Lillie Mack & Marilyn Gordon, Fiber & Design Arts:Fashion - Blackbelt Designs, York AL

In the heart of the black belt of the Deep South, on the western edge of Alabama and just a few miles from Mississippi, sits the small town of York. York, population 2,854, is in Sumter County, population under 15,000 and listed as one of the poorest counties in Alabama.

August 1956 a female was born who never embraced the idea of being poor. She was well aware there was never much money to spend in stores but there was always hand-me-down clothing and leftover scraps to rework and/or play with creating something new, functional, and
usually different than her peers.

Lillie Jean Mack , the second oldest of 7 children, learned to sew by observing her mother. Often she would remake an adult’s dress into two child size dresses. Feed sacks and flour sacks were a source of new fabric to sew with.

"Although two of my sisters also sewed, I was the one that helped to clothe the family. We had no commercial patterns so I learned to eye the body, cut the garment, sew & fit on a live mannequin – the person who would be wearing the item."

After High School and the birth of her eldest child, Lillie began working at the local apparel factory. Twenty six years later, the factories moved to Mexico and she was without a job. Sewing for family members did not fulfill her need to sew and create what she visualized, so she began making quilts, lap robes, and craft items to sell.
“All these years of designing and sewing from salvaged materials and I never realized I did anything differently from other sewers. In fact, I felt others were more skilled since I could not work from a pattern. "

This soon changed when she joined Blackbelt Designs, a new fulltime fiber arts workshop that was starting in York sponsored by the Coleman Center for Arts and Culture.

"The same year I joined Black Belt Designs as a volunteer, we visited Kentuck Festival of the Arts, Northport, Alabama. Previous to this excursion I thought art was something people hung on the wall. I had an epiphany that changed the way I viewed my passion, and myself, as I walked the aisles. This exposure to quality arts and crafts awakened me to possibilities. At age forty six, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother I discovered what I had been doing for forty years to clothe family and decorate my home was admired by many people.

Now, I recycle denim jeans into designer jackets. I totally rip the jeans and incorporate unfaded areas into the design of the jackets.

Another fabric of choice is mudcloth from Mali. When people ask why mudcloth, my reply is “I use the African made fabric because it epitomizes what I believe. One can make something beautiful from what they find around them”.

Lillie is listed as one of Alabama’s outstanding artists on SouthernArtistry.org.

Some of her other recognition includes:
Arts & Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa, AL juried show - honorable mention.
Sumter County, AL Fine Arts juried show - 2nd place
Invited exhibitor Kentuck Arts & Crafts, Northport, AL
Invited exhibitor Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Design Arts Fellowship with the Alabama State Arts Council

For more information, please visit their new web site:
http://www.blackbeltdesigns.net/

Anne Webb, Pottery - Magnolia Springs AL

A native of Canada, Anne relocated in 2000 from Ontario to coastal Alabama, where she currently shares a studio with Lowell Webb.

She discovered the joy of working with clay in 1993 when she signed up for a pottery introduction class as a diversion from her day job. Ever since university, she had been looking for something that was intrinsically satisfying, and it appeared clay was it -- the connection was immediate, and she hasn't looked back since.

Mostly self-taught, Anne prefers to work on the potter's wheel.
"The clean, graceful forms that one can achieve on the wheel can equally stand on their own without adornment, or provide a good foundation for most any decoration, whether it be a simple glaze, free form brushwork, or carved design."

Anne makes both high-fired functional ware as well as one-of-a-kind art pottery. She draws design inspiration from the world around her here on the Gulf Coast, and is strongly influenced by the aesthetic and spirit of Asian and Celtic design, as well as that of the Art Nouveau Period.

"Pottery has a distinct human connection. It is a tradition strongly rooted throughout human history, transcending both cultural and chronological lines. Revisiting works from the past is a celebration of our diversity, giving us a reference point as both artists and human beings. "

Visit the Webb Pottery website: www.webbpottery.com
and blog at: http://www.webbpottery.com/blog

Jaclyn Benedict, Unique Handcrafted Fine Jewelry - Mobile AL

In 1974, when Jaclyn was in her sophomore year at the University of South Alabama, she happened to look through a doorway into a new art class being offered by Lloyd Patton. The class was metal smithing. She dropped her handful of clay and never looked back.

