THE ARTISTS
Juried by Lauren Szumita and Marie Craig
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Deborah Santoro *BEST IN SHOW
Natasha Dikareva
Stephanie Todhunter
Bekka Teerlink
Lisa Barthelson
Bruce Wilson
David Edward Johnson
Jessica Straus
Jaina Cipriano
Lara Alcantara Lansberg
Virginia Mahoney
Anita Loomis
Robert Steffen
Sylvia Vander Sluis
Robin Reynolds
Nancy Good
Julia C R Gray
Aimee Cotnoir
GALLERY
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BEST IN SHOW
Deborah Santoro, Massachusetts, USA
Perseverance Amidst the Regolith
64x100”, silkscreen and aluminum leaf on Sekishu kozo paper, neodymium magnets, hexagonal bolts, edition of 2., $5000
Alien Point of View
16x32”, Digital photograph, $500
Deborah Santoro engages visual and material strategies to unravel colonialistic understandings that imply separation. She uses stardust to draw, edit, and echo light waves—engaging with materials and tools that utilize haptic sensibilities to delight the primate eye. The transitional spaces between media initiate pathways into neuron networks, generating new narratives that allow for multispecies fluorishing in a rapidly changing climate. In Perseverance Amidst the Regolith, Santoro collaborates with an alien robot on Mars by recognizing its agency in the images it sends back to earth.
Perseverance has two AI systems incorporated into an aluminum body. That body is projected into space by a species currently at risk of making their own planet uninhabitable in a few generations time. Each print in the sequence represents a moment in time. Together they comprise a time-based grid of images as the robot arm moves through space and clicks a shutter. In this sense, Perseverance is a complex self-driven camera that moves through an alien landscape gathering digitally recorded memories of light waves.
Is the Perseverance another instance of a cartographic strategy of empire? Or are there tentacular possibilities, speculative fabulations of lichens and archaea hitchhiking the ride through space to a planet that once held and may once again hold life, although it is unlikely to look like us. Whatever architectural imaginaries Mars may hold, it is unlikely to offer safe haven for a people foolish enough to render their home planet uninhabitable for themselves and their kin.
Deborah holds an MFA in Visual Art from the Maine College of Art & Design and a BA in Studio Art from Wellesley College. She is the Gallery Director for the University Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She won a staff choice award in the 2022 Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft at the Fitchburg Art Museum and co-curated a three person show called Pretendians: A Conversation with Steffany Ojeda and James Meyer in the Zand Head Gallery in Portland, Me. In 2019 she participated in Human Impact: Stories of the Opioid Epidemic at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA. She has shown in the ICA at the Maine College of Art & Design as well as their Bob Crewe Gallery Window, the Brush Gallery in Lowell, MA, The Arts League of Lowell, MA and others. She has participated in artist residencies at Zea Mays Printmaking in Florence, MA and an Ayatana Nocturne research residency in Ottawa, Canada. Santoro has served as a juror for the Chelmsford Center for the Arts, the Parish Center for the Arts in Westford, MA, The Whistler House in Lowell, Ma, and the Loading Dock Gallery in Lowell, MA.
Woman with Camera
39x39”, silkscreen and aluminum leaf on Sekishu kozo, $3000
Natasha Dikareva, New Hampshire, USA
In the Labyrinth of Clouds
23x24x13”, stoneware, stains, glazes, $4800
Is Anybody There?
13x11x8”, stoneware, stains, glazes, $2500
Quest for Balance
22x14x8”, stoneware, stains, glazes, $4500
Since the onset of the war in Ukraine, my work has dramatically changed. Previously, I used to make ethereal creatures with tranquil countenances. Now, in light of the turmoil engulfing my homeland, I am pushing the boundaries of clay manipulation, experimenting with balance, and innovating new surface textures. Drawing with negative space, I let light penetrate the cracks and ruptures. Through the juxtaposition of clay and glass, I aim to evoke a sense of translucency and fragility, each material lending its own texture to the narrative. Each piece I create serves as a canvas for expressing the deep anguish and sorrow I carry for my country.
