Two Great Art Events Oct. 16-18: Part 6

Submitted by Carol A. Clark
on October 2, 2015
- 2:05 am

Fenceline. Photo by Jim O’Donnell

ART News:

Oct. 16-18 is Art Weekend in Los Alamos! Both the 2015 Los Alamos Studio Tour and the Gateway to the Holidays Arts and Crafts Fair will take place that weekend. The Los Alamos Daily Post is featuring artists from both events leading up to the Tour and Fair.

The 2015 Studio Tour is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 18. There will be an artists’ reception 5-6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16. Samples of all artists’ work will be on display throughout the weekend in the Pajarito Room at historic Fuller Lodge.

The Fuller Lodge “Gateway to the Holidays” Arts & Crafts Fair runs 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 at Crossroads Bible Church. A list of particating artists and their work can be viewed at https:////fullerlodgeartcenter.com/Fair_Fall2015.

Jacket created by Holly Woelber. Courtesy photo

Meet Holly Woelber

Holly Woelber, one of the artists participating in Gateway to the Holidays Arts & Crafts Fair, designs and constructs women’s fleece jackets and cowhide bags in her studio in Belen, where the New Mexico countryside offers inspiration for her work. For her it’s not just a job, it is a process of creating beauty from raw fiber materials.

Each one of Woelber’s designs is handmade, many are one-of-a-kind. “I’m inspired by New Mexico’s waters, earth, sunrises and sunset with each piece capturing the colors of those elements. I want to illustrate the magnificence of our southwestern influence through my wearable art, by using beautiful distinctive fleece fabrics infused with our state’s natural colors,” Woelber said.

Woelber also makes premium cowhide bags. By using both hair-on-hide and tanned leather, she captures the flavor of the American west in functional and stylish designs. Against the blacks, grays and browns of the hair-on cowhide are the accent colors of the tanned leathers, again depicting the beauty of New Mexico’s earth, water, sunrises and sunsets.

Woelber’s m-g designs is named in honor of her mother Mary and her aunt Georgette. Woelber’s mother introduced her to sewing more than 50 years ago. Mary and Georgette continue to inspire Woelber today; thus the name Mary and Georgette Design, shortened to m-g designs.

Bag by Holly Woelber. Courtesy photo

Elk. Photo by Jim O’Donnell

Meet Jim O’Donnell

Photographer Jim O’Donnell is participating in this year’s Los Alamos Studio Art Tour.

O’Donnell was born in Oakland, Calif. in the 1950s to a middle income, working-class, Irish-Italian family. While still a teenager, he converted his parent’s well-stocked bar into a darkroom where he embarked on a photographic journey that has remained his passion through life.

O’Donnell began his focus on photography and writing in high school and further at Santa Rosa College in California. Realizing he was not going to earn enough money in the field of art, O’Donnell had to pursue “real jobs” (according to his mother) over the years. Three careers later he has come full circle back to photography.

O’Donnell moved to northern New Mexico in 1981 in search of wide-open spaces, clear rivers, and blue skies. He found this and more in the girl he met in Amsterdam and followed to the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. He fell in love with New Mexico’s fabulous landscapes and intense light, and again took to his camera in earnest. He has made his home here, is raising three children, and spends his quality time capturing the remarkable beauty and light in the high deserts and mountains while fly-fisihng in many of the state’s trout streams.

After five years as a staff photojournalist for the Los Alamos Monitor, O’Donnell’s photographs have evolved into images, which usually include subject(s), both animate and inanimate that convey a story, though or meaning,

O’Donnell was fortunate to receive state and national awards for his photography every year employed as a photojournalist and is the recipient of several first place awards including the NM Press Association’s first place award for “Best feature Photo” in the state of New Mexico for daily newspapers. He has been selected for numerous juried shows at The Art Center at Fuller Lodge and received two first place ribbons at the Los Alamos County Fair in the Professional Photographer category. His work has been publishen in USA Today, High Desert News, the New Mexican, and the Albuquerque Journal.

When not pursuing art, O’Donnell shoots weddings, portraits, and special occasions, as well as sports and dance.