Fine Arts Center Gallery
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 11, 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
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Shenandoah Valley Invitational
Art Exhibit October 8 – November 16, 2007 Opening Reception: Thursday, October 11, 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. |
The Artists
Ken Beer
Ken Beer is a Professor Emeritus of Art from James Madison University. He was originally from Michigan where he worked as a sculptor for General Motors. He taught sculpture classes at JMU for thirty-six years, retiring in 1997. The title CAIRN refers to a memorial or marker, usually of piled stones. This marker was mostly wooden objects gleaned from the sea, piling them together to form a pillar. Nostalgia is woven throughout as shapes hint at former references of being. The CAIRN sculpture is a marker of time and mysteries cemented by a human hand.
Margot Bergman
Margot Bergman was born in South Carolina (as Pixie Foster), received her B.A. degree at 18 years old from the University of South Carolina. She earned an M.F.A. degree from James Madison University and later taught aesthetics, art appreciation and studio classes at JMU, and at Eastern Mennonite University. Presently, Margot is a guest artist/teacher at Governor’s School in Fishersville and manages the 150 Franklin Street Gallery in Harrisonburg.
Gerrie Brown
Gerrie Brown earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Asbury College and taught high school art before moving to the Valley in 1962. After her children were older, she returned to her painting and discovered watercolor in a whole new way. Over the years, her work evolved into mixed media, more abstract work with watercolor, acrylic, casein and collage.
She is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, an artist member of Virginia Watercolor Society and a signature member of the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society. Locally, her work hangs with the Shenandoah Watercolor Society and she is represented by Signature Gallery in Roanoke, Va. She is published in Painting Texture and The Best of Watercolor, Rockport Publishers.
Betty Calabria
Betty Calabria studied art at Blue Ridge Community College and James Madison University. Currently, Betty teaches studio courses at Bridgewater College. Her subject matter for recent works is the “doodle,” ubiquitous marks found among our daily papers and notes. Selected doodles, such as the work “Charm” are enlarged to create presence. The process includes magnification of a number of drawings, cutting, gluing and applications of paint to create pieces. The final work belies its fleeting conceptual underpinnings.
Ms. Calabria maintains an art studio in rural Augusta County. Her works for sale are on view at Signature Nine Gallery, 1309 Third Street, Roanoke, VA.
Pat Cook
Pat is a Virginia artist who has exhibited and won numerous awards in state, national and international competition, one of which was the Silver Medal of Honor in the American Watercolor Society’s 137th Annual International Exhibition. Pat was educated at James Madison and the University of Georgia, and began painting at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. She was Staff Artist for the Waynesboro News Virginian from 1976 until 1985. Pat is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society, Rocky Mountain Watermedia, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Georgia Watercolor Society, Southern Watercolor Society and the Virginia Watercolor Society. Her works are included in many private and public collections.
The human figure, organic forms and landscapes assert themselves in her work, which has been described as being about light and form. The “Conversation” series began in 1993. Since then, the process has expanded to include drawing, mixed media, acrylic, monotype and etching. In this series, she invites the viewer to bring their history and participate in her work. A universal theme of interaction is expressed by figures locked into the moment of communication.
Jerry Coulter
Recent Exhibitions: Gallery West Arlington, VA; Solo Exhibition - Fraser Gallery Georgetown, DC; Solo Exhibition - Salem College; Roanoke City Exhibition, Roanoke VA; 1999: Staunton Art Center, Staunton, VA; Roanoke City Exhibition, Roanoke VA (Award); 1998: Solo Exhibition - Sas Gallery Salisbury Md; 1997: Juried Exhibition 1997, Newport News, VA; Virginia Artists: Portraits, Newport News, VA
James Crable
James Crable, Professor Emeritus, JMU, has won awards from many locations, including an Artists Fellowship from National Endowment for the Arts; a Governor’s Award from Virginia Commission for the Arts; Gold Medal, Los Angeles International Art Competition; Award of Distinction, Southeastern College Art Conference, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY to name a few. His selected exhibits include: The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, N.Y.; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Virginia Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK, and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.
Martha Degen
Martha lives and works from her home studio in Staunton, Virginia. She holds a BFA in design from Virginia Commonwealth University and a MFA in fiber arts from James Madison University. After working as a graphic designer in retail advertising and public television, Martha made a commitment to pursue her own ideas in art. She studied printmaking with Lucy Mueller White and Robin Freedenfeld at the Northampton Printmaking Workshop in Northampton, Massachusetts. Martha is the recipient of a project grant and multiple artist-in-education grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She has taught art and photography to middle and high school students, fiber arts and interdisciplinary arts at Mary Baldwin College, and design classes at Blue Ridge Community College. Martha has traveled throughout Virginia as part of the Virginia Commission for the Arts ON THE ROAD program, lecturing and conducting workshops in art.
Over a twenty-five year period, Martha’s work represents her interest in exploring a wide range of media and artistic venues, including charcoal and pen sketches, printmaking, paper-making and other fiber media. Her current focus on mixed media and art quilts reveals a fascinating evolution through the richly diverse art forms she has mastered. Her prints, paperworks, and mixed media pieces and art quilts can be found in collections and juried exhibitions throughout the United States.
