Our Artists
Local Artists. Local Art.
Madeleine Barkey
Madeleine Barkey is a Michigan born artist and educator. She has a BFA from the University of Michigan and a MFA in Printmaking from Ohio University. Barkey currently teaches Drawing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and has a studio in Detroit’s Pioneer Building with many other working artists. She especially loves printmaking woodcuts, but will work with whatever else is around.
Diann Benoit
My quest is to create paintings that change the world in how they will view the subject I paint. To make life more dignified and more artfully beautiful. Scholarship Graduate from The Center for Creative Studies, Detroit Michigan. Participated in a number of one-man shows, group shows and juried shows. Won numerous awards and Best in Show. Represented in many private, corporate and museum collections. Juried art shows, art fairs and have given demos. Taught art for over 30 years. My work is shown at the Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan and the Northville Gallery, Northville, Michigan.
Marie-Claude Boucher
Marie-Claude draws her inspiration from the many summers spent as a child in the small villages of Quebec and later in life, her trips with her family to Europe. She loves the simplicity and the modesty of the rural life: the broken fences, the bicycle left by the tree, the close line and the shutters on the house. Marie-Claude’s ability to find joy in every moment defines her personality and at the same time her art. It becomes a feel good experience just to explore textures and her colors.
Harold Braul
Harold Braul was born in 1960 in southern Ontario. His early introduction to art began at age 6, when he studied under the tutelage of a private teacher. It was during this period of his life where he became a faithful disciple of color, line and light. In his later years his works would become informed through his study of Industrial Design at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, however to this day he maintains the child-like whimsy that first drew him to the medium.
Kevin Castile
Kevin Castile is an artist from St. Clair Shores, Michigan. His work incorporates elements of drawing, painting and photography in a disjunctive collage format. He has exhibited at the Detroit Artist’s Market; University of Michigan; Wayne State University; Western Illinois University; A.R.C. Gallery, Chicago; Detroit Focus Gallery and the Willis Gallery.
Kevin taught Color Theory and Design as well as Painting at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. He also worked as a Management Engineer for the Henry Ford Health System.
Richard Culling
Richard Culling is a painter based out of Livonia and is known for cityscape and figurative collage paintings. His awards include the Pollock Krasner Foundation Award, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award, Research Partnership Award (University of Michigan), and Michigan Council for the Arts. He has also shown work at the Flint Institute of Arts, Xochipillli Gallery and the Pontiac Art Center. Richard currently is a Lecturer II painting teacher at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Patrice Erickson
Patrice Erickson’s oil paintings put emphasis on the sky, clouds, and the colors of light passing through the atmosphere. The colors are vibrant yet peaceful, softly blended, gradually transitioning from one color to another. She eliminates all signs of human activity. There are no buildings or roads. She’s inspired by nature. Through her paintings she’s showing her respect for nature and reminding herself that we need to be grateful and take care of our planet. Erickson likes to leave the viewer with a sense of serenity, peace, and reverence for nature-immersed in the beauty.
Deborah Friedman
My work is a result of creating order out of confusion. The challenge is starting with an unplanned idea is finding balance in an ever-changing composition. The excitement of the emerging composition propels the work forward using the consistency of line and, often circular, shape to achieve the desired visual stability. There is an awareness on my part that I’m creating an environment or escapes to other places in my work. These images require intense concentration, so much so, that when a piece is completed it is as though I’m returning from an extended trip to another place and time.
Marc Garrison
Marc Garrison was born in Detroit, Michigan. He always enjoyed making art but had to find a roundabout way to practice because of work and family commitments. Garrison was compassionate early on of making art on the computer. His progression as artist was first as a photographer, then printmaker and painter. Now he would probably be categorized as a mixed media artist. Marc likes to experiment with many diverse art making tools. They might include monotype inks, pastel chalk, acrylic paint and digital drawings.
David Helm
I am a sixty-something retired skilled trades auto worker who went back to school in 1999 at College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan to obtain a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts Degree with a major in glassblowing. I have been creating with glass since the late 1970s. My first glass experience was a stained glass class. But, when I took my first glassblowing class, about 20 years ago, I knew I had found my true love. It is amazing that something as ordinary as sand and heat can be turned into great art. Everywhere you look around you in the contemporary life there is glass- in windows, light bulbs, insulation, computer screens and TVs.
