Marguerita Hagan
Frustule Flower, Micro Grow Series
2014
ceramic
6.75 x 7.25 x 4.25"

Artist Statement:

What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once.
It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow'
- Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself.
It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio:

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Throughout her career, Hagan has brought to light the beauty and engineering of our planet's diverse ecosystems and our powerful role as stewards. The intricate ceramic shines light on the wonder and respect for the fragile, diverse life with which our lives are intrinsically linked. Hagan's practice is an ongoing discovery, magnifying our awareness, reciprocal responsibility and protection of each other and our planet.

She received her MFA is from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and her BFA in Ceramics at James Madison University. Her projects include collaborations with artists, scientists and community, environmental art-science residencies, lectures. Her work is in collections and exhibits nationally and internationally.

Eva Shelley
Eva Elaine Flassworks, LLC
Large floral with sandblasting and some blue oil paint, 2024
Lampworked glass and oil paint
19 x 19 x 16"

Artist Statement

I love working with floral designs, creating them out of glass- it's more about the scientific challenge of making the piece that I enjoy most, but I also love creating floral designs. . When I was in my last semester at Tyler School of Art,Temple University, I took a beginner floral design class as an extra elective. It was such a great class, and it super inspired my work. Since that class, I have been creating glass floral designs. My favorite has always been the ikebana style. Thought I need to practice making that style in my own designs. But I love looking at images of ikebana designs to use as reference. I also have a lot of house plants in my studio that greatly influence my work.

Deanna McLaughlin
The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side
2017
Found & Manipulated Shopping cart.
Reversible upholstery/artificial grass orthopedic cushion.
Found lamp guard for champagne bottle holder.
47 x 32.75 x 56"

Artist Statement:
Deanna McLaughlin's artwork is not bound to one type of material or technique. She derives pleasure through the design challenge. Her sculptural work has been developed from found objects, metal, epoxy resin, fabric, wood, and other objects that inspire new design ideas. Mostly she loves to consider how to connect irony in a quirky, fun, and playful way. Problem-solving how to manipulate a single object in multiple ways underscores my love of design and out-of-the-box way of looking at the world from many perspectives.

Artist Bio:
Deanna has won numerous awards for her artwork and has been granted residency and exhibition opportunities nationally and internationally. Her work is in permanent collections in Museums, Universities, and private collections. She has exhibited in The Philadelphia International Airport, CraftNow, Craftforms International exhibit, Design Philadelphia, "Spring Break" in New York City and others. An insatiable thirst to learn new skills while working with a variety of media sustains her never-ending inspiration to create. Experiencing people from other places and cultures has greatly influenced her approach to looking at life with an ever-fresh perspective. Academic achievements include M.A./M.A.T., University of The Arts. B.S. Art Therapy, Cognate: Psychology, Bowling Green State University. She is also an ERYT500 yoga educator &qi gong teacher.

Sahar Hasan
Harmony
2022
Oil on wood panel
18 x 23"

Artist Statement:
Our lives are deeply intertwined with wildlife, their presence echoing a silent plea for preservation. The calligraphy, seamlessly extending from earth to sky, symbolizes the language of nature, a dialogue humanity neglects to engage in. And the horse? He stands as the narrator, bearing witness to the story of coexistence and our responsibility to protect it.

Artist Bio:
Sahar Hasan is a Yemeni-American visual artist, curator, and founder of the Qamaria for Arts project. With a Master of Fine Arts from Brooklyn College, New York, Sahar has held solo exhibitions across the USA, Yemen, and Turkey, and has participated in numerous international group exhibitions and biennials.

As a passionate advocate for cultural dialogue and the amplification of artists' voices, Sahar's work embodies a spirit of unity and connection. In 2021, she became the first Arab artist to receive a certificate from New York State for her artistic achievements, awarded by Nathalia Fernandez.

Sahar has curated several impactful exhibitions, including Threads of Light at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga, Canada (August 2024), and at St. Barth Church in Manhattan, NY (September 2024). She also organized the Do You See Me? exhibition, which provided a platform for young artists affected by war, held at the Brooklyn Children's Museum in 2023.

Through her art and curatorial projects, Sahar continues to foster harmony across cultures and uplift the voices of artists from diverse backgrounds.

Emily Selvin
Janus as A Female
2024
cast glass
7 x 5 x 4"
1 of 2

Artist Statement:
Embracing Femininity: A Perspective on the Timeless Figure of Janus in Glass Art.
This cast glass sculpture delves into how the ancient Roman deity Janus symbolizes the dual aspects of the female experience. Janus is historically depicted with two male faces looking in opposite directions, which serves as a metaphor for the complexities women often face, such as balancing strength and tenderness, independence and community, past and future.
This ancient method of lost wax casting allows for a remarkable level of detail and texture-perfect for articulating the nuances of feminine identity. Carving the wax, casting the glass, and unveiling the finished piece serve as a metaphor for the passage of time and the transformation of self.
Approximately 30 hours are spent carving the wax for this sculpture, followed by four days of firing in the kiln and about 6 hours of cleaning the glass after it comes out of the kiln.

Artist Bio:
Emily Selvin has devoted her life to the arts. She studied Geo-Textile Engineering and Textile Design at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Following her studies in the sciences, she continued her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying printmaking and classical painting, and completed prize-winning explorations of mixed media. Since 1997, Emily has operated Selvin Glass, a full-service leaded glass restoration and commission-based architectural glass studio. Designers and architects have sought her work and restoration services internationally. Her sculptural work focuses on nature vs. nurture, using objects she finds in nature and combining them with toys often played with by children. Emily uses glass to illustrate the fragility of life, the often deleterious impacts of adult humans towards our ecosystems, and the memories of the innocence of youth. Her illustrative works focus on the life cycle, specifically how we face death and global gender issues and how they impact all women. In her spare time, Emily makes puppets and marionettes, shoots street photography, and embroiders from her photographic imagery using the finest silk threads she can find.

Gerald Lang
Horse Photogravures portfolio
Photogravure
Edition 3/25
15 x 19.25" each print
Series of seven (7) prints in clamshell portfolio

Please ask for assistance in looking at prints in person.

Artist Statement

Gerald is interested in the vintage photographic process and explores, researches, and applies this to his photography. In this series of The Horse, his love of observing their horses at play in the pastures, the gestures of the foals they raised, and the social interactions between horses were the inspiration. Gerald chose photogravure for the limited edition of ink and archival papers to give an organic feel to the horses portrayed in the images.

Artist Bio

Gerald Lang is a Professor emeritus and the founder of the first digital photography curriculum for students enrolled in the College of Art and Architecture at Pennsylvania State University in the mid-1990s. His work, along with that of his wife, Jennifer Anne Tucker, spans six decades. Individually and together, they are collected globally and most recently in the permanent collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gianni Lee
Skeletal Sculpture Version 1, 2022
Vinyl sculpture
12 x 2 x 9"
Edition 1/12

Artist Statement

*Skeletal Sculpture V1* is a three-dimensional embodiment of my signature themes: mortality, resilience, and identity. This limited-edition 12-inch work features a winged skeletal warrior rendered in pink and black, outfitted with eclectic armor - including a flowing red scarf and an oversized sword - all characteristics drawn from my visual lexicon developed on city walls. The figure's exposed bones confront the viewer with the reality of mortality, while its defiant stance (wings outstretched and weapon in hand) evokes a sense of resilience in the face of adversity. By stripping the human form down to its skeletal essence, I explore identity beyond surface differences: the skeleton becomes a universal avatar, a reminder that beneath the skin, we share a common framework even as we each imbue it with our own personal and cultural narrative.

My skeletal motifs draw inspiration from humanity's earliest storytelling imagery - the pictorial languages of ancient hieroglyphics and cave drawings. I regard these recurring skeleton figures as my form of hieroglyphs, a multilayered symbolic language through which I communicate personal and cultural narratives. Over the years, armies of these colorful skeletons have populated my murals and paintings, often dancing across city facades in unified formations. With *Skeletal Sculpture V1*, I translate that motif from mural to sculpture, bringing the archetype into tangible form. This shift from wall to three-dimensional space marks a new chapter for my *Skeletal Warriors* - one that honors their origins in street art even as it reimagines them as intimate objects that a viewer can physically hold and inspect. In this sculptural incarnation, the skeleton figure becomes an object of contemplation, inviting the audience to engage with it up close and from all angles, as both an art toy and a totem of the ideas it represents.

Artist Bio

Gianni Lee is a multidisciplinary artist whose work interrogates themes of identity, resilience, history, and technology across fine art, music, and fashion. Based between New York and Philadelphia, Lee creates paintings, murals, sculptures, and sonic landscapes that merge personal narrative with broader cultural commentary. His practice is deeply rooted in Afrofuturism, using speculative world-building to envision alternate realities for Black existence. Through this lens, his work challenges viewers to reconsider contemporary social dynamics while celebrating the endurance and innovation of marginalized communities.

Lee's signature skeleton figures have become a defining visual emblem of his storytelling. Inspired by ancient African hieroglyphics and cave drawings, these skeletal characters serve as modern-day visual hieroglyphs-symbols that communicate cultural resilience, historical erasure, and the complexities of identity. Whether appearing in large-scale murals or detailed paintings, these figures navigate Lee's dystopian yet hopeful landscapes, often portrayed as warriors or spectral messengers. Their presence speaks to survival, transformation, and the ongoing dialogue between the past and the future.

Michael Biello
Orange Buddha
Clay, metal, wood, paint, stain, gold leaf
5 x 5 x 9"

Michael Biello's work will be in the "In the Soft Light" exhibition in the InLiquid Galley April 11 - June 1, 2025

Check out Michael Biello's additional works in the shop.

Artist Bio

Michael Biello is an interdisciplinary artist who draws inspiration from his Italian American roots, his passion for theatre, his longtime commitment to LGBTQ+ cultural activism, and his belief in the healing power of art. Biello is one of the artisan/makers who helped create the revivals of Old City Philadelphia in the 1970's and Noho New York in the 1990's. Biello's work has been exhibited internationally and is in numerous private collections including many in the entertainment industry. In addition to his work in visual art, Biello has a long history as a performance artist and lyricist in collaboration with his life-partner, composer Dan Martin.

Mark Loughney
Minimalism #1 (Ramen), 2023
Oil/charcoal on canvas
48 x 36"

Artist Statement
This piece depicts the state of minimal living, minimal sustenance, and subsisting on the margins of society. The interconnectedness of the noodles also symbolizes our reliance on one another to feel a sense of belonging and for social support.

Artist Bio
Mark Loughney is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work confronts the absurdity of the American criminal justice system. His most notable project, Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study Of Mass Incarceration, has seen national acclaim and media attention, with articles in The NY Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Hyperallergic, ArtForum, NPR, Boston Globe, and numerous other media outlets.

Darla Jackson
PROBABILITY // staring at the sun, 2022
Fired clay, model sunflowers and corn, acrylic paint
2 x 10 x 2"

Artist Statement

Staring at the Sun is a series of ten pieces about overthinking the divide that seems to touch everyone's emotions these days. While we are excited to go back to "normal," we are still trying to figure out how to exist in this world, trying to make a lasting change if we can, and still processing all that has happened. We are looking for clear answers and just not finding any.

As I do, I fumbled my way through my thoughts and emotions, trying to capture that universal uncertainty. I attached these thoughts to "Staring at the Sun", a song by Tv on the Radio. The chaos the words stir up felt fitting. There aren't any answers here, only more questions.

Artist Bio
Darla Jackson (b. 1981) is a sculptor living in Philadelphia. She received a BFA in Sculpture from Moore College of Art in 2003 and, after receiving a John S. and James L. Knight Arts Challenge Grant in 2011 and 2013, founded the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym, a membership-based community sculpture studio.

Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions locally and across the country. She has shown internationally in Belgium and Germany and has lectured about her work at venues including The Barnes Foundation. Jackson has taught sculpture at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Tyler School of Art, Fleisher Art Memorial, and various workshops across the country.

Jackson is currently a Medallic Artist for the United States Mint in Philadelphia, PA.

