Art in Isolation Artists Work, Statements, etc

Madeline Bartley

Madeline Bartley was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended Murray State University where she received her B.F.A. in printmaking and drawing. She earned her M.F.A. in studio arts from Syracuse University’s College of Visual Performing Arts in 2016. A recipient of Quilting By the Lake Scholar- ship and the Turner Residency in Los Angeles, CA., she is featured in Syracuse Women’s Magazine, printresting.org, and Boxcar Press Blog: The Inquisitive Printer. She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows including exhibitions at the Hand Held Gallery (Melbourne, Australia), Walnut Ink Projects (Michigan City, IN), The Rogue Space (New York, NY), and the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA). Currently she lives in Buffalo, New York where she dedicates her free time to her studio practice.

In her current work titled: Improvised Structures is a series exploring a fantasy landscape with strange forms that remain standing, incorporating mixed media works ranging from drawing to pho- tographs. The work is layered with print media and improvised marks. This work engages with the cyclical process of seasonal shifts in extremes, showcasing moments of plentiful plant forms thriving vibrantly, while in other artworks exemplify subdued colors of barren land. Erected structures exist as piles of rocks and as impromptu framework, constructed to support other unknown forms. Through- out the series, Improvised Structures is a concern with what it means to alter, to collapse, and to re- main erect in a wasteland that may or may not be able to host life. The scenes are not true represen- tations of a place in reality, but more so as non-descript places. Ultimately, this body of work is about a relationship with maintenance when permanence is not allowed in a forever changing landscape.

Website: http://madelinebartley.com

Robert Bolla

I was mentored by a professional landscape photographer and a professional studio/wedding photographer in basic photographic and developing techniques including vintage methods for image capture and for developing images. I have used photomicrography and electron microscopy combined with biochemistry and molecular biology and photo image analysis in my research to answer questions of the development of parasites in host-parasite interactions.

As a photographer I direct my work toward street photography/photojournalism with an interest in people and culture and I have a second interest in nature/wildlife photography. My goal is to use photography to tell stories to the viewer. I have traveled to Myanmar to photograph working artisans producing products for export as the culture of the country changes from hand crafted to industrialized, to the Peruvian Amazon to photograph indigenous peoples, and Africa, the Patagonia and South America to photograph nature.

I am a member of the Saint Louis Camera Club. I was a member of the Board of Directors of Manchester Arts from 2013-2016. As a photographer I present the viewer with an image to pique the imagination and tell a story; I try to find elegance or humor in my wildlife photography. In street photography I try for a scene or person from which a story can be told. I do most work in camera but use digital manipulation of images to look as taken with vintage films, and developed with vintage techniques such as wet plate, Daguerreotype, cyanotype and lith, as well as artistic expression found in paintings. I print on a variety of to gain full expression of the photograph and the post processing.

For a photographer in isolation with travel restricted and parks closed, wild life comes from the back yard and street photography of the occasional trip out so the goal now is how to turn a photograph into something different to better tell a story. These submissions are digital paintings of a cold day on a beach, stumps rotting on the beach and a flock of wood storks flying home in the evening.

Website: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/robert-bolla

Jody Boyer

Jody Boyer is a visual artist and arts educator originally from Portland, Oregon. In her studio practice she explores the broad interdisciplinary possibilities of traditional and new media with specific interests in personal and historic memory, cinema, landscape, the natural world and a sense of place. She received her B.A. in Studio Arts from Reed College, her M.A. in Intermedia and Video Art from the University of Iowa, and her K-12 teaching certificate at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her artwork has been shown in over 70 exhibitions across the country, including at the Des Moines Art Center, Urban Culture Project in Kansas City and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. She has taught in a variety of P-16 environments including Universities, public schools and community nonprofits throughout the Midwest. She teaches studio art courses at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and visual arts at Norris Middle School. In 2014 she received the nationally selected Caucus of Social Theory in Art Education’s Social Theory-in-Practice Award for K-12 Art teachers, which recognizes and honors a teacher who utilizes social theory in classroom pedagogy. She was selected the 2016 Nebraska Outstanding Art Educator of the Year by the Nebraska Art Teachers Association. Most recently she was selected as part of the 2019 School of Art Leaders cohort of the National Art Education Association and is current Co-President of the Nebraska Art Teachers Association.

