Artist Profiles
Fishers is home to many talented artists and artisans who bring vibrancy to our city. Check out their stories below.
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Featured Artist Profiles

Meet Your Neighbor: Laura Villanyi
The City of Fishers is proud to recognize Laura Villanyi, a long-time Fishers resident and artist, as this year's City of Fishers Apparel Design contest winner. The Apparel Design contest took place in late 2021, where residents were invited to submit their designs to...

5 Things to Know about Boxx the Artist
Ignite Studio at Hamilton East Public Library welcomes their next Maker-in-Residence, Boxx the Artist. Boxx kicks off her residency on May 6 and will be in Ignite Studio through August 12. Here are five things to know about Boxx the Artist: 1. She’s a self-taught...
All Artist Profiles
Meet Your Neighbor: Breanne Rose
*The City of Fishers is excited to announce the return of its Apparel Design Contest! We’ll be collecting submissions from residents of all ages and skill levels. The winning design(s) will be included on apparel sold in our online store and will win a $250 gift card....
Meet Your Neighbor: Jill Lehman
Jill Lehman is the founder and managing consultant at High Frequency Arts (HFA) located inside the Hub & Spoke building. Her goal of founding High Frequency Arts is simple, she wants Fishers residents and businesses to have more exposure and access to art by...
Artist Profile: Marianne Glick
Looking for a way to positively approach the winter months after a career in corporate training, Marianne Glick began painting in September of 2005. Her love of gardening inspired many of her early paintings. Most of her recent work is abstract. She often uses more...
Artist Profile: Craig Mullins
“My training as an architect can be seen in my paintings. This art is focused on subject matter, composition and color with acrylic paints and pastels on large canvases. While I paint wildlife, floral, and portraits, my primary interest is painting landscapes. "Many...
Artist Profile: Craig Ogden
Craig Ogden is a painter who creates from a place of deep emotion. He personifies the term “labor of love.” Ogden started putting brush to canvas again after a decade-long hiatus from art as a means to escape his daily routine. Pushing paints around a canvas again...
Lesley Haflich and John Reynolds: Capturing a Point in Time the challenge and joy of portraiture
What do you see when you look in the mirror? Maybe it’s an arched nose, bushy brows, your father’s eyes or crow’s feet. What would an artist see studying your face for two hours. Nickel Plate Arts studio artists Lesley Haflich and John Reynolds recently turned their...
Artist Profile: Jessica Springman
The analyst in Jessica Springman could co-exist and surface as her defining art style. The mother of two worked as a statistician and database programmer for some of the world’s largest media and market research firms before the artist in her really resurfaced. Local...
Artist Profile: James E. Anderson
James E. Anderson retired from a 35- year career working in information technology at Herff Jones in 2012. That’s when he discovered the creek and rediscovered his artistic eye. Anderson had lived by Buffalo Creek for 34 years, but says he never saw it until God...
Artist Profile: Tori Weyers
Artist Tori Weyers knew from the age of 3 that she wanted to be an artist, although she wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. Growing up, she would see shapes, creatures and patterns in the world around her and constantly point them out to her parents. This led Weyers...
Artist Profile: John Cinnamon and Ann Craig-Cinnamon
John Cinnamon and Ann Craig-Cinnamon have spent three decades speaking into a microphone, sending their voices and travel experiences over the radio waves. Ann hosted morning shows at several area stations, while John did mid-days and mornings.John and Ann have...
Artist Profile: Christine Merchent
Christine Merchent knows golf and she knows photography. Nearly a decade ago, Merchent took up the art of photography and hasn’t looked back. Her work has been featured in PGA Golf Magazine, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Style & Clothing, From Photographer to Gallery...
Artist Profile: Jim Beitman
What makes fine art “fine”? Gold frames, precision-cut mats and kid gloves often come to mind when we hear the words “fine art,” and understandably so. Artists pour their heart, soul, money and energy into their work, which often culminates in a precious final...
Artist Profile: Jan Snyder
Local artist, president and co-founder of the Equine Arts Guild, and former Nickel Plate Arts Studio Artist Jan Snyder will showcase a new collection of art in our Stephenson House gallery in August. Her exhibit, “Pathways,” will feature the results of her exploration...