Elyce Abrams
Surround, 2018
Acrylic on round wood panel
16" diameter

Artist Statement
Flexibility, strength and durability have profoundly inspired my work in the last few years. My paintings, that have always stemmed from moments that occur in my everyday life, come from a personal place, as well as a response to the events of the world at large. I am deeply affected by the adjustments we are all making to a constantly changing reality and the resilience I see everyday.

Through my paintings, I interpret the relationship between happiness and deep concern; hope and sorrow; fear and acceptance; compliance and resistance; confusion and clarity; isolation and connection. By analyzing these competing forces in my work, I am able to further explore and understand their value.

Artist Bio
Elyce Abrams is an abstract artist based in Philadelphia. Her work, in the last few years, has explored the relationship between happiness and deep concern; fear and acceptance; compliance and resistance; isolation and connection. Abrams received her MFA in 2004 from the University of the Arts and her BA/BFA from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her work has been included in many solo and group shows - a selection of which are: Spectral, Blank Space Gallery, NYC; Blaze Stochastic, Shenandoah Museum of Contemporary Art, Woodstock, VA; Connection-Isolation, Blank Space Gallery, NYC; Hybrid, Bertrand Productions, Philadelphia, PA; We're All Here, Philadelphia International Airport; Something New Every Day, NoBA Projectspace, Bala Cynwyd, PA; Les Chic, James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Lost in the Funhouse, Spring Break Art Fair, New York. Her work is included in public and private collections throughout the US and abroad, including the Microsoft Art Collection; Fox School of Business, Temple University; Royal Caribbean Cruise Line; Charles Library, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA; Wuhan Heartland 66 Development, Wuhan, China; Lankenau Medical Center, Wynnewood, PA. Recently, she collaborated on a rug collection with Ruggism, a company based in India.

Deborah Moss Marris
Smoke on the Water, 2025
Oil on panel
9 x 11"

Artist Statement
This work is from a series of paintings which explore the effects both beautiful and deadly from climate change on the interior and exterior landscape.

Artist Bio
Deborah Moss Marris is an artist, teacher, and designer who lives in New Jersey. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions and is included in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Wills Eye Hospital, AECom, Korn Ferry International in Philadelphia, and Artists Representing Environmental Art in New York. She is represented by Bluestone Fine Art Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Hardcastle Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware.

As a designer, Deborah Moss Marris has created pieces for NFL Films, QVC, NBC Sports, and was a featured Artist/Designer for ABC Carpet & Home. Along with being an Adjunct Professor at Camden County College, she heads the Visual Art program at Westfield Friends School in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. Deborah Moss Marris received her BFA from Moore College of Art and Design, an MFA from Syracuse University, and is the recipient of three Ford Foundation Grants.

CP Lighting
newGROWTH Floor Lamp, 2022
Aluminum, paint, electric light, linen shade
72 x 22 x 22"

Artist Statement
Poehlmann designs and fabricates each newGROWTH light fixture as if a tree's DNA was predetermined to grow into a light fixture. Functional art has always been his priority, infusing sculptural intent with his objects of everyday use.

Artist Bio
Christopher Poehlmann has been designing and fabricating custom light fixtures for his company CP Lighitng since 1990. His newGROWTH fixture series launched twenty years ago was on the forefront of Modern Rustic style. This work has been widely published and has influenced countless other designers across the globe. Poehlmann's work can be seen in residential, commercial and hospitality interiors (and sometimes exteriors) across the country and internationally.

Dominique Lutringer
Chochikukyo 5321
Pigment, acrylic on paper
24 x 18"

Artist Statement
This series of abstract paintings offers a personal interpretation of Chochikukyo, a Kyoto villa designed by architect Koji Fujii in 1928. Through a carefully balanced interplay of color, texture, and geometric composition, the works translate the architectural harmony of the villa into a pictorial language.

The vertical and horizontal divisions recall the structure of traditional Japanese interiors, where sliding panels and wooden frameworks define spatial relationships. The restrained color palette-deep blacks, warm reds, and earthy tones-evokes the natural materials and atmospheric depth of the space. Layers of pigment create a tactile surface, referencing both the aged patina of the villa and the organic interaction of light and shadow within its walls.

The use of a small, uniform paper format enhances the intimacy of the series, reinforcing the personal and contemplative nature of the work.

Artist Bio
Dominique Lutringer, born in Strasbourg, France, with both French and German origins, earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Aix-en-Provence. His artistic journey took a significant turn in his early 30s when he moved to Japan, inspired by Yukio Mishima's The Golden Pavilion. This move was fueled by a longstanding fascination with Japanese culture that began during his adolescence.

In Japan, Lutringer's work evolved to focus on color, transparency, and layering. His paintings are celebrated for their dynamic interplay of light, shadow, and form, offering viewers a multifaceted experience of color and depth. Lutringer also explores ceramic making in a studio located in the Shigaraki area, renowned for its long tradition of ceramics in Japan. This medium further enhances his exploration of texture and form. His work is exhibited internationally and held in various public and private collections. Beyond his artistic practice, Lutringer is deeply involved in education. He offers art workshops for children with specific needs and for schools lacking dedicated artistic programs.

Mia Rosenthal
One Gross of Rainbows, 2022
Ink and gouache on paper
16 x 16"

Artist Statement
People have been drawing for at least 30,000 years - there is something fundamental about observing, processing that information, and then picking up a tool to draw it in ones own hand, with one's own voice. I relate to this idea very closely, and feel that I'm part of this flow of history, from then until now, of artists who are fascinated by and draw from the real world. Not in the sense of a need to duplicate, but to explore, learn, select, organize, and build through thought and marks.

Artist Bio
Mia Rosenthal is a works on paper artist based in Philadelphia, PA. Her drawings are included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Columbus Museum, Newfields (Indianapolis Museum of Art), Woodmere Art Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center, Texas State University and The New York Public Library. She holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a BFA from Parsons School of Design. She was awarded a Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund Grant for the Performing and Visual Arts and a fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center.

Marilyn Arnold Palley
Tome 3165 AmSVOx, 2004
Amber, silver, vermeil, onyx, leather
9 x 2.25 x .75"

See this work in person in the InLiquid Gallery.

Artist Statement
"My Totems are an incantation of the shards of history.

This realization struck me as I wandered the ruins of Rome last year, standing amidst the columns of ancient marble and broken stone. The aura of past generations is manifest as well in the millennia-old amber, turquoise, jade, fossil, coal, stone, shell and biblical Hebron glass that I use in my work. Believed by ancient cultures to have inherent magical properties, these gems and stones are, to me, an exciting medium on which to expand my three decades of work creating fibre and woven sculptural art.

I believe adornment for the human body should be unique, natural, and androgynous. Each piece I create has a 'spiritual DNA', like the inimitable DNA of the people who choose to wear them. There is a particular Totem for each of us in my collection, a Totem where the form, texture, and color create a relationship with the wearer, defining the wearer's whole body as a work of sculpture."

Krista Svalbonas
Migrator 6, 2016
Uv print n Dibond on wood
22 x 14 x 7"

Artist Statement
The notions of home and dislocation resonate deeply with me as the child of refugee parents who fled to the United States. Born in Latvia and Lithuania, my parents spent years in displaced-persons camps in Germany after World War II before immigrating. Their experience is part of a broader history of uprooted individuals for whom "home" is fluid and influenced by external political forces.

This background has nurtured my fascination with spatial relationships and how architectural forms impact our psychological environments. Photography plays a critical role in this narrative, as my family carried few belongings when they fled the Russian occupation, with photographs documenting a homeland many believed they would never see again. These images and stories shaped my perception of home until the Baltic states regained their freedom in 1991.

My project, "Migrator," began with photographs taken in the three places I've called home over the past eight years: the New York metro area, rural Pennsylvania, and Chicago. Each image captures the essence of the landscape at that moment in my life.

Printed on dibond and CNC-routed, the images are reassembled in sets of three. I constructed wooden sculptural planes at varying heights and angles, creating hybrid structures that reinterpret and reinvent architecture, disrupting space, light, and direction. "Migrator" reflects on the architecture of my past and present while exploring the concept of home.

Artist Bio
Krista Svalbonas holds a BFA in Photography and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies. Her work has been exhibited at prestigious venues, including Paris Photo, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina, Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston, Klompching Gallery, and ISE Cultural Foundation in New York. Her pieces are included in private collections and public institutions such as LACMA in Los Angeles, the Cesis Art Museum in Latvia, the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in North Carolina, and the Woodmere Art Museum and Temple University in Philadelphia.

Svalbonas has received numerous awards, including the Center for Photographic Art Artist Grant (2022), the Baumanis Creative Projects Grant (2020), the Rhonda Wilson Award (2017), the Puffin Foundation Grant (2016), and a Bemis Fellowship (2015). Recently, she held solo exhibitions of her series "Displacement" at the Copenhagen Photography Festival in Denmark, the Tallinn City Museum in Estonia, the Museum of Textile and Industry in Augsburg, Germany, the Kazys Varnelis Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Janina Monkute Marks Museum in Kedainiai, Lithuania. She is an associate professor of photography at St. Joseph's University and resides in Philadelphia, where she continues her work.

Courtesy of Marshall Gallery Los Angeles

Nancy E. F. Halbert
Around The Block, 2024
Soft pastel
15 x 11"

Artist Statement
I have been seeing colors in blocks lately. I walk my dog everyday through my neighborhood of trees, funky decorated front porches, diverse neighbors, and eclectic houses that stand strong in Philadelphia. Walking with my Bo, helps to ground me, as I worry about the division between this" not so perfect " union. I can only hope it can continue to sit tall, even though I, feel it's "blocked" in so many ways. The beauty of the colors may be the walks only remaining redeeming feature.

Artist Bio
Nancy E. F. Halbert, a former dancer and choreographer, has a Master in Arts Education from the University of the Arts with a prior Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. She learned to draw in paint after retiring from dancing. After studying with premier teachers in the Philadelphia area, she started to show her abstract expressionistic work in exhibitions and galleries. In 2013, she was a fellowship recipient at Vermont Studio Center and was also juried in as a featured artist in Studio Visit Magazine

Nancy has won painting awards in several shows at The Philadelphia Sketch Club. She served as the volunteer director for five years at the artist cooperative MUSE Gallery in Philadelphia. Following MUSE Gallery; she was a member of 3rd Street Gallery and is currently exhibiting with Cerulean Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA.

Nancy has been a devoted and supportive art teacher in continuing education programs for over twenty years. She has taught painting and drawing in pastels, watercolor, oils, acrylics and art history to adults and children of all levels.

Kevin Broad
Vik, 2024
Monotype- oil on paper
36 x 30"

Artist Statement
Study of nature has brought an inherent organic quality to my work. My aesthetic focuses on capturing sensations of light and color along with the emotions these can inspire. My style gains strength from my exploration and direct handling of various mediums - paint that I have an intimacy with because I make it myself. Painting is this process of discovery without fear or repression with the potential of bringing forth new forms of expression.

Chantal Westby
Serene, 2017
Ink, natural minerals, branches, and silver
73 x 36 x 2"

Artist Statement
As an artist, my journey is fueled by a commitment to evoke emotions and provoke thought. My creations are not merely visual experiences; they are dialogues with the observer, designed to stir the soul and challenge perceptions. Rooted in the purity of white and the vibrancy of color, my art now breathes in three dimensions, embodying the essence of nature, the pulse of the universe, and the impact of human excess. Light is a central character in my narrative, manifested through the delicate dance of diluted inks and natural pigments that conjure ethereal auroras. My palette extends beyond the canvas, embracing mixed media to unlock new realms of imagination.
Inspiration is a mosaic of the world around me-a tapestry woven from diverse materials, evocative photographs, resonant music, and poignant texts. This collage of influences coalesces on my mood board, awaiting the moment they coalesce into art.

Artist Bio
Westby is a renowned activist and artist from Philadelphia, known for her immersive paintings, sculptures, and installations. With a rich background in art, textiles, and design, she is committed to diversity, social justice, and environmental stewardship. Awarded the United Nations Earth Day Impact Gala's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, she continues to use her art to raise awareness of environmental issues and inspire action.

Florence Weisz
Inked Growth - Lavender, 2019
Collage: photo of stripes, india ink on mylar mulberry and other papers
19 x 19"; framed 21 x 21"

Artist Statement
The Inked Growth Series are abstract collages consisting of three layers. Each work starts with a cropped detail of my photograph of a person wearing striped clothing. I place the square photo in the exact center of the composition, and then continue its stripes with hand drawn India ink on mylar. I position my alcohol ink papers along with Asian papers beneath the transparent mylar surface to reflect the colors and extend the central image.