Website: https://jodyboyer.wordpress.com

Kacey Cowdery

Kacey earned a BFA at Maryville University, majoring in Interior Design. That curriculum included multiple mediums. When students could choose how to build a project, Kacey always chose fiber.

Many years in commercial interior design began her career, followed by a twenty-year career in natural stone sales. There was only a little time to sew or make art.

Over time she made the transition from making garments to fiber art. Her work often consists of art quilts and drawing with thread. Her preferred methods of handwork are embroidery, beading and appliqué. She gravitates toward bright colors. Contrast in colors and composition create  dramatic artwork. As her work has developed, she has begun to experiment with dolls and three-dimensional constructions. Lured back to garments, Kacey has developed a series of wearable art. 

Kacey is currently a member of Foundry Arts Centre, Missouri Fiber Artists, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, Studio Art Quilts Associates, TAFA List and a Webster Arts supporter. She shows regularly and has won awards and recognition for her fiber art.

Website: http://kaceycowdery.com

Francis Dayton

Francis is a visual designer and creative strategist currently residing in Gilbert, Arizona. Influenced by urban art, modern pop, and abstract expressionism, he creates a study of abstract color theory within his painting, calling himself a Dream State Painter in the process. It is the moments when waking life turn lucid, where only pure emotion exists, that Francis is attempting to capture though his minimalistic layered shape designs. Having grown up on the East End of Long Island New York, Francis was witness to the playground where many American Pop and Abstract Artists once called home. This played a vital role in helping to shape his desire to tap into the viewer’s emotional language through color and shape. After receiving a BFA in Graphic Design from Virginia Tech, Francis moved to the California Bay Area to attend graduate school for advertising and was immediately inspired by its culture and landscape. He is currently beginning a new chapter in The Valley of The Sun in Phoenix, Arizona and is already influenced by its unique landscape. Active memberships include Gilbert Visual Art League and Arizona Artists Guild.

Website: https://francisdayton.com

Tamara L. Eberle

Tamara Eberle is a St. Louis based artist and art therapist who received a B.S in art education and an M.A. in art therapy counseling from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her artist development began early in life and was influenced by her employment at Laumeier Sculpture park and receiving a Young At Art Award for photography. She has been an exhibiting artist over the past 20 years and received a variety of scholarships and awards. Her work has been featured in a diverse range of juried exhibitions including a fashion show. Her photography was published on the cover of the American Art Therapy Journal (2019). The artmaking process has been a lifelong necessary & fundamental part of the human existence for her. Themes in her artwork include personal narratives, nostalgia, mental health, and trauma. Her body of work is diverse and ranges from fibers, photography, drawing, and sculpture.

She has served for 6 years on the board of the Missouri Art therapy Association, provides post-graduate supervision to those beginning their art therapy careers, and has given professional presentations on the intersection of art and art therapy. She currently practices as an art therapist with those who have experienced severe trauma, using art to help in their process of healing. Her current body of work focuses on the unique experience of being an art therapist.

Hearing constant stories of tragedy can lead to feelings of vicarious trauma for the art therapist. Making art about the experience is one way she reflects on the heavy work being carried out. Her current series of work “Musings of an Art Therapist” looks at these concepts. Art Therapy creates an interesting set of guidelines for human interaction. At its best it is genuine, deep, and caring, while still existing in an artificial vacuum with a specific set of unique rules. Art therapists often do not know how their actions within a session affect a client, because change that occurs is often incremental and may occur long after the therapeutic relationship has ended. Waves cast into motion in therapy may have a long-term effect on the client in which the therapist is not able to fully witness the rewards. Similarly, when clients enter services, they are often coming with generations of trauma passed down through epigenetics. The clinical presentation may be disorganized, messy, and unclear as client’s unpack decades of hurt and pain. This repeating for the therapist hour after hour leaves a dark heavy feeling. Frequent assumptions heard about being an art therapist is: “That must be fun” or “that must be heavy work” and both are true. Art therapy can be fun, playful, colorful, disorganized, unexpected, messy, and beautiful while also taking a heavy emotional tole. The use of art-making to process metacognitions is personally an essential piece in remaining a creative and empathetic art therapist.

Instagram: @smileforthetamara

Michael Faris

Dr. Michael Faris is an artist and art instructor. He is an Assistant Professor of Art Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. He has also taught at Shawnee Community College (SCC) in Ullin, Illinois, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE) and Centralia High School (CHS) in Centralia, Illinois. He has also taught at various community art centers, including the Centralia Cultural Society, the Little Egypt Art Association, the Hartley Art Gallery and Event Center, and Carbondale Community Arts.

