Shawna Hatton – teacher and visual artist
I photographed Shawna at The Betty, a gallery at Front Street in Dayton, where she’s had an exhibition for the last two months. .
“I put a group of my larger works in this exhibition” she told me. “They’re from several time periods.”
Continue readingKate Huser Santucci, encaustic painter
I’ve been admiring Kate’s encaustic paintings online (https://www.katehusersantucci.com/) for quite a while but only met her last summer. She works at Front Street, in the first floor of the 100 Building, where she shares space with Elisha Frontz.
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I visited Tracy McElfresh of https://www.tracyssewingstudio.com/ recently. I know Tracy spends a lot of time teaching people to sew. I asked her how she learned.
“My grandmother came from Puerto Rico to New York City and sewed in the garment district there. She would bring fabric remnants from work and use them to make all of my mother’s clothes. So as I was growing up my mother didn’t want to just go to a store and buy my clothes. She taught me how to make clothes by deconstructing old clothes. I would go to thrift stores and buy things that were very inexpensive, take them apart, and reassemble them into clothes that I loved.”
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I first met artist Caitlin Cartwright at Dayton’s Front Street Buildings, on a night when more than three dozen studios and galleries were open to the public. Caitlin was the featured artist in the Color of Energy Gallery, and her vibrant painting-drawing-collages were creating quite a stir.
Caitlin explained that there was a narrative underlying each of her works, and I asked her to tell me a bit about some of them. Continue reading
Rebecca Sargent spends her days at K12 Gallery & TEJAS, Dayton’s leading arts education organization, which is in Dayton’s most colorful building. Continue reading
In September of 1859 Abraham Lincoln delivered an anti-slavery speech at Dayton’s courthouse. This September, artist Mike Major will unveil his eleven foot bronze sculpture of Lincoln. It was commissioned by the Lincoln Society of Dayton, and will be permanently placed on display outside the old courthouse. Continue reading
I first visited Trish McKinney in 2014 when she opened a gallery/studio, Trish McKinney Studios, a retail gallery and open studio space on the 2nd floor of the Hotel Gallery in Tipp City. Continue reading
Most artists would be content to find a studio with good light and with enough space to store their material and make their art. Mosaic artist Jes McMillan thinks bigger. She rented a 16,000 square foot building in downtown Miamisburg that once housed a J. C. Penney Store and opened The Mosaic Institute of Greater Dayton. Continue reading
Painter Terry Hitt works in Dayton’s most colorful building, the K12/TEJAS building at 341 South Jefferson Street. The first time I met Terry he told me how much he enjoyed working there because “it’s filled with so much good energy and artists of all ages to talk to.” Continue reading
I had seen John Sousa’s work online and wanted to know more about it. When I saw that he was to be included in a show at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery I decided it was time to pay him a visit. The exhibition is called “Go Figure – 13 Ohio artists explore the human figure.” Continue reading
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