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Featuring a few of the participating 2006 Heartfelt Holiday Artists:
Phil Costanzo, who has placed professionals all over the country as an executive recruiter, has turned his hobby and passion for vivid and multi-colored abstracts into unique and positive statements on everyday life and business related events. Employing a complex process, the art is formed from fusing pieces of plastic into one another, resulting in these one-of-a-kind originals. The individual pieces are signed and come with a certificate of authenticity, a 100% money back guarantee, and are almost impossible to reproduce.
Historically Phil painted with acrylic paint, and then started to take notice of colorful and unique pieces of plastic. He tried unsuccessfully to glue them together which made for a "cheapened" look. After many repeated trials and error, he formulated a complicated fusion process from the resulting accidents thus eliminating the need for glue, and these one of a kind originals are the 
end results.
Phil is a firm believer that everyone should own an original piece of art. In keeping with this belief, he has set about to keep his prices within the reach of virtually everyone who appreciates vibrant and unique abstract art. A true celebration of colors: sometimes vivid, sometimes not, but always interesting to the seeker of energy through color and texture. Join Phil as he combines and unites these shapes to energize the viewers' visual senses, creating a stirring and distinctive art experience.
Anna Hsu will display her beautiful Chinese Brush paintings at Heartfelt Holiday, 2006. Anna says “I find my passion and inspiration for painting in nature.” Through her controlled brush strokes, she seeks to express the philosophy of benevolence within tranquil images of trees and blossoms. In this way, the viewer may gain a sense of the natural harmonies infused in the subjects of her painting.
In addition to creating exquisite paintings, Anna is a medical technologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Her art has been shown at the Shaker Library, Beachwood Library, Bainbridge, Avon Lake, and 
the Cleveland Clinic employee art show.
Anna began Chinese brush painting in 1993, and in 2002 she started to show and sell her paintings, art prints and cards. Brecksville Center for the Arts is delighted to showcase her art for our visitors to Heartfelt Holiday.
David Misalko's watercolors portray his love of the countryside around him, whether it is the coast of Maine or his native Ohio farmland. He started concentrating on watercolor in 1974 and has been fortunate to study with some of the most respected watercolorists of today. His work is shown throughout the year in Ohio and Pennsylvania. David's watercolors have been accepted in the Ohio Watercolor Society Annual Show and have been exhibited at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. His paintings are enjoyed from coast to coast, as 
well as Europe and Australia. He is represented by The Frame Depot Gallery of Niles, Ohio and Walnut Street Gallery of Wooster, Ohio.
David's work varies from Realism to Impressionism. The latter is his preferred style. This comes from his appreciation and admiration of the works of Chen Chi. David paints what he enjoys and shows that through his watercolors.
DAVID MISALKO FINE ARTS
1306 HUNTERS GLEN
BOARDMAN, OHIO 44512
Charolette Salvatore
A Sample of Heartfelt Holiday Artists
Artists will display their work in Merchant Square, The Commons and in the Holiday Boutique.
Merchant Square
The Commons
Artists from Heartfelt Holiday 2005
Christine French
Vessels with Attitude represent Christine French's present art work series. These baskets had their birth in the crafts classroom of a High School where she was teaching a basket making lesson. The students in the class were not very successful at creating baskets. Something had to be done and Ms. French decided to add legs with paper pulp. The students spray painted the vessel sculptures and embellished them with feathers and puffy paint. The basket making experience finally became a success.
Ms. French has continued this same concept in her own work. Some of the baskets are made from reed, whereas others are made from half a gourd. Driftwood is collected from the beach on Lake Erie in Barcelona, New York. Three pieces of driftwood are added to each basket with paper pulp and allowed to dry. The surface is coated with gut and then stained. The vessel is then embellished. They are animated and whimsical. Titled “Vessels with Attitude”, they remind Ms. French of many former students and many women friends, “All Different and with an Attitude”.
David and Sandra Kobasuk
Heartfelt Holiday is glad to have sled makers David and Sandra Kobasuk as returning artisans, particularly in November when the greatest selection is available for purchase. Additionally, Mr. Kobasuk makes 22 scene selections available and each sled can be personalized with a family name or short saying. Many of the Kobasuk's clients come by work of mouth, recommended by others who have purchased one, or as many as 28 sleds at a time.
The decorative antique sled reproductions are a full size replica of the Flexible Flyer. Mr. Kobasuk starts with construction grade pine for the sled. He weatherproofs the finish product for display outside as well as inside. His goal is to create something appealing and affordable.