Faris has exhibited his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures at the Kranzberg Art Center of St. Louis, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, the Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, The Indianapolis Art Center, The Springfield Art Association, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Swope Art Museum, Carbondale Community Arts, the Centralia Cultural Society, South Suburban College, the Hise Museum of Regional Art, Southeastern Illinois College, and other locations.

Faris earned his PhD in art education at Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB). He earned his MS and BS in art education at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (SIUE). He was named SIUE art education student of the year in 1996, and was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society the same year. He was awarded the Della Fricke Art Education Scholarship at IUB. His dissertation explores racial inequity in community arts centers in the United States, with part of the study involving a specific arts center in the Midwest.

Faris has given several professional presentations involving art with a social agenda, racial issues in the arts and art education, multicultural art education, curriculum development, and historical issues in art. These presentations were for various organizations in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.

Faris lives in Maryville, Missouri, with his wife Debra.

Website: http://www.michaelfarisart.com

Shannon Ferguson

Shannon Ferguson is an artist from outside of Dallas, Texas. She works in a variety of media including printmaking, painting, and book arts. She will graduate from Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts with her BFA in May 2020. She is a member of the Renee Crown Honors Program, and was named a VPA Scholar. She has also received a SOURCE Creative Works Grant for her thesis work. She has shown work in Syracuse, New York and in Dallas, Texas.

In my work, I am interested in the hand, both as a tool for craft, and as a symbol for touch. I investigate consensual and non-consensual touch especially towards women in my work. Through painting and printmaking, I use found images and repetition to create the narratives I am trying to convey. I am interested in the invasive feeling that can come from unwanted touch in social settings, and I seek to recreate the feeling of being invaded by touch while pretending that everything is fine. Especially now, during Coronavirus quarantine, touch between strangers can be something to be feared. I use the repetition of the hand to show the desire, but also fear, for touch during these times.

Website: https://www.shannonfergusonart.net

Amy Firestone-Rosen

Amy Firestone Rosen is a native of St. Louis, who returned after obtaining a BFA in Visual Communications from the University of Kansas. She worked primarily as a graphic designer for more than twenty years before a growing interest in printmaking led her to further education and eventual studio practice as a printmaker. Her current work combines photography, mono printing and digital collage techniques. Pattern and texture feature heavily in this body of work that is based on an abstract photo study of a construction site. The works are translucent, layered media that simultaneously veil and reveal.

Shelby Fleming

My studio practice is cross disciplinary with a focus on sculptural installation and performance art. My most recent artwork questions perception, physical spaces and how we curate the presentation of ourselves in particular spaces. This curation could happen physically or psychologically as we determine what we wish to reveal about ourselves or conceal. This topic became the focal point of my practice as I started to discover my queer identity and question how to present myself to my hypercritical family.

Shelby Fleming hold a BFA in Studio Art from Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Arkansas School of Art. Fleming’s artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as the CICA Museum, South Korea, the International Sculpture Conference, The Little Berlin Gallery, Art Saint Louis and the Kansas City Art Institute.

Website: https://www.shelbylynnefleming.com

Brenda Gilliam

I am primarily an illustrator and graphic designer, but have reached a point in my life where I can devote more time to painting. Having had a few shows mostly in South Carolina and Missouri, accepting awards, experiencing gallery representation, selling my work ... I am encouraged to continue this path. I am mostly self-taught, and find that I learn something with each piece of work.

Currently, I am working on a series of paintings inspired by Instagram images posted by my daughter (mostly of still lifes/table settings of local spots here in St Louis) and a close friend (whose daughter, Ivy, will be the subject of about 20-30 planned pieces). These are a few of Ivy. I thought it appropriate to submit these paintings for this kind of show, since we are all in some form of isolation at times ... when we can occupy ourselves in imaginative and enriching ways, much like a child.

When I paint, I like to convey simple pleasures in life, things we can relate to as we go through our individual day-to-day. I like to play with color, pattern, texture, composition, and line. My background in graphic design heavily influences the way I paint.

