Home Sweet Home
Winston Harrell Jr. was born in Oceanside California in 1958 but he grew up in Chicago Illinois in 1960. He started his art career at the age of fourteen. In 1970 he participated in Chicago’s Mayor Daley’s Summer Youth Program for inner city youth in 1972.
The program focused on teaching neighborhood inner-city children the value of art through the creation of Murals. To better fuel his curiosity for Art he later enrolled in a two-year correspondence Art course for commercial artists thru Art Instruction Schools located in Minneapolis Minnesota. Where he learned the finer principles of Art and illustration. As his creative desire for learning Art continued and grew he completed the A.S. program for Culinary Arts at Le Cordon Bleu of Chicago in 1997. To better equip himself with the changing world of digital art and graphic design he enrolled in the Visual Communication Program for graphic designers at Westwood College Atlanta Georgia in 2006. He received an A.S. in computer graphics and design in 2008. In 2011 he attended the Art Institute of Phoenix for 2 1/2 years where he received comprehensive training as a illustrator. He currently showcases his Artwork at Jarrod’s Tea House and Art Gallery in Mesa and at Whatzit and Whoozit Retail Outlet in Phoenix Arizona 2023. He also exhibits his Collection of home decor items every month at Art & Chill in Mesa.
In addition, he teaches an Art/exercise class for the developmentally disabled 3 days a week and is an active member of the Arizona Artist Guild, Art Link, and the American Art Award. His Artwork has been featured in Voyage magazine, Current World Masters publications, Astonish magazine, SpotLight Magazine, and Local Mesa News.
Former Chef and American illustrator from Mesa Arizona that creates illustrations and graphic designs.
Home Windows
Ruth Petersen Shorer was born in Coney Island and raised in New York City. She always knew art was her life. Ruth received her BFA in Sculpture, a minor in painting from Pratt Institute in New York after attending the Rhode Island School of Design and the High School of Music and Art in NYC. She has lived most of her adult life in the Bay Area of California. A mother and an artist, she has worked as a graphic designer, educator, and director. Currently, Ruth’s focus is painting on a variety of surfaces, reflecting inner and outer world struggles and joys. She has worked in ceramic sculpture, mixed media, acrylic monotypes, and a variety of paints. Ruth’s work combines strong design, innovative techniques, and personal vision. There is always room for the unexpected. Beginning with ideas, she allows the piece to take on its own life, without too much pressure of outcome. She believes technique is important, it permits the viewer to connect with the work. Much of her art is narrative, it tells a story, some of which relates to personal history. The expressionistic works were created as a reflection on the dichotomies of life – the joy of family and the sorrow of loss; lives touched by both exhilaration and frustration. Intensity is felt through the depth of color and form as well as the content. The works are passionate, inspiring, and emotionally rich, much like life. Though experience is unique to each of us, others can empathize and relate to her journey through their own situations. Feelings are universal.
My revealing narrative artwork captures powerful universal feelings created by the dichotomies of life. The intensity of the experience is felt through the depth of color, form, and content. My expressive pieces are passionate and inspiring, much like life. I start with a concept and let my inner world and the piece take over. The works evoke a time and place in my life, the stories of life. Yet, others have told me the scenes bring back their own experiences and memories. The personal becomes universal.
The Chasm Series and related images are politically, socially, and emotionally motivated. Our world has changed in ways we never imagined. Many of us vacillate between efforts to connect and emersion in isolation. Cloaks are representative of security, one can hide, be enfolded, or be seen. They can keep others out, or one can invite them in.
The Fire series (on the website) is an exploration, explosion, and implosion of life. It is a dance of color and light; in the darkness, we need to appreciate the light. From drawings, paintings, and mixed media on a variety of surfaces, the pieces explore imagery, content, and new media. Recent works are challenging, experimental, planned, and spontaneous.
Born in NYC and a Californian by choice. My fingerprints are distinctive across the many mediums I use to express myself and hopefully reach others. My work has been shown in juried shows, fine art galleries, private collections, and museums throughout the country.
Homegrown
J. White Burton, a self-taught artist, is best known for her faceless family series that deconstructs the African American experience into a universal and spiritual theme allowing the viewer to unpack stored images memories, and feelings. Born in Mobile, Alabama, she was fascinated as a child by the bright bold colors on display during Mardi Gras and grateful for the neighborhood village that shaped her respect for family, for elders, and authentic people, all of which are reflected in her works. Burton was also greatly influenced by local artist Alexander Moore as a child. His attention to detail captivated her and gave a spiritual command to give attention to the details in every painting, She likes to work in series be they specific colors like her “Women in Redd” and Blue Angels” or black and white like her “Legends” or “Authentic Heroes” series. Her work is simplistic and honest and tends to strike an emotional chord with family, community, belonging, and the human condition. She pushes to keep the value of mankind alive. Burton works primarily in acrylics on canvas and India Ink on paper. Since 2007 she has been a member of and exhibited with Women Painters West, the oldest women’s painting group on the West Coast. She has also exhibited in various galleries across the U.S., done numerous commissions, and has won awards for her paintings.
