The seventh annual Invitational Artists Exhibition and Sale will be held on Friday, November 1, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Saturday, November 2, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. The show returns to the Pennsdale Civic Center Social Hall, 261 Village Road, Pennsdale, PA. Friday night’s opening includes a reception with complimentary refreshments, an opportunity to meet and greet the artists, and music by members of the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra.
The show will feature some of the most talented artists in Pennsylvania whose works are exhibited and collected nationally; many share a close relationship with Lycoming County and the surrounding area. It includes a wide range of arts and craftsmanship, including photography, oil painting, jewelry, fashion, pottery, metal- and wood-working, quilting, mosaics, watercolor, sculpture, and home décor. The show will be a rich and varied collection of original work along with signed and numbered limited-edition reproductions.
This year’s artists include Michael Coppes, Tammy Daneker, John DeWald, Linda Doucette, Steve Getz, Selinda Kennedy, Laura Knorr, Judy Kolb, Robert Olmstead, Deb Parsons, Daniel Ravizza, Kris Robbins, Mark Robbins, David Seybold, Roger Shipley, Theresa Crowley Spitler, Deb Fleck-Stabley, Kathy Turner Sterngold, Bruce Storm, Nella Godbey Storm, Christine Washad, Terry Wild, Wynn Yarrow and Judith Cole Youngman. Knorr, Kolb, Ravizza, Stabley, Washad and Yarrow are new to the Muncy show this year.
“The Society’s art show committee wants to ensure that our guests can experience a well-rounded show that includes a wide range of artistic expression. We ask a panel of independent jurors to evaluate new applicants and to select from our stable of previously-juried talented artisans those who will be asked to participate in the current year’s show. While each exhibition is different, a small number of our artists are core to the show. We are careful to offer a mix of traditional and contemporary styles and techniques from oil paintings to acrylics to mixed media and this year we have expanded our artistic categories to include decorative arrangements, locksmithing and blacksmithing, illustrated books, and floorcloths.” explains Linda Poulton, show coordinator. Diversity and excellent artistry remain paramount to the selection process.
The exhibition benefits the Muncy Historical Society’s preservation efforts including its Heritage Park and Nature Trail Project currently underway in the Port Penn section of Muncy. Donations are $7.50 and there is plenty of free parking.
Arts funding support has been provided by Gary’s Furniture, 3 Factory Street, Picture Rocks, state funding through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, an agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, and Thelma White. The Muncy Historical Society’s Artists Exhibition also benefits from the support of Lycoming County Visitors Bureau.
Directions to the Artists Exhibition and Show: I-180, 220 N exit, EXIT 15, toward Pennsdale; take 220 N approximately .3 mile; make slight left onto Village Road; Social Hall on left, .3 mile.
For more information, visit www.MuncyHistoricalSociety.org, call (570) 546-5917 or send email to MuncyHistorical @ aol.com.
Michael Coppes ≈ Photography
Mike got his first camera, a Kodak 110 Instamatic, when he was eleven years old. His interest in photography remained strong through high school where he utilized the school’s cameras and darkroom. After graduating from the Muncy school system he went on to study photography at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh earning a degree in Photography/Multi-media. He remained in Pittsburgh for 13 years before returning to Muncy. Mike is drawn to the works of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. He works as a free-lance photographer who enjoys shooting a very diverse array of assignments.
Tammy Daneker ≈ Handcrafted Handbags & Clutches
The force behind Textures Bags & Etc., Tammy is a totally self-taught seamstress and artisan. Textures was formed 10 years ago as a home design company specializing in interior design and color consultations, custom window treatments and designer wall finishes. Tammy hand-crafted handbags, clutches, aprons and other accessories for fun for herself and friends but demand became so great that they became a large part of her Textures business. She strives to make handbags that are both functional and beautiful. She offers several styles of clutches and bags from tiny to extra-large, funky to utilitarian, casual to luxurious, and all are made from her own designs. Designer and vintage fabrics are used as well as hand-printed and screened fabrics to construct bags that are unique and special.
John DeWald, Jr. ≈ Scrimshaw
When he was 12, John’s father gave him a piece of cow horn and an awl and encouraged him to do his first piece of scrimshaw. As time went by, his interest grew, and through research and study he began crafting powder horns of the fur trade era, traveling to various muzzleloading events plying his wares. In 2007, he made a horn for himself and after making a commissioned horn in 2009 dove headfirst into his renewed passion, retooling his workshop, and spending countless hours on research, trial and error. He is a member of the “Honourable Company of Horners,” a guild dedicated to the preservation and continuing craftsmanship of horn work. This ancient craft has consumed him and he spends countless hours doing research and tinkering away in his basement workshop crafting contemporary and historical horns and other fine accoutrements from horn, bone, and wood.
