The Art Box

The Art Box - Episode 10 - Meet Randy Bauman

Randy Bauman, a landscape photographer for more than 40 years, enjoys sharing the beauty he captures through the camera lens.
“Landscape photographers will know what I mean,” he says, “a photograph that captures the very essence of the time and place it was shot. A photograph that allows you to smell the air and feel the ground and immerse yourself in that place where you were when you pressed the shutter button. If you do it right, the viewer is immersed in that same place and time.”
He got his first camera at age 10 and by the time he was in college he spent hours in the university’s darkroom, learning about composition and what Ansel Adams called “the range of light.”
“Photoshop replaced the darkroom but lighting, composition, contrast and color balance are still the keys that separate a ‘snapshot’ from a photograph,” he added. “I still do my own printing on a professional photo printer at home because it’s the only way I can assure the final print matches what I saw and felt.”
Randy’s photographs have received awards from New Mexico Magazine and displayed in art galleries and other venues throughout the Southwest. 

The Art Box - Episode 9 - ’Ten Minutes with Rachelle and Steve’ - The Great Mesquite Power Outage 2022 - Mini-Episode

We debut our first 'Ten Minutes With -'  episode today with a run down on the great Mesquite power outage of 2022. These short episodes of ~10 minutes will cover various subjects and be released periodically. Look for some of our talented local and regional artists as they drop in for a focused session on Art. Today Rachelle tells us how she managed to paint "camping' style. 

The Art Box - Episode 8 - ’Ten Minutes with Tyler’ - So you wanna learn how to FAST? - Mini Episode

Tyler tells us all you need to know about fasting for your health. You will be surprised!

The Art Box - Episode 7 - Meet Brenda Slocumb

Episode 7: Meet Brenda Slocumb
Brenda Slocumb is a long time Southern Nevada resident, having grown up in Boulder City and has lived in the Moapa Valley since 1999. She is employed by a local nonprofit, Friends of Gold Butte, where she serves as the Operations Manager. 
Brenda is also an avid horsewoman and has participated in many of the western disciplines, and currently enjoys showing reined cow horses. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, and is thankful to live in an area that has great weather for outdoor activities for most of the year.
Brenda has always been interested in art, and has sketched and drawn (mostly horses!) since she was a small girl. She enjoys painting, whether it be a small craft project, a commissioned mural or just sprucing up a room or an entire home. 
Another of her artistic endeavors is cake decorating, which is mostly self-taught. She began about ten years ago when she and a friend decided they would learn to decorate with fondant. It wasn't as easy as the pros made it look, but with practice it became easier. She says, "A lot of it is stepping outside your comfort zone, and trying new things. At first I didn't know what I couldn't do, so I'd try about anything, and most of it worked out alright, even if I didn't go about it correctly. At least it tasted good, so that was a win." This has become a sort of "side gig" for her and has resulted in a lot of positive response, a whole new skill set and about ten extra pounds, as she finds it difficult to just throw away baked goods that don't turn out perfectly.
 

The Art Box - Episode 6 - Meet Chris Picior

Episode 6: Meet Chris Picior
Chris is a native of NYC. She attended Queens College, Kathryn Gibbs Secretarial School, and Utica College before starting her first career in radio management which took her to New York, New England, and Florida. After 25 years she decided to go into Natural Health. She received her massage license in Florida, then obtained a Bachelor of Natural Health Studies degree and a Doctor of Naturopathy degree from Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, AL. She worked at Clayton College of Natural Health as faculty and in admissions, and had private practices in Atlanta and Birmingham. Christine worked as a Community Educator for the Mesquite Citizens for Clean Indoor Air for 8 years. Her true love has always been art.
 
From January of 2020 through December 31st of 2121 Chris served as elected President of the Virgin Valley Artists Association. She is now Past President working with the Membership Committee.  
 
In December of 2019, Councilman George Gault appointed her to be on the Mesquite Public Arts Commission. In January of 2020, she was elected Chair and still holds that position.
 
