Freedom
Unfolding in unexpected ways, Leon Alexander Wilson´s artistic journey has been shaped by a lifelong appreciation for art and influenced by diverse experiences. Initially sparked by success in car design sketches, Leon´s path took a turn through the Navy and into the IT world before circling back to his true passions—creating art and music appreciation.
I explore various mediums in my art, with a particular fondness for paint, pencil, pastel, and camera. The color palettes and techniques of artists like the timeless works of Lautrec, Matisse, and Manet resonate deeply with me. Their influence is evident as my unique voice is brought to life on canvas by reflecting the emotions and stories that drive my practice.
Frequent visits to museums are not only a favorite pastime but also a source of continual inspiration. Classes through the Barnes Foundation and Delaware Art Museum instruct and broaden my horizons. The vibrancy and richness found in spaces like The Met and the Philadelphia Museum of Art serve as a reminder of the power of art to connect and engage. Through my creations, I aim to invite viewers into a dialogue that encourages appreciation of the nuances of color and form.
I continue to evolve as an artist and am committed to making my work accessible. It reinforces my dedication to quality and integrity. Confident in the knowledge that every piece embodies my passion and commitment to the creation of aesthetic objects, I invite you to explore my art.
Freedom 10
Ray has always been fascinated by and worked with three-dimensional art. His first memory of creating art was sculpting, drawing, and painting in grade-school classes. He was awed by the dioramas in the Milwaukee Public Museum, his favorite urban playground.
Along with creating free-standing and wall-mounted sculptures, much of Ray’s work over the next 30 years was comprised of oil and acrylic paintings with heavy impasto and strong 3D multimedia canvases.
He moved to mosaics for about 13 years: water fountains, sculptures, furniture, and architectural pieces. He was fascinated with the depth of color, texture, form, and infinite materials that this tactile medium presents.
In 2013, Ray began creating 360° luminous sculptures, which are illusionary, abstract, one-of-a-kind interplays of color and light, most often in a column form. Along with creating these sculptures, Ray continues to paint.
I am a visual illusionist, an abstract expressionist artist. It’s the truest form, in my opinion, of art that exists because it’s strictly cerebral. It just comes from the brain. Creating is a bit of madness. I jump into a piece with my soul almost. It’s like I’m just in there. My art is essentially me.
Abstract expressionism emerges as the visual result of artistic intention. I use the unparalleled power of art to express feelings.
My art presents coexistence as an abstraction. I invite my audience to examine perceived differences from various perspectives and then to recognize a sameness, a grounding. I encourage viewers to take the experience beyond observation and participate in the art.
My abstract paintings are composed with a focus on depth, texture, and composition. Exploring combinations of paint, sculpting medium, and glazes has forced me to view color, line, form, light, and movement with fresh eyes.
The Freedom series depicts life after COVID-19, with freedom being expressed by the lines and colors that flow outside of the hard circle. Break out of your home, your mold, and yourself. Widen your comfort zone and world.
All art presents opportunities for self-discovery. Fill your eyes and open your mind. Experience fully the emotions that art evokes. Find yourself within the art and reveal your truth.
Freedom 4
Ray has always been fascinated by and worked with three-dimensional art. His first memory of creating art was sculpting, drawing, and painting in grade-school classes. He was awed by the dioramas in the Milwaukee Public Museum, his favorite urban playground.
Along with creating free-standing and wall-mounted sculptures, much of Ray’s work over the next 30 years was comprised of oil and acrylic paintings with heavy impasto and strong 3D multimedia canvases.
He moved to mosaics for about 13 years: water fountains, sculptures, furniture, and architectural pieces. He was fascinated with the depth of color, texture, form, and infinite materials that this tactile medium presents.
In 2013, Ray began creating 360° luminous sculptures, which are illusionary, abstract, one-of-a-kind interplays of color and light, most often in a column form. Along with creating these sculptures, Ray continues to paint.
I am a visual illusionist, an abstract expressionist artist. It’s the truest form, in my opinion, of art that exists because it’s strictly cerebral. It just comes from the brain. Creating is a bit of madness. I jump into a piece with my soul almost. It’s like I’m just in there. My art is essentially me.
Abstract expressionism emerges as the visual result of artistic intention. I use the unparalleled power of art to express feelings.
My art presents coexistence as an abstraction. I invite my audience to examine perceived differences from various perspectives and then to recognize a sameness, a grounding. I encourage viewers to take the experience beyond observation and participate in the art.
My abstract paintings are composed with a focus on depth, texture, and composition. Exploring combinations of paint, sculpting medium, and glazes has forced me to view color, line, form, light, and movement with fresh eyes.
The Freedom series depicts life after Covid, with freedom being expressed by the lines and colors that flow outside of the hard circle. Break out of your home, your mold, and yourself. Widen your comfort zone and world.