Artist Bio
Florence Weisz has been a collagist for over four decades and is pleased to be part of the Philadelphia art community. She has exhibited her work with InLiquid (a 40 year retrospective), CFEVA, DaVinci Art Alliance, ARTsisters, Tri-State Artists Equity, Collage Philadelphia and in a solo show at The Delaware Contemporary Museum, where her site-specific installation, STRIPES ESCAPE, was on view for four months in 2023. Her art was juried into the "Art of the State - 2024" exhibition at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

Sandra Benhaim
Langton Experiment 2, 2019
Hand-cut + assembled painted paper collage, on watercolor paper
26 x 32.75"

Artist Statement
My paintings and collages are about place, and they take inspiration from landscape, but are not a representation of any specific location. For some time now, many of my images have been purely abstract, expressing in unabashed, exuberant color my enthusiasm for the natural world. I have also begun to investigate collage much more fully, by creating works on paper and other surfaces. My paintings and collages result from a rather intuitive process, and they are built up layer upon layer, with varied colors, expressive strokes of paint, and textured materials. This procedure allows the gradual, but ultimately triumphant, emergence of my art. My artwork welcomes viewers to "enter" these "worlds" by imagination, memory, and reverie.

Artist Bio

Sandra Benhaim is a visual artist working in oil, mixed media, and collages on canvas, wood panels, and paper. She earned a BFA (on a full-paid four year scholarship) and later an M.Ed, from Temple's Tyler School of Art. Sandra also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. For nearly two decades she was an art specialist teacher in Philadelphia's public schools.

After working representationally for years, she now creates mainly abstract images, often expressing these in unabashed, exuberant color. She has exhibited nationally from Washington state to New York to Florida. Sandra's paintings are in public collections such as PNC Headquarters Tower in Pittsburgh, PA; The Fellowship of PAFA (the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts); Servier Laboratories, Boston, MA; Mondrian Investments, Philadelphia, PA office; Bryn Mawr Dermatology offices in Villanova, PA; RCCB LLC Law offices collection, Conshohocken, PA.

Brian David Dennis
Regard (discard) No.8, 2024
Mixed media
30.5" x 20.5"

Artist Statement

As an artist, I crave the sweet moments while working when I slip beneath my own conscious control. While making art, I seek to lose awareness of the outside world and of myself. I am free when working from within, untethered to expectation and thought, even if what comes to the surface is the worst experience of my life.

Artist Bio

Brian was born in 1959. He was raised in a home with movable walls designed by his father, an aspiring artist. The openness and fluidity of the modular arrangement captured Brian's imagination. His mother, a kindergarden teacher encouraged Brian's free thinking and constant building.
As a student Brian considered following his passion for stage design, but sought the more personal expression the fine arts offered. He studied drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy. He quickly settled into collage and assemblage. In the mid 80's he began to explore installation using the exhibition location as an essential part of the piece.
A life long resident of Pennsylvania, Brian has lived and worked in Philadelphia since 1984 with his life partner Keith Breitfeller. He began exhibiting with the cooperative gallery, Vox Populi and remained an active member for 15 years. He has held solo exhibits in Austria, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Sande Webster Gallery as well as a prestigious Fleisher Challenge. He has been granted an Independence Foundation Fellowship and other awards. In 2016 he was commissioned by Longwood Gardens.

Patrick Egan
Billie I, 2024
Oil on canvas
47 x 37"

Artist Statement

We, by intuition, know, or recognize, those moments that define us, each of us, to ourselves. Translating those moments into a visual image is a matter of process. The process, composition, consists of pulling together the disparate parts, some tangible, some intangible, that go into a painting.
Laying it out in charcoal points to what it might ultimately look like,
enhanced by a palette which corresponds to whatever feeling arises, either from the imagination or from experience.

Jennifer Baker
Jesus Saves, Truckers and Travelers Welcome, 2019
Monotype on okawara paper (triptych)
18 x 38"

Artist Statement
Jennifer Baker's paintings and monoprints explore a sense of place and the history and memory of its inhabitants. From Jennifer's 30-year project of documenting the changes in her Philadelphia neighborhood of Northern Liberties, to her images of a long-burning mine fire in Centralia, PA, and her recent explorations in western Pennsylvania made during an exhibition at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, PA, she has chronicled the human effects of irrevocable change on landscape and streetscape. This triptych documents the Chickaree Union Church in Johnstown, PA. The title is from the neon sign in front of the church, which is situated in the small space between two highways, leading into the city of Johnstown.

Artist Bio

Jennifer Baker is a painter and sculptor working in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia since 1978. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Philadelphia College of Art (University of the Arts) as well as the Art Students League in New York. Baker has exhibited at Art 101 and Pleiades Galleries in New York and Projects Gallery, Nexus Gallery, F.A.N. Gallery, the Crane Arts Building and The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. She has received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for Works on Paper and had a Challenge Exhibit at Fleisher Art Memorial. She has also been a finalist for a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. In 2018, Baker received a Leeway Foundation Window of Opportunity Grant and in 2010 she received a Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant. In 2014, Baker curated an exhibit about the history of Northern Liberties "From World's Workshop to Hipster Mecca and the People in Between" for the Philadelphia History Museum. She is the visual art consultant for "Supper, People on the Move," a multimedia performance piece by Silvana Cardell. Baker created "Portraits of People on the Move," a companion exhibit of stories and photographs of Philadelphia-area immigrants. After opening in Philadelphia, "Supper" and "Portraits" toured throughout the country as well as in the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Baker had her first solo museum exhibition at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Loretto, PA. Her most recent solo exhibit was at Rosemont College's Patricia Nugent Gallery in November 2023. Baker has been a member of InLiquid since 2013.

Chris Cox
Changing Course (11/24/20), 2020
Oil on canvas
30 x 48 x 1.5"

Artist Statement

My paintings are from my series "Chaos & Calm" that I worked on in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Those years were an extraordinary time of chaos in our country, our lives and our world. We had to endure a pandemic and a toxic political environment that divided our country. I have tried to visually record what I felt throughout this time. Many days during those years were chaotic, but sometimes I was able to tap into some much-needed calmness, thus the name Chaos & Calm.

These paintings were created by first applying layers of color for the background that reflected my changing mood throughout that time. After the background was completed, much like the action painters, I used kinetic, spontaneous mark-making to record what was happening on any given day. Each painting is titled and dated for the day the marks were added to the background color of the painting. The paintings are almost like a visual journal of my life during that time.

Artist Bio

Chris Cox is an abstract artist living in Philadelphia and France. She is represented by Muse Gallery. Currently, she has a solo show, Being In Nature, at Muse Galley. Recently her paintings were in the exhibition, Color Fields, curated by InLiquid at The National in Philadelphia. In 2024, Chris also participated in the Fairmount Waterworks curated exhibition titled Wanderings: Observations of Our Watershed.

Chris was selected to be the featured artist for Bluestone Fine Art Gallery at the inaugural Philadelphia Fine Art Fair held in 2019. She was also one of seven artists featured by Bluestone at the Hamptons Virtual Art Fair in September 2020. Her series, Spiritual Journey: A Visual Narrative was also chosen to be in Abington Art Center's 2020 Fall Solo Series. In 2021, Chris had two paintings featured in Woodmere Art Museum's 79th Annual Juried Exhibition and was one of two artists featured in the Cosmopolitan Club of Philadelphia's Virtual Exhibition. During 2023, she was selected for Wayne Art Center's juried exhibitions "Attraction to Abstraction" and the "Regional Spring Open Exhibition."

chriscoxart.com

Nancy Neill
Exhuberant, 2022
Oil pastel on paper
20 x 20"

Artist Statement

My abstract oil pastel series explores the feelings and emotions generated by color. These paintings use warm colors to evoke a passionate and uplifting feeling. For me, the many shades of red and other passionate colors serves to energize, warm and transport me to a better place. Each painting is done in a unique color to evoke a slightly different emotion.

Although the imagery in the series is abstract/non-objective, it gives a feeling of looking outside. Circles, lines and other marks float in space, perhaps suggesting a happy time and place. The paintings are oil pastel on paper. Oil pastel provides one of the most intense colorations of all mediums. Each painting is done in many layers of oil pastel, developing a thick and creamy surface. Earlier layers are revealed using a palette knife to cut back into the surface and create various marks and gestures. I think of my work as passionate and full of movement.

Sarah Gutwirth
Cloth of Gold, 2022
Oil on canvas
40" x 38"

Artist Statement
This painting is a transitional work which navigates between the earlier smaller "Correspondence" pieces and my latest work. Both the Correspondence paintings and the new Natural Philosophy paintings are based on a grid. Cloth of Gold takes the themes of echoing forms in nature and in human-made objects, both in paintings and in decorative objects from the Correspondence works. However it plays on a composition derived from late Baroque still life, where the objects of still life are presented in the landscape. The clear reference to tropes from historical painting is a continuing theme in my work. I would say this is one of my least cerebral and most purely sensuous of paintings.

Artist Bio

Sarah Gutwirth received her BFA and BA in painting in 1978 from a joint program of Reed College and the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland OR. Her MFA in painting is from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1985. In 2017 she was nominated for the prestigious Joan Mitchell Prize for Painting. She has received grants from Kentucky Arts Council, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Murray State University and United University Professions at SUNY. She has had 20 one and two person exhibits over the last thirty-one years and has had work in numerous group shows including in Philadelphia at CFEVA, INLIQUID and the Cosmopolitan Club. Her work has been shown in seven states. She has paintings is in several private and University collections, including the People's Education Press in Beijing. She held three tenure track teaching positions, receiving tenure at two. She retired in 2017 as Full Professor of Painting Emerita at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. In 2017 she moved to Philadelphia where she was born and raised.

James Oliver
Ducati 1
Acrylic on canvas
18" x 24"

Artist Statement
A painter whose precise visual language pushes the tradition of twentieth century abstraction into a contemporary context. Oliver is a conceptually driven formalist whose work is inspired by his dreams and emotional states, which he abstracts into an undetermined and subjective viewing experience by emphasizing line, color, and form. Even as Oliver turns to a figurative practice in recent series, rendering cultural icons like chopper bikes, Pontiac Firebirds, and his childhood poodle in detailed line drawings, these representations similarly evoke broadly accessible affects abstracted from his mental landscape.

Artist Bio

Born in Upstate New York, raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the son of an advertising executive and an educator, Oliver was exposed from a young age to visual art from its most commercial applications to more visceral exponential lives. As owner of James Oliver Gallery, Oliver has honed his painting and curatorial skills. As a curator he scans the breadth of the world for artists who will enhance the vision of his gallery spaces.

Alex Spalding
Kitten, 2024
Flashe on gessobord, back signed in acrylic
24" x 24" x 1.5"

Artist Statement

"Wild Side" is my collection of figurative paintings and portraits celebrating power, imagination, and human nature untamed. At its core, the work explores contradictions central to our sense of self-beauty and unease, allure and alienation-drawing viewers in to project their own narratives and emotions. In "Wild Side", Using color, stylization, and an absence of context, I create an inviting yet challenging space for viewers to confront unresolved tensions, as raw, feral imagery blends with absurdity, ambiguity, and glamor.

I work with AI as a collaborator, inviting an element of unpredictability and distance. The impersonal choices AI makes offer me a method to examine the collision between personal and cultural symbolism. Then, I refine the imagery, guiding the process by shaping the output with my reflections, personal experiences, or ideas.

Artist Bio

Alex Spalding (b. 1985, Springfield, MO) is a self-taught figurative painter specializing in vibrant, stylized works created with highly pigmented vinyl-based paints. Drawing from vintage commercial illustration and Contemporary fine art, he re-imagines these influences through bold technique and the innovative use of technology.

Before dedicating himself to painting in 2023, Alex was immersed in a diverse range of creative pursuits, including experimental dance music production, managing two net-based record labels, gonzo music journalism, screenwriting, and caricature, as well as minimalist graphic art. This multidisciplinary background continues to inform the style of his work today. Alex lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, where he runs The Mid-Atlantic Collective (or MAC) and Canvas & Curtain: A Persona-Crafting Studio for Visual Artists.