Cathy Jacobs
Cathy Jacobs has a deep background in painting and color. She began using her first set of oil paints at age seven. She later went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Wayne State University in Detroit. In April 2015, she received a Master of Fine Arts degree at Eastern Michigan University where she began weaving. Her airy, atmospheric paintings gave way to transparent and ethereal textile works. She has exhibited artwork in the United States and Canada, most notably at SOFA Expo in Chicago, the World of Threads Festival in Ontario, the Architectural Digest Design Show in New York City, and at State of the Arts Gallery in Sarasota, Florida. She lives with her husband, Leonardo, in Ann Arbor and has a studio in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Joan Painter Jones
I graduated with a Bachelor of Art Education from Eastern Michigan University, and later did post-graduate classes in watercolor from Kingsley Calkins, who became a very valuable mentor for me. He got me interested in entering juried exhibitions, away from art fairs, which he said often lead artists to only do what is popular. It was the right decision for me.
Since then, my work has been accepted into many exhibits in Michigan, including the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center’s annual fine arts competition (where in 1996 I won best of show, awarded by Jane Hammond), the annual competitions in the Anton Art Center in Mt. Clemens, Holland Area Arts Center, the Greater Michigan Art Exhibitions in the Dow Center for the Arts in Midland, the Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson, and the annual All Media Competition in Battle Creek, winning awards in each of the above exhibits, some of them several times.
Nationally, my work has been accepted into exhibitions multiple times in Galeria Mesa, AZ, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, Oakland Community College (in MI) in those national exhibits and in the Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TX annual Drawing and Small Sculpture shows, winning a purchase prize there in 2005; the juror was Mel Ramos.
Anna Kozlowski
Anna Kozlowski was born and raised in Gdynia, Poland, a lovely, modern city located along the Baltic Sea. There, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Gdynia State Art School, nestled right on the beach.
Anna was exposed to all form of art including painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, photography, artistic welding and jewelry. She graduated after five years with Bronze sculpture major diploma and furthermore continued her education in Michigan, which resulted in Bachelor of Fine Arts Diploma. Travels influenced her artwork in a big way. As a teenager she traveled trough the Europe and Scandinavia. Every country left in some way a footprint on her Art. To further expand her artistic experience; in 1999 she decided to come to the United States. She planned to visit for a year, get new experiences and go back to her native city of Gdynia; however plans changed when she met her husband, and decided to stay in the United States. Currently Anna runs her painting studio business from metro Detroit area. Besides working as an Artist full time, in her free time she still finds time to explore new artistic venues and broaden her knowledge. She had fifteen Art Exhibits in Europe and Michigan and her Artwork is in private collections on four continents.
Tristan Logan
When I sculpt I take a scene and a feeling and freeze them in time. Most of my sculptures are animals, but the real point is that they are living moving things, and that they feel like living moving things. Rather than trying to represent an animal as a model, I’m trying to capture the flow and feeling of a moment, each piece feeling as if it’s frozen in time, not simply in place.
The reason I sculpt this way starts with how I imagine things. While most people can see images in their head I can only imagine the physical feeling of something. I can’t picture a deer, but I can put myself in the body of one, imagining the weight of it, the tension of its muscles, making its body my body. With sculpture I found a way of using that feeling and putting it into solid form.
Victor Lupo
I am self-taught in art, but trained in metalwork in the former Yugoslavia. It wasn’t until I was in American and fifty years old that I decided to dedicate myself to making fine art.
I make welded steel sculptures. I chose steel, or perhaps it chose me, because I understand its special qualities. To me steel is hiding secrets, and my biggest challenge is to discover its potential form. I have to get to the point where the steel tries to speak to me to say what it wants to look like. I have a unique way of coloring steel by flame, which allows me to produce different colors depending on the background and lighting. My work is also inspired by the many things that surround me, from the past and present- politics, nature, spatial concepts, and especially my childhood.
Tom Maniaci
Tom Maniaci graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA in Design, then spent a semester at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee studying film history and editing.
A long career in advertising didn’t derail his love of drawing and painting.
He incorporated Frame Your Face as the commercial vehicle to promote his pop portraits, now found in galleries, homes, and offices of clients in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, LA, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, Palm Beach, Philadelphia, and of course, Detroit. In 2015 he presented five Frame Your Face portraits in Art Prize 7.
