Suzanne Bellows

Fiber collage
Estimated retail value: $200

Kent
I never knew my cousin Kent well, but he was very kind to me whenever our paths crossed. He made a huge impression on me when I was quite young. He was the first artist I ever met, actually. I was always rather in awe of him! His great talent is always a source of inspiration to me.

Suzanne Bellows

Jewelry Neck piece (Pin/slide) 16 inches
Estimated retail value: $50

Vernon G. Bellows

Kent at Work
Photograph, ED 1/1, 11 x 14 inches
Estimated retail value: $500

This is a 1/1 framed photo, since I have produced this only for the auction, the value is hard to determine – for me priceless – due to all of the memories this image invokes.

Howard Buffett

Photograph Framed
Estimated retail value: $450

Buffett, distinguished conservationist, businessman, photographer and farmer, has travelled throughout the world to document the challenges of the poor and the vulnerable with an emphasis on the environmental obstacles they face. He is a champion of sustainable farming techniques in poor countries and has authored six books on conservation, wildlife, and the human condition, including "On the Edge: Balancing Earth's Resources."

Peter Buffet

Signed set of original music CDs

Peter Buffett met Kent Bellows at the age of 11. Kent quickly became a friend, big brother, and mentor to Peter as both of them followed their passion as artists. Kent's influence on Peter was felt in a myriad of ways, but it was the support he showed for Peter's development both as a musician and friend that out-shined all other aspects of their relationship.

Leslie Bruning

Enigmatic Thought
Bronze, 54 x 19 x 17 inches
Estimated retail value: $5,000

Leslie Bruning  grew up in rural Nebraska and received an BA in Art from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Following completion of his MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University, he moved to Omaha where he still resides. He has taught at Bellevue University for 35 years and is a founder of the Hot Shops Art Center, where he maintains his sculpture studio and foundry.

Pamela Conyers-Hinson

Dinka
Bronze, 10 3/4 x 6 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches
Estimated retail value: $2,000

It is when I'm faced with what I consider to be a difficult task of writing an artist statement; that I'm forced to stop and think about why I create artwork. I could honestly state that art is all I truly know. When I approach my life from an artistic point of view; I begin to understand my purpose for being on this planet. My art is documentation of my journey; as an African American Woman living in this world during this space in time. Art is my most comfortable way of communicating, it is something that builds up inside of me and I must release it before I explode. I do what I do because I can't imagine doing anything else.

Gary Day

Hanging Garden
Photogravure, A/P 27 x 17 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $800

The word gardens are non-narrative spaces that have been built as virtual spaces. The "park of monsters" at Bomarzo, old master prints, decades of readings in aesthetics and critical journals, and alchemical texts are some of the base materials that have been used to construct the spaces. Each space is a collection of information that has been formed into a short composition about not much. The "Hanging Garden" is a visualization of what the gardens at Babylon might have looked like.

Mary Day

Looking South From Hefflinger Park, Omaha, 5/07/09, early afternoon
Primacolor pencil, 22 x 30 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $1,100

The cloudscapes are prismacolor pencil drawings based on my own photographs of clouds. The archive of cloud photographs has grown over several decades. The photographs were taken in many different locations. The drawing's title is important in establishing the location of the point of view where the original photograph was taken. The drawing is derived from the photograph, transforming the image through the mark making. The mark making is a meditation on my memory of location in a particular place at a particular time. This memory is derived from an interior geography and is concerned with mapping an existential state of being.

Paula Day

Patrick Drickey

The Volunteer
B & W Photograph Gicleé Print, open edition, 10 x 20 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $500

Kent was my friend and counselor...he inspired me to achieve success in my field (photography) by teaching me the language of the visual arts; composition and light, elements of what I learned from him remain as the cornerstone of my work today.

