The Battle
Mary Estep Morgan is a hard-working and ambitious woman. Simultaneously she raised a family of three children and taught school full-time for over thirty years. Mary taught all levels of art during her teaching tenure, including 14 years as an adjunct professor in the COFA at a local University. She is currently a working artist. Her primary medium is mixed-media painting. Mary says, “My abstract expressionist style is a process created by spontaneous mark-making. My artwork is influenced by internal and external experiences derived from conscious and subconscious thought.” Her artwork is about her life’s journey and the joy of living in abstract form and color.
Her external childhood influences include Fort Worth, Texas where she grew up, and she spent two years abroad because of her father’s work. At the age of ten, she lived in Cali Colombia, and for the second year in Zurich Switzerland where Mary, a senior in high school, attended the International School. She took her first art class under the direction of Rhoda Issacs.
Mary completed her undergraduate degree at Baylor University BS ’72 and her MA from TWU in 2002. After Mary’s retirement in 2016, she had more time and a studio that allowed for creative development. The past six years have been undeniably the most significant for her artistic growth and development. Her subjects include influences from nature, spiritual truths, family, literature, and everyday events.
Among Mary’s goals is to continue developing her creative processes for further growth and development and engage in new opportunities to reach new audiences.
My artwork is about my life’s journey and the joy of living through abstract form and color. The creative process that produces a product is the voice that reflects my soul, expressing many different facets of life’s experiences. The color and form of my abstract art are enmeshed with internal and external world influences and a blending of subconscious and conscious thoughts. I usually paint intitutively and often spontaneously The materials that I work with are acrylic, oil, watercolor, collage, or a combination of these on canvas, wood, or paper.
The Beast In The Garden
Michael L. Sirken was born and raised in NYC, but mostly in The Bronx. Michael attended CCNY, where he graduated with a BS in Mathematics and an MA in Mathematics Education. Later he taught high school mathematics in The Bronx. Michael has always been interested in the arts and started writing poems and playing guitar at age 19. Michael studied poetry under Professor Robert O’Clair and studied guitar at The Guitar Workshop. Michael studied painting and drawing at SUNY Purchase.
Michael has had paintings in 8 live group shows at Jones Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri; paintings at 5 live group shows in Arbor Gallery, Carmel, NY; paintings and photos in 6 live group shows at Putnam Arts Council in Mahopac, NY; and 1 painting in a live group show at the Mahopac Public Library. Also, Michael has exhibited in many online shows. Michael has continued to exhibit and support the HMVC Gallery New York virtually since its inception 3 years ago. A wonderful state-of-the-art gallery with outstanding artists!
Michael’s poems have been published in magazines, books, and at HVMOCA. Michael performed some of his poems in April 2024 and 2025 at HVMOCA with numerous other artists at Writing The Walls. In 1993 Michael self-published a children’s book called ”Mr. Fine Goes to the Eye Doctor”. Michael’s principal artistic interest has been abstract painting and drawing for the last 12 years, but poetry is very close to his heart as well. Michael L. Sirken lives in Putnam County, NY.
My work in fine arts has principally been in 2 classes of abstract paintings: oils and water-based paints. However, I have completed numerous works in drawing. Recently, I have experimented with spray paints. I focus on color, texture, methodology of delivery, and composition. In composition, I am interested in positive space and negative space. I work through movement, color, and instinct, letting the brush carry whatever rises to the surface. I believe the painting/drawing is a manifestation of my emotional state of both conscious and unconscious feelings. In this way, every work becomes a record of my inner landscape at the moment of creation, shaped by instinct, memory, and the quiet impulses that rise from beneath the surface.
The Beauty In The Swamp In Automatique Surrealism
Kate Weingart is a visual artist whose practice draws on a lifetime of scholarship, activism, and spiritual inquiry. Based in Daytona Beach, she creates layered, symbolically rich paintings and clay sculptures that explore ancient goddess cultures, ecological consciousness, and the inner life of the psyche. Her art is influenced by Jungian psychology, Abstract Expressionism, and European automatism, synthesizing figuration and abstraction with a tactile, meditative process.
