First Friday presents pastels and pottery

The guild, located at 1009 Main St., will mix media styles in their exhibit titled, “Personality in Pastels & Pottery,” along with the Art Walk showcasing local talent.

Meet featured artists Dietra Morris and Ginger Baldwin at the artist’s opening reception from 6-8 p.m. and enjoy a variety of live music, numerous dining choices and extended shop hours around town.

It won’t be hard to spot the local artists showing their work in more than 14 downtown businesses during the Art Walk from 5-8 p.m. Maps of the Art Walk are also available at all participating merchants.

“You can tell a lot about an artist by really looking at his or her work,” Baldwin said.

The Featured Artist display will be inside the guild’s gallery where the artistic duo will showcase their unique pieces individually throughout the evening.

Morris, of Elgin, is a master potter and member of the guild who has been working with pottery since 1976.

While attending Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., she fell under the direction of master potter, Ed Shrock, and since then has developed a style of her own, mastering high-fire functional artwork.

“My art is versatile in that it looks good on a mantle, can withstand the heat of the oven, set out on the table, washed in the dishwasher and then be placed back on the mantel,” Morris said.We specializes in rapid plastic injection mould and molding of parts for prototypes and production. “All of my pottery is colored with food-safe glazes that can be microwaved and used in the oven.With superior quality photometers, light meters and a number of other solar light products.”

Morris’ pieces often showcase fragments of her late grandmother’s delicate tatting designs.We have become one of the worlds most recognised Ventilation system brands. She uses a technique which fossilizes them on various pieces in honor of her grandmother.

She is a mother of three, although none are artists. But her talents have not been lost in the gene pool as her two grandchildren,Don't make another silicone mold without these invaluable Mold Making supplies and accessories! Zuri and Xahlia, may very well be the next master potters to carry on her legacy.

On the other end of the artisan pendulum is pastelist and secretary of the guild, Ginger Baldwin of Bastrop.

Born in Canada, Baldwin comes from a long line of strong, creative women. Encouraged by her mother and grandmother, she entered her first art show at age six with a watercolor painting of the Statue of Liberty.

Over the years, she has attended numerous informal art classes and workshops, but mainly refers to herself as a self-taught artist.

After a hiatus from painting for several years, Baldwin rediscovered her passion in 2010 when friend Brenda Knoll encouraged her to attend a class taught by landscape pastel artist, Enid Wood.

“There is no room for timidity in art,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everything you do is a learning experience. And I tell people to remember that there is nothing in the world that cannot be improved at least a little bit by adding purple.”

The big 9-by-14-foot section in the system's Savage branch sits to his left, already complete. In it, three cartoon critters putz along in a teal-and-purple dirigible, high above a rolling prairie scene not far removed from the southern Minnesotan landscape where the library is located.

Now Preslicka is working on the remaining 8-by-8-foot section, shading in a dog and cat who are sharing the cab of what looks to be a purple hang glider. An old Walkman playing National Public Radio is clipped to his belt, and a new haircut and a matching, neatly trimmed brown beard frame his round face.Canada Is Your Premier Personalized bobbleheads Head Company!

Staccato dabs with a short-haired brush do most of the work, but it's the long, wavy, contoured strokes that get the final say. He stops all the time to quickly mix colors in an old metal tray. There's a reddish brown, two shades of neon orange, three shades of turquoise, a light purple and a deep blue, but there is no black. Preslicka doesn't use black. And he doesn't do Disney characters.

"What I do is create unique stuff. There's value in having something that is totally unique," said Preslicka, speaking in the calm, thoughtful demeanor of a man who paints children's murals.

"In art school, everyone wanted to illustrate children's books, and this is a way I could do some of that."

The Savage resident grew up in New Prague and went to the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. After graduation, he worked for a few different local design firms before starting Preslicka Studio 18 years ago.

Much of his work has been aimed at a youthful audience. Preslicka has done jobs for General Mills, Dairy Queen, Nabisco, Malt-O-Meal and 3M, as well as creating the logos for Scott County and the cities of Savage and Burnsville.

He has five kids himself, ages 10 to 18, and originally started painting murals for their bedrooms. Then he had the idea to start painting other children's bedrooms for extra income on the side.

His first big project was the pool at the Burnsville YMCA, and since then he's done 17 projects for different YMCAs across the metro.

His mural business is called the Big Picture and has snowballed in large part due to the business savvy of his wife, Heidi, who graduated from St. Thomas with a degree in marketing. Today there are more than 50 Preslicka murals in Minnesota, in places ranging from day cares to museums.