THE ARTISTS
curated by Shelby Nicole McFadden
view by artist or scroll down for continuous view
FIRST PLACE: Robin Reynolds
SECOND PLACE: Laurie Simko
THIRD PLACE: Allison Moyers
Christopher Lee Donovan
Malin Östlund
Lucy Pike
Kathryn Shagas
Lawrence Elbroch
Greg Creek
Randy Akers
Marinés Adrianza
Nick Mozak
Theresa Hersman
Lisa Barthelson
Simone Scholes
Kathy Murray
Julia C R Gray
Diane Wiencke
Shelby K Cook
Rose Mamakos
Julia Kkos
Heather Muenstermann
Martha Wakefield
Victoria Elbroch
GALLERY
———- keep scrolling for a seamless gallery experience ———
ROBIN REYNOLDS, Massachusetts, USA
Curator’s 1st Place Selection
Cosmos & Dahlias
46x46”, oil on panel, $6000
Late Purple Dahlia II
12x12”, oil on panel, $1600
Swiftly
30x30”, oil on panel, $3900
Robin Reynolds embraces the notion of beauty and creates luminous, lush, layered surfaces outside painting plein-air from spring to fall. She paints and finds inspiration watching the lifecycle of nature. The flowers and plants act as a catalyst, allowing her to manipulate paint and create a dance between abstraction and representation.
Instead of depicting a time-anchored botanical or geographical exactitude Reynolds works in a series of three to seven sittings welcoming weather and the passage of days to transform her viewpoint. The garden serves solely as a guide for her organic process within her outside studio.
Reynolds has shown extensively throughout the United States. Most recently one person shows at Worcester Center for Crafts, CUSP Gallery in Provincetown, Soprafina Gallery in Boston, & Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill, Maine. She is currently on the cover and is featured in the March/April issue of Artscope Magazine. Reynolds has also been recently featured in Juniper Rag and New Visionary Art Magazine. In addition, Reynolds has shown in numerous group shows at the Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA; Bryan Memorial Gallery, Jeffersonville, VT; and Catamount Arts, St.Johnsbury, VT. Robin was the recipient of a Material Needs Grant from Arts Worcester in 2022 and received an honorable mention at Arts Connect from Katherine French, Director of Catamount Arts. Reynolds’ paintings was also recently added to the collection of works hanging at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, MA. Reynolds presently lives and works in North Brookfield, MA with her husband and three daughters.
LAURIE SIMKO, Massachusetts, USA
Curator’s 2nd Place Selection
Hear My Song #2
40x30”, oil on canvas, $2800
Hear My Song
24x30”, oil on canvas, $1800
Grow & Flourish
60x40”, oil on panel, $3500
The focus and inspiration for my work is the natural world. Through observation and interpretation I explore the richness of life in the streams, marshes, gardens and woods around me. I inquire with reverence the interconnections we have with the plant and animal world with their metaphorical offerings, our shared origins and our interdependence.
I share the philosophy of the poet Mary Oliver:
"Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."
ALLISON MOYERS, Arizona, USA
Curator’s 3rd Place Selection
I Married a Witch (the coming of winter)
40x40”, oil on canvas, NFS
There in Your Dreams
40x50”, oil on canvas, $3000
The Gift
20x14”, oil on canvas, NFS
Allison Moyers is an oil painter and multi-disciplinary artist. Her large scale oil paintings incorporate resin and other materials. She studied art and design in France where she received her degree in Fine Arts and graduated with honors from ESAD de Valenciennes in 2015. When she finished her studies she and her husband moved back to the United States. She now lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona.
She has recently displayed work at Legend City Studios, Mountain Shadows Gallery and created a new body of work for a solo exhibition at Sisao Gallery. Her painting entitled “I Married a Witch” will be up for auction in the annual Art for Good Grant through the Carmody Foundation.