Born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine, Natasha Dikareva started creating at a young age. She has received BFA in graphics at the Kiev State Academy of Art and Design and MFA from the University of Minnesota. After graduating, she moved to San Francisco where she lived and worked for 15 years. In 2020 she relocated to the East Coast.
Dikareva's work has been featured in various publications, such as 500 Prints on Clay and New Ceramics European magazine, and garnered many awards including Grand Prize at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in 2012. She exhibits locally and internationally and her work is held in public and private collections including Yixing Ceramics Museum and Kamm Foundation. Recently, she has been featured on public radio and television, where she has spoken about her artistic process and her reflections on the latest events in Ukraine.
Natasha Dikareva now resides in New Hampshire and is very active in the Boston arts community.
Stephanie Todhunter, Massachusetts, USA
Mission Control
36x36”, digital and analog collage, toner transfer print, oil marker, wax pencil, acrylic paint, oil paint and spraypaint on canvas (can ship unstretched), $2500
Long Live The Queen
40x50”, digital and analog collage, toner transfer print, oil marker, acrylic paint, oil paint and spraypaint on canvas (can ship unstretched), $4200
Runaway
42x30”, digital and analog collage, toner transfer print, acrylic paint, oil paint and spraypaint on canvas (can ship unstretched), $2500
I oscillate between analog and digital, between found images and constructed images, between creation and destruction. I gather materials from a wide variety of sources including Ebay, thrift stores, Wikimedia Commons and trash-picking. I use open-source graphic editing software to create digital compositions, then use a toner-transfer alternative printmaking process to transfer those images to canvas, plywood or paper. By bouncing back and forth between traditional and new technologies I create a hybrid work, an original work of nostalgia.
Assembling and dismembering fragments of American pop culture, I create new worlds and build new narratives out of the old. I use such hands-on techniques as ripping, sanding, scraping and overpainting to introduce uncertainty and unpredictability, creating tension between chaos and control. I am interested in the conflict between the internal and the external, the private and the public.
I work in two and three dimensions, with paper and plastic, both purchased and found. I combine elements from my childhood- isolation, stranger danger, missing children, parental neglect and “satanic panic”, with contemporary feminism and pop culture motifs: body dis-morphia, second/third/fourth wave feminism and cancel culture. I compare the past and the present: Roe vs Wade, affirmative action, the race to the moon, women's liberation and personal identity.
World-building enables me to explore the ways in which societal norms affect personal relationships. I am fascinated by how artists' characters and creations fit into the worlds they have created, the personal rules they follow and the stories they tell.
Stephanie Todhunter received a BA from Bowdoin College and did postgraduate work at the University of Minnesota. Her work was recently exhibited at the Kathryn Schultz and Abigail Ogilvy Galleries, the Danforth Museum, The Art Complex Museum and in the AREACODE Art Fair and Boston International Fine Art Show. She was awarded the Artist of the Year 2017 by the Cambridge Art Association and Mozaik Future Art Award 2020 by Mozaik Philanthropy Los Angeles.
Always smart, whimsical with depth, Stephanie’s work was in the top picks of our jurors and Juniper Rag.
Bekka Teerlink, Massachusetts, USA
Here and Now
30x24”, acrylic on canvas, NFS
News Reports From Planet Earth
30x30”, oil on aluminum, NFS
Neighborhood Bombs
30x30”, acrylic on canvas, NFS
My paintings are visual poems— they are surreal scenes inspired by the constant flood of information facilitated by modern technology, as well as mundane things around me. My artistic process is a means of managing anxiety and processing my thoughts as an individual living amidst a pandemic, climate crisis, and political instability.
While I worked with digital media in the past, I returned to painting because I needed to engage with tangible materials to offset the time I spend on devices and at a desk. But my creative process is not technology free. I use my iPhone and iPad, as well as ProCreate to make photo-collages to clarify my painting ideas. This has sped up part of my process to allow more time painting in the studio.
