Scribe Arts Spotlight Mixer

Jan. 31 2026 6pm - 9pm The Pinnacle 1772 Indian Wood Cir, Maumee $59 | Dinner Included | Artist Marketplace

Who is the Egyptian Goddess Isis?

Isis was one of ancient Egypt's most important goddesses, worshipped for over 3,000 years. She was considered the ideal mother and wife, known for her magical powers and protective nature.

Egyptians believed Isis could heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, and protect children and women during childbirth. She was often depicted as a woman wearing a throne-shaped crown or with outstretched wings. Her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, making her one of the most widely venerated deities in the ancient world. Her symbol is the Tyet.

READ MORE ABOUT ISIS AND THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS!

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Officially in the Library of Congress!

The Scribe® was recently included in the Library of Congress's collection of culturally significant newspapers!

This is a major milestone for Apollo Press, as The Scribe® was recognized for this honor only a year and half after its creation.

We thank everyone for their tremendous support and we look forward to continue promoting Ohio's art community!

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"Peppermints" - Andrea Walker

The Scribe® is a monthly arts publication that is created and published under the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Apollo Press.

It is the first Ohio-wide visually-designed arts newspaper! Stocked in locations without paywalls for our readers, The Scribe® makes Ohio art visible and accessible to the public.

SUPPORT THE SCRIBE!

The Scribe® needs your support to showcase Ohio art! Consider stocking, donating, or sponsoring this publication!

Jeffrey Darah President and Editor 419-470-9489 [email protected]

Audrey Johnson Public Programs Officer

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Olivia Mitchem Volunteer

Emily Ulm: Nature in Every Tile

Roots in Wax and Clay

Emily Ulm's artistic journey began in childhood with a beloved Play-Doh Fun Factory and early exposure to ceramics through her father's work. Her father worked as a beeswax candlemaker and set up booths at Cincinnati's annual Appalachian Festival. Emily sold small wax sculptures made from his candle trimmings, with beeswax-yellow roses becoming her best seller.

From Sculpted Originals to Lasting Impressions

Emily creates tiles by sculpting originals in low relief, making plaster molds, then pressing clay into them for duplicates. Her catalog includes hundreds of designs featuring local flora and fauna from the Kent area.

For the past 20 years Emily has operated from her home studio in Kent, Ohio, located near the Cuyahoga River, which she regularly visits and draws inspiration from the wildlife, including its past regeneration from fires and pollution.

Her decorative and functional tiles primarily serve for backsplashes in homes, though she occasionally works on public projects like Kent's Chimney Swift Tower. She hopes her work serves as a bridge that deepens our connection with our personal space, as well as nature itself.

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Ohio tile artist turns childhood beeswax crafting into a 20-year career creating ceramics inspired by nature and the restored Cuyahoga River.

@emu_art_tile emutile.com

Tiffany B: The Human Side of the Lens

Unconventional Beginnings

Tiffany Bumgardner’s artistic journey began in the dust and chaos of rodeo arenas, not in pristine art studios. Based in St. Clairsville, Ohio, she’s the founder of Exposure One Studios and has spent 14 years building her reputation as both photographer and storyteller.

Her breakthrough came during high school when an art teacher required students to photograph their subjects before creating them in other mediums. That assignment revealed her natural talent with a camera, though traditional art forms had always felt forced.

She further refined her craft in rodeo arenas, dealing with poor lighting, fast action, and challenging angles without proper equipment. This unconventional training ground gave her mastery of gear and adaptability that allows her to work effectively in any conditions.

The Human Connection

While Tiffany never attended art school, her psychology and sociology degrees proved more valuable than any photography program could have been. This background gives her insight into people and culture, helping her connect with subjects and observe human behavior in ways that make her work more meaningful.

Her approach focuses on real moments rather than glamorous poses, photographing “moments, legacy, and lives that are often overlooked.” One early experience involved a casual headshot session with a college roommate that led to a small role alongside Emma Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, showing her the potential impact of even the smallest photographs.

