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Alan O'Neal

Alan O’Neal

Alan O’Neal – Springfield

Digital Art. I am a retired engineer. I have a fondness for nature.  I was raised in the country, and still live in the country.  In 2004 I started doing Digital Art. This is a process where I take a photo and create an alternate image out of it. My computer and mouse are my pallet and paintbrush. Many times the final results will have no appearance of being a photograph. I find it neat that it is possible to have an alternate image of a good photo that is also pleasing. It is also satisfying to take a less pleasing photo and create a desirable image from it.  I create my Digital Art only from photos that I have taken.  My images include abstract, animals, aquatic, birds and ducks, flowers and plants, insects and butterflies, lights, objects, people, reptiles and amphibians, scenery, sunrises and sunsets, weather.


Dave Carter

Dave Carter

Dave Carter – Cape Girardeau

Dave Carter received a BFA in Studio Art from Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University) in Kirksville, Missouri, with concentrations in Painting, Ceramics, and Photography. Dave served as graphics manager for a sign company from 1996 through 2010. In February of 2011 he and his wife, Sally, opened “Dave’s Studio—Visual Art Services” in Kirksville. The shop offered artwork, art supplies, art classes, and commercial design/sign production. His wife having accepted a position at Southeast Missouri State University, the couple moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, during the summer of 2014.

Dave displayed his paintings at the annual Red Barn Arts & Crafts Fair in Kirksville from 2008 through 2012, winning Best of 2-D Work in 2009. In 2012 three of his paintings were included in the Kirksville Arts Association Regional Juried Art Show and again in 2013 as well as that organization hosting his one man show in March of 2014 titled, “Places of Rest”. He has had several of his paintings included in Where We Can Read the Wind, and Turning the Clock Forward Again, the 2012 and 2013 editions of VSA Missouri’s yearly publication. Four of his paintings toured Missouri in 2012/13 and again in 2014/15 as part of VSA Missouri’s traveling art show. He has participated in “Art for the Health of It” at Des Peres Hospital in St. Louis and at Southeast Missouri Regional Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Additionally, two paintings were displayed in Cape Girardeau as part of Southeast Missouri Arts Council’s 2012 Annual Juried Regional Art Exhibit. Dave received an Honorable Mention for his oil painting, “Shadows” in the Missouri Top 50 show during the 2014 State Fair in Sedalia.

Dave carter is a Juried Member of the Best of Missouri Hands in Painting and he participated in the BOMH invitational exhibit in Hannibal during the spring of 2013.  Dave was a founding member/Vice President of Missouri & Southern Iowa Art Guild (MOSI) in Kirksville. He is currently a member of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri and the Visual Artist Cooperative in Cape Girardeau.

Dave’s Studio-Visual Art Services is in the process of launching “VanGo Mobile Art Supplies”—a vintage 23’ RV converted into an extensive art store and traveling studio for the Cape area. For more information, contact Dave Carter at 660-216-8669, email davesstudio@hotmail.com or visit his page on Facebook.


Raine Clotfelter

Raine Clotfelter

Raine Clotfelter – Branson

Raine is a professional Artist/Illustrator seeking to revitalize and enrich our nation’s most valued resources; its citizens and communities by capturing in his murals, the unique individuals and historical events that made this country what it is today.

Raine’s artwork has been published in military publications Link, Surface Warfare and Navy News.  He has historical pieces displayed in military recruiting and reserve centers in Washington, Oklahoma and Texas.  Other works of art are displayed on ships and in commands where he served in the 1980s.  He has been classified as a naval historian for his works on naval history.

In addition, he has done pieces for Walt Disney Productions, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Tri-Star Entertainment, Time Warner and Branson Teleproductions.  In music publications he has designed for entertainers such as Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams Jr., and Clint Black.  Clients in the corporate world include JC Penney, Radio Shack, Comp USA, Boeing, McDonald Douglas, Texas Instruments and Raytheon.

For more information, go to http://www.americasmuralist.com/profile


Stephanie Cramer

Stephanie Cramer

Stephanie Cramer – Springfield

Envisioning figures and landscapes, at that last stillness of light between day and night. Leave enough room for interpretation.  Color being central to the temperature and emotion of the painting.

I see the painter as analogous to an actor/director bringing the viewer along to new places, memories, dreams, and family histories. I like to give the viewer space to interpret what they see on the canvas.

Center stage in my art is the figure – an object in motion, as if the figure is caught, just for an instant; a glimpse, a snapshot before the gesture is complete. I’m not in search of exact representation. I’m intent rather on provoking a sense of tension or intensity.  Color, bring the emotion to the painting.

Whether spatial or expressionistic, the implied relationship between figures is intended to arouse curiosity. Painting is like a freeze frame. It helps both the viewer and the painter to pause – if just for a second as we enter into that two-dimensional space. Most of the time the stage is imaginary or based on dreams and memories. Like Alice, the viewer is invited to step into the drama or the wonderland inside the looking glass.

