Call for Artists and Artisans:
The Berkeley Art Works at 116 N. Queen Street, is the Martinsburg home of the Berkeley Arts Council as well as a select group of local artists whose work is on display and for sale in the Artists at the Works Co-op.
Currently, the Berkeley Arts Council has space available in the co-op for two 2-D artists and one 3-D artist. Artists over the age of 18, working in any medium are encouraged to apply for jurying.
Details below
Judith Becker: Watercolor, Pastels, Colored Pencil
Email: beckerjsb40@gmail.com.
Judith specializes in painting with colored pencils, pastels and watercolors and often mixes her media for unusual effects. Her subjects mostly are botanical s and scenes from her travels. She is the creator of a unique art form called “Spritzilism”, which involves using botanicals as templates for sprayed watercolor paint. The results produce interesting compositions with lots of sparkling colors and textures.
Joe Bourgeois: Furniture Design, Wood Sculpture
Web: bourgeoisfurniture.com/
At the age of 12 (I’m 78 now) I began working with wood. It wasn’t, however, until a couple of decades ago that I took responsibility for that work. Always before I was only dabbling. It interested me, but not enough to hang out my shingle. In 2005 I built a furniture shop with money I happened upon. I was able to build and equip my shop, thinking that happiness in woodworking would soon follow. What followed was growth. I expanded my products and began to understand my relationship with wood a little more accurately.
Beginning prior to this stage of my life I was a general contractor. The kind of work I did was always eccentric. This was because when someone asked if I (or we, there was a partner during this time) could do something, I would answer “Yes” and go and find a book about it to learn. This delivered some failures, but mostly growth.
Building furniture, cabinets & objets d’art has mirrored this development. Whenever I have found myself in a cul-de-sac professionally, I have sought to develop other skills.
During all this time my wife of 53 years passed away, I’ve remarried and my daughter has become my creative consultant. If I need an extra pair of hands, my grandson (23 and the strongest of us all) can be counted on to help. On top of all this my new wife turns out to have a good business sense and has helped me to become more financially secure.
Martha Hanley: Painting
Expressing visually that of the sacred beauty and mystery of life that words alone can’t capture is my goal. The fun, exciting creative process of putting paint to paper or collaging mixed media becomes just as important as the final product. When vibrant colors, textures, shapes come together in simple florals or abstract landscapes to express something unique then I am satisfied and hope that others will be moved by what they see.
Martha LeRoi: Pottery
Email: mlrclayreflect@yahoo.com
Clay has drawn Martha to it for many years and retirement has given her a better opportunity to pursue that yen. Carving porcelain, using her own stamp designs, and incorporating images from nature are key ways that she works.
Sandra Lynch: Mixed media pieces and upholstering chairs
Email:srlynch28@gmail.com
I have always been creative. I used to make jewelry, I sing, and was a wedding officiant for 17 years. Working with furniture started during the pandemic when I turned a credenza into a kitchen island. I loved it so much that I started working on all the items in my house transforming them into works of art. I’ve learned how to do so many things such as using power tools and working with wood, paint, and cloth. Last year, I turned it into a business. Over time, I’ve learned that smaller items are easier to transport, so I’m now starting to do mixed media pieces and upholstering chairs. I love Refabulizing things! The goal is to try and save a few things from going into the landfill. I am married, a dog mom, a retired disabled veteran, a grandma, and a great-grandma.
Susan Parker: Painting, Jewelry
Email: scp2art@gmail.com
After painting seriously, but briefly, during college, I returned to art in 1998. It is now my primary activity, apart from the demands of daily living. As an artist, my goal is to focus attention, if only briefly, on the beauty in the things around us that often escape our notice as we rush about our daily lives. I work in watercolor, oil and pastel, using the medium that best suits my mood and the subject.
Angel Savering: Painting
Email: sassygirlartwv@gmail.com
Angel Savering is a life- long resident of Berkeley County. Raised by a single mother who strived to give her children an appreciation for all of the arts, she was enrolled in dance classes at a local dance studio. Angel’s mom also used free local resources to help Angel and her younger sister gain exposure to the visual arts. Angel loved going to the Boarman Arts Center as a child to look at everything they had to offer. She also loved the trips to Washington, DC to visit the Smithsonian. The art museums quickly became her favorite ones to visit. The only souvenirs she would ask her mom for were the post card replicas of the art work exhibited. Her favorites were The Girl with a Watering Can and Swaying Dancer. She had a profound reaction at a young age to Little Dancer of Fourteen Years that has led to a life time appreciation of dancers depicted in sculptures. Angel’s journey into fluid art did not start until much later in later in life. Her love for decorating and appreciation for a co-worker, turned mentor, were the reason behind what is now her passion. She wanted to gift her mentor something unique and one of a kind. Her love of dance and visual arts finally came together for her on the canvas. The canvas is the stage, the paint is the dancer and she is the choreographer. Art in any form can evoke emotions that cannot be spoken and can form bonds that cannot be broken.