Linda Doucette ≈ Fiber Art
Linda recalls using a paintbrush before learning to write. The patchwork of the local countryside, flower gardens and sunshine sparkling on water all piqued her interest in the interplay of color and light. She worked in the textile industry for twenty-six years, designing lace, knits, prints and woven fabrics for home furnishings and apparel. It was inevitable that her textile and painting sensibilities would eventually merge as they have in her latest series of acrylics and inks on paper. These pieces involve two or sometimes three paintings which she strips down into paper warps and wefts. She then weaves the strips together to create a new painting, sometimes applying additional images on top of the work. The undulating painted strips combine to create unique color and textural effects. Linda is also a hand weaver, a spinner, an avid natural dyer, and is now experimenting with making handmade paper and these interests are finding their way into her paintings.
Steve Getz ≈ Acrylics, Watercolors
Steve has a passion for 19th century art and in particular the Hudson River School artists and their use of dramatic light with landscapes. Homer, Church, Cassatt, Eakins, Bierstadt, Remington, Whistler are a few artists from whom he draws inspiration from when creating his paintings. While Steve experiments with techniques and styles he describes his art as modern realism. He attempts to create emotion in everything he paints – the dramatic crepuscular rays of sun coming through the clouds or subtle reflections of the moonlight on a snowy field interest him. Most of the time Steve paints scenes from Central Pennsylvania and loves landscapes – with amazing light and color – and natural subjects like a stream bank.
Selinda Kennedy ≈ Redware Pottery
Selinda has developed her own signature in developing her own line of redware ceramic platters, bowls and decorative tiles. She employs 17th, 18th and 19th century motifs, inspired by famous examples of folk art found in museums and private collections. These traditional designs are derived primarily from German folk art imagery: song and book plate vignettes, powder horn engravings, and fraktur patterns. Using a traditional drape mold technique she utilizes antique forms in a variety of shapes and sizes for her canvas in redware. Through research of period designs she creates a unique collection of symbolic images combined with new color and detail. Each piece is hand-decorated with brushes and fine detail using engobes and glazes and fired in her kiln.
Judy Kolb ≈ Victorian and Country Decorative Arrangements
Judy Kolb is a native of Williamsport whose passion for the last 20 years has been creating Victorian and country arrangements. Entirely self taught, she designs and constructs wreaths, swags and centerpieces using both silk and dried flowers and other natural elements. This Fall season and the upcoming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas are her favorite times of the year for hand crafting her arrangements.
Laura Knorr ≈ Paintings, Illustrated Books & Prints
This Pennsylvania native has been strongly influenced by the color and originality found in nature, especially animals. For Laura it is a great treat and challenge to give human qualities to creatures and gratifying when the viewer, particularly children, find enjoyment in her work. The “Golden Age of Illustration” has inspired her throughout her life from N. C. Wyeth to the artwork of the Saturday Evening Post and various popular magazines of the 1950s. Her style is created with oil, acrylic and pencil on watercolor paper or canvas. With her return to Pennsylvania, she is experimenting with new media and subject matter which represent a new chapter in her life just by…coming home!
Robert Olmstead ≈ Watercolors
Bob has been painting all his life. Now a retired art educator, he continues as a practicing artist drawn to light, shadow, texture, and detail. The work of Rembrandt van Rijn influenced him as a child and continues to do so today. His inspirations come from nature, from people, and from human-made objects. As an artist he finds it important and necessary to capture those moments and situations that the average person may miss. When a viewer connects with one of his paintings the whole process is validated. He believes a painting can command attention and cause viewers to stop, think, and come away with a better understanding of themselves. A Muncy resident, Bob is charmed and excited by the people, geography, and history of the area and hopes his paintings express this.
Deb Parsons ≈ Glass Jewelry
Deb Parsons studied various forms of glassmaking for 23 years, and in 1996 made it her life’s passion. Most of her formal studies were at the studio of the Corning Museum of Glass working with internationally renowned glass artists. Her body of work is a translation of earth elements – such as rocks under water. She uses a combination of highly saturated colored glass with pure metals and powders to produce the inclusions found naturally in raw minerals. Deb expresses her work through glass and sterling silver sculptural jewelry, hanging ornaments, glass and copper garden sculpture, and custom work for the home.
