When Sue Emer was 6 or 7 years old, she’d find herself sitting in her mom’s art studio, painting beside her.
The duo would visit the Jersey Shore and do plein-air paintings and take art classes together.
But as Emer grew up, starting a career and family of her own, art took a backseat.
Sue Emer
“I got into art again — at first it was with clay — and it was when I lost my husband and I needed something. So I discovered my art again,” she says. That was in 2006.
Shortly after her husband died, Emer lost her mom. She says she felt like she could no longer pick up a paint brush because she had no one to paint with.
Although she mostly focuses on watercolor painting, Sue Emer also works with clay.
But about five years ago, after practicing her work with clay at the Lew Sorensen Community Center, she heard of a watercolor painting class taught by artist Tracy Lynn Ross and signed up. From there, Emer’s spark was reignited.
And around 2017, Emer became connected with the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild.
“Finding the Guild was the most incredible thing for me,” says Emer, who is currently the Guild’s bookkeeper and recently led an effort to unveil the Guild’s new website. “It’s such a gathering of extremely talented men and women from all aspects of water-based painting and everybody is so helpful and wonderful, as far as encouraging you with your art.
“I’m just so pleased that I ran into the people I did here,” she says.
Local artist Sue Emer started painting when she was around 6 or 7 years old.
Emer still works with clay to create three-dimensional structures, but she tends to do more painting. Emer’s medium of choice is watercolor, saying it’s the most challenging for her.
“Watercolor, I find, is the most unforgiving but also the most rewarding of the medias to me because either it’s going to work or it’s not going to work,” says Emer, who is mostly self-taught.
She says she feels drawn to old structures — initially starting with missions and now fascinated by mining areas featured in photos taken by her brother-in-law who is a geophysicist.
“I sit with a glass of wine with him and get all the stories from him,” she says.
When figuring out what exactly to paint, Emer says she moves things around — flipping cars to face the other direction, for example.
When painting, Sue Emer says she's especially inspired by earth tones.
Emer says she’s especially inspired by the earth tones. “You look at something and you see it and it’s beautiful, but you don’t realize how many colors are in it. The fun thing for me is really studying it and saying, ‘Oh my god, there’s blue in there.’”
Other times, Emer will become inspired by something she sees.
She once painted a seascape after visiting her friend’s ocean-front house in Oregon and deciding to sketch the view and take some photos.
“It’s pretty much — I feel it,” she says. “It’s a joy with something I see.
“I don’t know if I could live without (painting) at this point in my life.”
Other makers in Tucson:
From paintings to handmade soap: Here's a look at 40 Tucson artists
Lauren Valenzuela of Sigfús Designs
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Lauren Valenzuela creates earrings out of polymer clay and other materials such as resin, wood and acrylic.
In only a handful of years, Lauren Valenzuela’s earrings have become a worldwide brand — all handmade in the Old Pueblo.
The Tucson native started Sigfús Designs in the beginning of 2018, creating earrings out of polymer clay initially — later trying out other materials such as resin, wood and acrylic.
Valenzuela recently added handcrafted bolo ties and home goods — from wall hangings to coasters — to the mix.
In late 2017, Valenzuela was working a marketing job for a handful of Tucson restaurants. When one of the restaurants closed, she found herself with some extra free time.
“I was just bored. I just started playing with clay,” she says. “I’ve always grown up in an arts kind of focused life. I’ve tried every project — if there was a project, I’ve tried it. I had never really heard of polymer clay, but I saw a YouTube video of someone making jewelry dishes and that took me down a rabbit hole.”
Valenzuela says she liked the idea of creating something artistic — but also wearable. She says she also loves that earrings made of polymer clay are both durable and lightweight.
“I wasn’t planning to launch a business,” she says. “I was just trying to have a creative outlet.”
Virginia Carroll
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Artist Virginia Carroll draws many things, from cacti and desert landscapes to portraits and still lifes.
Virginia Carroll had an artistic eye growing up.
When she was 6 years old, her mom signed her up for drawing classes. Carroll’s artistic inclinations soon led her to other mediums, such as watercolors, pastels and oil paints.
She studied art in college, eventually taking a break from creating to start a family. But it remained in the back of her mind.
“Even though I wasn’t actively working in it, I was always thinking about it,” she says.
In 2006, as part of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s membership program, Carroll received a catalog in the mail for the museum’s arts program.
“Being a member, I thought, ‘Gee, I should support that,’” Carroll says. “I looked through (the catalog) again and there was a class called ‘Intro to Colored Pencil.’ I thought, ‘Gee, colored pencil. I can do that half-asleep. I may as well take that class.’
