Meet our ARTISTS

The FORD Studios in Marion, Virginia, is happy to represent a handful of artists that span the east coast of the United States, from pottery to fiber art, surface design to woodworking and everything in between.  In addition to this lineup of talented artists, we also host the work of up to a dozen additional artists that rotate with the shows.  If you are interested in showing your work at The FORD Studios, please visit our Call for Entries page.

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DEBORAH ADAMS 
Fiber Art
(Townsend, TN)

Excitement begins with the first brush stroke of dye on pure silk and continues as the flow of color makes the design come alive to achieve a beautiful work of art. Deborah Adams lives in Townsend, TN and creates her designs and artwork at the Townsend Artisan Gallery and Studios located there.  The Smoky Mountains and Southern Appalachian areas provide the inspiration for her designs. 

SARA BARRETT
Collage
(Knoxville, TN)

Mixed media artist Sara Barrett is an East Tennessee native & lives blissfully at the foothills of the Smokies with her husband, daughter & two cats. Barrett repurposes used & discarded materials of all types with scrap paper as the dominant component.  Barrett is deeply inspired by music & artists like Billie Holiday, U2, Ray LaMontagne, Volbeat & dozens of others can be heard spinning on vinyl in her studio. 

Barrett's artwork has been shown across the southeast United States and has published multiple times including Bluing the Blade and Button Eye Review.  You can keep up with Sara on Instagram.
Currently Featured Work by Sara Barrett

BRITTA CRUZ
Sculpture & Fiber Arts
(Goochland, VA)

Cruz, a native of Munich, Germany has lived in the United States for 28 years. Her most recent work connects art with utilitarian fiber items. Cruz currently lives with her family in Goochland, Virginia also lovingly referred to as “nirvana”.  Currently Featured Work by Britta Cruz

"I am not searching for a particular medium or process. I enjoy the variety and the learning experience. I love new challenges and have become a well-rounded person because of those different experiences. It is all about being who you are instead of trying to meet the expectations people might have of you.  I try to evoke emotions in my viewer. My satisfaction from my art comes during the creation process. Once the piece is finished I am 'done' and ready to pass it on to someone to enjoy it." -- Britta Cruz  Follow Cruz on Instagram.

KELLY DYE
Stained Glass
(Newport News, VA)

Dye lives in southeastern Virginia, via Pottstown, PA.  Kelly is well-versed in calligraphy, acrylic painting, sketching, and also enjoys dabbling in photography and designing tattoos. Stained glass came onto the scene less than 10 years ago. One day, Kelly’s best friend informed her he had signed up both of them for a stained glass beginner’s class, and in that class, Dye made a tiny orange cat angel as her first piece, fell head over heels in love with the glass, and never looked back. That tiny orange cat angel now hangs in her kitchen window where she can see it every day.  When she’s not creating stained glass pieces, Kelly’s favorite pastimes include proofreading books, attempting to sew, and listening to music.



RACHEL GIBSON
Mixed Media
(Marion, VA)

Gibson works as a mixed media artist with work in galleries from New York to Los Angeles and collections around the world. A happily-married, mother of one, Gibson lives & works in Marion, Virginia in the southeast United States.  Her practice currently explores tiny hand-stitched textiles as well as work that overlays watercolor with embroidery.  

The hand-stitched component of this work lends movement to otherwise still media while paying homage to the band of quilting women she calls family.  You can follow Rachel on Instagram.   
Currently Featured Work by Rachel Gibson

TOM HOWER
Glass Blowing
(Marion, VA)

Hower is a glassblower, living & working in Marion, Virginia with engineering degrees from both Duke University & Georgia Tech.  Blowing glass since 2015, Tom has studied at at Penland School of Craft (Bakersville, North Carolina), Pilchuck Glass School (Seattle, Washington) and The Pratt Fine Arts Center (Seattle, Washington).   

"Pattern and color are recurring themes in my work.  I find inspiration in natural configurations, practical items and the work of artists I admire.  Traditional quilt and geometric patterns are of special interest and are reflected in many of my pieces. Working with hot glass is a blending of physicality, artistry and technical skill.  It’s difficult to master.  Its physically demanding, The heat and weight of the glass exhaust you.  Yet I am drawn to it relentlessly." -- Tom Hower  Currently Featured Work by Tom Hower

AMY HUTTO
Acrylic Painter
(Bath, NY)

Amy Hutto is an acrylic painter living in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Amy is a member of the National Association of Women Artists , as well as the Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes. She has spent years developing her style, drawing upon her life’s experiences for inspiration, incorporating techniques she learned or self-discovered, and always striving for growth. Her bold color palette, layered application, and use of visual and tactile texture, with a finish of gold leaf are meant to capture attention, but it’s the admiration she has for her subject and the joy she imparts in her art that is the lasting impression. Follow Amy Hutto on Instagram

“I am an unabashed lover of color, of animals and nature in general. I combine those loves in my art. I hope the take-away from my work is a sense of joie de vivre, ‘a cheerful enjoyment of life.’ It is the driving force behind my art.” -- Amy Hutto  Currently Featured Work by Amy Hutto 

JON IVES
Pottery
(Marion, VA)

Jon Ives' eponymously-branded Jive Pottery mostly concentrates on functional pieces in porcelain; however, conceptual work is his secret joy.  His ongoing work includes a set of collaborative embroidered porcelain pieces with his wife, Artist Rachel Gibson. 

Ives is an entirely self-taught potter that built a brand based on his minimalist style and satin-finish glazes after spending years in a production atmosphere in Gatlinburg, TN.  In 2019, he threw in excess of 22,000 pots.  Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect, but it is the best teacher.  Ives is a permanent artist-in-residence at The FORD Studios and offers demos daily in his studio that is entirely open to the gallery. 
Currently Featured work by Jon Ives  Follow Jon on Instagram.

