Dawn Zintel

Artist Bio

Having painted since high school, Dawn studied art at McGill and Concordia Universities in Montreal, Canada, although she was never in a Fine Arts program. She made her career in Education as an elementary school teacher then, for 43 years, she owned a training business in California which specialized in designing and teaching courses for employees in Fortune 100 to 500 companies in many different industries worldwide. Although she no longer focused on art, she was able to be design games and other creative learning strategies for her clients.

During her career, her creative outlet included making hand-built pottery and stained-glass art. Then, in the early 90s, she began to paint again using watercolors and for a few years was winning awards and having solo shows. After the mid-90s, Dawn did not paint again until 2010 when she decided to semi-retire and her family moved to an island in British Columbia which had many artists. Since then, Dawn has studied with several award-winning Canadian and US artists. She has had the good fortune to win awards with the Federation of Canadian Artists and in several competitive shows in Arizona.

Since Dawn became a full-time retiree in 2015, she has continued to explore many different art mediums and techniques. She moved to Prescott, Arizona in 2017 and became a member of the Prescott Valley Art Guild where she managed the newsletter and the Quad City Annual Juried Art Show. She also joined Mountain Artists Guild in Prescott where she was Vice-President for two years and then President for two years through 2021. Currently, Dawn is Treasurer of Friends of the Prescott Public Library and an Art Adult Education Speaker for the Prescott Arts Docents. Her art is shown in the Mountain Artists Guild Gallery, the Art Barn Gallery of the Sedona Art Center, Currently, one of her paintings is featured by the Arizona Philharmonic on all their marketing materials for 2023-2024.​

Artist Statement

The landscape of the Central Highlands surrounding Prescott, Arizona is a feast for the eyes throughout the year with each season adding its own distinct variation. Cougar, coyotes, deer and javelinas roam throughout our neighborhood while hawks and eagles soar overhead. Inspiration springs forth and manifests itself in my studio where I create fanciful and impressionistic interpretations of my everyday life and surroundings.

While I work primarily with oil and acrylic paints, I integrate alcohol and acrylic inks, collage papers and stenciling into many of my more whimsical paintings, as well as continue to paint impressionist landscapes, animals, birds and flowers. I hope you enjoy my artistic creations.

www.dawnzintel.com

Liz Glorioso

Artist Bio

Glass creations begin from many broken bits of glass and represent chaos and confusion. My mission is to bring a vibrant and deliberate organization to the chaos, producing stunning art that gets a joyful and festive response. Sometimes even just a smile is enough. Mosaic pieces that illuminate desert and floral-themed lanterns, sun-catchers, jewelry, remembrance pieces, and abstract bowls are among my current interests. Commissioned works include a tapestry piece, custom house number tiles, and remembrance pieces and hearts.

My creative process generally entails an idea or combination of concepts that start with a drawing or sketch from a vision. In many cases, an idea that keeps coming forth in my imagination begs for new life. Bringing my artistic dreams to life and sharing them is my top aspiration. 2023 is an exciting year as I complete the construction of my Fired On The Mountain Studio overlooking the historic city of Prescott, AZ, with picturesque forested views. My long-term goal is to share my art locally.  Additionally, I am looking forward to collaborating with other artists on community art projects.

Artist Statement

Fused glass art starts in fragments and chips; using them to form new images allows me to focus my energy on a single task. My favorite process is making pattern bars. This involves forming a brick from individual strips of glass and creating slices out of the brick to blossom into a repetitive pattern. Taking my time crafting these types of works allows me to sort through my own thunderstorm of thoughts and create something beautiful and refreshing. Experimenting and applying the aspects of glass as individual pieces and then shaping them to evolve into something extraordinary keep glass fusing interesting.  ~ Liz Glorioso

firedonthemountainstudio.com

Kathy Ehrisman

Artist Bio

Currently, my creativity is in landscaping my property and setting up my art studio. I’m enjoying getting things in order and preparing for my future. I’m especially excited about my studio which is loaded with art supplies. I’m looking forward to hosting art groups at my home at some point in the future. Though I tend to be a loner, I love connecting with people.

Though the future can be kind of scary, I want to be present in my artists’ voice. I want a creative community that’s sharing skills and creative ideas.

As a child, I enjoyed drawing and building things. I’ve always loved cutting things up. While other girls were playing with dolls, I was turning wooden crates into dollhouses. Once as a kid, I almost cut the end of my finger off.

I’ve learned patience along my journey. My family didn’t recognize or encouraged my creative endeavors. My high school didn’t offer art programs. Finally, I was delighted to have college art classes. My first class was drawing. Because I was hesitant to draw bold straight lines, the teacher said, “Decide what you want to draw and then make a line with confidence.” With the support of that department head, I learned to trust my creativity.