Jaclyn spent two years under Mr. Patton’s tutelage, studying jewelry design and the many varied techniques of working with precious metals. Over the years, she has increased her knowledge by talking to other artists and taking classes from such sources as master wire wrapper Preston Luther, Fairhope artist Betsy Sable and the William Holland School of Lapidary Arts. Jaclyn’s pieces of wearable art are created by but are not limited to hand building, wax carving and casting and wire wrapping all done in silver and/or gold.

Colored stones also fascinate Jaclyn. She began experimenting with and using many different and unusual types of gem material in her pieces. “I like my jewelry to reflect the personality of the wearer. I prefer my stones to be freeform and the finished piece to certainly not be something you would find in a jewelry store.” Jaclyn has traveled across the United States visiting sites where she has been able to dig gem material and has been in numerous Gem & Mineral Shows. She travels to Tucson, Arizona each year for the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

Jaclyn began participating in juried art shows in 1989. She has won numerous awards, including Best-of-Show. She has been a member of the Cathedral Square Gallery, Mobile, Alabama’s only artist’s co-op, since 1998.

Scott A. Blackwell, Cajun Art & Design - Waveland MS

"When i ate my first crayon as a kid, I knew I wanted to be an artist."

Scott Blackwell... A Contemporary Humorist, with a Cajun and Carribean Twist, who takes art seriously, but with a big dose of humor and color.

Scott takes his work to another level of depth using vibrant colors and textures to produce his wacky world of original and limited edition pieces. His mediums consist of acrylic paint, gypsum cement, found objects and new building products found at local hardware stores. His original paintings are on canvas with a technique he designed to create a look as though it were a tile.

Scott grew up on the Anna Maria Island, Florida, attended Ringling School of Art and achieved a BFA from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. Scott has moved back and forth from Florida to Louisiana several times after graduation. His heritage, being half Cajun, made him settle in a little town called LaPlace on the outskirts of New Orleans. After ten years he relocated to Waveland, Mississippi, where he lives close to the Gulf beaches and the bayous.

"My mentors were always Salvador Dali, Peter Paul Rubens, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Gary Larson's "the Far side"." Scott's inspiration comes from the beaches, his Louisiana heritage, and a good roaring fire.

Scott's works are currently sold in galleries in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Michigan. and have been sold to private collectors in 24 different countries.

He has been included in many group shows around the country, including the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans (1993), The New Orleans Museum of Art (1991), and in 1993 he was featured in the show Real New Orleans on Channel 26 TV. He was also Featured Artist at the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center (Bear Creek Bluegrass Festival) Children's Museum, Gulfport, MS (2005), and at Jubilee CityFest, Montgomery AL (2005)

Scott can now be reached at:
Mombo Graphics, 436 Sandy St., Waveland MS
email: mombocompany@aol.com

Robert "Spike" Cloninger, Fine Lathe Turned Vessels - Fairhope AL

I am making wooden vessels - bowls, urns, vases, goblets - hand turned on a lathe, or hand carved, or both. My medium is wood that I harvest directly from tree or stump.

The wood that I work with is of no value to more conventional woodworkers. The twisted and gnarled crotches, burls and roots that I use are left in the forest by harvesters of lumber and pulp. Even firewood gatherers disdain the pieces that I routinely seek. The odd shaped, unwieldy, chunks that won’t split and won’t stack and won’t fit in the fireplace - these are the treasures to which I am attentive, and which come under my hand.

Most of the vessels that I make are turned from “green” (unseasoned) wood, straight from a log, burl or gnarly stump. It is the nature of such wood to continue to “move” a bit after they are turned, which accounts for the out-of-round and/or textured aspect of many of these vessels. If, while turning, I uncover an insect or larvae path, I try to incorporate it into the surface of the finished piece. I will sometime leave the marks of woodpecker activity on the surface of the vessel - the signature of the artisan who made a living in the tree before I have.

My wood yards are the log jambs and the swamps of our coastal rivers. Magnolia and Holly and the roots and burls of Eastern White Cedar, Swamp Gum and Oak are abundantly available. Hurricane debris is another of my sources, delivered on a regular basis here on the Gulf Coast. When I weary of working with local woods, I gather a pick-up truck- load of choice pieces and journey to the Carolinas to barter with other wood turners for Maple and Cherry burl, or to Texas to swap for Mesquite.

