Exhibiting Artists
The Elephant in the Room
Alexis Avlamis
A rare encounter with a lone wolf at a nearby mountain, alerted my senses and urged me to create a series of totemic wolf artworks, exploring various spiritual manifestations of the magnificent carnivore. In the spirit animal kingdom, the wolf stands for deep connection with instincts and intuition, pointing to an appetite for freedom. As my painting process stems from an instinctual nature, I improvised and merged nature, human and the artifice emphasizing on the Jungian archetype of the Self (the wholeness of an individual). The wolf figures are arranged in a reverse hierarchy style, thus placed at the bottom being the most important representation. Phallic and uterine tube-like elements may be found in the compositions, bringing to mind the Anima and Animus, an inner force, which contains and embraces both the feminine and masculine psyche. Ιn my totemic structures, this animated soul is guidedby wolf spirit animals, a reminder of keeping the spirit alive and living life powerfully, guided by instincts.
David Bartlett
Seeing Animals
Animals are so near. We hear their cries. We see their purposeful movement. We compassionately recognize familiar defining behaviors of our own. We are stopped by their gaze and thrill to their response. They touch us and we, it seems, them with an immediacy only rarely encountered with other humans. And yet, without language, they remain so far. Reason’s limiting inability to positively represent its own absence, despite voluminous knowledge produced by meticulous inquiry, finds them infinitely remote, incommensurable, other. In no other domain of experience do we feel so keenly the possibility of understanding everything and knowing nothing.
Art spans the gulf at the foot of reason. Insightfully formed representations, still and silent, can register the nature of things animate and sonant. Art can validate and celebrate the unsettling wonder, awe, fear, and love that we feel in the presence of creatures, beings both akin and unlike us.
Joe Bartz
My artwork tends to be detailed surrealistic and colorful images of science, nature, and history. The works of art are real objects so the viewer can easily identify with the subject matter. The intention is to create a pleasing image and tell a story at the same time
Joann Biondi
Joann Biondi’s feline art photography has been featured in major media outlets including CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, PEOPLE Pets, New York Times, Associated Press, Miami Herald, USA Today and dozens of other publications. She has exhibited her work at the Coral Gables Museum and the Cornell Museum of Art as well as in galleries in Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis and Chicago. Recently she shot “The Cats of Cuba” for National Geographic. Her primary model and muse is a cat named Lorenzo who enjoys wearing clothes.
Jonathan Cartledge
Since 1997, I have worked with rabbit imageryto explore whether a long-eared herbivore can communicate complex emotions and ideas. Over time, these characters have begun to engage and explore their world through scientific discovery. I focus on scientific disciplines that offer a view of the rabbits’ place in the larger processes of the natural world, my hope being that the viewer sees a strange reflection of human discovery in a new species (albeit a fictional one) “rediscovering” the world they inhabit.
Joelle Cicak
I recently finished my studies Art & Art History Major and Classical Studies Minor at Dickinson College where I graduated Summa Cum Laude. While my favorite medium is clay, I also enjoy drawing, printmaking, photography, and metalworking to produce a wide range of artworks. I put my knowledge of Classical history and culture to work by incorporating aspects of these studies into my art. My love of travel has taken me to France and many cities in China on study abroad trips to learn about drawing, painting, and ceramic production. It has also fostered my love of nature, as I have spent many summers moving from one national park to another in 44 United States. It is easy to see the power and beauty of the natural world threading through all of my work.
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Lenny
“Lenny” is part of a series that looks at manatee tails as portraits. These aquatic mammals have evolved to live low-stakes lifestyles, having no natural predators and persisting on a mainly vegetarian diet. However, they bare scarring patterns that are so distinctive they can be used to accurately identify individuals. Lenny is one of these manatees. Such scarring patterns are caused by various human interferences, such as boat strikes, canal locks, and infections from harmful agal blooms. However, the greatest threat to manatees is habitat loss and their downgraded status from endangered to threatened in early 2017 can be attributed to pressure from lobbyists representing land development companies. With only about 6,000 manatees in the wild with an average of 490 deaths per year, this down-listing is a dangerous step in the wrong direction for the conservation of this species.
