Kitties joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

About the Artist.

Frank Coble tries to combine his sense of humor with his art as much as he can. He attributes his sense of humor to growing up a middle child in a big dysfunctional family. He says, “The older I get, the more I feel like Rodney Dangerfield.” He hopes to someday have his own depression hotline for people who are depressed about getting old. (Using humor of course.) His biggest claim to fame is that he had his cartoons syndicated with King Feature Syndicate in New York for nationwide distribution to every newspaper editor in the nation. Frank’s other artistic projects include having his art licensed by Recycled Paper Greeting Card Co. His art has also been distributed internationally through the “What on Earth” Catalog and American Arts and Graphics. Recently, two of his paintings were in Edmonds Art Festival which is rated in the top 100 art festivals nationally.

How did I get my start as an artist?

Frank began drawing and competing with his older siblings in art contests at the age of three. Through his school years, he became know as the class artist (besides being a juvenile delinquent.) Later, he earned a degree in Illustration and Design from Seattle Central Community College. A big influence was his drawing instructor Bill Ryan is listed in Who’s Who in American Artist. Frank’s other big influence was painting instructor Ron Lukas. Lukas is now a scenery artist for DreamWorks Film Studio. Frank is greatly indebted to the high caliber training he has had. (His indebtedness also shows in the student loans.)

Notariety . . .

Frank’s artwork has been in over a dozen Northwest galleries from Seaside Oregon to the LaConner. One of his sailing paintings was used as the cover for 48 degrees North Sailing magazine. Frank’s artwork has been collected by many business owners, the Port of Everett and the Virginia V Restoration Foundation and comedian Robin Williams. His paintings are also displayed at the Everett Art Center, Lakeshore Gallery in Kirkland, Affishionado Gallery at Fisherman’s terminal, Serendipity Gallery in LaConner and also represented by three art galleries in Hawaii. Frank has been represented by Kirsten Art Gallery in Seattle and Kenneth Behm Galleries. Frank also has done mural work in Spain, Japan, Oregon and California. He also does 3D animation, standup comedy, songwriting, singing and guitar playing.

Click here to visit Frank Coble and his Bad Kitties!

Artist Jules Anslow joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Meet Jules Anslow, Visual Artist from the Pacific NW

I didn't always live in a century-old house in the Everett neighborhood of Lowell, nestled among the other artists by the bend of the Snohomish River and midnight train whistles. I grew up in Ohio, the baby of five children, feeding on the creativity flowing from my father and his advertising agency. I've drawn, painted, and created all my life, but my daughter's birth in 1991 inspired me to pursue my passion more directly. I work primarily in acrylic on wood I cut out with a jigsaw, to make three-dimensional paintings, portable mural components and furniture, the style of which could be described as neo-Dada-surreal-pop-cartoon . My daughter, also an artist, continues to inspire me.

I was honored in 2007 to participate in Seattle’s “Pigs On Parade” event. I completed two pigs, one sponsored by and located at the Space Needle, the other sponsored by 4Culture and located at the Pike Place Market.

Click here to view Jule's Work

Cheri O'Brien, Pacific NW Artist joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Cheri O'Brien is a Pacific Northwest native secretly residing and painting in her humble studio down the banks of the lazy Snohomish River. A self-taught professional artist of seventeen years, her art is inspired by travels with her small family of cohorts, the antics of her dog Jimmy and her many muses both real and imagined. She lovingly brings them to life with a vivid palette and a passion for story telling.

Cheri's work is collected throughout Washington State. As the world sits up and takes notice of this eclectic artist with a unique voice, her paintings are making their way across the whole Continent and eking into Europe and Japan. To this Cheri answers bemusedly “Inconceivable!”

Gallery Exhibitions:
Fountainhead Gallery, Seattle
Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Seattle
Everett Center for the Arts, Everett

Collections:
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
Washington State Arts Commission 1% for the Arts
Pacific Coast Feather Company, Seattle
Lombardi’s Cucina, Everett

Artist Residency:
Centrum, November 2002, Port Townsend, WA

Public Arts Commissions:
King County Metro Transit
“Pigs on Parade”, Pike Place Market Foundations, Seattle

Awards:
Daniel Smith Art Catalog Cover 2005
Snohomish County Artist of the Year 1998
Cover of the NW Artists and Poets Calendar 1989

“Each painting is a contained one-act play. O’Brien’s figures convey real emotion. Pernicious humor, loneliness and boredom are revealed in bold vividly colored paintings.”
Joe Heim, Seattle Times

Click here to view Cheri’s Work

Lisa Telling Kattenbraker, a Contemporary American Batik Artist, Joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Meet Lisa Telling Kattenbraker

