Tilted Brick Gallery Association (TBGA)
Mission Statement: TBGA is an artist-run center that is community-based and nurtures the development of art & culture in all forms
ArtSpace Artist Directory
Brief artist bios and photos provide an insightful glimpse into the creators behind these stunning works of art.
Gay Allen
Before Gay Allen moved to Creston in June of 2015 her passion was photography. Since then she has found art. With the formation of ArtSpace six years ago she has learned to paint with acrylics and oils. Gay was one of the first to paint the 4 foot square flowers which now adorn the cement retainer wall on Hillside. Gay has tried many forms of art since the beginning and loves almost all of them. Her only regret is not enjoying making art earlier.
Paula Cravens
Paula Cravens was raised between the soy bean, corn and oil fields of a central Illinois farming community. She received a BFA from Eastern Illinois University then took off to Canada seeking knowledge and adventure. She moved to the Creston Valley in 2020 and opened Crazy Ravens Studio.
Susan Goodwin
Susan is a new artist in the Creston community, exploring her creative path through the rich medium of oil paints. As she discovers her unique voice, her work reflects her growing passion and curiosity for the art world. Susan is excited to share her vision and connect with fellow artists and art lovers alike
Anne Fetterly
Anne Fetterly moved to Creston with her husband in 2012, after graduating in Fibre from the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary. Anne's eco-friendly art practice uses natural dyes on a variety of cloth including linen, silk and cotton. She designs, prints and sews the cloth into a selection of one-of-a kind scarves and wearable art. Her printing techniques include eco-printing, silkscreen, block printing and Japanese shibori techniques. She further incorporates her environment interest by up-cycling leather to create a unique array of repurposed purses. In addition, Anne collects and assembles vintage and cast-off materials to create interesting 3-D sculptures called "Anne's Curiosities".
Janet Holder
Janet Holder moved to Creston with her husband and their two children in 1995. Being creative has always been an important part of her life. Janet has used many different art mediums but never painting on canvas until she was asked by a friend to join ArtSpace in 2021.
Janet encourages anyone who is hesitant to start painting to "jump in" and see where it takes you.
Shelly Lamb
With two decades of artistic exploration, Shelly Lamb has spent years seeking the perfect medium to capture her love for texture, depth, and complexity. From the very beginning, mixed media was her first love—a gateway to endless possibilities where each layer of paint, paper, and material told a unique story. Yet, despite her passion for texture, something was always missing. That is, until encaustic came into her life.
For the past 10 years, encaustic—an ancient and transformative medium made of beeswax and damar resin—has become the heart of her practice. The rich, molten wax offers endless opportunities for layering, building, and manipulating the surface, perfectly aligning with her desire for tactile, visceral works that invite the viewer to touch, feel and engage. The heat of the wax, combined with the organic nature of the materials, reflects her ongoing journey to push beyond the traditional limits of painting and explore the unseen depths of creation.
In Shelly's work, the fusion of texture, color, and light takes on a life of its own.
Maggie Leal-Valias
Maggie Leal-Valias grew up in Australia and has lived in Canada since 1974, moving to Creston in 2005. Trained in the visual arts, Maggie has contributed to the Creston community since 2005 through curating exhibitions, writing successful grants, facilitating ceramic workshops featuring Canadian and international artists, and supporting various arts initiatives. She was an early member of the Wynndel Mudders and a founding board member of the Creston Valley Public Art Connection (CVPAC). Maggie’s community work is guided by a deep appreciation for the transformative power of art and a strong belief in its ability to unite and inspire.
Naiches Morris
Raised in Sirdar, Naiches Morris (known to friends as Nat) is 4th generation in the Creston Valley. Nat has worked with people with special needs most of his life and you might see him uptown washing windows with his crew. He loves to hang out with his kids, sing, read and mostly to paint paint paint!
Aum Nicol
It’s the feeling that colours arouse and getting lost in the brush strokes that Aum Nicol enjoys the most. ArtSpace is helping her expand techniques and explore different media than the oils, acrylics and watercolours she dabbled in her whole life. She enjoys the process, the changes, and the opportunities to learn more is gobbled up by this retired elementary teacher.
Renée Poitras
Renée Poitras grew up in small town New Brunswick. Renée and her husband moved to Creston from Calgary in 2021 and never looked back. Letting go of perfectionism; learning to play, embracing spontaneity and freedom of expression through art making has been life altering. I highly recommend it to anyone who has never dabbled in art and thinks they don’t have any artistic talent… we all do! Surprise!
Jennifer Rankin
In 2007, Jennifer Rankin and her husband moved to the Creston Valley with their menagerie of animals. However, it wasn’t until the Fall of 2022 that Jennifer discovered painting.
ArtSpace has opened up a whole new world to her. Under the tutelage of an excellent instructor, and with all the opportunities ArtSpace has afforded her, Jennifer sees the world in a whole new way. Creating art is far less intimidating than she once thought and more life transforming than first imagined.
Alison Szpak
Alison Szpak and her husband moved to Creston in December, 2012 when they ‘retired’ after buying a house here in 2007. Alison has been drawing and sketching all her life but didn’t take her artwork seriously until ‘ArtSpace’ happened at an oil painting class. She was a founding member, together with Carole Francis and Marnie Temple. Look what happened!
Karen ‘Mayers’ Tschierschwitz
Among all the opportunities at ArtSpace, Karen Tschierschwitz chose to paint in acrylic, pastel and watercolour. Karen states, "It (ArtSpace) is a wonderful studio to meet and make friends with people of like and similar interests here in Creston". Her attraction to paint from her own photography restores memories of special moments that continue to drive her ambition to recreate those images to canvas.
