Resilient & Creative
Brandin Barón
San Francisco,CA
During California’s Shelter in Place Order for Covid 19, someone left a copy of The Book of the Dead on my doorstep. This eerie portent became a blessing, and I relived the fascination that I had experienced with Ancient Egypt as a young child. After investigating the hieroglyphics and illustrations within this incredible book, I began experimentations to fuse my own anxieties for the future to these hypnotic and bewildering protocols surrounding Egyptian deathliness. My artworks utilize hand and digital rendering, photographic, and printmaking methods to construct a neo-Egyptian aesthetic that seeks to make sense of the chaos that has been the Covid19 Pandemic.
http://www.brandinbaron.com/
https://www.instagram.com/brandinbaron/
San Francisco,CA
During California’s Shelter in Place Order for Covid 19, someone left a copy of The Book of the Dead on my doorstep. This eerie portent became a blessing, and I relived the fascination that I had experienced with Ancient Egypt as a young child. After investigating the hieroglyphics and illustrations within this incredible book, I began experimentations to fuse my own anxieties for the future to these hypnotic and bewildering protocols surrounding Egyptian deathliness. My artworks utilize hand and digital rendering, photographic, and printmaking methods to construct a neo-Egyptian aesthetic that seeks to make sense of the chaos that has been the Covid19 Pandemic.
http://www.brandinbaron.com/
https://www.instagram.com/brandinbaron/
Judith Bird
Port Townsend ,WA
I made my living in wearable art for more years than I can count, while now I have time to explore the meaning of our clothing. As is common among women, I needed that income to raise children, with little time left for more complexly nuanced art.
Through the metaphor of skirt, that symbol of femininity, I am discovering my own journey as a woman. Is my femininity set up for me by society? By tradition? Am I wistful or destaining?
A skirt is very restrictive as is this one, by its glittering yet rough exterior and its impossible-to-wear interior, a complete mass of sharp stiff plastic zip ties.
Port Townsend ,WA
I made my living in wearable art for more years than I can count, while now I have time to explore the meaning of our clothing. As is common among women, I needed that income to raise children, with little time left for more complexly nuanced art.
Through the metaphor of skirt, that symbol of femininity, I am discovering my own journey as a woman. Is my femininity set up for me by society? By tradition? Am I wistful or destaining?
A skirt is very restrictive as is this one, by its glittering yet rough exterior and its impossible-to-wear interior, a complete mass of sharp stiff plastic zip ties.
Jen Bracy
Portland, OR
From collage to printmaking to painting, artist/designer/educator Jen Bracy enjoys using found materials and substrates to consider transformation, layering, and assumptions about meaning. Much of her work explores the eternal wisdom of nature, its influence on our patterns and symbols, and the tension between humans and the environment. "Let Me Out" is a mixed media series born of the frustration and isolation of quarantine and canceled travel plans due to the pandemic.
https://jenbracy.wixsite.com/jen-bracy
https://www.instagram.com/jenbracy_artcraft/
Portland, OR
From collage to printmaking to painting, artist/designer/educator Jen Bracy enjoys using found materials and substrates to consider transformation, layering, and assumptions about meaning. Much of her work explores the eternal wisdom of nature, its influence on our patterns and symbols, and the tension between humans and the environment. "Let Me Out" is a mixed media series born of the frustration and isolation of quarantine and canceled travel plans due to the pandemic.
https://jenbracy.wixsite.com/jen-bracy
https://www.instagram.com/jenbracy_artcraft/
Carmen Czachor
Port Angeles,WA
Being restricted to my home and even more mundane routines this last 15 months lead me to challenge myself to try trompe l'oeil painting, paint on an unusually shaped panel, and paint one pet portrait a day in April. While my work as a veterinarian has been busier than ever, I have used art as a release. Though sometimes it is an effort to push through the ugly phase of a painting. Or to paint a pet portrait when I couldn't find a subject I liked that day.
Persistence is paramount.
www.familyvetwa.com
Czachorinpawa.com
Port Angeles,WA
Being restricted to my home and even more mundane routines this last 15 months lead me to challenge myself to try trompe l'oeil painting, paint on an unusually shaped panel, and paint one pet portrait a day in April. While my work as a veterinarian has been busier than ever, I have used art as a release. Though sometimes it is an effort to push through the ugly phase of a painting. Or to paint a pet portrait when I couldn't find a subject I liked that day.
Persistence is paramount.
www.familyvetwa.com
Czachorinpawa.com
Mary DePaolo
Sequim , WA
As a visual artist I aim to create works of expression and communication. I work in series of studies, drawings, paintings and prints around focused ideas concerning an intense sensation, a visual experience or a condition of life.
The transformation of materials into a final statement is a journey and a quest. Solutions can arise spontaneously or evolve from a period of trial and error. Remaining open to the process and responding as options arise is essential.
As Romare Bearden explains: "Artists can’t talk about the future because art is an adventure and a search. It would be like a hunter saying he was going out to shoot a stag, two rabbits and a pheasant. You have to take what you find.
Another reason why I can't say what I am going to do is that different times call for different kinds of solutions. Artists always put something of their time into their work. We can't take it out because we don't know what it is."
Sequim , WA
As a visual artist I aim to create works of expression and communication. I work in series of studies, drawings, paintings and prints around focused ideas concerning an intense sensation, a visual experience or a condition of life.
The transformation of materials into a final statement is a journey and a quest. Solutions can arise spontaneously or evolve from a period of trial and error. Remaining open to the process and responding as options arise is essential.
As Romare Bearden explains: "Artists can’t talk about the future because art is an adventure and a search. It would be like a hunter saying he was going out to shoot a stag, two rabbits and a pheasant. You have to take what you find.
Another reason why I can't say what I am going to do is that different times call for different kinds of solutions. Artists always put something of their time into their work. We can't take it out because we don't know what it is."
Jennifer Dougherty
San Francisco,CA
Everything and everyone is made of energy. Sometimes without explanation, I am pulled to certain energies and moments. It's like the universe is constantly lining up these interesting compositions and asking me to translate it for others. This is how I believe my photos are derived; how any art is derived. As a natural introvert, I have always been observant. But the more connected I become to my environment, the more in tune I am with those energies that surround us. My deep affection for San Francisco has allowed me to sense opportunities for unique captures. The people, the architecture, the raw beauty and natural landscape...it's all one big, beautiful collective energy that keeps me forever captivated. Sharing their stories allows me to spread the love I feel for this magical city.
When Covid lockdown happened, being a mom of 5, I had to be creative with what was in front of me. My children, my neighborhood and capturing our lives during the lockdown inspired a different take on Street Photography for me.
https://www.instagram.com/pretty.city
San Francisco,CA
Everything and everyone is made of energy. Sometimes without explanation, I am pulled to certain energies and moments. It's like the universe is constantly lining up these interesting compositions and asking me to translate it for others. This is how I believe my photos are derived; how any art is derived. As a natural introvert, I have always been observant. But the more connected I become to my environment, the more in tune I am with those energies that surround us. My deep affection for San Francisco has allowed me to sense opportunities for unique captures. The people, the architecture, the raw beauty and natural landscape...it's all one big, beautiful collective energy that keeps me forever captivated. Sharing their stories allows me to spread the love I feel for this magical city.
When Covid lockdown happened, being a mom of 5, I had to be creative with what was in front of me. My children, my neighborhood and capturing our lives during the lockdown inspired a different take on Street Photography for me.
https://www.instagram.com/pretty.city
Laura Garrard
Port Angeles,WA
2020-21 has brought challenges, including my practice closure, relocation, and health crisis. On August 10, 2020, the same day that my spouse was offered a job in Port Angeles, I reviewed an MRI image of a mysterious growth in my hip joint area. I temporarily isolated this dilemma and decided with my husband to plunge into a courageous COVID-time move. We disassembled our lives in Wyoming while I began a frightening two-trip journey of biopsy and diagnosis. After moving two months later, I traveled to receive five weeks of radiation treatment as my husband began his new job. I returned to an old-growth rainforest in Olympic National Park to heal.
While Nature’s bounty has immersed me in beauty and loved ones have encouraged me to keep moving forward, I’m still in a chapter of change. My healing experience unfolds day by day and is in many moments a solitary walk. Writing poetry and creating art are my touchstones among the health appointments that feel contrary to my identity as a healthy person and healthcare practitioner. I’m witnessing my internal transformation as my body restores. My figurative painting, Flowing Through Impermanence, represents this journey of unknowns while tended by Nature. In response, I painted two joyful abstracts, Becoming and Evolving Heart, which express my willingness to take risks and share my heart with a new community.
