Rita Svoboda Tomanek - Iowa City, Iowa
Rita Svoboda Tomanek was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, graduated from Regis High School, and earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Iowa. While there she also did graduate work in Religion and Health. Her paintings, mixed media, sculptures, and photographs have been exhibited throughout Iowa. She developed the Art Cart program within Project Art at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Her artwork draws from her experiences as a hospice and church volunteer, chaplain, masseuse, mother, grandmother, gardener, and wife. Rita and her husband Robert live in Iowa City.
David Heusinkveld - Amana, Iowa
A retired school teacher, David taught special education behavior disordered students for 30 years in the Cedar Rapids School District. David earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the University of Iowa. He and his wife, Carol Roemig-Heusinkveld, have been married for over 28 years. They live in Amana where David photographs many special landscapes. As a photographer, David is interested in the odd, the unusual, and the beautiful in nature. His images are evocative in a deeply emotional sense.
Jenise Catiri - Amana, Iowa
Jenise Catiri’s passion for art glass started as a home remodeling project and has turned into an obsession with glass and all its possibilities as an art form. Jenise received her BFA from the University of Northern Iowa in design, sculpture, and photography, which lends itself greatly to the originality and artistic flair of her designs. She and her husband, Ithiel, are proud of their original designs and quality craftsmanship using fused glass and cast glass techniques. As the Catiris love to create their own visions in glass, they also love the challenge of making custom pieces for individuals, businesses, and corporations. No project is too big or too small, and it is always exciting to see what will be.
Juno Art Glass & Jewelry - Columbia, Missouri
Jane Domke operates Juno Art Glass and Jewelry from her studio in Columbia, Missouri. Works created in the studio range from jewelry to functional objects, like plates, bowls, and vessels. She has been producing art glass since 1996. Domke is a juried member of the Best of Missouri Hands. She is also a regular contributor to the Warm Glass Bulletin Board and the Glass Artists Photo Gallery.
Gene Kendall - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Gene Kendall uses native Iowa grown Walnut, Cherry, and White Oak for frames and sculpture. For trim and detail work he uses Coco Bola, Honduran Rosewood, African Paduke, and Bubinga. He purchases imported woods from Hills Hardwood in Hills, Iowa. Gene uses tongue oil varnish and applies a blend of beeswax and caruba wax, which is hand rubbed and polished on the top. He reuses his sawdust in compost and adds it to his garden.
Janann Krauel - Plano, Texas
Janann Krauel grew up in Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University. During her career in the computer field, she authored numerous computer manuals, technical documents, and training classes. Currently she devotes her creative skills to web design, writing, and jewelry artistry.
Elizabeth Levi - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Elizabeth Levi grew up in Cedar Rapids, and earned a BS in Fine Arts with a minor in History from the University of Wyoming. She married and returned to Cedar Rapids where, in 2002, she opened Blue Chair Studio. Her work is usually abstract, because what excites and inspires her are pure color, shape, pattern, scale, line, and texture. Elizabeth’s work can be found in 25 retail locations nationally, as well as in France, Mexico, and New Zealand. She currently resides in Cedar Rapids with her husband and daughter.
Dell Magnuson Secor - Marion, Iowa
Dell Magnuson Secor is a watercolor artist and basket weaver, who creates vessels from pine needles. She coils the needles, sewing a pattern with natural or colored thread as the hand-shaped baskets are made. Occasionally, a center, such as a sliced walnut shell or a handmade teneriffe ring, is used to begin the coils. Baskets may be left in their natural state when finished. However, Dell prefers to season them with a coat of natural beeswax which is then polished to remove any stray needle points. Shellac may also be used to finish the baskets.
Laura Mostaghel - Marco Island, Florida
Laura Mostaghel realized her desire to become a successful artist at an early age. As a child, Laura painted, sculpted, and attended a variety of academies throughout the south. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Laura now has her studio and home in Marco Island, Florida, which she shares with her husband and children. Along with fine art paintings in acrylics and oils, Laura also paints murals, vases, and jewelry. Laura’s appreciation of nature and love of animals is reflected in her paintings. She draws upon her surroundings for subjects and scenes, as well as her special inner vision of places and things. Acclaimed as one of the most significant female artists in the country, Laura’s art has attracted many celebrity fans and collectors in the United States and Europe.
Larry Rettig - South Amana, Iowa
Larry and Wilma Rettig are native-born Amana folks whose gardens have appeared in local and national publications, have been featured on the internet, and are listed with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. as a national heritage garden. They grow over 300 varieties of flowers, trees, shrubs, and vegetables. Since 1986 they have maintained a seed bank that preserves vegetable varieties brought from Germany via Ebenezer, New York, to the Amanas in Iowa. Live plant material from the gardens is hammered into special watercolor paper to produce unique and beautiful images. Each print is an original piece of art, and on the back of each print, Larry notes the plant materials used to produce it.
Naser and Patricia Shahrivar - Central City, Iowa
Naser was born in Tehran, Iran, and as a child had a passion for art and dreamed of becoming an artist. His parents were against it, thus forcing him into painting in secrecy. As a youth he won first place in the Tehran competition, moving on to place in the country competition. As a young man, Naser came to the United States and earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic and fine arts. He began freelance artwork and teaching part time. Patricia is a native Iowan who learned the art of chalk and the paintbrush from her grandmother, an art teacher. She has studied with nationally known artists such as Dan Gerhartz, Loren Entz, Jim Pollard, and others. Since 1985, she has received numerous awards for her art. The Shahrivar’s own and operate their gallery, the Art and Gift Center, in Central City, Iowa, where they display their original art, prints, pottery, jewelry, and other gift items.
