Featured Artist Partnerships
Professional local artists and educators that we admire and are proud to feature.
In collaboration with Sluss Realty in Ontario, Ohio, these artists are currently displaying in their office building.
Their works are available for purchase on location, or through this site.
10% of sales of these works will be donated to The Ontario Kids Festival:
Presented by Sluss Realty, this is a community event created to give children and families an opportunity for summer fun at little to no cost. With rides, inflatables, carnival games, vendors, food trucks, entertainment and more, the OKF is the premier event for youth in North Central Ohio!
John Thrasher is an artist and a Professor in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University. He teaches drawing, ceramics, two-dimensional art, and criticism on the Mansfield campus. His varied portfolio includes hand-formed ceramic sculpture, portraits, murals, drawing, painting, and calligraphy. He has exhibited his work in local, regional, national, and international venues for over 35 years.
Mindy Duncan is a Mansfield High School art teacher and professional artist who has had numerous solo exhibits and collectors across the country. She has 10 works in Ashland University’s permanent art collection. She says, “Regardless of whether it’s a collage, layered with textures and objects, always hiding a much deeper meaning/story weaving through what’s visible on the surface, or a more straightforward painting that gives me just as much enjoyment, I just can’t not create. It’s like breathing.”
Tim Gorka: “I grew up in Ontario Ohio and discovered at an early age that my creative work was not only great fun but got the attention and support from the people around me. I also learned from the start that I could get paid for it. By the time I was twenty I decided that this would always be my path, and I have made a lifelong career creating commission work primarily in wood. Officially starting my carving business in 1982, I have spent my life creating hand carved sculptures of wildlife, architectural elements and for many years carousel figures.
Throughout this time, I have kept my own personal art in a separate and inviolate compartment where I could explore my own ideas and find my own voice as an artist, and now that has become my primary focus. My work has often explored themes of duality and paradox as they seem to appear in every situation and setting. I have a deep love of my craft and my work is often centered around pushing the limitations of what can be accomplished in materials and techniques. In the end I am usually about the business of having fun in my work and hope to bring that to the viewer.
Throughout this time, I have kept my own personal art in a separate and inviolate compartment where I could explore my own ideas and find my own voice as an artist, and now that has become my primary focus. My work has often explored themes of duality and paradox as they seem to appear in every situation and setting. I have a deep love of my craft and my work is often centered around pushing the limitations of what can be accomplished in materials and techniques. In the end I am usually about the business of having fun in my work and hope to bring that to the viewer.