In the figurative, I play with themes of proportion and season: Nature dwarfs individual stories providing perspective, and her elements fade while new life takes flight. Layers of acrylic, pen, and pencil (some of them translucent) depict the transience of life. My internal experience contrasts my soft surroundings (my use of white and black/turquoise and red). As I struggle with an altered ability to move, and attempt to adapt and reconfigure my purpose, Nature shifts too. She guides me through unknown territory with hills yet to climb (there is not yet a light in the tunnel, but it isn’t dark either). No one can predict the outcome of the present. I try to flow within this river of uncertainty rather than resist. At times, the wall I lean against for stability seems too unsubstantial to provide support. Often this process feels empty because I lack experience to frame certain feelings. The use of white captures this and conveys hope.
I have learned much over the last year, yet the lessons keep coming and recycling, layering themselves. The creative process of this piece has challenged me to become transparent and reveal this unfinished journey, one that I believe I will overcome. The butterfly represents my desire to transform positively and take flight as a truer me. I will never forget this time. I suppose the future will reflect a hard-earned gratitude for such challenge. Plus, I feel present gratitude for the gift that my experience is far from the worst. The heart my painting protagonist holds represents Resilience and Creativity and is symbolic of the internal growth that is refining me in ways not yet realized.
lauragarrard.com
Port Angeles,WA
2020-21 has brought challenges, including my practice closure, relocation, and health crisis. On August 10, 2020, the same day that my spouse was offered a job in Port Angeles, I reviewed an MRI image of a mysterious growth in my hip joint area. I temporarily isolated this dilemma and decided with my husband to plunge into a courageous COVID-time move. We disassembled our lives in Wyoming while I began a frightening two-trip journey of biopsy and diagnosis. After moving two months later, I traveled to receive five weeks of radiation treatment as my husband began his new job. I returned to an old-growth rainforest in Olympic National Park to heal.
While Nature’s bounty has immersed me in beauty and loved ones have encouraged me to keep moving forward, I’m still in a chapter of change. My healing experience unfolds day by day and is in many moments a solitary walk. Writing poetry and creating art are my touchstones among the health appointments that feel contrary to my identity as a healthy person and healthcare practitioner. I’m witnessing my internal transformation as my body restores. My figurative painting, Flowing Through Impermanence, represents this journey of unknowns while tended by Nature. In response, I painted two joyful abstracts, Becoming and Evolving Heart, which express my willingness to take risks and share my heart with a new community.
In the figurative, I play with themes of proportion and season: Nature dwarfs individual stories providing perspective, and her elements fade while new life takes flight. Layers of acrylic, pen, and pencil (some of them translucent) depict the transience of life. My internal experience contrasts my soft surroundings (my use of white and black/turquoise and red). As I struggle with an altered ability to move, and attempt to adapt and reconfigure my purpose, Nature shifts too. She guides me through unknown territory with hills yet to climb (there is not yet a light in the tunnel, but it isn’t dark either). No one can predict the outcome of the present. I try to flow within this river of uncertainty rather than resist. At times, the wall I lean against for stability seems too unsubstantial to provide support. Often this process feels empty because I lack experience to frame certain feelings. The use of white captures this and conveys hope.
I have learned much over the last year, yet the lessons keep coming and recycling, layering themselves. The creative process of this piece has challenged me to become transparent and reveal this unfinished journey, one that I believe I will overcome. The butterfly represents my desire to transform positively and take flight as a truer me. I will never forget this time. I suppose the future will reflect a hard-earned gratitude for such challenge. Plus, I feel present gratitude for the gift that my experience is far from the worst. The heart my painting protagonist holds represents Resilience and Creativity and is symbolic of the internal growth that is refining me in ways not yet realized.
lauragarrard.com
Carmen Germain
Port Angeles,WA
Art-making and love of art in all its explorations, errors, discoveries, delight, and frustration do save lives. I use this process to make the moment I am on this earth stand in the light between two eternities, the brief interruption in nonexistence. I want what I create to matter to the observer through color, emotion, texture, subject, theme, and poetry of line and image. Human expression is fundamental to survival in whatever form it takes: visual art, poetry, music, and any other human interaction we have with this world and each other. I am a poet who paints and draws and a painter who writes poetry. Both art forms live in each other.
Port Angeles,WA
Art-making and love of art in all its explorations, errors, discoveries, delight, and frustration do save lives. I use this process to make the moment I am on this earth stand in the light between two eternities, the brief interruption in nonexistence. I want what I create to matter to the observer through color, emotion, texture, subject, theme, and poetry of line and image. Human expression is fundamental to survival in whatever form it takes: visual art, poetry, music, and any other human interaction we have with this world and each other. I am a poet who paints and draws and a painter who writes poetry. Both art forms live in each other.
Jennifer Gulassa
Berkeley, CA
I am a mixed-media artist; my speciality is paper cut-out, but I also work in fiber art and printimaking. I love creating art with scissors: shapes, words, patterns, illustrations and portraits. A scissor line has a particular quality; it simultaneously imprecise and exact. Once made, I have to let it be. Dry point etching allowed me to bring grays to the black and white of the cut paper art. It allows for shadows and shading that had been absent in my collage and paper cut-out work, while at the same time offers that permanence of cutting that I find inspiring in cut paper work. Once a mark is made on the plate, it cannot really be taken away.
Shelter in Place during the pandemic challenged me to think of new ways to create prints. Without a press at home I experimented with home-friendly techniques for intaglio printing from an etching. Getting the ink from the cracks of the plate onto the handmade paper requires a lot of pressure, and usually Chin Colle (printing on layered collage of papers) requires even more, but that was impossible without a press. The most successful method involved pressing each piece by hand with the back of a spoon.
https://jennifermaxmayaroc.wixsite.com/mysite
https://www.instagram.com/jennifermmr
Berkeley, CA
I am a mixed-media artist; my speciality is paper cut-out, but I also work in fiber art and printimaking. I love creating art with scissors: shapes, words, patterns, illustrations and portraits. A scissor line has a particular quality; it simultaneously imprecise and exact. Once made, I have to let it be. Dry point etching allowed me to bring grays to the black and white of the cut paper art. It allows for shadows and shading that had been absent in my collage and paper cut-out work, while at the same time offers that permanence of cutting that I find inspiring in cut paper work. Once a mark is made on the plate, it cannot really be taken away.
Shelter in Place during the pandemic challenged me to think of new ways to create prints. Without a press at home I experimented with home-friendly techniques for intaglio printing from an etching. Getting the ink from the cracks of the plate onto the handmade paper requires a lot of pressure, and usually Chin Colle (printing on layered collage of papers) requires even more, but that was impossible without a press. The most successful method involved pressing each piece by hand with the back of a spoon.
https://jennifermaxmayaroc.wixsite.com/mysite
https://www.instagram.com/jennifermmr
Alexandra Gunnoe
Seattle, WA
RED FLAGS.
When I was 29, I fell in love hard and fast with the wrong guy.
Soon after moving into our home, something shifted. A moody and abusive man replaced the charming one I had fallen for.
The insults started slowly at first – comments about my weight, my thin hair, my memory. He yelled at me if the spoon I was stirring his tea with clinked against the mug too loudly.
This work is the story of seeing the red flags, understanding the abuse and dysfunction, yet continuing anyway because we shared a child.
Four years later I got out. Three years later I began to heal.
http://alexandragunnoephotography.com
https://www.instagram.com/alexandragunnoe
Seattle, WA
RED FLAGS.
When I was 29, I fell in love hard and fast with the wrong guy.
Soon after moving into our home, something shifted. A moody and abusive man replaced the charming one I had fallen for.
The insults started slowly at first – comments about my weight, my thin hair, my memory. He yelled at me if the spoon I was stirring his tea with clinked against the mug too loudly.
This work is the story of seeing the red flags, understanding the abuse and dysfunction, yet continuing anyway because we shared a child.
Four years later I got out. Three years later I began to heal.
http://alexandragunnoephotography.com
https://www.instagram.com/alexandragunnoe
Monica Gutierrez-Quarto
Port Angeles,WA
Those prints are part of the New Space series. It is a visual reflection about the resilience of nature to an ecosystem disaster. Nature always prevails and it is always reinventing itself.
I try through art to help people connect with nature and appreciate how marvelous our planet is, and yet must so urgently preserve.
Woodcut prints is my favorite medium, it is a very slow process and allows me a lot of time to think while planning my cuts in my designs. This time I use a combination of Gel prints and patterns textures, and I selectively use inks that are safe for the environment.
monicagquarto@olympus.net
https://www.instagram.com/monica_gutierrezquarto
Port Angeles,WA
Those prints are part of the New Space series. It is a visual reflection about the resilience of nature to an ecosystem disaster. Nature always prevails and it is always reinventing itself.
I try through art to help people connect with nature and appreciate how marvelous our planet is, and yet must so urgently preserve.