“My work explores the subjects of stardom, vanity and excess within society with an emphasis on women and the feminine. My work incorporates figure, color, and pattern to create intriguing narratives that are dreamy and feminine. I often use motifs inspired by nature that frame my compositions. The stylized and romanticized are indispensable elements in my work and correspond to the methodic use of color that expresses human emotions through their psychological representations.
The paintings I have chosen are all pieces that represent a process of transition that embodies death and rebirth, whether spiritual or physical. With the changing seasons comes an emotional stirring seen through the veil. The natural elements in my paintings correspond to the awakening of the figures in a mythical and dream-like setting.“
CHRISTOPHER LEE DONOVAN, Massachusetts, USA
Athena, [No Audio]
16x24”, digital, NFS
Athena, Flats
16x24”, digital, NFS
Athena, Meanwhile
16x24”, digital, NFS
I am Christopher Lee Donovan (b. 1978), an American digital artist who uses the editing process to develop my art. For several decades, I've used my still photography as a foundation upon which to construct my concepts as I observe the world. My work predominantly focuses on women, as I find them to be a more complete representation of a person. I studied advertising photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and work as a commercial artist.
I worked with a model who went by the name ‘Kaetii’ for many years. Shortly before her death in 2019, she wrote to me about arranging another photoshoot and that she’d like to be referred to as Athena from now on. Using the latest iteration of AI technology, I have trained models on both Kaetii and 20 years of my art photography to help me create new images of her, as Athena. It was shocking how similar and dissimilar working in this manner was to working with photography and with Kaetii. Many questions arose: where does the artist begin and the subject end? Could the unexpected decisions of an AI create a similar experience to working with a live model? Do I choose to develop images that represent something I think Kaetii might have done or something I might have directed her to do? What was it like for Kaetii to be the subject of the art we made? What did Kaetii really look like to me?
Kaetii (Katherine Dudek) was herself a performance artist, someone who, unlike myself, aimed to be at the center of the art. To be the art. Developing these images of Athena is a tribute to Kaetii’s creative spirit.
LUCY PIKE, Alabama, USA
Cassandra
36x48”, ink on raw canvas, $2150
Atalanta
48x48”, ink on raw canvas, $2800
Hippolyta
24x48”, ink on raw canvas, $1350
My art is, at its core, an exploration of presence: the unceasing journey of inhabiting and being present with our full selves, whether that is within the most fulfilling joy, heartbreaking loss, or any other moment in between.
I delve into these moments of authentically exploring our humanity with broad strokes and pools of color. My paintings evoke emotionality with layers of acrylic ink and organic forms, most often on raw canvas. These materials create both a depth and rawness that speak directly to feminine personhood.
I am a process-based painter and allow the materials to influence the evolution of the work. I am constantly seeking a greater interconnectedness between my own life and that of the world around me, attempting to understand how loss is an integral part of that journey.
MALIN ÖSTLUND, Skellefteå, Sweden
The Roe Deer Girl
12x12x8”, sculpture in stoneware with mineral pigments and authentic deer antlers, 1650 EUR
Fusion
12x12x8”, sculpture in stoneware with mineral pigments and authentic deer antlers, 1650 EUR
In Between
19.6x19.6”, acrylic painting on stretched cotton canvas, 1150 EUR
Malin Östlund is an autodidact artist born and situated in the north of Sweden. In her creative process she always tries to find a intuitive connection to a more beautiful and poetic side of life, and it is mostly expressed with friendly souls in dreamlike paintings or sculpted figures.
Malins paintings are created with acrylics and oil paints, often with a mix of classical portrait painting and a more modern imagery that sometimes tends to the abstract. Her sculptures is mostly created in stoneware and she likes to explore different natural materials to combine with the ceramic.
Malin has always had the creativity with her since childhood and she has always expressed herself in drawing and painting and making sculptures in different materials.
Since her first solo exhibition in 2010, she has participated in several jury-rated, collective and separate exhibitions. Today she work as a full time artist in her studio in central Skellefteå, and has clients and collectors around the world.
