In The Middle Of Becoming 6

Maries Joseph is a California‑based self‑taught artist whose passion for painting has been reignited following a professional journey in medicine. Inspired by “the unrivalled beauty, perfection, and aesthetics of the Divine Creator,” her work bridges abstract expressionism and nature‑inspired themes.

Today, Maries offers a diverse collection of original artworks in acrylic and oil, as well as premium canvas prints—each designed to bring hope, energy, and spaciousness into daily life. Her pieces range from immersive abstracts like Whispers of the Deep and Celestial Awakening to dynamic nature compositions such as The Kingfisher and Black Horse.

Maries believes art should not just be observed—it should be felt. It’s an experience that invites viewers to pause, reflect, and connect. Her work is perfect for collectors or anyone searching to transform a room with color, emotion, and divine resonance.

Art, for me, is a language of the soul—a way to express the emotions, energies, and divine beauty that often transcend words. My work draws inspiration from the natural world, the cosmos, and the quiet spiritual rhythms of life. Through vibrant color palettes, layered textures, and intuitive mark-making, I aim to create abstract compositions that evoke feeling, reflection, and connection.

As a self-taught artist and a former physician, I bring to my practice a deep sensitivity to the human experience—its fragility, resilience, and mystery. Each painting is a journey of discovery, guided by a reverence for light, movement, and the sacred interplay between chaos and harmony.

I believe art has the power to transform spaces and stir the heart. Whether it hangs in a home, gallery, or office, I hope my work brings a sense of clarity, warmth, and inspiration—an invitation to pause, breathe, and reconnect with what truly matters.

Indian Portal Into Monument Valley

Karen Safer is an international, award-winning photographic artist and poet with a musical bent. A Los Angeles native, born to creative, scholarly-minded parents who encouraged her world travel (230+ countries/territories visited).

Early on, she was greatly influenced by movies, music, books, and plays, and as a student of art and history, inspired by ancients to moderns – Assyria to Cindy Sherman. She has a bachelor’s/master’s degree in Art from UCLA and California State University. She is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, IAA-USA, Women United, Praxis Gallery, LACMA, MOCA, IAA-USA, in Who’s Who of Professional Women, ArtTour Magazine (NY), AATOLAU interview, Artist Talk Magazine (UK), Lens Magazine, etc. She was given a camera and crayons at 3 and exposed to/inspired by California motifs: light, trees, the ocean, music, and vernacular architecture that defined/influenced her left-handed aesthetic. She began taking pictures of family and friends, progressing from painting to developing black-and-white photos in college. She was fortunate to begin a life of travel as a teen that shaped her love of the exotic paired with an eye for the formal, accidental, and unusual while subliminally seeking the “beautiful” that jiggles the lens/frame of my eye.

She is featured in magazines, catalogs, and books and exhibited internationally in over 80+ galleries/museums with over 370+ exhibitions from London, Rome, Berlin, Glasgow, Budapest, Athens, Prague, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Sao Paulo, from California to New York, winning 360+ First and other awards – most recently: Black & White SPIDER Awards nominee, 21st Julia Margaret Cameron Awards in Abstract and in Architecture categories, Botticelli International Prize in Florence, LA Art Show 2024, 17th Annual Color Awards and soon in Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Art Expos in Basel and Armenian Modern Art Museum in Yerevan.

“A photographer has the whole world big or small to capture.” – kjs

Influences: I am a student of art, architecture, history, literature, film, and music. I have been heavily influenced by so many sources but here I’ve chosen to highlight art and photography influences from Hopper to Cartier-Bresson and from Atget to Cindy Sherman. So many influences on life from cities to nature to music and art. I love color and all its vibrance while I venerate black and white. I embrace all the many influences that have touched my art and my life deeply.

