By Jud Yalkut

Two accomplished women portrait artists are showing in the two-person “Capturing the Essence of the Soul” at the YWCA Women’s Art Gallery at 898 Walnut Street in Cincinnati through September 27. Dr. Lois Fortson of Dayton (shown) does magnificent and feeling portrait busts and credits her training at the Dayton Art Institute for her interest in ceramic sculpture. Most of her subjects are women and men who have contributed significantly to our community. Painter Carin Hebenstreit was born and educated in Europe studying the Renaissance masters, and she glazes layers of paint over underpainting to create inner luminosity, as in her portrait of Maestro Paavo Jarvi at Cincinnati’s Music Hall. For hours and information call (513) 241-7090 or visit ywca.org/cincinnati.

By Jud Yalkut

The world’s only collection of Shaker Pottery at the Warren County Historical Museum in February is now part of the museum’s permanent collection. This collection is the only one of its kind because Union Village, the Shaker community in Turtlecreek Township, is believed to have been the only Shaker community to have produced pottery. The Shakers, being a self-reliant religious sect who pledged themselves to celibacy, lived and worked on a 4,500 acre community that operated between 1805 and 1916 on the site of the present Otterbein Retirement Center in Lebanon. The shards and fragments have been painstakingly assembled by Jessica Thress, the museum’s archeologist, from an archeological dig to preserve whatever remained of the large Shaker village. The Warren County History Center and its large collection and historical room reconstructions is located at 105 S. Broadway in Lebanon. Hours are from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon – 4 p.m. on Sunday with an admission charged. (513) 932-1817.

By Jud Yalkut

Jennifer Chiaverini is a quilter and best-selling author who has written 14 novels in the Elm Creek series and four volumes of quilt patterns inspired by her novels. Chiaverini will appear in Waynesville on Saturday, Feb. 26 at 9:30 a.m. in the community room of Quaker Heights retirement home to talk and answer questions about her series, including the Civil War saga “The Lost Quilter.” Accompanying her appearance will be an exhibition of quilts at Quaker Heights, and a quilt loom will be set up at the neighboring Friends Home Museum on Fourth and Miami Streets for those desiring to experience the niceties of the quilter’s craft. For more information, please call the Mary L. Cook Library at (513) 897-4826.

By Jud Yalkut

Yasue Sakaoka is a Japanese artist resident in Columbus who has received the 2007 Ohio Heritage Fellowship for Material Culture and most recently the 2010 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award. Her pioneering work on the fabrication of giant Origami paper sculpture has enriched the crossover of cultures with installations in such venues as the I.M. Pei building across from Dayton’s Courthouse Square. Sakaoka will present a new piece from Feb. 8 through March 11 at the University of Dayton’s ArtStreet Studio D, located at the intersection of Lawnview Avenue and Kiefaber Street on the UD campus. A reception and artist’s talk will be from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8, followed by a workshop at ArtStreet Studio E from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

By Jud Yalkut

Internationally acclaimed artist Jun Kaneko has a solo exhibition of sculptures, paintings and drawings on view at the Carl Solway Gallery, 424 Findlay St. in Cincinnati, through April 23. Kaneko is known in the Dayton area for his elegant and contemporary sets and costumes for the recent Dayton Opera’s production of “Madame Butterfly” and the accompanying exhibitions of designs and costumes at the Dayton Visual Arts Center and the Dayton Art Institute. His “Dangos” (Japanese for “rounded forms”) can be as high as 13 feet and his abstract paintings are also large in scope, with the drawings being more intimate. This Nagoya native has his studio in Omaha, Nebraska, and he studied with Peter Voulkos in Berkeley and Paul Soldner of Claremont College who both were instrumental in defining the contemporary ceramics movement.

The gallery is open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and noon – 5 p.m. Saturday. (513) 621-0069.

By Jud Yalkut

Two extraordinary stained glass windows were installed in Dayton’s Fairview High School in 1938 and 1945. These windows were created by Dayton artists Robert and Gertrude Metcalf who are internationally recognized for their body of work, using rare 12^th century techniques which are extremely rare to find today. The Fairview Window Preservation, Inc. Committee has worked for almost one year to convince the Dayton Public Schools that these world-class windows belong in a museum, while the DPS seems adamant about placing them in the new Fairview PK-8 elementary schools where they would not be properly cared for since the DPS has no money for this sort of thing. Brady Kress, director of the Carillon Historical Park is extremely interested in preserving and displaying the window at the Carillon. To help support the preservation of the Metcalf windows, contact Jen Jones Bland, chairman of the Preservation Committee at wishingstar@columbus.rr.com.