Community News

SW Resources displaying mosaics at downtown Parkersburg Wesbanco

PARKERSBURG -- The Marble Tree Division is the artistic division of SW Resources and was established in 2013.

The mosaics were started as a way for the client employees to express themselves in a creative and productive manner. Each original artwork is a hand-crafted mosaic individually created using thousands of individual pieces of recycled paper materials. The pieces take between a month to two months to create depending on the complexity of the piece.

SW Resources is a non-profit organization. The mission of SW Resources is to provide vocational services and employment to individuals who have disabilities, enabling them to achieve their full potential.

The SW Resources Mosaic Exhibit may be viewed at WesBanco Bank, 415 Market St., during regular business hours 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Thursday and on Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday during April.

The mosaics on display at WesBanco during April are the artistic work of the following employees:

* Jenny Ferruso: She says she has always been an artist whether it is through dance, sculpture, music, painting, and even ventriloquism. Ferruso has created many mosaics but the most noted one is of Gov. Jim Justice and received a letter from the governor. Art has been a way for Ferruso to express herself to the world and for the world to appreciate the beauty that she offers this world.

* Kristi Garrison: Garrison has always loved creating things with her hands and has been crafting since she was 11 when her Mom opened a craft shop. Because of her disability she had become withdrawn when she couldn't do things she had normally been able to do.

"Working at SW Resources has greatly helped and given me a purpose again," said Garrison.

She has exhibited her work at the West Virginia DRS Art Show for three years and received two Honorable Mention awards.

* Colin Kelley: He is very artistic and uses several mediums to express his artistic abilities -- watercolors, color pencils, and paints. He has been painting and drawing for more than 20 years. Kelley likes to create art because he says it helps him to relax and also to express himself better. Colin is deaf and says that art is often a way to help the hearing world "hear what he is thinking and feeling."

* Jackie Nay: She has been working in the Marble Tree Division for two years. Nay said her love of art comes from working with her grandmother on crafts her entire life. She picks pictures to turn into mosaics to recreate them as close to the original as possible.

"Personally, I like doing the pictures with the smaller details," said Nay.