In 2OO5, Tom was one of only five local artists to be included in the Classic Rock Art Show & Sale when it made its stop in Detroit as part of a national tour, and he contributes a pop portrait to every issue of Ambassador magazine.
Mary Mans
Mary Mans is a fine art photographer who focuses on the beauty of architecture in the Detroit area.
Darina Marko
Darina Marko was born in Bulgaria in 1966. At an early age she focused her studies on fine art. After specializing in fine art in secondary school she went on to study at the Academy of Fine Art in Bulgaria for an additional five years focusing her studies on silk printing and batik. After completion, Darina moved to London, England for four years. Darina has spent considerable time travelling across Europe and North and South America and has exhibited her work in England, Germany, Italy and Finland.
Inspired by artists including Egon Schiele and Matisse, Darina bends, twists and distorts her subject matter and perspective. She freely employs mixed media including acrylic, watercolour, oil and pastel. By concentrating on the interactions between visual elements including form, colour, texture and light, her still life work acquires its abstracted aesthetic.
Sean McDougal
I create art because I need to. It is both a love and an obsession. My mood dictates the works I produce, so every time I create something it’s an original. Most of my art is free form and done by eye. I let the materials and free flow of the steel do the work and I am always experimenting and trying different things. I have no rules! Some experiments work and some don’t, but I love the freedom and excitement of trying something new!
Gene Meadows
Gene Meadows is an architectural and fine art photographer with his own firm, Meadows & Co. His fine art photography, (in private, corporate and museum collections, including the Detroit Institute of Art and Toledo Museum of Art), has been exhibited in numerous groups, as well as solo shows including CAR pARTS, Cranbrook Intimate Space, and Chiaroscuro, Eastern Europe. Gene’s images have been published locally, as well as in Architectural Record, Metropolis, House Beautiful, Echoes and Land Forum.
Monte Nagler
Monte Nagler began photographing seriously after studying with Ansel Adams. “It was during that period of intensive work that I realized that making photographs is a way to experience beauty instead of just looking at it,” Nagler says. He believes that photographers should communicate feelings that are inside them. Through their photographs, a photographer should be saying: “This is what I saw and felt and I’d like to share that!”
His photographs, which have won numerous awards, are found in many private and public collections including the Detroit Institute of Arts; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Dayton Art Institute; the Grand Rapids Museum of Art; the Center for Creative Photography; The Brooklyn Museum; The State of Michigan; General Electric Corporation; BASF Corporation; Compuware; and Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors. Galleries, art dealers and publishing companies throughout the United States, Canada and England also represent his photography.
Victor Nemo
Victor Colesnicenco grew up in Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova. This Eastern European nation is known for its rich artistic heritage. Nemo, as he is known to his friends, remembers being fascinated by the carvings and other craftworks that surrounded him. In particular, he loved paintings and from an early age he was determined to become an artist. Nemo began intense inquiry into the style and techniques of the famous painters. He was particularly impressed by the work of Ivan Shishkin and Salvador Dali. He enrolled in art school but did not enjoy the strict academic style of the Russian based academy.
Knowing that a standard education was not for him, he abandoned it to pursue training on his own. His talent quickly flourished and soon he was organizing large outdoor art fairs to show his work and that of other young artists. this point in his life Nemo enlisted in the Soviet Army where he served for two years. After completing his tour, his motivation to become a professional artist was rediscovered. Together with a good friend he started a business restoring works of art and painting murals in churches. The reemergence of religious freedom in the post-Soviet era offered many opportunities for their business to flourish.
Peggy O'Neil
Inspired by nature and influence by Asian Art, I currently work in watercolor and gouache.
I attended City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State to earn a B.A. where my interests were in printmaking and photography.
The years I lived in San Francisco I belonged to The Printmakers Guild and participated in many group shows and one woman show.
Continuing education at Wayne State for a Teaching Certification and Masters Degree I taught k-12 for fifteen years.
