Jurors selected for the
78th Phillips' Mill Art Exhibition
New Hope, PA. The 78th Annual
Phillips’ Mill Art Exhibition Committee has announced
the distinguished group of artists who have been selected
to jury this year’s show. All Phillips’
Mill committee members for Jury Selection are artists
themselves. They review each potential candidate and
unanimously agree on each selection. The selected jurors
will them choose the art to be exhibited at this prestigious
annual show and decide on the awards to be given.
The five jurors are:
Oil/Watercolor artist Thomas P. Valenti
: Tom is the President of Allied Artists of America.
Born in New York City, he currently resides in Bergen
County NJ. He is a member of the New Jersey Watercolor
Society, Allied Artists of America and Audubon Artists.
Valenti was the president of the Essex Watercolor Club
and is a past member of the Salmagundi Club, NYC. His
work is in the permanent collections of Lipton Tea Co.,
Hoffman-LaRoche, Rutgers University and in many private
and corporate collections. Tom has participated in countless
juried exhibitions and has received numerous awards.
He has exhibited at the National Arts Club, Montclair
Museum, Morris Museum of Art, Monmouth Museum of Fine
Arts and Nabisco Headquarters. He has taught at several
art schools and has taught mural painting techniques
in New York and San Francisco. Valenti is featured on
"For the Love of Art", a program broadcast on WCTV.
He has published articles in The Artists's Magazine,
The American Artist Magazine and is listed in the 2007-08
edition of Marquis Who's Who in American Art.
Watercolor artist Rita Seimienski Smith
: Rita Siemienski Smith received her bachelors degree
from the Moore College of Art and Design and has exhibited
for the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia Art Alliance,
University of Delaware, Perkins Center for the Arts,
Bucks County Community College, and many others. Rita
has had solo, invitational and juried exhibitions and
has received numerous awards from prestigious institutions
including the Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Center
for the Arts, and The American Color Print Society.
Printmaker Shelley Thorstensen : Thorstensen
was born in Oklahoma and received a BFA, Cum Laude in
painting from Syracuse University, School of Visual
and Performing Arts, and an MFA from the Tyler School
of Art of Temple University winning the Lester &
Viola Hecht Award for Printmaking. She is currently
a Visiting Artist, full time, in the Printmaking &
Drawing Department of the Moore College of Art &
Design, Philadelphia. Her recent exhibitions include,
Muse Gallery, Philadelphia, Montgomery Center for the
Arts, Princeton, Moore College of Art and Design, Phildelphia.,
The Free Library of Philadelphia., Society of American
Graphic Arts, NYC and National Print Exhibition, Hunterdon,
NJ. . Her work is also in the private collections
of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Free Library of Philadelphia,
Newark Public Library, University of Scranton, Woodmere
Art Museum, Philadelphia, Rutgers University, Oregon
Institute Print Center and Minneapolis College of Art
and Design. Thorstensen lives in Lambertville, NJ
Sculpture Virginia Abbott : Juror
Virginia Abbott is a professional sculptor of small
and large scale bronzes with a studio in Raubsville,
PA. She is a member of the National Sculpture
Society, the Knickerbocker artists and the Catharine
Lorillard Wolfe Art Club all in NYC. Virginia
has been the recipient of many commissions both private
and corporate including a statue of the former governor
of Georgia which stands at the capital building in Atlanta
and a centennial monument at Doylestown Hospital.
Throughout her career, she has received many grants,
prizes and honors including the Florida Medal and the
Ben Franklin Memorial Award from the National Sculpture
Society. She also won a first place Award at the
Phillips Mill Art Show. Abbott’s sculptures
have been exhibited at the National Academy of Design,
the Allied Artists of America and the American Professional
League in NYC. Sculpture Morris Docktor : Morris Docktor
is recognized as one of our most respected regional
painters, sculptors and muralists. After winning
many awards throughout his public school years, Docktor
studied at Temple University’s Tyler College of
Art and subsequently enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy
of fine Arts. He says that the decision to enroll
as a painting major was difficult as his passion for
sculpture was just as strong. Docktor’s
portraits brought him his initial fame, but his figure
painting, sculpture and landscape afforded him a wide
diversity of notable commissions. He has done murals
for Dow Jones, American Standard and West End Corp,
bronze sculptures for New York Life Mointor capital,
and portraits for universities, senators, congressmen
and major law firms. His latest commission in
a life size bronze of Charles Roebling envisioning his
future and the future of his workers, creating the steel
that will lead the nation into the 20th Century.
Dockter currently lives in Hopewell, NJ.