Website: https://www.bgrtst.com

Tyler Griese

My work is focused on creating paintings and drawings as an interpretation of the moments of waiting for both mundane and dramatic catalytic circumstances of ordinary people. I use painting to elevate human human narratives to develop a more empathetic view towards a myriad of different contexts of what it means to be a person. The journey of art-making leads me to small moments of nuance which illuminates how everyday actions expressed in the paintings exist in an empathetic unity between the viewer and the subtle actions present in the work.

This work exists as an enigmatic study of moments of heightened consciousness and personal introspection. I find honesty in the everyday life and how it connects to the psyche of the overall human condition. I use lighting and color to constructs of a two-dimensional surface. I am empowered by strategies of artists throughout art history to orchestrate visual interest and order.

Website: https://www.tylergriese.com

Rebecca Griffith

My work examines the process of coping and caregiving for a parent’s illness from a young age to adulthood. I am recalling a time of my life when my mother was not suffering from multiple sclerosis and running a video store in the early 1990s. By excavating material from VHS cassettes, I discuss how we process information, nostalgia, and memory by creating delicate quilts from films of my childhood.

By disrupting the film sequence, I cut the magnetic tape and reassemble the film using clear adhesive tape creating a new narrative about my mother. I protect and care for them; extending their life while staying authentic to fixing broken cassettes.

Rebecca Griffith is a multidisciplinary artist working with found materials and personal belongings she reconstructs as textiles, tapestries and sculptural objects. Griffith has exhibited at the University of Oople in Poland, ARC Gallery in Chicago, Women Made Gallery, Chicago, Side Street Studio in Elgin, and Ann Arbor Art Center in Michigan among other midwest galleries and cultural institutions. Griffith was awarded first place in the emerging artist exhibition at Cleve Carney Art Gallery in 2018. She was the 2018 curator for Northern Illinois University's President's Office, and the president of the Graduate Arts Association at Northern. Griffith earned her B.S.Ed. from Northern Illinois University in 2013 and her M.F.A. from Northern Illinois University in 2018.

Website: https://rebeccagriffithart.com/home.html

Sarah Kathryn Hix

Sarah Kathryn “SK” Hix has been creating art from the very beginning, finding an outlet for her work on every empty surface. Leading into high school, SK had never taken a formal art class but reignited her love for art with her first class junior year. Since then, her growth as an artist and a person has only flourished. SK is an attendant at Auburn University and studies Interior Design. Soon to be a graduate of the program, she is headed to Chicago to continue her love and passion in Interior Design. Although creating art is a side activity for SK, she hopes to be able to incorporate it in her clients’ future designs and eventually house her artwork in a gallery in Chicago.

Website: https://www.skhix.com

Sean Hoisington

I have never been interested in photographing reality. Instead, I invent a cinematic reality inhabited by characters reminiscent of the past, yet that exists in the present.

A strong narrative with an ambiguous plot dominates my work. The story unfolds through multiple, digital images depicting the characters in conflict. Their personal melodramas or psychodramas may be centered around physical jeopardy or inner turmoil, to which they react with impulsivity or teeter on the cusp of a dramatic decision, coping with the fallout from previous actions, or fleeing the monotony of their lives.

Obscuring the identity of the characters increases mystery, and allows the viewer to act as voyeur or participant. The retro styling, including vintage clothes, antique props, dated sets, and isolated outdoor locations, recalls a feeling of dusty romanticism and a twisted idealization of the past or the unknown.

Lauren Howard

LAUREN ALYSSA HOWARD WAS BORN AND RAISED IN A SMALL TOWN IN SOUTHEASTERN ALABAMA. AFTER MOVING TO THE METRO-ATLANTA AREA IN 1996, SHE ATTENDED THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA WHERE SHE RECEIVED HER BACHELORS OF FINE ARTS WITH AN EMPHASIS IN DRAWING. QUOTING HER RURAL UPBRINGING, HOWARD USES REFERENCES FROM A PARTICULAR LOWER-MIDDLE WORKING CLASS HISTORY TO ADDRESS IDENTITY, GENDER, AND PLACE. SHE HAS RECEIVED MULTIPLE SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS SUCH AS THE LAS DAMAS DE ARTE SCHOLARSHIP AND THE JACK AND JEANNE ENDOWMENT FELLOWSHIP IN ART, AND MOST RECENTLY A FELLOWSHIP TO THE VERMONT STUDIO CENTER. HER WORK HAS BEEN EXHIBITED NATIONALLY AND HAS MOST RECENTLY BEEN SHOWN AT HERE ARTS IN NYC, MAMMAL GALLERY, AND THE JULE COLLINS SMITH MUSEUM. HAVING FOUND HER WAY BACK TO THE SOUTH AFTER RECEIVING HER MASTERS OF FINE ARTS DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA AND WORKING AND SHOWING IN BROOKLYN, NY SHE IS NOW TEACHING ART AND DESIGN AT AUBURN UNIVERSITY.

