Studio 206

HISTORY OF STUDIO 206

The studio co-op was formed in the fall of 1987 as a formal organization with by-laws, rules, and regulations. It came about when a group of women, who had taken classes under Eugenia Summers at MUW, rented a space at 206 Main Street to meet and paint with their former professor. When they had to move from that location, Margaret Henry’s Victorian house at 625 Main St. became available; however, they needed additional members in order to afford the rent. Thus, twelve women were asked to join them in the venture to rent that space and organize a formal artist’s cooperative. The eighteen original members included former MUW professors Eugenia Summer* and Mary Evelyn Stringer*, Margie Beasley, Ann Chilcutt, Elayne Goodman, Kathy Hodson, Patti Johnson, Fran Land*, Kay McElwain, Ann McIntyre*, Margaret Perkins , Margaret Sanders*, Terri Shaddox, B.J. Smith, Margaret Smith, Betty Stone, Kevin Voller and Marianne Wright. Also joining the group over the next several years were Deanna Backel, Gabie Nabors, Jane Stegall, , Donna Jones, Sandy Litecky, Griselda, Ann Durrett, Theresa Liddle, Pat Wayman, Kay Calaway, Seldon Lambert, Debbie Alexander, Judy Howle, Shirley Catlett, former MUW professor Betty Dice*, and Edna Sisson*. (* denotes members who have since deceased.)

The studio was open to the entire member artists at any time. However, Thursday was the day that the whole group met to conduct organizational business and to paint or work on projects. The space allowed the group to have artwork displayed in the front window and to have an artist’s open house. Membership grew to as many as twenty-six to the current membership of sixteen. It was a wonderful location to work in and was sadly missed when the building was scheduled to be demolished.

Not to be discouraged, the group found a new location on the East end across from Trinity Retirement Home Apartments on McCrary Rd. This will be the 29^th year since the formation of the group. Although some of the members no longer produce art, they are supportive members of the organization. The current sixteen members include Debbie Alexander, Pat Brown, Kay Calaway, Shirley Catlett, Ann Chilcutt, Gwin Edie, Kathy Hodson, Judy Howle, Patti Johnson, Seldon Lambert, Lane Pierrot, Jane Rogowski, Margaret Smith, Betty Stone, Kevin Voller, and Pat Wayman.

My love of art is due to my mother who helped develop a spirit of creativity in our home. I have been involved with art of many forms since I was very young. Some examples are Piano, Ballet, Drawing, Painting and Ventriloquism. In 1984, I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from M.U.W. here in Columbus, MS. After graduating from MUW, I moved to New Jersey and New York which gave me an even greater appreciation and wider perspective of the art world. I have been fortunate to teach art to children privately and at the Columbus Art Council. Throughout the years I have been involved in different artist groups such as Studio 206 artist group, Columbus Arts Council Gallery Committee and CAC Gallery 2 committee, Gathering of Artist group and the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA).

I have worked with various mediums through the years. Currently, I am working in Acrylics, Watercolor, Digital photography, Digital art, Zentangle and Jewelry making. Art movements like Naturalism, Synchromism, Expressionism, Impressionism, and Cubism have always fascinated me. If I had to pick one artist that inspired me the most, it would be Georgia O’Keeffe. My inspiration comes from Nature and my surroundings. When my artwork is displayed, my desire is for the viewer to find interesting areas while experiencing the emotion and energy of each piece.

Kay Calaway, a Columbus Mississippi native, is a talented artist whose twelve-week art course with Sherrie Roan kick-started her individualistic art style.

Kay is a trash-to-treasures expert. Her home decor assemblage pieces, including furniture, her designer doll houses, and her whimsical paintings decorate many homes in the area.

Kay's home is a showcase for her work, and is a "must-see" for visitors to Columbus.

Ever since my childhood, I have been fascinated by the way color and shape can be used on a flat surface to make an object appear three dimensional. In order to have a reliable vocation, I prepared to be a science teacher thus never had time in school to pursue art to satisfy this fascination. Graduating with a BA in Biology from Agnes Scott College and a MS in science from MUW, I taught for a few years.

