“Journey of Resilience” follows my past year’s journey of transformation. When we face adversity, whether it be loss, failure, or emotional upheaval, we are forced to confront vulnerabilities and weaknesses. It’s in this confrontation that healing and growth occur. Last year was a difficult year personally for me, as I lost my mother to cancer, and I was diagnosed with lymphoma. Through my treatment, I felt so overwhelmed by a range of emotions that eventually inspired my artwork. My current collection symbolizes the unique process of overcoming emotional trauma and evolving into a more resilient, gracious, and powerful version of oneself. Each piece is a visual and sensory narrative of my personal experience, a reflection of both the struggle and the eventual emergence of strength and clarity, or even a simple moment of gratitude for the earth’s gifts we receive. The works share not the grief and despair, but the rebirth and awakening of a new beginning by including imagery that inspires and connects with the viewers. My hope is to encourage, connect, console, and give hope to others who may need comfort in the notion that we are resilient creatures. Collaboratively, the collection of artwork is bright, expansive, full of vibrant colors, fluid lines, and forms that are whole or mended. Lavish underpaintings of mixed media and layers of emotion reflecting my personal evolution and a universal invitation to the audience to see the potential for resilience and hope in their own lives, no matter how difficult their journey may seem. “The Journey of Resilience” is a message of hope, gratitude, and perseverance to anyone sharing the same difficult path in life.

I want to record what I see and what touches me. Drawing it, creating a specific encounter at a particular time of day. Enabling me to capture an experience that brings joy that is singular to me. This is why I must draw. It truly gives me a respite from the world where I can control my little part of this Universe. My refuge and mission is to create something that brings beauty and happiness to me first. But if my art and images can touch the hearts of others and bring a smile to them, then I know I’ve done a good job.

My parents taught me to open my eyes to the different wonders of creation, and from childhood on, I have tried to reflect these impressions in my paintings. Animals in all of their unique and rich beauty, and their emotions, were my main topic and will always be. I try to give my painted animals a soul through the look of their eyes, and hope it can be seen. Showing my artwork to the public is also an attempt to support awareness of the voiceless creatures we should protect instead of abusing and destroying them.

Animals can also have fun. They are happy about a good meal; they enjoy social contact and playing with each other, and some look funny in our eyes, although they do not joke at that moment. These are different kinds of having fun.

When I began my journey into the world of art. I was very shy. I certainly wasn’t young and had lots of confidence in other areas of my life as an author, actor, and screenwriter. I didn’t have the courage in those early days to even show my family. I simply thought I wasn’t good enough. Then one day I accidentally left a painting out on my kitchen table and welcomed some friends who all noticed the painting. I had forgotten I had left it out on the show. Their reaction was priceless. At first, they simply didn’t believe I had painted it! That’s how it really started for me. I was very prolific, preferring to use only acrylic paints.

I discovered all sorts of techniques, some worked, some didn’t. And I certainly didn’t want to be bogged down with trying to find my ‘style’. That eventually came though, without warning, almost sneaking up behind me. It took me by surprise. I first realized that I had brought together a number of techniques, some known, and some I developed, like my ‘Rectangular Blocking’ (R&B’s) and my ‘Acrylosculpt’ techniques. This meant some of my paintings were tactile, and those with sight difficulties, could feel my paintings which added to their appreciation of art.

Of course, during all those formative years in West Africa, the influence of strong vibrant colors, and images, comes to the fore in lots of my paintings to create an ‘African Influence.’

Andrea Lunetta’s car series explores our human impact on the natural environment, with a focus on cars, which have been the demonized central image of climate change. The series recognizes the crucial impact that the car has had on our society, and its tendency to reflect popular design trends of the time.

In an era of colorlessness in which corporations try to divorce beauty from commercialism in order to maximize profits, the colors of the cars are switched from the drab and neutral that line our streets to vibrant, even feminine colors, swaddled by flowing, organic matter that make up the background. The cars are set against motifs that are inspired by folk art, historical archives, and the natural world to create a dreamscape that beckons your eyes to rest in what should be in our human-made world: vibrancy, color, playfulness, ornamentation, beauty.

Andrea Lunetta’s artistic practice displays a fascination with viewing everyday objects as an opportunity to ornament and tempts the viewer to look closer at the beauty of an object that is so common and functional it borders on invisible. The themes also raise questions of America’s car-obsessed culture in the midst of climate change. Andrea Lunetta’s biggest inspirations come from Florine Stettheimer, Nikki de Saint Phalle, and Georgia O’Keefe, and Mother Earth.

My work is grounded in the search for something felt but not easily seen – moments of emotional residue, memory traces, and shifting perception. Born in China and raised between cultures, I use painting to process the instability and possibility that come with movement, transition, and translation.

I paint intuitively, letting gesture, texture, and color carry the weight of thought. I’m interested in visual ambiguity – when forms verge on becoming something familiar, but remain suspended in suggestion. Through this space of not-quite-knowing, I try to make room for personal and cultural resonance.

For me, art is a way to hold onto moments that language can’t capture. It’s a record of my thinking, my body, and my becoming.

My photographs are not about places as much as they are about moments when light briefly makes them visible in a particular way—softening edges, revealing texture, or holding still long enough to be noticed. Coastal landscapes, working harbors, and quiet edges of morning become less about location and more about presence.

I am drawn to the first light of day, when the world feels suspended between absence and arrival. In these moments, even ordinary objects—a bench, a boat, a weathered structure—hold something larger than themselves.

These images are an attempt to witness that fleeting exchange: where light meets place, and something unspoken becomes briefly known.

Summer is the perfect time for these scenes as the countryside is alive with waves, water, green marshes, and sandy sandwiches at the beach.

During painting, I bring a lot of energy, passion, and enthusiasm in order to make the painting attractive and successful. I want to evoke a pleasant visual experience and positive emotions in the viewer and optimism.

My work in fine arts has principally been in 2 classes of abstract paintings: oils and water-based paints. However, I have completed numerous works in drawing. I focus on color, texture, methodology of delivery, and composition. In composition, I am interested in positive space and negative space as well. I believe the painting/drawing is a manifestation of my emotional state of both conscious and unconscious feelings.