Buchanan, Mich. — A public artists’ reception will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, July 24 at the Buchanan Art Center, to welcome new exhibits by three local artists:

• Fight or Flight — Paintings by Pam Kirkham in the Roti Roti Gallery

•Hollywood Illustrations by Peg McClellan in the Showplace Gallery

• Wings, Paws, Hooves and Petals — Paintings by Sandy Williams in the Hess Library

Exhibits open on Wednesday, July 22, and run through Saturday, Sept. 5.

This reception is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served and music will be provided throughout the reception.

 

Pam Kirkham

Kirkham (Fight or Flight) graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids in 1976 as an illustrator.

From a class that originally numbered 150 students, Kirkham was one of 12 worthy of graduating as illustrators. Hired over the phone in 1980, she moved to Galveston, Texas, where she worked for the University of Texas Medical Branch as an artist.

Kirkham moved back to southwest Michigan in 2004 where many local businesses display her murals, including Pike Funeral Home and Dairy Queen on Niles Ave. in St. Joseph, as well as private homes in the area. She was commissioned to paint public art for downtown St. Joseph by the Krasl Art Center and Lest We Forget, among others. She teaches at the Box Factory for the Arts and Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, Michigan.

In 2014, the artist participated in ArtPrize where she displayed her work at Bridgewater Place, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kirkham has been working on the new Fight or Flight series for the last two years. When a close friend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she was inspired to create art to be used as a healing tool for those affected by cancer.

 

Peg McClellan

Peg McClellan (Hollywood Illustrations) grew up in Buchanan and graduated from Michigan State University with a BFA. After teaching a few years in Florida, she was hired at Universal Studios as an illustrator in the art department. Her first movie was “Coalminer’s Daughter.”

She studied with some of the best in the business, and was trained to do storyboards, set sketches and projections (using camera angles). When a director invited her to be his art director on his first independent film, she took the opportunity and joined the Art Director’s Guild as a result. Some of her art direction/production design credits include Melrose Place, Quantum Leap, Columbo and CSI.

She is currently an instructor for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco part-time, teaching production design for the Motion Picture and Television Department, and she owns her own interior design business.

McClellan is also writing a book for Focal Press on production design, with publication tentatively set for May 2016.

She maintains membership and many friendships in the film business today, and lives in Marina del Rey, California.

 

Sandy Williams

Sandy Williams (Wings, Paws, Hooves and Petals) has been an artist for 40 years and a natural science illustrator for almost 30.

She grew up in Niles, in a family of gardeners and it was only natural for her to use the beautiful flowers from the gardens of her grandmother and mother as some of her first subjects.

She also had an early love for animals, especially horses, and often incorporates them into her work.

Williams’ work has been used on greeting cards, puzzles, ceramics (most notably for Yankee Candle), garden flags, magazines, books, toys and packaging.

A graduate of Indiana University and a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Williams is the current vice president of the Niles Art Association.