Indian Scalloped Arches

“A photographer has the whole world big or small to capture.” – kjs

Indulgence

In my work, I explore the transformative power of abstraction; how color, texture, and form can combine to create something far greater than their individual parts. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, watching my mother paint. She taught me to paint what you know, and how you see and feel it. I add texture that pops off the canvas and tricks the eyes into feeling the bumpy tree trunk. I use my palette knife to paint just as much as my brushes. Unless I’m working on a commission, I rarely know what the end of my painting is going to look like. Experimentation is the most gratifying part of the painting process. Each painting begins with a variety of underpainting techniques, including alcohol ink, mixed media paper, texture, and sometimes oil pastels. After the underpainting sets, I finish my story with oils for a rich finishing layer of depth. The layers of texture invite viewers to see beyond the flat surface of a landscape or portrait. The gold woven into my paintings is a reminder of the beauty and magic found in unexpected places. My inspiration is driven by the colors of nature and the emotions of gratitude. I’d like to think each piece I create will give some warmth and brightness to whoever stands in front of it.

When we face adversity, whether it be loss, failure, or emotional upheaval, we are forced to confront vulnerabilities and weaknesses. It’s in this confrontation that healing and growth occur. Last year was a difficult year personally for me, as I lost my mother to cancer, and I was diagnosed with lymphoma. Through my treatment, I felt so overwhelmed by a range of emotions that eventually inspired my artwork. My current collection symbolizes the unique process of overcoming emotional trauma and evolving into a more resilient, gracious, and powerful version of oneself. Each piece is a visual and sensory narrative of my personal experience, a reflection of both the struggle and the eventual emergence of strength and clarity, or even a simple moment of gratitude for the earth’s gifts we receive. The works share not the grief and despair, but the rebirth and awakening of a new beginning by including imagery that inspires and connects with the viewers. My hope is to encourage, connect, console, and give hope to others who may need comfort in the notion that we are resilient creatures. Collaboratively, the collection of artwork is bright, expansive, full of vibrant colors, fluid lines, and forms that are whole or mended. Lavish underpaintings of mixed media and layers of emotion reflecting my personal evolution and a universal invitation to the audience to see the potential for resilience and hope in their own lives, no matter how difficult their journey may seem. “The Journey of Resilience” is a message of hope, gratitude, and perseverance to anyone sharing the same difficult path in life.

Inherited Promises

Alicia is a storyteller at heart and interpreting her visual tales, through her paintings, brings her great joy. These inspirations stem from Alicia’s symbolic imagination representing secret realms filled with magnificent depths of femininity and beauty. Alicia’s paintings are captivating, and her compositions are executed with intent and motive. “My portraits are linked together through precise and distinctive placements. I purposely fill the atmosphere with visual fragrances that linger in the air and connect with viewers as they personally identify with the unfolding narratives.”

I am convinced that each of us holds treasure hidden in the depths of our hearts. As a professional artist, it is my aim to provide images that help unlock these great treasures. The illumination of beautiful narratives has the power to resonate with the collector. The image reflects the truth, promoting a release of identity and value. As you view my work, take it in. Allow what might lay concealed to be realized.

Inner Landscape

At 65, after decades of not creating art, Lisa Joy Newcomb reinvented herself as an artist.

Ms Newcomb has been honored with one best-of-show, four first-place awards in photography, a second-place award in abstract photography, and a third-place award. She has had three one-woman shows. One through Artel Gallery, one through the University of Delaware, and now one through HMVC Gallery, New York. Her work has been seen from coast to coast, including several times through the HMVC Gallery in New York and the Las LaGuna Gallery in California. Pictorem, based out of Montreal, Canada, has Lisa as a featured artist. Ms. Newcomb’s work has been seen in public arenas including New York’s Times Square electronic billboards, Montgomery International Airport, the Regions Bank Corporate Gallery in Montgomery, Alabama, the Sanger Theater in Pensacola, Florida, and the Hilton Hotel Pensacola Beach, Florida. Two books have also been presented to Lisa Joy Newcomb. They are: “Nobis II, 2023” and ”Emerald Coast Review, 2023”.

