2019 Featured Artists

Meet our three featured Artists. The evening’s Live Auction will feature original works by local Featured Artists Mark Schwenck, Mary Roach, and Tara Fly specifically procured by MAC to commemorate this year’s event.


Self Portrait

Featured Artist, Mark Schwenck, Sculptor & Photographer

Industrial Ring, Monumental Metal Sculpture, Mark Schwenck

My work involves both the camera and the forge. For me, photography and metal exist in the same realm. I see the world both through my lens and the fire of the forge, a combined exploration that drives my artistic vision. Before the digital age, photography involved silver in the film and prints. For me, working with metal sculpture is just a much larger extension of that connection to the elements.

I come from a centuries long line of metal artists and blacksmiths dating back to 1738 when my ancestors came over from Germany. When I was a child, my father gave me my first camera and darkroom. Since then, I find that capturing images with my camera allows me to see the world in such a way that I can create those images in other media as well. Decades of professional experience in both photography and metal allow me to capture the vision of a client, the feeling of a sunset, and the scope of my own emotions .

Award winning metal and photography can be found at many galleries in the Mid-Atlantic region as well as the sculpture garden at our mountain studio & gallery at Frog Valley in Berkeley Springs, WV. My photography also appears in exceptional architectural and interior design publications. My commissioned work is found throughout the DC-Baltimore region and up and down the east coast.
Delving into new artistic challenges on land & water dovetails with my lifelong love of photography, sculpture and art as a whole. Combine that with my passion for architecture & travel and I have what fuels my creative drive.

Mark Schwenck, Frog Valley Artisans
Frog Valley Artisans, Ltd., 82 Powerline Lane, Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
304-258-3541 • www.frogvalley.com


Featured Artist, Mary Roach, Quilter

Handmade Quilt, by Mary Roach

A native of Elkridge, MD, Mary learned to sew from her mother and continued in high school home economics classes. She started to learn quilting in her 20s and later moved to Morgan County in 2007 where she joined the Delectable Mountains Quilt Guild. She has been very active in the Guild, serving in various leadership positions and for the last four years has been commissioned to make the Apple Butter Quilt. Coming from a military family and as the mother of a Navy veteran, she is an active member of the Quilts of Valor organization’s local group, Mountain Mommas. She has made and donated 23 quilts for local veterans. The king size quilt donated to Arts and Elegance is entitled “Memories of My Quilts”. Its inspiration came from 17 years of designing quilts and loving fabric. “The way fabrics play together is magical to me, says Mary, “and I have been told I have an eye for color.”

We agree.

Mary Roach
304 947 5179


Featured Artist, Tara Fly, Painter

Cinderella Cat, by Tara Fly

Tara Fly has always seen “cat people”. As a child, she was convinced that she was a cat in human form, and she knew immediately when she picked up a paintbrush that her subjects would be cats.

She moved from Bowie, MD, to Berkeley Springs with her family in 1994, and attended Berkeley Springs High School (Class of ‘98). She focused on performing arts in school, and has no formal fine-art education, aside from one freshman art class taught by Morgan County artist, Mary Anne Haines.

Tara took up painting in 2009, at the age of 29. She works in acrylics on canvas and wood panels, using a multi-layered technique similar to oil painting.

Tara has participated in curated shows in Seattle, WA; Costa de Caparica, Portugal; and Aberdeen, Scotland; attracting collectors from around the world. Her artwork has been published in Catster/Cat Fancy magazine, and also used in fantasy art Tarot decks. She self-published five calendars (2014-2018) using Kickstarter, and was interviewed by Hagerstown Business Magazine in 2015.

Her home-based studio in Funkstown, Maryland is closed to the public, however she participates in art festivals throughout the year, including the Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs. Her artwork can also be found at Give Purrs A Chance cat adoption center.

Her online website ~ https://literarycatart.com ~ has a catalog of available paintings and archival prints.

Tara Fly
http://taraflyart.com | https://literarycatart.com | tarafly@taraflyart.com