After focusing on art for three and a half years the instructor told me, “Making a living in art is hard. Perhaps you want to get a degree in education too.” He was practical, but I didn’t want to teach. Just in case, I did take those education classes and received a major in art and minored in education.

I, fortunately, make my living teaching public school. The hardest part was that most kids didn’t love art. My class was a dumping ground for difficult kids. I was grateful for every student driven to be an artist, and thankfully there were a few. Many of my kids had special ed needs, and I spent the rest of my teaching career in special ed. I’ve enjoyed helping students recognize that their strengths are more important than their weaknesses.

In my last year of teaching, I connected with my true self. The new principal was changing everything, and during the first three days of the school year, I came home crying. On the third day I stopped to pick up art supplies, I walked in and felt a rush of soul energy. Then I knew, I had to quit teaching and focus on creating. The next day I told my principal I would be teaching my last year.

Artist Statement

My art journey began with drawing commissioned portraits. Because I also framed my work, I discovered framing was more fun and profitable than drawing. Framing has been my calling for thirty years. I love enhancing artworks with framing materials. I cut mats, saw, and join the frames, wrap liners, and stretch canvases. Most of all, I enjoy collaborating with customers in choosing a product they’ll be happy to own.

Once, in a gallery, I had a strong emotional reaction as soon as I saw a particular painting. I spoke to myself deeply in my unconscious mind. It turned out to be a calendar nude that my mother had kept on the back of her closet door. She had frequently caught me in her room looking at it as a youngster. I had no conscious memory of seeing it as a child.

Having the creativity of my artwork and doing custom framing has been my sanity. I’ve learned, and am still learning, to trust myself and seek those I can rely on. And, that it’s ok to ask for help.

My creativity is in thinking out of the box. 3D work and Sculpture are my first love. I also feel called to create loose, impressionist work. My muse is leading me to broad bold strokes. My joy is figuring out how to solve a challenge.

My art is a confirmation of myself as a person. To me, growth is being able to express myself freely. Growth is exciting. My joy is being in my creative zone. When I’m creating there’s no time. I can draw for a while then find that I’d been drawing for hours.

Kuki Hargrave

Artist Bio

Kuki Hargrave is an award-winning Arizona artist living and working in Prescott, Arizona. Born in Hollywood, California in 1949 and raised on a small ranch in San Bernardino, the artist grew up loving art, history, western movies and the great outdoors. Creative from an early age, Kuki began showing her original oils and watercolors in art galleries and shows in Orange County when she was 15 years old. Her family supported and encouraged her artistic endeavors. She has been a working artist for over 50 years.

Kuki attended Orange Coast College and the University of California Irvine in Southern California. An avid history buff and western reenactor, Kuki and a companion packed up on two burros and in 1983 completed a 2000+ mile walk from Big Bear, California to Trout Lake, Washington. Dressed in handmade buckskins and carrying black powder guns, tipi and accessories from the 1820 Fur Trade Era, the artist traveled the highways and backcountry of California, Oregon and Washington State. The trip provided the research and inspiration for numerous paintings exhibited and sold in the Columbia River Gorge Region. In 1993, she released “Wagons at South Pass,” a limited-edition print for Oregon’s Oregon Trail Sesquicentennial Celebration.

An Arizona resident for 26 years, Kuki and her husband Tom moved to Prescott in 2010. Kuki is an active artist, with shows at The Mountain Artists Guild, Prescott Center for the Arts, ‘Tis Gallery, and is presently represented by the Ian Russell Gallery on Whiskey Row.

In 2019, her work “Fab Town” appeared on the cover of Prescott Living Magazine. In 2020, the City of Prescott purchased her work “Homeward Bound” which was presented to the hotel owners during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the new Hilton Garden Inn in Prescott.

In 2021, her work “Monsoon” was selected as the official poster for the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering for 2023.

Artist Statement

My Thoughts on Art

Art doesn’t sell itself. It is part of one’s job as an artist to make it accessible and desirable.
By supporting and promoting other artists and other forms of art, the artist can help enrich the lives of a world starving for Beauty.
Pay it forward by giving back to one’s Community.
Push the boundaries, challenge one’s self to learn, take risks, seek new vistas, and grow as an artist.
Be lighthearted, but stay passionate.
Be thankful for the opportunity to create.

kukihargravefineart.com

I am a proud sponsor of the Granite Creek Trail Mural Project 2023, and my sponsorship supports the Bald Eagle.

Laurie Silver

Artist Bio

As a child growing up at the beach, I collected shells, beach glass, and rocks ever since I can remember. I loved (and still do) arranging them in pleasing collections, examining them to discover the natural shapes and colors that make them so beautiful and unique. I could get lost in my grandmother’s button and sequin box, which she gifted me along with her collection of vintage postcards. As I got older, I learned to sew clothes and taught myself embroidery, needlepoint, and macrame. Then later, I took up knitting.