Exhibitions

  • 2016 Equality Health Care, Obelisk Home, Springfield, MO
  • 2015 Hotel Vandivort, eFactory, Sky Gallery, Springfield-Branson National Airport, Obelisk Home, Springfield, MO
  • 2014 VIVO Salon, Obelisk Home, Springfield, MO
  • 2009 -2013 Obelisk Home, Springfield, MO
  • 2008 Zea Mays Print Gallery, North Hampton, MA
  • 2007 Scott & Warren Gallery, KC, MO, Juried Show JP Open Studios
  • 2005 Gallery 170, Damariscotta, ME, VanWard Gallery, Ogunquit, ME
  • 2004 2005 Walnut Street Gallery, Keyes Gallery, Springfield, MO, Zeitgeist Gallery, Cambridge, MA, Zea Mays Printmaking, Northampton, MA
  • 2004/1998 Van Ward Gallery, Ogunquit, ME
  • 2005/2003/2001/2000 Parker Room Gallery, Jamaica Pl., MA
  • 2000/1999 Gallery Berchad, Somerville, MA
  • 1999 Provincetown Group Gallery, Provincetown, MA
  • 1998 Space 12 Gallery, Boston MA
  • 1997 Drury Univer. Gallery, Hammon’s School of Architecture, Springfield, MO
  • 1996 South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA
  • 1995 Emerging Artist Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA
  • 1994 Artworks Gallery, Watertown, MA, Gallery 659, Jamaica Plain, MA

Collections
Hotel Vandivort, Springfield, MO
BKD Springfield, MO

Stephanie Cramer, Imagineart66@yahoo.com
(417)773-7919


Dee Giles

Dee Giles

Dee Giles – Springfield

Dee works primarily in oils but also does sculpture, painting and other areas. She focuses on realistic portraits, animals and landscapes. Her work has sold to collectors and individuals throughout the region. She has won numerous awards including Visual Artist Alliance of Springfield, Juror’s Choice Award Best of Missouri Hands, Juried Member Ozark Empire Fair – People’s Choice Award, The Wall Ozark Empire Fair – First Place, The Wall Ozark Empire Fair – Second Place, The Giles’ Barn Ozark Empire Fair – Third Place, Down on Fox Creek Ozark Empire Fair – Special Award and Waverly House – Honorable Mention, Patriotic Scene.


Steven Hadar

Steven Hadar

Steven Hadar – Table Rock Lake

Steven Hadar was born and raised in southern Indiana.  A farm boy, he began drawing animals and people as early as 3 years old.  As a teenager, he was a well-known artist in his hometown and made a nice part-time income by drawing and painting portraits, illustrations and other projects for local clients.  His first formal training did not start until he attended Illinois Institute of Technology where he took two years of Life Drawing under instructor from the famous BauHaus in Germany.  He was illustrator and cartoonist for the school newspaper, art editor and illustrator for the school literary magazine and art editor of the yearbook.  Upon graduation he was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the Marine Corps, and set his art pursuits aside to concentrate on flight school and his military career.

After retiring as a lieutenant colonel, Hadar returned to studying art in California at Saddleback College and at Palomar College where he earned a merit scholarship and a degree in Pictorial Arts with emphasis in oil painting.  Hadar then continued years of post-graduate study at Watts Atelier of the Arts in Encinitas, California.

Hadar has developed as an artist by experimenting in a variety of styles and media.  An experienced and sought after portrait artist, he enjoys departing from pictorial realism as well as doing abstracted portraits heavily influenced by cubism.  This cubist style offers a creative challenge in which to capture more of a person’s features and personality than in a traditional portrait.  It also offers the subject an unusually different portrait to be enjoyed rather than the typical oil portrait, by exploring composition, design and color more fully.

Hadar feels drawing skills are the basis for all good paintings.  Believing that an artist must draw every day to improve or maintain his natural talent, his sketch books are full of everything imaginable from landscapes to figurative drawings.  Good composition and tonal contrast are learned from drawing studies.  Over a foundation of masterful composition with contrast and tonal control, he then draws the eye in for a harmonized feats of color.  Hadar often uses either complimentary or analogous hues with a controlled palette to create a mood, and beautiful color harmony.

His professional art includes fine art gallery sales, published illustrations portrait commission, murals and special projects.

National awards include:  First Place Award in Abstract Oil Painting in San Diego Art Fair, People’s Choice Award in the San Diego Art Fair, and Second Place Award in the San Diego Water Color Society Show.


David Kontra

David Kontra

David Kontra – Hartville

Born in Cleveland, it slowly but surely occurred to my parents that as a young boy, my vision was failing.  Many trips to various doctors were unsuccessful in the detection and cure of my deteriorating eyesight.

As I grew up, I discovered the many prejudices people have toward one another and the discrimination that is aimed at not only minorities but the disabled.  My blindness revealed to me the hurtful ways people could unjustly punish and victimize those who are different.  In my case, this includes piers, students and even some teachers.  Harsh experiences and episodes in my life are just some reasons why I create mirror images of society and the promotion of civil liberties.

