Meet Jamie Leonard from Jamie Leonard Photography...
I'm a full time portrait and event photographer based out of Mount Pleasant, PA where I have lived my entire life, with the exception of the 4 years I served in the U.S. Air Force. I am a bit of a perfectionist (maybe more than a bit!) and I pride myself in offering the best service and products to my clients that I can provide.
When I'm not on the clock you can find me chasing my ornery almost 2 year old around the house with a cup of coffee and a book nearby.
Photography became a hobby of mine in high school and I received my degree in 2010. I recently started my business in 2016, shortly after separating from the military. This will be my first Avant-Garde Art and Craft show and I’m very excited to expand my work closer to the Pittsburgh area.
I have always loved art. Before I was a photographer I was a bit of an artist and won first place in the art competition at my high school during my senior year. There is something very inspiring to me just in the act of creating itself, bringing forth something from nothing. I was slightly introverted when I was younger and I also used my art as a form of expression. Although I am much more outgoing than I used to be, I still find photography to be a wonderful and beautiful form of expression.
As I was growing up, my mother had a cabinet in our house filled with albums. Albums dedicated to my sister, to myself, to our family vacations, to times before we were born. I would lose myself in them for hours and month after month, year after year, I would come back to them again and again: pulling stacks of them out of the cabinets and sprawling them on the floor, just as amazed as I was the first time. I fell in love with photography and those solid prints before I ever touched a camera.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that my talent was something that I discovered. It is something that my interest in art led me to and while I do have an eye for detail and there is some natural talent required, my work has evolved very much with study and practiced improvement. There is always more to learn and boundaries to push past to reach the next level.
It’s very important to me to meet with my clients in person before their session. In addition to planning the session itself, where I use input both from what my client desires and my impression of my client, I also want to provide a finished product for their home. In order to do this properly I’ve implemented an in-home consultation prior to the session taking place, where I can see the style of their home and the wall space available. I keep this in mind during the session, envisioning the final products, and then create mock-ups with their final portraits on their walls digitally. If wall portraits are not desired then I keep the idea of an album in mind and the type of photos that correspond well with that product.
My ultimate goal is to be able to support my family fully so that my husband may pursue his music career. If I’m not completely there in 5 years I hope to at least be close to reaching that goal. I also hope to expand my business to the Pittsburgh area and become more well known in the area for my work.
The message behind my work is that life is fleeting. The only way to remember the memories we make and who we once were is to record them here and now.
Meet
Alexandra Abovyan from 3D Origami Art Studio...
I create intricate paper sculptures using a variety of modular
origami techniques. It's similar to ordinary origami, except my sculptures use
many (hundreds, or even thousands) small hand-folded pieces of paper. Those
pieces can then be interlocked to create a variety of objects.
I was chosen as an Emerging Artist in the Three Rivers Arts Festival 2014. I have been awarded the ribbon in the category Honorable Mention (Best Art/Craft) at Arts and Crafts Holiday Spectacular Pennsylvania Show in 2014. I've been a regular vendor at the I Made It Market events around Pittsburgh. I was chosen to participate at Handmade Arcade (2016-17). I was participating in Ann Arbor Art Fair in 2017 where I got very high score from jury and in One Of A Kind (Chicago).
A little about myself:
I am originally from Armenia and an engineer by training. I was always an artist at heart though and have gone through a variety of hobbies such as drawing, cross-stitching, macramé and numerous others. I immigrated to the United States with my children 12 years ago, settled in Squirrel Hill, and work as a resident attendant at the Weinberg Terrace assisted living facility. I stumbled upon Modular Origami about 5 years ago on the Internet, started creating my own models and grew the business from there.
Meet
Chris West from Photos by CDub...
I was born and raised in Little Hocking, Ohio
(don’t worry, no one knows where that is – it is near Athens and Marietta in
Southeast Ohio). I attended Allegheny College and graduated in 2002 with a
B.S. in Biology and minors in Psychology and Spanish. Building off of my
work in the community during my college years, I worked with at-risk youth,
kids with Autism, and adults with disabilities after I graduated. Then after
spending 6 years as a community organizer, I currently work as the Allegheny
County Child Nutrition Outreach Coordinator at Greater Pittsburgh Community
Food Bank. I married my beautiful wife, Sibyl, in 2013 (and yes, I do know
the actual date btw), and we live in Forest Hills, PA, with our 5 fish and 1
spoiled cat. While photography has been an interest for many years, I have
taken my work seriously since 2013, and specializes in capturing the beauty and
uniqueness of landscapes.
This is my first Avant-Garde show and I can't wait!
I like to focus
on landscapes, especially to places that I have traveled. I absolutely
love traveling, and like most people, never get to do it enough. There are
so many different cultures to experience in the world, so many different
perspectives to hear, and so many wonderful things to see. I have tried to
capture some of those wonderful things in these photos, and I hope my work
makes you think of the vastness we are a part of, lets you be in awe of the
beauty that is in this world, and inspires you to do some more traveling of
your own.
In college I
learned a bit about the art of photography from some friends taking classes. From
that point on, I started to focus on taking meaningful and inspiring pictures. I
got a nice camera as a present in 2004, so my work got an upgrade then :) By
2008 or 2009 I started to realize that I was pretty good at capturing unique
images and telling a story with them. And ever since 2013, I have been
taking my work seriously. Photos I am selling at the show are from 2013 -
2017.
The first step is
to be in the moment and take the picture. The 2nd step is to review digital
images of my photos and pick the very best ones. Not many get through to
this stage. Then I print out a test copy of a photo of the best ones, and
further whittle it down from there. Lastly, I do my own framing and
matting, and that helps tell the story of the photo too. The right frame
and the right matte can add a lot to the picture.
In 5 years, I
would like to have outdoor festivals under my belt (I have never done one of
those since I just opened my business a couple of months ago) and be selling my
work in several stores in the area.
2017 Pleasant Hills Fall Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show
Sunday, April 15, 2018 - 10:00am-5:00pm
Georgetown Center
526 East Bruceton Rd
Pleasant Hills, PA 15236
For more information, contact Amanda Look, Event Coordinator at Amanda@ag-shows.com
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