Celebration of women artists slated for Friday at Monroe County Museum

A celebration of women artists will take place Friday at the Monroe County Museum, 126 S. Monroe St.

“Women in the Arts,” featuring four artists and an art show, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. The art show will begin at 5:30.

The event is offered by the Robert Seldon Duncanson Society and the Monroe County Museum System, with a grant from the La-Z-Boy Foundation.

Four Monroe-area artists will be featured: Betzi Pipis Lievens, Alecia Robinson, Marta Cravajal and Kelli Lee Mistry. Each will give a brief presentation and present her artwork.

“They will speak of their major artistic influencers, personal experiences, educational background and just how they developed in their profession to get to where they are now near the top of their field,” organizers said.

Several other women artists will show their works from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at the museum. Artists are Linda Rutledge, Darlene Belair, Karen Weaver McLaughlin, Sherry Frank-Sutherland, Paula Daughtry, Pauline Pierce-Harmon and Aurora Reynolds.

“All are local women artists who have won numerous awards and are recognized as some of the very best artists in the county and beyond,” organizers said.

“Women in the Arts” is the third of four events offered in 2022 through a grant from the La-Z-Boy Foundation to support the Robert Seldon Duncanson Society of Monroe, which is honoring and celebrating the sesquicentennial of Robert Seldon Duncanson's death in 1872.

Duncanson, who had lived in Monroe, was a famed African American landscape artist. The Smithsonian Museum has called him "the greatest 19th-century landscape painter in the West.” He is known in Canada as the father of Canadian landscape painting.” Duncanson is buried in Monroe’s Woodland Cemetery.

Meet the artists

Betzi Pipis Lievens, a Monroe native, studied fine arts at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit.

She has worked as an art instructor at Meadow Montessori, the Opportunity Center's art camp and at her studio at Olde Schoolhouse Commons in Lambertville.

She has shown her work at The Globe Building in Detroit, Monroe’s 129 Lounge and The Biddle Gallery in Wyandotte.

Kelli Lee Mistry is a trained energy healer and certified hypnotist. She has a master’s degree in mental health counseling and has practiced with various shamans and healers.

She is the author of three books, “Forgotten Souls,” “Galisteo Nights” and “My Gypsy Soul.”

Also a painter, she creates many abstract spirit animals. As a weaver and sculptor, she creates dreamcatchers, wands and talking sticks.

Marta Carvajal is a native of Madrid, Spain, who came to Detroit more than 10 years ago.

She has a bachelor’s of fine arts in graphic design and fine arts. For 15 years, she worked as an artist, specializing in fine art programs and was an art director for publishing companies.

Her works “portrays human anatomy characteristics to define the soul,” organizers said.

She is an active member of the Detroit Business Fine Arts Breakfast Club and shows her work in the metro-Detroit and other regional areas.

Alecia Robinson works as a deputy recorder for the Lucas County Records Office.

Her photo-journalistic exhibit, “My Journey to Tanzania, Africa,” was displayed at Toledo-Lucas County Public Library’s Juneteenth celebration this year.

She has worked as an art instructor and she published “Art in a Women’s World.”

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Monroe County Museum to host celebration of women artists Friday