@exposureonestudios exposureonestudios.com

THE BULLETIN

Some listings are unpaid. Paid placements noted. Names/logos used for identification only.

Call for Artists

• 54th Annual Juried Art Exhibition
• Valley Art Center
• Deadline: October 3, 2025
• 250-mile radius of Chagrin Falls
• $15 a piece, up to three (3) pieces

the-scribe.org/b/vac

Call For Art

• 86th Area Artist Annual
• Butler Institute of American Art
• Deadline: October 23, 2025
• 75-mile radius to BIAA
• Works must be hand-delivered

the-scribe.org/b/biaa

Your Announcement Here!

• Who are you looking for?
• What location?
• Eligibility? Fees?
  • Extra info? Add it here!
  • Deadlines?
  • Anything else?

yourwebsite.com 419-555-1234

Call for Holiday Giftables

• The Contemporary Dayton
• seeking artist-created items, ornaments, and decor
• Consignment agreement
• Due: October 31, 2025

the-scribe.org/b/dayton

Artist Grant

• ArtsRISE grant
• Ohio Arts Council
• November 30, rolling deadline
• May request up to $5,000

the-scribe.org/b/artsrise

Put Your Call in 200 Locations Across Ohio!

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The Natural Art of Hasura Akther Rumky

From Dhaka to the World Stage

Hasura Akther Rumky is a contemporary Bangladeshi artist with over ten years of international experience spanning Asia, Europe, and North America. She earned both her BFA and MFA from the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of Dhaka.

Since August 2025, Hasura has been the resident artist at Gallery Lumina in Ohio, where she is developing new work that transforms memory into textured canvases.

Her fourth solo exhibition, “Ode to Peace & Love,” was presented at the Gandhi Memorial Center in Washington DC, featuring cultural figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha alongside mothers and friends. The same collection was also shown at Gallery Eye for Art in Houston, where she is a consigned artist.

Painting with Soil, Sand, and Silence

Hasura creates textured surfaces using natural pigments including soil, sand, and charcoal, combined with pastel and acrylic. She views these materials as carriers of memory, with each grain holding silence and the universal desire for connection, intimacy with nature, and the universal desire for peace. “When I work with soil and sand, I feel I am painting with fragments of memory,” Rumky reflects.

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Bangladeshi artist uses natural pigments like soil and sand to create textured paintings exploring memory and peace.

@hasura_akther_rumky hasuraakterrrumky.art

Seshat: The Goddess Behind Our Mission

Seshat's Name in Hieroglyphs

Origins and Identity

Seshat was among the earliest Egyptian goddesses, known as the divine scribe and measurer. Her name means "female scribe" in a leopard-skin robe with a seven-pointed emblem above her head, often described as the mark of a seven-horned goddess.

Egyptians credited her with inventing writing itself, a gift that allowed knowledge to be recorded and passed on, while Thoth, the god of wisdom, was said to have taught the skill to humankind. In this role she was honored as the Queen of the Scribes, a figure whose many names reflected her sacred authority.

Keeper of Records and Order

Tradition held that Seshat recorded the reigns of pharaohs, the tribute of foreign lands, and the results of battles. She appeared with Nephthys in funerary scenes, with Horus during temple foundation rites, and with Mafdet in protective roles. In the "stretching the cord" ceremony, she measured and aligned sacred buildings, ensuring harmony between human work and the heavens.

She marked years on palm stems, wrote names on the sacred persea tree, and safeguarded libraries that held religious, legal, and architectural texts. Ancient thought also connected her to seven rivers, which she helped her followers to discover within themselves, breaking the chains of ignorance and leading them toward understanding.

Inspiration for The Scribe

For Apollo Press, Seshat is more than a figure of the past. Her presence with Thoth, Horus, and Nephthys shows her as a unifying guide. In the same way, The Scribe gathers many voices to record community life. Her work combined accuracy with beauty: she shaped temples that impressed the eye and preserved scrolls meant to endure.

