Dorothy Fisher
Goldsmithing

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Fisher’s studio is nestled high in the Endless Mountains range of Eagles Mere. An acclaimed artist, she has proven her natural talent in the art of goldsmithing from original concept, to sculpting in wax, to the finished product. Her attention to detail and design is evident in every piece of hand-crafted jewelry.

Old-world training and experience, combined with state-of-the-art equipment and tools, make Fisher a designer and goldsmith of distinction. Her passion for beauty, her dedication to excellence and her unique vision ensure a collection filled with elegant, wearable art. Fisher has been intrigued with designing in gold and precious gemstones since her college years pursuing a graphic arts degree. In 1994, she advanced her education at the Gemological Institute of America in New York City studying precious metals and gemstones, earning degrees in both.

Ken Hunter
Oil Paintings &
Limited Edition Prints

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Hunter’s inspiration for his original oil paintings comes from his surroundings and interaction with those surroundings as a hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman. After teaching school for ten years, he left the teaching field in 1981 to dedicate himself to a full time career in the field of outdoor communications. While most of Hunter’s work centers around wildlife art, bronze sculptures, carvings and illustrations, he also is a writer, photographer and lecturer. His art has graced the covers of magazines such as “Pennsylvania Game News,” “Fly Fishing Guide,” “New England Outdoor Times,” “Tackle Box” (the "Field and Stream" of Japan), and the prestigious “Sporting Classics” magazine.

“It is my hope that others will find inspiration, excitement, and a better understanding of our wildlife and its habitat,” he said. “Without doubt, most of my paintings have evolved from actual locations within minutes of my home in the Muncy Hills. My love of the outdoors sparked my early interest in painting, and while I continue to paint I have added several other forms of outdoor expressions as the weekly outdoor columnist for Webb Weekly and the co-host of Channel 16’s “Pennsylvania Outdoor Life.”

Robert Olmstead
Watercolors

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Olmstead has more than 30 years of art education experience, teaching students of all ages. Formerly of Auburn, NY, he resides and paints in Muncy.

“I have been painting all my life. Now, as a retired art educator, I continue as a practicing artist drawn to light, shadow, texture, and detail,” he said. “My inspirations come from nature, from people, and from human-made objects and, as you will see, my work always has a strong use of light and shadow. I believe a painting can command attention and cause viewers to stop, think, and come away with better understandings of themselves.”

His early influences included the work of Rembrandt van Rijn, and his hobbies include collecting antiques and gardening. He said he is most pleased when, “others appreciate my work enough to tell me so, and when they want to include my work in their homes or offices.”

Mark Robbins
Sculpturesque Wood Turnings

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Using the wood lathe, Robbins creates artistic and functional pieces mostly from local trees that have fallen or have been cut by tree surgeons. He seeks out wood with character such as large cracks, insect damage and bark inclusions, and incorporates them into the design whenever possible. “At an early age, I was exposed to working with wood in my father's workshop. I would ride with him to the sawmill where we watched logs being sawed into lumber, some of which he brought back to the workshop to be made into furniture and grandfather clocks,” he said. "About the age of 12, I would sneak into the shop and use the wood lathe to make baseball bats that we used in neighborhood ball games. It wasn't until I was in 8th grade shop class that I turned my first bowl, and I have been hooked on spinning wood ever since.”

“Living on an organic farm for the last decade, I have learned to work with nature, not against it, and I apply this principle to the wood while I am turning. Many times the wood has final say in what shape it will become.”

Robbins draws his inspiration from his surroundings, and tries to keep his work very natural. Harvesting the wood to be used, roughing it out, drying, and completing the piece may take a year or more.

“I see firewood differently now. Usually nature has already made the perfect bowl; I just have to find it. I strive to give my work ‘life’ by creating smooth flowing lines contrasted with texture and carved elements.”

Bruce Storm
Acrylic Paintings &
Limited Edition Prints

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Storm is a former art educator with more than three decades working experience in California, in Bucks County and locally in the East Lycoming School District. He also is a published author and, for the first time, will be introducing signed and numbered limited-edition prints.

He works in acrylics, and his paintings often are fanciful.

