Meet the Maker: Angel Jaramillo

Meet Angel!

Angel Jaramillo was born an artist. Painting as early as two years old, it was only a matter of time before her imagination took flight to create a masterpiece. Angel is self taught and specializes in drawing, painting, and mixed media. Her work has been displayed in several shows across three states and has taken several awards. Her body of work includes well over a hundred pieces at this point in time.

Starting her artistic journey in Tennessee and later continuing on in Florida, she is heavily influenced by the mountains and ocean she once called home.

Angel took a brief hiatus from her work during 2018-2020 after a difficult divorce that led to homelessness, but has since returned to pursuing her art career full time with new fervor. Angel participates in several exhibitions each month and teaches weekly acrylic classes at The Community Art Gallery. A 28 year old Oklahoma resident, Angel is a full time Christian artist, art teacher, and homeschooling mother of three.

Learn more about Angel in our Q+A below…

What are you working on right now?

Right now, I'm working on a series of ethereal scenes depicting love and loss and what they mean to me personally.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Outside of work, I enjoy spending as much time with my family as possible. I also love being outside and in nature, and swimming.

What is your biggest challenge?

As a single mom, my biggest challenge is also my biggest blessing: three beautiful little humans that demand attention right in the middle of creative inspiration. You will often find me with a brush in my hand and a child on my lap! But ultimately, I love our beautiful chaos.

Who/What are your biggest influences?

The Holy Spirit is my biggest influence. I let the Lord lead me in everything I do, including my art. Music is another really big influence for me. Most of my pieces are named after song titles that inspire them.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job is that I get to express myself and learn and grow each and every day that I create. Every time I pick up a paintbrush, I know that I'll be someone new, someone better by the time I put it back down again.

Get in touch with Angel

Instagram: @theinkwellgallery

Facebook: The Ink Well Gallery

Website: https://www.ovac-ok.org/art/Angel-Jaramillo

Email: adaliaangel23@gmail.com

If you are a local artist/crafter/maker/indie business owner and would like to be featured on our blog, please fill out this form or contact Ashley at ashley@westandmainhomes.com with questions...we can't wait to learn all about you!

Meet the Maker: Abby Stiglets

Meet Abby!

I was born in Fort Worth, Texas and moved to Edmond, Oklahoma to start high school. I graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma as an Art Major with a Minor is Psychology.

Currently, my focus has been greenery. I typically hate the outdoors. Though I understand nature is beautiful, I have never appreciated being in the middle of it. I love the view from a window. So surprisingly, I have been attracted to vines, leaves, and the patterns of nature in my most recent work. The different variations of green is what drew me in. Green is a much bolder color than I realized. I love it so much, I basically bury my subjects in it.

My psychology background has greatly affected my art. I express many of my feelings for my work through symbolism, like bird cages to represent restraint, anatomical hearts to show vulnerability, and lace for being fragile and delicate. My subconscious thoughts always come through as well. Whenever I create a piece I step back and learn more about myself. I love using strong colors because they help to achieve the initial spark to stop the viewer in their tracks. I like to think of it as a quiet scream.

My paintings are created using water-mixable oil paints called Max by Grumbacher. They have the advantages of oil paint without the use of pungent solvents and can be mixed with acrylic paint and/or oil paint. I have recently started painting on panels and wood, I enjoy it more than canvas due to its texture since it is not porous like canvas, but still has a tooth to it.

My art is full of influences. I am inspired by the surrealist work of Salvador Dali, the women featured in Gustav Klimt’s pieces, Frida Kahlo’s reflective self-portraits and pop surrealist artists like Mark Ryden, Lori Earley, Greg "Craola" Simkins, and Naoto Hattori. I also love work from old masters of the early Renaissance. My favorite is the, "Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli. I study and explore the fashion of women of all decades and analyze the couture pieces of today. My favorite designers are Alexander McQueen, Helmet Lang and Valentino. I also appreciate all iconographical religious art like Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism.

P.S. A big question many people always ask me is why do I sign my work, "Aby3". It is a tribute to my childhood. I am a true believer that things happen in 3s; as it has for me. So, back in the 90s I started signing my name that way and decided never to change it due to it's sentimental value.

What are you known for?

I am known for having art and prints at DNA Galleries in the Plaza District, showing a festivals and local shops in the OKC Metro.

