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 Betty Amendola Betty was born in the south, reared in the midwest, spent her young adulthood in Hawaii and has been a Tucson resident for over 30 years. Living in all of these areas and experiencing different cultures has influenced the way she looks at the world and her art. As a creator of handbuilt pottery, Betty utilizes her 40 years of experience as a graphic designer. Her constant experimentation with a variety of clay bodies, slips, glazes, oxides, stains and textural effects, ensures that her work is always original and unexpected.
When introduced to raku by an instructor, she quickly became addicted and now has her own raku kiln, and in the last two years has completed over 140 raku firings. A passionate high energy person by nature, Betty has directed some of that passion and energy into coaxing a seemingly endless variety of art from clay.
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 Phyllis Borden’s work has been particularly inspired by her travels throughout the western United States and both her ceramics and paintings are focused on natural elements, especially trees, flowers and birds. She has been painting acrylic landscapes for over 35 years and also spins fibers, working with wool, llama, alpaca and other fibers. “I’m privileged to have the time to play with clay and paint to my heart’s content. I’d be lost without a creative outlet.”
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 Diane Calkins
I was born and raised in Colorado Springs, where the beauty of nature has always inspired my creativity. After many years of commercial quilting, silk painting and watercolor, I discovered that creating jewelry was truly my calling. I am enthralled with wrapping red, brown and orange toned gemstones in copper, as that brings out the warm glow of the stone. The sterling silver really shows off the beauty of the blue, purple and green gemstones and is equally as mesmerizing. Each of my pieces have been sprayed to reduce tarnish. I hand pick each of my stones from lapidary artists, many of whom are the actual miners. Each piece is truly unique and one-of-kind.
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 Merle Eintracht
A natural born South African, Merle is a self taught artist. In Pasadena CC she devised and taught a highly successful Art and Music program for children Kg – 6th while attending graduate school and obtaining a Master’s degree in Human Development.
Merle sees the natural world as a tapestry that she is compelled to create in bits of fabric. As a fabric artist her process begins with a trip to a fabric store which offers her a feast of sensual delights, and the endless possibilities of combination. She loves to smell, touch and bask in the glorious colors of fabric which guarantee to feed her spirit.
Working from photographs that inspire her, Merle’s, art consists primarily of flowers and landscapes. She also creates Victorian Seed Bead flowers and her most recent medium is Paper Fabric which she continues to explore.
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| Kathy Givre |
 Lorraine Pace Halvorsen's interest in art began in childhood when she would sketch wherever possible on whatever materials were available. Nature's beauty abounded on her family's remote cattle ranch in the four comers area of Utah and Colorado.
She came to Tubac, AZ in 1976. This historic Spanish, sidewalk free, town was founded in about 1600. It was always a local center for art and crafts. This place fulfilled a dream that began in the 1950's. Lorraine was a medical and cytotechnologist who also did cancer research on uranium miners on the Colorado Plateau but yearned to paint. She kept doing her sketches.
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 Chris Higgins
Fishbone Designs jewelry reflects Chris’ mixed Japanese and Cherokee heritage with striking designs around colorful natural stones and precious gemstones. She added designs inspired by the ocean, since moving to the beach, and introduced a line she calls “Flower My Power”, that celebrates inner strengths.
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Janine Jones
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 Kim Jones is a self taught artist working primarily in mixed media watercolor and ink on paper and mixed media oil on canvas. She has developed her own unique methods of mixing and layering mediums to create depth, texture and movement. Her watercolor and ink paintings are whimsical and light, often with a humorous twist, while the oils are more spiritual and metaphysical. Kim gets most of her inspiration from dreams and daily meditations.
She started painting in oils at fourteen years old, and in her twenties discovered watercolor and ink. Her paintings have elements of both the greens of rural Minnesota and the desert colors of Arizona, having lived in both places. She and her husband lived in Arizona a number of years, then returned to Minnesota for awhile. Now they are beginning the process of coming back to the desert.
“I have a need to always have a piece in progress, or I feel out of balance. I am grateful for having two mediums to work in, that work for me, so I always have some new idea floating in my head and something evolving in my studio”.
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 Nancy Klapak
I was born in Tennessee, raised in the Midwest, transplanted to California as a teenager where I attended UC Berkeley after graduation from high school. I received a BA in Design with an emphasis in ceramics and worked for a number of years making functional pottery. I was always fascinated by glass and tried to incorporate into my pots many times without success. After moving to Oregon and living in the woods in a log house, raising a family and having several careers, I followed my dream of working with glass and making jewelry and moved to Green Valley, Arizona. I like bright shiny things, which attracted me years ago to dichroic glass. I have two kilns at home, and a small studio. I still like making items that are functional and am very happy to have wine stoppers, purse holders, bookmarks and key chains with dichroic glass cabochons along with the dichroic pendants. I recently added some free form dichroic pendants with wire wrap and some spiral earrings which move and sparkle in the light.
