June: Sunday Afternoon Artist Talks

Join us on Zoom for Sunday Afternoon Artist Talks. Each artist will give a presentation about their work and answer questions.

The talks are free but please consider making a donation to our Spring Scholarship Appeal and join us in supporting the frontline workers, displaced students, friends shut in at home, and others by offering the gift of art.

Coming up on Sunday, June 7th we will have visual artist, German citizen, and explorer, Josi Etter. Josi combines painting and photography to create visual stories. She studied photography and art in Germany and in the United States where she earned her degrees (BFA) in fine art. She has lived and practiced art in Germany, Africa, the Philippines, and in the United States. Josi runs her own business specializing in painted fish trophies while working as an illustrator for several outdoor/ fishing magazines and she is currently an artist in residence at Flower City Arts Center. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Germany and the US including, the International Museum of Photography, New York, NY, the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY and she has worked on art projects for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.  

On Sunday, June14th we will welcome Karlene Kantner. Karlene is a ceramic artist and educator from Montana. Her work celebrates the learning process inherent in the relationship of the self and the natural world. She holds a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Montana where she was also the recipient of the Community Arts and Achievement Award presented by the Mortar Board Honor Society. While the Director of Youth Art Programming at the Zootown Arts and Community Center, Karlene also held an internship at The Clay Studio of Missoula. There, Karlene cultivated a friendship with the wood-firing community and was dedicated to extensive community outreach. Her work has shown in both solo and collaborative exhibitions and is in the permanent collection of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture. She is currently an Artist in Residence and community instructor at the Flower City Art Center in Rochester, New York. You can check out her website at karlenejeankantner.com and on Instagram @karlenejeankantner.

On Sunday, June 21st we will have Michael Latragna. Michael is a young artist who creates work with various hands-on mediums and processes such as focus stacking, lumen printing, and combining image and object to create three dimensional works. Though he uses different processes and mediums, all his work is influenced by a mental condition known as Aphantasia which is the inability to visualize mental imagery. He focuses on the way imagery is remembered and memorized as well as how objects and memory can interact. Michael was born and raised in New York State and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in photography from The College at Brockport, State University of New York. He has recently been accepted into the Master of Fine Art program at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY and will begin his studies in the fall of 2020. Michael’s work has been exhibited many times at the Tower Gallery, Tower of Fine Arts, Brockport, NY and at Gallery Salon and Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY. His work won him the 2019 Tower Gallery Purchase Award and the Brutus Award for Photographic Excellence for Body of Work In Show, Tower Gallery, Tower of Fine Arts, Brockport, NY. Please visit Michael's website here.

On Sunday, June 28 we are pleased to welcome Stephen Malloy Desormeaux (Steve MD). Steve's interest in photography began 12 years ago while taking pictures at Rochester's parks and beaches. He is self-taught, with generous help from a few mentors and friends. Before that, he had a long career at Kodak in a variety of roles including design engineer, inventor, commercialization manager, category manager, and new business director. Steve enjoys photographing natural and urban landscapes. He shoots long-term projects and often makes photo books and zines of completed series. Projects usually revolve around how we arrange the space around our homes, neighborhoods, and communities – what he calls the decorated environment. His photos are meant to convey wonder, affection, and sometimes a bit of humor. Steve has exhibited at several galleries in Rochester including a solo exhibition at the Spectrum Gallery and group shows at Image City Photo Gallery, High Falls Gallery, Williams Gallery, Canandaigua Gallery and Frame Shop, and Link Gallery. He has won several Portfolio Showcase competitions and picks-of-the-show at Image City Photo Gallery. He has thoroughly enjoyed being a volunteer photographer in Flower City Art Center’s Studio 678 Photo Club since 2011, mentoring city school students on field trips and in darkroom printing sessions.