Bill calls himself a ceramic sculptor -- one who works at taking clay from the earth and transforming it into sculptures, which recall ancient myths. The clay, heavy to begin with, becomes light and intensely fragile as he works with it. He makes art in order to stir new ways of thinking and experiencing the world both for himself and for those who view the finished pieces.
Read moreOn Being Nomadic: Gale Wallar
Gale Wallar 3 blog
For Gale, who was born into a military family, being nomadic was the norm. That, and a rich exposure to art, architecture and history. Art is the course that Gale set for herself as a child and she has stuck to it during some circuitous turns and long journeys. After achieving a BFA in painting and printmaking, she freelanced in Washington D.C. and some of her political cartoons were published in the Washington Post.
Read moreThe Whole Ball of Wax: Georgia Nassikas
Georgia N photo
Georgia Nassikas, a new Touchstone artist, paints in the encaustic medium, so she has something in common with the ancient Egyptians who painted mummy portraits 1700 years ago -- and more recently Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Diego Rivera, Jasper Johns, just to name a few. All these artists painted at some time in their lives with the encaustic medium: hot beeswax infused with colored pigments.
Read morePhotography: The Observant Eye: Micheal Lang
mike lang with camera
It takes an observant eye, two eyes, or even three to catch the essence of a person on film. Mike Lang has the prerequisite three eyes -- two in his head and one in his camera. Being a social documentary photographer, he's had a camera in front of his face since he started taking shots of pool players in Baltimore. That was back when he was a wet-behind-the-ears kid in 1957. Mike photographs all over the country and even in places like Thailand. But this time around in 2012, Mike hung out at the Town Dance Boutique on weekends off and on for eight months, observing the drag queens and how illusion was created by them through makeup, costume, and performance.
Read moreOut of Chaos: Rosemary Luckett
Whether an artist's studio is neat as a pin or heaped full of brushes, tools, clay or wood, disorder characterizes the creative process. A chaotic jumble of ideas spill out of the brain and become organized in drawn or painted forms. Tubes of color sort themselves out, then are squeezed onto the palette in a jumble of mixed hues. A teapot spout, in a box of cast-offs, offers itself to the sculptor as the beginning of a bird with a long neck. A dream works its way to the conscious surface, suggesting a vision that emerges in material form from a chunk of clay.
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