KATHRYN SHAGAS, Maine, USA
Super Blue Moon
26x20" unframed, 27x21" framed, monotype, acrylic, drawing media on yupo, $2200
Echoing
26x20" unframed, 27x21" framed, monotype, acrylic, drawing media on yupo, $2200
Passages
26x18.5x1.25”, freeform painted paper collage on wood, $2200
As soon as I enter a forest or step onto a rocky shoreline, I feel part of a world humming with life. The sounds of wind and water calm the neural waves in my brain and immerse my senses in the rhythmic energy connecting everything around me. From the viewpoint of physics, all life in our universe is vibrating at various frequencies, including rocks, trees and objects that appear stationary. Today this delicate balance of rhythms that we depend on for life is endangered by climate change.
Drawing from my early training in piano and this interplay between equilibrium and chaos, I let music flow through my body, re-experiencing what Kandinsky called “stimmung,” the essential spirit of nature. I respond with monotype, paint and drawing media on paper and freeform collages constructed on birch plywood with painted paper and dried acrylic bas relief remnants. I think of the conversations between paintings and collages as stories hidden in nature’s rhythms, a reminder of connection when there is still time to choose reconciliation and renewal.
With a collage of life experiences, I was naturally drawn to mixed media. Originally from Montreal, I studied classical piano from age four through 20, then worked in New York City and Baltimore, Maryland as an offset printer, pacifist magazine editor and graphic designer. After a year of independent international bicycle travel that included China, Tibet, Bali and New Zealand, I built graphic design firm in Maryland that served national nonprofit organizations. I’m now a full-time artist living and working in Belfast on the Gulf of Maine, which has warmed faster than 99% of the global ocean.
LAWRENCE ELBROCH, Maine, USA
Living With Alternatives II
17x26”, archival pigment print, $600
Seeking Alternatives II
19x26”, archival pigment print, $600
Big Belly Oak II
34x30”, archival pigment print, $1000
Lawrence Elbroch
Born in New York City, Lawrence Elbroch is a self-taught photographer with strong technical skills and the patience to remain still as he waits for the right moment to fill the frame. His interest in texture, shadow and light has carried over into the printmaking medium.
Drawn to spirituality, nature and people who live simple lives in tune with the earth, he continues to be inspired by daily life and ritual in other cultures, constantly reminded that people across continents are more alike than they are different.
Lawrence, also, collaborates with his wife Victoria. This submission is of their collaborative work, where he layers his images of her drawing and his photograph to produce an archival pigment prints. They state: Extraordinary trees, especially ancient oaks, cast a spell over us. Their strange gnarly bark and peculiar anatomy awaken an uncontrollable urge to stop, draw, and photograph. These majestic survivors are a metaphor for all we hold dear: wisdom, family, connection, shelter, and resilience and as a reminder of the fleeting nature of our lives in comparison to their lengthy life spans.
GREG CREEK, Australia
Ha Ha-Theatre painting
78x78”, oil, acrylic on canvas, NFS
Ha Ha-Theatre painting detail
Ha Ha-Theatre painting detail
Greg Creek is an Australian artist who has presented group and individual exhibitions in Australia, the UK, Europe and Asia, and has been the recipient of numerous residencies, commissions and art prizes. His practice represents a political perspective on personal and public histories. He weaves re-imagined spectral figures, ruptured domestic and institutional architectures, and ideas from speculative fiction into allegories of contemporary experience.
His large paintings manifest ideas in various ways using tonalist forms, painterly stains and scumbles and screen-printed body fragments in abstracted, tenebrous architectures. Layering of colour and depth are used expressively and symbolically, creating an atmosphere in which figures and landscapes perturb one another.
In the work ‘Ha Ha-Theatre painting’ the trace of a figure lies at the base of dappled foliage and grasses, behind which loom abandoned institutional buildings. A Ha Ha structure is the enclosing ditch-wall of the demolished 19th century Sanitorium near where I live in Melbourne. Ghostly faces based on archival photographs of long-lost inmates emerge from a twilight space. Another double-face appears from within a tree trunk and the veil of leaves. The picture bears witness to the haunting dialogues of contemporary and local histories, the complexities of memory and identity, and the nature of representation itself.