Scott Drickey

Still Portrait - Joel Seah
Photographs printed in 300 gram fine art paper with giclee inks,
ED 3/25 total series, 4 18 x 28 inches framed white wood molding
Estimated retail value: $1500 for set of 4

The series is called "Still portrait-Joel Seah"

I met Joel while collaborating with him during his residency at the Bemis in the spring of 2009. His compulsive approach to organizing his materials could be seen throughout his studio, which inspired me. "This studio is correct", Drickey says. "Joel's medium is printmaking and while photographing several of his pieces from a stationary point I found that the center points both vertically and horizontally within a 1/16 of an inch". "Joel has an incredible warm and embracing personality which reminds me that it does not matter where you are from it matters where you are coming from."

This series is the first of five that I have completed of five individuals from varying backgrounds that I feel have inspired the Omaha community. Each series will be reproduced in a limited run of 25 framed prints by the artist.

Lars Erickson

Stone Chest
Limestone (Base is portland/sand mortar), 5 x 13.5 x 23"
Estimated retail value: $850

I began to carve stone in 2001. Around that time, I reconnected with Kent, whom I had known 30 years before through my association with Peter Buffett. Although my main artistic focus was music, I was drawn to carve stone. There is something magical feeling about making an inanimate object resemble a living object. For me, it's when you put the eyes on a face, or begin to make recognizable body part in stone.

Kent
I carved this torso about a month before Kent died. I thought it fitting to donate it to the auction. Over the years I had many enjoyable conversations with Kent. Once we spoke specifically about how difficult it is to derive measurements in three dimensions from a photograph. It was a rare insight into his world.

Larry Ferguson

#131-96-6 Black Angus, Holt County, Nebraska 9-22-2002
Archivally processed and selemium toned, gelatin silver print, ED 25/25, 18 x 30 framed
Estimated retail value: $1200

"#131-96-6 Black Angus, Holt County, Nebraska 9-22-2002" is a chlorobromide gelatin emulsion silver print that has been archivally processed and selenium toned in the traditional web darkroom. It is produced in an edition of 25 signed and numbered prints 9x22.75" plus three artists proofs, one working proof and one printers proof print. Each print is archivally dry-mounted onto 4 ply 100% rag mounting board with a 4 ply windown cut over-mat and framed in Nielson black anodized 18x30" frame.

Richard Finch

"Two Elements, I"
Woodcut and lithography, Monoprint, 5 x 7 inches
Estimated retail value: $250

My works draw upon many traditional means and forms, and I attempt to extend these traditions as I develop my own voice and its fulfillment in the making of art. The subjects for my artworks - the human figure and still life objects - connect with subjects that have served many artists, cultures, and historical periods even from antiquity.

Steve Forehead

Seasons
Oil on maple panel, 24 x 36 x 1 1/2, Framed
Estimated retail value: $3,500

Kent and I were fellow art students at UNO starting in the same year. We were fortunate to have professors Peter Hill, Thomas Majeski, and Sidney Buchanan, who offered up some of the planet's finest art instruction. These men are larger than life for me.

When we talk about Kent, it's important to remember how driving his muse was. No one worked harder, and no one was harder on himself. Kent was a consummate artist, and his tenacious drive should be an inspiration to all artists. Hats off to Kent - bravo!

David Ian Griess

My Head on Your Shoulders
Beeswax, ultra cal, and expanding foam sealant
Estimated retail value: $400

I donated to The Kent Bellows Studio auction to support its belief in the importance of the arts, community, and Kent's life and legacy. Without the arts, we would lose the very spirit and self expression that makes us human. Kent was my mentor, a dear friend, and my uncle. I am forever grateful for the involvement he had in my life growing up. He was one of a kind and will surely be missed, but never forgotten.

