Artist Showcase

Annual South Nevada County Fine Art, Wine and Food Festival


Acid Etching on Copper	Ceramics	Drawing/Pastels	Glass
Jewelry	Leather Journals	Metal	Mixed Media
Painting	Painting/Printmaking	Photography	Photography on Silk
Sculpture	Stone	Textiles	Xray Photography

Larry Blackwood, Photography, Idaho Falls, Idaho

www.hawklinephotography.com

Haiku is poetry of deceptively simple statements that bring out the profound in ordinary scenes or events. Producing an image that creates a visual “haiku moment” is what I strive for in my work. I think the most interesting photos are those composed of simple, everyday subjects that when photographed in a peculiar light, a specific arrangement, or from an unusual perspective produce images which present unexpected emotions or thoughts. True haiku poetry contains specific defined elements. Of these, a reference to nature (in particular a season), the juxtaposition of subjects in a surprising relationship, and something old or aged are of most interest to me. The near or close-up draws my attention more often than the far view. In landscapes, I am drawn to interesting lighting and exploring the feelings relayed by fog and haze. I also have a strong interest in searching for geometric and expressionist abstract images both in the city and in nature. Direct reference to humans is uncommon in Haiku and—although for different reasons I imagine--also absent in my photos.

Dancing Shoes by Larry Blackwood

Verone Flood, Photography, Portland, Oregon

www.veroneflood.com

Verone Flood is a landscape photographer who is addicted to cameras, computers and Diet Coke. Now living and working in Portland, Oregon, she received her BA from Boston College in 1984, and her MFA from Florida State University in 1986. Verone typically works with a series of photographs. Each image is made up of juxtaposed photographs. The photographs are about relationships; the relationship of shapes and color, balance and tension and negative and positive space. Lines and color play an important factor to the sequence of the photographs. The viewer develops their own relationship between the photographs when viewing an image. The digital images are printed on Fuji Crystal Archive paper.

Green Paint by Verone Flood

Steven Mueller, Photography, Ontario, California

www.stevenjmueller.com

Driven by the beauty of the vast world and unlimited universe in which we live, feel, work, emote and ponder in, I am compelled to image the eternal and the fleeting. Life is a communion of syntropy and entropy where creation and dissipation walk hand in hand along a long lonely beach, where love wings in touching us with angelic repose and just as often tips up and away long before the earthbound heart is ready to understand.

Dawn Country Road by Steven Mueller

Dennis Parker, Photography, Albuquerque, New Mexico

www.dennisparker.name

A self-taught photographer, Dennis has spent the second half of his life in New Mexico and feels his love of the land and the people of the American southwest is best portrayed in the black and white format. However, you will find that his subject matter traverses the entire country. His education in the field of journalism was instrumental in shaping his philosophy that, "In every photograph there is a story being unveiled, even should that subject be an inanimate object." He is firmly committed to his statement that, "With the sound of the camera shutter closing, in a fraction of a second, the photographer is given the gift of capturing history. And, while each image is a documentary of that moment, in tandem, the image-maker is entrusted with the ability to also expose an artistic or spiritual facet of the subject."

Rodeo Cowboy by Dennis Parker

John Richter, Photography, Ophir, Colorado

www.johnrichterphoto.com

John Richter lives with his wife Dawn and kids Wyndom and Sierra in Ophir, Colorado. Although John is not native to the State of Colorado, he feels like the mountains and canyons of the Four Corners region is his spiritual home. This deep connection to the land is unmistakable when one views any of John's striking images. Born and raised in Southeastern Michigan John was magnetically attracted to the outdoors. At a young age he became acutely aware of the interconnection of all life and the subtle beauty which surrounded him. To this day his passion for landscape photography and the conservation of wild places is deeply rooted in that connection. Having studied visual arts throughout his education, making the step to landscape photography came naturally. John's only technical training came in an introductory class to photography his senior year of High School. At that moment, the future became clear. John had found the perfect artistic medium to express his love and devotion to the natural world, landscape photography. For the past ten years John has traveled throughout the western U.S. and beyond to fulfill that dream. He has studied many master photographers work as well as technical text to continually improve his work and better illustrate his vision. His published work can be seen in the regionally famous Telluride Calendar; Telluride Visitor's Guide; Patagonia Catalogs and on the cover of The Valley Floor Anthology. John regularly contributes to local, state and national environmental campaigns including: Sheep Mtn. Alliance; The Telluride Valley Floor Fund; The Trust for Public Land; Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project; The Ophir Valley Project; and the San Miguel Conservation Foundation respectively.

