ARTS & LITERATURE
Opening Night: Friday, September 8 7pm-10pm
Featuring: 7 artists and 3 authors
Pop up from The Hamilton Store

ARTISTS

Mary Flynn
mary@backalleygallery.ca
@backalley.gallery
Mary Flynn is an artist creating in many mediums including acrylic, encaustic and collage/mixed media. Born and raised in Hamilton with a "slight" detour (25 years) in Toronto as a corporate salesperson. Mary returned home to Hamilton in 2012. Along the way, she discovered the healing properties of hiking, nature and then art. While mostly self taught, Mary has taken many courses and workshops at Etobicoke School of the Arts, Dundas Valley School of the Arts, Georgian Bay Centre for the Arts and The Cotton Factory. Her work has been sold at McMasters Art in the Workplace, to private collectors and now through her own gallery; "The Back Alley Gallery"
Naomi Frolich
frolichnr309@gmail.ca
@naomifrolich
Naomi is a clay creator who specializes in realist animal sculptures as well as whimsical pieces and garden art. A student at the DVSA and a member of the Potters Guild, she has been working with clay for over 20 years. I try to capture individual moments with animals, giving a little snapshot of typical animal behaviour, movement and attitude. This brings me joy and I hope my whimsical pieces bring joy to the people that see them


Gloria Geller
ggeller@teksavvy.com
Gloria Geller, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Social Work, University of Regina, was born in Toronto. She retired to Hamilton after more than 40 years as an educator where she writes,, weaves and tends her garden. She has published in the areas of women and justice, young women's aspirations as well as women caregivers and health care reform. Operation Noah's Ark is her first work of fiction to be published

Carolyn Lehmann
clehmann@teksavvy.com
I love what Mary Pratt said at age 83. “As you get older, you don’t see a long extension of your life, but you can see an extension of your art”.
Art is as important to me as life, and the reason I pursue it. The challenge is for my art to be an expression of who I am and how I see the world.
After Gloria and I moved to Hamilton in 2004, I began using a workhorse material of cement and other ingredients to create one of a kind sculptures; some of which are also on exhibit in this show. With a desire to improve the faces of my sculpture I turned to drawing and painting, where I now spend most of my time.
Art offers us great solace as we face the worries of the world.


Sophie Losinski
sophia.losinski@gmail.com
@smlartist
Sophia was born in the United Kingdom, lived a short while in Jamaica, and has spent her formative years growing up in Toronto, Canada. Her rich cultural background and exposure to wondrous worlds of diversity has enriched her life greatly. As a creative, Sophia weaves the vast collection of her memories and experiences into her work; whether drawing or writing. She currently resides in Hamilton, Ontario. Born of a rich artistic legacy, she is the granddaughter of world-renowned Jamaican sculptor, Alvin T. Marriott. Signs of Sophia's natural talent started early and became evident while she was in high school. She had the great fortune of drawing for her grandfather, and it wasn’t until she heard his admonition, “Keep drawing, you have great talent,” that she realized she possessed something special. She hasn’t looked back since. Sophia is an autodidact artist.
Siobhan Lynch
siobhan @siobhanlynchglass.com
@siobhanlynchglass
I am a Toronto born stained glass artist working and living in Hamilton, Ontario for the past 23 years. My formal education was unrelated to creating glass, but I feel that any education whether related, formal, casual, or experiential, brings you closer to where you need to be creatively.
My education in glass began through attending workshops and classes with different friends and met a couple of amazing mentors who then coached me along the way. Funnily enough, I had to be persuaded into taking that first stained glass course. Although, I had previously experimented with other mediums - painting, textiles, clay – it wasn’t until I worked in stained glass that I found “my own” medium. As I began to create my own designs, I became completely enamoured with glass. Glass has so many options and variations just in colour and texture alone that can be hypnotizing. I can get lost looking through my glass collection.
When first making panels, my focus was on traditional Irish knot-work patterns. Most of my original designs still integrate knot-work and/or flowing interweaving lines that to me, represent continuity, balance, and interaction. The sense of movement is what I most like to capture in my glass.
During the lockdowns, I have enjoyed the focus that I could bring to new pieces, commissions and projects that were larger and more intricate. So as well as commission work, restoration and teaching, I would like expand on this journey and carve out more time to travel and explore a variety of stained glass techniques and styles that inspire me to create in new and imaginative ways.



Colleen Reid
cmreid@ocadu.ca
@colleen_m_reid@coll
​My artwork explores ideas of nature, beauty and the man-made world as well as their intertwined relationships. I like to play with collage, gel transfer prints and my photographic images of the world around me. I love the meditative act of stippling lines with nib and ink and exploring the extensive happy accidents of the ragged edges of gel transfers. I look for the beautiful patterns in nature and explore their juxtaposition with man-made objects as well as ourselves.


Marion Sneyd
mssnyed@gmail.com
​My artwork explores ideas of nature, beauty and the man-made world as well as their intertwined relationships. I like to play with collage, gel transfer prints and my photographic images of the world around me. I love the meditative act of stippling lines with nib and ink and exploring the extensive happy accidents of the ragged edges of gel transfers. I look for the beautiful patterns in nature and explore their juxtaposition with man-made objects as well as ourselves.