Woodcut prints is my favorite medium, it is a very slow process and allows me a lot of time to think while planning my cuts in my designs. This time I use a combination of Gel prints and patterns textures, and I selectively use inks that are safe for the environment.
monicagquarto@olympus.net
https://www.instagram.com/monica_gutierrezquarto
Pamela Hastings
Port Angeles,WA
Pamela Hastings is a sculptor, painter, writer, and teacher whose studio overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Port Angeles on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula.
She has exhibited her mixed media sculptures and taught via the internet all over the world. Especially known for her work with life-change via doll making, her book, Doll Making as a Transformative Process, is used in art therapy courses in the US and Australia. Teaching mixed media construction and gently unlocking personal creativity is a specialty.
Pamela’s work has appeared in numerous books, including Lark’s books: 500 Handmade Dolls, Fiberarts Design Book IVand VI, three of Susanna Oroyan’s books, Who’s Your Dada, and seven of her own books.
pamelahastings.com
https://www.inportangeles
Port Angeles,WA
Pamela Hastings is a sculptor, painter, writer, and teacher whose studio overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Port Angeles on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula.
She has exhibited her mixed media sculptures and taught via the internet all over the world. Especially known for her work with life-change via doll making, her book, Doll Making as a Transformative Process, is used in art therapy courses in the US and Australia. Teaching mixed media construction and gently unlocking personal creativity is a specialty.
Pamela’s work has appeared in numerous books, including Lark’s books: 500 Handmade Dolls, Fiberarts Design Book IVand VI, three of Susanna Oroyan’s books, Who’s Your Dada, and seven of her own books.
pamelahastings.com
https://www.inportangeles
Michael Hower
Enola, PA
I am a frontline worker in a healthcare setting, as well as a part time professional photographer. The experience of COVID has a double impact on my job and my photography. In the setting I work in COVID caused numerous infections and deaths. Going to work every day was a constant reminder of the pandemic - temperature checks, masks, gloves, COVID tests etc. My respite has always been my photography, but COVID had directly impacted that, leading to an existential crisis as an artist. Primarily I am a photographer of things abandoned and graffitied. My photography requires travel to locations over numerous states. Trips have been canceled, I had gone months without picking up a camera, and worse still, many places I had visited or wanted to were destroyed by arson or vandalism due to people being bored and needing things to do. Case in point is the infamous “Graffiti Highway” in Central Pennsylvania. There was such an influx in visitors during the lockdown, that the owners covered it in three feet of dirt. All of this led to questions of what will I do now? How do I continue? What subject matter should I pursue? When can I travel again?
From these experiences and questions were born this series of photographs where I “re-photographed” old photographs, transforming their printed versions with paint, sandpaper, and stencil. I then photographed them again, making a new high contrast photo. The fact that I chose the abandoned President’s Heads of Virginia and chose in most instances to erase their faces is metaphorical to our political situation during the pandemic with a President who is indifferent to the whole pandemic and the polarization of the country whom a proportion view the COVID crisis as a hoax and mask wearing as an infringement on their freedom leading to political divisiveness in what should be simple acts of protection, caring and compassion.
michaelhowerphotography.com
Enola, PA
I am a frontline worker in a healthcare setting, as well as a part time professional photographer. The experience of COVID has a double impact on my job and my photography. In the setting I work in COVID caused numerous infections and deaths. Going to work every day was a constant reminder of the pandemic - temperature checks, masks, gloves, COVID tests etc. My respite has always been my photography, but COVID had directly impacted that, leading to an existential crisis as an artist. Primarily I am a photographer of things abandoned and graffitied. My photography requires travel to locations over numerous states. Trips have been canceled, I had gone months without picking up a camera, and worse still, many places I had visited or wanted to were destroyed by arson or vandalism due to people being bored and needing things to do. Case in point is the infamous “Graffiti Highway” in Central Pennsylvania. There was such an influx in visitors during the lockdown, that the owners covered it in three feet of dirt. All of this led to questions of what will I do now? How do I continue? What subject matter should I pursue? When can I travel again?
From these experiences and questions were born this series of photographs where I “re-photographed” old photographs, transforming their printed versions with paint, sandpaper, and stencil. I then photographed them again, making a new high contrast photo. The fact that I chose the abandoned President’s Heads of Virginia and chose in most instances to erase their faces is metaphorical to our political situation during the pandemic with a President who is indifferent to the whole pandemic and the polarization of the country whom a proportion view the COVID crisis as a hoax and mask wearing as an infringement on their freedom leading to political divisiveness in what should be simple acts of protection, caring and compassion.
michaelhowerphotography.com
Jang soon Im
Long Island City,NY
Considering one’s memory of historical events in our society, my practice explores its representation of people’s collective memory. Looking at the mass media and how it transforms and alters the media experiences to two-dimensional visuals - newspaper, screen, etc. - I concentrate on painting’s possibility to share our memories of flat visuals relating to our perspectives toward specific historical issues in society.
In my recent work, I selected newspapers from 80s and 90s appropriating the entire pages that mainly shows historical events in Korea. With news-article-photography collaged on paper, I draw pencil lines and paint dots using sumi ink on mulberry paper to repeat the newspaper layout. The multiple random dots and its spreading suggest how I sentimentally perceived the visual of mass media in my childhood when in the developing country.
http://imjangsoon.com
Long Island City,NY
Considering one’s memory of historical events in our society, my practice explores its representation of people’s collective memory. Looking at the mass media and how it transforms and alters the media experiences to two-dimensional visuals - newspaper, screen, etc. - I concentrate on painting’s possibility to share our memories of flat visuals relating to our perspectives toward specific historical issues in society.
In my recent work, I selected newspapers from 80s and 90s appropriating the entire pages that mainly shows historical events in Korea. With news-article-photography collaged on paper, I draw pencil lines and paint dots using sumi ink on mulberry paper to repeat the newspaper layout. The multiple random dots and its spreading suggest how I sentimentally perceived the visual of mass media in my childhood when in the developing country.
http://imjangsoon.com
Steve Jensen
Seattle, WA
SOS, Save Our Souls was created in quarantine and in loving memory of over 600,000.00 Americans who have died to date from Coronavirus. May they Rest In Peace. I feel as a society we need to acknowledge and honor these deaths in order to move forward with perseverance and reengagement and to help them with their voyage to the other side, and our journey into the unknown.
stevejensenstudios.com
Seattle, WA
SOS, Save Our Souls was created in quarantine and in loving memory of over 600,000.00 Americans who have died to date from Coronavirus. May they Rest In Peace. I feel as a society we need to acknowledge and honor these deaths in order to move forward with perseverance and reengagement and to help them with their voyage to the other side, and our journey into the unknown.
stevejensenstudios.com
Meg Kaczyk
Port Townsend,WA
In my current series, I turn toward poetry to access my personal experience of loss. The influences of purpose, words, silence and abstraction come together in my series, “Some Mornings.”
The expression springs as visual response from poems by regional writer, Linda M. Robertson. Linda’s poems are an entry point into my feelings of loss and grief. Working with these poems is like tonglen, a Buddhist practice based on the notion of giving and receiving. I receive the words – breathing in – and from what arises I give the paintings life – breathing out. Allowing and releasing melancholy into comfort, the wide embrace of art encompasses the whole of lived experience, the transience of life that is common to all, regardless of circumstance. My studio practice is a solace, as I navigate caring for my husband with cancer. It is profoundly helpful to consciously acknowledge the feelings of loss, which exist simultaneously with gratitude, appreciation and love.
Poems, words, language have always been an influence. Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet had an early impact¬¬. Later, poems from Stafford, Neruda, Merwin. Buddhist writers Chodron, Suzuki, Smith. Writing has been part of my business career. My father was a writer. I have notebooks and notebooks of journals and poems.
Materiality itself has a voice in my creative process. Translating small transparent watercolors to larger format with an opaque medium is a rich area of exploration. I carry forward the legacy of abstract expressionism into a personal exploration, accessing the wordlessness of loss and vulnerability.
This series is intimate and non-representational. The paintings are not intended as illustration for the poem – the painting is a furthering, a sense impression beyond the obvious narrative. My hope is to open the silent space between poem and painting, to share access to that tender spot in us all where loss resides.
As painter, teacher and arts administrator I find purpose in cultivating artmaking – and the well-being it brings – for everyone. Through my art, I reach out into the community in sharing this universal experience.
megkaczyk.com
https://www.instagram.com/megkaczyk
Port Townsend,WA
In my current series, I turn toward poetry to access my personal experience of loss. The influences of purpose, words, silence and abstraction come together in my series, “Some Mornings.”
The expression springs as visual response from poems by regional writer, Linda M. Robertson. Linda’s poems are an entry point into my feelings of loss and grief. Working with these poems is like tonglen, a Buddhist practice based on the notion of giving and receiving. I receive the words – breathing in – and from what arises I give the paintings life – breathing out. Allowing and releasing melancholy into comfort, the wide embrace of art encompasses the whole of lived experience, the transience of life that is common to all, regardless of circumstance. My studio practice is a solace, as I navigate caring for my husband with cancer. It is profoundly helpful to consciously acknowledge the feelings of loss, which exist simultaneously with gratitude, appreciation and love.
