COLLECT ART

Spring Issue

May 2022 | Issue 04

$ 20.00

Sam Haynes | Stellar

 The position of the artist is humble.
He is essentially a channel, Piet Mondrian.

Through the tall glass doors, the galleries are silent. The light on each
painting is focused and gentle and brings the work to life – These paintings
with colors like sunsets and colors like water. You sit on a bench and allow
yourself to let the world fall away. You allow yourself to look at this painting
until you notice how the colors fold into each other, and where the
brushstrokes meet until this painting feels like its own small world. In this
very moment we tend to think, or at least fear, that creator encourages
creativity. Each creative artist is an inner youngster and prone to childish
thinking. The heart of it is a mystical universe, some kind of system, which
tells us from their creations.

Please, consider reading each line of the magazine, as you can find a writer
and a poem of hers as a pause from the universe of creation.

Collect Art/ Tbilisi, Georgia

www.collectartwork.org
info@collectartwork.org
collectartwork@gmail.com
 Sam Heydt
Helen Grundy
Roger Monteiro
Irina Safronova
Dionne Hood
Jes Chatwin
Jenette Coldrick Morrell
Mariken Heijwegen
Zita Vilutyte

C Kiki Klimt
Freya Magenta
Josh Hollingshead

O Ania Duldiier
Laura Cantor
Joy Miso x Jessica Zug

N Andri Iona
Ilia Ramishvili

T
Loraine Cleary
Lucrezia Costa
Sam Haynes

E
Jiageng Lin
Joas Nebe
Lavoslava Benčić

N Patrícia Abreu
Jonathan Smith
Dawn Gaietto

T Alice Joy Webb

Samira DEBBAH
Sara Twomey
Larry Wolf
Paul Butterworth
Larry Graeber
Cecilia Martinez
Yujie Li
Mouli Paul
Monica Esgueva
Bobbi Matheson
 SAM HEYDT

Sam Heydt is an American social practice and recycled media artist born and
raised in New York City. Although currently residing in Vienna, Heydt has
lived/worked in Paris, Venice, Amsterdam, Athens, Buenos Aires, Sydney,
Reykjavík, and Rajasthan. Her academic career traversed Parsons School of
Design, The New School, Cooper Union, University of Amsterdam, Universidad of
Buenos Aires, and La Sorbonne. In 2012, Heydt launched Jane Street Studio,
L.L.C. in Manhattan. Since its establishment, the photo studio has broadened its
performance to provide both design and marketing consultation in addition to art
direction. Its growing roster of clients spans Europe, North & South America, Asia,
and Oceania.
In addition to this entrepreneurial undertaking, Heydt has attended artist
residencies in Iceland, Australia, and New Zealand; where she has documented
different forms of environmental exploitation.

A published author, producer, and

lifelong activist, Heydt has
undertaken charitable, non­-profit
work. Her art, anchored in social
advocacy, attempts to give a voice to
the veiled, forgotten, exiled, and
silenced.
In her practice, she works across a
spectrum of different media- film,
video, installation, photography,
sculpture, sound, merchandising,
text — and employs a range of
materials often reinventing or
trespassing their associative use.
Heydts’ vision looks beyond the
ordinary. Esteemed as one of the
pioneers of the recycled media
movement, Heydt’s work has been
shown in galleries, museums, art
fairs, and film festivals worldwide.
The edge is closer than we think, but illusion won’t free us from reality, even as
the sustained narrative of tabloids becomes history and the myth of progress
continues to perpetuate inequality. As the natural world is liquidated and
substituted with an artificial one, public discourse is being defined by even
narrower bandwidths. While social processes defy the logic of individualism in
global capitalism, the underbelly of profitability fueling globalization emerges as
exploitation. In a time marked by a mass extinction, product fetishism,
diminishing resources, and patented seeds, we find ourselves in a world exploited
beyond use, a world increasingly reduced to a bottom line. Concerns that are
drowned out by the white noise of the media and the empty promises it
proposes for the future it truncates. Working across different media- film, video,
installation, photography, sculpture, sound, and text, Heydt presents an abstract
proposition for a world on the periphery of history, one that not only appears
haunted by the ghosts of the past but built on it. Heydt’s layered imagery conflate
time and place, colliding and merging generations of possibilities, and disrupting
logical relationships between occurrences. Combining images of destruction with
portrayals of the virtues born from the American Dream, Heydt confronts the
disillusionment of our time with the ecological and existential nightmare it is
responsible for.
 Why did you choose to be an What inspires you?
artist?

Collage and direct animation film
My interest in art was sparked at an both placate my proclivity for
early age by my father, who himself fragmentation, amalgamation,
is a painter. Aspects of his influence diss/association, and up/recycling. I
can be seen in my work, despite the have this urge to destroy, to tear
divergence in our subject matter: his apart ... a kind of transgression I
watercolors build on the aesthetic amend through the resuscitation of
tradition of portraiture, whereas my its residual resurrected with new
work embraces the satirical and meaning, context, and intention. The
nonsensical aesthetic of Dada unpredictable construction of
underpinning it with conceptual and images and sequences born out of
political discourses. disorder and spontaneity is of
primary interest. Anything with a
Who are your biggest influences? history attracts me, as though its

dated content and visible signs of
Although a Warholian at heart, as a wear enucleates the passage of
child I was inspired by Tamara de time, yielding an unfinished narrative
Lempicka and Egon Schiele, as well begging to be interpreted,
as Fauvist painters like Matisse untangled, dilated.
whose bold palette has since
informed the way I work with color.
Robert Capa’s kinetic documentary
work and the different approaches
taken by Diane Arbus and Richard
Avedon to portraiture have definitely
made their mark. My friend Edward
Burtynsky’s monumental depictions
of man’s intervention in nature have
undoubtedly been influential in the
direction I’ve taken my work. Other
notable players include Deborah
Roberts, Adrian Piper, Urs Fischer,
Tom Deininger, Guerrilla girls, John
Baldessari, Barbara Kruger Hannah
Hoch, Kurt Schwitters,
Rauschenberg, Richard Hamilton,
Jacques Villeglé, Katrien de Blauwer
and John Stezaker.
 What does your work aim to say? What does generosity mean to you

as an artist?
My work aims to present the

problematics of a world exploited There is no divergence in the definition:

beyond use and increasingly reduced gen·er·os·i·ty /ˌjenəˈräsədē/
to a bottom line, one marked by a noun
mass extinction, diminishing 1. The quality of being kind and
resources, and product fetishism. The generous.
layering of imagery definitive of my That said, 15% of proceeds from the
work aspires to conflate time with the gallery are donated to World Wildlife
place and disrupt logical relationships Foundation. I have engaged in climate
between occurrences. Combining activism for decades and have done
images of destruction with portrayals extensive volunteer work in
born from the American Dream, the orphanages throughout India.
disillusionment of our time is
confronted with the ecological and
existential nightmare it is responsible What themes do you pursue?
for.

My work often speaks to entropy, the

exploitation of nature, and our
complacency in the face of
catastrophe. Through a myriad of
mediums and technical approaches,
my work aims to convey the different
phenomenologies of our increasingly
fractured social landscape. It sheds
light on the material inequalities of a
world exploited beyond use and
increasingly reduced to a bottom line,
one marked by mass extinction,
product fetishism, diminishing
resources, and patented seeds. The
uncertainties and inevitabilities of
which are drowned out by the white
noise of the media and the empty
promises it proposes for the future it
truncates. Regardless of its form, my
work always tells the same story: the
story of what it is to be humans. It
speaks to lose- in inevitable yet
uncertain terms.
 What do you like/dislike about
the art world?

The art world is not one of gender

parity. Making it as an artist is difficult
as is, making it as a female artist
whose art form isn’t shedding her
attire is another animal. One has to
be resilient in the face of resistance.
Significantly under-representation in
galleries and art fairs, females make
up only a small share of the art
market and tend to sell for
significantly less. The illusion that this
gender bias is bygone is just that- an
illusion, with women accounting for
only two percent of sales in the art
What does your art mean to you? market last year. This disparity is

particularly flagrant when one
Art is a product of lived experiences, considers the impact women have
it is a form of socio-political activism had on art history. As the Guerrilla
and an expression of the human Girls famously pointed out, “less than
condition. It is both a reaction to and % of the artist in the Modern Art
a reflection of society at large. Sections are women, but 85% of the
What is the role of an artist in nudes are female”. So despite
society? institutional attempts at affirmative

action art, as it stands now, a
An artist’s role in society is to hold a woman’s place in the art world still
broken mirror up to it. seems predominantly confined to the
How do you work? subject matter rather than a

producer of art forms.
I don’t have a consistent process per
se- I just create and the ideas come,
or the ideas come and I create. It’s a What is the hardest part of
chicken and egg scenario. I try to creating for you?
amass as much material as possible

and take it from there. Also, I tend to The hardest part of creating for me is
work on several pieces at a time focusing on one piece, as I struggle
jumping from one medium to the with maintaining interest in an idea
next. for an extended amount of time.
HELEN GRUNDY

Helen is a contemporary fine artist and also works with homeless men and
women in her home city of Birmingham, UK.

Helen is an object maker and collage artist. I identify as working class. She works
with found objects and collages as she wants her practice to be environmentally
sustainable. She thinks of her works as souvenirs from a world that she had
created and often uses humor and surreal imagery to explore difficult subjects
such as climate change and the relationship between humans and animals.

She exhibits both nationally and internationally. Currently, she has been funded
by The Arts Council to develop her practice. She was selected for the CHEAP
festival last year and one of her collages was made into a billboard. Helen is
currently showing work at New Art Gallery Walsall and has had a piece of work
acquired for their permanent collection.
 Ditsy Decommission

A series of 3 postcards.
The first is of a nuclear
power plant and the next 2
show a progression of
changes and a simulated
decommission. Nuclear
power is not safe, toxic
waste is produced that has
to be disposed of and the
landscape and the
environment are never the
same.
This piece creates a surreal and playful version of a decommission, it is a fantasy.
There is a huge need to change the way we generate energy

The Last Can Of Gasoline

The scene was created using an old

gasoline can, toy cars, ladders, and
barricades that Helen has made and
then digitally added collage to the
original photograph. The piece shows
a vision of a possible future if we do
not change our reliance on fossil fuels.
Referencing the film, Mad Max and the
fight for 'guzzoline', Helen created a
scene of people fighting for the last
drops of fuel to power the lifestyles
they feel cannot live without.
What is your biggest challenge in Professionally, what is your goal?
being an artist? How do you
address it? I want to continue making art for the
rest of my life. I want to promote
The biggest challenge for me is finding collage as an art form and be
time to make art. I identify as a experimental. Eventually, I would like
working-class artist and this means I to be a full-time artist and I would like
have to balance work and art. Luckily I to use my practice to promote
have a job that I love. I don't see change in terms of how we relate to
myself as a commercial artist and I do the natural world. I would like to see
not put time into selling my work but my pieces on billboards used in
am always delighted when people buy campaigns for social justice and
my pieces. Currently, my pieces are in environmental sustainability. I would
private and public collections and I am like to collaborate with other artists
interested in presenting my art to a and be selected for interesting
wider audience, selling more pieces, residencies. I would like to feel that
and becoming a full-time artist in the people who buy my work treasure it.
future.

Planet Of The Cakes

This is a piece made from a second-hand postcard/found object. I have taken the
image of a seaside arcade postcard from a beach in the UK and then created a
simulated version of the original that shows an abundance and sweetness that is
overwhelming. People are being bombarded by sprinkles raining down like a
hailstorm. I am referencing the unhealthy aspects of modern culture and how far
removed we are from the natural world.
How important are titles for you? What is the role of an artist in
society?
For me, titles are very important and I
often have the idea for the title at the For me, being an artist is about having a
very start of the making process. I like voice. I want to communicate how I feel
to reference popular culture and I like about the world and I want to start a
to use humor in my work. I feel the discussion. I am passionate about my
title is a way to draw in an audience. I home city and making it a better place
want my works to be accessible in and feel my job and my art practice work
terms of meaning and intention. I want side by side to do this. I work with the
to break down the barrier that often poorest people in society and often my
deters people from going into art works are inspired by the conversations
galleries or buying a piece of art and I have with them and this grounds my
having a title that people respond to practice. As climate change progresses I
straight really helps. do feel artists need to consider the
materials they use to make art.
Contemporary art should not be exempt
from searching questions about
environmental sustainability.
ROGER MONTEIRO
Roger Monteiro is a graphic artist born at the end of the 70s in Southern Brazil,
where he lives and works. Besides a solid career as an art director and graphic
designer in the advertising industry, his story with aesthetical research is deeply
attached to the digital means which, besides typography, is his natural habitat.

“As an artist, I'm not bounded to aesthetical rules. Pureness of the form bores me.
Symmetry makes me sick. I'm an urban soul, therefore, I'm used to distilling beauty
from the messy, yet delicate, relations that emerge from chaos. I’m only happy when
it’s rough. I feel comfortable in the company of the concrete and the asphalt. I see the
humanity in the skyscraper that defies gravity and God just to say: we live, therefore we
create. The gray areas between our own insignificance and our cocky way to invent a
notion of Life interest me very deeply. I like everything that's broken, everything that's
fake. Nightmares are just dreams behaving badly. Come bad-dream with me.”

Over the last years, Roger had his work published in some magazines and
exhibited in Brazil, England, Portugal, and Italy. He’s a doubt enthusiast: he
believes whenever he’s one hundred percent convinced about something, he’s
not doing his job right.
What does your art represent? Who are your biggest influences?

I’m kind of a chaotic poet. I use to say My influences come more from the
my art is an advocate for everything graphic design universe than from the
that's broken, everything that's fake, art one (if you insist on separating one
everything in this everyday jungle from the other). Having discovered
fever we live in, we call home. As an graphics in the middle 90s, I suffered a
artist, I'm not specifically interested in huge, very deep impact from the work
beauty, at least not in the Greek of what I used to call my Holy Trinity:
conception of the term. Pureness of David Carson, Neville Brody, and Stefan
form bores me. Symmetry makes me Sagmeister. The anarchy, the total
sick. I'm an urban animal, therefore despise of any written and non-written
I'm used to distilling beauty from the rules, the confusion, the freedom, and
very messy and delicate relations that the power that emerges from their
emerge from the city. I like the rough, pages let me see, for the first time, that
the concrete, the asphalt. I see the spreading ink over a blank sheet of
humanity in the way a skyscraper paper could be like lighting a Molotov,
defies gravity and God to say: we live, and I always liked to see things burn.
therefore we create. The gray areas That made me want so much to be part
between the perception of our of that world, a world where colors and
insignificance and our cocky way of letters matter. Those aesthetics
never surrendering to creating our became so ingrained in my vision in
own misrepresented notion of the such a way that I took a very long time
world interest me very deeply. to stop imitating them and finally
discover, build, refining my voice to the
point I got comfortable presenting
myself as an artist.
How do you know when a painting is done?

That’s a good question. And the answer is very easy: it never is. For the good and
for the evil. Especially for a digital artist, like me. On the contrary to paint, a draw,
sculpture, or any other analog expression, that results in a physical object that
once sold, gets lost in the world, for a digital artist as long as the original editable
file is available there’s always room for a review. For adding something. For
removing something. But, mainly, to re-signify something. Those reviews can
happen in a shorter or a longer window of time, but they always get to happen. I
have contradictory feelings about that. At the same time, is kinda recomforting
the possibility
of turning back the time and adjusting the speech contained in an artwork,
sometimes I tend to consider such possibility some kind of cheat, some easy
way to deceive your own history, to bamboozle the ‘yourself’ who wanted to say
those things first. It may be complicated, but the artwork is definitely never
done.

Nancy

''I've always been a big fan of Nancy

Sinatra. Despite the picturesque mood
of her songs, everything in her image
and her genealogical tree, of course,
reminds me of a road trip to Las Vegas
to waste all my money on the Black Jack
table. Quite thrilling. This series is based
on the most popular verses of Mrs.
Sinatra's songs. Each poster is linked to
a different suit of the playing cards deck.
Hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs''.
 What is the role of an artist in society?

