Meet the Artists
Tonzola Art & Design
Eric Tonzola is a Lancaster, Pa based artist with a multidisciplinary background. An illustrated style that bridges the gaps between an absurd rendition of the human condition, crossing over into the eerie and darkest corners of the whimsical imagination.
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Eric's work can be found in the Walnut Street stairwell entrance to the gallery where you can follow the beer wall all the way up to the second floor.
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Facebook: @tonzolaart
Instagram: @tonzola_art
Website Link: http://www.tonzolaart.com/
Amy Groff
Hi! My name is Amy Groff, and I am an artist based out of Lancaster, PA. I was born and raised in a small town in southern Lancaster County and have been painting all my life. I am an acrylic and oil painter, using bright, bold colors in my pieces. I strive to portray the ever changing and elusive emotions that course through everything that we see and do throughout life. Sometimes, that comes out in an abstract piece, an illustrative piece, or an impressionistic landscape. On occasion, I even combine all those styles for something totally different and fantastical! I also love to paint anything involving nature, like flowers and birds and all types of furry or flying creatures. In the warmer months, you’ll frequently find me outdoors, painting en plein air. The rush of capturing a specific moment in time is something I find very intriguing and challenging and just absolutely fascinating! Across all my styles of painting, vibrant color remains a constant theme. Some of the events and exhibits I've participated in are the River Towns Plein Air events 2021-2023, and I was a featured female artist in a month long exhibit titled “Women’s Expressions” (hosted by Lancaster General Women & Babies hospital). I was awarded 2nd place in the 23rd Annual Landis Woods Outdoor Fine Art Show in 2022 and "Best of Show" in Create Columbia's exhibit "Columbia the in the Details" 2022. I am a member of the LCAA (Lancaster County Art Association) where I have won awards in multiple exhibits and shows over the last 3 years. Aside from being a busy artist, I am also a busy mom of five. There's never a dull moment around here!
If you'd like information about commissioning a painting, you can email me at theartistamy@gmail.com
Facebook: @theartistamy
Instagram: @the_artist_amy
Website: www.theartistamy.com
Dizzuane- Dripped Gawd
Artist Dizz Gavins also known as Dizzuane ( Dizz-Wayne) was born and raised in Baltimore,MD, with roots based in York, PA & now Lancaster.
Dizz's creative skills can be seen in many different mediums. Focusing in fashion, graphic design and fine art.
His free flowing drippy style earned him the name "Dripped Gawd" by his peers.
By creating his own lane he's been able to work with several brands/artists including New Balance, PUMA, Levis & 21 Savage just to name a few.
His most recent & largest body of work can be found in the form of a mural, in the strawberry square district of Harrisburg, PA.
If you would like to check out any of Dizz's work, feel free to click the links below.
Columbia Creative Factory
"My name is Mychal LaVia and I graduated from Pennsylvania School of the Arts. I am co-founder and currently running and teaching workshops at The Columbia Creative Factory. I also volunteer for The Lancaster Creative Factory and teach workshops at The Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center. The mediums I enjoy are pottery, painting, and glass blowing. The Columbia Creative Factory strives to strengthen connections within the community by building personal and social relationships through shared arts experiences. We use the creative process to promote self-expression and develop unique problem solving skills. Where dreams become reality! "
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Facebook: @columbiacreativefactory
Instagram: @columbiacreativefactory
Website: www.columbiacreativefactory.org
ART Tribe
The ART Tribe consists of four local ladies who all have their own unique niche to offer the art world. Meet Kim Morrow, Susan Darling, Peggy Donnan, and Emily Frey!
KiMorroWorks
"As I entered my wise woman years, I shed the formality of my profession as a graphic designer. For this stage of life, I've reached back to my youth to the process of learning and experimenting.
Mixed Media collage and found object art allows me to create using computer generated and hand rendered components. Abstraction is the freedom I have been longing for but I still love working just with paint on paper or canvas in realism.
My focus has become an exploration in color, texture, deconstruction layering over a structure of basic intuitive design harmony. My influences have been fine artists and great graphic designers. As an educator, I studied theories and principles of design and composition. I found I have a great love for typography so you may see letters, words and phrases creep into my work as well.
INSPIRATION
As an artist, inspiration is found everywhere, in everything. It abounds in nature, in the contents of museums, in architecture and cityscapes and landscapes. For me it also comes in the written word, especially from poetry. To have a gift that allows me to visualize what I experience in either realism or abstraction form is truly what brings me the greatest joy.