All art presents opportunities for self-discovery. Fill your eyes and open your mind. Experience fully the emotions that art evokes. Find yourself within the art and reveal your truth.
Freedom Dancer
The beauty of nature surrounding Los Angeles was the impetus for her entrance into the field of photography. Joanne began vigorously studying photography and other art arenas to hone her skills as a visual artist. In 2000, she graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a Master of Fine Art (MFA). She is now a full-time artist.
In addition to color and black and white film, Joanne shoots digitally employs the techniques of infrared imaging, and enjoys creating 3D anaglyphs to be viewed with red/blue lenses. As an extension of photography, she has branched out to do videos and has a YouTube Channel, THE VIDEO ART OF JOANNE CHASE-MATTILLO. Along with nature, Joanne frequently photographs female and male subjects in fun-themed studio shoots.
Joanne has exhibited throughout California, nationally, in Korea, France and England, Switzerland, Scotland, Greece, Spain, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Holland, Brazil and Italy. Her work has also been selected for Lunar Codex, a very special project partnered with SpaceX to deliver the images of art in a time capsule to be permanently affixed to the surface of the moon, selected by Era Contemporary Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as part of “Legends Of The Moon”.
The craftsmanship and perfection of classic Hollywood cinema have always been an inspiration and goal I seek to achieve in my images of female and male subjects through still photography. Using various sets, makeup, and costumes I was able to emulate through stills fantasy images that reflect imaginary films onto a single still photograph. All the photographs were taken throughout 2023.
Freedom Lottery
Oxana Akopov is a visual artist based in Southern California, USA. She is working in an interdisciplinary field primarily with photography, art, and installations. Throughout her work, she uses her personal experiences of immigrant life and combines simplicity, symbolism, and cultural innuendos in an effort to communicate with the viewer. Oxana’s background includes working in communications in a large, multinational firm as well as journalist education. These skills and experiences help her better communicate her imagination through art. Oxana started her artistic journey recently and continues to build on it every day.
My art is a “Little America”.
Through this prism, I re-evaluate life in a country that is new to me, and from that perspective, it also goes through a kind of “melting pot”, where new norms, rules, and traditions are the cultural codes that I want to explore in my work.
My art is a message through which I communicate with the world.
Working in an interdisciplinary field, I mix different disciplines and methods to make paintings, photos, videos, and readymade elements of my installations.
Another important element of my work is the information that I embed in artistic content, complementing it with images and meaning. As a result, a metaphor is created that offers the viewer a new conceptual framework for perception.
Symbolism, spirit, passion, freedom, and self-identity – these are my works. These are the cultural codes that I explore through the story of how the new “American Man” is being created.
Freedom Of Celebration
When I was studying architecture, photography was a tool I used in the creation of projects and to enhance the presentation of the final product. I incorporated the camera lens as a part of the design development process looking at elements of design such as form, space, geometry, light, texture, and color. Over time, as I improved my knowledge of creative design, I also increased my interest in photography learning that the elements were the same. In recent years I have further evolved into taking my conventional images and integrating them into composites, digital paintings, and abstract designs. Photography is a constant journey. It has also allowed me to broaden my horizons into earthborn street imagery and the opportunity to develop another of my interests which includes film noir. I look forward to continuing the journey.
“I look at every photo opportunity as if it were a design with architectural, structural, and artistic integrity, regardless of the subject matter.”
The study of design has allowed me to expand my horizons to all avenues of photography. Just as I had photographed the composites of my designs, my work is now focused on looking for the components of a creative design or story in every photograph I take. To me, composing a photo is similar to designing a building. I like to see how the visual building blocks in the elements of design can be combined into a unique whole.
Freedom To Breathe
At 65, after decades of not creating art, Lisa Joy Newcomb reinvented herself as an artist.
Ms Newcomb has been honored with one best of show, five first-place awards in photography, a second-place award in abstract photography, and a third-place award. She has had three one-woman shows. One through HMVC Gallery New York, one through Artel Gallery in Pensacola, FL, and one through the University of Delaware. Her work has been seen from coast to coast, including several times through the HMVC Gallery in New York and the Las LaGuna Gallery in California. Pictorem, based out of Montreal, Canada, has Lisa as a featured artist. Ms. Newcomb’s work has been seen in public arenas including New York’s Times Square electronic billboards, Montgomery International Airport, the Regions Bank Corporate Gallery in Montgomery, Alabama, the Sanger Theater in Pensacola, Florida, and the Hilton Pensacola Beach, Florida. Three books have also presented by Ms. Newcomb. They are: “Nobis II, 2023,” and the “Emerald Coast Review,” 2023, and 2025. “Emerald Coast Review 2025” uses Ms Newcomb’s photograph as its cover image.
