North Central Louisiana Artist Directory
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Neal BlackMan, photographer
Combining his love for physics with his passion for photography, Neal’s artwork includes breathtaking landscape and wildlife images. Gathering inspiration from his various travels, he applies his knowledge of science to capture the ephemeral beauty of nature. His photographs are extremely sharp, vividly colorful, and very mesmerizing.
Maggie Boudreaux, Painter
For Boudreaux, painting isn’t just a means of communication with her surrounding environment, it’s also an outlet to establish a sense of balance and peace in her own life. It’s also the process of creating the art that brings her the most satisfaction, from layering, to sanding, scraping, and even tearing and assembling. “I find joy and beauty in color, but it’s the path of moving my point and my line that is truly my act of expression. My paintings represent me, my personal history, blessings, intentions, and momentary thoughts.”
Cathi Cox-Boniol, Author & Educator
An advocate for the arts now retired after a 38 year career in education, Cathi Cox-Boniol is also a musician and writer utilizing her experience to cultivate creativity within the STEM community at the local level and beyond. The co-author of three books designed to assist educators in implementing engineering design into the traditional classroom, she also serves as Community News Editor for the Ruston Daily Leader where she brings the story of area citizens to life. A working musician for more than four decades, this lifelong music enthusiast also adds a colorful career in radio as well as public relations for local musicians to her creative palette.
Ginger Briggs, painter
Ginger has been creating as long as she can remember. She was a student at Baton Rouge Fine Arts Academy under the tutelage of Larry Casso for 7 years where she learned the "Old Masters" techniques of drawing and painting. The majority of her works are rural scenes from Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Recently, Ginger started working with natural fiber including spinning yarn, felting and weaving.
Judy Buckner, painter
Avidly painting with about 45 years of artistic experience behind her, most of Buckner’s artwork is very nature inspired. It often consists of various landscape and floral scenery, and most of her inspiration comes from her observation of the world around her, whether that’s people, landscapes, or nature in general. Primarily using oil and acrylic for her pieces, she also covers a variety of freelance painting services. These services include portraits, historical subject matter, Louisiana landscapes and nature, and live events.
Brent & Cara beth buie, photography
Specializing in wedding and lifestyle photography, this husband and wife duo uses their artistic eye to intentionally capture their subjects’ uniqueness and authenticity. From the dramatic and stylish to the simple day-to-day, their skills extend beyond the external point of view and towards individual artistic expression.
BRANDON COOPER, Painter
Inspired by culture and nature, Brandon’s art consists of the everyday things that he enjoys: outdoors, traveling and learning. His love of Louisiana food and culture has become inspiration for both his art and writing. In addition to painting, Brandon writes poetry, books, songs, and articles that speak to his inspiration at the time.
Dean Dablow, Photographer, Painter, Sculptor
Dablow’s visits to The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC at a young age were pivotal in his decision to pursue the life of an artist. He began graduate studies in photography under John Schulze at the University of Iowa where he received his MFA in 1974 with a minor in sculpture under Julius Schmidt. Dablow taught at Louisiana Tech University for 31 years as the head of the Photography Program and Director of the School of Art. Now retired, Dablow is Professor Emeritus at Louisiana Tech. He keeps his artistic interest alive by working in drawing and sculpture and recently returned to painting as his medium of choice.
Alexis Davis, painter
Centering her pieces around a more impressionist style, Davis’s goal is to place the artistic interpretation in the eye of the beholder. Using a medium of both acrylic and mixed media, her colorful radiant images are designed to spark a remembrance of positivity amongst the viewer. Davis describes the main motivation behind her creativity is being able to positively influence those who relate to her artwork.
Lauren Green Dixon, Artist & Educator
Currently an elementary arts teacher and educator, Dixon’s artistic expression reflects her outgoing and friendly personality. Most of her work is abstract, includes bright, vibrant colors and geometric shapes. It captures the eye and depicting subjects in a new, interesting light.
Dianne Douglas, painter
Douglas has been an avid watercolor painter throughout her entire life. After a fulfilling career as professor of foreign languages at Louisiana Tech University, she is now a full-time artist. She finds her inspiration through her environment, travels, and experiences. Her preferred subjects include interiors, nature, festivals, cafes, cities, wherever people gather. Whether it's shoppers, tourists, musicians, individuals or groups, she uses human gestures, moods, and moments to begin creating her pieces.
Email: ddouglas100@suddenlink.net
Christiane Drieling, Collage Artist
Drieling’s art consists of many comical/absurd elements hat depict a certain theme or tell a specific story. Each piece handles individual dilemmas, interpersonal conflicts, culture clashes, political issues, and societal visions. She uses book clippings from miscellaneous sources, and her stories are innocently playful or outrageously surreal, illustrating a specific theme using vivid dream-like imagery.
