The artists represented by Virtu come from Alaska and around the globe. They represent a broad range of styles and interests.
We will be adding artists to this area over time. For now, enjoy the profiles to the left.
Terry Holder
With her latest release, "Colored Rooms," Terry Holder continues to explore her passions and defining her distinctive voice. Staking her claim as a Singer/Songwriter, Holder writes about basic human emotion with layers of meaning behind them. In her live performances, Holder has the undeniable ability to captivate and connect with her listeners through her emotionally driven songs.
Holder does not believe in placing limits on herself. Up until 1999, her full time job was "stay at home mom." Her life changed when the youngest of her 3 daughters moved away, a transition that coincided with the passing of Holders own mother. Depression started to settle in. Reaching out for solace she reached for her guitar and began shifting her pain into writing music. The first song she penned became the title track for her debut CD "Am I Here Is This Me," which was originally intended for a keepsake for her daughters. This album of introspective pop/folk tunes started garnering sales and critical acclaim with 2 of the songs, "Twilight Love" and "Goodnight" becoming finalists in the Alaska song of the year contest.
Her 2nd disc, "Colored Rooms" is more outgoing mirroring her budding confidence as a performer and writer. Holder says, "sometimes I don't recognize my life anymore, none of this was ever planned. It's like I'm living this little rock-n-roll life but it feels like this is what I'm suppose to be doing." Even though her kids are no longer at home, Holder remains attentive to their needs. "Colored Rooms" has a hidden track called "Dressed in White," a song Holder, wrote for the traditional father daughter dance at weddings.
"It's very humbling and gratifying when people like your music. If I can touch one person with a song, then I've accomplished something great in life." My music is honest and real, though not every song is a word for word depiction of my own life. I just write about what I need to."
Sarah Hauer
Sarah Hauer is originally from Phoenix, Arizona where she lived for twenty years. She graduated from Arizona State University in 2003 with a B.F.A. in Art. It was there that she developed a visual understanding for life. After graduation, she moved to western South Dakota with her husband who serves in the military. There she served as Curator of Education at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City for two years building the art education program. In addition to this, she has continued to be an active studio artist challenging herself through the exploration of each new series.
Hauer is influenced by both beauty and disparity in life. The bustle of large cities and the isolation of the western landscape both influence the unique yet universal perception she has of human existence. Hauer and her husband will be relocating in Fall 2006 to Anchorage, Alaska as the journey to new places continues.
Artist's Statement
Both science and art seek to unfold truths of the universe and explain parallels between the physical and spiritual from the smallest to grandest levels. My work focuses on making visible the unseen part of humanity, the life source that is in all nature. This work explores the many dimensions of our existence through the soul, human interactions, emotion and the physical structures that create our visible world.
I take such structures and synthesize it with movement and expression to create a visual language for an experienced but unseen force in our lives. In other words, "to make seen the unseen."
http://www.sarahhauer.com/
Deela Dahlstrom: Moondeela
sassy, unique, handmade in Alaska
MOONDEELA is an entrepreneurial venture created by Deela Dahlstrom. In an effort to indulge her desire for accessories with a unique twist, she took matters into her own hands.
Inspired by her Grandma Nonie's unique artistic style, Deela began crafting and sewing apparel as a teenager. As her style has changed with age and life experience she is currently on a mission to create the "perfect" handbag. Creating patterns from old blueprints, she designs prototypes of each product and tests them herself. In the future the MOONDEELA collection anticipates the addition of luxurious leather accessories.
As a child Deela was fascinated with Grandma Nonie's extensive costume jewelry collection so when a routine jewelry purchase prompted Deela to experiment with beads and wire, it only seemed natural. Since then Deela has been creating wire jewelry using gemstones and other natural materials in an effort to emulate current trends and express her creative style. Deela's jewelry has evolved into something all its own and there's always that piece that Grandma Nonie could appreciate.