It’s difficult for me to talk about the role of the artist in society because I think he
dialogues more with the individual than any large group. Different from
communication, art is something that belongs to the universe of the subjective
and the variety of interpretations of the same work tends to be inexhaustible, and
is very good to be that way. So, the role of the artist - and for extension, the role
of the art itself - is multiple and, sometimes, even contradictory since the impact
of artwork on each individual may cause or push him to act this or that way,
according to his background, cultural context, personal beliefs, and other
circumstances. The moment I release a new image, my intentions stop matter,
they stop being relevant and I start to have no control over the things that job
might trigger on people. The same composition may represent a peaceful place
to somebody hiding in as may cause, to some other person, profound
restlessness and suffering. And all this comes from the same childhood
memories I put on the screen. If art is not collective, its role and the artist's role
are also not collective. I see art more like a confession than a lecture.
IRINA
SAFRONOVA

Irina Safronova, aka, Palirina is a Belarussian artist whose works are created
spontaneously as a way to express the emotions that drive her at that particular
moment. Paints from liquid abstractions are later used for a series of other
paintings in order to minimize waste and create eco-friendly art.
During her creative process, the artist enters a meditative state in which her
hands become an extension of her soul and painting flows freely to become
artworks with meanings that remain open for the viewer to feel and find.
Irina creates artworks in mixed media, giving second life to junk materials.

''As a professional aesthetic stylist, I strive for beauty and harmony in my paintings,
transferring my emotions and fundamental stylistic knowledge onto canvas.

As an environmentalist, I strive to minimize paint waste, using so-called waste-free

technology. I also use cotton canvases and eco-friendly materials. I give a second life to
used materials in mixed media paintings.

Charity, in my opinion, is very important for the artist, because his art stops being
selfish and goes for good. I participate in charity programs to help children and
develop creative projects.''

''The source of inspiration for me is color per se, mountains,

music, and people, definitely!''
 “Eyes”

This artwork is from the series "Artificial Intelligence. Why?"

Big Brother is watching you!

In the future, thousands of eyes will be watching us! It will be impossible to hide
from surveillance!
The artwork of mixed technology indicates such a negative aspects of artificial
intelligence as round-the-clock surveillance and absolute lack of privacy.
Created with silver enamel spray, texture paste, phone parts, and magazine
clippings on acrylic canvas.
What does your art represent? What themes do you pursue?

I'm still looking for my unique I like to create projects that are
authorial style and I work more like relevant and modern, reflecting
Picasso in different periods of his trends in society. If these issues
creativity.
are of concern to humanity, how
can I pass them by? I get involved
But as time goes by, I'm getting more
in environmental issues and the
and more aware of what my soul is
for! For example, it's black problems of ageism. I discuss with
backgrounds, texts, textures, and the viewer, for example, the
several pieces in one work. negative impact of artificial
intelligence on people and nature.
What are you doing except being
an artist?
Does your work comment on
current social or political issues
In addition to being an artist, I am a
and how?
professional aesthetic stylist. A
creator in fashion. Fundamental
I often react sharply with my work to
stylistic knowledge such as a sense of
social and political topics. It's
color, form, pattern, and
important for me to convey that to
understanding of composition helps
others. This is how a project about
me a lot in my work as an artist. My
social exclusion during Covid-19
stylistic stories were published in the
came about. And also a project about
largest glossy magazine in Belarus.
political repression after the August
I also have a degree in environmental
2020 elections in Belarus, filled with
studies. And as an environmentalist, I
grief and pain, and experiences.
try to minimize waste paint, using
what I call zero-waste technology. I
use cotton canvases and
environmentally friendly materials. I
give a second life to used materials in
mixed media paintings.

Philanthropy, in my opinion, is very

important for an artist because his
art stops being selfish and goes for
good. I participate in charity
programs to help sick children and
contribute to the development of
creative projects.
 “Future”

When, in the future, it may be necessary to try hard to find among the wreckage
of the planet at least some remnants of life on Earth!

The artist shows his vision of the future. A life where artificial intelligence will
eventually deem living things unnecessarily and destroy Planet Earth.

This mixed media artwork is from the project "Artificial Intelligence. Why?"
Materials used here include foil, magazine clippings, stencils, and even dried
flowers!
 “Online sleep”

The artwork is from the series "Artificial Intelligence. Why?"

This mixed media artwork deals with such a negative aspect of the introduction of
artificial intelligence as the constant presence of people in virtual reality. People
are not conscious, it is as if they are in an endless dream! And this dream is not a
happy one at all...
Created with acrylics, spray enamel, magazine clippings, varnish, and chalk on
cotton canvas.
DIONNE HOOD

Dionne lives on the edge of

the moors in a village just
outside Bradford. She's
originally trained as a
ceramicist at Loughborough
College of Art and Design
and pursued ceramic
sculpture for a number of
years after graduation. In
the early 2000s due to a
number of life changes,
including redundancy from
teaching ceramics in college
and the birth of her son,
Dionne gave up ceramics
and started making mixed
media works. She puts food
on the table by working as a
Development Librarian
which means bringing
literature, culture, and
creativity to the people of
Bradford. Her work is
currently a combination of
paintings and mixed media
relief pieces that combine
embroidery, paper clay,
precious metal clay, paper,
watercolor, ink, and found
objects. Each piece is
accompanied by a poem as
a response to the physical
work.
 What does your art represent?

I aim to explore the nature of

spontaneity and intuition– bringing
together different decisions in the
making experience which enable the
use of emotions, thoughts, and
concerns as well as various materials
and colour. A colour will stir an
emotion. Other colours are made
spontaneously (in paint or
embroidery), layering colours and
placed with other objects – made or
found - until a satisfying relationship
occurs. Through varying and
sometimes conflicting emotional
states and often being involved in a
completely ‘unthinking’ activity or
state do we as artists permit
ourselves to be uncertain. The
artwork and poems offer
unconnected or connected answers
which may or may not offer the
possibility of a coherent ‘story’ - the
use of specific objects and physical
actions that don’t necessarily provide
an accessible narrative. I am always
looking to go somewhere unexpected.

What is the biggest challenge to you as an artist and how do you address
it?

The biggest challenge to being an artist is usually practical - finding time to really
make the art - creating the workaround for other parts of my life - spending time
with family and working to put food on the table. All I really want to do is make art
all the time but obviously, this is not possible. I do try and carve out great chunks
of time to create and thankfully my loved ones know and appreciate my need to
do this.
 What does generosity mean to you as an What do you like/dislike about
artist?
the art world?

Generosity to me as an artist means letting go of After graduating in 1990 I started my

the ego - understanding the privilege you have in life as an artist – I was in a shared
that you have had the benefit of time and space to studio, I exhibited, I taught in two
develop your art and acknowledging that not
local colleges – it was what I wanted –
everyone has had that opportunity. As an artist, I
think it is important to share and create it was my ambition. But I slowly
opportunities for others - to give everyone the started to fall out with the art world –
chance to pursue creativity in whatever way they it started when I was made
choose.
redundant from teaching – it seemed
What are you doing except being an like suddenly art and design weren’t
artist? important anymore – departments

were shrunk or closed down
I am a development librarian - a job I together. Not just the further and
love. I work in a very diverse city that has higher education courses but the
high levels of deprivation and poverty community courses which were so
but is also one of the most vibrant and important. There was a fire in the
culturally exciting cities. The work I do building where my studio was and
means I get to work with people and around that time my personal life
communities who may not have had the changed and I became a mother – I
opportunity to take part in cultural and also became disillusioned with the art
creative activities and my job means I world so for several reasons, I turned
can in some way bring exciting literature, my back on it. I stopped exhibiting –
art, and learning to areas of Bradford, but was always making, just enjoying
through libraries - the only free safe the act of creating without thinking of
space for all. exhibiting or showing an audience. In
2019 I decided to do my Master in
Visual art and this has prompted me
to start exhibiting more regularly
again which I approach much more
positive now than I used to. I am
much less concerned now with fitting
into the ‘fashion’ of what is popular
and I am more confident in myself
and my work – I still find some
aspects of the art world to be elitist
and exclusionary but I am much less
bothered by it and just love seeing
art and spending time with artists.

JES CHATWIN
Love

Speak. Open your mouth.

I'll help. I'll pull it out of you, a rough, scratchy crinoline

rope, choke you and make you gag with love, with

nothing but care, with all of my affection.

Let it out, dear. Give me frogs, your toads, your

scorpions, your cockroaches, I'll watch them crawl out

of the depth of your soul, covered in your blood, their

callous carcasses carrying up pieces of organic matter

gently torn from your insides with unforced violence,

and I'll wash them and nurse them in a little cage. A

glass aquarium. I'll stuff them all in together and pet

the horrendous vermin. For you. All for you.

And when I come back to you, I'll collect you, sobbing

residue, you spread over our living floor in a million thin

layers. I'll use a spatula to scrape the particles into

spirals, assemble you inside a paper cup, yes, and keep

you in the freezer. No need for you to suffer. I am here,

to suspend you in your dissipated consciousness.

Your pets and I, my pets and you, us and them… we'll

watch them grow white, angel white, pure ivory, milky,

innocent, righteously alabastrine. We'll sap them of

their power, consume their darkness, erode their

intensity, deplete, assuage, drain, until your essence is

drawn out of them, until they run out of air and become

etiolated, pallid, sickly monsters. Purified, petrified,

reformed angels. That's how much I'll do for you.

Through creamy clay, I'll shape you into a ghost of

yourself, I'll incorporate you into your new existence

with shards of your shattered pieces, scattered over

every part of your cold body, and I'll wait for you to

wake up.
I'll watch you come back to life.

I'll put beads in your eye sockets, and blow life into

them with my tongue. I'll lick them to make them wet, I'll

prick a hundred little holes into them to give you irises.

Wake up. Time to eat.

With a spoon, I'll feed you the feeble creatures. I've

given you teeth of steel, sharpened them with your

bones that you left me on the floor when you fell apart.

Crunch down on these polished, debilitated, translucent

inner demons I have trained for you. I am their Master,

they wake only when I demand it. Don't pierce their shell

too much, for you need to feel their legs moving as they

struggle to slide down your throat of sensitized glazed

mud.

Open your eyes now. You are free of yourself. Purified.

Let's walk together into a pale sunshine, and be each

other's fodder. We shall never be hungry, and you shall

never be cold.

As for your spirit, left floating in the living room, we can

leave it behind. You don't need it anymore.

This I promise you, my phosphorescent ice queen, for

I've heard you beg it in your sleep.

I am here, to leave no trace of the person you see at

night, the luminous doom of which your dreams tell you

in earnest. The whisperings of a black messiah. Yes,

that is what’s to come.

You won't be here to see it. This, I promise.

JENETTE
COLDRICK
MORRELL
Jenette Coldrick Morrell has been been an Interdisciplinary Artist for over 50
years. Born in Cornwall in 1952, she was inspired by the artists she met as a child,
who encouraged her to watch and participate in the creative process. She is
working from her studios in Yorkshire and the Midlands. Jenette uses her work to
explore her emotions, memory, and the environment and fills her work with the
excitement she feels for life. Over the years she has experimented with and
embraced many different mediums. Finding simpler ways of working (Spinal
stenosis), has enhanced the character of her work.

Many people take great comfort from their fellow man, friends, and family. There
is a connection between them, and an environment of security.
What if it is a place not of comfort
but of control? In whatever form it
takes, a sense of disorder and
distrust is created. A shield needs
to be constructed to ward against
the unpredictability and lurking
chaos of the outside world.

''My work forms this shield and

the thinking that lies behind it. I
use the human form and
abstracts as the common
denominators of my mental
environment. The creation of my
work is a way of addressing my
attitudes, fears, and my unwritten
rules which have that have helped
build my armor.''
 What is your background?

I studied at the Ulster College of

Art and Design in Belfast. Outside,
bombings shootings, and riots
were the norm. Inside was one of
the most progressive art
establishments in the 1970s. I was
lucky to be tutored in a painting
by Niel Shawcross and pottery by
David Leech.

Why did you choose to be an

artist?
I didn’t choose to be an artist, I was
born with the need to create. The
need to escape. When painting, and
working in clay and yarns I am in my
special place untouched by outside
forces.

What does your art represent?

I am painting memory, actions, and
emotion. Split-second actions with
long-term repercussions. Feel it.

 What is your biggest challenge in being an artist?

How do you address it?

The biggest challenge as an artist is not my art but my disability. The time I spend
with a piece of work is dictated by how long I am able. I have learned not to fight
this and adapt. Preparation these days is lying with a laptop on my chest and a
Wacom tablet under my right hand.

What does your

work aim to say?

Think. Think about who

you are and what
made you the way you
are. Think about how
you see the people
around you, especially
women. Think about
why people do the
things they do and say.
Do people think before
they speak?
MARIKEN
HEIJWEGEN
Mariken Heijwegen is an artist based in the Netherlands.

After finishing an art school, fashion, and textiles, She was revealed herself
around the world as a stylist. After 10 years she does not like the fashion scene
anymore and ended up as a teacher of arts in a high school. What she taught the
children is that they can express their feelings by making art. And thereby get to
know oneself. The road there is more important than the end goal.

”All my work comes from unknown places in my head”

“My passion for painting is my way of expressing my feelings. My hands help me

transform my thoughts on the canvas. I often paint on wood because it is a great hard
and matte material. I paint heads. An awful lot happens in the head and no one
knows, except you, what's going on there. Sometimes it is dark, scary, filled with fears
and doubts, obstacles, and everything that is human and for which man is ashamed. I
want to break that taboo by telling about it through my work.
All my paintings are self-portraits. Portraits of my feelings in my head. Questions like:
why am I feeling like this. What happened to me. My head is burning, electricity and all
the ants are walking in my head. So I explained it in my paintings. It is all me. Slowly
the paintings are less capricious and less vague. There is slowly coming a person in
front of the painting. That person is me. “

 What type of art do you

make and why?

I don't know what kind of art I

make. It goes without saying. I
don't choose it consciously.
But it contains unrealistic
portraits with a mix of hectic
surrealism and a touch of
realistic emotions.

Why did you choose to be

an artist?

Art chose me. I had to express

myself during the valley and
my creativity told me to paint. I
don't call myself an artist
because I paint. What I paint
doesn't even have to be pretty.
The feeling is not often
beautiful. The viewer has to say
whether I am an artist. Not me,
that's arrogant.

What does your work aim

to say?

I want to break taboos and

thereby normalize mental
illness. Everyone thinks having
the flu is normal, but people
often find something elusive
and invisible like mental
illnesses scary. I hope that
people recognize something in
my portraits themselves and
that a dialogue arises.
Do you follow any current art
trends?

Oh no, absolutely not. Then art

is subject to a kind of fashion?
What is now much to see is that
artists show a kind of trick by
imitating Basquiat. A vague
figure with some text. And it
sells. I think that's such a shame
because, in my view, you have to
make something out of yourself.
That's authenticity.

How do you work?

Really, on my kitchen table.

I sometimes paint for hours on
and it can also be that I am
cooking and I think of a green
eye and walk over to my painting
to paint a green eye in 3
minutes. All at the kitchen table
where the magic begins.

Professionally, what is your

goal?

My greatest goal is for all people

on Earth to accept each other as
they are without judgment and
prejudice. Help each other out
and listen to what people have
to say. It is a dream that my
paintings can contribute to this.
And of course, I can live from my
art which gives me freedom.
ZITA
VILUTYTE
Zita Vilutyte is an award-winning painter and printmaker based in Lithuania
whose works have been featured in solo exhibitions nationally, as well as in the
Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Denmark, North Macedonia, Georgia, Malta, Serbia,
Hungary, the United States, etc. Through her art, she explores the relationship
between "the sign", its properties, and narratives, allowing viewers to create or
reshape their concepts of truth while remaining in the flow.
“We are going through a very exciting, broad, and fundamental time of
transformation, where everything is changing, from lifestyle to technology. Although it
is a time of great opportunities, it is still full of dangers. Now is the moment when we
have to make a decision and become responsible for our own lives, and not just for
our own, but our lives in general. For thoughts, words, every action, and everything we
do. To think that changes in the consciousness of all mankind will be easy and fast is a
utopia. But those who realize - they must act.
Where is the artist’s place in this period of change?
The core - Acrylic on canvas,size 80x50 cm
Being an artist in today's world requires a lot
of effort. Not only is it the duty of the artist to
create an original expression, but the artist
must also be able to share what has already
been created. A constant threat to the artist’s
authenticity is commercialism, a consumerist
society that can easily defeat the artist’s
spiritual growth and blur the boundary
between true live art and dead, stagnant art.
I live in a special country that, after the
collapse of communism, has transformed
itself into an era of extinguishing capitalism,
torn by crises, and fierce competition for
production and consumption. The old period
has left us with a degraded environment and
a sclerotic political culture enslaved by
prejudices and interests. Nevertheless, this new
period offers great opportunities. Everything
changes, today becomes history tomorrow,
and our time is now. ”
 What type of art do you make and why?