The photographs she creates are abstractions in fluidity, rich in joy and filled with color, pattern, curiosity, and a gentle message. The dance of light that for most of her life she sought in the ocean, she is now looking for in the melding of glass and fabric with occasional surprise elements. Lisa’s work is usually printed on aluminum.
Ms Newcomb’s highest degree is a master’s in social work. Professionally, she worked as a social worker and as a realtor. She was raised in the Mid Atlantic, experienced her young adulthood in New England and the Midwest, and for the last 30 years, the Deep South has been home with her husband. It was in the Deep South that she raised an interesting, dynamic, kind-hearted daughter. Lisa was a docent at the Pensacola Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Art for over 17 years. She is currently a national member of Pen Women.
Ms Newcomb’s uplifting work can be seen on her website at Pictorem. You may order it there to your specifications.
I create photos as peaceful, playful, healing stimuli while I make observations of humanity and the environment. Drawing upon different objects, I explore melding them into a unified whole. Part of my process is setting up compositions, in the form of an assemblage, visually weaving together beautiful glass, flowing fabric, with vibrant colors and patterns into integrated fluid formations seeking to reshape light, pattern, and color into a visual oasis. I then tightly crop and photograph. My intent is to transcend and transform objects into images that visually excite while calming the soul, often with a gentle message.
A lifelong passion for art and artists influenced my work. I nod to Miriam Schapiro, a leader in the Pattern and Decoration Movement. Having lived much of my life by the shore, I have always loved the play of light in watery reflections. I am drawn to artists who capture light; Stephen Rolfe Powell’s glass delights me. Mark Rothko believed in the visceral effect of color. He wanted people to have an experience within his pictures. I seek to have my work viscerally affect the viewer.
CromaLuxe high definition images printed on aluminum are my preferred substrate. The reflective surface enhances and enriches the dynamics of the glass used in my imagery. Images can be ordered in small jewel-like prints or large dynamic pieces.
Freefall
Lynda Sandoval is a self-trained, intuitive/process artist living in Fredonia, NY. She works primarily in acrylic paint and pens but also creates pieces digitally through an identical process, albeit holding a different tool—the stylus rather than the brush or pen. Lynda’s work is represented by Scrambled Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and she has upcoming collaborations with Moonstruck Design in Wake Forest, NC, and Los Rocosos Winery in Milton-Freewater, Oregon.
I struggled over what to say about my art and why I make it, wishing I could sound knowledgeable and deep, maybe even COOL for the first time in my life–ha. But I finally settled on the truth, hoping that, perhaps, my experience can help or inspire someone else.
I started painting after a major trauma that I had neither the desire nor the capacity to process in words. This is ironic because I’m an author with 24 novels published—words are my jam. Usually. But this trauma was new, deeply personal, and I just…couldn’t. Couldn’t write it. Couldn’t speak it. As a lifelong introvert (a gregarious loner, I call myself), I’m an under-sharer rather than an over-sharer, so I spoke to basically no one about everything going on inside. I searched for something, anything that would settle the fear in my chest and still the racing thoughts in my brain when nothing else could, and I found it in colors and shapes and lines and paint tubes. Art saved me, and I mean that with zero hyperbole.
The process of making my pieces is completely organic. I plan nothing beyond the color I start with. The last thing I want is for my critical brain to put its two cents in before the piece tells me what it wants to be, so I just let it happen and follow the lines and colors wherever they go. I have achieved that blissful flow state more since I started painting than I’ve ever felt with anything else–writing, yoga, even meditation. I have a maximalist aesthetic, a neurographic leaning, and a deep love for saturated colors, experimentation, and weirdness. What you see when you look at one of my paintings is a person surviving, recovering, thriving, growing, and glowing.
I hope my art is as therapeutic for you as it is for me.
Frequency
Danette Moran, now living in the coastal area of North Carolina, is an abstract artist who receives her inspiration from living near the beach, the mountains in Lake Tahoe and Colorado, and the Arizona desert. Her paintings are focused on alcohol ink, acrylic ink, and paint with other enhancements to bring out the texture of nature and life itself. She claims her artistic talent started with a 35mm film camera, and the hours spent in a dark room developing that film. Her goal is to bring out a feeling, a vision, or a thought that is new to the observer; and to find a sense of calm and personalization when viewing her work.
What do I want my art to say to you? Since I resonate with the Earth and the colors of nature, I want the viewer to feel peaceful, intrigued, captivated or moved in some way. I am going to tap into a place in your soul, and I will never know what my art will say to you, because it’s in your heart and mind. My goal is to continue to make art that can get deep inside your internal vision and create something for you that makes you want to return to that place over and over again.