Artist Profile: Ailithir O. McGill
The story of Ailithir O. McGill’s first book project shows how a community of artists can make dreams come true. After years of supporting others to persevere and create, Nickel Plate Arts’ own executive director decided it was her time. What started as one...
Artist Profile: Linda Cordial
Linda Cordial has a love for nature and the outdoors. It was when Linda and her husband Dan lived on a secluded farm in Putnam County that she became passionate about blue herons and other waterfowl. She could spend hours observing the birds in their natural...
Artist Profile: Lesley Haflich
For artists, inspiration can come in many forms: light shining through a tree canopy, a grandfather’s rough hand or some breakthrough that comes in a dream. Lesley Haflich found her latest inspiration close to home in Noblesville, where she has lived since 1991. She...
Artist Profile: Megan Hutchins
Have you ever been moved to create your own original artwork? Megan Hutchins was, and she’s clearly nailing it. “I began creating nail art in the fall of 2013, when I was pregnant with our fifth child. I had an empty wall in my living room and I wanted to create a...
Artist Profile: Krista Darrow
Krista Darrow has skyrocketed in her budding art career. After her first charity exhibition in 2016 with Agape, she developed her art skills to warrant winning the Emerging Artist of the Year award at the 2019 Nickel Plate Arts Gala (pictured). Darrow, a Fishers...
Artist Profile: Melissa Bruhn
Melissa Bruhn excitedly debuted her first solo exhibit at Nickel Plate Arts in January 2020. Bruhn showcased a two-part theme, “Polarity.” This theme firstly highlighted the literally “polar” creatures who may no longer be with us in a few years, as their polar...
Artist Profile: Simona Buna
Simona Buna has been an artist all her life. Harkening back to her childhood, she remembers her house as smelling of turpentine and oils and being filled with her mother’s and father’s canvases. One day when she was thirteen, she picked up a canvas herself and painted...
Artist Profile: Bobbi K. Samples
Bobbi K Samples became an artist later in life, roughly 15 years ago. She took two lessons, and the rest was history! She ended up creating 85 paintings in her first year of painting. In Samples’ words, “I couldn’t stop — since then, my style has evolved with me. That...
Artist Profile: Dan Howell
Dan Howell’s clay work began when he was a boy, making sculptures on the creek banks near the source of the White River on his father’s farm in central Indiana. With encouragement from his high school art teacher, he continued his foray into clay. He first earned a...
Artist Profile: Michael McGuire
Michael McGuire’s backstory as an artist is a poignant one. On October 10, 2015, Michael was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with Dural Venous Sinus Thrombosis, a very rare brain bleed. Two days later, he was rushed into emergency surgery to reduce severe swelling...
Artist Profile: Sherry Haines
“I developed an interest in the visual arts at an early age. That interest grew and became more intense during my high school years and while pursuing a Bachelor’s in Art Education at Taylor University and a Masters in Art Education at Ball State University. With each...
Artist Profile: John Dierdorf
John Dierdorf is the definition of modern impressionism. His abstract impressionist methods emerged as his preferred style and definition of work with the use of loose, spontaneous brushstrokes to capture the essence of a subject. Dierdorf says, “Spending time in the...
Artist Profile: Shakila Garugu
Shakila Garugu is a self-taught artist and art instructor who believes in the importance of self-expression. Although she utilized her left-brain talents to receive her masters in mathematics, she later was inspired to focus on her right-brain talents by her mother’s...
Artist Profile: Michael Jack Photography
The luminous photography of Michael Jack concentrates on landscapes, architecture and automobiles. In each area he tries to draw the viewer into the scene. In landscape photography, his goal is to place the viewer into a position where they would enjoy standing,...
Artist Profile: Sheldon Shalley
Sheldon is married to Betty, and both reside in Noblesville. Besides his busy psychotherapy practice and hours spent painting, Sheldon conducts a Shaman Circle and participates in various workshops and trainings in Shamanic healing and energy medicine. He is active in...
Artist Profile: Belinda Short
Belinda Short is a fabulously imaginative ‘mixed media’ artist who also creates sculptures, paintings, digital art, jewelry, resin art, textile art, and more. From papercraft to more traditional art forms, she is truly diverse in style and media. Short has even...