Shirley Parish
Discovery of the Impressionists and Expressionists was the beginning of a lifetime of painting. Seeing the word of Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Gustave Renoir and the entire history of their time and the familiarity of the working relationship to myself made my imagination soar. They set me free to paint. I received a degree in Art Education in 1969 and began teaching immediately. This allowed me to paint and further my art education receiving a M.A. in Painting from Wayne State University. My paintings exude the feeling of the air around me. Familiar images such as trees and clouds enthralled the chemistry in my surroundings. As with the River, MI, and Huntington Woods, MI. Her works have been in public and private art collections both in the United States and abroad.
Teresa Petersen
Teresa Petersen is an artist living and working in the city of Detroit, Michigan.
She works in several media, specializing in found-object assemblage sculptures, collages made from vintage prints, catalogs, and magazines, and mixed media pieces containing elements of both. The individual objects making up each piece serve to form a cohesive final structure as well as individually relate to the theme of the piece as a whole.
Her work emphasizes and explores the relationships between women's stereotypes and ideals: in culture, in nature, and in our throw-away society.
Barbara Pugsley
Barbara is a romantic artist whose work expresses her emotions and feelings about life and people.
“…basically, I aspire to show the joy that can be in life, if we would but free the child within us.”
– Barbara Hess Mercier
December 1939 – June 2016
Education: Our Lady of Mercy High School
Stephen Pugsley
Stephen studied commercial, industrial and fine art at The Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts and later studied printmaking at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Stephens hand made prints and paintings are his personal, intimate expressions from his heart through his hands to you.
His original art works have won much acclaim over the years and now hang in many collections.
Stephen studied under: Sarkis Sarkisian, Guy Palazzola and Richard Kozlow
Luzhen Qui
Luzhen Qiu is a Chinese American artist living in Metro Detroit. She was born in 1971 in Hangzhou, China. She graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit with a MFA degree. With 28 years of art teaching experience, Luzhen has taught art classes at The Art & Design and Technical College of China Academy of Art, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, and Paint Creek Center for the Art in Michigan.
In her works, Luzhen is always searching for ways of dealing with contents and forms by organizing objects from chaotic contents into re-arranged forms. She is a multi-disciplinary artist working with both representational and abstract artworks. With her color pencil on layed mylar works, Luzhen makes a dreamscape from her memory by juxtaposing fragments of memories from her childhood, Chinese traditional fabric textiles, and old legends. Her works are visual poems with narrative content which draw the viewer into an open-ended story. Her works are layered with depth of transparency.
Roselyn Rhodes
Roselyn Rhodes passion is doing plein air oil paintings on location and modern interpretations in her studio. The impressionistic to abstract quality of her work is loose, spontaneous and full of expressive color. Her brush strokes evoke an energy that can visually transmit the emotional experience in her paintings.
Rose has a BFA in Graphic Design/Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, She worked as a Graphic Designer and Art Director. She taught art classes for 14 years at a private studio and the GPAC. She is a member of DSWPS and BBAC
Pat Simpson
Pat’s artwork is influenced by the African, Australian, and Asian cultures. She combines earthy Aboriginal color palette in the form of glazes and oxides, to large African shaped vessels. Her creative expressions are exhibited here, along with her original paintings and amazing jewelry creations.
Starlie Sokol-Hohne
Starlie Sokol-Hohne is a renowned contemporary mixed media artist. She was born in 1958 in Santa Monica California and completed her studies at UCLA in 1980. Since then, she has been exhibiting nationally and her work is held in numerous collections including private, public and corporate collections. Her work combines multiple mediums spanning from dynamic photograph collages and print work to paintings. Her paintings draw inspiration from the nature she experiences from her equestrian rides through the woods and canyons near her home. These trips are what inspired her to express nature the way that it is, extremely abstract as well as realistic
Anita Stromberg
My journey as an artist began in art school at Wayne State University. I received my degree in Photography and Printmaking in 2000. I love color, exploring different ways of expressing color, i.e. adding art papers, which create an abstract & mixed media style. I sometimes start with an idea, but once the paint is applied I then react spontaneously, which at times takes the painting in a completely different direction. At times the work does have meaning, but I leave much of the interpretation up to the viewer. I work the painting in layers, which to me is also an analogy for life—layers represent chapters of one’s life. I am constantly trying to challenge myself to explore new ways of expressing myself.
