Current Board Members:

President: Jerry Yustick

Vice President:  Denise Konrad

Treasurer:  Fran Yustick

Secretary:  Tim Haviland

These are the names of the members who wished to be listed on our website.  If you click on the names of the members who are highlighted in blue, you will be directed to their own websites.  

Michelle Rodgers- Member                                                                                                                             

Ceramics and Jewelry

Michelle attended the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis on ceramics.  She also attended Baldwin Wallace College for her teaching license in K-12 Art.  She is currently subbing with the Berea City School District.

Most of Michelle's work consists of ceramic leaves which she began doing for her senior thesis show at CCAD.  She transformed the gallery into a forest in the middle of February.

Bill Felinski - Member

Acrylic Landscape Painting

Bill has never had any formal art training, and is mildly color-blind to boot.  However he has always enjoyed doing landscape paintings.  For 30 years he was a high school Spanish teacher.  When he retired he had more time to devote to his hobby.  He joined the Berea Fine Arts Club as a way to exhibit and sell his artwork.

Because most of his paintings are based on photos that he took on his trips, he refer to his paintings as "Travelscapes".

Mary Jane Hesche - Member

Watercolors

Mary Jane experimented briefly with photography and horticulture as a means of expressing her creativity, but finally chose the medium of watercolor.  She traveled to Cape May, Newport, and Sedona for lessons.  She now does book studies and takes regular classes with an O.W.S., W.P.A., and T.W.S. member.  Mary Jane says, "I am enthralled with the flow of transparent watercolor, and to be able to express with my hand and spirit an impression of beauty, a joy forever."

Cathy Zavody- Member

Jewelry

Lisa Nemeth - 

Membership Chairperson and show promotion

Ginger Wankewycz - Member, prints and origami creations 

Ginger has been folding origami creations since the age of eight.  At Baldwin Wallace College, from where she graduated with a degree in fine arts, she developed a keen interest in the art of printmaking.  She has taught printmaking and origami at various schools and libraries throughout the country.  She has been involved in numerous juried art exhibits, and her work has been featured in many prominent Cleveland galleries and several art publications.

Jerry Yustick - Member, watercolors mixed with acrylics

Jerry's background included architectural drawing, mechanical drawing, visual merchandising, and graphic arts.  After retirement he became more involved with painting.  Using a mixture of watercolors and acrylics he developed a realistic style that pleased him.  His favorite subjects are landscapes, seascapes and wildlife.  Jerry also does custom picture framing.

Fran Yustick- Member

Dave Yettke - Member, oil painting

Roy Jenkins - Member, photography

Denise Konrad - Member, pottery

Susana Ballantine - Member, watercolors, hand painted tiles and scrimshaw

Susana is a new arrival to the Cleveland area.  She was born in the Portuguese islands of the Azores.  She has been drawing and painting since she was a child.  She studied acrylics and oils with the Portuguese artist Francisco Maduro Dias, and watercolors with Timothy Clark in both the Azores and Maine.  Currently she works with watercolors, Portuguese style painted ceramic tiles, and the old Azorean whalers' art of scrimshaw.

John & Jennifer Pitts - Members, glass bead jewelry

Every step in the life of a bead is performed by a Velvet Box Artist with superior beauty and craftsmanship in mind.  We start with the finest glass rods available, including artisan small batch glass made in the USA and world-renowned Italian Murano, much of it made in small batches and hand pulled resulting in slight color and texture variations. 

Each bead is created in the flame by a Velvet Box Artist, kiln annealed using state of the art equipment and processes, and hand finished by a Velvet Box Metal smith.  There are at least five quality control inspection points before one of our little works of art is sent out into the world to delight our Velvet Box Collectors.

Jana Margeson - Member, jewelry

Matthew Richards - Member, Pottery & Abstracts

Matthew started studying Japanese 20 years ago, he was intrigued by the complexity of Japanese "Kanji" or characters. As an artist and a student of Japanese Matthew naturally became interested in "Shodo" (Japanese calligraphy) and studied under the tutelage of a variety of "sensei". These creations are not necessarily based on "letter/character". They reflect what is in his mind, his spiritand and his heart, when he sets the brush to the paper.”

"Matthew's interest in pottery came from years of watching his grandfather throw pots.  When he moved to Japan he had the good fortune of studying the craft with a Japanese master potter.  Pottery has become another form of fulfilling he need to express himself artistically."

Gary & Pat Lemmeyer - Members

Gary loves nature and is inspired by everything that gives it life.  He is an artist, sculptor, gardener and Industrial Design.  Gary graduated from Cleveland Institute of Art.  His successful professional career of over 30 years was spent developing consumer products in the categories of children's toys and juvenile products for Fisher-Price Toys, and as a design director of R&D at Graco/Century Juvenile Products.

Gary is now retired and devoting his time to creating garden accents for garden lovers.  His personal inspiration of the nature world is represented in the accent objects that he conceives and designs for residential gardens, water features and indoor spots.  

Jim Hovanec - Member, blacksmith

Jim, a native of Berea, has always had a fascination with blacksmithing. He collected tools, watched master blacksmiths, taught himself reading books and by trial and error, attended classes, and joined a group of blacksmiths.  He creates mainly artistic and decorative pieces, the majority of which are made with found metal.  He calls his forge The Grindstone Forge because Berea was once known as "the Grindstone Capital of the World."