Mariposa Museum & World Culture Center, Peterborough NH

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Mariposa has been fortunate with diverse and numerous artists educating and sharing their work. To read about them, select from the alphabetical listing below.

Willaim Accorsi Sculpture

William Accorsi is a Vermont artist who creates folkart figures, animals, shadow boxes and wood sculptures out of wire and encrusted with colorfull beads and vintage buttons. He has featured this work in a puzzle / counting book titled Ten Button Book. Accorsi has written and created several interactive children's books. His work is whimsical and inspirational. It hangs in major galleries and collections throught the USA.

Flower collage Mandala by Linda Wyman Derman

Linda Wyman Derman begins with her own flowers, planted, cared for and photographed right at the instant when the light and blossoms are perfect. She then cuts the prints and arranges them in shapes for the repetitions of the mandala. Mandala is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning circle, an archaic symbol. The circle, Wyman explained, is the first shape a child draws and the earliest shape discovered as decoration on early human artifacts; the symbol of unity and centeredness and easily found throughout nature. Derman combines this powerful shape with the delicate beauty of her garden flowers to create art that she feels people can really respond to positively. Immediately eye catching, "flowers are the prayers of nature," she said.

An art teacher in the Winchester Elementary School for 15 years, Wyman Derman has been the recipient of the honor NH Art Educator of the Year. Her dedication included teaching positive self-esteem and respect along with the many educational benefits of art for hands-on learning and, of course, nurturing the individual future artists themselves. In keeping with this commitment to arts education in her retirement, proceeds of sales of art work & posters (starting at $10) will go back to the schools for art lessons & materials for motivated students.

Don Gurewitz Photography

Don Gurewitz specializes in magnificent color-saturated photos. The Museum owns three of his pieces, the two Tibetan photos which bridge China to Nepal Tibet on permanent exhibit on floor three, and a third of a woman grinding millet in Dogon country which rotates.

More of his work can be seen at his web site www.dongurewitzphotography.com.

Artwork of Joan Hanley

Joan Hanley's recent mixed media works are in honor of fellow yoga instructor Hari Amrit Kaur. Each painting is titled with a line from the late friend's letters. Themes of body, sensuality, devotion, language and friendship constantly shift place and context. Cell phones morph into goddesses, ancient yogis practice under Abanaki signatures haunted by the Irish pound. Many works evidence the artists' efforts to learn Gurmuki — a combination of Persian, Hindi and Sanskrit; a sacred language Hanley and Hari Amrit shared an interest in. The show is a good match for the Mariposa Museum which celebrates cultural diversity. Many of the works were begun in Hanley's studio in Ireland and completed here in New Hampshire. Hari Amrit was born in Hong Kong, educated in British Schools and took her own life last year in Austin, TX.

Recent exhibits of Joan Hanley MFA include The Attleboro Museum, MA, Broadstone Gallery, Dublin Ireland, The Pelham Art Center and The Open Center Gallery NY. Currently a visiting professor at Marlboro College, VT (Contemporary Art and Critical Theory) her previous teaching and lecturing includes Hofstra University (New York), Schumacher College (England) and The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston). Joan also teaches Yoga and Meditation. To contact the artist email joanhanley@mac.com

Jane Kronheim of Harrisville with her Homage to her Mother
Collage & part of our Dec. 2003 "Mother & Child" Exhibit

Jane Kronheim: Eastview Folk Artisan from Harrisville, NH. American folk artist specializing in whimsical art, decorative everyday objects, recycled art and collages/assemblages. She writes of herself and her work:

