Featured Artists of Art of Passion

Art Bacon
Art Bacon is known by many as an artist, educator and scientist. However, art has always been his passion. He was born in West Palm Beach, FL, but has lived in several places in and out of the state. Bacon has had solo exhibits in Atlanta, New York, Berkeley, Birmingham, Washington (D.C.) and many other places. The long list of owners of paintings and drawings by Bacon includes Bill Cosby and U.S. Congressman John Lewis. He was also featured in Southern Living and Lakeside magazines. People are his subjects of choice, especially older and neglected people whose life experiences are reflected in their faces. In his early days, he worked almost exclusively with ink washes and lines – very little color. He now uses acrylics and a number of other media and techniques – often combining several. For more information on Art Bacon, visit www. artbaconartist.com.

Mustafa
Mustafa was born on October 9, 1958 in Bessemer, Alabama. Mustafa’s first medium was pencil and paper. He is now mainly an iron artist. At present, he creates mostly furniture and accessories. Over time, his life experience has brought him to the most wonderful evolved place of introspection. The practice of art has proved to insure abundant peace-filled living. Some of the fundamental gifts that art have afforded him are focus, presence, patience and attention to detail. His art is done inside of and therefore filled with these principles.

Jennifer Adair
Jennifer’s art career began in 1986 when she took her first stained glass class. She was enthralled by what glass does with color and light and loved working with her hands and her mind. Her design philosophy is to first achieve organic shapes and textures with the glass. She works at controlling herself and responding to the glass letting the glass arrange itself. She adds as much color as she can get and strives for integrity with the kiln forming process. Whether sculptural or two dimensional, she wants the art glass to look like it should be made in a kiln. She runs her own studio in Dickson, TN.

Arthur Umlauf
Arthur Umlauf spent 22 years as a carpenter/cabinet maker. At present, he considers himself a self-taught artist whose formal art education has been brief. He is a sculptor who takes the integrity of the materials and transforms them into an emotive figure. He believes that artists must maintain the strength of the natural state and imbue the new object with an aesthetic value that is both tactile and visual. One of the hallmarks of his work is that he is solely responsible for every step in preparation of his sculptures. For more information on Arthur Umlauf, visit www.umlaufgallery.com.  

Nada Boner
Nada Boner’s work is as diversified as her life. She teaches clay classes for beginners in the art of hand building and sculptor, but her passion and focus is in organic ceramic sculpture, influenced by nature and reflecting the world around her. Aspiring as an artist to capture a mere glimpse of God’s beauty in the form of human, floral and animal depictions is her goal. Clay is Nada’s chosen medium and Raku her favorite glaze technique. The extremes of nature’s elements fire, air and water create the effect on her world. Each piece is unique and impossible to duplicate. The process is a constant surprise and challenge to the artist. Reduction glazing on clay sculpture is a delight to behold. These pieces of art show a crude vitality with little or no glaze on the completed sculpture. A number of successful and award winning shows have made her name stand out among local artists. Nada’s work has also been in local galleries in the Birmingham area.

Debra Eubanks Riffe
A self-taught needlepoint artist, Debra’s colorful canvases have been collected, regionally, since 2004. Several years ago, she converted her original needlepoint illustrations into linoleum block relief prints. The subject matter of her work reflects the activities and cultural traditions of African Americans in rural southern settings. Debra is a recipient of a 2008-2009 Grants to Individual Artists (GIA) Award supported by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham. She has received the honor of many awards and participates annually, in several local and regional juried art festivals. Debra will be featured in the August 2009 issue of Southern Living Magazine: Alabama People and Places. For more information on Debra Eubanks Riffe, visit www.driffedesign.com.