Melting
I am 68 years old and will have been married for 51 years next month. I read voraciously and write poetry and short stories, so I suppose I have always been involved with the arts. However, as with many others, I began painting when the pandemic forced me into isolation. I had never picked up a brush before. Since then, I have been in several shows, accepted for exhibitions, and started an Etsy shop featuring my work. Surprisingly, I have sold quite a number of paintings. It has been a lovely journey.
Two eyes, a nose, and a mouth – a face. It’s amazing that four features create literally billions of unique, distinct individuals and convey every emotion known to humans. I want my work to show something of the experience the character has suffered and to explore and recreate the power of those varied lives.
I enjoy adding a bit of strangeness; a flaw and a lack of perfect symmetry to imitate our humanness.
Melting Seas
Taskin Butt has been drawing and painting since she can remember. She works across various mediums such as oils, acrylic, and mixed media and has worked with pen/ink. Her landscapes are a reflection of her external worldly experiences while her abstract works are a reflection of her inner intuitive experiences. She derives her inspiration to paint from everyday life and the beauty and grace of nature around her. Her emotions and feelings dictate which colors and shapes are brought onto canvas resulting in multi-layered abstract and figurative images. Through her dynamic use of colors, vibrant paintings take life. When she paints, she follows her inner voice, her intuition flows, and playful soulful landscapes merge with multi-meaning abstract. She loves variety and does not follow any specific trend but has created her own distinctive style. As she follows her intuition the paint almost paints itself, and her trust in the painting process creates momentum that sustains the entire painting journey. Her work reflects her free spirit, intuitive and spontaneous vibration. It celebrates her love for nature and at the same time expresses her inner experiences through paintings that evoke a sense of serenity and spirituality, influencing the viewer in a positive and healing way as some themes she expresses include freedom, hope, renewal, and connection. She has been selected to be represented by Rossocinabro Gallery, Italy, Monat Gallery, Spain, and Monteoliveto Gallery, France, and believes learning in art is a limitless journey with never-ending possibilities. She aims to continue to grow in her artistic journey and her ultimate aim is to have her art shared and make someone smile or moved emotionally through her work. When Taskin is not painting, she is meeting other artists and visiting new places. She currently works from her own studio in Nairobi, Kenya.
Growing up in a place like Africa, a land full of color, vast open landscapes, and scenic coastal areas has contributed to my deep passion for art. I am inspired by nature and I truly feel that there is beauty in every piece of the natural world. After graduating, I participated in various United Nations Environmental Art initiatives such as the ‘Art for Environment Project’ showcasing paintings by artists representing environmental themes such as deforestation, and water and plant conservation. Some of my artwork is observational and inspired by places I have visited while others express my inner feelings and emotions. I have received training from an American-based Fine Art Company – Artists Network F & W Media Inc. as well as continuing to learn from other professional artists. I believe nature has a lot to offer and believe the power of art increases exponentially when we realize the roles we can play to preserve the spaces in nature and the memories that sparked our passion. Such experiences as walking along a beach and hearing the crashing waves against the shoreline or the fresh breeze on a peaceful day or even the excitement of seeing a flower blossom are moments that I feel art allows me to express and share with the world. I regularly use the palette knife and apply impasto to my work and believe it adds texture and depth. I have had the pleasure to have my work exhibited locally in my home country and globally. My recent work is based on the concept of the multiverse, parallel realities, and its connection with limitless possibilities.
Memento Mori (Remember You Must Die)
I am a self-taught photographer and collage artist and am attracted to a variety of subjects. My interests range from natural landscapes, botanicals, and wildlife to images that provide either abstract expression or social commentary. 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 share images that evoke a story of some kind that may be simply a 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 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.
