Photo and keen eye by Hailey Pennecke, Oceanside, NY
Category: Sharing the Love of Trees
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community cont’d (Sue Anne)
Sue Anne Foster is an artist educator and outspoken advocate of inclusion. She has a BS in Interior Design, MA in art therapy, and a PhD in Education.
A founding member of the international Labyrinth Society, her own 3 redwood trees are models of being rooted and grounded. She likes to touch their bark and hug them, even though her arms don’t reach all the way around.
Sue Anne brings her world travels home to the community. She has coordinated 7 Tibetan monks demonstrating sand mandalas at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento.
“My round is a circle of life that reflects my heart and cultural interests, with the message ‘hug a tree and another human’”. The backside is an embossed 11th circuit labyrinth, an ancient path of pilgrimage, and is reminiscent of the rings of a tree.
Artwork by Sue Anne Foster, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Pam)
Pam Avery is an abstract painter and ceramist in Sacramento, CA. With an MA in Art Education from California State University Sacramento, she taught high school art for 21 years.
She exhibits her art in the state fair, galleries, museums, colleges and hospitals, and has been featured on educational broadcasts.
A dancer, Pam brings a sense of gesture and movement to her paintings. Each one creates a space and world of its own through colors, shapes and textures to excite the senses while remaining light and airy.
Her round, with a monochrome tree on each side, embraces trees in the delicate drawings.
Artwork by Pam Avery, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Kimberly Louise)
Kimberly Louise Bellissimo-Andersen brings experience as a successful fashion designer to her studio to create unique mixed media art, often with texture.
“I have always thought that trees are very magical and healing. If you listen, they speak to you.
My project began with the new AI technology called Dall-E.
I requested an image of Mother Earth as a Tree. I loved the idea of the Tree encompassing the earth and set out to create such an image with miscellaneous craft items on hand such as string for the trunk and moss for the leaves.”
Kimberly also wrote a beautiful poem for the backside.
Artwork by Kimberly Louise Bellissimo-Andersen, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Karen)
Karen Keys is a watercolor and pastel artist in Northern California. Her style is representative with a little impressionism. She loves color and enjoys the give and take of painting in two different media.
Karen’s painted rounds show a collaboration of words and images, one captured her own trees that were affected by the recent storms.
“I have always loved trees. As a kid, I would go to my climbing tree whenever I was distressed and sit up in the tree just chilling. My first poem ever was called Tree. Trees feed my need to connect with nature.”
Artwork by Karen Keys, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Janelle)
Janelle is inspired by nature to explore her interests in painting and handlettering.
At our gathering, she shared that in Spring when the tulip trees are in bloom, she enjoys visiting familiar trees in the community to admire their annual show.
From this, Janelle painted a pink bloom and chose a quote about life for one round.
For the other one, she brush lettered an encouraging Bible verse along with a painting of a tree of life.
Artwork by Janelle, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Eileen)
Eileen Moffatt is currently working in clay with an emphasis on porcelain and making functional pieces highly decorative. She has also worked with paper collage; photography with tone on black and white, hand-developed pictures; and dabbled in welded metal sculpture.
Eileen used real buttons on one side of her piece, which brought back memories for many at the gathering.
“When I think of trees, I am reminded how every season of their lives is filled with beauty. From the young sapling with first buds to the grand growth of a truly mature tree—each part of the year and each cycle is filled with beauty, always changing and forever expressing. I seek to be like the trees, growing beauty every season.”
Artwork by Eileen Moffatt, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Debra)
Debra Brown is a pharmacist who’s approaching retirement to pursue creative interests. She’s exploring watercolor, charcoal and drawing and has also dabbled in mixed media collage.
Debra’s interpretive rounds, both excerpts from Mary Oliver poems, are both literal and figurative. She likes poetry that uses the setting of the natural world to speak about living our lives.
“In one round, I chose to use watercolor as the entrance to the door of the woods. In the Zentangle piece, I let the various patterns interpret how life can change and go in different directions, and still be a beautiful result.”
Mary Oliver’s poems inspire me to connect with the beauty and serenity of nature whenever possible.”
Artwork by Debra Brown, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Connie)
Connie Burdick works with dry felting in animals, mixed media, using scraps of all kinds, building with coils or slabs of clay for whimsy and practical uses, drawing and watercolor.
She painted a lighthearted tree and included some interesting facts about trees on the other side of her piece.
“I love trees and the bounty they provide to both humans and wildlife. In His wisdom, God has provided us with earth, water, plants, and wildlife. Trees play an integral part of our life on this planet. We need to be kinder to nature and to each other if we are to continue to survive. Meeting the other women filled my heart with much hope for the future of mankind and our world.”
Artwork by Connie Burdick, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Anne)
Anne Bradley is an art consultant, exhibit judge, and instructor in Northern California. She has been the featured artist at the KVIE Art Auction and has won numerous awards for her innovative paintings and sculpture for over 30 years.
An adventurous and creative spirit, she’s attracted to welding and casting bronze and aluminum, not only as sculpture but also with her abstract painting
Anne’s collage and mixed media art inspires people to take another look at familiar, often organic objects around them and see them in a different light.
Artwork by Anne Bradley, Story by Phawnda Moore
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Sharing the Love of Trees in Community, cont’d (Adriana)
Adriana is finally listening and tending to the voice of the artist deep within that’s been trying to get her attention for years. She’s taking classes in many types of media and particularly enjoys collage for the excitement of repurposing existing images to enhance each other ~ ultimately creating something beautiful and entirely new. Examples shown are her postage stamp spiral design, a nostalgic collage and poem, and stitchery.
Adriana has had a love for trees ever since childhood, when climbing to the top of a ginkgo tree was her “happy place”. Now, she finds both magic and comfort when amongst a grove of redwoods or bristlecone pines, where time simply evaporates.
Artwork by Adriana, Story by Phawnda Moore
