Exquisite
Subodh Maheshwari was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, North India where she learned folk art and classical music. She passionately believes: “In the threshold of my life, my present is the window to the past and a key to the future”. She acquired her degrees and studied art at Agra University, California State University of Fullerton, and the University of California Irvine. Subodh has won numerous awards, including the Regional Fellowship Award at UCI in 1986, the Bharat Gaurav Award in India in 2015, and the 60 Masters Award in 2017, 2018, and 2019. She is also registered in Marquis’s “Who’s Who in America”, the standard in biographical information. Her paintings have also won awards in a variety of categories including landscape, open, all women, nature, elements, seasons, and abstract.
Subodh is a diversified artist who enjoys telling stories through her artwork, whether it is through landscape, flowers, or abstract art. Her art is a fusion of Eastern symbolism and Western composition, influenced by 16th and 17th century Rajasthani and Mogul art, and accented by poetry, passages, and phrases in Hindi, Sanskrit, and English. She admires Georgia O’Keeffe for her floral influence, and Frida Kahlo for her courage. Whether it is the serene beauty of nature, her spirituality, or the current political climate, she finds inspiration. Having a life shared between India and America, she sees the beautiful similarities, like love which transcends all borders. Highly individual in her style, her works are described as emotional, mysterious, personal, spiritual, and humorous.
Eye Of The Universe
Lale Gerger’s life and artistry are a testament to resilience and passion for expression. Born in Colorado and immersed in Turkey’s culture until she was twelve. Her adolescence spanned the U.S., England, Kuwait, and Mexico, culminating in a return to the U.S. and later, Turkey, at 24. These experiences broadened her global perspective and shaped her artistic outlook.
During her middle school years in America, Gerger’s struggle with language and cultural assimilation led her to discover her passion for the arts. A theatre class became her sanctuary, highlighting the power of artistic expression in fostering connection and understanding. She pursued a degree in Theatre from UCLA and later earned her Master’s degree from the University of Florida, exploring the nexus of art, health, and business.
Gerger’s professional life took a practical turn as she embarked on a career in HR, driven by her responsibilities as the first single woman to adopt in Turkey, a five-year legal battle that saw two laws change. Simultaneously, she worked as an actress and director. Her mother’s battle with cancer and the economic impact of COVID-19 led her to find solace in art again. After multiple layoffs during the pandemic, she shifted to painting full-time.
Now in Florida, Gerger is a celebrated contemporary abstract painter. Her vibrant works capture universal and oceanic essences. Through her “Shine Your Light” series, she encourages finding your own light and shining it for others, which she describes as her golden thread.
Gerger has earned numerous accolades, including the Award of Excellence from the Gainesville Fine Arts Association in 2022 – 2025. She participates in fine art festivals across Florida and Georgia and regularly exhibits at various galleries. As she continues to evolve as an artist, Lale remains committed to creating meaningful connections and fostering positivity through her art.
As an artist based in Gainesville, Florida, I aim to combine artistry, empathy, and resilience in my creative journey. From my theatre background to navigating personal challenges, art has been my compass. Through mediums like acrylics and pen and ink, I explore life’s complexities, inviting viewers to embrace resilience and share their light.
My journey is a testament to the transformative power of art in navigating life’s challenges and discovering purpose amid adversity. Driven by a deep passion for the arts, I received my theatre degree at UCLA and then went to Turkey, where I reconnected with my cultural roots while working both as an actress for the State Theatre and as a faculty member at a conservatory.
However, a pivotal moment in my personal life reshaped my path. Through a five-year legal battle, I fought for the right to adopt as a single woman in Turkey, ultimately changing laws and welcoming my son into my life.
Returning to the United States, I delved into nonprofit work and later ventured into Human Resources to provide stability for my child. During a personal tragedy with my mother’s cancer diagnosis and the onset of the pandemic, I rediscovered solace in art.
Spanning a diverse range of mediums and techniques, with a focus on acrylics through abstract art, my artwork reflects a unique perspective on life’s complexities. Art has always been my solace and my form of expression, helping me navigate through life’s trials. I am continually inspired by the resilience of the human spirit, the profound beauty of the cosmos, and the strength of inspirational women. My technique combines meticulous attention to detail with spontaneous expression, making my art unique in its genuine reflection of life’s dualities—light and dark, struggle and triumph.
Eyes Of Texas
Lynn Rodriguez is a Houston-based visual artist whose practice is rooted in a lifelong dialogue between science and nature, analysis and intuition. Raised in the desert landscapes of West Texas, she grew up immersed in the stillness and scale of the natural world—its rhythmic patterns, star-filled skies, and quiet mysteries. These formative experiences shaped not only her visual sensibility but her deep reverence for the interdependent systems that govern life.