Memorial Bench
Adam Strange is a Canadian artist whose work will shock and delight you! Adam’s artistic influence is the Dada/Surrealist spirit and its methods. Adam works with computer software and montage at the intersection between twentieth-century approaches to analog painting, collage, and film, with twenty-first-century digital tools and resources to create contemporary artifacts. Adam’s method includes recontextualizing real moments experienced and photographed by others, sutured with the juxtaposition of internal realities, chance, and accident. Adam creates his art for your pleasure or desolation, seeking the essential, reflecting the undercurrent, and offering respite from the illogics of the outside world, all to tickle your fancy in the disturbed.
Adam Strange continues his observations on the Essentia- the world as it really is. These artifacts expound how corruption breeds rot and decay of identity and the physical body. Capitalism, war crimes, post-truth, disease, and greed, transfigure the subjects shown. The unconstrained degeneracy of society leads us to the ruination of the planet for profit. Human putrescence can manifest in small intangible ways such as internet memes and government laws, or as collective trauma of groups and societies resulting in violence, death, or extinction. The view opens us to the profane and the decrepit monuments we will leave behind.
Memories
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Cheuk-Lam Cheung’s journey into the world of art has been driven by a lifelong passion. With a background in engineering, Cheuk-Lam brings a unique perspective that fuses precision with creativity, deeply influencing her artistic expression.
Art was her sanctuary growing up, a realm where she could explore and convey her innermost thoughts and emotions. This enduring love for art led her to come to the United States to pursue formal studies at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Here, she honed her skills and embraced her potential as an artist.
Cheuk-Lam’s work has garnered recognition from the Academy, with selections for the prestigious Spring Show in both 2022 and 2023. These opportunities allowed her to share her vision and connect with a broader audience, reinforcing her belief in the transformative power of art.
As she continues her artistic journey, Cheuk-Lam remains committed to exploring new techniques and pushing the boundaries of her creativity. Her goal is to create art that resonates with people, offering them a moment of reflection and connection in an ever-evolving world.
As a painter, I am driven by a deep passion for traditional art. I love exploring different themes, from still life and figurative work to landscapes, each offering a unique opportunity to convey my artistic vision. Using various mediums, including oil, gouache, pastel, and watercolor, I experiment with different techniques to bring my ideas to life.
I have a particular fondness for using diverse brush strokes and vibrant colors to convey different feelings to the audience. My goal is to evoke emotions and create a connection between the viewer and the artwork. I believe that through this connection, art can touch a part of us in unexpected ways.
My biggest dream is that my art resonates with people. I strive to paint something personal because it allows me to relate more deeply to the work and show more of my feelings. This personal connection enhances the authenticity of my art, inviting viewers to see and feel the world as I do.
Through my journey, I remain committed to pushing the boundaries of my creativity, continuously exploring new techniques and themes. My hope is that each piece I create offers a moment of reflection and connection, allowing the viewer to experience the same sense of wonder and emotion that inspires me every day.
Memories Of Home
Born in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia in the late 90s, and swiftly uprooted to be raised in the Show-Me State of Missouri, Anna Noel offers a unique perspective in the conversation of contemporary art; constantly swarmed with new inspiration and explosive ideas. Heavily influenced by the effects of bright colors and surrealist works, Anna spends her studio time pushing the relationship between warm and cool colors. Using lighting design and local color in multimedia sculptural installations to produce a surreal feeling of an alternate reality separate from the viewers’ current state of being. Anna explores family life and unique childhood experiences through a lens of rationale as explained by the body’s stress responses.
As a current MFA Sculpture Candidate at the Savannah College of Art and Design, I am constantly looking for new ways to explore my work. I am always trying to push boundaries and dive into the inner workings of my mind to discover congruent styles and themes throughout my work. My most recent body of work has been centered around the idea of play and the memories I carry with me from my tumultuous childhood. My work is inviting and offers something to engage any viewer. With bright colors, playful shapes, real-life subject matter, and whimsical lighting, all viewers are drawn in and held captive while they digest the work. I like to view my installations and body of works as an entire experience. I spend a great deal of time addressing the installation area as a whole including the lighting, wall color, and floor space. My sculptures command the viewers’ attention and hold their gaze as they digest the unique forms and playful perspective.