The work that I make is very much connected to the present moment. I use magical realism to comment on the broken world I live in. We overlook what is right in front of us, both beautiful and frightening, side by side. We don’t always have the ability to see how absurd reality actually is. I want to capture that in a haunting scene, one that provokes questions that have no answers.
Bekka Teerlink has a BA from Brandeis University in Studio Fine Art Painting with a minor in Creative Writing Poetry and an MFA in Cinema-Television Production from the University of Southern California. She currently works out of Vernon Street Studios in Somerville, MA.
Lisa Barthelson, Massachusetts, USA
paper or plastic? family debris
96x48x48”, Suspended sculpture: repurposed family and artist’s debris: plastic packaging, remnants of family debris monoprints, ink, thread, plastic bags, obsolete power cords, recycled paper, plastic tag barbs and zip ties, repurposed construction fence and repurposed aluminum plate ring, stainless steel aircraft cable and fittings from earlier sculptures, swivel hook, $3750
meld merge mix 1 family debris
50” dia main structure, with 34”max. length dangling items at bottom x 12 in., wall scupture: cast off, accumulated and recycled family debris items: including recycled construction fence, string, plastic items, metal ring, plastic zip ties, $3000
plastic landscape transformation family debris
92x168x12”, Suspended outdoor sculpture: reconfigured and recycled plastic packaging family debris, garden netting, zip ties, NFS
For much of the past 15 years, my work has focused on ‘the family debris series’, conceived in response to my effort to purge our family’s appalling accumulation of unwanted stuff as our three children grew and moved on. By repurposing what we already own, the persistent byproducts of our excessive consumerism, and recycling my obsolete artwork, I challenge myself to create sustainable printmaking, mixed media, sculpture and installation art.
As the family debris series has evolved over time, I’ve pushed the scale, and focus of my family debris sculptures, and recently moved the work outside into the public domain. I’ve been focusing on repurposing plastic in innovative, eye catching, and mind engaging ways to raise awareness of the overwhelming ever-growing tide of plastic pollution that threatens our world’s climate, ecosystems and health. My goal is to create work that resonates visually, conceptually, and often with humor. I invite the viewer to pause and look deeper; to consider the familiar materials and the environmental impact of our consumer footprint. Global consumption fuels the ever increasing climate change crisis, and we all need to take action.
I embrace working as an artist, who creates to the mantra: waste not, want not.
Bruce Wilson, Massachusetts, USA
Your Favorites Your Way
20x27”, archival pigments on premium luster paper, $450
Target
20x27”, archival pigments on premium luster paper, $450
Real versus Virtual
20x20”, archival pigments on premium luster paper, $395
I purchased my first camera at age 17, a Minolta SLR, which I still have. Over time my photography has evolved into an artistic practice, and my facility with selecting and processing subject matter has followed suit. Most of my current artistic practice involves combining images in a unique, striking, and colorful way. While the subject matter varies, it mostly involves individuals, some photographed candidly, others collaboratively. I seek out a variety of collaborators and a variety of environments. The compositing technique that I have developed for my practice leaves ample room for experimentation and emphasizing or de-emphasizing images and parts thereof. It’s also fun and creative.
I will not attempt to describe or define pop art or pop culture. Books have been written about each. I will, however, describe aspects of each that I am attempting to address with my submission. Pop art themes that I address include consumerism, the ubiquity of brands, and a sometimes uneasy and unhealthy relationship with smartphones. These are of course all items we see in pop culture. One of my influences for this submission is Robert Rauschenberg’s Retroactive I, where he includes images of different colors. Another influence is Richard Hamilton’s “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”, with its themes of consumerism and advertising.
