A fine artist of works in mixed media, Angela exhibits in Chicago-area juried art show galleries. She received a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago with a concentration in Visual Communications.

Her fine art work is in the permanent collection of the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston, Illinois and in the homes of many art collectors and enthusiasts.

As a professional designer, for over 25 years Angela has led design and content development of exhibitions for permanent, temporary and traveling exhibitions and events for the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.  As Director of Design and Creative Services, she manages a staff of designers and interns that support the Museum’s brand and design initiatives.  Her Museum work covers a spectrum of solutions including an award winning work on the Museum’s Numbers in Nature exhibit.

She is an active member of the Evanston community as a long standing member of the Evanston Arts Council, the Evanston Made artist group and co-founder of the newly formed Northshore Black Artist Group. 

“I believe the arts hold significant importance to society.  The arts provide a voice and platform for individual and cultural expression, inspiring creativity and innovation, building community and inclusion, and economic impact. My hope is to inspire the youth to pursue careers in art and design—creative minds are fluid thinkers and see the world in new ways”

Angela is native of St. Louis, Missouri suburbs and active resident of Evanston, IL

Samantha Hostert is a ceramic artist and educator. She works out of her home studio in the Chicago area, where she lives with her husband, two kids and a cat. She teaches at the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago. Sam makes functional, comfortable pots to encourage people to slow down and enjoy the rituals and conversations of everyday life. She strives to create tension and depth to draw you into her surfaces, inspired by natural landscapes and the contrast between order and chaos, spontaneity and structure. She hopes that you will have many conversations, with yourself and others, while using her pieces.

It has taken a lifetime for me to turn around, acknowledge, and say ‘hi’ to the artist in me. I put her away long ago when my worry and doubts about ‘making a living’ as an artist became all that I could hear. Thankfully I trusted my creativity which held and carried me through a rich career in education, advocacy and mental health. I am always holding a creative practice, fostering associative pathways to brilliant connections with people, ideas and communities.

Now in what I consider my third act, I marvel at the wild and numerous ways my creative heart expands and embraces art-ing–painting, photography, personal narrative, cooking, sewing, crafting and gardening. I navigate my multifaceted identity with a deep sense of exploration and self-discovery. My heritage as a white cishet female and a Jew of Color, with Greek, Sephardic and Ashekenzic roots, woven into my experiences as someone born in Germany and raised in Chicago, undergirds my creative practice.

I like nature, patterns, connections, and colors. One of my very first adult jobs was mixing ink colors for a master printmaker; it was one of my most fulfilling and visceral jobs. And not becoming a master printmaker myself is one of my deepest regrets. Right now, with so much struggle in the world, the losses and harms mounting from climate change, greed and hate, I grapple with if it is enough to just make beautiful art. Does art that quenches my longing to connect through and with beauty help others? Is what I do self-indulgent? What can I create that reveals something new and helpful to the world?

I am working on the ‘both/and’ of honoring myself and my creativity while also creating work that helps change people’s minds about walking through the world blindly. As an only child in a small family, a social worker and an educator, my way has been to build community and restoration through one-on-one conversations. I can see how each piece of art holds a one-on-one conversation too; how it builds community slowly.

What do I want the work of these conversations to be? This is what I am grappling with in my work right now.

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Deb Anderson paints landscapes and abstracts, focused on visual patterns and chaos found everywhere in the living world, the texture of foliage, the patterns of water and light, waves and the sky. She also makes hand-carved block prints. Her art practice keeps her attention on the interconnectedness of all life, and how we are all inseparable from nature and the environment. Connecting with other people through artwork is a welcome experience.

She grew up in Michigan, moved to Chicago for college and earned a B.A. in Art at North Park University. She now works as an artist, graphic designer and art teacher. She shows her artwork in art fairs and galleries. She’s been honored to receive awards for studio and plein air work, and has sold paintings around the country and internationally.
She enjoys teaching art classes for adults and children at Insight Fine Art Studio in Skokie.

Dominic Mosca studied ceramics at Harper College and received his degree in ceramics from Northeastern Illinois University. He began teaching adult and children's pottery classes while in college and continues to teach to this day.

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Jaqui Almaguer is a self-taught Queer Chicana artist. Born in Chicago and raised in Chicago, Southern California and Nashville. Her Mexican heritage and travels throughout Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica, have greatly influenced her work. Almaguer is inspired by the bold imagery, bright colors and playfulness of her Mexican culture. She has recently started exploring new techniques and styles of painting and different creative processes.

