Our Artists' Creative Sparks
Everyone has an interesting story to tell.
A few of our artists share memories of how they became the creatives they are today.
Please contact any of our talented artists that spark your interest.
My journey as an artist began in the spotlight—touring, teaching, and performing for audiences on stages, streets, and even beneath the tent of a German traveling circus. What drew me in was the current—that electric moment of connection between artist and audience.
Though I’ve transitioned from performer to visual artist, I find the creative process remarkably similar. Working with encaustic paint and monotype printmaking often feels like improvisational theater—intuitive, unpredictable, and alive with possibility. The energy, risk, and discovery that once fueled my performances now informs my visual work.
As I finish each work, I have an opportunity to pause, breathe, and reflect. I hope the calm within these pieces offers a space for connection, where the viewer’s own presence meets mine.
While my audience has changed, the connection remains. Each painting is an offering—an invitation for that current to flow between maker and viewer. No applause echoes through my gallery, but I feel the resonance when a piece connects. That silent moment of recognition keeps me creating.
Susana Abell
susanaabell@gmail.com
susanaabellart.com
I am enough of a modernist to believe in principles, enough of a minimalist to believe in materials and process, and enough of a post-modernist to understand these are stories.
My studies in philosophy, and travel in China, Japan, Mexico, South America, and Europe have informed my work. The last few years have been very challenging here and this spring I loaned my studio to an artist who lost theirs in the flood. I am excited to be showing recent work finished this summer and fall, as well as sculptural pieces from the last several years. Here’s to the future!
Robert Milnes
milnesstudio@gmail.com
robertmilnes.com
When I was a young girl, I enjoyed making crafts with both of my grandmothers. One of my grandmothers taught me to knit, but not how to cast on or cast off. She would load up my knitting needles with stitches and I would knit until I saw her again to help me finish my piece. I ended up with some very long scarves! Since then, I’ve enjoyed many forms of art, including weaving, felting, enameling, and jewelry making. My favorite medium is basketry. I’ve particularly enjoyed working with sweetgrass in making traditional Gullah baskets, and weaving baskets with black ash. I recently started weaving reed and fiber on river rocks which adds another texture and dimension to my work.
Deborah Druhot
dkdruhot@gmail.com
216-224-9094
I have loved jewelry and making things since I was a child. In the 60’s and 70’s my family regularly attended craft fairs, so I was exposed to artists making things for a living at a young age. After getting a BFA, I started making fabricated sterling silver jewelry. The style of my work changed and evolved, and in the 80’s I discovered the malleability and colorful possibilities of polymer clay. Mimicking rock forms with polymer has held my creative attention for several years. I am constantly searching for the adventurous creative path, improvising with techniques and materials. Fresh work is often born from these experiments. Wearability and durability is important and part of my process. Much of my inspiration now stems from dynamic form and patterns in nature, and I love playing with color. I see myself as a channel for my work, releasing the creative energy that flows through me. I hope that my work sparks joy!
Tamela Wells**
Tamela.wells@gmail.com
tamelawells.com
828-777-4429
My journey with ceramics began in my late twenties while camping in West Virginia. I met an elderly potter nicknamed “Muddy Boots,” who crafted pieces from clay she dug herself. That encounter inspired me to take my first pottery class in Dayton, Ohio—and I instantly knew I’d found my medium.
Life took me in other directions, but nearly 30 years later, on the cusp of retirement, I returned to pottery with renewed passion. Though I never considered myself an artist—I don’t paint, sing, or write poetry—I’ve discovered creative expression through clay, drawing inspiration from the natural world I love to explore through gardening, hiking, and kayaking.
Today, I create functional and decorative ceramics—wheel-thrown, slab-built, and altered forms for home and garden. My work includes bowls, vases, mugs, and lidded jars. I blend traditional pottery with hand-coiled pine needles in what I call Carolina Fusion Pottery, and also craft distinctive horsehair and feather raku pieces.
Kathy Mack
kmack5388@gmail.com
KathyMackPottery.com
What attracts me to nature photography is the quality of attention required to see and feel, to truly be present to the environment I am in. I find this quality of connection intense! It allows me to identify what is deeply speaking to me. My challenge is finding ways to best express a multi-dimensional experience in a two-dimensional art form. Of late, I find myself attracted to creating multiple exposures in camera and playing with intentional camera movement. Both techniques create a dimensionality not offered in a single still exposure.
Bonnie Cooper
bonniecooperphotography@yahoo.com
bonniecooperphotography.com
I’ve been working with fiber since childhood, learning sewing and needlecrafts at a young age. Many women in my mother’s family loved to sew, and my father’s grandmother was also a skilled seamstress. She painted and had a passion for flower arranging as well.
The first time I sat at a loom, I felt as if I had found exactly where I was meant to be. Though fiber remains a deep love of mine, I also paint and have become fascinated by enameling. I’m captivated by the brilliant effects created when ground glass is transformed through the firing process.
I was introduced to enamels by the mother of a high school friend, who encouraged me to become an artist. Without her support, I’m not sure I would have chosen to major in art. To this day, I think of her every time I work on an enamel project.
Joanne Bossert
rjboss49@gmail.com
404-909-9878
Right now, I’m energized by a technique called deconstructive screen printing—it’s unpredictable and completely freeform. For the past five months, I’ve been diving deep into it, moving away from the world of weaving, felting, and dyeing that I’ve worked in before.
I love taking on a new process and pushing it to its limits—testing every possibility until I feel I’ve uncovered its full potential. At the heart it is about color—creating beautiful color and something I haven’t seen before. I’m always chasing that moment when technique meets surprise, and something entirely new emerges. This gratifying creative exploration is fun and interesting and is what keeps me inspired.