RANDY AKERS, Georgia, USA
Hibiscus
42x54”, mixed media on panel, NFS
El Capitolio
42x54”, mixed media on panel, NFS
Summer Harvest
36x36”, mixed media on panel, NFS
Randy Akers is a visual artist working on Skidaway Island, Georgia. He has shown at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, University of New Mexico's Harwood Foundation, Brownsville Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Anchorage Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Valdosta University, Masur Museum of Art, SUNY Genesseo, Florida A&M University, Marietta / Cobb Museum of Art, LaGrange Art Museum, Ormond Art Museum, and Maryland Federation of Art among others. Art Residencies include Vashon Island Artist Residency, Puget Sound, Washington, 2023; JOYA: arte + ecologica, Spain 2022; Cill Rialaig, Ireland, 2021; Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Wyoming 2019 and 2015; Foundation OBRAS, Portugal, 2017. His one-person show, Road to Canaan, was included in the VIVA Florida 500. Two paintings were also selected by the Office of the Governor for The Art of Georgia, sponsored by the Georgia Council of the Arts.
In his past career, Akers directed and designed international television commercials, movie titles, music videos, and print for Fortune 500 companies. He has been affiliated with Curious Pictures (NY), R/GA Digital Studios (NY), Broadcast Arts, (NY), Yarra Films (Singapore), Kessler-Irish Films (Toronto), and AFI Films (Miami). Akers is a member of the Director's Guild of America, the Broadcast Design Association, and served as an advisor to the Delphi Conference exploring the convergence of art and technology. He has taught at the School of Visual Arts, the Savannah College of Art and Design, and Cazenovia College. He received his M.F.A. at the Savannah College of Art and Design; B.F.A, Chouinard Art Institute, California Institute of the Arts; additional academic work at Art Center College of Design, California State University Northridge and University of Oregon. Akers served on the board of Art Rise Savannah and Arts Georgia advisory council.
MARINÉS ADRIANZA, California, USA
FUNGUERA
30x22”, mixed media on Fabriano 300lb paper, $1600
ENOTOLOMA
30x22”, mixed media on Fabriano 300lb paper, $1600
CALIXTA
30x22”, mixed media on Fabriano 300lb paper, $1600
Venezuelan born, Marinés Adrianza is a self taught multidisciplinary artist. Her work finds inspiration in her passion for macro photography and her studies of human behavior and emotion. She considers her studio a laboratory for experimenting with mediums and techniques. Adrianza's practice finds inspiration in her passion for macro photography and her studies of human behavior and emotion. A depiction of an internal world that connects nature and the the quotidian with the artist’s own subconscious mind. Adrianza utilizes layers of translucent paint mixed with many materials such as oil sticks and graphite to represent, visual, psychological or emotional aspects of life. When she’s not involved in the making or contemplation of art, she is teaching and furthering her sensory education in the kitchen or in the wild with her two children in Los Angeles, California.
“Wild Things” is a series of paintings that explores the enigmatic essence of autumn, a time when the natural world undergoes a transformative journey. Through my work I explore the delicate interplay between life and mortality. The backdrop of this season emphasizes the idea that during this time, the boundary between existence and the beyond becomes fluid. “Wild Things” invite viewers to contemplate in a playful way, the profound connections that tether us to nature's cycles and the captivating beauty that emerges when we embrace the ever-shifting flow of life and decay.
NICK MOZAK, Chicago, USA
Pentimento
16x16”, mixed media acrylic/graphite/collage on 1" deep cradled wood canvas, $500
Beneath The Surface
16x16”, mixed media acrylic/graphite/collage on 1" deep cradled wood canvas, $500
Texture, pattern, movement of color and shapes are a strong focus of my current art.
I am particularly fascinated with diversity of colors found in ethnic textiles especially hand blocked fabrics from India. The range of dark earth colors contrasted with forms of nature such as leaf and flower inform much of my ideas for new work.
