Clouds: October Harvest

I was born and raised in NYC, but mostly in The Bronx. I attended CCNY, where I graduated with a BS in Mathematics and an MA in Mathematics Education. I taught high school mathematics in the Bronx. I have always been interested in the arts and started writing poems and playing guitar at age 19. I studied poetry under Professor Robert O’Clair. I studied guitar at The Guitar Workshop. I studied painting and drawing at SUNY Purchase. I have 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, I have exhibited in many online shows. I have exhibited at HMVCGalleryNewYork virtually since its inception for 3 years. A wonderful state-of-the-art gallery with outstanding artists! My poems have been published.in magazines, books, and at HVMOCA. I performed some of my poems in April 2024 and 2025 at HVMOCA with numerous other artists at Writing The Walls. I self-published a children’s book, ”Mr. Fine Goes to the Eye Doctor,” in 1993. My principal artistic interest has been abstract painting and drawing for the last 12 years, but I have written many poems as well. I live 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 as well. I believe the painting/drawing is a manifestation of my emotional state of both conscious and unconscious feelings.

Clouds: The Walnut Tree

Clouds: Vague Memories

I was born and raised in NYC, but mostly in The Bronx. I attended CCNY, where I graduated with a BS in Mathematics and an MA in Mathematics Education. I taught high school mathematics in the Bronx. I have always been interested in the arts and started writing poems and playing guitar at age 19. I studied poetry under Professor Robert O’Clair. I studied guitar at The Guitar Workshop. I studied painting and drawing at SUNY Purchase. I have 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, I have exhibited in many online shows. I have exhibited at HMVCGalleryNewYork virtually since its inception for 3 years. A wonderful state-of-the-art gallery with outstanding artists! My poems have been published in magazines, books, and at HVMOCA. I performed some of my poems in April 2024 and 2025 at HVMOCA with numerous other artists at Writing The Walls. I self-published a children’s book, ”Mr. Fine Goes to the Eye Doctor,” in 1993. My principal artistic interest has been abstract painting and drawing for the last 12 years, but I have written many poems as well. I live in Putnam County, NY

Cluster

Samantha (Sam) Resendez is a Lubbock, Texas native. She holds an MFA from Texas Tech University and is currently an adjunct instructor teaching foundation-level Drawing and 2D Design courses. Her work explores multiple aspects of abjection and experiences through visceral imagery and forms inspired by human anatomy. Currently, her work explores these concepts through drawing, painting, and mixed-media sculptures. Her current body of work involves distorting bodily subject matter with inspiration from her experiences and the physical qualities of the material used for each piece. This intimate process allows for an imaginative, visceral experience for the viewer that is visually abstract and repugnant. She seeks to challenge the viewer’s experience of their own bodies and how they view their bodies as vessels.

I strive to understand the fleshy vessel I occupy and its experiences through my artistic process. Abjection, both socially and physically, is an underlying aspect of my work that speaks to complex emotions and intimate memories throughout my discourse. The use of art to comprehend abjection and self allows for a visual investigation of the ideas that speak closely to my fleshy vessel’s experience. Paint becomes flesh, hair strands become sutures, batting takes on the role of fat and organs, and charcoal becomes an extension of the imagination at work. Visceral hues that speak back to the corporeal body occupy my color palette, which brings intimate and sometimes repugnant sensations to the viewer. I construct an abstract, unrecognizable yet familiar manifestation of the viscera that blurs the line between self and other. The process of abstracting the body and these emotions allows for a disconnect from my own intimate experiences. The results are mere strains of the body and its sensations.

Coercion

Rachel Owen is a photographer living and working with her husband and son in the Chicagoland area. Right out of high school Rachel began working as a wedding and portrait photographer and is currently evolving into her true passion, green-screen photography and digital compositing. As an Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert, she often merges photos of her subjects in the studio on greenscreen into miniature objects or even combines multiple photographs to create a new setting that does not exist in the real world.

Many describe Rachel as a “self-taught” artist, but she has an aversion towards this moniker and contributes her knowledge to the study of many master artists. Although she has no formal degree she jumps at every learning opportunity she can; online classes, private workshops, art blogs, museum lectures, and college textbooks are just a few of the ways she satisfies her ambition for education. Considering education her third-highest life priority she makes studying imperative daily practice. You can often find her wandering the Art Institute of Chicago with a favorite book in hand such as Symbols and Allegories in Art.

