The Louisville School of Art
Reunion Exhibition
This Louisville School of Art Reunion celebrates the artists connected through a small but influential art school that existed in the Louisville, Kentucky area from 1909 to 1985. Formally established as the Louisville School of Art (LSA) in 1968, the accredited four-year BFA program offered majors in Ceramics, Metalsmithing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Textiles.
Originally located in historic homes near the University of Louisville, where it at times functioned as the university’s art department, LSA moved in 1969 to the Life Insurance Building in Anchorage, Kentucky. After twelve years, the school returned to Louisville, relocating to the historic Cloister, a former Ursuline convent.
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The LSA played a major role in shaping Louisville’s arts community. This exhibition features work by artists active during the school’s years in Louisville, Anchorage, and the Cloister.
Hosted by Julie Schweitzer (Gallery Director), Art Orr (BFA 1974), and Deane Patton (BFA 1976).
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Click here to check out the photo gallery from back in the day!
Opens April 19, 2026 runs through May 31, 2026
Opening Reception​: Sunday, April 19, 1 - 4 PM
Meet the Artists
(alphabetical by last name)
Diana Arcadipone
Biography:
Diana Arcadipone studied painting and printmaking at Western Michigan University, where she earned a BFA degree with honors. She earned an MFA degree from Ohio University with honors. She has been awarded artist residencies at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, California as well as The Banff Centre and the Leighton Artists’ Colony in Alberta, Canada. She exhibits her work internationally and travels to research artmaking techniques and images. She lives and works in Otisfield, Maine. Diana worked at The Louisville School of Art as Associate Director from 1976-1980.
2D Artist
Website: arcadipone.com
Instagram: @dianaarcadipone
Facebook: Diana Arcadipone
Artist Statement:
Diana Arcadipone creates artworks on and of paper. Her passion for making art with natural materials, and mixed media emerged from an early devotion to craft techniques such as papermaking, book arts, basketry, embroidery and textiles. Arcadipone’s work is informed by folk art, primitive art, traveling, and nature; it is the intersection of these influences that defines her work. Arcadipone often makes her own paper with archival materials. She paints with gouache, which offers brilliant, opaque washes of color. She sometimes incorporates ink, text, and fabric scraps that are applied with rudimentary tools like handmade brushes and sticks. She often incorporates a written narrative that reflects the habitat of a species depicted and sometimes includes soundscapes recorded from the site.
Peter Bodnar III
Biography:
I have been active as an artist in the community since 1976. I came to teach painting at the Louisville School of Art and have been teaching (painting, drawing, color, 2-d & 3-d design and sculpture) ever since. I have been involved in at least 17 mural projects, commercially or publicly funded, over the last 25 yrs.. I've been able to exhibit work I feel strongly about, whenever I feel the need to. These are perhaps modest accomplishments by ARTWORLD standards, but survival and persistence are the best alternatives to early national success.​​
2D Artist
Website: peterbodnar3.com
Artist Statement:
I believe in the animateness of the perceptual world and I attempt to make images that manifest that belief. I make animate objects. I try to make sensuous diagrams of growth and change at all scales, harnessing principles of botany& physics for image propagation. For me, Art-making is about creating a special class of non utilitarian objects with which I investigate materials, perception & meaning. They exist to be looked at and observed, like a branch or a stone, while knowing that a mind drove these forms.
Dave Caudill
Biography:
LSA1973
Worked in graphic design and public relations before turning to sculpture and odd jobs. Personal sculptures have been primarily stainless steel pieces in landscapes and gardens. Public sculptures in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Indiana and Louisiana. International works: an undersea sculpture in the Bahamas, a large meditation labyrinth in Bolivia and collage prints in a Brazilian children’s Cancer Hospital. Lives and works in Louisville.​
Sculpture Artist
Website: caudillart.com
Instagram: @caudill.dave
Facebook: dave.caudill.92
Artist Statement:
My personal sculptures have been focused on a theme of humanity in harmony with the rest of nature, and they have been created as visual music concerned with lyricism, rhythm and physical harmony. My public pieces are developed with cultural and physical contexts driving the designs. I prefer to work spontaneously in an intuitive manner. I still enjoy working with two dimensional media, primarily collage and drawing.
