"Ever since I can remember, I have always loved to draw. In one of my earliest memories as a child, I drew a 'friend' on the garage wall with green chalk. At a very early age, my mother encouraged me to create. In the summers of my youth, she would provide me with reams of notebook paper to draw on. My life has been devoted to art."

Kevin Rucker’s remarkable, imaginative illustrations have gained this award-winning Atlanta artist an enthusiastic following. By combining detailed 2-D and 3-D images with abstract concepts, Kevin creates illustrations that appeal to traditionalists and modernists alike. As Kevin says, "Art evokes emotion. When I am creating, I am at my best."

Originally from New York, Kevin began his formal art education with a degree in Commercial Design and then went on to earn his Bachelor of Science degree (with a minor in Visual Arts) from the State University of New York at New Paltz. After moving to Atlanta in 1997, Kevin earned a degree in Computer Animation from the Art Institute of Atlanta, achieving many honors as a student. He was then invited to join the faculty as a 2-D and 3-D animation instructor.

Kevin went on to a distinguished career as a Graphic Artist, Illustrator, and Creative Director. The quality and creativity of his work has attracted numerous public and private commissions, with past clients including Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, and Visa.

As an artist, Kevin has won numerous excellence awards and produced illustrations that have had global influence. Working as a commercial designer for over 20 years has now afforded him the opportunity to pursue his creative passions full-time. Kevin reflects:

"...I have considered myself extremely lucky to have had such talented and patient art teachers and invaluable opportunities to make a living doing what I love. I feel very privileged that God has given me such a gift. Of course, I give Him all the credit."

In addition to his expertise in illustration and graphic arts, Kevin Rucker is an avid woodworker and accomplished 3-D mural artist.

I received my specialist degree from West Ga. College in special education in 1989 and retired in May 2005 after 29 years where I worked as a teacher, educational evaluator and program coordinator for Douglas County Schools. I have been married to Robert Chapman for 39 years and we have one daughter, Rebecca, who is married to our favorite son-in-law, Mitch.

I began exhibiting my crafts at shows in 1980. I’ve worked with many different types of crafts and media including tole painting, soft sculpture, sewing, and woodworking. I have always had a love of pottery. After taking classes from a dear friend, I purchased a kiln and some clay in 2000 and started on a journey that would be more fulfilling than any other media with which I have worked.

Each piece has its beginnings in a 25 lb. bag of stoneware clay and is hand built or hand thrown and then decorated with flowers, leaves, birds, frogs, turtles and glazes. My inspiration comes from nature, whimsy and just about anything that I come into contact with. My subconscious is always looking for a way to translate the things I see into pottery.

My pottery is a little different in that I bring a crafter’s background to the pieces that I make. I find it difficult to make a plain piece of pottery. It has to have something attached to it! I enjoy making pieces that are unusual in some way or bring a smile to your face.

Whether you’re browsing or would like to purchase a little something for yourself or a friend, I hope you receive as much pleasure from my work as I had in its making.

Paintings & Paper Arts
by Janet Warren
May 1, 2013 - June 30, 2013

Coming from a family of creative thinkers, she enjoys assisting others in interior design and in the arts. Living in metro-Atlanta has given her the opportunity to study under several local artists and she continues to search for new avenues of learning. She has painted with oils in the past, but recently she has been working with acrylics and watercolor pencils.

Jan’s first challenge in acrylics was to paint a “rooster,” suggested by her teacher. She found roosters make an exciting subject and she continues this pursuit. Being a true Aquarian, she loves versatility in her art and continues to seek out new subjects to paint. She is excited to share her newest creations with you during May and June, 2013. Jan’s love of art can be found in her contemporary and traditional art, greeting cards, and gift items.

Her client base extends from Alaska to Florida. Jan’s art is also available at Donna Van Gogh’s in Decatur, Marietta’s First Friday ArtWalk during the months of April through October 2013. Her work is listed as Janzart Originals and is located at the Arts of Cobb, 19 Powder Springs St, Marietta.

