Artists

Umlaufaloopa will feature artwork from a variety of local artists including:

• Kathleen Ash
• E. Moises Diaz
• Edson Enriquez
• Suzan Germond
• Benita Giller
• David Hesser
• Kip Holm
• Barbara Irwin
• Steve Kriechbaum
• Shanny Lott
• Katie Rose Pipkin
• Wolf Sittler
• Craig Timmerman
• Lynda Wilson Jones

Artist Bios

Kathleen Ash: Always intrigued by the process, Kathleen Ash enjoys the technical challenges of working with glass. Designing work that is clean, unselfconscious and often humorous, her creations maintain both functional and aesthetic value. Ash utilizes a technique that predates the age of Cleopatra. Hundreds of pieces of glass called tesserae are arranged and then heated in a kiln until all are fused together in a single, beautiful form.

E.Moises Diaz: The collection consists primarily of low relief constructed sculptures that are framed for a distinct presentation. Diaz utilizes three different metals: recycled aluminum (from cans), aluminum, and stainless steel. All metal materials are of a thin gauge, which are cut and then sculpted into forms using a technique developed exclusively by E. Moises. All pieces are crafted meticulously by hand; no machines or presses are used. Diaz is a self-taught artist. He received his degree in Sociology, from Chapman University, located in Orange County, CA. Diaz and his family currently resides in Austin, Texas.

Edson Enriquez: Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco (Mexico) in 1980 from a Mexican, Spanish, Swedish & German heritage, Edson first studied design in high school where he acquired his basic graphic design knowledge. At ITESO University in Guadalajara (Mexico) he continued his passion and majored in Industrial Design.   Edson Enriquez Design’s seamless relationship between beauty and simplicity can be seen in each of his collections.  As a designer, it is Edson’s play with empty spaces that give his work a sense of lightness and simplicity. It is his clean lines in the basic and organic shapes that define his style.  Edson states, “I am trying to prove a point with my work.  Things, shapes, and forms are beautiful already.  We as designers do not need to add to them or drastically transform them.  Our job is to simply enhance them and present them the right way.”

Suzan Germond: Suzan has an extensive background in the arts: a P.hD. in Art History from Stanford, appraisal training for Old Masters and gallery experience. She turned to the actual making of art in 1999 when she discovered the medium of mosaic. Its possibilities are endless and Suzan continues to explore texture, color and spatial relations with diverse materials such as glass, tile and found objects. She has studied extensively with mosaic masters in the US and Europe. Suzan wrote “Found Art Mosaic” in 2007 and is represented by several galleries in Texas. Her work is highly detailed, whimsical and of the highest workmanship.

Benita Giller: A resident of Austin, Texas, Benita Giller has a broad background in art including skills in painting, drawing, illustration and sculpture as well as teaching experience in drawing, painting and sculpture at the University of North Texas and Dallas Community Colleges. She has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, the Museum of Art Santa Fe, NM and the Denver Art Museum. Subject matter for her art has been landscape, bird portraits, and artifacts of both African and American Indian cultures. She has traveled extensively, collecting information for her work. Benita has added crafts to her products and does necklaces and beaded chairs and objects. EDUCATION: Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, Southern Methodist University & Master of Fine Arts Degree, University of North Texas.

David Hesser: I have always enjoyed drawing, fantasy art, and looking for interesting rocks and other materials ever since I was little.  In high school I won a scholarship based on my art and started a lapidary business.  I went to KU from 1984-1988 and graduated with honors with a BFA in metalsmithing and design.  I went to Texas in 1988 to study with a swordmaker.  I learned all he could teach me and soon moved on to create my own knives and swords, “Exotic Blades”, between 1990 and 1997.  I got married in 1991 and moved into my current house and studio in 1993. Selling at out-of-state festivals threw my marriage into chaos though, and I quit to try to save the relationship.  I started working for Damian Priour in 1998, creating sculpture in Texas limestone and glass.  I have since been an engineer, stone-carver, designer, and installer for Damian’s studio. In 2005 I went through a devastating, unexpected divorce.  It was Damian that helped me have the will to start living again.  He earned the award for being the State of Texas Sculptor in 2008. Night Owl Gallery.com showcases my latest creative efforts.  I’m currently creating lamps, bowls, boxes, and sculpture that usually combine stone and metal.  I enjoy creating lamps especially, where the inner beauty of the stone really glows.  I’m also working on a motorcycle to showcase my metalworking skills.