Gayle Cerlan
Biography:
Gayle Cerlan received her BFA with full scholarship from Louisville School of Art and MA from University of Louisville and coursework at Alfred University New York. She has been an active member of the Kentucky art community through her involvement as creator/director of Cityworks Exhibition and curator of the National Dinnerworks Exhibitions (1994-1997), served on the advisory boards of Kentucky Museum of Art and Louisville Visual Arts Association. Cerlan taught as Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Indiana University SE, Bellarmine University and University of Louisville. Currently, she is teaching after school art at Sayre School, Lexington, Ky. Established a fine arts school, ARTSTUDIO (1977 -2017), TOWER CERLAN GALLERY, CERLAN GALLERY (1995 -2007) and PEEP SHOW GALLERY (2007-2010). She has exhibited nationally, internationally and has won awards, grants and is in numerous public collections.
Sculpture Artist
Artist Statement:
The beauty of ceramics as fine art lies in the ability of the artist to take everyday objects, such as a bowl, a teapot, a tree, a pillow, a figure, and through the artist's talent and vision, transform such objects into artistic statements that convey a meaningful, provocative, mystical message directly to the heart and soul of a person. I wish to utilize a variety of ceramic techniques and glazes, painted imagery, and found objects to illustrate my quest for visual beauty.
Buddy Colucci
Biography:
Buddy Colucci is a graduate of the Louisville School of Arts, through fouryear full scholarships as a Teaching Assistant in Printmaking and Sculpture. Buddy left LSA in ‘74, “Went to the Country, built him a home”, and spent a lifetime creating. His work includes sculpture, sketching, woodworking, stone carving, printmaking, and the design and construction of handcrafted log homes. Throughout his career, Buddy has completed numerous commissioned works, including public sculptures, metalwork, and stained-glass pieces.
Screenprint Artist
Website: coluccirivercabins.com
His artistic vision often extends beyond traditional studio work, blending craftsmanship, architecture, and fine art. Buddy is the owner of Colucci Construction and Colucci Log Cabin Rentals on the Ohio River. For decades, visitors from around the world have experienced his craftsmanship firsthand while staying in the cabins he built. He continues to create art every day in one form or another, always working toward his next masterpiece.
Don Coomes
Biography:
This is the first showing of artwork by Don Coomes in the Louisville area since the early 1970s. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Louisville School of Art in 1974 and subsequently received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1982. After a long hiatus from making artwork, he returned to painting 12 years ago. Since then, he has participated in several group and solo shows in the Frederick, MD/Washington, DC area. He lives in Brunswick, Maryland with his wife, the writer Susan Higginbotham and his son, Thad, along with Emmy (the dog), and Annie (the cat). His daughter, Bethany, lives in North Carolina.
2D Artist
Website: doncoomesart.com
Artist Statement:
My paintings are non-objective and process oriented. Simply stated, the final image of one of my artworks is derived by the application of color in an all-over, pointillist manner that eventually covers the entire painting surface. This process is repeated several times until I determine that the painting is complete. The colors used in my paintings are normally not predetermined; instead, I base my color choices in response to the color that already sits on the painting surface. Texture is also a concern. The repeated application of brush marks eventually builds up to produce a texture that complements the colors used.
Katherine Corcoran
Sculpture Artist
Website: katherinecorcoranart.com
Instagram: @kcor.815
Biography:
I graduated from the Louisville School of Art in 1975. In 1977 I helped Ed Hamilton open his studio on Shelby St. 2 years later I worked for Barney Bright before moving to Washington D.C. to become Art Director for Breede Exhibits. I retired from The Printing House for the Blind as chief Model Maker contracting master patterns for making the Braille books.​​
Artist Statement:
Art reflects life. I love working in three Dimensions. And I strive to bring the audience to experience that same excitement. Much of my art uses Urethane Resin. My subjects vary from Social commentary like The King of Bashford Manor to abstract pieces like Balance. I especially like my frivolous designs made of lighter materials that hang from the ceiling. The use of color and the size of these sculptures brings my art up-close and personal.
William M. Duffy
Biography:
William M. Duffy is a sculptor, well recognized for his expertise in the ancient art of hand carving. Duffy experiments with figuration and abstraction through a wide variety of materials, including stone, bronze, steel, and wood. Duffy’s work is in public and private collections, most notably the Larry & Brenda Thompson art collection; commissions include the Kentucky Governor’s Awards in the Arts, Farmington Historic Plantation Slave Memorial and the (Un)Known Project Slave Memorial. Aside from his artistic practice, Duffy is known for his thirty-five plus years of service as an educator mentoring young students interested in the visual arts. He was named the recipient of the Louisville Visual Art 2022 Legacy Award. In 2024 Duffy had a one man exhibit at the Speed Art Museum entitled, “Louisville’s Black Avante-Garde: William M. Duffy”. Duffy is a 1976 graduate of the Louisville School of Art.