Daniel Ravizza ≈ Locksmithing & Blacksmithing
Daniel has had an interest in old locks and keys since he was a child. Trained as a machinist and toolmaker, he enjoys collecting and restoring old tools and machines. His keen interest in blacksmithing and historical metalworking techniques along with working side-by-side with master blacksmiths have influenced his study and research into the mechanically intricate as well as artistic works of the 15th-17th century European locksmiths. Daniel enjoys making interpretations of historical lock and key designs, while trying to use traditional methods of construction. Some of the techniques employed include forging, brazing, riveting, turning, filing and chasing while using a range of tools including a traditional blacksmith’s coal forge, anvil, hammer and files. He also employs a variety of vintage machine tools that he has repaired and restored. In addition to traditional locks and keys he has built some of his own lock designs as well as a variety of other decorative metalwork.
Kris Robbins ≈ Sculptural Metal Art
A native of Lycoming County, Kris always enjoyed welding and working with metal – and especially creating objects out of what others would think of as ‘junk.’ He attended school to learn auto-body repair and body shop work and then about ten years ago he started creating works of art out of metal for his wife. Friends saw his sculptural metal art and asked him to create artworks for them. And the rest, as they say, is history. He likes nature and so incorporates natural elements in his artwork, such as hummingbirds, flowers and dragonflies.
Mark Robbins ≈ Sculpturesque Wood Turnings
It wasn’t until Mark was in 8th grade shop class that he turned his first bowl and he has been hooked on spinning wood ever since. Mark’s workshop is nestled amongst the pine trees on his organic farm outside of Muncy. Many of his finished pieces had their origin on the farm or the surrounding area and he creates his work from wood that has insect damage, worm holes, or bark inclusions. He strives to give his work “life” by creating smooth flowing lines contrasted with texture and carved elements. Harvesting the wood to be used, roughing it out, drying and completing the piece may take a year or more. Mark is a juried member of the PA State Guild of Craftsmen and the American Association of Woodturners.
David Seybold ≈ Watercolors, Acrylics
With a strong passion for art, David left all teaching opportunities to pursue his life-long dream. A positive attitude and believing in oneself and talents helped David to develop a recipe for success. “Never stop believing in yourself; you are only going to be as good as you want to be.” Initially working in oils he now prefers to work in acrylics. His favorite subjects range from landscapes, colonial stone homes and farm scenes… to the antiques and primitives used in his still life paintings… to his still life paintings of harvested fruits and flowers.
Roger Shipley ≈ Sculpture, Painting, Printmaking & Drawing
A graduate of nationally- and internationally-recognized art study programs, Roger has taught painting, drawing, printmaking, color theory and two-dimensional design. As an artist he works in a number of varied media. In sculpture, he has completed works in Plexiglas and cast bronze expressing the interplay of organic detailing with simple forms. His paintings are in oil, watercolor, and gouache; his printmaking works are in intaglio, collagraph, monotype, serigraph and lithography; his drawings are in graphite and colored pencil, charcoal and pastel. Roger’s works depict impressionistic landscapes, seascapes and abstract form.
Theresa Crowley Spitler ≈ Pastels
Theresa works in pastel to create her paintings and explore form, color and texture. She finds inspiration in the everyday objects that become the subjects of her still life paintings and often receives requests from her patrons to include their own personal mementos in a still life painting. Her landscapes and seascapes are influenced by her travels and the beauty of her surroundings here in Lycoming County. “For me, painting is a gift, not the talent or the ability, but the passion to make art, the awareness to appreciate it and the determination to keep creating. With pastel, there are infinite ways to make strokes and I experiment using different surfaces. It is very exciting to create the illusion of form and substance out of dust.”
Deb Fleck-Stabley ≈ Ceramic Artist
Deb is a professional ceramic artist living and working in Pennsylvania. She and her husband formed Creative Clay Works after graduate school in 1984 and she has followed numerous artistic paths since then. She primarily works with clay, but has explored mixed media processes as well. Deb has taught in a variety of settings with children and adults and has been involved with perpetuating the arts in her community in numerous ways. Her work is colorful and often whimsical in nature. Deb’s imagery is usually inspired by her natural surroundings and the animals and people she knows. She enjoys a creative life and very much appreciates the support of folks who enable her to do so.
