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Julia von Eichel was born in Gallen, Switzerland on July 15, 1974. She received her B.F.A. in sculpture at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She also attended the Art Institute of Chicago and Corcoran School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. Von Eichel prefers doing works without the use of color, and instead uses light and form to create images. The artist has exhibited work nationally in group as well as solo exhibitions.

Eugene Viollet-le-Duc was born on January 27, 1814 in Paris, France. While Viollet-le-Duc was never formally educated, he learned much about the field when working in the architectural offices of Jacques-Marie Huve and Achille-Francois-Rene Leclere. He is famous for the restorative work he did on medieval buildings throughout France and the world. He utilized the Gothic Revival architecture, and was commissioned to design the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty as a gift for America. He also performed restorations on churches such as Notre Dame in Paris, town halls and castles. Viollet-le-Duc died in Lausanne, Switzerland on September 17, 1879.

Marian Van Landingham was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1937, and currently resides in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has been a longtime community leader, politician, and artist. She received her BA and MA degrees in political science at Emory University, where she also studied the fine arts and journalism. As a community leader, Van Landingham spearheaded in 1974 the transformation of a decrepit military storage building into the Torpedo Factory Art Center, which today houses over 150 artist studios, one of which is her own. Her book On Target describes the community campaign to save and transform the building, a life-changing experience that led to her election to the Virginia House of Delegates, where she served for 24 years. Van Landingham has won numerous awards for her service—including the Washingtonian of the Year Award in 1974, Governor’s Award for the Arts (Virginia) in 1979, the Women's History Month Honoree by the National Women's History Project in 2006—and has even had an award named after her, the Marian Van Landingham Lifetime Service Award, which is given to Alexandria community members. As an artist, Landingham is a painter and printmaker. Many of her artworks are large, almost human scale, often depicting a passageway, long hallway, or alley that invite the viewer into such scenes as a quiet Italian village, the corner of a garden, or the open space of a room.

www.mvlart.com/

John Van Alstine was born in Johnstown, New York, in 1952.  Before moving his studio to the Adirondacks, he lived in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming.  In 1970-71 he attended St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, and in 1973 the Blossom Festival School in Cleveland-Kent, Ohio.  He received a B.F.A. in sculpture, ceramics, and glass from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, in 1974, and in 1976 he received an M.F.A. from Cornell University, New York.  He has exhibited widely in the United States and Japan, and his work can be found in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in Lisbon, Portugal, and the Denver Art Museum.  He has received several awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1986, and two New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships in 1984 and 1988.  His large welded-steel, cast-bronze, and carved-granite sculptures, as well as his charcoal and pastel drawings, celebrate raw dynamism and precarious balance. His rugged primary forms reflect aspects of Minimalism and process art, yet his sense of materiality and his use of found tools and objects reflect a strong poetic urge, as well as an interest in astronomy, physical science, geology, archaeology, and art history.

*Excerpted from Tools as Art: the Hechinger Collection, published by Harry N. Abrams Inc.

www.johnvanalstine.com/