Additional characteristics of my art are influenced by the structural elements of quilt making and the amorphous shapes found in an urban landscape, particularly the unusual and erratic lines found in cracked concrete and soil. I hope my art invites a viewer to discover a deeper meaning of the visual experience beyond what is seen on the surface, enjoying the colors, patterns, texture and movement of a specific piece.
THERESA HERSMAN, New Hampshire, USA
Hopeful Under Currents
48x60”, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, $1000
Ode to Lao Tzu
36x48”, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, $900
Rising
40x30”, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas, $800
Theresa Hersman’s recent abstract paintings dive into the symbolic meanings of water as it relates to the subconscious, adaptability, and non-resistance. Her painting process employs a variety of tools and methods of application. She enjoys juxtaposing thoughtful mark-making with gestural brush marks. Theresa is an award-winning artist and juried member of the New Hampshire Art Association. Her paintings have been exhibited in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
The ever-changing environment of New Hampshire’s seacoast provides solace and inspiration. My work reflects this visually and constructively through layering and creative destruction. Synergistically, that process also mirrors the human condition and my evolution as an artist. We are made up of the patchwork of our past.
I hope to communicate a sense of emotion that I experience as a result of my surroundings. The rhythm of the seasons, like the ebb and flow of the tides, influences my palette and subject matter. Art is subjective. I have succeeded if a viewer relates my work to their own experience and feels some connection.
LISA BARTHELSON, Massachusetts, USA
aii form 2, art in isolation, family debris
23x25x18 “, paper sculpture: double-sided family debris monoprints as sculpture: rives bfk paper, printed collage and thread, $1500
aii wall forms 1, art in isolation, family debris
7 variable sized vessels, entire suspended form: 34 x22x13”, paper wall sculpture: double-sided family debris monoprints as wall hung sculpture: Rives BFK paper, printed collage and thread, monofilament for installation, $1500
round up remix 1, art in isolation, family debris
32.5” diameter, family debris monoprints with mixed media: printed collage and thread on rives bfk and japanese paper, with installation grommets incorporated into print composition, $1500
I grew up in a family of artists and have been making art since childhood. I’m forever moved by a reverence for the natural environment, and my drive for sustainability through re-imagining the excessive byproducts of family living. For much of the past 15 years, my work has focused on ‘the family debris series’, first conceived in response to my effort to purge our accumulation of unwanted stuff as our three children grew and moved on. By repurposing the persistent byproducts of our consumerism and recycling my obsolete artwork, I challenge myself to create sustainable printmaking, mixed media, sculpture and installation art. The reuse of our detritus has taken on a new urgency as I experience the ever increasing pace of climate change. My approach to artmaking has taken on a global view, asking the question: while working to reduce, can we reuse what we own and address the impact of consumerism? All this ‘stuff’ must go somewhere. In my case, our debris becomes art, while I create to the mantra: waste not, want not.
Barthelson has exhibited throughout New England and New York. Her work has been featured in curated exhibitions of contemporary art at the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Newport Art Museum and the Danforth Art Museum. Barthelson was the recipient of the Evelyn Claywell Absher Award for Abstract Art, for ‘aii form 3, art in isolation, family debris’ at the 2023 ArtsWorcester Biennial and awarded a Finalist Fellowship Grant in Printmaking FY22, by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
SIMONE SCHOLES, Massachusetts, USA
Into the light
12x12”, oil on cradled wood board, $375
Tranquility
12x12”, oil on cradled wood board, $375
Great Expectations
24x30”, oil on cradled board, $1875
Simone Scholes began her career at Art College but was very quickly pulled onto a different track in the corporate world of the fashion industry. In a serendipitous turn, her corporate career brought her on a journey to Vietnam many years later, where she quite unexpectedly fell in love with a painting hanging in a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh city. Unable to forget this painting, she immediately picked up her paintbrush upon her return home and hasn’t stopped painting since.
