I'm delighted to share that I've been selected as one of the six new fellows for the 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship. I'm sincerely grateful to the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts for providing me with this opportunity. The chance to be a part of this esteemed fellowship is an incredible honor. I'm humbled to be among such a talented cohort of fellows and I'm eagerly anticipating the opportunity to collaborate and learn from my artistic peers. Check out the news release and learn about the other artists below.
News Release
For Immediate Release
March, 13, 2023
Contact: Renee Margocee
renee@tamarackfoundation.org
304-926-3770
Tamarack Foundation Selects 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Fellows
For Immediate Release
March, 13, 2023
Contact: Renee Margocee
renee@tamarackfoundation.org
304-926-3770
Tamarack Foundation Selects 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Fellows
Charleston, WV - Tamarack Foundation for the Arts selected six new Fellows for the 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship. The fellowship, previously known as the Emerging Artist Fellowship, enables promising early-career artists to pursue knowledge of and experience with the arts-based business component of being a creative entrepreneur and working artist in West Virginia. Selected fellows demonstrate a superior level of mastery in their craft as well as the aptitude to become successful professionals leading well-managed creative enterprises.
The 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Fellows are as follows:
Anthony Peyton Young - Kanawha County
“Anthony Peyton Young is an artist born and raised in Charleston, WV. Working primarily in painting, drawing, ceramics, and collage, Young’s work explore methods of memorializing, healing, family traditions, black/black queer intimacy, and the spaces we use to activate these actions. He earned his B.A. from West Virginia State University and his M.F.A. from School of the Museum of Fine Arts/ Tufts University.”
Hannah Watters - Kanawha County
“My visual catalog is collected from forms in nature that share similarities with humans and create a visceral response. I’m intrigued by creating unidentifiable, yet familiar forms; something that we feel we’ve seen before, but we can’t place what it is or where we saw it. I returned to West Virginia after graduating with my MFA because I found myself in the predicament of longing for home and the mountains, which was a feeling that I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t want to be making work about West Virginia while being separated from it, so I decided to move back to Charleston in 2019.”
Kylie Proudfoot-Payne - Barbour County
“Exploring the balance between the light and shadow in the natural environment has been my focus for the past twenty years. This focus and intrigue translates into a myriad of landscape paintings and correlated projects that have predominantly focused on the depiction of color and light. I then utilize acrylic paint on traditional or nontraditional surfaces, to create landscape paintings and murals as well as paintings that can be worn within an installation or performance which activates the space and engages the viewer.”
Leah Gore - Cabell County
“My work is whimsical, technically dynamic in flavor and creative direction; I construct art in the form of edibles. I bake and sell food operating as a micro-bakery in Milton. My process involves developing menus, and recipes, sourcing ingredients, making a space workable for production, baking and assembling each piece, i.e. cakes, tarts, bread, etc., and creative expression through design and color, and food photography.”
Leslie Norris - Monongalia County
“I am an Appalachian printmaker working under the moniker Sugar Pop Press. I have been drawing all my life, and I have been a printmaker for seven years. I attended
West Virginia University, where I obtained a B.F.A. with a concentration in Printmaking. All my work is hand-printed from my home studio in Morgantown, WV.
I am drawn to the images that I grew up with: toys, games, commercial packaging, and modern variations of these things. My work is at once retro and socially subversive. I am saying, “Hey, look at this! These images surround us, but we don’t notice them!” It’s as if my work comes from the leavings, the rags and bones, the detritus of a cultural parade that has just gone by. I am simply reassembling the pieces in personal and subjective ways and plastering my world with pictures.”
Mickayla Pence - Greenbrier County
“I make mixed media jewelry and wearable art using a varying combination of precious metals, gemstones, butterfly wings, magazine/photo clippings, feathers, and real pressed flowers – many of which I collect (while getting poison ivy) foraging deep in the woods of Greenbrier County. My process begins with raw materials and an objective. Many of the pieces I make include images, magazine clippings, and flowers. I then use my graphic design skills and programs (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) to edit the photo composite, print, laminate, and cut into a shape that fits aesthetically within the piece(s).”
Each Fellow will receive technical training, mentoring, consulting, branding and a $2,500 award to assist with the successful development and launch of their creative business. Through increased visibility, marketing and networking, Tamarack Foundation for the Arts will assist each Fellow to integrate into local and regional markets and access professional development. Tamarack Foundation for the Arts will host an Emerging Artists Fellowship gallery show at Taylor Books Charleston in the fall of 2023.
Tamarack Foundation for the Arts Executive Director Renée Margocee said, “Being a successful artist is more than developing an artistic practice. Those looking to earn a living based on creativity must also understand efficient business strategies, marketing, pricing, and networking. This fellowship develops these skills to help artists remain in their communities and thrive in the Mountain State.