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A Hat For Every Fish I’ve Owned
“A Hat For Every Fish I’ve Owned” is a meditation on the way we view pet fish. Fish are often seen as starter pets, ornamentation, or easily replaceable objects that adorn a home. This series looks back at my own transgressions when owning fish. Hand knitted objects, when gifted, are an expression of love and care. Hand knitting objects as small as these hats is extremely labor intensive and difficult, enacting care but also atonement. The colorful aspects of these hats also embodies the idea of decoration and ornamentation that fish often fall into when kept. Ultimately, these objects are useless to the fish they are made for and exhibit a futility in the idealized exchange.
Marcus Clarke-Goss
I live at the intersection of people, technology, work and the future. My passion is that what we do is something that fully engages us in doing meaningful work with people we care about. We are all connected, and what we do with of our lives affects every one of us whether we realize it or not. When we are passionate about what we do, we are contributing to a better world. If all of us can find and do what we love, the world will transform.
Lauri Daughtry
'No matter what medium I explore, I always gravitate back to the active process of mixed-media collage. It’s fresh, playful, loose, and supremely satisfying to use so many mediums at once and it fits my personality. My mixed- media collage work explores themes of history, life, and nature using juxtaposition and surprising combinations to create a story.
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In creating I search for contribution, significance, and meaning in this life, by intertwining mediums to create a new and living cohesive tapestry. My collages playfully exude their own unique visual narrative that the viewer can interpret as his or her very own, resonating with the work on many levels.
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In this transient society where we “copy, cut and paste,” immersing in the creative act of assembling fragments into a new and cohesive work allows me, as a contemporary artist, to experiment with tactile surfaces and a plethora of mediums in a fresh and evolved approach that resonates with many viewers. Using an unlimited range of textures, mediums, fragments, and bits where there are no “rules” or the limited expression of just one medium, I am able to abandon technique and just create for the sake of creating, which is the heart of every artist.’
Austin Delano
Erik Durant
Erik Durant is a figurative sculptor residing in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he studied History and Sculpture at Southern Connecticut State University. In 2001 he moved to New Bedford to attend the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, receiving an MFA in Sculpture in 2004.
Durant’s personal work is a quest to understand the human condition. As a sculptor his main interests lie in gesture, movement, and pose. His works are at times Illustrative, but always realist, exploring historical, and contemporary narratives—both known, and unknown. While many of the characters that he chooses to sculpt seem to be rooted in the past, they are his own imaginings of things not fully understood. Issues surrounding beauty, the body, and identity, give rise to a version of contemporary mythology that is new, yet seemingly familiar.
Laura Farrell
I’m inspired by beauty in all aspects of nature, from flowers to seed pods, landscapes and animals, to butterflies and birds. While the natural world is brilliantly diverse, I’m drawn to the rhythm of repeating patterns. What I love most about photography is that the spark and the magic of it never fade....there is always discovery to behold, a new way of seeing.
Lee Fearnside
Given the changes in our climate and growth in human population, animals are increasingly forced to adapt to human behavior in unexpected ways. Whether it’s crocodiles using pool noodles as floatation devices, coyotes becoming more nocturnal to avoid people, or a huddle of walruses sinking a research vessel that invaded their territory, animals are figuring our how to navigate the world we have created. As an artist, I’m interested in how images can (or can’t) communicate scientific ideas to the general public. Can stories and images of individual animals prompt reactionsand hopefully action around animal conservation?As a layperson, I struggle with understanding the patterns and impact of climate change ona large scale, or the implications of being in the midst of mass extinction. Like too many, I get some of my information from click-bait interpretations of scientific reports. The urgency comes when I think about the impact of these global changes on my child, or see images of my favorite animals starving or dead. In other words, when the global is made personaland emotional. As an artist, I aim to translate complex concepts into images that people respond to viscerally and emotionally, but also consider intellectually.My goal is that theseimages of animal absurdityget people to think about their own consumption habits. The image creates auncanny disconnect of our static or ahistorical expectations of the natural worldversus the reality of animals adapting to their ecosystem polluted by humans whichjolts us into considering these stories in a new light.