My mother was a wonderful cook and baker and my dad was a wine connoisseur. From a young age, I learned and appreciated the making and savoring of good food and wine. This appreciation and knowledge have enriched my life as I hone my own culinary skills and enjoy special meals with family and friends. And I have always been musical, singing, and playing instruments since childhood, including playing in bands.

I am drawn to art and artists. Throughout my adult life, I have supported artists and my home is filled with original art. At a significant transition point in my life, I found process painting, an intuitive approach to art that does not focus on the end result. From that starting point, I sporadically dipped into trying my hand at various art mediums. After a 40+ year career in college student services and community healthcare, it was only as I approached retirement that I had the time to delve in and commit myself to fully exploring making art. What I found was a surprise. I did not really know I had it in me, I just knew I was drawn to making art.

I have learned a lot from many different artists and continue to take classes in a variety of mediums. I love the solitude of creating alone in my studio as well as the energy and joy of making art together with other creatives. I also enjoy sharing my discoveries with others and offering classes in our community.  

Artist Statement

Art is a form of relaxation and meditation for me. My curiosity and love of color, pattern, and structure inspire and inform my creations. I love repurposing materials, going through the recycle bin to find discarded items to upcycle and transform into surprising treasures. I love assemblage, creating handmade books, making spirit dolls, painting and dyeing fabric, and playing with watercolor, acrylics, and collage.

Beth Millbourn | Luminous Light Photography

Artist Bio

I first became interested in photography in the late 70s when I took my first photography class and got to experience the magic of the dark room.  Upon the arrival of digital, I continued to take photographs for my own pleasure but did not understand the fuller capacity of digital until I moved to Prescott and joined the Prescott Photography Meetup.  As with all forms of art, there is a continual learning process, and so my journey will continue until the last photo I take.

Artist Statement

For me, photography is about beauty hunting.  A photographer is constantly looking for those moments in life that are interesting and beautiful. Some say that taking photographs takes away the immediacy of an experience. I say that it enhances the experience. Post-processing allows the photographer to represent how the moment felt and is remembered by the photographer.

Dori Mion | Bird House Fine Arts Studio

Artist Bio

When she was five when a tiny, black, kitty marionette teetered into her life. This little animated creature became a source of adventure and support for her. In time, a full puppet troop of characters entered her life creating a world of enchantment. She did grow up, however, and the battered and broken parts of puppets were retired to a box, yet still cherished and loved, carried from place to place waiting for the time they would be brought back to life.

At the age of 63, she built a studio to pursue the many forms of art that emerged in her journey through life. One of the first projects in this new space was to visit the box of bedraggled puppets. With delight, the puppets smiled gratefully at her, as she reconstructed their little bodies and they became mobile again. Her passion for these entities never left her and the same joy as a child entertained her once again. Now displayed in her studio the puppets watch and support her while creating new works of art.

Having studied at Moore College of Art and Design, with a focus on sculpture and illustration, she molded these skills and created many puppet theaters and workshops that entertained children in schools, libraries, and festivals. A labor or of love this phase of life has passed and the original puppets are back, staring encouragingly as she explores another old revived passion for batik.

Batik is a process of dying and waxing material. This medium is wonderfully unpredictable and full of surprises. The colors blend harmoniously. When ironed out it reveals an energetic and magical composition. These pieces are hung in my new studio, The Birdhouse Folk Arts Studio. Hope to meet you there someday.

Artist Statement

I often feel that the art medium I choose is out of my control. Phases of artistic exploration appear and I follow. Currently, the focus is on batik. A colorful process of dying and waxing material. This art process has many progressive steps that reveal an energetic display of color from the brightest white to the darkest dark. I love this process, as it has unexpected results, which encourages experimentation.

thirdroadtheater.com

Debra Pendergast

Artist Bio

An accomplished artist friend told me that a Bio describes your journey to NOW. Here goes…

At age 50 I spent hours in contemplation of honoring my ½ century of life. My goal was to eliminate negative self-talk. It’s a small but mighty voice saying, “You can’t draw a straight line. An artist? NOT you.” I’ve responded with meditation, life reflection, positive affirmation, and writing.  

Consumed with a lengthy career in demanding health care jobs, my stress level was always high. I studied stress and added Stress Management Coach to my career credential in health care. My focus was on bringing stress reduction techniques to health care professionals. Along the way, I learned to listen to my own inner artist.  Today,  that little artist has grown into a confident, creative being.

My inner artist said, “Don’t worry about drawing a boring straight line.” My response has been to take 70+ art workshops. I laugh and tell people I dabble in everything and am a master of none.

I’m often the least talented person in class. However, my inner child artist, did not care about being judged or criticized. She was a happy child, splishing and splashing her way through courses. She gave me the freedom to be me, not in competition, and genuinely not caring about others’ opinions.

