Guest Artists
Lancaster Art Vault represents a number of Guest and Gallery Wall Artists. These are artists who market and sell their work through Lancaster Art Vault but do not need studio space. Our Gallery Wall Artists rotate every 2 months so there is always something new to see at Lancaster Art Vault.
My artistic viewpoint and practice attempt to fuse balance within tension. My practice as an abstract and mixed-media artist begins with line—precise, geometric, often symmetrical—and meets the raw, unpredictable qualities of texture, surface, and material. Through this meeting point, I create visual languages that are at once controlled and untamed, familiar yet surprising. I am deeply influenced by the aesthetic philosophies of mid-century modern design, which valued simplicity, form, and structure, but I also lean into the irregularities of the natural world. I use washes, layering, and chemical reactions to coax surfaces into unexpected finishes. These processes embrace chance and imperfection, resulting in works that cannot be fully planned or repeated. Every canvas or board becomes an experiment in material dialogue—where the line is deliberate, but the surface pushes back with its. Own voice.
Symmetry plays a recurring role in my work, not a way of imposing rigidity but as a means of grounding the compositions in harmony. Against this structural framework, textures can fracture, ripple, and dissolve. This contrast allows viewers to experience the dualities that inspire me: order and chaos, permanence and erosion, the industrial and the organic.Each piece becomes an invitation to slow down and observe these intersections. The tactile quality of my surfaces encourages not just seeing, but feeling—an echo of concrete, stone, water, or weathered metal. In these works, the boundaries between designed structure and environmental spontaneity blur, reflecting the way human life is constantly negotiating its relationship with nature, time and materiality.
Ultimately, my art is about connection—between elements, between textures and forms, and between viewer and work. I want people to feel both anchored and unsettled, to experience the beauty of symmetry while being drawn into the roughness of its surface. It is in this liminal space—between control and surrender—that my prractice thrives.
JEFF SIBBETT
ALIVIA HALTOM
My art exists within the space between decay and new growth by manipulating found and fibrous materials into forms inspired by the transformative growth of mold and fungi. The photopolymer prints feature snapshots of various growths and textures found in the biomes of my sculptures. By zooming in and framing the shots, the sculptures are transformed into landscapes by removing the context of the original subject matter. Because the images are so small they become reminiscent of microscope slides or samples in contrast with the life-sized nature of the sculptures. Due to the nature of the photopolymer process, the images deteriorate and become hazy, creating a dreamlike atmosphere to the surfaces and textures.
My collage & mixed media work explores themes of ghosts, communication with spirits, and the feeling of being haunted. After all these years—my younger sister died tragically 33 years ago—I’m still thinking about what it would be like to easily communicate with a spirit, a ghost. Meeting through a portal—a garden, a daydream, in nature, through the senses. Maybe the work itself is a portal, an invitation for you, the viewer, to step in and use your senses to communicate with the images and marks. then beyond, with an extra-sensory perception. In this way we are all haunted. Haunted by the possibility.
In my current Haunted (Doll)House series, I’m experimenting with abstract and textured marks made with various mixed media along with cut-and-paste collage elements. The resulting scenes are meant to be intriguing and mysterious, sensually moody—a surrealist Imagining of what lurks beyond our normal perception.
Alicia Byler’s collage and mixed media work explores Themes of ghosts, communication with spirits, and the Feeling of being haunted. Her latest solo exhibition Weirdo Goddess and Other Love Stories was on display At Curio. Gallery & Creative Supply in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in October/November 2024. She received A 2025 Joseph Robert Foundation grant in support of her Participation in the current show Mixed at the Lancaster Art Vault. Alicia attended month-long residencies in 1997 and 1998 at the Vermont Studio Center. She earned a diploma from the Pennsylvania School of Art & Design and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from Millersville University. She lives and works in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
ALICIA BYLER
NOELLE TURCO
My name is Noelle Turco and I am a multimedia artist. I was born in New York but was raised in Lititz, Pa and have resided in Lancaster, PA for the last twenty years. I have two children, a fabulous partner, a crazy dog and the coolest cat. I was the “weird child” out of six daughters and always followed my own beat. Gifted to be surrounded by a wild family of artists and creative forces. Any form of art or inspiration is like my own breath, it keeps me alive. I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Art from Millersville University and a concentration in the Social Sciences. I have curated numerous art shows in the Lancaster area, showed at various galleries with collectors from local businesses as far as Russia and continue to produce art for diverse commissions. Having over 30 years of professional experience centering around art, design and the world of creative possibilities, my exposure as a commissioned artist, art director, private art teacher and interior designer have provided me with a wide range of opportunities to continue my artistic growth in a variety of rewarding directions.
I can always be found designing and decorating a space all the while creating my art and planting a garden with tools in my hand to Macgyver a broken something, thinking endlessly about the numerous possibilities of
projects I want to begin. I hope I have enough time in this realm to get them all to fruition.
Jonelle Peréz (b. 1987, New York, NY) is a figurative-abstract artist and painter with 10+ years of studio practice. His work is characterized by figurative elements and expressionistic brush strokes. It teeters the line between whimsical and comical themes, melancholy with underlying commentary. He has exhibited his work in galleries and fine art fairs throughout several boroughs of NYC. He currently lives and works in Lancaster, PA
“I've always been fascinated by the imperfections in paintings. As a young boy, my mother would take me to museums and gallery’s where I would closely inspect the details in paintings. The accidental or not so accidental brush strokes—the paint drippings. They offer a glimpse, a behind the scenes look at how the artist created the work.