Rachel’s primary goal when photographing anyone is to make the person in front of her lens feel empowered and to have that empowerment show up and provoke the viewer. Her images are often described as surreal and whimsical, and they take the viewer into a fantasy to blur the lines between reality and fiction. Rachel describes her desire to create as a fundamental energy in her soul that hurts more to keep in than to let out.

Response is an interpretation of the pandemic and the resulting cultural and political melee. It is a glimpse into modern society’s polarization and paramount need for social acceptance and simultaneous imperative self-isolation. Response explores the exfoliation of social interaction to reveal the heart of the self, experienced in a new way, or perhaps for the first time, by so many in first-world countries. It explores a new relationship with the self both welcomed and resisted, and how the turmoil of the pandemic is a metaphor for the pandemic of the soul.

On a road trip at the peak of the lockdown in April 2020, I explored true isolation in the most desolate parts of the US. It was in the remoteness of the desert and solidarity with the earth that I began to feel a quiet overcome my soul; I initiated the question of what was in that quiet, and if I relished or detested it. In the forty-plus hours of driving and isolation of camping, I began to have an eidetic visualization of my emotions and the resulting images were conceived. Death Valley is the backdrop for most of the work. I photographed models on greenscreen in the studio and combined them into the desert backgrounds.

With growing political and societal estrangement, my concept evolved exploring influences outside the self and the effects they have on the psyche both temporary and permanent. The images are designed in such a way as the viewer will see his/her own political agenda glorified. As much as Response is about inner turmoil and reflection there is also a sense of hope and rebirth attached to the images. It probes at a new sense of self and a hopeful restart that can come from humanity and the earth if only we choose to activate it.

Coffee Break

After my immigrant parents left Mexico to work on the farmlands of Salinas, California, they eventually settled in the city of San Francisco. As a visionary, I was eager to pursue a passion of discovery and self-awareness. High school continued to entice my creativity by allowing me to compete in several poster art competitions. Taking a more serious approach, I decided after absorbing a variety of college art classes, to travel to Southern California to attend the Los Angeles School of Design.

It wasn’t long before the excitement of Hollywood dazzled me with a palette of opportunities to create design solutions for both the entertainment industry and corporate identity clients. My retirement years later led to the process of building 3D abstract and pop-culture statements with the intent to focus on opposing spaces, the passion for color, and what stirs my artistic imagination on a heart-to-heart basis with real life.

The joy of creativity has always led me to new discoveries while the treasure of visual expression continues to connect with my personal journey of artistic growth.

Even as a young artist making ideas come to life stood out as the essence of my own garden of creative inspiration. A motivated drive that speaks, even today, as a trust of diverse impressions I desire to convey in my art. It’s also a platform I hope resonates with others with the same interest and love I embrace as an evolving artist. In pursuing dimensional sculptural direction as another level of my design evolution, two basic themes have emerged. These represent the elegance of fine art forms along with textures of representational 3D art. The use of “rainbow” colors also plays into my passion for colorful accents while the spirit of abstraction and “whimsical” flavors add to the entertaining spirit of my sculptural statements. These include various acrylic plastic materials and the discovery of recycled treasures as its own unique form of creative 3D art.

My sculptural visualization began with a learning process that included attending workshop sessions with laser educators and product suppliers. I then teamed up with a laser-cutter who transformed some of my notebook sketches into working computer files. These files were then transferred to a special digital program that “traced my designs” and cut them out from materials such as acrylic plastic surfaces. Learning how to use different gluing methods as well as polishing techniques was also part of fusing together dimensional forms with the dynamics of light and space. A journey that offered the reward of creating my visions into reality as a sculptural artist.

Coffee Grounds

Sylvia Bandyke, Royal Oak, MI, USA, is largely a self-taught photographer, having taken studio and art history classes in college. She began her art career by displaying photo collages in ArtPrize, an independent international art competition in Grand Rapids, MI, from 2014 to 2018. Subsequently, she has been juried into more than 100 group exhibitions in 24 states and accepted into numerous online international exhibitions. An awarded artist, she keeps an eye open for interesting views of a subject while looking for hidden beauty every day. Most recently, she was a caregiver to her elderly mother and was able to create some memorable, unique art as a result of this experience.

