Artists Cooperative announces June featured artists

Written by Staff Reports Thursday, June 07, 2012 03:45 pm

Christine Peck-  “Noise”

CAPE MAY – The Cape May Artists Cooperative will feature the work of Barbara Colosi, Phil Dietz and Christine Peck in its gallery at the West End Garage, 484 West Perry St., from June 8 through July 5.

Colosi works in two media. She became interested in porcelain painting in the early 90s and began taking classes with a master teacher. She became hooked on the medium and eventually acquired her own kiln.

“People don’t realize that porcelain painting is a demanding and time-consuming art. Some pieces are fired up to ten times to achieve the necessary depth,” she said.

She recently added jewelry making to her repertoire. Working with shells, stones and sea glass, Colosi wire wraps each piece. She also loves to garden and frequently incorporates nature into her work. A nurse for 38 years, she currently works at Court House Surgical Center. She and her husband Dick live in West Cape May. She has two children and three grandchildren.  

Dietz has been a West Cape May resident since receiving a MFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in the 1970’s. He is a metal-smith jeweler, working in sterling and 14K gold-filled metal.

One of his life-long passions has been pearls. He treasures pearls that were collected by his grandfather in the Philippines during the Spanish American War and given to him by his mother. That little vial of pearls started Dietz collecting these organic gems himself.

For several years, Dietz has had some of his pearls traveling the world in a show, Pearls by the Museum of Natural History in New York, and featured in the book “Pearls: A Natural History,” which was written to accompany the show. His newest pearl infatuation is with keshi pearls. He designs necklaces, bracelets, earrings and pins using many types of pearls and lectures on pearls.

Multi-award winning photographs by Peck, a local optician, are her personal, visual expressions of the world around us. Her work includes images of South Jersey, New England, Savannah, California, Colorado, the Caribbean and Europe.

Born and raised in South Jersey, she was introduced to photography in high school and went on to study fine arts at Glassboro State College. Since then, it has become a lifelong pursuit to capture the images that surround us and reproduce them in an artistic photographic form.

Peck uses black and white photography to enhance details, such as architecture, while her color photography captures nature’s broad spectrums of beauty. Finding an interesting and different perspective is a constant goal.

Peck is currently a board member of the Cape May County Art League and a member in good standing in the Artist’s Cooperative Gallery of Cape May.

A reception will be held on Sunday, June 10 from 4 to 7 p.m. and members will be on hand to discuss their works. This is part of the city-wide Second Sunday Gallery Walk, a partnership of local galleries.