Laura Walters Abrams

As a sculptor my work finds its inspiration in the infinite forms of nature. Though no artist can compete with the perfection or spectacular beauty that exists in the forms from our ocean, the earth and the sky, and the tiniest cell or organism, my challenge is in studying these forms, as well as those which man has created, and bringing them together in an interesting way. For me, creating is a spiritual and intuitive process where the link between nature, our existence, and universal consciousness coincide.

Polarities and opposites – simplicity/complexity, good/evil, male/female, faith/reason – forces that drive our universe, intrigue me and are an underlying current in my work. I believe these polarities are the essence of creating balance. Fascinated by the inherent motion & universal rhythms found in so many forms both natural and manmade, my work strives to capture a piece of this action, sometimes found in the tiniest flower bud, sometimes in the industry of music, sometimes found simply in a feeling of being part of our vast, mysterious world.

Where's the fat girl?

Rita Barnard

Rita Barnard is basically an assemblage artist and painter. She likes to find new uses for old objects and working with her hands. The work is narrative and expresses personal ideas, feelings and thoughts. Her intent is to connect with others and open dialogs.

"Istafai", enamel glass, 2003

Rasoul A. Khaliq "The Sunshine Man"

If you have ever visited an art or music festival in Dallas you could not have missed “The Sunshine Man”. Rasoul A. Khaliq has been creating art in our community for over 45 years. Self taught, father of 12, and spiritual guide to many, Rasoul was the creative force behind the legendary Sunshine Store on Lower Greenville.

Sunshine is an inspiration to everyone he meets and has always made his living under the motive: “Just Do”. His handmade glass beads, Sunshine People pendants, enameled copper forms, and outrageous body ornaments are bright, colorful, always unique, and no doubt will cause you to “Have a Rainbow Day!”

Cassandra Fink

Cassandra Fink grew up in a family of metal workers and painters who loved nature. Natural forms influence her sculpture and paintings which are abstract tributes to nature and the human form, sometimes incorporating her poetry. She finds working in a variety of media inspiring.

She is a member of the Artmetal community, Associated Creative Artists, and is currently a participant in the nationwide Imagillaboration Sculpture project. Her paintings and metalwork sculpture have been shown in numerous fine galleries throughout the Southwest such as Eldorado Gold in Santa Fe, Carter Malouf and Yerxa Gallery, Hickory Street Annex, Art-A-Tact, Art Galimaufry, One Of A Kind, Hakan International and the ACA Annual Awards Show.

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Brad Abrams

Brad Abrams has been an artist since childhood. Brad has specialized in glass sculpture since 1985 as well as steel and mixed media. He has worked in the metroplex since 1990 at his Dallas studio.

Mr. Abrams is an abstract experimental expressionist inspired by free thought, addiction of color, and his love for Southern women. His work is shown in many galleries and shops across America and collected widely because of his unique, playful and colorful forms.

Mr. Abrams has studied at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California; the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio; Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania; and numerous workshops at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington.

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Deanne Eskridge

A Dallas native, Deanne Eskridge has been blowing glass for the past 5 years at the BA Glassworks studio. She finds nature a constant source of inspiration.

"I'm hopelessly hooked on glass. I love the movement and surprise with the flow of hot glass during the creation of a piece, it's as if it's alive. When the glass is cold, I find the interplay with light fascinating, the piece can glow or cast a pattern of color."

Chris Lake

Chris Lake's love affair with hot glass began in 1994 when he saw the Chihuly Installations exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. As he has traveled the world since then, he has collected and experienced as much of the medium as he could. Chris began taking classes in stain glass technique and bead making in 2002. He learned to blow glass from Brad Abrams and he has been working with him for the past 3 years. As a musician, a life long drummer, Chris is drawn to the rhythm and balance of the glassblowing process.

Leila Strauch

Leila Strauch is a Brazilian artist from Santa Catarina , a city in the south of Brazil. Her love for glass started when she was about five years old. Her mother would take her around the church building to see the colored glass windows which always attracted her attention. Her mother did that in compensation to her quietness throughout the church service. For that reason, she learned to be silent at church to enable her see the glass artwork around the church every Sunday. Moreover, she learned working with glass twenty years ago from a German glass artist by the name of Lorenco Scheneider, a Uruguayan Roberto Bonino, from The Sarasa Family and a plastic artist by the name of Elvo Benito . They all contributed a lot to her knowledge to fusing, restoration, molding, and glasswork in general. She has worked with glass fulltime since then.

Leila’s creative talent and her drawing desire, led her to love working with architects and interior designers. Her artwork that starts form transparent and colored glass doors, windows, lamps, walls, knobs, sculptures to every glasswork in newly- born babies rooms has appeared in several Brazilian publications.

Each work is done exclusively.

