Annie Adams

Annie Adams is a jewelry designer, business owner, neighborhood leader, wife and mother who knows her customers in more ways than one. At home professionally and personally in the thriving Elmwood Village, Annie brings a hands-on approach not only to the design and manufacturing of her exquisite jewelry, but also to her customer’s unique shopping experience.

Adams, who attended art school before working as a fashion retail executive and earning a degree in elementary education, opened the Neighborhood Collective in 2004.

Whether it’s her jewelry worn by loyal customers across the country, her neighborhood colleagues who follow in her community-minded footsteps, or her loving husband and two daughters, Adams has her finger on the pulse of everybody in her world—a world that includes each and every one of her beautiful customers.

Dianne Baker

Dianne Baker has been exhibiting locally since l979 in galleries including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Castellani Art Museum, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Art Dialogue Gallery, and Canisius College. Nationally, she has exhibited in New York City, Washington, DC, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Denver, and Santa Fe.

Baker sees treasure in debris and transforms the forgotten, discarded, and mundane into totemic sculpture and assemblages—or three-dimensional collages. Thus, by portraying to the viewer this “second life” of recycled materials and found objects, they may be motivated to save our environment from such global consumerism.

Mary Begley

A Buffalo native raised in Saratoga, New York, Begley returned to her hometown to acquire her MFA from the University at Buffalo. In 1998 she was awarded a painting fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has exhibited widely through out the state of New York. Begley was recently awarded an individual artist grant from the Saltonstall Foundation for 2007. It is an unrestricted award in recognition of artistic merit for artists residing in central and western New York.

In addition to her career as a painter, Mary is the label manager at Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, a place where art and commerce can coexist.

Buckdancers

Buckdancers is a small family soap company. Tired of chemicals and additives, they began making soaps for their own personal use—soaps that felt good, smelled good and were good for them. They now have a loyal following and products they can stand by.

Their number one goal is to make a truly fabulous product, using only the highest quality ingredients. Buckdancers soaps are gentler and less dehydrating then most industrially made ones.

Their constantly expanding line of products now includes soaps, lotions, sugar scrubs, and bath salts in a dizzying array of scents. And, from their soap laboratory, they will soon have liquid soap, perfume balm, and dog soaps—all available at East End Salon, 47 Allen Street.

Mark Callen

Mark is a photographer from Williamsville who has lived in Buffalo and the surrounding areas for most of his life. In 2007, he started to focus on pictures of Buffalo, to show the city in a new and different light. Now, almost two years later, this idea has evolved into an ongoing series known as the Beauty of Buffalo Collection. This collection offers dramatic photographs of the city, custom framed and matted using the finest materials available in order to present each image in the most beautiful manner.

The success of Mark’s business has been built around two things: the quality of the work and the customer service that is provided. To see Buffalo through Mark Callen’s eyes, visit his Web site at www.markcallenphotography.com.

Anthony and Danielle Casucci: Tea Amo

Tea Amo began as an effort to soothe the bodies and souls of Anthony and Danielle Casucci, who just could not find enough time in the day for themselves. What began as a search for good end-of-day cup of tea has now become a vibrant business, through which the Casuccis share their knowledge of loose teas and their unique blends with the public, as well as the products to serve them. Their unique loose blends are created using the finest and freshest ingredients, most of which are obtained from local growers. Tea Amo has been a vendor at the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market for three years, conducted tea seminars and home demonstrations, and served their unique blends of loose teas at many popular fund-raising events throughout Buffalo.

Frank V. Coppola

Born and raised in Buffalo, Frank has been pursuing creative endeavors since childhood, mostly exploring work in pencil, paint, and photography.

After discovering metal as an artistic medium while working at Griffis Studio in the Essex Arts Complex, Frank had the good fortune to work with sculptor and Ashford Hollow/Sculpture Park founder Larry Griffis II on his last two public art installations. Twelve years of design and fabrication at Metal Design Studio with mentor Joe Koziol has produced an incredible variety of residential and commercial projects, many of which can be viewed at www.metaldesignstudio.com.

In 2000, Frank worked with renowned illustrative artist Philip Burke on a large piece for Cleveland’s first-ever Guitarmania at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a variation on public art projects such as the Cows on Parade in Chicago, the Big Pig Gig in Cincinnati, and the area-wide local installation, Herd of Buffalo.

Featured in this show will be work in bronze, copper, steel, and stainless steel including belt buckles, jewelry, sculpture, and crafts.

Missy Crowell and Carolyn Clark: roosterridge2

Missy Crowell began making ceramic jewelry in the 1990s while designing a clunky and colorful necklace to wear with t-shirts. With the use of clay and brightly colored under glazes, Crowell created a unique style of ceramic bead. Strangers asked to buy the necklace right off her neck, and a small business was born. Carolyn Clark soon joined on, and roosterridge2 was created. All their beads are hand-formed, painted, and kiln-fired.

Missy Crowell is also a silversmith and has a separate line of handcrafted silver jewelry that is shown at the Burchfield-Penney Museum Gift Shop and Cone 5 Gallery in Buffalo.

Their jewelry can be found year round in Buffalo at the Burchfield-Penney Museum Gift Shop and Pitt Petri, as well as at the Art Store in Charleston, West Virginia.

Mike and Roz Duflo: Wood Duflo

Since 1984 Mike and Roz Duflo have been exhibiting their work at juried art events throughout the country. Together, they design and create hardwood kitchen tools that are objects of beauty as well as expressions of utilitarian value. Their work has won numerous awards.

