New York New York
Cher Pruys was born in Regina. Over the years, she lived in many places, including Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Fort Frances, settling into her present home in Devlin, on the banks of the Rainy River with her husband Mark and pets.
By age three, Cher was seldom found without a drawing tool in hand. She worked in pencil, charcoal, and ink over the years, picking up a paintbrush at the age of 35. Beginning with oil paints, she found her chosen mediums in acrylic, watercolor, and gouache, and her passion for hyperrealism.
Although self-taught, her dedication and talent have seen her work juried into 941 International exhibits. She has won 1434 awards for her work in the International Juried Exhibits.
Her work has graced the covers of 3 books, 42 magazines, including The Best Of Acrylic Fall 2021, cover of the May 2022 Arabella Magazine, #20 Hyperrealism Magazine with “Girls Girls Girls”, & #21 with “The Young Cowboy”, Artists & Illustrators March 2024 Artistonish 2024 July edition, Observica Elite 2024, Art Closeup Magazine#26 Jan. 2025, The back cover of Novum Artis #007, 2025, & Hyperrealism Special Edition “The Amazing World of Cher Pruys”. She has been featured in over 700 International publications. Cher’s works have found a permanent home in private and public collections worldwide.
“To take my inner visions with my hands and create a work of art for you, the viewer …. That is the ultimate in self-expression.”
I am very drawn to shiny surfaces as well as transparent objects, especially when the lighting brings them to life. I look for beauty in everyday objects that most people take for granted or just don’t truly see as they are. The seemingly boring and mundane subjects can truly be like magnets if portrayed in the right light. Shiny metal is one of those materials that can host endless visions. The light hits it, and the reflections are captured on the smooth, sleek surface. Animals, people, living things with character…an artist’s dream!
Nice To Meet You Too
Barbara Keim has used the computer as an art tool dating back to the early 1980s.
Barbara Keim originally received traditional fine arts training and became involved in graphic design/illustration freelance endeavors early on. She had incidentally been introduced to a high-end paint system while in NYC at a marketing demonstration and was completely enamored with computer graphics artistic potential of the software, and digital photography. This has since become her choice of artistic medium.
She has worked as an art director, consultant/instructor, and chairperson for 15 years, continues as a full-time art professor, and freelance designer as well as creating and exhibiting her fine art.
In addition to her full-time teaching at Westfield State University, and running the art department for 15 years, she was hired by Lesley University in Cambridge MA. to teach for the Graduate school travel program in Education.
Originally hired at Westfield State University to integrate computer graphics into the graphic design concentration, and to develop a computer graphics course sequence, she remained involved in curriculum development, receiving her doctorate in 1993.
Her digital work has been published in publications internationally, inclusive of Prix Ars Electronica, a book on artists, Linz, Austria, Delta Informatics Corporation – Calendars, Athens, Greece, and The Encyclopedia of Living Artists, NYC, NY. The best computer art in the World, Slide archive, in Bloomsburg, PA, USA, and in Computer Graphics World Magazine, L.A. California. Exhibiting computer graphics in Austria, Vancouver/Canada, Ottawa/Canada, and across the U.S. for many decades.
Barbara Keim continues to teach, consult, and create computer graphics in Massachusetts.
“My interests lie in nature, wildlife, spirituality, and the human spirit.
The most basic of creations in life are combined with technological media as a vessel to provide a divergent yet clean portrayal of themes I am drawn to.”
As a digital artist, I have always been interested in themes of spirituality, nature, and wildlife, as well as in the human condition and what makes people tick.
I am an avid advocate for the protection of wildlife, nature, and the environment.
I have worked in the area of computer graphics ever since the computer became a tool for creative pursuits.
I create my collage-inspired work using a combination of digital software integrated with my own drawings and photographs.
I prefer full vivid colors, and also create symbols in my art much as the Flemish artists did. My additional favorite art movements are Surrealism, Flemish Art, and Pop Art.
Nick Loves Trees
Growing up in Honolulu, Hawaii, and now living in Los Angeles, Brandon Shim leveraged his love of working with people in his portrait photography. He is most fascinated by the unlimited aesthetic options in crafting an ideal portrait, and then in selecting the best. A University of Southern California (BA & MBA) graduate, Brandon has studied and utilized the USC campus in both architectural and portrait photography.
Brandon’s creative photography journey started when he borrowed a family member’s camera, and then he learned from different mentors, including his two nephews, James and John. He sharpened his skills by going on organized photo shoots. In his endeavors, Brandon inspired his portrait photography subjects to increase their confidence and develop their own personal artistic style.
In addition to still photography, Brandon has produced or co-produced several short films, including Different Quake, Quad, and God’s Voice. These films have been screened in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and London.
