Directors & Curators
Tom Ward/Co-Director
Tom co-founded the Aspen Chapel Gallery in 1985 with Connie Madsen, and is currently co-director. Tom works in the theater as a set and lighting designer, and has designed over 195 plays and musicals. He has designed for every theatre company and school in Aspen and currently designs for Thunder River Theatre Company, Carbondale, and Sopris Theatre Company at CMC. He has also designed for theatres in Colorado, New York, and Massachusetts. He has been nominated and won several awards for his designs. Tom holds a BFA in theatre from Denison University.
For seven years he owned and operated The Gargoyle Gallery in Aspen. He was Managing Director of the American Theatre Company in Aspen for five years; Development Director and Membership Coordinator for The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies for 2 years; and Director of the Aspen Chapel for twelve years. For the last 24 years he has worked as a freelance set and lighting designer.
Tom served in the military: 81st U.S. Army Band at Fort Campbell, KY; Third US Army Soldier Show at Fort McPherson, GA; and First Air Cavalry Division Band,
Republic of Vietnam. He is married to Donna and they have a grown son and
a new grandson.
Michael Bonds/
Co-Director
I’ve been an artist since grade school, when a teacher gave me the chance to draw and learn the creative process. High school was just a continuing process through lots of different mediums with no real direction. Community College was watercolor and learning to look closer at what’s in front of me. College was defining direction and experimenting with how tomake a living at it. Teaching was realizing that there is lots more to see and put down on paper. Art School was getting the confidence to excel and go to places where I’d only dreamed of going. Working for someone else was the opportunity to be able to “Make a Living At Art”. Having my own studio has been the best of all worlds, where I can see something new, do something different everyday and continue to grow.
I have degrees in Graphic Design, Fine Art and Art Education and I have attended many pottery workshops to learn different types of ceramic styles. I have exhibited in pottery and photography and am currently the art director for my own graphic design company, Studio MB, located in Aspen, CO. I enjoy biking, skiing, art, photography and am inspired by the outdoors.
Amy Beidleman
The love of the outdoors is evident in Amy’s paintings. She is intrigued by the transformation of a blank piece of paper into a place she hopes the observer would like to go for a moment. Painting watercolor for more than just a hobby was always a dream of Amy’s until in 2010 when a friend offered to sell the cards in her Aspen store. Now Amy has her cards in shops from Aspen to Boulder and in her hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. She also teaches art workshops, sells her paintings in art shows and online, and does commission work for businesses and individuals as well as volunteers as the Water Media Curator for the Aspen Chapel Gallery. For over 20 years, Amy was CFO of a couple local banks which gave her a strong financial background to start her own business. She is mostly self-taught, continuously studying and taking classes. Amy has been in Aspen since 1978. She and Neal have two children, Finn and Reed. Amy supports a number of non-profit organizations through the creation of artwork and donations of cards.
Kathy Honea
"Untamed" perfectly describes the way my mind works. I merely follow along, while striving for better methods to manifest what I see in my mind’s eye.
Craftsmanship is important to me so I am continually learning new techniques and honing old skills in an attempt to keep up with my over active imagination. I don’t run deep. I make art for the sheer fun of it.
There is never an angst-ridden moment when I’m messing around in my studio making something. What I would wish to convey, if anything, is have a good time, laugh often.
Greg Watts
I attended the Southern California Institute of Architecture starting in 1979. I formed my own design studio shortly thereafter. First in Cardiff by the Sea, Ca, then in Telluride, Co.
Our family moved to the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado in 1997, where I started Greg Watts Photography.
The first step in photography is automatic for me, a product of knowing my equipment, a
mechanical task. When the elements coincide, light, shadow and form, that is when I feel I have something. It is the culmination of mechanics and inspiration.
Sam Louras
Sam was born at the Military Academy at West Point, New York. Earning a BFA in Graphic Design & Illustration from the University of Arizona, she spent several years working for advertising agencies in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
After raising two children, she & her husband, Peter, moved to Aspen in 2005. She continues to follow her passion of art, athletics and philanthropy. The mountains are the perfect backdrop and environment to paint, run, ski and support the community. You might see her as an Ambassador at Buttermilk, on the pickleball courts or volunteering at the Aspen Thrift Shop.
Recent artwork includes PET-trait watercolor portraits, tea bag paintings and assemblage - using found objects. Her art pieces have been represented at galleries
in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida,
North Carolina and
www.facebook.com/PETtraitsbysam
Follow on Instagram@asamblage
Doug Graybeal
After practicing the “hard line art” of architecture for forty years Doug decided to more deeply explore the softer more free flowing art of watercolors along with the vibrancy of pastels. With watercolors you have to go with the flow and let the mediums determine the outcome, working
with the surprises. The addition of pastels allows further definition of critical elements and areas of focus. The watercolor underpainting sets the tone and values,
while loosely defining elements and areas of interest in the painting. Pastels then develop the focal points and supporting characters, while the mystical qualities of the watercolor underpainting are preserved. The goal is to taking advantage of the unique qualities of each medium using them together to express the subject, moment and artist inner feelings.
A lifetime of enjoyment of the outdoors has created numerous fond memories, the essence of which I wish to capture in paintings for other to enjoy and use to stir their special memories.