Simone’s loosely rendered paintings are figure studies with an evident emphasis on capturing how light reflects off the subject. Whilst the subjects have the necessity of detail to their faces to capture a true likeness, the remainder holds looser brush strokes capturing just the essentials details. She believes you shouldn’t need to know the person to be captivated by it. It should strike a familiar chord. It should convey an aspect of the human condition that we all recognize. It should hint a narrative without telling the story.
Heavily influenced by natural materials, Simone often starts with a wooden board instead of a traditional canvas. Using bold brushstrokes and plenty of Linseed oil she plays with familiar shapes and light to create the different personas. Using a combination of materials and textures, her fashion and textile inspired artwork captures both the outward beauty and the inner mysteries of human beings. Her style is heavily influenced by the contemporary fashion and the impressionist art movement with her connection to the fashion and textile industry clearly visible.
KATHY MURRAY, Massachusetts, USA
Nostalgia
13x16”, 3 plate linocut print, $350
Cooling
21x15”, 3 plate linocut print, $350
Enchanted
13x16”, 3 plate linocut print, $350
Printmaking is my main medium because it is an active process that often gives me unexpected and sometimes delightful results. While much of my work celebrates nature, color and movement are prevailing elements in all of my subject matter. I try to convey a sense of “joie de vivre” no matter what techniques or materials I am using.
These pieces are a continuation of my exploration of 3-color printing from soft linoleum-cut blocks. They are compositions more of internal places than actual physical locations, although living on a pond influences my imagery. Using nature as a reference point, I then experiment, improvise, and appreciate abstraction.
JULIA C R GRAY, California, USA
Dialogues Body & Sea
33.5x24x22”, ceramic, oxide, glaze and underglaze, $9000
Dialogues Body & Sea (image detail on columns)
33.5x24x22”, ceramic, oxide, glaze and underglaze, $9000
Julia C R Gray, Cardiff by the Sea, California, sculpts ceramic torsos and hand-paints contemporary images using kiln fired glazes. After working as a representational painter for decades, Gray returned to university to complete a BFA (sculpture) with Honors from San Francisco Art Institute (2014). Gray has been awarded scholarships and art grants. Her artwork is printed in publications and is the cover of the nonfiction book MODIFIED, Living as a Cyborg. She has been featured on international podcasts and online galleries. Her sculpture is exhibited in museums, civic venues, and gallery exhibitions. Gray’s work is collected nationally and internationally.
I walk on the beach at sunrise, transferring the ocean’s mysterious consciousness when I return to my ceramic studio. Dialogues Body & Sea is a ceramic female torso that is detail with clay texture and hand painted images. The ceramic Story Torsos have a textured outer surface that holds a secret inside. When the torso’s columns are installed inches apart, the viewer can see tantalizing peeks of the detailed glazed paintings hidden inside. Separating the outer columns reveals storied imagery on the columns' inner surfaces. I paint representational images informed by personal experience, historical art, environmental and current events.
DIANE WIENCKE, Maine, USA
Spellbound
24x48”, oil,gilded metals on birch panel, $4200
Ethereal Apparition
36x48”, oil, gilded metals on wood panel, NFS
Apparion in Red (aka:whiskey girl)
36x48”, oil,gilded metals on birch panel, $4200
I am a painter living on Peaks Island in Maine, USA. I have attended The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, The Philadelphia College of Art and The Art Institute of Boston, where I received an MFA.
I this series of paintings I am exploring the parallel interplay between abstraction and representation. Obsessed with rendering faces and hands to the likeness of the subject, while the background and gesture of form of the subject seem to interplay within this liminal space between abstraction and representation. Choosing subjects whose presence express an ethereal quality, I look for attitude in posture with self-assurance and sass. Interested in the curiosity of gaze and the juxtaposition of power and vulnerability within each subject, I work in oil and gilded metals on wood panel. Using layers of fleur-de-Lis patterning to create a magical dreamlike scape to receive the subject. These layers of patterned paint allow for the form of the figure to fall away, weight and gesture are evident but not defined.
