Our Leadership
Janet Lynn Zuk
President
president@lawrenceartguild.org
Janet Lynn has been a member of the Lawrence Art Guild since 2019 and signed up to be a member of the board in her very first meeting! In addition to her responsibilities with the guild, Janet Lynn is involved in volunteering for several organizations including the Lawrence Community Orchestra, P.E.O, O’Connell Children’s Shelter, and Boys and Girls Club. The Second Vice President role is to assume full duties as Vice President in May 2024 and prepare to seek the nomination for the President position for May 2025 to May 2027.
She graduated with her degree in Art from Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado and has worked as a full-time artist while working as a banker for nearly twenty years.
Janet Lynn’s experience being raised in a small town in Kansas has influenced her style of painting especially in her landscapes, often times portraying the expanses of the prairie in the most vibrant colors she can find. Her desire as an artist has always been to bring joy and to make people smile, oftentimes bringing a little whimsy to her work through painting things that people love like reading. Diversity and inclusion is also an important theme to her and she tries to create works that reflect the world around her.
Maria Martin
Past President
Since moving to Lawrence, KS in 1984 Maria became active in the art community. While working at the KU Museum of Anthropology 1984-2000 she began coordinating the Lawrence Indian Arts Show and continued that through 2003 when the Indian Arts Show scaled down to only the Haskell Indian Arts Market an ongoing national market for Native North American Indians artisans. In 2002 Maria was recipient of the Phoenix Award in Arts Education for her work with the Lawrence Indian Arts Show. In 1998 through 2007, she opened and operated Southwest and More, a gallery specialty shop specializing in American Indian art, jewelry as well as Mexican imports.
In 2013, Maria returned to painting. As an abstract artist, she studied art in Philadelphia and then at The University of Kansas in Lawrence and continues to take art studio classes and technique workshops. She works from her studio, Creative Mass Studio and Gallery, in Downtown Lawrence, Kansas. Maria is semi-retired, works part-time at Ditto Resale Boutique, enjoys traveling, and enjoys country living with her husband Don, two cats and two Longhorn steers.
Susan Theroff
Secretary
secretary@lawrenceartguild.org
Bio coming soon!
Chris North
Treasurer
treasurer@lawrenceartguild.org
I am a ceramic artist. I began this journey almost 20 years ago while working as the marketing director for an architectural firm in Portland, OR. I wanted an escape from technology and marketing. I found it at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. I chose clay as my medium. It is earthbound. It has a memory and is flexible and unforgiving at the same time. While living in Portland, I sought the rugged beauty of the Pacific coast. It’s vast horizon and unbroken wind. The similarities to the Kansas prairie are not lost on me. Our big, boundless sky and wind that blows the grasslands into waves of color and texture. In 2022, my husband and I returned to Lawrence, Kansas, our forever home.
My inspiration for form, texture and color comes from my daily walks and car drives that offer passing snap shots. In my work, I create a dialogue of pieces and parts I’ve mentally collected or photographed. I work heart to hand, embracing imperfections. I build my work by hand using coil and slab methods. I use very little glaze. I strive to create visceral surfaces. The touchable quality of my work is achieved through carving and gouging the surface, hand burnishing terra sigillata on to unfired clay, and adding layers of pattern combined with stains, oxides, slips and multiple firings.
Photo coming soon!
Calley Vance
Special Events
events@lawrenceartguild.org
As a board member, Calley assists with special Lawrence Art Guild events like Art in the Park. She holds a bachelor’s degree in design from the University of Kansas and works primarily with oil paint, but also other mixed media such as metal and wood. Growing up in central Kansas, Calley spent much of her childhood roaming the countryside, an experience that continues to inspire her work and deep connection to the natural world. After a long hiatus, she is excited to be returning to her artistic practice and reconnecting with the local arts community.
Previously, Calley worked for the local visitor bureau, Explore Lawrence, a nonprofit experience that allowed her to reengage with the arts community and strengthened her enthusiasm for promoting local artists. Outside of the arts, she currently works at Animal Hospital of Lawrence and has nearly 20 years of experience working with animals of all kinds.
Jennifer Benner-Willis
Membership
membership@lawrenceartguild.org
Although I’ve always been the kind of person who makes things, I found my love of art when I started experimenting with polymer clay in 2019. With a masters degree in English and a long time obsession with story-telling, I specialize in wearable art with motifs from traditional folk imagery.
Most of all, I love to experiment with new techniques, approach each piece with curiosity, and make unique designs that will hopefully be treasures in whatever collection they land in.
As a part-time artist and full-time mom, I spend most of my hours chasing two high energy girls who constantly reinforce my perception of play and whimsy as integral parts of life and art.