David Edward Johnson, New York, USA
Standing Alone
31x31”, Digital, Acrylic, Graphite, Spray Paint, Crayon, Paper, Cardboard, Ephemera, and Household on Canvas, Framed, $2500
The Unknown Bird In Your Voice
31x31”, Digital, Acrylic, Graphite, Spray Paint, Crayon, Paper, Cardboard, Ephemera, and Household on Canvas, Framed, $2500
(post) MODERN LOVE • A NEW SERIES IN PROGRESS
It would be an understatement to say that the contemporary love landscape is fragmented. Digital proxies, invented identities, sexual immediacy, the pressures of comparisons to how things “used to be" (and so much more), all make the concept of “LOVE” seem quaint. The entire picture can overwhelm and could inspire hopelessness. But throughout it all, I see HOPE. In this series of works, I explore those themes. All of the portraits here were generated with AI as an exploration of identity and the role of technology in such a deeply human thing. They are then hand-cut-and nested within layered compositions using authentic romance comics of the 1960s, complex patterning, and snippets of Native American poet Duane Niatom’s masterwork “Love Poem,” in which he captures the longing, isolation, and hope that is the centerpiece of this series.
LOVE POEM by Duane Niatom
The twilight of your face,
the unknown bird in your voice,
drew me to your eyes’ green vision,
your song about a moment
that stood in the shadow
of a moon vulnerability,
a Natalie I saw standing alone,
at your friend Carolyn’s party
years ago, where you called
me to your side, and I held my heart,
cupped in the palm of my life,
as an offering to your smile,
our soft-spoken isolation.
Stood In The Shadow
31x31”, Digital, Acrylic, Graphite, Spray Paint, Crayon, Paper, Cardboard, Ephemera, and Household on Canvas, Framed, $2500
Jessica Straus, Massachusetts, USA
Yearning for the Blue Planet
40x20x23”, wood, paint paper, inkjet on Tyvek, thread, NFS
Blue Planet
6x6x6”, ink jet on Tyvek, thread, NFS
These works reflect my inclination to look both forward and back in time to grapple with the fragility of our planet. Here I have coupled the traditional technique of whittling with resources only recently available to artists. The small carved figures represent “everyman/woman” in the not-too-distant future, contemplating their complacence in the degradation of our more precious resource.
The Earth images are printed on Tyvek. Tyvek, commonly used as a material in house construction has recently found its way to artists now that a substate has been added to the surface that will accept ink. The Earth images I have used are from stitched-together photographs taken by NASA and made available to the public as open-source material. The moon imagery upon which the figure stands in “Yearning for a Blue Planet” come from Sputnik era Russian depictions of the lunar. The watery image used in this same piece are from Photographs of the ocean I took on the Massachusetts coast. I then used a software program to “gore” the images so that I could stitch them together to form a globe.
Jessica Straus lives in the Boston area and maintains a studio in Somerville, MA. She has exhibited her work at numerous venues including New Britain Museum of American Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Danforth Art Museum, Duxbury Art Complex Museum, DeCordova Museum, Brattleboro Museum, Ohio Sculpture Center, ArtTerritoire in Normandy, France, and Qorikancha Museum of Peru. She regularly exhibits her work at Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, MA.
No More Polar Ice
18x24x18”, wood, paint, ink jet on Tyvek, thread, NFS
Jaina Cipriano, Massachusetts, USA
Bow Down
16x16”, photograph in built space, $400
Who is the Dreamer?
16x24”, photograph in built space, $800
Locked Inside Myself
16x24”, photograph in built space, $800
Jaina Cipriano is an experiential designer and filmmaker exploring the emotional toll of religious and romantic entrapment. Her worlds communicate with our neglected inner child and are informed by explosive colors, elements of elevated play and the push/pull of light and dark.
Jaina founded Finding Bright Studios - a design company in Lowell specializing in set design for music videos and immersive spaces. She has collaborated with GRRL HAUS, Boston Art Review, and was a Boston Fellow for the Mass Art Creative Business Incubator and a finalist in EforAll Merrimack Valley.
These photographs are of worlds built with my own hands. Being inside of these sets is an evolving playground. The concept of how space affects internal life is central to my process. Fabricated spaces or events have a theatricality that thrills me. There is no greater truth than when a fabricated image is more real than reality - as if we're looking through someone, into their own emotional landscape. This work connects us, reminds us we are never alone in the intensity of our emotions.
Creating these worlds is a way of changing my internal narrative. When things are not going the way I want them to, I can use photography as a little bit of psychomagic. It is a safe space for me to be present and trust the process.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian cult and was kept separate from the world, physically and emotionally. Looking through the viewfinder was a way to embrace that separation and make it work for me rather than against me.
