LPCA Fine Arts Gallery Opens to Creative Current in Jay
Nine Jay Artists Collaborate with New Works for Summer Exhibition at LPCA

The Lake Placid Center for the Arts Fine Arts Gallery announced "Creative Current in Jay." This exhibition of recent works by nine Jay, NY Artists, will be on display from June 9th - 30th, with an opening reception on June 9th from 5 PM to 7 PM. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 1 PM to 5 PM and admission is free.
Art patrons will enjoy an exhibition of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces in a variety of media. Works will include fine art furniture, ceramic sculpture and functional pieces, oil and watercolor paintings and pencil drawings. Exhibited artists include: Cheri Cross, Bill Dillworth, Wayne Ignatuk, Lee Kazanas, Cindy Lott, Martha Murphy, O. Grace Potthast, Sue Burdick Young and Terry Young.
Wayne Ignatuk received a B.S. degree from Clemson University in 1979. After 18 years in the corporate world he decided to turn a longtime hobby of woodworking into his new career. In his youth, he would often help his father rebuild and refinish antiques. This experience gave him the love of woodworking as well as a working knowledge of furniture design. The materials for his first few hand-hewn projects were literally gathered from a stack of firewood. After years of making mostly twig rocking chairs, his style has evolved into what some categorize as "contemporary rustic." Various species of milled lumber are blended with wavy-edged slabs, burls and the occasional twig to create colorful tables of all sizes. The mix of native hardwoods distinguishes his style, as does hand chiseled mortise and tenon joinery, butterfly keys and hand rubbed oil finishes. Wayne's engineering background enables him to build strength and durability into each piece.
Martha Murphy recalls that her mother and father met at the Lake Placid Club in the fifties during their college summers. They married and eventually moved back to Lake Placid with their young family in 1961. Her older brother and she had a few years in the tall pines and blueberry bushes before they all moved to the Albany area in 1965. The call to come back was always strong and eventually Martha found work at Camp Treetops during her college summers. Four years later, she was teaching art to fourth through eighth graders at North Country School. In 1988 she married and found a home in Jay. She and her husband have lived there with their two boys since 1995. Martha says, "My surroundings have always influenced my art. Jay and all its generous artists have also affected me. With the artistic community so strong, and all views inspiring, I have felt my creativity flourish in Jay."
Terrance D. Young worked as a teenager, graduated high school, and served three years in the army. He attended a two-year college and then studied life drawing and oil portraiture at the Art Students League of New York City. He sold oil paintings and experimented with other art forms before forming a business selling electronic equipment. Always wanting to make a living in the art field he gave up electronics and moved to the Adirondacks to pursue his art. Finding it difficult to sell original artworks he had some pencil drawings reproduced by a printing house and was able to support himself from the sale of reproductions of his art work. After taking a short course on etching, Terrance set up a printing studio and pursued the etching process.
Sue Burdick Young is a native of the Adirondacks. During her high school years she worked summers at Arto Monaco's "Land of Make Believe." Arto was a great influence which can be seen in the whimsical nature of some of Sue's work. Sue received a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a studio art/pottery major from SUNY Potsdam. She graduated in 1981 and within a year left a full time job with benefits and started out on her own as "Suramics". Sue and Terrance were married in 1983 and combined their businesses soon after. With a $500 loan from the bank they built a showroom in front of Sue's pottery studio to display their art and craftwork.
Sue and Terrance did craft shows and had their work in as many as 12 different craft shops around the Adirondacks. After the birth of their first child, they decided to take a new direction in their business. They wanted their income to be more reliable on themselves, so they made a plan to cut back on displaying at craft shows and in other galleries. Five years later, in 1995, successful in their plan, Sue and Terrance opened their new 800-sq. ft. gallery space. They designed the space which then took three years to build with the help of professional construction companies. This new gallery better showcases their own work and they are now able to carry the fine art and craft work of 40 other Adirondack people. Terrance and Sue presently are designing their new business plan, which they hope will eventually give them more time to create art and sculpture, their true passions.
