'Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions' Art Exhibition

Fourteen area artists from Wilson Avenue Loft Artists will bring holiday spirit to Wilton Library’s November-December art exhibition entitled “Amazing Stories and Wondrous Visions,” opening on Friday, November 15 with a reception from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wilson Avenue Loft Artists (WALA), founded in 2007, is located on the border of Norwalk and Rowayton and provides studio spaces for artists working in a variety of media, including painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. WALA's goal is to provide a supportive environment for making artwork and connections to the arts community, especially during their annual Open Studio Weekend.

The artists from the group will be exhibiting their works in an array of styles, media choices, and subject matter. The artists are: Jay Brodsky (Scarsdale, NY), Connie Brown (New Canaan), Erin Dolan (Norwalk). Heide Follin (Norwalk), Lori Glavin (Bovina Center, NY), Elisa Keogh (Norwalk), Nancy McTague-Stock (Norwalk), Katherine Megrue-Smith (New Canaan), Andrea Metchick (Westport), Lily Morgan (Stamford), Claudia Renfro (Pound Ridge, NY), Missy Savard (Fairfield), Vicki French Smith (Darien), and Susan Cutler Tremaine (Darien). The opening reception is free and open to the public.

“We are delighted to kick off the holiday season by welcoming back Wilson Avenue Loft Artists, a talented group of local artists who last exhibited at the library in 2012. We are truly inspired by their variety of styles - abstract, figurative, and landscape, and more - and we hope everyone will appreciate this beautiful exhibit showcasing their latest work,” said Petra Saldutti, Art Co-Chair of Wilton Library.

The artists of Wilson Avenue Loft Artists come from a range of backgrounds:

Jay Brodsky is a primarily self-taught painter who studied at The Art Students League in New York City for about 8 years and has since gone exploring the many different ways images can be created. He has been represented in numerous shows throughout the Metropolitan New York area over the past 20 or so years. Instagram: @jay.brodsky

After obtaining her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Arizona, Connie Brown has exhibited her paintings in shows throughout New England and New York. A dedicated member of the artistic community, Brown actively participates as an artist member at The Painting Center in New York and the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, CT. She currently resides and works in Connecticut. www.conniebrown.net

Erin Dolan is an abstract painter, collage artist, and sculptor with a strong commitment to both art and art education. She earned her BFA in Fine Art from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, where she focused on painting, printmaking, and sculpture and graduated with departmental distinction. Afterward, Erin moved to New York City to advance her career and obtained an MA in Art Education from New York University. For over ten years, Erin taught art in various public and private schools and museums across Manhattan while continuing to cultivate her own artistic work. She later relocated to Hawaii, where she worked with the non-profit Rock ‘n’ Renew and joined the Hamakua Artists Guild. Now based in Norwalk, CT, Erin teaches Upper School Visual Arts at Rye Country Day School. She is a member of the Wilson Avenue Loft Artists in Norwalk, CT. Erin’s dedication has earned her several accolades, including a $1,000 award from Scholastic Art and Writing and Golden Paints, as well as a prestigious Cohen Fellowship, which awarded her $10,000 for her excellence in teaching. Her artwork has been featured in exhibitions across the U.S. and is held in private collections worldwide. Instagram: @erindolanartstudio

Heide Follin is a contemporary experimental abstract painter, deriving energy and ideas through nature. She has an active, rich studio practice, living and working in Connecticut. She is a graduate of the School of the Worcester Art Museum, and has enjoyed many years of workshops, residencies, graduate level mentorship programs and show work in solo, two-person and group shows. In March 2025 she will have a Solo Show at the Silvermine Guild of Artists as well as a group show, Biophilia at the Flinn Gallery in Greenwich, CT. www.heidefollin.com

Lori Glavin earned a BFA from Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts, in Syracuse, NY. She is the recipient of a 2019 Connecticut Individual Artist Fellowship Grant and a two-time fellowship recipient to Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. In 2007 she co-founded Wilson Avenue Loft Artists, a community of artist studios in Norwalk, CT, which she managed until 2024. Lori recently moved to Bovina Center, NY - a small town in the Western Catskill Mountains. loriglavin.com

