Key To Happiness

Lana Matskiv (née Svetlana Galkina) was born in Ukraine and underwent rigorous training in structural drawing and constructivist style of rendering under the instruction of Oleh Nedoshytko, Odesa Ukraine. After the completion of the Fine Art Foundations program at George Brown College, Lana continues to hone the mastery of her craft through the French Atelier method at the Toronto Academy of Realist Art.

Lana is a member of the Ukrainian Association of Visual Artists of Canada and the Women’s Art Association of Canada. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation and on display at the Ukrainian Consulate in Toronto, as well as in private and corporate collections in Canada, the USA, and Ukraine. In 2022, Lana’s work received an honorable mention and was chosen as a selected exhibitor at The Art Preservation Institute. As a Ukrainian-Canadian artist, she auctioned her works at Waddington’s Auctions and donated money to support Ukraine. A figurative symbolist painter, Lana depicts moments of transition in people’s lives, as she believes that these are moments when people defy the gravity of their comfort zone, rebel against conformity, and choose a path that requires courage, integrity, and a sense of adventure.

Hope lives forever it is never late for happiness is the theme of this graphic work, rendered in graphite on paper and embellished with elements of collage, with the use of handmade paper, and semi-precious stones (onyx and opal).

Kiara

Even at an early age, Marissa has shown an enthusiasm for illustration. She can recall spending hours creating and illustrating stories inspired by the many books her parents shared with her. That inspiration has led her to some of her greatest artistic passions, including children’s book illustration and portraiture.

Marissa earned her BFA in Illustration at the Hartford Art School in Connecticut, where she found new inspiration in her professors. While there, she received many distinctions for her work, including the best portfolio in each of her departmental portfolio reviews. She has also had the honor of having her work featured in numerous exhibitions, including the Society of Illustrators Annual Student Scholarship Competition in New York City.

Since graduating from Hartford Art School, Marissa has continued to follow her passion as a freelance illustrator and portrait artist. After completing her first children’s book illustration project, she went on to be featured in numerous publications and television appearances. Her projects have included collaborations with ESPN, as well as creating illustrations for Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s yearly concert production “Tales of Halloween”.

My artwork is very much inspired by visual storytelling. The thing I love most is capturing my subject’s likeness through vitalizing details – both on the surface of the artwork, as well as the narrative behind it.

I often use a mixed media approach combining acrylic and colored pencils. Working this way combines the freedom of laying bold washes with the tight control of drawing. As the piece is built up in many thin layers, I can carefully explore all the details. Quilting these details together as a visual story is where I find my greatest artistic passion.

Kicking Up Her Little Heels On An Outing With Dad

Sylvia Bandyke, Royal Oak, MI, USA, is largely a self-taught photographer, having taken studio and art history classes in college. She began her art career by displaying photo collages in ArtPrize, an independent international art competition in Grand Rapids, MI, from 2014 to 2018. Subsequently, she has been juried into more than 100 group exhibitions in 24 states and accepted into numerous online international exhibitions. An awarded artist, she keeps an eye open for interesting views of a subject while looking for hidden beauty every day. Most recently, she was a caregiver to her elderly mother and was able to create some memorable, unique art as a result of this experience.

I prefer using the collage format to integrate associated images into a cohesive unit that is even more compelling because of the embedded story. Having been a playwright and technical writer, I am accustomed to delivering content with a message. So now, as a visual communicator, I continue to provide meaning via the structure of the collage format, wherein the four photos confirm, augment, or even contradict each other if warranted. I enjoy offering the richness that the multiplicity of images provides, along with the impact gained through thoughtful positioning of them. Ultimately, I intend to have my work act as a doorway to the viewer’s own mental and emotional framework regarding the collection of images, perhaps finding their own very personal meaning in them.

King Of The Jungle

Anna Chan is a mixed media artist based in Bay Shore, New York, best known for her sculptural wildlife portraits created from sand and seashells. Her work transforms overlooked fragments of the shoreline into luminous mosaics that speak to beauty, fragility, and interconnectedness.

Chan studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She went on to work as a jewelry designer for Tiffany & Co., developing a precision and sensitivity to materials that continues to inform her practice today.

Her seashell sculptures emerged in 2020 at Robert Moses Beach on Long Island, where long walks with her daughter during the global pandemic sparked a new artistic language. What began as arranging shells in the sand quickly evolved into a dedicated body of work, blending her design background with her passion for the ocean and its endangered inhabitants.