At around the age of nine, I was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa.  From this stage in my life I’ve had less than 5% vision in my left eye and only light perception in my right eye.  Consequently, I am near total blindness.  As a boy I began to draw in order to escape depression, and I learned to rely on my memory to create my work.  I must fight through the obstacles of blind spots, nystagmus (involuntary eye movements) and blurred vision within an area less than a ¼ of an inch.  In essence, it is like looking at the world through a straw.

Through my life I created drawings only to throw them away for I never thought for one moment that anyone would ever truly be interested in purchasing them.  After all, who would want to buy art created by a blind person.  Being a visual artist was unrealistic and according to many people, a waste of time.  It wasn’t until the love of my life saw my ability as an artist by studying some scrap paper sketches that I created.  She convinced me to continue to draw, which I did.  But I didn’t offer my art for sale until years later when I finally decided to pick up my first paint brush in 2001.  Since then, I have sold over 500 paintings and drawings.  It’s gratifying when patrons surround me at a solo art exhibition wanting to know how I create my paintings.  One client coined my architectural works, “Recognizable Abstract.”  It is pleasing to know that with time, people sometimes do look beyond discrimination, differences and realize that obstacles can be overcome with determination.

DELIVERANCE OF THE ABLE

If society is to advance into the future bringing true equality, it must finally acknowledge the disabled.  For the disabled are really not as such.  They are the “Able.”  Even though they may not see, hear, speak, or move as well, they can certainly think and function whilst social barriers are placed before them.  The disabled must surmount complex challenges regarding transportation and mobility, education, employment opportunities, poverty, ridicule, depression and ostracism, which proves that the disabled are not second class citizens but first class survivors.  Because they must endure these obstructions that an arrogant, apathetic society allows, their dynamism confirms that they are the proper proprietors of social egalitarianism.

“Insolence and ignorance shown by others can be the best fuel for fierce determination.” D. Kontra

“I open my mind allowing my memory and imagination to cut through the blindness in order to create the visions that I see.” D. Kontra

From deep in the Missouri wood:  www.saatchionline.com/kontravision , kontravisionart@gmail.com


Alpha Morrow

Alpha Morrow

Alpha Morrow – Branson

Although born in New Mexico, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas was my alma mater with a degree in Fine Arts.  Most of the paintings and drawings have been freelance including some book illustrations and portraiture, both people and pets. Experience with sculptors who work in bronze as a mold maker has enabled me to utilize those skills out of my own work space here in Madison, Kansas, the heart of the Flint Hills.  Now I am re-exploring the three dimensional as well.

At the present the main focus of my creativity is acrylic painting.  Usually it is impressionistic, but varies in style.  I am fascinated by pointillism, mixed media, and some abstract.  Surrealism is sometimes incorporated into my drawings.  Along with landscapes I enjoy depicting ordinary people doing ordinary things while truly believing there is no such thing as ordinary.  There is always a fresh way of viewing ideas where anything is possible.

Art is and always has been a part of my life.  It can delight the eye, comfort the heart, and intrigue the mind. All other professions can be beneficially stimulated by it.  It is wonderful to put into expression a summary of that life embraced!


Thia Schuler

Thia Schuler

Thia Schuler – Table Rock Lake

Oils.  Thia’s style is abstract realism and subject matter includes landscapes, birds, animals and nature.  Her exhibits and awards include:  Pure Enjoyment juried exhibition, Springfield, MO; White River Painting Exhibition, Pt. Lookout, MO; Artists of Northwest Arkansas Four State Regional Juried Exhibit; Illinois River Salon Opening – Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; First Place in Wings in the Wild National Juried Show in partnership with Glynn Visual Arts and Coastal Georgia Audubon Society, St. Simon’s Island, GA.


Steve Snyder

Steve Snyder

Steve Snyder – Mount Vernon

Steve is an accomplished photographer specializing in commercial photography throughout the country and people and landscape/art photography in the Missouri Ozarks. Steve majored in studio art at Drury University and has since worked in marketing for several regional companies including a Fortune 500 company. Currently he works out of his studio in Mount Vernon, MO when not out working on the road. His landscape/art photography is in numerous collections around the US and Europe.

Much of his childhood was spent exploring the countryside of southern Missouri through visits with my grandparents and vacations with his parents. From these experiences he is able to pull from memories and find many of the places visited and heard stories of as a youngster. These searches have also led him to find many remote and rural areas soon to be lost or forgotten.  One thing he strives for in his work is a lack of modern civilization and the impact it has on our changing Ozarks. A simple quiet, a peacefulness.


Jacqueline Stoner

Jacqueline Stoner

Jacqueline Stoner – Kimberling City

Photography. Outdoor nature scenes are her favorite subject—but she photographs everything from birds to bears to bridges. While she tends to focus her art in Southwest Missouri, she has also captured landscape and/or seascape photos in virtually every state of the union. Her work has been seen at the Springfield/Branson Airport in addition to many local venues in Southwest Missouri – and she has published several books of the photographs she has captured while traveling across America.