I AM INTERESTED IN THE DICHOTOMIES OF EMOTION ASSOCIATED WITH ONE’S RELATIONSHIP TO HOME, PLACE, AND SOUL. DEFENSIVENESS AND AGGRESSION, APATHY AND EMPATHY, AND THE INEVITABILITY OF EITHER ACCEPTANCE OR RESIGNATION ARE PORTRAYED IN THESE PIECES. WHILE NAVIGATING THROUGH A WORLD OF INTIMACY AND UNCERTAINTY, OF SATISFACTION OR REGRET, I AIM TO EXPLORE THESE STAGES OF EMOTION THAT ARE DIRECTLY BOUND TO THE ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE LIVE, WHETHER PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY.

WE ARE NOW LIVING IN A WORLD OF NEW UNCERTAINTY, DISENGAGEMENT AND ESTRANGEMENT. ADD IN QUALIFICATIONS OF PHYSICAL DISTANCE, AND OUR MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, AND RELATIONAL CAPACITIES SUFFER. THIS YEAR’S NEWEST PIECE, “THE GREAT DIVIDE” COMMUNICATES THE DISTANCE, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE. THOUGH SIX FEET MAY SEEM CLOSE IN PROXIMITY AND THE FURRY COSTUMES MAY SUGGEST A CLOSENESS AND FAMILIARITY WITH ONE ANOTHER, ONE COULD ARGUE THAT THERE IS A VAST DISTANCE OF OCEAN BETWEEN THEM- A DISTANCE WHERE ONE CANNOT TOUCH, FEEL, EMBRACE. THIS DRAWING ILLUSTRATES THE DICHOTOMY AND LAYERS OF INTIMACY AND LONGING TRIGGERED BY SEPARATION.

Website: https://laurenalyssahoward.com/home.html

Chloe Irla

Chloe Irla grew up outside of Richmond, VA but moved around a lot as a teenager. She attended McDaniel College before receiving an MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has exhibited nationally and in Sofia, Bulgaria. Chloe has been a resident artist at the Vermont Studio Center and the Wassaic Project. As an educator, she has taught studio art courses at MICA and the University of Maine at Farmington and is currently an Assistant Professor of New Media & Digital Art at McDaniel College. Chloe lives in Westminster, MD with her husband, fellow artist Jason Irla, and her young daughter, Felix. She loves reading and listening to podcasts, baking, gardening, and running.

I completed the drawings included in this application during self-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, I was producing paintings featuring distorted Canada Geese. The subject of these works was based on a memory I had of feeding geese on a riverbank with my late grandmother when I was nine years old. These recent works remain rooted in that memory of a time of comfort and mundanity during my childhood. As social distancing continues, the geese depicted in my work remain physically connected yet distant from each other in their spatial orientations. Even though the geese are connected to each other, they retain an individuality that contributes to a feeling of distance and isolation. Since I’m home all the time now, I notice Canada Geese flying above my house twice a day in the morning and evening. Their behavior hasn’t changed during this pandemic and I wonder if they look down below and wonder what’s going on with us.

Website: https://chloe-irla.com/home.html

Izosceles

Izosceles is an emerging American visual artist. With a love for cartoons and fun imagery, Izosceles discovered their adoration for artistic expression at a young age. Their works are colorful in nature; however, some have deeper tones underneath the playful, digestible surface. Growing up on cartoons as a child is what inspires their bold lines and imaginative colors that pull you in, and the visual composition and subject matter are what make you stay.

Website: https://www.izosceles.com

Raili Janese

Raili Jänese, a visual art, and design fanatic is a self-taught artist from Estonia. After moving to Seattle in 2018, she took time off from her previous profession and concen- trated on creating artwork about the subject she’s truly interested in. Her inspiration comes from living creatures. She sees animals as unique personalities who speak with- out words. Using clear lines and vibrant colors, she creates whimsical artworks that bring these characters to life.

