Lee to Receive the Festival’s Inaugural ‘Creative Maker of the Year’ Award Supported by Black at Cannes 

NEW YORK and CANNES, France, June 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Award-winning filmmaker and cultural icon Spike Lee to Sport Beach, its flagship venue at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – the largest gathering of the advertising and creative communications industry – for a special conversation with Jordan Brand Chief Marketing Officer Shannon Watkins. Sport Beach is built for brands, platforms and athletes to tap into the cultural zeitgeist of sport and explore the power of fandom. 

Led by Damaune Journey, global chief growth officer at 72andSunny, a premier global creative agency in Stagwell’s network, “Spike Lee’s Influence: The Intersection of Creativity, Sport, and Culture” will feature a candid talk with the creative genius-turned-advertising darling through the lens of his iconic commercials, and his role as a filmmaker and cultural icon. 

Shannon Watkins and her team oversee brand strategies and campaigns for Jordan Brand, which has a deep and rich history with Lee. A 20+ yr. veteran in the brand world, Shannon is also a leader for diversity and inclusion within the marketing and advertising industry, has been named one of Adweek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports, and is the winner of a Clio and a Cannes Lion award. 

“We could not be more honored to host a talk with award-winning filmmaker, culture creator, and sports icon, Spike Lee.  His creative genius is unquestioned and his impact on the sports marketing landscape is profound.  Paired with Shannon Watkins, a marketing expert and industry juggernaut, attendees are in for a real treat,” said Journey. 

The session will take place at 1:30-2:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 22, on the Sport Beach main stage. A valid pass to Sport Beach is required for admission.  

About Stagwell  
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.   

Media Contact
Sarah Arvizo
[email protected] 

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.

After participating in a three-weekend art workshop, young artists in San Benito County presented their completed pieces at a student art exhibit titled “Circular Stories” on June 9 at the Leslie Garratt Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6359 in San Juan Bautista. 

Local artist Graciela Serna Nutter instructed the workshop series, which was offered to youth ages seven to 15 for three consecutive Saturdays in May at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan. 

“It turned out to be a lot more amazing than I anticipated,” Nutter said of the exhibit. “This is the very first time I put this on.”

Nutter, who has also taught art at Calaveras and Spring Grove schools, said her approach to teaching art shifted post-pandemic. 

“There is a distinct change and difference—it almost breaks my heart—to enter into the classroom,” she said. “What worked prior isn’t working today. They’re coming from a deeper place now. There’s a lot more they’re carrying.” 

She said students did a lot of structured “ice-breaker stuff” on the first day of the workshop. 

“It was structured in a particular way to open that door, like ‘Ahh, this is a safe space,’ and those are exactly the words I used with them,” she said. “I said, ‘I’m going to let you know that as artists, this is your space. I was very fluid to allow them to go, ‘Oh wow, this feels good.’ It truly made a difference.”  

Nutter grew up in San Juan Bautista and has been active with El Teatro Campesino for many years, holding the title of playwright, director and producer with the company. However, she said she has only recently begun putting her own art on canvas, which also led to her opening her own art company, Desert Seed Custom Canvas.  

“I called it ‘Desert Seed’ because like the desert seed, it can stay dormant for 50 years and then bloom,” she said. “And like the desert seed, I began to do canvas art at a later stage of life. So I bloomed after 50 years.”

Nutter used supplies from her business and home studios for the workshop, which was made possible from a grant she received through the San Benito County Arts Council.

“She’s one of our Arts Express grantees,” Arts Council Director of Marketing & Outreach Heidi Jumper said. “It’s a call for artists and community organizations to apply for funding for arts projects that serve San Benito County residents. She had applied for that specific project last cycle and then was awarded the grant.”

Just like the exhibit, the workshop was titled “Circular Stories.” Students were guided in creating multimedia art that was divided into four sections, reflecting their family, selves, friends and community. 

“My family and friends really inspired me,” said student artist Julia Navarro Ruiz, who was explaining the written names of her best friends in one section on her canvas. 

She then pointed to another section with a small building in between a row of big buildings. 

“And that represents my small house full of big love, compared to a big city,” Ruiz said. “The buildings really aren’t that high, it’s just Hollister, but I just love the expression.” 

