In Remembrance 

deceased 2023

I love to paint. I love the color and response of the paint on the surface of whatever paper, canvas, or board that I am painting on. I think watercolor sings on paper and you can't beat the colors in acrylics. In this painting, "Tango", my love for dance comes through.

Every painting that I complete is a result of my wrestling with the question: how do my origins — the people and places and events of my past — affect my life today, and can I come to some sort of peace with them? The answers to my questions have been slow in revealing themselves to me, and I know that they may never do so. The glazing process that I use for the majority of my paintings is similar to the emotional process that I have experienced. Glazing involves the patient, time-consuming application of layer after thin layer of paint, letting each wash dry before adding the next. No colors are mixed on the palette — instead, they are applied to the paper in their pure form. Subsequent washes of paint will determine the resulting color. Painting in this manner requires much planning, patience, and forethought as each piece goes through many awkward, even ugly stages before revealing the finished product. As I work, I impatiently endure nursing my works through these stages so I can see the end result that I envisioned as I planned the piece. My paintings are really about emotional growth and overcoming obstacles from the past. They express my acceptance of the duality of life: positive coming from negative, beauty from ugliness.

My work is a reflection of my life experiences, it is my voice, my vision and my deepest feelings. It is always evolving.

For many years I worked in the environmental field but I became depressed and disillusioned with what I saw happening around me. Since 2009 I’ve had the incredible privilege of being able to live and work as an artist in China, and have traveled extensively throughout Asia. My practice has allowed me to explore who I am in the world and learn about other cultures through exposure to their art. I’ve been able to keep the incredible people I’ve met, places I’ve been, and experiences I’ve had alive in my visual creations. For me art is life and life is art - there is no separation.

I am an object maker and Nebraskan, transplanted to Kansas. I have a Master of Fine Arts in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a Bachelors of Arts in Studio Art from Hastings College. I am a Pokémon trainer, Destiny Warlock, and a Ravenclaw house member. I am married to a science teacher, parent of two cats and several house plants. I am also an asthmatic with allergies. A dyslexic perfectionist. Living with depression and anxiety. A coffee and tea drinker. From a small village. A walking cat encyclopedia. The daughter of a mechanic and medical laboratory technician. The granddaughter of farmers, teachers, machinists, and bookkeepers. A proud sister of a female Navy veteran. A disappointed American. And I am quite short.

In Remembrance 

deceased 2014

A PAINTER’S WORK IS HIS DIARY…JOURNEY. As a water media artist, my life experiences become filtered in my eye, mind, and heart. They are then transformed into my paintings… of joy and passion and adventure and reflection… I want the viewer to crawl into my work and walk through each step of motion or intensity or serenity.

My artwork is about empathy—for ourselves, our stories, and for the planet. When we spend time with artwork that moves us we experience our shared humanity and feel our connection to the natural world.

I am a mixed media collage artist and acrylic painter, having been in SLMM for a long time. My focus is on experimental and bringing old treasures to a new life in art, such as U.S cancelled postage stamps, old maps, music scores, wine labels and much more. These add an extra dimension to my art and bring an added interest from the viewer.

I work with oils, acrylics, photographs, and related media to create abstract works that  reflect complex, multi-themed visualizations. My goal is to draw the viewer into the piece, creating a conversation between the artist and the viewer.

Barbara begins each new work while in a mediation. In a space between control and mystery. The creative process is a way into something beyond the tangible and then making into a visual invitation.

I see in the Universe a mystical world of flowing energies. It is the essence of this spiritual energy and its beautiful vibrant colors that inspire my paintings.

In Memory 

deceased 2017

As a long time art educator I have traveled through many mediums. I fall in love with each one. These art forms are my expression of experiences. I have a burning desire to learn new techniques, use new materials. I can easily fall into the comfort of the familiar and favorite colors and creations. I love realism as well as abstract.

I love combining images from quantum physics to tribal art, from natural forms to crop circles.

I think art making is a dialogue between me and the work. I put something down, it tells me where to go next. I try to listen.

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Creating drives my life. Whether it was within my long teaching career with 4th graders at a progressive school, or during the past 20 years of my business, Duncan Designs, I've enjoyed inventing new art forms in different mediums. Nature provides infinite inspiration for me, and it pushes me with my wet felting, in paintings, and with encaustic work.

With my work, I gather inspiration from books, dreams, or unexpected emotions. My motivation is not only getting in touch with my feelings, but also creating thought-provoking pieces for the viewer.

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The focus of my art is on Expressionism. The difference between Expressionism and Abstract Art is that Expressionism does not necessarily abandon all figural or representational elements. It can often use elements of abstraction to create an emotional effect and may utilize diverse techniques to convey nontraditional and nonrepresentational images. I am particularly influenced by many artists, abstract expressionists, and by the French Impressionists. I view my art as works that create a lasting image of the ever-changing world around us, which I interpret with romantic, lyrical, and multi-hued images. My paintings are in private collections across the country. I often donate my artwork to fund raising and charitable activities.