Craig Stover
Lemon Hill I, 2017
Oil on canvas
16.5" x 20.5"

Artist Statement
This painting is one of a series of maps that I made from the memory of a park named Lemon Hill. This small park is right above Boat House Row in Philadelphia. The artist used to walk his dog in this park daily and it's his memory of the winding roads and small buildings that become the basis for these memory maps.

Artist Bio
BFA '93 - University of the Arts
Studio Assistant for Sam Maitin and Elizabeth Osbourne
Worked with Creative Artists Network (now the CEVA), The Philadelphia Art Alliance, Woodmere Art Museum, The Snyderman Galleries, The Avenue of the Arts and The Arts & Business Council
Taught printmaking and painting at Haverford College
Served as Executive Director for Allens Lane Art Center
Winner of Bartol Award for Educational Excellence
Produced and curated 100+ visual art exhibitions
Host of ArtShow (artist interview program on youtube)

Wendee Yudis
Male Gaze, 2024
Photo-silkscreen, acrylic and spray paint on wood panels
24" x 48"

Artist Statement

My art turns the definition of femininity on its head, challenging unconscious gender bias, sexuality, objectification, and body image. I question the roles imposed on women-both those assigned to us (child, wife, daughter) and those we embrace (boss, lover, vixen). Why must we be vixens or victims? Can we be both?

Through a playful yet provocative lens, my work explores power dynamics, featuring recurring female icons layered with nuance. I use typography to highlight gendered language-why is a bossy man a leader while a bossy woman is a bitch?

Influenced by Warhol and Pop Art, I merge feminist themes with a bold, retro aesthetic that critiques cultural norms while celebrating women's agency. Using photo-silkscreen, painting, and spray paint, I layer imagery to create new meanings. My silkscreen process mimics a paintbrush, producing originals that explore translucency, opacity, and pattern-revealing both seen and unseen relationships.

Artist Bio

Featured in Philly Style Magazine and CBS Philly online in April 2024, Wendee Yudis is a Printmaker/Painter whose mixed media paintings/photo-silkscreens have been exhibited in solo & group shows in NYC, Chicago, and Philadelphia since the mid-1990's. Select solo exhibitions include James Oliver Gallery in Phila, HMVC Gallery New York-Times Square, Ceres Gallery in NYC and Gallery 1633 in Chicago. A selection of group shows include Women United Art Movement: I am Woman, The Albright/Knox Museum (NY), Manhattan Graphics Center, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Penn Medicine, CFEVA and The Trenton Museum. Select work was in a national competition in the Pheonix Gallery in NYC by juror Thelma Golden, then curator of Whitney Museum of American Art.

Wendee Yudis received an MFA in Printmaking & Painting from Pratt Institute and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to being a visual artist, Wendee has worked professionally as a Graphic Designer & Art Director for advertising agencies and non-profits in NYC and Philadelphia.

https://wendeeyudis.com/

Alfred Ortega
Two Moons, 2023
Oil on canvas
36" x 34"

Artist Statement

This work was inspired by a brief study of the cosmos, astonishing that there are many planets nearby with numerous moons as well as my attraction to the sea.

Artist Bio

Born in Philadelphia, Alfred Ortega studied painting and sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Ortega's work is currently represented by the Atlantic Gallery, Nantucket; David David Gallery, Palm Gardens, Florida; Millésimé, Philadelphia; and CSM Art, New Jersey. Ortega has exhibited at the Woodmere Museum and Knapp Gallery in Philadelphia. The artist's work is represented in the permanent collection of the Pennsylvania State Museum and in private collections.

Noted for his bold use of color, Ortega's paintings and oil prints emanate primal energy. His prominent, large canvases reveal a dynamic world populated with vibrant forms and figures barely contained within their frames. A master monoprint maker, Ortega's vivid oil prints of abstracts, figures and portraits are animated by an unabashed freedom of form and color and a daring love of life.

alfredortega.com

Walter Francis Elling
Painted USA Flag VIII, 2021
USA flag and spray paint
40" x 30"

Artist Statement

This painting is the eighth in a series of ten, each using actual flags as the canvas. The inspiration struck one morning when I envisioned creating a portrait of George Floyd on a U.S. flag. However, unsure about tackling the portrait, I turned to calligraphy as an expressive medium instead. The piece is rendered in Pan-African colors, with both Chinese and Korean calligraphy intricately woven throughout, expressing a powerful call for "liberty and justice for all." The 10th painting in the series features a portrait of George Floyd on a Bicentennial flag, discovered discarded in Philadelphia's Brewery Town, adding a poignant layer of meaning to the work.

Artist Bio

Walter Francis Elling is an American artist who works in a variety of mediums, including assemblage, photomontage, and painting. His early work in ceramics grew out of a fascination with organic forms, using both thrown and hand built techniques, and developed into works with political, racial, and queer commentary.

His recent work is a commentary on cultural norms and political justice. Using spray paint, found objects and photo-montage, Elling references religious iconography, political messaging and graffiti to create a tension between the real and the ideal.

His latest series is titled "Redefining Democracy in Red, White, Black, and Blue." With homage to Jasper Johns, Elling uses actual flags as canvases to provoke a response to issues of race and queer liberation. Spray-painted messages interweave with a color-altered geometric landscape of the flags themselves, transforming the geometry of the stars and stripes into visual symbols that have lost their potency.

In "St. George of Minneapolis" George Floyd's portrait is painted in red, white, black, and blue on a trash-picked bi-centennial flag, with the stars and gesso appearing as a halo.

Alfredo Travieso
Sense Extension 1, 2024
#1 Print, resin, bird spikes
31" x 22" x 2"

(Sharp Objects)

Artist Statement

With this series, I am exploring gender roles and identity. I have been interested for some time in how masculinity has become a central issue in today's discussion about politics, specifically considering the "Mano- sphere" and its role in the past presidential election. I am concerned in signifying universalities about the portrayal of men's identifying characteristics, it's portrayal in the media, and the contentious discussion about the control over women's discussion about the abhorrent male stance in women's reproductive rights. The work also explores sexuality, puberty in males and power, as it is related to the image.

Artist Bio

Born July 1, 1973 in Bogota, Colombia.
Alfredo was trained in film and arts in New York City. His studies include a Bachelor's degree in Communication Arts
from Marymount Manhattan College, film directing and production at Parsons New School University, and numerous production collaborations with New York
University's (NYU) TISCH School of the Arts film program. In Caracas, Venezuela, Alfredo premiered his short film
"Homeostasis" at the National Art Gallery, has been involved in (urban/street) art projects, made music videos and visuals for faculty and musicians at the Universidad Central de Venezuela's School of Architecture and worked
in production and installation for Periferico Caracas. He currently resides and works out of the city of Miami,
Florida, where he has curated and shown work. He has obtained his MFA at the School of Visual Arts: Art Practice
program in New York City in 2014.

Lauryn Levette
Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)
2024
Oil and acrylic on canvas
20 x 20"

Artist Statement
Painting and drawing allows me to express the complexity of the body concerning the Black figure in a western art historical canon. My work exists in a dreamscape to capture the subconscious mind, which is considerably the most vulnerable part of us all. It is in conversation with the Afro-surrealist movement in an effort to subvert the notoriously white male dominant genre. Implementing gestural marks, distorted figures and saturated color palettes allows me to communicate various psychological spaces based on personal narrative.

Artist Bio
Lauryn Levette sets her colorful figurative works in a dreamscape capturing the subconscious mind, elevating agency and power in Black women. Her paintings and drawings reference personal narrative, pop culture, and spirituality to explore themes of the self, the power of introspection and learning to assert comfort and vulnerability in a world that is still learning to value it. Levette graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2021. Her art has been exhibited in several fairs, auctions, solo and group shows across the U.S. as well as internationally for venues such as Soho House, Untitled, Miami, and WACO's Wearable Art Gala. She is recognized in publications for Artsy, Juxtapoz Magazine and RISD Museum.

Dolores Poacelli
Endangered Species, 2015
Acrylic paint and aluminum enamel on canvas
36" x 48"

Artist Statement

This series is an offshoot of the works I have done using recycled aluminum printing press plates which I sand cut and glue onto panels. The shine creates another level of space. The color punctuating the space and creating a rhythm.

Artist Bio

Among many awards, in 2024 and in 2011 I was the recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Painting, and in 2000 awarded the Samuel Fleisher Challenge Exhibit in Philadelphia.
My work has been exhibited widely and is part of many public and private collectons such as
• SAP Software in Germany
• Bank of American in Delaware
• Cooper Anderson Hospital in Camden NJ
• New York Presbyterian Childrens Hospital in NY • Park Towne Place in Philadelphia
• Liberty Properties in Malvern PA
• Murano Condominiums in Philadelphia
• Psychology Dept. of Princeton University in NJ
• and the State of New Jersey
I have studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Fleisher Art Memorial, and have worked for many years as a graphic designer. I have been teaching art for 14 years.

Kathy Davis
Love Over Hate, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
40" x 30"

Artist Statement

In this painting, I'm combining my interest in mark-making and calligraphy with intuitive abstract painting. The repeated message of "love over hate, heart over mind, faith over fear, peace over war" seems especially needed in these tumultuous times.

Artist Bio

Contemporary abstract painter, Kathy Davis, has evolved as an artist through several career reinventions. In many ways, Davis' paintings are the culmination of the years of training, experience, and inspiration she accumulated as a teacher, a designer and writer of greeting cards, and a business owner.

The sale of her art licensing business in 2019 has reinvigorated Davis' passion for painting.

Currently, Davis' painting style is non-representational in nature. Acrylic, watercolor and collage are her preferred media. She is exploring new ground with her love of color and calligraphic mark making. Davis' paintings have been described as fresh, expressive, thought provoking and uplifting. There is both a sophistication and casualness that give her work wide appeal.

As a lifelong resident of Horsham, PA, Davis has exhibited in juried shows at the Wayne Art Center, Coleman Fine Art, Cerulean Arts Gallery, Capitol Hill Arts League, Abington Art Center and American Greetings Corporate Headquarters. She is currently a member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia.
Davis' work is held in many private collections in the U.S.

Judith Jacobson
Emergence.
Encaustic on cradled masonite panel
15.5" x 12.75"

Artist Statement

Outward trails of inward travels Journeys marked with blemishes and scars of where we've been and how long we've tarried. I stare and glare and dissect. I layer: on off on paint wipe add Darkened surfaces with transparent echoes of time and space. Memories linger vivid! then fade and return with altered sounds and visions. I layer- and feel the ghosts

of translucent darkness emerge, dissolve in and out out and in back and forth. Remembered flesh, supple and toned Youthful belief in forever

Mortality looms invisible, stealthy the flesh it consumes and… Where is Forever? Fragments of beings implode, explode!

Parts become wholes. Fragments become lifetimes that wither and wrinkle and crease and crack like too many layers of paint. And when did I become like too many layers of paint? and… What is Forever?

Artist Bio

Judith Jacobson received her BFA in Painting, with a minor in Philosophy and a Provisional Teaching Degree, from The Tyler School of Art in 1969. She received her MFA in Painting from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1997. She is the recipient of The Leeway Foundation Edna Andrade Grant in Painting, "awarded for work that exhibits exceptional promise and talent." Judith's work was purchased by the founder of The Leeway Foundation and is part of the permanent and prominent collection. Judith was invited to participate in panel discussions with other Leeway grant recipients at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

She has received numerous awards in Painting and Drawing. Her achievements have been extensive and positively reviewed by the media. Judith has been a Visiting Artist at local colleges, giving presentations of her art and process, and then making studio visits to critique the work of the students. She has also shared her ideas and work in many "Meet the Artist" discussions. Judith continuously donates her art to charitable organizations, to include, but not limited to yearly MANNA live auctions at The Moore College of Art and Design.

Judith has exhibited substantially. Her work is included in collections in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Linda Celestian
Natural Phenomena, 2024
Polyester organza, spray paint
30" x 40" x 5"

Artist Statement

I am fascinated by the energy, forms, and colors found in nature.
My sculptures highlight aspects of nature's beauty that may be overlooked. Small details are pulled from intimate studies of natural formations and specimen collections.