Although creatively inclined from an early age, Lynn initially pursued a career in the sciences, earning a BS in Mathematics from the University of Houston and spending 29 years as a geophysicist in the Energy sector. Throughout that time, she also raised three children and navigated the complex terrain of professional and personal growth. Yet the analytical rigor of her scientific background never dulled her creative curiosity—it simply reframed it.
Now working full time as a visual artist, Lynn’s practice is an exploration of the thresholds between observation and imagination. Self-taught, she brings a research-driven mindset to her process, often working in watercolor, mixed media, and illustration. Her paintings reflect a fascination with scale, depicting both microscopic structures and sweeping natural forms. Through this duality, she invites viewers to consider the layered complexity of the world and the often-invisible forces that shape it.
Her aesthetic leans toward abstraction with strong expressionist undertones, and she is particularly interested in how scientific perspectives can inform emotional and visual understanding. Whether mapping the patterns of leaves or interpreting geological forms, Lynn’s work is a meditation on perception, transformation, and the poetics of structure.
Equally committed to community and environmental stewardship, Lynn is an active volunteer with the Harris County Master Gardeners and Texas Master Naturalists. Her advocacy for native plants, birds, and pollinators deeply informs both her subject matter and her environmental ethos. She also serves with the Watercolor Art Society–Houston (WAS-H), where she directed the 48th International Watermedia Exhibition and regularly participates in plein air sessions, classes, and instruction.
Lynn Rodriguez’s work embodies a rare synthesis of empirical knowledge and artistic sensitivity, offering viewers a nuanced lens through which to contemplate the interconnectedness of life. Her art serves as both inquiry and reflection—a practice shaped by decades of observation, care, and continuous rediscovery.
My artwork explores the complex and often hidden systems of the natural world through a dialogue between science and visual poetry. Working primarily in watercolor and mixed media, I investigate the micro and macro patterns that structure life, from cellular forms to migratory pathways, translating them into layered, expressive compositions.
With a background in geophysics and a deep engagement in environmental stewardship, I approach my practice with both analytical precision and intuitive openness. The scientific lens through which I view the world informs the way I construct visual narratives, often revealing connections between scale, structure, and ecological interdependence.
A signature aspect of my process involves the use of pearlescent and metallic paints on black paper. This choice is both aesthetic and symbolic—light emerging from darkness, structure surfacing from the void. The luminous surfaces these materials create allow me to evoke the brilliance of natural phenomena that are often overlooked: the iridescence of an insect wing, the shimmer of minerals beneath the earth, or the glint of a bird in motion. The black paper offers a space where contrast becomes content, and subtle shifts in tone can suggest vast atmospheric or biological transitions.
Many of my pieces begin with an image or question drawn from the field—pollinator behavior, native plant systems, or migratory bird patterns—subjects I often engage with through my volunteer work with the Texas Master Naturalists and Harris County Master Gardeners. My compositions evolve through layering, transparency, and sometimes abstraction, allowing organic forms to emerge gradually, much like scientific discovery itself.
Recurring themes in my work include transformation, resilience, and interconnection. Whether I’m exploring butterfly migration in Where Butterflies Go at Night or communal behavior in Purple Martin Migration—Working Together, my goal is to make visible the invisible—to honor both the elegance and fragility of the systems we depend on.
Through this practice, I hope to invite viewers into a meditative engagement with the natural world—one that is as intellectually curious as it is emotionally resonant. In a time of ecological uncertainty, art can offer both reflection and restoration, connecting us to the rhythms of life that persist all around us.
Face Off
Debby Dakini, a working Artist, Van Gogh-inspired, largely self-taught, was blessed to have two significant, gifted mentors in the last thirty years. Both left their legacy: just do what you do and not change a thing. Debby’s pieces are described as ‘childlike’ and ‘pure’, free of constraints of learned techniques. London-born, Debby has exhibited in the UK and Ireland, which she chose as her spiritual home back in 2007. Debby’s work is mostly seen as part of Arts Festivals, both individually, jointly, and in groups. Post-COVID, Debby largely self-promotes online and via social media.
I create a daily living, a solitary life on the periphery of the mainstream. My inspiration and spiritual guidance come from a never-ending search within. I studied four Esoteric Sciences nearly 30 years ago, taking a specialty in deep soul-oriented Esoteric Astrology, and am a daily spiritual practitioner of the Mahayana tradition of Kagyu Tibetan Buddhism. My work is a constant delight to me, be it figurative or abstract. Inspiration comes purely with non-thought mysteriously channeled directly to me from an unnamed and untamable source to beautify our world.