LOCKNESTERS
by Fleet Hower Sculpture/Puzzle
(Brooklyn, NY)

Part puzzle and part toy, Locknesters are the result of a fascination with unconventional geometries and a desire to create design work that encourages interaction. Locknesters could be thought of as three dimensional jigsaw puzzles, each model can be taken apart and assembled, used as a challenge to friends, a distraction from work, or to liven up a room.  Look familiar? Wondering where you might have seen them?  Locknesters have recently been seen in the pages of Esquire and on the set of the Emmy® award-winning comedy Hacks on HBO Max.  Follow Locknesters on Instagram.

Locknesters are produced from high quality, American-made plastic and don’t contain toxic chemicals.  All Locknesters are designed, made, and hand finished in Brooklyn, New York, USA and are a result of devotion to craftsmanship & quality. Currently Featured Locknesters by Fleet Hower

VIRGINIA LEE McLEAN
Cyanotype
(Lyman, SC)

McLean is from Lyman, South Carolina and has a Bachelor of Arts from Winthrop University (Rock Hill, South Carolina). She enjoys the process of experimenting and making art almost as much, if not more than, the outcome.

McLean is influenced by nature, especially botanicals. Virginia creates cyanotype, mixed media and textile art, including embroidery and macramé.  Her work has recently been seen in the Spartanburg (SC) Habitat for Humanity Upcycled Art Show and the UUCS Social Justice Art Show. 

Currently Featured Work by Virginia Lee McLean

SYLVIA MUSGROVE 
Pottery
(Bristol, VA)

Sylvia Musgrove of Walking Tree Pottery has loved ceramics ever since she visited Iron Mountain Stoneware as a child.  “A couple times a year there would be an open house at the factory in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee,” she said. “My parents loved to go pick out dishes, but what I brought home with me was the feel of clay and the sense of patient joy that tends to surround most potters.”

Since then she has studied with potters throughout the southeast, producing small batches of functional ware as time allows. More recently, she has worked to explore raku ware and the types of surfaces that can be created through the processes of carbon smoking and reduction firing. “The mix of a precise form with the unpredictability of smoke is something that draws the eye and engages the mind,” she noted. “Each little wisp from a feather, a strand of horsehair, or the explosion of a sugar crystal is a happy moment captured on the surface of the clay, never to be repeated in the same way again.”

Musgrove’s potter’s mark, a walking tree, contains a nod to the mark of Iron Mountain Stoneware, as well as the symbol of the Appalachian Trail, which winds throughout her home region.  Currently Featured Work by Sylvia Musgrove

JILLIAN PLATT
Painting, Illustration & Jewelry
(Troy, NY)

Platt wove art and science together in the field of medical art, adding a Master’s of Science in Medical Illustration to her Bachelor’s of Fine Art. Her work garnered awards both in and out of the courtroom & operating theatres. She has explained to college students, attorneys and surgeons the cellular work of the body, the mechanisms of destruction and the steps of repair.

Expressions in abstract and realism gently pull the viewer in allowing them private entrance into the artist world. Underlying perceptions and profound realizations of softness, emotionality and solitude reach out for the viewer’s participation.  Platt's jewelry pieces are inspired by the energy of individual gemstones, created to showcase the wearers wisdom, sensuality and power.  Follow Platt on Instagram.  Currently Featured Work by Jillian Platt

Ervin Paul Romans
Gilding & Mixed Media
(Marion, VA)

EMILY SHANE
Paper Mosaics
(Knoxville,TN)

Shane is happily challenged by Reader's Digest Condensed Book covers as a medium both compelling in its limitation for the artist and vaguely nostalgic for the viewer.  Those of us who are “of a certain age” fondly recall Reader’s Digest Condensed Books as staples on the bookshelves of middle-class American homes since 1950. Issued to subscribers about once every three months, RDCBs were intelligently edited and abridged versions of then-current fiction and non-fiction.

Emily Shane is a mixed-media artist living in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Her work reflects interest in light/shadow, weight/air, and stasis/movement – especially as they inform the perception of depth. By exploring the interplay of color, pattern, and shape, Shane creates a narrative of personal beauty in the perfection of symmetry and equilibrium. Currently Featured Work by Emily Shane

ROBERT SMITH
Wood Working
(Seymour, TN)

Robert Smith is a self-taught wood turner living and working in Seymour, Tennessee.  After twenty years of work as an electrician, he found inspiration in the wood arts.  From trinket making to a few fine furniture pieces, Smith settled on a long-term love affair with the wood lathe.

“Through wood turning, I’ve discovered the beauty of wood.  From ‘ditch wood’ found on the roadside to exotic beauties from around the world, each piece is an open book if we are willing to learn the language.  I primarily work with domestic species of wood, but I experiment with a variety of exotics.  No piece of wood is without its secrets.  If we peel away the layers, the secrets reveal themselves.” –Robert Smith 
Currently Featured Work by Robert Smith

PAT K. THOMAS
Marbling & Surface Decoration
(Gatlinburg, TN)

Pat K. Thomas is a full-time surface design, marbling, paper and fabric artist who is also co-owner of the historic Cliff Dwellers Gallery in Gatlinburg, TN.  Marbling is a one-time print from a liquid surface.  Paints are floated on a thickened size and manipulated with simple, handmade tools.  When the pattern is complete, a prepared paper or fabric is laid carefully on top of the surface to capture the design.  Each marbling is an original. 

Pat teaches private lessons, conducts workshops, and instructs classes at locations including Arrowmont and the Folk School. Her work is represented and collected internationally.  Currently Featured Work by Pat K. Thomas