JAKE DUGARD, DESIGNER & EDUCATOR
A practicing artist for the past 10 years, Dugard’s work consists of almost everything: from graphic design, web design, and silkscreening. His inspiration comes from his kids, his environment, and music, and his art is simple, bold, and colorful. Along with running the Makers Union Co., he teaches undergraduate classes in the School of Design at Louisiana Tech University.
Linda Dwyer, Painter
Dwyer’s primary inspiration is her dedication to her strong Christian faith. Often using acrylic, she creates both individual paintings and custom commission paintings. Most of her artwork features religious influences and floral designs, made with many lighter, airy, and vivid colors.
Maryam El-Awadi, PAinter
El-Awadi is a sophomore at Louisiana Tech who is pursuing a career in art. Bold, vibrant, and colorful, her paintings are primarily inspired by average people, everyday experiences, and music. She describes her artistic style as “expressive portraits.” She explains that, “I always like to add an element of abstraction to paintings of people.”
Emily Ezell
Emily Ezell composes an inverted esoteric world where reptiles are maternal, clowns are sacred, and feral women perform celebratory ritual intoxication. Color, texture and light are rendered in playful narratives that vacillate between illusionist and broken space and form. Ezell finds inspiration in Jungian Psychology, Esoteric Mythology, Southern Gothic culture, Mannerism, Rococo, the Divine Feminine and swamps.
Thomas Faulkner, Print maker and sculptor
Thomas Faulkner is an MFA candidate at Louisiana Tech University where he earned his BFA in studio art. Between completing his undergraduate degree and beginning graduate school, Faulkner was the production manager for a screen printing business. He now combines his industry experience and personal research to create art that explores color, shape, space, time, and playfulness.
Hannah Fulton, Painter and Photographer
Currently pursuing a master of fine arts with a concentration in studio art at Louisiana Tech, Fulton is an active participant in local art events and has been featured in shows such as NCLAC’s 50@50 and the NCLAC Art Billboard. Her work consists of vibrant colors and captivating shapes that leave the viewer entranced. Her work has also been published in the online gallery called Creative Quarterly Issue 52 and Photographer’s Forum 2015. She is working towards earning the credentials to teach art education.
Cathy Godley, Jewler
Primarily making jewelry out of pieces of china and glass, Godley’s craft isn’t only beautiful, but its fashionable as well. Operating under the business name LouisianaCat, Godley designs jewelry using stained glass, beads, and broken china. Finding inspiration from the great outdoors, Godley composes her pieces using many floral designs, animal imagery, and light, soothing, naturally-based colors.
Frank Hamrick, Photographer & Bookmaker
A tintype photographer and a book artist, Hamrick’s work features meaningful content inspired by objects, environment and surroundings, and the human experience. He implements his photography series into his bookmaking, some of his popular works including series such as “Found Objects,” “It was there all along,” and “My face tastes like salt.”
Inique Harris, Painter
A talented artist based out of Monroe, LA, Harris is a painter with her degree in art from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She’s also a gifted drawer, and most of her images consist of vibrant colors, friendly, relatable subjects, and captivating imagery.
Lyndsay Hogg, Artist
Hogg is a young artist who’s work first began emerging during her years at Ruston High School. One of her pieces, “Ocean Breeze,” received significant recognition in Ruston High’s Talented Art Department for her close attention to detail.
Jessica Horne, Painter
Horne’s work is unique in that it focuses on unexplainable subjects such as conspiracy theories, supernatural events, the unknown, and the uncanny. She describes her own art by saying, “Most viewers have no clue what my work is about, but they are very curious about it.” She continues by describing, “As I got older I loved watching documentaries about UFOs, aliens, ghosts, conspiracy theories, and much more. I'm a big believer in opening your mind to things that seem unreal and to question everything.”
amy james, photographer
James’s work is primarily portraiture of people and/or pets, photographed using only natural light in their own environments, or set against a picturesque, southern landscape or body of water. Over the last few decades, her images have slowly become more autobiographical. Working primarily with film, James enjoys because every aspect of creating the final image-- from releasing the shutter to the final moment the image appears on a stark white piece of paper.
Larry Jarrell, Specialty Foods/Catering
Continuing the business started several years ago by his wife Sharon, Jarrell has continued to make her savory recipes for hundreds of others to enjoy. From a variety of casseroles, chicken salad, pies, cakes, old-fashioned tea cakes, and other seasonal specialties, Jarrell caters weddings, dinners, and celebrations of all sizes.
