Featured Visual Artists

Current Art Exhibit

October-November 2011
Wilmington Branch

Kenneth Griffiths — Painting. Mr. Griffiths was born in Lima, Peru. His interest in art emerged at a very early age allowed him to express himself, to free himself and to confess his inner feelings. After countless efforts at self-teaching, Mr. Griffiths joined Cristina Gálvez’s workshop in the late 1970s. Following a short stay in Europe, he returned to Lima, convinced that he should undertake more formal academic studies. He entered the National School of Fine Arts, where he remained from 1980 to 1983, at the same time continuing his studies in Gálvez’s workshop. Parallel to this, he took his first steps in the area of artistic photography with Mariela Agoiz of the Secuencia Alterna Gallery and with Oscar Pacheco and Adi Barandiaran in the National School of Fine Arts. Mr. Griffiths has lived in the Washington, D.C., area since 2001 with his wife and two children. On display October-November 2011 with additional Peruvian handicrafts, in conjunction with the October 16 Cultural Crossroads Program: "Music & Culture of the Andes."

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Previous Art Exhibits

Edie Krauss — Painting. Ms. Krauss was tutored by her father, Sam J. Jones, a muralist and commercial artist, and her love of art developed at a young age. Her father started her with a bunch of tubes of oil paint and a handful of brushes and with his gentle guidance she began to learn technique and composition. Ms. Krauss began painting in earnest after having her first child and she has been painting ever since. Her style and work varies depending on the subject, but she particularly likes to use bright colors and rich textures to express elements of the paintings. Her work has been influenced by two incredibly strong women, Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo, whose lives and works Ms. Krauss finds to be simply amazing. On display August-September 2011.

Alyssa Colston — Photography. “Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” (Voltaire) Ms. Colston is a freshman at Temple University with a passion for photography. In her artwork, Ms. Colston examines her internal state of mind and outwardly reaches out to people who also find themselves unsure of who they are or what their purpose is. She reflects on her personal experiences to help others who feel as though they are alone and to tell them "it will be alright." This collection of photographs is meant to be a comfortable place to let go and know that whatever people may be struggling with, they’re not the only one. It’s a loving hug, a reality check for the naïve and a release for the emotionally wounded. On display June-July 2011.

Betsy Molina Mortenson & Jennifer Davies-Reazor — “Imagodae — Envisioning the Feminine Divine.” Ms. Mortenson is both an artist and graphic designer, and she has produced and directed graphic design for over 25 years for clients such as Disney, Warner Bros., Lego, DreamWorks and Cartoon Network. She loves combining digital imagery with hand-drawn images, textures and photography to make visual statements that play upon all of these media. This show includes a series of smaller pieces that look at themes of personal struggle and growth, as well as the sacredness of everyday life. Jennifer Davies-Reazor is a mixed media artist residing in Newark, Delaware. She teaches ceramics and mixed media classes for children and teens through the Art Studio of New Castle County and for the past four years has been an artist in residence for Pegasus Artworks, an after school arts/enrichment program sponsored by Boys and Girls Club. In her mixed media goddess and mythological collages, she delves into the spiritual, looking at feminine manifestations of the divine across diverse cultures. She is particularly fascinated with mythical creatures and the powers of transformation that they embody. On display March-May 2011, in conjunction with the April 4 Cultural Crossroads Program: "Music, Ritual & Healing."

Students from the EastSide Charter School — Mixed media. The EastSide Charter School art curriculum aims to give students an interdisciplinary, culturally-rich and hands-on education, empowering students with an awareness of their own innate abilities as well as giving them a perspective on their own potential in the constantly changing world. The artwork in this exhibition was created by students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and is based on many of the major art movements through history and geography. The 20 works hop and skip through time from cave painting to Cubist portraiture, the Italian Renaissance to the Harlem Renaissance—with themes from all of these movements mixed with the inspiration and creativity of each individual artist. On display January-March 2011, in conjunction with the January 14 Cultural Crossroads Program: "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & Black History Tribute."

Olga van Dijk — Paintings. Ms. van Dijk grew up in the Netherlands, near Amsterdam, and lived there for over 30 years. She has taught art and music in a variety of settings, including OLGarts Studio and the Academy of Lifelong Learning. In 2004 Ms. van Dijk founded the art shows in the Smith Northview Hospital (Valdosta, GA) featuring local and regional artists in the hospital's lobby and hallways. Ms. van Dijk is a member of the Delaware Foundation for the Visual Art and serves as chair of the art committee for the Academy of Lifelong Learning. She enjoys abstraction and figurative art, with a strong emphasis on colors, graphic elements and bold shapes. On display through December 2010.