"One of the greatest gifts in life is the gift of creativity. To come up with new and original thought and to bring it to shape and form, color and texture and even function. This is how I see my art. Although partially trained in art in Cleveland, Ohio, I immediately ventured into pathways unfamiliar to my professors, and right from the start I seized upon recycled materials which I refashioned, repainted or re-tooled into new eye-catching works of art. Over time I taught myself the craft of stenciling which lead me into the decorative arts and the direct influence of a late 18th century New England Journeyman called Moses Eaton. It was apparent to me that this early artisan was influenced by the patterns that emerge from nature. After moving to Harrisville, NH, I chose to live in an environment overwhelmed by the bounty of nature in this part of the United States. This influence of natural surroundings, combined with the hunt for antiques and rare surfaces to work upon, has brought me to the current point of my work, one of unusual assemblages in which I utilize old barnwood, antique wooden ironing boards, architectural pieces, chairs, parts of tables, trays etc. Each finished product is unique and tells its own whimsical story. I am no doubt also influenced by my Eastern European ancestry of Hungarian and Lithuanian origin."

For more information, please visit www.eastviewartisan.ws or email Kronheimj@aol.com

Jane Kronheim & Segun Olorunfemi

Segun Olorunfemi was born and lives in Ibadan, Nigeria's second largest city. He trained in fine art there. His studies encouraged him to explore any techniques he could imagine, but also stay close to the themes of Nigerian popular culture. The Museum exhibits his works as plain and colored linoleum cuts, sprayed batik on rice paper, yarn painting, sand painting, and mosaic. We also sell his original batik design shirts in our gift shop, sewn by Very Special Arts Nigeria, the agency he runs to provide work for the handicapped through the arts.

Workshops adjusted in duration and style to the age and size of the group. Price and material and travel costs negotiable. Segun is available for residencies in schools and colleges by the day or the week, involving students in art projects with various media. For more information, please call 352-6535, visit www.segunfemi.com or email: info@vsaartsnh.org or ssegunfemi@yahoo.com.

Painting by Steven Napper

Steven Napper was born and raised in West Texas, he currently resides and has his own art gallery in the Texas Hill Country town of Ingram. He attended West Texas State University as an art major, receiving both a Bachelors and Masters degree.

After working as a commercial artist in Los Angeles, California, and as an art educator and administrator in Texas, Steven turned his full attention to fine art and developing workshops to share his skills.

Steven handles several mediums with distinctive freshness and strong use of color. His interaction of warm and cool, high and low contrast, strong color and his skills as a draftsman have made his work easy to distinguish and highly sought.

Dedication, love and talent has led Steven to be recognized over the past 35 plus years with both awards and membership in many of the most prestigious art organizations in America, in addition, both PBS and CBS have done features on his creations.

For additional information, please visit www.napperarts.com or call 1-830-367-7775.

Sketch by Robert Pon

Robert Pon has lived in Manhattan for the winter months since 1996, where he returned to the habits of his youth, finding inspiration for his work on long walks through Spanish Harlem and other parts of the city. His experience in World War II and his impressions of the New York City area, along with his love of the the classical arts, have shaped his work.

Pon first started sketching when he was fifteen. He was a medic with the Ninth U.S. Army in the Battle of Germany with the Combat Engineers from 1943 to 1947. He then attended the American Art School in Manhattan, N.Y.C.

He began working at the New York Public Library in 1951 in Picture Collection and as an illustrator. He retired in 1981. During these years he had studios in Manhattan, Hoboken, N.J. and Greenwich, CT. where he worked on pen-and-inks, sepia sketches, pastels, and oils. In 1975 he began sculpting in wood, limestone, marble and alabaster.

In 1988 he moved to an 1860s farmhouse in New Hampshire, where he built a studio and concentrated on his work for eight years. His work may be found at www.robertponart.com

Marjorie Ryerson

Marjorie Ryerson is a tenured professor at at Castleton State College in Vermont, a professional journalist, photographer and poet with a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. She is the author of the recently released fine-art photography book Water Music. The book includes 100 of Ryerson's photographs of water, from around the world, combined with contributions from sixty-six world-renowned musicians, who convey in words and music the meaning and magic that water has for each of them. Ryerson's next book, Companions for the Passage: Stories of the Intimate Privilege of Accompanying the Dying, will be released in April 2005.