My creative process is simple yet complex. The techniques may be simple, but the application involves many levels and dimensions to create the final piece. Texture is an important element as well as juxtaposition of color. There are undercurrents in my work that the viewers generally do not see but often ask “how was that effect achieved?” They look on the surface. I challenge them to look into and behind the obvious. The deeper meaning may only have been what memories and emotions were evoked in working with the materials in my studio that day.

Art is a weft that adorns,and vitalizes the strands of life. My work vitalizes the strands of my life through painting, collage, assemblage and clay.

In Remembrance

deceased

I mix media, ideas, images and found things . Then they rearranged to envision a new reality. Art is about seeing from a different perspective.

Experimentation and immediacy characterize the process utilized to produce my work.

You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him find it within himself. — Galileo "I have been alternately surprised, gratified and puzzled by our human ability to both create and then solve our own struggles. It is as if Galileo’s quote implied that all we need is to listen to ourselves, our real selves, to grow, thrive and prosper. It seems simple, yet the compelling demands of daily life work against our ability to listen and know ourselves.

My paintings attempt to give the viewer a small space in which to focus totally on themself and their own unique responses to the piece. The images are layered, complex and non–representational. Each is intended to be a tangible and unique bit of reality for which the viewer will provide meaning."

There is something magical about being in the studio. Tubes of paint, scruffy brushes, collage materials and pristine canvas MEET to begin a layered dance. What were once elusive dreams now emerge as music to the eye and soul.

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Have been expanding my horizons to include cast glass pieces. Both bronze and glass go to outside foundries, but the cast stone and "found" work I do in-house.

Vibrant Colors and rich textures explode on the surface of my non-objective work. My paintings are always a process. I work intuitively as the image evolves. Varied layers of glazing give lushness and depth, while the addition of mediums helps to create the textures that emerge in the final image. I work pushing and pulling shapes, surfaces, and colors, until I am excited with the uniqueness of each piece.

In every season of life, there is something to celebrate! As I paint and collage with materials that touch my soul it brings me hope, peace and a purpose to life.

I began as a ceramic artist and moved into mixed-media flatwork and assemblages. I enjoy playing with papers, found objects, and paint and rarely plan a piece, but rather begin it and then react to it, layering and layering, letting the piece tell me where to go. I'm drawn to the natural world as well as to strong shapes (circles and squares, spirals), and I sometimes incorporate found objects that I discover on walks around my city—rusted bits discarded by others, treasured by me.

I am an abstract/impressionist painter in water media. I love playing with color, shapes, layers and introducing textures

I like to work with material like quilter picking out the pattern. I enjoy work with loose colors as ink that flows all over the page. It blooms and runs on the page to create an image.

In Remembrance

deceased 2023

With heavy hearts we share the sad news that Nina Mihm passed away on January 16, 2023. Nina was a long time member of SLMM, serving on the Board in 2006-2007 and as President 2008-2013. She also co-edited SLMM's publication "Visual Journeys' with Mary Carroll Nelson in 2010. Nina was awarded a 'Lifetime' membership in 2013 and will be remembered for her leadership, loyalty and dedication.

Creating art, like air, is essential to my well being. I am inspired by nature, myth, the unknown and varied cultures of the world. I like my work to express thoughts, opinions or feelings that lift us beyond the ordinary, that expand our perceptions in some way to touch, connect and enrich our lives and imaginations.

My work is rooted in abstraction, where I explore expressive, organic forms through a dynamic interplay of color and texture. I am drawn to scenes that ignite my attention through their color and tactile qualities, which become the foundation for my compositions. By selecting abstract, imaginary, and organic subject matter, I create pieces that evoke natural phenomena—such as water, mist, and organic growth—without literal representation. This approach invites viewers to connect on an emotional and introspective level, reflecting on universal aspects of the human condition. Technically, my process involves layering rich surfaces that balance both random and organized texture. I push the boundaries of bold color, embracing a palette that moves between cool blues, teals, and whites, and warmer reds, pinks, and yellows, creating vibrant contrasts and visual rhythm. The dynamic shapes and fluid lines within my work establish a sense of continuous motion and energy, resulting in a distinctive tactile quality that unifies my pieces. Ultimately, my art is an exploration of depth, movement, and surface where abstraction serves as a language to express vitality and emotion beyond the confines of concrete narrative. Through this, I seek to communicate a recognizable voice that resonates with the viewer’s own experience of being.

My artwork is earthy, organic and multimedia. I enjoy painting from nature then interpreting my images into collages using textures. I work experimentally, painting positive and negative shapes, and adding embellishments. I am always looking for a way to interpret what I see in a more creative way.