Neil Griess

Threshold I (Study II)
Water miscible oil on panel, 9 x 12 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $500

Uncle Kent has been a strong artistic influence in my life since I was three years old. After being exposed to his graphite drawings of nude models, I set about on my own creative endeavor. While several of the resulting drawings lend themselves to the designation 'study after Kent Bellows' (executed in a careening, squiggly line), the large majority of the preschool period work more reflects my own interests at the time: surfer girls in bikinis, their tops flying off in a hurried flight from menacing sharks. Fortunately, when I was at school, I had the foresight to do drawings of fairytale characters and monsters instead.

Robin Bellows Griess

Georgia
Watercolor, 36 x 11 3/4 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $750

I grew up in a world of artmaking. The creative energy was boundless. It was contagious. For a time, when Kent was a teenager, there were two easels in the family room. Kent on one side, Dad on the other. It was magic. There was always a wondrous drawing or painting in progress.

I have a bachelor's degree in interior design. However, I have joyfully spent my adult life raising three talented sons and working as a school volunteer. The past few years I have worked as a floral designer. Through the years, I dabbled, on occasion, in watercolor (my father's medium of choice).

Kent was an incredible brother, always encouraging me through all of these endeavors. "Georgia" is one of the handful of paintings that I have completed...

Cedric Hartman

Polished stainless steel and brass lamp
Original owned by the Museum of Modern Art
Estimated retail value: $2,225

Janie Helt

Fire, Water, Air
Fused dichroic glass pendant designed by artist, glass and metal beads
18" beaded necklace with a 2" pendant, signed
Estimated retail value: $60

I am a self-employed artist, educator, landscape designer, and mother of two amazing little ones. My background is studio art where clay, painting, drawing, bookbinding, jewelry design, and plant design are among my favorite mediums. Perhaps my greatest contribution to art is in teaching. I am most inspired by connections made with children when they are given the opportunity and freedom to create. For some children and adults, art is only a final product centered activity. But when given the freedom to express their feelings and ideas in a supportive and accepting environment, they unlock amazing spirit and energy they may not have known they possessed. Since environmental education is such a big part of my life and teaching, I tend to include a majority of recycled materials when working with students.

Janie Helt

Eastern Indian Coin Necklace with Miniature Bells
Indian coin pendant with dangling bells, mixture of glass and metal beads
18" beaded necklace with a 2.5" pendant
Estimated retail value: $50

Janie Helt

Hidden Flowers
fused dichroic glass pendant designed by artist, glass and metal beads
18" beaded necklace with 1.75" pendant, signed
Estimated retail value: $60

Rebecca Herskovitz

Lines in low light, 2009
Watercolor and colored pencil, 11 x 19 3/4 inches

Rebecca Herskovitz is an Omaha-based painter as well as the former Director of Education for The Kent Bellows Studio and a mentor for the Artist-in-Residence and Studio Thesis Programs.

Peter Hill

Untitled, 2003
Acryllic, 22 x 23 inches
Estimated retail value: $1,000

Kent took at least one class in painting from me at UNO after he graduated from Burke High School. I got to know him pretty well at that time. He was very focused and almost immediately I realized that he was very bright, and I had a very special student. I only regret that I didn't have more time with him over the years, but I did watch him grow into a talent that really had no equal in the medium of pencil drawing. There were artists that were very good, but for me Kent was the best technician. We did keep in touch and whenever I had a student that seemed to have a similar interest, Kent would always agree to meet with them. That was a good thing because not all artists are willing to do that.

Aaron Holz

Brant
Oil on mylar, 10 3/8 x 7 5/8 inches
Estimated retail value: $1,200

Bill Hoover

Horse and Rider
Pastel, 15 x 22 inches
Estimated retail value: $200

Bill Hoover is an Omaha-based painter and musician as well as a mentor for The Kent Bellows Studio's Artist-in-Residence Program.

