Festa Della Terra

Susan Brubaker Knapp

Fiber Artist, Author, Photographer 

Susan Brubaker Knapp is a fiber artist, author, photographer, teacher, and host of “Quilting Arts TV,” which airs on many public TV stations across the U.S. Her work celebrates and documents the deep mysteries of the world that are to be experienced only by close inspection of the miraculous details of nature. Most of her art is realistic/representational in style, and starts with original photographs of the subjects, or her ink drawings based on them. She uses two primary techniques – wholecloth painting, and fused appliqué – and often heavily free-motion thread sketches the surface before quilting.

Mitchener Howell

Opera Singer

A native of Durham, NC and a product of Durham Public Schools, received his Bachelor’s degree from Yale University.  While completing his degree he founded the Yale College Opera Company and served many roles with this company including organizing and directing the well-received inaugural production, Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Howell then focused on performing, and had several notable successes during his tenure at Yale including the role of Astolf in Schubert's rarely performed opera Die Verschworenen, featured soloist on the Yale Glee Club's European tour, and the role of the Duke of Dunstable in Gilbert and Sullivan's farcical opera Patience. He participated in master classes with guest artists including renowned baritone William Warfield, soprano Virginia Zeani, tenor Jerry Hadley, and opera and musical theater composer Adam Guettel.

In 2004 Howell had the honor of soloing for Richard Brodhead’s inauguration as president of Duke University. He went on to earn his Master’s degree from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver in 2006, garnering praise for his interpretation of Fenton in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

After graduating with his Master’s, Mitchener began performing roles with opera companies in the Triangle area. He has sung Bastian in Mozart’s Bastian and Bastian, and a concert of Mozart operas for Capitol Opera Raleigh.   Mr. Howell has also worked with Long Leaf Opera as Jazz in Blitzstein’s masterpiece, Regina, and covered the role of Ed in the premiere of Carter Chandler’s brooding, blues-infused opera, Strange Fruit.

Recent performances include the Vicar in Meredith College's (Raleigh) production of Britten’s sole comedic opera, Albert Herring (starring Metropolitan Opera soprano Claudia Waite), Alexis in The Sorcerer, Captain Fitzbattleaxe in Utopia, Ltd, and Ralph Rackstraw in the HMS Pinafore with the Durham Savoyards'.  Mr. Howell made a 2017 international debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Young Artist Project in Italy.   Mr. Howell most recently made a return to the stage as Liberto in Capitol Opera Richmond 2022 production of Monteverdi’s L’incoranazione di Poppea.

Anatolii Tarasiuk

Abstract Artist, Videographer & Composer

An abstract artist, composer and videographer born in Ukraine in 1978.  In July of 2022, his family (wife and 3 sons) relocated from Kiev, Ukraine to the Triangle area, North Carolina.

 Tarasiuk’s art style is abstract expressionism with lots of color. He likes to use a palette knife because it draws more on spontaneity and pushes him beyond all that is known. He never has a plan or image in mind for the work when he starts. He lets whatever comes out flow, without judgment, and keeps creating until it is the heart and not the mind that finally tells him that a piece is done. His biggest inspiration is the vision of his art giving feelings of joy and hope to each viewer.

R. Scott Horner

Abstract Painter

R. Scott Horner is an abstract painter working in acrylics. He received a B.A. in graphic design from the University of Central Florida in 1990. In 2008, after a 20-year visual journalist career, Horner moved to North Carolina and turned his creative focus to painting. Horner is a member artist at FRANK Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC and belongs to the Orange County Artists Guild. He has exhibited at juried shows at Ralleigh’s 311 Gallery in 2023 and 2021, Ralleigh Fine Arts Society 2022 exhibition, and Eno Mill Gallery in 2022.

My paintings embrace the chaos and regularity, the calm entropy that pushes and pulls the world around us. By layering paint, old events are covered up, and sometimes rediscovered through transparency or scratch-throughs. The painting builds its own history, allowing viewers to discover many stories with it. While I avoid direct representation, the landscape is sometimes apparent. The natural world affects much of what I do. I often grab colors, forms and other influences from nature, but the marks I make are more reaction to that than representation.

Natalia Favorsky

Artist

Natalia Favorsky is a local artist who lives and works in Chapel Hill. She was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia and moved to the USA 14 years ago. She graduated from Saint Petersburg State University of Culture and Art in 2005. Since her youth, she loved Art, loved to try different techniques, and draw illustrations. Before moving to North Carolina, she lived in Houston, Texas. There she studied at Glassell School of Art and participated in various exhibitions. Natalia’s favorite artists are Claude Monet, Salvador Dali and Van Gogh. She was especially interested in Van Gogh’s ink sketches, and from copying these drawings, her passion for Ink as an art media began. She also likes a combination of Ink and Watercolor, and enjoys creating painting using Acrylic.

Will Widenour

Musician

Will Ridenour is a professional musician from Greensboro, NC who specializes in international folkloric percussion styles and the kora, a harp from West Africa. Will holds a B.A. in Anthropology from UNC-Chapel Hill and has been the recipient of four NC Arts Council grants for musical projects centering around the kora. He has performed in 41 US states and 28 countries worldwide, and has collaborated on 16 albums and 19 theater, dance, and film productions. He currently performs and records with Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba, Grand Shores, Paperhand Puppet Intervention, and other collaborative projects. 

Dianne Harris

DEENIE & FLIP JEWELRY DESIGN

As African American twin sisters growing up in the 1950’s South, our lifelong love affair with baubles and beads began in childhood. We loved to play in our grandmother’s jewelry box.

While life presented a detour with our careers as wives, mothers, and physicians, we never lost the passion for beautiful jewelry. Our hobby has now become our post-retirement career. “Deenie’s” focus is on artisan, handmade sterling silver and 18k gold and semi-precious stone jewelry design.

Charlotte Hord Smith

Artist

A maker based in Carrboro, NC. While she's dabbled in virtually every form of arts and crafts, her passion is fabric. When she discovered papermaking, she put the two together and her stationery evolved into the backdrop for art.

Inspired by birds, animals, local sights, or interesting people, she creates one-of-a-kind mixed-media art pieces using fabric scraps and sews the designs onto her paper. Each Sweet Tomato Creation is unique and a little quirky. In order to share them with more people, she turns her favorite images into notecards and large format 5”x7” postcards.

David Hinkle

Artist

I have always been a craftsman. As a kid, I built forts in the woods behind my house and carved small animals out of wood, creating worlds with my imagination and my hands. In high school, I took several drafting and mechanical drawing classes. I spent countless hours at the drafting table, honing the skills of drawing complex and communicative drawings. Later, I attended St. Andrew’s College in Laurinburg, North Carolina and, while there, took sculpture classes. I majored in English, studying a number of Japanese writers. This sparked an interest in Eastern cultures, which have indirectly influenced my art. After graduation, I began a master’s degree program in Landscape Architecture at North Carolina State’s School of Design. I took a residential design-build studio with Will Hooker and was introduced to Permaculture principles and techniques, as well as strong residential design-build fundamentals.