I prefer using the collage format to integrate associated images into a cohesive unit that is even more compelling because of the embedded story. Having been a playwright and technical writer, I am accustomed to delivering content with a message. So now, as a visual communicator, I continue to provide meaning via the structure of the collage format, wherein the four photos confirm, augment, or even contradict each other if warranted. I enjoy offering the richness that the multiplicity of images provides, along with the impact gained through thoughtful positioning of them. Ultimately, I intend to have my work act as a doorway to the viewer’s own mental and emotional framework regarding the collection of images, perhaps finding their own very personal meaning in them.

Collage In Blue

I have been creating art all of my life. In fourth grade, I won a poster contest. More recently, my art was accepted into the juried 2020 West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the juried 2023, 2022, and 2021 Westminster Art Festivals, the juried exhibitions Animal Kingdom and You & Your Camera at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, the juried 2022 NCCA-Artsplace Statewide Photography Competition Exhibition, the juried Biafarin exhibitions Creative Minds 2023, Abstract Zone 2023, Extinction 2023, Valentine 2023, Love 2023, Noel 2022, and Magix 2022, the juried exhibits Furry Friends 2023 and Art 4 Animals 2022 at Red Bluff Art Gallery, the juried exhibitions Celebrating the Holidays and All You Need is Love at 6th Street Art Studios, the exhibition Abrazo (Embrace) at Verum Ultimum Gallery, the juried exhibitions Show Off Your Art and The Dog Days of Summer 2023 at KBM Gallery, and in several exhibitions at Las Laguna Art Gallery and HMVC Gallery New York.

I am inspired by a variety of things. Reading, studying, and literature inspire me. I could read when I was only four years old. In elementary school, I was in the highest reading group every year. I was usually the best reader in my class and grade and often helped my classmates with their reading. Literary and historical novels, mysteries, philosophy, and poetry all inspire me.

Music also inspires me. I began studying piano when I was five years old, so music has always been a part of my life. In junior high and high school, I played clarinet in a band. At the District Solo and Ensemble Festival in high school, I won a Division I ranking, which is the best, for my piano solo. I also learned to play harpsichord, carillon, flute, recorder, violin, mandolin, viola, and classical guitar.

Science has also inspired me, for much of my life. I was the first person in my third-grade class to learn the names of all the planets in the solar system. In addition, my science project from fourth grade was the best in the class. Geography, the biology of plants, evolution, astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, anthropology, and political science all inspire me.

Languages have interested me all of my life, and I try to incorporate them in some manner into my art. I have studied French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, and would like to learn several other languages.

Nature, including plants and animals, inspires me as well. In my art, I like to communicate the idea of living in harmony with nature. While I feel that nature can produce a calming feeling that is quite relaxing and restful, I prefer residing in an urban environment. Occasionally, I like to include elements from cities in my art.

Finally, I have been collecting things all of my life. Stamp collecting often inspires my art. I have been attempting to find techniques to include my other collections in my art.

Collage In Gold

I have been creating art all of my life. I won a poster contest in fourth grade. More recently, my art was accepted into the juried 2020 West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the juried 2023, 2022, and 2021 Westminster Art Festivals, the juried online exhibitions Animal Kingdom and You & Your Camera at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, the juried 2022 NCCA-Artsplace Statewide Photography Competition Exhibition, the juried online Biafarin exhibitions Extinction 2023, Valentine 2023, Love 2023, Noel 2022, and Magix 2022, the juried online exhibits Furry Friends 2023 and Art 4 Animals 2022 at Red Bluff Art Gallery, the juried online exhibitions Celebrating the Holidays and All You Need is Love at 6th Street Art Studios, the online exhibition Abrazo (Embrace) at Verum Ultimum Gallery, the juried online exhibitions Show Off Your Art and The Dog Days of Summer 2023 at KBM Gallery, and in several exhibitions at Las Laguna Art Gallery and HMVC Gallery New York.

I create art in a variety of media, including pencil, watercolor, pastel, photography, printmaking, charcoal, and calligraphy. I also write poetry, which has won awards and been published, and play musical instruments, including piano, harpsichord, carillon, clarinet, flute, recorder, mandolin, violin, guitar, and viola. In addition, I have a strong educational background in science, math, and engineering. In whatever medium I work, nature is usually my subject, whether I am portraying a single flower or animal, or a landscape. Sometimes, I feel that focusing on details can increase my understanding of a subject. I do try to maintain a balance, however, between concentrating on important minutia and retaining the overall, far-reaching view. I feel that while many subjects in nature can seem fleeting and ephemeral, they also possess a timeless constancy. In my art, I like to explore how nature, imagination, literature, and science collaborate together to enrich our lives.