Photo, Fiber, Silver
July 20—August 13, 2018, open 10 am-8 pm daily
Receptions: Friday, July 20 and August 3, 5-8pm

Three artists working in three different art forms will be showcased in “Photo, Fiber, Silver”. Brianna Rizzi, Diane DelDuca, and Suzi Popkess all show their work in blue Spruce Gallery in Florence and are bringing their individual talents to Manitou Springs for this group show.


Brianna Rizzi grew up in and around art, wedging clay in her family’s studio for extra money when she was young. She dabbled in clay but found her passion for pictures in a photography class in college. After a photography class at Colorado College she began taking private lessons in darkroom techniques. She then her professional career. Excited by the magic of the darkroom, Brianna enjoys the process of printing her own photographs. While she works primarily with a 35mm camera and her digital, she also uses a larger format Rollei on occasion. In 2007, she became a permanent wall artist at the Blue Spruce Art Gallery in Florence, CO. During the last ten years, she has entered many shows at galleries across Southern Colorado. Most recently, she was honored with a 6-week show at the Blue Spruce Gallery, where she submitted ten new pieces that hung for six weeks and opened her own gallery in Pueblo and does studio photography. When shooting photographs, she looks for scenes that “tell a story” and give depth to the subject or location.


Diane DelDuca moved to Colorado in 1978 and has lived in the Canon City area since 1996. After retiring she worked as a receptionist in a veterinary clinic. While there she an alpaca came to the clinic. Diane had never seen an alpaca before and was unprepared for how charmed she was by Samson. And when Samson approached her and kissed her, she bought him within the year and started “Samson and Friends.” She has since purchased several other alpacas and increased her herd.

Diane has worked with ink wash and oils in the past but it’s all about the animals now. Using alpaca fiber Diane spins her own yarn in the rich natural colors. Her 3-dimensional works of art are needle-felted portraits of animals. Needle felting is done by poking a special barbed needle into loose fiber thousands of times to form the desired shapes.

Diane selects her alpacas for their coloring in addition to their temperament. She does not dye any of the alpaca fiber. Her animals are definitely the center of her life! She also shows at a gallery in Gunnison and does custom orders and "pet portraits" in fiber.


Suzi Popkess, a retired nursing educator from Kansas, enjoys silversmithing jewelry and watercolor painting in her rural studio outside of Florence, Colorado. Her silver pendants, bracelets, and earrings are of a Southwest style with stones of native turquoise, lapis, malachite, onyx, and other semi-precious stones. She customizes sterling silver around the stones to enhance their natural beauty. She adds matching beadwork to finish the silver pendants. Her jewelry is displayed at the Blue Spruce (where she also shows paintings) and Blue Heron Galleries in Florence, The Artists' Gallery in Canon City, Colorado, and the Avenue Gallery in Pueblo, Colorado. She is an active member of the Florence Arts Council and loves to travel, recently to France for a watercolor workshop.