“I signed up for it and the first day, (the instructor) did a PowerPoint presentation of her work and some other work with colored pencils. My jaw was on the floor,” she says. “I couldn’t believe you could do that kind of thing with colored pencil. I was hooked.”
Just like that, Carroll found her medium.
Noelle Elizabeth of Once Upon A Frosting
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Noelle Mares of Once Upon A Frosting created these Tucson-inspired cookies when the gem show was in Tucson last year.
Fascinated by the cakes in wedding magazines, Noelle Mares at age 6 or 7 years old would replicate the cakes out of clay.
“I started caking when my mom would let me,” she says.
Now years later, Mares bakes and decorates cakes and cookies under the name Once Upon A Frosting.
“It’s honestly the artsy-ness of it,” says Mares, who grew up in Tucson. “Because I would’ve been content making clay cakes my whole life. I didn’t really care if it was edible. I just thought it was cool that there was a second step of it — that someone could appreciate the art of it and then devour it.”
Mares’ tasty treats are quite literally works of art. Sometimes they involve sculpting. Sometimes they involve painting with food coloring gel. Other times, she prints out reference photos to use as a rough stencil before free-handing designs.
Mares, who is known as Noelle Elizabeth, has created University of Arizona-inspired designs, treats with designs celebrating popular TV shows and movies, and very Tucson cookies in the shape of saguaros. Mares even designed a cookie to remember Lute Olson when he died in 2020.
Charla Rae Van Vlack
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One of Van Vlack’s art projects includes beaded skulls. She says some skulls come from hunting. Others come from vendors online.
Artist Charla Rae Van Vlack calls herself an “expressive realist.”
At one point, she participated in art shows in Green Valley and Saddlebrooke — waking up early, putting all of her art delicately in the car trying not to damage it, setting it up when she arrived, then taking it all down and heading home.
After two years, Van Vlack decided she didn’t want to do that anymore.
Instead, Van Vlack, who has been an artist for more than 25 years, opened her own brick-and-mortar art gallery in midtown about three years ago.
After spending some time building the gallery and working on advertising, Van Vlack started to get a steady stream of customers.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“And that was the end,” Van Vlack says.
She closed the doors to her gallery at the end of last year.
“I’m still going to do art,” Van Vlack says. “I just have to find another way to get it out there.”
Van Vlack’s art currently ranges from oil paintings of mostly wildlife to mixed media where she takes “ordinary things and makes new things out of them” such as a stainless steel teapot she transformed into a turkey.
Diane Bombshelter
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Diane Shilkitus — known in the art world as Diane Bombshelter — creates acrylic paintings atop black velvet.
When Diane Shilkitus was younger, she had a giant black velvet painting of a matador in her house.
“I used to stare at it,” she says. “I think it just got into my subconscious, and when I got older, I had a talent for drawing and painting, and I got into velvet.”
Shilkitus is now a black velvet artist known in the art world as Diane Bombshelter, creating acrylic paintings atop velvet instead of the traditional canvas. She says she enjoys the texture of velvet, in addition to the dark background.
“The velvet is almost three-dimensional because the fibers are sticking out at you,” she says, adding that some of her artwork also incorporates rhinestones.
Yurika Isoe
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Yurika Isoe reuses unwanted clothing to make face masks, which she sells on a donation basis.
Yurika Isoe’s love of sewing and embroidery came from her grandma, who is from Okinawa, Japan, and was a prisoner of war in World War II.
“When she returned to the island, she didn’t have a lot of wealth, but she knew how to sew,” Isoe says. “So she started making clothing out of textiles, so that’s kind of how she got her footing back post-war.”
Isoe’s grandma eventually started making uniforms for schools in the area.
“I grew up with her in my life and it always inspired me because you have this skill and you can change your situation around you and make a way for yourself,” Isoe says.
Isoe, a Tucson native, is now involved in many art ventures from her grants administrator position with the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona to her involvement with the Social Justice Sewing Academy.
Jack Wahl
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Jack Wahl, 83, has been a professional artist since he was in his 20s and first started his painting journey with portraits.
Jack Wahl was an athlete his whole life.
Although he was good, he wasn’t quite big or tall enough to make it into college athletics.
“When I went to go on to college, I had taken some courses in architecture and I didn’t know if I wanted to be an architect or go into art,” Wahl says.
Ultimately, he chose art. Wahl, 83, has been a professional artist since he was in his 20s. He’s now an oil painter creating mostly landscapes, but first started his painting journey with portraits.
Read more here. Email Jack Wahl at jswahltaz@aol.com.