For the first sixty-four years of my life, photography was my focus. I began taking pictures in grammar school, processing my own film and making black-and-white prints by the time I was in fifth grade. After high school, I pursued my passion for photography in college, earning a degree in the field with a minor in art. A close friend with connections to professional photographers helped me get started, and soon I was working as an assistant before stepping into a role as a photographer. Initially, I was photographing unglamorous products, which didn’t fulfill me. So, I took a leap and went freelance, starting with a small studio and no clients. Over time, my business grew, and I worked with various advertising agencies in Chicago, capturing everything from products to people, dogs, cats, babies, and celebrities. While I loved photographing people, I had to adapt to a wide variety of subjects. Despite the ups and downs, I never regretted the path I took.

Bill Brown is a wood turner from Evanston, Illinois. He makes beautiful, refined, functional pieces from a variety of wood species. He is a member of the Evanston Woodturners. 

I enjoy making hand-built,  functional ceramics. My background in graphic design and packaging has taught me discipline and planning for possible outcomes. My love of collage and surface patterns and texture is what makes each piece unique.

Maria is a self-taught ceramicist based in Chicago, IL. She first discovered clay many years ago in high school and to this day is nothing short of thrilled by the alchemy of water, earth, fire and atmosphere combining to make something lasting and beautiful. It’s no wonder that part of the human experience has been making clay objects for tens of thousands of years!

Maria makes simple forms to which she can add texture by carving, impressing or slip trailing. She is drawn to the smoothness and whiteness of a porcelain clay body and loves the way transparent glazes look on them.

She is very inspired by shapes and patterns found in nature. Whether functional or decorative, Maria aims to convey a handmade quality and to make everyday objects special.

Joshua Longbrake is an artist and a woodworker and a dad. He works at a woodshop in Forest Park, IL.

He has two boys who are OK except one of them lies a lot.

Kristin Simerson has been a metalsmith since 2013. Prior to being a metalsmith, she worked internationally, primarily in the Middle East. She is drawn to the colors and symmetry of Arabic art, and uses unique gemstones with vibrant colors in her jewelry pieces. Every piece is one-of-a-kind and made by hand using traditional metalsmithing techniques.

Kristin graduated from Northwestern University and lives in Northbrook with her family. In her free time, she enjoys traveling. 

Morgan is a multimedia artist based out of Evanston, IL. She completed her studies in Studio Art, with a focus in drawing, from DePaul University in 2017, and has been experimenting with different styles and media ever since. Her process of constant experimentation and exploration is what helps to keep her creative and curious in her art practice. Her current favorite media include linoleum prints, tattooing, and embroidery. She is most inspired by animals and nature, personal psychological analysis, symbolic and archetypal imagery, and her cultural heritage from Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

I taught studio art and AP Art History at the high school level for close to thirty years. I am a practicing studio artist most interested in exploring and painting

issues of color and light as they are found in landscapes and urban scenes. 

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Think of your reaction when you come upon a scene that draws your attention completely – one of those visual moments that is fleeting but seems to be locked in time – an instant when the color, light, and objects in front of you come together in an arrangement containing both structure and energy. These are the themes and subjects that I explore in my work. My paintings (oil on canvas) are built on strong representations of light as expressed through clear value and color contrast. I also enjoy exploring the dynamics of composition – how the various components of a painting are both independent yet also part of a cohesive design. I studied art education at American University in Washington, DC and taught art to high school students for over three decades. Time spent in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Evanston, Illinois, and Granada, Spain has given me the opportunity to explore the figure, landscapes and cityscapes as well as the beautiful, crisp light found in arid climates. I work from a studio in Evanston and have exhibited my work in galleries and shows throughout the Chicago area. My paintings and drawings are part of private collections in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Wyoming, Connecticut, Illinois, Colorado, Michigan, and Madrid and Granada, Spain.

Robin Ryan is a fiber artist best known for her weavings using mostly natural fibers, with a focus on tapestries and fiber sculpture.

I like to think of my jewelry as not overwhelming but as embracing the wearer. I believe that jewelry is intended to complement both one’s personality and their personal sense of style. It should never be about the maker but the wearer and my goal has always been to create pieces that I find pleasing and that appeal to a wide variety of personalities and styles. I get excited about commissioned pieces because it is a chance to interpret what I learn from listening and observing. I have surprised and pleased many with their new pieces because I listen intently and make keen observations regarding what works well as far as style, texture and color. For over 20 years I have told clients whether they are consulting clients or one of the wonderful people I count as special design clientele. We all have a creative side and if we allow ourselves to connect with that part of us… the joy and rewards are immeasurable. Personally, I love texture, color, form and style. Rarely have I reproduced a piece of jewelry except by special request. When people fall in love with a piece of my jewelry, I want them to know it is unique and a personal expression of who they are… That makes me very happy!

My first piece of pottery came from my grandmother’s cabinet – an old chipped little pitcher with painted flowers on the side.   I loved how the piece felt in my hands, and the fact that something with such a simple beauty could also be so useful. 