Kenya Ferrand-Ott
I’m Kenya Ferrand-Ott, an artist born and raised in Indiana. I work watercolors, and acrylics. Working in a combination of Minimal and Dynamic Realism Iachieve not just a realistic likeness of a subject but an energized moment in time. Coming from a native american, nature heavy upbringing,I want to make photo-realist paintingwith dynamic compositions that area slice of life of my animal subjects. Backgroundsareunnecessary information. I want a shared moment between the viewer and animal. To pause on a moment of time and feel what a subject means in that moment and the world.
Several life-sized painted animal subjects on stretched canvases usingacrylic paint. The canvases are 3” bordered gallery wrapped over pine stretchers. For my techniques I usea combination of tinny brushes, scumbling, color mixing,Under painting, layering, glazes, strong focus on value, wet on wet, finishing with wet on dry, detailed photographs, and grid methodto achieve Hyperrealism. I also give each painting a thick clear layer of UV protective. My watercolors are done on a 300 pound press watercolor paper, framed and matted, also with a clear layer of UV protective. Techniques include wet to dry, dry brush, tinny brushes, pigment heavy brush strokes, feathering, scumbling, liftingcolor, tapping method splattering, layering, masking fluid, metallic paints, and gridding. Many are life sized but some are not. I use mid to student grade paints when I create. I am a budget artist. My paintings take time to make so in order to keep cost down for buyers I use paints that are quality without paying for a brandlabel. Brand paints don’t make up for lake of skill, but quality finishers and canvases/paper are essential.
Karen Fiorito
Art can be a powerful tool for change. I believe it is the responsibility of the artist to bear witness to injustice and to hold a mirror to and shape reality. Art can play a positive role in society by engaging the public and opening dialogue. My art enters the public domain through the use of billboards, prints and murals to agitate and educate the public and to create debate and awareness about important issues concerning the future of our planet. Printmaking has always been at the core of my art process because of the medium's long history of being tied to political movements, social justice movements and revolutions. My work is a continuation of this tradition as I use my work to explore such themes as women's rights, animal rights,climate change, war, the media and environmental issues.
Raquel Fornasaro
Project TAMAR is a Brazilian non-profit organization owned by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation. The main objective of the project is to protect sea turtles from extinction in the Brazilian coastline.
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At 220 miles from Brazil’s Northeastern coast, sits a volcanic archipelago called Fernando de Noronha. The first place visited by Darwin in South America some 200 years ago. Described by him as barren and uninteresting. Today, Noronha is a paradise. “(...)a protected national marine park and ecological sanctuary with a jagged coastline and diverse ecosystems.”
All that and… plastic. Occasional and constant. Embedded in the landscape and ever so often, inside the carcasses that wash ashore.
This painting is part of Zoomorphs. A group of 10 portraits that consider the values we teach to the next generations. Drawing from brazilian folklore these characters pose as Curupiras. A demonic entity that protects the forest from poachers and lumberjacks that take more than what they need for survival. Often scaring them with illusions and driving them to madness.
Lindsay Garcia
Cutie in the City(2019) documents the twists and turns in the life of a cutie as she skitters around town terrifying some and becoming terrified by others—making some laugh and getting laughed at by others. In the sociopolitical climate where people of color and immigrants are constantly dehumanized through pest-inflected rhetoric, it is necessary to use the figure of the cockroach as one of resistance, as one to go against the status quo, as one to question the disciplinary function of governments, laws, and police order. The cutieis a pest that will use her hyper-reproductive qualities to fight injustice and stand up for the humans and nonhumans who need a little extra advocacy
Ally Hinton
Hannah Jennings
Death of a Bachelor:
Absurd humor lends to this approach to mortality and beauty. An overlooked roadside occurrence becomes a playful tragedy as the grotesque and the delightful are both accentuated.