The goal of MOONDEELA is to design and create fresh, trendy, and functional products. Deela is resourceful; experimenting with beautiful fabrics and materials. Frequently a piece of jewelry or a handbag will feature recycled or reconstructed materials. As a result of Deela's unconventional style you can find distinctively different accessories and home dˇcor in the MOONDEELA collection.
In addition to designing personalized accessories, MOONDEELA creates a special line of products to support breast cancer awareness and research. A portion of sales from these products are donated directly to the Alaska Chapter of the American Cancer Society.
View Deela's work
Mary Hertert
"I've always had a knack for doing things that other people told me couldn't be done. My background, travels and education have always been geared towards finding challenges and ways to meet them by exploring unknown areas.
"Textiles dyeing and artwork came by happenchance. I wanted special fabrics for my quilts. From there, a world of color and experimentation opened."
Patti Meinhardt: pk Designs
Intriguing combinations of color, texture, and shape are the foundation of jewelry designs by Patti Meinhardt. Working exclusively in precious metals and gemstones, Patti creates each piece by hand-blending classic elements with a fresh and contemporary fashion flair.
Traveling from her home in Alaska to far-flung destinations around the world provides incredible opportunities for inspiration. Several of her designs have captured exciting color combinations found in the flora of Africa while others have been inspired by the panorama just outside Patti's Anchorage studio.
View Patti's work
Amy Meissner
Amy Meissner currently lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska. Her two, bad orange cats keep her company in the studio all day long where she paints, draws, writes, cuts fabric, and moves cats off the things they aren't supposed to sleep on.
Creating art for children's books is her favorite job, but she also illustrates for posters and articles. She recently completed an MFA in Creative Writing and has undergraduate degrees in both Art and Textiles.
See more of her work and a list of her titles for sale at Virtu.
Samantha Geuss
Soul Making for the Twenty-First Century: Unforgetting the Soul's Trace Elements
Much of photography is based on going out into the world to capture images, on sharing with the viewer foreign and exotic landscapes. This body of work has the inverse intent. These photographs portray interior landscapes, scenes that inhabit my mind. Creating this artwork has been an act of unforgetting, and it has helped to illuminate the kind of moments that I thrive on. This is a collection of both new and newly rediscovered photographs that I have taken over the years. Past and present are seamlessly enmeshed in this show, just as they are in the mind.
These images explore—loosely—questions of the nature of the soul and self. What are the elements that make up that essence of our sense of self? And what is necessary for growth, fulfillment, and self-awareness?
In biochemistry, a trace element is a chemical element that is needed in minute quantities for the proper growth, development, and physiology of the organism. What are the trace elements for the soul? Can they be as unassuming as an afternoon spent cataloguing books in one's childhood home? The sense of timelessness found in a moment when light hits a vase of flowers just so? Or in that childhood sense of safety that comes from taking refuge in a fort of bed linens? Surely the answers are different for each of us. This body of work represents a realignment of my mind with a sense of elements necessary to my being.
A friend once said that she seeks out experiences that "feed the soul". Is there a recipe for enrichment? Is there a collection of ingredients for each of us? This show is a glimpse at places and experiences that have fed my soul. This is not about a search for happiness, but moreover, identifying things that invigorate who I am. Seemingly dissimilar images are linked together by the effect they had on me. For inexplicable reasons, these struck me as extraordinary moments sandwiched between a succession of otherwise ordinary moments.
These photographs are not intended to be answers to questions of the soul, only evidence of the ongoing process of soul making. These captured moments suggest that there are exceptional, surprising, enriching moments in our lives just waiting to be either unforgotten or newly discovered.
Thank you for sharing in my art-making process.
Samantha Geuss
View Samantha's work
Simply Sterling
Simply Sterling has been in business for over five years. The company designs and sells sterling silver jewelry representative of native American rock art.
Simply Sterling's owners and designers of the jewelry are two sisters, one living in Alaska, the other in Texas. Each one brings her own talent and perspectives to the business. Each one brings her own talent and perspectives to the business.
The pieces are based on petroglyphs from Petroglyph Beach outside of Wrangell in Southeast Alaska.