Lee Kazanas was first introduced to pottery as an undergraduate in college. He graduated from Suny Plattsburgh in 1974 after studying with William Klock. He followed his college training with a series of workshops and study opportunities with a number of prominent American potters including Paul Soldner, Warren Mackenzie, Fred Olsen, and Toshiko Takaezu. Lee has been a professional studio potter since 1975. He makes, exhibits and sells his work throughout the Eastern United States. In 1984, he was invited to Greece to teach a workshop on non-traditional pottery making. Lee claims that this opportunity, and honor, was more of a learning experience than a teaching experience.
Working in Stoneware and Porcelain Clay, Lee's work embraces the functional pottery tradition and his career has paralleled the resurgence in quality American handcrafts. During his career, Lee's work has been featured in museum shops and galleries, as well as in department stores such as Macy's and Nordstroms. His pottery is currently represented in 15 galleries and craft stores throughout the United States.
Cheri Cross is a graduate of SUNY Plattsburgh, and has been an artist and professional studio potter for over 20 years. She has traveled widely and participated in workshops and arts related events from Maine to Florida. Cheri has exhibited her painted porcelains in several galleries and sold them in over 50 different art shows and crafts festivals. Widely known for her hand painted porcelains, Cheri's work is in the functional pottery tradition of the twentieth century that has been growing since its resurgence under William Morris. Floral designs, Adirondack themes and pine cone motifs have been the focus of her most recent work. From mugs for everyday use to exquisite lamps and vases that complement the most sophisticated contemporary interiors, her work is found in the homes of artists and interior designers nationally.
She is currently represented in 20 galleries and fine craft stores throughout the United States. In the past 20 years, she has shown and sold her work and won awards at hundreds of Craft Fairs throughout the United States. Cheri is a community activist, mother of 2, and advocate of art in the schools. These days she travels less and has moved her focus to her own gallery. The largest selection of her work is on exhibit year round at the Jay Craft Center along with the work of 80 of the finest regional artists and craftspeople.
William Dilworth received his B.F.A. from Wayne State University in 1976. He has worked for the Dia Center for the Arts since 1980 and has been the care-taker of the New York Earth Room since 1989. His work has been exhibited at the New York Artists Space, Times Square Gallery, A C project room, Paula Allen Gallery, Anne Plumb Gallery, Tompkins Square Gallery, Vacuumn Gallery, ABC No Rio, Montclair State College, and Wayne State University among others. Mr. Dilworth has been the subject of numerous interviews and has been mentioned in The New York Times, Time Out New York. Interview, New York Press, The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. He also maintains the oldest tower clock in New York City and is a founding member and past Project Leader of Lower East Side People Care. William Dilworth has summered in the Adirondacks since 1996.
Lucinda Lott uses beeswax, dyes, shards of vintage china, and mirrored glass to make up her unusual palette. She uses the centuries-old hot wax methods of batik and encaustic to paint richly colored Adirondack landscapes and figure studies. With the French folk art technique of pique assiette ("bits and pieces" mosaics), she also creates wall art and objects that combine the look of ancient tile work with contemporary collage. Lucinda's innovative style has resulted in several awards. Her work has been included in exhibitions and collections in this country and Europe.
O. Grace Potthast was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent summers in the Catskills. She began her formal arts education at the age of 10, and continued that education with a major in illustration at the High School of Art and Design in NYC. She studied at John's Hopkins Medical Illustration School and at the Arts Students League in Manhattan. Ms. Potthast received her Bachelor of Arts from the State University in Albany with a major in painting. She became the Artist in Residence at Fahnstock State Park, and has painted a number of wildlife murals, up to 20' X 40', for the park's education center. Grace Potthast has lived in the North Country since 1992, where she has studied for her masters in teaching at Potsdam College, and has taught a number of watercolor workshops in association with the college.
Ms. Potthast says her reason for painting is, "to capture the essence and light of a moment I am experiencing in order to go back to the experience at a later time. While I am creating a piece, time (as we measure it) stops for me. Light, wind, and color keep changing. The Painting and I enter a state of consciousness together. For some people this may seem like meditation, for me it is a detailed experience connecting the vision before my eyes with the movement of my hand." Ms. Potthast has only recently begun to exhibit her work outside her own private summer gallery on her farm in Jay. She has had two solo exhibitions at the Flat Iron Gallery in Peekskill, and has shown in a number of local group exhibitions including the LPCA's Adirondack Juried Art Exhibitions where she has won an honorable mention and a third place award.