Mary Echols
Mary Tuck Echols, Ph. D, U.VA., is Professor Emeritus of Mary Baldwin College. She is an instructor and President of Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton. Her work is carried by Co Art Gallery, also in Staunton.
Pat Fiore
Pat is an associate member of The Virginia Watercolor Society, the Valley Education Center for the Creative Arts, Central Shenandoah Arts, Shenandoah Valley Arts Association, and is a signature member and past President of the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society.
“For me, art is a dream fulfilled. To have a studio in my home, paint with friends every week and be a perpetual student fills my life with challenges, joy and new discoveries.”
Pat has studied with local artists, Nancy Stark, Gerrie Brown and Margo Bergman, and traveled to study with Richard Thorpe, Betty Carr, Karlyn Holman, Jean Grastorf, Joe Miller and Eloise Gardiner Giles. Watercolor is her favorite medium but she has enjoyed everything she has tried from charcoal drawing to acrylic mixed media and collage. Her art is displayed in Galleries in the valley and her work has been shown in juried and non-juried shows.
Cynthia Greene
Cynthia received her MFA from James Madison University. Teaching young children, working as a graphic designer and teaching at the university level are experiences that have influenced her work. Because she is a seamstress, much of her work includes sewing in some way, if only an image of a sewing tool. She has been awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Art for printmaking and an assistantship in the MFA program at JMU. She has recently been awarded jurors’ choice in the exhibit, A Place At Table, at Visions Gallery in Albany, New York.
Rebecca Humphrey
Rebecca received her MFA in painting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She has exhibited widely, including at The Renwick Gallery, in Washington, D.C. After 30 years as an Art Professor at James Madison University, Rebecca is now working full-time in her own studio. Her mixed media cast paper art is known for color and vitality. Ms. Humphrey lives in Linville, VA in a Pre-Civil War cabin with her husband Ron Myers.
Mia LaBerge
An experienced painter known for her many styles of work, LaBerge took a turn away from representational art in 2006 to create her own signature abstract style. Using color fields and tonal harmonies, paint is applied in several layers to create rich, iridescent hues. Sgraffitto and impasto textures build relief surfaces on the canvas that contrasts with subtle color glazes. Her subject matter has origins in the painted landscape and universal symbols enhanced with bands of calligraphic marks reminiscent of various cultures.
LaBerge exhibits her work in National Fine Art Festivals and is represented by several galleries. She creates work on a commission basis. Her most recent commissions include landscape painting for Shenandoah Memorial Hospital and the Madison Bluestone Steinway Art Case for James Madison University in collaboration with Steinway & Sons, NY.
LaBerge studied Art at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated with a degree in Art and Art education from James Madison University. She taught Art for several years in public and private schools and has served on the boards of area arts organizations, and also teaches oil painting courses at Blue Ridge Community College.
Anne McFarland
Anne was born in South Carolina and studied drawing in college. She enrolled in painting classes at Blue Ridge in 1988. Kay Flory was her instructor, and later Anne studied with Margot Bergman and Charles Goolsby.
The landscapes in the Valley are a wonderful incentive to put time and energy into art. Since Anne was raised in a part of the south that had no hills, the Valley scenery remains an integral part of her enthusiasm. Blue Ridge Community College was the means for her to receive the continuing education she needed to become an artist. “I have always been grateful for the teachers there and the schedules that enabled me to accomplish my goal of becoming a painter.”
Elizabeth Moss
Liz was born and raised in the New York metropolitan area. She has been involved in the arts all of her life, either as an artist or in work related positions. Liz received a B.A. in Studio Art from William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ and a M.A. in Arts Administration for Golden Gate University in San Francisco, CA. Presently, Liz is employed as the Director of Programs and Exhibitions at the Artisans Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, where she is responsible for gallery operations, the statewide jury process, and the exhibition and education programs. She has dedicated her career to advancing the economic and professional development of Virginia’s creative community.
Judy Richardson
Judy Richardson’s mixed media collages incorporate accidental and silk-screened elements. She has lived in the area for over twenty years and completed the art certificate at Blue Ridge Community College and bachelor’s degree at JMU. She is a member of the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society.
Robert Stuart
Robert received a BFA degree in painting from Boston University School for the Arts, then an MFA in painting from JMU in 1984. Since 1986 he has been exhibiting regularly at the Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte, NC, the Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, and more recently, the Mary Ryan Gallery, New York City. Highlights have been inclusions in museum group shows at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, and the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk. The apex of Robert’s career thus far was receiving an “Academy Award in Art” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY, in 2004. Robert resides in Staunton, where he owns his studio.
Rudy Tucker
Rudy is originally from Mount Crawford, VA and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a B.A., concentrating in ceramics and sculpture. He worked from a studio outside of Pittsburgh until accepting an artist in residence position at Millersville State College (now Millersville University) in Pennsylvania. He returned to the Shenandoah Valley and has settled near Bridgewater.
For the past 17 years he has been making functional stoneware pottery fired in a wood fueled kiln. His work is influenced by several quite diverse pottery traditions; Korean, Japanese, British Folk, Early American salt glazed and Southern Appalachian stoneware.
Lei Wong
Lei Wong enjoys painting large florals that highlight brilliant colors. Strength and fragility of the blossoms are a main focus. Lei has been painting for many years, and is a member of the Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society.