Miss Susu’s Little Ladies

I graduated from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1981. Thereafter, I created and showed my work for about seven years at the Brockton Art Museum, U. Mass. Amherst and Mass. College of Art to name a few. At that point, I stopped making art to raise my two daughters, trained myself as a baker/cake decorator, had my own baking business for three years then went to work for Whole Foods and later at an upscale bakery for another seven years. While working as a professional baker I returned to making and showing my work. I have been working exclusively as an artist for twenty years. It’s where I belong.

My work is about telling the stories of my observations about different aspects of American culture and events in my own life. I employ what I call a cartoonish figurative style which aids me in presenting my tales with a sense of humor and a little exaggeration. I choose a theme, which could be sports-related, television shows, or iconic images of 1950s suburban life, and create a story to present my perspective concerning the subject. The participants are usually doing something or reacting to each other with very expressive faces. There is a very direct connection between myself and the work I create in terms of the subject matter and the fact that I relate the art-making to my play as a child.

Mistral 28

Born to Vietnamese refugees, Bao-Khang Luu grew up in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southwest of the US as his parents chased the American dream. Out of necessity, his father repaired and created things the family needed. Only later in life did Bao appreciate the perspective required to build and cherish the ersatz. Design education in creative material usage revealed the innate possibilities of everyday things.

He obtained a BFA in Design from UT Austin, an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, and a certification in Sustainable Entrepreneurship from FIT. He worked in NYC’s Silicon Alley before meeting his husband and moving to Europe. With the encouragement of a gallerist, he pursued his lifelong dream of becoming an artist.

His practice has spanned the realms of dance, installation, interactive technology, and traditional media. He has garnered national television appearances (The Nate Berkus Show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Flea Market Flip) and media buzz (Surface, Inhabitat, Apartment Therapy) for his approach to upcycling in home decor.

He currently resides in San Francisco with his husband and son after relocating from the Swiss Alps.

The inherent beauty and intrinsic value of everyday things underlie my work. In each series, I create links to a specific place, time, and memory.

Formally, my pieces employ patterns. They require enormous amounts of repetitive and physically daunting manual labor. Control and processes loom large.

In the first part of my creative process, I collect two things: memories and materials. I stay in a place, experience it, and connect to it. When I walk around, I scan the environment, look at the ground, and gather things. By collecting, cleaning, sorting, storing, and arranging materials, I imbue them with more value. I store my finds for years before they are used.

The second part of my creative process matches form and meaning. I hashed out ideas in my sketchbook. It requires multiple rounds of sketches and prototypes to refine a visual approach. The material itself holds significance even before it’s manipulated. I think about semiotics throughout the creative process, sometimes long after a piece is physically finished. I refine logic and meaning by writing, which I do concurrently with my investigations of form.

Ostensibly, my work does not appear moralizing or political, but it draws from the wells of sustainability and the LGBTQ+ experience. Pleasant visuals provide the vehicle for metaphors and hidden meanings. I aim to surprise and delight viewers while shifting perceptions of value.

Mock

Jessi Vaage (Vaage Design) is a Brooklyn-based painter and graphic designer originally from California’s High Desert. Trained in graphic design, she brings a strong sense of composition and color to her painting practice. While she spends much of her professional time designing, painting remains her most intuitive and emotionally driven form of expression.

Her work is primarily expressive and rooted in feeling, though she also undertakes commissioned projects and, from time to time, creates murals. Across mediums and scales, she continues to explore new materials and subject matter, returning to painting as the place where her curiosity and care feel most at home.

I’m Jessi Vaage (Vaage Design), a Brooklyn-based painter and graphic designer originally from The High Desert, California. Since studying graphic design in college, I bring that knowledge of composition and color to my painting practice and often push against the control and perfectionism that design demands.

Painting is my most intuitive and emotionally driven form of expression. I usually work from feelings and thoughts rather than fixed imagery, allowing the process to guide the work through layering and experimentation with different canvases, textures, and techniques. While I take on commissioned projects and occasional murals, painting remains the space where I return to questions of curiosity and emotional presence.

Mod Geode Blue1

Drew (drewvy) graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a BA degree in Advertising/Business Administration. He has had formal and informal training in graphic design. He has worked most of his career in corporate training. He currently has his studio, Drewvy Designs, in Palm Springs, California. Drew also likes to go all-in when decorating for the holidays and creates holiday and other general decor objects.

