Grand Island art exhibit honors Tetkowski

Article and Photos by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

A dozen local artists are bringing some color and verve to Western New York’s winter landscape with the Island Art Exhibit this coming week.

The show will be held from 4-8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28; and from 2-8 p.m. Saturday, March 1, at the Buffalo Launch Club, 503 E. River Road. Admission is free and open to the public.

The show honors the late Lenore Tetkowski, a fiber artist and art educator who died July 4 at the age of 101.

Tetkowski taught at Grand Island High School for many years. She and her husband, Clement Tetkowski, are considered founders of the Siena art program at Buffalo State University.

One of the artists exhibiting in the show is Shawn O’Rourke, who attended the Siena art program and learned of its origins with the Tetkowskis.

“It was wonderful that, as I finished the program and then started getting involved in that community, she ended up being my neighbor,” he said. “It was making the world always smaller. I think that’s what’s most important, and I think that’s what’s beautiful about this show. We’re all Islanders, we all appreciate the craft, and we appreciate the work that we do and what we put into it to make these works.”

The exhibit is being organized by artist Karen McDonough with the assistance of Maria Laurendi. McDonough said the number of artists has doubled to 12 this year from the six artists featured in the first Island Art Exhibit, which she organized in 2024.

The Island Art Exhibit represents the artists’ varied techniques and individual talent and expression. Some have traveled great distances to capture their art and reflect cultures and scenes far from Grand Island.

Others are inspired by the things they see and represent in artwork derived closer to home. They all share the goal of bringing their art and perspective to Grand Islanders in this unique exhibit.

Here is a verbal snapshot of each of the featured artists:

•Maria Laurendi has been creating and selling her oil paintings for over 10 years while still working as a real estate broker and managing the Laurendi Home Selling Team. With her skills in mixing colors with limited palettes, she excels in portraits. Another pursuit is Trompe L'oeil still life. “It’s to fool the eye.” “You might be thinking that you’re looking at a photograph, but it’s not – it’s painted.” She has won several awards at the Riverwalk Art shows, Allentown and the Lewiston Art Festival. Her finished paintings can be viewed on her website, ArtByMariaLaurendi.com.

•Deborah Rice has been an artist for more than 25 years and has won several awards for her work. She is a registered nurse who is now retired. She said that, after raising four children, her studies became serious. Her training includes colored pencil, charcoal, pastel, pen, ink and mixed media. One of her pieces that will be in the show is a watercolor painting of a grandmother playing with her grandchild on a beach on Curacao, an island in the Caribbean that Rice has visited. She is a member of the Buffalo Niagara Art Association and received training from local artists Joan Horn, Sean Patrick Daley, Jody Ziehm and Kathy Giles.

•Shawn O’Rourke said, “Most of my artwork deals with materiality. I really love to experiment with colors, with different mediums. I love the origins of color, and so I choose pigments that have some kind of value or personal appreciation that I have for those colors – like burnt sienna or lapis lazuli.” He studied art in high school with Mark Tollner and studied at Buffalo State University. He has done a few conservation restorations overseas. He describes himself as an artisan who does restoring. “My main restoration project right now is an 1894 worker’s cottage. I love understanding when things were built and am trying to bring them back to that glory in that day. Speaking to the premise of materiality, I look to those materials to speak through my work.”

•Paula Sciuk is a multidisciplinary artist who began refining her visual and conceptual vocabulary at Buffalo State University, where she studied design, painting and sculpture, completing a degree in design. Since 2007, her large-scale photographic images have been shown in numerous exhibitions, including the Louvre, Paris; Times Square, New York City; and Scope, Miami. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the Burchfield Penney Art Center and Roswell Park Cancer Institute, among other public, corporate and private collections. “Since 2014, I have traveled to Iceland, the Amazon (Bolivia), Alaska, Svalbard (Norway) and this past year, Galapagos (Ecuador) and South Africa, researching and recording environmental changes in land and sea scapes,” she said.