Artist Bio

Linda Celestian attended Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, receiving a BFA in Fashion Design in 1987. After a 5th-year study program in fine arts also at Moore, she entered the workforce as a designer. Learning how to design prints and hand-knit sweaters and the ins and outs of Chinese manufacturing was a fun challenge. After 3 years of keeping up with the fast pace of the fashion world, she found herself burnt out and ready to explore self-expression.
She creates forms small and large that describe the natural world she loves to explore and document. She sees her work as bringing to light aspects of nature's beauty that may be overlooked. This is evident in her works that resemble coral reefs, ocean waves, and fungus growths.

Michele C Kishita
Snowmelt, River's Edge
Latex and silver leaf on birch panel
20" x 20"

Artist Statement

In my practice, I explore ideas of transience, interconnection, transformation, and beauty to give voice to the tales that are silently embedded in my wood panels' grain. Reflecting on its rhythmic undulations that map a tree's annual growth and water intake, I imagine a place, an atmosphere, or a feeling that articulates the visual contrast and harmony where nature and mankind intersect. Formally drawing from the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints, I use hard edge abstraction and colors from nature, that are not typically considered "natural," to capture the memory and spirit of the landscape.

Artist Bio

Michele Kishita is a Philadelphia-based artist who uses landscape as her primary subject. Her paintings are strongly influenced by the graphic stylizations and compressed spaces of Japanese ukiyo-e prints. Kishita's paintings are in a number of private/corporate collections, including Toyota, Capital One, and Kaiser Permanente, and her work is featured in Create Magazine, on the Poetry Foundation blog, and the Studio Break and Thyme in the Studio podcasts, as well as in several literary journals. She has participated in artist residencies in New Mexico, Russia, and Iceland and exhibited at the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates and the Museum of Non-Conformist Art in St. Petersburg, Russia. Kishita received both her BFA and MFA in painting from the University of the Arts

Ellen Rosenholtz
48 Brown Hares
Graphite and conte crayon
31.5" x 33"

Artist Statement

Forty-Eight Brown Hares was inspired by a summer's worth of rabbit deaths. This is a celebration of their life force. The circles of life and death memorialized in this drawing.

Artist Bio

Ellen Rosenholtz's graphite on paper series explores native flora and fauna of New Jersey. The work looks at the profound beauty of natural forms as they exist within animals and plants. The multiplicity of images underscores the interconnection of living systems, while geometric patterning enable the viewer to commune with the species through repetition of form. The semi permanence of graphite reflects the fragility of our biodiversity at any moment in time.

Ellen Rosenholtz is a New Jersey, U.S.A based artist whose work is about environmental concerns with a focus on native, invasive, and extinct flora and fauna. She has a B.F.A from University of the Arts and an M.F.A from Vermont College. Artistic accomplishments include a residency at the Rosenbach Museum and Library. She wrote art criticism for both the Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper and was the Director of Programs for the Painted Bride Art Center. Ellen exhibits regularly throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

EllenRosenholtz.com

Jorge L. Vega
A Drive Through Banana Country, 2019
Oil on canvas
30" x 40"

Artist Statement

Most of the visual elements portrayed in this painting are influenced by my experiences growing up in Puerto Rico. Its flora, fauna, its tropical colors, and how that has affected my memories of the island, contributes to its visual interpretation.

Artist Bio

Jorge Luis Vega grew up in Puerto Rico and currently resides in Philadelphia. He has a B. F. A. from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and a M.F.A. from Stanford University.

Gregory Brellochs
Pulse, 2012
Graphite on paper
23" x 31"

Artist Statement

I find that the immediate and direct process of drawing serves as a means by which I can meditate on the fundamental nature of things. I want the concepts that I am exploring to resonate with the viewer on a basic visceral level. Like Niels Bohr's self titled model once served to make the concept of an atom's structure visually and conceptually accessible, so too am I interested in employing my art and the process of drawing as a way of visualizing and graphically realizing concepts which speak to a layer of reality beyond the senses, bringing such concepts back into a world of physical relationships that we can more readily relate to and grasp.

Artist Bio

Gregory Brellochs is a Philadelphia based artist, Professor, and the Visual and Performing Arts, Chair at Camden County College in Blackwood, New Jersey. Brellochs' work has been recognized through awards such as the 2018 Meyer's Family Award for Contemporary Arts, the Center for Emerging Visual Artists CDP Fellowship, the Wind Challenge Exhibition Series at the Fleisher Art Memorial, and the William D. Davis Award for Drawing at the Art of the State Exhibition in Harrisburg, PA. Brellochs has held numerous solo exhibitions and has been featured in a number of prestigious juried and curated group exhibitions both regionally and nationally. His work is included in the contemporary drawings collection of the Viewing Program through The Drawing Center in New York City. Brellochs earned his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and an M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Zeinab Diomande
It's all soup now, nobody wins, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 36" x 2"

Artist Statement

This piece focuses on a warm and hazy environment, a bar-like setting. The figure is engulfed in a tray of smoke adding to the intensity of the situation at hand: spades. All parties playing the game seem to have winning cards and evidently somebody if not everyone is cheating. I chose to add a humorous touch to this painting to remind myself that sometimes things aren't that serious. I tend create environments that you can partially recognize but when looking closer, nothing is rooted in reality. My purpose is never to be too close to what's real, mostly an illusion but never the real thing.

Sally K. Eisenberg
The Waiting is the Hardest Part, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 24"

Artist Statement

Painting and creating in the abstract provide me with the wiggle room to be in the present moment and see what comes up as I place color on my canvas. My paintings evolve. They start out one way and then, through gestures and layering, end up going in a completely new direction. In the words of Edward Hopper, "if i could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint." Creating art is MY communication tool of choice. Painting in the abstract allows me to feel and express my innermost emotions and begin dialogue.

Artist Bio

Sally K. Eisenberg is an abstract artist based in Philadelphia, PA. A lifelong artist, Sally thrives outside the lines, expressing herself through various media, including acrylics, works on paper, mixed media, and photography. Her work brings forth a dance of light, color, and texture, evoking curiosity, and emotion. Solo shows have been held at Twenty-Two Gallery, 1241 Carpenter + Artspace, and Da Vinci Art Alliance. She has been a part of many group shows including Pictor Gallery in NYC, Philadelphia Sketch Club, ARTSisters, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Fleisher Art Memorial, Naudain Art Collaborative, Da Vinci Art Alliance, 1241 Carpenter + Artspace, and the Long Beach Island Foundation for the Arts. She has been opening her studio for the last few years as part of the Center for Emerging Visual Artist's POST (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours). Sally's work is in private collections throughout the United States.

Kindred Art Collaborative
One Who Can Hold Their Breath, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36"

Artist Statement

They might not have an "Iron Neck". They might be able to be "Burned". They might not be able to "Stretch". They might not be able to "Swallow the Sea". But they might be able to "Hold Their Breath Forever".

Artist Bio
Started in 2019
Members:
Carl Cellini
Richard Metz
Mikel Elam

We are currently working on our resume as a group but only have been together for a few years. Each of us have our own substantial resumes and over 50 years of experience in the arts.
• Carl Cellini is a painter, sculptor, musician, composer, martial artist and instructor of martial arts who grew up in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. He has had numerous painting exhibits in the last forty years and his work has been purchased by businesses, schools and individual patrons during this time. He received his BFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 1980. Cellini's latest paintings are gestural and expressionistic, focused on incorporating the movements of the martial arts animals he studies. The process is important to his art making as he strives to invoke something direct and authentic. Carl formed Cellini Studios in 2014 which is a gallery space, studio space and houses a school of martial arts that he owns and operates in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

• Richard Metz grew up in Abington, Pennsylvania. He received a BFA from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Maine College of Art. He recently retired from a career as a high school art teacher. In addition to showing his work frequently and widely, he is a musician and writer, with an interest in radio drama. He has been an environmental activist for many years and remains passionate about protecting forests. He has been chosen to participate in artist residencies across the country for the last ten years where he creates ephemeral painted tree installations.

• Painting and drawing have been a lifetime pursuit for Mikel. Having grown up in Philadelphia, Mikel's art degree is from Philadelphia University of the Arts. In one chapter of his life Mikel went to work as a manager for famed jazz musician Miles Davis for several years. This experience helped shape and define Mikel for years to follow. Although Miles Davis was a renowned jazz musician he was also drawing and painting everyday while traveling the world. He convinced Mikel that he had the ability to be and do many things at the same time. Whether working in the art supply business, or in the past when he was working with Miles Davis or currently, painting and drawing in his studio Mikel is truly living the life of a full-time artist. In recent years his focus on Afro Centrism and world cultures has permeated his individual work.

Carl Cellini
The Shaman, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36"

Artist Bio

• Career History
Moonstone Art Center - center city Philadelphia 1980/1984 - help create and acted as art and music director
Allen's Lane Art Center After School Program 1984/1989 - created and acted as its director
Allen's Lane Summer Arts Camp Director 1984-1989 - directed
Mantis Computers, Inc. 1989/2022 - started, owned and operated
Mantis Show Room 2001 - owned and operated
Cellini Studios Gallery and Studios 2013/2019 - created, owned and curated
Cellini Show Room and Studios - 2019/current - created, owns and curates
(Showing works of Kindred Art Collaborative and Carl Cellini)
Villari's Martial Arts School of Ambler 2014/current - created, owns and operates
Kindred Art Collaborative 2019/current - created and collaborated with Mikel Elam and Richard Metz - (Kindred Art Collaborative is a group of three seasoned painters that have been working together for over four years - we all contribute to everything we create)

• Education
Temple University's Tyler School of Art 1980 - BFA Painting
Villari's Shaolin Kempo Karate and Jujitsu - Achieved Masters level (5th degree)

• Skills and Qualifications
Painter, sculptor, composer, proficient on over seven musical instruments, martial artist, gallery director, computer expert (servers and networks), instructor in all of the prementioned

Judy DeSimone
8, 2024
Acrylic
15" x 12"

Artist Statement

This is an abstract acrylic mono print using warm colors satisfying a moment during a printing session.

Artist Bio

Judy DeSimone is a retired K- 10th grade art teacher who earned a bachelor of science degree in art education at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For thirty-nine years she was a Jack of all trades in her classroom with pastels, markers, paints, metal, ceramics, paper-mache, Paris craft, printing, yarn, scenery painting etc. Judy currently pursues her own artistic musings in ceramics, painting silk scarves, printmaking and still paints scenery for her Catholic school. She shows her work at craft and art fairs.

Alexis Nutini
Clear View III, 2024
Woodcut monoprint mounted on panel
21 x 27"

Artist Statement
Woodcut monoprint mounted on archival birch panel. The intersecting spirals in the image were generated using a pendulum drawing tool. The analog sharpie drawings were digitized and then CNC(computer numerical control) milled into woodblocks. The plates were used to make the impression using traditional relief printing techniques.

Artist Bio
Alexis Nutini (b. Mexico City, Mexico; l. Philadelphia, PA) received a BA in fine art from St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City and an MFA in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art & Architecture, Temple University, Philadelphia. Nutini runs Dos Tres Press, where he publishes his own prints and develops collaborative projects with other artists. The focus of Dos Tres Press is experimentation with relief techniques through hand-carved, reduction woodblock printing combined with the digital technology of a CNC router. Nutini was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Barcelona, Spain and has exhibited his work at venues in Los Angeles, CA; Manhattan, KS; Nashville, TN; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, both PA; Seattle, WA; and St. Mary's City; as well as in Barcelona, Spain; Brisbane and Melbourne, both Australia; Rome, Italy; and Veracruz, Mexico.

Nanci Hersh
Cradle, 2015
Acrylic, spray paint, pastel on canvas
24 x 30"

Artist Statement
Initially inspired by the shadows cast by a welded sculpture of a large nest on a pedestal like a birdbath, Cradle continues to explore themes around home and family.

What we inherit, gather, retain, or release, along with the narratives we tell ourselves and how they shape, intertwine to mold our identities.

Artist Bio
Nanci Hersh is a contemporary mixed media artist. She creates dynamic, fluid paintings, collages, and sculptures that draw upon life and everyday experiences. Through the process of multilayered narratives, she explores themes of home, family, the natural world, and the intricate webs that bind us together.

