Intermingling's Featured Artists' Exhibit

Individual personalities with their subtle nuances are Eva Crawford’s focus as she paints or draws beautiful vessels of the human soul. Her art began at age three and hurdled its way through a BFA from UNC-Chapel Hill, taking a side trip designing furniture, then embracing an unexpected season teaching high school art where her greatest joy was coaching students to be confident and honest through their artmaking. However, the students and her own 5 children, which include a son from Uganda, taught Eva to reevaluate her own beliefs and values which transformed her art to be about humans and their stories. 

Her portraits are grounded in relationships with those we love, with those we feel compassion, and with those whom we do not yet understand. No matter what her hands make using brushes, charcoal, scissors, or glue, at the heart of it all is story. Listen with your eyes.   Eva can be found at her studio and gallery space at Dilworth Artisan Station in SouthEnd and The VAPA Center in Uptown Charlotte.         

“A craftsman knows in advance what the finished result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.”   

My name is Ray Isales. About four years ago someone gave me an old wood lathe and that started my journey as a self-taught woodturner. Along the way my passion for creating beauty grew and, in turn, sparked a deep appreciation for the beauty all around us. It gives me great joy and deep satisfaction to take a chunk of wood and let it speak to me, telling me what it desires to become. I’m not an “artist”. I’m just a good listener.   

Working with wood requires great patience, a lot of time and some skill. There is a lot of research and prep work that goes into turning before the actual turning begins. Finding the wood, knowing the solidity of the type of wood, drying it properly, cutting it into blanks. All of these things are as important to the finished product as the turning. 

Esther Moorehead was born in Toronto, Canada. She has lived in Canada, Northern Ireland, and the USA. She’s an avid traveler, soaking up inspiration with every opportunity and each new place has significant impact on her creative journey. She is curious and independent, thriving on exploration and observation. 

From a child, Esther loved creating. Her whole life has been immersed in creative outlets, from drawing and painting, to stage design and small theatre production, piano performance and accompaniment, to event planning and catering. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Art Education in South Carolina in 2005, she returned to Toronto to teach high school art and geography. 

During that time she was married and had two daughters. She also began taking painting commissions and soon realized her true passion lay in building a career as an independent studio artist. A month after the birth of her first child, Esther faced a cancer diagnosis that reshaped her perspective of life and the purpose for her work. She realized that every moment of life is valuable. Even in the darkest places, hope always accompanies life—hope to love and learn; to work together; to build and create; to forgive and change. 

Now cancer-free, Esther’s desire is to create work that reflects gratitude for God-given life and love, and instils a grounding sense of hope. In 2019, when her family relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, s she used the opportunity to develop new relationships with galleries and arts organizations, as well as build a network of inspiring and influential artists and creatives. She has exhibited her work in galleries and public spaces in Canada and the USA and won awards in a variety of competitions in the USA. Her paintings also reside in private collections worldwide.

Sharon is a multimedia artist specializing in ceramics. Her creations are unique, whimsical and/or functional and inspired by her creativity and imagination. Sharon has a strong interest in incorporating found objects, texture and color into one-of-a-kind hand-built or wheel thrown pieces. 

Sharon's work includes glazed surfaces that are shiny or matte, natural clay and/or colored slip. She also use oxides, stains, and acrylics for additional color or interesting surfaces and texture. 

Sharon's goal is draw the viewer into her world of color, whimsy, and experimentation.  From living in Wisconsin, to California, to Kentucky, to Ohio and North Carolina, the trail has led her on a quest for new techniques, and new ideas to keep her art world interesting. 

Jake fell in love with glass during a family vacation to Bermuda where he spent hours observing and asking questions at an open air, ocean front, hot shop, at the Royal Navy Dock Yard. He was fascinated with the thick, free flowing gather of hot glass, the blowing, molding and the adding of color and could see the technical challenges, but also the range of possibilities in using glass as an art medium. He was 14. 

During his four years of high school, Jake began learning to blow glass and create glass art pieces. "I am a young, aspiring, American artist; among the next generation of craftsmen working with their hands, carrying forward glass making traditions that are thousands of years old." 

Jake uses contemporary styles, and traditional Italian, Swedish techniques that reflect a personal glass art style of his own expression and design. He is a 2010 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, Bachelor's of Fine Arts, School of American Crafts - Glass Program, and completed a 2 year Artist in Residence at Flame Run in Louisville. His training includes working in studios at Penland (NC), Urban Glass (NY), Glassworks (KY), Flame Run (KY), Corning (NY), Goggle Works (PA), and in New Jersey, at Belle Meade Hot Glass and Vandermark Merritt Studio. He studied with three of the Venetian Glass Masters, Lino Tagliapietra, Davide Salvadore, and Vittorio Constantini when they visited the US. In addition he studied and worked with many other outstanding glass artists including Kenny Pieper, Luke Jacomb, Ben Edols, Doug Merritt, James Vella and, of course, my RIT professors, Michael Rogers and Robin Cass. 

People ask Jake what inspires him: 

"I am a curious person which often leads to my artistic inspiration. I love rainy days, Christmas, art museums, golf, walking in the woods, waterfalls, the ocean, music, fishing and movies that take me to places I've never been. The formula for my work is personal. I am focused; each piece receives my enthusiasm, perseverance for excellence, and dedication to uncompromising quality. My vision for each piece encompasses an understanding of the properties and movement of glass and application of color. I have learned that people want to understand what they see in a piece of art. The themes and patterns of my work are varied. Some pieces have no message; they are simple, colorful, playful, or functional. Others are serious, and complex. I want to engage people to look at the work over and over, and find something new and beautiful each time. In the end, I trust each piece promotes an understanding and appreciation of glass art. Whenever I part with a piece of my glass, I feel a piece of my life goes with it. Each piece is part of my journey."