Sculpture Artist
Website: wmduffy.com
Instagram: @williammduffy
Facebook: wmduffysculptor
Linkedin: william-m-duffy
Artist Statement:
My artistic practice is deeply motivated by a desire to tell stories that celebrate resilience, community, and the beauty of human connection. Growing up I was surrounded by a tapestry of cultures, traditions, and histories that profoundly influenced my perspective. As a sculptor, I am drawn to the enduring nature of materials like stone, wood, and metal, which mirror the strength and perseverance of the stories I seek to convey.
Denise Furnish
Biography:
Denise has lived in Louisville KY for most of her life. Her work is connected to the domestic arts–particularly handmade textile items which are painted and collaged with acrylics.
She was educated at the University of Louisville (BFA, MA) and the University of Kentucky (BA), but began working with quilts in 1980,81 at the Louisville School of Art.
Fiber Artist
Website: denisefurnish.com
Artist Statement:
I paint and collage worn out quilts and other hand sewn domestic items. What started out as a statement about the frustrating lack of visibility of women in the arts in 1980 has continued to be my life’s work. The discovery of the breadth and depth of meaning in the Quilt has been my main focus. I examine the vernacular of the quilt pattern names, the fabric designs, the makers, how they were used, the effects of life and wear on them. I’m interested in the quilt as it relates to a bed as witness to dreams, sex, birth, death and more.
I consider my life and the well-worn quilts I have loved. I wish to explore the personal, spiritual, physical, natural, art historical, and political through the lens of quilts. I wish to break free from the patterned grid–yet pay homage to it.
Rebecca Graves
Biography:
Rebecca "Beck" Graves has worked for the last three decades in New York City as a muralist, decorative painter, and scenic artist for film and TV. Her clients have included the Museum of Arts and Design, Tavern on the Green, HBO, and numerous retail stores and private clients. She subsequently continued her studio practice.
Oil Painter
Website: rgravesandcompany.com
Instagram: @rgravesandcompany
Artist Statement:
For twelve years I worked as a designer on Cunard ocean liners, including the Queen Mary 2. I filled many sketch books, and when I returned to land I painted what I had come to love while at sea: the expanse of the ocean.
Ed Hamilton
Biography:
Edward Norton Hamilton, born in 1947 in Cincinnati, is a long-time resident of Louisville, Kentucky. He has distinguished himself, nationally, as a sculptor, most notably for his public art, including The Spirit of Freedom, an African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C. He is often commissioned for his work with pieces on Booker T. Washington and Joe Louis, and also developed series of work, including "Junkology" and "Confinement". Hamilton graduated from the Louisville School of Art in 1969, and has received honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University in 2004. He wrote a biography, Birth of an Artist: Journey of Discovery published in 2006.
Sculpture Artist
Website: Edhamiltonstudios.com
Artist Statement:
Four years of art school prepared me well. Upon Graduating from the Art Center School, that laterbecame the Louisville School of Art. Meeting the late Sculptor Barney Bright, I began a long andwonderful apprenticeship. It was Barney that I started to learn more about the process of creatingPublic Art. In my work I believe it is my role to educate the masses about the things that they did notteach us in school and so I create in bronze, the people and subjects that helped to build this greatcountry. We tell our stories in books, as well as we cast in bronze that we see and view in sacred spaces,and in public space.
Rodgell Helm
Sculpture Artist
Biography:​​
I am a graduate of the Louisville School of Art
Louisville, Kentucky, 1970-1974. BFA in painting and sculpture. I have a BA in Graphic Design from Collins College in Tempe, AZ from 1980- 1984. I received a MA in Art Education from Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ from 1984-1987. I taught art at Collins College from 1984-1992. I taught art at the Art Institute in Phoenix from 1993-2002 and was the chair-person for the Graphic Design Department. Currently I am a working sculptor and the co-owner of the AH!HA art space and the AZOKOZA art gallery in Tempe, AZ. Fortunately, over a fifty year art career, the pieces I create have been chosen for many art shows, and have been the subject of news print and magazine publications. I traveled to Greece twice and lived there for fourteen months. Working and living on the Mediterranean Sea was most rewarding. The beautiful remains of ancient cultures and the color of the sea, the clearness of the light, are things you never forget and hopefully how in my work.