As both a photographer and video producer, I enjoy collaborating with highly talented individuals to create innovative art. To achieve this goal, I take the following three steps.
First, I inspire my portrait subjects to unlock their own personal beauty and unique style. Second, I experiment and encourage my photo subjects to experiment with different wardrobes, lighting, emotions, postures, and scenic backgrounds. Finally, as a creative team, both my photo subjects and I endeavor to captivate our audience into entering our magical world. In short, we create photography to engage people in our distinctive narrative.
Nigella
Lori Haas lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, and obtained a BFA from the University of Georgia. Recent exhibitions in Atlanta have been at the Swan Coach House Gallery, The Terminus, Atlanta City Hall, Brickworks Gallery, 378 Gallery, Hudgens Center for Art, Hambidge Art Lab and Hambidge Art Auction, Ventulet Gallery, and South River Art Studios. Other exhibitions around the United States include the Museum of Infinite Outcomes (Knoxville, TN), NEXT Gallery (Denver, CO), San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center (San Fernando, CA), Flagler County Art League (Palm Coast, FL), and Women’s Work. Art (Poughkeepsie, NY). She has exhibited internationally in Italy and Canada, and her work has been featured in “World of Interiors” with Condé Nast (2022, 2023). Lori’s work can currently be seen at the Swan Coach House Gallery Artist Market. A major body of her work has been private commissions, enabling a personal collaboration with the artist.
My work consistently uses items from nature by employing alternative photography with mixed media techniques. I love the experimentation process of mixed media, and all of the opportunities it can present to convey a message. I especially love working with flowers, and use photos from my garden of the plants that I have grown. My process involves taking these photographs and then transferring them onto a wood panel substrate. I then proceed with acrylic mediums and paint. These allow me to adjust or draw attention to color or details I would like the viewer to experience. I finish the piece with a coating of water-based cold wax. I find that it gives a transcendent quality to the image while being a means to provide archival protection for the piece. I feel it is important to draw attention to the incredible details and mysteries found by observing nature. It reminds us of the ephemeral quality of all life, and the beauty in all of its phases.
Night Blooming Cereus
For sixty-five years, Malcolm Glass has exhibited his art and photography in exhibitions across the country. His work has won dozens of awards, from honorable mention to Best of Show.
This past year, Glass’s work has been chosen for exhibitions at many galleries, including Art Fluent, Prairie Village Gallery, Black Box Gallery, Exhibizone, Northwind Art, Morean Gallery, The Hilliard Gallery, Verum Ultimum, San Fernando Valley Arts and Cultural Center, and Modern Visual Arts.
Glass was awarded First Place in The Yeiser Art Center’s 2021 Art Through the Lens Salon Exhibition.
I hope that my artwork will engage viewers and draw them in, to enter visual and emotional depths beyond the casual glance. My art is an invitation to take a journey into layers of response that will last beyond the visit to the exhibition.
In my photographs of flowers, I try to capture both the intensity and the subtlety of color and texture of these incredible creatures. Their vibrant and gentle beauty always brings us peace of mind and a sense of oneness with all living beings, if we allow them to speak to us.
Night Has A Thousand Eyes
John Calabrese received his BA in Art from Catholic Univ., Washington, D.C., his MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Arts from Ohio Univ., Athens. He is a practicing artist and a list of recent exhibitions can be found on his website.
He is professor Emeritus of Art at Texas Woman’s Univ., Denton, where he taught art history, aesthetics, the history of film noir, and the art of Alfred Hitchcock, and was in charge of the studies abroad art history program which he initiated in 1994. He has published articles on Paul Klee, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” and “The Trouble with Harry.”
A delicate nuance of value and texture becomes tools in conveying powerful dramatic statements about earthly beings who are not afraid to wonder, think, dream, and take that one step beyond.
The inhabitants of the cosmic atmosphere appear at odds with their surroundings (many of which are actual, specifically named astronomical objects). This is the result when the merely earthly confronts its unavoidable connection to the awe, mystery, and majesty of the heavens.
However, when fragile earthly beauty confronts sublime heavenly beauty, the earthly is reverently and silently humbled.
Night Over A Plateaus
Stanislav “Standa” Riha
Visual artist, photographer, and writer
Member of CARFAC
Born in 1952 in Prague, former Czechoslovakia. He grew up in Lesser Town (Malá Strana), surrounded by great medieval and modern art and artists that caused his desire to create. From early childhood, he enjoyed drawing and later painting; as a young man, he focused mainly on surrealism. His artistic attitude was shaped by many art courses in childhood, followed by art training by MgA Milos Saska and work in the set production of the Realistic Theatre.
