Inner Child Runs The Streets With Bboy Howdy Doody

James is a self-taught artist whose style is raw and unique, and sometimes perplexing in that it doesn’t necessarily fit into many if any categories, Well before the days of outsider Art… Yet given his Midwestern blue-collar back he persisted and eventually found a niche for his commercial work (to eat) and his fine Art (to breathe) Entering shows all over the United States from Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, Miami, New York winning awards and creating murals, he is proud to say he is a signature member American Watercolor Society NYC and has a painting in the permanent collection of The Racine Art Museum over 45 years of showing at Watercolor Wisconsin.

Inner Thoughts

My name is Haley Justitz. As an artist, my work is a reflection of my own experiences and emotions, as well as an attempt to connect with the world around me on a deeper level. I studied at the University of North Texas, graduating with a major in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. I have been a participant in many art events, including the Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair, Oddities and Curiosities Expo, as well as multiple smaller events around DFW.

As an artist, I am constantly exploring the interplay between the tangible and the intangible, the seen and the unseen. My work is a reflection of my own experiences and emotions, as well as an attempt to connect with the world around me on a deeper level.

I primarily work in painting, charcoal, and colored pencils, each medium offering its own unique possibilities and challenges. In my paintings, I aim to capture the essence of a moment or a feeling, using color and texture to evoke a sense of atmosphere and mood. With charcoal, I enjoy the immediacy and rawness of the medium, and often use it to create bold, expressive sketches and studies. Painting, meanwhile, allows me to incorporate a tactile element into my work, bringing a sense of softness and intimacy to my pieces.

While my subjects and themes vary, a common thread in my work is an interest in exploring the complexities and contradictions of human experience. I am drawn to moments of beauty and fragility, as well as moments of tension and discomfort. Through my art, I strive to create a space for reflection and contemplation, inviting viewers to engage with the emotions and ideas that underpin my work.

Ultimately, my hope is that my art serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of all things, and encourages a deeper sense of empathy and understanding in those who encounter it.

Innocence

Carina Imbrogno is a disabled self-taught award-winning inspirational artist who began her art at the age of 40 in 2015. I enjoy drawing portraits of people children pets and wildlife animals the most. I also enjoy still lives and landscapes. She is a walking miracle who has defeated death many times. She suffers from a genetic disorder called Elhers Danlos Syndrome kyphoscoliosis type. Due to this disease only being discovered in 2015 Carina’s spine collapsed twice having to endure many life-saving surgeries. She has two rods and twenty-six screws holding my spine. She also suffers from learning disabilities including ADHD. She found her passion in art late in life and feels it’s never too late to do what you are meant to do. She feels she is being guided by God to inspire others that are in a similar situation. Carina enjoys the style of realism. She can work in many different mediums. Three years ago she discovered pastels and that became her medium of choice. She has created over 140 works of art since 2015. She enjoys depicting children because of her inability to ever have them. She also enjoys depicting people, pets, wildlife, landscapes, nature, still lives, and botanicals. She is inspired by the old masters. Her art is a form of therapy that saved her life and also a way to inspire others with her inspirational miraculous story.

I enjoy drawing and painting in a realistic style. I’m inspired by the art of the old masters. I’m also very drawn to Flemish and Dutch art. I love incorporating dark backgrounds in my work. I can work in many mediums but my medium of choice is pastels. I have recently started teaching myself how to paint in acrylics. I enjoy drawing portraits of people children pets and wildlife animals. I also enjoy still lives and landscapes. I enjoy depicting many different subjects.

Innocent L

Takayoshi Ueda was born in Japan, in 1969 and currently lives and works in Wakayama, Japan.

Learning oil painting at an art school in Kyoto, he was captivated by the beauty of monochrome paint software he experienced while studying there and began creating with a computer in 1994.

Ueda’s major exhibitions of his artwork include the 2006 solo exhibition of his earliest masterpiece in NY as well as participation in art fairs in more than 12 countries across the U.S. and Asia, like the Asia Digital Art Award (Awarded Still Images Division Grand Prize) at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, ART EXPO NEW YORK, and Red Dot Miami.

Attempting to break away from the general tendency of CG images to have an artificial and inorganic feel, Ueda’s artwork is dubbed “Digilo-graphy”, which started from the utilization of the texture of hand-painted input material which is then digitally processed and combined before being printed onto canvas, and in 2008, his art style evolved after he started making elaborate digital collages that form different animals and plants using those same materials.

Based on the idea that he stumbled upon during the process of making illustrations for his silent book in 2007, that is to present each page as an independent planar art, he arranged its composition according to the Japanese art style while adding Asian regional tastes to the coloring and combined them with the Western perception of shapes and space, aiming to form a visual image that allows the local individual artist to communicate with global audiences on a level that transcends cultural barriers.

Ueda is mainly influenced and inspired by the Art of the Edo Period, such as the Rinpa School and Jakuchu ITO apart from the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism as well as Pieter Bruegel of the Northern Renaissance.

