In my current series of metal sculptures, most of the works are not planned out from their beginning to their conclusion; rather they develop as each piece of the sculpture is welded to the next piece. This intuitive way of working suits my creative approach and allow me to quickly change direction without looking forced or contrived. For the most part I use scrap metal because of sustainability and the bends and twists in the metal created by the recycling process. Most of the works are finished with high gloss enamel paint, while others with an industrial look are allowed to rust and then sealed with a matt finish.

Dustin Davis

Biography

Dustin Davis was born in Ashland, Wisconsin on November 21, 1945. He received his B.S. degree from Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin in 1968. He received his M.F.A. degree in Art and Design specializing in 3-D Design from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1971. Dustin started teaching on the undergraduate in 1972 and is currently a full Professor at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. He has exhibited in many International and National exhibitions. His work has been reviewed in the Baltimore Sun and displayed online the Light Space & Time, Fusion, and Fine Arts America Online Art Galleries.

“Waiting for Class” resulted from Tulsa Ballet giving local artists the opportunity to observe on of their daily company classes and an upcoming performance rehearsal and create artworks based on their impressions of the dancers. As much as their marvelous movements impressed all of us, I found observing some of the dancers at the moment of rest, waiting for class to begin, equally intriguing.

Anke E. Dodson

Biography

Anke Dodson is a native of Germany and a naturalized citizen of the United States. She is a resident of Tulsa, OK.

Her work includes cityscapes, landscapes and marine subjects.

She enjoys working in the style of contemporary or painterly realism on a variety of surfaces such as watercolor canvas, aquabord, claybord, yupo, ricepaper and, of course, traditional watercolor papers.

She has studied painting in watercolor and pastels with nationally known artists and instructors such as Steven Quiller, Alan Flattman, Naomi Brotherton, Judy Betts, Christopher Schink and others and in recent years has added the art of printmaking, more specifically monotypes. Taking a workshop taught by renowned printmaker Julia Ayers made her want to learn more about this unique medium and its possibilities.

In June of 2011 she was invited by the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, OK to teach an introductory monotype workshop in conjunction with their “Rauschenberg at Gemini” exhibition. A solo exhibition at the Gallery of the Performing Arts Center in Tulsa in October 2011 included a large number of monotypes, portraying the change of seasons on the prairie.

The Community National Bank of Kansas commissioned her to paint historical works for seven of their branch offices. The large portraits of these communities are now on exhibit in their respective cities.

Her work was juried into the 2017 and 2018 National Watercolor USA shows.

Her paintings have been added to a number of corporate and private collections in the U.S., Germany and France, including several commissioned pieces.

She is represented by the Royce Myers Gallery in Tulsa, OK, the Eva Reynolds Gallery of Fine Arts in Leawood, KS (Kansas City) and her work can also be found in the virtual galleries of the Oklahoma Artists Coalition, the Tulsa Artists Guild (TAG) and Bauhausprairieartgallery.com.

“No Ordinary Love” is one of Isabel’s paintings influenced by the cubist style. The subjects in this painting may look unconventional, but their love is extraordinary. He accepts her protectiveness, and together they become human.

Biography

Isabel is a portrait painter whose subjects emerge entirely from her imagination. Her work is totally spontaneous and intuitive. Inspired by the vibrant colors and visual richness of her childhood in Madrid and Guatemala, she uses strong, bright and dark colors to express mood and emotion. Her subjects have captivating and enigmatic faces inviting the viewer to imagine a narrative. She works with acrylic and oil paints on canvas and panels and her method involves applying multiple layers of paint.

Julie Lemberger is a photographer focusing on dance and other such romantic, musical, fun, interesting, scholarly, personal, passionate and artistic projects people in New York City (and Brooklyn) are doing. Having been a dancer herself, she is dedicated to preserving the fleeting ethereal moments of concert dance for more than 15 years, documenting her vision of dance in New York City at the turn of the 21st century.

Her dance photographs have appeared in The New York Times, Dance Magazine and other national and international journals and web sites since 1993. She also was assigned to photograph for The Villager and Downtown Express, under the late Thomas Butson for 5 years. Assignments varied, from press events with former Mayor Rudolph Guiliani to portraits of high-profile chefs in their restaurants and kitchens. Her photographs of the events of September 11, 2001, as seen from her Brooklyn rooftop, are in the collection at the New York Public Library.

For her notable Moving Pictures workshop The Brooklyn Arts Council awarded her for 3 years to teach formal dance and dance photography to Brooklyn’s inner city kids, resulting in photo shows at Five Myles Gallery. As well, Julie was invited to serve as a panelist for the New York Foundation of Arts (NYFA) photography-division

Julie’s dance photographs have been on view in a solo show, 10 Years of Dance at the 92nd St Y Harkness Dance Festival, and group shows including: Dance on Camera festival at the Puffin Room and the Bronx Academy of Art and Dance (BAAD).

In the dark days, before digital photography, Julie, created scores of black & white prints and negatives in her darkroom at home. Her darkroom technique were greatly improved at the Bettmann Archive, where she worked on historical prints from 100 years old negatives. When it was sold to Bill Gates her dance photographs were included in the Corbis collection since its inception.

She has had the privilege to work with and photograph such amazing artists and institutions as: Jody Sperling / TimeLapse Dance, Silver-Brown Dance, Lydia Johnson Dance, Dusan Tynek Dance Theatre, Jody Oberfelder, De Facto Dance, Barbara Mahler, Carlos Fittante, New York Baroque Dance Company, Edisa Weeks and the late Homer Avila, Balam Dance, Regina Nejman, Dance Wave, Catherine Gallant, Kathak Ensemble: Janaki Patrik, 651 Arts, Japan Society, 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance, Dancing In The Streets, Tap Extravaganza and dance departments at L.ong Island University, Hunter College and Juilliard.

She’s gained knowledge and insight from mentors who encouraged and challenged her: Zvi Lowenthal, her editor at The New York Times, the late Gary Parks and KC Patrick at Dance Magazine, Bill Murray, Heidi Riegler, who brought her along on her own professional journey, Paul Ben-Itzak, Olga Serry, Hanne Tierney Wong, Robert D’Allesandro and Virginia Brooks at Brooklyn College where she got a BA in fine art / photography. Her dance teachers who dug into her very soul: Carlos Fittante, Wendy Perron, Grace Doty, David Howard and Graciela Kozak and many, many others.

Though Julie has been in New York City for over 25 years she still speaks with a Californian accent, she was raised in Berkeley. She currently lives in Brooklyn with Chris and their daughter, Margot.

To me, it comes down to trying to live and respond to life, to people, to experience as authentically and truthfully as possible. Painting is prayer – it saves my life day by day, as a meditative and spiritually transformative discipline; the final “object” (or painting) is almost incidental to the long and repetitive journey through the stations of Beginning, Doubt, Failure and ultimately Resolution.

I paint on a variety of supports, from canvas to wood, to particle board to heavily worked paper. I often create these supports layer by layer in a series of random, flowing expressive actions – look, add, respond, glue, remove, attach; again; again… – before insisting on the painted image on the final surface offered up to the viewer. This is to try to capture and model my sense that this is what life demands of each of us – insistent agency and presence – over and against and informed by its seemingly random, often turbulent flow.

I say, with David Foster Wallace, “In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.”

I practice in the hope of moving towards an increasing clarity of perception and fearless engagement with the medium, that will allow me to say (with Rilke), “Look – a leaf, a dancer, a human being, a carrot, an oak tree, a window,” but to say them in such a way that the objects or people themselves never dreamed of existing so intensely.

Hilary Saner