These photos are for those who need a mirror. If we can’t see ourselves reflected back in the world around us, how can we figure out who we are?
Lara Alcántara Lansberg, New York, USA
New!
40x30”, photograph, $2400
Old conversations
40x30”, photograph, $2400
Lara Alcántara Lansberg was born in Venezuela and has been living and working in New York City since 1999. Her multidisciplinary practice includes photography, video, performance, installation and writing. With a strong focus on conceptual photography, predominantly staged self-portraits, her work presents narratives that challenge the status quo of the quotidien, exposing layers of complexity seemingly invisible to the eye. Her language explores dichotomies of the optimistic and the cynical, the comedic and the pensive, the forbidden and the compliant, the absurd and the spiritual. Through her installations and performance works, Alcántara is able to engage with the audience herself, blurring the lines of the intimate and the public.
During the pandemic Alcántara’s work went viral online, giving her career a pivotal push. She resorted to photography as a way to release her own uncertainties, fears and anxieties caused by the pandemic, resulting in an unprecedented public response as everyone could relate to these universal themes.
“My work is a deep look at the female dilemma.Women who want to be perfect, women who want to be beautiful, have the perfect home, do what they are supposed to do and yet go through all of this gut wrenching trauma because that perfection is impossible and we are never actually able to please all of those who we are supposed to please.
It's a critique on how women are supposed to be in society. There is also a light in my work, it can be joyful, but at the same time, it can be dark and it can be humorous or even enter the realm of magical realism. It's a stark critique of the box women get put in society.
Drowning in the childrens toys, or hiding in the dryer or even hanging in a closet like a used piece of clothing. This is how a lot of us feel, this is how women feel. We are drowning in domesticity, in chores and expectations. It is also about self realization and the process of letting go and reinvention. This is the story of womanhood, of evolution and going from being a fashionista into being an icon of domestic volatility.
We are trapped in mundane things that we can't escape from. The images capture a feeling of wanting to come into ourselves and our power as women. I speak specifically to the female gaze and feminism. My staged photography has elements of snapshot aesthetic, however, placement and condition of every item combined with my persona is curated to underscore a theme.“
Alcántara completed a Bachelor in Arts at Bard College and NYU, and a Master of Fine Arts from Bard College/ICP. During her studies, she had the privilege of learning directly from masters like Stephen Shore and Cindy Sherman. She also worked with photographers like Andres Serrano, and as assistant photo director at Conde Nast.
Alcántara has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Julia Margaret Cameron Gala Award for her Self Portrait Series in 2022 and BIFA in 2021. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including solo shows in New York, Miami, Spain and Venezuela. She has worked with Nohra Haime (NYC, Chelsea area), Art N Folly (Miami) and Tata Fernandez, among others. Her work is in the collections of personalities like Patricia Beracasa in France, MoMA’s Terry Riley and Phyllis Tuchman.
Lara Alcántara Lansberg is also a mother of two. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches a Master Class guiding her students to unlock their creativity within the frame of photography.
Virginia Mahoney, Massachusetts, USA
Is THIS U.S.?
60x20x9”, reclaimed/re-formed old work, food net and fabric, paper, thread, steel, words, $3000
The Flower of the South
65x19x9”, reclaimed/re-formed old work, food net and fabric, paper, thread, steel, words, $3500
Virginia Mahoney holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BA from the University of Florida. A Bromfield Gallery Solo 2022 Winner, her October 2023 show with Nathalie Miebach, “Undercurrents” at Fountain Street Gallery, Boston, was reviewed in Artscope’s September/October ‘23 issue. Her work is currently in “Burning Down the House” at the P.E.G. Center of Newburyport, MA. Additional publications include Juniper Rag (v.3), Hyperallergic, Boston Voyager and WBURArtery. Her work is in private collections and the Lancaster Art Museum (PA) and her studio is in Brockton, MA.
