Bios

Beverly Kietzke has been a jewelry designer and silversmith for more than 35 years.  She began a career in art while living in the San Fracisco area in the 1970's.  Like many artists from the era she sold her work at the local street venues available to artists. 

In the early 1980's she moved to Albuquerque, NM where she was greatly influenced by many local well-known artists and the beautiful colors of the southwest desert landscapes. 

Beverly has exhibited her work in numerous fine art galleries, shows and festivals through out the Southwest where she has won many awards for her work.

In the early 2000's she returned to her roots in the Midwest, and settled in Western Kentucky where she continues to create her beautiful jewelry.

Beverly is a member of the Murray Art Guild and the Mayfield Art Guild where she regularly enters her work in juried competitions and shows.

Littleton's ispiration to begin a career in ceramics developed when her life was at a crossroad in life after a divorce and children leaving home.  Handmade functional pottery had always been her love so she enrolled in a ceramics class at Murray State. At 55, when others dream of retirement and respite, she started to shape a new path.

While traveling in New Mexico, she encountered the Pueblo potters with their hand-built style of making pottery.  Upon returning home, she was able to study with Wayne Fugerson, well-known Kentucky potter, and learned to build with coils in the style of the Pueblo potters. Her studies of hand built pottery have taken her all over the world including Taos, New Mexico; New Harmony, Indiana; Sierra Leone, West Africa; Quenca, Ecuador; Big Creek Pottery in California; and Arrowmont in Tennessee. However, Western Kentucky remains Littleton's home base.

Throughout the 20 years that she has developed her skills and shown her work as a potter, her subject matter and style has evolved, though it retains hints of the Pueblo style that inspired her.. Most recently, she has focused on developing figurative, sculptural forms. This past year, one of her busts was accepted in The Best of Kentucky Clay at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.

BiLan was born in Hunan Province, China. While living in China, she worked for many years as an artist and art director, graphic designer, and fashion designer, experienced in Chinese painting, Chinese calligraphy, gouache and oil painting. She is now a Painting Instructor and Chair of the Painting Program at the Paducah School of Art, and she maintains a studio in her home in Lower Town. She previously taught at Indiana University’s Herron School of Art and Design.

BiLan received her MFA in painting from Kendall College of Art and Design and also an MA in painting from the University of Indianapolis in United State. She also received a BFA, and certificate of graduate study in Photography research in China. Her two most recent major projects have included a series of paintings entitled “Coming into Tibet” and a series of paintings depicting, through her own experiences as a young person, the period of the Cultural Revolution in China. BiLan’s work has been shown widely, including in the United States, in China, and in Paris.  She is currently working on a book including her stories and images of her paintings.

Artist's Website

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Nancy Prator Hollinghurst made the journey to New York for the first time in 1998 to obtain her BFA from the School of Visual Arts. Upon graduating, she relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina where she worked as a portrait artist and muralist. While in Charlotte, her career made great leaps with press and exhibitions, but most importantly in 2005, with a private patronage for four months travel and study in Europe. Having never been to Europe, this voyage affected Hollinghurst greatly, and it was while still overseas that she decided it was time to return to New York and pursue an MFA. In 2006 she began intense studies in figurative work at the New York Academy of Art. Upon graduation from the Academy, Prator found herself in Europe once more as a recipient of the Prince of Wales painting fellowship in 2008.

Nancy Prator Hollinghurst currently work as a studio painter for artist Jeff Koons, and also independently out of her Brooklyn studio.

Artist's Website

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Jennifer Fairbanks was raised in Western Kentucky.  In 1994 she received her Bachelor’s degree from Murray State University with an emphasis on painting and ceramics.  During this time she also began to pursue training in classical painting techniques with portrait artist Joy Thomas.  This interest led her to New York, where she was able to relocate in 1998 through a grant from the Kentucky Arts Council.  Jennifer studied figurative and portrait painting with Ron Sherr and Mary Beth McKenzie at the Art Students Leaugue and the National Academy of Design.  In 2003 she received her Master’s degree from New York University in Art Therapy.  She has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows in New York, Kentucky and Spain. 

After eleven years in New York City, Jennifer decided to return to her hometown of Murray to open a gallery and private studio concentrating on contemporary figurative art with an emphasis on traditional techniques.

Artist website