Kris Hillen

Kris Hillen is a Huntington native and 2000 graduate of Huntington High School specializing in mixed media illustration and typography. He is also an active musician and has been touring since the early 2000’s. In addition to these mediums he has worked extensively on various artistic collaborations and designing album art and logos for many of the musicians he has worked with over the years. Kris volunteered his talents to give back to his community; teaching art classes at the WVSU 4H Extension Program Hip Hop Summer Camps from 2005-2011, inspiring hundreds of young West Virginians to pursue their artistic interests while learning new methods and improving their skills. Today he is a proud parent who continues to make music and art and is consistently travelling in support of his passion.

Michael Miller

Michael Miller has received multiple awards in various graphic and web design competitions, including an EMPIXX award through Ohio University.
Currently operating a freelance graphic design and photography business,
he plans to attend art school,concentrating on photography and visual communications.

Jenny Holmes and Mike Spears

Jenny Holmes and Mike Spears merged their artistic talents. Spears, a high school art teacher is a life long artist known for his murals, sculptures, and illustrations.

Holmes has a background in graphic design and is known for her hand painted wine glasses.

Martin Brescoach

Martin Brescoach, also know as the sign guy, didn’t have art training when he was young. He studied auto mechanics in high school and also would race Go Carts with his dad. He took an art class in high school and decided he had a knack for it. He liked to draw cartoon characters from magazines like, “Cracked and Mad”. In 1982, through his connections with racing, he acquired a job with a local sign company and that was the start of his career in the sign business.

Martin started off training in hand lettering for the first ten years, when computers came out; the need for hand lettering became a lost art. Martin worked for this sign company on and off for 12 years. In 1994, he decided to open his own business.

In 2015, Martin was approached by Phil Stanley with Cabell Huntington Hospital, who asked him to be a part of the Tri-State Artisans Express project. As first, he was reluctant to accept this job, because he is a sign guy not an artist (artist starve, he said, hence the starving artist). Martin then agreed. Phil had an idea for the train. Back in 1970, Marshall Football team was on their way home from a game when the plane went down.

In memory of this event, Phil came to Martin with this idea. Phil brought him a rendering of his design and he gave Martin free reign of the train.

Martin’s wanted his train to have a heavy metal look about it and went with a steam punk theme. He incorporated a lot of polished metal (brass, bronze, copper, gold, and, aluminum) and named it the “Rolling Thunder”. He craved a bison’s head for the front of his train, like a battering ram. He spent many hours sanding on the train so he could get a smooth finish because he used an automotive paint to give a metallic shine.

Martin has sense received complements for his train, but his favorite compliment was from a man that was in school at Marshall when the plane crashed and he told Martin that the train was, “A very fitting memorial”. Martin is grateful to be part of the Tri- State Artisan Express project and he hopes that Cabell Children’s Hoops Hospital benefits from his contribution.

Brianna Jarvis

Brianna Jarvis is a young, award winning graphic designer from Princeton, West Virginia. Having graduated high school with her Mercer County Technical Education Center Completer's Certificate she continued to Huntington, West Virginia to pursue her love for Fine Arts with an emphasis in graphic design, where she is currently in residence and attending classes.

Gerry Enrico

Bio-2013

Gerry Enrico honed his artistic talents from his elementary and high school years in the Philippines, where he was born.  He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Northern Philippines in 1987. In his native country, he has won numerous awards in prestigious National Art Contests.

 Moving to Palm Springs, CA. in 1990, he became well known for his artworks.  He has won every major Art Competition in Palm Springs and is a member of the Artist Council of the Palm Springs Desert Museum.  His work has been recognized by the Portrait Society of America, of which he is a member.

Today his work flourishes throughout the Ohio River Valley.  He has earned numerous awards for his works ranging from People’s Choice, to Best of Show, both in the national and the tri-state-area.

Gerry offers classes in the following locations:  Huntington Museum of Art in Huntington, WV. Jackson, OH., Ripley, WV., Charleston, WV., and at the Gallery At 409 in Point Pleasant, WV., where he is an In-House Artist.

His hard work, multi-faceted talent, and passion for his craft, are self-evident in every work he creates. He is appreciated by people all over the world for his outstanding and exceptional portraits. 

Cari Burck

The Orphan Train

This project means a lot to me, my family, and our friends.  My husband and I love children and always talked about having a big family.  We never knew exactly how that would play out in our lives until a few years ago – right after our second child was born.