At 16 she was sketching people at Washington Square in Greenwich Village in New York. Her first job was in Ace Publishing Company in the Art Department. However, that didn’t last long because she got married and soon had three children to support. When her children were little, she worked in oils and then moved to watercolor. When she moved to Mesquite, she joined a neighborhood group who used acrylic. She then joined the VVAA and started working with colored pencil and just loves it. Chris also plays around with acrylics and is adding ink to her new works. She took a class in alcohol ink last February.
One of her most favorite hobbies it to make gourds into pieces of art. Chris cleans, carves, creates, and decorates gourds and it is one of her favorite mediums.
Chris loves to learn new techniques about art and expand her expertise. Making her artwork into cards intrigued her but the best part, now that she’s retired, is that she’s having fun with her art. 
 
 

The Art Box - Episode 5 - Meet Rachelle Knight

Episode 5: Meet Rachelle Knight
Rachelle, the founding producer and co-host of The Art Box, was born and raised in Salt Lake City. She holds a degree in forest biology from Utah State University and spent the early part of her career as a wildfire firefighter for the USDA Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, as well as a botanist for the Forest Service. Later, she earned a second degree in computer science and worked as a software engineer until retiring to pursue her true passion, art.
Married with two boys and two lively Australian Shepherds, Rachelle finds joy in hiking, bird watching, reading, gardening, and volunteering. Her vibrant personality shines through in her artwork, which bursts with bright, bold colors and often features flowers, birds, and suns. She hopes her pieces bring a moment of happiness to anyone who encounters them, whether on a busy street or hanging on a wall.
A true free spirit and “hippy-girl” at heart, Rachelle draws inspiration from creatures that embody freedom. Looking ahead, she plans to explore themes of bohemian wanderlust and the joy of unbridled exploration in her art. Her stunning creations can be seen beautifying the power boxes in Mesquite, spreading her signature brightness and inspiration throughout the community.
You can find Rachelle on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/rrkfineart/#

The Art Box - Episode 4 - Meet Kippy Spilker

I grew up in a small northern town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan—a town of about 2,500 people. Living on essentially a farm with no barn, and no real tv to mention, I spent a lot of time out in nature.
When my parents were enrolling me for kindergarten, they were told I was an artist because I was apparently the only kid who drew outside the lines of the area provided on an aptitude test. My mom was also a very talented artist, in that she could copy almost anything. Photos, drawings, no matter what, she could reproduce it, in pretty much any medium she attempted. I spent my childhood trying to draw the things she drew. Some people belonged to book-of-the-month clubs in the ‘70s—she subscribed to craft-of-the-month and every month we would create something new together.
Art remained a passion of mine, and at age 16, thanks to Rotary Youth Exchange, I spent a year in India, studying Graphic Art at Sophia Polytechnic in Bombay (now Mumbai). I learned a lot, but came home with a greatly diminished level of confidence in my abilities. Even winning the “Most Outstanding Artist” award at my high school graduation didn’t bolster me, and I went to Western Michigan University as a Psychology major. One day, in a general humanities lecture hall of about 300 people, I got caught drawing during the professor’s lecture, and asked to stay after class. That professor’s name was Richard dePeaux, and that day (and continually, through my college career) he changed my life and I soon was an Art Major with a Psych minor, and my first year of classes was waived. I could no longer deny that art was going to be a part of my life. Later in my college career, a Life Drawing professor, Jon Clemens, saw me struggling one day and took me outside to issue a challenge that once more would change the course of my art career and, really, my life. I owe an awful lot to those two gentlemen.
After college, I moved to Nevada, and a couple months later got a job as a Graphic Designer for an automotive catalog. They had way too many artists, and not enough work, so I took the opportunity to better learn the software (back then the magic combo was Photoshop, Freehand, and QuarkXPress). I would find magazine ads that I admired and try to recreate them, pushing myself to learn. This was in 1995, before the internet was really prevalent, so there were no online tutorials or anything. In February 1996 I left the catalog to become the Art Director for Motorcycle Industry magazine.
In about 2001 I got tired of paying for stock photography, so I decided to become a photographer. How hard could that be, anyway? Haha. I joined a Yahoo! chat room called #TheDarkroom, and found an amazing mentor who was a professional photographer in Australia.
The motorcycle magazine folded in 2010, and in 2011 I got a job as a designer at the corporate headquarters for the local newspaper company. Within 4 years I was managing a team of 12 very talented designers and really enjoying the associated challenges and rewards. In 2016 I got a call from a friend who had left the newspaper company a couple years earlier and was now working for Nevada Magazine. Their Art Director was leaving, and was I interested in interviewing? It was hard to leave my team at the paper, but it was too tempting to get back to my roots, as it were, with magazine design. And so I got the job, made the switch, and that’s where I find myself now.
During the pandemic, I fell in love with stained glass work, so in my spare time I do that as well. I’m still relatively new to it, but just this year finished my first design made from one of my own photos. I hope to do more of that in the future.
I’ve enjoyed a modicum of success with my photography, including having a few photos chosen by the National Geographic editors as both Editor’s Choice and photos of the day in their Daily Dozen program. I sell some microstock, and do some commissioned work, but these days I (along with my husband, who is also a photographer) prefer to volunteer my time and talents to causes that touch our hearts. We have photographed dogs and cats at local rescues to try to help them get adopted, spent many years photographing fundraisers for the local Greenhouse Project which teaches kids to grow their own food and supports local food shelters, and also many years photographing local Cancer charity benefits. Currently, we volunteer our time with the Carson Valley Trails Association, to help raise awareness of outdoor opportunities in our area.
One of my greatest joys is being a conduit between the magazine, the tourism industry, and local Nevada photographers. I think we have an amazing resource of local talent, and being able to support them with a place to share their work, as well as providing the tourism industry with views of Nevada shared by people who love it, well, it’s a win-win. I get very excited when we can publish a photographer’s work for the first time, and I love encouraging younger kids to get involved with photography as well. I’m interested in many areas of visual creativity, but photography is really where my deepest passions lie.Contact Kippy at: kspilker@nevadamagazine.com