Vicki Johnston
Sculpture components:
The coyote skeleton bones are articulated into a canine-sleeping-circle (by Andrew Doll, Denver Museum of Nature & Science.)
Coyotes are indigenous to North America. Despite misguided trapping, poisoning, shooting contests, bounties for hides,
and encroaching development into their natural habitats, coyotes are cunning, they adapt and continue to survive.
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Coyotes have long been popular characters in Native & Western mythology for centuries. The coyote in this sculpture is smiling and at rest despite uncomfortable circumstances.
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Barbed wire is an American invention - designed & manufactured to hurt anybody coming into contact with it. Barbed wire
transformed the ecology, the landscape of the American West - it confines imported animals while ending centuries of migrational paths by indigenous wildlife and nomadic lifestyles of Native peoples. Barbed wire is now found worldwide in the most awful places like prisons, refugee camps, etc.
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The anvil on top of this sculpture looks like a lid on top of a box. But there are artistic metaphors this anvil emits.
Anvils are an iconic symbol - recognizable shape - of Man’s determination to control his world. Anvils have been used for centuries to
pound, bend & meld metals into weapons and tools. The anvil on top of this sculpture symbolizes how heavily persecuted coyotes are, what “underdogs” coyotes are. Also - this anvil is a “nod” to Wile E. Coyote who always has an endless supply of anvils for his relentless pursuit of The Roadrunner (Looney Tunes cartoons.)
Richard Jurus
Maya came into my life in the fall of 2005. It truly was by chance. I met a man in Tennessee named Jeremiah and I told him that I wanted one of his puppies; however, I lived in Ohio.
One afternoon, I received a phone call from Jeremiah. He told me he was planning a trip to Indiana and, if I could meet him, he would bring the Weimaraner puppy to me. I named her Maya. Little did I know how much my life would change at that point!
My life became filled with excitement. My artwork took on a new direction and I experienced an energy that I hadn’t felt in years! I always tell my students that you need to find something to photograph that you truly love and that will become the driving force for producing a whole body of work. This truly happened with Maya.
I photographed her from one side of the U.S. to the other. She swam in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Sadly, Maya’s health began to decline dramatically in December 2019. During the next month and a half, I made multiple trips with her to visit my vet in an attempt to do everything possible to save her.
On January 24, 2020, I sadly asked my vet to put Maya to rest. She had begun to suffer and she clearly let me know it was time for her to leave this life.
I have never felt so heartbroken! I realize that I was truly blessed to have had Maya in my life!!
Vasilisa Kiselevich
Lisa (Vasilisa) Kiselevich is a professional photographer whose interests include Nature, Equestrian, and Macro photography. She was an official photographer for a number of major equestrian shows in Midwest. Lisa had several personal exhibitions and participated in numerous local, regional, national, and international art competitions and exhibitions. Her work has won various awards, including Best of Show and Best of Photography Awards. Lisa was awarded a Merit Scholarship at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
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Currently, Church of the Savior Gallery in the Atrium (South Bend, Indiana) is presenting Lisa’s photography exhibition “Far and Near.”
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Lisa also teaches photography. Her students are getting thousands of likes on Flickr, having their photographs published in a newspaper, and opening their own studios.
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Before coming to the United States, she was a medical student in Moscow, Russia.
Isabella La Rocca Gonzalez
CENSORED LANDSCAPES
Turlock, CA February, 2012: 50,000 hens abandoned in a battery cage facility -left to starve in cramped rusted cages. I first photographed the abandoned facility a year later. This inspired my photographic series, CENSORED LANDSCAPES, which consists of landscapes that include sites of animal agriculture.
Predominately the domain of white males from Carleton Watkins to Ansel Adams to Robert Adams, American landscape photography has evolved in conjunction with the conservationist and environmental movement. In the late 20th century, landscape photographers, particularly those associated with the New Topographics exhibition, explored the human presence in the landscape. But farmed animals have almost entirely been omitted from the genre, despite their prodigious numbers (70 billion land animals and over a trillion marine animals are slaughtered every year for food). Their exclusion from landscape photography reflects their exclusion from environmental activism even though animal agriculture is a leading cause, if not the leading cause, of climate change, deforestation, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, and mass species extinction.