Rachel Rausch of Juju and Moxie
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Arizona-inspired postcards are among the items that artist Rachel Rausch sells through Juju and Moxie.
Decades ago, Wisconsin was home to a vintage shop named Juju and Moxie, which specialized in flapper attire.
“I always thought the name was so cool,” says Rachel Rausch who is from Wisconsin but now lives in Tucson.
The shop eventually went out of business, but its name stuck in Rausch’s mind — eventually leading her to start her own brand under the same name
“When I started looking into it, ‘juju’ means luck,” she says. “It’s usually known as ‘bad juju,’ but ‘juju’ can be bad or it can be good.
“‘Moxie’ is your energy,” she says. “In my feeling with creativity and life in general, luck and energy go hand in hand, almost in an infinity loop.”
Around 2016, Tucson’s own Juju and Moxie was born — but not selling flapper dresses. Instead, Rausch calls it a boutique brand, creating everything from paper goods such as postcards, prints and stickers, to earrings, pins and ornaments.
Ruth Latona of Tiny and Toothless
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Many of the Tiny and Toothless bibs and bandanas feature cactuses. Ruth Latona sews all the bibs and bandanas herself.
By day, Ruth Latona is a high school art teacher.
On the side, she crafts baby bibs and bandanas, and sometimes teething rings and pacifier clips, under the name Tiny and Toothless — a brand she started in 2015. Many of the bibs and bandanas are made with cactus-themed fabrics.
Latona sews all the the bibs and bandanas herself, a skill she learned in a middle school home economics class. She sometimes draws and paints, too.
“It didn’t start out as wanting to be a business,” Latona says. “I was making things for my friends who were having babies, and I had some extra stuff, so I got in contact with one business, and they started carrying it. And I was like, ‘That was easy enough.’”
Jesse Bourque
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Jesse Bourque painted this photo at a boxing event at the Rialto Theatre.
The most influential teacher for painter Jesse Bourque was his art teacher at Tucson High Magnet School.
“Even though I’ve taken classes at (Pima Community College) and workshops with established artists, he was my most influential teacher,” Bourque says of teacher Jim Miller. “And that was in, like, 1995.”
Bourque, who was born and raised in Tucson and also owns tile company Square Foot Tile, has been painting seriously for about 10 years. But he’s been creative since he was a kid.
“My parents never discouraged it,” he says. “My mom is a good artist. Ever since I can remember, I was getting support and really enjoyed (art).”
“It offers a goal that is beyond how I feel I can express myself through tile,” he says.
Marianne Bernsen
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Marianne Bernsen has more than 100 necklaces for sale. “I don’t think you should spend money on something no one notices,” she says.
After teaching high school history for years, Marianne Bernsen fell into a love of art at the age of 48.
Bernsen works with canvas, creating colorful and eclectic paper collages, floor cloths and necklaces — she currently has more than 100 unconventional necklaces made and ready to go to their perfect homes.
“I like alternative. I like lightweight. Everything is one of a kind. I like (my art) to look very artistic and off-the-wall. People who buy my work are a little edgy,” she says, adding that she likes her art to be “outrageous and obnoxious.”
Irene Klar
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Irene Klar has been a professional artist for more than 40 years.
When Irene Klar was a kid, her mom used to drag her to museums.
“I knew something had changed, probably by the time I was 12, and I noticed I took much longer in the museum than she did,” Klar says. “When I was little, it seemed like she stayed forever. And at a certain point, she was the one telling me to hurry up.”
Klar has now been a professional artist for more than 40 years, focusing on watercolors and etchings.
“I do etchings to make sure I’m constantly frustrated and to stay really humble,” Klar laughs. “I find watercolors to be more forgiving, so watercolors and I have a better understanding.”
A late friend of Klar’s once told her to “never be afraid of the struggle.”
“I would say it’s too hard sometimes and that other people have such ease with their medium,” Klar says. “And he said, ‘People like to see the struggle. They don’t like it to look easy.’”
Read more here. Find Irene Klar in Tucson at Desert Artisans' Gallery and the Southern Arizona Arts Guild.
Denyse Fenelon
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Denyse Fenelon has been painting with the Tucson Barrio Painters for about four years now.
Art was always Denyse Fenelon’s favorite subject in school.
She dabbled with drawing, sculpting, jewelry-making, macramé and fabric. But one thing that always stuck was painting.
“You just go through all these different things, but I always came back to painting,” she says.
For about four years now, Fenelon has been oil painting with a group dubbed Tucson Barrio Painters. The casual group, which Fenelon started, visits Tucson’s historic barrios, creating plein-air paintings of the neighborhoods.
