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6th Annual Regional Artists Community Exhibition
Participating Artists

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Jo-Ann Adams a RAC artist

Jo-Ann Adams

Artist Bio
Though born in Massachusetts, I’ve lived in a small rural town called Quitman in South Georgia most of my life. I am widowed with 3 children and 7 grandchildren. Professionally, I taught high school art for 25 years and recently retired to JUST PAINT and to
help with my grandchildren.

Artist Statement
Living in the country has created memories for me that are both funny and scary to look back on. We had all types of farm animals and a garden with dogs and cats and a pet racoon named Charlie. I have realized how important these and the memories yet to come are. My artworks are a sort of documentation of my experiences. Not only visually but sounds and smells as well. The beach reminds me of summer vacations with the sounds of the waves and smells of salt water. I used to lay on the trampoline and look at the clouds. They are so calming as they move into shapes of animals or people. I feel that being still, hearing birds, bees and insects, guides me to feel closer to God. My faith is in everything I do, including my subject matter and the painting process. My media of choice is watercolor and acrylic. However; I do drawings in pencil and charcoal. I use a traditional style with an Impressionistic flair. I LOVE color! I do more realistic paintings abstracted by color choices. I also do commission work that mostly involves portraits of people or pets. Often; the people are from different sources placed together in my work. It’s very special to be included in making memories for other families too.

Suzanne Ally artist headshot

Suzanne Ally

Suzanne Wheeler Ally is from Dallas, Texas. She was the recipient of the prestigious Nordan Fine Arts Scholarship at Texas Christian University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting in 1980. Suzanne has won several awards for her paintings and has exhibited in numerous exhibitions across the country including a two-person exhibition with her husband, Harry Ally at the 621 Gallery in Tallahassee, Fl, a solo exhibition entitled Painted Words at Valdosta State University, an exhibition with Ray Yeager at the Georgia’s Governors’ Program in Valdosta, GA, an exhibition at the Hayner Arts Center in Troy with her husband, and Prof John Hartley, and at the Valdosta National Exhibition in Georgia. She also served as gallery director at Mac Murray College in Illinois, has acted as juror for art exhibits, as art director in various venues, served as art advisor on community art organizations, has taught workshops and classes from pottery to painting, and assisted Harry in conducting the Alabama Art Colony and the Mississippi Art Colony Workshops. Closest to her heart is the Lincoln Art House in Troy, Ohio which she founded and structured bringing in community members from all walks of life to help and scheduling special sessions with visiting artists from around the US.

While devoting her resources and energy creating art with underprivileged children, not only did the children discover a safe space via self-explorative painting, but they discovered their own personal value while creating paintings together with other students as well as the teachers using the concept that teachers learn from their students. During the covid years Suzanne bought a casa in the central highlands of Mexico. The culture and vibrant colors of Mexico empowered Suzanne to continue her lifelong search for toxin free materials that could bring her closer to self expression. She discovered she could use materials from the cold wax process to produce the ethereal layers of color and meaning. She could submerge her writings within the layers of the painting in a way that more closely resembled her thoughts in the studio. She also returned to using micas, marble dust, powdered pigments and gold leaf.

LINES GRIDS & BORDERS - keep things in. Or out.
EDGES - where wars or love begin.
LAYERS - lives, soil, generations, strata, bones, fossils
SKIN, SCARS, BANDAIDS, transparency, illusion, film, gauze
GOLD, MICAS & CRYSTALS - metaphysical powers, symbols, healing, love, new beginnings
COPPER - Venus & Aphrodite, the scientific symbol Cu, you see
ENVELOPE & ENVELOP, QUILTS & PATTERNS - trapped in a pattern or secure in a cozy quilt?
CACHE - a safe place for hiding valuables
ATTIC - atelier, a place to create and learn, the topmost part of the brain, the creative center
TREEHOUSE - a time to play, to commune with the true inner child
PAST HURT, present healing, inner child, adult hero
WORDS PAINTED can bridge to broader what ifs.