I create digital collages based on the concept of “harmony arising from the aggregation of diverse individuals and unity in dissonance”. The pieces are made using randomly created materials such as drawings, and combining them with different materials, connecting them visually into a single form. Every character is based on a familiar plant or animal, while at the same time is flexible, rich in variety, and highly rigid.

Unlike the traditional spiritual and occult images of Asia or the anti-naturalist expressions of the West, the atypical forms I use have been influenced by the Choju Jinbutsu Giga ( Animal-person Caricatures of East Asia in the mid-12c ), which were drawn in between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Japan, and the eighteenth-century artist Jakuchu ITO ( Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period, 18c ), especially their comical expressions, and flat, precise depictions, with the addition of slightly over-exaggerated facial expressions and movements, which give the characters presence and compatibility with their surroundings.

Each form that I create is made up of a collection of many different pieces that carry unique information, and once they connect like parts to the whole, analogous to continuous synapses, they construct a unique and dynamic space where harmony and chaos co-exist on the whole screen as the result of a meta-digital collage.
This screen composition hints at the globalization and integration of all aspects of our society in this digitally connected world. Moreover, it could also be said that the piece is a visual simulation of a new symbiotic space.

I hope the viewer will project themselves onto this virtual image and imagine the shapes of their future through their interaction with it based on their own individual perceptions.

Inside Looking Out State Hospital

I am a primarily self-taught photographer living in Mid-Michigan. I migrated from film to digital photography about fifteen years ago, which was a catalyst to becoming much more serious about the craft, as well as marking the beginning of publicly exhibiting my photos. Since retiring from a professional career about 5 years ago, I have more actively explored the technical and creative sides of this media. I have exhibited widely and have earned recognition in local, regional, and national exhibitions. My photographs are also included in several corporate and private collections.

I am attracted to a wide variety of subjects ranging from natural landscapes, botanicals, and wildlife to images that provide either abstract expression or social commentary. I am interested in sharing images that evoke a story of some kind. Images may be simply documentary, reflect a sense of time and place, or resonate on a more abstract level of color, shape, or form. Others provoke an indefinable question that does not readily yield answers without further study and reflection. Most often I am drawn back to images created while wandering through the back roads and small towns of the upper Midwest. These images of architecture, commerce, and social life often reflect a mixture of nostalgia and a changing set of forces that shape life in the heartlands.

Insight

Starting my artistic journey in 2020 I was sitting around during quarantine inspired to get back to my passion for art. I started drawing at 5 years old after watching Dragon Ball Z for the first time I was constantly doodling in my notebooks just random images because I couldn’t get enough of it.

Eventually, college came and I took on jobs and lost the time, not the passion, but the time to draw which then limited my art to doodles in my notebook during lectures since as long as I could remember I’ve had a hard time maintaining my focus.

Then at 30, I decided on a new journey, a journey of rediscovering my passion for art and exploring the possibilities. I am grateful for this opportunity to express myself and connect with others through my art. I may make mistakes along the way, but I believe that those mistakes are part of the learning process, and they will help me grow as an artist. Thank you for joining me on this journey, and I hope to create something that resonates with you.

Being an engineer since 2017 has shown me that the need for a creative outlet outside of the structure of my job was well needed. Turning back to the first and only thing to have me truly sit still and be present in the moment I found this outlet in art and it has me truly feeling that this is my true purpose. I hope that you all enjoy the process and continue growing as I continue to venture into this journey of turning my outlet into my everyday life.

Inspirational

Babler’s work has been juried into: GALEX 59 National Competition and Exhibition 2026; Maryland Federation of juried “In the City” 2026: Anderson 2025-26 Winter Exhibition; 38th September Competition Juried Exhibit Alexandria Museum of Art; “After Dark 2025”, “Fall Juried Exhibit 2025”, and “Reflecting 2025”– Maryland Federation of Art; 38th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition; “In the City” exhibit juror Christina Gomez (Art Institute Chicago); North American Print Biennial juror Elizabeth M. Rudy (Associate Curator of Prints Harvard Art Museums, Boston); Dubuque Museum of Art Biennial juror Pamela Hugdahl (Rochester Art Center); Rockford Art Museum Biennial Juried Exhibit of Contemporary Artists; Andrew James Wulf, Ph.D. (Director – Albany Museum of Art); Gary Freeburg (Professor/Director of Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University); Amanda C. Burdan (Associate Curator – Brandywine River Museum of Art); Christiane Paul (Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art); Felice Frankel (Science photographer/research scientist); Malcolm Daniel (Curator of Photographs – Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC); Kenneth Baker (Art Critic, San Francisco Chronicle); William Lieberman, Director of Zolla/Lieberman Gallery – Chicago; Annette Carlozzi (Sr. Curator Blanton Museum of Art); Dr. Jefferson Harrison (Chief Curator Chrysler Museum of Art); Charlotta Kotik (Curator of Contemporary Art Brooklyn Museum of Art); David Houston (Chief Curator –Ogden Museum of Southern Art); Dr. Russell Panczenko (Museum of Art, Madison Wisconsin); Siri Engberg (Walker Art Center); Stephen Phillips (Phillips Collection – Washington DC); Sam Gilliam; and Ed Paschke.

