artist

“The lake is a provider for paintings using propagation, waves, the stones it brings to shore, its movement, repetition, and variety,” he says. “The natural world is important to my soul and its creative juices.”    

Before he painted, Charles mostly sculpted, and the garden portion of the campus is home to about 150 pieces ranging from smaller works to massive creations 7 or 8 feet tall. Some are wood, steel, or bronze; others are pieces of glacial erratic (granite) and limestone, many quarried from the island.   

What the Athens studio is best known for — its signature pieces — are the Passion Flowers, which festoon the walls and hang from the ceiling. 

The flowers, made from recycled metal newspaper printing plates, have put the town’s creative spirit on the map. Stop in numerous Athens businesses and you’re likely to find them. They also decorate several downtown outdoor spots.

“My dream is to be a roadside attraction,” says Patty Mitchell, Passion Works founder and executive director. 

Now she and Corwin teach groups in central Ohio and beyond to create those free-form mosaics that are then installed as permanent works of art. 

Terri Riddle of Loveland, a painter who works mostly in oils and acrylics, got interested in quilling after her husband gave her a Cricut machine, which can cut paper in custom, specialized ways. Riddle had a project in mind, but realized she needed to learn quilling to finish the parts that the Cricut couldn’t handle — so she taught herself.     

She finds quilling both satisfying and relaxing. “It’s a very beginner-friendly craft,” she says. “You can do it while watching TV, and the designs can be simple or more complex.”

“Drawing was one thing, but adding a medium and learning to master that is a whole other world,” she says. “Art school definitely helped with that aspect, and today I call myself a painter.”

In 2017, she rekindled her passion through a plein air painting group with the Hancock Park District. She immersed herself in painting landscapes, experimenting with acrylics, palette knives, and vibrant watercolor on Yupo paper.

Worthington was born in Canton, the son of artists. His father, Jack, made many of the bronze busts in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His mother, Marion, worked with enamel and silver. 

Before turning to art, Worthington built washing machines, served in Vietnam, and worked for a finance company — all good experiences that proved useful when he opened his own galleries.

The first was his teacher in both fifth and sixth grades, Miss Paul. Stretar says he didn’t learn much more in college art classes than what Miss Paul had already taught him. “Teachers don’t always challenge kids to learn more, but she did,” he says. “She wasn’t afraid to teach us [advanced art techniques of] perspective, line, color values. A lot of us in her classes went on to art careers.”