Art and Soul Radio with Lesley Riley

Vikki Pignatelli is a self-taught artist who entered the world of quilting in 1991 at the urging of her sister. A non-sewer at the time, Vikki attended a beginner's class and quickly fell in love with the art of quilting. Now a full-time professional quilt-artist, designer, international teacher, lecturer and author, Vikki and her quilts have been featured in many books, national publications and exhibitions. She has won 32 awards in national and international competitions and exhibitions including a first place award at the International Quilt Festival at Houston and Best Color and Design for Passages of the Spirit in the 2002 NQA annual show She is the author of two quilting books, "Quilting Curves”  and “Quilting By Improvisation”  and numerous “how-to” articles for quilt magazines. Vikki also founded Sacred Threads Quilt Exhibitions and has now self-published Nurture Your Creative Spirit which we will be talking about today.

Christina Rosalie is a writer and mixed media artist whose award-winning work has been featured in print and online. She is also an adventurer, four-leaf clover finder, autodidact, and optimist, with a tendency to forget things on the roof of her car and a knack for getting paint on her jeans. Christina has an MFA in Emergent Media and lives with her husband and two wonderful boys in northern Vermont.    Christina’s new book, A Field Guide to NOW: notes on mindfulness and life in the present tense is a jewel. The perfect gift for a daughter, friend, and most of all yourself. Her writing is raw and genuine and beautiful all at the same time. There is wisdom on almost every page that I want to remember now and forever. You all might know I’m a quote junkie. I’ll be quoting Christina till the end of my days.

  Bonnie J. Smith is a fiber and mixed media artist. Her fiber art work has been featured in many national and international juried exhibitions and publications. Her fiber art titled "Color x 3" was juried into Quilt National 2011.  Bonnie was the recipient of the prestigious NICHE Award in 2009 for Fiber Art Quilts and was a finalist in 2010 & 2012. She is in love with texture and creating fiber art that flows, allowing the eye to appreciate her use of color and design.  Bruce Hoffman, formerly Director of the Snyderman Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. describes her work "Simple, powerful, successful: Design and craftsmanship working together."  All words every artist is waiting to hear.   Bonnie's art works are a dialogue with the viewer covering the topics; separation of church and state, racism and sexism. She is currently working on a large scale installation titled "Thoughts oft he Mind" dealing with religious bias.    Bonnie is extremely accomplished but all her success wasn’t, as the saying goes, a walk in the park. I look forward to hearing her full story and sharing this inspiring woman with you.

Sue Bleiweiss has been a full time artist for over 10 years. Self-taught, her medium of choice is fiber and she is particularly fond of working with silk. In her own words, "A lot of my work revolves around how to create texture, both real and implied to a piece of cloth using dye, paint and stitching. The colors and textures in rusty, weathered surfaces fascinate me and I often use these as inspiration when I begin a new piece of work. My goal has never been to create a perfect or flawless surface. It is to create something that intrigues the viewer and invites them in for a closer look.” Sue has published an extensive array of articles for several internationally popular fiber and craft magazines, is a 2012 Niche Award Finalist and has had her work featured in numerous books and now, most recently, her own - The Sketchbook Challenge! We will be talking about the book today, and so much more!     

  Christine Mason Miller is a Santa Barbara based writer and artist who has been creating, writing and exploring ever since she was a little girl.  Her mission to inspire has provided the foundation for all of her creative work; the desire to encourage others to pursue their passions and create a meaningful life is the common thread throughout an expansive body of work that includes mixed media collage, commercial illustration, photography, writing, teaching and speaking. I discovered Christine years ago through her self-published book, Ordinary Sparkling Moments and she is now celebrating her latest book ~ Desire to Inspire: Using Creative Passion to Transform the World.   Christine’s work as a professional artist began in 1995 with the creation of Swirly. From the first line of 36 handmade greeting cards, Swirly expanded into an internationally recognized brand with a product line that included stationery, journals, picture frames, watches, clocks, pillows, rubber stamps, photo albums and other home decor and accessories.  

Melanie Testa's quest as an artist is to ensure that her mind, eyes and hands convey the same visual thought.  This takes practice and skills that she is committed to obtaining and maintaining these each day and with each new idea. She uses her skills and build upon them every-single-day. Hey, this is the job of an artist! Melanie graduated from The Fashion Institute of Technology in Textile/Surface Design in 1999, I have written two books, Dreaming from the Journal Page by North Light, 

Margot Potter is an internationally celebrated designer, author, mixed media artist, trash to treasure trover, freelance writer, consultant, public speaker, actor and vocalist and TV personality who creates innovative designs for manufacturers, books and magazines and teaches popular seminars and classes at craft and major jewelry industry events. Margot has published seven humorous how to design jewelry books. She is an ambassador for the Create Your Style with SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS program, a member of the Beadalon Design Team and a blog team member for iLoveToCreate.  Margot just appeared as a contestant this summer (2012) on the TLC show, Craft Wars. Approaching everything with her signature sense of humor, boundless curiosity and copious amounts of joie de vivre, she feels that if it’s not fun, it’s simply not worth doing. She invites people to not only think outside of the box, but to tear it up, repurpose it into something fabulous and stand on it to reach for the stars. Equally comfortable at the writer’s desk, in the design studio, onstage or in front of the camera, she's been a professional performer for twenty four years and a crafty chick since before she was old enough to hold a Crayola®.

