The Contemporary Dayton

Tara creates both decorative and functional ceramic works using a potter’s wheel and handmade plaster molds. She uses low-fire clay and casting slip, using time-tested techniques and commercial glazes. Most of the jewelry Tara makes is thrown on the wheel and is hollow, unglazed, and porous on the inside, allowing the piece to be used as aromatherapy jewelry, or as a stand-alone, uniquely-designed work of art.

Pat is a multi-media artist working in ceramics, sculpture, painting, and digital textiles. Her work is from the imagery of her memory, filtered through her artistic experience. She is interested in the interplay of eras and creating an illusion of perfections deflected by whimsical eccentricity. She draws inspiration from flora in the garden, an embellished costume, flea market finds, rust in the scrap yard and all things found sacred in a museum.

Stephanie received her BFA in Sculpture from Bowling Green State University, and currently coordinates the ceramics program for Edison State Community College, while teaching at various other community clay studios in the Dayton area. Currently creating Raku-fired vessels using a modernized version of the traditional Japanese firing technique of smoking clay in barrels for multiple surface effects, her forms display traditional brush stroke and splattered glazing methods.

Arlene's background in the fine arts is diverse. After graduating with a degree in art education from Briar Cliff University in Iowa and with additional graduate studies in art history, she spent the first part of her career teaching an array of fine arts courses on the secondary level. Arlene is primarily a painter but also works as a ceramic artist who hand builds sculptural forms, with an emphasis on minimal design and intuitive interaction with the clay. She works from her home studio in Dayton, Ohio.

A retired writer, editor and publication manager for a local hospital, Susan has been working as a fiber artist in the Dayton community for about 10 years. Her favorite medium is crochet, which allows her to explore color, texture and design in an infinite variety of ways. Storyline Creations came about when she decided to combine crochet with her love for the written word. Each piece she creates is matched with phrases from literature, poetry, and music.

Husband and wife team, David and Lisa Dault still carve out time to be creative amidst running a business, homeschooling, and raising their five girls. David admits to building his first potter’s wheel using the motor from his treadmill, and doesn’t hesitate to give his wife most of the credit for the intricate and detailed pieces they produce by hand. They are passionate about their work, and hope everyone connects with a piece of unique and beautiful pottery “to make their drinks and meals a little more special.”

Working out of a glass studio in Columbus, Jim hand blows his pieces from liquid glass taken from a 2000-degree furnace. Each piece is created by adding color and shaped by blowing through a steel pipe to gently move the piece toward the desired shape. Jim states the process is the most intriguing part: the challenge is to combine brilliant colors and shapes to draw the viewer’s attention to the finished piece that will add a splash of excitement to the space it occupies.

Thinking sustainably, Jeanne uses natural objects like plants and fibers to create unique eco-print greeting cards and artwork. Eco-print is a natural dye process made with sycamore, oak, gingko, and geranium leaves, with pussy willow and birch twigs sewn to the paper. Phrases are then scrawled through the composition as if they are wisdom discovered in the wilderness. Gold circles evoke the sacred longing to be one with nature. 

Connie Hanselman grew up loving art. After her art training at Wright State University, and nearly two decades of illustrating at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, she now paints full time. Her small still life artworks brim with light and soul. She is intrigued to find what she notices in life will eventually get layered into her oil paintings. She loves to tell her visual story with sensitivity to color, light, shape, and pattern (and sometimes even humor.) 

A Springfield native and graduate of Clark State Community College, Mikee has provided graphic design and photography support for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Wright Laboratory, and has worked for various DoD contractors. Her jewel tone series of abstract paintings is inspired by scientific imagery provided by AFRL researchers as well as from textures and colors she sees while hiking and enjoying the outdoors.

Susanne’s entry into the world of painting came out of her experience with garden design. Applying many of the same elements, she puts brush to a canvas rather than shovel to the earth. She tries to achieve an organic feel to her paintings with a strong emphasis on abstract shapes, brush strokes, tones, and textures to create expressionistic visual poetry. She has been strongly influenced by mid- century painters Robert Motherwell, Joan Mitchell, and Hans Hoffman.

Born and raised in Southern California but thriving in the Midwest, Janet provides a unique perspective to her craft.

As an accomplished industrial designer, Janet brings a sense of structure and strength to her art. She has worked in ceramics and mixed mediums accomplishing extraordinary museum-quality work over the last three decades. 

Kevin is a glass and ceramic artist living and working in Dayton, Ohio. His choice of medium is fused glass that he manipulates to create functional platters, kitchenware, and jewelry items. He also uses stoneware and porcelain to create durable earrings in abstract shapes and patterns. 

Flameworked glass appealed to Lisa's "daredevil heart" from the first day she sat in front of the torch flame, back in 1998. She has been incorporating her own handmade glass beads in jewelry designs ever since. Using traditional mandrel-wound techniques, each bead is created as a base shape and then decorative detail is added before being kiln annealed overnight for durability. Her most recent work incorporates fabricated metal designs with irregular shaped beads that have been etched in an acid bath to mimic the look of rocks or stones.

Barb was introduced to art at an early age by her grandfather. Always intrigued by her immediate surroundings, she usually makes art about a daily event. Barb graduated from Wright State University with a BFA in printmaking. After 30 years of employment at Wright State in the graphic arts/printing department, she retired in 2004. Barb currently resides with her husband on a farm in Xenia and primarily works in woodcut printmaking.