Shirley Benton

Shirley Benton is a self taught artist.  Her abstract paintings are characterized by strong colors and forms that evoke a wide range of emotions, from reflective and playful to chaotic and intense.  She works with various mediums including fabrics, and spray paints and acrylics on paper and masonite.  Using simple tools, paint rollers and sticks, she applies and blends multiple layers of color, sometimes cutting and sanding into the layers of paint, to create unique and free flowing images.

Bill Colby

Bill Colby is a master printmaker and has exhibited extensively throughout the Northwest and his art works are in many art museums, corporate and public school collections. He taught studio and art history at the University of Puget Sound for 33 years and has made his mark on printmaking in the Pacific Northwest. Nature has inspired Bill Colby to use wood grain to reveal the source of a swift river, the thrill of being in high
country and towering peaks, the oneness of driftwood and open beach.  Mountain-tree greens with intaglio technique are complimented with drifting wood grain sky. For five decades, Bill has described the nature spirit of water, trees, birds, rocks, hills, mountains, clouds and the ever-changing sky views. For five decades, Colby has used all print techniques. He has also painted with watercolor and acrylic paintings and mixed media prints, often using the woodcut process and the wood grain to reveal the depth of the Northwest spirit.  Multiple panels of different and related imagery in one format began ten years ago, however, interest in single imagery of the nature spirit is continuous.
Bill Colby Website

Heather Cornelius

Heather Cornelius was born in Tacoma Washington, where she and her family presently reside. She attended Pacific Lutheran University as an Art major with an emphasis in three-dimensional studies. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Art in May of 2007. She has taught ceramics programs at local Boys and Girls Club in conjunction with Metro Parks. Heather is currently employed at Open Arts Studio in Stadium district as the Ceramics Instructor. She also works at the Museum of Glass as an Emcee, where she lectures on glassblowing techniques and processes live in the hot shop. She has established her own studio practice and business, and exhibits and markets locally in the South Puget Sound area.  Heather’s website

Becky Frehse

Becky Frehse holds an MFA from Central Washington University and a B.F.A from Arizona State University. She has been exhibiting extensively for over two decades and has received awards including an Artist Trust GAP grant in 1995 and in 2004 the Kathe Kollwitz Award from the Northwest Women’s Caucus for Art. Becky is also an arts educator and is currently teaching part time at the University of Puget Sound. For Frehse, art making is a way of telling stories. Figures, gestures, objects, textures and light patterns that have the potential for both personal and universal meaning inspire her. Foreign travels, photography, poetry and traditional Chinese painting have strong influences on her work. Improvisation is also an important part of Frehse’s creative process. She compares her creative process to that of an archeologist discovering layers of meaning by studying an artifact’s proximity to other found objects; combinations of collage bits, text and imagery may be mysterious, but also lead to new realizations and understanding in a composition.
Becky Frehse Website

Bea Geller

Bea Geller is a digital artist and photographer. She received her master’s degree from Rochester Institute of Technology School of Photography. Living in the Northwest for the past twenty years, she finds an affinity with the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, and draws inspiration from the cultural richness of her home in New York City.
Major museums were her playground, and these experiences conveyed a sense of enchantment. The strength of her visual artwork is her design and composition. This geometry of space is manifest in all of her artwork irrespective of conceptual focus. Geller is associate professor of photography and digital imaging at Pacific Lutheran University. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country as well as locally at the Tacoma Art Museum, Bellevue Art Museum, Whatcom County Art Museum, and the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle. This year she was selected for Pierce County Portable Works Award.

Mirka Hokkanen

Mirka Hokkanen was born in 1979 in Helsinki, Finland. Growing up she was always close to the nature, playing in the woods and swimming in the lakes. Her life took a new direction when she moved to the U.S. in 1998 to attend Rockford College in Illinois.
Mirka finished her BFA in 2002, and received both MA (2004) and MFA (2006) degrees in printmaking from University of Dallas, in Irving, Texas. Since then she has taught art in the Savannah, GA, area at Columbia College and Armstrong Atlantic State University, before moving to Dupont, WA, where she currently lives. Mirka now works as a fulltime artist, illustrator and crafts person. Her works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Mirka’s Website

Though Hokkanen has lived in America for a long time, her work still reflects her heritage and upbringing. A respect for and closeness to nature draws Mirka to issues concerning the environment and animals and mans’ relationship with them.