What many of us know to be true intuitively has now been documented by scientists such as Jane Goodall, Carl Safina, Marc Bekoff, Jeffrey Masson, Jonathan Balcombe, and Franz de Waal. Non-human animals recognize beauty, protect their young, and exhibit empathy. We have a word for this: love. This is our most meaningful experience and connects humans to all sentient life.
The industry has a vested interest in suppressing any understanding of the environmental destruction, cruelty, health effects, and worker exploitation of animal agriculture and has attempted to pass “ag-gag” laws that criminalize photographing sites of animal agriculture in more than half of U.S. state legislatures. They have passed in nine states. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act is a federal law that criminalizes economic damage to an animal enterprise, including loss of profits. This law is so vague and broad that journalists and photographers who expose the practices of these corporations could be prosecuted as “terrorists.” These laws are in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees our right to free speech.
The animals that have been made invisible in the landscape are represented by numbers in bold displayed above the framed photograph.
Greig Leach
The work is about color and to that end the medium necessitates that all of the color is created right on the surface of the painting. Working from a combination of memory, sketches and varied source materials, I am painting images that have imprinted themselves on my minds eye. This approach allows me to let go of the specific demands of model and local color and frees the painting to develop within the needs of the pictorial space and color. In other words, I let the painting paint itself. The narrative element in my painting is an honest observation of the world around me. Not an illustration of a point of view nor a political message, but a series of collective images that reflect the life of one artist in one set of circumstances. living and working in a particular culture. My work balances on the edge of tradional divide between abstract formal painting (exploring issures of color, form, texture and scale) and narrative story telling. Simiularly the medium stradles the divide between painting and drawing. I am working with traditional drawing media and surface, but creating images that are completely based in the formal aspects of painting.
Bonnie Leeman
Bonnie Leeman is a traditional mixed media artist based in the UK whose work addresses ethical and environmental issues. Surreal and symbolic imagery of animals are commonplace in her work, as a passionate vegan she frequently uses her artivismto try to emotionally engage her audience in the plight of farmed animals
Alexa Mahajan
“It has often been said that overtime a person and their pet begin to look and behave alike. So, if you want to know what the boy in this photo is like, just look to his cat.”
Steven C. Meyer
Born: Indianapolis, IN 1949 I started the motif of this sort of diorama work in the 1970’s and have not been able to get away from them even now. I had seen a Joseph Cornell piece as a young child that really struck me as awesome and the format stayed here. I see my artwork as 3 dimensionalized individual brain cells that are very unique to my head;one of a kind; not my head but the images. I’ve thought about my work as being 3-Dhieroglyphics as they usually solicit a reading of the images to form a story. Sometimes I think maybe they are kind of folky or naive-like. So maybe they can be thought of as Neo-Naive.....or Post-Folk?
About “Stinkin’ Dog
”Many years ago, along the shores of Lake Michigan, I went to the beach to help my father-in-law move his Hobie-cat sail boat to the upper beach for winter storage. A man with his dog approached and offered to help. We needed it. When the man came near I smelled the most god awful stink ever, like he hadn't bathed in a long time and probably practiced necrophilia. Held my breath and we got the boat up on the dune. Then the dog came past me with a heavy coating of fish scales and entrails, and nine yards of stink in all directions. The dog had rolled in a large fish carcass and was in ecstasy.I later apologized to the guy saying I was sorry about thinking the stink was coming from him. He said, "what stink?"