There are lots of things, some of the things go like this: I grew up outside of Chicago, I've lived lots of places since, they all hold an integral part of me. As do my husband, my children. Other stuff looks like this:
Recently I have been moving a lot - relocating with my family: Down the road, across the country. I keep hoping to look down one day and find my home on my shoe. Nonetheless, my kids encourage me to bring snacks and to remember that this is all a great adventure…even when the cat poops in the car and our house decides that the time has come to shift off its posts. We do a lot of drawing in our little family unit… I adore my children so much (and believe them to possess the utmost artistic talent) and they are graciously sharing their drawings. I put them in my own picture drawings. They make me smile. Quite possibly, they are my home.

We just moved again, this time to Olympia, WA with the 2 children and artist husband and cat. We moved 2 years ago from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. And now twice since then. Nestled nicely in the northwest, we may be content...maybe.

I travel, we travel, we go to art shows, we make stuff, I pretend to be a normal little family and try to keep the place relatively clean. The kids are 5 and 7, I live in a kid house. On bad daysI want to clean this kid house and not step on legos. On good days I think that this chaos reigns supreme, and why the heck not? Our little family is thriving in this vein. The in between reality of it is that most of the time this is tricky...working from home (mooooom! Stella hit me!),supporting ourselves with our art, trying to maintain an element of business savvy, remembering that drum lessons are on Monday, and did Maia do his homework? and we are out of cat food, and there's broken glass on the studio floor. Aren't we all juggling our millions of things? But really, I couldn't have it any other way. And yes, it is chaos, and yes I do like it here.

The process of batik is, in many ways, a contrast to my daily life. Its slow going, it’s meditative. I'm drawn to that process part of it...the journey. I still use the electric frying pan that was given to me over 15 years ago by a high school art teacher. I still use some of my first brushes and tjanting tools. The process and the tools hold history, and time stops while I’m in the midst of it.


Click here to view Lisa’s Work

Art by Norm joins Lady Nin's Art Festival

Art by Norm, a smirk in a world of sighs.....

Norm is trapped somewhere between the innocence of childhood and the seriousness of adulthood. Observing Norm in his environment fills one with whimsical mischief. Disciplined ideals of traditional art are often broken, creating tension in a seemingly peaceful world. Norm will speak to your inner child while eliciting more complex thoughts.

Norm is a smirk in a world of sighs. He rarely alters his appearance – remaining the same while the world revolves around him.

Click here to see Norm's art

Zef Rose, a Pacific NW Artist Joins Lady Nin's Art Festival!

Meet Zef Rose, Pacific NW Artist

Living by the ocean has been amazingly inspirational. I can hear the waves lapping the shore, and the rushing sound of the tides from my back yard, which is really a wooded dune. And I walk the beach behind my house nearly every day. No surprise that my fantasy driven work has turned to the sirens of the sea, the Mermaids and Sea Devas that exist in that veil-thin world between our waking life and our dreams.

I work with concrete. The stuff of sidewalks and skyscrapers, yes, but in my hands it becomes an ectoplasmic medium that takes on infinite living personalities.

The Mermaids and the Devas seem to swim in the garden, or rise out of the ground to shake the water from their beaded and dredded hair. Their glass scales and ornaments glow in the light

of the sun. Their eyes seem alive, truly human, with a propensity to look right into yours. Yet they never fail to express the true nature and texture of the material they are made from. And, as sculptures, they are just as durable.

I am in love with color. So I invented a special formula of concrete that is color-infused. I cast it in color, then I apply it in burnished layers onto the work, so it seems to glow from within with a rich pastel palette that takes its colors directly from the rocks and minerals of the earth.

The human form has been the primary focus of my work since I was a child. Early in my youth I developed a love/fear attraction to human eyes. There was a time when eyes would be the subject of my nightmares. I saw them everywhere -- in the ripples of water, in the knots of trees, in the swirls and soft wrinkles of fabrics -- everywhere. So I spent a lot of time drawing them. Soon they became my friends, and now I absolutely love to sculpt and paint eyes. Lips too are a favorite. So sensual and soft, to make them out of concrete is a feat of contradiction.

Combining the sensuality of human features with the glistening, floppy bodies of fish also serves to remind me of the unity of life on Earth. The theory of evolution notwithstanding, human life would be impossible without the life of the sea. We are all one. I try to remember this unity throughout all areas of my life. I believe that our growing consciousness of the human connection to all things will be the saving grace of our species and the key to our continued survival on this beautiful planet.

To view Zef's work, please go to: http://ladynin.com/zefrose1.html