Dorothy McCuistion

Dorothy McCuistion received a B.A. in Fine Art from Humboldt State University, California and continued post-graduate studies over the years at several institutions. In the years post-B.A., she worked primarily in fiber arts. McCuistion also had a successful career as an arts administrator in the public and non-profit sector from 1988-2004. She now pursues art making full-time and her most recent work is mixed media monotypes. She also paints with watercolor and acrylic. As a child, Dorothy loved to draw and when her mother taught her to sew, a world of texture, color and form opened for her. Her love of sewn cloth ultimately lead her to weaving, spinning, dyeing and felting. She has a strong graphic sense, which drew her to printmaking as an undergraduate and her love of color and texture is evident in all of her work. A sense of humor often surfaces in her work. Dorothy sees her current work as simple narratives in which the observer is invited to create their own story. 
Dorothy’s Website

LeeAnn Seaburg Perry

LeeAnn Seaburg Perry at nine years of age she knew that she would be an artist. Her drawings had always tons of “shading”, this was to be her first clue that she is a three dimensional thinker. LeeAnn studied sculpture at Pierce College, Lewis and Clark College and earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in sculpture, from Pratt Institute in New York. Stone was the answer to a long and explorative search for her artistic medium. The joy of discovering the mystery held within the stone motivates her work. Her initial cuts release the head from the stone. With the head identified, the lines of the body emerge. Often, part of the surface remains untouched. Occasionally, she adds texture to combine with smooth planes and lines to arrive at the strongest possible image. Each piece is unique in character and composition. Her hope is that the viewer upon exploring and touching the cool stone surface will experience a sense of serenity, joy and well being.

Peter Serko

Peter Serko is proof that one can reinvent oneself at almost any age.  With graduate training in counseling he worked for a number of years in the field as a family therapist.  Once he and his wife started their a family he decided to stay home and handle the child rearing duties.  During his time at home caring for their three children he became an accomplished gardener, cook and taught himself about computers.

Following some thirteen years at home he embarked on a high tech career in secondary education.  Here he learned all aspects of this broad and complex field including webdesign.  After turning fifty several years back he realized he was no longer young enough nor smart enough to stay in the IT field long term so he returned to an old interest photography.

With the emergence of digital photography Peter has discovered his voice as an artist.  The immediacy of digital allows feedback that helps refine his artistic vision.  While digital tools offer powerful image manipulation capabilities, Peter prefers to work with the tonal qualities of an image to convey his photographic ideas.  Attention to light and shadow are hallmarks of his work.  Peter enjoys photographing a variety of subjects including landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and house interiors among other things.
Peter Serko’s Website

Faith Hagenhofer

Faith Hagenhofer grew up on Staten Island, made her way to the Pacific Northwest by thumb as a young adult, and has lived here rurally with her family for the last 25 years. She’s had sheep and goats for the last 8 years. She has long been a printmaker & book artist, and a feltmaker for more than fifteen years.  Her work is functional, whimsical and conceptual, sometimes a combination thereof.  “My work originates in a braid of interests in human / land relationships over time, material culture studies, and a continuous curiosity about the materials at hand.” It ranges from felt yardage and wearable pieces to large sculptures, installations and works involving social practice.  Her pieces are both functional and sculptural, sometimes combining both aspects in a single piece, often with great whimsy.  Her work has been exhibited regionally, and in group shows nationally.  She has taught feltmaking for about 12 years, at various venues. She holds a BA from the Evergreen State College, an MLS from the University of Arizona, and a Certificate of Craft from Oregon College of Art & Craft. 
Faith Hagenhofer Website