Passing Down The Love
J. White Burton, a self-taught artist, is best known for her faceless family series that deconstructs the African American experience into a universal and spiritual theme allowing the viewer to unpack stored images memories, and feelings. Born in Mobile, Alabama, she was fascinated as a child by the bright bold colors on display during Mardi Gras and grateful for the neighborhood village that shaped her respect for family, elders, and authentic people, all of which are reflected in her works. Burton was also greatly influenced by local artist Alexander Moore as a child. His attention to detail captivated her and gave a spiritual command to give attention to the details in every painting, She likes to work in series be they specific colors like her “Women in Redd” and Blue Angels” or black and white like her “Legends” or “Authentic Heroes” series. Her work is simplistic and honest and tends to strike an emotional chord with family, community, belonging, and the human condition. She pushes to keep the value of mankind alive. Burton works primarily in acrylics on canvas and India Ink on paper. Since 2007 she has been a member of and exhibited with Women Painters West, the oldest women’s painting group on the West Coast. She has also exhibited in various galleries across the U.S., done numerous commissions, and has won awards for her paintings.
Throughout my life’s journey, I have come to an immense appreciation for musicians, authentic men, angels in my life, strong women, seniors, and my Southern upbringing. So my series of paintings reflect my feelings on all of these subjects. Like a musician who plays what he/she feels, I paint exactly what I feel.
Passion
I have been interested in photography for what seems like forever. I always had a camera, took photos, and read photo magazines. However, it has only been since the development of digital cameras and the digital darkroom that I began to seriously study and develop my skills. I believe the camera and post-processing are tools that the photographer/artist uses to create and share his/her vision. For me, there are no limits on what is an acceptable image.
I am the president of PASFLA (Photo Arts of South Florida), a member of the Boynton Beach Camera Club, and a member of TAOP (The Art of Photography). I am also a member of PSA and have taken many of their courses. I twice received their Photo of the Year award for my portraits. I have won many medals and ribbons in photo competitions, and my black and white photos have been published in Black and White Magazine.
I am currently focusing on infrared photography and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement).
When I decided to get serious about photography about twenty years ago, my goals were to take great wildlife, street, and sports photos. I spent many years and lots of money learning how to do this. I have had some success in achieving these goals.
We try to make sense of a world that is never the same, never stands still. We make sense of it by creating images and telling stories that create the illusion that with a camera, it can be seen as it really is. Most traditional photographers try to freeze a moment in time that captures what they saw and experienced. I still do this, but I believe that by using ICM, a photographer can convey what emotions and feelings they felt at that moment.
Currently, I primarily but not exclusively use Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and the digital darkroom to create my artworks.
For me, ICM allows the photographer to capture different aspects of reality, so that the universe, from the smallest particles to the largest, is in motion and share that reality with the viewer.
Past Of The Past
Art has always been at the center of my life. From an early age, I attended art school in parallel with regular schooling, dedicating nine years to mastering painting, composition, and drawing. Under the guidance of an inspiring teacher, I received recognition in national competitions and developed a lasting appreciation for both Renaissance masters and Impressionist painters.
I later enrolled in the Industrial Design Department at the Academy, where I received a comprehensive education in concept development, sculpture, product design, and design history. My six years of study culminated in a master’s thesis titled “Proportions as a Factor in Design,” exploring the relationship between form, balance, and function.
At age nineteen, I began working professionally as a designer through freelance and private commissions. This early experience allowed me to blend my fine art background with practical design thinking — uniting emotional expression with functional clarity. Whether developing immersive environments, conceptual objects, or visual identities, I always aim to create work that carries purpose, presence, and emotion.
A quote that continues to guide me comes from Ursula K. Le Guin: “A creative adult is a child who survived.” That sense of wonder, endurance, and curiosity is what fuels my practice.
Today, living in Seattle, I continue to evolve as a multidisciplinary artist and designer — combining narrative, technology, and the timeless principles of composition to create meaningful, human-centered experiences.
Art, for me, is a language of reflection and transformation. My work lies at the intersection of fine art and design — where structure meets emotion, and intuition meets form.
