The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
Barbara Bachtell grew up in NE Ohio, Pittsburgh, and New Mexico. She has a BA in art from Wesleyan University (CT), and a BFA in painting from Cleveland Institute of Art. She has incorporated both text elements and organic forms into her work for many years, and is a published poet and writer as well as a visual artist. She has shown her drawings and small sculptures around Ohio and in Wisconsin, most recently in group shows at MOCA, Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, Waterloo Arts and YARDS Projects. Her work is in local individual and corporate collections, including The Cleveland Clinic, the Dalad Group, MetroHealth Medical Center, and Jones Day.
Tom holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Earth Science from the University of Massachusetts, and hs worked in such diverse areas as: mineral exploration around the world; preparing environmental impact studies for the U. S. Government; and leading the clean-up of retired nuclear facilities. As an undergraduate he also engaged in music performance, theater (stage management), was student manager of the University Bands (Marching, Concert, Symphonic), and participated in the University’s Concert Association which brought world-class musicians and groups to campus. In recent years he has become an award-winning visual artist, and has participated on the boards of the Ohio Art League, and the Clintonville Arts Guild. Currently, Tom works part-time as the Exhibitions Coordinator for the Columbus Cultural Arts Center.
Brian Ballenger
Artist/Painter
I paint by building up oil paint on the surface of the canvas. The brushstrokes are the true subject of painting.; they extend fully across the canvas, collecting color from the brush and the surface, to blend and redistribute the material. Varied brush widths and pressures are utilized to come together as a new work. These are paintings whose depth changes with perspective and whose sense of light and shading and understanding adjust with examination.
miriam baranov
Realist Painter
I have two passions which are Mathematics and Art and I let them intertwine in my work. I have worked in two fields, a data engineer and an artist. When I create my work my vision and my end result is the art and the process of making that happen is me building the project as an engineer.…
Jeni Bate
Artist
Jeni Bate lives in the desert south west – a low place under a vast dome of sky. This is a constant reminder of how small we are in the face of all things, and when filled with clouds, an ever changing muse.
I’ve spent my life devoted to creating, teaching, and learning about art. My inspiration comes my life as a woman, wife, mother, student, teacher and an inhabitant of this earth.
I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. I received a BFA from the University of Dayton and an MA in Art Education from OSU. I’ve been a teaching artist for over 20 years and freelance artist for over 25 years mostly in central Ohio. I’ve recently moved back home to the Dayton area and excited about the Dayton area arts scene.
My works are mixed of printing and other painting materials such as collage, acrylic and color pencil. The source of my inspiration is from Persian history and Iran the country that I was born and my family .
Diane Belfiglio (pronounced Bel FEE lee o) earned her B.F.A. in Drawing, Painting, and Graphics from The Ohio State University in 1978, and her M.F.A. in Painting from Syracuse University in 1980. Also in 1980, she was awarded a $6000 Aid-to-Individual- Artists Fellowship Grant from the Ohio Arts Council. Since that time, she has received numerous professional awards, including four Arts in Stark grants from 2011-2014.…
Kirsta Niemie Benedetti lives and works in Columbus, Ohio with her husband and two daughters. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at Columbus College of Art and Design and has worked as a freelance artist partnering with Minted and West Elm since 2015, and as a commissioned artist for patrons around the country.
Currently, Kirsta is launching The Whole Picture Project, an initiative to bring people together through art and storytelling.
Robie Benve
Benve
Born and raised in Italy, Robie Benve is a self-taught artist always looking for new opportunities to learn and improve her skills.
Her mixed media paintings start with a colorful and abstract base and include layers of paint, paper, fabric, ink, charcoal, and more.
As she paints, Robie leaves some of the first layers peeking through. She also loves to feature abstract patterns created with her unique hand-cut stencils.
The resulting work is strikingly vibrant and lively.
In twenty-two years as an art teacher, stateside and overseas, I eventually taught grades Pre-K thru 12th. Meanwhile I established myself as an installation artist, exhibiting in the Midwest and East Coast, with architectural-referenced works. Included in my pursuits were a number of fellowships and residencies. Lately my focus and materials have shifted to those structures in the natural world and their relationship to the structures of the human brain and nervous system. The presentation and materials of my works reflect my investment in process (how we see and comprehend) and in the expressive elegance of the simple and the natural material.
Deb Berkebile
Textile Artist and Instructor
Technology and nature inspire creator of Great Lakes quilt; Ohio woman turns satellite images, thermal photographs into art.