Sarah Shey - Brooklyn, New York
Sarah Shey was born and raised on a cattle, corn, and bean farm in north-central Iowa. She has written for several publications, including the New York Times, Time Out New York, the Des Moines Register, The Iowan, and This Old House Magazine. She received her MFA in writing from Columbia University and her BA from Northwestern University.
Marcia Wegman - Iowa City, Iowa
Marcia Wegman attended Miami University in Hamilton, Ohio, and holds a MFA in printmaking from the University of Iowa. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, including Arizona Aqueous National Number VIII, Paper/Fiber Number XIX, and “Drawing Out the Land” at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. Ten of Wegman’s works are in the collection of the Nellis Air Force Base Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, and she has had a one-person show at the Muscatine Art Center in Iowa.
Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret - Iowa City, Iowa
Born in Iowa City in 1929, Joan Liffring Zug Bourret attended schools in Minnesota and Iowa. From 1948 to 1951 she worked as a photographer and reporter on the Cedar Rapids Gazette. She has worked as a freelance photographer since 1951, and has also produced several books. In addition to photographing Iowa and Iowans, Joan also compiles and publishes several specialty cookbooks, including The American Gothic Cookbook. Her photographs have appeared in many magazines and publications nationally, both editorially and in advertisements. Her photographs have been included in photographic exhibitions, and she has had several one-person shows, primarily in Iowa.
Rob Wallace - Ames, Iowa
Rob Wallace creates wooden bowls, vessels, and hollow forms from domestic and exotic wood species on a wood lathe, using a wide range of woodturning techniques. He strives to develop pieces which accentuate the wood’s natural characteristics, such as color, texture, and the “grain” or figure of the wood, and to produce pieces that are pleasing to view and to hold – his pieces admire the beauty of the wood itself. Wallace is a registered artist with the Iowa Arts Council, and exhibits and sells his artwork at a number of galleries in Iowa. Wallace has won numerous blue ribbons and awards at the Iowa State Fair, and he continues to show his work at national and regional venues.
Darrell Wahlstrom - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Discovering that his inner feelings are used to document abstract art has made Darrell Wahlstrom a student of mentors William De Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Wahlstrom has been painting for many years, and has recently begun to focus on abstract art. He feels that the opportunity to use the paintbrush to provide brushstrokes, colors, tones, and different textures of the imagination provides escape from reality for both the artist and the viewer. The learning tool of being able to observe abstract art and either agree with the artist, or conform to one’s own thought of the artwork, is what has drawn Wahlstrom to abstract painting.
Marissa Siegel - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Marissa Siegel is a recent graduate of the BFA program at the University of Iowa. Her most recent textile work, “Velvet Collection,” is a seasonal, utilitarian body of wearable art. These pieces are one-of-a-kind, and handmade locally in her Cedar Rapids home.
Mary Zeran - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Mary Zeran comes from a creative family. Her mother and grandmother introduced her to making things at an early age. She has continued this tradition by exploring the mediums of metalworking, sculpture, installation art, and painting. She finds inspiration in landscape, architecture, the human condition, silence, and laughter. She received her Masters of Fine Art from the University of Iowa. Zeran’s artwork can be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The University of Iowa, The University of Iowa Hospitals, and Younker’s Department Stores.
Lil McKinnon-Hicks - Jackson, Mississippi
Jewelry designer and silversmith Lil McKinnon-Hicks creates bold, unique pieces of jewelry, each of which is an original work of art. She is proud of the fact that her jewelry isn’t for everyone – each piece is designed for women who are larger than life, self-actualized, confident, and willing to live on no one’s terms but their own. She also offers custom pieces, planned and designed in collaboration with the client. Her jewelry is displayed and sold at several stores, boutiques, and galleries throughout the south, as well as the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
Doug Hanson - Mt. Vernon, Iowa
For almost four decades, Doug Hanson has devoted his art making energies towards works primarily in clay. He began that career as a sculptor who made a few pots. However, visiting internationally-known potters, plus museums filled with pots, while on a one-year Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in England, reversed his production completely. Since that year, with the exception of the outdoor sculpture commission at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, he has made only pottery. Hanson’s pottery combines Western and Eastern influences to form a cohesive whole, but equally important in his work is the consideration of the function of each as it is to be used in eating and drinking.
Ice Cube Press - Iowa City, Iowa
For more than fifteen years, Ice Cube Press books have specialized in Midwestern stories about the world in which we live. ICP books tread deeply into new ideas such as living with topsoil, exploring tornadoes, blizzards, and sometimes digging down to Devonian fossil beds. At other times their books explore humor or landscape art. Whether its weather patterns, food, or prairies, they are curious about the passing of the seasons and the stories the seasons bring – they have books you’ll like to read. ICP has earned several awards, including a Kansas Book Award, a Midwest Connections Pick, and the Radish Magazine Award. ICP has also worked closely with such organizations as Humanities Iowa and the Iowa Arts Council.
Iowa Connections - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Iowa Connections is a small business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that provides custom greeting cards with images taken in the state of Iowa. They sell greeting cards to museums, gift shops, art exhibits, and the public. Contact them to see what they can do for you!
Timothy Woosley - McGregor, Iowa
Timothy Woolsey loves to paint. His world revolves around it, and he can’t wait to get to work each day. Most days he is absorbed in composition, mixing colors, drawing, pondering, visiting sites, examining artifacts, fieldwork, photography, and exploring the beautiful physical around us. He was educated at Suffield Academy (Suffield, CT), Beloit College (Beloit, WI), and the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has appeared in numerous galleries, museums, and shows, as well as many private collections. Through his paintings, Timothy Woolsey seeks to understand the relationships between land and sky, man and woman, line and color, technology and handmade objects, beginnings and endings, and all of the Creator’s blessings around us. He has come to realize that the land upon which we live is sacred, and his paintings offer a choice of how this land is to be used.