Nature's Influence - 3 ways

February - March
614 Lincolnway, La Porte
Opening: Friday, February 2, 2007
5:00pm – 8:00pm

This exhibit celebrates nature through the talent of three artists each using different mediums. Val Nepsha works with paper mache. Doug Schmidt and Karen Marken of Schmidt-Marken Designs use clay as their medium. Lou Ann Dixon is a photographer.

Artists

Val Nepsha - Paper Mache

A native of LaPorte, Ms. Nepsha graduated from LaPorte High School in 1976 and joined the US Army. After serving one tour, she moved to New York City and returned to LaPorte in 1984, She graduated from IUSB in 1993 and has one adult son.

Ms. Nepsha developed her technique of paper-mache relief sculpture in 2004. As a resident of LaPorte, Ms. Nepsha uses the lakes and rivers of Indiana and Lower Michigan as her subject matter. She thinks of her landscapes as mandalas. A place where the eye can rest so the mind can heal from the stresses of the day. She treats her other work as experiments pushing the paper and paint into new forms of visual expression. She won a Purchase Award for her relief sculpture Woodland at ArtCamp 2004 in Chesterton, IN and was a 1996 emerging Artist grant winner from the MichianaArts and Sciences Council.

Doug Schmidt – Clay

Clay is a natural substance produced by the earth. Pottery is an ancient art form, which we believe still has relevance in our modern world. We enjoy creating with clay and the entire transforming process involved. Our hope is that our work reflects a respect for the past and our own personal interpretation of the medium.
 
We create hand-thrown stoneware pottery. We begin with a lump of raw clay, which is thrown on an electric potter’s wheel. Each piece is formed one at a time and requires two kiln firings to complete—a bisque and an oxidation glaze firing. Many of our pieces are hand-painted, while others are incised using a wire loop tool. Our work features various motifs from primitive pictographs, geometric patterns and nature themes to whimsical animal designs. We use lead free glazes in an array of contemporary colors. Some pieces may incorporate copper, wood, or wrought iron stands. All of our glazes and clay are lead free, food safe, and can go in the dishwasher, microwave and conventional oven.

Schmidt-Marken Designs is the name of the husband and wife artistic partnership between Doug Schmidt and Karen Marken, officially established in 1987. We work in collaboration on most of our functional pieces, signing our pots with this name. We make the pottery in our one hundred year old barn which we converted into a studio and gallery/shop at 3403 S. Wozniak Rd., LaPorte. Doug travels the nation to about 30 art/craft shows during the year. We have two children, Alissa and Evan, who help out with the summer art fairs. Before moving to this area, we lived in Chicago for five years while working at Prints Unlimited Gallery.

Lou Ann Dixon – Artist - Photographer - Interior Designer

Lou Ann is a graduate of New Prairie High School and attended Ohio University in Athens, OH where she received a BFA in graphic design with an illustration emphasis and minor in photography.  While working in Chicago, she acquired an AAS in interior design at Wm. Rainey Harper College in Palatine, IL.