Vermont Artisans
Candles & Creations currently hosts the work of over 40 of Vermont's most talented artisans. Here is a look at some of them.
Amanda Robie Ann Burke Annie Rappaport Casey Webster Erin Regan
Gina D'Amico Heather Paine Heidi Pfau Joanne DeLabruere Jolene Brown
Heidi Pfau
Heidi is a photographer, philosopher, and poet who values questions more than answers. When she tells people she takes pictures, they frequently ask, “How… do you do it?” As a person who has been legally blind for almost fifteen years, she has posed a variation of this question to herself on many occasions. Without the details of situation and circumstance, the response is ironically consistent. “An ever-evolving recipe of philosophy, experimentation,
Heidi says she sees technology and support.” enough of shapes, color, light and shadow to have a relative, though outrageously abstract, sense of what is in front of her. Her work attempts to capture ordinary, everyday images that her vision has enabled her to appreciate from an entirely new perspective. They are snapshots offering a glimpse into an individual journey. As is true for much of how she “sees” things, little is definitive. Instead, her photos express moments, ideas and even questions to be held. It is her hope that as they are viewed, the details of her unique story will blur into the background so that a relevance to the essence of our shared sacred journeys may come into focus for consideration. back to top
Amanda Robie
Amanda has been described as having a “colorful and adventuresome spirit." She is inspired by the spice of life and the ever-changing twists and turns, challenges to overcome and beauty to be embraced. Fascinated by the vast colors that are the canvas of our world, she has combined colors and affirmations to create "Soular Panels" and "Mental Blocks".
It is easy to get distracted and forget to slow down, breathe, look around, and embrace each moment in the beautiful universe in which we live. Sometimes we just need a gentle reminder of all the wonders of life that can be hidden in this busy world. Her creations provide simple words and thought provoking quotes that will ease the mind.
At a time when she was “stuck in a rut” … sitting around a fire and tossing in little pieces of wood to feed the flames, it came to her. She was having a “mental block” that needed to be unlocked. She realized her purpose is to be of service, to share her experience, strength, and hope with others. Using some of the tools that she gathered along her journey to help guide her through the tumultuous world. Her art is designed to provoke positive reflections about how we relate to others, ourselves, and a world that is constantly changing so we can live life to its fullest every day. Amanda’s colorful and adventurous soul receives inspiration from music and poetry as well as being in nature, traveling the world and indulging in all its natural wonders.
Pick up on the positive and awaken your power! back to top
Gina D’Amico
Gina has been a photographer for a long time and crafty forever. It was an inevitable merger. Through her business, Rogue Radish, she uses only her original photography and designs to create small items that will add a little bit of art into everyday life. Buttons have helped bring out the fun in her photography and are a unique way to share herself with the world, one button at a time. back to top
Joanne De La Bruere
Joanne majored in math but always made time to explore her artistic interest along the way via various classes in pastels, acrylic, oil, drawing, and wax sculpting. Though she studied in New York City, she has never lost deep Vermont Country roots leading to a blend of country and abstract in her art. Her love of nature and an attempt to make most of her photos look like paintings often has her in a pair of muck boots walking through rivers exploring ways of using Vermont's natural resources (rivers, sun, ice, water reflections) & objects (mirrors, beads, shells) to naturally add texture and abstraction.
Joanne’s “experiments” include submerging flowers (real or silk) into a stream and photographing them as they sink or float away, finding interesting patterns in winter river ice and frosted windows to photograph objects and flowers behind, and multi exposing 2 or more prints to create new images with texture. Through her art, Joanne hopes to encourage children and young developing artist to explore art as a means of discovering & healing ones inner soul subsequently using art as a tool to break down social barriers. back to top
Ann Burke
Ann says she is fortunate to have lived in Vermont for her entire life. Here she sees beauty everywhere she goes. From that beauty she gets inspirations for colors and shapes to assist in the designing of her jewelry creations. Each and every piece is hand created by Ann with much time and thought as to how the colors and shapes will work with each other. Her jewelry is made with a technique called bead weaving where small beads of different media (predominantly gemstones, glass, metals, and clay) are connected with beading thread.
