LEWISBURG — The featured artist exhibit at Artists & Artisans in Lewisburg combines the forestry theme of two local creators this month.
Fine art prints by Sandy Davis and woodturnings by Toby Bouder will be on display until Sept. 27 at the art gallery located at 229 Market St., Lewisburg. The exhibit is called “Exploring Woods — A Creative Path.”
“It’s inspirational,” Davis, of Lewisburg, said. “Everybody has their own creative path. When you go out on a walk and you commune with nature, you can center yourself. Toby does it with natural wood. I do it by walking around and taking photos of trees. Everyone can experience nature.”
Bouder, of Liverpool, said visitors can enjoy the artwork at the gallery.
“You can take a piece of nature with you, and you can enjoy it at home,” Bouder said.
Artists & Artisans opened in April 2023 with Davis and Bouder as original members. The gallery is a result of a collaboration between 14 artists whose vision is to offer their creations in downtown Lewisburg and engage with the public. The work includes ceramics, jewelry, paintings, photographs, fine art prints, fiber arts, metal sculptures, mixed media collages and wood turnings.
Davis is a fine art printmaker, specializing in original hand-pulled prints and monotypes on handmade papers. An award-winning artist and teacher, Davis’ prints have been featured in solo, group and juried exhibitions. She prints in her home studio in Lewisburg on a fine art press, using aqueous media and Plexiglas plates to print on paper, handmade around the globe by Indigenous peoples, including in Mexico and Asia.
For this exhibit, Davis used paper from Indigenous people in Mexico. They boil the bark from acacia, mulberry and fig trees in lime juice and water for three to four hours, beat the strips of bark into paper and let it dry in the sun.
Since the paper is porous, using paint would cause bleeding and fading. Instead, Davis used watercolor on Plexiglas sprayed with a gum arabic solution that caused it to be sticky. The Plexiglas is pressed onto the paper using a printing press.
To create the wispy textures of the pine needles, Davis uses a micropen.
The six main pieces are inspired by various trees she saw in Iceland in 2022. She also has smaller pieces inspired by local trees, as well as journals and sketchbooks with reproductions on the covers.
Bouder has dabbled in woodworking for most of his life. Since his retirement from the U.S. Postal Service in 2012, his interest has turned to the wood lathe. The lathe is a rotating machine that holds the wood while Bouder uses chisels to shave and carve it into the desired shape, including bowls, vases, mushrooms, Christmas trees and containers.
Once the wood is shaped, Bouder lets it dry for six months before putting it back on the lathe to finalize the details and then sand, dye and lacquer it.
He collects wood from local sources, including neighbors and farms. He specifically looks for burls, or growths, on trees because they create interesting patterns and details. Often, Bouder dyes the pieces and leaves bark and moss on the edges to give it a natural look.
Bouder is a former vice president and current treasurer of the Susquehanna Woodturners Club in Harrisburg and a board member of the Mid-Atlantic Woodturning Symposium.
The exhibit opened with a reception on Aug. 21. It also coincides with Bucknell University’s 2025-26 Weis Center for the Performing Arts season. The series includes performances, creative projects, walks and lectures centered on the theme of trees.
The two themes were a happy coincidence, Davis said.