Teaching took a back seat as my family responsibilities grew. But at last I found time to take an art class, studying in the evening with Margaret Smith at Lee High School. There I became friends with Margaret, Grady Cook, Fran Land, Bill Backstrom, all delightful and wonderful artists.

I continued my study of art working with Fran Land, my mentor and good friend.

She encouraged me to begin taking art courses at the “W”, which I did, one each semester. There I encountered so many excellent teachers, Mr. Feeny, Mr. Nawrocki, Eugenia Summer, Mr. Franks and that great art historian, Mary Evelyn Stringer. The years passed quickly and I had earned a BS in Art before I knew it. Even better, I had made a set of special friends that became the nucleus of our Studio 206 art group.

My favorite painting style is expressionism using large canvases with fast strokes in quick drying acrylics. However large canvases do not lend themselves to the travels my husband and I pursue since his retirement. This has brought me to small tightly drawn watercolor note cards and postcards based on sights and scenes of our travels; Whether painting large or small, it is all very satisfying to the child that still lives in me fascinated by the three dimensional figure created in a two dimensional plane.

I am a Columbus native, and earned my BS and MS degrees in Education and History at MUW.

I have enjoyed photography since I was about 12 years old when my dad, an avid amateur photographer, gave me my first camera. I wasn't really serious about photography until I got my first good digital camera in 2001, giving me the ability to make photos and see the results instantly, and to be able to use the computer to create Photo Art images that express my artistic vision of the subjects or scenes in my photos. To exploit my artistic side a bit more, I have added whimsical digital collage art prints to my creative endeavors. I also dabble in mixed-media art. I have been displaying my work in the Columbus Arts Council's Gallery 2 for the past two years.

I enjoy nature and landscape photography, but I love to "shoot" any interesting or artistic subject that catches my eye. I have also done some commissioned work, primarily consisting of photographing artwork for artists and once I did some aerial photography.

I taught digital photography classes from 2002 to 2013, most recently at the Rosenzweig Arts Center, and before that as continuing education classes at MUW. I am no longer teaching classes, but I continue to offer one-on-one tutoring for digital photography and Adobe imaging software. I also restore old photos, and offer retouching for digital photos and several other imaging services at my website http://heritagephotos.net.

My photos and collages have been exhibited at the Rosenzweig Arts Center several times, and my photos were exhibited at the Columbus Public Library three times, and at the Renee Reedy Gallery in four exhibits. My photography and collage art work can be viewed at flickr.com/photos/msippibelle/

Selden Lambert Artist Statement and Bio

Art is a language with many forms of communication, ever developing and as changeable as winds and oceans. In fact, art therapy is often found to be a viable means of expression for victims of post-traumatic stress disorder, and is a valuable tool. As a counseling professional, I often employ art as a means of psychological healing and recovery. I am a strong supporter of art in education, and the earlier the better.

If my work were to be categorized, it would probably be described as re-emerging somewhere between the boundaries of outsider art and abstract, with occasional conventional touches. I also enjoy whimsical types of art creativity such as my frog, dog and cat paintings which attract fans of all ages.

I began oil paintings in the 1970s, usually seascapes, barns, and other faithful reproductions of beloved scenes. These works helped pay for text books and some tuition fees. During the 1980s, however, I stopped painting, but wrote four books of poetry amid being consumed by graduate work in counseling and criminology. My art work resumed in early 1990 following a catastrophic illness. By the spring of 1993, my style and preferred mediums and topics had changed radically. While I had been drawn to found objects for many years, it was not until the past few years that my current wire, metal, glass and wood sculpting, collage and abstracts appeared to take on a life of their own.

Regarding sculpting, a tangle of twisted metal from an alley might become the pivotal point of a life-sized figure. For example, Holy Man developed from residue of an auto accident on Bluecutt Road (one piece became the rattlesnake,) and a jumble of mangled hog wire fence salvaged from the bypass on Highway 45 South.