Thus my environment is my stock in trade, and my relationship to the rivers, and bayshores I live near is no less important in my art - both physically and spiritually - than the relationship of my hands and eyes to the spinning workpiece.

From river, forest, bay and swamp to the music-filled coolness of my small shop - my days are spun in wood.

~ Robert Cloninger ~

Lowell Webb, Pottery - Magnolia Springs AL

Working with clay has been a love of Lowell's since his childhood. He first discovered clay on his own when he was about 5, while playing near his family's home in Fort Walton, Florida. When he was about 11, he happened to see a folk potter giving a throwing demonstration at a local shopping mall. This really caught Lowell's attention and focus, and he went home and fashioned a crude kickwheel with "an old bicycle rim, some wood, some brick, and whatever else I could find. That was my first wheel and that's what I first learned to throw on."

After taking his first pottery class when he was 21, he met Florida potter Charlie Brown, who really opened Lowell's eyes to the raku firing process. Later, Lowell attended Memphis Academy of Art and from there, transferred into the sculpture program at Memphis State.
"I actually moved to southern Alabama in the 1980's because of the abundance of high-quality native clay, as well as the rich pottery tradition, ranging from that of Native Americans to the potteries of the last century."

Since moving to Baldwin County, he has taught at Fairhope's Eastern Shore Art Center, and has given many people private lessons out of his old studio in Silverhill, Al. He co-owned and operated Twinkleberry Pottery, producing raku, primitive-fired, and stoneware pottery. In 2000 he relocated to his present location in Magnolia Springs.

Lowell is currently working on a body of work he calls "artificial artifacts". As the name suggests, these artifacts aren't meant to be an imitation of actual ancient finds, merely reminiscent of them. His pieces provoke thought and distant memories of long lost cultures, as we envision the possibility of who might have made or used them and what hands they may have passed through. These clay pieces have a story to tell, even if only from a distant place in our imagination.

Visit the Webb Pottery website: www.webbpottery.com

William Colburn, Sculpture - Fairhope AL

William F Colburn, Jr. was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and currently resides and works in Fairhope.

Following in his father's footsteps, he began welding at a very young age and over the last 15 years has successfully worked at establishing a business all his own, producing unique and creative metal sculptures. His work includes Artistic Studio Furniture, indoor and outdoor sculpture, as well as structural and accent architectural pieces.

William has exhibited in many States throughout the U.S. and continues to travel the nation, participating in art festivals primarily during the spring and summer months. Since 2000, he has won numerous arts and festival awards and gained recognition in the iron and metal art industry. William's work has also been marketed by art and home design catalogs such as Sundance and Crow's Nest Trading Company.

Each and every piece of William Colburn’s fabricated iron and steel sculpture is created by the artist in his private studio. Metal is cut using a plasma or gas fueled torch, shaped over a forge, and weld fabricated. Other projects involve individually casting molten metal using sand-cast molds of William’s own design. Brass, aluminum, and natural stones are incorporated into many of his projects.

Tools used in the process include hand held torches, a coal-fired forge, mig and tig welders, and various hand held hammers. No commercial or automated equipment is used in any phase of the creation or design process.

Bethany Metzger, Decorative Floorcloths - Mobile AL

Degree in Art from the University of Alabama during the Paleolithic Period.

In 1990, began an art partnership with Lucy Clark and created punched metal luminaries on mosaic bases. This proved too difficult to continue due to weight and sharp edges.

Continual collaboration with Clark in the lucrative floorcloth market. Merging form and function, we create unexpected decorative punctuation. Art for the floor.

Floorcloths are highly durable, easy to maintain, and are a very old art form. Our floorcloths are non-traditional, fun, and festive, often very contemporary.

Maria Spies, Pottery - Silverhill AL

Maria Spies has worked as an independent ceramic artist since 1973. Originally from Mobile, she has studied with many national and international artists but most of her time has been spent in her own studio working and developing her own styles and skills.

Maria’s work appears in many galleries and collections throughout the country. Teaching others through classes and workshops has also been an important part of her career. This has kept her in touch with students and helped them to develop a respect for the ceramic arts.

Maria has also been active with non-profit organizations throughout her career serving different positions as an officer, board member and volunteer. She has chaired and juried numerous shows and exhibitions. Recently awarded Best of Show at Mobile’s Arts Alive 2008.

To find more out about Maria, please visit her website:
http://www.maria-pots.com