Mystical Mirror by John Richter

Laurie Schendel Lane, Photography, Missoula, Montana

www.laurielanestudios.com

Laurie Schendel Lane learned to draw early on from her father who was also a fine artist. She received a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with an emphasis in photography. For many years Laurie shot commercially for Target, ad agencies and other corporations garnering her a keen eye and proficiency within the medium. Thirteen years ago Laurie and her family moved to Missoula, Montana to pursue her love of fly fishing and photography. This effort has cumulated in very original and fresh art of the aesthetic trout and its habitat resulting in many people collecting this beautifully unusual art. Because the elusive trout is difficult to photograph at best, most people mistake her photographs as paintings making her art even more engaging. Most recently Laurie won another award for a book proposal on her "Trout Series" from the IPA (International Photography Awards). Her work can be seen in many publications including a photo feature in Delta's Skywest July/August issue.

Surface by Laurie Schende Lanel

Mark Stephenson, Photography, Sky Valley, California

www.markstephensonart.info

Starting in grade school I did a lot of writing; expository, fiction, poetry, speeches. In high school too. I earned a BA in English with an emphasis on poetry and modern American literature at Colorado College, a terrific small liberal arts college nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains. While working on a MA in film at the University of Texas, in Austin, I developed a passion for still photography, shifted gears and enrolled at Brooks Institute of Photographic Arts and Sciences, the rigorous technical school in Santa Barbara, California, where I earned a second BA (Commercial Photography) in 1984. I've made my way as a professional photographer ever since and now focus on creating photographic artwork I show and sell on the fine art festival circuit, in select galleries nation wide and by teaching photography and digital printmaking workshops at the Palm Springs Art Museum. In 1994 I moved from downtown Los Angeles' artist district to the small rural community of Sky Valley, California (not far from Palm Springs). My home and studio sit on six acres of pristine desert with lots of wildlife (quail, dove, coyote, fox, hawk, owl, snake, squirrel) and stunning views of San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, the first and second tallest peaks in southern California.

Messenger III by Mark Stephenson

Matt Suess, Photography, Glendale, Arizona

www.dramatic-landscape.com

What started as a hobby for a child has developed into a successful career now spanning some eighteen years. I was 12 years old when I learned how to develop black & white film and make my own prints. My darkroom was the kitchen, a bathroom, my bedroom - anywhere I could find to make a room dark. I took photos of everything, but my favorite subjects were wildlife and nature photography. A childhood hobby eventually turned into a career in photojournalism. My love for nature photography notwithstanding, I realized the way for me to support myself with photography was to work for newspapers, then magazines. I started working for newspapers in 1990. Small weekly newspapers at first, then eventually large dailies. I worked either as a freelancer or staff photographer and became quite successful, receiving numerous awards and recognitions for my work. In 1999, we moved to the coastal community of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where I resumed my freelance photography career working for local and national newspapers and magazines. I also provided corporate and advertising photography, some stock photography, and even portrait and wedding photography to clients as well. In 2003 I was awarded the New England Press Association's Photographer of the Year Award. By that time my photos had appeared worldwide in newsprint, magazines, books, textbooks and other publications. It was also at that time when I started craving a new challenge. I was tiring of covering depressing news stories and the same old thing year after year. Living in beautiful Cape Cod, I started going back to my roots in photography and began photographing nature again. It seemed like the time was right to switch career paths. Marci and I did our very first art show in 2003 on Cape Cod. We set up my new booth tent, displayed my photos of the shoreline, and opened up for business. Customers purchased my work because they admired the photos I had taken on my own time. Soon after that show, I found myself doing more art shows and less newspaper/magazine work, and photographing nature more and more. The fall of 2006 found us trading the sands of the ocean for the sands of the desert. The Sonoran Desert in Phoenix, Arizona to be exact. We both fell in love with the landscape on a photo trip there the year prior, and by the time we moved the majority of my income was from the sale of my fine art prints. In the short time we have lived in Arizona, both my career and the work I produce have grown tremendously. For me it is in the printing process where my creativity and vision really shine and take focus. My creative process has only just begun the moment the camera snaps an image. The majority of work occurs in my now digital darkroom, and the process is not complete until I have created the perfect print.

Sedona Varnish by Matt Suess