There are just different mediums where is possible to express all the same things.
For me always was interesting to see the same reflection of the sign or the system
of signs, in different stratum at one time. I could test myself if I said true things
with my art. And chance, yes, I can say this chance is a sign which I catch and
understand that it is for me because at this moment I am ready to go through this
sign and possibly to find connections. Because of this, my art can be considered
an art of movement.

I can say that the biggest experience which gave me this flexibility is the
movement theatre, which I discovered in me first of all. As I started the
experiment with my body and consciousness in the process of creation. I have
always been interested in this question and I always have the desire to find the
way how does it work. So experiments with body movement allowed me to find
so many interesting codes which I could use in the process of improvisation. This
improvisation got another quality, I learned to dive very deep. What is the
meaning of the code? I can say it comes from a desire to find a way of unification,
some dialectic of orderliness and creativity, or a never-ending fight between an
order and a game.

Each action arises from the need to look for the answers to the questions and
from the endless desire to reveal the greatest secrets of life, which are hiding in
each of us.
A spectator and a creator are inseparable parts of such a creative process,
participants of the process experiencing transformation in its course.
Metaphors are the components of this process. It describes without any
explanation, just repeating life. From the unknown and always new spaces which
in interaction draw the only and unique image.

Ancestors blood I - Acrylic on canvas, 90x70 cm Ancestors blood II - Acrylic on canvas, 90x70 cm Ancestors blood III - Acrylic on canvas, 90x70 cm
 What inspires you? "...we can..."

Metaphors are our experience. We ...there must be a way.

perceive the environment through the surely there must be a way we
interchange of information, events, have not yet
and energy. With the help of thought of.
metaphor we can join the known and who put this brain inside me?
the unknown, to come nearer to the it cries
inexhaustible potentiality of creation, it demands
to feel the laws of the Universe and it says that there is a chance.
harmony in the process of creation. it will not say
When the creator becomes a part of "no".
the process he changes by the laws of (Ch.Bukowski)
the Universe. In the endless dance of

vibrations and colors, the interacting Acrylic on canvas, size 100x100 cm

elements join into the undivided

volatile whole.

Despite the context in which the

process of creation exists our
consciousness can join it with
something jet not experienced. This is
a synergetic process during which the
intuition creates new combinations
and metaforms - ideas, conceptions,
objects, notions, and processes
thanks to which a new way of solution
is found. If something is lost in the
form it can be found in the process.
The process is a movement; it is a
creative course to the new quality
forming some more subtle and
perfect one.

Golden frequences, stellar bodies,

yours and mine, reunite...

Acrylic on canvas, size 100x100cm

 How do you work? There are a lot of artworks of other

artists that I hear perfect and so much
One thing that I got from this music which I can see in colors. I
wonderful life is my fantastic brain. In discover this during my studies in
the beginning, I couldn’t understand music college when I was studying lots
that my thinking, perception, and of music scores and needed to
feelings are a little bit different. Later remember all these themes of
when I studied and got formation in classical music. My conspectus was
neuroscience, I understood many full of pictures and I was remembering
things about myself. And I got the key music not from notes but from my
to disclose and explain the process of form visualizations. As later I
creation. understood that the sign does two
very important things - it says and
Synesthesia was a little secret in my shows. The sign illuminates the object
brain that I needed to discover to based on many interpretations, and
understand better the creative the semiotic power of the sign is the
process in my brain. The process itself only means that allows us to truly
and the creative movement reflect me orient ourselves in this complex
as if moving through interpretations world. In creation, when language
and guesswork in a world of cognition. breaks and silence takes place, a
I feel like I’m meditating on very language system - other than silence,
different systems, even where at first takes root, which expresses what is
glance it may seem like nothing in often slipped through the eyes in the
common. Traveling along this very language of words. So because of this,
narrow path that stretches between my creation has so many layers, and
these systems, I can recognize that different matrixes that are possible to
underground net that is born discover when you see and analyze
between elements belonging to any kind of art – painting or music,
different fields or layers and sometimes my music is just another
combined into a common relational layer of the painting.
field. That multilayered perception is
The power yours and mine, which comes from love

naturally inherent in my thinking, I

think it’s because of the synesthetic
Acrylic on canvas, size 100x100cm

connections in my brain. As I see

connections between words and
views in a very specific way, as well as
the vibration of sound and color I
connect naturally. So, in simple words,
I can see the words as signs, hear my
pictures and see my music, of course
not only mine.
KIKI KLIMT

Kiki Klimt is a researcher on life. She experimented with many art media. For the
last nine years, she returned to the tradition of painting and has been developing
a unique way of painting, “Painting with light“. She graduated from painting in
1997, finished her master's degree in sculpture, and in 2009 got a doctorate in
art. She was a guest professor at many universities and participated in
symposiums and conferences. Today she is pro-dean at Arthouse College for
Drawing and Painting in Ljubljana. Her works were present in galleries in New
York, Berlin, Zagreb, Ljubljana, etc.

''Love is the key: I love Beauty, I love Life, and I have always tried to understand what is
hidden in the intertwining of everything that exists, what is this hidden secret. I have
been driven by curiosity all my life; my father gave me this gift, and I am infinitely
grateful to him for it. He is a poet and an eternal dreamer, and my mother was a
tireless researcher and scientist. So maybe that’s why I combined the two in my life and
became a researcher of dreams called life and the all-encompassing Beauties of
Creation. I discovered it was hidden everywhere. So now I am trying to give some of this
experience to everyone else through light, color, and geometry.''
What does your work aim to say?

The beauty of man is in ecstasy. One

is most alive in the ecstasy of life. It
doesn't matter how one got to it,
what was the path walked to get to
the point where life flows through
one. Beauty is in one's insides,
experiencing life in all its fullness.
This is the only perfection that man
can experience.

My paintings celebrate ecstasy and

are painted in the manner of
Dionysian art, defined by Nitche, the
art that comes from music. This People today have almost forgotten
ecstasy art, Dionysianism, and the spiritual aspect of our existence.
poeticism are eliminated from our This is dangerous. To give the
lives. Today ecstasy is equated with painting a spiritual aspect, I conceive
sin. The truth could not be more it by considering the sacred
opposed. Ecstasy is the opposite of geometry and the number seven.
greed or sin. For when the desire for Seven harmed a human being. Not
material wealth and experience only the physical aspect, but we also
disappears, ecstasy ensues. All that consider the press and what is
remains is the Beauty of life. hidden in it. Spirit. What we yearn
for.
 What does your art mean to you?

Art is a journey, not a goal. Painting is a journey, not a destination. Painting is

really a game, as each new painting is made in a new way. We can discover the
principles of life through images because painting is a game of life - but in the
changing game of life, there is only one point of connection with unchanging
objectivity. This point is the breath, the dance of air in the body, which triggers the
game.
Being an artist means discovering, exploring, and marveling at creation. Every
step is entering the unknown. Every time again.
We speak a lot about creativity today. But, to be creative, we must not be afraid.
With every step we take, we step into the unknown. On the other hand, there is
endless grace here. Discoveries come gradually, like veils that reveal to us the
true image of the world.

You never look at things

but behind them - into the void.
You never look at the clouds
but the blue sky behind.
Man sees the sky
only when there are no clouds.
A true artist always sees it,
whether the clouds are here or not.

You never look at an image,

you never watch the vibration,
which it creates
but the emptiness behind them.
Blacklight, emptiness, silence.

The viewer can have the same relationship with the painting, and then the
painting tells him about her path to creation. About the path, the artist walked as
he discovered, researched, marveled, and understood. Some stories are short,
and others never end. We can look at such pictures over and over again, and
each time they tell us another, a brand new part of the journey. Therefore,
painting is not a goal but a path.

FREYA
MAGENTA
Freya Magenta is a Lancashire-based Fine Artist. Studying a Ba in Fine Art and
Professional Practice she has been refining her craft specializing in acrylic
painting, exploring the strange and macabre through a vivid palette to create
heightened realism within her works.
Magenta’s work is heavily influenced by the 17th-century Vanitas movement,
which was shaped by Dutch still-life painters like Harmen Steenwijck and Evert
Collier, along with contemporary influences from the likes of Andy Warhol and
Audrey Flack. With a keen interest in drawing on past traditions and creating
works that reflect concerns of modern life.

''Through my art, I want to explore the strange and the macabre through a vivid
palette. I am currently researching how the messages of historical Vanitas paintings
are still relevant in creative practice today and exploring how practitioners are drawing
on the past traditions of the Vanitas to create works that reflect the concerns of
modern life. Many inspirations have built up my practice, mainly from my curiosity
about history and the macabre.
To my primary school's dismay, I always
had a skull or some associated
iconography visualizing death since I
was little. As I started exploring different
kinds of art I became engrossed with the
works of H.R Giger, Warhols’ Death and
Disaster Series (1963), and Audrey Flacks
Vanitas Series (1977-78). Flack has been
my main inspiration throughout my
recent projects, I love how her work
incorporates the traditional Vanitas
symbolisms but gives a feminine
perspective commenting on the excess of
consumer culture. Throughout my recent
explorations, I have been predominantly
inspired by the Postmodern Gothic
visualizing anxieties of the day with an
emphasis on memento mori.
 How do you know when a painting
is done?

I find it difficult to know when to finish

a painting, I always stand back and see
parts I could detail further or add
some additional colors to elements.
My imagination can run wild at times
so learning how to know when to stop
and varnish is a point I am still
developing.

What is the hardest part of

creating for you?

I would say getting the visualization

of the idea in my head onto a
piece of paper, as my nerves often
get in the way. But you’ve just got
to go for it and experiment! Trial
and error are often where I find
my best works come from.

What is the role of an

artist in society?

I believe the artist's role is

vital in society by creating
engaging imagery and
encouraging people to
comment and reflect on
the world around us.
JOSH
HOLLINGSHEAD
Josh Hollingshead is a self-taught artist from Dorset, England, whose work is
sometimes allegorical and informed by his travels. He paints large detailed
canvases with an emphatic use of color. Josh has developed several series of
paintings on the themes of genre scenes, politics, mortality, religion, landscape
and the environment. In 2012 he won the University of Chichester Award in the
National Open Art Competition and has exhibited around the UK and in Germany.

“Presented works are narrative paintings where, on close inspection, myriad

details reveal themselves, opening each painting up to different interpretations.
The vivid colors I have used are often symbolic and emphasize the meaning of
each image. The large scale of these works is supposed to convey a sense the
viewer could almost walk into each painting. Many of the paintings I have
submitted have socio-political connotations.“
 Ancestors

Ancestors portray the famadihana

ceremony in Madagascar, where
every 7 years a family disinter the
family remains from the tomb, clean
them, wrap them in fresh shrouds,
and dance with them, having a
celebration with musicians and
feeling close to the ancestors.

Prodigal Son

This painting is set in Madagascar

and shows a returnee coming home
after being laid off from his city job.
His family gathers on the railway
tracks and is split on how to greet
him, with his brother angry that he
has not yielded much for the family,
and his father greeted him warmly.

Man-Made Geysers

The geysers in this painting were

formed when the French colonial
authorities in Madagascar drilled for
oil and fractured the aquifer. The
minerals in the water have dyed the
ground red and yellow over the
years. The water is undrinkable but
people with skin diseases use the
water like a spa.
 Gallery

The gallery shows an imaginary gallery with glass floors, curved walls, and much
art history on show. The intent was to show a selection of art history without the
clinical white walls and competition of artistic movements.

The Gold Stilts

A man with fame or
wealth stands atop gold
stilts and a crowd below
reacts in multifarious
ways. Some try to climb
the gold stilts, some try to
shake down the stilt
walker. One man throws a
stone at him. Around the
scene window boxes
bloom.
ANIA
DULDIIER
Ania was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, a few months before the collapse of the Soviet
Union. She studied political science and then art ceramics.

''My artwork is a constant reflection of the inner child, that’s why I use a vibrant palette
and is ultimately uncensored and naive. In painting, I work mainly with oil and canvas
but also I am fond of computer 3D modeling. I also have experience in managing
large-scale art projects as well as local underground art events. I am an artist that is
inspired both by creating art and by gathering artists with different backgrounds
together for creating new artistic synergy.''

Tao Fish

This series of paintings is an

expression of pure and passionate
love towards life, Its fluidity and time
passing by so quickly in times of
easiness and self-indulging. It was
inspired by nature's most perfect
creature - The fish.
Fish are swimming, but it seems like
they are actually flying or even
levitating, unobstructed by weight,
social circumstances, or life obstacles.
 Temple Antistress

The project is the largest stress-free toy in the world. Unlike the original pop-it,
the rainbow cube strokes all senses, not just the fingers. A place to get lost and
unwind. The shining gates of boredom. Temple Antistress is a 3-meter high cube
that looks like a big pop-it toy from the outside and is an anti-stress environment
inside, where people can gather and play with different anti-stress toys stored
inside.

 Why I don’t like spring - I, acrylic paints, newspapers, A3.

Why I don’t like spring- II, acrylic paints, newspapers A1

This is a series of works painted in Switzerland. In Switzerland, spring is safe and

beautiful, but the perception of beauty is now distorted by the constant thoughts
about the war in Ukraine.
I can’t paint war, I hate it so much that I do not want to depict it. But I need to say
about it. So I use newspapers with news about Ukraine instead of canvas. On
them, I depict the beauty of spring. And also I am using Hanami - the Japanese
custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, as a reference. And on each of the
paintings, there is an inscription in Japanese ウクライナ侵攻をやめよ！ (stop the
invasion of Ukraine!).
LAURA
CANTOR
''As an artist living in the Bronx, New York City, urban images are central to my work. I
am a printmaker, painter, and mixed media artist with a degree in visual art from
Empire SUNY and an MFA with a concentration in printmaking from Lehman College
CUNY. In 2006 I had a solo show at the N.Y.C. Transit Museum and at the Manhattan
campus of Empire College. I have had work purchased by Montefiore Hospital and
work in the collections of the N.Y.C. Transit Museum, Lehman College, Empire College,
and St. Louis University. I have worked with 2 non-profit art groups in the Bronx, Bronx
Printmakers and Studio 889.

I work primarily as a printmaker but I also draw, paint and use collage. I live in the
Bronx, New York City and this informs my work. Structures of New York bridges, water
towers, and elevated trains- fascinate me. I am drawn to their geometries and
patterns. Mechanical parts and their similarities with biological and botanical forms
are other themes I am pursuing. I try to approach these subjects with imagination and
playfulness. ''
 Who are your biggest influences?

Growing up I gravitated toward the art of Van Gogh and Degas. In printmaking I
really appreciate Hiroshige and the Japanese masters. When I was in graduate
school my professors told me to study the work of the Vorticist printmakers in
order to learn how they dealt with movement and pattern and because they
claimed my work resembled some of theirs. I look at all types of art and it really
varies what seeps its way into mine.
What type of art do you make and why?

I am a printmaker, painter, and mixed media artist. Primarily I work with linoleum
printing and some intaglio printmaking. Often I add collage or sewing to my
prints. I live in the Bronx, New York City, U.S.A. and urban images are a big
inspiration. My son, Orlando, used to tell me to use more imagination and
creativity. He died last year. Since then I have attempted to increase the
imaginative elements in my art in part as a sort of tribute to him.
What do you like/ dislike about the art world?

I am very fortunate to feel free as an artist. Clearly in many parts of the world that
is not the case. Also, we have access to so much of the visual output from
everywhere. This adds to a huge array of choices available - possibilities in media,
style, and subject. Long ago I decided not to try to earn my living as a visual artist
so I do not have to deal with the business aspect of art. I did not have to hustle as
an artist but it was tough finding time to create when I was working and raising
my family.

Why did you

choose to be an
artist?

Such a basic
question but at the
end of the day, all I
can say is that it is
a compulsion.
JOY MISU &
JESSICA ZUG
Joy Misu is an emerging artist, based in Vienna, Austria. She works with mostly ink
on paper. She started to really get into drawing in 2016/2017 when she attended
a college drawing class for two semesters while living in Colorado, USA. Ever since
she developed a unique art style, inspiring others with her body accepting, sex-
positive and feminist work.
Jessica Zug is a culture student with a major in fine arts in Hildesheim, Germany.
Her art focuses on charcoal drawings addressing the ways our body expresses
our innermost self. It is about celebrating the body in a sex-positive and feminist
manner.

