Featured Artist - Barbara Young

"I work in acrylics and do collage. My work has a very graphic quality. I prefer abstracting images of people and animals. I also do still life of fruit with an abstract theme. The colors are bold and exaggerated, but I also do pen and ink drawings which may be incorporated into collage."

Barbara Young studied Graphic & Package Design at Humber College and worked as graphic artist for 20 years. She has taken painting classes at Cambridge Centre for the Arts & Dundas Valley School of Art, and participated in various juried shows. Her paintings are currently on exhibit at Gran.

Featured Artist - Cinnamon Tree

Cinnamon Tree combines the unique personalities of six individuals, resulting in songs that range from piano driven ballads to dark, ambient-noise drenched pieces and the odd pop punk anthem, written just for Jane Hung, the band's keyboardist/guitarist. The wide range of music written by Cinnamon Tree makes it difficult to label the band, or draw comparisons to others. The band's musical influences include Cat Power and Tom Waits.

What separates Cinnamon Tree from other bands is their vocal collages and rich harmonies. These are the threads that tie Cinnamon Tree together and are provided by vocalists Kristen Carter and Christina Gurton, who are as different as they are similar.

With a classical and musical theatre background and an interest in industrial/metal/ genres, Kristen epitomizes the range of the band's musical style.

Likewise, Christina follows no musical rules, happy to dance to both Lady Gaga and Ani Difranco. Christina credits Madonna and Sinead O'Connor for teaching her how to sing.

Guitarist Shane Oatman is the founder of Cinnamon Tree and one of the primary songwriters in the band. He enjoys coming up with the out-of-the-box song ideas and chord progressions that add to the musical range of Cinnamon Tree, much to the dismay of bassist Ivan Latendresse, whose punk-influenced playing adds an extra dimension to the band.

Rounding out the band are Zoltan and Liz Neff, Cinnamon Tree's drummer and violinist.

Cinnamon Tree has started playing shows in the tri-cities area and outside. Show-goers can expect to see a wide variety of music, with the occasional musical interlude. And as with any successful new recipe, the audience determines whether or not it works. In the case of Cinnamon Tree, it appears that the recipe has been successful in creating something unique which it is difficult to label.

For more about Cinnamon Tree and to preview their music, see their MySpace and Facebook pages.

Featured Artist - Valerie Chvedovski

Valeri Chvedovski graduated from Odessa's school of fine arts in the Ukraine. There he developed his skills painting with oil and watercolor. Most of his works include landscapes and portraiture, although some of the recent pieces are very abstract.

In 1992, my family and I left the Ukraine for Canada, where we settled in Kitchener. Many of my recent paintings were inspired by Canada's countryside. I enjoy painting portraits of my friends and co-workers. I am often asked to re-create portraits from an old black and white photographs.

Presently, I am a member of Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists. My paintings are exhibited in Double T Gallery, Iris Gallery, Waterloo Community Art Center and MacDonald Stewart Art Center.

For more of Valeri's paintings, see his website execulink.com/~valerach

Featured Artist - Alain Guillou

"My goal as a photographer is to create a body of abstract works through colour, line, and shade. Because the abstract photographs are of real-life locations, they can be viewed as puzzles. Satisfaction is gained from decoding the images and leaving the viewer in the state of interpretations."

Alain Guillou sees the world through different eyes - those that have not been distracted by our fast moving modern world. At a young age, Guillou discovered photography. His quest for the perfect image is unending. He travels the globe, driven by a vigorous determination to capture the beauty that he sees and a profound respect for architecture. As a free artist he is unpredictable; his French background and his ability to see a different world through his lenses make his photography unique. He grew up in Normandy and got his education in engineering. He is a self-taught photographer.

He exhibits his work at his studio in Cambridge, at regional show and other juried art shows.

For more of Alain's work, see his website aguillou.com

Featured Artist - Kat Mortensen

Kat Mortensen is an English Literature graduate from the University of Toronto. After years of working in teaching and clerical jobs that never quite fit, she is at last unleashing the many voices in her head.

Her work to date has appeared in "Cahoots Magazine", "The Daily Gleaner", and "The National Post". Her blog, Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes, is a favourite with many who appreciate good poetry that appeals on different levels. Even those who "don't like" poetry, keep coming back to read hers.

She lives in Kitchener, Ontario in a cozy pre-war home with her husband Kevin, their cats and an assembly of well-fed, backyard creatures.

Kat's poetry is an eclectic mix that utilizes both classical forms and a kind of "stream-of-consciousness" approach. She touches on her own humanity and that of the world, through narrative and observational pieces. She frequently writes in a serious vein, but tinges of humour are ever-present.

She has recently published her first collection, "shadowstalking" with Pandora Press.

For more of Kat's work, see her website hyggedigter.blogspot.com

Featured Artist - Jennifer Depencier

Jennifer Depencier's love of art was fostered from a young age while growing up in the northern town of Sudbury, Ontario. It was here that she was given the freedom to explore the nature of the area and its bountiful lakes and forests. She has worked with many different forms and mediums, but has favoured acrylics in recent years.

Although she loves painting landscapes and still life, she has recently discovered her passion for painting urban landscapes, in particular the village of Hespeler where she and her family have lived for the past ten years.

Whether it is a wilting sunflower, fallen leaves or an abandoned factory, Jennifer feels the need to capture the essence of the space on canvas.

Jennifer's work has been in various juried shows, the Mayors Celebration of the Arts, Grand Cafe, Sunrise Gallery Hamilton and is currently on display at Phidon Pens in Galt.



For more of Jennifer's work, see her website jenniferdepencier.fotopic.net

Featured Artist - Adam Fowler

I've been drawing since I was about 5 years old, sketching Disney characters and Pokemon, now I have found a deep aspiration for Photography. I plan on going further with my Photography in the future, in hopes to Photography concerts and live shows in particular.

I enjoy taking pictures at concerts, I believe that the outcome of your photos from a concert are all up in the air at the moment when the photo is taken. When you go home and look through them, they either turn out exactly how you wanted but better, or not even close to what your vision was. It ties both of my true loves together, music and photography.