Steven Tapper
As a jewelry designer, photographer, and ceramic artist, I aim to create a vibrant dialouge between nature, curiosity, and my passion for discovering new perspectives. My art serves both functional and decorative purposes, beautifully balancing form and function. I am inspired by the patterns and colors found in the natural world. I utilize various materials and techniques to capture and showcase the fleeting beauty surrounding us.
David Thai
As a jewelry designer, photographer, and ceramic artist, I aim to create a vibrant dialouge between nature, curiosity, and my passion for discovering new perspectives. My art serves both functional and decorative purposes, beautifully balancing form and function. I am inspired by the patterns and colors found in the natural world. I utilize various materials and techniques to capture and showcase the fleeting beauty surrounding us.
Steve Tracy
Tracy begins his work with a brush but will switch to a palette knife as the work progresses. He is drawn to the palette knife because of the unpredictable way it transfers paint to the canvas. His distinct style is impressionistic, textural and leans towards the abstract. His love of color is obvious in his painting as he strives to incorporate a brilliant palette within each work. He creates art that emanates a sense of love and endearment for the planet and hopes to present a quality communication about the beauty that naturally surrounds us.
Inspired by the cultural revolution of the late 60’s and early 70’s Steve relocated to New York City where inspired by the atmosphere he enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in 1972. Steve continued his studies at many respected art schools and is a graduate of the American Art Institute. He perfected his talents through work with various studios in San Francisco, New York and Colorado.
After graduation Steve began work as a scenic artist with film companies. He found work on HBO’s “Dawns Early Light” and in 1991 won an Emmy Award for this work. His work as a visual art instructor has seen him work in art institutes in Colorado and Hawaii as well as conducting several workshops throughout the United States and Scotland.
Doug West
Doug West, renowned Sports Artist, has embarked on a transformation with his expressive new body of Rock Portraits. Artist Doug West, having for years exemplified his immense talent for realistic/expressive portraiture, has entered full-tilt the expressionist arena. The influence of Neiman and Van Gogh are evident in his new work. His commissioned portraits of Detroit’s legendary sports figures are well known as are his passionate renderings of iconic celebrity figures; and, now onward and upward to the Age of Rock! Doug never ceases to surprise us
Laura Whitesides Host
A lifelong resident of Michigan, Whitesides Host received a BFA from the University of Michigan Architecture and Design School majoring in painting and ceramics. After moving to Birmingham, she discovered the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center and found her art family. After taking watercolor classes for 13 years, she began to teach experimental watercolor classes and has continued for 26 years. The excitement of playing with watercolors led to acrylic paint and then a class in monotypes enlarged her focus to creating monotypes along with her water media paintings. In 1987, after a friend decided to change her art gallery to a cooperative gallery, Host joined the gallery roster. She is one of the 2 original members still in Lawrence Street Gallery and is currently the president. Active in the Michigan Watercolor Society and the Birmingham Society of Women Painters since 1989, Host has served on their Executive boards for many years. Host has had numerous solo shows and has been juried into many exhibits both locally and state-wide.
Timothy H. Widener
Timothy is a recognized artist and teacher who shows his work worldwide. The recipient of many awards including The Award of Excellence through the Society of Animal Artists as well as the National Society of Portrait Painters, his work is housed in many collections both public and private. He holds a Graduate degree in History of Art from Michigan State University.
Larry Zdeb
Larry Zdeb has been called the “Master of Found Objects and Personal Mementos” by the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. Larry employs the use of found objects and recycled paint. Many constructions are developed by the kind of detritus discovered. He never sketches anything out; he has the parts, the instructions are in his head and he puts them together! The use of “obvious” items is avoided. The items in his work are juxtaposed in such a way that the viewer might ask, “What is that?!” Larry’s credo is “Less is more and composition is everything!” Zdeb was awarded the second place prize in the Michigan Fine Arts Competition in 2013.
Lulu Zheng
Although her major in college was medicine, she has had a natural passion in art. Using her background in swimming, she has incorporated her attachment with water into the heart of her works. By developing an understanding and feel from years in the pool, she has been able to transform these sentiments, using oil paint as medium, to vividly illustrate this watery realm.
Her paintings give a snapshot peak into the wonders of this almost-illusory world lense–wonders that are usually forgotten behind goggles or the translucency and brevity of such images. Stare long enough and it becomes apparent that very few people have both the experience and skills to render such heartfelt and awe-inspiring pieces.