Joy Misu and Jessica Zug chose to represent the four seasons/phases of the
menstrual cycle on different colored paper to strengthen the moods of the
seasons (e.g. black for winter to make it almost look like snow on the branches of
the pine). Also, they choose specifically two plants to represent the cycle, which
you can see are changing throughout the different seasons. Artists want to
celebrate the human body, that every single body is unique in its own ways and
they work differently.

''This project consists of the four menstrual phases, I stumbled across an article that
describes the menstrual cycle as the four seasons and I liked the idea of it. It gave me
the inspiration to make an art project about it and since I am an artist I was really
eager to work out a concept. Early on it was really important to us that every single
detail has to have a meaning and a place in the art pieces. Jessi suggested using the
pine tree because they are cultural symbols all around the world! Going back centuries,
these special trees have a role in numerous cultures and folklore tales. Native
Americans, represent wisdom and longevity. To other cultures, they represent fertility
and life. It was my idea to include peonies though, they symbolize prosperity, good
luck, love, and honor.

The menstrual cycle is still something that we as a society don’t talk enough about. I
feel like a lot of people see it as something rather shameful than natural. I challenge
you all to listen to your cycle more and ask yourself: What is it telling you?''
 What type of art do you make and
why?

I like to approach all my artworks as

sketches, to allow them to be fleeting
and still impactful, constantly
progressing. Not only do I think
existence in itself is temporary, but all
social structures are. This leads to the
belief that the world is not a rigid
system we are under, but rather a
recent state of life, which aims to be
progressed and changed. I do political
art in order to speak about the cultural
changes society is facing. It is an active
way to shape the future to be a place,
where everyone is being given equal
opportunity, without facing sexism,
queerphobia, and more. Jessica

I mostly make very emotional art,

about the desexualization of the
(female) body. Joy

Why did you choose to be an

artist?

Art gives me the opportunity to

express myself and my opinions I
haven’t been able to otherwise. Jessica

I mainly wanted to become an artist

because I am able to channel all my
emotions and feelings and express
them in a very healthy way.
Another reason why is, because my
dad's side of the family used to have
amazing artists and part of me just
wants to reconnect with my ancestors
and build on that legacy. Joy
 Do you follow any current art
trends?

I sometimes try to make reels (they

mostly turn out to be mediocre) and
go viral on tik tok or Instagram, but so
far - it has never happened. So I try to,
but it is mostly just comedic relief to
see my own reels flop. I don’t really
take it TOO seriously. Joy

#FreeTheNipple Movement. Jessica

What does your work aim to say?

Everyone has a voice, it is just a

matter of being listened to. Jessica

My body is my home.. Joy

What inspires you?

Listening to people’s stories (good

and bad), nights of overthinking my
own existence, previous art and
culture, e.g. a song, a movie or show,
or simply the feeling I am given
through cultural pieces. Jessica

Queer culture. Joy

ANDRI IONA

Andri Iona is a visual artist, based in Cyprus. She completed her studies at the
Camberwell University of Arts in London and works at her own atelier since the
year 2000. Andri Iona exhibited her work with two solo exhibitions at K Gallery in
Nicosia and Gallery Kupriaki Gonia in Larnaca, in 2005 and 2009 respectively. She
also participated in several group exhibitions at home (Cyprus) and abroad such
as in the UK (London), Scotland, Greece(Athens), Malta, and Italy (Sicily). Lastly, she
had a six-page interview showing her work in the 59th edition of the Art Reveal
Magazine

Andri Iona creates her work inspired by nature’s uniqueness and diverges wealth
and colors. Her ceramic sculptures are created with stoneware clay. The mystery
and beauty of nature are the inspirational force behind her work. Clay becomes a
connection between her creative process and the diverse power of nature.
Ceramic sculpture often becomes a struggle, not only at the level of the material
used but also at the level of an internal need to create an ideal relationship
between shape, form, and equilibrium.

Harmonic

A ceramic sculpture
that shows the
harmony of nature! The
colors harmonically
relax your soul and your
spirit
 What type of art do you What inspires you?
make and why?

My sculpture showcases the
I work mostly with clay. I love beautiful bounty of nature,
the material and what it makes inspired by leaves, birds of
you feel while doing it. Clay is a paradise, galaxies, and numerous
very responsive material. It's a personal encounters with the
sort of therapy for me. My beauty of nature. This fascination
passion for ceramics stems is translated into tiny individually-
from my childhood love for formed elements that seemingly
painting burst with life.

Cherry

Ceramic sculpture that is Night Sky

inspired by nature and the

cherries! The red color and the This ceramic sculpture shows the
movement shows how blood freedom of the nighttime and the
and nature flow inside of us. mysteries that the night holds.
What do you like/dislike about the What is the most challenging to
art world? being an artist? How do you

address it?
What I like about the world of art is

that it protects people’s mental health, Art is timeless. Ιt has no beginning and
elevates their spirituality and it is at no end as we perceive them linearly.
the same time an important part of The new generation of people is
the cultural heritage of civilization. connected with the older ones, whose
Every human feeling has been history is evolved through time and is
expressed through the world of art. defined differently depending on how
Also, people can get to know we perceive the new. The most
themselves better through the world challenging part of being an artist is
of art and discover their limits and contributing to this transformation of
potential. For me, it works as an history through their work, by building
awakening and as redemption. It a dual relationship between the past
allows me to acquire a culture of spirit of art and the present of their
and kindness of soul. What I do not creation. The artist becomes a means
like in the art world are art critics who in the future and the evolution of art,
do not personally affect me. In my inspiring the thought and creation of
opinion, it is a profession that does the coming and present generations. I
not serve anything. Art critics do not still personally try to externalize the
do anything, do not produce anything, psyche in my works because I cannot
they just comment. I do not believe do otherwise. My psyche is channeled
that art should be criticized and back to the world from which I
evaluated to calculate its value became aware to create. External
stimuli are assimilated into the inner
psyche and transform into my works.
Something even more difficult is to
express one’s inner state as a flow, a
current, and energy.
ILIA RAMISHVILI
''Making pottery started as a hobby for me a while ago, which later turned into what I
want to pursue in life and now is my profession. From a young age, I always liked
drawing and especially working with clay for fun, coming up with some creative
artwork. For as long as I can remember I went to my mother’s art school many years
and took all sorts of classes such as drawing, ceramics, history of art, photography,
architecture, fashion design, book cover illustration, book writing, and creative
thinking. Although the one subject that stood out to me the most was pottery. In a way
I look at it as therapy, the thing I enjoy most. I try to express my personality with my
work, I always come up with a story for my pieces to make them feel alive. Most of my
inspiration comes from childhood cartoons and as well as my music taste, I take some
of my favorite cartoons and sort of combine them into one with a touch of my style.
From a young age, I typically didn’t like to fit in as much, and still to this day, in a way
that’s how I try to portray my art, a bit unearthly and divergent. My main strategy with
coming up with pieces is that I never plan an idea, I might be thinking about what to
do but I never end up doing what I first had in mind, I add up details as I go and they
always turn out to be something else instead of what I planned.
Since I was a kid I was always into creatures and funny-looking cartoon characters. I
always used to draw them and I still do to this day, especially weird abstract faces. So I
took that concept and started remaking it with clay, over-time I realized I had a lot of
fun making them and I got really into it by turning them into a big series of sculptures.
I generally make crazy-looking creature faces that are functional, they can be used as
an ashtray, keyholder perhaps a bowl for salt. I tend to mainly use big noses, weird
mouths, and eyes, those became sort of my style or trademark. Although I’ve done
other sorts of ceramics as well, also with a touch of my style.''
 What type of art do you make and What is your background?
why?

I grew up constantly surrounded by
I make ceramics. From a very age I’ve mainly art and music. Although music
always been surrounded by artists wasn’t a big part of my life back then
and art my whole life. For as long as I and I had many more open
remember I loved drawing and still do. opportunities with art. There wasn’t a
Although at one point I discovered time in my life when art wasn’t in it.
ceramics, at first I didn’t really get For as long as I remember I studied at
drawn to it but I enjoyed it regardless. my mother’s art school, and took all
It was only two years ago that I cliqued sorts of classes that gave me a much
and realized I wanted to give it wider idea of what I wanted to pursue
another chance. When I dug deeper, it in life, but mainly taught me a lot of
blew minds with what could be done. things, like how to perceive art and
I’ve always been a fan of weird and how I see it today.
goofy-looking creatures or cartoon
characters. So realizing that I could What themes do you pursue?
transfer those ideas from paper to
clay it instantly became my thing. It’s As I mentioned I was also into music,
kind of a way of bringing these specifically Rock and Roll. Today my
characters to life for me. style of work is heavily inspired based
on my music taste. I might not use any
actual Rock and Roll imagery, but I
tend to give my pieces a bit of an
outcast feeling and a wild look,
characters that normally wouldn’t fit in
the norms of society.
 Do you follow any current art Professionally, what is your goal?
trends?

I’m honestly not quite sure what my

I don’t follow any particular trends but main goal is yet, I still have a lot of
I do tend to center my style of work room to develop and learn much
more around the younger generation, more. Although I want to be
meaning that my work mostly catches recognized for my talents and
the eye of the younger people. I creativeness. I’d love to hopefully
myself am young and I try to make my brighten someone's day with my work
artwork describe me and my and spread a bit of joy. When
surroundings in many ways. someone gives me a compliment and
appreciates my artwork it truly gives
What inspires you? me a good chunk of motivation and

without a question brightens my day.
I’ve never fully experienced true Even though I’m not the biggest fan of
willpower, so when I see young people setting a goal, of course, a lot of artists
like myself achieve things that at a have objectives they want to pursue
young age that they’ve always but I just work for my own satisfaction,
dreamed of, it truly inspires me to get hoping that it will pay off someday.
up and do something like that. I’ve
Why did you choose to be an
heard a lot of people say that when
artist?
they see someone their age succeed it

demotivates them. Personally, I fully

Because I simply love doing it.
disagree with that kind of statement,
Generally, I’m easily distracted but
that’s never been the case for me, it
when working on a piece I’m deeply
rather motivates me and makes me
concentrated and everything around
see a bigger picture of what can be
me seems to fade away and I end up
done and achieved through hard work
in a little world of mine. All I can think
and dedication, towards something
about is what can I add to my
you truly enjoy doing.
creation. It’s a kind of flow-state that I
find very exhilarating.
LORAINE
CLEARY
Cleary is a fulltime-professional artist, a survivor of domestic abuse, a volunteer at
Adapt Women's Refuge & a member of the Tipperary Task Force Arts committee.
She received a First-Class Honours MA Degree in 2015 and graduated with a
First-Class Honours Degree in Sculpture in 2014. She was highly commended for
the 2014 program of the Undergraduate Awards in both the Visual Arts and the
Media & Arts categories. She has received numerous grants and awards. Cleary
has upcoming solo shows in 2022 in the Ballaí Bana Gallery of Cultúrlann Mc
Adam Ó Fiaich, Belfast, and the Excel gallery in Tipperary.

Cleary’s practice embraces societal concerns and becomes a symbol of ‘the now’;
it’s a visual response to the strength of the female as she navigates through a
misogynistic culture. The concept behind the work derives from trauma and
coercion associated with domestic abuse.

Cleary makes work that adapts to the gallery space, and by viewing it in
correlation with the space of the home she brings the private out into the public
in order to open up a discourse around abuse with a view that cultural change
can be implemented to provide a safer living environment.

Hush
Hush attempts to consider the secrets
hidden within the domestic space and the
fate of those women forced into a
segregated and isolated existence. The
hand-sewn fabric is forced through a small
hole in the tabletop; the material is then
clamped to the painted floorboard in a
visual representation of this.
 How do you work?

I engage in a sculptural-based
practice that embraces common
materials and textiles. Materials are

Lady Caterpillar
an important aspect of my work and
are carefully chosen for each piece.
My sculptural approach involves
working intuitively with these
materials; when an idea presents
itself; I assemble materials into piles
and assess them to consider the
possibilities As I begin working in
earnest with the materials that idea
becomes more concrete, then a title
Lady Caterpillar is fashioned from
comes to mind, at which point the
suffocating layers of hand-stitched fabric
rest of the materials are sourced to
constructed from up-cycled female clothes;
complete the work, problem-solving these layers are suspended from two
as I go. I recycle & upcycle an array crisscrossed mops emulating a puppeteer’s
of materials predominantly sourced control over its puppet; the puppet acts as
from the domestic sphere. My a metaphor for the control the abuser has
sculptural practice attempts to over their victim. Lady Caterpillar reflects
create a thoughtful dialogue through on the strength and endurance of a
careful re-fashioning of materials, woman as she overcomes oppression on a
selective use of color, and a daily basis, with each layer she gets
stronger shedding her patriarchal
combination of light to draw the
constraints, the caterpillar symbolizes that
viewer into a disturbing domestic
journey to freedom, just as the caterpillar
circumference. My working
leaves its cocoon to become a butterfly so
methodology combines hand- too does the female battling ongoing
stitched textiles with reconstructed coercion and control to take ownership
found objects and elements of light over her own life. This journey by her is not
to communicate themes of an easy one; ‘Lady Caterpillar’ celebrates
oppression. the strength and endurance of women as
they overcome misogyny and repression.
Domestic tropes within the installation are
representative of the females’ entrapment
within the home, kept down by a macho
society. The mug is a commentary on how
limited women's choices are perceived. The
puppet master is used as a
metaphor/symbol of this oppression.
 You have been given a second
chance

Seven pink mop heads situated

upon stripped & re-wired
fluorescent light tubing held
upright by molded concrete
bases form a neat row. 7 pieces
of hand-stitched fabric text
accompany the mops.

Room 10x8; circa 1990

Room 10 x 8; circa 1990 is a representation of a small room, with the emphasis

on isolation for its inhabitant. Constructed from salvaged domestic objects,
refashioned to tell a story. The year is included in the title of this piece to draw
attention to a time before mobile technology and social networking. Digital
technology was yet to be anticipated, even CDS were in the future. This was a
pure analog era of cassette tapes and handwritten letters. The piece is essentially
silent, emphasis on loneliness and seclusion. Strewn at various intervals are wood
and stone, almost like makeshift markers to point to a place of burial. The
entrance is unconnected, separated from the rest of the installation; the room is
isolated. Light seeps out from beneath its threshold signifying the boundary
between that room and the rest of the house.
 Dreamcatcher

Exhibition: Fuzzy Logic - Opened

September 3rd, 2020 Collaboration
between 126 Galway & Backwater
Artists Group. Studio 12, Cork The
DreamCatcher is a Native American
symbol that absorbs negative dreams.
Conversely, in an abusive relationship
dreams are stifled by a barrier of
Has your practice changed over suppression and all that remains is
time? the negative consequences of abuse
where victims are silenced and
In the last few years, I have paralyzed by shame; it takes immense
introduced textiles into my working strength to endure these conditions
methodology, these textile pieces daily. Chests and Drawers with their
incorporate hand-sewn patches fake bottoms are referred to by
representative of a traditional craft Gaston Bachelard in ‘The Poetics of
typically associated with women. This Space’ as ‘veritable organs of the
method of stitching is an arduous secret psychological life. Certainly
process culminating in months of within the realm of Domestic Abuse
painstaking work and symbolizes the secret lives exist. The drawer here
determination of the female as she exists without its chest, its nakedness
tirelessly battles against continued vulnerable, its interior exposed and
patriarchal injustice. Textiles are now merged with the exterior space of the
an integral part of the work where home. Its mystery is violated and its
handstitched textiles are combined secrets exposed. Red, a recurring
with reconstructed found objects and theme within the installation
elements of light to communicate communicates several opposing
themes of oppression. connotations that create a paradox
I have ambitions to expand my within the work, red warns of
practice to become more socially imminent danger but also signals
engaged, I am a member of the strength and determination, this work
Tipperary Taskforce Arts Committee serves to remind us of the strength
and hope to support their endeavors and character it takes for somebody
in creating an arts community to navigate such a tulmountous
collective. environment.
LUCREZIA
COSTA

Lucrezia Costa is an emerging artist but first of all, she is an uncomfortable crack.
She started to crack when she decided to enter inside the “selva Obscura” that
Dante faces at the beginning of his journey in the Divina Commedia. The
Bachelor's degree in Photography, the Master's degree in Visual Arts and Critical
Studies, and the pandemic emergency accelerated the process, like an
earthquake that generates fractures in a solid wall. She is exploring the depth and
all the crossroads generated inside a rupture that is constantly changing and
deepening through nature and the earth's elements. With her practice, she tries
to bring on the surface pieces of what she found in the abyss with the aim and
hope of creating shock waves.
“Rise into decline” could be defined as a work that focuses on that kind of art
where the author triggers the process and after that, it flows by itself. It is an
attempt to make visible the entropic process, the irreversibility of every
experience we live and so the never-ending rupture of balances that are just
apparently solid. After an encounter with a geologist, Lucrezia Costa decided to
build a small portion of the wall with hollow bricks and plaster with a square
shape, a symbol of firmness. Costa wanted to put this wall in a condition of stress,
so she created a small vibrant table that is equipped with a motor that generates
oscillators and gasps movements (like an earthquake). She wanted to prove that
the wall would have cracked and demonstrated that cracks are signs that don’t
need to be covered because they represent openings in the matter that reveals
something new that was not visible before. But what if the wall doesn’t crack?
Who decides the necessary amount of time for this process to happen? Costa
understood that she had the presumption of taming time. She built,
deconstructed, and assembled again, she was an active part because she
triggered the process, but when is the work done?