Luis Toledano

Keith Livingston

Keith Livingston is diverse in his approach and choices of material. He enjoys working in contemporary forms when sculpting in wood, clay, steel and casting in bronze and aluminum. He is also a skilled representational sculptor and does portraits. Much of his recent work has been focused on creating sculptural jewelry in gold and silver. He often does detailed dog and cat rings and pendants. He is an award winning sculptor and jeweler and his work has been show in the Dallas area and in galleries in the Northeast. He is a former president of the Texas Sculpture Association and has a BFA form Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

Michael J van Enter

Born Cape Town, South Africa 1958. Attended the Johannesburg School for Art Ballet and Music' with visual arts as his major. During this time he developed a deep appreciation for dance and the human form.

Michael has explored various cultures and international currents in art touring Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Zaire, Botswana, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, the Netherlands, Canada and the USA. While in the US, Michael has developed a working rapport with several prominent American artists, and has assisted Helen Frankenthaler.

Michael's mastery of metals, sculptural materials and conservation techniques has been recognized and utilized by major art collections. He has been entrusted with the works of 19th and 20th century masters including: Henry Moore, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Rodin, David Smith, and Alexander Calder to name a few.

Using both hand brazing and casting techniques, Michael creates powerful female forms in copper and bronze. His focus is on the underlying mechanisms that animate the pose. He reveals to the viewer the raw strength and sexuality of muscles, sinews and tendons. His figures are caught in full tilt, dancing, pivoting or perilously about to fall lending a resonant tension between motion and still.

Monique Jannette

Monique Jannette is a self-taught artist who explores humankind’s most intimate emotions. She merges pain, love of nature and music with creativity. Her work embraces diverse styles from surrealism to abstract and commonly polymorphs disparate images. Often times Monique’s paintings are both narrative and mysterious creating a mélange of horror, passion, and serenity that arouses the eye and heart.

Heather Gorham

Roy Cirigliana

Roy Cirigliana graduated from NY Institute of Photography and has done course work at NYU, Eastman Kodak and East Texas State University. He moved to Dallas 29 years ago and has worked as a commercial photographer, lab technician, educator and exhibitor of fine art photography and metal work. He is currently teaching in the Richland College photography program. He is also the co-creator of the Maymester Richland College New Mexico Infrared Photography Workshop Series and was one of the founding members of 500 Exposition Gallery. Cirigliana uses Infrared film, which technically records images formed by the visible spectrum and infrared radiation.

"The light quality of infrared film is of prime importance to me. The special effects and surreal imagery lends itself to my style of shooting."

Mark Epstein

Mark, a Texas native, established his "Clayworks" studio in Dallas in 1981. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Dallas in 1994. Mark teaches classes and workshops in and around the DFW area.

"I concentrate on how to best utilize the plasticity of the material to create sculptural forms and or functional vessels. For me its a never ending exploration. Having lived in this neighborhood for twenty years, I am constantly amazed at how many people (locals) have stopped in during our sales not sure what they were going to find at the house with all the pots and sculptures in the yard. We’ve enjoyed growing up in this neighborhood."

Randy Broadnax

Diana Rose Downs

Nancy Thompson

Nancy Thompson enjoys working on a variety of stained glass projects out of her East Dallas home/studio. Inspired by her passion for glass and natural talent for design, Nancy began her whimsical art glass designs when a car accident prevented her from continuing her former vocation.

"I love glass with a lot of color and texture so it works in harmony with light and movement. Most of my work is done in lead but I also have some copper foiled pieces."

Valery Guignon

Valery Guignon has been a full time artist for 25 years. She works in several mediums including fabric dyeing, steel welding, and wire sculpting. She's currently well known for her sensational dyed satin, "sea through" scarves.

She currently wholesales her work in over 50 galleries nationwide including the Smithsonian Institute retail shop, "The Renwick Gallery."

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Patricia Dillingham

Adding vibrancy, color and a touch of whimsy to everyday life delights Patricia Dillingham, who offers Art in the Hood visitors a pair of ways to view the world.

Her altered photography captures images both local and away: as near as the latest blossom in her garden, as far away as the Irish countryside. By computer-manipulating her photos and playing with color, she provides a fresh look at iconic scenes, whether a rusty barbed wire fence on a Texas back road or street musicians playing on a plaza in Spain.

Old, worn windows find second lives in her studio, where they morph into bright stained glass mosaics. Limiting herself to round glass pebbles and a handful of colors, Patricia builds simple pictures on the glass, preparing them to filter light into homes during the day and glow outward at night.

Patricia also works in other media, including polymer clay, silver metal clay, gourds and wearable art. When not in the studio, she does free lance public relations and marketing. Reach her at pdillingham-art@sbcglobal.com.

pjdillingham@earthlink.net

Carl Spoto

Carl has been throwing clay for over 7 years and from the first moment of contact it has become a passion of His. A passion for creating pottery, drawing designs and ideas from naturally occurring beauty. Using the most basic of elements “clay” in particular stoneware clay, Carl incorporates both textures and inspiration from the great outdoors into his artwork. It could be anything from a dragonfly, a rock, the sun, a leaf or simply an acorn. Carl says, “I believe, this brings nature and art full circle.”

