The Artists
Art Among the Trees is a one-day pop-up event that brings together a talented group of makers, dreamers, friends, and visionaries, each sharing their unique perspective through diverse mediums. From sculptures and paintings to photography and handmade crafts, our artists have created works that reflect both individuality and the beauty of community. Check back soon to meet the creative minds behind this one-of-a-kind experience!
Joe Rizzolo
I am an abstract painter, musician, and writer who has spent a lifetime exploring creativity in all its forms. Originally from New Jersey, I have called North Carolina home since 1979. My paintings are a reflection of my inner world—abstract expressions of the subconscious, where form and color capture psychological, spiritual, and emotional landscapes. I live in my imagination to a large degree, and my art is a way of reaching beyond the ordinary, opening doors to unseen possibilities. Launching Art Among the Trees has been something that me and my friend (and fellow artist) Christine Holton have been envisioning for awhile —a way to bring together creativity and community.
Learn more about my work here. Follow me on Instagram here.
Roberta Wallace
I am a self-taught mixed media artist, retired clinical social worker, wife, mother, and grandmother, and I have called Durham home since 1979. Over the years, I have been affiliated with several Triangle art galleries and, since 2017, have been a member of the Hillsborough Artists Cooperative and the Skylight Gallery. I often work on paper, drawn to the simplicity of line and the subtle interplay of color with an abundance of negative space. My intention is to leave room for the eye to settle on the minimal but essential details. In my current series, “Containers,” there are marks that symbolize a desire to hold close, that which I find dear, but possibly threatened.
Follow me on Instagram here.
Mike Waller
I am a sculptor, foundryman, and public artist based in Hillsborough, NC. My work explores the balance between control and chaos, often using metal casting to embrace the unpredictable reactions of fire, iron, and wood. I earned a BFA in Sculpture from East Carolina University and have worked professionally as a metalsmith, fabricator, and historical restoration artist.
In 2003, my wife, Leah Foushee Waller, and I founded WallerFoushee Studios, where we’ve created public art across North Carolina, including Major, the bronze bull in downtown Durham. I also serve as Vice President of Liberty Arts, helping to expand public sculpture and community engagement.
Leah and I live in Hillsborough with our two children, Neva and Herbert, where we continue pushing creative boundaries through sculpture and metalwork.
Learn more about my work here and follow me on Instagram here.
Patrick King-Manning
I am a practicing artist, art educator, and life coach, who has worked with young children, teachers and parents for over twenty-five years. I am passionate about helping people express what is deepest and most important to them and manifesting whatever they truly want in their lives. A driving force in my work as a life coach, is my belief that within every grownup is a beautiful, imaginative child, and a universe of possibilities. I believe that we all have the power to love and nurture what lives inside of us, and to author our own magnificent stories. I work with my lovely wife, Marta King Manning, to offer expressive arts experiences to individuals and people in groups.
I make drawings of people and animals and hints of landscape. Drawing helps me to engage with and intensify what is working inside of me in terms of my relationships with other people and with myself. It celebrates those relationships. I am inspired by expressionism and my pictures are sometimes phantasmagoric. People often see human figures and animals that I didn’t create consciously. I enjoy hearing what people discover and feel that their readings are just as valid as my own. I consider art to be my safe place for everything.
Learn more about my work here.
Chris Ringuette
Art isn’t just something I do—it’s how I live. Whether I’m collaging my car, painting faces that capture the raw edges of emotion, or transforming found objects into bold, playful pieces, I’m always in motion, creating. My work spans across media—collage, painting, sculpture—blending sadness, joy, and a sense of mischievous fun into vibrant, untamed energy.
I find beauty in the unexpected and stories in the discarded. My art is wild, layered, and unapologetically raw—a reflection of my belief that life, like art, is meant to be lived expressively, joyfully, and authentically. I embrace the chaos of creation, weaving together fragments of life into a colorful, playful tapestry of meaning and connection.
Learn more about my work here.
Marshall McCoy
I’m a freelance computer graphics animator who has lived and worked in Raleigh since the early 90’s. I spent my formative years with a pencil in my hand. My definition of uncomfortable is trying to explain something without one. A strong interest in art led to a BFA from UNC Greensboro. After spending a few years in my 20’s on the starving artist track, I realized it was time for a “real” career. In the early 90’s an opportunity presented itself. I was able to combine my interest in science, technology and art into what then was then the new field of computer graphics, or as we would say in art school, I “sold out to the Man”.
Spending hours of screen time manipulating 1s and 0s creates a vacuum of tangibility. It produces a desire for physical creativity, something that results in dirty fingernails, or at least the chance to smell turpentine. I’ve continued to paint but not consistently. It’s just as likely that I’ve found other outlets to my creative energy such as renovation, construction, woodworking, or filmmaking. This show is a great opportunity to really dive headfirst back into painting. I’m currently working on a series of landscapes in oil. I’m not sure what they are about yet but I’m embracing the deadline, the clock is ticking…
Paul Gallant
Born the youngest child of Diane, I came into the world with hair so thick and black that there was playful speculation about lycanthropy. A constant explorer, my journey through music and now mixed media art has led me through countless styles and experiments in sound and visuals. I don’t take myself too seriously—my work often blends melancholy with humor, capturing both the absurd and the profound moments I’ve gathered over the years.
I find inspiration in what others leave behind—objects discarded in scrap piles and on the side of the road. Giving them new life, I mix found materials with 3D-printed elements to create pieces where the old and the new complement each other. There’s something compelling about transforming forgotten things into something meaningful again.
