Come Enjoy VIVA Gallery’s Artisan Market this November & December!
Artisan Market Opens November 7th!
This year’s Artisan Market features the works of Marcia Dooley, Crystel Curley, Darrel Bowman, Nick Smolen, Sally Turner, Jane Bidon, Robbie Brokken, Anna Loney, & Susan Lind.
Marcia Dooley - mixed media collage
Bio
I was an art teacher, with a minor in art and a Master's degree in art history. Three years ago, I began seriously working to discover my own style. My art is abstract, based heavily on the elements of art. It has been described to me as whimsical, humorous, emotional, and colorful. I find much personal joy in creating my pieces and when I begin a piece, it takes me on a journey of discovery. And the journey continues.
Contact: Marcia Dooley Marciadooley13@gmail.com
Crystel Curley - recycled wool potholders & sewn fabric items
Bio
My name is Crystel. I live in Viroqua with my husband, my two children and two orange cats in a small house surrounded by gardens. Gathering inspiration from flora and fauna, family and friends; I find great comfort in the creative process. There is an innate joy to bring a project to life - from the initial spark of an idea or a feeling, into the sketched out rough plans and finally brought forth by being created with my hands. It rings true with whichever medium I work with including cooking good food for loved ones. My mother and I do some collaborating as we are collectors of words and wool. I have been steadily sewing potholders for twenty years though I have dabbled in quilting, pillow making, natural fabric dyeing, printing and mixed media pieces.
Process
Working through the creative process, from common textiles to a useful tangible potholder, helps soothe my heart and soul. I find great comfort in the creative process. I have been steadily sewing potholders for 20 years but I also dabble in quilting, pillow making, natural fabric dying, printing and mixed media pieces. I am a collector of words and wool.
Contact: Crystel Curley crystelgrace23@yahoo.com
Darrel Bowman - pottery
Process
I make stoneware pottery. Most of my work is wheel-thrown and then reduction-fired in a gas kiln. I make casual, useful stoneware pottery intended to add an artistic element to life's everyday rituals, especially for preparing and sharing food and drink.
Contact: Darrel Bowman Pottery potters.house@yahoo.com
Nick Smolen - metal
Bio
I am an artist/blacksmith specializing in handmade knives and ornamental ironwork.
In the mid-1980s, I began creating forged Damascus steel billets and knife blanks for custom knife makers around the United States, as well as overseas. I combine traditional forging techniques with modern manufacturing processes to produce unique artistic pieces. I gradually progressed into making my own knives, as well as functional hand-forged ornamental ironwork. This includes candle holders, wall sconces, tables, and sculptural pieces.
Over the years, as my pile of knife making cut-offs grew larger, I turned to creating jewelry items such as pendants and bracelets. Now, I have included Mokume Gane (Japanese wood-grained metal) as part of my repertoire. While I use it primarily for knife fittings, it is also used in personal adornment, and fountain pen bodies. I make my own Mokume by layering copper and nickel silver, then fusing it in a gas forge. It is then patterned and forged to the required thickness.
I live in rural Westby, Wisconsin. I am also a welder, machinist, and journeyman tool and die maker.
Process
Cast Damascus steel is produced by melting pieces of iron and steel with charcoal in a reducing atmosphere (lacking oxygen). During the process, the metals absorb carbon from the charcoal and the resulting alloy is cooled at a very slow rate. This produces a material with a visible crystalline structure of varying carbide contents. Forging the material into a desired shape alters the crystalline structure into the familiar wave-like pattern that Damascus steel is known for. This technique is extremely work intensive and requires a high degree of skill to keep the necessary temperatures constant throughout the process.
Contact: Smolen Forge smoforge@mwt.net
Sally Turner - woven and coiled baskets
pen & ink drawing notecards
Bio
In 1986 my neighbor, an accomplished basket maker and member of Michigan's Potowatomi Nation guided me as I learned to weave a basket. I am forever grateful for her generosity of time and talent. Her words of encouragement resonate with me to this day. Doors to an amazing connective world of nature, culture, science, and art opened wide and welcomed me in.
My work represents an exploration of construction techniques using long leaf pine needles, tree bark and roots, plant stems and leaves, willow, and reed. True joy comes from time spent outdoors gathering materials to prepare for weaving and collecting various nature treasures to incorporate with either a functional piece or an art vessel. Repurposed jewelry and small heirlooms will sometimes find their way into my art. Baskets, sculptures, and framed drawings of mine have been exhibited locally and nationally. I enjoy sharing my craft through weaving classes and presentations on the journey of my art.