My first experience making my own ceramics started when I took a coil building workshop while living in Japan (the ashtray I made in 4th grade doesn’t count, though it does speak for the time) and I found myself reaching for the same feeling – could I make something beautiful that someone would want to use?  It was a rough piece, but I loved that with care and time I could shape something both useful and satisfying to look at. 

It wasn’t until 2020 that I was able to take my first real pottery class, and I consumed myself with learning the fundamentals of wheel throwing.  I took weekly classes, used every available minute of studio time to practice, and began teaching at the same studio.  Without really planning for it, I’d found the thing that I could lose time doing.  I found a shared studio space and I started expanding my knowledge, throwing new forms, seeing what it was like to make sets, making my own glazes, firing my own kilns, taking commissions to challenge myself.  In late 2022, I formed my business, and in early 2023, I started the process of creating my own studio, which I completed later that year. As I refined my skills, I also started to narrow my focus and shift towards making finer art pieces.

My past functional work has included developing a line of pieces for entertaining - tableware, serving platters, and beverage service, though the majority of my current functional pieces reflect my love for nature and the garden, with floral textures and images, and planters, vases, and garden items such as plant stakes and ceramic bells.

Whether I’m making functional pieces for the table or crafting fine art pieces for design projects and home décor, I appreciate simple, clean lines and repetitive forms, and I enjoy experimenting with new ways to achieve that consistently. Negative space plays an important role in most of my work, as well as playing with textures and the use or absence of glazes to highlight the unique aspects of each form.  

We are Warren and Sharon Fellingham. We discovered our love for jewelry making and crafting over 10 years ago when Warren commented on a home decor piece and said “I could make that,” while I responded “I’d like to see you try!” And he did!  

We both have careers that are the furthest thing from artistic, but love decompressing from our high-stress jobs by creating items to wear or use in the home and some of our best work has been through our collaborative efforts. 

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Warren owns a gas station in Evanston and fixes cars and I’m a Physician's Assistant by trade. He likes to upcycle materials leftover from fixing cars, melt and separate the metals and create jewelry pieces from it. He also does woodworking with fallen trees/branches in our yard and creates wooden decorative pieces with lumber. 

I accidentally fell into crafting. One day, I took a class on how to make jewelry and wore my newly made bracelet on my wrist when the class was finished.  I then went into a neighboring gift shop and was asked by the gift shop owner where I bought that bracelet. When I told the gift shop owner that I had made it just moments ago, she asked me to make her a dozen to sell. The rest is history… 

Stephen is a lens-based artist and creator of unique

artist books and collages. He is a graduate of the Pratt Institute (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and the University of Chicago (Master of Liberal Arts), and is ABT from the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology in Advanced Visual Studies. He is the former chair of the art department of New Trier High School, where he taught darkroom, digital and alternative process photography. Until the

pandemic he was a visiting artist at Walter Payton College Prep for three years.

Murphy has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. Some of the venues include the SE Center for Photography in Greenville, SC, the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, WI,

the Center for Photographic Arts in Carmel, CA, SOHO PHOTO in NYC, The National Library of Lithuania, Museo Leone in Vercelli, Italy, the Art & Museum Library of the City of Cologne, Germany, Perspective Gallery in Evanston, IL, & The International Center for Photography (ICP) in NYC, as part of a global exhibition in response to the covid pandemic. Artist books created by Murphy to the prompt of ‘Error’, ‘Memento Mori’ & ‘To Be’ were juried into the 7th , 8th, & 10th

International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius competitions and exhibited in many venues throughout Europe over a 9-year period.

In cooperation with the Evanston Art Center, Murphy helped facilitate the 8th Triennial crossing the Atlantic for the first time in its 25-year history where it was exhibited in late summer of 2019. The 10th Triennial was exhibited at the EAC in January, 2025,

featuring 31 books from 20 countries.

Beau Lou Designs by Theresa Daniel is a confluence of her love of travel, photography and beautiful designs. Using her photos of local and international landmarks, street art, gardens and architectural gems, she creates original designs that she applies to glass and tile to make jewelry, wine stoppers, coasters and accessories. Each of Theresa’s pieces has a story to tell and comes with a copy of the photo she used to create the design. Her vision is to create art that taps into personal experiences and aspirations - places people have been to or want to go to, places they've seen or want to see.

My paintings are about color and geometry.

As a child I was intrigued by the subtle colors of the feathers of birds and the leaves of the trees.  Later, when I was in graduate school, I recognized that I was thinking more about the colors than the objects.  I became an abstract painter. I am particularly fascinated by how our eyes can see a small line of color in a vast space. 