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 Amy Kyle
Amy began her undergraduate studies in England (Richmond College) and Spain (University of Salamanca) studying Spanish language and culture. She continued her study of art and art education at the University of Arizona in Tucson and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977. She subsequently worked in a variety of media being drawn, finally to the textural and tactile subtleties of fiber and clay. Amy Kyle’s expressions in clay, fiber and glass represent a vision that is unique and visually captivating. Combining traditional and innovative techniques, Amy captures energy and dynamism with the materials she chooses for her designs.
My objective is to achieve a dynamic “palette” of textures, bringing various media in one design. I’m drawn to the process of my work not just a finished product. As a result, much of the designing is an organic process, allowing the materials to guide me. My clay work might be raku fired or electric fired with a variety of glazes. I weave the fiber forms with various fabrics and I put the fused glass through a number of firings to achieve interesting surfaces. As an artist it is enormously satisfying to watch people respond to the work with a smile, curiosity, maybe a touch, as they take in the scope of the work.
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 Vangie Legel
I am a self taught potter and acquired my knowledge through taking workshops and attending courses in ceramics and jewelry making. My pieces are formed using different handbuilding techniques, heavily textured, layering them with several glazes and firing them in cone 6. I usually reglaze and fire them several times until I am satisfied with the result. I make pieces that interest me but my main focus are on landscapes for wall hanging and vessels embellished with found objects. My husband's job gave us an opportunity to live in different parts of the world. This exposure to different cultures, language and diverse nature coupled with my Asian heritage shaped how I view the world and influenced my art. I am also inspired by other artist who challenge the commonly belief of what is art and what isn't art.
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 Sue McIntyre was born with a creative side and a need to express herself through color and art. She has an eye for beauty and talented hands that bring that beauty to life. Her father is retired military, and Sue found art as an outlet for all the different cultures she experienced. It is on Sue’s mother’s side, who is an artist in her own right, her creative juices flow. Her mother encouraged her and signed her up for classes very early on to learn the basics, the rest is self-taught hands-on experience. Many different mediums have been explored.
She has always felt close to nature, and tries to utilize natural elements in her art whenever possible. The last 15 years Sue has been in Tucson. She is a loving wife, mother and grandmother.
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 Luis Preciado is an artist best known for his paintings of the modern, glamorous woman. His striking works create a magical ambiance with the power to ignite the senses by breathing life into his subjects. “I am constantly striving towards a more minimalist style by stripping away that which is not vital.”
Luis Preciado has worked in acrylic, pencil and presently oil paint on canvas. His subjects include women, children and landscapes. In 2005, Luis Preciado decided to move to southern Arizona after being captivated by one of the many sunsets the mystical desert had to offer. The artist is presently working on a series of cowgirls and Mexican "charras."
Luis' work can be viewed and purchased at:
Feminine Mystique Elite
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 Mary Ramsey, owner/artist of Yellow Dog Quilts. I have been making quilts since 1985. I am currently a quilting teacher at the Quilter's Market in Tucson AZ. All of my items are created from my own original designs and patterns.
My tote bags are made from beautiful Polynesian batik fabric which is 100% cotton with a very high thread count, and completely machine washable. No two bags are alike - fabric, embroidery patterns & colors, buttons and beading are different on each one.
Why Yellow Dog? Gonzo is my 3-yr-old mixed breed shelter rescue who is my constant companion. He's named for the baseball player who had the winning hit in the 2001 baseball series for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course, he has his own quilt...
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 Donna Vargas was raised in the Southwest growing up in Phoenix, Arizona. She developed a love for gourd art some thirty years ago. She purchased a raw gourd at a craft store and after much time spent cleaning and preparing the gourd, she sketched a design and voila her first gourd creation was born. She actually joined the American Gourd Society at that time. However, her interest in gourds had to take a back seat to raising her five children and her full time career of almost forty years as a registered nurse. It was not until she retired to Southern Arizona in 2002 that she was finally able to devote a majority of her time to gourd art. After creating just a few pieces, she was encouraged by her friends and family who now own some of her works which are displayed proudly in their homes. She uses various mediums including coiling, weaving, tenerife, wood burning, acrylic paints and various forms of carving. Her pieces are heavily influenced by Southwestern designs as she grew up in the Southwest and has always maintained a fondness for Southwestern motif. |
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 Arlene Zaloznik
Basketry is my passion. Weaving brings me an inner peace that I hope you will find as well as you look at my baskets. It all began with a class in 1996 class while visiting a friend in Alaska. Other than that one class, I am mostly self taught. I now work out of my home in El Paso, TX.
My pine needle gourd baskets are woven in a coiled fashion using either waxed linen or artificial sinew as the coiling thread depending on the effect I want to create. I cut and clean the gourds, then finish them with a furniture polish to maintain and enhance the natural finish of the gourd. The gourds are then sprayed with a protective acrylic spray. The gourd baskets are embellished with black walnut slices, antlers, natural gemstones (turquoise, malachite, coral, lapis, etc), botanicals, feathers, fossils, and beads. Usually I have no plans for the embellishments - I look at the gourd - letting it speak to me - and then I select the botanicals, feathers and beads, often spending several hours until I find that "right" combination.
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