Artist name: The BAAAhd Girls

Title of artwork:  Purple Mountain Majesty Shawl

Medium:  Wool

Size:  78" x 23"

Year:  2026

Approx. Value:  $1000

Minimum bid:  $500

The BAAAhd Girls are a Pennsylvania-based team of skilled fiber artists dedicated to preserving and showcasing traditional textile arts. Drawing members from several counties, the team collaborates to demonstrate the full process of transforming raw fleece into a finished woven shawl through shearing, carding, spinning, and weaving.

Their work reflects a strong commitment to craftsmanship, coordination, and the continued education of audiences about historical and contemporary fiber practices. The BAAAhd Girls have participated in the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sheep to Shawl competition, where they earned recognition for both the quality of their work and their effective teamwork in a fast-paced, time-bound environment.

Through their participation, the team promotes the value of wool production and contributes to the visibility of fiber arts within the regional agricultural and artisan community.

About auctioned piece: Shawl made as part of a sheep-to-shawl event in which a sheep is shorn, and the wool is processed, spun, plied and woven into a shawl in less than 2.5 hours.  Warp was hand-spun and hand-dyed with natural plant-based dyes.  We won 3rd-prize at the PA Farm show's Sheep-to-Shawl competition.

Artist Name: Laurie Papa Minnick

Title of Artwork: A Crisis Of Comfort

Medium: Carved Basswood, Cement, Mixed fabric

Size: 6" x 6" x 16"

2015

Approx. Value: $900.00

Minimum bid: $350.00

Laurie Papa Minnick is an American artist currently residing in rural Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.   Originally from Long Island, she headed west to attend Arizona State University where she earned both her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees, specializing in wood sculpture.  With a diverse professional background spanning gallery management, teaching, home renovation, and furniture design, Laurie boasts a broad portfolio of artwork, showcasing installation and object making across various mediums.

Laurie sees art as a space where the interplay between control and chaos mirrors the human condition, where the act of making becomes a dialogue between the tangible and the conceptual, between societal structures and personal reflection

Artist name: Wasíl

Title of artwork: Messenger of the Gods

Medium: Canvas, rhinestones, synthetic polymer, on canvas, on upcycled housing insulation. Bald Eagle Inspired

Size: 29 in h x 26 in w x 1 in d

Year: 2025

Approx. Value: $500.00

Minimum bid: $100.00

About the donated piece: "A friend of mine invited me over to watch these two bald eagles, looking over their eggs. The eggs didn’t make it, and the female flew off. The male bald eagle was standing there looking at the empty nest. He was so stoic. The bald eagle there, was the inspiration for: “Messenger of the Gods.”"

Artist bio: Wasil, originally from the Shamokin area, is a Florida-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice moves fluidly across mediums, blending visual art, design, and conceptual exploration. Working at the intersection of intuition and experimentation, Wasil draws from personal narrative, cultural memory, and contemporary experience to create work that is both immediate and reflective. Their approach values process as much as outcome, allowing materials, symbols, and ideas to evolve organically.

Through a diverse body of work, Wasil explores themes of identity, transformation, and connection, often inviting viewers to slow down and engage more deeply with the familiar. Whether working in physical or digital forms, their art emphasizes texture, gesture, and meaning, resulting in pieces that feel thoughtful, layered, and quietly powerful.

Artist: Norma Hirsch

Artwork: "Hawk Mountain"

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas 

Norma Weingast Hirsch is an artist whose creative work has long intersected with the interior design industry, where art functions as both visual expression and an integral element of lived space.

Her approach reflects a designer’s sensitivity to proportion, balance, and material, creating work that enhances interiors while maintaining a distinct artistic voice. Thoughtful use of color, texture, and form allows her pieces to complement architectural elements and furnishings rather than compete with them.

Through collaborations and commissions for residential and professional spaces, Hirsch has developed art that responds to context—considering how light, scale, and atmosphere shape the viewer’s experience. Her work brings warmth, character, and narrative into interiors, bridging fine art and design to create pieces that feel intentional, personal, and complete.

Artist Name:   Lorraine Felker

Artist bio: "I have been knitting for over 50 years, weaving baskets since 1998 and working in other areas of fiber arts since 2017.   A retired educator, I taught basket-weaving, needle-felting, weaving, knitting, spinning and fiber processing at the Walk In Art Center since its inception.