Kip Holm: My Photographs span my 30+ years in photography. Almost from the beginning my main camera has been a 500 C Hasselblad so most of the pictures were taken with it, though I also use 35mm and 4×5. All images are printed by myself and processed according to the highest archival standards. All prints are on fiber-based paper and are selenium toned. The matting and framing are museum quality, using acid free mats and foam board.

Barbara Irwin: I am self taught and like exploring connections between nature, people, and emotions.  I have created collage art since I was a teenager.  It wasn’t until I was in my 40’s that the door opened to put it out into the world.  A few years after I started showing in galleries and juried shows, a fellow artist in the town we lived in in Hawaii wrote a grant for a recycled art show.  He challenged me to create some found –object art for the show.  I created five pieces and haven’t been able to stop.  I love taking something and giving it a new life.  It stretches my already vivid imagination to a new level-it’s totally fun.  I feel grateful and blessed to be able to create art-it feeds me mentally, physically, and spiritually, and hopefully one day, financially.

Steve Kriechbaum: Steve Kriechbaum is an award winning goldsmith with 30 years experience in designing and hand making jewelry. Steve attended The University of Texas at El Paso where he studied fine arts. The majority of Steve’s studio classes were in sculpture and this is reflected in his pieces. Steve is comfortable making a wide range of styles from classic to Avant Guard. Steve is a master craftsman and is skilled in all types of stone setting including prong, bright cut bead, pave and tension. Steve markets his work through his studio, juried fine art shows and his website. He enjoys interaction with his clients to create the jewelry of their dreams.  All pieces are individually designed and hand crafted in sterling, platinum or gold. Steve enjoys the opportunity to sit down with his clients and take the time to come up with custom orders designed to their wishes and specifications. Steve is well known throughout the Southwest through his exhibits at major art shows. At the 2007 Texas Jeweler’s Association Design competition in Galveston Texas, Steve took 1st place category 4.

Shanny Lott: I remember my first box of Crayons.  I opened the box and saw all of those perfect points of color and smelled that waxy smell and thought, “God, I wish I could just eat all of these Crayons.!”  I really understand why children do that,(eat crayons)…it makes perfect sense to me.  So for me art is about color and light and showing evidence of the divine in the material world. I attended the University of Texas the first time in the 60’s and studied sculpture under Charles Umlauf.  He was a fabulous teacher and an exciting presence to be around.  My painting teachers were less than enthusiastic about my abilities, so I just assumed that I was not a painter.  Now,  in the sixties, those times  being what they were, I became somewhat distracted and it was not until 1989 that I found myself back at UT, once more pursuing that Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and in the Sculpture Department once again.  Older, wiser, and much less energetic, I became aware of how labor intensive sculpture actually is.  I was afraid to go upstairs and paint, because I already knew I couldn’t do that from my first go-around. I still had a painting requirement for graduation and  I wanted that degree,  so up the stairs I went. I found a kinder, gentler world in the painting department, and basically just never went back downstairs.  I got my BFA from UT on May 19, 1990 on my birthday.  That degree is  the greatest gift I ever gave myself.   I began to paint in earnest in 1992.  My paintings have been shipped all over the country; from Boulder City, Nevada to Littleton, Colorado, Malibu, California and Destin, Florida.  They hang in the homes of friends, family, and strangers.  The greatest joy for me is to get to meet the people who buy my work.  It is such fun to discover what connection we have, and we always do.  My work brings me together with my worldly kin.  How much fun to meet my unknown tribesmen. In the Art Department at the University of Texas, it has been said, “The painters are closer to God”.  Maybe that is because the painters are on the top floor, I don’t know.  I do know that my paintings have brought me closer to the earthly angels who appreciate fine art, and for that I am grateful.