I believe the future of artmaking is resourcefulness and innovation through reuse. As our planet suffers under the weight of overproduction and throw-away approaches to living, artists are leading the way in imagining new solutions and strategies. My approach is to re-claim old work by using it to make new art. This approach honors the labor and life of so many who struggle to survive and must make do with what they have. Themes of my work are rooted in contemporary sentiments about the current state of our world: countless people feeling overwhelmed, those who wonder if our own country’s democracy can survive. Still others do not feel safe because they don’t conform to accepted labels and are thus ostracized and otherized. Some of us look at our own histories, questioning formerly accepted narratives and behavior. My practice delves into the undercurrents of human experience–who we are, what we do, and what we believe.
Just Too Much
61x20x10”, reclaimed/re-formed old work, produce net and fabric, paper, thread, steel, words, $3500
Anita Loomis, Maine, USA
Citrus
30x40”, oil on canvas, NFS
Meadow
30x40”, oil on canvas, NFS
Pond
30x40”, oil on canvas, NFS
I create paintings that explore facets of human relationships and ways we relate to the natural world. Presently, I'm focused on ways we relate to the natural world as we live with climate change and uncertainty about Earth’s future. My Tomorrowland painting series offers abstract, futuristic views of our natural world as it might be affected by climate change thousands of years into the future. These oil paintings generally measure 30 x 40 inches, use lush color and include fantastic creatures. I know climate change is a hot button topic now, but I do not want to use my work to raise alarms. Instead, I make use of scientific research paper content and AI to inform my compositions, not to predict or illustrate specific changes, but to develop imagery that can encourage creative thought and consideration of possible positive aspects of changes to come. When people focus on fear, we withdraw, and creativity can shut down, so my work does not address real and current threats. Rather, through art, my aim is to inspire others to look on change in a positive light and develop creative solutions to future problems that may emerge. In these paintings I focus on the ways we may relate to a rapidly changing Earth. I explore questions such as: What evolving life forms might we expect to see? Will plants learn to fly or swim, and in what ways will our living spaces change? My playful abstract landscapes employ humor and a somewhat cartoonish style as purposeful devices to make prickly subjects more approachable, and viewers more receptive to the thought-provoking aspects of my artwork.
Anita (Haddad) Loomis (b.1964, Wiesbaden, Germany) creates paintings that explore facets of human dialogue and people’s relationships with each other and the world around them. Through paint, humor, and a deep curiosity about human imperfection, she investigates what it means to navigate communication with people who see the world through different cultural lenses. She paints to shine a light on the common threads that connect our human experiences and to spotlight the social value of empathy.
Loomis grew up in Massachusetts. She earned her BA in Studio Art from Framingham State University in Massachusetts, an MA with a concentration in Arts Management, and her GCPA from the University of Central Florida, FL. She worked in the field or architectural stained glass for many years, but has focused on her own painting practice since moving back to New England around 2004.
Anita looks to exhibit at museums and international venues. Her work has been exhibited at Miller White Gallery, South Dennis, MA, Fountain Street Gallery, Boston, MA, and various exhibitions in New England, Pennsylvania, China, and Japan. Her work is collected privately. Anita lives and works from her home in Kittery, Maine.
Robert Steffen, Massachusetts, USA
Futura
20x16”, archival pigment print, $350
TALK TALK TALK
16x20”, archival pigment print, $350
Detour
16x20”, archival pigment print, $350
My artistic practice is best described as bridging the gap between contemporary and digital art. While the process is completely digital, I don’t strictly identify as a digital artist. Elements of training in photography, graphic design, painting, multi-media, and printing, combine with digital tools to create a diverse array of finished images.
Besides advancement in all related technology, the iPhone/iPad combo quickly assumed a dominant game-changing role in all aspects of production. These devices not only increase productivity, but often take me to unexpected creative destinations. Their versatility brings added excitement to each project.
The adaptability of mobile devices to any situation, assures that my portable studio is always available. They are spontaneous dynamos offering powerful resources capable of revealing unlimited solutions. Working digitally enables the execution of a multifaceted stylistic output quickly and accurately, the intrepid aperture fixed wide.