Rob Millard-Mendez
My sources include mythology, science, history, and American Folk Art (among others). The objects I make reflect the sensibilities of a person steeped in New England practicality who (for better or worse) ended up learning about things like art history, existentialist philosophy, and post-structuralist theory.Animal imagery is very important in my work. I have always been interested in the symbolic qualities of animals. From a formal standpoint, animals offer an incredible variety of forms, gestures, and textures. Their variety and elegance offer endless inspiration. Flying High Horse was inspired by bombastic radio and television personalities who use their bully pulpits to spread polarizing messages. The piece conflates a throne, a highchair, and a radio tower.The enthroned person lacks the maturity to understand the complexity of issues, choosing to espouse easy solutions that appeal to base emotions. The white color of the horse alludes to the sitter’s delusions of heroism. A Brief History of New Bedford is a piece about the whaling industry. At one time, New Bedford, Massachusetts was the most productive whaling city in the world. The piece depicts a sperm whale. Sperm whales were important sources of whale oil and ambergris (a material used in the production of perfumes and other luxury goods). The blood red house made from barrels is a reference to how whaling boat captains used their wealth to build incredibly large, elaborate homes. The base of the sculpture is shaped like the city of New Bedford, and the old maps that cover its surface include many far-flung ocean areas where whales were hunted.
Shane Mullins
“Spirit is a trophy dedicated to a lost friend. She chose Me to spend her last three years with. Three years of following me around the house and neighborhood, watching tv, standing next to me during all of my projects. She wasn't a pet. She had no owner. She could come and go as she pleased, yet never wavered in her choice of companionship.
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She had been trying to catch this chipmunk for a few years. She never gave up even after all the taunting from both sides, and finally caught it. I was disappointed, but decided to figure out a way for it it not to be a total waste. I figured after 3 years she deserved a trophy.”
Katie Netti
“In my creative practice I employ the aesthetics of scientific collections to display transgenic objects made from manipulating obscure materials to summon the attraction/repulsion response. My sculptures blur the line between art and specimen by evoking the uncomfortable desire to curiously look and inspect. I draw inspiration from scientific instruments, taxidermy, the Anthropocene, food culture and human relationships with domestic pets. These topics are a mere entry into the complex interchanges between human animals and non-human animals that I explore through material. I believe there is power in posing difficult interactions through visual media. The objects perform a voice of activism that invites viewers to openly consider their complicity in the subject."
Rebecca O'Brien
Created in the face of indescribable destruction made by forest fires this past year, this ink portrait depicts a member of the Yanomami tribe still living within the Amazon Rainforest.This work is part of a larger series that focused special attention on the ceremonial markings/attire that several disappearing tribes carry, which represent their precarious way of life and inherited traditions. In each piece, entire sections of the body are deliberately left blank -as if to imitate the maps of their territorial lands now being excised and destroyed, piece by piece. With each snapshot, the artist attempts to capture the dignity and light still within the Amazonian peoples, while also grappling with the complex emotionality contained within each subjects' gaze.
Through expressive gesture, complex layering and blown strokes, Rebecca O'Brien aims to visually portray the art of living along a central path: walking the balance between deliberated choices and seemingly ‘infinite’, arbitrary events and forces. A deliberate attention to eyes as windows to the soul of her subject carries the message and meaning of her work to her viewer. Rebecca is a self-taught artist born in Washington, D.C. and has spent the last 7 years living in Shenzhen, China, exhibiting her work in over a dozen exhibitions throughout Asia and the U.S
Ala Park
I am an artist and designer originally from Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. In 2011, I moved to Boulder, Colorado and now, I am following my passion working as a full time artist.
For many years I have challenged my imagination and artistic ability by looking for new ways to express myself.FISHBONE ART is a new mixed media form of art that I developed on my own in 1994, while living in my native country.It is a completely original 3D artwork, created by using only discarded fish bones placed on dark velvet backgrounds, displayed in three-dimensional boxes.
My art is a nonverbal way to share my love of the nature, and my own inner visions with other people. My goal is to capture and save those elusive visions that so easily vanish, to immortalize them by designing a visible, tangible creation that will endure. The natural tone colors of the bones against the black velvet background provides contrast and brings each scene to life. Each work seems to give the fish a new life in an unexpected way.
Rosetta
My sculptures have been described as hard-edged yet soft, sensitive yet powerful. They depict the life force of the animal, in all of its visual splendor, rather than a realistic depiction of outward appearances. Although I keep the animal’s basic form true to reality, it is my interpretation of that form, motion and inner spirit that is my art. Though I work directly in clay without preliminary drawings, I use line, released from two dimensions into three, to express the beauty, grace and power I see in the animal form. I call this “Interpretive Realism”.
