Rick Lodmell is both prepared and lucky.

Equipped with a 10.2-megapixel camera, a calm spirit, and an eye for beauty, he ardently tramps out into the Hennepin canal landscape during twilight and early morning, in all seasons. He is looking for that momentary vision of the natural world, always moving and transforming, to capture what is seen in an instant.

The recently closed show at the Quad City International Airport art gallery featured nearly 50 stunning works: the serigraphy of Karen Blomme, the metal works of Tom Lytle, and the oil paintings and constructed boxes of Heidi Hernandez. I have exhibited with all three artists and have always been impressed by how their works strongly define the character of an exhibition.

While a handful of pieces are charged with exploratory energy, many of the works are more predictable progressions or refinements of previous visual explorations.

While the work of Blomme and Lytle (both established area artists) seeks to cultivate visual and conceptual territories that they have already “claimed” with previous imagery, Hernandez (a younger, up-and-coming artist) is more vigorously exploring the “unknown” to find her own territory.

(Editor's note: St. Ambrose University art professor Kristin Quinn opened a sabbatical exhibit - Between Sea & Sky - last week in the school's Catich Gallery. River Cities' Reader art critics Bruce Carter and Steve Banks met to talk about her new work. Excerpts of their conversation follow; audio from their discussion can be downloaded by clicking here .)

Bead artist Maggie Meister found her voice in Italy.

She began beading 15 years ago and started teaching beading in 1996.

"Before I went to Italy, I was doing very basic jewelry design," said Meister, who will be teaching how to make two of her jewelry pieces at Your Design Ltd. in Bettendorf on March 8 and 9. "I didn't really feel like I had any kind of voice. I knew I wanted to do something, but it wasn't until I moved to Italy that things start to click into place."

The Figge Art Museum's Contemporary Glass Invitational feels dangerous. The glass process itself carries the physical peril of fire and molten liquid. The artistic effects are also unsettling, combining soothing beauty with surprise. These glass sculptures glow with intense and subtle visual pleasures, but they also create anxiety through their tensions and contradictions.