art teachers

Public Radio

Artists Talk with LVA: January 1, 2026

Tori Christensen joins us in the studio to discuss her upcoming exhibit at The Little Loomhouse on Artists Talk with LVA on WXOX 97.1 FM / Artxfm.com this Thursday at 10:00 AM.

Tori Christensen’s The Colors of Darkness, A Touchable Art Show will be at The Lou Tate Gallery at The Little Loomhouse from January 10 through February 21.

Tori Christensen is a tactile fiber artist who creates accessible art geared toward those who are Blind. Her art can be seen AND felt.  This is in honor of her brother, who lost his sight at a young age. She is an art teacher, seamstress, and all-around maker! 

This show explores the intersection of touch, language, and textiles. In this series, I weave original poems by Feather Chelle, a blind author and advocate, directly into tapestries using beads as braille dots.

These pieces invite viewers to engage with art beyond sight alone. By integrating braille into fiber, I aim to honor the way blind readers navigate the world. The poems themselves speak of color, connection, and the richness found in the sensory experience.

This collaboration celebrates accessibility as a creative force, not an afterthought. It asks the viewer to slow down, read, and touch. Each tapestry becomes a meeting place between artist and poet, word and material, and sighted and non-sighted audiences.

In weaving these poems into cloth, I hope to create a shared space where color can be felt, language can be honored, and art can be inclusive.




Public Radio

Artebella On The Radio: April 8 - Open Studio Weekend Artists

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Fiber artist Pat Sturzel joined us this week to talk about Open Studio Weekend https://www.openstudioweekend.org/. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10 am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.

Pat Sturtzel has been a fiber artist for over 35 years and has been teaching fabric dyeing and surface design techniques for 15 years. Pat has taught fabric dyeing at the national level, most recently at AQS QuiltWeek Paducah in April 2020.

Pat was presented the 2015 Teacher of the Year award by the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals, this weekend she will be participating in the LVA/Hite Institute Open Studio Weekend.

Public Radio

Artebella On The Radio: February 4

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Painter Aaron Lubrick & clay artist Suzanne Sidebottom join us this week to talk about their first exhibit at Pyro Gallery as members. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday at 10:00 am to hear conversations with artists.

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Aaron Lubrick found a love for painting and drawing in high school and pursued his art studies at the Columbus College of Art and Design. From there he attended graduate school at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Shortly after graduating he began teaching at Drexel University and showing art professionally. Currently, Lubrick lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and teaches painting and drawing at Spalding University as an associate professor while pursuing his studio practices. Some of Lubrick’s recent works draw upon his experiences of growing up an identical twin. Another motif of Lubrick’s work connects the viewer to a timeless almost prehistoric landscape while seeking the human’s contemporary relationship to our almost entirely forgotten natural world.

Suzanne Sidebottom is a trompe l’oeil clay artist. The artworks are not real, yet they still evoke a memory of time and place for the viewer. Everyday objects are realistically crafted from clay and printed with underglazes using antique and artist-designed printing blocks and artist-made decals. These objects are rich with texture and make the viewer want to reach out and touch them as if they are real. She has exhibited across the U.S. over the past seven years in over 60 juried and invitational exhibitions; had two solo exhibitions; and was published in “500 Prints on Clay: An inspiring Collection of Image Transfer Work.” Her sculptures are in numerous public and private collections.

Public Radio

Artebella On The Radio: October 15

Brian Hinds plays the title character and Jennifer Pennington Lady M in the new Kentucky Shakespeare drive-in production of Macbeth that runs through October 31. They are also both teachers so they came in to talk about the first live theatre with an audience since March and how teaching online or in a hybrid model is working right now. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on ARTXFM.com this and every Thursday at 10 am to hear Keith Waits speak with artists on LVA's Artebella on the Radio.

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Originally from Maine, Brian Hinds spent ten years with The Children's Theatre of Maine where he served as an actor, instructor, and director. He was also a member of Mad Horse Theater Company. Since moving to Louisville Brian has worked as an outreach artist with Kentucky Shakespeare before joining the faculty at YPAS (Youth Performing Arts School). He is also a member of the Louisville Improvisors and has worked as an actor and director with several local companies, including Kentucky Shakespeare, Savage Rose Classical Theatre Company and The Liminal Playhouse.