This balance inspires our newspaper, which aims to present Ohio's art and culture with care, clarity, and beauty. Just as Seshat lifted the burden of ignorance through knowledge in Egypt, The Scribe seeks to share art and ideas in a way that enlightens and uplifts the community.

Lindsay Dalpiaz: Mushroom Advocate

Mycelial Muse

Lindsay Dalpiaz, a graduate of The Ohio State University's History of Art program, centers her artistic practice on the fungal kingdom. Her work aims to challenge societal mycophobia, the fear of fungi, and elevate these organisms to their rightful place as a critical component of nature alongside flora and fauna.

This mission was born from a personal journey from a childhood wariness of mushrooms to a deep fascination with their diversity and personality. By the time she began sculpting fungal forms into familiar objects, she seeks to demystify them and change our cultural relationship with this often-overlooked part of the natural world.

Earthen Forms and Emerging Visions

Working primarily with mid-fire clay, Lindsay combines wheel-thrown and slab-built techniques to create her functional and sculptural pieces. Each work is adorned with individually sculpted mushrooms, where she meticulously carves details like gills and pores before applying glazes to highlight their intricate structures.

Looking ahead, Lindsay plans to create larger and more complex fungal sculptures. She is also developing a series of paintings to explore the concept of "fungal blindness," a term she uses to describe our tendency to overlook the fungal kingdom, thereby drawing attention to the incomplete picture we hold of our own ecosystem.

SESHAT'S CALENDAR

View our online calendar at the-scribe.org/calendar

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TOLEDO

October 10, 7pm @ Valentine Theatre Toledo Opera: Carmen

October 16, 5-8pm @ Main Branch Library Art Loop: Literati

October 17, 8pm @ Toledo Museum of Art Symphonie fantastique

October 18, 6-9pm @ Renaissance Toledo Hotel The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Show

October 24, 7pm @ Valentine Theatre Toledo Ballet - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

COLUMBUS

October 4, 4-8pm @ Short North Arts District October Gallery Hop

October 4-5 @ Aronoff Center for the Arts Dog Man: The Musical

October 10-12 @ Columbus Jazz Southern Theatre Rhapsody In Blue

October 11 @ Ohio Theatre HOW?! The Magic Show

October 18, 12pm @ Warehouse District High Spirits Art + Music Festival

CLEVELAND

Oct 3 @ Beck Center for the Arts, Lakewood ★ Andy Warhol in Iran

October 4 @ Maltz Performing Arts Center Cleveland Pride Band "7 Deadly Sins"

October 4 @ Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland moCa Saturday: FAM Day

October 9, 7-8:30pm @ Heights Arts Gallery Gallery Concert with Amani Strings

October 26, 2:30-4pm @ Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland Women's Orchestra at 90 Years

CINCINNATI

October 8-12 @ Cincinnati + Newport riverfronts America's River Roots Festival

October 10-26 @ Art Academy of Cincinnati Cincinnati Unveiled Exhibition

October 10-Jan 4 2026 @ Cincinnati Art Museum The Art of Paul Scott

October 18 @ Cincinnati Art Museum Cincinnati Art Award Gala

October 28 @ Cincinnati Arts Association Twilight In Concert

Jen Florentine: Canvas of Color

From Northeast Ohio to an Artist's Life Jen Florentine has lived throughout Northeast Ohio her entire life, moving around the region before settling in Kent three years ago. She describes Kent as a place she truly loves and has found her home.

Art has been present in Jen's life since childhood, though she never expected to become a professional artist. Her painting career began about ten years ago as a stress-relief activity. The hobby quickly developed into something more serious when friends and family started requesting to purchase her work, eventually growing into a business.

