Revival is a collection of original oil paintings depicting modern contemporary country life in middle America, especially Iowa.
 
Statement
Jeff Klisares is a self-taught artist/painter who was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. The second child, Jeff was probably destined to break the rules, while also attempting to please everyone in unconventional ways. His maker also chose to make Jeff mostly left-handed, adding to the humbling legacy of thinking differently than most others.
Jeff found himself armed with a B.S. degree in Industrial Administration from Iowa State University, including intense focus on Industrial Engineering and Landscape Architecture.
 Employment in Corporate America taught Jeff that functioning in a cult environment where creativity is frowned upon was not for everyone, though nearly, it seemed.
Jeff now paints.
jeffklisares.com

All work presented here, with the exception of the San Francisco piece are from the Iowa area.  Many are from areas in and around Des Moines.

As an avid cyclist I see much of my potential work from the seat of a bike. The road figures prominently in this work as it does in our everyday life.
www.jeffsuchomelartwork.com

I grew up in southeast Iowa, intensely exploring the hills and plains, timbers and fields of that landscape. Summer days, were full of trips out of town to explore timberlands, fish, hunt arrowheads, or just play in the creek near my home town. After high school I attended the University of Iowa, majoring in art after an initial dalliance into engineering. I graduated with a ba in 1984, and immediately pursued a master’s degree. I taught elementary and junior high art for four years (while working on my graduate degree) before moving to northwest Iowa in 1988. I finished my master’s in 1989, driving weekly to Iowa City, and teaching days at Iowa Central Community College. I retired from teaching full time at Iowa Central in 2018. I still teach a few classes there. I currently live in Rockwell City where I have converted an old hardware store downtown into a studio and workshop (Prairie’s Edge Studios).
 

About Andrew: "I've been a practicing artist since 2005 and have exhibited professionally since 2011. I work with a mixture of media. My hand-made work consists of wood-burning, acrylic paint, colored pencil and charcoal on wood panel. My digital pieces are created through modifying images of my hand-made work, or they are generated from scratch. Visually my work centers around creating matrices of color fields and linework, then breaking apart and piecing them back together.  I feel this  technique helps to keep my work evolving. I intend to showcase and sell prints of my work  through this site.  PLEASE, contact me directly about collaborations, commissions, and/or purchasing hand-made work.  I would be more than happy to make something unique for your space!" – Andrew Clarridge

See more artwork and order prints at ClarridgeArt.com

There is no one photograph that is exactly like another, as every photograph is a split second visual that will never be repeated in a lifetime.

I have always loved seeing the world through the camera lens and have professionally for the last 25 years.

In my photography, I continually strive to reveal the beauty of people, places and things through the lens, offering you a new way of looking at them…up close and personal. Everything in life has a unique beauty all it’s own. That is what I desire you to see as you experience my work.

Julia Dyche, George Hunt, Lynnette Knight and Michael Lynch were all students of George Rose at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri.  During that time, they also got to know George Rose’s wife, Rose Ventling. All of these artists have since remained Kindred Spirits.

Julia, George, Lynnette and Michael all went on to earn MFA’s after studying with Mr. Rose at NWMSU.

Bridget Marcus has been bird watching for most of her life and her wonder and love for birds is only increasing as the vulnerability of our avian neighbors becomes ever clearer. Growing up in South Africa much of her free time was spent in the “bushveld” resulting in a deep knowledge of South African birds. Since emigrating to the midwest United States, she has grown to know and love the birds of eastern deciduous forests and urban gardens.

About five years ago, inspired by her mother’s watercolor painting, she took watercolor and then pastel classes at the Des Moines Art Center. During this time she started doing a watercolor or sketch of the bird depicted on the Audubon ‘bird a day‘ calendar and has now a collection of about 1500 of these birds, some in sketch books and some on watercolor paper. A small sample of these birds are included in this exhibition.

Bridget loves intense, highly saturated color and so has been drawn to pastels. Jack Wilkes, her private teacher and mentor, has exposed her to the magic of this medium. The birds selected in the “Flight Patterns” series shown here are South African birds in flight. The backgrounds either represent an “African” pattern seen in fabric and in indigenous art forms, or seek to depict the birds’ environment, maintaining a tension between bird and background.

Elephants have been another source of wonderment for Bridget and she has been fortunate to have had numerous awe-inspiring – and on one occasion terrifying – elephant experiences in Southern Africa. In addition she and her family adopted a couple of elephant orphans at the Sheldrick Orphanage in Nairobi and were then able to visit this remarkable facility. The plight of African elephants is desperate and Bridget seeks to draw attention to their magnificence using charcoal which seems to capture their majesty particularly well.

As a part of Bridget’s commitment to aid in bird conservation, she will donate 30% of any sales at this exhibition or from online sales to the Audubon Society to assist them in the meaningful work being done by this important organization.

Learn more and purchase her artwork at
www.bridgetmarcusart.com

Life, The Universe and Rainbows
Artist's Statement:
"I am a mixed media artist.  The base of my work is created with alcohol ink on yupo paper. Also displayed are some ceramic pieces I created at my Paint Your Own Pottery Studio - Five Monkeys Inc.

I have loved rainbows since I was a small child.  There isn't a time that I see something with a rainbow on it that it doesn't make my heart smile.  Creating with the whole color spectrum just makes me happy.  This body of work is very circle centric.  The first few pieces had circles so I just kind of went with it.  Much of my work has cut out pieces which makes for lots of scraps of beautifully colored pieces and I don't like to waste anything, most certainly anything pretty, so you'll see bits and pieces of the same paper in multiple finished pieces.  "Life" is made from leftover pieces of paper from the last three or four years, it is also my largest paper piece to date. "