“The unobserved world, the countless possibilities, the glorious architecture and nature intertwine with the wished for, the once remembered, the child that sleeps in the back of our minds,” he said, “these are aspects of my work.”

Once the viewer looks beyond the humor, they may discern a second story, a philosophical message. Each painting is a group of symbols united by design, color, balance and pattern.

“The patterns of the skies are a remembrance of my mother’s handsome quilts,” he said. “Our cats and dogs are redefined as playful dragons. The world has gone to bed or it is at least sunset, and it is my job to bring out the moon and stars.”

Nella Godbey Storm
Acrylic Paintings
& Ceramic Whimsies

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Nella Storm is a Muncy artist and educator working in a variety of mediums in the tradition of Renaissance artists. Her art includes ceramic bas relief masks and sculptures, mosaics, oil and acrylic paintings, jewelry, pottery, and batiks. Recently, Storm has specialized in color consultation working on more than 500 buildings, including Tiffany’s in New York City, and numerous church restorations.

She has more than three decades of professional service and has been recognized as the Pennsylvania Art Educators Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Storm has exhibited her works in numerous galleries, museums, and juried exhibitions and won awards at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. Her artwork is in permanent collections in the Vatican Museum, Rome, the Frost Museum on the Penn State University campus, and the Lock Haven University.

“My life in Muncy inspires my work—our garden’s constant change—the wind scented with Kellogg’s cookies and August lilies. The birds that drop by for a quick song and a sunflower seed, the cats that amble in just to watch the butterflies before they return home. These little merry moments seem eternal as does my garden which is Bruce’s garden too. In many ways my paintings are painted sonnets to Bruce.”

Judy Tamango
Multi-Media

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Tamagno works in pen and ink and scratchboard with limited edition prints made of scenes featuring farms, barns and horses. She also works in watercolor and acrylic, painting farm scenes, still lifes, fruits and flowers, cats and horses. She also enjoys making handmade and hand-painted porcelain thimbles, beads, buttons and chess sets. Her pen-and-ink renditions of “Historic Muncy” have helped to promote the charming colonial architecture of the town, as well as her limited edition prints of local farms and barns.

“I have been painting for many years and do very detailed realistic work featuring many small points of interest, sometimes hiding anomalies in the work. My pen-and-ink of Appaloosa horses was published in the ‘Appaloosa Journal’ magazine, and a scratchboard of cats was published in ‘Cats’ magazine,” she said.

Her work in porcelain, handmade and hand-painted beads and buttons has been published several times in “Bead and Button” magazine.

“I like to use pen and ink when I do scenes of the many lovely old barns and farms in this part of Pennsylvania,” she said. “Pen and ink enables me to render the textures of old barn boards and intricate little details. I love to paint flowers in watercolor as the delicate washes portray the structure and patterns. I love bugs almost as much as I love flowers.”

Victoria
Thompson-Hess
Multi-Media

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Thompson-Hess is a multi-media artist whose painting, drawings, mosaic wall-hangings and vessels have been exhibited at a variety of galleries including Faustina, Garret, Maple Run, Gmeiner, Mercyhurst College, and the former Gallery-on-the-Greene in Eagles Mere. In addition to coast-to-coast locations in the United States, Thompson-Hess’ one-of-a-kind tile mosaics, ceramic beads, and vessels can be found in collectors’ homes in France, Germany, Australia, and Japan.

Plates, beads, and bowls are just a few of the pieces she forms completely by hand, and each is completely original. Her Victoria’s vessels are formed by using either the drape-ware process or by hand building and allowed to dry slowly. They are finished with her special glazes, obtaining the vibrant colors that denote her work.

A native of Muncy, where historic artifacts are savored, and her inspiration comes from her love of family, gardens and animals.

“The things that inspire me are Muncy’s old homes and trees and the children who laugh and talk while making their art in my studio,” she said. She offers art classes for all ages at her studio from September to May.

Carol Wagner
Watercolor & Oil Paintings

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Wagner uses traditional English glazing technique, the layering of pure, transparent colors, to create her realistic watercolors. The subject matter of her paintings has changed recently from large complex still lifes to landscape. Trips to Italy, France and the English Lake District have afforded her the opportunity to do plein air painting.