“ "Oh, It's you"“ is the artwork series I enjoy revisiting every once in a while. It is a com- bination of character, shape, and color. The character is inspired by a cat, who was leaning against the window while being outside catching the moths in the dark. I was observing the animal from inside. Suddenly the cat noticed me and gave me a careless look: "Oh, it's you over there" and then continued catching moths. I captured that mo- ment and have been creating many versions of artworks since.

This particular Cherry Blossom edition was painted during COVID-19 pandemic while staying in and daydreaming about the pink cherry blossom I could not visit this season.”

Website: http://www.railijanese.design

Amber Koprin

I reconstruct a different kind of homescape, one in which brief moments of believability can occur before the illusion falls in on itself; parts don’t add up to a believable whole. The viewer is provided with just enough information to identify the markers and commonalities of home, but the spaces are disjointed and intentionally romanticized. These reconstructions invite the viewer to question their relationship to home, to materiality, to space. Ultimately, I want viewers to shift between comfort and discomfort, to feel fluttering moments of loneliness, melancholy, mystery, and an unsettling stillness.

Website: http://www.koprin.org

Terry L. Landon

Born in April of 1961, Terry and his family reside just minutes from the Great River Road in Illinois - located in the heart of the United States where the Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi rivers converge. He loves the beauty of the seasonal variations. When the weather turns too cold to be outdoors, Terry picks up a pencil or paintbrush. Terry is a loving devoted husband, father, and grandpa and loves to play just about any game or sport. He is employed by a St. Louis, Missouri Civil Engineering firm, where he has worked since 1983.

It was when Terry was attending elementary school in Dupo, IL when he was first told that he was "color blind," which would forever influence his accomplishments as an artist. When the other kids in school were coloring rainbows and flowers, Terry took to drawing with a #2 lead pencil - which he still prefers over any other art medium today. At an early age, Terry discovered (he would say, "out of boredom") that he had a talent for drawing, so he kept his mind busy by replicating objects in his home enviro nment. It was not until his early teens that his imagination and thematic design took root in his detailed sketches.

Terry separates his artwork into 2 categories: Natural and Allegorical. Terry's real "artistic" obsession lies with his Allegorical (thematic) drawings. Through thematic drawing, Terry explores human psychology and philosophy in a very thought -provoking way. He could probably talk for hours about what each of his drawings mean to him but leaves interpretation up to the individual. "It may mean something to someone else that I never really ever thought of, and that's great. That's what art is all about." Terry admits that some of his thematic work has been influenced by the surrealistic art of Salvador Dali and the philosophical w ritings of Carl Sagan.

Website: https://www.terrylandonart.com

Alejandra Lopez

Alejandra Lopez lives and works in Fort Worth, TX. In May 2020, she will receive her BFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Printmaking from Texas Christian University. Lopez has been included in many shows on the academic level, as well as in the Fort Worth art community. Lopez has also shown work internationally in Hiroshima, Japan as part of the Texas and Hiroshima Small Works Exhibition. In 2020 Lopez received the Undergraduate Research and Creative Grant from her university and is also a four-time recipient of their Nordan Art Merit Scholarship. In her practice, Lopez focuses on exploring perception and manipulation. Lopez’s work is characterized by the utilization of found photographs of young women and elements of layering, repetition, and CMYK color schemes. She creates alternate narratives for the figure through new compositions to explore communication, context, perception, and our definition of a portrait.

Instagram: @aliesomthing13

Jennifer Markowitz

I use thread to map the geography of memory. In my series, Fleshmap: My Embroidered, Bipolar Geographies, I used thread to circumnavigate my own bipolar disorder by mapping the geography of memory in all its disarray and confusion. Through relentless re-visits of intimate terrains, I have mapped a life frequently interrupted by mental illness. Each of the 16 completed, hand-embroidered panels excavates personal events beginning in 1985 and spanning several US cities as well as multiple international relocations. Within each panel are images and text pulled from memories, traumas, confusions, artifacts and maps. Fleshmap invites the viewer to travel through an unflinching navigation between memory and place. I am now transfixed by encounters with absence and presence. Specifically, I’m gripped by the mysterious traces our bodies leave behind within garments and how embroidery can reveal those private territories. This preoccupation has led me to experiment 3D processes such as using wire and stiffeners to sculpt textiles I’ve embroidered into human figures that might further reveal the shape of memory.