Most people don’t know it but there really is an orphan crisis in the world today.  Depending on whose stats you read, there are as many as 18 million children in the world who have lost both their parents and are growing up in orphanages.  International adoptions were a huge thing for the last 25 years.  The problem with that is that most countries are starting to shut down International adoptions because of the criminal elements that work there way into the process.  So countries like Romania, Bulgaria, and Guatemala (all of which continue to have orphan issues) no longer allow Americans to adopt their orphaned children.  Those children go into poorly run and funded orphanages.  Most of which – if you could see would make you turn your head in disgust.

We are not immune to the orphan challenge in the United States, 397,122 children in our country do not have permanent families.  They grow up in the foster system.  Sometimes that’s a wonderful experience for children.  Sometimes it isn’t.  About 25 percent of these children are eligible for adoption.

How we got involved with orphans is all a blur to me now because our son was so little but one of my husband’s clients was involved in International Adoptions in Guatemala and when the Guatemalan government shut that process down the adoption agencies just left.  There was an orphanage that one of his clients decided to just take over and run.  It had 40 children in it that would have just been shipped out to the kinds of institutions you see on television where there is like one care taker for 50 children.  She called us and said, “I need you to do this with me.”  We agreed.  Within months we had the right 501c3 documentation that we got from someone we knew who was going to close down their nonprofit.  That was a miracle because that process can take a long time.  We raised a lot of money in those early days too.

I remember my first trip down there.  I went to take pictures for the new website we built but spent most of my time getting up close to little ones, looking in their eyes, and smiling.  There was a little guy that was about 8 months old.  His name was Lester.  Lester didn’t smile.  The Special Mothers (that’s what we call our care takers) told me that he never smiled no matter what.  I made it my mission while I was down there that first time to get that boy to smile.

I just loved on him and gave him attention and acted silly.  I remember the Special Mothers watching me.  I know they thought I was a little crazy.  Little by little Lester began to crack.  Before I left, I snapped the first picture of him smiling.

Today I’m on the Board of Directors of the organization we started.  It is called Forever Changed International.  Our goal for our children is to always have one special mother for four children.  We want our children always surrounded by love, to know they are loved, and to know that God loves them.  That’s starting to pay off too.  Our children in Guatemala are growing up and thriving.  They have self-esteem and confidence like you wouldn’t imagine.

I see the smiling pictures every month of Lester at school and playing with the other children.  His special mom tells me that he has come so far since he was a little guy.

I always thought I would be the mother and have a lot of children in my home.  I had no idea God put that desire in my heart so that we could help start and run an orphanage in Guatemala.  A lot of our families time, energy, and resources go to helping run Dorie’s Promise.  I help make the decisions about private schools, remodeling bedrooms, hiring chefs who understand nutrition and coordinating care with our physician.

In many ways, I feel like the mother of the 40 children we care for.  I don’t get to hug on them and love on them face-to-face like I want but I know they are getting everything they need to grow, thrive, and have the chance to be exactly who God created them to be in this world.  My dream is that some of these children will grow up and solve the Orphan problem in Guatemala.

My friend Michelle DeMonnin who owns DeMonnin Art Studio in Washington, helped take my idea for this train and bring it to life.  She did the poster and designed the decals for the train.  She is the co-artists for this project and I want to make sure she gets credit for that.  She’s an adoptive mother of the most beautiful little girl from India name Chloe.  To say there is not a little bit of Chloe in this project just wouldn’t be true.

A lot of people came along side us and helped.  My Father-in-Law Don Burck and my friend Frank Schuler spent time trying to figure out what we could do with the base.  One of my favorite ideas from them was covering it with rocks.

My friend Mike Emerson at Huntington Steel figured out how to make the springs on the top of the train come to life.  He also consulted on different ideas for the base.  Without him, I think I would still be trying to apply coats of fiberglass to the base.  Mike finally said, just wrap the original wood base in metal and paint it.  Credit also needs to be given to the guys at Paris Signs for their work.  Tony Wheeler there is a friend and really helped take Mike’s concept for the springs to the next level. Paris also did the decals of the children and made the metal base for us.  The painting on the base is for good or bad is all mine and is based on Michelle’s concept.

When people see my train, I want them to feel love for children.

I want them to be reminded that there are children everywhere who need them – especially in our region.  There are so many ways to help.  Adoption is the ultimate way to help but not everybody can do that.  Foster Care is another way to really change lives.  There are local kids that need you!  I know adoption and foster care overwhelm people.  That’s okay.  Not everybody can do that but everybody can do a monthly sponsorship or give a gift to an organization that cares for orphans.

That’s my message with this train – look around you and jump on the opportunities to change life for children who don’t have parents.