JULY FIRST FRIDAY
July 2026 Group Show: "Artistic Heritage"
featuring
The Bead Society from Southeastern Virginia, Becky Butler, Don Dransfield, Jan Finn-Duffy, Toy Fowler, William Hoffman, Mary Ellen Huennekens, John Mattie, Harriet McGee, Lauren Sowder, David Stifel, Kate Swanson, Christopher Wagner.
Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with an exhibition honoring the traditional crafts that have shaped our nation’s history. This exhibit showcases the timeless skills that have been passed down through generations, featuring works inspired by and created using historic techniques such as wood carving, weaving, metalsmithing, basketry, pottery, glassblowing, printmaking, and painting. These enduring art forms tell the story of the hands that built communities, preserved culture, and transformed everyday materials into objects of beauty and purpose. Join us this month in celebrating the artistry and creative heritage that continues to inspire makers today.
The opening of this show will take place at Arts on Main on Friday, July 3rd from 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM. Light bites will be served. Beer and wine will be available for purchase (cash or credit). Live music will be performed by Chris Smith. This event is free and open to the public. The show will be on display at Arts on Main until Saturday, July 25th. The gallery is open Wednesday - Saturday from 12-5PM.
Thank You to Arts on Main’s July Exhibit Sponsor, Riverwood Designs!
Live music will be provided by Chris Smith during the opening reception.
Many thanks to our First Friday Music Sponsor, Shari Jordan!
Chris Smith is a singer-songwriter and one-man-band. His writing is personal, occasionally humorous, and always authentic. His performances include folksy-songwriter ballads, driving finger style guitar, as well as a “live looping” full-band sound for an eclectic and entertaining musical experience. In addition to performing solo, he is a member local bluegrass band “The Tidewinders,” and can also be found playing steel guitar as a sideman all over the tidewater region.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Bead Society from Southeastern Virginia
The Bead Society of Southeastern Virginia is a local creative community dedicated to sharing the appreciation, knowledge, and enjoyment of beads and creative beading techniques . It serves as a network for regional jewelry makers and mixed-media artists to connect, learn, and showcase their craft.
Becky Butler
Becky Butler is a self-taught coiled basketry artisan. She has enjoyed various forms of needlework since childhood, but her creative energies have been dedicated to coiled basketry since 2009. She began teaching in 2017. During the pandemic she decided to turn her classes into kits. In 2020 she started her ETSY shop: BeckysBasketsShop. Through her kits, she has had the privilege of teaching coiling to people in every state in the US as well as Canada, Great Britain, the EU and Australia. This year, she began creating YouTube videos to teach coiling skills. Her videos can be found by searching @BeckyBasketmaker on YouTube. One of the things she loves about coiling is the feeling of working with natural materials. Each piece has its own voice. She may start with a plan, but the materials have their own ideas, and the final product feels like a collaboration. She finds joy in turning other people’s yard waste into something beautiful!
Don Dransfield
Don Dransfield is a multi-media artist from Gloucester who specialized in jewelry making, glass art, painting, and sculpture. Don taught jewelry making workshops for over 30 years at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, VA. Don graduated from the State University of New York with his BFA in Metal Smithing.
Jan Finn-Duffy
“I have been making art instinctively and passionately since I was a child. Every artistic endeavor has been a learning experience, each building upon the next to bring me to the point where I am today. I have learned how to paint from university classes, from extensive independent study, from workshops, but mostly from trial and error … and trial and triumph. It is one of the biggest joys in my life. In the words of Albert Einstein, which I have borrowed to apply to my view of art, each painting is a way of “opening up yet another fragment of the frontier of beauty.” I paint in my studio and en plein air. For the past 15 years, I have had the honor of teaching watercolor skills to beginners and those wishing to develop their artistic skills. A few of my paintings have been accepted to the National Watercolor Society show, the Northlight publication “Splash” which features watercolor artists from around the world, and the international watercolor magazine “The Art of Watercolor”. God has given me the gift of being able to paint, and it is a privilege to share what I have been given with others who also love art.
Toy Fowler
Toy is a Virginia artist that began his studies with local tidewater artist Jack Clifton at age 10. He pursued his degree at Virginia Commonwealth University art program where he received a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts. He later studied at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginian where he attended numerous classes and workshops with Robert Liberace, a selected Living Master at the Art Renewal Center and board member of the Portrait Society of America. He also attended workshops with Patricia McMahon Rice and Tina Garrett, a Living Master at the Art Renewal Center. His work has been selected multiple times as finalist in the Portrait Society annual Members Only competition and as a semi-finalist in the Art Renewal Center’s annual salon.
William Hoffman
Will Hoffman in a sculptor based in Williamsburg, Virginia. Having received his training in fine art and sculpture from Buffalo State University, he works in cast, fabricated, and found metals in bronze, aluminum, steel, and iron. Using the variation in these materials he creates sculptures that aim to provide an experience with balance.