What are you working on right now?

I am currently working on an oil painting paying tribute to Salvador Dali. A surrealist icon

What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

From my highschool teacher: "Why are you painting this, when I see your personal sketchbook is filled with this? Don't hide, you can create art of what you like, not what you think others would like".

Get in touch with Abby

Instagram: @aby3_art

Facebook: @abbystiglets3

Website: https://www.aby3.com

Email: abbystiglets@hotmail.com

If you are a local artist/crafter/maker/indie business owner and would like to be featured on our blog, please fill out this form or contact Ashley at ashley@westandmainhomes.com with questions...we can't wait to learn all about you!

Meet the Maker: Hannah Stoll

Meet Hannah!

I am an artist based at SAW Studio for Arts and Works in Carbondale, CO. I am predominantly an oil painter, but also delve into block printing and collage. My work is fascinated with the human figure, human spaces, and our complex connection to the natural world.

What are you working on right now?

I have been working on a series of large-scale figurative oil paintings, incorporating pattern in a style I must have absorbed from my Uncle's Matisse copies hanging in my childhood home. These are painted from photos of my friends that captured moments that spoke to me for a multitude of reasons. I am taking a break from this series at the moment to paint 10" x 10" urban/natural nighttime scenes. These are driven by power combinations and my developing sense of abstracted brushwork.

Do you like to win or hate to lose?

It's lucky I don't hate losing, because as an emerging artist, I am throwing my work in front of anyone who will look at it. I do like to win every now and then—it keeps me going.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My part time job is working as a graphic design/studio assistant contract worker for another artist, Isa Catto. My favorite part of the job is developing patterns derived from her artwork for spoonflower.com and for various products, and getting exposure to original patterns from thousands of artists worldwide. I take inspiration from these patterns and use them in my own artwork.

Where do you find inspiration?

I went to school for organismal biology and ecology at Colorado College because I was curious about how the living things around me were built. Now that I have my degree, I am not using it to pursue a career in biology but rather more subconsciously to inform my artwork. I am obsessed with the miracle of evolution and the tiny molecular machinery that we are made of. You literally cannot make up the story of how all life was derived from one globby cell in the ocean billions of years ago. Knowing this, I am inspired by how insignificant I am, and also how improbable the human brain I think with is. I am inspired by small but poignant human moments that arose from an impossibly long lineage of our species' change and intellectual growth. I am inspired by the beauty we see in each other, which can be traced to chemical reactions in our brains but in spite of that is no less meaningful.

Get in touch with Hannah

Instagram: @_hannahstoll

Website: https://hannahsuttonstoll.com

Email: hsuttonstoll@gmail.com

If you are a local artist/crafter/maker/indie business owner and would like to be featured on our blog, please fill out this form or contact Ashley at ashley@westandmainhomes.com with questions...we can't wait to learn all about you!

Meet the Maker: SaToro Tafura

Meet SaToro!

SaToro Tafura’s stone sculpture has received international acclaim and he has been recognized as one of the most promising stone sculptors of his generation. Tafura harnesses his unique artistic sensibility to speak to and listen to stone, resulting in distinctly powerful stone sculptures that transcend time and geographical space. Tafura’s stone sculpture affirms the values and wisdom of Shona culture and reflects themes that resonate universally. Tafura is the first Zimbabwean to cast his one-of-a-kind stone sculpture in bronze on a large scale. Tafura is based in Longmont, Colorado and enjoys returning to Zimbabwe each year, where he sculpts alongside his mother, renown stone sculptor, Agnes Nyanhongo. Tafura recently completed a 11.5 ton stone sculpture, a private commission, in South Denver. He’s also in the process of producing his first documentary film, delving into the complex origins of stone sculpture in Zimbabwe.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

The best piece of advice I’ve received is not from a particular person, but is a sentiment I’ve come across over and over that really resonates with me. “Know thyself” reminds me that despite all the distractions in life, there’s value in prioritizing things that help us know ourselves deeply. I’m not the same person I was even 5 or 10 years ago and as an artist, if I’m disconnected from my deep purpose in life or what I really value, my art is going to reflect that disconnect. When I think about what it means to know myself, I think about staying grounded in my culture, despite living in the U.S. That can be a huge challenge but I’m committed to learning more about my culture and finding relevance in my life today.

