It’s also unequivocally the word one uses to describe a true renaissance soul like Su Nimon – an artist who is delightfully dexterous in art and in life.

Su’s work captures the collision between archetypical architecture and noir-charged emotion. Her work expresses iconic imagery grounded in clean lines and sensible serenity. She slips from medium to medium like a fish through wet hands. Her textile work (to which she’s only recent returned) is charming and tender, warm and wearable.

Everything about Su’s work simply says home.

As though all of that isn’t enough to garner the versatile label, she’s half of the fantastic folk duo Caboodle, and she offers to makeover more than your walls with her massage and wellness work through Journey Studios. Su’s a busy girl, but she’s never too busy for a commission consult, just get in touch with her.

Check out more of Su’s work on her website, or click over to her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery. She also posts her most recent endeavors on her facebook page.

Please let us know what YOU think about Su’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back in two weeks – to check out our next hearted artist!

P.S. You’ll never be cool like Su if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist in two weeks – it might just be you!

Irene Tobias Rodriguez is a great example of someone who is genuine in the detail of her landscapes, seascapes and naturalist scenes.

It is in the maritime art that we find Irene’s details fully disclosed. In Off Shore and Three Astern, we see her characteristically complex definition, but we also see the nature of the water. The careful chaos and calamity are conveyed fastidiously.

There’s also a wonderful softness to her Bumblebee as he gathers pollen, but the details on his anatomy are meticulous.

Irene’s long career in the arts, both as a teacher and as a practitioner, has granted her an artist’s skill. It’s her willingness to experiment and to let the work speak in its own voice that has granted her greatness.

Check out more of Irene’s work on her website, or click over to her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery.

Please let us know what YOU think about Irene’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back in two weeks – to check out our next hearted artist!

P.S. You’ll never be cool like Irene if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist in two weeks – it might just be you!

Liz DeBellis‘ work is woven, whether her stitches are the tactile fibers of her quilts and fabric pieces, or bound together by the liquid stitches of her inks. By print or by quilt, DeBellis entwines us in her story.

Fiber artist and print maker, Liz DeBellis, is young and talented. Because for an artist who deals in such literal themes – leaves, a faucet, tree limbs – her work is sensationally allegorical. It captures the magic of the symbols of our existence, pieces them together and stitches them up with renewed meaning. She was selected for the annual Quilt National exhibit because of her distinct demonstrations of innovation in quilting. Be sure to check out her upcoming shows and her full resume of accomplishments.

Once again we’ve been introduced to a talented artist who is learning their craft in Stark County while also teaching art to a new generation of artists. DeBellis is aiding young students in New Philadelphia with their formative art education.

Liz just started her “Fiber Dreams” blog, so check it out to get the most up to date scoop on what she’s developing, and be sure to go to her shop on Etsy – great gift items, especially her purses!

Check out more of Liz’s work on her website, or click over to her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery.

Please let us know what YOU think about Liz’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back in two weeks – to check out our next hearted artist!

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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Liz if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist in two weeks – it might just be you!

The effect of her sedate work in color is results in a striking dimensional appeal.

The layering in “Field of Green” is unexpected and thoughtful, the gentle turmoil of “Triptic” is mesmerizing, and “Ariel” radiates an electric energy.

With the talent that flows from her other passions, specifically in film, advertising and art direction, I count us lucky that she endeavors into the fine arts realm at all. As it is, she does endeavor, and work is esoteric, meaningful and more than a little profound.

For more about Georgia, be sure to click over to his permanent Hearted-Artist gallery. You can also contact Georgia to view more of her work.

Please let us know what YOU think about Georgia’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!

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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Georgia if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!

The difference this week is really quite simple. Conservation photographer Stephen McNulty’s work is literally imbued with benevolence.

In the fleeting moments before the eagle sails over his prey, in the delicate, symbiotic palette of shallow tide pools, and in the resplendent electricity of the tiny frog’s environ, we find no hint of the remoteness of the locales. Instead, there is an intimate and accessible component, a beckoning, voyeur view of magnificent creatures and habitats.

The scenes Stephen shows us from his travels – be it Alaska, the Caribbean or Polynesia – are captured impeccably. They go a long way to replicate the wonder he must have experienced first hand, separated by a single, simple lens.

For more about Stephen, be sure to click over to his permanent Hearted-Artist gallery. You can also see his work in person at Cyrus Art Gallery or The Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography, where he is the general manager.

Please let us know what YOU think about Stephen’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating his portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!

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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Stephen if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!

On behalf of rogue spray enamel artist Steven Ehret, bite your tongue.

Despite the lonely, esoteric and languishing spirit that infects much of his work, Steve’s work is infectious. And even when he’s painting on walls, I’m left thinking thank god for this “debasement.”

