Connecting Art and Spirit Class

Here are a few of my students that took a six-week course titled Connecting Art and Spirit at the 501 Gallery in the Oregon District. Poetry, music and painting were a part of this course.

Middletown Art Center Opening

Here's a look at the 'fabulous five' on the evening of their opening exhibition at the Middletown Art Center. The show can be
seen until December 17, 2008. It is titled Connecting
Vision with Inspiration. Seated from left to right, Karen Benedetti,
Rosie Huart, Trish McKinney, Kathleen Bertolone and Sharon
Stolzenberger.

Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio

"Soar" (selected for the
OWS traveling show 2008-09)

This is the beautiful interior of the Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, where I had a piece chosen for the 31st Ohio Watercolor Society's exhibition in November. The piece titled "Soar" was selected along with my friend Leonard Williams' piece to be in a traveling show throughout Ohio for the next coming year.

Confident Color

A group of Dayton, Ohio, artists, stand behind Nita Leland at her book signing event at Books & Company last week. A lot of the artists brought their Confident Color books and exchanged autographs on pages where their art was included in Nita's book. Standing from left to right are Rosie Huart, Leonard Williams, Trish McKinney, Marilyn Hart, Sharon Stoltzenberger and Karen Benedetti, all members of the Ohio Watercolor Society.

Closure of Italy Workshop in Florence

Each morning there was a word chosen for the six days. The words were awareness, stillness, reverence, listen, transformation and gratitude. In the evening a candle was lit and we gathered in a circle to talk about how we experienced the word for the day. It was always enlightening, endearing and heartfelt.

By the end of the week we had encountered each other in many ways. We ate together, prayed together, meditated together, did art together, toured together and left Italy with hearts transformed. We saw others with different eyes, because they were mirrors to ourselves. We closed the circle of travel by giving to each one the gift of words. On watercolor paper we each wrote a characteristic trait that we recognized in another and knowing that these were our own gifts as well. Some of mine that were given were reflective, inviting, sensitive, love, light, serene, rock and teacher. What I gave to others were grounded, centered, eager, yearning, contemplative, vivacious, generous spirit, heart of love, gracious, thoughtful, quiet and knowledgeable.

"The stranger at the heart of my journey is me--transformed. I have come all this way to find this new person. At the center of my wanderings, the world is strange, wonderful and new. Al that I see and touch now is new. With a rush of recognition, I lovingly accept and embrace my new self." The Way of the Traveler by Joseph Dispenza

Painting the Essence of Italy Workshop

Here is part of the afternoon poetry painting class. After our walking tour in Florence and seeing the Galleria dell' Accademia where David is, we did an Ekphrastic poem, whereby, the picture seen in a museum is written in words of our making. Another day we did an exercise, whereby we had a conversation with a meaningful object that we encountered in our morning session and incorporated these words into our painting. We also did some Haiku and Formula poetry. At the end of the week we collated our painting poetry pages and compiled them into a Japanese stab-bound book.

Villa Grounds

Here we are trying to capture the essence of Tuscany with our cameras. A camera can only capture a portion of the magnificent scenes.

The apartment we stayed was in back of the villa. There were 10 of us with several private bedrooms and 4 baths. The kitchen was quaint and several participants prepared the evening meal and we all sat around the dining room table to share the events of the day.












The five day workshop was truly an awesome experience for both students and Trish and I as teachers. The mornings were devoted to plein aire painting on the beautiful villa's property with Trish and in the afternoon I taught creative writing and painting on the porch of our apartment. The panoramic view was
an experience etched in my memory.

Siena, Street Scenes and Duomo

We took a bus ride to Siena and I took several pics of street scenes and the duomo. It seems each city has a duomo. Siena's duoma was truly beautiful with its many altars and stained glass.

Our First 24 Hours in Italy

With great anticipation we see a little portion of Italy from the air.

Upon arrival at Florence's airport we take a wild taxi ride through the narrow streets of the city. Little did we know that most of the drivers on these narrow streets are a little on the wild side. We stayed at a quaint bed and breakfast called Tourist House Ghiberti. I found out the famous artist Lorenzo Ghiberti who did the bronze Baptistry doors had his workshop in the basement of our b&b.
The famous Florence duomo was a few blocks from our B&B. On our afternoon walk the first day we ate pizza, gelato, shopped at Lorenzo Market and visited the Uffizi Museum, which houses so much Renaissance art. There was a nice misty rain while we walked the cobblestones and visited the inside market where we had lunch. The market is where the Floretines shop for groceries.

Duomo Florence by Day

Duomo Florence by Night

A little Italian pizza cafe where we snacked the first day.

Jennifer hiding amidst the colored pasta.

Inside the meat market our eyes fell upon this Italian cutie.

We celebrated our first day in Florence with a 5-course dinner from a famous restaurant called Latini's. Amy knew someone from work who recommended it. It cost 40 euros each. The rest of the time we ate more reasonable. It was the best meal we had.

Leaving for Italy

Here are my two daughters, Amy and Jennifer, seated together and my artist friend Trish McKinney. We're on our way to Florence for 3 days and then off to the villa where Trish and I will be teaching a workshop.

Preview of My Exhibition at Visceral Gallery

Here are a few pics of my art at Visceral Gallery. Urban Nights is tonight and the city will come alive with art and celebration.