Chan has collaborated with Amazon Prime Video, Hendrick’s Gin, and Stanford University, and her work has been featured in international publications and media. Her exhibitions include solo and group shows at cultural centers, galleries, and museums across the United States, among them the Annmarie Sculpture Garden in Maryland and the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in New York. Most recently, her exhibition Faces in the Sand opened at the Tribby Arts Center in Fort Myers, Florida (August–October 2025), curated by Marge Lee in collaboration with photographer Grace Berge.

Alongside her studio practice, Chan is dedicated to community engagement through her sand and seashell art workshops. Hosted at libraries, museums, and community centers across Long Island and beyond, these programs — often waitlisted — allow participants of all ages to experience the meditative joy of creating with her proprietary self-hardening sand and seashells.

At the heart of her practice lies a dedication to transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. By elevating humble shells into radiant portraits, Chan invites audiences to rediscover the treasures of the shoreline while reflecting on the fragile balance of the natural world.

Anna Chan lives and works in Bay Shore, NY

I create wildlife portraits from sand and seashells, transforming the fragments of the shoreline into intricate reliefs that are both jewel-like and ephemeral. My work is a meditation on fragility, resilience, and our relationship with the natural world.

This practice began in 2020 at Robert Moses Beach on Long Island. During the pandemic, I spent long walks with my daughter collecting shells and arranging them in the sand. What started as play became a new visual language: the shells became my brushstrokes and gemstones, and the sand, my canvas. That moment of discovery continues to define my work today.

My background as a jewelry designer deeply informs this process. I studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with honors in Fine Arts, and later worked at Tiffany & Co., where I developed a sensitivity to scale, form, and precision. In my current work, I approach each shell as I once approached a gemstone — recognizing its singularity and allowing it to dictate the rhythms of the portrait.

The creatures I sculpt — lions, elephants, eagles, sea turtles, crocodiles, and others — embody both majesty and vulnerability. By assembling shells into their likenesses, I aim to honor their beauty while reminding viewers of the precariousness of their survival in a changing climate. Seashells themselves are symbolic: remnants of life once lived, resilient yet fragile. In reimagining them as portraits of endangered wildlife, I hope to spark reflection on the balance between wonder and loss.

My process moves between the ephemeral and the permanent. Some sculptures are created directly on the beach, surrendered to the tide, while others are preserved as lasting relief works exhibited in galleries and collections. Whether temporary or enduring, each piece carries the same tension — the fleeting and the eternal, the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Through this work, I invite viewers to rediscover the shoreline not as debris, but as treasure — to see in each shell a story, a jewel, and a memory of the sea. My art is both a celebration of nature’s beauty and a quiet call to care for it.

King Of The Valley

Garry Fleming is one of the world’s most published wildlife artists. He has written and illustrated over 240 wildlife book titles, published in more than 60 languages worldwide.

Garry has won many awards for his original artworks. that can be best described as Hyper-realistic. Awards include the RAS Australian Birds and Wildlife First in Show 3 times, The Wilderness Award twice, The Zoological Award for wildlife art, and recently received the Medal of Excellence for a leopard portrait from the Artists for conservation foundation.

Garry’s original works are in private collections around the globe.

People often comment on my talents as an artist. Praising my work.

I am just a guy who paints wildlife. Because of this, I feel a need to tell the story of my subject through a painting. I want to spend my life being a voice for wildlife, helping preserve nature, and all her wild places.

Kintsugi Pi

My name is Kina Lee and I am an illustrator from Los Angeles who specializes in conceptual art and visual development. My work is heavily influenced by both Western and Japanese media. I want to bridge the gap between stylized conceptual art and contemporary art.

My ongoing Kintsugi Girls series combines the practice of repairing broken things with gold, using surreal female android visuals. This series uses primarily alcohol inks and gold leaf. I started making these in 2021 as a way to heal through my past depression and trauma. I wanted to make a series of drawings showing the beauty of building yourself back up again and creating something greater despite having broken parts. You can be torn apart and broken, but you can always find a way to repair yourself and move forward.

Kiss

Since 2013 Luana Stebule has been living and creating in the United Kingdom. Her art includes 11 stage projects for theatrical performances, 7 mural paintings together with 22 solo and 61 group exhibitions in Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, also in England, Canada, and the United States.

