Artists/Photographers Exhibits
Sharron Vincent Porter
A newcomer to Sedona, Sharron has been a practicing artist and art instructor for most of her adult life. She has with a bachelor’s degree in Art Education from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in sculpture from Northern Illinois University, and years of supplementary art and education classes in various disciplines. She has worked in nearly every visual art media in her role as a high school and middle school art teacher. Sharron has been a member of cooperative galleries and art centers in Chicago, Pennsylvania and Florida and shown her work in solo and group exhibitions all around the Chicago area. Exhibitions have included venues such as The Chicago Cultural Center, The Art Institute of Chicago, Beacon Street Gallery (Hull House), Northwestern University, ARC Gallery and assorted community art centers and colleges. She is currently exhibiting in the PoP-UP! Sedona Gallery in Hillside, Sedona, AZ. She is a Director of the Sedona Visual Artists’ Coalition and an award-winning Signature Artist and Vice-President of SAGA (Sedona Area Guild of Artists).
Petroglyph Portal and Moonlight Reverie
Jim Peterson
Jim grew up in northwestern New Mexico, and has lived on both coasts (in California and Delaware) as well as in Illinois, Texas, Missouri, and many places in the West. He earned two degrees (a BA in Music and a PhD in Biochemistry) from the University of Chicago, but after postdoctoral work left the academic world for a long and varied career in telecommunications and computer software. He worked at Bell Labs in Illinois and then at GTE Communication Systems in Phoenix for over two decades, and held positions that ranged from highly technical assignments to planning and management roles.
Upon retirement from that career, he redirected his energy to his lifelong artistic passion by starting a professional photography business. In addition, over the years he has given back to the community by serving as a board member for a total of seven different non-profit organizations. His fine art photography has been featured in several galleries in Phoenix and Sedona, and has been purchased by collectors worldwide.
Pond Near Loy Canyon
Beverly Kievman Copen
Photography provides a way to capture precious moments in everyday life, as well as views of different cultures around the world. Through my viewfinder I see the spirit of how people live, work and play. It provides a visual means to tell stories, and hopefully, to make a difference along the way, allowing for exhibits, photo books and educational materials. Exposing young people to cross cultural diversity broadens their views of the world and makes my life more meaningful.
For more than 40 years I have been an entrepreneur and author. While I have taken pictures most of my life, it was only in the past 20 or so years that I have become a serious (and juried) photographer. I have lived in and worked in Japan, Costa Rica and numerous Asian and S.E Asian countries. I am currently a member of Sedona Visual Arts Coalition, Arizona Women’s Forum and other non- profit organizations. Beverly is an award winning photographer. She won the Arizona Highways Grand Prize in 2011. Her works are shown and sold in numerous galleries around Arizona and beyond. Her passion is to capture the essence of people and life in countries around the world.
After The Storm 3
Keith Schall
Keith began his professional career as an artist after he retired as a professor of British literature in 2000. His work is avant garde multimedia abstractions based on ideas drawn from literature, rhetoric, jazz, and science. To keep the energy of the abstract images from deflecting against a square or rectangular canvas, he alters the edges to be metaphorically appropriate. Thus, each piece is visually and structurally unique.
“My art is abstract because it understands and reflects the real universe, not the one we see unaided but the one composed of vibrating atoms, which includes the paint I use and the hand that holds the brush”. As mentioned above, his themes come from literature, myth, and jazz: literature because of his background as a professor, myth because it involves broadly human experience, and jazz because of its spontaneity and energy. “ I call my work ‘metapaintings,’ or art about art.” His website is www.aegis-art.com
Clark ‘Shep’ Sheppard
“I am a painter – a landscape painter. I’m always exploring my own mind and in turn my art and its direction. My art always takes a strong attitude. When I start out painting I have no idea where it is going. I’m along just for the ride, letting the painting take me away.”
President George W. Bush is the proud owner of McShep’s “Patriotic Longhorns”, which the artist painted after the tragedy of 9-11.
His work has been seen in SouthwestArt Magazine, Cowboys and Indians, and American Cowboy, to name a few. His website is www.mcshep.com
Jill Williams
Inspired by various patterns on Navajo rugs and Mexican tiles, artist Jill Williams adds her own unique perspective to these eye-catching wall hangings. She creates a textured feel to her artwork by using the rough side of Hardie board as her canvas.
“I also use damage free wall mounts to display my paintings,” explains Jill. “It makes them seem more rug-like.”
Originally from Connecticut and educated at Sarah Lawrence College, Jill has made Sedona her home for over a dozen years. A six-times published author, her passion for painting is a relatively new pursuit. “I believe creativity can take many forms,” says Jill. “When I paint, I’m more relaxed than when I write. Painting takes less brain power and more just going with the flow.”
Her website: www.sedonarugpaintings.com
