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Hi – we are Margaret and Chris Helthaler. We founded Standing Impressions as a way to blend our professional and creative lives.
Margaret is an artist and educator with a BFA in graphic design, MFA in visual art, and over thirty years of experience as a working creative. Her art is informed by a deep attachment to nature and the rural landscape. She enjoys exploring drawing, pattern-making, photography, and other media.
Margaret shares her work on tile, fabric, and wallpaper.
Chris worked in the insurance industry for over twenty-five years. Not long ago he traded his long commute for the joys of woodworking. The practice evokes childhood memories of building a house with his parents and little sister.
Chris makes our frames, ottoman trays, candle holders, and and other wood décor.
We both draw inspiration from our home in upstate New York’s Catskill/Hudson Valley region, but we come at it from different perspectives. Margaret grew up in a farmhouse that was built by her great-great-grandfather, while Chris is a transplant. His parents got the idealistic notion to leave Wallington, New Jersey to build a house in the Catskills. Chris spent the weekends and summers of his youth working on the home.