Nanci is also a curator, illustrator, educator, arts advocate and former Executive Director of the Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education. She has received numerous honors including three purchase awards from the State Foundation of Culture and the Arts, Hawai'i, and three Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grants. She recently completed and installed "Elemental Flow", a commissioned work of 20 paintings at Barbacane, Thornton, and Company in Wilmington, DE. Her work is included in the Public Collections of Museum of Encaustic Art, Johnson & Johnson, Leland Portland Cement, and OSI Pharmaceuticals to name a few.

Abel Dolby
997N 300W, 2022
Oil on canvas
21.5 x 29.5" (framed)

Artist Statement

Some of my fondest memories growing up in rural Indiana were moments of being borderline feral at my grandparents' farm. As a young adult, I saw the the farm change from that carefree oasis of my youth to a place where I didn't know if I'll would ever want to return. My intentions in the painting "997N 300W" were to reconcile my complicated emotions surrounding nostalgia and loss through the eyes of a middle aged man.

Artist Bio

I'm a Philadelphia-based artist who was born and raised (mostly)in Indiana. I received my BFA in Studio Art at Indiana University and my MFA in Studio Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I have been invited and accepted to show my artwork nationally since 2008.

Kurt Herrmann
Protozoan Rodeo, 2024
Oil on stone and sand on wood panel
20" x 15" x 2"

Artist Statement

About 20 years ago I made my first paintings on stone when I impulsively gathered up a pile of cinders from my studio rooftop and stuck them on a wood panel with roofing tar. That initial work from the late 1990's morphed from painting simply on gravel and stones to higher relief objects like wood scraps, found objects, toys, mannequin heads, and at least half a billion bb's. In this most recent series I have limited myself to oil paint on sand, stones, and rope, but we'll see where it all goes.

Artist Bio

Kurt Herrmann (b. 1972, Lock Haven, USA) is a painter from the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania who does both figurative and abstract work, but above all is a colourist at heart. Two of his recent shows were featured in Time Out Chicago and the Philadelphia Inquirer, with recent shows in Tasmania (Penny Contemporary) , New Orleans (Octavia Gallery), Auckland (12 Gallery), Philadelphia (James Oliver Gallery), and Charlotte (Sozo Gallery). His work is in prominent collections across the US, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, including Capitol One Corporate Headquarters (Wilmington, DE), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY), and Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). Recent commissions include large work for Hotel Del Coronado (San Diego, CA), and a line of beer labels for Elk Creek Café + Aleworks (Millheim, PA). Although his exhibition schedule is increasingly international, Herrmann's rural Pennsylvania roots continue to influence his work. "I'm very aware of the fact that even if a painting was initially inspired by something exotic, or an extremely personal event on the other side of the planet, all my work is filtered through my studio in the hills of Appalachia," he explains. "The colours, silence, space, seasons, landscape, even the rednecks impact everything I make. It's inescapable."

Tony Havrilla
Presidential Suite with Tomatoes, 2024
Oil on board
24" x 18"

Artist Statement

In modern society, where a new voyeurism exists online via social media, my work seeks an understanding of how our human desire to connect with others harms our psyche, stokes jealousy, and calms us. My paintings use a Fauvist approach, utilizing vibrant colors and gestural brush strokes, to paint figures in natural environments. Figures and environments painted are often sourced from social medias such as Instagram, X, or Facebook and then combined on my easel to create images that exist in a universe unto themselves. The importance of sourcing images from social media lends itself to the common desire to be seen, not only on social media, but in our lives. By gathering images in this way, I am exploring what we share and how it is shared to try and understand why we share. The resulting paintings evoke an exploration of an 'Eden' or the idea of a utopia devoid of problems (which social media platforms and influencers often portray their lives as). Through paint I am attempting to reconcile the dichotomy of this unreality online with the mundane human experience. My work contains basic human moments of whimsy, desire, objectification, and ultimately struggle as it copes with bridging these realities.

Stuart Lehrman
Basement Blues #2, 2021
Acrylic enamel and oil paint on a wooden panel.
12" x 24" x 1"

Artist Statement

My practice involves the dialogue between order and chaos. I am constantly experimenting with the physical properties of the materials. I am always looking for a new solution to the problem I have given myself. I embrace both addition and subtraction, making and unmaking. The art is partly made up (of mistakes or happy accidents), during the working process. It's a journey of exploration and discovery, each step an interplay of order and chaos, intention and serendipity. These 'mistakes' are useful to make because they may lead little by little to the small truths.

Artist Bio

Stuart Lehrman began his career on the West Coast, showing his work at galleries in San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, and Dallas. His early work focused on richly colored ceramics and painted wooden and found object sculptures. He relocated to upstate New York in the 1990s and worked as art director for the New York State Health Department. Twelve years ago, he moved to Philadelphia to teach design courses at Jefferson University (now retired). He lives with his wife and works in his home/studio in Cherry Hill, NJ.

Fran Lightman Gibson
A New Day, 2023
Charcoal and hard pastel
30" x 22"

Artist Statement

The Bridge
I watched the cold January night shift into the gray of dawn, the bridge looming as a gateway into or out of the city. Perspective creates its own reality. Ice had gathered along the edge of the river, helping chill the wind. Then the sun peeked over the horizon and the world changed. The cold gray bridge transformed into a warm golden orange. It was as if hope and joy were beaming their way into the city. The audacity of that light, the ice remained on the river's edge, the wind was no less chilly and yet I basked in the illusion of warmth and the reality of my survival.

Artist Bio

My paintings are about the visual and psychological energy of the city expressed through the angularity of its architecture and infrastructure, painted with live, rapid, interesting brushstrokes. This high energy is sometimes offset around the edges of the urban landscape by a very different treatment of trees, bushes, and grassy areas as an impression of dabs, dashes, lines, and scumbled paint.

Although these paintings straddle and integrate impressionist and expressionist ethos, they represent two different stylistic trends. One is more expressionist, bold, and brushy. The other is more linear, graphic, and refined. These paintings beckon the viewer through dramatic perspective and suggest a curiosity and a journey. Landscape or Cityscape, the metaphor of "Take Any Road," is usually close at hand in the work.

Finally, there is a tease in these works to see the next level of detail, but the attempt is to have the viewer create that detail while viewing the paintings.

Tyler Kline
The Baleful Queen, 2025
Gesso transfer, ink, watercolor, oil on birch
16" x 10" x 1.5"

Artist Bio

Tyler Kline is a curator and artist living and working in Philadelphia. Kline grew up in Stone Mountain, GA, studied Architecture and Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He received a BA in both Anthropology and Sculpture from Portland State University and an MFA in Installation and Sculpture from The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts.

Courtesy of Chimeare Gallery

Carmen Console
Santa Ana Wind, 2025
Acrylic on canvas
36" x 18"

Artist Statement

This painting was inspired by the awful fires in Southern California.

Artist Bio

Carmen Console has worked full time as an artist since 1978 when he finished art school. Born and raised in South Philadelphia. He was an Illustrator for 45 years working for The Franklin Mint, and then many ad agencies and national brands, then retired to begin a painting career a few years ago. Since that time he has created dozens of works, some commissioned, most inspired. Carmen now lives and works in his studio in South Jersey.

Timothy Gierschick II
Strawberry Nautilus, 2019
Latex on paper
26" x 34"

Artist Statement

Strawberry Nautilus was birthed from a period of contemplating the geometry of a chain-link fence. In the manner of a nautilus, the diamond pattern folds in on itself, when you view it clockwise, and back again looking counterclockwise, in a double spiral. Strawberry refers to the color yes, but also to the fact that various seemingly disparate elements of nature share very deep connections: the placement of strawberry seeds is, like the pattern of the nautilus, according to an innate geometry.

Artist Bio

Timothy Gierschick II (b. 1976, Reading, PA) is an artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA. His paintings and works on paper have been exhibited and collected both nationally and internationally, including by Duane Morris LLP offices worldwide, and Capital One Bank NA. Timothy earned his Bachelor of Arts, concentrating in Printmaking, from Messiah College in 2000. He is also employed by the Barnes Foundation as preparator.

Rona Fisher
Garlic Cloves, 2025
Oil on canvas panel
12" x 15"

Artist Statement

Simplistic, dramatic and graphic, the common objects become important, demanding our attention. Being shown partially, rather than rendered in their entirety, they look big and bold in their small space. The values are rich black through creamy white creating a stark and oddly welcoming landscape. The hues are limited and subtle. The objects themselves create dualities- soft vs sharp, fragile vs strong, transparent vs opaque, familiar yet extraordinary. They are somber yet invitingly full of light.

Artist Bio

Born into a middle-class family in the Philadelphia suburbs to an accountant and an art teacher, my mom, being the art teacher, was an excellent draftsperson and loved making things, but discouraged me from becoming a professional artist. As a young adult, I had one thing in mind only, and that was painting.
After graduating from University of the Arts in 1980, I went along my artistic way, first to San Francisco for 4 years, where I drove a cab and tried to figure out how to have a creative life. I thought, I will need to find a different medium- one that I can support myself with. After experimenting with various mediums, making jewelry became my new passion. After coming back to the states after living in Munich, Germany for 8 years, I spent the past 30 odd years doing just that.
In 2022 the urge to paint again became so strong, it was not to be ignored.
Currently, I am transitioning back to being an artist, soon to be full time.
My kitchen is my painting studio. There I find common objects that pull me in, begging for me to allow them to be shown as something special, even if for just a moment. That is my new mission- through painting to help those who see them to appreciate the seemingly insignificant things, to see them as something rare and beautiful.

Estelle Carraz-Bernabei
Through the Clouds, 2024
Oil & acrylic on canvas
12" x 12"
13.5" x 13.5" (framed)

Artist Statement

"Through the Clouds"
The sun shining through the clouds is a symbol of hope, freedom and limitlessness : a visualization of the vastness of the heavens.

Courtesy of Balance Gallery

Kathran Siegel
Snapper, 2024-2025
Acrylic paint on wood
19" x 16" x 4"

Artist Statement

One in a series of works inspired by Asian fans. Mixing 2 and 3 dimensional vocabularies within a culturally familiar format. I saw in these a shaped, uniformly undulating shape against a more dimensional handle.

Artist Bio

Born and raised in New York City, Kathran Siegel attended Bennington College, where she studied painting with Jules Olitsky and Paul Feeley, sculpture with Anthony Caro and David Smith, and printmaking with Vincent Longo. She worked towards an M.F.A. at the University of New Mexico, but at the invitation of Newton Harrison and Paul Brach, (shadow wives: Helen Harrison and Miriam Shapiro) stopped her studies to help develop the program for a new art department at the University of California at San Diego.

While working on an MEd., Siegel took a woodworking class, which led her into 25 years of making studio furniture and other carved and turned objects. Until her retirement from teaching in 2011, she combined her studio practice with teaching art in Florida and in and around Philadelphia, where she currently lives. Her work is in several regional museum and public art collections. She was awarded an NEA Ventures Grant and later an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant. She has published a monograph on the artist, Mildred Thompson, as well as articles on the arts and arts education. Siegel is currently a member of Muse Gallery in Philadelphia.

Stephanie Rogers
Gitche Gumee, 2023
Mixed media
40" x 30"

Artist Statement

I begin a painting with a gesture, then on to contemplate composition, form and hue- a meditation of optimistic colorful motion. This painting , Gitche Gumee, evolved into what I imagine may be what the Ojibwe saw when they first encountered their great sea.

Edith C. Zapata
Alley, 2024
Acrylic on canvas
28" x 22"

Artist Statement

Alley is 1 of a 7-piece SHELL COLLECTION , inspired by the trip to my native country Caracas Venezuela after 7 years as an immigrant. It is a reflection of the fears, hopes and desires every morning as I begin my journey to work, which would be responsible for paying for my career as a Graphic Designer. Upon returning, stopping at the beginning of this alley, feeling gratitude and admiration for the achievements and different perspectives on life after experiences that would mark my career as an artist.

Artist Bio

Multidisciplinary artist from Venezuela, based in Philadelphia.

Her work is based on generating creative ideas through art and design. His style combines contemporary elements, achieving authentic abstract and expressive works, whether inspired by nature, everyday life, human emotions, or under the instructions of a brief.