When the time will beat Stonehenge or the Colosseum? When cancer will beat a
body? Which variables get in the game? If the wall cracks she would feel relieved
because she can embrace the error and its uniqueness or restless because she
had to surrender to the idea that eternal perfection can beat time going against
her idea?

The project started as a conceptual work that was not satisfying for the author
and generated frustration but when she actioned the motor and looked at the
process working, she started to feel distressed. The more she observed the wall
trembling over the structure she created, the more she felt a hypnotic
restlessness. She understood she was a hostage of time. She decided to film the
process of monitoring the wall the process to make visible the way she felt.
 Why did you choose to What does generosity mean to you as
be an artist? an artist?

I didn’t choose to be an Generosity is very important to me. Being

artist, art called me I generous is one of the little things that
guess. It is a way to really matter to me. When you are
communicate messages I generous people see it and this creates a
can’t say with a common mechanism of reciprocity that is very
written or spoken precious.
language. Art gives me the What themes do you pursue?
possibility through

different media to express As I mentioned before, ecology is intended

the energy I can’t express as “to know how to inhabit this world” is one
any other way. of the main themes. Then I work on the
What inspires you? conception of time, and the third theme of

my career is the body’s study inside and
I am constantly inspired outside the western conception.
by what surrounds me,
with a particular interest
in earth as a natural
element and everything
that is bound to “oikos”
greek concept, that is the
root of “ecology” and that
could be translated as “to
know how to inhabit this
world”.
Who are your biggest
influences?

I have two big influences

in the field of art: Robert
Smithson, that is a Land
artist and Joseph Beuys. I
have a lot of influences
from other fields like
science, for example,
Robin Wall Kimmerer and
Robert Macfarlane, and
from architecture as well
like Aldo Van Eyck.
SAM HAYNES
Sam Haynes is a mid-career visual artist based in London, working primarily with
sculpture and site-specific installations. She launched her new series of
assemblage photo artworks at the beginning of 2021, with online/IRL exhibitions
including the Fair Art Fair ‘Curated 1’ show at Unit 1 Gallery in London, the FLUX
exhibition in the Greenwich Design District, and ‘Abstract: Contemporary Art
Open’ at Surface Gallery, Nottingham. The artwork has been featured in ‘Art
Reveal’, ‘Heroes of Tomorrow’ and ‘Artist Talk’ magazines, with an artist interview
in 2021 for the Ministry of Arts Podcast.

Sam Haynes started her practice over twenty-five years ago creating public art
installations, engaging local communities with the belief that art has the power to
bridge divides within society. The creative process is still all about making
connections, within her practice as an artist facilitator, as well as a collaborator
and sculptor. Accessibility lies at the heart of Haynes’ work, incorporating found
objects and materials, and using low-tech methods of construction to create
abstract assemblages that reference domestic and architectural space. The
photographic process is a key element of Haynes’ sculptural practice, both in its
development and display.

Assemblage

Assemblage sculpture - disassembled

metal steamer, cooking twine, rubber
hosing from exercise straps. Limited
edition photo prints on aluminum
Dibond are available in varying sizes.
 What type of art do you make Why did you choose to be an
and why? artist?

Since lockdown 2020 I have been I’m not sure I specifically decided
working on a series of small-scale one day to become an artist. I’m
abstract assemblages incorporating more a believer in small steps rather
found objects and materials, than big decisions, if possible. I think
combining a rhythmical, systematic it’s been a case of making creative
design and geometric structure with choices that have moved me in the
softer, flexible elements that take right direction. I can’t help but feel
shape more organically. These that being an artist is more a matter
playful interactions explore the of succumbing to the feeling that
tension created between balance there’s more to be said, in some
and counterbalance, animated way, there’s unfinished business,
through the use of color, light, and maybe even untapped potential
shadow. The physicality and within us, out there, to be
materiality of forms are an discovered and revealed. The
important part of my working attraction has been too strong not
process, drawing upon my to become an artist.
community engagement practice
and interdisciplinary background,
expressing a dramatic quality
through the universal language of
abstract form. The photographic
process has also become a key
element of my work, both in its
development and display,
presenting a fixed perspective while
giving an enlarged perception of
scale, allowing the everyday object
to be both elevated and celebrated.
 What are you doing except
being an artist?

In addition to making art myself, I

work as an artist facilitator for a
number of charities, supporting
marginalized communities, and
working with people of all ages
and abilities. This work continues
to influence my own practice, with
a fundamental belief in
inaccessibility, reflected in my
choice of materials and process-
led method of development.
What is the role of an artist in human. In doing so I believe that they
society? have the power to bridge divides,

connecting people on a universal level,
For me the artist is able to while speaking to our inner selves. They
challenge and question the world can give us a fresh perspective on life that
around us, they are able to can broaden our understanding, with a
connect the conscious and unique capacity to nurture and nourish.
subconscious, to embody what it
means to be
 What inspires you? How has your practice

changed over time?
Inspiration for me comes in many forms;

when art touches my spirit, in the strong I started my practice working on

women I know, in everyday found public art commissions
objects discovered unexpectedly, in big designing large-scale, metalwork
empty landscapes that remind you how installations, working alongside
small you are. It lies not just in what we a team of specialist fabricators,
experience outside ourselves but in a and responding to a site-specific
moment of connection and awareness brief. While I always enjoyed the
that allows us to appreciate life’s challenge and opportunity for
complexity and simplicity. collaboration, the process I now
use is probably the polar
Stellar opposite, working

independently at an entirely
An assemblage made of found objects, different scale using low-tech
developed through an intuitive process, is methods of assembly and
presented in photographic form. The fluidity
nontraditional, low-cost, found
of the netted fabric enveloping the
materials. The geometric
contoured metal orb conveys a dynamic
sensibility remains, referencing
sense of movement as if propelled from on
high. domestic and architectural
space, but I can enjoy a
freedom that relies on no one
other than myself.

What is the role of an artist in society?

For me the artist is able to challenge and question the world around us, they are
able to connect the conscious and subconscious, to embody what it means to be
human. In doing so I believe that they have the power to bridge divides,
connecting people on a universal level, while speaking to our inner selves. They
can give us a fresh perspective on life that can broaden our understanding, with a
unique capacity to nurture and nourish.
 JIAGENG LIN
Jiageng Lin is a photographer as well as a visual artist currently based in
Rochester, NY. After graduation from the MFA program majoring in the photo and
related media, he works as a digital archivist at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at
Rochester Institute of Technology.

Jiageng’s work asks the question:

How do we see the world?
And, how does photography shape and form our memory and mind?

Integrating different mediums such as photo books, collages, and installations is a

way for him to push the boundaries of photography.
Jiageng’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including
Rochester Contemporary Art Center; Gallery Q, Rochester NY; RIT City Art Space,
Rochester NY; JKC Gallery, Trento NJ; OFPIX Studio, Beijing China; Modern Art
Academy, Shanghai China; Millepiani Gallery, Rome IT; and others. His work has
been featured in numerous publications including Vast magazine, Photography of
China, AINT-BAD, Gelatin Magazine, Boooooooom, and Floatmagazine.
''I’ve always been interested in how technology changes the way we are living and
thinking. ’Say cheese!' is a body of work consisting of images that I’ve collected from old
camera manuals during the past few years. Besides the funny and humorous aspects
of those images, a hidden beauty could also be found. By changing their context and
presenting them in both book and installation form, I consider the images as a way of
looking back into the history of photography and the relationship between humans
and photography. When they are rearranged in a carefully considered manner, new
relations and meanings could be created.''

What type of art do you make and why?



Mostly photography or image-related. Besides photography work, I also make
zines, collages, and sometimes installation-based work. I like variations. By
integrating other art mediums, I could push my practice further. They also give
me a break from photography, helping me see my work clearly when I came back.
 What is your background? What does your work aim to say?


I learned drawing for a long time This is a big question. Broadly speaking,
during my childhood. Learning I’m trying to communicate and express
how to draw influenced me a lot. my feeling and hope it touches others.
The desire of drawing begins Currently, I’m more interested in how
with the wish to collect people react to the world, How we see
memories. I think this the world? How do photography/images
background did influence me to shape our minds? What does technology
choose photography as my main bring us? And Hopefully, people could
creative medium now. resonate with my work.
Photography has the ability to
quickly document scenes and What inspires you?
helps me to recreate memories.

I’m very geeking about the Library, Internet, Museum and galleries,
technical part of photography Broadcast, Nature... Sometimes an idea
while as enjoy experimenting just pops up when I was running outside.
with different photographic
materials which leads to my
current and ongoing project.
 What is your biggest challenge in being an artist? How do you address it?

Try to stay creative and productive at the same time.

It’s tough to do it. If I’m not feeling like doing anything, I just give myself a break. I
tried not to push myself too hard. You just cannot force creativity. If I’m stuck on a
project, I’ll just leave and do something else. Maybe watch some videos or just go
outside and jog for a while. I found that by doing these, my mind will be fresher
when I come back. It’s more productive than just sitting there and being upset
about myself.
JOAS NEBE

Joas Nebe, who holds degrees in

psychology and literature, is a self-
taught artist born in Hamburg but
now located in South Germany.
After a few years in Berlin, he
decided to move south, close to
the French and Swiss border.
Important exhibits include the
artist´s “Climate Change Cartoons“
on display in the exhibition "Letters
from the Sky" which accompanied
the Durban UN conference on
Climate Change 2011 in South
Africa and "Machine Fair"- a film
about the mechanical side of a
metropolis- shown at Museum of
Modern Art, Moscow as part of
"Now&After" screening in 2012.
Other film works have been shown
at the 25th Festival Les Instants
Video (Biblioteca Alexandrina,
Cairo), Videoformes Festival 2014
and 2015, Sustain Our Africa,
Madatac 3, 4, 5, 6 Competitive
Official International Selection
(Madrid), Papy Gyros Nights 2016
Hong Kong/ ART_TECTURE, In
24hours: Future Visions
(SHIFT:ibpcpa) 2020, just to name a
few. 2021 Joas Nebe received the
Audience Award at the 1st
International Conceptual Art
Biennale in Latvia.
 THE DARK PLACES SERIAL

Dark Places are causing fear and hate by being more than obscure. Dark places
are letting us down when we leave them. They are energy vampires, in a way.
Dark Places are everywhere.

Most of the urban dwellers are exposed at least after dark has fallen and they are
forced to pass a dark place without streetlights. But Dark Places are not reduced
to urban spaces. They dominate the rural landscape as well when the sunlight
has gone. But even they exist in the daytime. They are where lonesome walkways
offer the full range of depression to the one who is forced to walk on them alone
in order to get to his place.

Next to really dark places, virtual dark places exist. They are in the stories we read
in the newspaper in the morning or we watch on TV. Virtual dark places are going
to be the resident evil in fake news.
What does your work aim to say? A good example of my work on this

issue might be the video series Out
That understanding and Of Sight.
communication between one human More than ever the pandemic made
and the other are difficult, because us understand how low our
the communication takes place in knowledge is about the things we
different languages, e.g. verbal, see or do not see: the surface of
visual, body language, etc., and each earth and ocean, and the universe.
language is determined by the NASA, ESA, and others made us
limitation of the specific language. understand what planets, red giants,
You can express yourself using dwarfs, black holes, and debris in our
language more abstractly issues than solar system might look like by
with your body. The language of your putting the information collected
body is more visceral and less into images. Information is taken by
thought-depending for example. ultraviolet, x-ray, and warmth
Communication between humans is detecting cameras, etc. making
a set of different communication visible the part of our world and
languages even in the everyday- universe, invisible to our human
communication. You express perception system.
yourself with words and you express
yourself at the same time through In the first place, these scientific
how you act, how your body moves instruments are constructed to
etc... explore different kinds of
So trying to understand what the information the human perception
other human means by expressing system is not made for. In a second
himself/herself/itself is one of the step, the information must be made
most difficult endeavors in our world. understandable for a human brain, a
And that is just the beginning. The human eye. This goal is accessed by
human race developed very the translation of the received
sophisticated theories in philosophy, information into images in many
theology, and ideology and all of cases.
these theories influence how we
think and act. The more abstract the Otherwise, the signals (and there are
theory, the bigger the gap between only signals, no movie-like pictures)
theory and the real world, between would be only understood by
one human to the other, between specialized scientists, who are
reality, thought and expression of trained to read the information
thoughts, not to forget the problem matrix. And even the specialist are
of communicating thoughts one to not specialized enough to
another. understand every case and every
detail.
Moreover, the detected information
is as reliable as the tool that collects
the information. The tool collecting
information is only as good as the
human brain of the
constructor/researcher is in imaging
the unseen and unknown.

The more specialized researchers

are, the less they can imagine that
there is something else in a different
field, which is the issue of other
specialized researchers.

What does your art represent? What is your biggest challenge

in being an artist? How do you
My art represents the try to make address it?
this problem visible and aware. This The biggest challenge is to find the
is a pivotal theme of the human race right metaphor for what I try to say.
because if understanding or With metaphor, I mean the exact
communication fails, there will be expression of what I see around
war, destruction, hate, etc. me. Because art is always speaking
in metaphors rather than in clear
words.
 What themes do you pursue?

In addition to the language-communication themes, other themes interest me, for

example, climate change and how climate change reshapes the surface of our
world, our behavior, and our communication. Another one is urbanity because
there are more and more big cities turning into megacities by immigration and
rural exodus, which is again connected and propelled by climate change.
Connected with this theme is another that interests me: will megacities resist
climate change? Will they be vanished from the surface of the earth by rising
water lines? Will life turn into something hellish in these big cities of rising
temperatures? And how does life in megacities shape our interaction? An
example of my work on this issue is the video series called Landmark.
Since I am living-so to speak -in the countryside and my interest has shifted to
nature and here, especially to the smallest creatures, insects, and birds.
Later it turned out (to be exact: this year) that insects and birds are facing among
other species the greatest extinction since the death of dinosaurs hundred
thousands of years ago. I read in a newspaper article the unbelievable number of
1500 species of birds only! That was more than enough reason to continue with
my issue. There was another drive to readopt the issue of birds on which I had
worked before. During the time I was living in Berlin, I used to be fascinated by
the different species and the mass of birds that came year after year to Berlin to
stay the summer in the endless streets surrounded by endless multi-story
buildings.
Why do birds come to at least for them to such a hostile place like this...?”
LAVOSLAVA
BENČIĆ
Lavoslava Benčić is an Slovenian intermedia artist, curator and pedagogue. Her
educational background in media production, and new media art. Her portfolio
comprises ML-generated graphics, interactive installations, electronic textiles,
graphical sounds, latent videos, and glitch art. The Ministry of Culture of Slovenia
ranks her among the authors crucial for Slovene culture. At the IAM Institute in
Ljubljana (Slovenia) she works as a qualified lecturer. Her works have been
exhibited/displayed/published 98 times in twenty-two countries and awarded
fourteen times.