For Elisa Keogh, as a child growing up in the UK, her favorite ways to spend her time were making art, playing sports, and honoring her general preoccupation with silliness.  As long as she could focus on at least one of those, she was happy. During her formative years, as an art dabbler, she experimented with found mediums from her backyard and home - her mother was often horrified to find garden soil (mud) sculpted into vessels and placed in the oven to dry, among other things. Later, when the time came to make some lifelong choices, she chose to study graphic design at SVA and Parsons in NYC and during that time she bought her first grown-up 35mm camera.  Time passed and she enjoyed a successful career as an art director in the music industry and eventually formed her own studio, SeeHear Design.  Later, upon moving to Connecticut with a husband and two children, she hung her designer hat and embraced her camera, rediscovering the art of experimentation with ideas, and exhibiting her photographs locally, nationally, and abroad. Most recently she has been painting and is simply loving it - it became the silver lining during the crazy days of the pandemic!  Her medium is acrylic paint and she mostly paints on canvas, recognizing elements that she can now call her personal style, her "handwriting", and can envision this love affair continuing for many years to come. And, if some are wondering, yes, sports still play a big role in her life - these days she has an obsession with Pickle Ball, and she will never, ever tire of silliness. www.elisakeogh.com

American artist Nancy McTague-Stock, MFA, credits early exposure to environmental experiences as the impetus for her life long artistic focus. Her environmentally focused imagery centrally highlights the fragility of nature, while also capturing the rhythms of urban life. In an increasingly technocentric world, she works with an amalgam of painting, printmaking and contemporary photographic media. Her work is observation-based, with a strong conceptual sensibility and fine craftsmanship. Nancy McTague-Stock was a Fellowship Recipient for post-graduate work at The Slade School of Art at the University of London in Experimental Drawing. She received an MFA from The Art Institute of Boston (now the Lesley University College of Art & Design) in Visual Studies in New Media, with mentors inclusive of Dike Blair, Judith Barry, Richard Klein, Anthony Apesos & Sunanda Sunyal. She holds a Marketing Strategy Certificate from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Metalsmithing and Textiles, with specialty training in ancient jewelry techniques from the Kulicke Stark Academy for Jewelry Art in New York with Bob Kulicke. Ms. McTague-Stock has been the recipient of many awards, residencies, grants and fellowships here and abroad. Her work has been exhibited in group/solo exhibitions at over sixteen countries in museums, galleries and universities in Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Mexico City, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, The Venice Biennale and in the U.S., from Los Angeles to New York. Nancy’s work has appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Plein Air Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine (feature), Art New England Magazine (feature), Hearst Media, Connecticut Post, The Woven Tale Press (feature),, VCU Arts, CBS Connecticut, EastCoast Home & Design, Moffly Media, New England Home(feature), and VENU Magazine (feature & cover), among others. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Women and Who’s Who in American Art. Her work is collected by private and public institutions worldwide, including acquisitions of her work by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., The Douro Museum Printmaking Biennial Collection in Portugal and The Chateau Orquevaux Permanent Collection in France. Nancy’s experience in a wide variety of media is extensive, with an environmental focus in her series of projects. She has created commissioned, community-focused, interactive installations and designed community participation projects, global artistic exchanges and outreach programs. Her comfort level working with inner city, local, public, private and international school students of all ages has been well documented. A periodic lecturer about contemporary art, environment and culture, Nancy has served for over twenty five years as a teacher, artists’ mentor, arts writer, curator and juror for many academic, private and public institutions for exhibitions, including The Prince of Wales Foundation in the UK. Nancy lives in coastal Connecticut, providing a constant source of fodder for her work and maintains her permanent studio in the United States. www.nancymctaguestock.com

Katherine Megrue-Smith graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1988, and worked as a graphic design professional in New York at Conde Nast and Richard Danne & Associates before pursuing her love of painting full time. She has had solo exhibitions in Rhode Island, Texas, New York and New Jersey, and participates in group exhibitions throughout the country.  She resides in New Canaan with her husband, and has four grown children. www.katherinemegrue.com
Coming into the art world from a dance background Andrea Metchick is influenced by movement all around her. A former choreographer and director, Andrea fell in love with set design and creating a feeling of time and place for the shows she brought to life. This brought her to a need to express herself beyond the stage. Her work often starts with an intention of meditation or a walk along the water. With this in mind she is exploring the world of acrylic painting, glass fusion and watercolors. For much of Andrea’s work the water is where she finds inner peace. She paints to process the world around her and invites viewers to stop and reflect as they view her work. andreametchickart.com