Shari Jenkins of Custom Boot Purses by Shari
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Shari Jenkins started Custom Boot Purses by Shari sometime around 2007.
Around Christmastime more than a decade ago, Tucsonan Shari Jenkins found herself in a Joann Fabrics and Crafts store searching for felt to make holiday stockings for her family.
“When I went to get the felt, I saw this woman with this boot purse on her shoulder,” she said. “It didn’t have a long strap, but I said, ‘I can do that.’”
Jenkins cut up a pair of her own boots and turned it into a purse — and sometime around 2007, Custom Boot Purses by Shari was born.
Read more here. Find Shari Jenkins at sharidah.j@gmail.com.
Mike Berren
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Among Mike Berren’s most popular paintings posted in the “You Know You’re From Tucson When...” Facebook group is this painting of North Fourth Avenue.
In 2011, research psychologist and painter Mike Berren lifted some heavy boxes and heard a snap.
Days later, he didn’t feel any better.
“I suggested to my wife, ‘This doesn’t feel right. We need to do something,’” he said. Hours later, he remembered feeling wobbly and inebriated — without having had any alcohol.
The couple started making the drive to their family physician, but when they were about halfway there, Berren made the decision to go to the emergency room instead.
Upon arriving, he couldn’t get out of the car on his own. Another 30 minutes went by and he could no longer move his body below his neck. He went into surgery and “there were all kinds of complications,” Berren said, eventually spending time in a rehabilitation facility in Phoenix for three months afterward.
Little by little, he started to make progress from what ended up being a spinal cord injury. He’s now able to walk on his own, using a cane occasionally. But his hands are still fairly numb, making it difficult for him to paint in a traditional sense with a brush and an easel.
Bronwyn Dierssen
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Bronwyn Dierssen is a charcoal artist who uses photos as her source of inspiration.
From a young age, Bronwyn Dierssen had a knack for creating.
“When I was a kid, I was a total art nerd,” she said. “I could spend my whole weekend doing it.”
As an adult, dividing her time between working and helping to take care of her mother-in-law, she found herself with little time to do anything else.
It wasn’t until she was pregnant with her daughter about five years ago that Dierssen had time to refocus.
She found herself homebound with free time on her hands. The art flowed from her fingertips.
Dierssen is a charcoal artist, creating mostly portraits — of people and pets — and some landscapes. She takes commissions.
Sarah Kennedy
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Sarah Kennedy finds herself on two sides of the art world.
On one hand, she creates detailed oil paintings — mainly horses with other wildlife and portraits mixed in. But on the other end of the spectrum, Kennedy handcrafts colorful ceramic tiles and mosaics.
“It’s just a very different medium,” Kennedy says of the tiles. “I think they complement each other and help me find balance.”
The Tucson artist doesn’t necessarily prefer either of the mediums over the other, but instead goes through phases where she leans more toward one.
Steven Bye
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Beyond his paintings, Steven Bye is also an author, having written a fictional book about Vincent van Gogh.
When Steven Bye was only 4½ years old, he broke his jaw.
He couldn’t talk and he didn’t yet know how to write.
“The only way I could communicate — I drew pictures,” he says. “That’s how I communicated.”
His injury eventually healed, but his love of art stuck with him for decades to come.
“When I was 7 or 8 years old, I taught myself to draw Superman by memory,” he says. “I did all the comic heroes and stuff. In elementary, I’d do a sketch and sell it to my friends for a nickel.”
Through the years, Bye says he learned a lot from his middle and high school art teachers — so much so that he went on to study art education himself at the University of Alabama.
Bye taught high school art in Alabama, Michigan, New Mexico and eventually Arizona, where he retired. He now lives in Tucson, creating Arizona-centric oil paintings with a “story or homage” of landscapes from Sedona to the San Xavier Mission to the recent Bighorn Fire that scorched the Catalina Mountains.
Beyond his paintings, Bye has dabbled in ceramics, photography and jewelry-making. He’s also a published author — something that came into fruition when he was trying to figure out how to make his art history class more interesting for his students.
Holley Bakich
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Holley Bakich says she likes using a variety of mediums because “the creative problem-solving of it is so appealing.”
From drawing to styling the hair of her dolls to watching her mom do embroidery around the house, Holley Bakich was always a creative kid.
“My parents are musicians, so they really hoped — or expected — that I would be also. So when I said I wanted to go to art school, they were like, ‘What?’ They weren’t sure what to make of that,” Bakich says.
But she calls her first year of art school eye-opening.
“When I brought my first-year portfolio home, then (my parents) were all gung-ho,” Bakich says.