Weingart’s academic foundation includes a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Miami (1989), an M.A. in Labor Studies from Rutgers University (1976), and a B.A. in Anthropology from Penn State (1972). She taught at Purdue University from 1990 to 2006, retiring as Professor Emeritus. Prior to that, she served as a union representative and educator in cities across the U.S., advocating for worker rights and social justice. Her work in labor and academia deeply informs her artistic lens, which examines the intersection of social structures, gender, nature, and human expression.
Following her academic career, Weingart turned more fully to the visual arts. From 2008 to 2023, she trained and served as an art docent at the Norton Museum of Art (West Palm Beach), Appleton Museum (Ocala), and Museum of Arts and Sciences (Daytona Beach). These experiences expanded her knowledge of art history and sparked her own art-making journey. Her clay sculptures evoke ancient goddess forms with a modern sensibility, while her paintings reflect a deeply intuitive exploration of identity, myth, and emotional landscapes.
Weingart has delivered public lectures on art history topics such as Women and Art, History of Landscape Painting, The Language of the Goddess, and Beauty in Our Own Image at institutions including the African American Museum of DeLand, the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum, and regional art associations.
Her artwork has received increasing recognition, including:
• 2022 – First Place, Halifax Palette and Brush Club
• 2023 – Judge’s Award, Art League of Daytona Beach
• 2024–2025 – Juried exhibitions with Gallerium Art, Spectrum Art, Abstract Zone, and Exhibizone (Canada); Naturalist Gallery (Washington, DC); and publication in Artstonish (Canada) and the University of Pennsylvania Arts Magazine
Through her art, Weingart seeks to reclaim feminine spiritual traditions, challenge patriarchal narratives, and promote an ethic of connection with the Earth, each other, and our deeper selves.
My journey as an artist began in the halls of Pennsylvania State University, where I studied drawing, sculpture, and print-making between 1969 and 1972. Despite having one of my sculptures selected for the Undergraduate art exhibit in 1970-71, my artistic path would take an unexpected detour. It wasn’t until years later, after retiring from Purdue University as Professor Emeritus and volunteering as a docent at an art museum alongside my husband, that my passion for creating art was profoundly reignited. This renaissance of purpose led me to pursue further education through online courses and local art venues, allowing me to refine my technique and develop my distinctive artistic voice.
My work exists at the confluence of automatic surrealism and abstract expressionism, drawing deep inspiration from the revolutionary spirit of Modernist art movements. I embrace a multidisciplinary approach, working with materials ranging from clay to ink on rice paper and acrylic on canvas. By incorporating elements of digital art into my practice, I create pieces that vibrate with dynamic tension between form and color—each work a living testament to the varied tapestry of my life experiences.
The bold departure from classical traditions exhibited by European and American Modern Art movements resonates profoundly in my creative process. Their courage to abstract, to challenge, and to reimagine the very foundations of artistic expression continues to inspire my own explorations. I paint with vigor and intention, positioning myself within the rich American tradition of Abstract Expressionism while honoring the French movement of Automatic Surrealism.
In my most authentic moments of creation, I surrender to what I can only describe as the artist spirit—a force that flows through me when my unconscious mind takes control of the materials. This surrender is not an abdication of artistic responsibility but rather its purest expression. For me, creating art transcends mere activity; it is a meditation of being, a sacred dialogue between consciousness and creation where the boundaries between artist and artwork momentarily dissolve.
The Beauty Of The Sea
I was born in Habana, Cuba and at the age of 8, my parents sent me to the US alone to avoid indoctrination in Russia to communism. I was part of 14,000 children that arrived in Miami and were sent to orphanages or foster care. It was in the orphanage that I developed my love for art. I would draw pictures to send to my parents to let them know that I was ok. I learned that through my art I was able to bring peace and joy to my parents. My mom still has some of these pictures. I was reunited with my parents about a year later. After high school, I wanted to go to art school but I wanted to help my parents so I went to secretarial school and went into the business world where I climbed the corporate letter and became very successful. My love for art was always there. I am a self-taught artist that has worked in many mediums. In the last 10 years, I have been creating and perfecting the pouring process with Pebeo paints. I have exhibited in Spectrum and Red Dot in Miami, New York Expo, SOFA in Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, and the Hamptons. I have been published in several art magazines and represented by several galleries.
