Volunteers of the Year Honored at DCAL Meeting

Fused glass bowls by Doug and Barbara Henderson.

Door County Art League (DCAL) members will get together for the first official meeting of 2010 on Monday, April 26 at 7 pm. At the meeting, the Volunteers of the Year will be acknowledged, a program will delve into Artist Trading Cards, and guests are welcome to attend.

Doug and Barbara Henderson will be honored as Volunteers of the Year. They have generously given of their time and talents to the league and its members by teaching the process of making fused glass and, most recently, were the driving force behind the two “glass quilts,” last year’s major league fundraiser. Under their guidance, league members each decorated a five-by-five-inch glass square that was fused, with the squares then joined and finished with a hanging bar. The “quilts” were raffled separately, and a similar fundraising project is planned for this season.

Doug Henderson, an educator and museum director, is not a formally trained artist. In fact, he first began experimenting with photography, where his images captured the architectural details of both buildings and landscapes. As a glass artist, Doug incorporates those same structural elements and details into his work.

Before her involvement with fused glass, Barbara Henderson spent more than 40 years working in the fiber arts, first creating batiks and later weaving off-loom creations and designing soft sculpture dolls. She gets her inspiration from the things around her, which is reflected in the textural and organic nature of her work.

The Hendersons fused glass entry, entitled “Crazy Quilt #1,” won an Award of Excellence in the League’s 23rd Annual Juried Exhibit and Master’s Presentation last year at the Link Gallery in Fish Creek. Their studio, where they work and give classes, is on Bay Shore Drive in Sturgeon Bay.

Following the recognition of the Hendersons, the first program of the year will delve into Artist Trading Cards, miniature works of art created on 2.5-by-3.5-inch card stock. They are originals, small editions, and are traded among artists. The project began in 1997 in Zurich; since then, several hundred people all over the world have interacted during trading sessions or by mail.

The Door County Art League was organized in 1986 and incorporated in 1993 for the purpose of developing active community involvement in the field of creative arts. Membership is open to artists and all other persons interested in and supportive of the visual arts in Door County. The Gallery of the Door County Art League is open seasonally, mid-May through mid-October, in the Top of the Hill Shops in Fish Creek.

The Gibraltar Fire Department is located at 3496 County Road F in Fish Creek. For more information on the league, visit http://www.doorcountyartleague.org or call JoAnne Rosenfeld at 920.559.7530.