The Tucson artist dabbles in many mediums, from sculpting and sewing to beadwork and graphic design.
Sue Emer
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Sue Emer says she feels drawn to old structures. She first started with missions, but now likes to paint mining areas.
When Sue Emer was 6 or 7 years old, she’d find herself sitting in her mom’s art studio, painting beside her.
The duo would visit the Jersey Shore and do plein-air paintings and take art classes together.
But as Emer grew up, starting a career and family of her own, art took a backseat.
Shortly after her husband died, Emer lost her mom. She says she felt like she could no longer pick up a paint brush because she had no one to paint with.
And around 2017, Emer became connected with the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild.
“Finding the Guild was the most incredible thing for me,” says Emer, who is currently the Guild’s bookkeeper and recently led an effort to unveil the Guild’s new website. “It’s such a gathering of extremely talented men and women from all aspects of water-based painting and everybody is so helpful and wonderful, as far as encouraging you with your art.
Amanda Williams of Felicity Howells
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This photo of model Serenity Dawn Wetherbee shows a dress created by Amanda Williams, the sole creator behind Felicity Howells.
After a lifestyle brand posted a photo of Amanda Williams’ hair scrunchies to their 1 million Instagram followers, business took off.
Williams is the sole creator behind Felicity Howells, where she sews feminine clothing and accessories that she describes as whimsical and playful.
In early March, Rifle Paper Company reached out to Williams after finding Felicity Howells on Instagram. They asked her to do a scrunchie giveaway and promoted her business on the social media platform.
“I got 100 orders in a day for scrunchies, so I was freaking out,” she says.
Williams was working part-time at Tucson Thrift Shop, but the exposure allowed her to jump into Felicity Howells full time. She says business hasn’t stopped.
Williams sews everything from dresses to scrunchies to purses made of cork. Lately, she’s been making face masks.
William Kueffer
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While at an auction in London, William Kueffer bid on a box of brass that came with Victorian-era doorknobs.
Years ago, William Kueffer found himself at an auction house in London.
“This box came up for auction — filled with brass from World War II,” the Tucson artist says.
The box sat for 70 years until Kueffer bid on it — and won. The box included brass trinkets and about 250 doorknobs, many from the Victorian era.
“So who knows who touched these knobs,” he says.
“I really didn’t know what to do with the doorknobs,” he says. “I just wanted to make something with them. So I got back to Arizona and I started to put two and two together and I made these walking sticks.”
Kueffer makes walking sticks with the brass knobs fixed atop. The cane itself is made from bamboo, which Kueffer grows in his own backyard, in addition to mesquite, wild cherry and other woods he comes across.
He has also taken to creating replicas of 19th century stagecoach and train cargo boxes made from repurposed wood.
Read more here. Contact William Kueffer at wckueffer@yahoo.com.
Spring Winders of Heliotrope
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In the near future, Winders plans to team up with local nonprofits and will donate a percentage of sales on specific collections to conservation groups.
Spring Winders took a jewelers metalsmithing class in college, graduated in 2006 and didn’t make any more jewelry for the next eight years.
But while working in the food service industry, she decided it was time for a career change.
“I remembered enjoying metalsmithing so I decided to take a metalsmithing class at Pima Community College — just a refresher to see if I liked it,” she says. “And I was really into it, so I decided to pursue that.”
She slowly saved up money to buy her own equipment and in 2014, she started her shop Heliotrope. Winders now sells desert-inspired jewelry.
“I get a lot of the inspiration for the designs from the desert, plants, animals and also the monsoons,” she says. “I make things that I would want to wear myself and I like the desert a lot.”
Winders also sells bolo ties. She says: “I’m kind of trying to give bolo ties a modern twist and make them more accessible to all genders and not just for dress up — you can wear them with tank tops. And I’m doing my own take on this classic Southwestern style.”
Much of Winders’ jewelry is made with metal, sometimes with a crystal or stone to add some color or variation in texture.
Tamara Scott-Anderson
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Tucson artist Tamara Scott-Anderson creates 3D wall decor using fabrics, textiles and beads. This piece is called "Two Lights."
If it feels like Tamara Scott-Anderson's artwork is popping out at you, that's because it is.
Scott-Anderson, an artist for more than three decades, has taken to creating 3D wall decor from all kinds of fabrics, textiles and beads.
“I started out as a weaver and that kind of thing,” the Tucson artist says. “And I developed this — what I call fiber wall sculptures — on my own.”
It all began with a piece of hardware cloth made from thin strips of metal.
“It kind of set me off and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she says.