Zane Alley artist headshot

Zane Ally

Zane Ally is a photographer, filmmaker, and musician who resides in south Georgia working full time as an architectural designer. Zane’s films and photography uses the edges between rural and urban southern life and juxtaposes nostalgia with absurdities of modern life. Primarily utilizing large format, medium format, and 35mm film producing highly detailed images. Zane typically has a documentarian workflow using realism to reflect the abstractions in objects of our of daily life.
Monica Briglia artist headshot

Monika Briglia

Monika Briglia, born 1979 in the small village of Tvrdonice, Czech Republic. As with all children , started doodling with pencil and paper, which quickly become a passion to capture life and events surrounding her. Her father also encouraged her to follow this passion, having dabbled in drawing and painting as well. She was struck with wanderlust, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, traveling and working in England, and US east coast. Settling finally in Valdosta. Wanderlust temporarily satisfied, she continues to travel to as many unique places both abroad and stateside for inspiration in her paintings. While much of her work is location specific, some is a mash up of multiple places. She uses pen, pencil, charcoal, oil, and acrylic on canvas as her media of choice. Often mixing them for her unique and creative pieces. The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. ''Saint Augustine,'' in addition those who do not create never turn the page.

Christine Cabral

Christine Cabral is an artist and a teacher of art. She holds a BFA degree from Valdosta State University and an MFA from Florida State University, with an emphasis on mixed media and installation. Although her earlier works were largely three dimensional, her current focus is acrylic paint on canvas. She occasionally incorporates mixed media fabrics and vinyls into her paintings as well. Christine’s studio is in Valdosta, Georgia where she lives with her husband and two young children.

Annette Crosby

For Annette Crosby, all roads lead to Valdosta, Georgia. Her enthusiasm for her life there is evident in her energetic personality, immersing herself fully in home, family, community, and art. She grew up in Valdosta, went through all levels of school there, including college at Valdosta State University, and lives there now in the same home where she and her husband raised their three children. From childhood to now, she has consistently been an artist, her forms and techniques shifting and maturing to shape the established artist she is today.

She earned two degrees, a BFA in art education and a MEd in Elementary Education. She has garnered awards in regional and national juried competitions, exhibits in invitational solo and group shows, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections. She has been published in The Palette and Southern Living magazines and other publications around the South Georgia area. See her work on her website (annettecrosbyart.com), Facebook, Instagram and her gallery Artists on Ashley in Valdosta. But she will also effusively add, “and you can come to my studio!” at the Turner Center for the Arts, where she is artist-in-residence and teaches classes.

Like her personality, her abstract work is vibrant and lively, full of energy and sensation.

Brenda Francis artist headshot

Brenda Francis

God gave me a gift I didn't know I had until I was 58 years old. My Mother was an artist and my sister is an art teacher. I was always artistic but I never believed I had the patience to paint. Now I don't have the patience for anything else. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's before I realized that I was interested in learning to paint so I was not able to benefit from her guidance. An eight-year-old artist in England started taking the art world by storm in 2010 as ‘The New Monet.’ He was eight and I was 58 and it was past time for me to get started. I signed up for classes immediately and have been painting constantly ever since.

Painting has changed my life. I rarely go three days without a brush in my hand. I’m a very realistic painter. I love to paint birds, landscapes, people, animals, still life; it doesn’t matter what I’m painting as long as I’m painting. I want the subject of my paintings to be recognizable, to bring a smile or a memory to the viewer. Painting is a trip to a far away place for me…It’s relaxing and comforting. It’s a warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s sunshine on a rainy day. It’s something I should have started before I was 58 years old!

Anita Gillis artist headshot

Anita Gillis

Anita Gillis works in all cuts and enjoys seeing her rugs through the entire design, color planning, color creation, and hooking process. Her rug hooking journey began in 2015. She loves teaching beginners and introducing them to the wonderful world of rug hooking. She has also taught beginner dye class, employing fine shading techniques with hand torn wide cuts, shading for beginners, standing wool quilly's. She considers her students to be textile artists with distinct tastes, talents, and goals. Her approach is to teach technical skills while respecting students' need to apply those skills in their work as they see fit. She sells rug hooking supplies in Hahira, Georgia.

My Rug Hooking Journey
I’m a 43-year-old mom and rug hooking artist. I have a background in retail and graphic art. Certified McGown Teacher, I focus on learning everything, I can about rug hooking so I can help you on your journey. I dye, color plan, custom patterns, video tutorials and personal lessons in my home or through the web camera. We sell kits, wool, and more.