In my recent practice, I explore still lifes, abstract compositions, and conceptual studies. These works reflect my ongoing interest in proportion, rhythm, and the emotional resonance of color and space. I seek to capture not only what is visible, but the fragile inner atmosphere that surrounds it — the emotional vibration that connects form and meaning.
My artistic influences bridge classical and modern traditions. I remain deeply inspired by the Impressionists — Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Manet, Renoir, and Cézanne — whose understanding of light and emotion continues to guide my palette. At the same time, I find intellectual and aesthetic kinship in the avant-garde: the geometric clarity of Mondrian, the spiritual abstraction of Kandinsky, the expressive systems of Malevich, Filonov, and Klee.
Past Present And Future Tense
Subodh Maheshwari was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, North India where she learned folk art and classical music. She passionately believes: “In the threshold of my life, my present is the window to the past and a key to the future”. She acquired her degrees and studied art at Agra University, California State University of Fullerton, and the University of California, Irvine. Subodh has won numerous awards, including the regional Fellowship Award at UCI in 1986, the Bharat Gaurav Award in India in 2015, and the 60 Masters Award in 2017, 2018, and 2019. She is also registered in Marquis’s “Who’s Who in America”, the standard in biographical information. Her paintings have also won awards in a variety of categories, including landscape, open, all women, nature, elements, seasons, and abstract.
Subodh is a diversified artist who enjoys telling stories through her artwork, whether it is through landscape, flowers, or abstract art. Her art is a fusion of Eastern symbolism and Western composition, influenced by 16th and 17th century Rajasthani and Mogul art, and accented by poetry, passages, and phrases in Hindi, Sanskrit, and English. She admires Georgia O’Keefe for her floral influence and Frida Kahlo for her courage. Whether it is the serene beauty of nature, her spirituality, or the current political climate, she finds inspiration. Having a life shared between India and America, she sees the beautiful similarities, like love, which transcends all borders. Highly individual in her style, her works are described as emotional, mysterious, personal, spiritual, and humorous.
Pastel Painting And Connecting At Zabriskie Point Death Valley National Park
Born in NY, Patricia Cummins completed her undergraduate studies at Queens College, CUNY. Upon graduation, she moved to Florida, intrigued by the color and light of the subtropics. She continued her post-graduate studies at Florida International University. She has taught art for 36 years at Miami-Dade County Public Schools and Barry University. She has served residencies at 15 US National Park Artist-in-Residence programs. For 12 years, Pat has exhibited her work and presented seminars at Walt Disney World’s International Festival of the Arts and Flower and Garden Festival. Her work is featured in collections throughout the US. In 2015, her national park paintings traveled to Africa and exhibited at the American Embassy in Niamey, Niger. Her paintings were included in a National Park Exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C. Pat was awarded Elementary Art Educator of the Year in 2015 by the Florida Art Ed Association. Pat is currently painting at her studios in FL and Ulster County, NY.
My goal as an artist is to arrest nature’s motion, involving viewers as deeply as I can. As I make my artwork, I leave behind traces of feelings associated with my experience of each scene, sharing my vision of beauty and grace expressed through color and form.
The experiences of life that I find to be of greatest value are those that rest in the basic and seemingly simplistic. Garden fragrances and nature’s color and form, all outweigh for me the more contrived and materialistic of our life today. I paint the landscapes, the feelings, and the experiences that they create for me, the perceptions and sensations that collect as a result of a day at the shore, or under the shade of a live oak, or during weeks spent serving a residency at a National Park. If these sensations communicate with the viewer through my work, their connection and purpose are complete.
Pastel Petals Ring
Jill Herlands is a self-taught jewelry artist, and as such, is unbound by traditional rules.
Herlands develops a proprietary methodology to coax precious metals into abstract objects of adornment. She challenges the perception of accessory by deconstructing and recomposing the form while pursuing a finished object that is at once raw, undone, and balanced.
Herlands possesses a familiarity with what some might consider risktaking. She trusts her instincts, innovation, and experimentation to inform her process. Herlands believes that imperfection is more interesting than perfection, and likes nothing more than incorporating unexpected materials like concrete or plastic into her work.
Herlands’ award-winning work is featured in fashion magazines including recent editions of Bazaar, Paper, and Nylon. Her designs are carried in galleries and boutiques worldwide.