Fellows were selected by an independent committee consisting of master-level artists and arts leaders from across West Virginia. This year’s selection committee included Barrie Kaufman, award-winning International Artist; Jessie Siefert, Managing Director of Parkersburg Arts Center; Robert Moore, mixed media artist and Executive Director of Beckley Arts Center; Susan Feller, artist and arts advocate at ArtWools; and Brian Reed, artist, designer, performer, and educator.
To learn more about the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts and the Emerging Artist Fellowship, visit tamarackfoundation.org.
Support for this program is provided by the Pianfetti Foundation, Glotfelty Foundation and private donors.
The 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Fellows are as follows:
Anthony Peyton Young - Kanawha County
“Anthony Peyton Young is an artist born and raised in Charleston, WV. Working primarily in painting, drawing, ceramics, and collage, Young’s work explore methods of memorializing, healing, family traditions, black/black queer intimacy, and the spaces we use to activate these actions. He earned his B.A. from West Virginia State University and his M.F.A. from School of the Museum of Fine Arts/ Tufts University.”
Hannah Watters - Kanawha County
“My visual catalog is collected from forms in nature that share similarities with humans and create a visceral response. I’m intrigued by creating unidentifiable, yet familiar forms; something that we feel we’ve seen before, but we can’t place what it is or where we saw it. I returned to West Virginia after graduating with my MFA because I found myself in the predicament of longing for home and the mountains, which was a feeling that I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t want to be making work about West Virginia while being separated from it, so I decided to move back to Charleston in 2019.”
Kylie Proudfoot-Payne - Barbour County
“Exploring the balance between the light and shadow in the natural environment has been my focus for the past twenty years. This focus and intrigue translates into a myriad of landscape paintings and correlated projects that have predominantly focused on the depiction of color and light. I then utilize acrylic paint on traditional or nontraditional surfaces, to create landscape paintings and murals as well as paintings that can be worn within an installation or performance which activates the space and engages the viewer.”
Leah Gore - Cabell County
“My work is whimsical, technically dynamic in flavor and creative direction; I construct art in the form of edibles. I bake and sell food operating as a micro-bakery in Milton. My process involves developing menus, and recipes, sourcing ingredients, making a space workable for production, baking and assembling each piece, i.e. cakes, tarts, bread, etc., and creative expression through design and color, and food photography.”
Leslie Norris - Monongalia County
“I am an Appalachian printmaker working under the moniker Sugar Pop Press. I have been drawing all my life, and I have been a printmaker for seven years. I attended
West Virginia University, where I obtained a B.F.A. with a concentration in Printmaking. All my work is hand-printed from my home studio in Morgantown, WV.
I am drawn to the images that I grew up with: toys, games, commercial packaging, and modern variations of these things. My work is at once retro and socially subversive. I am saying, “Hey, look at this! These images surround us, but we don’t notice them!” It’s as if my work comes from the leavings, the rags and bones, the detritus of a cultural parade that has just gone by. I am simply reassembling the pieces in personal and subjective ways and plastering my world with pictures.”
Mickayla Pence - Greenbrier County
“I make mixed media jewelry and wearable art using a varying combination of precious metals, gemstones, butterfly wings, magazine/photo clippings, feathers, and real pressed flowers – many of which I collect (while getting poison ivy) foraging deep in the woods of Greenbrier County. My process begins with raw materials and an objective. Many of the pieces I make include images, magazine clippings, and flowers. I then use my graphic design skills and programs (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) to edit the photo composite, print, laminate, and cut into a shape that fits aesthetically within the piece(s).”
Each Fellow will receive technical training, mentoring, consulting, branding and a $2,500 award to assist with the successful development and launch of their creative business. Through increased visibility, marketing and networking, Tamarack Foundation for the Arts will assist each Fellow to integrate into local and regional markets and access professional development. Tamarack Foundation for the Arts will host an Emerging Artists Fellowship gallery show at Taylor Books Charleston in the fall of 2023.
Tamarack Foundation for the Arts Executive Director Renée Margocee said, “Being a successful artist is more than developing an artistic practice. Those looking to earn a living based on creativity must also understand efficient business strategies, marketing, pricing, and networking. This fellowship develops these skills to help artists remain in their communities and thrive in the Mountain State.
Fellows were selected by an independent committee consisting of master-level artists and arts leaders from across West Virginia. This year’s selection committee included Barrie Kaufman, award-winning International Artist; Jessie Siefert, Managing Director of Parkersburg Arts Center; Robert Moore, mixed media artist and Executive Director of Beckley Arts Center; Susan Feller, artist and arts advocate at ArtWools; and Brian Reed, artist, designer, performer, and educator.
To learn more about the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts and the Emerging Artist Fellowship, visit tamarackfoundation.org.
Support for this program is provided by the Pianfetti Foundation, Glotfelty Foundation and private donors.