Author: Anna Harding

Our 2024 Scholarship Recipients

Every year the AAAC awards scholarships to graduating art students at EO Smith High School – one for the performing arts, one for the visual arts and one for literary arts. In 2024, the Board of the AAAC decided to present an art scholarship to a student at Windham Technical High School as well. These students are chosen because they have taken two or more courses in their area; exhibited enthusiasm, interest, honesty, and integrity; and produced quality work viewed or open to the public. The recipients plan on pursuing their interest vocationally or as an avocation.

Hannah Losee – Visual Arts

Hannah is a graduating senior of E.O.’s Ag-Ed Animal Science program. Outside the classroom, she nurtures her passion for animal care, riding horses and working as a Veterinary Technician. Art holds a special place in Hannah’s heart. Known in the classroom for her pursuit of new artistic techniques, Hannah’s persistence and ambition are hallmarks of her character. As she anticipates the future, Hannah is enthusiastic about continuing her journey in the arts.

Jaylyn-Rose Rodriguez – Literary Arts

During her time in high school, Jaylyn has demonstrated a passion for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writing. She has published some of her work in the school’s literary magazine
and, most recently, in the Young Writer’s book of 100-word stories, SOS Sagas: Hunted. After completing her initial studies at a Connecticut
State Community College, Jaylyn hopes to continue cultivating her craft by pursuing English and Creative Writing at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Lael Ali Atti – IT/Visual Arts

Lael is in the Information Technologies shop at Windham Tech. Along with his interest in computers, Lael is very interested in animation and digital media art. He has been independently studying drawing, anatomy, and
figure drawing by practicing both tradition methods and digital media.
Lael is a self-motivated learner who has learned several languages on his own. Lael won
the Connecticut Association of Schools Arts Award. Next year, he will continue his study of computers and art as he pursues a degree at the
University of Connecticut. Lael’s efforts and amazing work ethic have earned him a full academic tuition scholarship at UConn.

Ella Johnston – Performing Arts

Ella Johnston is a senior, bass player, and theater director at E.O. Smith High School.
After learning to read music during years of piano lessons, Ella was recruited to play double bass in the fifth grade by the orchestra teacher. Ella also participates in the EOS Drama Club. Ella became enthralled by the
performances of theater and became active in the Drama Club as a techie, working behind the scenes on props and set design. This year, Ella directed the play CLUE, and worked diligently to bring the iconic play to life. Next year, Ella is going to the University of Glasgow to study sociology, philosophy, and music.

Gretchen Geromin and Lauren Merlo

Gretchen Geromin and Lauren Merlo work as a team, collaborating on unique, handmade boards and signs with original wood burned decoration. They are local artists who create their work from local materials, using wood from downed trees. This year, in addition to their charcuterie boards, they are making flower presses and bluebird houses.

Lauren has been working with wood for over forty years, creating beauty and comfort for area homes. He brings his expert eye, fine craftsmanship, and a keen attention to detail to his work. Using his finely-honed carpentry skills, he makes cutting boards and signs that show the rich character of the wood.

Gretchen has been creating art and riding horses since a very young age and wood burning since she was ten years old. She still has her first wood burning tool. Gretchen’s original wood burned art completes the boards that Lauren makes. Her herons, owls, frogs, sunflowers, roses, birds, fishermen, mice, horses, and dragons enhance each piece.

Gretchen and Lauren’s art is beautiful and useful, made in harmony with the environment.

Jay Bartholomew

Jay’s art captures the beauty of nature in bold colors and dynamic textures, created using acrylics on canvas or wood. He invites viewers to experience the joy and serenity of the great outdoors, transforming everyday scenes into lively expressions of color and emotion. If you’re looking to add a splash of inspiration to your space, come and see for yourself!          JaNoBaStudios.com

Art has proven to be the most potent means for me to reconnect with my true self. Whether I’m immersed in painting, drawing, or any other creative pursuit, I lose myself in the process, and the external world fades away. In this state, I forge a connection with reality that defies easy explanation. It’s a profoundly soothing experience that enables me to rediscover myself and my surroundings.

While you will find that most of my work is in brightly colored landscapes, I do like to experiment with different styles and subjects as I make my artist journey.  My subjects are a mix of being loosely based on actual places along with views straight out of my imagination.

Lori Smolin

Lori is a watercolor artist who is inspired by sights she sees while traveling, often on her bicycle. At the Holiday Artist Market she will have large framed paintings as well as affordable mini paintings, both framed and on wood blocks, as well as cards and unframed works. Lori will be at our Holiday Artist Market.

Lori Smolin Lobster Traps

Helping Artists after Hurricane Helene

Michael Hughey is a WNC native, creative artisan, calligrapher, illustrator, instructor, & author, living in Tolland, CT since June 2020. We reached out to him to help us with ways to give back to artists struggling to recover from Hurricane Helene.
“Thank you for asking and for thinking of the craftsmen, artists, and flood-ravaged folks of western NC (WNC)! These folks are pulling together and helping their neighbors, but the task is to recover from the largest destruction ever seen in WNC, surpassing even the catastrophic floods of 1916!
It may help New Englanders to understand the scope of destruction by comparing WNC to New England: the area of WNC is roughly equivalent to VT, NH, MA, CT, & RI combined.”

