January - March Artists 2025

Meet Howard A. Bose

Key influences and turning points have shaped Howard A. Bose’s artistic journey. From a young age, he was drawn to the beauty of everyday life, finding inspiration in ordinary objects and scenes. This fascination with the mundane transformed into a lifelong passion for art, which he pursued despite pressure to conform to more traditional career paths. 

Bose began his artistic journey at the age of eight. During his grade school years, he was selected to participate in art studies at the Carnegie Mellon Art Museum, attending classes on Saturday mornings. He pursued formal education in the arts at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, specializing in Commercial Art. Additionally, Bose holds a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies. Alongside his artistic endeavors, he has engaged in creative writing courses and dedicates his weekends to composing short stories. 

Bose’s formal art education at Clarion University of Pennsylvania proved pivotal. Exposure to diverse mediums like sculpture, digital media, and painting broadened his horizons, offering “endless possibilities for expression.” He embraced experimentation, ranging from “classical realism to wild abstraction,” recognizing the importance of trial and error in artistic development, “I learned that art is often a conversation between the artist and the work itself, with unexpected turns.” 

A pivotal moment in his development as an artist came when he found his unique voice, focusing on revealing the extraordinary within the ordinary— his first solo exhibition. “Devin the Duck” marked a significant breakthrough, garnering recognition and solidifying his place in the art world.

Meet Ben LaDieu

Ben grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he currently resides with his wife Liza and son Vlad. As a kid Ben drew a lot of monsters, creatures and fantasy/science fiction imagery. As he grew older, he developed his skills, took art classes and eventually decided on going to art school at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, graduating with a BFA in general fine arts where he focused mostly on drawing and painting.

This is where Ben started to really develop his pencil drawing techniques. Later on, he went to Full Sail Real World Education in Orlando, graduating with an Associate degree in film and video production. Soon after that he produced, filmed, directed, edited and sold a documentary, Massanutten: 2 Runners, 100 Miles – about the Massanutten 100-mile ultra-marathon held every year in the mountains of Virginia. 

From 2004 to 2020 he worked as an AutoCAD technician. After leaving this job, Ben decided to take a serious stab at doing art as a career for which he is currently ramping up production of new work. Ben developed his pen and ink skills doing various projects for music event flyers and posters including 3 vinyl album releases for the Trusik dubstep label. Throughout this period Ben also continued with works in pencil. 

Most recently, Ben’s work has been mostly fine art, focused on pen and ink work, with subject matter revolving around very detailed compositions of roots, trees and forest landscapes as well as a few urban landscape pencil drawings. 

Ben looks forward to continuing to explore pencil and pen and ink and also exploring graphic storytelling, illustrative works, computer graphics, painting, landscapes, and fantasy.