A Dance on Canvas: Style, Inspiration, and Advice

Jen describes her painting style as a combination of expressive, abstract, and impressionist techniques. She approaches painting like "a dance on canvas," allowing color to guide her work through experimentation and movement. Her creative process emphasizes play and letting the painting develop organically rather than following strict plans.

Ohio's landscapes serve as inspiration for many of Jen's pieces. Her current approach, focusing less on realistic reference and more on capturing joy, energy, and creative freedom. She explains that painting gives her a form of expression beyond words, and she feels most alive when fully absorbed in the process. For those beginning their own artistic path, Jen's advice is straightforward: simply begin.

@jenflorentineart jenflorentine.com

Bonnie Knepper's Art After Retirement

From Walls to Canvas

Bonnie Knepper retired before taking up painting as an artistic pursuit, though she describes herself as having been a "painter" most of her life. Throughout her career, when asked about dream jobs, she would jokingly say "painter," referring to house painting, not fine art. She genuinely enjoyed painting walls, wood trim, windows, and furniture, finding it calming and rewarding.

Bonnie has no formal art training but discovered a supportive artistic community at Wolf Creek YMCA in Perrysburg, Ohio. She paints purely for personal enjoyment rather than commercial purposes.

The Art of Storytelling Through Still Life

Her still life paintings focus on storytelling, creating pieces that allow viewers to use their imagination and discover narratives within the work. Bonnie enjoys thrift shopping to find unique picture frames, maintaining a collection of frames alongside gallery canvases that she gives "a second life."

She continues to find peace and accomplishment when painting, whether on canvas or walls. Bonnie expresses interest in potentially exploring murals, suggesting an evolution from her house-painting background toward larger-scale artwork that bridges her two painting experiences.

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Thao Nguyen's Public Art Journey

Who is Thao Nguyen?

Thao Nguyen works as an illustrator, designer, and visual artist based in Cleveland. She creates logos, magazine covers, greeting cards, and packaging designs. Her artistic approach blends hand-drawn techniques with digital methods, resulting in vibrant artwork that often features wildlife themes reflecting her outdoor interests.

Her artistic outlook is shaped by music as much as by visual art. Inspired by creators like Tyler the Creator and Pharrell Williams, she values originality and collaboration over chasing numbers or trends.

From Childhood Sketches to Cleveland Streets

Thao initially planned to become a video game concept artist but changed direction during college to focus on illustration. Her interest in art began when her pet hamster. She developed her skills by following online tutorials and drawing characters like Stitch from Disney.

As she grew older, Thao experimented with watercolor and acrylic paints, particularly enjoying portrait work and outdoor scenes. With her parents' support, she attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she studied illustration.

Thao completed a year-long printmaking residency and participated in a group exhibition through Zygote Press. She is currently developing a series of public art installations throughout Cleveland.

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Cleveland-based illustrator combining hand-drawn and digital techniques for vibrant wildlife-themed commercial and public art.

@thaon_art thaonart.com

Bent Neon Gallery Comes Alive With Light

When Light Bends: The Glassity Partnership

At Bent Neon Gallery, artists Kory Sherer and Stephen Black join forces in Glassity, a collaboration that merges century-old neon craft with emerging AR technology, creating installations where glowing sculptures interact with floating holographic photographs.

Sherer has illuminated spaces across North America with works ranging from commercial signs to art featured in video games like Destiny Two. His signature Neon Jeep showcases the technical precision of three-dimensional glass bending, earning him more than 100,000 Instagram followers.

Black brings an equally innovative perspective through augmented reality, with works in Columbia University and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography collections. The Toledo native has presented AR projects at MIT, Hong Kong PolyU, and Detroit Public Library. His practice spans photography, video, and writing, adding further depth to his AR work.

Immersive Encounters with Neon and AR

From September 26 to October 4, Bent Neon Gallery transforms into a free glowing workshop where Kory Sherer bends glass before your eyes and Stephen Black guides visitors on AR creations. Guests leave not only with a deeper appreciation of neon and technology, but also with simple take-home projects that bring the experience to life.

