Nemacolin Woodlands Resort

For Claire Hardy, painting goes beyond making a likeness of the subject. It is also about recording the sense of the place, the feel of the atmosphere and the emotion the scene evokes. What's more, the subject may only be a starting point in the process of seeking how to manipulate paint to create a convincing illusion of atmosphere and light. She works directly on the canvas sculpting the paint to uncover the rightness of a composition and a harmony of colors. She is captivated by expressive color, descriptive brushwork, and soft edges.

Monty Montgomery’s artistic vision can best be described as an emotional language created using his innate intuition about color and object relationships to connect with the viewer. This authentic viewpoint often humbly defies the norm giving his work both power and vulnerability. Profoundly affected by his upbringing in the rural Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Monty’s work has always been informed by his visceral and emotional reactions to daily experiences whether in exploration of nature or trekking city streets. The epiphany came in his teen years when he began expressing this unique perception of the external world by blending conflicting elements into seamless harmony. Exposure to divergent settings and combining urban sensory input with his impressions of the natural landscape has inspired a collision into one expression where he attempts through color theory, mathematics and abstraction to share his journey and create a unique geometric style.

Christie Strub Biber is an artist working in oil paints and linoleum prints. She lives and creates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, specifically the Bellevue neighborhood. After attending Penn State University Park for a Bachelor of Arts in Painting and Drawing, she then went to Bloomsburg University for a Master’s in Painting. Bloomsburg is where Christie also learned printmaking. For about 20 years Christie taught art as an adjunct professor. She lived that semi-nomadic life teaching painting, drawing, printmaking, and art history to undergraduates in western Pennsylvania. Then Christie felt it was time to move on, and now she gets to work in the studio every day. She exhibits work locally and regionally. Etsy has been a great tool. She can show her work anywhere in the world. Prints have been shipped all over the US and to some European countries. Christie’s biggest influence in art has been Janet Fish. She admires the bold colors, composition, size, and active surfaces of Janet Fish’s paintings. Other influences include Neil Welliver, Bud Gibbons, Ron Donoughe, and Yoko Sekino-Bove. After many years working in still lifes inspired by Fish, Christie now feels that the time has come to transition to landscapes, more accurately the green and peaceful landscape of Pennsylvania.

Sarah Royer (Hirsch), creates high contrast, screen-prints of photographs, that she has taken on her travels to cities throughout the US and Europe. Inspired by architecture, art, and people, she captures the timeless quality of these iconic cities. Royer uses the photographic emulsion process, to transfer her photos onto a silkscreen, creating a stencil that is ready to be printed. “My work is about capturing an experience of a place and time and sharing it with others. It is about the entire process from beginning to end.” - Sarah Royer

After 43 years as an electronics field technician for Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, Don began woodworking as a hobby during his retirement. Inspired by making wooden toys for his grandchildren, he began exploring the use of a lathe. With his first finished bowl, he was hooked, falling in love with the technique of bowl making. He has since expanded his lathe toolkit, studied under other wood turners, and spends every day possible in his woodshop “puttering”.

Don’s pieces create a desire to be held, and once in your hands you too can experience the beauty of the design, which often incorporates the wood’s natural characteristics. Delicate and yet incredibly functional, Don carves away ribbons of wood to bring forth the natural curves, sparking a dialogue between the viewer and the natural world.

Hannah Steele, originally from Massachusetts, moved to Pennsylvania to get her BFA in Studio Art from Messiah College. Since graduating, she has been teaching, painting, and exhibiting in the Harrisburg area. In her work as a painter, she embraces the tactility of her materials, the character of her own human hand, and the intrinsic beauty of her subject matter. She seeks to listen to all three of these elements and, through their harmonious interactions, create images that amplify her own engagement, and embed otherwise passing moments into a tactile memory.

For Claire Hardy, painting goes beyond making a likeness of the subject. It is also about recording the sense of the place, the feel of the atmosphere and the emotion the scene evokes. What's more, the subject may only be a starting point in the process of seeking how to manipulate paint to create a convincing illusion of atmosphere and light. She works directly on the canvas sculpting the paint to uncover the rightness of a composition and a harmony of colors. She is captivated by expressive color, descriptive brushwork, and soft edges.