Eric Kunsman
585.427.9848 - Stoney's Plaza, 2852 West Henrietta Road, Henrietta, NY 14623, 2018
Archival pigment print (lucia print on edition etching rag)
24" x 24"

Artist Bio

Eric holds his MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and holds an MS in Electronic Publishing/Graphic Arts Media, BS in Biomedical Photography, BFA in Fine Art photography, all from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

Currently, he is a photographer and book artist based out of Rochester, New York. Eric works at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as an Assistant Professor in the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and is an adjunct professor for the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences.

Sandi Neiman Lovitz
I Hear Red, 2023
Acrylic and red sand on gallery wrapped canvas
24" x 24"

Artist Statement

I was only five years old when I started my journey as an artist. The color of that gorgeous blue robin's egg passed through me like a lightning bolt and opened up my passion for color. My box of crayons became my treasure chest.
That lightning bolt struck again eleven years later when I saw, in person, an abstract painting by Franz Kline at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The power and expression of that painting gave me the
freedom and permission to see beyond the traditional realism I had been taught and explore and push boundaries I never realized were possible.
I paint spontaneously. I react to that first burst of color that I put on the canvas. Further marks and colors are influenced by my visual language, which empowers me to go where words cannot in expressing who I am at my core.
"I paint layers of colors and rhythms that breathe life into my paintings and open up stories for the viewer's imagination and curiosity."
When I paint I feel alive and connected to my true self.

Artist Bio

Sandi Neiman Lovitz graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor"s degree in Art Education and taught art in the Pittsburgh Public School for a number of years before moving to Philadelphia.
Sandi continued to teach private classes and exhibit her paintings. Her passion for art led into various businesses that all involved the creative process.

AYGZ (Eg-z)
Schrodinger's Candle, 2024
Painting on canvas
42" x 35"

Artist Statement

The desire to connect to something spiritually grater than yourself through liturgy, but not being certain as to what you are in search of

or

The attempt to connect to some TV big larger than yourself spiritually, not knowing fully what's on the other side.

Artist Bio

A graduate from Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, under the pseudonym AYGZ (Eg-z), Jesse Weinstein has developed a visual language across a wide range of platforms from painting, printmaking, both analogue and digital illustration, has realized two comic books, and his prints have appeared on limited-edition T-shirts and hoodies. He has been profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Jewish Exponent. He is a recently welcomed member of Inliquid, a gallery and organization having just celebrated 25 years of its contributions to the Philadelphia art scene.

Erin Elman
Archaic Amphora II, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
20" x 16"

Artist Statement

As a lyrical abstractionist, I incorporate spontaneous expression and illusionary space with obscured objects and implied imagery. I continually seek the moment in my paintings and I am influenced by a pantheon of artists that explore the full range of human emotion and history using color and process that is universally relatable. My practice allows me to balance numerous contradictions I encounter in my daily life: intentionality vs. spontaneity; gesture vs. control; conscious vs. subconscious; materiality vs. the ethereal; representation vs. the evocative; contrived vs. authentic. The works are the evidence of my internal struggles and conversations - languaged through composition, marks, gesture, and color.

Artist Bio

Erin Elman was born in Brooklyn, NY where she was raised by two remarkable New York City public school teachers who exposed their daughters to all of the great art and culture of New York City. She received a BFA in Art from Carnegie Mellon University and also studied in Rome where she fell in love with Etruscan art and ruins. She received an MA in Art Education and an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking, both from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Elman has artwork in numerous public and private collections, including the Tate London. She lives in a stone cottage in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia with her family.

Katy J. May
Portrait in Motion, 2023
Paper collage
26" x 22" x 1"

Artist Statement

Collagist Katy J May creates abstract, close-up portraits utilizing magazine paper and found objects. The color palettes, facial expressions, and interlocking shapes work together to express the inner life of the central person. Utilizing the paper shape and content, monochromatic color palette, and paper placement emphasizes the person's conflicts and preoccupation, lack of concentration and overstimulation. Subtle imagery embedded in or swirling around the faces can illuminate the person's thoughts, feelings, and history. None of the paper fragments were drawn or Xeroxed. All were cut/torn and assembled by hand. This image is a story of a person and their inner life both in a moment and throughout their lifetime.

Artist Bio

Trained in illustration at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Katy J May creates artwork reflective of an illustrator's sense of space and story. Katy J May has been living in northern Virginia, outside Washington, for nearly 20 years. She has shown in galleries in VA, DC, PA and CA and has been published in journals such as University of Pennsylvania's literary journal, XConnect. She is the creative director of Plan B Press, a small poetry publisher.

@kjmaygallery

Claire Owen
Will You Follow., 2008
Graphite on paper
Framed under plexiglass
21" x 27"

Artist Statement

In my painting I maintain an interest narrative, by exploring cautionary tales once told to children, now carried forward in the fairy tales of children's literature. These tales, she believes, have settled into our collective imagination, remaining with us as adults. We nod with recognition at the twist of fear in the child lost in the forest. We can admire the cunning children use to see themselves safely away from the predators jaws. I often use the forest as a setting for her paintings, and as a character itself. From European folk tales to contemporary literature, the forest remains in our imagination a place where the real and fabled intersect.

Artist Statement

Claire Owen is a painter, and poet, living and working Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She received degrees in illustration and printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester New York where she grew up. She moved to Philadelphia in 1977 and established her own imprint, Turtle Island Press which produced fine print, limited edition artists books. She taught studio and book arts at Drexel University and Tyler School of Art. Since retiring in 2015 she continues her studio practice in painting, as well as poetry. She is currently a docent at The Rosenbach Museum and Library.

Polly Dressler Bech
Moving Through, 2010
Fiber/art quilt
28" x 30"

Artist Statement

I've been creating most of my life, in one form or another - paintings, clothing, collage, computer graphic art - but I didn't try to make a quilt until I was almost 30 years old. It took me awhile to get the hang of it, since I was raising my children while working on quilts a few hours a week. Something about the whole process of constructing a quilted art piece just worked for me, so I kept working at making them.
Most of my recent pieces have started with solar printing my own fabric. I collect leaves in my yard, or on my walks through town, and take prints of them on fabric. These prints capture the essence of nature for me, because this is my natural world, being surrounded by trees.
A love of, and respect for, the natural world has been a theme in my life and can be seen in my work. I also just love playing with color schemes, light and dark, mixing this traditional art form of quilting with newer surface design techniques.

T.W. Moore
Embodied, 2022
Photography, archival pigment print
17.5" x 21.75"

Artist Statement

My current work originates from a continued interest in men - their bodies, personas, desires, tensions, and intimacy. My approach includes juxtaposing the figures, both current and from my archives, with other elements to stimulate new narratives. These images are matched, often by chance, to further explore visual relationships that transcend time and space.

Artist Bio

T.W. Moore is currently based in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware after many years in Philadelphia. In addition to his art practice, he has taught photography at the University of the Arts, curated photography exhibits, and fundraised for several non-profit organizations. He has served on the boards of AIDS Delaware, Tilt Institute for the Contemporary Image, The Photo Review, and The Print Center.

Diane Lachman
Orbit, 2022
Photograph printed on metal with protective surfacing
Edition 1/6
12" x 18"

Artist Statement

My photographic pandemic project began in March 2020, when we were sheltering at home. Looking through the lens of the camera inspired me to escape the reality and isolation of the pandemic. As I photograph the prisms, the refraction of light creates natural colors and reflections with the rays of the sun. Reflection is a property of light, but it is also time to question and examine my thoughts and surroundings. Changing my viewpoint completely changes what I see. In my studio, I noticed a shift in my perspective. While color and light remain my source of inspiration, I work with freedom and awareness in expressing personal emotions and reactions to world events through my art.

Artist Bio

Diane Lachman's inventive abstract paintings and photographs emphasize the expressive power of color. She studied at RISD and earned her BFA and MFA from the School of Design at University of Pennsylvania, where she taught Color Theory and Drawing from 1993 to 2014. Her work has been the subject of fourteen solo shows. In 2024, she had her second solo photography exhibit, "Kaleidoscope," at Muse Gallery in Philadelphia. Her vibrant photographs capture the refraction of natural light through prisms.

She is a member Muse Gallery and was the director from 2019 through 2022. Lachman's paintings are represented in numerous private and corporate collections including New York Presbyterian Hospital, The Student Center at Temple University, Park Towne Place in Philadelphia, and Lankenau Hospital.

@dianelachman

Jed Williams
Oshun's Lair, 2024
Oil, acrylic sharpie/mixed/collage on canvas
32" x 42"

Artist Statement

This work, "Oshun's Lair"was part of an exhibit at my studio (JWS) focused on the spiritual aspect of Yoruba culture. I first became interested in the Yoruba culture because I have several friends in Philadelphia who are of Yoruba heritage; moreover a philosopher friend of mine shared an essay inspired by aspects of Yoruba culture, gods and beliefs. This essay dovetailed with my fascination with mythology, legends, and spirituality in general. I should also like to inspire viewers to start their own inquiries and research into African cultures and the legends previously unknown to them.

Artist Bio

Jed was born in Philadelphia, USA, in 1975 and brought up in Paris, France; he is a French and American dual citizen now based in Philadelphia, USA. Jed comes from an artistic background-his father was the celebrated poet C.K Williams and his mother is a jeweler. A noted and prolific Philadelphia painter, Jed graduated from the University of the Arts (BFA in Painting and Drawing, 2000) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Certificate in Painting, 2005), both located in Philadelphia. Since graduating from the Pennsylvania Academy he has been exhibiting his work in both solo and group capacity in many different venues in Philadelphia, Phoenixville , New Jersey, New York City, Brooklyn, Miami, Portland OR and other cities. Jed also has had work in private collections in the US, France and Eastern Europe; and one of his paintings was acquired Ruttenberg Center for Autism.And, from 2010 to 2020.

Bethanne Frazer
Red Swingline, Ode to Milton, Paradise Found, No.1., 2025
Conte crayon, Block printing ink, blood, acrylic paint, acrylic medium varnish on Gessoed wood pane
10" x 8"

Artist Bio

Bethanne Frazer is a native Brooklyn, NYer and has resided in Philadelphia for the past 10 years. Frazer attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Thomas Jefferson University and CUNY Brooklyn College. Bethanne is a visual artist, painter, printmaker, photographer and videographer. Bethanne is a psychotherapist and art therapist in private practice.

Donna Backues
Mountain Spirit, 2016
Acrylic, watercolor, ink, gouache, graphite on birch board
26" x 26"

Artist Statement

Imagined Landscapes

This peice is part of a larger body of work titled Imagined landscapes. These are inner landscapes of the mind and memory but still inspired by real places in the world. Mountain Spirit was painted after a trip to Taos, New Mexico. In the sky there is a reference to Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Artist Bio

Donna Backues has a BA in Studio Art & Graphic Design from Southern Illinois University, an MFA from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and an MA in Urban Studies and Community Arts from Eastern University. Donna lived in Indonesia for 18 years working as an artist, a teaching artist, and as a grassroots community development practitioner using her art in various capacities. Her work included founding a community preventative health training program and partnering with local artisans to design indigenous products for export to support small home industries.
Since moving to Philadelphia, Donna has worked as a painter, illustrator, community artist and teaching artist. Currently she is the Community & Family Wellness Coordinator for a non-profit working with the Asian immigrant and refugee population in Philadelphia. Donna taught for The Mural Arts Program and The Village of Arts and Humanities. She has been awarded artist residencies through the Philadelphia Art Museum's Delphi Art Futures & Art Partners program, Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts, Fleisher Art Memorial and Spiral Q.

Orlando Saverino-Loeb
Tile Study #3, 2003
Acrylic and charcoal on canvas
13" x 27"

Artist Bio

Orlando Saverino-Loeb is a Philadelphia born artist. His work is influenced by surrealist imagery, the compositions in 19th century Romanticism paintings, and extended stays in Italy. He deconstructs the environments he's experienced, and rebuilds them as reflections on humans and their activities. He uses characters, symbols, and visual metaphors to create a sense of familiarity that facilitates the creation of unique new ideas and insights in the mind of his viewer.