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There’s plenty of spirit to be found inside Blacklillybee’s miniature coffins. Nestled inside the tiny wooden caskets, centimeter-wide ghosts roam through Victorian-style dollhouses with gravestone gardens, cushy furniture, and gilded frames holding spectral family photos. Each character is made from polymer clay and takes on the classic white bedsheet appearance as they float upstairs or rest by an empty fireplace. The coffins are currently sold out, but keep an eye on the artist’s Instagram for updates.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Families of Tiny Ghosts Haunt Miniature Coffin Houses and Graveyard Gardens appeared first on Colossal.

Third annual Mural and Busker Festival happening this weekend

By Janelle Fisher

City Pages Editor

A colorful crew of artists and performers will fill the streets of Green Bay’s Broadway District this weekend, June 17 and 18, to take part in On Broadway, Inc.’s Mural and Busker Festival.

The festival, which was put on for the first time in 2021, surrounds attendees with art as murals come to life on the walls and buskers — including jugglers, stilt walkers, human statues, aerial dancers and more — captivate audiences with their live performances.

“We are so excited to be hosting the Mural and Busker Festival for its third year. Each year we commission 10 murals in the Broadway District and fill the streets with buskers,” Brooke Hafs, director of marketing for On Broadway, Inc., said. “I believe the community has become more familiar with the term busker and is enjoying the concept. These street performers add an element of performance art to the event and help create an immersive experience that is everything art. Your senses are overloaded with talent when you walk through the district taking in sights, sounds and beauty all around you. This year we have a nice mix of buskers demonstrating a variety of skills and artistic abilities. You will find musicians, belly dancers, circus performers, poets and so much more. We have some returning performers and some new ones!”

In addition to being surrounded by art, Hafs said attendees of this year’s Mural and Busker Festival will also have an opportunity to participate in the art.

“There is a community mural this year. Heather Peterman will be leading this project on the barricades in front of The Fort at the Railyard construction site,” she said. “Heather is a three-time returning artist to this event. People can come out and help paint and learn!”

The community mural is not the only learning experience taking place at the festival, though, Hafs said.

“Also, SAGE is sponsoring a young artist (Aleesha Ocasio) to paint a mural behind Platten Place,” she said. “This is meant to be a mentorship-style project where the young artist will learn how to create a mural from start to finish.”

Ocasio, a Latinx artist and student at John Dewey Academy of Learning, will be the youngest contributor to the Mural and Busker Festival.

Joining Ocasio to add color to the buildings of Broadway will be an array of artists from near and far, including Peter Koury, who already has one mural in the Broadway District; Erin LaBonte and Don Krumpos, the founders of Yonder, a creative space and storefront in Algoma; Andrey Kravtsov (KEY DETAIL), a New York-based artist with murals in Europe, Asia and across the U.S.; Matthew Mederer, a self-taught artist whose art has been utilized by brands such as Vans, and TV shows such as NBC’s Chicago P.D.; Pablo Riesco (Kalaka), a contemporary muralist with pieces in a large number of cities around the world; Sylvia Hecht, a nomadic artists who draws inspiration from her travels; Natasha Platt, a New York-based artist whose work is inspired by the color and rhythm of textile traditions, as well as her personal connection to nature and meditative states; John Kowalczyk, who oversees large-scale community and public art projects throughout the City of Milwaukee from his position as the artist in residence program director for Artists Working in Education; and Heather Peterman, a Midwest artist whose art has been on displayed at several venues around the greater Green Bay area.

“This year several artists are from out of state,” Hafs said. “On Broadway is supporting some local artists and bringing in talent from as far away as New York. We are excited to watch the artists interact and learn from one another. This event is a great networking opportunity for artists and the community to learn about art, different styles and more!”

Hafs said this year’s muralists were carefully selected by community members, taking into account a variety of factors before making a final decision.

“Our organization created a committee of members in the art community to assist with artist selection,” she said. “Each artist needs to apply with samples of their artwork. We aim to bring in artists of different backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, skill-levels and geographical locations.”

It was actually feedback from local artists, Hafs said, that prompted the inclusion of some less local artists in this year’s festival.

“We love supporting our local artists but also have received feedback that there is a lot of value in bringing in artists from outside of our area as well so we can bring a wide variety of art to our community,” she said. “It is fun to watch the artists interact and learn from one another.”