Kathy Sterngold ≈ Pottery & Contemporary Clay
Kathy fell in love with pottery-making while taking art classes in high school and she’s been throwing, shaping and firing clay ever since. After studying art at Kutztown and Alfred Universities, Kathy joined The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, a leading center for the ceramic arts. A few years later, she returned to Muncy to set up her own studio. In 2013, she was chosen to create the commemorative bowls for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s “Soup and a Bowl” events in Harrisburg and Williamsport. Kathy creates a wide assortment of clay objects. She makes functional pottery that is pleasing to touch and to use, such as stoneware bowls, plates and coffee cups. She also makes larger accent pieces, including ceramic sculptures and tall rectangular vases. Kathy loves making one-of-a-kind pieces for gifts and special occasions and this year, she is making ceramic sun faces and hen-and-chick bowls!
Bruce Storm ≈ Acrylic Paintings
Drawing in locations as diverse as London, China, the Caribbean, Dewart or his beloved Lycoming County, Bruce draws en plein air then creates scenarios that evolve the pictures into personal sagas. Humor, romance, pathos, and observation combine with refreshing vision of the unseen and much needed world. Employing eight or ten layers the colors float across Bruce’s work like their quilt backgrounds – so frequently dazzling – the skies and the view entreat you to be a part of an experience that extends beyond the painting and into your reverie. Formulating paintings for months prior to their execution he composes scenarios about what the casual viewer has missed. Philosophy and whimsy combine with charm and a sense of wonder too often lost exiting childhood. Dragons, cavorting cows, subterranean homes, self portrait raccoons and a host of the unexpected engage the viewer to look closer.
Nella Godbey Storm ≈ Acrylic Paintings & Ceramic Whimsies
Nella’s paintings and terra cotta and low fire clay “whimsies” are about what we see everyday in Muncy, in Lycoming County, in Pennsylvania, in this hemisphere, in the world. Season change, the shift of the sun, a frog moving across water plants, birds in a garden. When green leaves turn to the color of rocket flames or Katie Jane Mountain, up the Loyalsock, tries to hold her own against the compressed power of a Pennsylvania sunset then Nella gets the compulsion to comment with paint about these unique ethereal ordinary, extraordinary moments. There are flights of fantasy in some pieces like the romantical little dogs in their private world that remind Nella that she is not quite grown up.
Christine Washad ≈ Floorcloths
Christine and her husband have a love of the 18th century and all that it entails. In the process of decorating their home with an 18th century motif, she discovered floorcloths were used to keep drafts from coming through the floors and also to decorate their floors. She is self-taught in the art of constructing floorcloths and through lots of trial, error and research, she is able to offer a top quality product. Christine’s floorcloths are made from a very heavy canvas with many coats of paint/sealant. They are durable and with care, are made to last for generations! All of the patterns seen on her floorcloths are traced from painted patterns found on walls and floors in the New England area. Most date back to the mid-1700’s through the early 1800s.
Terry Wild ≈ Photography
Terry has been a self-supporting photographer since 1972. He tries to photograph every day and views the gift of photography as his second language, using his camera to interpret his encounters with the world around him. His current activity is primarily building an online, searchable database for editors’ and publishers’ content needs, as well as representing several other specialized photographers. His Studio emphasizes editorial, commercial, and industrial illustrations for business, industry, education and commerce.
Wynn Yarrow ≈ Landscapes & Illustrator
In Wynn’s own words, her “… paintings are landscapes as metaphors for the inner life. I have long been drawn to transition in nature: shifts in season, light and the sky. In human emotional life, transitions are times of vulnerability, but bring the potential for swift and positive change. Clouds have an ephemeral quality, yet yield tremendous power. To meet the sky one is forced to look up: a deeply hopeful act. Night presents an alternative reality, one that relies on our powers of memory, insight and imagination.” Her work exists in the shadowland between technique and vision, emotion and intellect, the physical realm and the spiritual one. Color fascinates Yarrow: its optical effects, its history, its symbolism and emotional content. She teaches Design and Color and Drawing at Pennsylvania College of Technology. She is the 2013-14 season artist-in-resident of the Community Arts Center, Williamsport, PA,
Judith Cole Youngman ≈ Quilted Wall Hangings
Since 2000 her study has focused on the wonders of the 19th century American quilts and the challenges of replicating them. Her primary interest lies in the process of design and the actual making of quilts in various sensibilities. Judith notes: “The historical context of my work is key to its power to communicate to the viewer. I am constantly inspired by authentic 19th century quilts and the unknown but revered women who created them. Paying attention to this ‘sisterhood over the years’ offers great promise for tomorrow, I believe, as well as a creative catalyst for today.”