Norman Green has a love and endless fascination for flowers and creatures. In his pictures he explores their shapes, textures, colors and the light that plays over them. Painting and drawing have always been a spiritual experience for him, giving great joy and satisfaction.
Mr. Green works from his photographs of live flowers taken outdoors with a macro lens which captures an intimate point of view. He uses his photos as reference and designs the picture with small preliminary sketches, composing with a strong design quality that utilizes shapes, boarders and insects to combine with the flowers when needed. In the next stage, Mr. Green begins with a pencil drawing and ink the drawing with custom mixed colored inks when he feels the subject needs a more detailed look using dip pens to achieve an etching quality. He then completes the painting using transparent watercolors. Mr. Green's influences are numerous, from Art Nouveau for design, to Rembrandt for atmosphere and etching quality, to Hiroshige for observation of nature, and O'Keefe for her intimate sensual viewpoint.
His watercolors are painted on 300 pound cold pressed Arches 100% rag paper using archival materials and his Limited Edition Giclee Prints are printed in editions of 250 and 150, (large prints) on Somerset Velvet, 100% cotton mould made paper.
An award winning Illustrator/Designer/Artist for over 35 years, Mr. Green feels that his commercial experience enhances the way he composes and executes a painting. His art school training was at Pratt Institutes and Cooper Union and graduated the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has been an art instructor at Pratt Institute, Western Connecticut State University and the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He is a member of the California Watercolor Association and an old member of the Society of Illustrators.
Mr. Green's gallery participation has been at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Lourve, Paris, Mead Gallery and Greengrass Gallery in N.Y., Society of Illustrators, New York and San Francisco, just to name a few. Brecksville Center for the Arts Heartfelt Holidays is pleased to have such a distinguished artist participating in the event.
Esperanza Threads has been making lovely organic cotton clothing for five years. Since February, 2005, they have added hand painting, silk screening and block prints to their garments.
The Group began of June, 2000 as part of the Grassroots Cooperative. In September 2001, they became autonomous, establishing themselves as a non profit organic clothing manufacturer and organic cotton clothing manufacturer and are partners with faith communities and civic groups.
The health of the people and the earth are important to Esperanza Threads, making clothing with fabric that is free of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, formaldehyde, or toxic dyes or paints.
As part of the Grassroots Coalition for Economic and Environmental Justice of Ohio, their mission is to employ low income individuals in Cleveland while giving them fair wages. In July of 2004, Esperanza Threads began a new program “Budding Sewing Entrepreneurs” which teaches sewing to inner city women who wish to learn how to sew for the purpose of starting a new business.
In addition to grants from The Cleveland Foundation, Sisters of St. Joseph in Rocky River, Conrad Hilton Fund and National Campaign for Human Development, the group generates funds from the sale of their clothing through an online store and events like Heartfelt Holidays.
Rosemary Wilson's love of art started in childhood. Ms. Wilson's aunt and mentor, Margaret Keane, Buffalo Society of Artists, introduced her to oil painting at five years old. Ms. Wilson's mother also painted, giving Ms. Wilson the exposure and the genetics to continue as an artist through college, graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Arts from Daemen College in Buffalo, New York.
Known for her vibrant colors in watercolor and acrylic mediums, Ms. Wilson's paintings can be found at business establishments and in homes throughout the U.S. Canada and Europe. She participates in local shows as well as in other U.S. cities as Detroit and Chicago. A new artist at Heartfelt Holidays, Ms. Wilson states that she became exposed to Heartfelt Holidays because her son is employed with Classic Worldwide Productions in Brecksville.
Ms. Wilson's goal is to “Create art while living life to the fullest, being happy and using my art to express my emotions and share them with others”.
Jerry and Jane Brinker have turned a collection into a unique business of crafty recycling. The Brinkers create one of a kind collectable bears named JerBears with recycled fur. The idea started when Jane Brinker wanted to purchase a bear for her husband in a boutique in New York City, but thought the price was too high. Their daughter, in Missouri, obtained information on making bears from a factory there and the Brinkers started making bears for themselves, their children and grandchildren.
The Brinkers use 21 different pattern pieces in each bear. All pieces are lined with muslin which is glued to the pelt which helps strengthen the fur. The bears are hand stitched and reinforced with machine stitching. Everything is stitched twice. The eyes are made from German glass, the nose is hand stitched and the paws are leather.
All kind of recycled fur is used, leopard, sable, lynx, mouton, mink to name several, but find that collectors like the unusual fur the best. Mr. and Mrs. Brinker make three different styles of bears in five different sizes. Each signed and numbered bear is named and comes with a distinctive ear tag. The Brinkers ship bears and also make custom order bears sometimes using the customer's fur when requested.