Mike has been working with wood most of his life. He and Roz lived in northern Arkansas when Wood Duflo began. Mike started making cutting boards, tables, and outdoor furniture to sell at regional festivals. The cut-offs from those projects led to designing smaller objects. As their business grew, Roz learned about various finishing processes, and became a partner in their expanding enterprise.

Now residing in Dunkirk, New York, they use hardwood from local mills, as well as from old orchards, urban discards, and trees downed by storms. Visit their Web site at www.woodduflo.com.

Norah Ellingham

Norah Ellingham is a student at Buffalo State College working towards a BFA in jewelry/metal design. She comes from a family of crafters: Her father was an upholsterer and her mother has dabbled in everything from caning chairs to hooling rug. “I have always had a love for anything handmade as it is almost always of a higher quality than anything you could find in a commercial store,” she says. “My work is a constant exploration of the natural world, both its forms and its materials. I am inspired by bubbles, blobs, corroded metals, found objects, organic and sometimes abstract patterns and forms. My approach to work is always an endless experimentation with materials and process. In that experimentation I hope that each piece I make is seen as a wearable creature and becomes more than just a piece of jewelry.”

Peter Fowler

Peter Fowler’s cityscapes are most often created right on the street: “My rule is I have to be able to park the van and paint, no walking with easel and canvas,’ he says. “Thus the predominance of street scenes in my landscape repertoire. Some of my favorite urban views are of Ani’s church from behind Shea’s on Pearl Street, and the Gold Dome on Huron and Main.”

This year, Fowler says, he has tapped memories of winters past and done some snow scenes of the city from the comfort of his studio. Fowler began painting at the age of 25 while working at a computer firm in Boston, then moved to San Francisco where he maintained a freelance computer graphics business to support painting until he moved to Spain in 1989. Here in Buffalo, Fowler’s work can be found at the Kepa3 gallery at 31 Barker Street between Linwood and Main. You can check out his work at www.kepa3gallery.com.

Mark Freeland

Artist, musician, author, legend: Mark Freeland created work for 35 years. Mark’s musical career took him to New York City, performing at spots like CBGBs and the Ritz. Taking the art world by the horns, Freeland had one-man shows all over the country at such places as Buffalo’s prestigious Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Redroom, Gallery 141B, the Swinghouse in Los Angeles, and Apocalypse Gallery in New York City.

Join former president Jimmy Carter, Artvoice publisher Jamie Moses, acclaimed violinist Charles Haupt, Albright-Knox director Louis Grachos, and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, and get yourself a Freeland piece. Help Mark reach his goal, which was “to be famous and for everyone to own a Freeland.”

Visit www.markfreeland.com for a virtual tour of the Albright-Knox exhibit, as well as his product line, which includes the two books he published plus postcards, shirts, and CDs. The Mark Freeland line and Freeland’s original artwork are also available for sale at the Albright-Knox gallery shop.

Mike Gelen

Illustrator/designer Michael Gelen has created a series of prints celebrating Buffalo’s history and its future. Inspired by poster art of the 1930s and 1940s, several of the prints showcase Buffalo’s architectural treasures, including City Hall, Central Terminal, and the Richardson Towers. Others are more whimsical—a travel poster showing a giant seaplane taking off from Buffalo Harbor, or a heroic image of a row of windmills towering over the skyline under the title “Buffalo—City of Tomorrow.”

“As a freelance illustrator, I work in a lot of different styles, but I find I’m always drawn back to the graphic design of that era,” says Gelen. “I love everything about it: the typography, the color, the minimalist sensibility. But beyond that, there’s a wonderful feeling of optimism that pervades the imagery. Even though a lot of this work was done during the Great Depression, there’s a crazy outsize scale to everything—skyscrapers, ocean liners, airships.”

Catherine Gillespie: Chatham Pottery

Catherine Gillespie feels that art is meant to be used and handled, therefore she creates very thin pottery pieces that are comfortable and enjoyable to use as well as view. She primarily produces fine hand-thrown stoneware with vibrant colors and themes from nature. Each pot is individually made; no two are exactly the same. She also makes tiles as a complement to her popular custom-made vessel basins.

She is a graduate of Tufts University with a BS in occupational therapy. In addition, she attended Boston Fine Arts Museum School for ceramics and fine arts. She has run Chatham Pottery for more than 30 years.

In 2000, when she moved to Buffalo she was struck by the strong and vibrant arts community in the region. It became her goal to help people who live in the region realize the depth and quality of the arts talents here. She is instrumental in the publishing of the Buffalo Niagara Artist and Gallery Guide, and is a primary organizer for the Holiday Open Studios and Galleries.

Eileen Graetz

Color, form, and texture: That has been Eileen Graetz’s focus throughout her artistic endeavors. Whether it was geometric acrylic at SUNY Buffalo, where Eileen received her BFA, or abstract expressionism working with Walter Prochownik in the late 1980s, she has always concentrated on color and shapes. An interest in Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings led Eileen to take several photographic expeditions to Sante Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, Abiqui, Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and many areas of Utah.

Initially she painted on canvas, but carpal tunnel syndrome and arthritis made painting increasingly difficult. Ultimately, she found that she could incorporate some painting techniques by digitally enhancing the images. She began photographing the grain elevators and industrial sites around the Lake Erie waterfront, and her home computer became the canvas, allowing her to continue to play with color, form, and texture.

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