Artist Spotlights
Sandy Williams IV
“I think a lot of my work lately has been to participate, and to think about how I can help in the world. So I usually start with an idea, and the materials follow. Sometimes that process results in an object, but often it can be a role, or a record, or about the process itself.”
Valeria Divinorum
“A major theme in my work is the human connection with nature and the organic expressions that emerge from that relationship. In flowers, fractal patterns appear and geometric compositions become apparent. Through these geometric patterns we can witness the perfect balance of life and creation.”
Rachel Stern
“My grandfather who escaped Austria after Kristallnacht lived by his motto, ‘Life is tragic. Enjoy it.’ I try to do the same and so what could be a more urgent subject for my work than a reminder (to myself or to anyone else) that, like the cut flower, the journey from life to death has already commenced and to seize whatever opportunities for joy or productivity or curiosity or even heartbreak we might encounter.”
Kellyann Monaghan
“My paintings describe and explore through the physicality of the paint: billowing, tumultuous clouds, a plane of land gashed apart by an earthquake, a frightening wave of water, the rapid deluge of floods, the rising ephemeral smoke from a fire.”
Juan Hinojosa
“In America we are bombarded with advertisements in more ways than ever before. And thanks for the pandemic, I have been glued to my TV and my iPhone as my only source of information, entertainment, and communication. That being said, the power/cleverness of advertisements has led me to focus on the use of color when building a collage. Color can be a delicate playground for which to exist in.”
Dante Migone-Ojeda
“In a certain sense, the fire has become another artist's tool for me as I've started to learn how to predict how and where the wood will burn, and I really lean into that control. At the same time, fire is fire, you know? So it can be really hard to know exactly what it will look like.”
Cara Lynch
“I collect, make, accumulate, and assemble. My work emerges from play and experimentation in the studio. It is a back and forth process, a conversation between my subconscious and conscious self..”
Nathan Catlin
“I reference a lot of classical works, church paintings, comic book pages, and tattoos. Themes I focus on are human interaction, morality, and cause and effect. Essentially I am interested in the human condition.”
Lina Puerta
“ As a mixed media artist, I work with different materials that I love and feel attracted to, I mix and arrange them while responding to them intuitively and paying close attention to what is happening. The materials themselves help guide my process.”
Craig Zammiello
“…I feel there’s a very thin line between the smoke and mirrors of illustrative rendering and that distinct magic where it’s pushed just a bit farther into a signature language of the particular artist. It’s a balance of these approaches that I struggle with for my own drawings.”
Jennifer Schmidt
“During Covid, I’ve been more focused on connectivity, bearing witness, and community than going to galleries and museums. I’ve been observing the rhythms and patterns of my neighbors on my block, and behavior on the streets and sidewalks. The effect of the pandemic on everyone’s wellbeing, commerce, sanitation, nature, and how people can come together to share resources has been huge.”
Erica Mao
“I take a lot of inspiration from hidden parts of my childhood home — dense forests, winding creeks, and wetlands that snake their way around the cookie cutter suburbs I grew up in in Maryland. These natural features emerge in my landscapes and usually act as either an obstacle or a vehicle for the protagonists in the paintings.”