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Jennifer Pennington is currently Manager of Student and Alumni Engagement at Commonwealth Theatre Center. She holds a BFA in Acting from University of Michigan and an MFA in Theatre from the University of Tennessee’s International Actor Training Academy. In Scotland she studied Voice/Speech with Kristin Linklater and Louis Colaianni. Jen, having transplanted from Los Angeles, has worked with companies all over the country including: South Coast Rep., P.S.Arts, EastLA Classic Theatre, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Michigan Theatre Festival, Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Tennessee’s Clarence Brown Theatre, Arizona Shakespeare Festival and many local companies. Currently, Jen is an actor with The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, serves on the board for PAL Coalition (Federal Drug Free Communities Support Grant) and is a member of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association.)

Painting

Vignette: Sharon Weis

“Color Slice” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“Color Slice” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

would that we could wake up to what we were
when we were ocean and before that

to when sky was earth, and animal was energy, and rock was
liquid and stars were space and space was not

at all----- nothing

-       From “Singularity” by Marie Howe

Are landscape painters drawn to nature as a subject because of a spiritual affinity, or do they discover that affinity through the act of painting nature? Such chicken and the egg queries may indeed miss the point, but we come across that relationship between nature and spirituality all the time. By quoting this Marie Howe poem, written in tribute to Stephen Hawking, Sharon Weis lets us know in no uncertain terms that her practice may be nothing less than a search for understanding about the very beginning of life. Hawking was a scientist, but Howe is a poet and Weis a painter, and both of these artists find beauty in the level of discovery in the work of the world-famous physicist. 

Weis describes her act of creation, the action of painting in language that reinforce that connection between rationality and the spiritual:

“Moved by lavish paint and painters, I love the lush, liquid stokes attainable with oil paint. I use birch plywood as it is the ideal surface to accept the viscosity of paint I work to acquire. For color and compositional rhythms, I look to the natural world for inspiration.”

“In my latest series, the sea is lush, I play with composition and perspective shifts using panoramic views, emotive color correlations, and natural rhythms set up by sea and sky to create aesthetic divisions of space. However, it is the physical texture of the paint itself, the charge of paint I push into the clouds or the clean, thick, fluid stroke added to the sea that excite me most when creating these works.”

“Sugar Fix” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“Sugar Fix” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“These paintings heighten our connection to the sea, intensifying our vast range of emotion in the form of water, land and sky.”

Weis teaches Art at Walden School. In the past two years she has exhibited at Ann Tower Gallery and New Editions Gallery in Lexington KY as well as Art Prize in Grand Rapids, MI.

Some of the work we see here is currently on public view as part of the Spring Invitational at Kleinhelter Gallery, 701 E 8th Street, New Albany. The exhibit runs May 10 through July 6.   

Weis has exhibited in the Louisville area for years, and her work was shown in two International Shows; Septemberfest International at Period Gallery in Omaha and Across the Atlantic in Dublin Ireland. 

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She is included in these corporate collections:

Barnstable Brown Center for Diabetes ~ Lexington KY
Bluegrass Eye Center~ Crestwood KY
Brown Forman Corporation~ Louisville KY
Caritas Medical Center~Louisville KY
Cobalt Bravura Lofts~ Louisville KY
Commonwealth Bank and Trust~ Louisville KY
Masonic Homes~ Louisville KY
Pediatrics South~ Lexington KY
Saint Joseph Hospital~ Lexington KY
Summit One Partners~Louisville KY
Square One Offices~ Louisville KY
The Center for Women and Families ~Louisville KY
Time Warner~ Louisville KY
Turfland Medical Clinic~ Lexington KY
U of K Woodland Glen Dormitory~ Lexington KY
Ventas, Inc~ Louisville KY
Waterfront Park Place Club Room and Lobby~ Louisville KY
Woodward Hobson and Fulton~ Louisville KY

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA, University of Louisville
Website: sharonweis.com
Gallery Representation: Kleinhelter Gallery (New Albany), New Editions Gallery (Lexington)

“Tide Pull” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“Tide Pull” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“State of Contentment” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“State of Contentment” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“Begin After” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200

“Begin After” by Sharon Weis, Oil paint on birch plywood, 13x42in, 2019, $1200


Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

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