Artists In Residence

Kathy started painting several years ago and finds inspiration in things that grow and evolve: flowers, trees, and the city in which she was born and raised — Pittsburgh. With no training in art, her process is experimental because she doesn’t know the rules. Acrylics and oils, yes! Spray enamel, foam brushes, and found objects, why not?

After 43 years as an electronics field technician for Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, Don began woodworking as a hobby during his retirement. Inspired by making wooden toys for his grandchildren, he began exploring the use of a lathe (a machine for shaping wood that turns the piece being worked on against changeable cutting tools). With his first finished bowl, he was hooked, falling in love with the technique of bowl making. He has since expanded his lathe toolkit, studied under other wood turners, and spends every day possible in his woodshop “puttering.”

Barbara Yerace has been a glass artist operating a hot glass studio for over 40 years, but in the last few years, she has turned her attention to the exploration of Native American spirit animals and the lessons they bring us. The pieces she creates with glass beads are a culmination of research and love for the animals she studies.

Steph Moraca is a contemporary realism landscape painter that finds inspiration from golf courses and natural landscapes. She primarily works with oil and acrylic paint mediums on gallery-wrapped canvas and uses the layering method to achieve her unique detailed style. This southwestern Pennsylvania artist’s work is featured in private collections around the world and has received awards on a national level. Although the artist is best known for her realism landscape paintings, Moraca also creates custom-commissioned paintings of human figures, wedding portraits, cityscapes, and pet portraits.

Hannah Steele is an oil painter based in Boston. She paints images of the familiar seeking to amplify awareness of the every day, to transport viewers of her work into a psychological space, and to embed otherwise-passing moments into a tactile memory.

Sarah is an artist based in Utopia Beach, specializing in screen prints and etchings. Sarah’s work is a representation or a reflection of life experiences.  “My art documents a moment in time; it is a visual representation of my life experiences.”

After 43 years as an electronics field technician for Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, Don began woodworking as a hobby during his retirement. Inspired by making wooden toys for his grandchildren, he began exploring the use of a lathe (a machine for shaping wood that turns the piece being worked on against changeable cutting tools). With his first finished bowl, he was hooked, falling in love with the technique of bowl making. He has since expanded his lathe toolkit, studied under other wood turners, and spends every day possible in his woodshop “puttering.”

Monty Montgomery is an artist based in Virginia, specializing in bold, colorful lines and abstract patterns. Influenced by his mother who was a kindergarten teacher, Montgomery’s interest in art began with coloring books at a young age, developing a fascination with borders and the boundaries of emotional expression which is still reflected in his work today.

Dorit Brauer is a Pittsburgh-based abstract artist. Her work has been exhibited in Israel, Germany, and the US. Brauer considers the creation of art a sacred ritual; she meditates and reaches a higher state of consciousness prior to the artistic expression on the canvas. Her bold and colorful oil paintings are her love letter to life. The viewer is invited to look deeply and dive into the world of their inner self — to see each color individually — and to let it represent a memory, a thought, an emotion, a place, a lover, while embracing the colorful tapestry of life, therefore allowing the puzzle pieces of each experience to mend together into wholeness.

Together with a somewhat chaotic painting style, Noah juxtaposes bold, iconic imagery within his work. He starts with an idea or image in mind and works from there, pulling from all sources and surroundings. He still incorporates a spontaneous, youthful attitude together with a look of sophistication, blurring the lines between fine art and street art. Noah’s work becomes easily recognizable.

Michael Miller is a landscape painter living and working in northeast Ohio. The barns and pastural landscapes are inspired by his love of history and the surrounding countryside. Interested in barns from a young age when his parents took him to Gettysburg, Michael strives to bring the beauty of the American barn front and center and call on the viewer to reflect on a time that is passing.