Face To The Sun
I was born in a Florida orange grove. In my childhood, I explored pastures, pine woods, hammocks, and the lakeshore and roamed through rows of citrus trees. Growing up with nature all around me impacted my work as an artist and writer and defined my values for land conservation, preservation of nature, and historic places. My artistic journey has been enriched by a solid foundation in pencil drawing, which I studied during my undergraduate years at Kansas State University, where I earned my BFA. I further honed my skills in colored drawings and watercolors through a master of fine art program at the University of Florida, where I also delved into narrative series. I have continued to expand my knowledge through workshops and a study abroad art history program. For the past forty years, I have been both a part-time art teacher and a dedicated practicing artist. I have always worked on small-scale pieces on paper. However, with new products on the market, I have experimented with aqua and gesso boards and evolved my materials into mixed media. However, the choice of media I use depends on the idea and what material will best express the piece’s meaning. I am also a published author, working through my ideas visually and verbally, as well as my images and words. This multidisciplinary art and writing contribute to building each other and help to balance me.
As an artist, my inspiration comes from discoveries in nostalgia, memories, and nature. I choose various media and techniques that best portray an idea. My art becomes a narrative that moves across the surface or through the work in light, color, or shapes. I am constantly surprised by the unexpected, a color, a reflection of light, or something ordinary through observation, and it becomes delightful. When such an opportunity presents itself, I am eager to interpret it on a two-dimensional surface. Sometimes, the idea is presented in a series of several pieces or images in a grid format, showing some progression of time. I use the visual narrative to explore my ideas, engaging the viewer in the progression of each piece. Time, movement, and space evolve through my narratives; therefore, the medium of visual storytelling also becomes a venue for personal expression. Strength, succession, and fluency bring viewers into my drawings and paintings.
Faded Memories
I majored in industrial design in college. I’ve been certified as a design practical teacher, art psychotherapist, and reading tutor, and I’ve worked as a teacher at a children’s art institute and managed it as well. I also worked as an after-school art teacher at a small elementary school in the countryside. Driven by my deep passion for art, I asked Jinwoo Kim to mentor me. Under his guidance, I’ve been honing my skills for over 10 years, and it’s been about 7 years since I showed my work to the world.
The time when I embarked on my artistic journey coincided with the most painful period of my life. It was when my twin daughters were born, and tragically, my eldest daughter passed away just 10 months later. This agonizing period led me to delve deeper into the world of art. From then on, I viewed the act of creating art as a form of inner therapy, recovery, and regeneration—a way to heal my soul. I believe this process allows me to pour all the emotions and experiences I’ve had in my remaining life into my art. Through this journey, my artworks compress every moment of pain and joy, despair and happiness that exist within me.
In the midst of this process, I realized, through an exploration of the essence of art, that its foundation lies in light, and that light is the reason for the existence of this world. Just as scientists say that in quantum mechanics, the state is determined through observation, the creation and appreciation of artworks ultimately fall within the realm of working with light through observation. I came to understand that this is the essence of our existence in this world. We are all products of light.
Everyone lives while reminiscing. It could be regrets about the irretrievable past or fantasies about different places and times. Through my artwork, I want to transport you to a different dimension that I’ve created. In that place, I hope you can forget all the pain, regrets, and weariness you’re feeling right now and immerse yourself in deep contemplation.
The life of an artist is an endless struggle against despair for the joy of creation. I strive to vividly express the beauty around me in my own way, using light, color, and texture to convey my inner emotions. In this process, what I see blends with the colors of my emotions. I draw what I want to draw based on my own will, not someone else’s demands. I often paint landscapes, as they are the best at capturing yearning, but when my mind is in turmoil, I also paint still lifes. And when there’s no other way to express my heart, I immerse myself passionately in abstraction.
I aimed to convey reality while incorporating the flow of sensory thinking, adding the flow and tremors of light, the temperature of colors, emotions, and subconscious elements. Through this work, everything about me transitions into the artwork. I hope my life and existence resonate with someone through my art. I eagerly anticipate the moment when my work captivates someone’s eyes and stirs their soul, a moment when my creation becomes a masterpiece. Today, I pick up the brush to divide the moments of my remaining life.
Faith
Amelie Monira Egenolf is a talented German artist, born with a passion for painting that she has nurtured since childhood. In 2017, she began taking various art courses to hone her skills and by 2019, she had started her own art business. Since then, Amelie has held exhibitions all over the world, showcasing her exceptional artistry and unique perspective on life.
