It isn’t an uncommon story, but the outcome can be very UNCOMMON. Sandi Ziolkowski, in the past, often thought of herself as a misfit. She wasn’t happy in her corporate life, and she wasn’t happy in her profession. She felt unfulfilled. The odd twist is that she didn’t seek professional vocational help or a psychologist to find peace with her present life. This searching artist has produced another unique and fascinating show for Artworks around town at the Centre Market Gallery at 2200 Market Street for the First Friday Opening on Feb. 6, 2015, from 5:00 to 8:00PM. The show is free and open to the public. Refreshments are provided. Come see some unique items produced by an artist who is always searching to fulfill her desire to create more objects with more texture and more color and more “Sandi Z.” design.

Sandi Ziolkowski searched within herself and her heritage and found the answer within the life she already was living. She wasn’t a misfit. She fit perfectly into her own family, just in a different way. Sandi comes from a lineage which includes many crafts people, not always in the arts, but people who worked with their hands in crafts as designers but not in the artistic fields. The quality of working with hands came from her ancestors. There was a rich heritage to draw from. Sandi knew that she loved color and texture. Looking for a craft that combined all these loves and interests, Sandi came upon jewelry making. And the story moves on.

Sandi has long been known in the local area for her jewelry. Her silver jewelry with its unusual designs and combinations with semi-precious stones, glass, leather and wood are well know and easily recognized. Still following her love of color and particularly texture, Sandi is working with her hands, expanding into the even more tactile art of pottery. Using much of the knowledge she has gained through years of working with jewelry making, Sandi has created striking pieces of pottery. Her love of texture is readily apparent as part of her pottery designs. Sandi has expanded her range and production of art in another medium. She is an intelligent and talented woman who has achieved success through her own search of her own personality. People who achieve creative art can sometimes be perceived as misfits. They don’t follow the usual paths, but that’s where misfits and creative artists meet and produce unusual and fascinatingly original work. Sandi’s original and fascinating work will be on display at Artworks around town as the February show in the Studio Gallery.

Sharon Hanse beautifully practices what is considered a lost and/or dying art form, CALLIGRAPHY. Her new show opens at Artworks Around Town on First Friday, January 2, 2015, at the Centre Market, 2200 Market from 5:00 to 8:00PM. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.

Sharon Hanse

Calligraphy is the art of handwriting in varying forms or fonts. It is an ancient art form whose origins are rooted in the copying of manuscripts of the Bible and in the text written by ancients. Writing was a rare talent acquired and practiced by only a privileged few until the modern era. The average person did not write their own language until the beginning of public schools, which eventually introduced the art of “penmanship”.

Sharon Hanse’s calligraphy is incorporated into beautifully constructed works of art including her own paper marbling, illuminating, and gilding. Writing letters and words in careful fanciful script is only part of the creating of Sharon’s work. Her artwork includes quotes from the Bible and a variety of philosophies and philosophers. Each piece of work has some wonderfully designed background to add to the illustration of the carefully crafted letters. Her backgrounds and added embellishments are lovingly thought out and executed. Watercolor, acrylics, gouache, pastels, and inks are used to illuminate each piece of artwork. Art forms such as collage, etching, gilding, embossing, paper cutting, marbling and hand made paper add to the beauty of each of Sharon’s creations. Each piece of work is carefully laid out and all designs are specifically created to enhance the meaning of the works and increase the visual impact. Each of the letter styles or fonts that Sharon uses creates a particular feeling and is chosen carefully by this artist to interpret the text.

“Great Spirit”

The craft of calligraphy requires practice over and over. Years of practice results in a flowing confidence found in Mrs. Hanse’s work. Her interest in calligraphy began in high school as it does for many of us who are fascinated with the flowing of ink onto paper and the formation of letters. Studying at Cleveland Community College and the Cleveland Art Institute renewed her interest in calligraphy at the age of 35. Then she became a banker for the next 22 years.

Since 1978 Sharon has studied a variety of lettering arts and subjects related to art of working with paper including paper marbling, papermaking, paste paper technique (a creating of permanent design on paper with pigment mixed with paste), bookmaking of all types, illuminating, and gilding. Bookmaking includes tiny few page books that can be used as Christmas ornaments to larger books that can be created as private journals all self-created. Illuminating is the embellishment of letters that are characteristic of manuscript pages beginning with a large single letter or word, highly decorated as an illustration to highlight the remaining text on the page. Think of books of the Middle Ages. Gilding is the art of using gold pigment or gold leaf in illustration work.

Using many different letter styles and art forms, Sharon began to create broadsides of poetry and quotations. This study led to participation in art fairs and exhibits. Her artwork lead to meeting her husband, fellow artist Richard Hanse. Two years later they were married and moved to Barnesville where they now reside with their two cats.

“Connected” – Chief Seattle

Sharon gives workshops through Artworks and other art centers, which are highly constructive (and fun) for both adults and children. Participants often take her same workshops over and over because the finished products are beautiful, fun to create, practical to use in other art forms, and unusual.

Calligraphy is a satisfying and beautiful art form rarely seen in large amounts or displayed for the public as it will be for this opening at Artworks on January 2, 2015. This is a rare opportunity to see and appreciate a rare art form.

