Meet Our January Featured ARTists 

Westy Copeland has been creating art now for over 40 years, developing a personal style that is colorful, whimsical, and quirky. After earning a BA in art at Middlebury College, she went on to earn her MFA in printmaking at RIT, after which she came to Minneapolis and made it her home. Westy's paintings are meant to convey a mood, while at the same time exploring the complexity of life.  Her unique view of the world is presented through layers of color, shape, and texture. She “paints” her canvases with brushes, rags, stamps, stencils, and her bare hands, often incorporating old music, newspaper, book pages, and maps. The resulting layers of paint and images are a mirror of the layers of our lives, revealing the swirling colors of our world.
Westy’s style was influenced from a very young age by the likes of Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall, to name just a few.  She paints because it’s her passion. Every day is a new adventure in her warm, sunny, studio where the studio cat sleeps and the music plays.

David Clobes began his career in 1988 with a first sale of a fall scene for a postcard.  Since then he has captured everything from sports, landscapes, animals and human-interest shots. He began with film using 35mm, medium format and large 4x5 transparencies. He has been blessed to work on many different types of projects. They include photojournalism, professional sports, television, major films and documentaries. David and his crew have filmed everything from the beauty of nature to the drive of the human spirit. He has photographed former presidents, movie stars and his favorite Hall of Famer, Harmon Killebrew! Awards he has won include two EMMYS with Fox-9 and a TELLY for a documentary that appeared on the local PBS in Austin, MN. His work appears in major publications, children’s books, and the cover of, “Rethinking Columbus.”