Using wallpaper and gilded metal, crowns and headdresses adorn many, allowing the subject to live in a space more ethereal and dreamy than real life.
SHELBY K COOK, Washington, USA
Old Growth
36x12”, oil on panel, $950
Overgrown
24x24”, oil on canvas, $1000
Disappearing
12” diameter, acrylic on canvas, $450
Shelby K Cook was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, where the west coast landscape of mountains and forests fostered a lifelong love of nature. She studied fine art in college, earning her BFA from Western Washington University along with a BA in Art History. After graduating, Cook moved to Seattle, WA, where she continues to paint and run her studio practice.
Focused on using painting to retain and revisit memories, Shelby draws inspiration from her travels and experiences. A connection to nature stemming from a childhood love of forests means she seeks interesting environments to inspire her, often painting en plein air during her travels. In the studio, she allows her recollections of a place to alter the image as she paints in order to tangibly capture memories. She is focused on exploring the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit, trying to capture liminal spaces and transitional moments.
ROSE MAMAKOS, Massachusetts, USA
Graceful
20x20”, acrylic, $695
Elegance
20x20”, acrylic, $695
I am a self-taught fluid artist living on the south coast of Massachusetts. I am a retired accountant that has worked in the insurance and library industry. My creativity began as a child in many different mediums as a coping tool. As I got older my creativity was a way to quiet the anxiety. I am a firm believer that being creative in which ever medium you choose is an incredible therapeutic tool for all ages.
Creating with fluid acrylic paint is working with the laws of physics and motion. Gravity, chemistry and density all play equally pivotal roles when using fluid paint, making each piece unique in their own way. I am attracted to bold colors that speak their own language and have a power over people. I am excited to spend my retirement years following my new found love of fluid art and I hope to show that fluid art does belong and needs to be seen in the art community.
The pieces submitted for the Veil exhibit are from my series inspired by the Buddhist symbol of the Enso. The Enso symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance and the universe. The circle can be open or closed. The open circle is considered incomplete, allowing for movement and development as well as the perfection of all things. The open circle is what I am most attracted to. Each of my paintings begins with the circle being open however with various ways of manipulating the paint the final outcome the circle is closed.
JULIA KKOS, France
Blue Mountains
11x11”, oil on canvas, $980
Old Souls Samhain Reunion
20x20”, oil on canvas, $980
In my art, I not only explore vibrant and surrealistic landscapes but also embody the spirit of resilience. My journey has been marked by overcoming adversity, from recovering miraculously after a life-altering car accident to navigating the challenges of pursuing higher education. It is through these experiences that I've discovered the profound connection between resilience and creativity.
Each canvas I paint represents not only my artistic expression but also a testament to the strength of the human spirit. We are all souls and I like to think that we create our own worlds the way we like.
My art is a reminder that in the face of life's challenges, we have the power to transform setbacks into opportunities, and adversity into inspiration. I hope that my work serves as a source of encouragement, motivating others to discover their inner resilience and pursue their own unique journeys.
I was born in the USSR and raised by strong female role models who instilled in me the early understanding of the significance of choice and following one's passions. My education in culture, history, and art fueled my insatiable hunger for knowledge, driving me to devour thousands of books.
My artistic journey took root around the age of 30, after a huge car accident in the USA. I moved to France, where I finally felt liberated from the constraints of my past. Now I live with my son, my dog, my cat and crows that I feed on my roof.
Art, particularly drawing, became my sanctuary—a means of self-expression and self-discovery.
My creations mirror my profound connection with nature, animals, and my belief in everyday magic.
HEATHER MUENSTERMANN, Massachusetts, USA
Interior
9x12x1.5”, mixed media (beeswax, found objects, wire, brass), $85
Interior (detail)
9x12x1.5”, mixed media (beeswax, found objects, wire, brass), $85
Interior (detail)
9x12x1.5”, mixed media (beeswax, found objects, wire, brass), $85
Growing up in my mom’s studio, I was surrounded by art materials and inspiration. A mixed media artist since youth, I continued on a path to earn my BFA from the University of Arizona and an MA in Art Therapy from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Having worked in a variety of mental health settings, I’ve now settled into a fulfilling role as a special education paraprofessional. Making art will always be part of my life; the process of creating can be a cathartic adventure with unexpected and satisfying outcomes.