In 1980, he lived for a year in Grinzing, Vienna, Austria, and then moved to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Enchanted with the natural beauty of British Columbia, he dedicated the first few years to realistic nature themes and then switched to Surreal and later Surreal-abstract creative work.
In the last three decades, I have been creating wall-mounted, cast resin, and aluminum sculptures combined with canvas and gold leaf, and exploring the computer as an art tool for creating digital artwork. All my life, I have loved to create art full of emotions and feelings, “soul,” with the satisfaction of fun. I am interested in the balance and composition of colors and objects rather than the reality of the items. The direction of the last two decades has been aimed at understanding and, through artwork, expressing the human struggle of emotions and adaptations. For the past ten years, I have been polishing my creative work in the Surreal-abstract style. The main motto of my artwork is: Just as in a good story, the readers have space to create their image; in a good picture, the viewers can form their own account.
Nightingales Don’t Eat Bears
Before art became his passion, much of Rich Sheaffer’s prior career in engineering and management was rather mundane. The exceptions were when he did not follow conventional wisdom and explored on his own without necessarily doing things the accepted, “correct” way. That is when breakthroughs occur, discoveries are made and quantum improvements can be initiated. It is with that spirit that Rich creates art by inspiration and imagination rather than more conventional rules of how art should be created. Rich’s works reflect the angst of a common man regarding events occurring in society, and some of his works have also predicted future events. When events are so outrageous that he is left at a loss for words … he paints. Rich is active with the Artists Guild of the San Diego Museum of Art, the Artist Alliance of the Oceanside Museum of Art, and others.
Since the events of 2016, Rich Sheaffer has been developing a genre of art he calls Socio-Political Abstractionism. While political art is common, it has generally taken the form of such things as cartoons and caricatures. Socio-Political Abstractionism, in contrast, is an art form in which hot-button social topics being divisively debated in the political milieu are “abstractionized” and expressed via painting in abstract form, to inspire thought and discussion. Such works are primitive expressions of dreams or visions that express the events and angst of our time in history. His works are experimental and inspired by current events; he never knows from the onset how the final work will appear. Topics covered by Rich have included societal fear and anger, climate change, human rights, assaults against diversity, truth versus “alternative facts”, degradation of kindness and compassion, migration issues, attacks against democracy, risks of conflict and war, self-created chaos, and so on.
Nightrain
I hold a BFA degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and an MFA degree from Pratt Institute, New York where I attended on a full-tuition grant for graduate study. I was an art instructor at Orange County Community College in Middletown, New York, and then at the Brooklyn Friends School. I created and directed a ceramic workshop in upstate New York and taught wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics to children and adults. Moving to Miami, Florida, I taught Color Theory at the Miami Art Center and then became Supervisor of the North Miami Branch of the Miami Metropolitan Museum.
Moving to Boston with my daughter, Samantha, as a single mother I worked as secretary to the Director of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art and during that time launched Kidquilts and Capability.
We returned to western Massachusetts, where I worked with a fashion designer for an apparel firm and produced line lists and fashion graphics on a CAD system. I renovated my old barn into a beautiful studio in Falls Village, CT, and taught private classes in ceramics, painting, drawing, and printmaking. For nine years I coordinated with the Sharon, CT Teen Center to jury and produce the Sharon OnThe Green Arts and Crafts Fair, a thirty-year-old annual event featuring over 150 juried artists and artisans.
I moved from western Massachusetts in 2006 to Wilmington, and have instructed art classes at Cape Fear Community College, The Cameron Art Museum, and in my Sunroom Studio.
My website, http://www.free-online-art-classes.com offers art instruction which I have created from my forty-five years of teaching including oil painting, acrylic painting, oil pastels, drawing, colored pencils, collage and discovering the artist within, as well as information on art travel, artful inspiration, art marketing, homeschool and many other resources for creativity.
For me, there is an inspiration in plywood, tin cans, junk mail, plastic packaging, and whatever else the trash can, parking lot, and landfill offer. Their combination produces an excitement of new meanings crashing together, morphing into hybrid forms that uniquely express the complexity of contemporary life.
My drawing and painting skills are important to me as an art instructor. Being conversant in many artistic areas allows me to teach many subjects. I encourage my students to explore their new skills toward personal expression to enrich their learning experience.
The works of assemblage artists like Joseph Cornell and Louise Nevelson have long inspired me to seek the passion of integrating diverse objects that ultimately express a singular unique statement. The historical journey of assemblage from Cubism’s first theater tickets to Campbell soup cans, to urinal fountains, to spiral jetties offshore all occupy a specific presence in my time and space.