Arts & Entertainment

Meet the Fenton Art Walk Artists

The participants in Friday's event have varied backgrounds and work in a variety of mediums.

The is Friday!

From 4:30-8 p.m., 30 merchants and more than 50 artists will participate in the inaugural event, and officials are hoping hundreds of residents will join the fun.

Visitors will be able to come to a booth in downtown Fenton and receive an artist passport, which will include instructions along with artist and merchant information. People can then visit participating businesses to observe the art, meet the artists and explore what each store has to offer.

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Here is a look at participating artists.

Name: Art Azzaro 

Age: 67

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Residence: Waterford

Type of art: Photography

Describe your art: Mostly nature

How did you get started as an artist? Photography has always been a part of my life. For roughly fifty years, I have captured family, friends, nature and life while behind a camera.

What’s your next project? Not sure at this time.

Where can people find your art? I don't have a website at this time, but I can be contacted at picturesyouenjoy@aol.com to see other artwork.

Name: Brenda Hasse  

Age: 52  

Residence: Fenton  

Type of art: Author  

Describe your art: Young adult novel and children's picture books. 

How did you get started as an artist? I read a lot! Through reading I improved my vocabulary, learned publishing standards and learned to identify what makes a book a good book.  

What’s your next project? The Freelancer (another young-adult novel)  

Where can people find your art? Fenton's Open Book or online.

Name: April A. Meyette Russell

Age: 34

Residence: Linden

Type of art: Conceptual

Describe your art: My work is conceptual with a blend of realism and abstract. My drawings are mainly realistic, whereas my paintings tend to be more abstract. It is highly textured, emotive, atmospheric, and portrays numerous messages that are left to the viewer to decipher.

How did you get started as an artist? For as long as I can remember I have been drawing and painting. I can’t pinpoint a time that my interest in art first started. Art chose me.

What’s your next project? My next project will most likely be a blending of my drawing and painting. A way of bringing the two together into one piece.

Where can people find your art?  www.aprilameyetterussell.blogspot.com

Name: Sally J. Bright 

Residence: Fenton Township

Type of art: Sculpture

Describe your art: Large-scale handwoven sculptures for the wall of rattan, palm, metals, plastics, paper and other materials. 

How did you get started as an artist? Have always been one.

What’s your next project? Art Prize          

Where can people find your art? http://SallyJBright.com

Name: Greg Zafiroff

Residence: Swartz Creek

Type of art: Acrylic paint

How did you get started as an artist?: Through boredom mostly and a desire to create.

Describe your art: All my works are unique and original works of art, each with their own individualist style.

What is your next project?: A sculpture/painting using the inside of tree bark. 

Where can your art be found?: My work will be at  for the Art Walk. I have paintings at the Courtland Center and in the old Robert David Allen building next to the Secretary of State building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint.

Name: Gilbert Leo McCann

Age: 60

Residence: Flint

Type of art: Metal Sculpture

Description of art: A variety of different techniques and metals have been used to create my sculptures. Some pieces are whimsical, some are abstract, a few look at the problems of society. All of my creations move from the heart, to the head, to the hands. They are a reflection of the world as I perceive it.

My beginnings: Art has always been a piece of my life. I have created art since I was young. I have just grown and changed as an artist through time.

Next project: I have been playing with the idea of faces. I would like to create a piece that shows the complexity of human emotions as shown through facial expression.

Name: Peggy Mattson

Age: 62

Residence: Swartz Creek

Type of art: I am a graphite pencil and watercolor artist. 

How did you get started as an artist? My career began when I was a young child dabbling/experimenting with pencils.

Where can your art be found? My studio is in my home and patrons can view my work on my website, which has my picture, www.artbyidget.com. Many of my works are at Avalon Hospice on Linden Road in Flint. I will be participating in the Davison Art in the Park July 23 and 24; Grand Blanc Art Fair Aug. 6 and 7; and Art in the Park—Fine Art Festival in Swartz Creek Aug. 27. 

What's your next project: This is the art show season for me so I am not developing new work currently. 