Bill Hoover

Autumn 1973
Pastel on paper, 16 3/4 x 14 inches
Estimated retail value: $225

Bill Hoover

Vision Inhabited House
Watercolor, 6 x 9 inches
Estimated retail value: $150

Jeff Jackson

Keith Jacobshagen

Vertical Lift (East of Greenwood) July 2009
Watercolor and graphite on paper, 10 x 7 inches, Framed
Estimated retail price: $950.00

"By combining intimate reflections with a deep understanding and respect for nature, Keith Jacobshagen celebrates the landscape in a manner reminiscent of the early Dutch masters. Through their trademark low horizons and wide, dominant skies, Jacobshagen's paintings elicit a variety of emotions inspired by the Midwestern countryside.

Edgar Jerins

Nancy
Pastel on paper, 19 x 25 inches
Estimated retail value: $1,000

Edgar Jerins was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1958, and his formal artistic training began at the age of fourteen. By the age of 18, Edgar had received a full scholarship from the Scholastic Art Awards to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the oldest school in America that teaches a classical study of the figure. Edgar won numerous awards before graduating from the Academy in 1980. Also in that year he was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, an international grant for realist artists. Jerins was then able to move to Los Angeles, where he began his portrait career. After his stay in California he returned to the east coast and continued to participate in group shows where he won many awards, including the Nathaniel Burwash Artist Award in Boston (1997), the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Grant (2002) and the Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant (2004). Since 1981, Jerins has exhibited widely throughout the United States and abroad, including exhibitions at the Latvian Foreign Museum in Riga, Latvia, the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock (2001), the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (2002), the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, N.Y. (2003) and Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA (2004).

Matthew Jones

Matt Jones is an Omaha-based painter as well as a mentor for The Kent Bellows Studio's Artist-in-Residence Program.

Sora Kimberlain

The Magician
Charcoal and graphite, 23 1/4 x 29 1/8," Framed
Estimated retail value: $1,000

I see the human body as a living library filled with stories; human histories written on the body. Those stories and the depth of emotion, movement and beauty of the human figure continually inspire me. I'm compelled to work in a very physical way, whether painting or sculpture, in a sense to "act out" or capture a very kinetic energy of the human condition. I wish to construct a relationship between the figures and their environments. My recent painting and sculpture work builds on my past experience of designing, writing and performing in experimental theatre. Some have noted a theatrical sensibility in the current work. My goal is to move viewers to a place that is not defined or labeled, to a space that has a dimension, one that allows them to go deeper inside without judgment, and perhaps write their story.

Thomas H. Majeski

Untitled
Three-dimensional wall piece created from monotypes, relief print, and collage
30 1/2 x 26 x 2 5/8 inches
Estimated retail value: $1,250

The constructions are three-dimensional wall pieces created from monotypes, relief print and collage, which are mounted on museum board and Gatorboard.

I begin and develop each piece almost as a formalist, but ideas, thoughts and feelings do impact the work. Some things which interest me are the experience of mark making, the fusing of marks with content. Of special interest is the movement of color over the surface. Of having the unexpected occurring. Of experimental over symbolic language.

I am attempting to create a visual experience through an abstraction, yet at times, some symbols may be decipherable. I react to whatever I am attracted to at that moment. It may be an idea or simply the creative act. I do not wish to restrict myself. I only wish to fully explore.

Deb Masuoka

Michael Mayhan

Bathroom checked floor, Kent, in his studio, 33rd and Leavenworth.
Photograph, Framed
Estimated retail value: $225

Michael Mayhan

Kent, 1978, in his studio, 720 Park Ave. No. 5
Photograph, Framed
Estimated retail value: $225

I first saw Kent's paintings at his show at The Gallery at the Market, it must have been 1971 or so. I used to come visit his paintings, after hours, and stare at them through the gallery windows. I was struck with the power of his vision. I had the good fortune to meet him, discuss all kinds of projects, some completed and others not, and become his friend. I miss talking with him.

I studied drawing at Creighton University, UNO, and the Museum School in Boston. I studied the Zone System as an apprentice to Gary Downing and co-founded Subway News in Boston with former Omahan, Doug Simmons. I worked for various publications in Boston, New York, Birmingham, Alabama, and Lexington, Kentucky.