“My stuff appeals to people who like texture, who don’t necessarily want something behind glass,” Scott-Anderson says. “Houses with big windows — you get glares and you can’t appreciate it.”
Scott-Anderson’s work tends to be very colorful and is especially detailed when you see it up close.
Katherine Nesci
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Tucson artist Katherine Nesci creates glass goblets and bird figurines.
Katherine Nesci’s journey as a glass artist started when she and her husband took a glass bead-making class together.
“After the class, I was just so interested that I bought a torch and a little bit of glass and I started practicing in a corner of a room,” the Tucson artist says.
Little did she know that her interest would eventually take her across the country and the world.
Years later, Nesci took glass bead classes again through Pima County’s Park and Recreation and eventually at Tucson’s Sonoran Glass School where she served in many roles, from student to volunteer to teacher to board president. She even competed in the school’s annual Flame-Off competition.
Nesci also studied glass art in Italy and New York. The classes are short — about a week or two — and students have the chance to study with a specific teacher.
Nesci describes the New York class as “intensive,” as it ran from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day for a week.
“It’s just so exciting to be surrounded by the synergy and excitement of eight, nine other artists all doing the same thing,” she says.
“I love glass because it takes all my attention,” she says. Because of the flame required for the art, “you can’t let your attention wander.”
Now, about 25 years after taking that first class, Nesci has focused her artistry on goblets and bird figurines.
Jorge Vergeli
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Artist Jorge Vergeli will use mixed materials, from a wine bottle’s cork to minerals to brush bristles, to create his art.
“Eclectic” is the first word that comes to mind when Jorge Vergeli describes his art.
Vergeli’s work ranges from yard decorations to geometric wall decor to sculptures that could be used as table centerpieces. He uses a mix of materials including metal, wood and acrylic.
“Sometimes I see something — a piece by itself — and I go, ‘Wow, that’s a wing,’” he says. And even though the piece is actually just a salvaged piece of metal, he’ll use it to make the wing for a sculpture of a bird.
Other times, he might not have as much of a vision and will instead take recycled materials and start putting them together with no real plan in mind.
John Carrillo
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John Carrillo, a self-taught artist, joined the Marines as an illustrator in 1995.
As a kid, art is how John Carrillo understood the world.
“One of the things I would do to escape was draw,” he says, adding that he’d draw anything he could lay his eyes on.
He eventually went on to be an illustrator in the Marines and now designs products for a nationwide home decor brand. He’s also involved in the Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition and owns the Oro Valley shop Rosie’s Barket with his high school sweetheart, Nicole Carrillo.
Not knowing how to pursue art as a career initially, Carrillo graduated from high school and joined the Navy in 1990.
“After two years, I was trying to think how can I do art, how can I do this in the military,” he says.
After four years in the Navy, Carrillo received his GI Bill and headed to art school. Soon after, his brother said he was joining the Marines and told Carrillo about their illustration program.
“I was like, ‘yeah, right,’” Carrillo says. “But he had this written literature about it and I said, ‘I’ll be damned.’”
Read more here. Find Carrillo's work from the Marines here, products through Primitives by Kathy's "LOL Made You Smile" line here and Rosie's Barket here.
Tracy Conklin of Artemesia Soaps, Salts, & Scrubs
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Among Tracy Conklin’s most popular soap scents are saguaro blossom, desert rain and blue agave.
From crocheting to mosaics, Tracy Conklin loves to dabble in crafts.
But her favorite craft of them all is soap-making.
Conklin owns Artemesia Soaps, Salts, & Scrubs, which sells handmade soap, lotion, face masks and other skincare items. Conklin, who has lived in Tucson since 1984, has a brick and mortar shop on Tucson’s east side and also sells her products online.
Conklin’s soap journey started around 2002 or 2003 with glycerin soap, but she switched to making cold process soaps instead. Cold process gives makers more creativity, Conklin explained.
“With cold process, it’s all raw ingredients so you build it,” she says. “Once I did soap, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Read more here. Find Artemesia Soaps, Salts, & Scrubs here or at 6538 E. Tanque Verde Road.
Nathalie Aall of Aall Forms of Life
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Nathalie Aall creates scientific illustrations of wildlife and how animals relate to their ecosystems.
Since she was a kid, Nathalie Aall has been interested in art and wildlife.
When it came time to think about college, she was faced with choosing between the two.
Thinking she could only choose one, she ultimately went with biology and received her master’s degree in biological sciences in 2011. But since then, Aall has found away to combine her love of biology with her love of art.
Aall is a scientific illustrator and wildlife biologist. A scientific illustration is a way of documenting and visually representing biological concepts. For Aall, that means animals and how they relate to their ecosystems.