Name: Fenton Film Series, organized by Patrick Perfitt and John Strayer

Age: The Fenton Film Series has been in existence for one year.  

Where: Movies are shown at the .

Type of art: Film

Describe your art: Documentaries, foreign films, classic films and independent dramas and comedies.

How did it get started? With help from the Fenton Downtown Development Authority, several area businesses came together to provide movies in downtown Fenton by sponsoring the Fenton Film Series.

What’s the next showing? The award-winning documentary Jesus Camp will be shown at the Fenton Community & Cultural Center at 7 p.m. July 13. Doors open at 6 p.m. so come early to hear piano music by Ed Anderson. The movie, the music and food are all presented free of charge.

Where can people find your art? Movie are shown the second Wednesday of every month at the Fenton Community & Cultural Center and always start at 7 p.m. Live music from various local musicians always precedes the movie. More information can be found on Facebook.

Name: Angela Alaniz

Age: 34

Residence: Fenton

Type of art: Drawings, paintings, photography

Describe your art: Detailed, realistic, serene

How did you get started as an artist? I've been drawing as long as I can remember, but developed my skills in high school art classes.

What’s your next project? I am currently working on a watercolor painting of a beach I've visited in the Dominican Republic.

Where can people find your art? For now, by contacting me directly via email or Facebook, but I am researching avenues to market my work on the Web.

Also be sure to read our feature on former Fenton resident Susan Guy in

Here is a complete list of participating artists and their craft.

Deuce Amigos—Acoustic Rock

Mary McHale—Designer Gemstone Jewelry

Karen McHale Cherveny—Pottery

Brenda Hasse—Author of the award-winning book Wilkinshire, 2011 Winner of Midwest Book Award for Young Adult Fiction

Sally J Bright—Sculpture

Mike Kassel—Ukulele

Brook Statton—Copper Yard Art

Beth Maurer—Watercolor and Acrylics

Susan M Krueger—Oil Paintings, Colored-Pencil Drawings

Greg Zafiroff—Acrylic Paintings

Wil Brendel—Comic Book Art

Penny Messer—Photographer

Elizabeth Dickens—Oil Painting

Susan Bolt—Pottery and Prints

Angela Alaniz—Sketches, Paintings and Photos

Peggy Mattson—Watercolors and Pencil Work

No Doubt—Jazz Musicians

Lynda Colton—Acrylic Paintings

Tony Karrick—Oil and Acrylic Paintings

Kim Krug—Fine Jewelry

Todd Katic—Graphite and Ink Drawings, Watercolors

Sergio Korth—Traditional Paintings and Drawings

Amanda Shaw—Jewelry

Flint Institute of Arts

The Chair Affair

Gilbert McCann—Metal Arts

Todd Biskner—Black-and-White Line Art

Joan Horcha—Watercolors, Mixed Media

Marylou Ackerman—Watercolors

Bill Rodgers—Watercolors, Mixed Media

Lael's Creative Corner—Illustrations

Art Azzaro—Photography

Linda Dyball—Mixed Media, Acrylic, Watercolor, Batik

Allie Fortino and Rachel Salazar—Photography, Watercolor, Acrylic and Ceramic Dinnerware

Donald Bomeli—Travel Photographer

(Represented by Wesley Guy)—Equine Watercolors, Oils

Leone Burwell—Acrylic Paintings

Dawn Leonard—Whimsical Clay Creations

Bob Lamb—Landscape Paintings

Erin LaVanway—Photography

Cate Smith—Sculpture Art

Fenton Film Series—Cinematic Arts

April A. Meyette Russell—Textured, Conceptual Drawing and Paintings

Grace Hungerford—Watercolors

Fred Hall—Metal Wall Sculptures

Ronda LaFave—Fused Glass

Martin Schatko—Landscape Paintings

Debbie LaVanway—Ball Art

Rachel Herstein—Photography

Claire Rettenmund and Paul Baker—Porcelain and Paper Jewelry

Kimberly Meyer—Photography


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