Jennifer Markowitz is a textile artist whose work has been shown at CAM Raleigh, Dayton Society of Artists, Block Gallery, VAE, The National Humanities Center and the Weems Art Gallery. She is a recipient of the United Arts Career Development Grant and a current Emerging Artist Resident at ArtspaceNC. She was also a Brightwork Fellow at Anchorlight where her first solo exhibition, “Fleshmap: My Bipolar Embroidered Geographies”, showed in November 2019.

Before turning to textiles, Jennifer spent 25 years directing environmental theatre throughout the US, England, Scotland, Ireland and Israel. In England, where she received her M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, she formed a site-based theatre company called Trema and directed productions throughout the UK. Jennifer has taught Performance Theory, Acting, Directing, Theatre, Site-Based theatre and Postdramatic Theatre in the UK at the universities of Warwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Portsmouth and Plymouth. In the US, she taught at DePaul University, Columbia College Chicago and University of Notre Dame.

Website: https://fleshmap.me

Sheila Michael

Vlado Nedkov

My work explores the relationship between shape and color in different mediums, largely drawing inspiration from architecture, geometry, as well as growing up homosexual in Eastern Europe. By painting on top of images or manual manipulation, I de-contextualize and re-contextualize the original story and shift the viewer's approach and perception of what is.

Vlado Nedkov is a marketing and communications professional originally from Sofia, Bulgaria. He spent nearly ten years spearheading business development for a leading boutique public relations firm before returning to his love for making art.

He has consulted for lifestyle and fashion brands, film, architecture, and interior design clients, and currently resides in New York. He holds a BA in Economics and French from Williams College, an MBA in International Business from Brandeis University's International Business School, and a Certificate in Architecture and Interior Design from Parsons/The New School.

He has studio art training from Williams College, the School of Visual Arts, and Pratt Institute. His work is part of private collections internationally.

Website: https://www.vladonedkov.com

Alex Paradowski

All of my work explores color, form and texture although none so clearly as my paper mosaics. Up close the collection of paper cubes creates a kaleidoscope of color but as you move back the photographic image becomes more apparent. I enjoy combining the time honored art forms of paper making and mosaic with the current technology of digital photography.

Website: http://alexparadowski.com

Marceline Saphian

Sometimes the theme for a new exhibit opportunity sends the mind thinking in new directions..... But it’s also nice to be able to have time to just play and explore on your own. Wonders can happen when we look inside instead of out. We’ve all had a little time to do this lately!

Website: https://marcelinesaphian.com/home.html

Kate Shannon

My creative interests revolve around photography. I begin my visual projects by creating or appropriating digital photographs. I then spend time at a computer screen meticulously erasing, expanding, rearranging, or animating the tiny pixels that form these images. In this way, the photograph itself is not an end result but a foundation for further research, discovery, and invention. My digitally manipulated photographs explore ideas such as desire, consumption, and loss. Lifted and Leaden addresses the rainy day when Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. Shortly after the inauguration, the popular news organization CNN published an interactive gigapixel, or super high-resolution, image of the event online. To create this series, I explored the gigapixel and digitally extracted certain individuals from the attending crowd. The resulting lonely figures echo my emotions surrounding that day.

Kate Shannon is an associate professor of art at The Ohio State University Mansfield where she teaches image-based studio art courses. The recipient of the 2013 OSU Mansfield Campus Award for Excellence in Scholarship, she has exhibited her creative work across the United States. Shannon received her BFA from the University of Kentucky and her MFA from The Ohio State University in Columbus where she now lives with her husband, son, and two cats.

Website: https://www.kateshannon.net

Erika Shiba

Erika Shiba is a Japanese illustrator and printmaker born and raised in Hong Kong. She received her BFA in 2018 from Parsons School of Design in New York for Illustration and Printmaking and is now pursuing her MFA in Printmaking at Illinois State University. In her works, she fabricates and documents an invented world to explore the tension between rationality and fantasy, and clarity and confusion. Her works reference mental spaces and each print and drawing exists as documents of discovery in this psychological universe.

Instagram: @erkashba

Rossie Stearns

In my multi-disciplinary art practice, I create through building up layers of color, texture, and material. This process acts as a meditation or a forced focus. A common result of this is an internal deconstruction of my anxieties, questions, hopes, etc. The shapes I paint, the colors I create, the objects I sculpt are all physical manifestations of a cerebral experience - relics or artifacts that provide clues as to how a thought or idea was processed.