The images presented for this call represent the most unbound improvisational segment of my portfolio - graphic arts. This work invites a freer more experimental application of the digital arsenal, providing fertile ground for cultivating a personal hybrid style. The process begins with original photographic content, each piece tailored to its purpose through a uniquely guided digital journey.
Robin Reynolds, Massachusetts, USA
February Spring
24x24”, vintage fabric & lace, vintage gardening & children’s books and acrylic, $2400
Foaming Flora
24x24”, vintage fabric & lace, vintage gardening & children’s books and acrylic, $2400
A Dance with Tulips
18x18”, vintage fabric & lace, vintage gardening & children’s books and acrylic, $1800
I am primarily a plein air painter, but I began making collages during the winter months to harness the beauty and memory of my summer garden. I create “painted collages'' which expand on traditional collages through incorporating 2-D as well as 3-D elements. I layer transparencies from vintage gardening and children’s books, vintage fabrics, linocut prints, vintage lace, and a wide range of alternative mixed media. I work in an improvisational way, slowly building the collage surface by layering diverse materials and manipulating varied markmaking. As in my backyard space; wild, self seeded and unstructured, I surround myself with piles of fabrics, books, and lace recreating the chaos of my outdoor garden. The result is that I’m able to create complex works on panels that provide intricate texture, line and color up close, and form, depth and space from afar: in essence a rich, year-round garden experience.
The collages bring beauty, feminism and our threatened environment to the forefront: conceptually expressing the delicate nature of each and its implications of vulnerability within today’s changing world.
Robin Reynolds has shown extensively throughout the United States. She is represented by Soprafina Gallery in Boston and Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill, Maine. Reynolds received a MFA from Savannah College of Art & Design, BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and a BA from Colby College. Reynolds presently lives and works in North Brookfield, Massachusetts with her husband and three daughters.
Sylvia Vander Sluis, Maine, USA
Passage V
9x48x15”, Vines, reed, waxed twine, linen, wire, plaster bandages, acrylic, $3000
Passage V Detail
My husband died while I was creating Passage V, marking a point of transition for both of us. This boat is meant to carry him to the next level of his existence. Soon after this work, I moved home and studio, where I am embarking on a new phase of my work and life, curious about what will come next.
I make physical art because materiality is at the heart of what I love. It’s been said that mistakes can easily be undone in digital art. Making mistakes is not a concept I embrace. I manually play with materials and what happens next is what guides me, each step an opportunity that I can choose to accept or decide doesn’t work for me.
Cate McQuaid wrote of this piece: "I loved Sylvia Vander Sluis’s 'Passage V,’ made to mark the transition of a loved one from life to death, partly because I was drawn to the making of it and could imagine the solace found in crafting a such a vessel." Cate McQuaid JAN 7, 2024
Sylvia Vander Sluis earned an MFA from Western Michigan University and BFA cum laude from Syracuse University. She has been an associate member of Boston Sculptors Gallery, a resident at Vermont Studio Center, and has exhibited at New York Artists Equity Gallery, Upstate NY, and galleries in the Greater Boston area. Vander Sluis works from her studio in Rochdale, MA, and is a Core Member of Fountain Street Gallery.
Nancy Good, Nevada, USA
Prophet
12x10”, Hand-pulled linocut on monoprint hand-made paper with hand-embellishments, $350
Priestess
12x10”, Hand-pulled linocut on monoprint hand-made paper with hand-embellishments, $350
Most known for mural-sized, physically-interactive 2-dimensional works, Las Vegas artist Nancy Good's studio practice is deeply rooted in self-discipline, dedication and unwavering focus on the creation of strong contemporary art that compels dialogue and human connection. Influenced by synesthesia related to vibration and eclectic DNA revealing connections with cultures the world over, Good's work weaves the materials and tools of modern times while also honoring the mark-making of ancient ancestries.
Facilitating a nonprofit artist-run space since 2018, Good also maintains a rigorous exhibition schedule, as well as stays active with private/public art commissions, mural projects, mentoring, and teaching.