Judy Ott**
judy.aboutcolor@gmail.com
aboutcolor.net
My woodturning began with a woods and metals class in 9th grade. In college I studied business in a professional golf management program in Michigan and returned to woodturning in graduate school. My work experiences include being a golf professional and a cabinetmaker as well as working in personnel management, finance, and tool sales. I have taught woodworking in secondary schools, woodworking retail stores, and as an artist-in-residence at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. I am captivated by off-centered turning, creating askew and whimsical forms. I use the lathe in conjunction with enhancements, modifications and special effects to produce work inspired by nature and imagination that not only reveal an exotic character but also are creative and playful.
Thomas Irven**
trirven@icloud.com
713-705-2050
I create functional glassware with an organic, tactile aesthetic, pieces that invite touch and spark connection. From hand-carved vessels to barware and lighting, my work blends form and function to elevate everyday rituals. I believe that what we use daily; what we hold, what we drink from, what lights our space should offer both comfort and beauty. Each piece is made to feel good in the hand and pleasing to the eye, turning familiar objects into small moments of joy. Whether it's a favorite glass or a glowing pendant, my work is meant to be lived with and loved.
Haley Jelinek**
haleyjelinekglass@gmail.com
haleyjelinekglass.com
I’ve always been a maker, drawn to the tactile process of creating with my hands. When I discovered mosaics, something clicked— I found a way to merge my love of nature and foraging with my artistic voice. Some of my favorite materials are the ones I forage while hiking: colorful stone, mica, driftwood, or shells. The materials I gather echo the colors, textures, and spirit of the places I explore, and my mosaics reflect the deep connection I feel to the natural world. Each piece becomes a meditation on nature’s beauty and a way for me to explore the emotions and experience of being human.
Janice Levitt**
janicelevittmosaics@gmail.com
janicelevittmosaics.com
The creative process has always played an important role in my life. I have a BA degree in science and worked as a clinical microbiologist for 40 yrs. Along with my science degree, I studied visual arts and dance. I began working in metal about 1991 after taking a workshop at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art.
I draw inspiration for my jewelry from classical dance and nature. Dance is one of the most exquisite forms of human communication and expression. It has allowed me to appreciate and embrace that delicate quality of life that is female. I love the graceful, fluid lines involved in simple movement and try to capture that in my work as a metalsmith. I strive to create pieces with soft, subtle, understated designs.
Ellen Vontillius
spankyliveshere@yahoo.com
ellenvontillius.com
I come from a family filled with business people, so when I decided to switch my college major from business to fine art, it came as a shock. Then, officially the black sheep of my family, I got a BFA in photographic design, somewhat softening the blow by pursuing a career as a commercial photographer. While that has been my livelihood, I have long created my own fine art projects, always working to go beyond the framed photographic print. I've collaborated with an artist who works with steel to create ways to display photos with magnets and metal; I learned stained glass to feature transparent images; and I've experimented with stop motion films and projections. When I discovered encaustics, I felt that I'd finally found the avenue of expression I'd be looking for. Encaustic wax allows me to create collages combining portraits and nature images. This has led me to stretch myself creatively while still grounding my work in photography. My interest in portraiture is as strong as ever, but now, as I spend time in my home studio, I'm discovering new paths every day, informed by what I learned as an art student and what I've continued to learn as an artist.
Lynne Harty
lynne@lynneharty.com
lynneharty.com
828-777-7073
I was a maker as soon as I could manipulate found objects with my hands. When I was 4, I found pure joy in a pocket of clay in the creek bank in our yard. I made small animals and clay worm houses and got in trouble when my brother ate the worms. No more clay! By junior high I made wide coil clay vessels. I took 3D art in high school and created a bronze lost wax sculpture with welded elements, carved an alabaster head, and sold almost all my hand-built ceramic pieces. I was hooked by the making and selling! The “art is not a career” message came loud and clear from my science-minded parents. I got a Phd and taught college but gave it up to get back to my soul work, creating stuff! I taught art in many media and in many venues in the past 30+ years while doing my own creative work. Now in Asheville, I am once again able to make and sell functional and sculptural ceramic pieces, including other media in my work.
Peggy Ann Johnston
pajart@comcast.net
peggyannjohnston.com
408-655-1737
I began making small quilts over 40 years ago, and quickly tired of using patterns. My mother, though not a quilter herself, had a gift for resourcefulness—she sewed clothing and household items from donated and repurposed fabrics, guided more by intuition than instruction. Her creativity influenced my own approach.
When I moved to Asheville in 2006, I discovered strip quilting, and it was a revelation. Its efficient use of fabric and open-ended design possibilities sparked something in me. I had found my niche: creating simple, colorful, and cheerful pieces meant to be worn or used in the home.
Each of my designs begins at the center and grows outward, each fabric choice an intuitive step. I enjoy the quilting process—selecting colors, experimenting with combinations, and letting each piece evolve. Colors and patterns and careful utilization of resources are the things that drive me. My quilty things are fun to make and even more fun to live with.
Amy Campbell
amy.vanbrunt@gmail.com
Paper dolls, crayons, fabric, and yarn - the beginnings of a lifetime in art. I cannot remember a time in my life when I didn’t have some type of art project in the making. Perhaps it’s second nature or just a part of my soul. I can think of a new box of crayons and immediately remember their smell. However, nothing compares to the first time I walked into a real art studio at the age of 9 when my mother took to me the Greenville Museum of Art. To this day, I can close my eyes and smell the oil paint and turpentine. My heart began to flutter. It’s no surprise that I found my way home among tubes of oil paint and brushes. In 2011, I began my study of oil painting, anId as in life, I’ve found it’s about the journey. I am drawn to scenes that evoke emotion and I aim to capture that moment in time. From technique to inspiration, I try to reflect the beauty around me.
Tei Tober*
teitober@aol.com
teitober.com