The photographs she creates are abstractions in fluidity, rich in joy and filled with color, pattern, curiosity, and a gentle message. The dance of light that for most of her life she sought in the ocean, she is now looking for in the melding of glass and fabric, with occasional surprise elements. Lisa’s work is usually printed on aluminum using high-definition ChromaLuxe sublimation.

Ms Newcomb’s highest degree is a master’s in social work. Professionally, she worked as a social worker and as a realtor. She was raised in the Mid-Atlantic, experienced her young adulthood in New England and the Midwest, and for the last 28 years, the Deep South has been home with her husband. It was in the Deep South that she raised an interesting, dynamic, kind-hearted daughter. Lisa was a docent sequentially at the Pensacola Museum of Art and the Montgomery Museum of Art for over 17 years. She is currently a national member of Pen Women.

Ms Newcomb’s uplifting work can be seen on her website at Pictorem. You may order there to your specifications.

I create photos as peaceful, playful, healing stimuli while I make observations of humanity and the environment. Drawing upon different objects, I explore melding them into a unified whole. Part of my process is setting up compositions, in the form of an assemblage, visually weaving together beautiful glass, flowing fabric, with vibrant colors and patterns into integrated fluid formations, seeking to reshape light, pattern, and color into a visual oasis. I then tightly crop and photograph. My intent is to transcend and transform objects into images that visually excite while calming the soul, often with a gentle message.

A lifelong passion for art and artists influenced my work. I nod to Miriam Schapiro, a leader in the Pattern and Decoration Movement. Having lived much of my life by the shore, I have always loved the play of light in watery reflections. I am drawn to artists who capture light. Sand Stephen Rolfe Powell’s glass delights me. Mark Rothko believed in the visceral effect of color. He wanted people to have an experience within his pictures. I seek to have my work viscerally effect the viewer.

CromaLuxe high definition images printed on aluminum are my preferred substrate. The reflective surface enhances and enriches the dynamics of the glass used in my imagery. Images can be ordered in small jewel-like prints or large dynamic pieces.

Innocence

Cher Pruys, ASAA SCA, IGOR, AAPL, CSAA, AMS, LMS, OSA, MAA, CFA, NOAPS, PSOA, AWA., AAOA.
“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.”

Cher Pruys was born in Regina. Over the years she lived in many places including Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Fort Frances, settling into her present home in Devlin, on the banks of the Rainy River with her husband Mark, 4 dogs, and 2 cats.

By age three, Cher was seldom found without a drawing tool in hand. She worked in pencil, charcoal, and ink over the years, until, she picked up a paintbrush at the age of 35. Beginning with oil paints, she found her chosen mediums in acrylic, watercolor, and gouache.

Although self-taught, her dedication and talent have seen her work juried into 463 International exhibits, as well as exhibits in numerous non-juried shows. She has won 718 awards for her work in the International Juried Exhibits.

Her work has graced the covers of 3 books, and 36 magazines, including The Best Of Acrylic Fall 2021, the cover of the May 2022 Arabella Magazine, #20 Hyperrealism Magazine with “Girls Girls Girls”, & #21 with “The Young Cowboy”, & the latest, Artists & Illustrators March 2024. She has been featured in over 350 International publications. Cher’s works have found a permanent home in private and public collections worldwide.

I am a self-taught artist working in water-based mediums, mainly acrylic, but also at times gouache and watercolor. I am a hyperrealism painter fascinated by the world around me. 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. The 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…people and animals especially the eyes…an artist’s dream! My future art plans are to paint the countless subjects I have chosen to become paintings and to share my art with as many people as I can.

“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.”

Innocence Lost

Lynn Sposito was born and raised on Long Island, NY. Spending summer vacations in the upstate region of NY, Lynn found a deep connectedness to nature and her spirituality. It was then that her desire to share that love through art was born. Beneath the canopies of evergreens or sitting in the middle of the lake in the Adirondack Mountains, she painted and penned poetry. As a young mother reading picture books to her children, Lynn was inspired to create her bold technique of Painted Mâché, using hand-painted tissue paper for her unique creations.