Lily Morgan grew up in Fairfield County, CT, and returned to the area in 2017 after earning a degree in Art Education from Messiah College. She now teaches art full-time at Darien High School, where her interactions with students continually inform her own art practice. Lily has recently completed the first semester of her Master’s in Studio Practice at Teachers College, Columbia University and looks forward to the rest of the program as she deepens her artistic practice and explores new directions for her work. www.lilymorganart.com

Claudia Renfro was born in San Francisco, CA and grew up in New York City. She currently lives in New York state and has studio in Norwalk, CT. www.claudiarenfro.com

Missy Savard‘s works portray architectural studies and landscapes painted from locations along the eastern seaboard, New England and in Europe. She has focused her most recent oils and monotypes on landscapes as well as renderings of iconic buildings. The consistent theme in Savard’s work combines a sure sense of light and strong graphic understanding, capturing a quality of serenity. Savard is a longtime member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan, Connecticut and a member of the Wilson Avenue Loft Artists in Norwalk. She has exhibited extensively at various art centers throughout the US and has won numerous awards for her paintings. A graduate of Fairfield University in Fine Arts, she currently administers Art Partners Outreach for Silvermine Arts Center placing curriculum enriched studio art classes into targeted urban schools. Inspiring creativity and building community while promoting education, Savard hopes to help transform the education of under-resourced students. Instagram: @missysavard

Vicki French Smith has been an award winning artist and teacher. Motivated by nature’s wonders she focuses on the magical movement of water, skies, and sails with their varied rhythms and self-replicating tempos. There is tension and excitement as reflections and patterns of composition come to life. For the last few years she has been painting seascapes and skies on metal and canvas to  create textures and interactions with the variable moods of nature.   The methods of strokes vary as she twists and turns the brush, squeegee, hands & fingers to make the surface dance. Colors of blues are successfully blended with compliments as she applies the pigment, wiping it away or layering colors. This can be seen in her works of watercolor, acrylic & oil. A graduate of Miami University, Smith has studied at the Yard School of Art, Du Cret University, Center of Visual Arts, and Silvermine School of Art. Painting for more than 30 years, having taught students and adults has inspired & motivated her journey. Smith has been active in her local community; teaching at the Darien Arts Center, Board on the Silvermine Guild Art Center, and co-president of Fairfield County Plein Air. She is currently a member of Connecticut Womans Arts, Rowayton Arts Center, Florida based Naples Art Association and the Arts of Bonita Springs and Silvermine Art Guild. Smith’s paintings and prints have been featured  in boutiques along the New Jersey Shore, libraries, private collections and various galleries. She has appeared in the PBS series “Landscapes Through Time”, and at any given time her work can been seen at her gallery at Wilson Avenue Loft Artists, Norwalk, CT, Geary Gallery, Darien, CT, High Tide Gallery, Naples, FL or by appointment in her studio in Darien, CT. vickifrenchsmith.com

Susan Cutler Tremaine has been painting and involved in the art milieu for many years. She worked in the field of Interior Design and Architecture in Canada and USA, most notably for Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Architects, New York, NY where she had the opportunity to design corporate environments and curate art collections. Since devoting herself exclusively to her own art, she has shown in group and solo shows as well as placed her work in private collections, internationally. Susan has done a residency at the Vermont Studio Centre and has studied with Hugh O’Donnell, Professor of Art at Boston University as well as Aleksandr Razin and the late Barbara Rothenberg at the Silvermine Art School, Norwalk, CT. For the last 15 years she has worked in her studio at the Wilson Avenue Loft Artists Association, a collective of artists in Norwalk, CT. Susan has lived and worked in both New York City, New England, and Ontario, Canada. She received a Diploma of Architectural Interior Design in Ottawa, Canada. Susan is a past Director of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, having chaired their Art Committee and a past Trustee of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. www.tremaineart.com