My sculpture is a reflection of my love and appreciation for animals and my experience in graphic design, where I learned to visually distill the essence of a subject into a simple and powerful statement. I find bronze to be the ideal medium to express the value, permanence and detail in the subject and my depiction of it. My goal is to make each sculpture a treasure, a jewel, an inspiration to others to see the beauty and nobility of these creatures.
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ANCIENT TRUCE
I was moved by tales told by African natives of their ancestors who lived off the land and shared the scarce resources such as water with the wild predators. The predators had prey they much preferred to humans and the humans had no concept of killing predators for fun or profit. This sculpture elicits this feeling of guarded but respectful coexistence at a time long ago.
CAT NAP
For a long time my interest in sculpting animals allowed no room for the use of the human form as the subject of my art. However, there came a time that my interest in human/animal relationships started to show up in my ideas for sculpture. As the fourth piece in a series I have done on that theme, this image brings my thoughts about those relationships out of a historical context into a more personal, present day realm. This peaceful, mutually comforting scene is one that I know a great many of us relate to
Patricia Shaw
Most people have pets, dogs, cats , hamsters,even snakes and they love their pets and interact with their pets as if they were friends, equals almost. But we don't look at other warm blooded animals that way. It's as if we don't acknowledge that they are living things entitled to have decent lives, just as we and our dogs do. Pigs are particularly smart. They can even be taught to play video games on TV. We eat them and I guess we'll never change that. but using them to grow human organs for later transplanting is too much. Using an intelligent , living animal as nothing but a medium to grow human organs is horrible. I made this pig in the hopes it would make people realize that we need to acknowledge that animals have lives of their own and that we should respect them and their lives as much as we can. We are all connected and on some levels we are all one.
Kirsten Simonsen
Kirsten Rae Simonsen received her MFA from the University of Chicago after studying traditional Balinese painting and drawing in Bali, Indonesia for a year at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) and with a master painter in Sukawati, Batuan (I Made Bukel). She has shown her work nationally and internationally, with work shown at Root Division in San Francisco, Peter Miller Gallery in Chicago, Pterodactyl Philadelphia Gallery in Philadelphia, and The Residence Gallery in London, to name a few. Also, she has created site-specific drawing installations for the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, and the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts. FreshPaint magazine out of London and Philadelphia recently selected her work for its December 2015 issue (the juror was “The Jealous Curator” [Danielle Krysa]). Her work has been in the Artspace Flatfile in New Haven, CT for 11 years. She lives in Honolulu with her husband, dog, and bird. She loves traveling the world for inspiration. You can see more of her work on Instagram: @behomebeforedark.
Clark Stoeckley
Clark Stoeckley is an interdisciplinary artist and activist working in photography, illustration, performance, video, and graphic design. His latest projects include photographing stray animals and painting vibrant interpretations of sacred geometry. As a courtroom sketch artist he authored a graphic novel The United States vs. Private Chelsea Manning. His art has been exhibited at the International Spy Museum (Washington DC), Pratt Manhattan Gallery (New York City), Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, (New York City), EIDIA House (Brooklyn), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), Hartware Medien Kunst Verein (Dortmund), and Contemporary Art Museum of St. LouisHis work has been featured in ARTnews, VICE, Hyperallergic, Associated Press, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Nation, and PBS. He earned a BFA in Alternative Media from Webster University and an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Art from Brooklyn College. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Art & Graphic Design at American University of Kuwait, and previously he taught at Bloomfield College in New Jersey. He is co-owner of Stick Em Up, a graphics and printing business based in Newark, NJ that specializes in graffiti stickers and vinyl signage for artists, activists, and galleries.
Maria Trunk and Chuck Kooshian
The American Bird Conservancy estimates that in the United States alone up to a billion birds die each year from colliding with glass. The faint imprints they leave behind shimmer with a haunting beauty which confronts us with hard evidence of the inter-relatedness of living things, strong contrasts between ideal geometry and organic forms, and wonder for light and time and chance and death.