My primary influences have been nature, music, and the movement I perceive in them. I am able through my art to transport my viewers to see and feel wonder and awe in my art.
Being born on a Caribbean Island, I am drawn to the beautiful sunsets/sunrises along with the crystal clear colors of turquoise, emerald, and blues reflected in the water. I love how the water caresses the sand as it reached the shore. You will see in many of my pieces the contrast of these colors. There is so much beauty that surrounds us that needs to be captured. My pouring process has evolved through the years where I can create layers that give my pieces a 3D effect. My colors are blended to provide depth to the pieces. It is fascinating to see the movement created in my pieces. This is what I love about my work and the emotions people feel when they see my art. The best compliment I have received from my collectors is that they see and feel exactly what I am trying to convey through my art.
The Big Red With Heart
Stephanie Bing studied painting in the master class of internationally renowned art professor Klaus Jürgen-Fischer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Mainz and photography in the master class of Professor Dr. Vladimir Spacek from Prague. Born in 1967 in Mannheim, Germany, Bing graduated with distinction from high school in Offenburg. Subsequently, she studied fine arts, painting, photography, art history, German, and literature at Johannes Gutenberg University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Mainz, again graduating with distinction.
Following her education, she worked as an associate professor for the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Bavarian Chamber of Architects until 2002.
Bing focused on design, architecture, aesthetic perception, and digital media to promote visual literacy.
Since 1991, her work has been shown in national and international exhibitions.
I compose bright, surprising settings like a luxury jewel box and assimilate my interiors to unknown sanctuaries with high vibes by metabolizing my experiences, observations, and impressions into interior pictures. I compose collage elements, sea creatures, plants, and images from art history into new spatial structures and give rebirth to the classical interior. In my highly detailed paintings, with their tapestry-like designs, you will find interiors with fish, leopards, Chinese porcelain, ceramics, baroque furniture, and retro-style influences. Everything in my paintings is playful, ambiguous, and multi-layered. I love variations within a theme and image quotations. My artwork is much more than an assemblage of colors and patterns to please the eye. I build new environments that relate to nothing seen before. I want my pure aesthetic energy to flow out of my artwork and brighten the viewer’s mind with pure buzz and pleasant excitement.
I love to break the traditional methods of spatial visualization and the three-dimensional physical illusions of a room to make the viewer’s perception of reality absurd. I want to allow my audience to look behind the bare, well-known pictorial sphere by leaving behind the classically taught composition and inventing more layers within the two-dimensional canvas. Sometimes I enlarge the interior space through perspective illusions and add collage elements, which I collect every day, for additional connotation. By breaking the classical view, I can generate a new experience for my audience, pointing them to emotional reality. I turn my motives into bright, cheering works of art, like an explosion of colors and organic shapes. Everybody is welcome to participate.
Creating is like breathing. Painting is surviving.
The painting process itself is of the utmost importance in my daily life. Painting is comparable to breathing for me. I like to plunge into my painting process as others fall into a pool. Creating a new image is an effort to balance between visualizing and reflecting on my surroundings and emotions. The subjects of my work reflect a myriad of daily impressions from traveling and being in motion. While painting, I get an extraordinary sense of personal and creative freedom. From the basic idea of perspective, I developed the layout of the constructed space, which I am wallpapering. I overpaint my interior compositions with an old master glaze technique and a structure of shadows and complementary colors to increase the luminosity of my work. I capture detailed and precise moments that bring a fresh and intriguing perspective to the world’s reality. As the viewer sees now existing in a different light, context, or resolution, familiar objects appear as something new.
The Birth Of Rock N Roll
I live in Little Rock, Arkansas, and earned a BFA in Graphic Design from Louisiana Tech University. Most of my career was spent working in sales for the photography and printing industries, where I specialized in fine art reproductions. I am now working as a full-time artist myself.