•Kath Schifano said, “My Plein Air paintings capture the sights and environment wherever I travel. Artwork created outdoors communicates the sparkle and nature of the day it was created, the weather, the light and the location. You see what I have experienced.” One of the paintings she is exhibiting at the show is of nasturtiums that were growing on her porch. She is a board member of International Plein Air Painters, Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters and Buffalo Niagara Art Association. Her oil and pastel art is in public and private collections in 34 states and on five continents. She maintains studios on Grand Island and at the NACC in Niagara Falls.

•Fritz Proctor III grew up on Grand Island and said he “has always felt a strong connection to the landscapes around me,” especially the rural beauty of New York state. After high school graduation, he spent decades working as a truck driver. “While my career kept me busy, I always found a little time for painting, sketching or playing guitar.” After he retired in 2019, he started painting full time. “I’ve painted murals in homes, cars, and all mediums, but I like acrylics the best.” He has been married for 31 years, with three children. “Their encouragement continues to inspire me! This will be my first art show since high school 54 years ago.”

•Debra Meier is a retired K-12 art educator who now teaches at the Jewish Community Center, primarily in watercolor. “Some people may think of me as a painter of birds, particularly parrots, owls and corvids. Avians of all feathers are my ‘happy space’ in my studio work, a genre that I can play with and gather inspiration from.” She also is a portrait artist whose paintings have won several awards. She enjoys painting Plein Air at Buckhorn and Beaver Island state parks and at Niagara Falls.

•Karen McDonough said her goal as an artist is “to combine drawing and painting while capturing the light, weather and change of seasons.” McDonough has a bachelor’s degree in art from State University College at Buffalo. “While living on the West River of Grand Island, I experience the full gamut of God’s natural forces. I express these in drawing and painting mediums, such as colored pencil, graphite and acrylic. I also love to portray God’s trees in all their natural splendor.” She has exhibited at The Burchfield-Penney Art Center, the Castellani Art Museum, the East Aurora Art Society Outdoor Fine Art Exhibit and Sale and the Island Art Exhibit, which she organizes. She was awarded second place in the Buffalo Society of Artist 2024 Open Exhibition “Collecting Conversations.”

•Danielle Nash graduated from Alfred University with a bachelor’s in fine arts. “I try to squeeze in as much oil painting as I can while raising two young kids.” One of her pieces is a portrait of her young niece, Sophia. “I paint mostly realistically. I’ve been doing mostly portraits recently. This is the second show we’ve done, and this is the second one I’ve been in. I’m happy to be here with other Grand Islanders.”

•James O’Rourke has a background as an art director. “I worked for one of the single largest agencies in the world Saatchi & Saatchi.” Through the advertising agency, he worked with clients such as Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Xerox and Jeep Wrangler. He also used to do technical illustrations. Now, in addition to his art, he writes and illustrates children’s books. He paints in acrylics, oil and watercolor. “I believe ‘the line’ is king. So, I draw everything (freehand) – sketch it, draw it, scan it in – and then I take and colorize it on the computer. For this show, I have new software that I’ve never used before and I’m forcing myself to see what I can do with it just for the show. All the pieces I have will be new art.”

•William C. Maggio is a classically trained pianist and art educator with a master’s degree in art education from Buffalo State University. He is a lifelong resident of Western New York. Now retired, he was a high school art teacher. Maggio’s work has been shown extensively in domestic and international juried exhibitions over a 50-year period in the arts and is included in numerous private and corporate collections. He calls his artwork “a visual journey inward towards the core of the human soul.” His work is currently on exhibit at the Burchfield Penney art gallery in Buffalo. It is called “Tracing Threads through Time: The Artwork of William C. Maggio.”

•Clyde Smith. Born in Northern Ontario, Clyde Smith is a self-taught artist whose journey is deeply connected to the natural landscapes that have shaped his life. As a proud member of the Long Lake Reservation with First Nations heritage from Ontario, Canada, his cultural background is a significant source of inspiration. For over 25 years, he has lived on Grand Island, where he continues to explore and express his artistic vision. His said his preferred mediums are acrylic on canvas and watercolor paper. He has expanded his technique to include thick washes and traditional thicker brush applications. His extensive portfolio includes hundreds of pieces and wall murals, and reflects his deep appreciation for the North, nature, and his surroundings.