★★★ Soft Blocks ★★★

For 3 decades, Peter Hriso has worked as an artist and animator in various positions. He is a Professor of Digital Animation and coordinates the MA in Art and Design program at Kennesaw State University. He imparts his knowledge and expertise to students by teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in animation and motion design.

Peter Hriso has been a dedicated artist and animator for more than three decades, holding various positions in the field. He currently serves as a Professor of Digital Animation at Kennesaw State University, where he also coordinates the MA in Art and Design program. Through his teaching of animation and motion design courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, Peter shares his wealth of knowledge and expertise with his students.

My work investigates repetition, modularity, and rhythm within digital space, exploring how simple geometric forms can accumulate into complex architectural landscapes. Using 3D animation software, I construct layered systems of blocks and tiles that balance order with subtle irregularities. The interplay of opaque, translucent, and textured surfaces creates shifting patterns of light and depth, transforming static structures into dynamic visual experiences.

These compositions—ranging from stacked translucent panels to painted cubes and soft, fabric-like blocks—highlight the tension between rigidity and softness, as well as uniformity and variation. Each piece becomes a meditation on structure and fragility, evoking both digital precision and tactile materiality. By abstracting architectural and industrial references into playful, modular forms, I invite viewers to reflect on how repetition and variation shape the environments we inhabit, both in reality and in imagination.

★★★ Summer Days ★★★

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, four first-place awards as well and a second place in abstract photography. She has had two one-woman shows. One through Artel Gallery, and one through the University of Delaware. The Florida Museum of Photographic Art and the Pensacola Museum of Art have included her in shows. 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. Ms Newcomb’s work has been shown in public forums including the Montgomery International Airport, the Pensacola Beach Hilton, and the New York Times Square Jumbotron Billboard. At Pictorem, based out of Montreal, Canada, Lisa is a featured artist. Two books have also been presented Ms Newcomb. They are: “Nobis II, 2023,” and ”Emerald Coast Review, 2023.”

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. Lisa was a docent at the Pensacola and 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 there to your specifications. https://www.pictorem.com/profile/Lisa.Joy.Newcomb

Lisa Joy Newcomb creates photos as peaceful, playful, healing stimuli by drawing upon different objects and melding them into a unified whole. Part of her process is setting up compositions and visually weaving together beautiful glass, flowing fabric, and sometimes surprise elements with vibrant colors and patterns into integrated fluid formations, seeking to reshape light, pattern, and color into a visual oasis. Lisa then tightly crops and photographs. Her intent is to transcend and transform objects into images that visually excite while calming the soul and, at times, encourage reflection and introspection.

A lifelong passion for art and artists influenced Lisa’s work. She nods to Miriam Schapiro, a leader in the Pattern and Decoration Movement. Having lived much of her life by the shore, Lisa has always loved the play of light in watery reflections. She is drawn to artists who capture light; Stephen Rolfe Powell’s glass delights her. Mark Rothko believed in the visceral effect of color. He wanted people to have an experience within his pictures. Lisa, too, seeks to have her work viscerally affect the viewer.

★★★ Sunset Wine Sublime ★★★

Lynn Sposito was born and raised on Long Island, NY. Spending summer vacations in the upstate region of NY, Lynn found a deep connectedness to nature and her spirituality. It was then that her desire to share that love through art was born. Beneath the canopies of evergreens or sitting in the middle of the lake in the Adirondack Mountains, she painted and penned poetry. As a young mother reading picture books to her children, Lynn was inspired to create her bold technique of Painted Mâché, using hand-painted tissue paper for her unique creations.

Lynn is now located in Central Florida, USA. Her unique style of art has earned her recognition worldwide, receiving Awards of Merit for her art. She has been featured in several spotlight interviews such as Orlando Voyager Magazine and The Healing Power of Art and Artists. Lynn has showcased her artwork worldwide and her piece “Against the Odds” resides in the permanent collection in a private Museum in Athens, Greece.

Channeling energies inherent to life itself, I wish to ignite connections within my viewers through my art. I’m inspired by qualities illustrators engage within the pages of children’s books, captivated with movement & energy evoked through cuts of paper. Inspired, I experimented with the paper’s fragmentations. Through a collage process, art emerges reminiscent of stained glass & mosaics. Using tissue paper & different media, what I call “Painted Mâché” is born. Examining the natural world that binds us together, as the figurative dissolves into abstractions, I distance myself from reality, pushing towards the surreal. I unearth the intangible journeys we embark on, exploring symbolism & visual metaphors, unveiling the dichotomies of existence – love/ pain, night/day, life/death. Tapping into these terrestrial & spiritual energies, as boundless as the universe itself, I evoke emotions that resonate with viewers as individuals, a collective, & humans sharing this planet we call home.

★★★ Swimming Hole ★★★

Kylo-Patrick Hart is an award-winning photographer and chair of the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas, USA). He received his formal training in digital media arts while a student at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University, with additional instruction provided by offerings of the Maine Media Workshops and Santa Fe Workshops. His photographs have been exhibited in numerous cities throughout the United States and in several countries abroad.