She shares her art on Facebook under Creative Tapestry. Janzart Originals and gift items are at (1) Creativetapestry.com, (2) Fine Art of America and, (3) soon she will be on Etsy. For more information about her work, you are welcome to email her at janzartoriginals@yahoo.com

Sculptures
by Helen Helwig
July 1, 2013 - August 31, 2013

Active in art pottery since 1975, Helen Helwig studied at Ohio State University and was an assistant at the Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts. She has been an artist-in-residence numerous times, an art teacher and conducts workshops in clay techniques, handmade tile, and mosaics. Helwig has participated in juried art fairs for more than 20 years and enjoys the opportunity to share her art work with the public.

More recently, Helen Helwig has created mixed media mosaics and sculptures that combine metal and sculpted clay. She is currently working on several large-scale commissions and has completed public art installations for hospitals, libraries, schools, highway underpasses, bus shelters and corporate offices.

Helen Helwig¹s functional art is created using wheel thrown, hand built and extrusion techniques. These pieces often include incised and relief sculptures of birds, animals, and plants. The sculpted, textured and incised areas are stained and then glazed in a manner that enhances the details and surface of the images. Helwig formulates many of her own glazes to achieve unusual effects and colors.

The artist¹s decorative clay sculptures and mixed media mosaics typically depict flora and fauna themes. The mosaics include handmade clay pieces, broken tiles, rocks and glass beads. The sculptures and mosaics are adhered to backer board, walls, table tops, concrete bird baths and steel armatures.

Helen Helwig is inspired by flora and fauna, the geology and the geographic features of the region and the seasons. The stylized and symbolic images she uses as well as the themes are often derived from cultural, historical and environmental references

Pottery
by Ann Wallin
September 1, 2013 - September 30, 2013

My first experience with clay occurred while attending Radford University in Radford, Virginia from 1960 to 1962. During a class in sculpture, I found that I really enjoyed working with my hands to form the class project -- a bust. Twenty years passed during which I was a wife, mother, homemaker, secretary, bookkeeper and real estate agent. I was living in Charleston, South Carolina, when memories of that long-ago experience prompted me to take a pottery class at the Gibbs School of Art. Once again, I found a real joy in working with clay -- this time on the potters’ wheel.

Shortly afterward, a career change for my husband brought the family to Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta. I knew even before leaving South Carolina that I wanted to pursue a career in pottery. I continued taking lessons in the Marietta area. I also worked as a pottery studio assistant and that experience gave me valuable insights into the requirements for setting up my own studio.

In 1986, I entered the market as a functional potter, working in high-fired stoneware. A short while later, I was offered the opportunity to teach at a newly established art center, sponsored by Cobb County, called “The Steeple House.” I began my educational career by teaching creative clay projects to kids, ages 6 through 12. I also taught wheel and hand building techniques to teens and adults. In 1990, Cobb County recognized the need for a larger art center and opened “The Art Place,” where I continued to teach. At the same time, I also taught similar classes at the Marietta – Cobb Museum of Art. Throughout this period, I marketed my personal work through galleries and art festivals. Recently, I have reduced my teaching activity to concentrate on workshops. I have also recently focused my production activity to concentrate on art festivals.

Early, the products and techniques of the Japanese Raku firing process fascinated me. I took a three-week course with Rick Berman at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts in 1987. By 1990-91, I was confident of my ability with the new process. I used this confidence to shift the central emphasis of my work to the visual and decorative items that result from the Raku process.

One of the highlights of my career occurred in 1998 when the crew of the “Lynette Jennings Design” television shows visited my studio to film my Raku creation process. This series of television shows showcased artists and craftsmen from around the country and was broadcast nationwide on the Discovery Channel. The show segment that featured my work has been rerun repeatedly after its initial presentation.

I have won many awards, I have participated in juried exhibits, and I have been accepted in major regional and national shows. I always have enjoyed contact with the public and I enjoy the comments that are prompted by my work. I especially like the idea that strangers may enjoy my art enough to decorate their homes or to present my pieces as gifts. I look forward to many more years of forming shapeless lumps of clay into fresh expressions of my imagination.