Ryerson is donating her royalty profits from the sale of the book to the Water Music Fund of the United Nations Foundation. The foundation has committed to using 100 percent of the fund's revenue to restore and protect water and to provide clean, safe drinking water to families, worldwide. The release of the book has led to the larger global Water Music Project (see www.watermusicproject.com) for which, among other activities, Ryerson is lecturing at college campuses, giving concerts with musicians, and doing other activities that are focused on raising both awareness of water and revenue to help water, through the arts.

Ryerson also teaches poetry for Middlebury College's New England Young Writers' Conference at Bread Loaf each spring. Ryerson's photographs, poems, news and feature stories have appeared in numerous magazines, books and newspapers across the Northeast for the past 25 years. Her many honors include being named the Vermont State Colleges' Faculty Fellow for 2000-2001 and winning the 2004 Paul Keough Award for leadershop in the water environment.

For additional information, please visit www.NortheastCulturalCoop.org or call 603-673-8470.

Acrylic sculpture by Lori Shorin

Lori Shorin teaches at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Lori works in a variety of mediums. Her sculptures and installations are created from materials which she finds appropriate to a particular idea. The works in her current series "You in Me and I in You" are constructed from clear sheets of plexiglass up to twelve feet in length and mirrors. She then forms and bends the plexiglass using a heat gun.

Lori's previous works include "Faith in the Mother", a 6-foot couch-like sculpture featuring delicate beadwork on the breasts of the larger than life size feminine form, a mobile political art installation entitled HOPE (Help Overhaul Public Education), designed to interact with selected communities in New York City and a performance art piece entitled the Big Balls Game which crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and ended with a political protest in front of the NYC Mayor's office at City Hall.

Ms. Shorin's diverse body of work has been displayed in numerous exhibits in New York, Philadelphia and New Hampshire. From December 2004 through February 2005, her work was exhibited in a solo show at the New Hampshire Institute of Art's Vault Gallery. In April, Ms. Shorin's recent work will be featured in Sacred Pathways Magazine. Ms. Shorin's recent nine-week trip to India has served to heighten her interest in our metaphysical, unified consciousness.

Adam Wallace

Adam Wallace is a junior at Skidmore College, Adam Wallace is a photographer whose work has a maturity beyond his years. His style ranges from easygoing interactions with people to visual social commentary to abstract work using his camera almost as a paintbrush, painting with light. From an artistic family (his parents are musicians Frank Wallace and Nancy Knowles, his grandmother and uncle are visual artists), Wallace is an environmental science major minoring in art.

Patrick Welby Camel Paintings

Patrick Welby is a modern artist in residence at The Well School.

Illustration by Rosalind Welcher

Rosalind Welcher grew up, lived, worked and dodged taxicabs among the skyscrapers of New York. As an artist and writer she excelled in a city where only the best survive. She even has some of her work in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Typing her name on Google will bring up many references including her out of print books still being sought by collectors.

As an amateur sailor she knew the force of the wind on the sails as it drove her boat through sometimes turbulent seas to distant shores. She knew the quiet satisfaction of coming to new ports in foreign lands whose people spoke strange languages, and mingling with them and often making friends. She has walked through the boulevards and alleys of foreign cities, sometimes stopping to make sketches, and unlike tourists with cameras, her sketching always drew a friendly crowd.

Quiet and unassuming, she draws upon her rich experience, lively imagination and sprightly humor to produce works of a delightful quality. It combines the innocent charm of folk art with the sophistication of a highly skilled artist.

She and her husband live and work on a wooded mountainside whose rocky ledges and tumbling brooks they are maintaining as a natural area and wildlife sanctuary. They are on the town's Conservation Commission and she writes a monthly environmental column in the town newsletter which is widely read. Unfortunately with the constant assaults on the environment, she has plenty to write about.

For additional information, please visit www.rosalindwelcher.com or call 603-585-6883.

Each artist has artwork for sale and on display at the Museum. In addition, Mr. Welby, originator of community art, is available for similar group art projects to commemorate anniversaries, weddings, retirements, family reunions, special events.