Highlighted Artists
Theresa James
My name is Theresa James, my family and I moved to Gates County in 2017. I am from Ithaca, NY. I spent 20 years as a Navy wife and mother of 2 boys traveling the USA, Japan, Hawaii & Bali. I started Pyrography (woodburning) in 2016 as a hobby an began selling my art. I progressed to pencil drawing on wood and now greeting cards.
https://www.facebook.com/theresa.james.908132
Tammy Lassister
Art by Tammy
Tammy Lassister is a Mixed Media, Multi Media, and Multi talented artist. She has instructionals on YouTube and offers an assortment of classes at the Studio 32 for almost all ages. See the News Page for her most recent classes.
https://www.facebook.com/tammy.j.lassiter
Paige Lilly
Paige Lilley is a watercolor enthusiast and lover of color! She’s originally from Texas, but she met her husband after college while working with 4-H in Ghana. He’s a Gates County native, and they’ve lived in Gatesville for the last 2 years. They have 2 daughters, and Paige loves painting with them and for them.
Kelly Frizzell
Kelly Frizzell was born and raised in Suffolk, Va. She has called Gates County her home for the past 18 years. She loves to latch hook rugs and pillow cases, make decorative rolling pins to brighten your decor, garden crafts and Christmas ornaments. Kelly is known for her creamy peanut butter fudge and her preacher cookies.
Judy Clarke
Judy Clarke moved to Gates from Virginia Beach about 33 yrs. ago to take an Elementary School Counseling job. Now retired, her hobby is crafting gourds. She used to grow them locally but now she gets most of them from California or Pennsylvania. Judy uses ink dyes on a design that she has woodburned onto the gourd. She must love it as she's still at it after 20 yrs.
Edith Freeman Seiling
Edith Seiling is celebrating her 104th birthday this year and is still an active artist!! We have a few of her beautiful paintings displayed at the Studio. All proceeds go to Gates County Historical Society.
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Seiling has painted a porcelain dresser set of powder and perfume containers with flowers and butterflies from the design on her great-grandmother's handkerchief. She once braided a rug out of old wool suits.She painted the portrait of a young woman conjured in her imagination wearing a light gown and a flowered band holding her long, dark hair. The image is reminiscent of masterpieces from centuries ago. She painted a woman in Victorian dress wearing a hat wrapped in a wide, flowing pink ribbon. The woman looks out with joyful blue eyes as if she is ready for a ride in the carriage to the theater.Very few artists work beyond their 80s, said Chris Sawin, director of the Dare County Arts Council. He did not know any artists in the area still working as centenarians.After high school, her mother wanted her to go to Chowan College and become a teacher or a secretary. But that was what all educated girls did at the time and she refused. Seiling loved science instead.She earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Meredith College in Raleigh and later got a graduate degree as a medical technician from a school in Kentucky. She took a job as a nurse in Suffolk where a friend introduced her to Frank, a Navy man who would become her husband.She took a job years later for Gates County Schools with the task of rounding up children who were supposed to be in class.On her first day in a chilly December, she learned sometimes children have reasons for skipping school. She drove down a long, muddy road to a ramshackle house. The mother came to the door in worn clothing. She told Seiling her children were in the woods playing and it was OK to go back there if she wanted."They were just as naked as they were when they came into the world," Seiling said. "It was first time I saw real poverty in Gates County."She called on friends and others to help the children get clothing and other supplies. They attended school regularly after that. She visited dozens of truant children over the years, motivated by compassion rather than a desire for discipline. She drove down every remote dirt road in the county and soon learned that a thick pile of newspapers under the tires could help free her car from a muddy rut.She served as president of the Gates County Historical Society for 40 years, just relinquishing the position at age 96. She received state awards for her years of volunteering."She helped a lot of people," said her daughter Peggy Lefler. "I don't know when she slept."
Seiling took on her artwork as she had other passions. Her late husband, Frank, became her driver as she attended art classes in North Carolina, Virginia and once in Colorado. She gives away almost as much of her art as she sells, Lefler said.Seiling acknowledged she was surprised at her talent after painting pine cones on that lamp globe."I still am," she said.