Jill Herlands currently lives and works in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City
As a self-taught jewelry artist, I am not bound by traditional rules.
I use hand fabrication to create wearable art and many of the techniques I use are experimental. My materials are chosen with contrast in mind as I look for empty contours, and visible and imagined boundaries which allow me to conceptualize the shape within.
My process is one of the spontaneity of the form and the composition. I trust in the belief that imperfection is more interesting than perfection, and I let my imagination, innovation, and experimentation guide me.
I thrive in an atmosphere of controlled chaos while allowing the materials to dictate the outcome of my work. Some might consider working without a plan as risky, but to me, it is as natural as breathing.
Pastels Plumeria Series
I am a Digital Artist who uses Adobe Illustrator 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. I create my world through points, lines, and color. Chuck Jones, the animator, Loet Vanderveen, the sculptor, and the artist Erte have been monumental influences on how I approach line work and form. Precision with a lot of chaos and whimsy. I fell in love with drafting in architectural school, where I earned my degree. I have been a digital artist for nearly 38 years, but have just begun to exhibit my work publicly in the last year or so. I am now ready to share my individual perspective with the world.
I want to record what I see and what touches me. Drawing it creates a specific encounter at a particular time of day. Enabling me to capture an experience that brings joy that is singular to me. This is why I must draw. It truly gives me a respite from the world where I can control my little part of this Universe. My refuge and mission are to create something that brings beauty and happiness to me first. But if my art and images can touch the hearts of others and bring a smile to them, then I know I’ve done a good job.
Patiently Waiting
A published artist, writer, art professor, and voice-over actor, he earned an M.F.A. (with honors) in Illustration from the Academy of Art and a B.A. in Applied Arts from the U. L. at Lafayette. He works as an illustrator, graphic designer, digital & fine artist, educator & voice-over actor. An avid artist rights advocate, he has been recognized by the Los Angeles City Council for his volunteer work and contribution to the growth of the arts in L.A. His award-winning work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. His work has been published in Acrylic Artists Magazine and North Light Books’ – Acrylic Works: Best of Acrylic Competition. Recognized with awards from Adobe Design, the International Society of Acrylic Painters, the Society of Illustrators, the California Art League & others, he was also honored twice with an Artistic Director Award for Set Design/Scenic Art from the Valley Theatre League. He has traveled extensively; living & working at times as an artist in Norway, Denmark, England, and Japan.
The nature of my work is that through the use of varied imagery, classical & digital painting techniques & sometimes humor, I often create a visual commentary on topical societal issues and encourage the viewer to contemplate their response. My paintings are often inspired by my Native American roots (Choctaw) and my spiritual quest with studies in Jungian symbolism. I hope the viewer is inspired to be more aware of their global connections to each other, and to nature & to take personal responsibility for effecting positive change in society. Sometimes, I use acrylics, digital or mixed media to create my images.
While some of my landscapes may seem more representational, there is always a spiritual energy that emanates from them and my allegorical images breathe an almost mystical “ah-ha” as I reveal something of myself in the painting process. I create my fantasy pieces to delight & entertain, touching that inner child that is within each of us.
Patriarchy Or Shackles VI
I am a graduate art student that focuses on photography, video, and installation art. My artwork focuses on photography and video as well as installation art. I am committed to exploring the contradictions and entanglements of the self while reflecting on how the self is being influenced by society. Uncertainty in human emotions and changes in human nature is the subjects that I delve into.
In the framework of a patriarchal society, the struggle and resistance of male individuals are the main themes of my works. At the individual level, paternity (fatherhood) is a paradoxical and complex combination. The pressure, sense of responsibility, pride, and honor it brings, on the one hand, makes me feel disgusted and want to fight against it, on the other hand, I feel guilty because I can’t get the family inheritance. Hence the contradictions. At present, although male individuals are the subject of rights in the patriarchal society, they are simultaneously controlled by paternity as history. In other words, we are still in the present governed by the historical inertia forged by dead, historical men, which creates a denial of personal achievement and an urge to erase one’s identity and join a patriarchal society. And driven by strong historical inertia, men under paternal control do not feel guilty for their actions, because the vast historical machine takes all the respon