Poems, words, language have always been an influence. Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet had an early impact¬¬. Later, poems from Stafford, Neruda, Merwin. Buddhist writers Chodron, Suzuki, Smith. Writing has been part of my business career. My father was a writer. I have notebooks and notebooks of journals and poems.
Materiality itself has a voice in my creative process. Translating small transparent watercolors to larger format with an opaque medium is a rich area of exploration. I carry forward the legacy of abstract expressionism into a personal exploration, accessing the wordlessness of loss and vulnerability.
This series is intimate and non-representational. The paintings are not intended as illustration for the poem – the painting is a furthering, a sense impression beyond the obvious narrative. My hope is to open the silent space between poem and painting, to share access to that tender spot in us all where loss resides.
As painter, teacher and arts administrator I find purpose in cultivating artmaking – and the well-being it brings – for everyone. Through my art, I reach out into the community in sharing this universal experience.
megkaczyk.com
https://www.instagram.com/megkaczyk
Allyne Lawson
Sequim, WA
My artworks reflect my journey through the restrictive nature of the pandemic, and overcoming a creative “artist block.” Although the shutdown brought more “time for painting,” the isolation, fear, and worry, deprived me of my usual artistic contacts, resulting in feelings of being held captive. I found myself lacking motivation, unable to access my creativity… doing very little while waiting for it all to end. These pieces are a snapshot of my struggles to push through these disabling emotions to create again.
As with most artists, there is a piece of myself in each artwork I create. My greatest challenge was to give myself permission to have some very strong negative emotions…and allow them into my art. “It’s Time,” although not the first piece I completed about isolation and fear during Covid, represents breaking out of my comfort zone and allowing my feeling to flow uncensored into my art. Created in January while news coverage of the turmoil at the Capital played in the background, on the surface symbolizes the struggle our democracy is experiencing. However, it’s more than a political statement. It expresses my struggles with mortality and an overwhelming feeling that time is running out to experience things I put off until retirement. A sense of liberation followed its creation. It was the breakthrough which allowed creative thoughts to flow again. A wake-up call to stop waiting around for life to get back to normal, stop losing precious time waiting for the perfect moment, and start painting what is now.
During Covid restrictions the usual stimuli for getting my creative juices flowing were unavailable. Getting together with fellow artists to exchange ideas, reactions and critiques was unsafe, as was traveling to see new places to spark the imagination. For “Frosty Morning” I turned to nature for inspiration. I challenged myself to capture a current moment in time and discovered a new technique. Nature is always changing and adapting, providing an excellent example for staying in the moment. The challenge here was to capture the ice crystals. I started by masking the white areas, but was not satisfied with the result. Even with shadows they appeared too flat. After much contemplation, I decided to take a risk by scraping back into the paper. As a watercolorist, I usually do all I can to ensure the paper does not get damaged and ruin a painting. So, this technique seemed very risky, but I decided to confront my fear and take a chance.
Sequim, WA
My artworks reflect my journey through the restrictive nature of the pandemic, and overcoming a creative “artist block.” Although the shutdown brought more “time for painting,” the isolation, fear, and worry, deprived me of my usual artistic contacts, resulting in feelings of being held captive. I found myself lacking motivation, unable to access my creativity… doing very little while waiting for it all to end. These pieces are a snapshot of my struggles to push through these disabling emotions to create again.
As with most artists, there is a piece of myself in each artwork I create. My greatest challenge was to give myself permission to have some very strong negative emotions…and allow them into my art. “It’s Time,” although not the first piece I completed about isolation and fear during Covid, represents breaking out of my comfort zone and allowing my feeling to flow uncensored into my art. Created in January while news coverage of the turmoil at the Capital played in the background, on the surface symbolizes the struggle our democracy is experiencing. However, it’s more than a political statement. It expresses my struggles with mortality and an overwhelming feeling that time is running out to experience things I put off until retirement. A sense of liberation followed its creation. It was the breakthrough which allowed creative thoughts to flow again. A wake-up call to stop waiting around for life to get back to normal, stop losing precious time waiting for the perfect moment, and start painting what is now.
During Covid restrictions the usual stimuli for getting my creative juices flowing were unavailable. Getting together with fellow artists to exchange ideas, reactions and critiques was unsafe, as was traveling to see new places to spark the imagination. For “Frosty Morning” I turned to nature for inspiration. I challenged myself to capture a current moment in time and discovered a new technique. Nature is always changing and adapting, providing an excellent example for staying in the moment. The challenge here was to capture the ice crystals. I started by masking the white areas, but was not satisfied with the result. Even with shadows they appeared too flat. After much contemplation, I decided to take a risk by scraping back into the paper. As a watercolorist, I usually do all I can to ensure the paper does not get damaged and ruin a painting. So, this technique seemed very risky, but I decided to confront my fear and take a chance.
Roberta Masciarelli
Dallas, TX
We haven’t done enough for this planet and now, we are at dire straits.
There is no time and yet, we have to find solutions for the environmental pollution that we created due to our current lifestyles.
One may ask - What does Art have to do with it? Everything.
Art stimulates our imagination, creates hope and ultimately shows us how to view a problem differently - the upside down, reverse order or backwards. And this, in turn, stimulates alternatives to move forward beyond the current situation that we find ourselves in.
We need to expand our boundaries and create solutions. Just surviving with the status quo is really easy but unfortunately, not sufficient. The objective of using found objects and electronic waste in my creations is to find other uses, other solutions that may help to solve this huge problem created by the discarded, the trash and the landfills polluting our Planet.
http://www.robbiemas.com
https://www.instagram.com/robertamasciarelliart
Dallas, TX
We haven’t done enough for this planet and now, we are at dire straits.
There is no time and yet, we have to find solutions for the environmental pollution that we created due to our current lifestyles.
One may ask - What does Art have to do with it? Everything.
Art stimulates our imagination, creates hope and ultimately shows us how to view a problem differently - the upside down, reverse order or backwards. And this, in turn, stimulates alternatives to move forward beyond the current situation that we find ourselves in.
We need to expand our boundaries and create solutions. Just surviving with the status quo is really easy but unfortunately, not sufficient. The objective of using found objects and electronic waste in my creations is to find other uses, other solutions that may help to solve this huge problem created by the discarded, the trash and the landfills polluting our Planet.
http://www.robbiemas.com
https://www.instagram.com/robertamasciarelliart
Loreen Matsushima
Port Angeles,WA
The past 20 years has been a transitional period as the 21st Century ushered in an environmental consciousness that would alter my art. I found truth in the poetry of W.S. Merwin whose words describe a planet poised between the destruction of the earth and its fragile existence. Bearing witness to environmental changes, I too needed to express a truth in the art I created.
I took a three year hiatus from painting in search for my expression of “truth.” It was a period of uncertainty, but a simple task of picking up trash at community parks sparked my imagination to reuse the discarded bottle caps in the paintings. Subsequently, this was in step with my pursuit to shift my paradigm in painting and I progressed from abstraction to art defined by global issues: paintings with recycled bottle caps, prints of ocean debris and logged forests. I also explored working 3 dimensionally to create sculptures of microcosmic islands awash as sea levels rise and evolved plant forms—survivors of climate change. In 2016 constructed images of high rises by applying white tape on a window to reduce the reflection of the sky and greenery of the Seattle Center; i.e., more buildings=less sky and green spaces
I am passionate about the themes of our times concerning the environment, and I am at another crossroad to adapt to a more proactive and new varied way to reveal Nature’s process of creation and survival in the midst of adversity. The art will focus more on designing art as a catalyst to engage and inspire a collective unified experience. Concurrently, I am working on conceptual drafts to propose immersive and interactive environments with objects from nature combined with video that invite viewer engagement and participation in my art practice. The concepts of these installations will contextualize the interchange of each individual’s own experiences and emotions in relation to nature.
www.loreenmatsushima.com
Port Angeles,WA
The past 20 years has been a transitional period as the 21st Century ushered in an environmental consciousness that would alter my art. I found truth in the poetry of W.S. Merwin whose words describe a planet poised between the destruction of the earth and its fragile existence. Bearing witness to environmental changes, I too needed to express a truth in the art I created.
