2025 Honorary Artist: Kei J. Constantinov
Following an MFA in New England, and seven years tenure as a fine art printmaking mentor and consultant at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop in Chelsea, Manhattan, we fast forward to Kei’s Indiana Sea fiasco at Studio Krakow in Michigan City, Indiana.
Using time honored methods and materials, following in the footsteps of venerated artisans from the past, with a somber, out-of-time palette, Kei seeks to “edutain” herself and her audience, Her references, both literary and historical, some drawn from her novella Mechtild’s Medieval Adventures, an Adult Fairy Tale, are presented within a dated context, often dealing with Venetian courtesans, Gypsies, pestilence, and a dimly remembered European zeitgeist.
Kei is considered a magic realist, contemporary narrative painter with a foot in both high and low culture.
Since 2021 she has been fashioning bas relief Faux Relic Frames, which she employs in her own work. Weary of modern cassetta frames, she creates fanciful gilded surrounds with arches, plant and animal depictions, crafted from barn wood, air dried clay and metal foils, which enhance her narrative. Contact her for art or
frame creation classes, or to discuss wordsmithing.
Professional Memberships: Oil Painters of America, NOAPS (National Oil and Acrylic Painters), Allied Artists of America, Chicago Writers Association
Memorial to Scott Hatt April 23, 1957 ~ October 26, 2021
Scott was an artist, specializing in collage art. His work in the 1990’s focused on the creation of prints of hand-colored collage pieces. In the period 2000 to 2008 he developed the computer skills needed to work in digital collage and graphic design and taught these subjects at IU South Bend from 1998 to 2003. After 2008 Scott concentrated on works that combined collage with acrylic painting, and also created many works that combined collage with box constructions. In 2005 Scott opened the Spurious Fugitive Gallery in Downtown South Bend, curating and mounting monthly shows featuring cutting-edge local and national artists. He closed the gallery in 2009 due to the financial crisis. Using social media, he continued to collaborate with American and International collage artists until his health no longer permitted these activities.
Among his achievements as an artist were: winning first prize in a competition sponsored by the South Bend Museum of Art for his work “South Bend Box” (2008); and invited participation is many local and national gallery shows, including works exhibited in San Diego, CA, St. Petersberg, FL, Univ of Massachesetts, Amherst, and many others. Scott was also an amateur cellist, and participated in 100 musical improvisations with PLATO & the Western Tradition, a local improvisation ensemble, often inserting interesting and sometimes controversial texts into the textures of improvisation.