Amy Nelson

No A.R.T., we're all tied up right now.
Wheel-thrown porcelain, 15 x 3 inches
Estimated retail value: $500

Over the past six years I have been conducting research into the history of reproductive politics in the US. Tubal Ligation, as a surgical procedure, refers to female sterilization achieved through the severing or tying of the fallopian tubes. This procedure also intersects with a variety of medical procedures and treatments referred to as Assisted Reproductive Technologies, abbreviated A.R.T.

The process of creating No A.R.T., we're all tied up right now provided the opportunity to visualize the unresolved tensions surrounding the politics and policies that frame reproduction in this country. The aim of the work is to ask the questions: Are these knots getting tighter? Or are they unraveling?

Caolán O'Loughlin

Wish You Were Here/Wish You Were There (Set of 2)
Photograph, ED 5/10, 6 1/2 x 20 inches unframed/matted (each)
Estimated retail value: $200 (framed)

Having grown up in Ireland, I have always experienced definite boundaries in landscape: If I travel in any one direction, for even a relatively short amount of time, I will surely encounter both human activity and the horizon line as a body of water. In contrast, travelling through the Nebraskan landscape there is a sense of infinity, and frequently only suggestions of human activity. I find this fascinating.

In my current paintings, drawings and prints, I combine the absence of human figures with the presence of (among other things) tended agriculture, water towers and communication lines which serve to imply the human activity somewhere off the picture plane.

The process in which the various pieces are put together to create my work is as important and interesting to me as the finished product. I do not restrict myself to using conventional methods of art making, nor do I define myself as having a specific discipline or single medium. I take photographs, create 3-dimensional objects, and make paintings or prints in order to best address the topics at hand.

I aim to give the viewer the sense of vastness that is typical to the Midwestern landscape while also communicating the significance of human presence and absence.

Somebody somewhere is talking to someone. Wish you were here.

Paul Otero

Father Flanagan
Reproduction, Framed
Estimated retail value: $185

"Through years of studying the drawing process, I've learned that drawing is more than a marriage of eye, hand, and line, but a state of awareness that includes the breadth of one's seeing, one's feeling, and one's thinking; and then, an amazing synchronization of being, so that the eye and hand can move with feeling, intelligence and sensitive grace. For me, drawing is the penetration of both the interior and exterior world. When I draw, I notice that the presence of beauty, in form, is more spiritual in feeling than it is compelling in its physicality, and yet, I try never to betray the surface of my vision."

Portrait of Father Edward J. Flanagan
Recently, Paul completed a portrait of Father Edward J. Flanagan for Boys Town's 90th Anniversary. As a companion piece to the drawing, he wrote Father Edward J. Flanagan: Notes on a Drawing (2007). The original drawing is displayed at The Hall of History at Boystown. The print, a smaller version of the original, is displayed at the tomb of Father Flanagan.

Paul Otero

Father Edward J. Flanagan, Notes on a Drawing
Limited edition bound book, notes about Otero's artistic process, signed "In Loving Memory of Kent Bellows"
Estimated retail value: $55

Tim Potter

Set
Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches
Estimated retail value: $10,000

"Set", is a culmination of twelve years attention and labor. Begun in 1997, it was originally four panels, repeating some of the same images from a 1996 show, "Value Studies", images chosen from a variety of media; newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. Over time, through a number of incarnations, "Set" was edited to the two panels here; on the left, an actress in a play, and on the right, figures running and jumping over a fence. They are two random, anonymous events brought together by chance.

Tim Potter

Gnostic2 John
Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
Estimated retail value: $2,500

This is a recent example of the abstraction, "Gnostic2: John". It is from a group of four abstractions, loosely organized around the idea of gnosis, the Greek concept of spiritual truth - the painting utilizes the unconscious to discover a human spiritual expression.