I took a three year hiatus from painting in search for my expression of “truth.” It was a period of uncertainty, but a simple task of picking up trash at community parks sparked my imagination to reuse the discarded bottle caps in the paintings. Subsequently, this was in step with my pursuit to shift my paradigm in painting and I progressed from abstraction to art defined by global issues: paintings with recycled bottle caps, prints of ocean debris and logged forests. I also explored working 3 dimensionally to create sculptures of microcosmic islands awash as sea levels rise and evolved plant forms—survivors of climate change. In 2016 constructed images of high rises by applying white tape on a window to reduce the reflection of the sky and greenery of the Seattle Center; i.e., more buildings=less sky and green spaces
I am passionate about the themes of our times concerning the environment, and I am at another crossroad to adapt to a more proactive and new varied way to reveal Nature’s process of creation and survival in the midst of adversity. The art will focus more on designing art as a catalyst to engage and inspire a collective unified experience. Concurrently, I am working on conceptual drafts to propose immersive and interactive environments with objects from nature combined with video that invite viewer engagement and participation in my art practice. The concepts of these installations will contextualize the interchange of each individual’s own experiences and emotions in relation to nature.
www.loreenmatsushima.com
Eva & Roger McGinnis
Port Angeles,WA
Vertigo in Blue is a fusion of glass and silk media sculpture. Roger McGinnis created the tessellated cubes-pattern 8 inch square plate (fused glass). Eva McGinnis braided several silk cords using a Kumihimo disk loom, then sewed it into a spiral with an original central bead, flame-worked by Roger. The spiral is superimposed (and glued) onto the glass art for a three-dimensional sculpture. The poem “Vertigo in Blue” by Eva accompanies this piece. This blend of three media is our attempt to give visual expression to the disorientation that creates beauty from chaos, which the universe eventually compels of its creations.
Roger McGinnis is a glass artist and nature photographer who is inspired by the beauty of nature on the Olympic Peninsula. He has a deep appreciation for patterns as well as precision from his many years working as an environmental scientist. His nature photography has appeared on the covers of three books and in literary journals, as well as in NOLS art shows and Fine Arts Center show and Sequim’s Fluidity art show in 2020. In his glass art he combines the chemistry and fluidity of fusing and flame-working glass to capture the moments of poignant tension between stability and innovation. He and his wife can be found hiking, photographing and having fun creating art and jewelry together.
Eva McGinnis is a poet living in Port Angeles whose third book of poetry Strands of Luminescence: Poetry of the Spirit’s Questhas been published in May of 2021. She is also published in several literary books and magazines, including In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors Vol. 2, 3and Prevail, Tidepools 2017, 2020 & 2021, Rainshadow Poetry Anthology. Her photos and poetry have been exhibited at the NOLS art shows as well as the Sequim Fluidity Art show. One of her poems is displayed by PAFAC in the Webster Woods.Besides degrees in English and Adult Education, she completed a Poetry certificate program from UW.
www.bead-love-it.com
Port Angeles,WA
Vertigo in Blue is a fusion of glass and silk media sculpture. Roger McGinnis created the tessellated cubes-pattern 8 inch square plate (fused glass). Eva McGinnis braided several silk cords using a Kumihimo disk loom, then sewed it into a spiral with an original central bead, flame-worked by Roger. The spiral is superimposed (and glued) onto the glass art for a three-dimensional sculpture. The poem “Vertigo in Blue” by Eva accompanies this piece. This blend of three media is our attempt to give visual expression to the disorientation that creates beauty from chaos, which the universe eventually compels of its creations.
Roger McGinnis is a glass artist and nature photographer who is inspired by the beauty of nature on the Olympic Peninsula. He has a deep appreciation for patterns as well as precision from his many years working as an environmental scientist. His nature photography has appeared on the covers of three books and in literary journals, as well as in NOLS art shows and Fine Arts Center show and Sequim’s Fluidity art show in 2020. In his glass art he combines the chemistry and fluidity of fusing and flame-working glass to capture the moments of poignant tension between stability and innovation. He and his wife can be found hiking, photographing and having fun creating art and jewelry together.
Eva McGinnis is a poet living in Port Angeles whose third book of poetry Strands of Luminescence: Poetry of the Spirit’s Questhas been published in May of 2021. She is also published in several literary books and magazines, including In the Words of Olympic Peninsula Authors Vol. 2, 3and Prevail, Tidepools 2017, 2020 & 2021, Rainshadow Poetry Anthology. Her photos and poetry have been exhibited at the NOLS art shows as well as the Sequim Fluidity Art show. One of her poems is displayed by PAFAC in the Webster Woods.Besides degrees in English and Adult Education, she completed a Poetry certificate program from UW.
www.bead-love-it.com
Story Medicine
Tacoma, WA
The Story Medicine transmits stories through the medium of her voice foremost but also as a ceremonialist and craftswoman of ritual tools and spiritual art - be it song, kelp, clay, cloth and spray paint to name just a few.
The Story Medicine’s work not only expresses the Sacred but also acts as functional and protective. Her stories drip the oceanic smell of Woman, Womb and Earth. Exuding a primal, deeply maternal and emotional quality, her work often communicates the life cycle with a special emphasis on Death and Rebirth. It is her magic to challenge the way the world sees and relates to what we call Woman.
The Story Medicine has been a Storyteller for over 15 years and calls herself an “emerging artist” at 35 years old. She resides with respect on the land of S’Puyalupubsh, Coast Salish People, now known as Tacoma, WA with her partner and four children. She is well known in her community for being a spiritual mentor in her spare time.
www.thestorymedicine.com
https://www.instagram.com/thestorymedicine
Tacoma, WA
The Story Medicine transmits stories through the medium of her voice foremost but also as a ceremonialist and craftswoman of ritual tools and spiritual art - be it song, kelp, clay, cloth and spray paint to name just a few.
The Story Medicine’s work not only expresses the Sacred but also acts as functional and protective. Her stories drip the oceanic smell of Woman, Womb and Earth. Exuding a primal, deeply maternal and emotional quality, her work often communicates the life cycle with a special emphasis on Death and Rebirth. It is her magic to challenge the way the world sees and relates to what we call Woman.
The Story Medicine has been a Storyteller for over 15 years and calls herself an “emerging artist” at 35 years old. She resides with respect on the land of S’Puyalupubsh, Coast Salish People, now known as Tacoma, WA with her partner and four children. She is well known in her community for being a spiritual mentor in her spare time.
www.thestorymedicine.com
https://www.instagram.com/thestorymedicine
Joan Mellon
New York, New York
Facing the challenges of limited space and mobility prior to the pandemic led me to creating small three dimensional wall works, a way of working that continued to serve me well when COVID-19 made it necessary to “stay at home.” In the early months of not being able to access materials I wanted to use, I turned to those I had on hand that had been store bought or gleaned from a frame shop and neighborhood lumber yard (a rarity in space-starved New York City).
Choice and chance are always at the core of my work whether I'm creating objects that have volume or exploring the possibilities of color on a two dimensional surface. It is my hope that these objects convey the pleasure I had making them which, in some instances, included learning new techniques and how to utilize tools I owned but never used before.
www.joanmellon.com
New York, New York
Facing the challenges of limited space and mobility prior to the pandemic led me to creating small three dimensional wall works, a way of working that continued to serve me well when COVID-19 made it necessary to “stay at home.” In the early months of not being able to access materials I wanted to use, I turned to those I had on hand that had been store bought or gleaned from a frame shop and neighborhood lumber yard (a rarity in space-starved New York City).
Choice and chance are always at the core of my work whether I'm creating objects that have volume or exploring the possibilities of color on a two dimensional surface. It is my hope that these objects convey the pleasure I had making them which, in some instances, included learning new techniques and how to utilize tools I owned but never used before.
www.joanmellon.com
Elisabeth Mention
Port Townsend,Washington
Painting is my medium. My studio is filled with 2-dimensional works on canvas, panel, and paper, painted in oil and in watercolor.
What happens when inspiration eludes me? When I am simply and totally uninspired? I remember my stash of polymer clay and immediately get to work, using my hands in an entirely different way.
The subject matter for this creative breakthrough is always the simple beauty I find in fruits and vegetables. I'm never at a loss for a good model; and it's always in my kitchen.
instagram.com/mentionelisabeth
Port Townsend,Washington
Painting is my medium. My studio is filled with 2-dimensional works on canvas, panel, and paper, painted in oil and in watercolor.
What happens when inspiration eludes me? When I am simply and totally uninspired? I remember my stash of polymer clay and immediately get to work, using my hands in an entirely different way.
The subject matter for this creative breakthrough is always the simple beauty I find in fruits and vegetables. I'm never at a loss for a good model; and it's always in my kitchen.
instagram.com/mentionelisabeth
Claire Moore
Ypsilanti, MI
In my series entitled Claire-Clair-Clear, each layer of material builds upon the last, creating an entirely disconnected internal self-portrait. As a playful allusion to the French translation of my name: “clear,” the layers are manipulated to either expose or hide my own figure. My body is prevalent throughout the work, though sometimes only through her absence.
