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The Atlanta Arts Festival is now accepting artist applications!
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 2012 |
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Myrtie Cope Myrtie Cope earned her college degree in interior design but after many years in the furniture and the fabric industry, decided get serious about her passion for photography. She spent five intensive months at Rocky Mountain School of Photography before returning to the Atlanta area where she is active in Women in Focus and Southeastern Photographic Society. She has participated in numerous juried exhibits and has had two dual events exhibiting her work. She loves photographing the lines and angles of historic and contemporary architecture and has begun to explore the landscape and natural areas of the Southern states. Her photographs can be seen at The GardenKeeper in Marietta and in an upcoming exhibit at the Smyrna Public Library in July and August. James Few James Few, a native Atlantan, has thirty years of dedication to the arts community, gracing his viewers with elegant clay sculptures and pottery. As a career arts educator with the Atlanta Public Schools, former Adjunct Instructor at Morris Brown College, the Atlanta Bureau of Cultural Affairs, and Atlanta Metropolitan College where he recently returned, James has inspired a myriad of students to express their creativity and many have pursued advanced studies. He obtained his BA degree from Morris Brown College and his MA in Art Education from Georgia State University; his thesis, Creating Nonfunctional Vessels from Clay, has been used as a teaching model. James has exhibited and sold his work in galleries and major events locally and nationally, often winning "Best-of-Show" and the accolades of art critics for print and news media. In addition to having a tremendous following of private collectors around the globe, several of his sculptures were purchased for the permanent art collection at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and for Barcelona Spain's Bureau of Cultural Affairs during the 1996 Cultural Olympiad. Lisa Gleim Lisa Gleim is part of a long line of Southern artists, some of whom are also successful portrait artists. She has always had an interest in painting, and even from an early age, was committed to becoming a traditional portrait painter. Ms. Gleim is strongly influenced by John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Cecilia Beaux, three of the great American Impressionists. A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Ms. Gleim has recently studied under Cedric and Joanette Egeli and Margaret C. Baumgaertner and John de la Vega. She finds it very important to continue her education and believes "an artist's education is never-ending." Ms. Gleim began painting pet portraits in 2001 after the loss of her 14 year old Golden Retriever, Bonnie. Her husband Bill Jonas suggested painting a portrait of Bonnie would help ease the pain of the loss. She soon discovered that she was not the only one who considered her pets part of the family. Since then, Lisa has received numerous portrait commissions for dog, cat and horse portraits, many of which have brought their owners to tears after seeing their pets immortalized on paper. Ms. Gleim has also taken the opportunity to combine her two passions and uses her talent to benefit animal organizations. She has donated numerous pet portraits to local animal organizations year after year, including the Humane Society of Cobb County, the Atlanta Humane Society, the Atlanta Animal Alliance, Dixie Golden Retriever Rescue, and Happy Tails to name a few. Her portraits are always a highlight of the event and bring the groups well needed funds. She sees her donations as a unique way to aid animals in need. In 2004 Ms. Gleim became a member of the Artist's Registry of the American Kennel Club's Museum of the Dog. Aside from portraiture, Ms. Gleim is also an award-winning landscape artist. She works in both pastel and oil when painting the landscape, and achieves two very different styles from each medium. She is particularly interested in capturing the beauty of light and how it affects the landscape. Each year she travels with a friend to paint on location for a week. Her destination of choice is usually the Southeast coast where she grew up spending time during her summers, as reflected in her work. Both her landscapes and portraits can be found in many private collections throughout the East Coast, including the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia , Orthopaedic Division, the chambers of the Honorable Vice-chancellor Jack B. Jacobs in Wilmington , Delaware and Astra-Zeneca Pharmaceutical. Ms. Gleim, along with five fellow artists and friends founded the Atlanta Fine Arts League in 2005. The League was created as a catalyst for their highly acclaimed community project, Art From The Heart; a project where Atlanta area artists have donated their time and talent to paint the portraits of Georgia 's fallen soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan free of charge for their families left behind. Please click on the link to learn more about this important project. In January 2008, Georgia Public Television's State of the Arts did a documentary about the project, following