All of the artists participating in the Mural and Busker Festival are helping to work towards On Broadway’s goal to bring beauty, color and welcoming public spaces to Broadway.

“It is a big part of our mission to beautify the Broadway District with public art and to support our local art community,” Hafs said. “We have researched revitalization efforts in cities across the nation and we find that the implementation of public art is a large contributor to the success of a downtown area. Public art makes spaces feel safe, clean, and active.”

Helping to make public art, like the pieces created during the Mural and Busker Festival, are the various businesses which call the Broadway District home.

“We work closely with business and property owners who have an interest in beautifying the Broadway District with us,” Hafs said. “Most are very receptive and supportive of this festival and some even contribute financially to the artwork. It is a very collaborative effort and most people see the value in public art.”

Hafs said that as much as Broadway business and property owners support the cultivation of public art in the district, that public art has the potential to support them, too.

“We can transform spaces into places where people want to spend time and elongate their stay in our district, which will lead to them spending more money in our district. Our businesses will thrive and succeed if we create a dense and walkable downtown that is pleasing to the eye.”

The 10 murals commissioned for this year’s Mural and Busker Festival will add to the nearly 30 murals already on display within the Broadway District. A map of the Broadway District’s existing murals and public art installations and details about each piece can be found at downtowngreenbay.com/visit/publicart.

To learn more about the Mural and Busker Festival, including the locations of this year’s murals and buskers, visit downtowngreenbay.com/explore/broadway-events/mural-and-busker-festival.

Seemingly floating atop vast brick exteriors and inside massive specimen boxes, enormous butterflies stretch their wings, casting a soft shadow on building facades. Now based on both sides of the Atlantic—Switzerland and Mexico City—French artist Mantra (previously) continues to lean into the passion, curiosity, and respect he harbors for nature. Pursuing his childhood dreams of becoming a naturalist, the artist’s signature take on exploring the Lepidoptera through freehand acrylic murals is monumental.

Mantra is inspired by insects’ seemingly effortless movements and motions that are, in actuality, incredibly complex. He explains to Colossal that “it is quite challenging to study a butterfly so closely that your presence will not disturb them. Their flight patterns are unpredictable, and they rarely spend much time resting on a leaf or flower. However, this is precisely what captivates me.” The artist has also had recent opportunities to affirm his artistic practice, such as accompanying a volunteer research program and census by the Cerro Prieto community inside the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico.

As he works toward his first museum show in the United States projected to open next year, you can keep up with his work on his Instagram and website.

Switzerland

Mantra’s summer studio

Italy

Italy

Spain

Mantra’s studio

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Mantra’s Immense Butterfly Murals Flutter Across Buildings and Walls appeared first on Colossal.

That’s where Curtis, a writer and director, comes in. His style is a little more bold and bright. Case in point: the vibrant orange arch in the living room. But what makes the space so interesting is that it is truly a blend of what they both gravitate toward, which has shifted and grown for each as they’ve crafted this space together—theirs is an ever-evolving home. Curtis and Danielle are responsive to the apartment, which they were drawn to thanks to the built-ins and trim of the older building. They pay attention to how their home lives and breathes, and they switch their art and furniture up with the seasons, playing with light. “We would do something, we would give it, like, a week, and then if we didn’t like it, we could veto it and come back,” says Curtis. “We would let it breathe,” adds Danielle. “And then when we fell in love with it, we just kept it.”

Hosting plays a large part in Curtis’s and Danielle’s lives, and they wanted their home to be welcoming from the minute guests walk through the Everglade green front door. “We want it to feel like a family reunion,” says Curtis. Friends and family are greeted by the gallery wall by design, it is meant to be the start of the conversation. The TV is on a swivel so as not to be the focus of the room; instead, the furniture is designed to encourage folks to talk to one another. But the art collection is the real star of the show, and unique pieces are found in every room of the couple’s home.

A new fellowship program that runs in conjunction with the annual Art Week celebration is designed to elevate the work of community artists and activate and embed their work into neighborhoods in the Des Moines area.

The ninth annual Art Week, scheduled for June 16-22, happens ahead of the Des Moines Arts Festival, and showcases work of local artists.

This year, Art Week will also feature the inaugural fellowship program, which is designed to let artists engage neighborhoods in the design and experience of their work and partner with those with shared community interests. 