  Daniella Woolf brings a “textile sensibility” to the ancient medium of encaustic, merging these two disciplines and using a limited choice of materials to create a newly formed language. Her art background includes fiber, collage, jewelry and metalsmithing. A 2008 Rydell Visual Arts Fellow, Daniella’s encaustic work has been exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Pittsburg Center for the Arts and internationally at the British Craft Centre, London. She also has an extensive resume as a sculptural textile artist. Daniella teaches popular encaustic workshops and writes the blog, Encausticopolis, about all things wax. She has authored 2 books, Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility (2010) and The Encaustic Studio, a wax workshop in mixed-media art, out just this year.  And there’s a DVD included with the book. What more can you want except Daniella in person? Well I’ve got here today, so let’s get started….

  Orly Avineri journals. But erase what comes to mind when you think journal. Orly’s journals are exquisite, stand-alone works of art. The cover blurb on her self-published book, One Artist Journal explains that journaling is Orly’s attempt to “unify the self by expressing the intricacies of the nature within and around her, through seamless blending of fine art, graphic design and written language.” And seamless it is. Rich, inviting, and my favorite term, drool-worthy art. I’m excited to talk with Orly today, both about journaling and her self-publishing experience.

  Artist Kim Klassen joins me from Manitoba, Canada. Kim started out as a folk art painter and doing local craft classes and then exploded onto the scene with her unique style of painting. She spent several years as a full-time artist designing artwork for print and licensing companies. And then… one day Kim opened the Photoshop program on her computer and picked up her camera. The rest is herstory - a story Kim will share with us all today.

  China Marks was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She earned a B.F.A. in Sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute and an M.F.A. in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1976, she moved to New York City and now lives and creates in a converted Long Island City factory. China uses an industrial sewing machine to make process-directed drawings and books out of fabric and thread. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. She has received numerous grants and fellowships, including a 2005 NY fellowship for her sewn drawings. Her work has appeared in Surface Design Journal, Fiberarts, Art in America magazines as well as numerous solo and group shows.  She was trained and worked for many years as a sculptor, using all kinds of hand and power tools. Familiar with acrylic, pencil, cement, wood, metal, resin & bone as a sculptor & painter, When China began work on her sewn drawings, she had no experience with fabric. To her, the industrial sewing machine she creates with is just another power tool - one that she draws with.

Flora Bowley is an internationally celebrated painter, teacher, author, and inspirationalist.  Her vibrant paintings can be found in numerous galleries, in public spaces, on album covers and on a variety of unique products made in collaboration with Papaya Art.  Flora combines eighteen years of professional painting experience with her background as a yoga instructor, massage therapist and lifelong joy seeker to infuse her teaching and painting style with a deep connection to body, mind, and spirit.  By honoring intuition and celebrating the present moment, Flora encourages her students to overcome fear and welcome joyful spontaneous expression back into the creative process.  Her transformational approach to painting (and living)  and her new book,Brave Intuitive Painting, have inspired thousands of people to “let go, be bold and unfold” as they step fearlessly into the creative process. 

  Marney Makridakis is the first creator of one of the first online communities for artists – Artella Land. She is a true visionary. After years of providing inspiration, resources, and community Marney has tackled one of the most overwhelming and definitely the most common problem artists and truly everyone faces – the lack of time for creativity, dreams and self-expression. Is there really a way to create time? Let’s find out!

Tracy Verdugo is an Australian painter who employs mixed media techniques to create bright, contemporary and abstract painting that are truly magical. They just draw you in. Tracy’s art is a true representation of her personality and character. Coming to art and painting later in life, at the age of 33, Tracy quickly learned how to truly create art that reflects her soul. I’m not the only one drawn to it – people are clamoring for her classes in both Australia and the US.

  Courtney Walsh has just published her first novel, A Sweethaven Summer. But there is so much more to her story. Among the many hats Courtney wears are playwright, scrapbooker, craft writer – all while raising two beautiful young children. I am always curious how women juggle their passion and their family, and here’s a woman with several passions and talents. I’m excited to get to know the story of Courtney Walsh. courtneywalsh.typepad.com