Celebration of Fine Art

For Gedion Nyanhongo there is passion, life and happiness in the stones he sculpts. From childhood he knew he was happiest when he was chiseling alongside his father. He knew it was his calling to portray the love, peace and spiritual power found in the stones and in everyday life.

“I’m very passionate about bringing out what is in the stone, because it creates happiness for people,” Gedion said. “I see how people interact. I see how people enjoy their lives. I see how people go through hard times and I translate that into the stone. It’s so solid and permanent that happiness is everywhere in the world and it’s worth it to put it in the stone, which will be forever just as strong as the happiness itself. It’s forever.”

Gedion puts just as much heart, soul and time into selecting the right stone as he does creating the piece. He makes regular trips to Zimbabwe to select the right stone – opal, springstone or Zimbabwe (Nyanga) stone – in essence reading the stone to see what story it has to tell.

Though he knew it was his passion and calling to transform these stones into sculptures that celebrate love, peace and happiness, which transcend cultural barriers, Gedion, who was born and raised in a rural area of Zimbabwe, never imagined the places his art would take him.

“I grew up in the rural areas where I never knew where I was going to end up, I became a globetrotter just because of following my passion,” he said. “Sharing what I believe in only to find out it’s peoples’ food. They love it. If I wasn’t doing this how was I going to heal those souls who benefit from what I do?”

Gedion also finds passion and happiness at the Celebration of Fine Art. For him it’s a source of inspiration and camaraderie.

“This is the place where you get to interact with other artists,” he said. “This is the place where you get motivating and inspiration. This is the place where you rub shoulders with the clients who collect your work. There are not many places where you can have such interaction between the client and the artist; such interaction between the artists, supporting one another uplifting our spirits, giving each other confidence in what we do.”

Vicki Grant started her career as an architect – a job she practiced for nearly 30 years – until she decided it was time to do something she found personally rewarding and fulfilling.

“I got to the point where I felt like I wanted to do something that was more rewarding to me personally,” she said. “It is something more intimate as far as working with materials and with my hands. Architecture was becoming very computer and technology oriented.”

Vicki didn’t completely abandon architecture though. It still finds its way into much of her artwork; the only difference is it isn’t subject to building codes.

“My artwork is compounded by my experience as an architect,” she said. “There’s a whole series that is very architectonic – its form, its shape, its color, its texture, its pattern, its rhythm – its all lessons learned from architecture.”

Following her passion for art has also allowed Vicki to explore other parts of her brain and other opportunities she hadn’t thought possible, including a collaboration with Myron Whitaker who co-creates sculptural vessels with her.

“Another side of my brain, which maybe didn’t get the opportunity as much in architecture is I really love and respect nature,” she said. “This allows me to be more organic and I use found objects for my inspiration. The vessels serve more of a sculpture part of my brain. Working with other people (Myron Whitaker) has been a good opportunity for me to expand my horizons even further.”

Vicki said being at the Celebration of Fine Art makes her feel like she’s at summer camp, because she’s learning everyday and growing as an artist.

“I get to be with creative people that have their own materiality, that have their own media, and I’m learning about that,” she said. “I’m getting the opportunity to get feedback from the clients. I can see what people are attracted to or not attracted to, and I can tweak things that I see maybe could be better. I’m really learning. People here are fantastic.”

J. R. Eason was born on a rural Idaho ranch. She works in her home studio where it is delightful as she disconnects from everything. Her figures and their individual expressions are brought from her own mind, without the use of models or photos. J. R.’s self-taught spirit brings her bronze sculptures to life. Her figures depict an undeniable sense of humanity. They radiate with expressive gestures, contemplative faces, and pensive expressions depicting peaceful meditation. J. R.’s works exude a sense of understanding and knowledge, reborn in sculptural form with the wisdom and beauty that only “life” can bestow on an individual.

Although J. R. does not have a formal artistic education, her works display the raw understanding and talent of their artist. She developed her own style, creating from what she knows best, the fascinating female form with stylized curves. J. R. is known for her emotionally charged faces with the grace, the feeling, emotion, and experience of life. Not only are the depths of her creativity seen in her sculpture but in her words as well. Poetry has always been there as a remedy for J. R. and she likes to use it to convey what she is thinking as she creates each piece. It helps her explain where the emotion or the attitude comes from. Her first publication, “Life, A Full Vessel” is a collection of poetry and sculpture.

J. R. is happy to be a part of the Celebration of Fine Art and has many long-time collectors that look for her each year. Make sure to spend a few moments getting to know her and enjoying her work when you visit the Celebration this year.

What started as a child’s desire to mimic his grandfather’s sketches, over time developed into a passion and a career. Santiago Michalek was living in Argentina and recalls having to deliver bread and the morning paper to his grandfather everyday, who was living in a casita behind the family’s main home. While there his grandfather would draw cartoonish figures of men on horseback. It was those drawings that ignited a passion that Santiago believes was always within him.

“All I wanted to do was draw like my grandpa,” he said. “I worked at it, and worked at it. And I would compare my drawings to how good his were. That’s kind of where it started for me. I was always pretty artistic even from very, very young, but I just wanted to draw like my grandpa.”

Though Santiago never stopped painting, he began restoring Volkswagen Bugs and Buses to earn an income. Little did he know how much he would fall in love with the process and how it would forever impact his style of work.

“About 10 years ago I started restoring Volkswagens,” he said. “Every time I got a little more adventurous…until I was doing complete full-on restorations. I loved it. I had no idea how much fun it was going to be. My buses were just staring at me and I thought ‘I need to paint my buses.’ It’s what’s real for me. It’s what’s true for me.”

His knowledge and passion collided, and it opened the door to all-things vintage and mechanical, which he said is completely different than the organic human figure he was previously painting.

“It was drastically different than what I was doing,” Santiago said. “I love the history that is behind every single one of these vehicles and the story they tell in their rust, and in their abandonment or their restoration. I love it.”

Being his first year at the Celebration of Fine Art, Santiago also discovered the level of interaction among the guests and the other artists is fueling his passion in a whole new way.

“I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy talking to people and meeting people, and hearing feedback about my work and the other work of the other artists,” he said. “It’s really fun to talk to people, get their feedback, hear about where they’re from, why they like art, what it is they’re looking for. I didn’t anticipate enjoying so much of the art and talking to the artists and [learning] about their process. It’s completely different and everybody has a different perspective or insight or process. I love that.”