The artists participating in this year’s fellowship program:

• Jill Wells and Cameron Gray are working on a multimedia project at xBk Live on June 17. According to the project description, the collaboration will celebrate Black joy through double-film screenings, live music and art exhibitions.
• Ramona Muse Lambert will curate an evolving, performance art piece called the Drawing Disco in Valley Junction on June 22 where residents can help illustrate the squares that will make up a dance floor for performances. Lambert is also organizing an emerging artists pop-up as part of her exhibit.
• Siriaco Garcia plans a party in Columbus Park on June 16 with a DJ, food and local art vendors, jumping castle and interactive activities.
• Jordan Brooks will present an event titled The Art of Movement at Perkins Elementary School in Des Moines on June 20. The event will feature several movement-based activities, including a splatter mural, an augmented reality path for walking and running, a sketch walk, yoga, and hip-hop cardio.
• Billy Weathers will present a group interactive project in the Highland Park/Oak Park neighborhood on June 18. It will showcase different mediums that make up Des Moines and will include food, art and music for what organizers say will be a laid-back environment where residents can enjoy themselves. Interactive art will happen throughout the event, with opportunities for community participation.

Teva Dawson, director of art consulting firm Group Creatives, said the fellowship is focused on artists who are community-oriented.

“They’re not folks who just want to have a gallery and display artwork,” she said. “They really are about activating people through the arts. We partnered through Invest DSM to support this so that they are really activating within neighborhoods. To make art accessible to neighbors. To broaden participation and engagement with the arts and for the artists to start to swirl a hub of activity around their work as well.”

Dawson said the artists who were selected for the fellowship “have a sense of being a magnet for engagement and really then highlighting what those neighborhoods have to offer.”

“So the arts isn’t just something that happens in downtown Des Moines or the sculpture park or at a theater; it is really something that can happen anywhere and really in unique expressions of it,” she said.

Each artist received $5,000 for their project with additional funding for marketing, public relations, and other activities, Dawson said.

Funding partners include Invest DSM, the Greater Des Moines Public Arts Foundation and the West Des Moines Public Arts Advisory Commission.

There were no specific guidelines or instructions for artists to follow, other than their being encouraged to try something new and expand their creativity.

“There is really nothing like this in our area that offers funding for artists to stretch into something new,” Dawson said. “There’s a few state grants they can access, [but] there’s nothing for local artists to access that is just experimental. We need more not only for art to feel experimental, we need more of a sense of people trying new things not knowing if they’re going to be successful or not. That’s the whole pattern of innovation.”

“We just entrusted experienced artists with the funding, not needing them to prove any sort of model,” she said. “I think that’s also unique for Des Moines in that sense of trust and in terms of funding. A lot of that is to the credit of Invest DSM because they also believe in the creative juices of artists and trust in whatever magic might happen.”

The Business Record spoke with some of the artists participating in the fellowship to learn more about their projects. Some of their responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Jill Wells: I’ve never done cinema before, and Cameron, he’s like a film head. So when we talked about how to marry our practices into this experience for the community, I have been dabbling into sound and video as far as accessibility factors with my work. So I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to do image, video, sound and all that. We reached out to xBk, and it’s Black cinema and art. Each of us selected a film that resonates with us. I also reached out to a friend of mine, Melvin Coleman, an African American man who has been playing piano for probably his whole life. I started looking at old-school film before sound and wanted to integrate and have an opportunity to pay homage to when artists would play piano as the sound portion of the film. He’ll do the intro and outro to each film. Erica Faye, she’s from Waterloo. She writes, directs and acts in her own [short films]. She just won the 2023 Iowa Motion Picture Excellence Award for her film she will be showing here, which is called “Mercy.” She will do an artist’s talk after. And “Mercy” is all about forgiveness and the main character’s journey through loss and their faith and life. Cameron’s film is “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and there’s a lot of loss in that piece as well. So there’s a really nice narrative that ties in and with Erica going first, that piece is a little heavy. It’s a little more grassroots. It’s not a blockbuster production. So I think having “Black Panther” come in on the tail end to bring the action or level up a little, I think it will be a nice kind of wave for people to experience that. For me, it’s a first-time experience with exhibiting film as a side of my work. My role [as a fellow] is to present something to the community that would be unique and different. I like to have curated moments like this for the community where it’s multiple mediums so people start to think about art in a broader context, other than it’s just a painting on a wall, or it’s segregated and we leave the gallery and then we go to the cinema. So this is kind of a whole curated all-in-one package. I feel like that’s a big part of my role, but it’s also me stretching myself to do something new.