Quite some time may transpire before all the pieces come together to complete that particular work. Other times, fragments just fall into place as if they had been waiting to be reunited. There is a powerful intrigue about cast-offs. What were they in their other life? Where did they come from? And surely there must be a purpose to their existence.

When not engaged in professional activities during semi-retirement, I prefer to paint, sculpt and/or collage in four to eight hour blocks of time. Some works require months, most consume weeks, and some are completed in days. Typically I will work on two ore more works at a time.

I especially identify with others pursuing creative expressionalism when they describe nearly continual mental processing of design, exploration of topics and ceaseless gathers of materials. Once I begin a work, I am almost always anxious about bringing it through the awkward stages of planned spontaneity, hoping that if I hang in there and keep the faith, things will somehow come together to resemble what I started out to create.

Although Patti was in the business field for 40 plus years, art and creating has been an avocation since childhood when she received her first box of 52 Crayola crayons. A self-taught artist, taking workshops, a few art courses, and studying techniques books; she squeezed in her oil and watercolor paintings, doll art and miscellaneous media art projects while raising a family and managing her husband’s clinic. In 2009, after retiring, she began actively pursuing an art degree at Mississippi University for Women. In December 2015, at the age of 70, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio arts and ceramics, cum laude.

Her paintings, which consist of oil, watercolor, pastel, pen, & ink, reflect her love of landscapes and seascapes. Born in Ketchikan, Alaska, her fondest memories growing up were playing in the tidal pools, hiking in the mountains and boating through pristine fjords of Southeastern Alaska’s Tongass Narrows, which have had a profound influence on her paintings.

“My paintings tend toward realism; however, I try not to be too structured, giving the illusion of realism. Most of my work is created to give one a sense of the vastness of nature and a tactile sense of being there in the moment.”

In the spring of 1992, Patti ventured into a form of art called Art Dolls. Working in polymer clay and stoneware, she formed her “Creative Characters”. This art form combined her love of sewing and colorful fabric with her love for sculpting. Her dolls have been based on nursery rhymes, Christmas characters, angels, and just general people. She attempts to put emotion and feeling into each creation and then places it in a setting so viewers can create or visualize a story about them. Just as life is not perfect, neither are her characters meant to be perfect - exaggerating on proportion and detail.

“Taking clay, wire, cloth and odds and ends, then shaping, molding and giving “life” to each sculpture exude a tremendous sense of creativity which I hope will evoke emotion in the viewer.”

Her passion for sculpting and love of tea pots lead to her to majoring in ceramics, functional and sculptural; and her persistent experimentation with all forms of art have created works in fused glass, purses, party hats, collages. Patti considers her artwork as adult playtime. To her, art is the door that opens up a world of imagination, color, and creativity.

“Art is like a Grand Tour. It is not really about the final destination – it is the journey itself. It is like the little stops and junkets along the way. Moreover, it is not just a physical trip; it is a spiritual, mental, soul searching journey. However, what is most fundamental about the trip is that it be exciting, surprising and that it stirs a passion within the soul.”

Betty Stone is a native of Columbus, struggling to be a Renaissance Person. By training, she is a retired medical technologist with a master’s degree in microbiology. An inborn scribbler, she writes a Sunday column for the Commercial Dispatch. She edited her college newspaper, The Spectator, at MUW (MSCW.) Art is an avocation done with love.

Kevin Voller lives and works in Columbus, Mississippi. She originally obtained a bachelors degree in art education, but had for a long time wanted to go back to school and major in studio art! Pursuing this course of action, she graduated from MUW in 2007 with a Bachelor in Fine Art, with an emphasis in painting, and has been doing freelance painting and drawing since then.

She often draws inspiration from nature, while living on an acreage with many pets. She works in both abstract and realistic styles in art, and believes that this both refines and improves her skills as an artist.

In the past, she has worked on much larger scale paintings, drawings and prints, but presently, she is working on a smaller scale. Kevin states, "Good art should have an impact on the viewer, no matter the size, whether it is large or small." She further states, I have loved art and the processes of creating art since I was a small child. Art never ceases to fascinate and challenge me. The creation of art causes me to reflect on the awesome creativity displayed by our own creator."