Fused Glass Art
by Marselle Harrison-Miles
October 1, 2013 to October 31, 2013

Growing up Marselle had always been surrounded by creative people. Her Grandfather and mother both had flourishing singing careers with a "9-5" by day and nights filled with rehearsals and performances at church or at local events. Aside from a passion for musicshe was enamored with dance, drawing and the family glass menagerie. She continuedher love of visual arts through high school by claiming to want to be artist and taking as many art classes as she possibly could. Marselle began Piedmont College with a major in the Arts supported by a basketball scholarship. She completed her studies at Georgia State University with her degree in Drawing and Painting and minoring in African/African Diaspora Arts. Right out of school, Marselle started working at the Atlanta International Museum of Art Design and Culture, now known as MODA, in Atlanta as an intern Docent/Education Coordinator. This is where Marselle's love of glass and beads was reawakened by the Ndebele of South Africa exhibit on display in the museum and the colorful Dale Chihuly vessels on display in the gift shop. It was then she started collecting beads, studying various bead weaving patterns and making beaded jewelry.

Before long Marselle started working for The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta as an Art Director who often gleaned artistic inspiration from her student programs and other Artists. Later she became the Program Director for Youth Art Connection. Marselle loved the freedom of creation, art lesson development and art instruction that exposed her to local and visiting artists monthly. She then started working as an Arts Specialist for Cobb County and slowly
but surely started to learn glass fusing and slumping techniques from Teresa Barnes, a teacher at all three county centers. Though glass instruction focused on small to large platters, dishes and vessels, Marselle concentrated on developing jewelry designs. Her fused glass jewelry consists of opal and transparent glasses with irid and dischroic glass on the surface. Most jewelry designs have fine silver fused into the glass so that after firing, jump rings and other attachment mechanisms can be incorporated into the
final creation as either a, ring, bracelet, necklace or pair of earrings. Glass Artists Evette Everette, Kate Rothra Flemming and Patti Cahill are all amazing jewelry artisans Marselle considers mentors.

Marselle is not limited to jewelry design but has also studied alternative photography processes such as polaroid and emulsion transfer techniques. A good friend and talented photographer Michael Reese taught her the basics and inspired her to experiment and find the story. While polaroid is no longer an active company, she is always looking to push the limits of film developing and transfer techniques to
unusual surfaces. For the current show "Remembering", she uses special fusible paper
for fusible glass that allows her to combine her love of glass fusing and special moments captured on film for moments forever captured in glass.

Marselle resides in Metro Atlanta and works out of her home studio to create both custom and inspired fused glass art to wear and display.

Origami, Armor & Jewelry
by Helen Rule
November 1, 2013 to January 2, 2014

Chainmaille refers to the material produced by linking small metal rings together to form a mesh. Helen has been studying and making chainmaille for over ten years. Her chainmaille jewelry pieces have hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hand-made links that are woven into unique works of art. Because of the many types of chain patterns that can be produced and her ability to incorporate other elements (such as semiprecious stones, beads, found objects, etc.), Helen's chainmaille jewelry pieces are complex, beautiful, and unique. Her designs range from the casual to the exquisite.

Helen also designs wearable pieces of clothing and armor that incorporate chainmaille, leather, metals and cloth. She draws much of her inspiration from the techniques used in ancient military garb. Helen's armor pieces are influenced by the traditional shapes and techniques of ancient armor used around the world, but incorporate her own unique designs and materials.

Also drawing upon her interest in Asian culture, Helen creates unique origami ornaments, sculptures, and jewelry, primarily revolving around the iconic crane so prevalent in Japanese society. Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. It is believed to have started in the 17th century AD and was popularized outside of Japan in the mid-1900s. It has evolved into a modern art form. Helen's origami pieces range from simple ornaments to elaborate sculptures incorporating found objects and other elements, even including chainmaille in some pieces.