I am proud to have been named the official artist for the world-renowned King Biscuit Blues Festival for the years 2021 – 2023 and also have produced poster art for two years for the Delta Roots Music Festival. My art was featured in 2022-23 in the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance’s Arts & The Park outdoor exhibit, in 2024 as part of the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum’s “Inclusive” exhibit, and I have two paintings in the permanent collection of the Delta Cultural Center Museum. I also have had art featured in HMVC Gallery New York’s “ Harmony & Diversity” group exhibition, the September 2024 edition of Artistonish magazine, and Gallerium’s Food Story, Portraits, Scenic, and Spirituality 2024 international online group exhibits.
I consider my artwork as “Fun Art”, meant to convey a sense of wonder and whimsy and my influences come mostly from pop culture. I grew up with Marvel comics, Big Daddy Roth, and Peter Max, so my work is very illustrative and the graphic elements found in those can also be found easily in my paintings as well.
A lot of my art is inspired by music – all kinds of music – and I like to visualize it in bright colors and moving shapes, while also paying due respect to the musicians themselves. I’m partial to the blues and love the deep connection to the soul that music has, so a lot of my work features scenes from the Arkansas/Mississippi delta. I’m also fascinated with cultural symbols of all sorts and am attracted to bright, pure colors, extreme detail, and unconventional but familiar subject matter such as food.
These are the things that interest me and I try to interpret them all in a colorful graphic fashion that will hopefully make people smile.
The Blossom Of Hope
Jonas Ng, a contemporary painter and makeup artist, was born in Hong Kong and is currently based there. Renowned for her vibrant and boldly colored women’s faces rendered in oil, Jonas draws inspiration from Fauvism and Expressionism, resulting in a distinctive artistic style. Her preferred medium is oil painting on canvas, paying homage to the techniques of old masters.
Her work delves into the complex emotions experienced by women as they strive to balance the demands of family and career. Through her art, she captures the power and resilience of women, portraying their fragility and challenges with vivid intensity. Notable among her projects is the “Vivid” series (2020-2022), where Jonas explores the emotional strength of women amidst the backdrop of the pandemic. In her “Dazzling Bloom” series (2023), she breathes life into blossoms, infusing them with energy and emotions that symbolize the post-pandemic period. Additionally, her “Furtasia” series (2023) takes viewers on an imaginative journey through the animal kingdom, evoking wonder and joy.
Jonas Ng’s talent has been recognized through notable exhibitions at prestigious venues such as Gallery Konstnären & Pinaulen in Karlskrona, Sweden; Boomer Gallery in London, United Kingdom; Jackson Lee Arts Centre and Gallery in Hong Kong; Kubrick in Hong Kong; and Joy in Art Gallery in Hong Kong. Her captivating artwork and commissions are in various private collectors in Germany, Slovakia, New Zealand, India, and Hong Kong. Jonas has actively participated in esteemed events including the Affordable Art Fair in Hong Kong, The 4th Hong Kong Int’l Arts and Collectibles Expo, and the Fauvism Art Talk in Hong Kong. She has also achieved significant milestones, such as being the winner of the Biafarin Prize in Prisma Art Prize 4th edition in Rome, Italy, and a grant recipient in the Biafarin Awards – 2021 in Ontario, Canada.
I love painting large-scale, bold-colored portraits of women in oil. Their faces fascinate me, holding countless stories within. The contemplative eyes provide abundant inspiration. I am drawn to the complex emotions women face as they strive to balance family and career. Fauvism and Expressionism strongly influence my work, resulting in a unique style of expressive portraits.
I often choose faces from photos that resonate with my emotions. Once, a difficult work experience led me to a photo of a sad lady in stage makeup within a bird’s-eye view landscape. Vibrant colors transformed the landscape into an abstract, mesmerizing backdrop. The intense blending of woman and background intrigued viewers and sparked their imagination.
This approach extended to my coronavirus series, exploring pandemic emotions and the impact of nature on lives. It continued with the driftwood series, symbolizing the global struggle and millions lost during the pandemic. A shift to deep tones followed, inspired by the loss of my dear friend to depression. The Bloom series marked a hopeful return after COVID-19, showcasing women immersed in life’s joys and caring for others. In my latest animal series, I experimented with both bold and pastel colors to depict fierce creatures and beloved pets.