Cameron Gray: I’m a huge movie buff. I watch a lot of Black film and film in general, and the way I see it, Black film has always been on the exterior of film history, which is unfortunate. There’s so much joy in bringing Black film to people that have no idea who these filmmakers are, and one of the films is done by a Black filmmaker from Iowa, which is incredible. There’s that balance of an indie film that then you have a film on another scale. I love the duality of both of these two things that can exist and be very beautiful. So I love the interplay between the two of those and how they all function together in a beautiful way. People are going to see and experience different aspects of the Black experience as shown on camera. One reason I chose “Wakanda Forever” is I had a lot of grief this past year. A lot of people who were close to me have passed away. When I was thinking about what film I should choose, it only made sense for me because of where I was as an individual and where I still am to some degree. Taking that reflection of what I’m feeling, what movie represents that so beautifully and eloquently, and that’s also the reason I chose what piece I’m bringing to this particular show, too. It’s a direct representation of my aunt who passed away a couple of years ago. I think people are going to get a sense of the Black experience as authentically as can be shown. I’m sure Jill’s connection with her pieces is going to be cohesive to [Mercy] itself. When you walk in, there will be a place for people to sit. On one side she’ll have some of her work up. I’ll have some work on the other side. There will be the stage and screen. There will be an introduction to the film, a Q&A with the director. Then I will introduce my film, and then after, there will be a place for questions.

Ramona Muse Lambert: I’m illustrating 200 square feet of dance floor. What we’re going to do is everybody is going to draw and it’s going to be a good time. They will all fit together like a quilt. We’re going to have a DJ with music. And there’s going to be some performance art that goes with it. The piece to me is about process. Teaching people that don’t know about art about collaboration, the give-and-take of art because a little bit of it will be destroyed and then we’re going to rebuild it. We’ll have a couple of performers coming and the dance music and then we’re just going to dance on it like a celebration. We’re also going to have an emerging artists pop-up. So we have 11 artists who are up and coming, 16- to 25-year-olds. The idea is it will be a steppingstone for them. We want to create an opportunity for these people. We’ll all be together so it will be like this big art experience. This project I would say is a culmination of all the legs of a table that is my work. I guess my goal is we have the artists, how do we get everybody else? One of the things is to help people realize they are creative or they can make art. A lot of people assume they are not creative, but I think art is incredibly important for mental health. My goal is to try to engage even more people, different kinds of people than have been participating before. Those who don’t think of themselves as creative, and kids. I work with kids a lot.

Art Week as it relates to placemaking and workforce development

Dawson said art and amenities of all scopes and sizes are important to attract and retain businesses and talent to the community.

“A lot of times, yes, the big amenities are important, but a lot of people feel a sense of connection by smaller things that happen on a smaller level,” she said. “There is this layer of texture on a smaller scale that needs attention as well as investment so there can be these smaller hubs of vibrancy. To make sure we’re paying attention to that level. It still takes money, it still takes big money if you think about it across the region, but we are growing so rapidly. So many folks continue to come into our community that haven’t been here before. We’re continuing to make and reinvent these spaces, and they need to feel like home to folks, and that’s where I think it’s important to happen.”

She said people are looking for interesting places to live.

“It’s not just being affordable, but there are fun things happening,” Dawson said. “The only way to get to that is to start to engage people who have creative expressions and to start to have spaces to be able to make room for that. So I think it’s absolutely critical to workforce development that we do that.”

THOMASVILLE — John Herron has been the maestro of floral art for 29 years at his Herron House Flowers in downtown Thomasville.

While his shop is business, it’s also a canvas for Herron, who creates elaborate floral arrangements. It’s no surprise, then, that he reached out to another Chair City artist to offer her a chance to show her work in his Main street flower shop. Now when customers enter Herron’s store they will be greeted not only with his handmade arrangements, wreathes and potted plants, they can view Nathalie Tremblay’s photography.

“We met at church at Heidelberg United Church of Christ,” he said. “I just fell in love with her and her husband and Nathalie’s art. I told her I wanted my shop painted and she did it. … When I had dinner at her house, I saw her artwork. It’s beautiful. I told her I wanted her artwork in my shop.”

