Acrylics & Art Glass
by Helen DuBiner

January 2, 2023
to February 28, 2023

Artist Statement:

Helen is the daughter of a Navy officer and grew up in coastal areas including Rhode Island, Virginia, and Southern California. She finished high school in San Diego, completed college in Hawaii and pharmacy school in Atlanta. She, her husband and two children have lived in Smyrna, GA since 1988. Helen works as a research director and part time pharmacist.

Although Helen took a couple of art courses in college, she did not pursue painting until the children had left for college and a visiting friend presented a challenge to do something new in the next chapters of life. Helen began painting by taking basic acrylic landscape classes where she learned composition and the mixing of colors, before moving on to portrait and abstract art classes. She paints in the evenings and on weekends, as time permits.

Water is a familiar and favorite subject of Helen because she is reminded of sailing with her family and husband, walks on the beach, and watching sunsets with friends. She enjoys painting scenes that feel peaceful. This summer, Helen travelled to Provence. Her most recent paintings are all from this region. Many of the scenes were painted in the places Cezanne painted. She stayed in a small town, Banon, which is about 90 minutes north of Aix en Provence and travelled to a variety of locations in the Alpes de Haute-Provence. The Luberon Valley of that region was full of Lavender. Most of the paintings were painted plein air, and two were painted after her return. Plein air painting is idyllic for lighting and perspective, but hiking with an easel, paint supplies, canvasses, standing for hours in the sun, dodging bees and other insects, created unexpected challenges. The paintings are acrylic and a retarder was used to slow drying time. Misting with water was necessary as well.

Reclaimed Wood
by Richard Herklotz

March 1, 2023
to April 30, 2023

Artist Statement:

I was born in Glen Ridge N.J. and grew up in the small town of Basking Ridge, N.J. I graduated from Ridge High School in 1966, attended Davis and Elkins College in Elkins W.V. for 2 ½ years. I entered the Air Force in April of 1969, after basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas, I served at Travis AFB, California and Yokota AFB, Japan, during the Vietnam conflict. I was stationed at Dobbins AFB in 1971 and met Elaine in 1972 while there. We married in July of 1973 and remained in Georgia.

I have always enjoyed working with wood, building several items for our first house. I inherited most of my father’s power tools. Among those tools was a Sears lathe and a few turning chisels. I experimented with the lathe and was able to turn some nice pieces from wood found in the firewood pile or limbs fallen from trees in the yard. I now have a much better Poolewood lathe and am able to turn larger and more intricate pieces.

Turning has become a joy for me. It is fascinating to watch as an ugly piece of log becomes a thing of beauty as spins on the lathe. Most of the wood (90%) I use comes from the Cobb county area. Many pieces are where I have seen a pile of limbs left by the road for the city or county to get. Friends and co-workers have brought me pieces of eastern red cedar, wild cherry, crab apple and other woods from the North Atlanta area, Tennessee, South Georgia and even Oregon. I still have a few pieces of black walnut from my father-in-laws farm in Tallapoosa, Ga.

You can reach him at herkit@bellsouth.net

Alcohol Paint on Canvas & Glass
by Maxine Kirkland

May 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023

Artist Statement:

To be added.

Glass Fusing and Slumping
by Teresa Barnes

July 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023

Artist Statement:

Teresa is an artist that loves to work in three dimensional media. She is comfortable creating art in either clay or glass. She is an excellent teacher, but is always ready to increase here skills by furthering her own arts education. She has gone from simply designing dishes and vases in glass to creating the most beautiful picturesque scenes in glass When you consider the difficulty of making glass do what you want it to do instead of what is wants to do, her art is truly remarkable.

Glass Fusing and Slumping is the art of creating works both functional and artistic using colored glass. More versatile than leaded or stained glass because of the ability to shape and meld the glass, use colored glass powder to create shadow, and generally being able to paint with glass is very exciting The results, whether fanciful character studies or a set of one of a kind sushi dishes all share the same dedication and attention to detail that has been the hallmark of her work Of course, the colors and sparkle are always there.

Artist Website

Eclectic Pottery & Paintings
by Steve Stoichev

September 5, 2023 to October 30, 2023

Artist Statement

From a very early age Steve Stoichev's life has been connected with art. At 4 years old he had his first exhibit at his preschool, displaying clay figurines. That was the beginning. Throughout his schooling he began to paint and provided his art to many different community and school exhibits. Throughout the 1980's he concentrated on fashion design, and in 1989 he founded his own fashion design company where he designed and created high-end unique wearable art and accessories.

After over 10 years in the fashion business, Steve returned to his first artistic loves and is realizing an old new dream. Since that time, he has presented his paintings and sculptures in community exhibits in the Atlanta area starting with a 2006 solo show titled �Exhibit of Impressionism�. In 2008 he returned home to Europe for another solo impressionist paintings exhibit . Since then he creates and shows award-winning art through various community and national exhibits.

Steve's current interests alternate between design and creation of sculpture, jewelry and paintings. His sculpture and jewelry are inspired by his heritage and by the artifacts found in Thracian, Greek, and Roman archeological excavations, all of which evoke in him and his art a sense of mysticism and timelessness. His experiences with sculpture and fashion have influenced his painting style. He creates textured and brightly colorful modern or impressionistic paintings that are pleasing both to the sense of touch and to the sense of sight.

Steve currently lives in Smyrna, GA with his wife and three children. He is a member of The Society of Sliven Artists and the South Cobb Art Alliance.

Smyrna World War II Veterans
A Veterans Day Tribute Exhibition
by Pat Burns
and Smyrna Historical and Genealogical Society

November 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023

Exhibit Description:

The Art & Display Galleries feature wartime photographs of World War II veterans from the Smyrna area. They were collected by local historian Pat Burns and the Smyrna Historical and Genealogical Society in 2001.