FEATURED ARTISTS PROGRAM

Meet our new artists for August—and explore all our other artists

Since we founded our Missouri Featured Artists Program in 2020, we have highlighted more than 220 imaginative makers from throughout the state. We’ve brought you painters, pencil artists, sculptors, dancers, singers, instrumental musicians, poets, novelists, filmmakers, ceramicists, jewelry artists, glass artists, and many more who create in myriad other ways. You’ll find them all in the ever-growing gallery below our current highlighted quartet.

FAQs

Artist application form

Brian Woods
pianist
St. Louis

Ashley Laren
visual artist and teacher
Springfield

Margaret Kinkeade
artist
Kansas City

Ron Hauser
painter
St. Charles

Two pieces of pottery in a cone shape with the top cut off, brick red color with white patterns on one and black patterns on the other, circles and squares accented by straight lines

Margaret Kinkeade | Salt and Pepper Shakers, red stoneware

MARGARET KINKEADE

artist | Kansas City

My current studio practice is inspired by American quilts with a particular interest in the imperfectly perfect quilts of the everywoman.

Growing up in northeast Oklahoma, my introduction to art came in quiet moments of curiosity: looking over my grandmother’s sewing table, fumbling around in her needlepoint projects, and cleaning hobby pottery with my aunt each summer vacation. Time spent absorbing layers of both material and process cemented a connection to methodical work made special by each maker’s unique touch and intent. Enamored by printmaking processes in my undergraduate studies, my creative investigations made their way back to fiber by way of printed and sewn fabric installations, and work made collaboratively with friends. I was reintroduced to clay during this time with new materials and tools at my disposal, and found that the process-heavy practices I was drawn to in the print studio had a lot in common with surfaces achievable in clay. Clay became my preferred building material for sculptures and functional work exploring the community connection of shared work and traditional American craft.

margaretkinkeade.com

Realistic painting of bright yellow two-door hardtop car with 1950s-style retro diner in the background

Ron Hauser | 1957 Chevy, oil

RON HAUSER

painter | St. Charles

I feel that God gave me a gift late in life to do good by passing it forward to make a difference for others’ lives.

My life as a self-taught artist started in 2001 after a disabling accident ended my 40-year career as an international marketing manager, and my wife, Mary, suggested I start painting to help pass the time. My art now hangs on walls of homes and museums in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and many others. I’ve traveled to festivals in over 30 states displaying my works and doing live demonstrations and speaking engagements. I established my “Painting for a Purpose” program to support therapy for disabled children through horseback riding. I was an oil painting instructor at St. Charles Community College for two decades. My newest adventure is writing a novel. I’ve joined the St. Louis Writers Guild and have embarked on Mob Mom and Me, a wild ride through my childhood with a bootlegging Oklahoma family and my mother’s amazing episodes with Kansas City and Chicago politics. I’m continuing to use my gifted talent to help fund children’s special needs programs and other philanthropic organizations.

ronhauserartist.com

Abstract painting of water lilies in a pond overlaid with black and white drawings of household appliances and of a woman looking at the pond

Ashley Laren | Field of Water Lilies and Steel, mixed media

ASHLEY LAREN

visual artist and teacher | Springfield

Once I allowed myself to explore and experiment with color as an artist, it changed everything for me.

A huge foundation of who I am as an artist was developed in my youth, drawing things I saw as realistically as I could. I would almost never paint—it felt like a foreign world to me. The door of the world of paints and canvas opened when I began studying for my bachelor’s degree in art history. Being exposed to a variety of artists, cultures, and artistic movements offered me endless possibilities of how I could approach creating my own artwork. Being enlightened with the array of masterpieces throughout the history of great artists, I thus embarked on my own journey. My artwork addresses different snapshots in my life who make me who I am today, as well as the feelings surrounding those moments. I do this by combining bold, contrasting colors and linework sometimes seen through colorblocking and sometimes by creating texture with recycled materials. In my most recent work, I have gotten back in touch with my love for drawing and integrated that into my paintings through collaging my drawings onto the painted surface.

ashleylaren.com

Brian Woods | Wanderings album

BRIAN WOODS

pianist | St. Louis

Music is always about people, their experiences, and emotions. When you focus on the humanity in music, you can’t go wrong.

I am a classical concert pianist with the privilege of performing some of the finest music of all time across the United States and beyond. Whether I am performing as soloist with orchestra or in a more intimate recital, I aim to tell a story through classical music that connects with audiences personally. Following my concerto debut on a subscription weekend with the North Carolina Symphony last year, as well as the release of my debut album, Wanderings, I look forward to more career milestones as I bring my performances to as many people as will listen. In St. Louis, I am proud to serve as Music Director for Classical Programming at the World Chess Hall of Fame and Galleries, where I curate and perform for one of the premier chamber music series in the state of Missouri.