Artist Statement:
*anonymous critic
Step into the wonderfully wacky world of Rodgell, where imagination takes shape in the most unexpected ways. The body of assemblage sculptures and 3D wall hangings transforms everyday found objects into bizarre, dreamlike curiosities—creations that are as thought-provoking as they are delightfully strange. Rodgell's works conjure a surreal cabinet of wonders: whimsical, mysterious, and unapologetically out of the ordinary. Each piece is a puzzle of materials reimagined, inviting viewers to linger, laugh, and marvel at the phantasmagoric inventions of his mind.​
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Lee St. James
Biography:
Not a lot to say, attended LSA 1976-81, BFA major ceramic sculpture. Then on to Virginia Commonwealth University for grad school where I received an MFA in Sculpture 81-83.
I have been an Illustrator, Graphic designer, Art Director, Creative Director, and Executive Creative Director for many of the world’s largest brands and global advertising agencies. I am currently the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Openly Gray, an agency focused on the 50+ Gray Market.
2D Artist
Website: saintleeone.com
Living with my wife in the Research Triangle, with 5 adult children spread out across the U.S., the youngest following in my footsteps and graduating from David Keator’s alma mater, Alfred University in New York, in Sculpture. Another is an Editor for film and television, yet another a script reader at one of the big LA talent agencies, another is a Nurse Practitioner, and lastly a Human Resources Manager, all better adults than I am.
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Artist Statement:
I like to make shit. From drawings, to paintings, to sculptural installations, film, and television. I’m a Maker.
Bob Lockhart
Biography:
'Officially retiring in 2010, Lockhart had been a professor at Bellarmine University in Kentucky for 45 years. He is an award-winning sculptor whose work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, the Indianapolis Art Museum and many others. In addition, Lockhart’s pieces have been commissioned by the Louisville Zoo, by numerous churches and schools and by private collectors. Several of his sculptures grace the campus of Bellarmine University in Louisville, where he was a professor of art. Lockhart taught at Bellarmine for more than 40 years, guiding students in the creation of art and opening their eyes to the issues of social justice with annual trips to Guatemala and Appalachia. A native of Oak Park, Ill., he holds a BFA and a MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. Lockhart regularly teaches at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.'
Sculpture/2D Artist
Website: buybobsart.com
Instagram: @buybobsart
Fred Maurer
Biography:
Fred diFrenzi is a master artisan, studio artist, innovator, educator, and pioneer in the application and production of kiln-formed glass. As Kentucky’s first hot glass studio artist, he initiated the state’s first hot glass studio program at the Louisville School of Art and has since completed numerous site-specific public art installations, with work held in major museum and private collections nationwide. His one-of-a-kind creations are included in prominent institutions such as the Butler Institute of American Art, Indiana State Museum, Huntington Museum of Art,
Sculpture Artist
Instagram: Fred diFrenzi
and Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, and he has received recognition including an NEA Artist-in-Residence grant. DiFrenzi has also launched several “Artists in Industry” collaborations with domestic and international manufacturers, expanding the reach of his designs—some of which have traveled across the globe and returned as ersatz imitations, an ironic yet affirming testament to his creative ingenuity.
Artist Statement:
I’d rather be a creator than a dictator.
Joyce Odgen
Biography:
Joyce Ogden is a visual artist based in Southern Indiana whose work explores the human relationship to the natural environment. Ogden exhibits throughout the US and has been the recipient of grants and awards that include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Program, Great Meadows Foundation Artist Professional Development Grant, Ox Bow Summer Artist in Residence Award and the Kentucky Foundation for Women Sallie Bingham Award. Ogden is Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at the Kentucky College of Art + Design (KyCAD) in Louisville.
