Chris Tower
Chris Tower grew up in North East, Pennsylvania. He earned a BA in English from Penn State. He is a self-taught artist and has been painting murals on a commission basis. His work can be seen in places like Pillar Park and Stonebridge Brewing in Johnstown or PACA in Erie. He works out of studio space at Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center in Johnstown, PA. His studio is open to visitors by appointment.
——Chris Tower——
Joanne Mekis
Club Works Artists
Rayna Noel
Rayna Noel is a fiber and mixed media artist. A Johnstown native, she is a full-time work at home mom of three. Rayna learned crochet from her paternal grandmother 30 years ago and taught herself to knit around 12 years ago. She makes custom fiber creations to sell online and at local shops. Her recent series of Cryptids combines the art of folklore with her talent in the visual arts. She also makes mixed media creations for local exhibits. She has taken many online drawing and painting courses. Some of her favorites are the loose mixed media styles of Juliette Crane and Joan Martin. She is currently working on her primitive rug hooking, punch needle, and slow stitch embroidery skills.
Miranda Fasnacht
Miranda began raising angora rabbits for 4-H when she was eight years old. Over time she began showing competitively and with her success came more rabbits. Her mother thought it was wasteful to throw away such nice fiber and began teaching herself how to spin the wool. Since then Miranda’s mother Janet has become a master fiber artist with the PA Guild of Craftsmen. Miranda eventually followed in her mother’s footsteps and began hand spinning to help out at her mother’s art shows. Miranda is now using her own style in pieces in starting her artwork journey. A major focus of the artwork is working with Pennsylvania sourced wool, and when available working with heritage breeds of sheep that are in critical status. Current projects are utilizing Leicester Longwool (currently in threatened status) and harlequin (previously in critical status).
Miranda also teaches yearly at a herd improvement and management school at Cowboys with a Mission in Meeteetse, Wyoming. Her class includes breeding rabbits as a sustainable agricultural source in third world countries to combat world hunger, as well as hand spinning multiple fiber sources depending on the regions the class is going to be leaving to help. The team will then spend three months in a third world country to implement the things learned during their class.
Matt Lamb
Matt Lamb is an award-winning artist and the Creative Director of the Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center. He also serves as the Membership Drive Coordinator for the Allied Artists of Johnstown and is the co-leader of the Arts & Culture Priority goal for Vision 2025.
Matt is an illustrator with a BFA from Edinboro University. He also works with the human form in charcoal. Many of his charcoal works turn to the realm of fantasy. Matt recently designed and executed, with the help of a team of consultants/volunteers including: Michael Allison, Chris Tower, Glenn Klimeck, Carol Churchey, and about 250 community volunteers, the first public art mural honoring Steve Ditko in his hometown of Johnstown PA.
Glenn Klimeck
Kyle Reidmiller
Carol Churchey
Colleen Albright
Exploring the relationship between the strange and beautiful drives my work. These two contrasting features work together to create a form that is intriguingly odd. Through my work, I am interested in the human experience and our connection with each other and nature. We are and have come from nature and there is a clear relationship that can further be explored by connecting these ideals. We have a collective experience that also breaks down to exist on individual levels.
The body is a repetitive form and image throughout my work. The representation of the body is both for aesthetic interest as well as for conceptual reasons. Distortions of the human form are used to create the sense of a loss of identity. The figures can be interpreted as an entity, not representative of a person per say, but the soul or consciousness within. It is a goal of mine to reverse the roles of inner thoughts and exterior expectations. This is done by altering and manipulation of the physical identity of the body and covering the exterior with collaged imagery.
I incorporate symbolic layers within my work to create a sense of depth and emotion. From a distance, the collaged surfaces appear to be a pattern, but as the viewer moves closer to new imagery, and meaning can be revealed. The colleges are composed of found paper and drawings, combined with the physical buildup of paint and imagery mimicking the process in which we create our identities. As we go through life, we are constantly collecting experiences and changing, and this process is critically important to my work.
Karlie Kendig
Karlie Kendig is the hands and heart behind Flood City Stitch, a woman-owned small business in Johnstown, PA. Flood City Stitch specializes in hand crocheted and knit children’s items, wearables, and home décor. There’s always a little something for everyone, and her hope is to create handmade items that can become an heirloom or keepsake to be treasured in your home.
http://www.floodcitystitch.com/