The Blue Chair On Vacation
After having spent a decade in Greenwich Village where Kelly discovered “performance art” (when she first combined visual art & poetry) she then relocated to Northport, NY, and immersed herself in live poetry, visual art, and acting. Some publications include a full-length book of poetry “Barking at Sunspots”, “On Maxwell Street”, “Bards Annual”, “Grabbing the Apple (an anthology”), “Long Island Sounds (an anthology)”, “XANADU”, “Paumanok: Poems & Pictures of Long Island (an anthology)”, numerous small chapbooks and inclusion in many small press publications. Kate has worked as a visual artist with other poets (a published book “ENTER”) and collaborated with other poets and musicians (e.g. David Amram on the CD “Northport Celebrates Jack”). She was honored to be awarded “New York State Woman of Distinction in the Arts” (2003). For over 5 decades Kelly has been fortunate to have exhibited in many art exhibits, both group and solo, involved in organizing multi-media events (Sundays @ 7), was a member of the Bare Bones acting group, “performed” her poetry in many venues, was one of the founders of the Northport Arts Coalition and served as their first co-chair. She has served as a curator for the Art League of Long Island and the Northport Arts Coalition. Recent visual art exhibits from 2020 – 2023 include curated group shows “Out of Isolation”, “Paradoxical Paradigms”, “Forever Young”, “We’ve Gone Wild”, “Artist’s Choice (an invitational)”, “Flower Power’, “Abstract is Abstract”, “Home”, “Paper, Paint and Pixels” (2-person show) “Blue”, and solo exhibits, “a show of wanderings”, and “New Works”.
After spending many years working in different media, i.e. traditional darkroom photography, oil/acrylic painting, sculpture (welding, wood, etc.), and most often a combination of all these approaches, I was introduced to using the computer as yet another tool to express myself, to share my vision of the world. The discovery of what it offered in the way of new approaches to creating my work, intrigued and excited me. I was afforded the tools that supplanted and/or enhanced other tools that I had been working with, and in altogether new & inspiring ways, the possibilities opened up an unexplored and most challenging world. As art progresses, innovative and exciting tools become available, and, as an artist, I am always curious, always experimenting and embracing different techniques to further my end as an artist, which is my attempt to communicate with the outside world. Attached is the very recent work that “illustrates” my various approaches to my work.
The Body Keeps The Score Holding That Pose
Lily Formato (B. 2000) is a Southern expressionist artist from Wytheville, Virginia. All her life, Lily’s language has been through the lens of visual art since she was a child. After graduating high school and returning to her hometown of around eight thousand people, she opened a fine arts gallery and community space, Formato Fine Arts. Through her gallery, she focused on her Appalachian art-making practice by teaching art lessons and building a small studio in the gallery space. Lily’s art and her community come hand-in-hand, where she would host events such as drag shows, visiting artist shows, ballroom dance lessons, and art classes. Lily’s passion for creating an inclusive space for all to enjoy has given her so much joy. Living in the SW Virginia area, she participated in multiple art shows in her area where she sold her original works and gained name recognition from Virginia Living Magazine and The Roanoke Times. Lily graduated with an associate degree from Wytheville Community College.
Lily is a Southern expressionist whose primary focus is painting and ceramics. Raised in Appalachia, the culture and people are integral to Formato’s art-making narrative. The opioid crisis severely impacted Lily’s community. Amidst the rugged mountains, the despair was palpable. Artists such as Alice Neel and Jenna Gribbon influenced Lily to create portraits that depict tender stories of her community and inner expression. “ A portrait of Robby” haunts the wall and towers over the viewer like a titanic force – he tells you what you need to know about himself. His addiction, his gayness, the longing to leave Wytheville, a family too far gone to be saved from drugs and mental illness. Impasto paint is applied throughout the face, and loosely drawn hands that delicately sit on his thighs. A self-described voyeurist, Lily enjoys discovering slice-of-life moments played out before her. Overhearing conversations, people-watching at the park, and long walks flesh out her world to paint. Visual communication is Lily’s language of understanding her body. If she isn’t painting others or things – she focuses on herself. Questioning her place as a young woman in her community. These are answered by twisted self-portraits of her own body, partially rendered and abstracted. Her advanced color and oil paint skills produce vibrant depictions of the female identity.