In addition to color, I have always liked geometry. About a decade ago, while looking out over the runway at the airport in Maui, Hawaii, I was fascinated by the visual tension between the man-made lines and the ocean and sky beyond. My paintings began to lean towards landscape.  Viewing the earth from an airplane reduces the ground to pattern of geometric shapes and lines which often duplicate man-made patterns.

Color is reflected light.  Daylight is the most complex form of light.  It is always changing depending on the time of day, weather, locality or season.  Thus, the colors of the landscape are always changing.

I like to travel and to walk.  On these journeys, I am always aware of the colors of light and the shapes and patterns of landscape.

Art has been a lifelong passion for me, leading to an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute. After 38 years as a University Landscape Architect, I have returned fully to my artistic practice, immersing myself in both painting and ceramics.

My work is a conversation between form, texture, and color—an exploration of how material and surface interact. In ceramics, I shape vessels and sculptural forms that reflect organic movement, embracing the natural irregularities of the medium. My paintings, whether on canvas or ceramic surfaces, extend this process, layering expressive marks and textures inspired by nature, landscape, environmental systems, memory, and the passage of time.

Through both disciplines, I seek to create work that is tactile, evocative, and rooted in a sense of place—bridging the connection between material, history, and personal experience.

Since childhood, I’ve used many different vehicles as my means of expression – drawing, mixed media, collage, photography, painting, fashion & interior design. Drawing inspiration from within & without, knowing that there is art in everyday life & everyday life in art, over time these various activities have informed one another.

My art training began in grade school with my father, a commercial artist, whose weekend activities included watercolor painting, copper enameling, and working at the Wilmette, Illinois atelier of ceramist Eugene Deutsch. I recall one visit where they hoisted me up onto a stool to play with the clay & slip. I considered any materials related to art making as my preferred toys. I still do. My mother would have to check my pockets before laundering as they were always crammed with chalk, pencils & crayons.

My Junior High & High School years brought art contest awards & a request to conduct a summer art camp for neighborhood children. Approaching my college years, I felt compelled to pursue Fashion Design attending the Ray-Vogue College of Design and graduating with top honors. During my 30 years in retail, I held various positions as buyer, department & store manager, in house private label designer & Fashion Director. Charged with the responsibility of reporting worldwide trends, my camera was my constant traveling companion during my tenure as Fashion Director for Marshall Fields. It still is - serving as my visual diary.

Eventually my passion for fashion diminished and in its place the art of interior design took hold. In 2001, I launched my own color consultation/interior design business which enabled me to utilize my artistic talents to fulfill specific needs. It was an immensely rich and rewarding experience.

Over the years, my pursuit of a visual arts education has taken me to China, Italy, Argentina, workshops across the US, as well as classes at the Evanston Art Center, University of Chicago Midway Studios, North Shore Art League, & the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  I have been blessed to study with many accomplished talented artists & photographers including Mark Eanes, Nicki Heenan, Louise LeBourgeois, Regina Mamou, Cynthia Winika, Judith Kruger, Mark Russell, George Shipperley, Nina Weiss, Ingrid Albrecht, Douglas Beasley, Dan Anderson, Jack Graham, Mike Moats, Dianne Kittle, & the late Myron Davis to name but a few.

Upon retirement, I returned to my roots to engage in the joyful “play” that art making is for me.

Michael Kauth is a Chicago based painter and multidisciplinary artist.    
His work explores color theory and the optical illusions of depth, movement and texture.

Tori Grace Outfitters began with me making bows and baby bands for my daughter Tori when she was a baby. I could not find anything that did not dent her little forehead. People asked to buy them off of her head at Target and Trader Joes, so I started making them for friends and family and sold at my first festival in Lincoln Square when Tori was just six months old. Tori is a senior in high school this year and I have expanded and rebranded.

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We specialize in creating classic Chicago-inspired apparel, accessories, home decor, and gifts for individuals of all ages. The majority of our merchandise is handcrafted locally in the Windy City, embodying the clean, classic lines of city living with meticulously stitched craftsmanship.

We design our fair trade collection here in Chicago and have everything handmade by artisans in a fair trade co-op based in India. We use fabrics that are healthy for our planet and super comfortable to wear. Feel the spirit of Chicago in every design, handcrafted with excellence and care. Our collaboration with artisans in India brings a touch of global unity to every piece.

My name is Sara Mizrachi and I am the self-taught jewelry designer behind Sara Sela Jewelry, a woman owned small batch jewelry company based in Skokie.

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Inspired by the raw beauty of the shapes, textures and colors found in nature, I use earthy colors and natural gemstones in combination with organic and geometric shapes for a uniquely balanced design. I love creating simple statement pieces for an elevated everyday look.

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