Among this year’s featured artwork is the handmade bound books of artist Teresa Haun from nearby Tahoe City, Calif., who uses traditional methods to bind handmade papers and leather together to create personal journals.
“With my artistic perspective on book binding, I fuse traditional and contemporary -- using inventive techniques to create extraordinary and beautiful works of art for function and admiration,” Haun says. She makes a range of journals from small and compact, to larger sizes that can be used as artist portfolios and scrapbooks. “The handmade paper is acid-free and archival to protect the life of everything put on and in between them,” Haun adds.
Diana Ahrens of Reno, Nev. creates custom mixed media pieces for homes and businesses. She works in mosaic-type mixed media to design wall art of all sizes. Her process involves using a very light wood composite and acrylics in complimentary colors for her signature backgrounds. She then overlays the treated wood with multiple layers of pastels to reach her intended deep and rich color contrasts. To finish the work, she calls upon her mastery of stained glass design by selecting special cuts of stained glass that are applied over the painting to accent and highlight the underlying work. Her pieces include designs of wine bottles, martini glasses and florals.
Silvio Silvestri of Grass Valley, Calif. is an award winning artist, recently placing in art shows in northern and southern California. He began painting on a part-time basis in 1975 during his travels in the Sierra Nevada, and became more serious about his work in 1991 when he began studying under local artists including Robert Winters and George Strickland. Silvestri, a plein air painter, strives to capture a mood and feeling in his work rather than a realistic image that the camera achieves. He varies his subject matter to include portraits, floral and figures along with the breathtaking landscape of the Lake Tahoe area.
Additional artists participating in the Festival include: Jerry and Joan Dubson of Frazier Park featuring their fine jewelry; John Manley of Washoe Valley, Nevada who will showcase his unique ceramic vessels -- porcelain and stoneware art pots up to four feet tall; and Sue Fox-Capeloto of Garden Valley showing her functional ceramic kitchen pieces.
For more information about the 5th Annual Fine Arts Festival, contact The Village at Squaw Valley at (530) 584-6267 or Pacific Fine Arts at (209) 267-4394, or visit www.pacificfinearts.com.
