The West Volusia Artists announce that club President Melinda Ellis Cummings is our Artist of the Month for October. Her jewelry pieces and collage work will be on display at the Wayne G. Sanborn Activity Center in DeLand throughout the month.
Cummings trained with art professor Dan Gunderson while she was at Stetson University. She has been designing jewelry pieces for nine years.
Her pieces are made of organic materials, such as feathers, stone, arrowheads and shells. Other items she likes to work with might be found items such as keys, discarded hardware, seeds, bone and wood. The theme of finding unexpected beauty within imperfections in life runs through her designs. Her collage talent emerged after joining the West Volusia Artists.
Cummings is a native Floridian. As a child, she loved the smells, colors and textures of the school art room. At home, she was fortunate to have materials that her mother and grandmother used in quilting and sewing projects. This gave her lots of hands-on experience.
Cummings’ love of art was renewed after retiring from 25 years of teaching. Online classes and private lessons with Tim Peterson have helped her to develop her other art talents.
Before that, she said, “I thought I could never paint or do two-dimensional art until I joined the West Volusia Artists and went to the Museum of Art – DeLand on a field trip.” This helped her move out of her comfort zone.
Cummings realized with mentoring, self-study and a great deal of practice, she could be successful with acrylic, collage, oil paint, pan pastels and watercolors. She has participated in many local shows.
This year, the West Volusia Artists intend to be a part of the Autumn in the Oaks Art, Craft and Music Festival in DeLeon Springs, the Lake Helen Methodist Church Fall Festival and Art Show, the West Volusia Artists Art Show at the Sanborn Center, and the Select Growers in the Garden Art Show and Sale, as well as the DeLand Outdoor Art Festival in Earl Brown Park.
The West Volusia Artists have been around since 1964. Cummings learned about the club from newspaper articles and announcements. She joined the club about five years ago when there were about 12 members. Now that she is president of the club, it has grown to approximately 52 members, with new people joining at each meeting.
Cummings would like to encourage others to come join the club and try out new techniques, mediums and genres of art to discover what you enjoy most and where your talents lie.
In her free time, Cummings and her husband run a dog-sitting service called The Squirrels’ Nest. She also enjoys photography, writing, literature, traveling, bicycling, gardening and cooking.
The West Volusia Artists meet 9 a.m.-noon on the first and third Fridays September through May at the Sanborn Center, 815 S. Alabama Ave. in DeLand. The group meets to draw, paint, socialize and share. Call Cummings for more information at 386-738-5515.