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I think of my work as inventories of compositional lines and shapes inspired by my drawings, paintings, and photographs. Influenced by daily visuals seen in our landscapes and buildings I create abstract work that captures the essence of these elements that seem to stay with me and shape my body of work. While exploring planet earth I become a collector of visuals saved for future use. In the studio these elements gain energy and take form. Using layers of translucent and opaque glass with the tools of a painter, I construct improvisational works that are schematic in design and invite the viewer to move into a space of speculation.

In Remembrance 

deceased 2022

My preoccupation has been to study and express the multidimensional nature of the world we experience.

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I love touching, tearing and gluing paper. I am a collage artist. Life is a collage. It’s layered, textured and complex.

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Jessica Nojek is an abstract, acrylic painter in love with layering, texture, and gold metal leaf based in Albuquerque, NM. She works in abstract layers and gold metal leaf as a contemplation on the layers within our mind between our darkness and light; our ego and heart. In life we have moments of clarity tied to something bigger than what and who we think we are, and the back and forth in our minds and hearts between clarity and thought is the “what” that I attempt to share with others through art.

I see the world as a web of interconnected facets, finding commonalities among seemingly disparate elements, in literature, in music, & in my art.

My work is a culmination of the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects I experience at a particular time. Starting with random marks and strokes, I add many layers of colour to allow unexpected images to appear. As I tap into my intuition, the paint ‘speaks to me’ and tells me what it wants to become.

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My art embodies the music, harmony, and mystery of the Universe, the underlying energy of our world, the music of being within all things, creating a peaceful, harmonious space wherein one can experience silence, still–point, and oneness with all.

"All Paths Lead Home", we all return to the loving source of all life.

My work is truly mixed media, involving many processes and including a number of types of water-soluble media. I begin by creating a collection of painted, printed, and chemically altered papers. It's a slow and beautiful undertaking, always filled with surprises and discoveries. I often incorporate found papers from my repository of family archives—a piece of music, a letter, a page from an old ledger. It's important to me to include the voices and essence of those who came before me. The paper that I create and incorporate forms the foundation of my design. I craft each piece in layers, freely combining and adding paint, watercolor dyes, watercolor pencils, sumi and gel inks, gloss varnish, and other media to develop richness, depth and glow. Lately, I have been incorporating pen and ink as the final layer in my work. The evolution of each piece is a slow process requiring a certain brand of meditative Zen. My art is all about letting the process unfold. It cannot be hurried.

Janet is a poet who paints stories of spirituality, psychology, healing, the unknown and unlimited possibilities. Instead of words, she uses layers of painted paper, photographs, sometimes found objects, and paint on canvas. You are invited to step into her stories.

Documenting the mind exposing energy vibrations of a core frequency that allow me to become who I really am.

I am a collage artist. I have an appreciation for reuse, and create multi-layered collages primarily from found papers and discarded books. My work has appeared in both print and on-line publications.

I make ceramic sculpture and mixed media paintings from my spirit, which reveal the exploration of my history, experiences, emotions and moods.

In Remembrance

deceased 2021

"Art has always been a process of self discovery, healing and integration for me. Focused image–making and random experimentation with materials are partners in the work. Most of my paintings express different aspects of my experience of the inner spiritual world, drawing upon my dreams, personal symbols and world religions. They begin with a seed idea and then expand to include the thoughts, feelings and images that emerge during the painting process."

Robin Valenzuela is a practicing visual artist and workshop instructor. She builds abstract artwork by using bold colors and textures with acrylics, acrylic mediums, mixed media, or oil and cold wax. Her works are spontaneous and loose with smaller details of cut-in lines and shapes. The textural process, or layering, for her is exciting as it allows colors and hidden gems to appear and pull together an entire piece. Much like human behavior, she often relates each piece to the many layers we carry around. Robin is active in the art scene of Garden City, Kansas and participates in various local and area shows and fundraisers. She has shown in multi-state juried art festivals and galleries and has received various awards.

Currently my focus is the pursuit of beauty in nature. My work is often gentle and lovely. I love to work with acrylics and watercolors and am learning new ways to create collages. I'm a retired art teacher and Kathleen was one of my teacher's at FHSU. I'm so glad Jo and Kathleen have shown me the way to SSLM's.

I am a watercolorist passionate about the creative process. I look for the rhythms and the experience of my subject matter.

Enjoying the beauty of nature and recreating my sense of it all using mediums of the day is what I love to do most in the world. I like to look at things up close to see how they grow, what they are composed of, the colors they represent etc. My first love is watercolor but have experimented with many other mediums over the years. I love to take walks and pic up " treasures" along the way. I am happiest to create Art that inspires and brings happiness and healing to others.

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I once read that artists paint to discover personal truth and in turn find their visual voice and develop their individual painter language. My experience indicates that there is definitely a correlation between my search for personal identity, “isness,” and my choices of what and how I paint. I use layering to interweave my outer physical and inner emotional and spiritual responses to specific natural subjects that convey a like identity necessity, “isness.” My hope is that my work speaks a painter language that resonates with like personal truth seekers.