MEDIUMS I LOVE
Acrylic, watercolor, collage, mixed mediums, digital collage papers, gelli plate printing, pencil, marker, charcoal, colored pencils are a few that I work with regularly. I am always looking to experiment with a new technique. I also love working in 3D and enjoy book making and graphic design
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
During my professional life, I have been a graphic designer, book designer, art director, and creative team supervisor. For 19 years I was an owner/partner of a graphic design studio. The last 18 years I was an instructor of digital graphic design at a technical school, seven of which as the program director coinciding with three years as co-director of web design. I also served one year as acting drafting program director.
BFA, Advertising, Kutztown University MFA, Graphic Design, Marywood University
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Facebook: @kimorroworks
Instagram: @kimorroworks
Website: www.kimorroworks.com
Susan Darling
Marietta Artist, Susan Davitti Darling, likes to recycle, reuse and reinvent. Using discarded library books, old calendars and datebooks, pamphlets and brochures, Susan creates colorful collages that exhibit a designer’s keen sense of composition. Her degree in Commercial Art from Millersville University and studies at Pennsylvania School of the Arts positioned her to take on numerous projects, such as creating greeting cards and calendar art and several label designs for a local winery. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge with others. We all need more ART in our life!
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Instagram: @davittidarling
Website: www.davittidarling.com
Margaret Kauffman-Donnan
From as early as she can remember, Peggi has loved art. In elementary school her art teacher introduced the class to art books that captured her complete attention. Through the years as a student she spent all her free time in the art room or doing art related activities. In her senior year of high school, her art teacher recognized her talent and unbeknown to her got her an interview to show her portfolio at the York Academy of Art in York, PA. That summer she received an acceptance letter to school but was not financially able to attend. During marriage and motherhood she was always involved in the arts. While her daughter was in school, she worked part time at Boys and Girls Club at the Columbia Center as the arts and crafts instructor. She inspired a student who competed in an art contest who won first place in the local, county, state and national competition. She had to take a hiatus because her husband became sick. After his passing she took courses online and completed her associates degree in early childhood development. She used her degree for the next ten years in several local school districts often focusing on art related activities. Upon retirement her focus returned to developing her artist skill by taking lessons with local artists and adult courses at PCAD. Peggi also is a natural storyteller and started to focus on that in her art composition and does remarkable art journaling. She loves working 3-dimensionally creating with found objects, paper, boxes and paint.
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Instagram: @margaretkauffmandonnan
Emily Frey
“I paint and create because I love to watch an image reveal itself onto the paper or canvas as I work. I am attracted to a variety of subject matter such as animals, still-life, landscapes, as well as abstract design. It is the shapes, forms and textures that intrigue me rather than the subject matter for its own sake. I like to get lost in the internal dialogue of questions and solutions on how to achieve various effects. For me, creating an image is like solving a puzzle or mystery.”
Emily Frey, a retired middle school art teacher from Central York School District in York, PA, is a 1984 graduate of the Chambersburg Area High School. She earned an associate’s degree of technology from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and a bachelor’s degree from Shippensburg University. Through post graduate work, Frey obtained her teaching certification at Millersville University and a master’s degree from Wilkes University. Emily continued to pursue graduate level art courses through Shippensburg University and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. In addition, she enjoys studying painting and collage workshops with popular regional artists such as Lynn Yancha, Glenn Blue, Debi Watson, George Clark, Susan Darling, and many others.
Emily Frey has been a member of the York Art Association for over 20 years. There, her work was recognized with an Award of Excellence in the 40th Annual Juried Show 2010. Her work has been featured at The Framers Gallery, York Arts-Artist Market Place, and Bistro 71 in Chambersburg, PA. Most recently Emily’s work has been available for purchase at Garth Gallery in Columbia, PA. She is thrilled to be part of the group of amazing artists working in the studios at the Switchboard Gallery.
Bumbling Circus Workshop
Concept
Bumbling Circus Workshop is a place of boundless energy where wood, words, ideas and other media are crafted in exceedingly functional and fantastical ways. Established in 2021 as a rogue artisans hideout deep within the subterranean halls of the Cimarron Center, we are now proud to join Switchboard Studios and Gallery, high above the Columbia Kettle Works in Columbia, Pennsylvania. A three-ring workshop by nature has projects too numerous to count. The Bumbling Circus is no exception. Here you are likely to hear the whirring of a sewing machine, the churn of a concrete mixer or the buzz of a chainsaw. You may also encounter quiet solitude as we write or meditate. Beginning this year, the Bumbling Circus Workshop plans to offer community learning programs in conjunction with our friends Miss Alison’s Studio, Columbia Creative Factory and others.