She was born in Lithuania in 1962. The artist finished a Martinaitis Art School and the Academy of Art.

Only in 2018 did Luana Stebule create her website in the English language and become more visible in the art world globally. Since 2018 she received numerous recognitions. In 2019 by the International Art Market Magazine, she was selected to be on the Gold List as one of the Top Artists of Today. In 2020 L.Stebule was awarded with the 3rd International Leonardo Da Vinci Prize and the New York City Award. Her artworks are included in the Art Anthologies “Important World Artists 2020” and “International Contemporary Masters 2021” the publisher is Artavita, US. Also, her paintings were selected for Art Books “The Great Masters of Contemporary Art 2020” and “Best 2021 Modern and Contemporary Artists” In 2022 in New York she was awarded with the ATIM’s Top 60 Masters Award and Collectors Choice Award. Luana’s Paintings were selected for the Art Anthology V, Madrid Edition. Curated by the World of Art Magazine her paintings were selected for the book “La Biennale di Venezia 2022” Luana Stebule is among 75 Contemporary Artists to watch and collect.

In the creation process, she uses different media: oil on canvas, acrylic on canvas, collages, mixed media, watercolors, oil pastels, and acrylic on paper.
In order to achieve a particular expression and to show the inner and spirit of the object, I, Luana Stebule stylize and reshape forms of nature in her unique way.
For many years her favorite technique was collages. In the collages, she uses mirrors, textiles, sawdust, and photos, by these materials she creates the main structure of the artwork and in the final stage paints with oil colors. The picture’s physical body juxtaposes and suffuses each part of the painting and veritably forms jazz of the visual art. Some of Luana Stebule’s paintings have elements of Impressionism, pointillism, and surrealism.

Kiss The Sky

Susan Bagrationoff is a professional surrealist whose body of work focuses on mythology and mysterious creatures. Faeries and folklore are the subjects of her creations using the beauty of nature for realistic reference. She creates her works with copious amounts of modeling paste, multiple layers of acrylic paint in brilliant hues, and metallic mediums to give a magickal ‘vibe’ from her creations.

Susan graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2002 from Florida International University in Miami, Florida. In 2013, Susan started her art education studio, Artsy Fartsy Art Lessons, which relocated to Kent, WA in 2016. As an active member of her community, she designed the “Hands of Unity” mural in Downtown Kent. Susan is a member of ARTrails, which is an annual art show that takes place in Centralia, Washington in late September. Since 2023 Susan has displayed works in multiple exhibitions at Gallery B612 and The Fishbowl in Seattle. She also exhibits her art online through various organizations such as Biafarin, HMVC Gallery New York, and Arteom Gallery.

In a world of so much chaos, an escape into the realm of faeries brings peace and glamour into our dimension. Faeries have always held my fascination when I encounter them within our realm. I utilize the magic within my artistic soul to summon these creatures so that anyone can experience their charm and be inspired to believe in what they cannot see.

This particular piece, ‘Kiss The Sky”, was inspired by an intense sunset that seemed to blanket the entire sky of the Pacific Northwest. The textures of the billowy clouds, the hues within those fluffy forms, and even the blueish highlights of clear skies were influenced by what was experienced by my eyes in late Spring. I could feel the essence of a sylph blowing a kiss into the sky that evening.

My work is conjured onto canvas using copious amounts of modeling paste and acrylic paints with multiple layers of various brushstrokes and the use of palette knife techniques. Brilliant colors and metallic hues are used to enable the faeries to emphasize their `vibe`, inspiring the viewer to discover the essence of these beings. The texture of their skin, hair, and backgrounds are vital to conveying the elemental qualities of each fae. I am perpetually discovering new ways to bring my faeries to life so they can gaze upon us humans as we admire their portraits.

Knob On The Clock

I prefer using the collage format to integrate associated images into a cohesive unit that is even more compelling because of the embedded story. Having been a playwright and technical writer, I am accustomed to delivering content with a message. So now, as a visual communicator, I continue to provide meaning via the structure of the collage format, wherein the four photos confirm, augment, or even contradict each other if warranted. I enjoy offering the richness that the multiplicity of images provides, along with the impact gained through the thoughtful positioning of them. Ultimately, I intend to have my work act as a doorway to the viewer’s own mental and emotional framework regarding the collection of images, perhaps finding their own very personal meaning in them.