Tim Potter

Gnostic4 Mary
Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 inches
Estimated retail value: $2,500

This is a recent example of the abstraction, "Gnostic4: Mary." It is from a group of four abstractions, loosely organized around the idea of gnosis, the Greek concept of spiritual truth - the painting utilizes the unconscious to discover a human spiritual expression.

Stephen Cornelius Roberts

Bellows in Nebraska Capitol
Gicleé Print, 8 1/8 x 10 1/4 inches
Estimated retail value: $425

In November 1990, he was selected as one of the four finalists to paint the eight mural panels for the Memorial Chamber on the fourteenth floor of the Nebraska State Capitol. Roberts' friend, artist Kent Bellows, modeled for the mural "The Scourge of Famine." The giglee print, "Bellows in the State Capitol," is a reproduction of the Bellows figure from one of the eight murals, depicting a sandbagging crew shoring up a levy to protect the lives of others.

John Thein

Night View
Watercolor, 23 x 30 inches
Estimated retail value: $1200

John Thein received his BFA from Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then studied at Studio 17 in Paris, France. He received both an MA and MFA from the University of Iowa, after which he taught at the University of Iowa, before coming to Creighton University. Thein has had over thirty solo exhibitions, and has participated in many regional, national and international exhibitions.

Allan Tubach

Siena Manga
Gicleé Print, ED 58/125, 24 x 22 inches
Estimated retail value: $495

The paintings of Allan Tubach have long reflected his interest in a changing world and the symbolic nature of this change. Tubach’s latest paintings deal primarily with the architectural fabric of cities, large and small, and how this evolving fragile structure mirrors our own changes as individuals and as a society.

Otis Twelve

Self-Portrait With Ring
Manipulated photograph, ED 1/2, 16 x 10 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $200

When approached to contribute a piece to this auction benefiting the Kent Bellows Studio and Center for Visual Arts, I was hesitant to participate. For one, putting my nascent attempt at "art" on display with so many other truly accomplished artists is an intimidating prospect rife with opportunities for ego-crushing, existential public humiliation. But I remember something I once wrote, a jape that Kent thought rather wise, "The measure of a man is oft taken in the ridicule of his friends." So friends, be kind.

Self Portrait With Ring is a tribute to Kent. I'll leave it at that. Indulging in what he called "art speak" would be more than presumptuous. The source photo was actually taken by my daughter Hannah - whom I consider another budding artist in the Bellows genetic garden. Working from her originally wider shot, starting with a radical crop of the image, I used Photoshop, an intentionally misadjusted scanner, random placement of ink-jet cartridges, some hand-made additions, eighty-pound card stock, a laser printer to finish, and a surplus of serendipity.

David White

Estimated retail value: $250

Kent was my close friend for many years. I had the pleasure of framing most of Kent's work from 1980 on. I worked directly with Kent and also with many of his collectors, and I'd be happy to provide the same quality archival framing services for you.

Mary Ellen White

Untitled Bronze Relief
Bronze, 1 x 6 x 5 inches, 2 x 9 x 9 inches, Framed
Estimated retail value: $1,150

I chose an untitled bronze relief to donate to the School of Kent Bellows in counterpoint to his incomplete Series "Seven Deadly Sins." And in tribute to Kent's famous Life theme, the "Naked Money Grab."

I am honored to be included in the Friends of Kent Bellows.

Mike Whye

Silk Scarf
Photograph printed on silk, 9 1/2 x 59 inches
Estimated retail value: $120

Mike Whye has been freelancing stories and photographs to magazines and newspapers since 1983. A graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Iowa State University, Mike also teaches photography and journalism at the University of Nebraska at Omaha on a part-time basis. He has also written guidebooks about Iowa and produced two photography books--the hard-bound "Nebraska Simply Beautiful" and the soft-bound "Omaha Impressions." Beside his journalism endeavors, he occasionally has produced photographic art, including most recently the silk scarves made of his photographs.