Throughout my life’s journey, I have come to an immense appreciation for musicians, authentic men, angels in my life, strong women, seniors, and my Southern upbringing. So my series of paintings reflects my feelings on all of these subjects. Like a musician who plays what he/she feels, I paint exactly what I feel.
“Homegrown” is about a young man walking in the footsteps of his farming ancestors while thriving in a modern world.
Homo Desperat Se
I was born and raised in southern WV, the son of a coal miner and dental assistant, I grew up around a few hundred people and lived 20 minutes from a town of just over 7,000. I was educated at Marshall University, achieving a BFA with a focus on painting in 2010, becoming the first in my immediate family to obtain a higher education. I currently reside and work in Columbus Ohio as an artist and full-stack programmer.
I have been influenced heavily by Cubism, with the style forming a strong point of personal history in my maturation and understanding of modern art as it compelled me to look past the typical art I was exposed to and view more abstract and challenging pieces. I also draw heavily from the Impressionist and Fauvist masters that came to drive my research in undergrad and this combination of influences creates a desire in me to re-contextualize the subject viewing plane to create a multi-faceted plane of shape and color.
Currently, with my pieces, I strive to use classical figures and traditions in a contemporary manner, to turn an ever-mindful eye towards the history of art to reinterpret current social events. This hope to tackle the subject matter with an eye towards social consciousness has led me to strive and push my limitations with various media, experimenting to find some way to comment on and attempt to tackle modern issues through art.
Honey Bee
She was born in a small town in Turkey. She attended elementary school, secondary school, and high school in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. She could not go to college and started working. At the age of 20, she moved to a seaside town, and that’s when she realized she loved painting. She gave birth to her first child, but the baby only lived for three days. She tried to get through this pain by painting. Most of the time, she conveyed her pain to her paintings and comforted them. When she opened a café and started running it, she exhibited her paintings in her workplace for the first time she did it as an amateur. She was painting without training. Years later, she took three years of lessons from an Art teacher in town. She learned to be original and use her imagination to paint, light, and shadow.
After living in that town for many years, she immigrated to the big city of Istanbul. She was attending exhibitions in Istanbul, making friends, and learning new techniques from them. She has organized many exhibitions. She started painting in a workshop with some friends. The texture experiments were doing their paintings in 3D. When she started a picture, she did texture and then reminiscent. They started selling these paintings through a company in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Cyprus. She painted over 5,000 paintings in three years. She was awarded a certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism indicating that her paintings were worth a work of art. In 2018, she moved to New Jersey, USA with her husband and daughter. Now she is in the city where she loves to paint. Songul Terlemez has two 1st prizes, one 2nd prize, and one 3rd prize in various competitions held in Canada, an online exhibition catalog.
Painting is my language, it is more effective than words. I can express myself better by painting more than the words.
My style is surreal and figurative abstract. I prefer to use female figures in my artwork.
After the first figure appears on canvas all happens spontaneously, sometimes painting becomes different than I plan. I love to feel myself in the changing.
The rendezvous of brush and canvas is full of surprises for me. The colors change according to the subject. Sometimes I can describe myself only blue and tones, sometimes riot of colors. I employ oil, acrylic, acrylic ink, and texture techniques on canvas. I feel more comfortable practicing on large sizes like walls.
When I start work, first look at the canvas and imagine the painting. Sometimes it takes a whole day across the empty canvas. Then everything appeared in my head and ready to paint. Mostly I create more than one canvas. Works change many times till they finish. I prefer to use female figurative because women are threatened by violence, injustice, and sexism in most cultures.
I intend to show the strength of a woman even when she is broken, the sacrifice of a mother for her children and human beings, and her colorful character to the audience.
“I want to leave a sign of life with my art!”
Hope Factory_Hidden Blossom In Your Heart Is Ready To Bloom
Yoonjung Lee, a sculptural painter based in Baltimore, MD, weaves captivating narratives through her artwork, exploring the depths of mental health. She has earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and her MFA in Multidisciplinary Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Lee has been selected in 11 solo and 32 group exhibitions and fairs throughout the US, Asia, and Europe by galleries such as Ilho and Cyart in Seoul, the Rosenberg and Nomu Nomu in Maryland, and Red Gate galleries in Beijing, China. She has attended various artist residencies around Europe and Asia, including the NES Artist Residency in Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, China, and Thailand. Through her professional and academic career, her painting methodology rapidly evolved from monochrome to heavy impasto.
Yoonjung Lee uses her sculptural paintings as narrative pieces to discuss topics of mental health. She is passionate about exploring the concepts of self-acceptance, making choices, and inspiring the blossoming of new possibilities. By depicting multiple faces within a single portrait, Lee is able to portray diverse perspectives, and emotions and pique curiosity about the many elements within the piece.
She begins by layering acrylic paint to create scenes of realistic fairy tales. Lee’s creative process is a combination of happy coincidences and carefully planned, intentional movements of meditation and writing. With a thick layer of acrylic paint on the canvas, Lee uses her hands to manipulate and form basic shapes. She then uses a palette knife, brush, or any nearby sharp tool to layer fine details and writing throughout the piece. The writings within her pieces are subtle and cryptic, like a private conversation that’s being overheard but not fully understood. By layering movements and adding small details, Lee creates a rough shape that gradually builds into a path to the unique imagination. There are many uncanny aspects hidden throughout the piece that will lead the viewer on a personal journey.