Dutifully collecting materials from my everyday existence, I curate my sources through a rational and observational lens. My visual vernacular unifies each piece through shared symbolic meaning. However, the construction of my work is completely intuitively driven and allows for alteration and expansion at any moment. Claire-Clair-Clear addresses my own frenetic emotional landscape, but with a language that’s directed and logical.
My artistic process is motivated by a compulsory need to create evidence of myself. Because I frequently feel disengaged from reality, I’m constantly searching for ways to prove I am here. My hand renders what my eyes see...but my heart often feels detached from the practice. Through the deliberate physical, conceptual, and emotional act of making, I combat this separation. I am able to align my mind and my body because of art.
Deliberately using everyday materials in my work spotlights tangential connections made through the daily occurrences of life. Depicting my face and figure quite literally draws a link from my own internal world to an external one. Self-portraits printed onto packaging scraps and plastic bags: they’re proof of my existence, however momentary.
Much of my work starts in a singular emotional response. I’ll have a particularly foggy day, one where I’m especially detached from reality, and try to find a way to express that sensation. As you might imagine, articulating the experience of not feeling is really difficult. Because of this, I tend to work around the void. Shifting the focus from absence, I use the experience of pushing against it, past it, through it--as a tool for talking about it by comparison.
Creating in a very physical manner combats the dissonance. It brings me back into the present, into the space where I can address the perplexing emotion of nothingness. Materials are a defining factor in my process. Most everything I sculpt or assemble has touched my being in a tertiary manner. All of these seemingly arbitrary substances are residuals of my existence. I can handle each scrap with intention, with gratitude, because its mundaneness marks my life with meaning.
Once I complete an assemblage, I often use it as a still life for a large mixed media drawing. I’m able to see the responses for what they were, for their reactionary qualities, for the catharsis they gave me. Repetition, through tracing and layering in the sculptural pieces, and in the act of recreating those pieces in a 2D manner, allows me time to process that experience. The drawings are a visual journal of sorts. I can inspect aspects of the response from a safe distance. The paper is now a barrier between my mind and the response.
www.heartinhand.design
www.instagram.com/heartinhanddesign
Ypsilanti, MI
In my series entitled Claire-Clair-Clear, each layer of material builds upon the last, creating an entirely disconnected internal self-portrait. As a playful allusion to the French translation of my name: “clear,” the layers are manipulated to either expose or hide my own figure. My body is prevalent throughout the work, though sometimes only through her absence.
Dutifully collecting materials from my everyday existence, I curate my sources through a rational and observational lens. My visual vernacular unifies each piece through shared symbolic meaning. However, the construction of my work is completely intuitively driven and allows for alteration and expansion at any moment. Claire-Clair-Clear addresses my own frenetic emotional landscape, but with a language that’s directed and logical.
My artistic process is motivated by a compulsory need to create evidence of myself. Because I frequently feel disengaged from reality, I’m constantly searching for ways to prove I am here. My hand renders what my eyes see...but my heart often feels detached from the practice. Through the deliberate physical, conceptual, and emotional act of making, I combat this separation. I am able to align my mind and my body because of art.
Deliberately using everyday materials in my work spotlights tangential connections made through the daily occurrences of life. Depicting my face and figure quite literally draws a link from my own internal world to an external one. Self-portraits printed onto packaging scraps and plastic bags: they’re proof of my existence, however momentary.
Much of my work starts in a singular emotional response. I’ll have a particularly foggy day, one where I’m especially detached from reality, and try to find a way to express that sensation. As you might imagine, articulating the experience of not feeling is really difficult. Because of this, I tend to work around the void. Shifting the focus from absence, I use the experience of pushing against it, past it, through it--as a tool for talking about it by comparison.
Creating in a very physical manner combats the dissonance. It brings me back into the present, into the space where I can address the perplexing emotion of nothingness. Materials are a defining factor in my process. Most everything I sculpt or assemble has touched my being in a tertiary manner. All of these seemingly arbitrary substances are residuals of my existence. I can handle each scrap with intention, with gratitude, because its mundaneness marks my life with meaning.
Once I complete an assemblage, I often use it as a still life for a large mixed media drawing. I’m able to see the responses for what they were, for their reactionary qualities, for the catharsis they gave me. Repetition, through tracing and layering in the sculptural pieces, and in the act of recreating those pieces in a 2D manner, allows me time to process that experience. The drawings are a visual journal of sorts. I can inspect aspects of the response from a safe distance. The paper is now a barrier between my mind and the response.
www.heartinhand.design
www.instagram.com/heartinhanddesign
Sheri Park
San Francisco,CA
For a month during shelter-in-place, I drew a daily blind contour of the calla lily in our backyard. Sometimes I was annoyed by this commitment; sometimes I relished it. My favorite moments were when my sense of time and scale shifted: when my gaze slowed me down to a trance like state; when the tip of my pen felt like an ant walking around the edges of the flower, a cavern.
My hybrid art practice is about bodies, how they relate to each other, and the physical sensation of those porous entanglements. A “body” could be a human body, a body of water, a divine body, or many bodies forming a congregation or community.
My practice is driven by haptics and my bodily sensation. When I center touch, the forms that emerge are organic. By honoring my instincts in my making process, I hold space for ambiguity and somatic knowing. I invite the viewer to be to fall in, enchanted, without attempting to master, measure, or define.
sheripark.com
https://www.instagram.com/sheriparksheripark/
San Francisco,CA
For a month during shelter-in-place, I drew a daily blind contour of the calla lily in our backyard. Sometimes I was annoyed by this commitment; sometimes I relished it. My favorite moments were when my sense of time and scale shifted: when my gaze slowed me down to a trance like state; when the tip of my pen felt like an ant walking around the edges of the flower, a cavern.
My hybrid art practice is about bodies, how they relate to each other, and the physical sensation of those porous entanglements. A “body” could be a human body, a body of water, a divine body, or many bodies forming a congregation or community.
My practice is driven by haptics and my bodily sensation. When I center touch, the forms that emerge are organic. By honoring my instincts in my making process, I hold space for ambiguity and somatic knowing. I invite the viewer to be to fall in, enchanted, without attempting to master, measure, or define.
sheripark.com
https://www.instagram.com/sheriparksheripark/
Ellie Polk
Port Angeles,Washington
After having survived, so far, unprecedented times for those living through it, it feels to be times of both relief, confusion, fear, and hope. Where were we? The pre-pandemic past seems so distant. Where are we now? Do we even understand ourselves? And Where are we going? My work seeks to express these different questions in the form I best know -- through my art.
Port Angeles,Washington
After having survived, so far, unprecedented times for those living through it, it feels to be times of both relief, confusion, fear, and hope. Where were we? The pre-pandemic past seems so distant. Where are we now? Do we even understand ourselves? And Where are we going? My work seeks to express these different questions in the form I best know -- through my art.
Johanna Porter
Duvall, WA
I approach my work in the studio as therapy: to explore social, spiritual, environmental and political issues through the lens of my internal microscope. What results are visual allegories: tall tales of solitude and companionship, using a repository of organic shapes and animal symbolism. My dreams and subconscious drive the work forward in unexpected ways. Each piece starts as a collage or drawing on paper where I can process raw emotions. I digitize the art and begin adding layers of color and form, slowly building until the underlying drawing is like a dream that is forgotten upon waking.
PicturesWithin.com
instagram.com/pictureswithin
Duvall, WA
I approach my work in the studio as therapy: to explore social, spiritual, environmental and political issues through the lens of my internal microscope. What results are visual allegories: tall tales of solitude and companionship, using a repository of organic shapes and animal symbolism. My dreams and subconscious drive the work forward in unexpected ways. Each piece starts as a collage or drawing on paper where I can process raw emotions. I digitize the art and begin adding layers of color and form, slowly building until the underlying drawing is like a dream that is forgotten upon waking.
PicturesWithin.com
instagram.com/pictureswithin
Carol Radsprecher
Brooklyn, NY
Distortion of the human figure is a key element in my work. These distorted figures interact with abstract areas. Most of the figures are representations of the female figure — that first landscape we see as we enter the world. My images are obliquely autobiographical and narrative. The prints relate to each other. All of these images emphasize and refer to interior space — the space within each print and the spaces of the mind, memory, and emotion.
The images in these three prints show figures encased in enclosures that were created during the pandemic — a time of being inside, trying to be safe from contamination by an unseeable enemy from without. I found myself encased within my own shell as well as within my apartment. I got so fearful that I did not want to work at all. I was my biggest obstacle.
carolradsprecher.com
instagram.com/cradsprecher
Brooklyn, NY
Distortion of the human figure is a key element in my work. These distorted figures interact with abstract areas. Most of the figures are representations of the female figure — that first landscape we see as we enter the world. My images are obliquely autobiographical and narrative. The prints relate to each other. All of these images emphasize and refer to interior space — the space within each print and the spaces of the mind, memory, and emotion.