Today, I continue to draw inspiration from the masters of abstraction. I work from feeling, constructing figures and then distorting them. I want the image to surface almost by chance. I work best with order on one side and chaos on the other. I am a student of life; forever learning and sharpening my craft. I am interested in everything, especially things I've never heard of. I am not afraid to be vulnerable in my art and share my defects of character or celebrate my virtues, because being an artist means healing your own wounds, and at the same time continuously exposing them. I think art should raise more questions than it answers, and because of this I feel a duty to comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable.”
JONELLE PEREZ
JPOLLY DAVIS CHALFANT
Creative work requires letting go of boundaries and allowing images and ideas to develop unrestricted. With this mindset, I guide unique forms and visions into existence. Trust and intuition are needed to resist convention and bring each original work to life. It’s like falling forward and knowing you will be caught.
My most recent work emerges from a curious world I call “Polymorphia”, where colors, shapes, and patterns form unexpected landscapes and creatures of the imagination. Each piece reveals a new moment or introduces a new character that connects you with the spiritual and emotional side of fantasy, dreams, and experiences. I allow imperfection to happen and invention to thrive. Often gritty and dense features play with the ethereal and whimsical. Poetic moods and multidimensional characters unfold. Discoveries occur a long the way, and these unexpected moments intrigue and inspire me. My vision is that these otherworldly places evoke an emotion in the viewers, taking them on a j ourney of their own interpretation.
I am a Chester County native and have pursued art throughout my life. I attended Hussian School of Art studying graphic design and illustration along with traditional fine art training. I then decided to study painting, printmaking, and drawing at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. While advancing in my career, I was also a mother of three children who continuously inspired creativity and adventure. I retired from the Chester County Planning Commission after twenty-Seven years as a graphic designer. I enjoy exhibiting my work in the Philadelphia region.
I paint to enjoy the serenity and mindfulness in the process of creating art. I am inspired by the natural world, drawn to the beauty in its details. I am compelled to try to capture the essence of the textures and patterns i nature onto my canvas.
“I create a textured canvas, then I paint.” I began to focus on my art full time upon retiring in 2005. I have been fortunate to have had a creative career siince graduating from Purdue University in Visual Design in 1976 and was hired as a graphic designer for The Walt Disney World Company based Orlando Florida. I had a wonderful 30 years, as an Art Director, creating for Disney, designing show sets, parades and themed environments for the parks. I retired as a Show Producer with Walt Disney Imagineering. I was inspired by the various techniques my fellow Imagineers used in creating the themed environments within the Disney Parks. The most intriguing techniques are those used to “age” a building or in transforming concrete into “natural themed landscapes”. Based on their creative techniques, I strive to develop my own processes that allow me to mimic nature’s textural details in my paintings.
A few years ago I started placing small niche’s into some of my wood panels, in which I arrange small vignettes with vintage figurines and distressed found objects. The collection you see here are a few of those works.Still for me, it is all about texture.
I live with my husband Art and our sweet pup Molly, in our home in the woods, up on the ridge above the lovely Oley Valley.
RHONDA COUNTS
JESSICA SHINER
Jessica Shiner is a mixed media abstract artist based in Lancaster, PA. She is recognized for her technique of layering acrylic paint and other materials to craft textures that reflect the allure of decay and destruction. Jess has showcased her artwork in various local venues, as well as in North Carolina. Her passion lies in uncovering the beauty found within the layers of cracks and crevices associated with industrial decay and erosion. Jess perceives profound beauty in life’s simperfections, embodying her belief that, “True beauty can emerge from the cracks and crevices revealed by time and misfortune.”
My Art attempts to join the interplay of decay and resilience reflected in life and the human made world. The oxidation of metals and peeling paint gets me exploring ideas of what these surfaces might have endured. These inspiring elements, often found in urban landscapes and nature shape my abstract compositions. Beauty is revealed within the textures that are built and scraped away mimicking our own life's stories and the opportunity to overcome adversity.
Suzanne A. Bartlett has done the work of an artist from her earliest memory. Taking necessity as an opportunity for art-making, she developed a talent for learning new s kills in vernacular settings; silk screening, interior design, marketing and newspaper image production brrought her to a focus on women’s work, the materials they manipulate - cloth, paper, bits of string and the glues that hold them together - are a recurring subject seen especially in Women’s Work, her white-washed textile painting series. Bartlett is a locally famous baker of breads and maker of costumes. She holds a BA from Lehigh University’s Art and Architecture program, earned while making a family.
SUZANNE BARTLETT
JULIA SWARTZ
A lifetime resident of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I have always been captivated by beauty. From an early age, art, flower gardens, and home decor were my passions. My artistic journey began with my mother’s oil paints, and though my formal training was minimal during my school years, my dedication never wavered. After graduating from Lancaster Mennonite High School in 1970, I studied briefly under the late Jay McVey before family commitments took precedence. Returning to art later in life, I joined the Lancaster County Art Association, studying with prominent local artists and attending influential workshops. Overcoming non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1999 profoundly impacted my perspective, propelling my art to new heights. Inspired by visits to New York’s art scene in 2001, I embraced oil impressionism, developing a distinctive style characterized by bold, textured palette knife techniques.
My work is diverse and exploratory, from landscapes to portraits, reflecting my aversion to repetition and my love for new challenges. Since 2003, I have exhibited in over several 100 juried shows, earning numerous awards and commissions, including a portrait of President Judge Michael Georgelis. In 2007, I realized my dream of opening a gallery, with a second location following in 2014. Despite retiring from gallery ownership in 2020, I continue to paint, even as macular degeneration affects my vision. My passion endures, and I now create from my home studio, supported by my husband Terry, who manages the business and our website. My art remains a limitless journey, driven by an unwavering love for creativity and expression.