As the seasons change and cozy layers get piled on, I find myself looking inward. It’s a time for personal reflection, when I mentally revisit the year up to the present, holding fond memories, and acknowledging lessons learned.
“Interior” presents a series of layers exploring my interpretation of the transition and reflection that a change of seasons can bring. From the top layer, ripped colorful collages are encased in beeswax upon a scorched canvas. Another layer is that of brass mesh, discolored by chemicals at an art camp years ago. The innermost layer is that of small glass vials, surrounded by beeswax. These tiny vials hold space for the memories and lessons upon which to reflect.
MARTHA WAKEFIELD, Massachusetts, USA
Shadow Dance
16x26”, archival pigment print, $400
The In-between
16x16”, archival pigment print, $350
Remnants
13x16”, archival pigment print, $300
My work is an investigation of the fragility of memory. I am intrigued by how memory morphs from persistent vividness to fleeting passages to total loss. Memory has no physicality: we cannot hold it in our hands, yet we carry it with us. It has no weight, yet it can weigh us down.
We may bury a recollection deep inside until a scent or voice or place conjures its power to rise. Memory changes with each recall becoming altered narratives.
I use a plastic toy camera, the Holga, and film to weave these stories from an ethereal sense of place and simultaneous beauty in our surreal world. These double exposure images reveal the drama unfolding each day as one experiences nature’s power and mysterious tenuousness.
My work is entwined with memory of place and time reflected in the visual world I experience, transforming these photos into a tangible form to be shared, to be witnessed.
Martha Wakefield is an award-winning painter and photographer. Her work has been shown in over 77 exhibits across the country including the Fitchburg Art Museum, Wheaton College, Lasell University, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. Awarded artists residencies include Weir Farm National Historic Site in CT, Vermont Studio Center and Orquevaux, France. Wakefield’s work has been featured in several publications including Artscope and Watercolor Artists magazine. And she has written many articles on artists and techniques for The Palette Magazine. Her paintings are in numerous corporate and private collections internationally.
Since 2012 Wakefield has been teaching art classes and intensive workshops on painting, color theory and creativity. She loves empowering artists of all levels in strengthening their artistic voices.
Wakefield is represented by Powers Gallery of Acton, MA and Hera Gallery of Wakefield, RI.
VICTORIA ELBROCH, Maine, USA
Outreach
38x52”, Ink on Paper, $4300
Beneath The Earth
22x45”, Ink and cut paper, $4,500
Metamorphosis
52x38”, Ink on Paper, $4300
Victoria Elbroch
Born in Cheshire, England, Victoria Elbroch lived in both India and Pakistan for most of her childhood. Beginning at the age of 10, she went back and forth to her homeland, managing to survive her education in English boarding schools. In 1973 she emigrated to America with her husband, Lawrence who has always played a vital supportive role in her career as a printmaker and artist. While caring for her growing family, Victoria studied etching in Florida and at OU, also spending three years working with master printmaker, Loraine Moore. She has continued to take every opportunity to learn and evolve in the decades she has made her living from her art.
Victoria’s studio work encompasses all 4 floors in her house from the printmaking press in the basement to the drawing space in the attic. Vicky is often found sketching or cutting out component pieces while watching the latest edition of Masterpiece. She specializes in mixed media drawing with ink and collage and two printmaking mediums, monotype, and photopolymer etching. She is a member of Zea Mays Printmaking Studio, The Boston Printmakers, and The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.
Victoria has won numerous awards for her prints and drawings and was recently awarded the 2019 Piscataqua Artist’s Advancement Grant, enabling her to concentrate on her drawings and the study of trees, a particular passion of hers. In early 2020 she spent time in the UK drawing meticulously researched ancient trees while also exploring her family roots.