Ann has been beading for a few years, but has always been involved in and has a love for art. She has had the honor of some of her jewelry pieces being published in such magazines as "Step By Step Beads" and "Belle Amoire Jewelry". She hopes the love and care of her work is reflected in every piece. Ann is currently a stay at home Mom by choice and loves to spend time with her family and friends while continuing to bead. back to top
Annie Rapaport
Annie Rapaport is an Artist and Art Therapist. For Annie the creative process stems from her own personal art therapy. Through the use of the scribble drawing and mixed media exploration, she connects with her subconscious, bringing forth whatever needs to be discovered and released. Sometimes it is joyful, sometimes it is angst ridden, but always it is a practice that provides the enrichment of creativity as well as healing and self-enlightenment.
Annie has shown her art in and around Cape Cod as well as in Vermont since moving here in 2003. Her images are currently expressed in cards, prints, and a limited number of Flash Bags. back to top
Erin Regan
Erin is a native Vermonter and began making jewelry in her youth with her
mother. Over the past couple of decades she has begun to express her creativity through her work. Erin mostly works with sterling silver and enjoys adding pearls and stones to her designs. All of Erin’s designs are uniquely created for everyday wear, to include using magnetic clasps, instead of the traditional lobster clasps. Erin also enjoys doing custom work, which gives her the chance to envision each customer's idea and brings it to life creatively just for them. Erin finds that the biggest reward she gets from her creativity is the joy she sees in the customer's faces when they find the exact piece that was created "just for them." back to top
Casey Webster
Casey Webster began CW Creations, couture jewelry design, in 2004. Each piece of jewelry that she creates is a prayer with the intention that its wearer connects with her inner beauty and allows herself to shape shift into the goddess within. Now a division of Spirited Living Inc., CW Creations jewelry lines includes free-form sterling work, hand-fused dichroic glass and healing gemstone jewelry.
Heather Paine
Heather Paine began Dragonfly Candle in 2003; it was originally called Dragonfly Gifts of Vermont. Each candle that she pours is a channeled gift made with specific intentions. Her first candle was “The Candle of Hope” which was created to honor all the loving people in her community that reached out to her and her family during their time of grief after the loss of a great light, her brother, Michael. Now a division of Spirited Living Inc., Dragonfly Candle still continues to produce purposeful, hand-poured candles made from high quality ingredients and channeled intention.
Kimberlee Forney
Growing up in northern Vermont, Kimberlee Forney enjoyed creating art at an early age. She finds her inspiration among the beautiful Vermont landscape, within music, animals, people, her daily surroundings, and within her brother, Larkin Forney, whom received a TBI (traumatic brain injury) in 1986 at the age of eight. She appreciates the healing qualities of art and its communicative and emotive powers. She is grateful to be able to express her feelings and ideas through her creations. Early in her art life, she concentrated on realistically representing the world around her. She developed her artistic and technical skills while attending Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. While there she studied various artistic mediums. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art in 2000. After graduation, Kimberlee’s fantastical style developed out of a basic idea involving a lively and musical bar scenario with human-like forms embedded in the scene (titled “Jazzy at the Bar”). Her business, Natural Expressions, was formed and other pieces involving various cultural scenes, animal forms, and landscapes soon followed. Her favorite subjects to explore relate to the beauty and spirituality present in the natural world and in the cultural world surrounding us.
Jolene Brown
Jolene is a self-taught photographer who lives in Burlington Vermont, when she can escape family, work and full-time schooling she likes to take drives along the back roads of Vermont and take photos. Willing to go anywhere for a good picture Jolene has gone as far away as Ireland and taken some wonderful photos of the land scape there. Currently Jolene is experimenting with photographing people and with a wedding under her belt she is very excited to be directing people from behind the camera. Usually a nature photographer, Jolene likes taking macro and long exposure shots of interesting formations leaving the viewer intrigued and looking deeper into the image.back to top
