“At a very young age I found joy in drawing and painting. Those around me realized my talents and encouraged me. I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the art field. I experimented in every media of painting, drawing, sculpture, etc… and found watercolor to be my medium of choice. Recently I have also been working with mixed media as well, along with acrylic and oils.
I immediately fell in love with the transparency of paint on paper and it became a natural process for me. There are elements in Watercolor that cannot be duplicated in any other medium. It excites me to see what can be done with it. As An artist I find it amazing to see the outcome of applying paint on paper with the water doing the magic.
I am very excited about my recent series ‘Sticks and Stones’. The natural elements depicted in my pieces have a way of bringing the outdoors in.”
Dianne graduated with an associates degree in Art from Ricks College (BYU Idaho). She was influenced by many great artists including, Leon Parsons, Arlo Coles, and Matthew Geddes.
Dianne has been a self employed artist for the past 25 years. Fifteen of those years were spent in Afton, Wyoming where she had the opportunity to show and sell her work in Jackson Hole.
About ten years ago Dianne moved to Utah where she has served as the President of the Cache Valley Chapter of the Utah Watercolor Society (CVC UWS) and as a Signature Member, she also served on the CVC UWS board for the last six years. Many of her paintings have been selected into shows in Salt Lake City and have won awards. She has also had paintings in both the Western Federation of Watercolor Society’s, and the National Watercolor Society.
She has also won many other local and national awards, including the Wind Rivers Valley Arts Guild Annual National Art Exhibit: Bird Art Award, for her painting “By the water’s edge”; and the Still Life Painting Award for her painting entitled “Pumpkins”. She had her painting “Fruits of Our Labors” Chosen for the 8th International Church Art Competition.
As a young man in November of 1980, Doug Adams started working for a large steel mill. He quickly became entranced by the process of taking recycled scrap metal from its simple form and making a new useable product. From the 65-ton electric arc furnaces spewing out molten steel, to the continuous caster cutting steel weighing 1.5 tons into 25’ lengths, to the final result of dozens of marketable steel shapes, Doug fell in love with steel. The work was hot, dirty and often times dangerous to perform. Fast forward 30 years, and Doug Adams’ experiences in the steel industry have come to inform all of his one-of-a-kind sculptural bells.
Using many of the same techniques and processes with which he became familiar in the steel mill, Doug masterfully combines found objects, upcycled and reclaimed steel parts, priceless antiques, and glass elements, to create sculptures of astounding visual and aural beauty. Items that might end up in junkyards or farmers’ backyards are all potential art objects, waiting to be transformed!
In recent years, Doug began incorporating glass elements into his sculptures. These stunning gemstone-looking additions are created from reclaimed slag glass from old window factories and up-cycled glass bottles fused by Doug’s wife, Dianne Adams (an artist in her own right).
Designed to be displayed in the garden as well as the home, Doug encourages his collectors to experiment with the placement of their bells. Each collector’s unique environment will have an effect on the sound and resonance of their one-of-a-kind bell.
With a natural inclination and love of art, Ryan Adams started creating artwork at a very young age. As the son of two successful artists, Doug and Dianne Adams, Ryan was destined to become an artist.
Ryan’s father, Doug Adams, is one of the most renown metal sculptors in the Southwest. Doug’s 30 year tenure as a steel mill worker provided him the skills to create beautiful resonant steel bells. Ryan showed interest in his father’s sculptures, so Doug began Ryan’s apprenticeship teaching him how to weld at the age of 11. After studying his father’s techniques and developing his own style, Ryan debuted his first sculpture collection to Exposures Gallery in 2017.
Ryan’s mother, Dianne Adams, has been a self-employed painter and fused glass artist for over 25 years. She creates incredibly captivating watercolor and ink paintings with unique incorporations of fused glass. With the help of his mother, Ryan integrates boldly colored fused glass throughout many of his bell sculptures.
With his recycled metal sculptures, Ryan can turn everyday objects and tools into something meant to be savored and enjoyed. Through his signature bells, Ryan finds new and exciting ways to transform an antique wrench or rusty ax into a whole new experience both tonally and aesthetically. With the encouragement of his talented parents, Ryan’s future as an artist is sure to resonate with his collectors!