Could a book, like a vessel, be a container of knowledge, or is it just a sequence of spaces? Should it be confrontational or conversational? But most importantly, what can a book do? Constructing interactive artist books, Kerri’s work wraps ubiquitous objects with a fresh visual language by melding iconic imagery and text by exploring in the shifting importance the book, paper and print media play in our lives today. Her current works reflect parallels between the evolution of writing methods and systems, drawing similarities between tradition, practicality, and the future of communication. Is it vital that we maintain the ability to read documents from the past? In this information age, is the art of cursive handwriting obsolete, or is handwriting becoming obsolete because of technology? Kerri sees papermaking and sculptural artists' books as an interdisciplinary link—a nexus between tradition and the future. Kerri will spend her residency making books and hand stitching, resulting in a series of broadsides and handmade books focusing on experimenting with the intimate, shallow space on the surface of the paper. This attention to substrate manipulation will continue through additional layering of collected objects, thread, ink and text on handmade. The investigation will incorporate text and image inspired by the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and surrounding Laurel Highlands area.

After 43 years as an electronics field technician for Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, Don began woodworking as a hobby during his retirement. Inspired by making wooden toys for his grandchildren, he began exploring the use of a lathe. With his first finished bowl, he was hooked, falling in love with the technique of bowl making. He has since expanded his lathe toolkit, studied under other wood turners, and spends every day possible in his woodshop “puttering”. Don’s pieces create a desire to be held, and once in your hands you too can experience the beauty of the design, which often incorporates the wood’s natural characteristics. Delicate and yet incredibly functional, Don carves away ribbons of wood to bring forth the natural curves, sparking a dialogue between the viewer and the natural world.

Wax manipulator, Jim Inzero, reflects on his lifelong attraction to the shore and the movement and serenity in his work conveys the gratitude and bounty expressed by the ocean environment.  As well, Inzero is constantly inspired by the connection he feels to the people around him, which allows for a unique opportunity to express energy and emotions in a way that ultimately will always begin and end at the horizon; the horizon in which he feels represents the meeting place for the highs and lows of life.  Jim comes to the ‘canvas’ free of preconceptions and open to possibilities.  Jim’s Nemacolin Residency goal is to use his studio time to educate guests about the process of Encaustic art. He will provide hands-on demonstrations in the studio, as well as provide artist talks about his process.

James is a Pittsburgh based artist who produces original graphic design and photography for exhibition, publication, and commerce. As well, James curates exhibitions, leads workshops, teaches, and writes. During his residency at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, James will be creating graphic panels derived from geospatial data of the Resort area by obtaining and analyzing data from airborne, terrestrial, and satellite surveys. With this data, the culminated project will be imagery of graphic abstractions that combine the science of remote sensing and the art of cartography. Email: the54c@gmail.com

By creating one-of-a-kind and limited edition artist books, prints, and handmade paper using ethically-sourced, sustainable materials, Lisa Miles provides the vision and capable hands behind Dutchess Press. Her work meditates on the book as an artifact – a tool for communication across continents and centuries. Inspired by ancient makers, her artist books speak to a universal audience that transcends a single language or cultural perspective. During her Nemacolin Residency she will further explore the potential of a series of miniature beaten bark paper books made with Japanese kozo fibers with a focus on abstract landscapes inspired by the natural beauty of the Laurel Highlands. As well, she plans to reflect on the changing light, shapes, and colors of the organic world, and wants to bring life to a new work that can dialogue with the immediate natural environment. Lisa’s bark paper books are unusual and timeless, but what makes this work unique is the innovative method of “drawing” with plant-dyed fiber that she has developed. Once a “drawing” has been constructed, the fibers are then beaten by hand with a stone on a wood board, and left to dry in the sun. The intention of her beaten bark paper books is to present the viewers with relics of unknown origin which connect us materially with nature and human history, and resonate with our intimate relationship with the book form.