In 2018, I began to explore my meditative processes as a means of informing the subjects of my works and editing the final expression in a way that protects the vulnerability of the private moments of creation. In 2020, I have begun to dive deeper into my tendency to personify each art object or mark I make and see substrates as containers or vessels for information recorded in paint or whatever the medium. Each mark I make becomes a part of the community of marks that all work together to tell one collective story. How can I express a sense of individual identity in said marks while simultaneously creating a sense of community and collective effort?

I am pulled towards bright and muted colors that give my work a playful lightness and aid in the digestion of some of my more intense internal experiences, which provides a balance for me and a filter for the viewer.

Rossie Stearns was born and raised in Austin, Tx, where she soaked in the vibrant, experimental, and open-minded energy of the local arts community. Certain from a young age that she would grow up to be an artist, Rossie followed a path that led her to study Studio Art at the University of Texas at Austin. Shortly after graduating, she headed west, landing in Seattle, Wa, where she currently lives and works as an artist. Rossie enjoys science fiction, gardening, camping, and exploring the wide variety of landscapes the Pacific Northwest offers.

Website: http://www.rossiestearns.com

Susie Tenzer

Susie Tenzer was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. She attended Washington University School of Fine Arts and ultimately received a BS in Education from the University of Missouri in St. Louis. She was a teacher until 2004 and retirement allowed her to go back to the drawing board – literally! Pursuing her love of drawing, she bought a set of colored pencils on eBay and found her niche. Her colored pencil drawings can be seen in art galleries and shows around the world. She is a juried member of the St. Louis Artists Association and the Best of Missouri Hands. She is a member of the International Guild of Realism and a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America.

There's something deeply personal about pausing at the ordinary and finding the extraordinary. It's not usually loud or flashy; just a moment in time when you see something special in routine situations. I love roaming through local neighborhoods with my camera and happening upon unique perspectives of everyday surroundings, those which most people take for granted. Then, with colored pencils, I work to capture the way the light plays with the angles and surfaces, capture these snapshots in time. What's important to me is bringing you the beauty that I see and, just maybe, train your eye to find it on your own.

Website: http://www.susietenzer.com

Jake Welsh

As a college student in Aerospace Engineering, the onset of COVID-19 ruined everything about the end of my senior year. The sudden transition to online courses, the cancellation of practices with my national level ultimate frisbee team, a postponement of my graduation ceremony, and an awkward final goodbye to all of the people who made my 4 years worthwhile was enough to make me feel trapped in my new life. These images I captured of my roommate represent the creeping feeling of anxiety towards an uncertain future, the helplessness of myself to anything that was happening around me, and the complete frustration caused by being forced into this new lifestyle of isolation. I used long exposure photography to develop the phantom hands which surround my subject, and chiaroscuro to emphasize the isolation of my subject in the total darkness around him. To me, these elements emphasize the restrictions placed upon my mind and soul as I fruitlessly attempted to salvage the remnants of my last ride.

Connor Young

This triptych contains photographs of a child who is wearing a witch mask while participating in the daily routines in the average household (Play Time, Snack Time, and Bed Time). The way the child interacts with the setting depicts the unique interest that they have and compares the norm of that individual versus the stereotypical preconceptions of what children are interested in. The creepy elements that appear in the surroundings are personal objects that are saved from my childhood; primarily theatrical masks and costumes. At that age, I had many odd interests that made me stick out from the norm. The Wicked Witch is a significant interest I had that holds a prominent memory of me getting in trouble for drawing witches in Baptist preschool. I later grew into many interests involving the strange and unusual. Reflecting on how odd my interests were at such a young age is beneficial to understand how different people are and I want to encourage people, especially the younger audience, to not worry about what others are interested in. It’s good to focus on yourself and express your interests.

I’m a photographer from Iowa and currently working on receiving my BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I was born in Des Moines in 2000 and plan on continuing my work here in Chicago to be in a broader and more progressive fine art environment. I’ve been an interdisciplinary artist the majority of my life but I’m finding myself passionate about the theatrics in photography. My recent work contains a variety of bold imagery that addresses personal issues of mine that can be shown in a way to critique societal problems within sexuality, dating, objectification, and childhood trauma. Now that I’m back in Iowa because of this pandemic, I thought it was best to look back at my childhood given the resources I have to make this in-depth analysis of my earlier life.

Website: https://www.connor-young.com