My goal as an artist is to create art for the collector. I am using my creative brain to present art that doesn’t seem familiar. I am constantly experimenting with new media. I like using unconventional materials in my works. I also like making decorative objects that also speak as individuals and that stand out wherever they are placed. I want my collectors to have something unique that will be admired and envied by the people they share it with.

Moda

Liliana D’ambrosio was born in 1951 in Irpinia, Italy. During her early adolescence, she developed a passion for painting, which would extend throughout her life. Inspired by her passion for art, she went on to study at the Art School of Avellino.

After completing her studies in the 1970s, Liliana moved to Florence. While residing in Florence, she joined the Tuscan Feminist Movement, working in the cultural department for the City of Florence and the Tuscan Region.

Since 1981, Liliana has participated in national and international exhibits and competitions, earning awards of excellence at nearly every competition she’s participated in.

For a long period extending from the late 1980s to the early years of the 2000s, she drew on paper with rapidity and acrylic colors worked into her paper using dry and slightly diluted brushes.

During this period, she experimented with different mediums, though she continued to create masterpieces using acrylic paint. Liliana’s work began to provoke emotions with the use of diverse colors and linear shapes.

She explored the depths of her thoughts, producing pieces that let her art live at the height of its beauty. Liliana’s paintings do not have a concluded character but rather are in a consistent state of change. She explores the abstract language of the character of painting in relation to the language of music.

Liliana spent much of the 2000s traveling in Europe, India, Africa, and the Middle East. Since 2010, she has divided her time between Florence and California.

In 2018, after a prolonged absence from the art world due to illness, she decided to return to the United States to expand her influence in the world of American Art.

Liliana D’Ambrosio’s contribution to contemporary art lies in her fearless exploration of abstract expressionism as a vehicle for feminist and personal narratives. Her works, informed by her activism and global experiences, offer a rich tapestry of color and meaning that transcends cultural boundaries. Through her art, D’Ambrosio invites us to experience the evolving nature of identity, memory, and freedom, making her a significant voice in the modern art landscape.

Modern Madness 2023

Lynn Burnes is a Denver abstract and nonobjective artist who has been painting in oils, acrylics, and mixed media for over 20 years. Her work has been described by others as vibrant, exploratory, colorful, expressionist, geometric, and sometimes Cubist. Her fields of study have included mathematics, philosophy, and science which have inspired her love of space, geometry, and time, revealed in many of her works. She has exhibited in over 40 art shows and galleries in the United States and has received several awards for artistic achievement. She has studied under various artists including Victoria Kwasinski, Joan Fullerton, Joanne Burney (Art Students League of Denver), Pat Dews, and Gretchen Norwalk.

Exhibitions and Shows

  • Red Bluff Art Gallery, Abstract Expressions 2022 and 2023, Corning California
  • 28th Annual Gateway to the Rockies Show, Aurora Artists Guild, November 2023, Aurora Colorado
  • Las Laguna Art Gallery, June 2021 and July 2022, Laguna California
  • Colorado Visions, North Metro Arts Alliance, Westminster, Colorado, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021
  • Foothills Art Center, Members’ Show, Golden Colorado 2018
  • 32nd Annual National Fine Art Show, Louisville Art Association, Louisville Colorado 2017
  • 31st Annual National Fine Art Show, Louisville Art Association, Louisville Colorado
  • New Trends, Colorado Watercolor Society, Lafayette Colorado 2016
  • Square Deal Gallery, Denver 2015

Selected Workshops/Classes

  • Joan Fullerton, Exploring Contemporary Mixed Media, Denver Colorado
  • Carol Barnes, Watermedia Workshop, Foothills Art Center, Golden Colorado
  • Ann Blecha and Fran Dudley, Creative Watermedia, Park Hill Art Club Denver
  • Joanne Burney, Color Works, Art Students League, Denver

Many of my paintings are abstract and inspired by a strong sense of place such as one experiences in nature, in an urban landscape, or even beyond, into the universe. My work explores geometric designs and composition by using odd shapes, often bright colors, and illusions of space and depth.

Painting abstractly is a passionate challenge of mine, and I like experimenting with acrylics and oils, applying them to the canvas in interpretations of such topics as time, water, nature, physics, or the cosmos. As an intuitive and exploratory painter, I work mostly in acrylics, oils, and mixed media.

My favorite inspirational art periods are the ones leading up to and including Abstract Expressionism (both American and European), from 1905 to 1950, when artists globally were diverging from traditional representation and forging new visual imagery in spite of nonacceptance and even ridicule from art critics and the general public.

My work has been shown in many Denver area art shows and was recently juried into a national show.