Amelie Monira Egenolf is proud to have had the opportunity to display her artwork in some of the world’s most renowned art institutions, such as the Louvre in Paris, as well as in major cities across Europe and beyond. Her love for painting and the happiness it brings to others is her driving force, her life elixir.
Living with her family in South Germany near Switzerland, Amelie Monira Egenolf’s journey as an internationally selling artist has taken her across different continents such as Asia, Europe, New Zealand, and South America. Each of these places has its unique beauty and culture, which has inspired her to learn from local artists and their techniques. Through this experience, Amelie Monira Egenolf has gained a unique perspective on the world, seeing its beauty and elegance through the eyes of locals, broadening her horizons and opening her heart.
Oil is Amelie Monira Egenolf’s favorite medium, and she also works with acrylic and other mediums. She has a special fondness for seascapes, which reflects her love for traveling, and painting scenes from her dreams gives her art a unique and surreal quality. She hopes to bring the same joy to others that she felt while painting those dreamscapes or from her travels to breathtaking destinations. Amelie Monira Egenolf’s art is a reflection of her adventurous spirit and her love for life.
My name is Amelie Monira Egenolf. I grew up in South Germany in Asian gardens created by my family and lived in New Zealand, Mexico, Venezuela, and Berlin. Since a very young age, I’ve been painting and every piece of art is coming from my heart. With colorful shining colors and various art techniques, I want to express my deepest spiritual feelings on canvas.
Some of my themes are buddhas, water scenes, wild animals, florals, and abstract paintings with portraits. I love to express my foreign experiences from my travels in different ways and with my own unique style. Painting is a joyful, freeing, and meditative process for me. It is a means to express myself in colors, shapes, and textures that cannot be conveyed through language alone.
With my own spiritual focus in my work, I love to express myself with mixed media and create art with real and surreal elements. In my expressive paintings, I use acrylic- and oil paints, oil pastels, different kinds of inks and markers, and gold leaf and spray paint. Expressive bright colors dominate the overall picture.
Falco
Kate began entering exhibitions around the country in 2019. In spite of the emergence of covid, Kate was accepted into fourteen shows in 2020, earning awards in six of the exhibitions. Her work is provocative and challenges the viewer to consider the current societal and environmental issues that serve as inspiration. Kate continues to create and apply to exhibitions in an effort to share her art with the widest audience.
Kate’s work is experimental and not easily placed in one medium as she expands the definition of “mosaics” and “mixed-media”. Her work provides a new way of seeing objects and their essence. The use of 3D substrates allows for the exploration of shape and flow through the application of a variety of tiles, glass, metals, and other elements that blend or explore the meaning of the object. The approach may be playful or serious but is always meant to relay a story created by the inclusion of color, design, and handpicked components. The challenge is finding the tesserae that elevate the structure to new levels of narrative.
Fall Frolic
Gayle Faulkner, with over 35 years of artistic exploration and creativity, stands as a seasoned watercolor, acrylic, and mural artist. Her journey has been marked by constant exploration, a playful engagement with diverse media, and an unwavering commitment to growth in the world of art.
Her academic journey, rooted in a BA in Sociology from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, initially led her to work with children, integrating art into their day-to-day experiences. Gayle’s passion for art eventually pulled her into a more immersive pursuit. She delved into Art and Design courses at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, unlocking her artistic soul. The willingness to ”put herself out there”, coupled with years of hard work and a penchant for thinking outside the box, allowed her to undergo a major growth period.
Finally, the challenges posed by the COVID-19 quarantine became a catalyst for Gayle’s artistic metamorphosis, leading her to focus on acrylic paintings on canvas. Engaging in an online course.
In my art practice, I describe my creations as Textural Acrylics. This term represents the exciting experience of observing paint flow from the palette knife, forming captivating textures and colors. Each stroke channels emotion, and every canvas captures a moment of creative inspiration.
My process is spontaneous – I start with a loose outline, sketch the composition, and then fully immerse myself in the act of creating. Throughout the process, music is my closest companion, its volume soaring. I dance to the rhythm, losing myself in the beats, and, on occasion, even letting out a song. My painting process is a multisensory experience, an immersive journey into the fusion of sound and color, where each note becomes a brushstroke, and every stroke on the canvas is a dance of creation. I often liken my paintings to cherished children—it’s a relationship that involves nurturing, engaging in heartfelt conversations, and weathering the challenges of creative adolescence with boundless love and patience.