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 - 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 - 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.

Featured Artist - Miss Lizzie's Art & Design

Artist Bio

Elizabeth Gosse is self-taught emerging artists who studied Politics and Cultural Studies at Trent University. Elizabeth is influenced by writings by Richard Florida and Herbert Marcuse, artists such as Yves Klein, and social projects such as Post Secrets. She strives to break the traditional gallery rules by creating touchable artworks. Using acrylic paints and various mediums, she is able to create bold designs, colourful artworks that express the beauty of emotions, the world, and landscapes around us in an abstract way.

Artist Statement

Life is about creating yourself – a phrase which not only do I live my life passionately by but also what influences my artwork. I am a painter of many mediums and many subjects but I strive to achieve one thing with my artwork and that is to have fun. I strive to make the visual arts fun and accessible to everyone, most recently creating touchable artworks. Walking through art galleries in Europe I was influences by the interactive installations and had a strong desire to apply them to paintings. Working with various mediums and materials I am working on evolving touchable interactive art. It is a goal to create artwork in which people can experience with not only their sight, but with their sense of touch as well. The sense of touch is imperative in everyday reaction, but denied so often within the visual arts. My goal is to break this conventional rule.

For more information about Elizabeth, see her website misslizzies.blogspot.com.

Featured Artist - Harlequinn Hoops

Jennifer Fleming is a Registered Massage Therapist during the week and a hoop dancer on the weekends. She hand-makes mini, adult, and child sized hula hoops.

Don't miss Jennifer's demonstration of hula hoop tricks at 7 pm in the workshop area.

Featured Artist - Ean Kools

"Hey check it out: my art is at the Groove Kitchen all month long / Street Dreams Graff art show at the Nutty Parrot June 4 / the Cambridge Arts Festival June 5 10am-10pm / and listen for me on Mandyland radio Friday 10-12 100.3 fm"

Ean Kools is the multi-talented chair of the Cambridge Arts Festival, now serving his second term in that position. A graphic designer by trade, Ean is the force behind this Festival's branding, and that of many area businesses.

On canvas, Ean works mainly with acrylic, ink, and spray paint. His style can be classified as portraiture, surrealism, abstraction, and graffiti. Each piece is an expression of a time, place, or emotion.

Recently Ean has also experimented with Tapecasting. George, our 2010 mascot (pictured right) is a tapecast of Ean himself.

Ean's work is currently on display at the Groove Kitchen and in his own gallery - The Underground Gallery (in Hespler). You can also watch Ean create live at tomorrow night's Street Dreams Graffiti Art Show and in our Aerosol Art Area at the Festival.

You can read more about Ean in this Waterloo Region Record article

Featured Artist - Tania Hanscom

I live and work in Cambridge Ontario with my husband Jeff and two lovely children Jacob and Miranda. Through my work, I have had some great opportunities to work with art and people who love art.

Acrylic paint is my Medium. I am currently focusing on trees in landscape but enjoy painting interior still life and portraiture as well.

Tania will also be hosting an Origami workshop at the Festival.

Featured Artist - Stick 'em Up Wall Graphics

We design cool wall graphics that personalize your space.

Ian Pilon is a certified graphic designer that works with other artists to help transform ideas into large scale wall graphics.

Stick’em Up Wall Graphics has a 48″ Graphtec vinyl plotter that is used to cut large wall graphics, our vinyl graphic film is made by ORACAL and is the highest quality material available, It has a matte finish and is engineered to be low-tac which allows for easy removal with out damaging or lifting paint off your walls.

For more information about Ian and Stick 'em Up Wall Graphics, see his website stickemup.ca and his Facebook page and follow him on Twitter @Stick_em_up

Featured Artist - RAQUEL Exquisite Collection

For Artisan Cheli Chelouche, everything starts with shapes and colors. She loves painting nature and read a lot about history art. When she's painting a tray, she chooses shades she wants to use together, then thinks about the pattern. She combined her art studies and inner feelings to paint abstract designs or nature's beauty. The Douglas Fir trays are made by her husband Amir.

In addition to painting Cheli expresses her artistic abilities creating exquisite jewelry pieces. Her interest in history in general and jewelry history in particular awaken the dormant jewelry artist in her. While reading about ancient jewelry techniques she stumbled upon the Maile art, which is knitting with metal rings using 2 pliers she was fascinated. The idea that people used the same technique centuries ago gave her the inspiration for her jewelry pieces. Weaving ancient and contemporary eras together.

She starts with one tiny ring then starts to weave using only Genuine Gemstone, Semi-Precious and original swarovski crystal. Her jewelry is meticulously handcrafted and time consuming but, for her, it is a labor of love, and she would love to share them with you.

Featured Artist - Angela Werstine

I see life as a journey not a destination. My journey started at a young age, when I decided that I wanted to be an artist. Since then I have found passion within art, I have experimented with many different types of techniques, and always end up doing what I love best; abstract.
Abstract to me is powerful, graceful, serene and different every time you look at it. It constantly changes, develops and grows, as we all do. For the audience, they see something different than you as the artist did not see, it is seeing the expression and power in the simple things, or they may see what you were intending. Abstract to me is an emotion, it reflects my moods, feelings, beliefs, and the way I see things.

I have created two major bodies of work entitled "Christianity, One Belief" and "Truth and Honor". Both bodies of work represent my passion, philosophy and my vision of two different worlds with the same conclusion, to love the earth, to live for freedom and without judgment, to love one another and to make a difference. Even the smallest person can make the biggest impact.

I wish to enlighten people with my view on history, culture, religion and seeing between the lines of simplicity. I find that simplicity can make a piece all the more powerful, I use my own form of line movement to create figures with the least amount of detail, it is very smooth and flowing, so that your eyes can wander across the page and to help you recognize the emotion, I pick out the most important piece of detail and create an image around it. I express my history and Christian beliefs through my drawings by putting stories behind my pieces that help to explain the meaning behind the figure.

I was born in Yarmouth Nova Scotia, to a Mi'qmaq father, and a Scottish- heritage mother. I never knew growing up about my Native ancestry; my Grandparents were ashamed of their roots and the conditions that their people endured on the East Coast. My family researched our background and discovered our deep roots and I joined the Eastern Woodland Métis Nation in 2005. I have strived to learn as much as I can about my Mi'qmaq history, but I have been faced with much difficulty having to adapt to being a Métis, being accepted fully in neither culture. I use my Mi'qmaq heritage and my Christian background to create art by using Ink. Learning about my own Mi'qmaq/Algonquin heritage is difficult in Ontario. I feel the more that I do learn about the Mi'qmaq people, history and culture the more I can bring the knowledge of the Mi'qmaq people here.

My future may hold many things, but the one constant is my passion for drawing. I will continue my spiritual journey with hopes that it could make a difference even in the smallest way.

My medium is ink on paper and said to be "new and refreshing". I have created many pieces of art that depict history, including my Native American history (Mi'qmaq) and Christianity. My love for history and desire to show the community my style is represented in my artwork. I am devoted to creating artwork that glorifies Native history and Christianity. The reason for this devotion, apart from my background, is that an artist needs an epic subject to create epic art. I have been honoured to have done many exhibits for Galleries, Parishes, Festivals and Museums throughout Ontario, Canada.

Featured Artist - Deborah Sandilands

Deborah Sandilands is an award-winning carver who carves both "in-the-round" and relief carving. She has been commissioned to carve birds, plaques, signs, statues, furniture, garden art and walking sticks. While she enjoys working with other media, creating in wood is closest to her heart. It can take at least 100 hours to create some of the more detailed work!

Deborah takes requests. If you have one, contact her at the Festival or through this website.