Photography has been my passion since early childhood. My motivation is to discover and capture the beauty, even when it is not always readily self-evident, that surrounds us continuously in all areas of our everyday lives. I believe the finest images are those that are serious yet playful, aesthetically appealing yet a bit quirky. As both an artist and an admirer, my favorite photographs tend to be ones whose contents speak loudly for themselves — even when it is not immediately clear exactly what they are saying.

★★★ The Girl From Gambia ★★★

When I was in grade school and high school, I did a lot of art. I like to think it offered me an incredible foundation for what would come much later. In high school, I studied under Walt Bartman, doing oil painting primarily. I was accepted into the Maryland College of Art and Design on a figure drawing scholarship program that they offered to high school students when I was 16. After high school, I went on to pursue my other passion — helping people. I’ve spent the last 25 years working as a psychotherapist. Sometime in the middle of all of that, I had kids (twins), and eventually came back to drawing in 2017. What I do now is primarily self-taught, though I do feel my training and education as a child have created an invaluable foundation for my work today. I’ve watched countless hours of slowed-down YouTube videos and tutorials, and have spent thousands of hours drawing, practicing, and improving. It’s been a wonderful and challenging journey, and I’ve loved every minute of it! My goal moving forward is to continue to learn and challenge myself as I transition to art full-time. I feel the next step is to get my name out there to the art world. I have just recently started applying to calls via café, and have been accepted into a small handful of international juried shows. My goal as an artist is the same as my goal as a human — connection. I work to find the place where we all meet; that place where our differences recede, and we can settle in. That’s why I draw, to find that snapshot moment where someone can look at my art and go, Oh, yes. I know that feeling.

My artistic practice centers on portraiture—on drawing out the unseen essence of a subject and translating it through the delicate control of graphite. I explore the quiet power of detail—each mark is an invitation to slow down, to look closer, and to witness what is often overlooked. Every drawing is a form of deep listening, an act of attention that honors the emotional and psychological presence of the individual.

I believe hyperrealism, when pursued with discipline and sensitivity, becomes more than a replication of the visible world—it becomes a mirror, a bridge, and sometimes, a wound made visible. I’m fascinated by the complexity of the human face and the subtle interplay of light, texture, and expression that gives a portrait its emotional charge. As a psychotherapist, I’m naturally attuned to nuance, which shapes my artistic philosophy: that realism can reveal as much about the internal world as the external one. It allows me to build tonal depth slowly, almost sculpturally, honoring the patience, presence, and attention each subject deserves.

My goal as an artist is the same as my goal as a human — connection. I work to find the place where we all meet; that place where our differences recede, and we can settle in. That’s why I draw, to find that snapshot moment where someone can look at my art and go, Oh, yes. I know that feeling.

My style has evolved over the last eight years to a refined form of realism that balances technical control with expressive intent. I see art as a language, and my goal is to create a sense of atmosphere and feeling. I’m currently exploring new directions, including the integration of charcoal for its expressive depth and contrast. I’ve just completed my largest piece to date—a graphite portrait measuring three feet tall and two feet wide—which has expanded both my physical and emotional engagement with the medium, allowing space for story, intimacy, and connection.

My goal is to create drawings that don’t simply replicate life but evoke it—quietly, powerfully, and with honesty.

★★★ Towards The Unknown ★★★

Born and raised in the tough Italian neighborhood of Ducktown, Atlantic City, NJ, John Calabrese received his BA in Art from Catholic University, Washington, DC, his MFA in Painting and Drawing from Pratt Institute where he studied under George McNeil, and his Ph. D. in Comparative Arts from Ohio University, Athens.

He is Professor Emeritus of Art, at Texas Woman’s University where he taught art history, aesthetics, the history of film noir, and the art of Alfred Hitchcock, and was in charge of the art history study abroad program which he initiated in 1994. He has published articles on Paul Klee, J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, and Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” and “The Trouble with Harry.”

He has painted the boxer Joe Frazier and drawn portraits ion Frank Sinatra and Mickey Mantle. He had coffee with Joe Di Maggio and is a lifelong Yankee fan.

A delicate nuance of value and texture becomes tools in conveying powerful dramatic statements about earthly beings who are not afraid to wonder, dream, think, and take that one step beyond.

The inhabitants of the cosmic atmosphere appear at odds with their surroundings, (many of which are actual, specifically named astronomical objects). This is the result when the merely earthly confronts its unavoidable connection to the awe, mystery, and majesty of the heavens.
However, when fragile earthly beauty confronts sublime heavenly beauty, the earthly is reverently and silently humbled.

★★★ Universal Quest ★★★

Raffi Bashlian’s photography beautifully weaves together themes of resilience and the complexity of human experiences. With a rich cultural background from cities like San Francisco, London, New York, and now Paris, Raffi infuses his art with a global perspective. His dual roles as a clinician and researcher lend depth to his visual narratives, allowing him to capture emotional nuances with scientific precision. The stark contrasts he observed during Lebanon’s civil war—where destruction meets renewal—serve as a powerful backdrop for his storytelling.