The Art Box - Episode 3 - Meet Kathleen Birkholz

In this episode we meet Virgin Valley Artists' Association legend and founding member Kathleen Birkholz. 
We learn how it was growing up with four brothers, two sisters and one bathroom as a military brat. How plumbing and grave digging fit in and the fact that bad stuff can lead to good stuff. Kathleen provides us a great history of the evolution of art in the Virgin Valley including hootenanny, belly dancers, cowboy poetry and the start of the pottery studio. 
Kathleen talks in depth of her passion for the children's program and how she fits in math and even physics during her programs. We dive into the world of themed competitive exhibitions and how thinking outside the box (Art Box) can lead to fun and funky results.
Come learn and have some fun with us.
 

The Art Box - Episode 2 - Meet Dana Long

We are excited to welcome Dana Long, President of the Love, Family NV to The Art Box. Dana's heart is as big as the Moon as she dedicated herself to families in the Virgin Valley area. This is an exciting time for Dana's organization as we celebrate June as Pride month. Tune in as Dana discusses her early life growing up in Arizona and her move to Mesquite and the creation of the loving caring organization she founded last year. We touch on how art and creativity helps children value themselves to realize their worth. Your hosts are deeply involved in the Love, Family NV activities and we were honored to chat with a great human like Dana. 

The Art Box- Episode 1 - Meet Tyler Roylance

Welcome to first episode of The Art Box, brought to you by Virgin Valley Arists' Association and hosted by Rachelle Knight and Steve Dudrow. In our opening episode we introduce you to Tyler Roylance.  Tyler is an art and photography teacher at Virgin Valley High School in Mesquite, Nevada.  Tyler has taught art here for 6 years.  He is a native of Idaho and has 2 children.  Listen as Tyler tells us about his art truth, becoming an artist from a small child, and how he has become friends with Bruno, the critic in his head.  We have a lively discussion about other topics including: teaching art, meditation as a tool, self portraits and most importantly, what Tyler does with his first pancake.