Suzanne Zahr’s SZ Gallery will feature artist Steffanie Lorig at this month’s First Thursday Art and Wine event in Mercer Island, to be held from 4:30-7:30 p.m. on Jan. 5.

Lorig is the founder of Art with Heart, a nonprofit social enterprise organization dedicated to helping kids through creativity. Ten percent of art sales from the evening will be donated to Art with Heart. The Islander restaurant will provide tastings.

Lorig spent her childhood drawing, doodling and painting on any surface available. When she went to college, she was able to combine her interests through a Visual Communications degree. She spent the next decade in the graphic design field working for both corporate and private design studios.

Through the years, she has produced a portfolio of therapeutic activity books and developed supporting curricula, workshops and professional development trainings that taught therapists how to use art to engage reticent children.

Clarke and Clarke Art and Artifacts, a usual participant in First Thursday Art and Wine, has a private party of collectors in the works for that night and will not be open to the public.

For more on SZ Gallery, see www.suzannezahr.com.