Her art has been accepted consistently in prestigious national exhibitions including the following: the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic; Knickerbocker Artists; C.L. Wolfe Art Club, National Arts Club; National Arts Club Open Watercolor Exhibition; American Artists’ Professional League Grand National Exhibition; Boston University, Cincinnati Museum of Natural History; “Wings and Wildlife,” The National Aviary Show—First Prize in Painting; Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors; and “Symposium of Emerging Women Artists, 1986” at the U.S. Embassy, Moscow, U.S.S.R.

Her education includes bachelor’s degrees from Bucknell University, with distinction in English literature, and from Lycoming College with honors in art.

Judith Youngman
A Treasury of Quilts

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Youngman’s specialty is quilting, and she has created more than 100 quilts and wall hangings for family, friends, and for sale. She is the author of "In the Spirit of Quilting: A Journal of Encouragement for Today's Quiltmaker," a richly illustrated book that contains nearly three dozen of her quilt designs as well as quotes from a variety of sources, such as Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt.

She began quilting more than 30 years ago, beginning with the nation's Bicentennial. "Before that I had tried all of the other crafts, knitting, needlepoint, crewel and decoupage. You name it, I did it. But once I discovered quilting – that was it. If you talk to other quitters, they all have trunks full of other craft projects they'll never finish. They just won't," she said.

Youngman tries to quilt everyday, and has turned to the craft full time.

"What I like about quilting is that there are so many components to a project. There's the designing, the hunting for fabric, the piecing, the quilting, and the finishing. Some days you have the energy to do one but not the others and all you want to do is sit and quilt. Other days you're hunting for bear and you can't wait to do some design work. So, if you have five or six or nine projects going at once, there is always one that is in the state that suits your frame of mind. It works for me and eventually they all get done.

Youngman said she loves "the colors, the history, the sensibility, the stories that the quilts tell. Also, quilting is communal and has always been used as a reason to get together to socialize."

Joy McCracken
Spinning and Weaving

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McCracken is a spinning and weaving expert. McCracken demonstrates the craft of creating fabric from animal hair to students. One of her specialties is drop spindle spinning, an early technique for making yarn without a spinning wheel. When she heard how the women of Bolivia used drop spindles as they were fetching wood and water for their families, McCracken asked for a basket filled with wool and a drop spindle for Christmas in 1989. She took lessons, bought her first spinning wheel shortly thereafter and then moved on to weaving, and followed with her first loom purchase. Owner of a farm, she raises various types of goats, sheep and other animals that provide the raw materials for her work, paying particular attention to animals that produce long, strong wool fibers. She uses her interest in historic textiles and love of children’s literature to demonstrate and instruct at Bradford County’s home textile museum, at Muncy Historical Society’s educational events, at Lycoming County’s Day Camp and at the Warrior Run-Fort Freeland Heritage Days Festival.

Selinda Kennedy
Kennedy Redware

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Kennedy opened her Muncy studio in 1989 and developed a signature line of redware pottery employing 17th, 18th and 19th century motifs, inspired by famous examples of folk art found in museums and private collections. These traditional designs are derived primarily from German folk art imagery, song and book plate vignettes, powder horn engravings, frakturs and more. Kennedy is recognized and judged by Early American Life as one of America's best since 2002.

"Through personal experimentation and research of period designs, I hope to continue to create a unique collection of symbolic images, combined with new color combinations and detail," she said. "I use historic shapes and antique forms to mold my canvas, using a terra cotta clay body. These pieces are decorated with colorful slips, engobes and glazes. Each color is formulated and applied with brushes and sponges, and then detail is applied with a fine brush. These pieces are fired in the bisque and then they are glazed and fired again."

Commissions are very popular, the artist said, and examples are Architectural Portraits, Wedding and Birth announcements, fireplace surrounds and inserts, kitchen and bathroom tiles, and fund raisers for private schools. Historic landmarks are a specialty.

Kennedy said that her desire to work to improve is a motivator. "Constant modification of color and detail go on in the artistic process. My best work is the piece that I am working on today, or the piece that I will make tomorrow," she said. "Each one is a new challenge."