Lavoslava Benčić in her work» Speculative Hybrids« raises questions about the
survival of individual plant species and the possibilities of hybridization by
combining more resistant and less resistant species and the usefulness of
artificial intelligence tools in designing new resistant plants suitable for future
fast-changing conditions on Earth. She proceeds from the assumption that
human presence and arrogant exploitation of nature have undermined the
natural balance of plant species and through her work tries to open and change
possible ways of thinking so that we can again approach, feel and preserve nature
as a value necessary for human survival.
 What inspires you?

I do what interests me now and I

"swim" in a number of directions
guided by my soul and my heart. If I
wander off these paths, I change
my direction and try to do
something else. Only by trying and
dispersing research is it possible to
develop and come up with new
ideas and insights.

What does your art aim to say?

Usually, by observing my work,

people can understand what I was
thinking and what I would like them
to ask themselves. Rarely, though,
they can find out where I stand on
this because I don't want to impose
opinions and offer final solutions.
Allow me to explain the example of
a collection of works for the project
"Speculative Hybrids". The project
raises questions on the survival of
certain plant species, and the
potential for hybridization by
combining more resistant and less
resistant species. It tests the
usefulness of artificial intelligence
tools in the design of new hardy
plants adapted to future changing
conditions on Earth. In the project, I
show what hybrid species are
expected to look like when they are
created through machine learning
models. Whether I agree with this
manipulation or not, you won't find
out.
 What are you doing except being an artist?

Let me first explain what being a Slovenian artist is all about. My qualification to
practice in the field of culture and art is evaluated by the Ministry of Culture of the
Republic of Slovenia based on the works, curriculum vitae, bibliography, artistic
achievements, critiques, and publications in the professional literature. All the
above must prove that my work during these five years makes an exceptional
contribution to Slovenian culture in terms of quantity and quality. The
requirements to achieve this level are very demanding. However, most people are
not familiar with the required conditions and only see the benefits that the artist's
profession brings (e.g. work from home, flexible working hours, the absence of a
superior). But my career as an artist, because of the procedure described above,
is not as easy and lazy as it seems. I have created 160 reference units over the
last five years, despite measures taken to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g.
participation in exhibitions and festivals, articles in professional literature, creative
workshops, editorials, curating). Nonetheless, the period of the pandemic, in
particular, has shown that artists are among the most vulnerable groups in
society in the social and material spheres. However, the pandemic period, in
particular, has shown that artists are amongst the most vulnerable groups in
society in the social and material spheres. However, as there are few of us,
neither perceive nor resolve our problems and distress is the focus of society. In
general, since 1985, when I began my professional career, I have been aware of
this vulnerability and I have protected my existence in several ways. A very wide
range of knowledge, skills, and abilities is crucial in this. Therefore, I participate in
a large number of various forms of non-formal education and training in Slovenia
and abroad, live or through educational channels (e.g. workshops, seminars, and
summer schools). And not just art education - the knowledge gained from project
management education also significantly improves time, resources, and money
management and indirectly contributes to more effective and fluid
communication with all stakeholders in art projects. Just as I accept knowledge
with open arms, I also selflessly pass it on to my students and trainees. For the
last five years, I have been teaching multimedia production at the Academy and
Multimedia Institute in Ljubljana (Slovenia), DIY electronics at the School of Arts,
University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia), and for much longer I have been conducting
informal workshops about electronic textile, AI in art and graphical sound for
children and adults (for about 650 people of all ages) in Slovenia and abroad
(about 60 workshops in Croatia, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, and Serbia). In the
photo gallery of the Center for Visual Arts Batana in Rovinj, I am a member of the
expert council and curator of photographic exhibitions.
When we cover all the complexity and diversification of the activities of the artistic
profession (with all the paths and side paths), it is difficult to say that I also
perform some activities that do not fall within the competencies and profession
of an independent artist. On the contrary, the mission of the artist could be
understood much more broadly.
 What is the role of an artist in society?

Today, the artist must be vigilant, listen to problems, and open questions in his
works of art. The problem I am tackling in an art project must intrigue me and
must be interesting to people in the environment for which it is intended. The
more you express a problem in an unusual way in a work of art, (e.g. in an
unusual place, at an inappropriate time), the more you encourage the audience
to think and dialogue. In a world where more or less everything is already seen,
the work of an artist is more and more demanding from moment to moment. And
yet, a strong curiosity of the researcher prevails in me, which still drives me to
uncover problems and open questions.
PATRÍCIA ABREU
Patrícia Abreu is a Visual Artist who mixes multiple techniques in the realization of
her works. With a background in Graphic Design, Photography and professional
experience in Art Direction for Dramaturgy, she moves fluently through different
languages in her search for original expression. Themes concerning the natural
world are constantly present in her work. She is currently focused on Macro
Photography of natural environments which are then digitally altered to achieve
her artistic purposes. From her unique approach, she transforms her Botanical
Macro Photographies into pieces of original imagery.

''During the COVID-19 Quarantine, I started shooting macros of a variety of

succulents I have at home, but the “Mother of Thousands” really spoke to me.
There is a sense of nostalgia because it reminds me of my daughter, who was
away from home, living in Berlin to study music. At a time when everything
seemed a little out of control, there was a sense of hope as I saw strength in those
tender images that embody motherhood and letting go, themes that were changing
my world at that moment''.
 What type of art do you make What inspires you?
and why?

I always perceive nature as our driving
Currently, I classify my works as force, seeking, in its aesthetics, to
Mixed Media. I always start from explore and recreate its
photographic practice as a transformative energy as a whole.
conceptual, formal, and artistic Thus, I direct my gaze to this world of
exercise. After calibrating the deep, sensitive, and ephemeral forms,
images, I carry out the interventions, colors, and textures abundant with life.
which, despite being digital, they In my research, I travel through
bring out techniques of Painting, various fields of interest within the
Collage, Drawing, and Watercolor. world of Literature, Art, and Science.
Besides my involvement with For "Mantras Series”, scientists such as
technology, I am also a person with Ernest Haeckel and Goethe (who in
manual skills, who’s very fascinated “The Metamorphosis of Plants”
by tactile material production, defends “The concept of the
aiming to pass these sensations in archetypal leaf”, which considers floral
my digital treatment, therefore, organs as modified leaves...),
prioritizing textures and layers in my challenged me while working on
compositions. In addition, I creating a system through variations of
investigate the materialization of the original organic forms, recreating
image and its virtual presentation, digital compositions of modern
experimenting with sound added on “Naturaliums”, aesthetically based on
top of my images, thus, originating scientific discoveries from the 18th
Video Artworks. and 19th centuries.
What does generosity mean to you How has you practice change
as an artist? overtime?

As an artist, generosity to me is in the My creative work has crossed many

sensitive gaze, capable of perceiving paths. From Graphic Production to
details and hidden beauties. Giving Audiovisual, with breaks in Watercolor
meaning to contrasts and adding Painting and Collage. Photography is
collective memories and experiences the only constant in my artistic
to your work, so it can dialogue with approach, as I have been doing it for
others, the spectators, as well. It is also over 30 years. From the practice of
in presenting, through artistic analog techniques to contemporary
expression, your inner vision of the digital techniques, I accumulate
world and your inspirations. I believe images. But in 2020, due to the
this could touch certain people as they COVID-19 Pandemic, while restricted
see the world around them in a new in my freedom of movement like
light. Generosity is in this flow of everyone else in the world, I was
exchange. experiencing a decrease in my
photographic work, which I carried out
mostly outdoors. Unable to travel, I
nurtured the practice of Botanical
Illustration as a meditative exercise in
self-expression and began to practice
Macro Photography. This movement
triggered a different photographic
practice in me. Pointing my Macro
Lens at the plants around me, I saw a
Microcosm, full of these little wonders
that surround us, and that helped me
adapt to those days of uncertainty.
Those times spent inside also allowed
me to experiment with digital
interventions on those images
captured in my private universe, my
home. It brings a new expression to
my work and it's definitely a turning
point in my artistic career.
JONATHAN
SMITH
Jonathan is an oil painter based in Otley in Yorkshire. Self-taught, he synthesizes
memories, sketches, and photographs to put down on canvas his concepts of art,
light, and landscape. His inspiration lies in the countryside around him and in the
shifting light and weather through the seasons. However, he has recently begun
to explore the environmental concerns of modern society through the classic
forms of landscape painting.

''I have painted landscapes for many years and through this have an intimate
knowledge of my surrounding area. It is impossible to ignore the effect that climate
change is having on the planet and though we may feel far from the epicenter of these
changes, they do affect us as well. I have thus begun to explore themes of climate
change, both from a negative and positive outlook.''
 What inspires you? What does your work aim to say?

I find inspiration in my immediate It is important to me that my paintings

surroundings. I am a great follower of reflect my emotions at the time. It is in
the work of John Carlson, the American this sense that painting differs so much
painter. He firmly believed that one from photography, in that a
should not travel the world looking for photograph can show a color-accurate,
inspiration. Rather the artist should pinpoint detail of a scene, but only
look around him at the places he painting can depict a response that
knows and loves to draw out the reflects the viewer – these emotions
beauty and the inspiration. This should can range from joy, elation, even fear
then be depicted in such a way to try and trepidation.
and convey the emotional response of
the painter at the moment the scene
was noted.
I have a deep love of the Yorkshire
Dales and wander its forests, rivers,
and moors looking for inspiration in
areas that I know intimately. This
means that often I am inspired by a
change of light, an atmospheric
condition, or a sunrise that
fundamentally alters the view that I
know so well.

Who are your biggest influences?

My biggest influences are English

landscape painters such as John
Constable, the Barbizon group of
painters, in particular Corot and
Daubigny, and the 19th-century
Itinerant school of Russian painters
such as Repin and Shishkin.
What type of art do you make and why?

In a typical landscape, one can be painting ephemera such as clouds, light, and
mist and, in the same picture, be depicting rock, trees, and buildings. These very
different motifs all require a very different way of painting and yet all those
different elements must sit together in the picture plane. Because of this, oil paint
is the most wonderful medium – it can be applied loosely, thinly, impasto, etc to
create wonderful textures and contrasts.
 What is the role of an artist in How do you work?
society?

When I find a scene or motif that
The role of an artist in society depends inspires me, I begin my making
very much on the nature of the artist sketches and taking photographs.
and their work. Many artists look to These act as reference material for
reflect society and its issues back at creating the composition back in my
the viewer, to challenge and provoke. studio. Then I will stand and memorize
Such work is invaluable but for me, I the scene – I will reflect on the light,
seek to find beauty and spirituality in the sounds, the wind, noises,
the world around us. sensations, and my feelings as I stand
One of the unsaid but most there. I will try to memorize the forms
challenging issues facing mankind is a and the general aspect of the scene.
brutal disconnect from Nature. We In the studio, once the composition is
move through our concrete spaces, outlined, the reference material is
surrounded by strangers, harried, sidelined and I paint mainly from
stressed, and decoupled from the memory. In this way, I try to put my
world. Nature, the environment, seems emotions and feelings into the work in
at a distance. The clouds go unnoticed. order that the viewer can have a sense
The trees are ignored. Yet these things of the moment as well.
are crucial to our well-being, both in a
physical sense but also a mental one.
For me, my role is to remind people
that these places still exist, there is
peace and tranquility to be found;
there are dark spaces, empty spaces;
spaces where the soul can be uplifted
and the mind can empty. I would like to
think that my work brings these
moments into the life of the viewer.
DAWN
GAIETTO
Dawn Gaietto is a lens-based practitioner working and living in London. Her
doctoral research, entitled What is happening here? [exploits of the nonhuman]
was completed at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. Her
research is centered on examining small components of nonhuman agency,
allowing for momentary lapses in preconceived notions, and exploring the
impacts of nonhumans acting upon and influencing humans. Recently she has
been in residence at LABVERDE in Manaus, Brazil; and recent publications include
Trace: Journal for Human-Animal Studies, Espacio Fronterizo, and Time to Waste.
Recent exhibitions include the installation of a functional pigeon loft within a
gallery space. This intervention allowed for a potential reconfiguring of viewership
— creating new formulations of sustainability — both in the art-making practices
and a wider practice of being-in-the-world.

The images in Unfixed Consciousness/Positive Unconsciousness are

manifestations of the collective agency between the mechanical, technological,
and atmospheric elements as well as my own as composer and interpreter. This
was done by building an imaging device that triggers the shutter through changes
in the temperature and humidity as detected by an SHT11x sensor that queried
the environment once a minute. This device was deployed in several archetypical
ecosystems throughout Alachua County for an eighteen-hour period. The
measurements of temperature and humidity were selected as parameters for this
project due to their relevance to the shifting climate in North-Central Florida.
 What is your background?

I grew up in Ohio before moving

around the US quite a bit, and then
moved to the UK for school and have
been here since. I fell into being an
artist. I began studying photography
and practiced photography
What themes do you pursue?
professionally a bit before teaching at
a community college. From this
I make work as a practice of asking
teaching position, I realized that I was
questions, not seeking to create nor
much more interested in critical
provide any answers. Largely my work
theory and the philosophies
centers on questions of how I as a
underpinning artistic practice than I
human am a part of the larger
was in photography as a professional
ecological systems in which I exist and
activity. I never wanted to be an artist
how an artistic practice helps me and
so to speak, I am still reticent to call
others to understand these complex
myself one now as I feel unqualified
and intricate relationships.
on multiple levels, but I do have an
artistic practice. My earliest memories
of making art are centered around
asking questions, “What am I doing
here?” “What does this mean?” “What
do others think when they see this?”
The practice of questioning is still a
primary undercurrent in my work.
 Does your work comment on current social or political issues and how?

Yes, my work is all grounded in the methodology of anthropocentric art.

Anthropocentric art at its base is a process of artistic practice which actively
works to de-center the human in the production and reception of the artwork.
Sometimes this means deploying aspects of making to which I do not have
control or it could involve aspects of viewing which create a relational viewing
dependent upon the viewer and their approach to the work. For instance, I
transformed a historical observatory into a functional pigeon loft on the campus
of UCL. The observation of this work would be radically transformed by the
approach of a visitor. Would they see a functional loft or a blank architecture?
This depended on their physical approach and if they would scare away the
residents . . . This aspect of relationality in viewing is essential in the consideration
of a work of anthropocentric art.

I developed the concept of anthropocentric art as the basis of my Ph.D. research

project, What is happening here? [exploits of the nonhuman]. This was a practice-
led research project. I proposed anthropocentric art to be a relational logic
opening a state of re-enchantment for the viewer, allowing for the emergence of
visible nonhuman agencies. My development of anthropocentric art followed two
lines of inquiry: ‘How can the practice of artwork reveal nonhuman agencies?’ and,
‘What types of representation are most revealing of nonhuman agency to a
human audience?’ My practical methodology begins with my working theory,
testing variations of representation through experiments, generating
diagrammatic arguments, enacting these diagrams in space, and developing
analytic tools to understand how works impact viewers. I propose that the
resulting art objects are not representations of theory but embodiments,
extending beyond representation and generating spaces of function — the
revelation of nonhuman agencies. I work through modes of non-Cartesian
representation, creating a system of connective tissues, and conceptual fibers of
understanding the relational space between the real/represented through a state
of re-enchantment — a space where the real and the represented are equally
present/erased. The works presented within the project and beyond are works
with animate nonhumans as present and active subjects; drawing from social,
political, cultural, and ecological histories to seduce the viewer into a state of re-
enchantment with the present and past nonhumans. I propose the viewer is key
to the entirety of this project, to change perspectives from cultural narcissism to
that of a relational and connected existence. The layering of types of
representation within each installation of work is intended to destabilize the
viewer and allow for new ideas and thoughts to emerge — to generate a space of
shifting perspectives.
What does your art mean to you?

My practice is led by research and the

formulation of questions, then I
develop an approach to transform
the questions into artistic acts or
works. In these stills from
Encountering her presence, I had
observed a fox’s ongoing and
deepening curiosity about my dog
and my dog’s reciprocal responses.
These curiosities extended into a
sharing of space which created a long
series of video works culminating in
this triptych video and poem. My
process is about extending questions
from thoughts into actions that
provoke further questions or possibly
proposals, but not answers. In
En(act)on I simply put a sign out into
the world and then waited for
passersby to act upon the object. I
waited to see what would happen
next. Art to me is about the
encounter, the relationality of the
encounter, and how that can
transform one’s perspective.
ALICE JOY WEBB

''I am whomever I choose to be at any given moment. I am energy. I am conscious

awareness. I am love. I am joy. I am a powerful creator. I am infinite possibilities. I am
a part of the universe and made of stars. Whom are you choosing to be today, in this
now moment? I'm an intuitive acrylic artist living in Cambridge with my animal family.
I'm inspired every day by nature and I love vibrant colours. I appreciate just how much
being around different colours can affect my mood and energy. Some are soothing
and peaceful, while others are joyful, energising or uplifting. It is my intention to
harness the powerful, positive energies of colour in my work so that they can support
you and your energy when you take a piece home. I create for my soul and I hope it
speaks to yours. With lots of love and appreciation.''
 What type of art do you make
and why?