A published and award-winning artist, Good’s work is regularly seen in exhibits across the country in high profile locations such as Las Vegas City Hall, Clark County Rotunda, Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery (UNLV), Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art (UNLV), Doyle Arts Pavilion in Costa Mesa, San Diego Museum of Art, Reno/Tahoe International Airport, Nevada Humanities, Meow Wolf Las Vegas, MGM, Delano Hotel, St. Mary's Arts Center, HERE Arts and Superchief Gallery in NYC, Nashville International Airport, Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Contemporary Arts Center in Las Vegas, Burning Man, Life is Beautiful Festival and galleries in the Southeast, New York, Montana, Nevada and California. Her work is also found in important private and institutional collections throughout the U.S. and overseas. Good has received four Congressional Commendations for her artistic contributions, and has been inducted into the National Association of Women Artists, a 135-year old professional arts organization.
Oracle
12x10”, Hand-pulled linocut on monoprint hand-made paper with hand-embellishments, $350
Julia C R Gray, California, USA
Sea Stories
17.5X18X12.5”, ceramic, $12000
Sea Stories Inside
Though I am sculpting torsos, a very traditional form using clay, a very traditional medium, I am making original work that challenges clay craftsmanship. I cast the torsos in plaster molds that I made from my original design. The torso design has six columns, when installed inches apart, the viewer can see tantalizing peeks of the detailed glaze-paintings hidden inside. Separating the outer columns further reveals storied imagery on the columns' inner surfaces. Sea Stories is detailed with coral-inspired textures and kelp shapes on the outer surface. All the features and textures I create with clay. I researched clay bodies and clay slip to find clays that have the same shrinkage rate so they do not crack when layered and sculpted together.
I apply my years of experience in oil painting to pushing the usual expectations of commercial glazes. I worked with three very different types of glazes and dozens of hues, that are fired at three different temperatures. I start with Cone 5 glazes and oxides, the highest temperature I use. The oxides and mattes are paired with high gloss celadons to create high contrast between the smooth and textured areas on the outer form.
The cone 05 underglaze painted images, on the inner surfaces, comment on the vulnerability and hidden strength of women’s bodies as well as the Ocean. The kelp paintings are painted from memory and photos I shoot during sunrise beach walks. I repaint (and modify) paintings from Renaissance Women Artists to bring their masterpieces to our awareness. I layer multiple underglaze colors, blending as if working with oils. Glazes change drastically through kiln firing, I see the actual result when the ceramic glazes are fired. I painted more layers and refired the underglaze paintings to be more developed.
The very low fire cone 019 gold and opalescent luster glazes are fired last. The lusters enhance the glossy glazes under them. This final step elevates the work. The body’s opalescent form speaks to the mystery of being, and deeply embedded coral patterns with glazed real gold accents symbolizes nature’s preciousness.
Sea Stories Inside
Aimee Cotnoir, California, USA
Processing
20x36”, oil on canvas, $2000
Through my evolving creative process, I use oil painting to manipulate and re-interpret curated overlays of collected filmic imagery. In layering these images, I deconstruct and reimagine narratives while obsessing over the smallest details of a singular moment or scene. The work tediously ruminates upon topics such as relationships, intimacy, and isolation. Often, it is self-reflective. And, within the practice, there is both pleasure and turmoil.
Recently, after an extended period of struggle to reconnect with my identity as an artist, I have begun taking this process a step further by bringing in new artistic tools such as AI generative imagery and digital painting. Beginning with prompts such as lines of script or stream-of-consciousness writing, I collect generated images to layer into my paintings. I am most taken by the artificiality of these images, and their questioning of topics such as authorship and the meaning of creativity. I take pleasure in the oddities, nuances, and distortions that these images bring to the final work. New to this painting, while first composing and layering the work in Photoshop, I started to experiment with gesturally slashing away at the layered images to further imbue the composition with emotion and intent.
As an artist, I intend to continuously grow my multidirectional layered practice reaching further within myself, as well as into mediums from both the past and the present. The work is a search for beauty, self-understanding, and purpose in a complex world of distance and isolation.