Here are a few organizations helping that I recommend:
• Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+)
•Support Hope Mill Inc Hurricane Relief
Helicopter Supply Drops in WNC; based in Charlotte with operations out of Hickory Regional Airport: airdrops to areas otherwise unreachable in remote WNC mountains, cut off by flooded rivers, washed out roads, or landslides.
• Donations, equipment, or questions: email: helenedonations@buncombecounty.org Asheville is the county seat of Buncombe County where some of the worst flooding and wind destruction has occurred. It is 50 miles from N to S and 22 miles from Wto E, 660 sq. miles.
• Manna Food Bank : Perhaps the best & largest food bank in the area with many partners throughout WNC. Their main operation on the Swannanoa River was flooded out, but they are back up and operating – all their people survived! Really good people doing very good work!!
• Other agencies can be found on the Blue Ridge Public Radio’s website

Member’s Fun Night!

This year our yearly get-together will be at the Westford Hill Distillery!
  • All members and spouses are welcome.
  • Potential new members are also welcome. Come have some fun with your local artist neighbors!
  • Please bring a piece of your art to display, with easels for wall art. There will be a table for sculptures to be displayed.
  • Bring pot luck snacks and cash bar.

Get together is Free:
Friday, September 13, 6-8 pm.
Westford Hill Distillery, 196 Chatey Rd in Ashford.

Valerie Oliver

Early American Decoration

Valerie B. Oliver – Ashford author’s recently published book, The Historical Society of Early American Decoration, its historical record describes the efforts since 1946 to preserve and continue the decorative techniques popular in the late 18 th – mid-19 th century: country painting, stenciling, gold leaf and free hand bronze work. Pontypool, pen and ink, theorem and reverse glass painting well as Victorian flower painting, clockdial painting and the schoolgirl art of watercolor painting on boxes and furniture popular during 1790-1830.
This is a fascinating history of an organization of members, mostly women, from the northeastern U.S. especially New York, Pennsylvania and New England.

Valerie Oliver will be giving a talk about her publication The Historical Society of Early American Decoration, its historical record at the Babcock Library at 10:00 a.m. on May 11th, a Saturday. There will also be a tea, and she will display a few objects decorated using the historical techniques. She will speak about how she came to write the history and what it revealed about a mostly female led group since its founding in 1946, etc. Valerie was a Society Trustee from 2002-2012 and Pres. 2011 and 2012 and is currently their Historian and asst. editor of their journal The Decorator. **Pre-registration is requested for this event. Please call Babcock Library # 860-487-4420 to register**

See more – By the author of Fashion and Costume in American Popular Culture, a reference guide, Greenwood Press, 1996, this publication shows the same attention to detail, 236 pages plus index complemented by over 120 colored photographs. The author a former trustee and president of the Society continues to carry out decorative painting projects.

Valerie B. Oliver was born in Nashua, NH; she graduated from Classical H.S., Springfield, MA, received her BS in Mathematics from St. Lawrence Univ. in 1960 and MLS from McGill Univ. in 1961. Her professional career as a librarian began at the Research Labs Library at United Aircraft. Her many  years as a Reference Ln. at UCONN’s Homer Babbidge Library, culminated with the publication of her book,Fashion and Costume in American Popular Culture, a reference guideby Greenwood Press in 1996.  

  Her interests in early American decoration began in the early 1970s with teacher Florence Rainville of Uncasville, CT. She became an Historical Society of Early American Decoration (HSEAD) member in 1997, eventually serving as Connecticut Charter Oak Chapter Chairman, then as an HSEAD Trustee and finally as HSEAD President 2011-2012.  She currently serves as their Historian and as assistant editor of their journal The Decorator.  Her decorative painting work consists of country painting on metal and wood, stenciling, freehand bronze work, gold leaf work and reverse glass painting (all using historically documented patterns).  Reproducing old designs such as those seen on the 18th-19th c. Pennsylvania German decorated documents called frakturs  involves  work with a pen and with watercolor paints, a process  both easily and enjoyably performed.  The designs have many uses  i.e. cards, bookplates, letter heads or simply framed for display.

Michael W. Hughey

 Michael Hughey, a Craftsman and Artist in letterforms and the book arts has had a love affair with beautiful letters and beautiful books since childhood. Originally from Asheville, he lived for many years in NC but now resides in Northeast CT. His calligraphic works are published both nationally and internationally and collected in public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum, NYC, and the Bahá’í World Centre, Haifa, Israel. He feels that even in an age of increasing technology, “…there is, indeed, an important place in human society for the warmth, beauty, and grace that calligraphy can bring to our lives.”

He exhibits note cards, limited-edition prints, and original calligraphy at the Ashford Farmer’s Market. He also teaches both calligraphy & handwriting privately.