Donald E. Storjohann — Photography. Mr. Storjohann started taking pictures on a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera at the age of 12. After high school he attended Omaha University majoring in physics and later studied at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. His early work in high contrast graphic arts photography led to a career in microelectronics and photolithography, which is a type of photography that can only be viewed through a microscope. Since retiring in 2002, he has gone back to pursuing more conventional photography where the results can be greatly enlarged. Mr. Storjohann is also an avid woodworker and makes all of his own frames. Exhibit presented in conjunction with the October 21 Cultural Crossroads program "Folk Traditions of the U.S." On display through October 2010.

Mark Ruiz — Oil paintings. Mr. Ruiz is an artist of many mediums and subject matters. In this exhibit, he includes a recent series of small oil paintings that follow the contemporary art movement of “A Painting a Day.” A handful of music-themed works were designed specifically for this exhibit at The Music School of Delaware, most notably the large-scale mural design that represents music education at various stages of life. Though his choice medium is oil painting, he is best known for his large community mural projects throughout Delaware, including murals at Lake Forest Elementary, Townsend Elementary, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wilmington and Oak Orchard. Currently in progress is a mural at the Boys and Girls Club of Georgetown (Delaware). Mr. Ruiz is an elementary art teacher and recently introduced the ways of Japanese culture and art to his students after traveling to Japan in 2008 on a Fulbright Scholarship. On display June-August 2010.

Olga Nielsen — Works in pastel. Ms. Nielsen’s artwork is inspired by the power and poetry of the human body and face. She works in the traditional, realistic style of figurative art because it best allows her to express her awe and fascination with the beauty of the human form. Most of her sculptures, paintings and drawings focus on the female figure, connecting to her own experiences as a woman. Depicting women—resting, rocking their babies, practicing yoga, bathing, meditating—allows Ms. Nielsen to reflect on everyday moments of our lives, sharing their beauty and their timeless universal meaning and creating a vital connection between the artist and viewer. On display April-June 2010.

Thamer Dawood — Paintings. Thamer Dawood was born in Iraq, the country which invented writing, where signs were converted from voice to a picture and became later the foundation of human thinking. His works contain themes of history, nationality and exile, with reinterpretations of 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian “circular stamps,” prints carved in mud that are loaded with cuneiform writings and secret magical signs. Mr. Dawood converts his inner voices into pictures that integrate and connect different beliefs through a crowded revolution of colors and signs of everyday life. His paintings contain writings in different languages, numbers and color spots that gather at the bottom of the painting and shatter upward into a strange structure of layers like those of history itself. Exhibit presented in conjunction with the February 21 Cultural Crossroads program "Arts of the Middle East and Central Asia." Additional artwork by Betsy Molina Mortenson. On display February-March 2010.

Tanya Bracey — Paintings. Although her works are described as quiet and contemplative, Tanya Bracey's interest in animation is present in many of her works, as her portraits represent engaging characteristics of her subjects. Influenced by 19th-century masters, Ms. Bracey's work reflects a level of realism, representational art and some abstraction, with influences including Michelangelo, Ingres, Gerome, Al Tadema and Gentileschi. She trained at the Delaware College of Art and Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, concentrating on portraits and figures. Exhibit presented in conjunction with the January 15 Cultural Crossroads program "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & Black History Month Tribute." On display November 18, 2009, through January 31, 2010.

Pat Crowe — Photography. Mr. Crowe's father biked around Ireland in 1936, and it was those stories as well as his third-generation Irish (County Clare) ancestry that took Mr. Crowe to Ireland 12 times since 1981 to work on his photography project "The People of Ireland." This exhibit is presented in conjunction with the Cultural Crossroads program "An Afternoon of Celtic Music & Art," with paintings by Sara Russell. On display September 16 through November 16, 2009.

Melinda Steffy — Mixed media paintings and metal works. Ms. Steffy’s work pulls in themes of geology, alchemy, entropy, molecular structure and improvisation, addressing broad questions of structure and formlessness, purpose and accident. Her experimental uses of materials create fluid, abstract forms with subtle patterns and unusual textures. Visit www.melindasteffy.com for more information. On display July 13 through September 14, 2009.

Tamara Cimalore — Jewelry and precious metal creations. Ms. Cimalore’s jewelry is prolific, creative and fresh, ranging from the eco-friendly to subtle sophistication. She masters her materials with unparalleled artfulness, combining the eye of an artist, the precision of a skilled jeweler and the imagination of a true creator. On display May 11 through July 11, 2009.

ADDITIONAL ARTISTS EXHIBITED

Matiko Mamiladze and Parna Surabischwili
Milton Downing and students from the Christina Cultural Arts Center
Andrea J. Turner
Alicia Dominguez, Esteban Pilonieta, José Ruiz Ahorrio and Rubén Sánchez
Dolores Bartholomew
Tzu-Wen Kwok
Carol Tippit Woolworth
Peggy J. O. Schultz

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The Music School of Delaware is proud to be an active partner in the IN Wilmington Arts Campaign.

Programs are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.