I make vibrant, colorful, intuitive

acrylic art. I infuse it with supportive
energies through the use of colors,
messages, symbols, and a whole lot
of love. I make art like this as it can
talk to your subconscious, help to
change your energy, and brighten
up your environment.

Why did you choose to be an

artist?

Painting makes me feel good. My

professional life has changed a few
times over the years but I have
painted throughout. For a long time,
I didn’t love myself enough to fully
honor this creative gift. Since
starting to prioritize my artwork, I
have found it to be incredibly
healing.

What does your work aim to

say?

Each piece has something different

to say but all of them aim to
encourage you to slow down a little,
notice how you feel, and smile

What inspires you?

The natural world inspires me; from

the stars above to the dandelions
growing in my garden.
 ‘Dandelions Awaken’

Imagine it’s that time in the morning before the dandelions wake up. It is Spring
and the sun is coming up with all the energy of promise and blessings that a new
day brings. All around is peace, the light streams through the long grass, gently
warming and caressing the dandelions who are about to awaken. They know what
to do; just breathe and open in the light. The soothing and yet refreshing greens
in this piece bring harmony, balance, and healing. Green represents our
interconnectedness with nature, with abundance and it is the color of the heart
chakra. The yellows are cheerful, invigorating, and refreshing and the touch of
blue adds a peaceful feeling. This piece will support you to start your day feeling
joyful, refreshed, and ready for anything.
SAMIRA
DEBBAH
Samira DEBBAH is an artist painter and sculptor based in Morocco. She is an
emerging artist, working in various media including fine art, and sculpture. She
was always interested in art her entire life. The passion for creation came to her
from childhood. She is a self-taught artist. Her last exhibition was at Pocket star
gallery in Greece.

''My work is the interpretation of everything I am, what I connect with the most in life,
especially my sentimental side. I put everything I have into it and if I am in love with it
which is when I stop.

I like to create art that gives the possibility to the viewer to interpret it according to his
perception and his vision. To create a debate between him and his deepest unique
interpretation. I don't limit myself to just one style or concept. I like to play with shapes
and nuances to create a unique combination.''
 What does your art represent? What inspires you?

I will say my style is the interpretation Mostly from anywhere and anything.
of everything I am, and what I connect For example, I get inspired by my
with the most in life, especially my environment and emotions. For me,
sentimental side. I focus more on what Art is a way to release my feelings and
I want to convey as a message through ideas.
my work. I think the content of the
How do you work?
work conveys the deeper meaning and

message behind the artist's artwork.

I walk into a blank canvas with just
What does your work aim to say? putting anything like lines, and colors

and I start to follow the process with
I love to create art that gives the no plan or strategy other than
possibility to the viewer to interpret it following my intuition, doing what
according to his perception and his seems good to me, and adjusting the
vision. To create a debate between him course as I go. I put everything I have
and his deepest unique interpretation. into it and if I am in love with it which is
Also, I hope my art inspires artists to when I stop the painting. About
accept themselves and their art sculpture, I start by sketching the
without being afraid to be judged. concept. Choose the appropriate
materials to present my idea then I
start to work on it.
SAADEH
GEORGE

George grew up in Lebanon, did medical school and specialized in Anesthesiology

in Beirut, displaced by the horrors of a savage civil war, been a full-time mother
for 14 years, and did a part-time BA in Fine Arts in the UK, then specialized in
Psychiatry in London.
All through that time, she practiced visual arts, exhibited, and wrote poetry.
At the moment she is a full-time artist and poet, exhibiting actively, and is a
member of Riverside Artists Group.

Fascinated by the human figure in motion, I have used many mediums to express
the emotions evoked by dance, sports, and other various human activities.
Having been a doctor, a dancer, and having worked as an anesthetist in a war
zone must have informed and inspired my art.
What type of art do you make and What inspires you?
why?

I Am inspired by beauty but also by
I seek poeticism and mysticism in my suffering, poetry, music, dance, and
artwork. As we live in a dystopian the human figure in motion and
world of bigotry and injustices, I feel emotion.
that we need more poetry and magic.
Why did you choose to be an
What does your work aim to say? artist?

My artwork aims to enchant the I did not choose to be an artist. Art

viewer and lift them to a magical chose me as its servant and
spiritual level, but also provokes them messenger, or maybe I was an artist in
to think and pose questions about the a previous life! After high school, I
subject matter. It seeks to widen their studied medicine at university and
horizons beyond mundane daily specialized in Anaesthetics to please
events. my parents, all the while doing art
classes in the evenings and on
What does your art represent? weekends. After being displaced to

the UK, and raising a young family, I
My art represents the passion for did a part-time degree in Fine Arts at
inseparable suffering, beauty and love Central St Martin’s. Art is an obsession
in the human soul. rather than a choice for me.
 Who are your biggest
influences?

Am influenced by Botticelli,
Carravaggio, and most Renaissance
artists, but also by the Fauvists and
the Expressionists.
How do you work?

I tend to work intuitively, letting an

idea be explored, germinate,
develop and become a finished
work, but it may still go on changing,
developing, and even becoming part
of another work.

What do you do except being an

artist?

I dance and write poetry but

anything else required for daily life
and development.
SARA
TWOMEY
Sara Twomey is from East London, now she paints from her spare room studio in
South London! In the USA where she completed Trompe-l’oeil Murals, taught her
the optical possibilities of painting. She worked at Science Ltd as the Studio
assistant Manager to the artist Damien Hirst. She currently works as a Pop Up
Painter in London! Has exhibited in group shows including an international group
exhibition at the Cork Street Open in London in 2013 & 2014, Rogue Space
Gallery NY, and the 2018 Spectrum Miami Art Fair. She is currently in an online
exhibition called the Butterfly Effect.
''My Black Paintings are all about the light, black is a spacious color, almost like a void.
The paintings are never static as they are interacting with patterns and symbols on the
surface of the painting. As the series develops the shapes are too, I started with two
dimensions, now I am painting three dimensions and now using a Gold leaf. I feel there
are more dimensions to explore. The light causes the structure to appear and
disappear. The viewer has the desire to fix the now into an organized pattern, but the
light shifts constantly expressing the inevitability of change.''
What type of art do you make and What does your work aim to say?
why?

Black is an end point in colour, it is an
I make abstract Paintings because absence of any colour. I am painting
that way I can get passed any kind of nothing but a void. However black
narrative or story, that is a block to paint captures light, and can absorb
me and keeps my mind on the light. So I use Black paint as I am
surface, I want to paint from my guts painting ‘nothing’ but light. It is difficult
and abstract painting does this for to see the same painting twice from
me. Also, the paintings are made anything other than a fixed position.
using Black paint and have an There is a conflict between the desire
element of geometric form, Black to fix the now into an organised
paint is helping me to discover new pattern and interpretation and the
shapes that enable me to work with a inevitability of change. The painting
kind of light catcher and I play with asks the viewer to consider the
the many different dimensions that implications of the here and now.
are revealed through the process of Does your work comment on
making the work. current social or political issues?

What inspires you?

My art doesn't comment on any

political or current issues, I am almost

Light inspires me, I am interested in
using my painting as an escape from
how dark black paint can hold light
the real world! One of the reasons I
and absorb light too, the idea that
started painting is because it helps me
they are opposites, light and dark is
feel better.
what I love to mess around with.
LARRY
WOLF
Larry Wolf was born, raised, and still living in Los Angeles, California, he has spent
more than 40 years as a criminal defense attorney. Over the past decade and a
half, he has slowly and methodically transitioned his hobby, painting, into a
successful second career as an abstract artist. His award-winning vibrant, colorful,
and textured artwork is collected under the umbrella of "A Brush with the Law."
Larry Wolf's pieces have been featured in countless magazines and displayed all
over California, in galleries across the United States, and as far away as Germany
and China.
''My work utilizes an intriguing and unique process whereby I push acrylic paint
through the back of a silkscreen canvas. Traditionally, silkscreens are used for making
prints on paper or T-shirts or any number of materials, but then the screens are
washed and reused. For me, the silkscreen becomes a permanent host for one-of-a-
kind artwork. The process results in strikingly vibrant abstract compositions, layered in
eye-catching shapes and textures.''
 Why did you choose to be an What type of art do you make and
artist? why?

Four decades as a criminal defense I have always created abstract pieces.

attorney taught me to think This open-ended approach to artwork
creatively and see things differently allows me the most freedom and
in finding ways to represent my creativity…perhaps more than any
clients. As the years passed, this other art form. I can apply line,
part of my brain that brought shape, color, and texture in any way
inspiration to my thinking began that inspires me.
shouting ever more loudly to be let
out in a way that did not involve legal What does your art represent?
arguments before a judge and jury.

Slowly, I began to move from My artwork amalgamates many

courtroom to canvas in expressing thoughts, emotions, challenges,
my feelings and musings through struggles, and triumphs that I have
ever-more-complex abstract art encountered in my many years on
pieces. this planet. My experiences guide my
I have now retired from my legal hand and brush, expressing most of
practice, but I keep that part of all the joy I feel in having the freedom
myself alive through my ever- to express myself through art.
expanding portfolio of abstract Indeed, the creation of the art itself,
artworks that I have collected under the process I go through in choosing
the name “A Brush with the Law.” colors and shapes, becomes an
integral part of the meaning of the
piece. While I certainly create art for
the enjoyment of others, each piece
remains, at its core, part of my
personal journey through life.
 What are you doing besides What is your biggest challenge in
being an artist? being an artist? How do you

address it?
Being a grandfather is perhaps one

of the most rewarding gifts that a Sometimes I find I cannot simply “let
man can enjoy. Having the luxury of go” and escape to a place outside my
sharing my art with my head where I can simply let the
grandchildren creates a special artwork flow through me from my
bond, especially with my young spirit into my hand and onto the
grandson Elliott, who has been canvas. Voices fill my brain, analyzing,
developing his own impressive over-thinking, telling me all of the
painting style. things I can’t or shouldn’t do. This
Professionally, what is your goal? struggle between conformity and
authenticity results in “painter’s block,”
My goal is to be able to support my temporarily locking my brain into a
family through the sale of my art. spiraling prison where true art cannot
Although it sometimes feels like an escape. And when this happens, I find
unattainable goal, there are so many that my only recourse is to take a
opportunities that present break—sometimes hours, sometimes
themselves, such as this very days, or even weeks—to meditate,
interview, that reassure me that this relax, and allow my mind to
goal is ultimately achievable. regenerate itself and once again
release its hold on my inner creativity.
PAUL
BUTTERWORTH

''I am an actor and 3rd year BA (Hons) Painting student specializing in abstract
expressionism at the University for the Creative Arts - Open College of the Arts campus.
I started my painting degree in 2016 when my son went to university and will graduate
in 2024. Originally from Yorkshire, I live and work from my home studio in Cambridge.

I act with color for the canvas. As Anthony Hopkins said, acting is all about relaxing,
learning your lines so well that you can trust the moment, and letting your
subconscious do the work. I believe that the same is true of painting but instead of
learning lines you study and practice art. Kirk Varnadoe (MoMA) said that the dream
with abstract art is of '... a dream world of point-blank and immediate response.'
However, that in-the-moment response always references our life and times, whether
on screen or canvas. The abstraction of Mondrian and Pollock describes their life and
times as surely as a film by Alfred Hitchcock.''
 How do you work? What type of art do you make

and why?
I start a conversation with a canvas by

making marks on it and carry on till Abstraction… because it allows me to

we’ve nothing left to say. This can be fully in the moment and tune with
take anything from hours to weeks. I the canvas. The process is just like
work in oil, and it takes two weeks for acting, you can’t remember lines
the paint to be touched dry… this is a because you wouldn’t be natural.
very important part of the process You’ve just got to be fully present and
because it means I can live with a let your subconscious react
painting, it’s like getting to know a spontaneously to what’s happening
friend. around you. With painting, I react to
the shapes and colors instead of
What does your work aim to say? people. When I was painting
figuratively it always felt as if I was
My work isn’t conceptual, so I’m not referring to something outside myself
trying to say anything. The meaning is and this stopped me from being
with the viewer. But to steal an idea creative.
from Kirk Varnedoe’s book ‘Pictures
Why did you choose to be an
of Nothing’ – abstract art is a grain of
artist?
sand in the cultural oyster and

society’s debate (around it) produces

Because it’s fun. Colors fill me up and
pearls.
transport me – it’s a difficult feeling to
explain.
 What does your art represent? Do you follow any current art

trends?
It represents my life, study, and the
times I live in. I think Pollock and Yes. It’s difficult living on the edge of a
Mondrian were as culturally small town but I try to stay alert to
important as Hitchcock. Every current trends in abstraction. I think
abstract artist creates symbols that abstract art is in dialogue with
represent themselves and their culture, so as culture changes so
society. does abstract art. I recently
discovered JoOne’s work… I don’t
What does your art mean to you?
suppose he knows I’m a fan!

I like people, which is ironic as I live in

What is your biggest challenge in
a little village and spend most of my
being an artist? How do you
time working alone. Creating art is
address it?
like talking to a friend, it’s joyous.

When my art is complete it stands on

As a student I don’t have any
its own and goes out into the world
challenges, I just have fun
so other people can have a
experimenting… it’s very exciting
conversation with it.
discovering my voice. When I
graduate my biggest challenge will be
Does your work comment on
building a career and making
current social or political issues
connections with the art world.
and how?

Not directly. But every work of art,

especially abstraction, is intimately
connected to the society it comes
from and as such provides a cultural
touchpoint for social and political
issues.

What is the role of an artist in

society?

Multiple roles. To entertain… give

pleasure… put forward a point of
view… stimulate debate… and be an
irritant that lets society see itself with
new eyes.
LARRY
GRAEBER
Larry Graeber, a Texas-based artist, considers himself a painter and sculptor. He
presently works in San Antonio and Marfa TX studios. He has studied painting,
sculpture, printmaking, jewelry, and filmmaking. Today his focus is on painting,
sculpture, and works on paper.
Exhibiting began in 1971 with participation in the Texas Painting and Sculpture
Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The first major one-person exhibition was
in 1974, Works From a Small Duplex, curated by director John Leeper at the
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio Texas.
Published in several regional books, Texas Abstract, Modern/ Contemporary, Art
at Our Doorstep, exhibiting regionally, most recent museums exhibit Formal
Proof, Blue Star Contemporary 2019.

''After many years of practice, I trust a degree of skill and understanding are inherent in
me, conveyed and perceived in my paintings, sculpture, and works on paper.
Intrigued with approximations and the experience of convergences I find myself at the
mercy of my medium, my thoughts, and the time at hand. Unfinished work can be
revisited and new work can be started. In a given day I may only add to my debris but
the engagement has potential and often emerges to fulfill my hope of an intuitive,
subjective, coherent product''.
 What is your background? What is the role of an artist in

society?
Two years of college with an inquiry

into architecture, filmmaking, jewelry It seems to me that trying too hard to

making, sculpture, printmaking, and be something or another for society
painting. All of which I studied to resorts to political work that usually
some degree or another in school, becomes irrelevant after a while. But
mostly as audited classes. My artists who mine their interior
fieldwork entailed house framing, realities, and ask questions of
lumberyard hand, a film grip, waiter themselves and their surroundings
and other odd jobs, and a little travel. usually realize a uniqueness that
identifies a consciousness that is a
What type of art do you make service to society.
and why?

Today I make moderate scale mixed How do you know when a

medium sculptures, moderate size oil painting is done?
paintings, and drawing/collage work
on paper. My paintings lend Difficult question, I certainly know
themselves to my social and that mine are not finished after the
psychological interest, my sculpture first approach, at least not my
on the other hand tends to be more paintings. They can wander around
material and space driven only for days, weeks, months, even years
sometimes taking on references and not be finished. Usually though
other than themselves. And my when a painting takes years, it's no
works on paper serve as a platform longer the painting it was when
for transitional ideas. I try to keep the began. But there is just something
three disciplines as exploratory as about reaching a place where a piece
possible. simply sings. Not too much not too
little.
How important are titles for you? What does your art mean to you?