The images in these three prints show figures encased in enclosures that were created during the pandemic — a time of being inside, trying to be safe from contamination by an unseeable enemy from without. I found myself encased within my own shell as well as within my apartment. I got so fearful that I did not want to work at all. I was my biggest obstacle.
carolradsprecher.com
instagram.com/cradsprecher
Jodi Riverstone
Port Angeles,WA
There was very little to the year 2020 that could be said as "life as usual" whether considering personal, local, regional, national or global scale. As so much of the world did in the first few months of the COVID 19 shut-down I stayed at home taking in the information of current events as a way to remain connected to the world around me. Environmental disasters such as the fires in Australia, evidences of global climate disruption, political strife between nations and within our own reverberated in all of our minds like recurrent bad dreams....all this aside from the COVID 19 rising death toll. Expressing my response to what was occurring through art was a therapeutic way to process and come to terms with what was happening.
Mix media was new for me in this process. I chose photos and captions that reflected for me the essence of my subject of focus for "The Fed-Up Low-Down" and also for "Australia Burning" and then added in color and movement of form and line which reflected my internal response....purely visceral. The clear medium I was using, which was old, bubbled-up unpredictably. It gave me the impression of paint damaged from excessive heat or fire exposure. Seemed fitting for "Australia Burning." The use of negative painting in of the trees with a smoke-colored sky seemed also fitting as an ephemeral background presence, both strong in nature but so vulnerable to fire's destruction. The chaotic lines and frenetic activity in "The Fed-Up Low-Down" was in response to the war on media and the undermining of truth seeking efforts as well as the widening division between political parties, even in the face of disasters. "Breaking Through" was a return to a deeper place of peace and personal resolve....that even when the world around us seems to reflect a sh*t storm, being a "light unto ourselves" is the best way to move through with hope for ourselves, communities and world.
Port Angeles,WA
There was very little to the year 2020 that could be said as "life as usual" whether considering personal, local, regional, national or global scale. As so much of the world did in the first few months of the COVID 19 shut-down I stayed at home taking in the information of current events as a way to remain connected to the world around me. Environmental disasters such as the fires in Australia, evidences of global climate disruption, political strife between nations and within our own reverberated in all of our minds like recurrent bad dreams....all this aside from the COVID 19 rising death toll. Expressing my response to what was occurring through art was a therapeutic way to process and come to terms with what was happening.
Mix media was new for me in this process. I chose photos and captions that reflected for me the essence of my subject of focus for "The Fed-Up Low-Down" and also for "Australia Burning" and then added in color and movement of form and line which reflected my internal response....purely visceral. The clear medium I was using, which was old, bubbled-up unpredictably. It gave me the impression of paint damaged from excessive heat or fire exposure. Seemed fitting for "Australia Burning." The use of negative painting in of the trees with a smoke-colored sky seemed also fitting as an ephemeral background presence, both strong in nature but so vulnerable to fire's destruction. The chaotic lines and frenetic activity in "The Fed-Up Low-Down" was in response to the war on media and the undermining of truth seeking efforts as well as the widening division between political parties, even in the face of disasters. "Breaking Through" was a return to a deeper place of peace and personal resolve....that even when the world around us seems to reflect a sh*t storm, being a "light unto ourselves" is the best way to move through with hope for ourselves, communities and world.
Cassie Sauer
Seattle, WA
As the leader of Washington State’s hospital association, for me the pandemic has been incredibly stressful, terrifying, and unbalancing. At the same time, it has also been an incredible display of common humanity, heroism, and unity. Making art during this time was a refuge and a source of resilience. Finding beauty and gratitude was meditative and joyful.
Using botanical and other natural stencils and imagery has been particularly centering during the pandemic. While so much of human life was at a standstill, the natural world kept on, oblivious. The humming bee, the stalking heron, the zooming hummingbird, the busy crow all continue to do what they do. They provide familiarity and delight during a time of such upheaval and unknowns. These natural forces give me hope for our future, and my art relies on their resilience.
I love the exploration, discovery, and depth of printmaking. I particularly like using a many different materials in making a print: carved plates, photo plates, solar plates, background monoprints, chine colle, botanical stencils, hand cut stencils, stamps, stitching, and watercolor. I like creating or discovering all these different elements and figuring out how they go together.
cassiesauerart.com
castlesauer@instagram.com
Seattle, WA
As the leader of Washington State’s hospital association, for me the pandemic has been incredibly stressful, terrifying, and unbalancing. At the same time, it has also been an incredible display of common humanity, heroism, and unity. Making art during this time was a refuge and a source of resilience. Finding beauty and gratitude was meditative and joyful.
Using botanical and other natural stencils and imagery has been particularly centering during the pandemic. While so much of human life was at a standstill, the natural world kept on, oblivious. The humming bee, the stalking heron, the zooming hummingbird, the busy crow all continue to do what they do. They provide familiarity and delight during a time of such upheaval and unknowns. These natural forces give me hope for our future, and my art relies on their resilience.
I love the exploration, discovery, and depth of printmaking. I particularly like using a many different materials in making a print: carved plates, photo plates, solar plates, background monoprints, chine colle, botanical stencils, hand cut stencils, stamps, stitching, and watercolor. I like creating or discovering all these different elements and figuring out how they go together.
cassiesauerart.com
castlesauer@instagram.com
Stephen Schildbach
Seattle, WA
Stephen Schildbach is a Seattle, WA based artist. Much of his artwork is illustrative in nature, presenting an allegory that combines a story with hidden emotions and meaning that hopefully connects with personal experiences of the viewer. He was a full time freelance illustrator in the 90’s and 00’s. He now has a freelance business, Schildbach Design, providing web design, graphic design, and marketing to small businesses. On the side, he paints, draws, and illustrates for personal and entrepreneurial projects. He lives with his wife and two children in Seattle, WA. He enjoys nature, and more specifically his family trips to the Olympic Peninsula.
stephenschildbach.com
instagram.com/schildbachillustration
Seattle, WA
Stephen Schildbach is a Seattle, WA based artist. Much of his artwork is illustrative in nature, presenting an allegory that combines a story with hidden emotions and meaning that hopefully connects with personal experiences of the viewer. He was a full time freelance illustrator in the 90’s and 00’s. He now has a freelance business, Schildbach Design, providing web design, graphic design, and marketing to small businesses. On the side, he paints, draws, and illustrates for personal and entrepreneurial projects. He lives with his wife and two children in Seattle, WA. He enjoys nature, and more specifically his family trips to the Olympic Peninsula.
stephenschildbach.com
instagram.com/schildbachillustration
Siri Stensberg
Pullman, WA
As the pandemic shut down the world, my attention shifted outward to slow observations of color, light, and time. I was drawn to the movement of water currents and the way they shifted around and adapted to the landscape. The resulting body of work used the language of watercolor to speak about the adaptability and resilience found in fluidity.
instagram.com/siristensberg
Pullman, WA
As the pandemic shut down the world, my attention shifted outward to slow observations of color, light, and time. I was drawn to the movement of water currents and the way they shifted around and adapted to the landscape. The resulting body of work used the language of watercolor to speak about the adaptability and resilience found in fluidity.
instagram.com/siristensberg
David Straange
New York, NY
David Straange is a painter working in a diverse range of media embracing the intersection of Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Abstraction, Street Art, Neo-Geometric Conceptualism and Fauvism. He explores the idea of the repressed subconscious through abstraction.
Drawing from a diverse range of African-Polynesian mythology to the psychology of Jung and Freud, David is interested in externalizing the interior experience of the mind and the factors that shape it. He sees art as a looking glass into the future of the human consciousness and how it effects our actions.
When David paints, He experiences prophetic visions and experiences deja-vu within the first 5 minutes. He often wonders about our bodily reactions under intense pressure, and to channel that into a calm exhibition of grace and class. He experiences this through rigorous painting or extreme lengths (moments) of solitude. These moments of solitude give him insight on when the anima becomes consciousness.
He brings a visceral communication of southern hospitality coveted in a hourglass of self-reflection. His work conveys cyclical everyday chaos of city-life that is likened to be perceived as order when the sun falls and rises. His study of Numerology, Latin and various etymology recombines the primal and civil; The unsophisticated urges and primordial flesh that we often suppress in the regular rush of worldliness.
www.davidstraange.com
instagram.com/davidstraange
New York, NY
David Straange is a painter working in a diverse range of media embracing the intersection of Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Abstraction, Street Art, Neo-Geometric Conceptualism and Fauvism. He explores the idea of the repressed subconscious through abstraction.
Drawing from a diverse range of African-Polynesian mythology to the psychology of Jung and Freud, David is interested in externalizing the interior experience of the mind and the factors that shape it. He sees art as a looking glass into the future of the human consciousness and how it effects our actions.