What are you working on right now?

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the origins of stone sculpture in Zimbabwe, and have been working on a documentary film that explores the connections to previous creative forms and also outside influences from colonization. I grew up with a widely accepted narrative that stone sculpture is a “traditional” art form, and then started piecing together information that caused me to question that and interrogate it further. It’s pretty uncomfortable to let go of a narrative that has been so closely tied to your professional work and a legacy within your family, but it’s incredibly important to me that I’m actively part of Zimbabweans and other Africans telling our history. My grandfather was known as one of the “first generation” stone sculptors in Zimbabwe. A few years ago, I started to think more about this label and the relationship to this so-called “traditional art form.” My grandfather started sculpting stone in the 50s, so how could he possible be one of the first stone sculptors if this was indeed part of our cultural roots? I had an opportunity to interview him before he passed away, and I was able to gather information about how he was introduced to stone sculpting, the connection to European art curators, and the relationship to his father’s craft as a blacksmith.

What do you like to do outside of work?

When the weather in Colorado is warm enough, I am in my garden as much as possible. This is one of the most basic ways I can connect with what is familiar to me, when living in such a different environment. Growing up in a village in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe, we relied on subsistence farming. As a young boy, I herded cattle, created sculptures/toys out of clay from the land, tended the fields and vegetable gardens, and fetched firewood for my grandmothers. Some families had specific jobs for boys and others for girls, but my grandfather believed we should learn how to do everything, so I also cooked on the fire in our traditional kitchen as a young boy. Our connection to the land goes beyond meeting our basic needs, and is also related to our spiritual beliefs. These things created a strong connection to our natural world, and I try to maintain that connection through my gardening. Last summer I grew gourds and showed my two young kids which type we used for cups, bowls, and instruments.

What was the best day at work you've had in the past three months?

Last fall I completed a monumental stone sculpture, which was a commission, and the largest sculpture I’ve ever created. A couple months ago, I returned to visit the sculpture in south Denver and was surprised at how much it communicated to me, and how connected I was to the message I was able to tell through the stone. I got this commission when my daughter was born and she’s turning 5 years old this month! Most commissions don’t take nearly this long, but the stone was 16 tons when it was quarried, so you can imagine that it required a tremendous amount of time and effort just to acquire the raw stone and start sculpting. I returned twice to Zimbabwe during the quarrying process, and started the initial “sketching” process on the stone at my mother’s studio in Harare. After shipping it to Denver, I continued the work for a couple years until it was completed. It was an enriching process, and I enjoyed connecting with many people who regularly passed by as I was sculpting the piece on-site. I created some interactive elements with people sharing their reactions to the piece.

If you had a choice between two superpowers, being invisible or flying, which would you choose?

Being far away from home in Zimbabwe, I think it’s obvious what I’d choose. Airfare is expensive!

Get in touch with SaToro

Instagram: @satoro_tafura

Website: https://satorotafura.com

Email: satoro@satorotafura.com

If you are a local artist/crafter/maker/indie business owner and would like to be featured on our blog, please fill out this form or contact Ashley at ashley@westandmainhomes.com with questions...we can't wait to learn all about you!

Meet the Maker: Tammy Brummell

Meet Tammy

Tammy Brummell is an established Oklahoma based artist and designer, working in fine art and design. Her work consists of mixed media collage, abstract painting and digital collage. The process is organic and spontaneous and influenced by abstract expressionism. The images strive to represent nonsensical emotion and story, while portraying abandon, struggles and victories.

Q+A

What are you working on right now?

A series of digital collages in a modern pop style.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Gardening and reading.

Who/What are your biggest influences?

Hua Liu - Abstract Painter
Howard Sherman - Abstract Painter
Travis Medford - Collage Artist
Agusti - Puig - Painter
Monica Perez - Mixed Media Artist Nature, Architecture Diego Max

What is your dream project?

To make large scale prints from my digital artwork.

Where do you find inspiration?

By studying artists throughout history.

Get in touch with Tammy

Instagram: @tbrummelldesign

Facebook: Tammy Brummell

Website: tammybrummell.com

Email: tammy.brummell58@gmail.com

If you are a local artist/crafter/maker/indie business owner and would like to be featured on our blog, please fill out this form or contact Ashley at ashley@westandmainhomes.com with questions...we can't wait to learn all about you!