When Angel is not painting, she is working as the Life Enrichment Manager at Berkeley Senior Services in Martinsburg, WV. She loves spending time with the seniors at her center and other senior citizens in the community. She enjoys spending time with her family, her Morkie-Poo and friends. She enjoys cooking and watching action movies and procedural crime television
shows. She loves the beach and says that it inspires a lot of her art.
Marilyn Schoon: Fused Glass and Polymer Clay
Email: mjschoon@comcast.net
I started making jewelry as an escape from the responsibilities of teaching English at a highly competitive science/technology high school. One weekend I took a fused glass class where I discovered the idiosyncrasies of dichroic glass, and I was hooked! Dichroic glass, originally used for the re-entry tiles on NASA’s space shuttles, transmits one color but when looked at from a different angle reflects another.
Fast forward several decades to a 2½-day polymer clay class sponsored by the Berkeley Arts Council and taught by internationally-renowned artist Christi Friesen, and yet another passion was born. While I love fused glass, I now spend much more time making jewelry, small dishes, sculptures, and glow-in-the-dark ghoulies from polymer clay.
Sterling “Rip” Smith: Photography
Web: sterlingimages.com
Email: sterlingimageswv@gmail.com
The best description of my work is that I record human activity indirectly. I photograph the results, signs, or aftermath of human activity rather than the activities themselves. The results might be an abandoned farmhouse or a “found” still life. The term “Human Tracks” has been suggested as an umbrella title for my work.
George “Ty” Tempel: Lighting as Sculpture, Assemblage, Decorative Art, Functional Art, Industrial Art, Mixed Media, exploration, and tinkering
Email: thelampwright@icloud.com
Lamp: a device for giving light
Wright: a builder or maker
Lampwright: a builder or maker of devices that provide light. See also: shipwright, cartwright, wainwright, playwright.
The LampWright: a software-developer/engineering-manager, mentor, tinkerer, hobbyist, family-guy, and craftsman who utilizes up-cycled and repurposed materials such as metal, glass, and wood to build lamps that are functional sculptures. See also: Assemblage, Decorative Art, Functional Art, Industrial Art, Mixed Media, Tinkering.
George “Ty” Tempel (born 1966) has been creating art since he first started dismantling things to discover how they are designed and how they work. Occasionally the parts of these items were reassembled successfully, or transformed into something else entirely. Applying these talents more constructively, and sourcing materials from thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales, and recycling streams, he has been creating lamps since 2021. While still a software-developer and engineering manager, after 30+ year of answering the question “what do you do?” with information about his job, he now answers by describing his lamp-making art and other interests, which upon occasion tends to illicit strange looks.
Open Jury Call for Artists: Berkeley Art Works
Art Works Inventory form
Our co-op artists agree to:
- Commit to an initial minimum 6-month term of membership.
- Become a member of the Berkeley Arts Council and pay annual dues. Individuals: $35; Seniors (62+): $25, Students $15. Dues are payable in January each year, or upon acceptance to the co-op.
- Pay co-op membership space fees. Fees are due twice/year in January and July, and vary depending on the type of work the artist displays.
Responsibilities in the Gallery:
- All co-op members are required to sit the gallery at least once/month to cover regular business hours. Additional sitting will be required when hours are extended (holidays, events, etc.).
- Process sales transactions using an online point-of-sale system (training and instructions provided).
- Assist with other aspects of co-op operation, including attending co-op meetings, participating in events, and volunteering to help when extra hands are needed.
- Maintain inventory of current work for sale in the gallery. Artists are expected to keep a suitable number of pieces in the gallery, refresh their inventory with new work on a regular basis and provide additional pieces for display in community display areas.
- Keep accurate records of inventory in the gallery.
- Review the Co-op Participation Agreement Form for more information.
Work to be Juried:
Potential members will be required to attend an in-person jurying session and be accepted to display in the co-op.
- Work to be juried must be the original work of the artist, finished and ready to display and sell, and be representative of the type of work the artist intends to sell in the gallery.
- If the artist’s work is assembled from existing materials, the design of the materials must be altered substantially to be considered hand made.
- Work produced from kits, imported, commercial or mass-produced items will not be considered for jurying.
I’m Interested! What’s Next?
- Submit 3-5 images of your work, a description of your work and a resume/CV or short bio, along with your name, address and phone number to berkeleyartswv@gmail.com, subject line: Application for Co-op Jurying. These images will be used as a preliminary screen to determine appropriateness for in-person jurying.
- A member of our co-op will contact you for a in-person jurying appointment.
- On the day of your appointment, bring 5-8 examples of your work, along with a completed Co-op Jurying Form, to the Berkeley Art Works for in-person jurying. You will meet with a panel of jurors to discuss your work, explain our membership requirements and answer your questions. We will provide feedback and a decision regarding co-op membership.
- If accepted, we will schedule a time for you to bring your work to the Berkeley Art Works and set up your space. At that time, you will sign our co-op agreement, pay membership dues and space fees, and schedule your gallery training.
Questions? Send us an e-mail at berkeleyartswv@gmail.com, or call 304-620-7277.