Sinclair Community College's Faculty Exhibit

This exhibition showcases Sinclair's faculty talent. It is a beautiful setting on the 4th floor of Building 16. The show will be up until October 9th. One of my favorite people (Willie) who works at Sinclair's is standing looking at my art.

Senior Citizen Class

Sinclair Community College's Life Long Learning class started this week at Lohrey. It was a slow start; however, I have one eager beaver that loves to do art. I placed an object in a brown paper bag and she drew it without looking at the object by placing her hand in the bag and just feeling the object. This exercise involves keen concentration, awareness and perception.

Art Encounters in 24 Hours

At the Guild of the Golden Quill, a calligraphers organization, an outstanding metal award was given to Barbara Rich for having exemplified commitment and many volunteer hours for compiling a member's calligraphy cookbook last year. At the guild meeting I gave a lecture and demo of my experience at the International Calligraphy Conference held in Naperville, IL, this summer.



Here are a few pics of owner, George Bussinger, and long-time employee, Leslie Walton of McCallister's Art Supply in Dayton. George, at one time, was a participating member of the calligrapher's guild and the guild decided to give George a gift certificate at one of Dayton's finest steak houses as a token of gratitude for the many years he served the guild. Truly, it is a bittersweet time even though artists are getting 70% off art supplies.











Visceral Gallery, a new gallery in the Oregon District, celebrated 1st Friday by featuring artist Trish McKinney. Trish does transparent watercolor and mixed media. At present, she is president of Town & Country Fine Art Gallery. Trish is a very dear friend of mine and we will soon be teaching a workshop in Florence, Italy.

Connecting Art and Spirit

Beginning in October I will be teaching a 6-wk. course on creativity and art. This mixed media class will be on Saturday afternoons from 12-2, and will incorporate poetry, painting, creative writing, music and collage. The end project will be a journal book of each person's creative art pages. The classes will be held at Loretta Puncer's gallery in the Oregon District, downtown Dayton. If you are interested, you can leave your email in the comment section and I will get in touch with you.

An Evening Out with the Girls

Jacquelynn Buck is a photographer and member of our gallery Town & Country Fine Art Center in Kettering, Ohio. She is also a public health educator. Right now she is exhibiting her talent in a show at Dayton Visual Arts Center (DVAC) in downtown Dayton until September 5, 2008. Her program last night was an encounter with one's beauty that is particularly not visible in a physical way. Jackie took a picture of willing participants and printed the picture on the spot. Then we proceeded to gather the text and, with the use of markers and stamps, we enhanced the image with artful play. I volunteered to be a participant and was delightfully surprised at the many sayings that were so appropriate for me and what text spoke to me. I felt personally that I can use my collage as a vehicle to affirm my own inner beauty. These artful collages will be on display until next week at DVAC. Jackie's thoughtful project is helping women see that beauty is not just about how one looks, but the inner beauty that often is dictated by outside influences. I believe Jackie is on to marrying the two loves of her life....photography and health.

Coffee Table Book

This summer I had a coffee table book published with my artwork titled "Connecting Art and Spirit." The photographer, Jacquelynn Buck, did the page and layout work with her very creative and artistic eye. The collaboration of text and design was created by both our creative spirits. The coffee table book website is below.

Rosie-Huart-Coffee-Table-Book

What Artists Are Saying

You can go to this website for information about Nita Leland, her new book soon to be released called Confident Color and what it means to artists being included in her book.

Art-to-Art Palette Back Porch Section

"Words That Echo, Whisper and Resonate"

September 12th will be an opening exhibition at Visceral Gallery in the Oregon District. I am really getting excited about this upcoming show and will be showing a lot of my new work with handmade paper and calligraphy. It will be held in conjunction with the City of Dayton's Urban Nights and I am the featured artist.

Selected art piece in a soon to be released book: Confident Color

Nita Leland has written a new book called Confident Color. It will soon be released and our gallery at Town & Country will be having an opening exhibition and book signing event. I have a piece of artwork in her book titled Spirit Symphony. This is my fourth inclusion in Nita's artbooks over the years. More about the event will come later, but in the meantime be prepared to have her book in your library. Nita is a well-known artist and author who travels extensively doing workshops, lecturing, jurying and book signings.

Spirit Symphony
Mixed Media
40"x32"

28th International Calligraphy Conference

Brody's Calligraphy with Cola Nib

What a busy week in Naperville, IL. About 400 people gathered from around the world and experienced their love of calligraphy (beautiful handwriting). From paper, nibs, inks, watercolor, brushes and various tools of the trade we sculpted paper, painted papers and canvas, created books and made numerous friends.

I took a class with Belgium artist Brody Neuenschwander called Developing Meaning. He asked us to write about a significant event in our life in the last few years. I wrote about my friend Bud who went into a diabetic coma at age 35 and died. Bud had asked me to do his eulogy. I addressed the church congregation gathered for his funeral with two poems I had written. My mission was to be his voice. So in class we had to address our writing with 6 points of interest...private, public, desire, fear, knowledge and understanding. We did several exercises in expressive calligraphy and then put the pages into a book format. The class was very intense and emotional for many of us.

Black Book Cover and Pages Done in Brody's Class

Cover edge made with a folded transparency on open page edge with the poem copied onto it. The transparency was stitched with gold thread and threads weaving throughout the book. The spine was covered with handmade paper.

The pages were sumi'e ink and handmade paper collaged onto the surface.