Learn more about my work here. Follow me on Instagram here.
Christine Holton
I love to paint without a plan and to tell stories through sketchbook drawings and paintings and making art on discarded materials like cardboard boxes and road maps and writing occasional bad poetry.
Currently, I teach art at Sterling Montessori School in Morrisville, North Carolina. Recently my art has been inspired by the curiosity and whimsy with which kids approach artmaking. I have been a professional teaching artist in Durham for 12 years.
My paintings and drawings, in one way or another, all explore the symbology, purpose, and functions of living things. They are created as (sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek) portraits meant to celebrate and venerate branch-like forms, patterns, and symmetry found in the human anatomy and in plants and forests; everything in our world is connected in some way to everything else, an important truth I chase down in my daily sketch-paintings. I have been so excited about this project as we’ve been envisioning it and am most jazzed when working in nature having fun with other creative people.
James Keul
I am a fine artist and muralist based in Durham, NC. My work ranges from large-scale, environmental oil paintings to intimate plein air studies, prints, and works on paper, with nature serving as a central inspiration in my creative practice. I've been making art since childhood and earned a BFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design before continuing my education at the Art Students League of NY.
My work has been exhibited widely, including at Waterworks Visual Arts Center, GreenHill Center for NC Art, CAM Raleigh, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Tokyo. With more than 15 years of experience teaching painting, I've had the opportunity to instruct at institutions such as the Art Students League of NY, Carrboro ArtsCenter, and Durham Arts Council.
Joe and I go way back—we met 26 years ago while remodeling an old historic house in Durham, and it’s been great to reconnect through this project, bringing together our shared love of both art and building things.
Learn more about my work here and follow me in Instagram here.
Bonnie Pivacek
I moved to Durham in 2003 from Virginia to be a part of the vibrant music and art scene. I have been performing in the indie-folk band Sequoya with my partner Matthew Yearout since 1999. In 2011 we became beekeepers which opened me up to a world of creating products from the honey and wax of the hives. Over time I had a whole line of personal care items such as lip balms, beeswax wraps, salves, bath soaks and all natural incense that I use everyday. I’ve always been interested in how things are made on a mass scale and have done a lot of research to recreate them at home. I enjoy testing recipes and understanding the ingredients in their most basic form.
Listen to my music here.
Bobbi Bogaert
Movement, authentic places, and transcendent moments—often in times of adversity—are central themes in my photography. My passion for the medium began in 1988 with an SLR camera on a life-changing trip through Europe, leading me to explore a range of photographic techniques, from platinum contact printing to in-camera double exposures and Polaroid etching. Though I resisted digital photography at first, I now embrace it while maintaining a hands-on, in-camera approach with minimal Photoshop tweaks.
For 27 years, I co-owned Bogart & Bogart Photography, where I also led workshops at Duke University and through our studio, teaching creative perception techniques inspired by my studies in Dharma Art with a Shambhala Buddhist photographer. My work has been exhibited in museums, art shows, and private collections. In addition to photography, I’m a Reiki practitioner and lifelong wild dancer—two practices that, like my art, are deeply connected to movement, energy, and intuition.
Marty Freeman
My love for creating linoleum prints on a variety of materials, comes from the strong women who came before me. They created out of necessity, making clothes and quilts to keep their families warm. Their love and dedication shown through every stitch, and it's that same passion that fuels my desire to create. Each of my prints is a reflection of this legacy, combining traditional techniques with contemporary designs. I hope to continue this tradition and pay tribute to the women who inspire me every day. So, come take a peek at my work, and let's celebrate the power of art and the women who shaped it.
Learn more about my work here.
Ruth Eckles
My art is an excavation into healing, emotion, and a tactile connection to my senses. Through vivid colors, organic shapes, and layered textures, I explore themes of grief, resilience, and the natural world. My latest series is deeply personal, processing the loss of my mother through the motif of tears, ghosts, and the transformative power of release. Inspired by the beauty of imperfection, I embrace a "scrappy" spirit—celebrating the raw, the unpolished, and the genuine. Alongside my husband, Joe, I host the Art Among the Trees pop-up, opening our untamed but vibrant space to the community. This event reflects our belief that life is too short to wait for perfection. Instead, we hope to inspire others to start where they are, honoring their own unique journey through creativity into healing, emotion, and connection.
Learn more about my work here.
Nayeli Garci-Crespo
I have been trying on the term "artist" to refer to myself, but quite honestly I feel way more comfortable with the term "dabbler." I like to observe, absorb, tinker, experiment, and express, and I feel like I have at least a dozen different impulsive creator types living inside me vying for attention in a variety of mediums: drawing, photography, collage, printmaking, poetry, paper maché, embroidery, video, scriptwriting, animation, performance.... Maybe when I reach the end some of them will have put out enough of their stuff to give a sense of some kind of coherent style or body of work, but I doubt it. As I get older I'm embracing this chaotic multiplicity more and more, letting go of the tyranny of specialization, and trying to move more softly and slowly.
In addition to making stuff I also facilitate expressive arts, nondual meditation, and self-development workshops and am an Internal Family Systems-trained somatic coach specializing in neurodivergence and creative processes. In 2019 I started the artist/therapist/practitioner collective Feral Flow Lab with the intention of creating collaborative spaces for mutual care, play, laughter, mischief, and self exploration. New directions I've been exploring are painting, neo-pagan ritual spaces for connecting with universal love, psychedelic facilitation and integration, and touch-, voice-, and movement-based processing practices.
Learn more about my work here. Follow me on Instagram here, here, and here.