Cast
Albert Storm is ringmaster and sole proprietor of the Bumbling Circus Workshop. He is a retired soldier, educator, civic activist and outdoorsman. Storm recalls starting to learn woodworking “as I watched my Dad skillfully create a hockey stick with a noisy old table saw”. He also remembers making a pattern and casting a small aluminum barbell for his wrestling
coach. “I had some creative opportunities in school. In music, shop, public speaking.” “Then I went off to a twenty year career in the Army. I recall building shelves and
makeshift furniture for my barracks room and family quarters. Once I did some carpentry for a production of “Man of La Mancha”, in which I also played the role of a muleteer.” While
deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, Storm found himself doing double duty, serving as camp carpenter, as well as his full time gig as Platoon Sergeant for a Signals Reconnaissance Platoon. “I got a chance to build some portable structures, do vehicle customization, and create some badass basketball goals. I hated to see all of that stuff go into a burn pit when departed, but hey, I was going home.” After the Army, Storm completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Technology Education at Old Dominion University and subsequently a Master of Education at Penn State. He operated a one-man home improvement contracting business for a handful of years, building decks and fences in Virginia, before moving back to Pennsylvania in 2001. “Since then I have enjoyed being involved in a lot of community work, especially in support of literacy.” In partnership with his brother Chuck, the Storm Brothers LLC performed restoration millwork to create 20 sets of arched, raised panel shutters for the Musselman Vesta Furnace Center in Marietta. He is an avowed environmentalist, recycler of all things, kayaker, gardener and brewer. “I enjoy cooking. Brewing is an extension of that. I no longer brew beer, but instead kombucha and an occasional cider or fruit wine. I have also dabbled in the making of biodiesel, soap, sourdough, web design and poetry. Yeah, pretty much anything.” Storm also enjoys performance art, having played a major role in the “Burning of the Bridge” commemorations, 25 fires atop the abandoned bridge piers between Columbia and Wrightsville. In 2014, he went so far as to brew a special batch of “Bridge Burner Brown Ale”, boiling the wort atop one of the piers. “I believe I am the first and only person to have done such a thing. I hope someone else will do it again.” “Stormy”, as he is known to friends, is presently focused primarily on fine woodworking. He is a father, friend and lifelong student of the world.
Artist’s Statement I love the smell of wood. I love the feel of wood. I would eat wood, but I prefer to cut, carve and shape wood. My adventures with the Bumbling Circus Workshop take me in many directions, but I always come back to the wood, the trees, the forests that line the shores of a river called Susquehanna. Creating useful objects from the wood of trees that I have personally felled, dragged from the forest and milled, gives me a deep connection to my craft. The sound of a curl of walnut being sheared by a finely honed chisel is as satisfying to me as the slicing of my kayak through the water as I prowl around the islands near Columbia.
Facebook: @bumblingcircusworkshop
Instagram: @bumblingcircusworkshop
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Miss Alison's LLC
Hello! I am Miss Alison, how can I connect you? I'm the Operator of the Switchboard and I run this here wicked cool artist space in partnership with Columbia Kettle Works to help give artists & musicians a place to create, connect, and collaborate!
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I run the gallery space with monthly gallery shows, book the events and gigs for our event space, and run the private bar. I enjoy slinging drinks, floating around to serve my friends and providing everybody with those good time vibes.
As an artist here at the Switchboard, I host regular paint n' sip nights. I also enjoy putting together community art projects like giant color by number wall murals. I enjoy illustrating on canvases, I enjoy teaching, I enjoy poetry and words, and I enjoy every moment I am breathing. See a pattern?
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Occasionally you might find me enjoying a brew at Hell in a Bucket with my sketchbook and my art friends, supporting other local breweries, networking with musicians and taking advantage of all of the free models for figural sketches. Being able to create in an environment where other creators are creating around you is invigorating.
I think it is incredibly important as an artist, as a human, to find joy in our experiences in order to create the best art and the best version of ourselves. I myself find joy in helping other people find it.
I like to watch the metaphorical lightbulbs go off above people's heads when they accomplish something they never thought they could do. I enjoy helping people find their confidence whether it's picking up a paint brush or finally touching their toes. We humans really only learn through experience and that's what I aim to provide. Make it a good one!
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I like to create. It is all inclusive.
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Facebook: @missalisonsllc
Instagram: @missalisonsllc
Website: www.missalisons.com