Mom’s Blue Vase

Lisa Sabo Brown comes from a long line of artists. In high school, she won an art scholarship that provided travel to Europe the summer after graduation. She visited countries from England to Italy and art museums from the Tate to the Uffizi. Upon her return, Brown studied fine art at Wayne State University. With her BFA in drawing and painting in hand, Brown began a decades-long career as an advertising creative. Brown is now a full-time artist with studio space in the College Cultural area of Flint, Michigan. With Gallery representation in Michigan, Brown has participated in art shows throughout the United States.

Brown primarily uses acrylics, preferring the spontaneity and immediacy of the medium. Her paintings are expressive and multi-layered, with rich colors and bold brush strokes. Brown’s sense of adventure is evident in her work and she invites the viewer to share in it.

As an abstract expressionist artist, I paint intuitively. For me, intuitive painting is kind of like going on a trip with vague plans—or maybe no plans at all. I am fascinated by textures, the interplay of colors, and the medium itself, and to see where they will take me. I use the things I see or feel, whole or in detail. It is not a painting of a thing but rather the feeling of that thing or event. I can begin a painting with a plan in mind but then let it evolve as opportunities present themselves. I work in many layers and enjoy how random interactions can enrich a piece. My goal is to capture the energy felt to create connections to the world and the life we experience.

Moment In Time

Gayle Faulkner, with over 35 years of artistic exploration and creativity, stands as a seasoned watercolor, acrylic, and mural artist. Her journey has been marked by constant exploration, a playful engagement with diverse media, and an unwavering commitment to growth in the world of art.

Her academic journey, rooted in a BA in Sociology from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, initially led her to work with children, integrating art into their day-to-day experiences. Gayle’s passion for art eventually pulled her into a more immersive pursuit. She delved into Art and Design courses at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, unlocking her artistic soul. The willingness to ”put herself out there”, coupled with years of hard work and a penchant for thinking outside the box, allowed her to undergo a major growth period.

Finally, the challenges posed by the COVID-19 quarantine became a catalyst for Gayle’s artistic metamorphosis, leading her to focus on acrylic paintings on canvas. Engaging in online courses and dedicating countless hours in the studio has led Gayle to newfound success in her career as an artist.

In her current artistic chapter, Gayle has embraced the multi-dimensional world of layered acrylic painting. These layered landscape paintings pulsate with depth, intricate patterns, and whimsical interpretations, inviting viewers to step into a space that offers a sanctuary from life’s pressures. Her aspiration is clear — to guide everyone towards a place, be it a memory or a dream, where they can meander, savor the fragrance of flowers, feel the gentle breeze, lean against a tree, and simply breathe.

Gayle’s works have graced numerous exhibitions, gallery shows, and juried art festivals, earning accolades and finding homes in corporate and private collections across the globe.

In my art practice, I describe my creations as Textural Acrylics. This term represents the exciting experience of observing paint flow from the palette knife, forming captivating textures and colors. Each stroke channels emotion, and every canvas captures a moment of creative inspiration.

My process is spontaneous – I start with a loose outline, sketch the composition, and then fully immerse myself in the act of creating. Throughout the process, music is my closest companion, its volume soaring. I dance to the rhythm, losing myself in the beats, and, on occasion, even letting out a song. My painting process is a multisensory experience, an immersive journey into the fusion of sound and color, where each note becomes a brushstroke, and every stroke on the canvas is a dance of creation. I often liken my paintings to cherished children—it’s a relationship that involves nurturing, engaging in heartfelt conversations, and weathering the challenges of creative adolescence with boundless love and patience. With each brushstroke, I invest love, patience, and understanding, allowing the artwork to evolve organically. The end result is akin to witnessing a child mature into a beautiful, fully-formed adult—a testament to the transformative power of artistic expression.

When the viewer engages with my work, I want them to do more than observe; I want them to partake in the sensory journey. Inhale the delicate fragrance of blooming flowers, listen to the subtle rustle of leaves, lean against the painted tree, and simply breathe. My paintings are meant to cease to be static images—they become portals, immersive experiences where anyone is welcome to wander, explore, and connect with the essence of my artistic vision. Through my Textural Acrylics, I aim to create a sanctuary where the boundaries between creator and audience blur, and the shared experience becomes a celebration of art and life.

Momento

Christina Yasmin Fesmire- studioarteur.com
Nguyen Ly- nguyenly.com

The work explores the combination of drawing and photographic transparency, balancing both aspects of drawing and photography. The theme focuses on “remembrance, recollection, and reminiscence, or the capacity for or the act of remembering, or the thing remembered.