The Creative Warriors Come to Manchester

by Anita Sandler

The Creative Warriors are coming to town. This dynamic group of artists and writers will be sharing their art and their journey on Wednesday, October 17th as the feature event of the Greater Manchester Arts Council’s Life After Dark program. The Inn at Manchester is hosting the Warriors with an Opening Reception free to the public from 6PM to 8PM.

The Creative Warriors is the creation of sculptural artist Serena Kovalosky who, in 1997 decided to leave ‘the corporate world’ to dedicate herself to becoming a full-time artist. It was a choice worthy of needing to become a ‘warrior’ to accomplish. She started using the term Creative Warrior on her business card and the name was born. She rented a loft in Montreal’s ‘So-Ho’ district and began fulfilling her dream but found she needed the creative and emotional support and reinforcement of other artists to keep her motivated and inspired. Creative Warriors was born out of a need to network and a need for encouragement from a peer group. The goal of the first group was and still is to “raise the bar” on their creative work, to be able to network, to co-mentor and co-motivate each other, and most of all , to share ideas on marketing and selling their work. In December, 2006, she created a Creative Warriors Challenge: For one year they’d work with only one group, to co-mentor each other into achieving their individual creative goals. The 5 who responded to Kovalosky’s original challenge are all represented in this exhibition which is the culmination of the first Warrior Year.

Sandra Archbold and Mary Ward are two fiber artists dedicated to their individual visions of the art of quilting. Archbold, from Granville, New York, has a background in Fashion Design and has worked in the fashion world where she discovered her passion for fabric, quilting and wearable art. “My goal is to create beautiful, functional clothing that will withstand the test of time and will be a piece of art as well.” Her goal with ‘the Warriors” was to design a unique line of kimonos. She will exhibit a prototype as well as her beautiful quilted wall hangings. She has won awards in many national shows and last year won Best in Show at the Hildene Needlecraft Show. She currently gives workshops and lectures on “Where Ideas Come From.”

Mary Ward is a self taught artist born on a dairy farm in Argyle, New York. In her quilted wall hangings she invites you into her ‘enchanted world’. She tells a story and communicates her artistic vision in her fabric and design choices. Her Warrior goal was to create a series of quilted art pieces to be shown in galleries. She quietly worked over the course of the year and surprised the group with invitations to her first solo show. This group show will feature many of Ward’s magical quilted art pieces.

Ann Butwell is an abstract watercolorist who explores the process of healing in her work. A car accident radically changed her life in 1992 .The experience continues to influence her work as she looks for a universal language to communicate her feelings and discoveries. She sometimes uses a variety of two dimensional media to get a full range of values and expression. “My primary goal as a Creative Warrior was to do a solo show. I never would have believed that by the end of the year, I not only got to exhibit in a very successful show, but I was offered the perfect job where I’ll have plenty of time to work on my art!” She has recently moved to Minneapolis but is being represented at the show by several paintings “which will move and touch a piece of your soul.”

Portrait Artist, Winnie Pino explores in her oil paintings the question and seduction of physical beauty. “We mask ourselves and personify identities of fantasy and expectation.” As a girl she was fascinated by how girls began to play with make-up, hair and dress. “Two decades later, I’m still fascinated be these obsessive masquerading rituals. But what you see isn’t always what you get.” says Pino. Her oil paintings are intense, powerful and passionate. A recent graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art, Pino has exhibited at the Hyde Museum in Glens Falls and the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, DC. She has done undergraduate studies at Sage College of Albany, Skidmore and Parson School of Design in Paris. She came to the Warrior’s to develop her creative network and “to get her work out there”.

Creative Warrior and author Mary Holland will be reading excerpts from her upcoming novel, The Spaces In Between, a fictional journey towards a world we have yet to discover. Holland’s journey began in Sandgate, Vermont. She has been involved with international corporations, has been a restaurant owner, a community organizer, a business owner, a writer. As a result of a physical trauma in her life, she was drawn to the study of ancient healing practices. Her many life experiences and an underlying desire to affect social change has inspired her first novel. “The support of the Warriors helped me to persevere when I started questioning if I should continue writing.”

Founder Warrior and gourd artist Serena Kovalosky will exhibit her organic and earthy hand-carved and beautifully adorned dried gourd sculptures and vessels. Using gold and copper leaf, special stains and unusual pyroengraving techniques, she pays homage to her passion for natural materials and the primitive form. “In my gourdwork, I prefer to respect the “wonkyness’ of the gourd’s organic shape. I’ll work for hours carving the rim of a bowl so that it enhances the gourd’s primal form.” Kovalosky’s work has been exhibited throughout the northeast US and Canada. Her philosophy and work style have been the subject of television documentaries and newspaper articles. Her installations have been commissioned at the International Festival for Humanity at McGill University in Montreal and the New York Farm Bureau’s Lobby Days at The Egg in Albany. She is the co-founder of Open Studios of Washington County, New York.

Kovalosky says “We learned we could achieve almost anything with a strong intent and the support of the group.” She continues, “ This group is amazing, not only are they talented in their creative abilities, but they all worked hard over the past year to explore various techniques to overcoming each other’s ‘creative resistance’ towards achieving our goals.” The Exhibition of The Creative Warriors at The Inn at Manchester in Manchester Village, will celebrate their individual achievements and the end of the first Warrior Year and promises to be exciting, stimulating and inspiring.