June Featured Artist Reception, Thursday, June 8th, 4-6pm

The Artisans Gallery at the Marina hosts two more of our talented members for the month of June. Nick Noble is an outstanding photographer and Karen Maggiola is a brilliant floral artist, making a wide variety of wreaths and arrangements.

Nick Noble
For many years, Nick has been interested in coastal landscape photography. Retiring from teaching quantitative economics and moving to St. James has allowed him to spend many hours with his photography interests. He has found the Brunswick County area to be an excellent setting to develop and refine his skills. The piers, sunsets, sunrises and seascapes are favorite topics for his photography. Often times, Nick returns to the same location but at different times of day and weather conditions to capitalize on the changes and then to try to understand how these differences influence the resulting picture.

The move to St. James has also allowed Nick to develop an entirely new photographic interest: landscape astrophotography. This is photographing the stars and Milky Way, particularly in the late night and early morning. Three AM on a chilly, quiet late winter night with a camera, a cup of warm coffee and a sky full of stars has become his "happy place".

Nick has enjoyed developing his own website, NickNoblePhotography.com, as well as his Facebook and Instagram pages that catalog his many photos. His work has also been featured in a number of local calendars and publications.

Karen Maggiola
Karen has always had a passion for art in many forms starting at a young age working with water color, pastels and pen and ink. An injury kept her from pursuing these passions so she turned to the art of creating beautiful designs with silk flowers. After years of making wreaths and arrangements for her friends, she decided to begin her own business so she could continue this passion.

Karen enjoys designing her floral 'treasures' because it gives her the ability create an expression and vision using a variety of colors, textures and sizes. Each new project stimulates her artistic juices, making it possible to design her one-of-a-kind arrangements. She is always on the lookout for new floral stems and new, unique containers. Her arrangements, wreaths and mailbox covers are made to last: she wires all the pieces into the whole design and says this method is more secure than using glue.

Karen also enjoys making smaller items such as fancy visors and hats and wine bottle/napkin ring decorations as well as ornaments/gift bag specialties. Karen is the creator behind the beautiful Christmas decorations at all the clubs, sales office and Tommy Thompsons.

Please be sure to stop in to the Gallery this month to view the special displays each artist will have. The Wine and Cheese reception honoring these two wonderful artisans will be on Thursday, June 8th, from 4 - 6pm, at the Gallery.