“Ghost Bird IV” had its origin in the fatal encounter between a Gambel's Quail and the window of a suburban home. The photo is printed on brushed metal so that the image shines forth under bright direct light, but dims to obscurity otherwise, thereby paralleling the invisibility of bird strikes (and resulting deaths) to most humans.
Chuck Kooshian and Maria Trunk collaborate at Blue Tubes Studio based in Socorro, New Mexico. Our artistic approach is informed by experience in urban planning, climate policy and natural resource conservation. We use cameras to connect with habitats and inhabitants of the American Southwest. For us the creative process is one question inspiring the next, exploring our wonder at how and why things have come to be as we feel them
Randy Van Dyck
Randy Van Dyck was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin and raised in Boise, Idaho. He graduated from The Art Institute of Seattle in 1987 and has since built a career in art both as a painter and a business owner of Van Dyck Frame Design and Capitol Contemporary Gallery, located in the heart of downtown Boise. His work has been accepted into many national juried shows receiving several awards. His work has also been featured in numerous exhibitions, several major magazines and has been selected for publication in four different art books. Randy is a member of the International Guild of Realism and the International Society of Acrylic Painters.
Although birds are often the focus of my work, the true inspiration comes from the English language. I am drawn to words or phrases that strike a chord and I try to express them visually, often breaking them down into a very literal portrayal.
Each concept starts with the title which has become integral in explaining the imagery. Some are quite simple and straight forward, while others are more obscure and thought provoking. There can be a sense of humor to the work, but I strive to create beautiful works that will stand on their own artistic merit even without the title. Furthermore, the work subverts traditional art genres of still life and landscape, and it questions the nature of how we come to understand our world through language, symbols, objects, and images by challenging and re-envisioning our preconceived expectations
Sidney Westenskow
Sidney Westenskow is a multimedia artist currently exploring ideas of identity, memory, and the relationship between the private and the public.
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In her most recent body of work the artist uses materials including but not limited to discarded clothing items, plaster, cotton, cardboard, acrylic and oil paint, and ceramics. One can see the evolution of Sidney’s way she represents herself through her work in the aspects of self portraiture involved in virtually all of it. Viewing her work as a whole is similar to viewing a timeline of personal identity.
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The items Sidney uses in her works are often private in nature. This could include anything from something as obvious as underwear or sex toys to something more emotionally private such as journal entries or nude self portraits. She uses these things in her art as a way to break down boundaries in the gallery and get as close as possible to putting the viewer in a similar perspective to her. When someone views the art of Sidney Westenskow, she wants them to consider all of the things that led her to the point where she was when making the work, and in order to do that she has to let them into more private sides of herself. Westenskow is especially interested in how the viewers and the atmosphere of the gallery change when private things like this are exposed, and how this changes the viewer’s perspective on their own private thoughts and activities
M. Claire White
The meat industry is bad for the environment, but universal vegetarianism may not be a viable solution. Introducing: Cultured meat! Cultured meat is meat grown in a lab. “Stem cells are taken from the muscle of an animal, usually with a small biopsy under anesthesia, then they’re put with nutrients, salts, pH buffers, and growth factor and left to multiply.” (Forbes)
Meat consumption is rising consistently, but this could be lab grown meat. Relying on cultured meat reduces the environmental cost of eating meat, the amount of antibiotics in food, and the cruelty toward human employees and animals in our food industry
Katie Winter
Katie Winter is an artist inspired by art history, current events, environmental concerns, and animal rights. Her work is inspired by modern application of art history and continuing themes seen throughout history. Her works combine these prevalent historical themes and symbols with modern events in society, playing with the idea of how the media influences our perceptions of these events. She experiments with a variety of reused materials into her paintings and sculptures to give life to material otherwise filing a landfill.
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Katie Winter currently attends Carlow University in pursuit of a degree in Art with a specialization in Art History, as well as a degree in Accounting. She plans to pursue arts and nonprofit management. She has professional experience with both for-profit and non-profit organizations.