Jacqueline Chanda
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Tucson artist Jacqueline Chanda’s painting of a girl blowing bubbles in the desert is based on a photo she took in South Carolina. She decided to change the setting to the Old Pueblo.
When Jacqueline Chanda was about 7 years old, she drew a picture of her mom — and it actually looked like her.
“She was like, ‘Wow, you’re really good,’” Chanda says.
For birthdays and Christmas, her parents would give her art supplies. She eventually turned her garage into an art studio, even making and selling greeting cards as a teen.
“It was always a part of me,” says Chanda, who grew up in Detroit and now lives in Tucson, where she creates original oil paintings that capture everyday life.
When thinking of college as a high schooler, Chanda went back and forth between majoring in math or art. She made her decision after receiving an art scholarship.
Chanda went on to study art at UCLA and then spent seven years studying in France.
When returning to the United States, Chanda taught at a number of universities. For 27 years, Chanda worked as an educator, professor, researcher and administrator.
“In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘When are you going to do your art? When are you going to do your art?’”
When Chanda moved back to Arizona in 2014, she decided to become a full-time artist.
Tre’ Jackson-Navarrette of Truelli Nature
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Locally-based Truelli Nature sells natural skincare products ranging from lip balms to soaps to facial masks.
When a string of Tre’ Jackson-Navarrette’s family members were diagnosed with a number of different illnesses, she became inspired to make natural skincare products.
“Having personally struggled with and witnessing loved ones struggling with health issues, I really became adamant about finding safe, effective every-day essentials that are actually beneficial to our health,” Jackson-Navarrette, owner of locally-based Truelli Nature, said on her shop’s website.
Jackson-Navarrette started making products at home about six years ago and started selling them about a year and a half ago.
“Science was always my favorite growing up,” Jackson-Navarrette says. “I was always doing experiments and making stuff. And the skincare aspect — I was always a collector. My grandma would always tell me, ‘You need to care of your skin’ and I didn’t realize it back then.”
But when Jackson-Navarrette started reading labels on products sitting on store shelves — listing off several unpronounceable ingredients — she decided it was important that Truelli Nature’s products be plant-based, eco-friendly and cruelty-free.
“This is my hobby that kind of grew and expanded,” she said.
Elizabeth Langley of Localscapes
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Elizabeth Langley creates oil paintings on stained wood, such as this piece of Tucson’s Monsoon Chocolate.
Although Elizabeth Langley has lived in Tucson for 15 years, the city still feels new.
Some of her artwork — detailed oil paintings on stained wood, cards and prints sold under the shop name Localscapes — features well-known spots from Antigone Books to the Bear Down Gym. She’s also done commissioned paintings of adored spots that have since closed, such as Lerua’s and Flycatcher.
“I always think I’m going to run out of ideas, but I never do,” she says.
Charlie Watkins
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Artist Charlie Watkins creates layered three-dimensional art with wood and other materials.
Fifty years ago, Charlie Watkins sold his first piece of art.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” he says. “I got invited to a show in Pasadena and people wanted to buy what I made — and that set me off. I was ecstatic that someone wanted to buy what I made.”
At the time, he was selling acrylic paintings. Over the years, he’s done everything from furniture refinishing to Christmas window paintings.
But 25 years ago, he had an idea to blend his love for history with his love of art by creating layered three-dimensional pieces with wood and other materials.
His intricate designs of architecture in the Four Corners area are all made by hand — no molds or masks are used — and each piece is one of a kind that can hang on a wall or act as a table centerpiece.
“I’m kind of an amateur historian and archaeologist,” says Watkins, who moved to Tucson in 1986. “I enjoy those subjects and was able to tie that with my artwork, where the concept was created to focus from a period of about the 1200s to the 1880s, early 1900s, of architecture.”
Kirsten Dill of Sonoran Watercolors
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Many of Kirsten Dill’s paintings are inspired by Southern Arizona and Mexico.
Kirsten Dill’s paintings help her connect not only with her artistic side, but with the community as well.
“I like to make people smile,” she says. “That’s one of the biggest compliments I get from people — they say, ‘I saw this and it makes me smile.’”
Dill creates her artwork in different styles, primarily watercolor and acrylic, under the name Sonoran Watercolors.
Many of her paintings are influenced by the desert, Southern Arizona and Mexico, with images of cows to hummingbirds to cacti.
Dill grew up in Mexico and moved to Tucson after high school. She’s a self-taught artist, though her journey into watercoloring started when she was 14, attending a fine arts institute.