Will’s sculptures have been shown internationally in Tallinn, Estonia and Liepāja, Latvia with work on permanent exhibition at Pedvāle Open-Air Museum and Sculpture Park in Sabile, Latvia. Nationally, he has exhibited at the Puffin Foundation in Teaneck, New Jersey and has permanent installations at Buffalo State University in Buffalo, New York, Griffis Sculpture Park in East Otto, New York and in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Mary Ellen Huennekens
Mary Ellen Huennekens lives in Saluda with her husband. She has three children and five glorious grandchildren. She is retired from Virginia Commonwealth University where she was an assistant professor in the School of Education. She enjoys community volunteer opportunities, reading, and making quilts. She began sewing at age 12 and made her first quilt many years later. Upon retirement she started Seahorse Quilts, a small cottage business creating and selling fiber art. Mary Ellen shows her work in galleries in Richmond, Kilmarnock, Urbanna, and surrounding counties. Her quilted wall hangings have won awards at Arts in the Middle Fine Arts Festival (Urbanna) and the RAL Gallery in Kilmarnock.
John Mattie
“I am a ceramic artist working in high-fire stoneware, exploring both functional pottery and wall-based mixed media. The objects we live with each day should carry both integrity and quiet beauty. A well-balanced mug, a thoughtfully proportioned bowl, or a sturdy planter is more than an object—it becomes a companion in daily ritual.”
Harriet McGee
Harriet McGee says “Inspiration is everywhere and it ends up as an expression of what I experience.” She currently lives in the Tidewater area and travels extensively. Her works reflect her interest in different cultures, their art, and folklore. She has worked in multiple mediums: watercolors, papier-mache, acrylics, and polymer clay. Currently, she creates designs using a repoussé technique using lightweight metal. The design is made by pushing the metal from the back, giving it depth. Color or texture is then added to the front. One of her works hangs in the permanent collection of The Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art.
Lauren Sowder
Lauren Sowder is a multi-media artist based in Newport News, Virginia. She works primarily in watercolor, printmaking, and film photography. Her work delves into themes of personal growth and resilience while celebrating the connection between humanity and the natural world, fostering connections with others, the past, and ourselves.
Lauren is largely inspired by the local ecology in the southeastern United States, predominantly the Tidewater region of Virginia and North Carolina. She finds inspiration by immersing herself in nature, incorporating photography into her practice by taking photos to use as references for her linocut printmaking and paintings. Lauren’s most recent art practice is also partially shaped by the limited studio space in her home, which has driven her to create smaller pieces that experiment more with technique and color.
David Stifel
David Stifel is a glass artist who owns and operates York River Glassworks in Gloucester, Virginia. He is professionally trained and continues to expand his artistic pratice and class portfolio. Arts on Main is delighted to have David as one of its long standing Gallery Artists and teachers.
Kate Swanson
Kathryn “Kate” Swanson’s love of art began at an early age with art classes starting when she was about five years old. Since then, she has explored a wide variety of media including painting, drawing, pastel, pottery, glass, and fiber. Today, she primarily works in fiber, embracing a medium and technique that she has loved since elementary school. She sees her weaving as a meditative practice that is both calming and exhilarating, and she loves creating works of art that are aesthetically pleasing and often functional. Taking the cloth off the loom and realizing that she’s transformed yarn into handwoven art is one of her favorite parts of being an artist. When she is not weaving, Kate is the Executive Director of Gloucester Arts on Main
Christopher Wagner
Christopher B. Wagner is a sculptor originally from Kentucky but has lived and worked all over the country. In the summer of 2022 he relocated from the West Coast to Williamsburg, VA to work at William & Mary University. He received a B.A. in art history and sculpture from Georgetown College after which he studied Sculpture at Edinboro University in which he graduated in 2010 with an M.F.A. He has been making and exhibiting his art ever since his work can currently be seen at Linda Matney Gallery in Williamsburg, VA, Guardino Gallery in Portland, OR, Imogen Gallery in Astoria, OR, and the Compound Gallery in Oakland, CA.
Along with his own active studio he has worked as a Shop Manager for Eichinger Sculpture studio in Portland, OR; along with serving as an instructor and technician at numerous institutions including Gonzaga University, Mission College, De Anza University and most recently William & Mary University. His awards have included a Jurors Choice at Cherry Creek Art Festival, exhibitor at the Smithsonian Craft Show, the Glean Artist Grant, and the Emerging Artist Award from Portland Open Studios.
His work focuses on recycled or reconstituted wood as the medium. Utilizing traditional carving skills in the creation of contemporary sculpture. The reclaimed lumber he predominantly sculpts in provides a sense of history that influences what he creates.