I’ve left my executive positions. I’ve retired three times, as I’m not fulfilled without a purpose. In addition to my creative side, I work as a hospice nurse and teach nursing at the university level. Some of my artistic creations honor loved ones that have passed on. They include memorabilia and junk drawer items like keys, hair clips, jewelry, medals, coins, etc on the frame of a wall mirror.

Now, I can be proud that my work has sold. I find joy in listening to my inner artist and creating.

Artist Statement

Art is my soul singing and my spirit dancing. It is a deep expression of my inner life surging out to be expressed in our external world.  It is energy that transforms random chaos into a purposeful message. Each creation is new, different and an authentic gift of intimate dialogue. Messages are revealed, insight and wisdom speak from the output of tools and materials. The mysterious mixture of pent-up emotional energy and the creative heart and mind produce a new language not constrained by rules or time, visible to those with open minds.

Edie Dillon

Artist Bio

I am a sculptor, painter, writer, and mother whose work seeks to honor the beauty and mystery of the world.

My life has been shaped by remarkable experiences in beloved wild places as an environmental educator and advocate. I was privileged to serve as the first full-time woman ranger in North Cascades National Park, develop recycling education for the City of Bellingham, Washington, and join art and nature in community outreach for the Verde River in Arizona, among other projects.

Over time, communicating through the language of visual art became as important to me as communicating through the scientific language of environmental education. In order to answer personal questions about art’s role in cultural change, I focused my master’s research on the transformative power of art, with particular attention to environmental art.

My studio practice is a search for a personal visual language that can speak to human and environmental predicaments potently, authentically, aesthetically, and with the needed urgency. I hope to help people see and understand the beauty we live in, and to create a vision of healing that is still in our power.

Essays published in Nature Love Medicine: Essays on Wildness and Wellness (Torrey House Press. 2017) Real Ground (Natural History Institute, 2020), Ecopsychology (Mary Ann Liebert Publishers, 2020), and Women’s Eco-Art Dialog (WEAD, Taking Action, 2021) among others.

Artist Statement

I engage our human and environmental predicament at the meeting place between serendipity and intention; where the beauty of the sacred found is enriched by fabrication. My art responds to crises in order to be a force for healing – on both individual and community levels.

What we pay attention to, and how that affects what we choose to keep or throw away, be they materials, ideas, people, or specifics of the natural environment, can change the stories we tell and the potentials we allow. Old things, everyday things – long used, or used and discarded – possess a resonance of memory and time; they are rich with meaning, nostalgia, and reference. I make use of these references, enhancing, enlarging, and redefining their meanings through combining the unexpected.

This process allows me to see how we might deflect a disheartening and destructive trajectory and generate different possibilities for our story.

Zavia Bishop | Zavia’s Studio

Artist Bio

An Arizona native, I like to say I had dual residency between California and Arizona. Born in Arizona, I moved to California at 7 then visited my dad in Arizona for summers and holidays. I’ve lived in both Arizona and California; my first child was born in Arizona and my second in California.  

Photography was my first expressive media. In school, I was that friend that usually had a camera in hand. Even as a kid I understood the importance of preserving moments in time.

Back in the day before digital, I’d take a disposable camera on field trips, or the point and shoot that I took on my trip to Boston and San Francisco for New Year’s Eve. I saved up to get my first SLR, but it broke in Yosemite before I had even used it. I was heartbroken.

My husband got me my first DSLR, a whole whopping 2 megapixels. I used it to document my pregnancy. I continue upgrading my cameras and documenting my kids and family life.

I’ve won a city-wide photo contest. I created ‘A Day in the Life’ photoshoot/slideshow for my son’s school. I was invited to be a second shooter for a professional wedding photographer. Then, my photography career took off. Now, I’ve worked with photography for many years.

During a creative block I bought some canvas and paints (though I didn’t know how to draw) and I just started painting. I was surprised that what I drew looked like something … flowers on cactus! I was hooked!

I’m a professional real estate photographer. And, I accept projects such as musician photoshoots.

My creative journey continues with both photography and painting. I show and sell at art walks and online.

Artist Statement

Catching candid moments that reveal a person’s essence, showing off the photogenic side of architecture. Even inanimate objects have a story. Every rock, every home, every living creature has a story to tell. Every time I capture that story, it brings me peace and tranquility.

My art is with acrylic paints, and I really enjoy pour painting. I have been given an airbrush as a gift, so continue learning that and other ways to paint, enjoying every step of the way.

Throughout the years my photography has evolved and I’m sure my art will as well. Eventually, I plan on using both photography and painting to express my observations of the world. This may or may not be controversial or be triggering for some. I believe that art needs to create an emotion in the observer. Art is there to challenge one’s perspective, to challenge the status quo.