Chlese Jiles, Visual Development & Illustration
With a degree from Louisiana Tech, Jiles loves to draw and pulls most of her inspiration from nature, people, and her surrounding environment. She has been practicing her artistic skills from a young age. Jiles explains her passion for illustration and illustrated characters when she recalls, “I used to spend hours in front of my television, drawing and creating my own characters that could exist in many animated worlds to which I prescribed. Often, my characters were simply me: the girl with the brown skin I saw missing from the rest of the cast...I have become passionate about creating diverse characters with stories that make is possible to imagine more for our lives--or perhaps help us to see what stories are being plated out around us every day.”
Patricia Tait Jones, Painter
Patricia Tait Jones has several series that she currently works within. Landscapes were her original direction, and she still occasionally get back to them. Her first inspiration is thought and story telling, then immediately color takes over with unlimited choices in relationships within the story. Currently, Jones is working in large scale photographic collages with painted settings. These pieces are directly tied to her imagination and invented story.
Peter Jones, Photographer & Painter
Serving as the President of NCLAC’s Board of Director for the last several years, Jones has been practicing and perfecting his craft for much longer than that. After graduating from Amherst and studying art history at The Institute of Fine Arts in New York, he studied painting and photography at the University of Iowa and received his MA and MFA in painting. He served as a professor of art at Louisiana Tech for 31 years. As Professor Emeritus, Jones primarily spends his time working with NCLAC and continuing to work in his favorite artistic medias.
Bette Kauffman, Photographer
Kauffman, owner of Edge & Essence, has produced art since the mid-70s, but the time she has devoted to art has varied a great deal over the last few years. For about the past 5 years, she has focused more intensely on art, her primary medium of choice being digital photography, her favorite aspects covering everything from shooting and editing to printing and framing. Kauffman describes her art as a produce of her interaction with the world, and it is eclectic in subject matter: architecture, people in candid settings, and the natural world. She is often inspired by creation itself, and by the challenge of saying something relevant about the human condition in all its glory and pathos, heroism and hubris.
Khalilah Al-Amin Kersey, Designer
The digital explorations of Khalilah’s artwork include color, texture, and tone. She takes inspiration from people, words, and the fictional worlds around her. Taking her time to develop her style, Khalilah says, “My biggest passion is storytelling and so my long term goal is to be able to combine all avenues of artistry that I find myself interested in to tell people's stories in a unique and cohesive way.”
Hooshang Khorasani, Painter
Known for his contemporary style, Khorasani’s work consists of alternating muted and bold hues of color. His primary three genres that he specializes in are abstracts, florals, and horses, and his paintings are mixed media, and are usually on canvas, paper, or board. He states that, “in general, the main thing that ties my work together is a feeling of energy.” With a wide range of experience stretching from working with interior designers, to working as a self-employed artist in Europe, his work has found its way into galleries, museums, and in collaboration with various publishers.
P. Michael LeBlanc, Photography & Graphic Design
LeBlanc’s photography is born from a love of light, portraiture, bold color palettes, and people with all their varying expressions. In a time when most of our gazes are directed towards digital screens, his series of office portraits is an attempt at redirecting the viewer’s attention back to the human face or an interesting composition, with hopes and intentions of ultimately sparking physical human interaction and conversation.
Laura Lewis, Mixed Media
A multi-disciplined artist, Lewis’s work spans over a variety of mediums. Most of her art includes drawing, painting, and ceramic. Her work has been featured in Ruston for the last few years, and she draws on her own experience with her family, human relationships, and experiences to create her work.
Dr. Gregory Lyons, Musician
A talented musician, Associate Professor of Music, Head of Instrumental Education, and Assistant Director of Bands at Louisiana Tech University, Lyons first discovered his interest in percussion at age 11. He finds his musical inspiration in his surrounding community, and says that “it’s critical to stay open to all kinds of sounds, in order to better communicate as a musician. Lyons is also the co-founder of the New Music on the Bayou, a summer music festival that’s been taking place throughout Ruston and Monroe since 2016.
Kaitlin Maloy, studio artist
Kaitlin Maloy is an artist currently pursuing her MFA in Studio Art at Louisiana Tech University. In her undergraduate years, she studied Biology and Chemistry, and the knowledge she gained informs her current work. Kaitlin is passionate about science communication, public health, and feminist issues. She explores these topics through a variety of mediums with a particular emphasis on digital illustrations.
Madeline Marak, Painter
A native of Shreveport, Madeline isn’t only our executive director, but she’s an outstanding artist as well. She has a BFA degree in studio art from Tulane and an MFA degree in studio art from Washington University in St. Louis. She has taught art at a variety of levels, worked in galleries, and spent time as an artist in residence in Shreveport, Ireland, and Brazil.
