Jon Murrill transitioned from a career in art education to painting murals full-time in his hometown of Roanoke and surrounding areas of southwest Virginia. Here, the spray paint can-wielding artist poses on a lift before his “Neon Owl” piece at a coffee shop in Blacksburg.

Roanoke Muralist Seeks to Inspire Passion for Public Art

Joseph Kellard December 26, 2024

A Norfolk Western 1218 locomotive emerges from a hazy, sage-green landscape painted on a three-story brick building in downtown Roanoke. The mural, titled “Nature Train,” features two tall trees shedding leaves, along with a squirrel and vines clinging to what was the world’s most powerful historic steam locomotive built by the railroad, now the Norfolk Southern, based in this city of southwest Virginia.

Theodora Zavala showcases her diverse paintings in solo and group exhibits at galleries, colleges and libraries in New York City and Long Island.
*Photos Joseph Kellard and Theodora Zavala*

Artist Theodora Zavala Captures the Essentials

Joseph Kellard March 6, 2023

Theodora Zavala paints in multiple genres and diverse subjects, and therein lies a lead to what fundamentally drives her as an artist.

Gail Neuman stands beside one of about 25 steel wire trees she has sculpted the past two years. Her poplar-like recreation is displayed at The Omni, a Long Island corporate building with a lobby that doubles as an art gallery. (Photo: Joseph Kellard)

Wired Into Winter Trees

Joseph Kellard March 13, 2019

There’s something about the way Gail Neuman explains how she constructs a sculpture that inspires a likeness to an architect detailing blueprints for a building.

Blowing His Own History

Joseph Kellard April 3, 2017

Edward Jimenez had flown in from Southern California to play his trumpet in midtown Manhattan, and I had just crossed the street from Central Park when our paths crossed.

The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center held its first performance, Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, on September 16, 1966. (Photo: Joseph Kellard) — The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center held its first performance, Samuel Barber’s *Antony and Cleopatra*, on September 16, 1966. (Photo: Joseph Kellard)

Metropolitan Opera’s Tour Offers Peek at Backstage Productivity

Joseph Kellard September 16, 2016

Maria Callas and Mario del Monaco stared at me from a wall in a corridor. I locked eyes with the celebrated singers, their portraits on canvas were the first of various theatrical encounters when I toured the hidden halls of the famed Metropolitan Opera House earlier this year.

In her autobiography Infidel, secular activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes about the life-saving impact Western novels had on her while growing up in Africa and Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Joseph Kellard) — In her autobiography *Infidel*, secular activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes about the life-saving impact Western novels had on her while growing up in Africa and Saudi Arabia. (Photo: Joseph Kellard)

Harlequin Saves

Joseph Kellard April 1, 2015

In the acknowledgements of her haunting yet heroic autobiography Infidel, secular activist and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali thanks several people who helped her to survive the brutal Islamic and tribalist cultures from which she was raised in Africa and Saudi Arabia. But the people who likely helped her most are those she never met, specifically authors from Emily Bronte to George Orwell to Danielle Steel.