Lee’s work evokes introspection within the viewer, forcing them to think about how they perceive the world around them and to question their positive or negative perspectives. Her work expresses that there is always a brighter side to seemingly dark situations like the two sides of a coin. The chains used throughout her pieces show that it’s possible to break our self-imposed boundaries and limitations, allowing us to seek new possibilities. The characters inside the painting are seducing viewers to follow them. However, we always need to find out if that hand is the right one to choose.
Will you follow them?
What kind of choice will you make?
Hope2
As an emerging artist, I must admit that I have had a casual appreciation of art for many years. I received a favorable response on car design sketches that I sent to Ford. I was encouraged to go to school for art. In high school, some of my artwork was exhibited at a university. I took a different path, joining the Navy and entering the I.T. industry for over 30 years.
As an artist, I embrace the vibrant interplay of color and form, inviting viewers to explore the emotional landscape that emerges in my work. My artistic practice is fueled by a passion for capturing the beauty of nature and everyday moments through various mediums, from drawing to painting to photography. Each piece I create unfolds like a story, blending the natural elements of sunsets and oceans with a playful typography that adds a personal touch.
I am continuously inspired by the world around me—the colors of the sky at dusk, the rhythm of ocean waves, and the patterns that life creates. This inspiration translates into a bold color palette and dynamic compositions that resonate with joy and serenity. I aim to express the connection between the viewer and the essence of the scene.
Hopeless
I am a member of a highly acclaimed camera club in New Jersey. We have monthly competitions with well-known photographers judging our work and giving valuable insight into each piece. This helps push me forward with my photography, to see it through another’s eyes. My work is sold in an art gallery and boutique in Medford New Jersey, the Medford Art Center. They have a new gallery show monthly, where I have won placements often. My most recent one was first place for their “All About Flowers” juried exhibit. I’ve gotten several pieces accepted into HMVC Gallery shows, which is very exciting, being a native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn and raised there for half of my life. My world is photography. I feel photography is my voice, my heart, and my way of expressing my deepest feelings. It’s also something I love to do because it inspires others to look at a piece they can relate to and feel a strong connection. That’s so important to me. I have gone through much grief in my lifetime and photography is what gets me through that pain, often shooting in cemeteries as I see beautiful large angel statues, reminding me of the life to come and giving me hope. I started out as a sketch artist but found photography to be so much more fulfilling.
I am a creative photographer, yet I do not use AI. I shoot all my work and after I find the right image, I like to play around in Photoshop to make a one-of-a-kind creation that expresses the feelings and emotions I am working to achieve. I love shooting beautiful nature and wildlife scenes as well, but my creative side enjoys making artistic changes to express what I am trying to convey in my work. It’s important to me that I create images that others can relate to, to find a commonality or touch an emotion they have been experiencing. That is what is most fulfilling to me.
Horizon
Shavit Vos, Photographer. Mum to 3 boys. Was born in Kibbutz Zikim. Today lives in the City of Ramat Gan, Israel.
Photography is her great passion and love for the last couple of years and it’s her everyday activity. This is the way for her to express her art and creativity.
Shavit creates images to make emotional clay impressions of the things she sees. Her ambition is to be original, unique and to have cleanliness and accuracy in her works.
Shavit came from an artistic and creative family, her mother is a quilt artist, and her sisters are ceramics sculptural artists. In her youth, she remembers her dad has always been engaged in film & photo slide photography.
Shavit was always drawn to art, in high school she studied industrial design and art. Since high school traveling & photography were her loves and she always had her camera with her. Over the years she was engaged in painting and creating silver & gold jewelry.
In 2018 Shavit began to study photography, learning and exploring various photography categories & techniques: Nature & landscape, street, dancers, fashion & beauty, studio and lighting, night and stars photography, macro, infrared photography, ICM & underwater photography.
In 2020 Shavit bought her first professional Sony camera, and since then her love and passion for photography continue to grow, she persisted to study various photography technics in various frameworks including self-learning.
Since 2020, Shavit is taking part in photography exhibitions around the world in galleries in the USA, Greece, Vietnam, France, England, Germany & Israel.
Her Artwork gets great appreciation and love.
Photography is my greatest passion and love for the last couple of years.
My art is a journey of self-discovery and self-expression. It is the process by which I choose to explore the people, things, and world around me.
Photography for me is a way of capturing unique moments in time that will never be repeated. It is the greatest reward when a viewer connects with an image emotionally. My work, whether it be portraits, landscapes, animals, or still life, is most successful when it speaks to celebrating the richness of life.
I create images to make emotional clay impressions of the things I see and use different techniques to generate my images: such as light and shadows, guiding lines, movement, texture, colors, form & shape.
I think of My photographs as creations, I want to capture a moment and add my own vision to My creation. This is My way of creating My own unique art, I’m always looking to be original & different.