Taylor Gray artist headshot

Taylor Gray

Taylor Gray is a multimedia two-dimensional artist from Valdosta, Georgia who graduated from Valdosta State University (VSU) with her B.A. in Fine Arts as well as her B.F.A in Art Education. Gray has featured work in the Turner Center’s scholarship auction, the Draw Project and annual Sprint into Art exhibition as well as exhibited work in juried shows around the nation. Gray is currently teaching high school art in Valdosta and is actively creating.
Emma Kostopulus artist head shot

Emma Kostopolus

I was born and raised in a small town in the middle of Missouri, where I did just about everything except visual art -- theater, music, debate. I didn't start exploring being a maker until college, when I took up embroidery and knitting. Drawing and pottery classes soon followed in grad school, but no medium ever seemed like home.

In 2021, after finishing my PhD, I took a job in the English department at Valdosta State. Looking for something to do, I started taking classes at the Turner Center. Once I discovered the glass studio, I immediately fell head over heels, and soon was there every weekend. The studio is my happy place -- breaking glass is both creative and cathartic. I also really love my work there as an instructor, helping people see themselves as creative and artistic in their own unique ways.

Thara Lingefelt artist headshot

Thara Lingefelt

Mandy Macias artist headshot

Mandy Macias

Teresa Middleton artis headshot

Teresa Middleton

Teresa Middleton has been a local artist in Valdosta, Georgia for over 40 years. She is a graduate of VSU and taught art at Valdosta High School as well as Adjunct Faculty at VSU for 30 years. She draws her inspiration from nature, mostly large floral paintings. She was a signature member of the Georgia watercolor Society, has been in the Colson calendar locally numerous times, and is featured in many local art collections. She loves the fact that many of her former students are now her artist peers. She also does work by commission, including portraiture work.
Hunter Pope artist headshot

Hunter Pope

Hunter Pope is an award-winning artist from Valdosta. She earned a Master of Arts in Arts in Medicine from the University of Florida and a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Valdosta State University. She enjoys painting, drawing, pottery, photography, printmaking, and other art forms, including singing and learning to knit. She has worked as a private art tutor and has taught classes for Valdosta State University's Camp Discovery, Learning in Retirement, and Continuing Education programs. She volunteers with South Georgia Medical Center's In-Patient Rehabilitation Unit, where she uses art to help patients heal mentally and physically.
Elisa Ray artist headshot

Elisa Ray

I'm a landscape photographer that loves to capture sunsets, the beach, usually coastal Georgia and all nature related scenes. My love for photography came in at a very young age when I would ask my mom to use the camera and then have her develop the film. When digital photography was out I loved it even more because then I didn't have to be limited to the 24 photos I was used to taking and I could see the results much faster. I also enjoy taking pictures of historic downtown areas, old buildings or I take my 1964 VW beetle "Sprout" around for photo shoots. In addition, I use my photography skills on my job as a real estate agent taking pictures of the properties I list. I have been a Regional Artist Community (RAC) member for about 5 years and have a couple of my prints for sale at the Turner Center for the Arts gift store.
Dennis Rothfuss artist headshot

Dennis Rothfuss

The art I create is often shaped by technology, either as a theme or through its application in my creative process. I try to both comment on the affects of technology on the human experience while also applying new and emerging technologies to my creative process.

I frequently attaching moniker "desult" to the work that I create. It acts as a guiding philosophy for my creative approach. Often, I begin without knowing what something is ultimately going to be. I embrace the idea of starting something and cast it into the world to have it's influence on others. These things can spark imagination and be built upon in ways that the original creator might never have envisioned. It's ok to create despite no end vision.

Lanell Shen artist headshot

Lanell Shen

Lanell Shen was born on a zucchini farm in Grand Junction, Colorado. She joined the Navy at seventeen and became a Hospital Corman and Surgical Technologist. The Navy took her to Guam where she met and married her husband who was also in the Navy. They traveled extensively while living in Guam for five years and developed a lifetime love of travel.

In 2016, Lanell moved to Valdosta Georgia for her husband's career. It was at this time she began oil painting at Turner Art Center.

Eight years later, Lanell joined Curate Collective; a gallery and studio in downtown Valdosta, where she teaches children and adult art classes.

Travis D. Simmons artist headshot

Travis D. Simmons

Julie Smith artist headshot

Julie Smith

I am from Savannah. I have a BA in Art from Georgia Southern and an MA in Anthropology from UNLV. I moved to Valdosta with my family in 1993.
Karen Stewart artist headshot

Karen Stewart

Rick Szymanski artist headshot

Rick Szymanski

Susan Wehling artist headshot

Susan Wehling