Tremblay, a transplant from Chicoutimi, Canada, to the Thomasville area, captures landscape photographs of her new and former home place, as well as during her travels, with her iPhone 13.

She said that her passion for art photography began in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when she offered to help her husband, Sean O’Heron, market the yachts for which he was a broker. She began staging them and taking photographs for the company’s website and social media. The company soon hired her to do all its marketing photography.

Soon, she began seeing the beaches, piers and buildings with a different eye. On their vacations, she was compelled to wait for hours for the perfect light to take pictures of rivers and mountains.

What started as Herron’s desire to change his floral shop’s surroundings and give it a fresh look resulted in a partnership between artists. Tremblay has 12 photographs on canvas displayed on the walls at Herron’s House Flowers.

“It’s a great opportunity you are giving me,” she said to Herron as they discussed the new gallery area.

The photographs will change as they sell or when Tremblay wants to show new artwork. The sizes range from 16-inches-by-20-inches for $90 to a 24-inch-by-36-inch canvas for $300.

The photographs rangefrom a street view in her hometown to a temple in Cambodia. She recently showed her art at an all-female show at historic The Finch House in Thomasville.

“I thought this was a great idea,” she said of being the main attraction at the new art gallery. “As an artist, you want people to see your work. I feel very fortunate for this opportunity.”

Herron said he wants his friend’s work to have the same longevity he has found with his floral shop.

“I thought her artwork compliments what I do here,” he said. “I hope she will do well.”

When Kathleen and Chuck Eaton were childhood sweethearts, neither could imagine they would be painting together.

Kathleen had always been artistic, and later made a career publishing quilting books, selling needlecraft designs to manufacturers, and managing a graphic design firm. Now married 48 years, the Peoria couple share a passion for oil painting, and they are featured artists at The Finer Arts Gallery in Cave Creek.

Guests can meet them during a special “Art Affaire” on Friday, June 16, and the gallery is located inside the historic Treehouse building in Cave Creek. 

Kathleen began painting professionally 15 years ago after selling her graphic design and marketing firm.

“After about 10 years of intense computer graphics, I realized my eyes were not what they used to be,” Kathleen said. “I had always wanted to go back to fine art oil painting, and I sold my business so I could dedicate myself to painting. I attended workshops with some of today’s finest artists, and never want to stop learning new techniques.”

Chuck began painting later in life. After almost 35 years in business and sales, he began sketching and eventually began painting. His fine art journey began with watercolor lessons, but after a short time he switched to oils and discovered en plein air.

They couple finds plein-air painting, or painting outdoors, to be exhilarating.

“The best part about painting from life is that you see what’s actually in front of you as opposed to trying to guess at the colors in a digital photo,” Kathleen said. “Lights and shadows can be greatly exaggerated in photos, and the subtle colors that a camera often doesn’t pick up are what makes a plein-air painting much more exciting.”

Chuck prefers to paint landscapes and seascapes, while Kathleen enjoys painting people and pets, and fields of flowers or forests. They both prefer to paint with oil, but for different reasons. 

 “I prefer oils to other mediums because I find them to be so forgiving. It takes a while for the paint to dry, and layering it creates beautiful effects. Plus, oils will last for generations,” Kathleen said. “Chuck prefers oils because of their rich texture and more forgiving nature. He tends to play with his paints and compose as he goes. Oils are just better suited to that approach.”

Originally from Chicago, the Eatons moved to Arizona in 2021 and were fortunate to find a home in Peoria that had an art studio.

“Two of the original owners of our home were husband and wife artists, and they built a studio for their needs,” Kathleen said. “We often share time together in the studio, but also enjoy ‘alone time’ to focus on important projects. It’s nice to have someone to ask an opinion on something, or to offer a critique. We’ll listen to music or a podcast we both enjoy. Or we’ll plug in headphones and listen to an audio book.”

In addition to the Eatons’ work, Visitors to the Finer Arts Gallery will find diverse paintings, drawings, sculpture, mixed media, photography, glass, wood, fiber, ceramics, jewelry, and other original work.

If You Go…

Art Affair

WHEN: 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, June 16

WHERE: The Finer Arts Gallery

6137 E. Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek

INFO: thefinerartsgallery.com, 480-488-2923