Visual Artist
Website: joyceogden.com
Artist Statement:
My creative practice explores the complex relationship between humans and the natural environment. In recent years, my work has become increasingly rooted in the themes of land and place. Often, the rural landscape of Southern Indian in which I live is my subject. My studio is inextricably linked with the surrounding environment; I move fluidly between these spaces in a continuous, evolving dialogue. Recently, I had the opportunity to work in and respond to a place that was new to me. In spring 2025, I spent three-weeks in residency at The Museum of Loss and Renewal in Collemacchia, Italy. Nestled in a small hamlet in the Apennine Mountains of the Molise region, Collemacchia holds a layered and complex history, reflected in its architecture, customs, agricultural lands, and forests. The mission of the Museum is deeply rooted in place. My initial intent during the residency was to explore the community's land, soil, and agricultural practices through observing, documenting, collecting, recording, and dialogue. However, daily walks through the biologically and historically rich mountain landscape created an unexpected and powerful connection to the woodlands and meadows. The forest and its spring ephemerals became central to a new body of work, including monoprints, moving image, and sound.
Art Orr
Biography:
BFA LSA, 1974. Ohio State MFA painting and drawing 1982. Jefferson Community and Technical College art faculty 1984–2002. Troy University faculty 2003 to 2013. Troy distance learning courses through Blackboard (courses taught at Eglin and Hurlburt Air Force bases / courses taught at Pensacola Naval Air Station). University of West Florida visiting artist 2004–2009.
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Artist Statement:
LSA was an artistic bootcamp of creativity, discipline, and development of a passionate commitment. It laid the foundation of our careers which taught us that art was serious business.
Mixed Media Artist
Facebook: birdbrainhouses
Jacque Parsley
Biography:
Jacque Parsley is a Mixed Media Artist who creates Collage and Assemblage with Found Objects.
Her work is in many public and private collections.
She has a BFA from Louisville School of Art, MA from University of Louisville and MFA from University of Kentucky.
Artist Statement:
Art for me is a form of serious play...a visual daydream shaped by intuition, imagination and discovery.
Each work is a meditation on time and transformation inviting the viewer to imagine their own recognition of past memories.
Mixed Media Artist
Deane Ellen Patton
Biography:
Graduated from Louisville School of Art at the Anchorage Campus with a BFA in 1976. Photography Major, double minor in Illustration and Printmaking. Studied Photography under Phil Wakeman. Illustration under Bob Lockhart and Printmaking under Garry Kaulitz. Studied design under Dave Schneider and Skip Koebbeman. And Art History under the fabulous Maggie Meloy. With private illustration lessons recently with Martin Rollins. Most of my creative and professional years involved photography, many of those in collaboration with my husband Phil Wakeman as Dawghaus Photography. Over the past ten years I have rekindled my love of Illustration... using my photographic images as a basis for my drawings. Much of it based on Nature and her organic forms. I use Oil Pastels, Wax Pastels, Color pencils, and a bit of India Ink. On board or water color paper. Since the late 1970's, Phil and I settled into life on a small farm and in a house we built in Westport, Kentucky; surrounded by nature and dogs and chickens, with memories of cats and horses, and now; over the past three years, memories of my dear Phil. I have been very lucky to have my sister, Megan, with me on the farm for over 7 years.
Illustration/Photography Artist
Facebook: deane.patton
Instagram: @deane.patton
​Artist Statement:
I find most of my inspiration in Nature... and certainly from organic forms. Whether I am drawing or making photos, the design and composition is of utmost importance. I would say that my work is "quiet". And a step further would call it all "Still Lives", whether it is of leaves in nature, or my dogs, or the people I choose to
document.
Colleen Reasor
Biography:
A native of Louisville, Ky. After leaving L.S.A. I eventually earned my Masters Degree at Bellarmine University and began teaching visual arts first at St. Xavier High School, then in the Jefferson Co. Public Schools. I found it very rewarding to help students discover and develop their creative abilities. I retired as a visual arts teacher from Atherton High School in Louisville. I have been an exhibiting member of the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen. My work has been exhibited in both juried and non juried shows where it has received various recognitions.
Sculpture Artist
​Artist Statement: This wooden box series is a tribute to and inspired by my childhood memories of visiting my father’s workshop where he kept small items (parts, bits and pieces, etc.) in traditional cardboard boxes. It was a treasure hunt for me as a child to explore these boxes and their contents. These art pieces were created by transforming and assembling wooden cigar boxes. They feature various found objects, etc. in their individual compositions.
Ken Reker
Biography:
Ken Reker, Professor, Art + Design Department, and Director/ Curator of the Winfisky Gallery, Salem State University. Ken received his MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in drawing and printmaking from the University of Louisville. His public commission for the Boston Children’s Museum was an assemblage of objects from the museum’s Chinese collection, that was installed into a large window space that represented a three-dimensional Chinese landscape painting. In 2016, ‘Double Trouble’ was commissioned by the Fort Point Arts Community in Boston.