When Steve says that he draws inspiration from the people and places he encounters each day, one can hardly believe him. At first. But somewhere among the dilapidated, dingy hovels and the frenzied fiends that populate his pieces, it doesn’t take too much imagination to connect the hyperbolic dots.

Steve’s work imbibes the feeling of a merry riot. His isn’t a style that leaves you at the canvas edge. It’s an entire existence, happy in its gritty, sinister promenade. The creatures he creates, ones he lovingly calls “phontasmal,” are sometimes beleaguered, always beguiling, and often belligerent, but each surges with its own life – without moving an inch they are animated, stirring and memorable, to say the least.

If you’re looking for Steve’s work, you can look online at his site or blog, at the William Rupnik Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio, or you can look around the city. He exhibited at the recent Stark Naked Salon exhibit at Massillon Museum of Art, and got rave reviews.

Whether with a can of spray paint or the more refined tools of the trade – with Steve, it’s not his work that is obscene, but his talent.

For more about Steve, be sure to click over to his permanent Hearted-Artist gallery.

Please let us know what YOU think about Steve’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating his portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!

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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Steve if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!

Minerva artist Joan Henninger’s gentle works in oil certainly come from the hand and the heart of one who is serenely in harmony with her world.

I sometimes wonder if artists don’t find themselves getting caught up in the daily grind of simply being artists, if they don’t come to appreciate more the outcome of the work than the arduous process itself. And then I have the opportunity to get to know someone like Joan, one who so clearly enjoys the act of creation – one who even likes the smell of the oil on her brush!

Joan says that her favorite thing is to paint on site, to be surrounded by God’s beauty as she creates and to truly experience the act of creating. Her work gives you a sense of being there, working with her.

You can imagine her first swipe on the canvas and the scent of the oils mixing with the hot summer air as it radiates off that old covered bridge. In the background, you can hear the sound of children coming and going out of the schoolhouse doors or the soft whine of the leaves as they dangle from their branches. You can feel the prayers of those who fill the pews on the other side of that church wall.

We’re there because Joan is there, and I for one am glad she is.

For more about Joan, be sure to click over to her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery.

Please let us know what YOU think about Joan’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!

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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Joan if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!

North Canton artist Renie Britenbucher packs a powerful palette of whimsy, quirk and euphoria into all she brushes.

Renie’s work has charm and charisma, a soul all its own. She thinks of it as “modern whimsical folk art.” I think of it as a harmonious alternate universe of contentment.

She brings her dreams into being with series like “Peace On Earth” and her thoughtful “Diva” collection. With Renie, one minute you’re “Sailing, Sailing,” and the next you’re taking in her take on the resounding energy of life in her landscapes and cityscapes.

Like what you see? Her substantive portfolio can be viewed at a variety of sites, including her own website (where the site itself takes whimsy to extremes!), as well a variety of sites where you can purchase her work on canvas, on mug, on apparel, and more.

Check out more of Renie’s work over at her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery.

Please let us know what YOU think about Renie’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!
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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Lynn if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!

Alliance artist Lynn Digby’s intensity is outshone only by her ability to evaporate the features of her subjects, reconstituting them with an aura of true merit that we can take along with us.

Lynn describes her work as contemporary realism. She acknowledges her actions with the brush, the certain exposing quality of her technique that lays bare even the most cleverly concealed. She has a way of relegating the complexities of the human form to simple themes that resonate stoically.

Her talent in portraiture is in showing us that which we ignore or overlook, those truths of our essence that we can’t or won’t face. But by bringing the feared worst of us, she unearths the best.

More of her works in oil and watercolor can be viewed in her online collection. Contact Lynn to discuss the painting of your own essence, or stop by her gallery at Second April.

Check out more of Lynn’s work over at her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery.

Please let us know what YOU think about Lynn’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!
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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Lynn if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!

Stark County fine artist Kelli Swan puts fine lines in her pups, ponies and people.

The detail in Kelli’s work is immaculate. In The Eyes Have It, it’s as though we’re transformed into flies, edging along the muzzle until we find ourselves cornea to cornea with the huge, graceful creature. Kelli has spent a lifetime perfecting her renderings and the energy they convey. The life that stems for Kelli’s drawings is undeniable.

Kelli’s talent has been well-recognized over the years. Her offering runs the gamut from custom portraits and line drawings, to cards and gifts, to graphic design and marketing work. Kelli has even authored two art books.

Check out more of Kelli’s work on her website, or click over to her permanent Hearted-Artist gallery. You can follow her on Twitter for more regular updates on what she’s working on.

Please let us know what YOU think about Kelli’s work by leaving a comment below, and by rating her portfolio. Come back next week – same time, same place – to check out our next hearted artist!
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P.S. You’ll never be cool like Kelli if you don’t submit your artist portfolio! And if you’ve already submitted, we’ll be picking another hearted artist next week – it might just be you!