A Ragdale Residency Fellow, a juried member of the Illinois Arts Council’s Arts-In-Education Roster, and she has exhibited at Northwestern University, Concordia University, Rockford Art Museum, and the Alexandria Museum of Art. She was a fine art consultant for Grumbacher/Prismacolor, along with developing a program for Blick Art. Her artwork is in corporate, university, and private art collections.

My sense of observation and sound are central to my creative perspective. Fortunate to live near one of the Great Lakes, I marvel at the colors, textures, and movements found in nature. In my submission “Inspirational,” the visual surface has distinct sections from the graduations of soft color of the sky moving into rolling waves and finally linear ripples of water near the shore. Nature is a feast for an artist’s interpretation. Another major influence in my work is music – I play the piano and the harp, and my studio is filled with music as I work. “Allegro” is a free-spirited mixed media piece where I let my joy of music take over the composition. There is movement, as colors and shapes swirl into one another.

Inspired By Dutch Art

Dmitry is a Professional Artist Specializing in Water Medium and Mosaic Art with more than 35 years of experience. Dmitry started his art career in early childhood taking art classes then going to art college and continuing to higher education. Art was always a natural way for Dmitry to express himself and to communicate to the world.

He’s been participating in many National and International Shows since Art Institute graduation. Studying Art History visiting Museums and taking workshops Dmitry was discovering his favorite painting concept. A long list of inspiring artists includes Amadeo Modigliani, Georges Braque, Pavel Filonov, and Gustav Klimpt.

For the last 35 years, Dmitry has lived in the Bay Area California. He is a Signature Member of several Art Societies. The local landscapes here remind him of native Uzbekistan’s landscapes. Traveling around, observing nature, and meeting new people inspired him to create paintings.

Education:
Dmitry was educated in Russia and holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Tashkent Art Institute. This intensive training exposed him to a broad range of artistic styles, building on a strong foundation in classical Western European art traditions with stylistic infusions from Asia Minor. Tashkent Institute of Art, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, USSR, Master of Fine Arts, with specialization in the design of monumental and decorative art 1974 Tashkent Art College, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, USSR, Bachelor of Arts in Education, with specialization as Teacher of Art and Drafting 1969.

Creating art is a pillar that gives Dmitry Grudsky strength and meaning in life, comforts him in difficult moments, and motivates him. Dmitry’s art is a journey that mirrors his reactions to the world, emotions, feelings, and obsessions. The context of his work changes as time passes on. Currently, Dmitry Grudsky is fascinated by performers acting on the stage, in studio settings, or in urban environments. In the portraiture genre, Dmitry likes to paint storytelling portraits that relate to the viewer and create a dialogue. Dmitry Grudsky works in a water medium, encompassing traditional watercolor techniques and mixed medium art. It is determined by the particular project that calls for a specific structure or textural approach. Dmitry believes that he achieves his best painting result when his inspiration comes from real-life observation, real characters, or circumstances in which he was personally involved.

Integration

Natalya is originally from Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. She adored lessons in fine arts at an art school, so she decided to continue her studies at the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical Institute to become a teacher of drawing and drafting.

While studying at the institute, Natalya also worked in a design art workshop. The studio brought together artists of different levels. There, she learned how to design tablets, signboards, wall paintings, and Petrikivka folk paintings. After graduation, she wanted to go to work in a school. But life worked itself out in its way, and she moved to America.

In America, she worked in enterprises not related to art. But painting has always been important and she worked on it in parallel. She attended exhibitions, museums, and galleries. She met other artists and was introduced to different artistic expressions. In 2006 she went to work at a Russian-speaking school. She taught painting classes for children and adults. She also organized master classes using different materials. But only in 2021, she decided to completely go into painting and art. And since then, she has made it her career as an independent artist.

My artistic experimentation is driven by my love of nature and the beauty found within its rhythmic flow, vivid colors, dynamic forms, and essential essence. I’m a self-taught fluid acrylic artist who draws inspiration from the sky, water, and earth’s minerals, using their natural color palette to create paintings that are both calming and inspiring. Each piece begins with the abstraction of everyday life and imagination, which is then shaped by my emotional responses and evolving interests. My intuitive style reflects my feelings and views of the world, making my art an intensely satisfying and freeing experience. I find inspiration in all styles and genres of art, and my creative process involves multiple layers of paint, swiping, scratching, and gestural brushwork. Creating is integral to my life, and I frequently favorite places to observe, sense, and draw from nature’s beauty. My work is about capturing a moment in time with vibrant colors and details that resonate with the viewer. Through my art, I celebrate life and our participation in it, allowing viewers to appreciate the beauty of light, form, and color, and make new and unexpected insights.