Process
My pine needle work is created using longleaf pine needles that come from the Carolinas, Georgia, or Florida. The raw needles are placed in a water and glycerin bath and roasted slowly for several hours at a low temperature. The needles retain the glycerin, this strengthens them. If I choose to use color in the needles, dye is added to the glycerin bath. Once this process is finished the needles are placed on drying racks and rotated on a daily basis until they are completely dry. They are then ready to be coiled into a vessel using various embroidery-type stitches. Not always, but often I will use a base (wood, ceramic, wire form) as an anchor for the needles and stitches when I begin a piece.
Harvesting bark has taken me to SE Alaska for red and yellow cedar, Iowa and Wisconsin for willow, and my own back yard for birch. Timing is everything when harvesting natural materials as the ease of bark removal depends on sap flow through the tree. Whatever outer bark isn't needed is peeled and left behind in the woods. Inner bark can be processed right away or set out to carefully dry for processing at a later time. Strips of bark can be thinned to produce multiple pieces (cedar and birch, not willow), these pieces can then be refined into thinner strips for weaving.
Reed is a wood-like material that comes from a type of bamboo plant that grows in a vine in parts of Asia. It is plentiful as its habitat is a tropical rainforest. Each plant can grow 3'-5' per day. The vines are harvested and processed overseas, and the product is available from basket suppliers. Reed accepts both natural and commercial dyes well.
I enjoy using a variety of materials, I find working with naturals to be the most rewarding. There are many life lessons I experience when creating art; knowing when I need to be patient, working through a challenge of design and media, being intuitive with the piece as each project has a mind and soul of its own and realizing when I've given a piece my best and the outcome is way different than what was intended. Like life itself each piece and its journey is part of a bigger plan.
Contact: Sally Turner tsturner1@peoplepc.com
Jane Bidon - fabric bowl cozies
Bio
As long as I can remember I have loved color, fabric and sewing. So I have combined those loves with making these useful little cozies. I use mine everyday, no more burned fingers.
Process
I sew together fabric and batting to make reversible all cotton bowl cozies. They can be used inside the microwave with bowls and cups so you can protect your fingers when removing the hot object. Washable.
Contact: Jane Bidon jc9321@gmail.com
Robbie Brokken - repurposed vintage jewelry
Bio
I live in a small rural town in Minnesota with my art painter husband and our crazy dog. I've been an artist my whole life.
Process
I create unique pieces of jewelry made from repurposed vintage art and other found jewelry elements. I dismantle the older pieces and recreate them to new eclectic pieces. These pieces are whimsical, eclectic and fun.
Contact: Robbie Brokken Jewelry robbiebrokken@gmail.com
Anna Loney - metal pins
Bio
My BFA was in printmaking from Carnegie Mellon University. But I like to joke that I always liked my metal printing plates better than the prints they yielded. So, I got to thinking, and realized I could return to the metalsmithing I'd studied in continuing ed classes at the Cleveland institute of Art. My teacher there was Solve Hallqvist, a master silversmith. I'd taken four years of instruction prior to pursuing that almighty college degree. It was an invaluable experience.
I've now worked as a metalsmith for around three decades. Projects have ranged from small to large, functional to purely sculptural, and even from the sacred to profane. Part of what keeps me going is that metal challenges me, and I've found a way of working that is my own. Using very traditional methods and ideas, I move metal to suit my notions of beauty, function, utility, and fun.
Born and raised in the industrial midwest cities of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, I am now a proud resident of the Upper Midwest Driftless Region. And I find delight in our landscape at large and all its quirky little details, right down to the fossils that abound under our feet. I live in Lanesboro, MN with my husband and two almost adult children. We all engage in art making of various sorts and collaborate daily in the craft that is our life.
Process
I think it’s fun to make shapes and forms with wire. I don’t make things which are overly self-conscious, but are well-crafted, and thoughtfully executed. Whimsy, simplification, imagery and abstraction can show up in pieces I make. I value these objectives. And I’m just part of history’s long chain of makers who’ve found a way of making which appeals to their time and sensibilities.I’ve arrived at a way of working without doing so intentionally. It’s taken time. Work remains challenging and exciting to me. Something new is always around the bend. Ha.
Contact: Loney Metal Works anna.janloney@gmail.com
Susan Lind - metal & semi-precious gemstone jewelry
Process
I work with metal & semi-precious gemstones to create unique jewelry. Inspired by my silversmithing experience, I lean towards sculpture style, highlighted with various patinas and the method of fire painting.
Contact: Susan Lind Artist selsimple8@gmail.com