Katie Rose Pipkin: Katie Rose is currently living and painting in Austin, Texas. She has been showing work for many years and has studied and worked in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Paris. She is currently completing her BFA in studio art at the University of Texas, and has been awarded the Young Masters award through the Texas Cultural Trust, and residencies at Oxbow and the Paris American Academy of Art. Her work has been shown through Birdhouse Gallery, Austin Museum of Art, Arthouse, The Artpost, Austin Figurative Gallery, and many more. Although primarily a painter, Katie Rose also works within the realms of video, sculpture, and new media. Her work deals with fragments, remnants, that which was never alive but holds an importance granted to it. She is fascinated with pulling memory and history from these objects, finding their cracks, holes, alterations in course and casting their negative. She is interested in working along the fault lines.

Wolf Sittler: Mother Nature provides an endless amount of inspiration for anyone involved in art, or for that matter, life. Wood, whether pre-cut from the lumber yard, a branch fallen down in the back yard, or a tree uprooted by one of Mother Nature’s children, contains unlimited possibilities. As a wood artisan, I combine the inspiration available from the external dimension, with internal imagination, to create pieces that maintain a link with the natural world. The visual expression of that connection between what can be seen, and its opposite, is fundamental to my work. I yield to the organic impulse to use curves and natural edges in my work. On the other hand, manmade shapes, like straight lines, have their place. What results are pieces that tend to be both fun and functional. The act of using a vision, and all tools available, to create something new, has wide applicability.

Craig Timmerman: I picked up woodturning nine years ago when I took a weekend class at a local store. After that weekend the wood working equipment in my shop ceased to be used for anything except woodturning. I’m now on my third lathe and am turning semi-professionally. My specialties include hollow forms, spheres, non-round (e.g. square) turnings, and multi-axis work. My “Swing” series is an example of combining hollow forms and non-round turnings. I work with mostly reclaim timber-trees that have come down in storms, trees being taken down for construction, and the occasional piece of firewood. Reclaimed timber is often filled with flaws of different kinds, such as cracks, bug holes, or voids. Rather than try to remove the flaws, I try to accentuate them by making them the focal point of the piece, fill them with crushed stone, or carve them into other shapes. My latest pieces are a set of multi-axis work with “personality”, called my alien series. I am a member of the American Association of Woodturners and am a firm believer in its mission to provide education and information to those interested in woodturning. As such, I frequently demonstrate my craft. I have demonstrated for many local woodturning clubs and have been a demonstrator at the American Association of Woodturners national symposium. I was one of the featured lead demonstrators at the 2005 Southwest Association of Woodturners symposium. If you are looking for a demonstrator/instructor for your club or regional symposium let me know. I also teach a classes in making flying bowls.

Lynda Wilson Jones: Lynda Jones grew up on a cattle ranch in Coal County, Oklahoma with four older brothers.  She works as an artist – an author, singer/songwriter and painter.  For over twenty years she worked as an English teacher and has taught children and adults of all ages.  In 1998 Lynda quit teaching and began a conscious journey to live life as an artist, creating hand-made tiles and bas-relief sculptures for the patio.  As a child she spent hours building houses and furniture out of odd materials so grew fascinated by the Global Chair Project, founded by the late Damien Priour; she created several chairs for donation to the project. Her formal education is in English with a specialty in composition and creative writing; in 1983 she graduated with a B.A. from the University of Oklahoma, and in 1991 received an M.A.T. from the University of Wisconsin – River Falls.  Her published works include poetry and music:  “My Father’s Hands,” in Pilgrimage Press’s 25^th Anniversary Edition and two cds of original songs, “Tangle of Love” (2004) and “Notes Along the Way” (2005).  She has received “honorable mention” on two separate occasions from the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival.  Lynda currently serves on the Advisory Board for Candlelight Ranch and has served as past president and member of the Board of Directors for Tapestry Dance Company and is a current member and teacher with the Austin Songwriters Group.  On days when she is not in the studio, writing or painting, she can be found gardening, hiking, or with her horses, Scout and Mr. Finch.