BUCHANAN, Mich. — A public reception will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, at the Buchanan Art Center.

The event will feature new exhibits by three local artists: Two Together; Photographs and Bird Drawings by Todd Hoover in the Roti Roti Gallery; Seasons of My Heart; Quilts and Textiles by Sandy Whitmyer in the Showplace Gallery and Showcases, and Circles; Ceramics and Paintings by (Jennifer) Zona in the Hess Library.

These exhibits open on Wednesday Feb. 25, and run through Saturday, April 18.

 

Todd Hoover

Todd Hoover (Two Together) received a degree in Art Education from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1968, and an M.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1973. He taught drawing and photography classes at James Whitcomb Riley High School, South Bend, Indiana, and photography at Indiana University, South Bend Campus.

In 1999, he received a Lilly Endowment Education Grant for the study of non-silver photography. Hoover has a strong exhibition history in juried art shows and has had several one-man shows. His one-man shows include the South Bend Museum of Art; the Northern Indiana Artist Association Gallery, Hammond, Indiana; Indiana University, South Bend Campus; St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana; Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and the Michiana Jewish Federation, South Bend, Indiana.

In 2010, Hoover switched from film photography to digital photography. Initially, going from darkroom silver photography to digital computer printed photography was an extremely difficult transition for him after making photos in his darkroom for so many years.

In 2011 Hoover started a series of photographs he called “Small to Big.” He photographed miniature toys and figurines and then greatly enlarged these images.

At the end of 2013, Hoover reexamined a series of Bird Drawings that he completed in the 1980s. He started to collage strips from his paint-by-number painting collection (circa:1950s), and then he re-photographed them. In 2014 he went back into the darkroom to make “Bird Photograms.”

Hoover found that he still loved the magic of darkroom photography. Also during this period, he started a series of photographs that he calls “Two Together.” In these photos he explores the relationship of two visuals that he makes into one photo.

 

Sandy (Williams)

Whitmyer

Sandy (Williams) Whitmyer (Seasons of My Heart) graduated from Galien High School and attended Lake Michigan College. She returned to Southwest Michigan eight years ago after living in Virginia, Atlanta and finally Northwest Arkansas.

Sandy has always enjoyed art and crafts and while living in the Atlanta area she joined a Decorative Artist Club and started doing woodworking and selling her crafts to four shops in the Stone Mountain, Georgia area. Also at that time she learned to quilt.

When she and her husband were transferred to Arkansas she joined the local Decorative Artist Club, a quilt guild and became involved with the local “Festival of Trees.” Sandy is the President of the Niles Art Association and enjoys sharing her love of painting, quilting and crafting with the members.

 

Jennifer Zona

Jennifer Zona a.k.a. “Zona” (Circles) was born in Kalamazoo Michigan, and grew up in Niles, Michigan, where she completed her high school studies. She furthered her studies at the community college in Dowagiac at Southwestern Michigan College. After Zona received her associate’s degree in fine arts, which emphasized in ceramics, she pursued another degree in fine arts from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids Michigan.

Immediately after receiving her bachelor’s degree she moved to New Mexico to further investigate ceramics and weaving; then earning her master’s degree in fine art from the University of New Mexico in 2009.

Zona is a public artist who focuses on large-scale ceramic and textile instillations. Zona has shown her artworks internationally and nationally, and is part of the collections the Center for Peace and Justice, Law Library of the University of New Mexico, Grand Valley State University and Art in municipal Places 1 percent for the Arts program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Zona continues to create her artwork in her home in Buchanan.

 

About The Buchanan Art Center

The Buchanan Art Center is located at 117 West Front Street in Buchanan, Michigan. The Center features three galleries with rotating exhibits of regional artists’ works, a program of educational art classes for all ages, and a gift shop offering works of local artists. Current hours are Monday – Thursday 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Friday 10:00 am–5:00 pm, and Saturday 10:00 am–4:00 pm. Closed Sundays. More information, including a schedule of classes, can be obtained at the Center by calling 269-697-4005, or by visiting their website at: www.buchananartcenter.org.