Kay Petal - Needle Felted Dolls - The Purple Pomegranate

The Purple Pomegranate, a fine craft specialty store, is featuring work by Alaska artist Kay Petal during the month of May. Kay is a sculptural needle felt artist originally from Wasilla, Alaska. She was working out of her home studio, overlooking a scenic Alaskan lake, but her Felt Alive Studio is now on the road. She and her husband have left Alaska in their RV on an indefinite teaching tour.

With just a single barbed felting needle borrowed from industry; lofty, lustrous wool tangles into solid felt creations bound only by one's imagination. Wool is an amazing sculpture medium with endless possibilities. Kay's focus is on dolls. Her dolls are 100% needle felted wool batting made without using any patterns or a single sewing stitch; just thousand of pokes with her felting needle. Kay uses various colors of dyed wool almost like paint as she adds the details. They are quite flexible and have a very unusual lifelike quality to them that Kay contributes to the living qualities of the wool.

The first Whitefish Gallery Nights is Thursday, May 6th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Kay will be teaching needle felting classes at Camas Creek Yarns in Kalispell, May 14-16. Spaces are still available. For more information regarding classes, please contact Camas Creek Yarn.

Poppies/Lavonne Burgard

 

Station 8 presents Lavonne Burgard

Lavonne Burgard
Acrylic on Canvas

The arrival of Spring is celebrated through the work of Lavonne Burgard. Her use of color, and the freedom reflected in her brush strokes, gives the viewer the feeling of standing in front of an open window, surrounded by fresh air and bright skies.

Growing up on a farm in Iowa, Lavonne has called Montana home since 1975. Over the past 31 years, she has taught high school Art in Iowa, Arizona, South Dakota, Australia, and most recently in Kalispell.

Lavonne has left her teaching career behind, but, in so doing, has gained a new perspective which is reflected in her work. Retirement has opened her eyes to the expansiveness of life, and the limitless possibilities it holds. No longer bogged down by the details associated with her former responsibilities, her outlook is larger, and her sense of freedom expanded. A bright future is there for the taking, and Lavonne's large acrylics on canvas surely capture that attitude.

As both an artist and educator, Lavonne's work has been duly recognized. The Montana Arts Education Association selected Lavonne as recipient of the Montana Arts Educator of the Year in 2006. A one artist showing of her work, which included sixteen acrylic paintings of trees, took place at the Sage Spa. In addition, her work has been shown in the Hockaday Museum of the Arts for past and present membership, most recently as a participant in their minatures auction showing. Currently, her work is on display at the Montana Frameworks in downtown Kalispell and the Three Forks Grille in Columbia Falls.

Station 8 is very pleased to host Lavonne Burgard as their first artist, of their first season as participants in Whitefish Gallery Nights First Thursdays. Please join us for an evening of fun, laughter, and lightheartedness, May 6th from 6-9 PM.