Lynn is now located in Central Florida, USA. Her unique style of art has earned her recognition worldwide, receiving Awards of Merit for her art. She has been featured in several spotlight interviews such as Orlando Voyager Magazine and The Healing Power of Art and Artists. Lynn has showcased her artwork worldwide and her piece “Against the Odds” resides in the permanent collection in a private Museum in Athens, Greece.

Channeling energies inherent to life itself, I wish to ignite connections within my viewers through my art. I’m inspired by qualities illustrators engage within the pages of children’s books, captivated with movement & energy evoked through cuts of paper. Inspired, I experimented with the paper’s fragmentations. Through a collage process, art emerges reminiscent of stained glass & mosaics. Using tissue paper & different media, what I call “Painted Mâché” is born. Examining the natural world that binds us together, as the figurative dissolves into abstractions, I distance myself from reality, pushing towards the surreal. I unearth the intangible journeys we embark on, exploring symbolism & visual metaphors, unveiling the dichotomies of existence – love/ pain, night/day, life/death. Tapping into these terrestrial & spiritual energies, as boundless as the universe itself, I evoke emotions that resonate with viewers as individuals, a collective, & humans sharing this planet we call home.

Inspiring Muses

Toti Cuesta is an award-winning watercolor artist who creates stunning portraits inspired by nature. Through her work, she hopes to bring awareness to the importance of environmental conservation and share the beauty and peace she finds in the natural world. With her profound love for mother nature, Toti Cuesta’s pieces are a must-see for anyone looking to connect with the environment.

After years of working in the international arena as a lawyer, she decided to pursue her great passion – art – and live a meaningful life. Art has always had a healing power for Toti, and she trained as an Art Therapist to help others heal with art.

Toti strives to create pieces that connect the viewer to the subtle worlds of the universe. Through her art, she invites her viewers to partake in a magical and transforming experience by combining several planes of reality. Her pieces seem connected to an infinite flow of energy. Toti Cuesta’s work is a tribute to the beauty and power of nature, and it is a reminder of the deep connection between us and the world we inhabit.

Toti Cuesta has created a remarkable portfolio of beautiful watercolor portrait art that reflects her deep love and admiration for nature. Her work has earned her recognition and international awards, as well as exhibitions in places such as New York, Venice, and Zurich. Her art has also been featured in several international books and magazines, including ArtTour International magazine’s TOP 60 Masters list.

Toti’s pieces are not only captivating to look at but also serve to bring awareness to the importance of environmental conservation. Through her vibrant and dynamic portraits, Toti can show the peace and beauty found in nature if we take the time to appreciate it.

As a surreal portrait artist, I use watercolor to create paintings that merge symbols and vibrant colors, inviting you into a new world filled with light and life. Through these elements, I communicate universal stories that resonate within your subconscious, connecting you with the divine and the eternal. My art offers an alternative view of the world that inspires you to explore more profound levels of consciousness and rediscover human divinity.

The female figure, central in my works, symbolizes life, maternity, creativity, resilience, and love. She represents Mother Earth, embodying love and respect for everything around us, including nature and the urban environment, which deserve our care to create a more loving and just world.

My colors convey energy and emotion, utilizing a mix of cool and warm tones to symbolize the connection between heaven and earth. They evoke emotions and reflect the human experience. The eyes symbolize our window to the world and the ability to perceive truths beyond the visible.

Through my series of paintings on “urban art,” I seek to share inspirational phrases that invite reflection and connect us with our true essence, reminding us of the immense potential we all carry within.

Through my art, I aim to capture the beauty of the universe and the human experience, prompting reflection on our interaction with the environment and the importance of preserving the natural and cultural beauty surrounding us.