Sheary Clough Suiter
Sheary Clough Suiter is a mixed media artist whose unique, imaginative style incorporates both figurative images and abstract designs with an emphasis on color and texture. She paints to express inner feelings and emotions, rather than to portray outer reality in an accurate, rational manner.
Sheary has now been enjoying the struggles and rewards of living the artist's life for more than ten years. She maintains a full-time studio in Anchorage.
View her work displayed at Virtu or on her own website: www.backdoordesigns.com.
Scott Ward
Seattle artist Scott Ward creates images reflecting the vitality of the human spirit while pushing the limits of the imagination. His paintings are surrealistic, yet hold a lighthearted blend of color and shape.
Scott has worked as an artist and designer in advertising, clothing, graphics, interiors, theater, landscape and murals. His greeting card line is based on his growing body of paintings.
www.scottwardart.com
Dennis Lind
A lifelong artist and musician, Dennis Lind works out of his studio in Eagle River, Alaska where he lives with his wife, Amanda. He first visited Alaska in 1989 while touring as a musician.
Lured by the beauty of the land and warmth of the people, he moved his home to the great state in 1994 and opened a recording studio called "The Alaska Hit Factory." From there he went on to produce multiple award winning projects and commercials, while continuing to perform live shows. Searching to expand his creativity, he began to experiment by painting murals on the walls of his recording studio. Inspired by this newfound expression, he moved to canvas.
Using the medium of acrylics, Dennis works with bold colors and large canvases. Painting for him is a meditation. Much of his time is spent reading the works of philosophers and religious scholars from around the world. His paintings are often reflections on the words of authors such as Joseph Campbell, Pema Chodron and Kahlil Gibran, as well as his own experiences.
With his self-taught technique, Dennis achieves a great sense of depth in his works. Each color and movement is worked into layers of wet gloss medium to create a third dimension. Each hardwood frame is carefully constructed by hand to unique dimensions, and then gallery wrapped with high-quality cotton canvas.
Artist Quote:
An artist is someone who makes a work of art out of his or her life by continually asking questions. Paintings or songs are just different ways in which the questions get asked.
For more information go to: www.dennislind.com
View Dennis's work
Tami Phelps
Tami Phelps is an award-winning hand-color photography artist in Anchorage, Alaska. Each of her pieces begins with a black and white image she has photographed, then hand colored with an oil-based photo paint. Her work is created by hand and is not digitally enhanced.
Her images range from a dreamlike quality through the use of infrared film and surreal color selection to more realistic representational art images. Of her work, art critic Dawnell Smith wrote that Tami's photography "conveys a pointedly misty, magical sense of landscape that poses questions about our mythologies concerning nature" (Anchorage
Daily News, November 2, 2006).
Tami's photographs also become part of two and three dimensional pieces such as fiber art, furniture, jewelry, and other works. Her hand colored photographs have been accepted in several juried art exhibits including the All Alaska Juried Art Show, The Children's Gallery at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, and the Rarefied Light Photograph Exhibit. Tami's work is carried at several select art galleries in Anchorage and can also be found in other statewide locations.
View Tami's work
Cindy Shake
Nature's beauty inspires me daily
Award-winning illustrator and graphic designer Cindy Shake was drawn to metal sculpture by the physical challenges inherent in metalworking. Today, the full-time artist works primarily in steel and copper from her studio in Anchorage, Alaska.
"When I see a fluid shape in nature," says Shake, "I am often inspired to interpret the form dimensionally through sculpture. I think continually about the structure, size, balance, and finish until I am able to reflect the figure in metal."
Most of the artist's sculptures start with a hand-drawn design, first in her sketchpad, then on sheet metal. Shake cuts each piece from the metal using a plasma torch and shapes the work by hand. It's not unusual for her to work on several sculptures at once, all in various phases of design, cutting, welding, finishing, patina, painting, or installation.
Shake's work is featured in private collections across the United States and Europe and has been exhibited at the Royal College of Art, London as well as many solo and group gallery shows in Alaska.
View Cindy's work at her website
