Crisfield's A&E offers a peek at one of the last working waterfront towns on the Chesapeake Bay. The pace of life is slow, the sunsets are the best in the world, the seafood can't be beat, and the arts reflect the area’s distinctive culture and values.
19Somerset County Arts Councilhttp://socoarts.orgsocoarts@earthlink.net(410) 968-2787
1100 W Main Street
Crisfield, MD 21817
United States
Pat Valdata is fiction writer and poet. Her new novel, Eve’s Daughters, by Moonshine Cove in November 2020, won first prize in the Novel category from the Delaware Press Association. Her other novels are Crosswind and The Other Sister, which won a gold medal from the Árpád Academy of the Hungarian Association. Her poetry book about women aviation pioneers, Where No Man Can Touch, won the 2015 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Her other poetry titles are Inherent Vice and Looking for Bivalve.
Mindie Burgoyne is a travel writer/blogger, storyteller and author of six books about the history and lore of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She is also the immediate past President of the Eastern Shore Writers Association and serves on the Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture. She is also a photographer and a musician.
Since retirement in 1993 I have lived in Deal Island Md, and started doing Pen and Ink Chesapeake Lighthouses, Cottage, Wedding Cake and land towers. I expanded into Chesapeake boats, Skipjacks, Rams,yachts,sloops, many other sail powered and Motor driven, USN Texas, Menhaden steamers, and watermens workboats. Then began drawing US lighthouses of all kinds.
I love Railroads, and retired from Conrail so next I drew Railways, tracks moving freight using draft horses, horse trolleys, and locomotives from the earliest through the steam age of Rail.
My artistic process is considered by many as postmodern. I choose a variety of materials and techniques often based on narrative association. I choose to put these materials together in collage. Using collage and multimedia techniques I capture visual memories. These can be brought to a viewer in the form of photography, drawing, painting, written word, as a collective of symbols. Most of my works incorporate imagery arranged to convey the narrative.
I have been sewing since I was 15. I started out making clothes. I joined the Army when I was 20. I made my first quilt when I was 23. Sewing and quilting has become my therapy. I get lost in the colors and in creating my designs. I make Art Quilts, bed quilts, baby quilts, memory quilts and T-Shirt quilts. I also love sewing other handmade items as well. I am a Wife, Mother, Grandmother, and a Gulf War Veteran. I am a Quilter.
Dana Simson is an illustrator/author and the design force behind Chesapeake East Company, producing her handmade designs in paintings/prints, ceramic, jewelry, decor and gifts. Her engaging imagery has also been licensed internationally in fabric, rugs, stationary, home decor, gift items, and tabletop. Her store closed in Salisbury, MD January 2020- but please do visit her online store full of uplifting treats at danasimson.com
BFA Maryland Institute College of Art, MFA Cranbrook Acadeemy of Art
Tina Johnson is contemporary painter from Somerset County Maryland where she paints human figure doing everyday things without faces. Tina said "I want people to find themselves in my work, and to do that, I believe not giving my people faces will help them picture, who they want the painting. I want them to see who they care most about. To bring that smile to there faces. It also has a political hidden massage. If you delete the faces do that mean you are still a person?" She attended Washington High School where she graduated in 2004. While there she was a prized art student.
Captain Eddie Somers was born and raised on Smith Island, Maryland extending a long line of boat builders and waterman.
Eddie's models of Tangier Sound working watercraft, from the days of sail to present diesel powered deadrise boats, reflect his lifelong experience on the water and the authenticity of a true Chesapeake Bay waterman. Through them he demonstrates the hardworking culture and heritage of the Bay.