We are Illumination.Studio
Fine Art | Design | Fabrication
In a world that often rewards fast and good enough, Illumination.Studio is more about slow and how close we can get to perfect. Our craftsmen and women apply classical training to modern projects and create beautiful, timeless works of art. Select your next acquisition from our collections of icons, paintings, hand-made books and works on paper.
Mel Ahlborn
Mel Ahlborn is the director of Illumination Studio. She is a contemporary artist whose artistic expression draws upon cultural symbolism with historically complex commonalities.
Her commercial works for education and business illustrate, brand, present, and instruct using print, multimedia and interactivity.
Her fine art works for exhibition and collection represent contemporary human experience, and use the visual language of Christianity to explore identity, tradition, and story.
Image: Cindy McMillion, Memphis TN
Joy Jennings
Joy Jennings is an impressionist painter who loves stories of La Belle Époque and historical novels of the epoch of the Two World Wars. The creativity and resilience of these monumental times in our history have always inspired her, from the works of artists such as Manet, Cezanne, Béraud, Bonnard, Morisot, Degas, as well as such early twentieth century writers as Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Camus, Sartre, and always T.S. Eliot.
Her art reflects the influence of her many years of the study of dance. Very much a colorist, she creates her paintings as if she is choreographing a work on canvas, alway conscious of form and movement of color. She hopes the viewer can become not only a spectator of the painting but a participant in the dance of the painting.
Mary Jane Miller
Mary Jane Miller is a passionate artist, iconographer, designer, teacher and author. Miller is a successful designer, artist and previous art gallery owner. She is considered to be a master iconographer in egg tempera with 25 years experience. Miller and her husband Valentin Gomez offer beautifully executed contemporary icons masterfully done in two ancient techniques : egg tempera and repousse.
The term “repousse” refers to pushing silver/pewter into flat sheets of metal to form shapes and volume. Then engraving and tooling is worked on from both sides to create designs used to “cover” the precious icon image.
After finishing the painting and laying out the design for embellishments, Valentín Gómez, Miller’s husband begins his work. He tools the pewter sheets following the patterns drawn on the metal with a stylus. He sets precious stones, patinas and polishes each design.
Jim Baker
Jim Baker is a New Mexican multi-media artist working in the creation of three dimensional altered Bibles and Christian art. Jim’s art is noted for combining antique altered Bibles with Biblical symbols, metaphors, and artifacts to inspire devotion and worship of God, to provoke spiritual conversations, and uncover the often hidden meaning in Holy Scripture.
"My art conveys the belief that Holy Scripture cannot be fully interpreted and applied without metaphor, symbol, and story. My art reflects the deep connection between the Holy Scriptures of my Judeo-Christian faith tradition and the metaphors, stories, and symbols requisite to their understanding. The inspiration to reclaim and re-stich old Bibles (1700’s – 1800’s) of different languages that are no longer in use comes from the word religion, derived from the Latin word Re-ligio, meaning to re-bind…..a word used in Scripture to reflect God's desire to re-connect us to Him, to our true selves, and to others.”
Jim’s sacred art can be found in galleries in Santa Fe, Taos, Espanola, and Jemez Springs, New Mexico as well as in churches, schools, religious institutions, homes, and businesses - wherever people want creative and inspirational art to express and experience their faith.
Erin McGee Ferrell
Erin McGee Ferrell is a contemporary professional oil painter and an 'Arts in Health' advocate. She teaches 2D Design at The University of New England. McGee Ferrell is published researcher and patient advocate for the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, a National Cancer Institute Research Advocate, Arizona State University, CSBC, and the Department of Defense as a consumer reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).
Erin is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and University of the Arts Philadelphia and has studied at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, University of Louisville in Italy, School for International Training in Nigeria, the Artist Students League of New York, and Maine College of Art.