Audrey De La Cruz of Annotated Audrey
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Audrey De La Cruz, owner of Annotated Audrey, was always interested in art but never thought it would be a full-time job.
Right outside her home, Audrey De La Cruz has a good view of Saguaro National Park.
The view helps keep De La Cruz, a local artist, inspired.
De La Cruz started Annotated Audrey, a paper goods and lifestyle brand, in 2016, about six months after moving to Tucson from Los Angeles.
“Just looking out my window now, it’s all desert,” she says. “All around us is nature, animals, cactus, flowers. So I draw my inspiration from that mostly.”
Beyond Saguaro National Park, other inspiration for her vibrantly-colored desert-themed paper goods comes from fashion, movies, TV shows and music.
Ashley Ambrosio of Spring + Vine
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The soaps at Spring + Vine include native plants such as creosote and prickly pear.
Ashley Ambrosio has been making natural soaps for the last 10 years and was living in Canada when she decided to set up shop at a farmers market.
“I just got such nice feedback about it and people in my life were encouraging me to sell it and share it with others,” she says. “I started making soap as a creative outlet for myself. I’ve always loved working with my hands and creating.”
Last year, Ambrosio married Neil Diamente and moved to Tucson. In November, she started Spring + Vine, where she sells handcrafted natural soaps and pottery — something she calls a passion and craft of hers, inspired by nature, people and community.
Anita Goodrich of Bottle Rocket Design
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This fire pit, made by Bottle Rocket Design, features repurposed glass set in concrete.
Anyone who knows Anita Goodrich inevitably ends up at the landfill with her on some kind of adventure.
“It always amazes me how many people haven’t been to the landfill,” Goodrich says. “The minute you get onto the property and see the truckloads of things being thrown away, people — it doesn’t matter how old they are, their gender — their mouth is agape. They can’t believe it.”
Around 2011, the Tucson native started Bottle Rocket Design — a local shop that uses concrete and repurposed glass to create household items such as lamps, candles, dog bowls and tables.
Bottle Rocket Design is a family business comprised of Goodrich and her wife Stephanie Pederson. Goodrich’s 13-year-old son also helps, in addition to one part-time employee.
“I’ve done home improvement for businesses, so I had the opportunity to go to the landfill a lot and see what gets thrown away,” she says. “It’s staggering.
“I thought, ‘If I’m going to create something, I don’t want to be part of that — I want to be a solution.’”
Alexandra Berger Clamons of The Glass Desert
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A certified master gardener, Alexandra Berger Clamons of The Glass Desert enjoys translating plants into glass, like this handmade stained-glass succulent cactus.
Plants that you can never kill, even if you tried. No need for watering or getting enough sunlight for Alexandra Berger Clamons’ cacti.
They are made of glass.
Berger Clamons’ business, The Glass Desert, specializes in stained glass artwork.
She is most known for her potted glass cactus plants.
Berger Clamons has been interested in glass artwork since 2003. She taught herself torch working in college.
After school, she moved to Tucson and worked under local artist Tom Philabaum, one of the founders of the Sonoran Glass School. While working at the school, Berger Clamons learned mosaics and stained-glass work.
Jonna Critchley of Tucson Toffee Co.
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Tucson Toffee is known for its classic, churro, and dark and salty toffees. It also offers limited-time flavors.
Nothing like good old-fashioned toffee to get your fix of sweet and salty.
That’s how Jonna Critchley, owner of the months-old Tucson Toffee Co. sees it. Being that toffee is one of her favorite candies of all time, she was eager early on to learn how to make it right.
“As a new wife, I was always trying new recipes and seeing what I could cook and bake,” Critchley said.
After perfecting her method, she tested it out with friends and family with positive results.
She then took it to market and created her toffee business.
Tucson Toffee Co. is known for its three original flavors: classic toffee (a semi-sweet chocolate and almond mixture,) churro toffee, and its dark and salty toffee.
Serena Rios McRae of Cactus Clouds Art
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Inspired by the wild beauty of Arizona, Serena Rios McRae of Cactus Clouds Art draws and paints her desert surroundings in a colorful and whimsical way.
She is most known for her watercolor paintings and digital artwork of desert flora, fauna and landscapes.
She even dabbles in print work and makes stickers.
As a kid, McRae grew up in an artistic family, but she never thought she was going to make this a career.
“I never felt like I was as good as my brothers were (at art),” she said. “They could just pick up anything and make stuff. They were always doing really interesting things.”
When she came across watercoloring, she knew right away that she had chosen something she was good at.
“It didn’t take tons of effort,” McRae said. “It was what I was waiting to find.”
