Artists are story tellers and Vivienne Douglas paints stories of people, with blanks left open for the viewers to fill in for themselves. She is most drawn to stories of women and their roles in life, whether they come from across the street or halfway around the world. Her stories can come from the day’s headlines with scenes of immigration or refugees, and portray everyday life in a harsh and difficult environment. Other works can depict tender and sweet moments, a woman who escapes the drudgery of laundry by composing a poem or melody in her head, or a mother at day’s end with her child in her arms. She invites you to weave your own feelings into these works, and relate them to your own journey through life. She hopes you will infuse your personal experience into her art, whether it is drawn from a memory, a hope or even regret, from the warmth of love or the bitterness of a lesson learned. This is what her art is about, to make you feel.

Ileana Barbu’s formations as a sculptor infused her artistic view with the fascination of three-dimensionality and the constant impulse of understanding forms in all angles. Drawing is an obsession for her – line and form in all their aspects have been a constant in her artwork. Her body of work can be viewed as a conglomerate of different directions, but she always returns back to line or linear compositions. Even when she “paints,” what really matters to her is the underlying structure. The paintings are, in fact, colored drawings. Ileana is fascinated with the human figure in all its aspects: physical, spiritual, natural, social and historical-temporal. Lately, she has been drawn to the images of trees – but also through the prism of human expression. Each “tree” is in fact another facet of herself.

Each of Kimberly McClintock’s prints begins as a tiny 2 to 4 inch square collage, assembled from original children’s book illustrations, postcards, maps, advertisements, found paper artifacts and other documents. Once finished, the collage is scanned at high resolution, color corrected, and archivally printed at twenty to thirty times its original size. A poet for over thirty years, Ms. McClintock considers her visual art a translation into the visual domain, using the same principles of contrast, association, and juxtaposition that are at work in poetry. Kimberly McClintock grew up in southern New Jersey. For the last twenty years, she has made her home in Colorado’s Front Range.

A Colorado native, Kathy M. Friesz currently resides in Denver. Kathy’s formal education at The Colorado Institute of Art, where she studied graphic design and interior design, allowed her to pursue a career as the owner and primary designer of her own firm for over 20 years. Her professional interior design experience has significantly influenced her sensibilities in achieving strong paintings.

Gary Molzan’s love of the West brought him to Boulder, Colorado, in 1981. Inspired by the magnificent scenery and close proximity to the mountains. He draws much of the vision for his paintings from hiking in the surrounding foothills and high country. Gary has a fascination for detail like the patterns in an old tree or the sparkle of granite and water. These details in his art touch the viewer and create a connection to nature and an awareness of the natural world that we are all a part of. He works in a variety of mediums to capture the details, mood and emotions of a scene including oil, acrylic, soft pastels, and water colors.

Marc Bernardi was born with a camera in each hand and a curious mind. This led him on a lifetime of adventure and every imaginable type of photography. His current passion is creating rich abstract images from quite ordinary photos. He transforms them into magical, colorful delights that draw the viewer in for a closer look, full of questions, and absolutely fascinated. Enjoy!

Bobbie Benson has created 12 Climate Heroes out of clay. They are men and women from around the world who have made important contributions to figure out solutions to climate change. Her goal was to make them whimsical and yet allow the heroes to speak their truth about activism and Climate Change. Bobbie believes that perhaps through artistic creativity, more minds can be persuaded to become environmental activists.