I use titles and think of them as a I don't like the idea of making art as a
contribution. With the nature of art cathartic experience. However,
appealing to the subjective, my titles simply selecting a theme or material
are either descriptive or subject to to start within and of itself may be
my own experience. Providing a title cathartic. I'm always intrigued both by
can be a way to furnish a possible the results and implications of a
entry, or raise questions for the sake painting; how it visually appears and
of audience appreciation. psychologically resonates. In doing so
Seldom do my titles come about as a the work speaks to me as much as it
painting is in progress or finished. It might to someone else and for that
might be days or weeks before a reason, I grow a little bit more, maybe
piece identifies itself, so I am always understand something a little better,
on the lookout for titles believing and maybe I've contributed. If so, I'm
they are part of the same air that my delighted.
work is when it's being made.

How has your practice changed over time?

I still wish to show as much as I have ever wished, but am less frantic about it. I
tried to be at every opening and art community event and made work that was
speedy, large in scale, and with audience expectations in mind. Today my work is
all that matters, fewer openings more time to myself and more attention to my
process and aesthetics, fewer pieces, and less attention to scale.
CECILIA
MARTINEZ
Cecilia Martinez is an award-winning, self-taught artist from Jersey City, NJ, USA.
She has exhibited in galleries throughout the country, including the National
Association of Women Artists Gallery in New York City and the Augusta Savage
Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work is also featured
frequently in international juried online exhibitions. Additionally, Cecilia's artwork
was shown during a segment on Al Jazeera TV, for a piece she created which
addressed the issue of gun violence in communities. Cecilia’s artwork is also
regularly published in art magazines and journals in the United States, United
Kingdom, and Europe.
 What is your background?

My parents both came from Puerto He passed away with me by his side,
Rico to the United States early in holding his hand, and it is a moment in
their lives. I was born in Jersey City NJ time I would never forget.
USA and have been here ever since. After his death, I searched for an outlet
I studied journalism and English to alleviate the feelings I had
literature in college and graduated developed due to this experience. So I
with a Bachelor of Arts. I’ve been a turned to the visual arts as a
writer literally since grammar school therapeutic outlet. My father was a
and I love it. I love it so much that I visual artist himself, and I thought
made it my career. That is until the there would be no better way to be
visual arts were introduced into my closer to him.
world. When I first started my artistic
endeavors, I created spiritual art. Since
then, my style has evolved dramatically
Why did you choose to be an
as I have become more comfortable
artist?
with my skills and experimenting with

different artistic techniques. I currently

My journey to becoming a visual
work on pop art, collages, and more,
artist began quite unexpectedly. My
yet still focus on the primary reason
father suffered a severe head injury
why I started this journey in the first
that left him unable to speak, walk,
place – the love of my father.
stand, and even breathe on his own.
His injury was so severe that he was
admitted into the hospital long-term.
Two months later, my father
succumbed to his injuries.
 How do you work? How do you know when a

painting is done?
I’m don’t have an art studio, so most of

my work is done either while I sit on When you begin a painting, you may
my bed with my supplies scattered certainly have an idea in your mind
about and just create, or sprawled out of what the completed piece will look
on the living room floor with my tools like. But that image is useless.
easily within reach, or on my easel that Creating a piece of artwork is never a
is transportable so I can work one-sided task. As you begin and
anywhere in my home. It’s worked so continue working on a piece, other
far, but my hardwood floors have ideas unfold for it and the piece
certainly taken a beating for it. starts to morph and change along
with those new ideas until it starts to
take on a life of its own. And as an
artist, you just have to go with that
flow and listen to your heart and
creative mind. So the original image
you had in your head before you
started the piece may work itself
throughout the creative process into
an entirely different work altogether.
And because you go with the flow
and listen to your mind and heart,
those instincts will let you know
when the work is done. A voice in
your head will tell you to put the
pencil, paintbrush, or whatever down
and stop. It is something that just
happens automatically.

How important are titles for you?

For me, coming up with titles for my work is extremely difficult. I don’t want to give
away my thoughts and interpretations about a piece of work through the title. I
want to leave my influence out of it so the audience can come up with their own
individualized thoughts and feelings about the work. So for my titles, I either try to
keep them as generic as possible or as cryptic as possible. I’ve also changed the
titles of certain works several times because I was never really happy with the
names I had given the piece in the first place. If I could just name everything
“Untitled,” I probably would.
YUJIE LI

Yujie Li is an artist based in Guangzhou, China. She completed her Bachelor's

degree in Chinese painting from The Guangzhou Academy of fine art in 2020. She
studies at the royal college of art.

She is interested in the notion of intimacy in public, and social identity, Yujie Li
creates images drawing on her own experiences and memory, as well as thinking
about psychology.

She also quite agrees

with Stephen Reicher's
crowd Theory that
human beings shape
themselves according
to the people around
them, Circumstances
shape a person. Give
her social status. But
people who go out in
public have the fewest
identity constraints. But
we can still feel
people's chains on
themselves. So she
wants to capture
people's relationships
without identifiable
material.
 What themes do you pursue?

I am interested in intimacy, social

identity, and identity perception. I use
my experiences and memories, as
well as thinking about psychology, to
create images.

What does your art mean to you?

My art for me is the finished work

that sees me grow. There is never
the most mature work. These works
bear witness to my thinking about
mankind, society and myself, and
such constant thinking is the core of
what art should be.
 What does your work aim to say?

I depict scenes in public bathrooms

to remind people of their perception
of self-identity after stripping away
their social identity. Because I
strongly agree with Stephen
Reicher's crowd theory that people
shape themselves according to the
people around them. The
environment will shape a person. It
gives her a social identity. But the
person who comes to a public place
has the least amount of identity
bondage. But we can still feel the How do you work?
chains that people put on

themselves. So I want to show the A year ago, I used to go to public

social relations of people in an bathrooms to observe people and do
environment where they have taken some sketches carefully. But now, I am
off the material things that can able to remove myself from such an
identify them. People's psychology environment and fully examine people.
will change differently when they are No one cares who you are, so everyone
used to label themselves with acts more relaxed, everyone is equal,
material things and then they are and everyone's differences are only
required to completely lose the shown in their hearts. I think that's why I
material things that can be defined. never painted my face. I am now
becoming more confident and
Why did you choose to be an
interested in more hidden things and
artist?
the story behind the painting, rather

than showing everything or trying to

My parents spent their lives focused
explain everything. Now I'm more used
on their profession and were not
to being vague
tempted by anything else. They have
always been my role models. From a
young age, I knew that I
had the same qualities as my parents
and that I was very good at sticking
to what I loved. Maybe I won't be a
great artist, but I will be a painter
who keeps on painting. I just keep
following my heart.
MOULI
PAUL
Mouli Paul is a photographer from India and currently doing her Masters in
Photography at Plymouth College of Art. Having worked as a commercial
photographer for the last 5 years, she moved to the UK six months back to hone
her skills and work on her project which she had been aiming to do for years. Her
work mostly centers around her own travel experiences and currently, it has
taken more of a documentary approach focusing on socially engaged
photography.

''My work in this project discusses the notions of home, belonging in a place where I do
not belong. Through the exploration of portraiture, inhabited spaces of comfort, and
objects which hold memories, I am trying to seek a sense of fulfillment and a feeling of
being at home. My current practice is deeply rooted in exploring themes based on
liminality and displacement that occur amongst people who inhabit transitional
spaces. How do people who experience change and transition build their homes in a
place where they don’t belong? I am keen to understand the relationship between
objects, memory, and what kind of emotions are triggered when you come in contact
with old clothing, heirloom objects, and old photographs? ''
What type of art do you make and What inspires you?
why?

My surroundings, the colors blue and
I am a photographer but also white, the landscape and socially
occasionally do illustrations. engaged art
Photography keeps me motivated,
and involved and transports me to a What does your work aim to say?
meditative state. My practice has kept
me grounded and focused I am just making art. My aim with my
throughout the years and this helps work is to get people thinking. If it's
me to really make good art. doing that, then I think I am able to
What is your biggest challenge in create an impact, even if it's in a small
being an artist? How do you way.
address it?

What themes do you pursue?
Conflict interests when I am working

with brands and the aesthetics don't Currently, I am working with the
match. I do try to strike a balance and themes based on liminality and
if it doesn't work out at all, I leave the displacement. When I am doing
work. commercial work, it's a lot about
forms, colors, and textures.
MONICA
ESGUEVA

Monica is a Visionary artist now based in Madrid, Spain.

Her art career started as a child, so to speak. Her talent was innate, although later
on she took courses at Paris École des Beaux-Arts and studied with renowned
painters in France. She started exhibiting her paintings when she was very young,
and her artwork has been shown in exhibitions in the United States, Holland,
Great Britain, France, Costa Rica, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Several institutions own
her artwork as well, such as the Monaco Museum of Modern Art, Latin American
Art Museum (Florida, USA), Hewlett-Packard Foundation France, Museo de Arte
Contemporáneo de Zarzuela del Monte (Spain), and Museo Casa Orduña (Spain).

''My art is mostly derived from those visions I have while in a meditative state of mind.
My purpose is to transcend the physical world, inspiring the viewer to reach a higher
ground and perceive the light that is within us all. As William Blake wrote, “If the doors
of perception were cleansed then everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite.”
I paint to express this beyond words, even beyond the visual senses. I paint vibrations
that aspire to transcend the physical world. I create to expand the light, aligned to
Robert Schumann’s perspective that “the artist’s vocation is to send light into the
human heart”.
 Who are you? What is your background?

I was born in Madrid (Spain), but I always had a thirst to see the world, explore,
venture into the unknown, to have an interesting life. I have visited 115 countries,
including many where I had gone on my own. By being able to let go of my
comforts and daring to go into the unknown, I have had so many adventures all
over the world. I have slept in the house of a prostitute in Thailand to understand
their predicament and write a book about it. Working as a volunteer in an
orphanage in Tanzania taught me the value of life, seeing those children that had
nothing and yet were full of joy. Spending time with a tribe in the jungle of The
Philippines showed me how to appreciate everything we take for granted in the
West. Living and studying Buddhism for months at a time in the valley of
Kathmandu or the feet of the Indian Himalayas forced me to become more
resilient and adaptable. Traveling helps alleviate the monotony of existence and
rejuvenates one’s soul. In my case, it has also helped me to be more
compassionate and open-minded, qualities that I consider essential in art.

What does art mean to you?

Somehow art represents people’s collective minds. Art is not a mere amusement,
distraction, or fashionable investment. Art can provide evidence of contact with
the universal creative force beyond time. Art has a function and a mission to
interpret the world, reveal the condition of the soul, encourage our higher nature,
and
awaken the spiritual
faculties within every
individual.

The challenge to artists

today is to integrate
the history of our
human culture with our
own deepest and
highest personal
insights, creating
worthy works of art
and making a living at
it.
 What does your work aim to say?

As a multi-faceted creative person, there is an art in which medium I find myself

working in. I use both writing and painting to empower each person’s capacity to
transform their lives and to build bridges to the soul. There is an intense focus on
and true presence in each project I undertake. At the same time, there is freedom
and flexibility built into my role as an artist because I am not limited to just one
art form. I have been drawn to writing books to show how to achieve inner peace
and, somehow, I do the same thing with my paintings. I bring a piece of this
transcendent world into every artwork I create. Art can guide us to connect with
our inner light, illuminating the shadows and pains of our current predicaments.
When people are deeply moved by art, they resonate with their spiritual truth,
with the essence of who they are. It is my utmost aim that by contemplating my
works, one may momentarily have a glimpse of our immortal light, remembering
the silent center of the mystery that is our very soul.

What inspires you?

My writing and painting come from an inner calling. There is a spiritual force that
prompts me to express the essence of our being, which is fulfilling, loving, and
magnificent beyond measure. Following this inner guidance, I have devoted my
life to teaching and sharing ways out of suffering and into the inner peace and joy
that is our true nature. Through my paintings, I want the viewer to feel the beauty
that surrounds us, aiming at portraying a vision of expanded awareness and the
underlying sacredness of all that is. My art is mostly derived from visions I have
while in a meditative state of mind. My purpose is to transcend the physical world,
inspiring the viewer to reach a higher ground and perceive the light that is within
us all. As William Blake wrote, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, then
everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite.
 What is the role of an artist in society?

I believe the artist’s role is to be a leader and a visionary: Not only to think outside
the box but to be outside the box, contributing to the change we want to see in
the world. Since we are all interconnected, the energy field of each individual has
the potential to influence the collective through creative acts. Mystical visions and
experiences motivate us to question our assumptions about life and the world,
challenging us to live more profoundly. The deeper an artist penetrates into their
own infinitude, the more able they are to transmit that state. Making art (and
sharing it) is a way for me to integrate those visions of a better world into daily
life. Art is a natural expression of each artist’s idiosyncrasy. Our most meaningful
creative work comes from deep inside, and it is an affirmation of the universal
energy. The creativity of artists is actually cosmic creativity manifesting through
us. The difficulty for most artists is to get themselves out of the way and let the
spirit do its work. When art serves a greater purpose, it seeds the unconscious of
both the artist and the viewer with a positive influence. Having the right
motivation, art becomes a service to the divine by being an uplifting assistant to a
suffering world. Not all artists consider that art can be a spiritual practice. But
with the proper motivation and focus, it can be so. For me, it is a daily exercise
that enables me to keep developing the qualities of mental clarity, wisdom,
service, and access to revelations of higher mystical states of awareness. My work
is a contemplative method —as much as creative expression— that allows me to
share my spiritual journey.
BOBBI
MATHESON

Bobbi Matheson is a digital artist born in Jamaica. She eventually settled down in
Florida to start her career as an artist.

"I'm a digital artist who dotes on the formidable yet pacifying allures of femininity.
There is power within the feminine as well as the self. This power comes from
embracing both its strengths and weaknesses, its perfections and its flaws. I chose
digital art as my medium due to its flexibility and ease of use. Perfection isn't a
necessity, so it gives me the space to focus on the execution of my ideas rather than the
technical process. I believe that digital art is birthing a new age of art and I'm excited to
be a part of it."
 How has your practice changed
over time?

Initially, I worked with just a pen

(sometimes a 2B pencil) and paper. I
remember drawing anime-
influenced characters in my
notebooks while I zoned out from
class lectures. I was also drawn to
plants. I loved sitting outside and
doodling them on a piece of paper.

Around the age of 17, I got my first

drawing tablet (a Huion!) and worked
through Photoshop. I loved that
Who are you? through digital art, you’re free to
backstep and erase as much as
I'm a digital artist who dotes on the possible without any consequences.
formidable yet pacifying allures of This allowed me to further explore
femininity. There is power within the my art without the fear of
feminine as well as the self. This permanence.
power comes from embracing both its
strengths and weaknesses, its Eventually, I upgraded to the
perfections and its flaws. iPad/Apple pencil duo and have

been using that ever since. I still
What is your background? draw with a pen and paper since

they are my first love. I love the
I lived in Jamaica until I was 10, then I feeling of a pen running across
moved to the US. This was in search of paper.
a better life. My earliest memory was
hiding underneath my bed to avoid
possible bullets coming through the
walls. Jamaica had gone under martial
law due to the people being upset
about a US intervention. Thankfully,
the war within the capital never
reached my home, but many who
were closer were affected. I believe
this event spurred my parents to take
action, and so I moved to the US.
 What does your work aim to say? Who is your biggest influence?

I want to encourage the expression of Studio Ghibli. Through art, they tell
the vulnerable, the messy, and the ugly. amazing stories about people,
No one likes to admit that they aren’t imperfect people. They, however, are
perfect. That they can do wrong, that never looked down upon because of
they go through messy situations, that their faults. If their motivation is non-
their life is imperfect. I show the parts of malicious, they are given sympathy
me I don’t want to show through my art and patience. They are accepted
because I want the world to heal by despite those faults.
embracing its faults. I believe that the
human condition is to be imperfect, and Studio Ghibli taught me that through
that’s okay! It’s freeing when you realize art, you can tell the story of the
it’s not the end of the world when you people. You can show imperfections
reveal your imperfections. In fact, you’re as a result of simply being alive.
celebrated for taking that first step.