When David paints, He experiences prophetic visions and experiences deja-vu within the first 5 minutes. He often wonders about our bodily reactions under intense pressure, and to channel that into a calm exhibition of grace and class. He experiences this through rigorous painting or extreme lengths (moments) of solitude. These moments of solitude give him insight on when the anima becomes consciousness.
He brings a visceral communication of southern hospitality coveted in a hourglass of self-reflection. His work conveys cyclical everyday chaos of city-life that is likened to be perceived as order when the sun falls and rises. His study of Numerology, Latin and various etymology recombines the primal and civil; The unsophisticated urges and primordial flesh that we often suppress in the regular rush of worldliness.
www.davidstraange.com
instagram.com/davidstraange
Ashrafi Sultana
Statesboro, GA
Inequality of economy and related intersectionality road-block for prosperous of human being. We all born as a human, we can develop our quality, we can build our behaviour, but we cannot change our root and physic. We can take humanity above all kind of inequality like: economy and others. The interaction of the viewer’s creates inner connections and enhance the energy of the work. My exploration may have led me to risk a cohesive body of work, but I believe it has also helped to enrich my resource in search of originality and express my ideas. Because I dream of producing art of real that culturally conscious and artistically responsible with a novel and great approach to equality of human right. Quite simply, this wealth inequality problems related to people mental and physical health, people become depress with their life and decline there social status. They try to blame each other for this situation, but the problem is somewhere else. “So what” We can understand this problem or not. Art is always there for reduce depression as a meditation. My current ideas involve public interactions where I want my viewer to engage and experience surround us like nature, environment. Experience the sublime and beauty of fire. Which helps me to development my specific working style. I am inspired by inequality of anything surrounding me. And how I and my art work viewer experience it. Inequality of wealth is significant problem for human being in this recent time. Economy become the silent war in this time. In my art work I transforms materials from Clay, Wax, Coins, and installations that respond to the impromptu networks—economies —that emerge within this world. If I am able to make people clearer about their socio-economic believe and their position in this plot. Then they will get relief from socio-economic problems.
ashrafi-sultana.com
YouTube.com/channel/UC-TdRsx8vhtJJEiwo4LIIMg
(or search YouTube for “Ashrafi Sultana”)
Statesboro, GA
Inequality of economy and related intersectionality road-block for prosperous of human being. We all born as a human, we can develop our quality, we can build our behaviour, but we cannot change our root and physic. We can take humanity above all kind of inequality like: economy and others. The interaction of the viewer’s creates inner connections and enhance the energy of the work. My exploration may have led me to risk a cohesive body of work, but I believe it has also helped to enrich my resource in search of originality and express my ideas. Because I dream of producing art of real that culturally conscious and artistically responsible with a novel and great approach to equality of human right. Quite simply, this wealth inequality problems related to people mental and physical health, people become depress with their life and decline there social status. They try to blame each other for this situation, but the problem is somewhere else. “So what” We can understand this problem or not. Art is always there for reduce depression as a meditation. My current ideas involve public interactions where I want my viewer to engage and experience surround us like nature, environment. Experience the sublime and beauty of fire. Which helps me to development my specific working style. I am inspired by inequality of anything surrounding me. And how I and my art work viewer experience it. Inequality of wealth is significant problem for human being in this recent time. Economy become the silent war in this time. In my art work I transforms materials from Clay, Wax, Coins, and installations that respond to the impromptu networks—economies —that emerge within this world. If I am able to make people clearer about their socio-economic believe and their position in this plot. Then they will get relief from socio-economic problems.
ashrafi-sultana.com
YouTube.com/channel/UC-TdRsx8vhtJJEiwo4LIIMg
(or search YouTube for “Ashrafi Sultana”)
Joy Tirade
Oakland, CA
My practice operates at the nexus of experimental video, abstract painting, intermedia, and light installation. In my work and research, I create connections between phenomenology, technology, ecology, and feminist theory to explore the aspects and qualities of human emotion, especially love and longing.
In my visual arts practice and scholarship, I contribute to the discussion of contemporary art by expanding the field of painting to include intermedia work: experimental video, light installation, and lens-based art. In contrast to the notion that light is a property typically assigned to photography, my research considers how the category of contemporary painting expands to include sculptural light installation, immersive video, and digital projection.
This new series, Studies for Light, is made with watercolor, gouache, rose-water, ink, and salt on paper. I am considering light as a property of space. Interrogating how light can be a physical property of the artwork and an implied aspect. How light can work as space, as heat, as an expanse, and as time. How all of this can affect feelings of longing.
I first began painting this 100 Paintings series as a way to cope with quarantine. I had moved to Oakland in June 2020 during the pandemic. Maybe you can relate to this feeling, but I felt stuck but also felt groundless. I was unsure of where to turn creatively but also felt like the world was on fire (also literally on fire in California at some point).
This project gave me a specific focus. One painting a day is both effortless to do and extremely hard. This project taught me to be more resilient.
joytirade.com
instagram.com/joytirade
Oakland, CA
My practice operates at the nexus of experimental video, abstract painting, intermedia, and light installation. In my work and research, I create connections between phenomenology, technology, ecology, and feminist theory to explore the aspects and qualities of human emotion, especially love and longing.
In my visual arts practice and scholarship, I contribute to the discussion of contemporary art by expanding the field of painting to include intermedia work: experimental video, light installation, and lens-based art. In contrast to the notion that light is a property typically assigned to photography, my research considers how the category of contemporary painting expands to include sculptural light installation, immersive video, and digital projection.
This new series, Studies for Light, is made with watercolor, gouache, rose-water, ink, and salt on paper. I am considering light as a property of space. Interrogating how light can be a physical property of the artwork and an implied aspect. How light can work as space, as heat, as an expanse, and as time. How all of this can affect feelings of longing.
I first began painting this 100 Paintings series as a way to cope with quarantine. I had moved to Oakland in June 2020 during the pandemic. Maybe you can relate to this feeling, but I felt stuck but also felt groundless. I was unsure of where to turn creatively but also felt like the world was on fire (also literally on fire in California at some point).
This project gave me a specific focus. One painting a day is both effortless to do and extremely hard. This project taught me to be more resilient.
joytirade.com
instagram.com/joytirade
Ryoko Toyama
Sequim, WA
Mediums and techniques I apply to my paintings continue to evolve while the purpose remains the same, that is, creation of emotional reality. COVID period forced me to focus on the essence of shape and light.
artistsofwashington.com
Sequim, WA
Mediums and techniques I apply to my paintings continue to evolve while the purpose remains the same, that is, creation of emotional reality. COVID period forced me to focus on the essence of shape and light.
artistsofwashington.com
Patrice Tullai
Port Orchard,WA
I think of my work as stop photos from a kaleidoscopic children’s movie. Color, line, shape and sound accentuate emotions I have with the subject. They allow me to put my hand on something which is not tangible. I am ever reaching to create an emotional representation of the spirit which we call life. The objects I make are simply playing cards for which we are able to share our thoughts and emotions. Art is fragile yet concrete, stronger than words and able to pierce beyond that which cannot be said. My arrangements are using common and recognized objects inviting the viewer to a familiar space. The objects I make are in the ordnance of pop art, in hopes of giving the viewer a voice and sense of belonging.
The pieces I have shared here with you are from the “Endangered” series. These are portraits and figurative works of endangered animals. It takes resilience for these creatures to survive in our contemporary and consumptive landscape.
Instagram.com/alice0000dean
Port Orchard,WA
I think of my work as stop photos from a kaleidoscopic children’s movie. Color, line, shape and sound accentuate emotions I have with the subject. They allow me to put my hand on something which is not tangible. I am ever reaching to create an emotional representation of the spirit which we call life. The objects I make are simply playing cards for which we are able to share our thoughts and emotions. Art is fragile yet concrete, stronger than words and able to pierce beyond that which cannot be said. My arrangements are using common and recognized objects inviting the viewer to a familiar space. The objects I make are in the ordnance of pop art, in hopes of giving the viewer a voice and sense of belonging.
The pieces I have shared here with you are from the “Endangered” series. These are portraits and figurative works of endangered animals. It takes resilience for these creatures to survive in our contemporary and consumptive landscape.
Instagram.com/alice0000dean
Helga Winter
Port Townsend, WA
Words are important to me
written and spoken ones
We are inundated with words
Words can hurt and destroy - heal and repair
Words can be misinterpreted, misunderstood
By making words unreadable and inventing
stitched and written alphabets, I am enhancing the meaning
of words, the power words can have
I invite you to learn to pause and truly listen and see
helgawinter.com
Port Townsend, WA
Words are important to me
written and spoken ones
We are inundated with words
Words can hurt and destroy - heal and repair
Words can be misinterpreted, misunderstood
By making words unreadable and inventing
stitched and written alphabets, I am enhancing the meaning
of words, the power words can have
I invite you to learn to pause and truly listen and see
helgawinter.com