Over the years, my work has been accepted in many juried shows, including the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, the Christkindlmarkt, Bethlehem, Art of the State, Harrisburg, Keystone Juried Art Exhibit, Schuylkill Haven and GoggleWorks, Reading.

A 2017 recipient of a PA Council of the Arts internship grant, I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with Patty Dillman, Sabinsville, PA, learning how to grow, harvest, process and weave traditional willow baskets.

I have been loom-weaving since 2017 and have broadened my skills to weave on rigid heddle, 4-shaft and 8-shaft looms.  I have mastered a variety of weaving techniques and am now passing on that knowledge through the WIAC Fiber Arts Guild.

A member of the Board of the Walk In Art Center in Schuylkill Haven, PA, I have been working to promote the Center since early in its inception. I have been a Walk In studio artist since 2012 with a primary focus on the fiber and folk arts.  With the support of the Walk In Art Center, I have formed a fiber arts guild and developed a series of fiber classes for both adults and children.  Retired in 2017, I was an educator for over 25 years."

Artist Name: Kelly Meuller

Title of Artwork: "Sam"

Medium: Stoneware Clay

Artist bio: My name is Kelly Mueller.  I grew up mostly in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I graduated from Kutztown University with a BS in Elementary Education I am fortunate enough to live in Belize for part of the year.

I have been teaching Elementary and Middle School students for more than 35 years, the last 21 right here in Schuylkill Haven. I have three children, Julie, Rachel, and Max.  I reside in Schuylkill Haven with my very patient and understanding husband Glenn and my two dogs Jack and Dixie

My medium is fluid acrylic painting mostly. My style comes from the Caribbean where I was lucky enough to be trained and influenced by many artists of San Pedro and Caye Caulker Belize. Being a teacher, I am fortunate enough to look at children’s faces all day long. I have a fascination with bright colors and children’s faces. I find all faces to be beautiful especially those of children. I add both to most of my art work. Most of my knowledge comes from being self-taught. I am a naïve artist. I work mostly in my home studio. I can make my art from photographs given to me of your children.

I am interested in pottery and sculpture as well.  I work with clay at the Walk In Art Center. I am lucky, excited, and proud to be an artist here in Schuylkill Haven. I am an active member in the Schuylkill County Art Alliance.

Artist Name: Bob McCormick

Title of Artwork: Harvest

Medium: Oil on canvas

Plus a copy of his book "Reclamation: From Coal Dust to Hope"

Bob McCormick is a Coal Region artist from Schuylkill County whose work is deeply informed by the landscape, labor, and lived experience of northeastern Pennsylvania. Working primarily in acrylic, McCormick explores themes of place, memory, and resilience, often drawing inspiration from the industrial history and quiet beauty of the region he calls home. 

Through expressive color, texture, and narrative imagery, his paintings reflect a strong sense of regional identity while inviting viewers to look more closely at the stories embedded in ordinary spaces. McCormick’s work celebrates the grit and character of the Coal Region and the enduring connections between people and place

Artist: Lori Remmel

Artwork: Hope and Levity on Election Day

Medium: Mixed Media Gouache painting on homemade paper

Size: 20x25x1 in

Value: $800

Artist name: Kristen Egan

Title of artwork: Solar Owl

Medium: framed archival inkjet print

Size: 11” x 14”

Year: 2024

Approx. Value: $125

Suggested Minimum bid: $50

Three 5x7” art print postcards are also included in the donation. 

Artist bio: Kristen Egan is a mixed media artist specializing in masks and sculptures. Her creative process relies on the organic shapes of natural materials like gourds, antlers and tree branches, adding details with carved wood, paper clay, and acrylics. She has developed a personal mythos that explores subjects like folk art, totemic imagery, astronomy and ecology, and her pantheon of recurring animal characters are often inspired by species native to her home state of Pennsylvania.

Kristen graduated with a BFA in Art & Design from the SUNY College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work is collected internationally and has been exhibited in galleries across the United States, Australia and New Zealand. She currently works from her home studio just outside Hamburg, PA. In addition to her art work, Kristen is a member of the Hawk Mountain Highlanders bagpipe band and can be found performing in parades, weddings, funerals, and other events throughout Schuylkill County and the surrounding area.