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Two Toledo artists combine century-old neon sculpture with augmented reality technology in experimental gallery installations and workshops.

@bubikofoodtour @bentcustomneon

Christine Deemer's Encaustic Seascapes

Early Creative Roots

Christine Deemer is an Ohio-based artist who specializes in encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting. She moved to Ohio in 2014 and has since become an active part of the state's arts community through awards, gallery exhibitions, and teaching opportunities. Christine holds a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Western Illinois University, a Master of Business Administration from Regis University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado.

She originally worked in oil and acrylic painting until discovering the encaustic medium in 2016. "There is an aspect of working with hot wax that reminds me of clay, with its ability to be molded and carved into," she explains. "Working with a liquid that quickly becomes a solid is also exciting."

Ocean-Inspired Work

Christine's work centers on ocean themes, rooted in her childhood in southern California. Throughout relocations across the country and internationally, including The Netherlands, she has typically lived near bodies of water. During Ohio's cold winters, her travel experiences and memories of warmer coastal locations help maintain her artistic inspiration.

Her encaustic paintings create textured seascapes that capture both the beauty and environmental fragility of ocean environments. She uses the medium's ability to be layered and sculpted to mirror the complex underwater ecosystems she depicts.

Christine aims to inspire deeper environmental awareness and motivate action toward reducing plastic waste for healthier, more sustainable oceans.

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Amy Draper's Abstract Energy

Finding Freedom in Paint

Amy Draper discovered her passion for art at six years old when she received her first easel and paint set for Christmas. She later spent many years drawing, a high school assignment to "paint something real" redirected her path. Unhappy with how she carried the canvas home and used her stepfather's brush to cover it in loose, energetic strokes.

The finished piece looked like a tie-dyed shirt, and creating it left her exhilarated in a way she had never experienced with art before. Her classmates loved the work, and one even asked to buy it, but the teacher gave her a poor grade for not following instructions. That moment set her on the course of abstract painting, a style she has continued to pursue ever since.

Color, Community, and New Directions

Amy Draper paints with acrylics in bold, layered colors, drawing inspiration from Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Kahlo. She has exhibited her work locally at Georgette's Coffee Shop and the Maumee Public Library Gallery under the name Amy Renee, and her work also appears in the Arts Commission's Art in Public Places program on a signal box downtown. Now launching Soleil Lune Artworks, Draper is expanding her practice to include paintings, prints, and hemp jewelry, with a Facebook page and a booth planned at The Thrifty Hippie in Maumee.

A Toledo artist creating vibrant abstract paintings that blend bold color with energy and a strong sense of community.

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• @aymee.renee
• the-scribe.org/soleillune

We Make Art Visible

The Scribe is the first Ohio-wide, visually-designed arts newspaper!

Each month, 4,000 public copies reach over 200 libraries, galleries, cafes, and businesses across Ohio without paywalls, subscriptions, or gatekeeping.

Art connects, inspires, and transforms. Help us make it accessible to all. the-scribe.org/donate

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Toledo Museum of Art

You are invited to our 2nd annual Scribe Arts Spotlight Mixer

Jan. 31 2026 6pm - 9pm The Pinnacle 1772 Indian Wood Cir, Maumee OH $59 | Dinner Included | Artist Marketplace

Who is "The Head"?

Atum was one of the most important creator gods in ancient Egyptian mythology, particularly in the religious center of Heliopolis. According to Egyptian creation myths, Atum emerged from the primordial waters of chaos, called Nun, as the first divine being. He was believed to have created himself through his own will and power, earning him the title "the self-created one." As the first god, Atum then created the next generation of deities by producing Shu (god of air) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture) from his own body, either through spitting, sneezing, or other bodily acts depending on the version of the myth. These two gods then gave birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), continuing the divine family tree.

Atum was often depicted as a man wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolizing his role as a universal ruler.

He's above all the other Ancient Egyptian Gods!