Through his lens, Raffi reveals the hidden beauty in everyday life, encouraging viewers to appreciate both the simplicity and intricacies of existence. Each image he captures symbolizes survival and transformation, inspiring hope and resilience in those who engage with his work. His art transcends traditional photography, creating an immersive tapestry of cultural narratives that foster connection and reflection, celebrating the essence of life and the extraordinary stories within ordinary moments.

Raffi’s award-winning portfolio spans diverse genres, ignited by a transformative safari experience in Africa in 2013. From the majesty of wildlife to urban architecture and vibrant street scenes, his keen eye captures unique moments that tell compelling stories. His understanding of composition, timing, and gesture reveals a passion for symmetry and balance, whether in striking black and white or vibrant colors. For Raffi, photography is not just about capturing images; it’s about seeing the world through a fresh lens and expressing his artistic voice. Each photograph reflects his commitment to uncovering the beauty and complexity of everyday life, inviting us to discover hidden treasures in the most unexpected places.

In the “Where Worlds Meet” exhibition, my photographic series explores the dynamic interplay of urban landscapes and the ethereal realms of imagination. I have always been very curious about our wonderful world and what it visually offers. What fascinates me about photography is the ability to start a narrative, while leaving it open for interpretation by the viewer. My work ranges from abstract compositions to simple and straightforward images. When I witness a scene, I strive to visualize it as I experience it, seeking the perfect angle and patiently waiting for the ideal moment and lighting to capture it. This process can be spontaneous or require hours of dedication. Photography not only feeds my imagination but also excites my mind. It takes me to beautiful places, both physically and spiritually. I find it to be a therapeutic and fulfilling art form. I hope you enjoy my work and find your own stories within it.

Through these works, I aim to build bridges across perceived divides, inspiring audiences to embrace the multifaceted nature of connectivity and coexistence. My artistic vision seeks to celebrate the beauty and complexity that emerges when different worlds, identities, and elements meet, intertwine, and coexist within the realm of artistic expression.

★★★ Untitled ★★★

Meet Sue Anderson, the creative force behind Susan Locke Photography. Susan is a talented photographer with a passion for capturing the beauty of the world around us. Her work is a celebration of the natural world and the moments that make life special.

Susan’s love of photography began at a young age when she received her first camera as a gift. Over the years, she has honed her skills, experimenting with different techniques and styles to create stunning images that capture the essence of her subjects.

Susan’s photography is characterized by its timeless beauty and attention to detail. Her images are infused with a sense of wonder and awe, and they transport viewers to a world of beauty and tranquility. Whether she is capturing the majesty of a mountain landscape or a surreal world, Susan’s photographs are a testament to the power of art to evoke emotion and inspire us to see the world in new ways.

My dreams and the fantastical world of my imagination serve as the sources of my inspiration. I enjoy capturing the essence of my playful view of the world and transforming it into fun photographic compositions that are both captivating and thought-provoking. I invite the viewer to explore the depths of their imagination and to embrace the surreal and magical aspects of life. I aim to produce magical, enchanted, and wonder-filled images that take viewers to a realm where anything is conceivable.

★★★ Untitled 3 ★★★

I am a first-generation Ecuadorian American artist, born and raised with a passion for creativity. From a young age, I was drawn to the vibrant world of graffiti, a love that not only shaped my artistic vision but also led me to win multiple competitions, including mural contests. In high school, I was honored to be voted “Most Artistic,” an acknowledgment that fueled my desire to pursue art in all its forms.

With a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, I developed a strong foundation in design and structure, which seamlessly blends into my work as both an artist and a third-generation stone mason. I am the owner of Art in Stone Masonry and Design, a company that specializes in creating one-of-a-kind stone works, combining my architectural skills with my family’s craftsmanship traditions.

Painting has always been an integral part of my life. While I’ve explored various styles, my current focus is abstract painting, where I express emotion and energy through color, texture, and form. My art is a reflection of my journey, influenced by my cultural roots, my experiences in the world of architecture, and my family’s legacy in stone masonry. Through my paintings, I seek to capture the essence of life, movement, and the beauty found in both the seen and unseen.

As an avid traveler, my work is deeply influenced by new experiences, unfamiliar landscapes, and fleeting encounters. I am drawn to abstract faces—sometimes inspired by people I meet along the way, but more often, reflections of myself. Each piece becomes a visual diary, capturing emotions, moments, and memories that words cannot fully express.

My process is intuitive and unrestrained. I begin by emptying my mind, allowing color to lead the way. The shades and tones I choose are often those that stood out to me during my travels—vivid hues from a bustling city, muted earth tones from a quiet desert, or the unexpected contrast of light and shadow. Using brushes, spray paint, or scraping techniques, I layer and distort until a face emerges, raw and undefined, yet deeply familiar.

I believe my best work comes when I stop thinking and simply let it flow. In that space of pure instinct, I find truth—not just in the faces I create, but in the connection between movement, memory, and emotion.