Art Shows

February 2010: Lynn Hanley

Lynn Hanley has been a working artist for over thirty years. She began her career first as a sculptor and worked in clay, wood, bronze, stone, plaster and cement.  Later, she discovered the beauty of color and began to work in pastels, mixed media and oils.

Lynn currently works both as a painter and sculptor. Each medium complements the other and allows me to have a richer experience in both.

The foundation of each of her paintings, hanging this month at the Ruby Slipper, is taken from forms in nature and rhythms in music.  Within the painting, a particular view is shaped by movement and by colors that are layered and blended to create luminosity.

January 2010: Judy Patterson

Communicating through the visual arts has been the essential thread throughout my life’s work. As a child I was encouraged by my father who was a writer, illustrator, and designer.

During high school and university I worked in Grey Studios learning the art of layout design, and illustration and production development. After two years in a fine arts program at Ohio Wesleyan University, I enrolled at Ohio State University to obtain a B.S. degree in Occupational Therapy because of a new-found interest in teaching artistic skills as a therapeutic exercise. Upon graduation, I worked as a Psychiatric Occupational Therapist utilizing art as therapeutic communication.

The thread of developing as a fine artist continued with drawing and oil painting, and Master artist classes at Washington State University and continuous practice enabled the showing of my work in several galleries in the Northwest, including Portland and Seattle, in both group and solo shows.

Other artistic activities included designing and illustrating the Spokane Symphony Orchestra programs, teaching art courses at Spokane Art School and Whitworth University, and giving private lessons in my studio, enabling individual and corporate clients to develop.

December 2009: Collista Bejjani

“I consider myself a ceramic nomad wandering from one type of clay and firing technique to another. Dabbling in clay has been a passion for years and I have always felt free to try just about anything that comes to mind.

“I have a strong appreciation for well-made, functional pottery and enjoy making functional work; however I find myself always wanting to add a little funk to the process. I call my work ‘functional funk’ — sometimes it’s a little more functional and sometimes it’s a little more funk.”

July 2009: E.L. Stewart

E.L. Stewart’s work is conceived in the heart of a realist and painted in an expressionistic style. Besides studying Art History in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Stewart attended the Kendall School of Art and Design on a Talent Scholarship with a major focus on Illustration, Graphic Design and Advertising.

The paintings for this particular exhibit are a collection of her works depicting trees.  These are trees saturated with emotion, with pasts and stories much like her renderings of human figures, which is her better-known genre.

E.L. Stewart has used a great variety of media in former works very successfully but none has the attraction that painting holds. She is enthusiastic about putting paint to canvas, particularly acrylic colors.  She paints to change the surface to something that is interesting to look at over and over again and keeps a dialog going with the viewer.

“I refuse to paint the same way every day,” she says. ” I dislike boredom, and the idea of “bashing them out” is distasteful to me.  Each work is unique and has a bit of me (and maybe you) in it.”

Ms. Stewart is represented by the Lawrence Gallery in Sheridan, Oregon and it’s affiliates in Portland and Gleneden Beach. Her work can be seen at the MAC Art@Work Gallery in Spokane.   She has work in Chicago, Dallas, Kalamazoo and recently sold a piece to Gonzaga University.

June 2009: Brenda Everett

Brenda Everett paints, draws or carves wood every day in her studio. Her favorite subject matter lies in the beauty of the little moments of life, like old machinery, jars of honey, strangers’ old family photos, laundry lines and cellos.

Her new series of acrylic paintings tells the story of madness brought on by a long winter.  Nothing will make these women ‘right’ but to tend to their gardens again — hands in dirt, sun warming their backs, wind and vibrant color filling their eyes.

Brenda’s new woodblock prints contrast the melancholy paintings with images of springtime, childhood and fresh fruit.

February 2009: Dina Fernandez

Rusty metal pieces and honeycomb, previously owned frames and boxes, and handmade buttons are all art materials to Dina. She loves the incongruity of placing rustic beside new and the ugly beside the beautiful.

Her boxes, “altered books,” and other mixed media art are full of wonder: secret compartments, the mystery of each element’s past life—endless little details to take note of. The beadwork and embroidery on Dina’s quilts are done by hand and she molds the colorful buttons from clay.

The Spokane native has shown her art at the Spokane Art School’s Yuletide Festival and Spokane Artfest. Her jewelry, apparel and handbags are always on display at the Tinman Gallery and the Ruby Slipper.