What sets Gallery on First apart is the caliber of the 11 artists who have studios here, giving this gallery a vibrance unlike any static exhibit space. The artists work in various media, and are at different points in their careers. Some are established, some are emerging, and some are re-emerging. Here is an introduction to each of them:

Bert Bogdany Award-winning artist Bert Bogdany works in ceramics, has exhibited in many local art shows and festivals, and was a Featured Artist of the Month at Orlando Museum of Art. The objects he creates transcend the idea of functionality. He believes that life is a series of questions that he can only begin to answer by the creation of art. The Winter Park native is a pottery instructor at Seminole Community College, and has a BFA from UCF, where he is in his second year of studies for an MFA.

Barbara Farrell A small-business owner of the real estate firm Barbara Farrell and Associates, this re-emerging artist received a BFA and an MFA from the University of Miami. She has been represented by galleries in New York, LA, Boston and Boca Raton, and locally by the Albertson-Peterson Gallery in Winter Park. Her works can be found in corporate collections such as The Donald Trump Organization Collection and Bloomingdales in New York, and public collections including The Lowe Art Museum and the Norton Gallery of West Palm Beach. She also received first prize in a show juried by Thomas Messer, a former director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Diana Ferguson Diana Ferguson was born in Germany and has traveled extensively. A keen observer of life, her paintings are witness to the world she has traveled both externally and internally. With a degree in Art from Stetson University in Florida, Diana has won numerous awards for her highly individualistic images, and participates in many local and national exhibitions. Her work ranges from whimsical to enigmatic portrayals of the human experience. Her wish is that her paintings relate in some small way to what humanity feels and experiences on many different levels as we all search for the meaning of our life journeys. Diana's work is represented online at gallery523.com.

Pamela Glose Pam Glose grew up in Seminole County, and studied at Seminole Community College and the University of Central Florida. Since earning a degree in education in 1983, she has been teaching both business education and art in Seminole County ever since. An emerging artist who specializes in hand-painted silk, she recently received the Henderson Excellence in Art award at SCC's 35th annual juried student exhibition. Taking inspiration from the tropics, her work translates her love for bold design, brilliant colors and fun. Focusing solely on her art career has been a life-long dream and she is thrilled to be a working studio artist and teacher at Gallery on First.

Mary J. Gray Mary J. Gray paints in oil, pastel, acrylic and mixed media. With a BA in Art from the University of Central Florida and certification as an art teacher, she has taught in public and private schools and local art centers. She has applied her talents to murals, portraits, still life, landscapes, and photography. Extensive travels in Europe, Mexico, and the U.S. have led her to her current interest in plein air painting. She is Director of Central Florida Plein Air Artists, and organizes and participates in exhibits throughout the state. She is currently planning, along with other members of CFPAA, a Paint Out and Exhibit, September 9-11 at Mead Garden in Winter Park.

Terry C. Hummel A Sanford resident, Terry C. Hummel is The Orlando Sentinel Calendar's Visual Arts columnist as well as an artist. His travels, ability to speak several languages, diversity of friends influence his unique and complex art work. He has painted portraits and complex collage pieces in the past, but for the last year has been experimenting with a new series of mixed-media boxes with psycho-social and religious imagery. He has an MA from Rollins College, is on the boards of the Orlando Downtown Arts District and The Mennello Museum of American Art, and is founder and past president of the Orlando Visual Artists' League (OVAL).

Robert Leclaire As an artist, Robert Leclaire concentrates on painting, sculpture and drawing, and works on themes that represent natural forces in the physical world or beyond it. He studied art and received his bachelors and masters degrees from Florida Technological University (now UCF). A retired art teacher and school administrator, he lives in both Maitland and the Lemon Bluff river community in Osteen.

Marlene London Marlene London's work is multi-leveled: she marries layers of pencil, paint, wax, papers, fabric, photographs, found objects and stamps, with key phrases from her own fiction writings (she has BA in English from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY). Collectors nationwide (including comedian Chris Rock) have bought her paintings. Her work was selected for The Berlin Wall Project, the 1997 Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival poster, the City of Orlando's Commemorative Plate and this year, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce publications. London was also selected as one of 19 artists representing Central Florida in "Orlando Furioso" in Milan, Italy. And she has just been awarded a United Arts Grant for a women's bicultural show held in both in Central Florida and in Mexico City.

Sharon B. Muldoon After 32 years as an art teacher in Niagara Falls, NY, Sharon B. Muldoon retired in 1997 and came to Florida, first as a snowbird and then as a full-time resident a year later. She has a BS in Art Education from Daemon College in Buffalo, NY, but was unable to paint for 25 years due to illness. Instead she "painted with a needle," doing her own tiny-scale needlepoint. She was able to return to painting before her retirement, and since 1994 has been working in pastel and cut paper—"mosage," or mosaic collage. In all of her work, she finds delight in adding the details. She is a plein air artist: she believes plein air was not simply an option for her but a necessity, as it brings together two of her loves, painting and nature.

Robin Maria Pedrero Born Robin Maria Neilson in Norwich, Conn., Pedrero is known for her luminous skyscapes and portraits. In 1995 her work was selected for the prestigious Juried International Association of Pastel Societies Exhibition. Pedrero's work has been selected for three of the Orlando Museum of Art's First Thursday events, was a featured Artist of the Month in 2004, and is currently the Arts Administrator for the Seminole Cultural Arts Council. She continues to exhibit nationally, and paints that which she find curious or brings her joy. "I study—people, shadows, light, relationships, and simple pleasures. I create to express emotions in colors, shapes and lines. When I create landscapes I personify the skies and trees through color and movement." Pedrero's work is online at gallery523.com

Jay Spalding Jay Spalding, a ceramics artist, has a BFA from Ringling School of Art and Design and an MA from UCF, and is a professor of Studio Arts at Seminole Community College. He is an award-winning member of Florida Crafts-man, and the National Art Educators Association. His academic pursuits of art and aesthetics have exposed him to traditional western views of art. He uses his ceramic artwork as a physical record that represents his life philosophies, pleasures, studies and aesthetic choices. The combination of formal training, life as a Florida native and adoption of the Zen Raku are evident in the aesthetics and narratives of his pottery.

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Gallery on First, 211 East First Street, Sanford; 407.323.2774, jtfolkart.com.

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