His style of clay art and glazing is very unique for it flows and evolves continuously. Always wanting to be fresh and new, He introduces new pieces every season along with new or renewed glazes. The glazes used are not commercially manufactured. They are created in His studio from common elements found in nature as well and they are food safe. After glazing each piece it is fired to approximately 2200 degrees. That’s hot!!

Commission work is welcome, but you can also find Him at numerous shows and art festivals throughout the year. Or if you can’t wait for an art festival, visit Him at His studio where you are always welcome. Look for and ask about Providence Pottery and Carl Spoto.

Robyn Lark Wakefield

I came to painting late in life. After a decade as a jewelry designer in Los Angeles and a year trekking South East Asia to empty my head, I moved back to Dallas, picked up a brush and starting painting. Good, bad or indifferent, it didn’t matter; the urgent desire to create visual dialogue in this vast and messy medium was irrepressible.

Painting is hypnotic, mysterious, juicy and unpredictable. It is endlessly beguiling, sexy and wet. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Most of my work is autobiographical in nature. Painting from a visceral and universally feminine point of view, I want the images to rouse curiosity and inquiry, to tease the underbelly of deep desire; to provoke and disturb.

Working in an acrylic medium, I paint in reverse on Plexiglas. While this is a meticulous and backassward process, the end result yields a bold and vociferous story for the viewer.

The overall objective of my current work is to convey the intrinsic power and beauty of poised vulnerability. -- Robyn

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Niyada P. Crossland

The idea that brought me here to the United States in 1984 was my belief that I would have a better opportunity to be an artist who could make a living by producing creative pieces of art.

In my first year living here, I worked at Sheraton Park Central Hotel as a cuisine artist producing centerpieces, such as ice sculpture, fruit & vegetable carving, styrofoam carving, and tallow sculpture. I became known in the hotel industry because of my appearance on the 10 o’clock news report in 1985. I was interviewed by Jack Brown of KDFW-TV for the story titled “Veggie-Master” where I performed a carving demonstration. After that I entered several food shows 1985-1987. I won a lot of medals and trophies from The Dallas Chef Association. I was also offered the opportunity to travel to many hotels all over the USA to do cuisine art for a couple years. I enjoyed the job and the pay. But, it was not really the kind of art that I wanted to do! My desire to create original pieces of fine art was still so strong it was like a thirst for water.

So, I began painting on my spare time at home in Dallas. Three years after I started creating the kind of art I want to do, I put on a show with couple friends at Dallas City Hall July 26-Sept 6, 1993. It was the first of a series of exhibitions titled American and Thai Art. The second was in April 2-30, 1996 at Dallas Public Library. And the third was in June, 2001 at Dallas City Hall once again.

In August-September, 2001 I was one of the selected artists for the local art project “Dallas Soars”. Local business sponsored local artists to creatively paint Dallas trademark symbol, the Pegasus. I was sponsored the The Crow Collection of Asian Art. I name my Pegasus “Magical Mabin”, mabin meaning horse in Thai.

The most recent accomplishments include “The One Woman Show” at Pleasant Grove Branch of the Dallas Public Library in May 2002. The show was the fourth installment of American & Thai Art series. In April 2004 my arts and I were a part of the Jump, Jive, & Jam fest of TRAHC, the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council. Inc.

Mike Espinoza

Mike grew up in the streets of West Dallas. He attended a high school located directly across from the projects off of Fishtrap St. He was encouraged by his art teacher (thank you Mr Martinkus) to continue his studies with art. Mike went to study art at the Art Institute of Dallas and continued to study art in Austin Community College in Austin Texas. His influence comes from a variety of artist friends, including Aaron Muguerza as well as cubism master Pablo Picasso, and Mexican Artist Diego Rivera.

Mike paints using oil or acrylics, works with digital media, found media, metal media, as well as traditional pencil drawings.

Mike is a public speaker, who donates part of his time with the Aids Services of Austin as well as the Austin Habitat of Humanity.

Gene Allen

There are strong ties to the Van Zandt area in this painter who has been a life long resident of Dallas, Texas. Mr. Allen is the great grandson of Ambrose Fitzgerald who has a long line of history in this area and has recently been featured in the Canton newspaper because of painting pictues from the recorded accounts of his life and travels to this area.

Mr. Allen has painted since his high school days in Dallas, and attended art school at the Dallas Museum of Art. Largely self-taught, he continues to perfect his talent for a life-long passion at the age of 82. He is a past member of the Art Club in Canton and is a past winner for two years at the Van Zandt County Fair winning "Best of Show" both times in the Professional Class. He also received a Blue Ribbon at the Texas State Fair.

His paintings are now displayed in many area homes such as one of the local judge's home in this area, and at the North Texas Big Brother and Big Sister Organization in Dallas. There are no copies of any of the paintings and many have been commissioned by those who have fond memories of special times in their life and wish to remember those times in a painting.

Mr. Allen has an eye for the beauty of nature and enjoys sharing that beauty with others in his paintings.