Mendocino Headlands
Growing up in the redwoods of Northern California provided me with endless inspiration from the natural world. As a self-taught artist, my paintings reflect a deep appreciation for the intricate details of the world around me.
As an artist captivated by the fluidity of watercolors, I strive to evoke emotion and nostalgia through the delicate interplay of pigment and water on paper. Each brushstroke is a dance, a conversation between hues and transparency, as I seek to capture fleeting moments of beauty and introspection. My work celebrates the ephemeral nature of life, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the tranquility.
Mental – Renew My Heart
Mr. Kenly Chan Kam Yuen graduated as vice president of the Asia Pacific Creativity Industries Association(APCIA); Since 2015, he has been selected for many art exhibitions in Greater China and has won awards. He held his first solo in Hong Kong in 2019. Exhibition and as the chairman of the Hong Kong Cultural & Creative Industries Award 2019 Conference, and established Kenly Chan’s Art brand. From 2020 to 2022, his personal artworks will be selected for exhibitions in Asia, Europe & USA.
He has been influenced by Impressionism & Fauvism in Western art culture, as well as the renewal of his belief in his own life, thus moving towards contemporary art creation. In recent years, he has won many praises in the international art circle, and the more representative international awards include; Bold Abstracts 2022 International Juried Painting Competition-Bronze Award; Abstract 2023 International Juried Art Competition-Honorable Mention Award;14th Annual ”Abstracts” Art Exhibition-Special Recognition Award.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
Merry-Go-Round
I had always loved art, but in 12 years of attending a small rural school, there was only one art lesson. In my 6th grade class, we were asked to draw a picture from a photograph of railroad ties receding into the distance to show perspective. After college it seemed that life got in the way; marriage, children, divorce, and finding a full-time job. My mother had said many times that I could always be a teacher (she and her sisters and both her parents were teachers). Now I paid attention. I went back to school, got a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and taught fifth and sixth grade for 24 years. My passion for photography began in 1986 after a motorcycle accident claimed the life of my son. I signed up for a class we had planned to take together. For 10 years nature photography was a hobby, but in 1995 I retired from teaching to begin my second career as a freelance writer/photographer. I wrote many articles for Oregon Coast magazine. My first national photo sales were to Outdoor Photographer magazine and the Inner Reflections calendar. I signed up with AGEfotostock, a photo stock agency in Barcelona, Spain, where my photos were sold in 36 countries. Eventually, I teamed up with another nature photographer and led workshops on the Oregon coast and scenic locations throughout the western United States. Years later with knee joints that needed replacement and time on my hands, I started playing with photos using various tools in Photoshop. Being innately curious, I tried many different filters and combinations of filters. The changes were small at first, but one success led to another. It was exciting to alter an image to the point of abstraction with no remnants of the original photograph visible. My reward was the sudden ‘aha’ experience Gestalt psychologists describe so well. Eventually, it hit me over the head. After all those years, I was creating art, but as they say, the excitement is in the journey, and after a brief respite, I was soon looking for another image to work on.
I grew up on 55 acres adjacent to Oregon’s Willamette National Forest. The first summer we lived there I was 4 years old. Our only shelter was an open shed that Dad had built. The floor was hard-packed dirt and the only furniture was an old red cupboard where Mom cooked on a small camp stove. No refrigerator, no running water, no electricity, no beds, and no bathroom. As it got dark we were surrounded by the sound of nighthawks as they swooped down to catch bugs. In the morning we were awakened by the sound of songbirds. My sister and I spent hours exploring the nearby woods. This intimate experience and respect for nature had a great impact on my life. I loved hiking trails along creeks and backpacking into the mountains. After I retired from teaching, it was no surprise that nature photography became a full-time job.