Sculpture/Watercolor Artist
Website: kenreker.com
The public sculpture examined our titanic love affair with plastic and petroleum-based products. ASH / Ken Reker/ selected works 1992 – 2022 was installed in Salem Old Town Hall during Summer 2022. This exhibition/ assemblage showcased Reker’s considerable artistic output as seen through an introspective 30-year lens. Reker’s public sculpture installations include Sculpture Key West, Fla., Floatillo Festival, Chicago, Ill., Waterworks Savannah, Ga., Gloucester New Arts Festival, Ma., Cambridge River Arts Festival, Ma., Art in the Park, Elm Park, Ma., outdoor sculpture at Maudslay State Park, Ma., ‘Flying Horse’ outdoor sculpture at Pingree School, Ma. and most recently a two-year commission from the Watertown Public Arts and Culture Committee for a public work, ‘All Style No Substance’ for the Community Sculpture Walk in Watertown, Ma. Learn more about Ken and see examples of his work at the website above.
Artist Statement:
"If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." Leonard Cohen Seems to describe my creative process well.
Nick Roberts
Biography:
I am a fine artist whose photographic education began in 1979 at the Louisville School of Art, under the guidance of the late Phil Wakeman. The 1996 completion of a B.F.A. degree from the University of Louisville underscores my commitment to honing my artistic skills and knowledge. The use of wide-angle lenses in my photography allows me to capture the grandeur of my subjects and convey a sense of the "big picture."
Photography Artist
Website: Speeddemon2.com
Artist Statement:
I have been enamored by photography since I was a teenager. The images in this show reflect my vision of the world around me. For the past few years I have been capturing my subjects with a 10.5 mm fisheye lens and the beauty it reveals by its distortion of reality. My philosophy of photography and art making is summed up in this quote from Alberto Giacometti “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”
Martin Rollins
Biography:
Martin Rollins is a native Louisvillian artist and educator who has designed, facilitated, and collaborated in arts programs with the Kentucky Center for Performing Arts, the Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Educational Television, the University of Louisville, and Kentucky Music Week. Rollins has served both on the Visual Arts faculty at the Kentucky Governors School for the Arts and as an Associate Education Curator at the Speed Art Museum. Martin received his Bachelor of Fine Art from the Louisville School of Art at its Anchorage campus and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati. Martin Rollins' work is known for its color and expressive qualities he brings to images of the moods and qualities he finds in the streets and fields at different times of the year. While Rollins’ artwork has been exhibited locally, regionally, and nationally, he is at heart still the kid who drew and created his way through childhood and beyond.
2D Artist
Website: martinrollins.net
Artist Statement:
I believe the experience of creating an artwork is a singular one. While the work may draw its breath from an experience or idea, once it is underway it follows its own path and engages the artist in ways both familiar and unknown at the same time. As to whether the artist leads or follows in developing the work – at times it is hard to tell. At least that is my experience in creating, and it is what brings me back to my easel time and again. My work is in good measure connected to the life I lead – the ebb and flow of days, the changing seasons as well as the various qualities of light within the neighborhood where I live and work. In that way I suppose my works could be considered somewhat autobiographical, although really the locale is more contextual or relative to other elements at play within the drawings. “In Autumn” is a work inspired by the intensity of the season at full tilt – deep hues countered by the strong contrasts only really experienced at that time of the year....on a familiar street a mile or so from where I live. “Holding Onto Blue” strikes a different tone for me in its pointed perspective leading into...what? Infinity? Randomness? An ephemeral scene of sky and water left as open as the lines are etched and constructed, where the question hangs in the air. And in the finished artwork, when all has been said and done, I believe the experience of any artwork is, once again, a singular one.
Martin Rollins appears courtesy of WheelHouse Art
Paul Rossmann
Biography:
In the half century since graduating from the Louisville School of Art, I have taught Life Drawing, Painting, Graphic Design, Woodworking, Wood and Ceramic Sculpture In both Kentucky and South Carolina. I have done graphic design and managed a small construction company In Louisville before moving to Charleston, South Carolina, where I have taught and worked professionally as a print and graphic designer for over four decades, accumulating over 80 industry awards. I have continued to do limited painting instruction and design work while pursuing my painting and other “non-art” activities.