What do a lawyer, a computer/math professor and a potter all have in common? They are all artist members of ARTWORKS around town at the Centre Market in Wheeling. They are this year’s new members and an exhibit of their marvelous artworks will be opening on Dec. 5^th in the Studio Gallery of Artworks from 5:00 to 8PM. As always the public is invited to this free gallery hop at the Centre Market, 2200 Market Street. In the North Gallery will be the work of Martins Ferry Elementary and Middle Schools.

Janet Sheehan has always been an artist. As a young child and teenage, she dabbled in art, taking some classes but never taking art seriously until her youngest son left “the nest”. Now Janet is a watercolor teacher at Artworks. She has developed proficiency in watercolor with the guidance of Janet Rodriguez, the former watercolor instructor at Artworks, and local watercolorist, Bill Rettig.

Honored this year with a merit award in the West Virginia Watercolor Society’s show, Janet is always exploring and adding to her artistic knowledge in drawing as well. Yes, she is a lawyer and graduate of Duquesne University and West Virginia University and has been a hearing lawyer for 26 years but her artistic career has become a wonderful addition to all her other skills.

Paul Latos has been a potter since being introduced to the skill at Brooke High School. Further study at Glenville State and WVU added to his skill with the completion of a Master in Fine Arts. Starting his career as a potter in rural WV, Paul quickly progressed from his two car garage studio to a newly built facility to now residing in a three story building in historic North Wheeling. Along with his working studio, he has a first floor showroom of his work, which has been sold in numerous galleries across the country. He has exhibited at the Renwick Gallery in DC and the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfur Springs.

Pottery produced in the Linn Pottery Studio has been collected by art patrons in Canada, Japan, China, Korea, Ireland and across the US. He has been honored by receiving both the Best of West Virginia Award from Gov. Gaston Caperton and the Top Producer Award by Tamarack in Beckley, WV. His utilitarian stoneware, elegant porcelain and specialty works of low fired earthenware will be on display at this new members opening.

Then there is the computer science/mathematics professor who has always been interested in art. Margaret Gerosh has been taking a variety of classes at Artworks and the Stifel Art Center and now private lessons with Mark Fleming in acrylic and oil. Using many of her memories from her numerous trips all over the world, Meg has created new and fresh works of art. For a college graduate who started out with a degree in French, Meg has certainly strayed far from all her academic roots.

Meg is a member of the Independent Artists Group, which meets to do figure drawing at the Stifel Center. Along with her lessons from various local teachers, Meg believes she has developed some of her art from her study of computer graphics and what can be done artistically with computers. Meg’s work is not computer-like or abstract or even geometric. Her paintings are lovely recreations of many of her adventures in a varied life far from her Akron, Ohio roots.

Anyone who views this exhibit of New Members at Artworks will be treated to an interesting and arresting exhibit of beautifully crafted work by dedicated artists who are following a love of creating their own beauty in this work.

Another unique show is coming to ARTWORKS around town. This time it is a “family affair”. Artworks member, Ed Doughty, artist, wood carver, and miniature wood craftsman and his son, David Doughty, a painter, will be showing their work for the month of October. Their exhibition will open Friday, October 3rd at ARTWORKS around town in Wheeling’s Centre Market, 2200 Market Street, Wheeling from 5:30 to 8PM.

Ed Doughty

Ed Doughty is a meticulous craftsman in everything he does, and he pretty much does everything. He is one of those curious people who, when challenged by something he sees or learns about, is fascinated enough to figure “it” out and try to craft it himself. A self-taught craftsman who became a carpenter and cabinetmaker, Ed has perfected the art of miniature wood models, from the 14’ long replica of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge to the minute detail on his many carvings of early fire engines and the tiny trappings of the horses pulling the many carriages he has carved. Ed carves horses with saddles and without. He has carved Queen Elizabeth’s coronation carriage, American Civil War cannons and caissons, covered bridges, locomotives, stagecoaches and the Oglebay Mansion Museum.

David Doughty

This retired artist never stops. He built his studio, a complete house. He remodeled and redesigned ARTWORKS’ storage room. Ed rarely sleeps, and when he does he probably dreams up projects in his sleep.

Liz Neumann paints in Centre Market

Area residents have an opportunity to see the beauty of our city through the eyes of talented artists during the Paint Historic Wheeling exhibit, which is the August Gallery Hop at ARTWORKS around town, opening Friday, August 8th.

This event brought together dozens of artists from Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania to paint “en plein air” – a French expression for painting “in the open air.” Artists set up their paint boxes and easels throughout the city, capturing Wheeling’s charming neighborhoods on canvas.

Paintings created during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of August will be on exhibit and for sale throughout the month of August at the gallery. The hop is held at ARTWORKS around town, which is located in the Centre Market. The public is always welcome to attend the Gallery Hop openings, which start at 5 o’clock and run until 8. Light refreshments will be served.

Janet Sheehan prepares canvas for paint

This year’s Paint Historic Wheeling event marked the ninth annual plein air event to take place in the Wheeling area. Artists chose to create their paintings anywhere around the city including Victorian Old Town, the Historic Centre Market District and along the waterfront with beautiful views of the Ohio River and the historic Wheeling Suspension Bridge.