Getting in touch with your inner creativity will be the focus of the Vicksburg Art Association’s first program of the New Year with contemplative artist Stacy Wills, who will be the featured speaker.

The program is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 and will be held at The Church of the Holy Trinity, 900 South St.

Wills, who works with a variety of traditional mediums, including acrylics, watercolors and photography, sometimes combines them with digital technology in a process she has called “sacred altering,” is a native of Savannah, Ga.

She has lived in Mississippi since 1985 and describes her work as the meeting of creativity and spirituality. She states in her website that she strives to take her work as far as it can go within the scope of her own natural ability and then pushes herself further beyond that limitation.

“For me, art is a way to express the inexpressible, a creative urge to which I must surrender. It is the way of beauty…a spiritual path….and a means of healing,” states Wills.

During the January program, Wills will discuss how her spiritual life has influenced her creations, encourage attendees to tap into their creative selves and explain how to put on canvas what is going on inside of you, VAA program chairman Mechelle Stockett said.

The public is invited to attend and the event is free.

Currently Wills serves as guest artist-in-residence for the Allison’s Wells School of Arts and Crafts in Canton, where she maintains an open studio for the public and offers classes designed to help others tap into their own innate creativity.

Wills is also a trained spiritual director through The Center for Ministry at Millsaps, is a Sister of Belle Coeur, which is a sisterhood of sacred life artisans founded by Sybil Dana Reynolds and for nine months in 2015, she studied intentional creativity with noted California artist and teacher, Shiloh Sophia McCloud.

Stacy and her husband, Dan, recently celebrated their 35th anniversary, and the couple have three children and four grandchildren.

Throughout the year, the VAA schedules meetings for their members, Stockett said, and they hold spring and fall art shows. Membership fees are $20.

The VAA Fall juried art show winners were:

Best Of Show

Mixed Media — Lesley Silver

Acrylic

1st — Jean Blue

2nd — Amy Smith

3rd — Nancy A. Mitchell

HM — Randy H. Jolly

HM —B.J. Crawford

HM —Chester O. Martin

HM —Patsy Kirkwood

HM —Leslie Horton

Fiber

1st — June Alexander

2nd — Jaime O. Coon

Computer Design

1st — Veronica Coffing

Prints

1st — Jamie O. Coon

Three Dimensional

1st —Lesley Silver

2nd — June Alexander

3rd —Ronald Alexander

Watercolor

1st — Keith Matthews

2nd — B.J. Crawford

3rd — Elke Briuer

HM — Chester O. Martin

Drawing

1st —Patsy Kirkwood

2nd — Kathleen Bond

3rd — B.J. Crawford

HM — Veronica Coffing

Oil

1st —Wanda Hurt

2nd — Richard Taylor

3rd —Quinton Harris

Mono

1st — Becky Harris

2nd — Becky Harris

3rd — Becky Harris

HM —Shu H. Chang

Photo Color

1st place — Dean Harris

2nd  — Dean Harris

3rd — Hope Carpenter

4th — Dian Anderson

Mixed-Media

1st — Jean Blue

2nd — Lesley Silver

3rd — Randy Jolly

HM 1 — Randy Jolly

HM 2— Elke Briuer