Oil Paint Artist
Website: paulrossmann.com
Artist Statement:
My artwork is simply my investigating and exploring things and ideas that intrigue or baffle my imagination... more or less an aesthetic representation of my thought process (I make pictures of what I think about). My abstracts tend to be more geometric in nature and my realistic work tends towards the figurative.
David Schnider
Biography:​
BFA – Art Inst. of Chicago. MFA Tulane University, N.O. La.
Teaching history – Tulane University, Florence St. University, Louisville School of Art, University of Southern Maine.
Collections – Tulane, USM, Starr, Shands, Speed Museum
Sculpture Artist
Artist Statement:
"Art is the accomplice of love"​
Contact: Text (207) 703-8381
Brian Talley
Biography:
Attended Louisville School Of Art from 1970-1974. Attended Tulane University for one year for Masters Program never to return, Moved to Los Angeles in 1984 to pursue music, worked for two Photography collections, Andre di Diennes and Milton H. Greene (archivist for both collections) and for Norman Seeff, photographer, as a "spotter' for his work in the early 90's. In the 90's and 2000's I found myself working with Bic Pen again (as i did as a student), using wall calendars as part of the imagery using different tools for color drawings. Also in the 2000's I transferred analogue tape to digital format. My entire color input was acquired by a collector from Ohio. Presently, I run a fan page for a singing clown and have designed plectrums for Puddles Pity Party...
2D Artist
Artist Statement:
My art life has evolved, changed with turns and twists and, mostly, being driven by angst or a neurosis of some sort. Surrealism and Dada and music have been my mental guide through this journey. What I eat is often the fuel for my imagery.
Keith Waits
Artist/Radio Host
Website: Artxfm.com
Biography:​
Born and raised in Louisville, Keith Waits has been involved with the LVA off-and-on since the late 1980s, eventually joining LVA permanently in 2006. Now he is curator and works primarily on artists' engagement, managing the LVA Gallery and hosting Artists Talk with LVA each week on WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com.
Keith studied art at three institutions of higher learning, including the Louisville School of Art, where he was a student when it closed. He has also been involved with Walden Theatre, including support work in set design and construction, and managing the operation of a visual art exhibition space at the Theatre in the 1980s.
In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith was for more than 10 years the Managing Editor of a website, www.arts-louisville.com, which covered local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.
Artist Statement:
As an artist in my youth, I was most interested in people: bodies, faces, and their place in the community, so somehow it makes sense that I have been having conversations with artists for 13 years on the radio. A place I never imagined being. Louisville School of Art has come up many, many times in those conversations, and each time it does, I reconnect with those memories.
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Teresa Waller
Biography:
Teresa L Waller is a native Kentuckian, who has lived and worked in Madison, Indiana since 1990. She holds a BFA in ceramics with a minor in drawing from the Louisville School of Art (Anchorage, KY, 1981). While at LSA she studied ceramics with David Keator and Independent Study in Life Drawing with Mary Ann Currier. After graduation, her interest turned to painting, in oils and more recently, in acrylic. She has exhibited in various galleries in Kentucky and Indiana.
Acrylic Painter Artist
Facebook: Teresa L. Waller/wallerstudio
Artist Statement:
My paintings often begin with a sense of awe—often sparked not by extraordinary subjects, but by ordinary moments transformed through light and shadow. Whether it is light filtering through leaves, color intensifying across flesh, light refracting through glass, or clouds rising in layered towers of color and shadow, these visual experiences draw my attention and compel me to paint. By recreating these moments, I extend a private act of observation into a shared experience, adding a communal dimension to what begins as solitary pleasure.
Brenda Wirth
Biography:
I grew up in Louisville ,KY. and attended the Louisville School of Art in Anchorage, KY. from Spring 1976 to Spring 1977. I studied there with Lida Gordon, Alma Lesch, Peter Bodner and Mary Ann Currier. I then moved on to the University of Louisville briefly before transferring to Kansas City Art Institute and later Indiana University for Graduate School. I’ve shown my work in the Louisville area and beyond for the past 40 years.
2D Artist
Website: BrendaWirthart.com
Instagram: @eyewirth
Artist Statement:
Painting the natural landscape has been my artistic focus for over twenty years. Trees, vegetation, riverbeds, creeks, sky, rocks and their relationship with each other are inspiration for my work.