I am a naturalist and environmentalist at heart. My current body of work explores satellite imagery and creating ‘false-color’ artistic depictions of remote sensed satellite images (Geographical Information Systems). I have eight quilts in my “Earth in Three Bands: R, G, B” Series: The Painted Desert, Eye of Sahara, The Great Salt Desert, Susitna Glacier, The Grand Canyon, Galileo Inspiration, The Great Lakes and my latest Rocky Mountain Trench. The vivid colors and their outstanding variations are what first drew me to these representations. I also use other remote sensed imagery taken from our National Parks for my art. My first quilt in this series was inspired by a thermal image of an eruption of the Old Faithful geyser taken in Yellowstone National Park.
Keith Berr
Photographer
Keith Berr is an international advertising and fine arts photographer. A graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography, he has developed a unique live/work compound in Cleveland’s Asia Town, where he holds frequent events, fundraisers and educational gatherings, helping people and organizations connect and share their strongest assets towards promoting the arts.
His clients include a broad range of major corporations, non-profit institutions, and small businesses. …
Sanjib Bhattacharya
Indian Dancer, Choreographer
Sanjib Bhattacharya, recipient of President’s Awards from Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam in 2006 and Smt. Pratibha Patil in 2011 is an accomplished Manipuri Dance Exponent, Guru and well-known Choreographer of India and abroad. He has received his training under the tutelage of Guru Bipin Singh, Padmashri Darshana Jhaveri, Kalavati Devi, Manjushree Chaki Sircar and Mamata Shankar. He is currently an established performer of great repute having extensively performed across India and abroad. He is not only performing as a solo artist, but is also performing with eminent Gurus and Icons of Indian Classical dances like Padmavibhushan Sonal Mansingh, Padmashri Darshana Jhaveri, Padmashri Ranjana Gauhar, and many other eminent gurus all over India and abroad. He runs several dance academies and institutions in India and Abroad while conducting Lecture Demonstrations and workshops regularly across the Globe. Currently Sanjib is living in Cleveland ,USA and Founder Director of Movements In motion ,teaching, performing, conducting workshop lecture demonstration, collaboration with the local Indian and multicultural community in US and CANADA, regularly creating a unique global choreographic presentation based on his Manipuri and Indian contemporary dance techniques as an Extraordinary Artist sponsored by Rainey Institute Cleveland.
Poet, musician, novelist.
Has organized poetry readings, open mic nights, started magazines (or helped with other peoples’ projects), was a founding member of a theater group that performed works they’d written themselves, helped behind the scenes as well as playing bit parts in 2 indy movies (a zombie in the crowd of attacking zombies, that sort of thing), organized home grown music festivals. Some of these things have been more successful than others. Along the way she’s been a member of Tinfoil, a Toledo area band that has released 14 albums, written hundreds of songs, one of which was used in an indy series called Certainty, and she’s released 2 books of poetry and three novels, the most recent of which was a finalist in the Faulkner competition.
To support these endeavors, she deals in used and rare books.
Mary Biddinger
Poet
Mary Biddinger’s latest poetry collection, Department of Elegy, will be published by Black Lawrence Press in early 2022. She has been the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. She teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Akron and NEOMFA program, and serves as poetry and poetics editor at the University of Akron Press.
Sebastian Birch
Associate Professor of Music
Sebastian Birch (DMA Cleveland Institute of Music) teaches theory and compositions at Kent State Stark. His compositions have been performed at numerous festivals, and conferences including the Bowling Green New Music Festival. Detectio Sonoris was recently performed by flautist Mary Kay Fink and pianist Nicholas Underhill.
Alice Blumenfeld
Artistic & Executive Director, Teaching Artist, Choreographer
Alice Blumenfeld is the founder and artistic director of ABREPASO flamenco. Recognitions include an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Choreography (FY20), a YoungArts Silver winner, and a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.
Michele BonDurant is a painter/mixed media artist based in Dayton, Ohio receiving a BFA from Wright State University. BonDurant finds and frames the everyday in her observational landscapes and cut paper paintings. Her spare, calculated style reflects both contentment in the ordinary, and an interest in heightened drama through the use of pattern and shadow.…
Kelley Booze studied the Columbus College of Art and Design, graduating magna cum laude with a B.F.A. in Fine Art in 2009. In addition to exhibiting and maintaining a studio practice, she has taught various classes and workshops both independently and with several institutions. Her artwork has exhibited and is part of public and private collections nationally and internationally. Most recently, Kelley has been awarded the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence award for 2021, been published in a national arts publication, and has partnered with organizations on public art projects.