Henry MCCOY, Photographer
Traditional photographer, amateur woodworker, and owner of Fine Line Supply Co. in Ruston. He began his study of photography with my dad’s old Pentax MV1 in high school. He studied photography at Louisiana Tech University and Southeastern Louisiana University. Henry mostly focuses on wedding and portrait photography, as well as art, editorial, and commercial photography. Along with his artistic practice, Henry provides services to artists such as photo & fine art printing, artwork reproduction, custom framing, film & photo scanning, photo restoration, and laser engraving.
Donna McGee, Painter
McGee has been painting for the last 45 years, and her primary mediums include acrylic, watercolor, oil, and mixed medium. In her studio work, she enjoys exploring color as a subjective element, reflecting the mood she wants to convey rather than the natural colors present in nature. McGee explains that “For the past few years I have explored the idea of allowing natural forces such as gravity a more active role in the creation of the work. I consider my studio work to be exploratory and expressive of my ideas and feelings about nature rather that literal depictions of a place or time.”
SHELLY NEALY, Painter
Starting as a 3-D design major, Shelly is inspired by texture and surfaces, building layers, and peeling back the history of a painting to bring a sensorial feeling. She uses acrylic, latex, oil, watercolor, markers, charcoal, plasters, metal leaf, collage, and just about anything that will make a mark on a surface. Her inspiration comes from what surrounds her at any given moment. Always looking, she is always inspired to create the next mark.
David Pesnell, Photographer
David’s photography is a versatile and unique mixture of portrait and street/landscape photography often used in combination to create truly one of a kind portraits. His works range from color to black and white, using both digital and film formats.He finds inspiration from getting out in the street and making connections with people in their daily lives. He loves to see people interact with their environment and hear their stories while helpline to preserve those stories through photography.
Kasandra Peterson, Mixed Media
Starting her love for art at a very young age, Kasandra creates a large variety of art pieces using her unique, somewhat realistic style. She works mostly in acrylics, graphite, and watercolor. She depicts different subjects ranging from animals to television characters, portraits to fan art, taking inspiration from music and different aspects of human emotion.
Katey Plummer, Painter
With a love for color and creativity, Katey uses painting as a way to free her mind, express herself, and create joy. Her variety of color choices are inspired by her children. “I am typically painting with one or more of them beside me and they make me think of happy colors.” Katey uses journaling, being outside, and listening to music to focus her mind on her creative process, allowing her to be more open to new ides. Katey creates because she feels that, “A beautiful painting, an incredible photo, an inspiring song are all ways we express ourselves and i think people like feeling connected to the artist.”
Emily Pullin, Painter
Pullin is a mixed media artist based in northern Louisiana. Finding inspiration inside of her familial ties, she creates most of her paintings from relationships and various life experiences. She describes her work as a balance between vibrant, captivating images based on a raw, organic background.
Julie Roane, Painter
Roane works mostly with oils, and she does commissions of pet portraits, but is open to painting other subjects as well. Some of these subjects include animals of all sorts, people, old historic houses, etc. Her work primarily consists of bright, vibrant colors that entrance and draw an emotional reaction from the viewer.
Amanda roe, painter
Using her art as a reflection of society through the mundane, macabre, and absurdity of life, Amanda Roe is a full time artist who scrubs, sands, and fills her work with life and texture. She doesn’t limit herself to one subject matter, because she enjoys exploring different ideas, and using her own emotional influences to portray images, ideas, and opinions in her paintings. “My work usually deals with my relationship with society through a mixture of sometimes horrific and other times brightly colored scenes and objects like gasmasks, skulls, landscapes, and myself. It’s a way for me to balance the noise within both my heart and mind when dealing with exterior forces beyond my control.”
Suzanna Scott, feminist artist
Suzanna Scott’s work explores feminist themes and visual ideas in and of the body. Entering her third decade as an artist, Scott employs a range of materials including stone, wax, fiber, paper, resin, and the occasional found object. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States, and can be found in private collections worldwide. Scott currently lives and works in Ruston, Louisiana.
Dellanee Wade, Graphic Design
A graphic design MFA candidate at Louisiana Tech, Dellanee Wade has a BA in Communication with a concentration in New Media Design from Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. Inspired by the design world, her work allows her to explore the qualities of visual material through image-making techniques with the intent to improve the communities in which we live and work. Wade has designed work for a variety of brands and companies, as well as some of her own personal and education projects.
M. Douglas Walton, painter
Walton has significant experience in Architecture and watercoloring. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture in 1965 from Oklahoma State University, and teaching architecture himself at Louisiana Tech University, he has led countless workshops and classes about watercoloring, painting, and the arts in general. Most of his current art is part of an exhibition that is titled “Quake in Paradise: Echoes of Nepal.” These paintings reflect the significant impact and devastation caused by the Nepal earthquake of 2015--an event which he experienced firsthand.