Lisa and two other artists and families. In June of 2009, the episode titled Art From the Heart was nominated and won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Television News and Program Specialty Excellence. In 2000, after working and residing in Philadelphia for eight years, Ms. Gleim and her husband, Bill Jonas returned to her native home of Atlanta, Georgia where she maintains her studio and residence. Denise Jennings Denise Jennings has over thirty years' experience as an artist and arts educator. She currently works as an arts education consultant for school systems and local arts agencies, including the Woodruff Arts Center. Her own art work spans a wide range from 2-D to 3-D. She has worked as a professional potter and is currently a painter working in oils and watercolor with a focus on the human figure and portraits. In addition, Ms. Jennings has experience in fiber arts, jewelry/metalwork, and sculpture. She is the retired Curriculum Coordinator of visual Art and Drama for Fulton County Schools. She holds an undergraduate degree from University of Georgia and graduate degrees from Georgia State University and has received national recognition for her scholarship and work in art education. Selected examples include: The National Gallery of Art (Georgia's NGA Fiftieth Anniversary Scholar), The National Art Education Association (National Arts Education Administrator of the Year, 2009; National Secondary Art Educator of the Year, 2000), National Christa McAuliffe Fellowship, National Arts Educational Development and Dissemination Research Grants (with Woodruff Arts Center and Fulton County Schools). She serves on the Board of Directors for Young Audiences of Woodruff Arts Center and the Jay Shapiro Arts Legacy Foundation. Barbara Nesin Barbara Nesin, aka Batya Tamar, is a visual artist and educator. After receiving a BFA in 1975 from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Nesin earned an MBA in 1984 at Long Island University in New York. She worked in the financial industry for twelve years—as a registered representative of the New York Stock Exchange and a vice president and department head of pension trust administration—before attending graduate school, earning her MFA in drawing and mixed media at Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1996. An overarching theme in Nesin's art is a visual bridging of cultural differences by making connections to all aspects of her mixed-diaspora heritage. While her work is clearly about cultural narratives, it is difficult to place it neatly in existing categories. Nesin comments, "Narrow definitions of identity seem outdated in this age of globalization, which follows centuries of migration, exchange, acculturation, and syncretism. We seem to have plenty of new media for deeply entrenched paradigms, and not enough truly independent thinking." Her mixed-media paintings and drawings often include photo transfers, retablos, and installations in which she employs a strategy of métissage—"mixing" in the political sense articulated by Françoise Lionnet as a practice of cultural survival—to navigate the layered terrain of humanity. Her work has been shown internationally, most recently in the 2009 Havana Biennial in Cuba and in Cryptablos: Creole, Black & Jewish, a solo exhibition at the Dillard University Art Gallery in New Orleans. She has also presented work in solo shows in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Accra, Ghana, among others, and in juried and invitational group exhibitions across the United States. She maintains her studio at the Arts Exchange in Atlanta. Jill Ruhlman Jill Ruhlman has been a clay artist for more than 20 years. Her interest is in narrative expressed through the human figure. She explores themes of inner and outer space, dreams and fears, protection and risk, intimacy and balance. Jill fell in love with the endless possibilities of clay at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Her artistic curiosity has also led her to study drawing, painting and figure sculpture. Many of her pieces combine two-dimensional drawing with three-dimensional figures. Although known for many years in the Southeast as a colorist, she has chosen to work with the vibrancy of black and white in her newest series, Black and White. In this world, women balance gracefully in impossible situations, friends share secrets or read together under a tree, guardians keep watch from their ladders, and dancers dream together during a magical night. The narratives suggest mystery and yet simultaneously, feel familiar. The technique used in the Black and White series is called "scraffito" (Italian for scratch). A black clay slip is painted over the piece and then carved through to reveal the white clay body underneath. Jill combines the drama of bold graphic pattern with the expressiveness of the human body. Jill's work has been shown in the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and is in many important collections in the Southeast. In 1997, she was honored by the State of Georgia as one of "Georgia Women in the Visual Arts." In 2000, Jill received the Niche Award for her captivating black and white pieces. She also regularly exhibits her latest works at American Craft Council shows in the Southeast. |
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