Congratulations to the Winners and Finalists of Paradise City’s
Spring 2021 Collectors Recognition Awards!
Voters recognized artists and makers for their achievements in each media category – Art and Sculpture; Furniture and Home Furnishings; Fashion and Jewelry. Thousands of art lovers and fine craft connoisseurs participated in this online competition, making their choices from among 200 of Paradise City Arts Festival’s artists and makers. The votes were remarkably close, and Paradise City thanks everyone for their participation.
The First Prize Winners are: Patty Bolz, Daryl Storrs, and Soli Pierce.
The Finalists are: Rona Fisher, William McCarthy, and Frann Addison.
In addition, we would like to give honorable mention to a handful of artists who came quite close: sculptor Roger DiTarando, woodworker Scott Deming, fiber artist Cindy Walsh, pastel artist Marlene Rye, furniture maker Mark Del Guidice, and jeweler Keith Lewis.
READ ALL ABOUT THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS!
DARYL V. STORRS, First Prize, Art and Sculpture
Daryl Storrs is a renowned landscape artist who works in both pastels and printmaking. The lush mountains, meadows and lakes of Vermont are the source of her art, especially locations close to her home. A blueberry farm, a hilltop dairy farm and The Mount Philo Inn overlooking the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain are all places where she can relax, draw, and reflect. When the weather is good, the pastels are loosely sketched outside on location, but she refers to the actual landscape less often as the picture gains a life of its own.
Daryl’s woodcuts and linocuts are often printed from five or six separate blocks and use up to ten colors, each cut from shina plywood or linoleum. Each color is individually transferred onto a block, then cut away with carving tools. After cutting, the interlocking color blocks are printed in successive layers onto Japanese paper using highly pigmented, environmentally safe inks. Every print is a bit different from the next as each one is pulled by hand. In 2018, Daryl was invited to carve and print a giant woodblock at the Museum of Fine Arts “BIG INK” event in Boston, MA. Yankee Weather Proverbs is a book of 125 proverbs and 35 color illustrations by Daryl, published by Yankee Magazine. She holds an MFA from UMass Amherst and was awarded a residency in printmaking at the MacDowell Colony.
portrait by John Harris
WILLIAM MCCARTHY, Finalist, Art and Sculpture
William McCarthy’s luminous oil paintings evoke subtle variations in light and atmosphere. “My work speaks about spiritual places, places that contain a quiet inner light, radiating an ethereal whisper, the places we see every day.” Unlike most landscape painters, he works from memory and imagination. He brushes on many layers of translucent oil washes and glazes. A cadmium red base imparts a subtle glow to each piece, as if the trees were lit by the last vestiges of a setting red sun. William shares his technical and observational skills in his popular travel workshops, bringing artists to Italy several times a year.
William attended Columbus College of Art and Design and pursued graduate studies in printmaking at Wesleyan University. His work has received numerous solo exhibitions and awards. Permanent collections include Yale Art Gallery, Cirque du Soleil, the New York Public Library, Mayo Clinic, and Wesleyan University. He was the subject of a featured article in American Artist Magazine and has received grants and residencies from the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.
SOLI PIERCE, First Prize, Furniture and Home Furnishings
As a young mother and artist, Soli Pierce was searching for something that could incorporate her love of art and the home—and create a way for her to stay at home with her son. Twenty-five years later, her exuberant, eco-friendly salad bowls have traveled to homes around the world. Their hand-painted designs with images of fruits and flowers inspire us to linger at the table. Soli writes, “The magic is not just in the creation of each bowl, but about what happens in and around it. We are making memories, one bowl at a time. Savor, slow down, eat well, love life.”
Soli makes her bowls of maple wood, finishing them with non-toxic materials and four layers of food-safe sealer. The result is a depth of color and design that makes getting to the bottom of any bowl of salad, pasta or fruit a real pleasure. And for the minimalists out there, her undecorated honed bowls of dark maple wood go from simple to bold with snappy colored rims.
FRANN ADDISON, Finalist, Furniture and Home Furnishings
Frann Addison began creating Judaica while pursuing an MFA degree in metalsmithing at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1977. Inspired by the potential in found objects and combining her finds with her metalworking skills, she transforms antique china saltshakers into Sabbath candlesticks, old wooden game pieces into a dreidel, or an etched glass dish into a Rosh Hashana honey pot. Her work acknowledges the past, as it offers new and unusual forms which satisfy the demands of religious requirements.
Frann’s work has been featured in 10 books — 5oo Judaica, Craftspeople in their Own Words, and Art Without Waste: 500 Upcycled and Earth Friendly Designs, to name a few. She is a NICHE Award winner and was the 2018 “Handmade Business Magazine” finalist for their Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Frann’s ritual objects can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. She says, “It gives me great pleasure to know that my Judaica creations will be lovingly used by individuals or families as they perform ancient rituals linking past and present. Tradition, spirit, family — this is what is important to me.”
PATTY BOLZ, First Prize, Fashion and Jewelry
Goldsmith Patty Bolz has developed quite the dedicated following among Paradise City patrons, as she has exhibited with us since our first show in Northampton in 1995! She creates her jewelry, which has been described as a stylistic blend of ancient and modern, in Camden, Maine. As a jeweler and designer, she brings historical references and technical prowess into her work, creating sculptural pieces with a fullness of form and a richness of detail.
Patty works primarily in 22K and 18K gold using traditional goldsmithing techniques, such as fusing, soldering, stippling, repoussé, and engraving. An extraordinary gemstone may inspire the design. Texture often serves to connect the various elements in a piece together. Her goal is to achieve form and balance within each pendant, ring, or pair of earrings. She states, “While I see jewelry as wearable adornment, I also believe that a successful piece must be capable of standing alone as a work unto itself. As in sculpture, all of the elements in a form, both metal and non-metal (including gemstones and non-precious materials such as steel or slate) must work together within a single vision. My designs combine a classical sense of timelessness with a contemporary appeal.”
RONA FISHER, Finalist, Fashion and Jewelry
Painter-turned-jeweler Rona Fisher’s studio/showroom resides within the Kensington Arts District of Philadelphia, and she genuinely enjoys the buzz of an urban setting. Yet her jewelry design is influenced most by nature. Motifs reminiscent of riverbeds, flowing water, and pebbles all make their way into her designs. Inspired by the energy of water and classical symmetry, Rona’s work contains both movement and balance.
Rona received a BFA in painting from University of the Arts (formerly Philadelphia College of Art). She experimented with metalwork, but it was while living in Munich that she was inspired by German goldsmiths and their use of simple, dramatic forms and high standards of craftsmanship. You can see that influence in her distinctive jewelry crafted of sterling silver, gold, palladium, and bezel-set gemstones. She says, “I focus on inspiration and intuition first. I believe that technique is vastly important, but I also believe that technique without inspiration is empty. My intuition guides my technique.”