Christina Penrose
Picasso and his shelved wives and mistresses, 2017
Gouache/ Japanese paper, photography, collage on canvas
12" x 12"

Artist Statement

My paintings are subconsciously motivated images provoking a beginning. "If you know exactly what you're going to do, what is the point of doing it?" is a quote from Picasso, which I very much agree with. My imagery and color are a result of experimenting with various transfer methods, collage and paint application. This process inspires underlying themes, which are at times autobiographical, political, environmental, or mystical. Another source of inspiration comes from painting the landscape, especially when I travel. Painting the landscape keeps my eye in tune with the natural elements, and in turn is revisited later as a resource for work in the studio.

Artist Bio

Born in São Paulo , Brazil
PAFA 1975-79
Cleveland Institute of Art (Lacoste, Provence. France) 1981 1883
University of the Arts (BFA) 1990

@tinux301

Eva Shelley
Pastel pink floral with black and white, 2025
Borosilicate glass
5" x 5" x 8"

Artist Bio

Once you find something that truly moves you, if can enhance your personal life, encourage you to grow, and leave you wanting more. That's what glass does for me. It's my first love. It's given me life and joy. And I know that comes through in my work.
My name is Eva Shelley and I've been working with glass since 2000. I started by taking private lessons at the Crefeld School, a private high school in Philadelphia. I then took individual glass classes at Salem Community College in New Jersey. From there, I attended Temple University's Tyler School of Art, majoring in glass, and graduating in 2005 with a bachelor of fine arts (BFA). My focus at Tyler was furnace work, and I also learned both hot and cold casting, as well as fused and slumped glass.
Since graduating, I have been a freelance glass artist, creating glass art and glass jewelry. I've worked on a variety of different projects including pieces of jewelry for loved ones, glass sculptures for events, and company gifts for employees.

YoannyAR
Equilibrio, 2013
Photograph
Edition 2/15
12" x 18"

Artist Statement

Work with photography, video and performance dealing with topics about the plasticity of the individual identity and the effects of the social and political environment on the individual.

Materializing and embodying psychological states, Aldaya cuts, hides or disables the figures and forms, linking materiality and texture in a constant manipulation and transformation of that which portrays. His work uses references from religious iconography where we find rituals, sacred objects and representation of deities that are presented formally or metaphorical. The theatricality and the capacity for the hybridization of the self also play a role very important in his work where matter and the body become battlefields in the creation of individual, social, political and cultural identity.

@yoannyaldayaramirez

B. B. Olshin
CANNED ART - Canned Couture, 2025
Mixed media
8" x 24" x 6"

Artist Statement

"Canned Couture" is a set from a large collection of pieces that are indeed "canned art" - recycled metal food cans are used by the artist to "host" small scenes, constructed with watercolour, craft paper, and other materials. The pieces use irony (e.g., in the "canned fish" works) and humour, combined with the idea of playing with scale and choices of material, to engage viewers and ask them to think further about how art can appear in many different settings and contexts. One of these pieces was recently published in a French magazine, and the works have proved popular to audiences locally, as well. In "Canned Couture", I am experimenting again with alliterative titles, and also seek to capture - well, to "can" - some interesting aspects of couture or fashion. Here, we have a canned "catwalk" with a model in the latest fashion, as well as a canned shoemaker, dressmaker, and haberdasher: all the ingredients for a successful bit of haute couture... in a can.

Artist Bio

Olshin completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (I.H.P.S.T.), at the University of Toronto, in September of 1993. His dissertation involved the history of cartography, examining early maps and sea charts. During these years, he also completed a series of watercolors in Toronto, did design and drafting work for an architecture firm in São Paulo, Brazil, and worked for an architecture atelier in Tokyo, Japan, designing, drafting, building architectural models, and doing restoration work. He also travelled through other parts of Japan during this period, and then journeyed to Hong Kong and Tahiti, doing numerous sketches, watercolors, and oil paintings.

Richard Metz
Elderly Oak Leaf, 2010
Egg tempera, damar, soil, pigment and gum arabic
20" x 16"

Artist Statement
Old Brown Leaf is from a series of leaf/face paintings done with experimental techniques. The concept was to push, in an intuitive way, a closeness with the land, the soil, and the flora.
This is done both with the image, a combination of a dried oak leaf, taken from the Wissahickon watershed, where I live and a human face, as suggested by the leaf form. This was also done with the medium, in which I created my own paint with both the soil where I was living, and also natural pigments and natural mediums like gum arabic and damar.
The resulting piece is intended to evoke an intensity of living, an expressive emotion from this strange creature that may physically exist somewhere, but certainly does inside me.

Artist Bio

Richard Metz is a 65 year old artist, writer, husband, father, environmentalist, and former art teacher. He has a BFA from Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Maine College of Art. He has been making work and showing in the Philadelphia area for 40 years. He has worked in a range of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance art, costumes, and ephemeral outdoor painted installations. He has been selected for many art residencies around the country. His art work has appeared in almost a dozen literary magazines. Recently, he published a book of poems and paintings titled " A murder of Crows".
Richard has worked with Carl Cellini and Mikel Elam as the Kindred Art Collaborative for 3 years.

Su Knoll Horty
Color Pops 18, 2016
Oil on canvas
16" x 20"

Artist Statement

The sensation of color, the lushness of oil paints, the thrill of creating, and the surprise of abstraction are what drive me to paint--Add drama to the canvas, and I'm hooked!
At the inception of my paintings, I select colors inspired by nature, random places, or other artists' paintings, whatever catches my eye, stirs my curiosity, or challenges me.
I explore fluidity, in all its measures: organic form, undulating movement, saturated 'liquid' color, and stylized gestural marks. It's through this fluidity that I find color to be most expressive. Color relationships are very important to me, as are tonal variations. I place color next to color, with the goal of finding just the right combination so that each will make the other shine, or as in this series, "Pop!"

Artist Bio

In 2012, Su completed the CE Core Curriculum Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Pafa). Su continues to study with Abstract teachers, Kassem Amoudi, and various instructors at The Art Students League of New York. Su has been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wild Roof Journal, The Woven Tale Press, as well as being interviewed on ArtWatch and Morning Edition radio.
Su is a member of The Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Su is also a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club where she received two Honorable Mention awards for her entries in the Absolutely Abstract shows, in 2012 and 2013, as well as being a juror in the 2015 Absolutely Abstract show.
Su exhibits regularly and has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows.

Connor Kirk
It is not Dirty, it is Filthy, 2024
Oil pastel and charcoal on paper
30 x 20"

Artist Statement

This work draws inspiration from ancient Bantu "Garbage Event Rituals," in which performers would enact poetical "defenses" of trash. First, a large field would be covered in thick layers of village waste. Performers would then act out pre-written critiques and defenses of the contents in the field.

Sample defenses:
Critic: "This place is dirty."
Defense: "It is filthy."
Critic: " Why don't you clean it up?"
Defense: "We like it the way it is."

This work was made using discarded packing paper found on the side of the road as its starting point.
It is the sacred duty of the artist to defend the beauty of the world. When things are given no value, we reach down, pick them up, and recognize them as precious.

Artist Bio

Of my earliest childhood memories, one of the most vivid is, while playing with paper and pencil, accidentally drawing what I perceived to look like a little bird. The picture was absolutely simple, composed of one long curved line enclosed at the "beak." Yet it seemed to me like it might at any moment fly right off the page.
Since the drawing came about spontaneously, I immediately became taken with the idea of repeating/recreating it. I filled page after page attempting to capture the essential beauty and purity of that first "chance" drawing, but each attempt came up short.
Perhaps in some strange way, I've still been trying ever since.

In my early teens, I began to compose and perform music, eventually studying formally at Franklin & Marshall college where I received a Bachelors of Music in 2022.
It was there where I developed a deep fascination with the artistic avant-garde, discovering the works of artists like John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Duchamp, Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns. Artists who blurred the lines between artistic mediums and life itself.

Since graduating, I've continued my work as a multimedia artist, producing bodies of work such as the 2023 conceptual album/novella "The Burning of Hunger City" and a stream of visual works consisting of videos, photographs, drawings, paintings, and assemblages. In addition to this, I write consistent essays and poems exploring artistic philosophy for my Substack, the "On Fire Diaries."

My latest body of work, an installation entitled "Ten Invisible Drawings" premiered at Barshinger Center, Franklin & Marshall College on November 9th, 2024. Another showing at the college is already scheduled for early 2025.

Sharon Bloomfield Hicks
Yin and Yang 9, 2021
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 20"

Artist Statement

"Yin and Yang 9" is a work from my yin and yang series which includes paintings, fiber, and mixed media works. The project began when I noticed that shapes in my paintings resembled those in the yin/yang symbol. At the same time, I noticed my creative process alternated between opposing periods of struggle and periods of ease which related to the push and pull of yin and yang energies running parallel in my health and life. The relationship of yin and yang is one of opposites. According to Chinese medicine health requires a balance of yin and yang energies, or harmony. For the project, I alternated between painting and fiber, hand-stitching and tufting machine, slow and fast, intuitive and planned processes. When each work was complete every color and shape belonged, creating a new balance and harmony.

Artist Bio

Sharon Bloomfield Hicks is a Philadelphia-based artist and member of the Portuguese-Jamaican diaspora. Her work is distinguished by bold color combinations, large shapes and active figure-ground relationships. While informed by in-depth studies at the Barnes Foundation including paintings by Matisse, Modigliani, and Picasso; her aesthetic sensibilities often reflect her Caribbean roots. Training at the Fabric Workshop and Museum plus graduate studies at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science contribute to the graphic nature of her style. Adhering to a belief in the interconnection between art and healing, she uses fiber and paint to create fresh uplifting work which expresses the harmony and well-being she desires to see in the world.

James B Abbott
Tuscan Landscape in Moonlight, 2024
Photography
Artist proof, pigment ink print on moab metalic paper
12" x 9"

Artist Statement

For over ten years I have taught and photographed in Italy working on several bodies of work at the same time. From the small Tuscan town I was based in I would approach the surrounding landscape differently each year. This image is the begining of my newest approach to this landscape which is to work after sunset with only the moon as the primary source of illumination.

Artist Bio

Bio James B Abbott Photographer
James B Abbott, a photographer, arrived in Philadelphia in 1981 and, from his first loft seventy five feet from the Ben Franklin Bridge began photographing the bridge and its neglected riverfront neighborhood.
Abbott graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI, and over the course of thirty years has received numerous, grants, awards, residencies, commissions, and maintained a freelance photography practice. His fellowships include two Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowship Awards, a fellowship with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists, 2013 Artist fellowship from the Independence Foundation for his Berlin: Landscape of Memory Project. In 201. Past appointments include serving as
photographer to the Stieglitz Center at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gallery Director for Aperture's Burden Gallery and Exhibit231, as well as teaching at the Penland School of Crafts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia University, and Tyler School of Arts. And for the last ten years Abbott had been teaching in the Italy Intensives Program of East Carolina University in Certaldo, Italy.

Bettina Clowney
Teapot
Watercolor and pencil
13" x 18.5"

Artist Bio

Bettina was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1946, the daughter of Air Force colonel Stewart Scull and office manager Helen Balmer Scull. She fell in love with painting and art history as a child. She graduated from Temple University's Tyler School of Art and went on to exhibit new work almost every year of her adult life. Bettina often said she painted because she had to. In mid-career, she spent 14 years studying iconography from a Russian master, and subsequently created traditional and modern icons for churches and collectors alike. Her work is in collections around the globe.

Margery Amdur
Sliver #1, 2025
Digitally printed textiles, wire, thread
9" x 36"

Artist Statement

The sewing machine, my current tool of choice, serves as a drawing vehicle and a means of attaching layers of fabric. By adjusting the machine's tensions, the threads respond by forming glitches. At first glance, they may appear as blemishes; however, upon closer inspection, the embellishments and details work together to create highly intricate and ornate surfaces that are primarily abstract.

Artist Bio

Margery Amdur has been creating site-specific installations for over thirty years. Originally from Pittsburgh, she earned her B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work has been featured and reviewed in national and international publications such as Sculpture Magazine, New American Paintings, Fiber Arts, and Creative Practices for Visual Artists. In addition to more than sixty solo exhibitions, Margery completed fourteen national and international projects between 2017 and 2024.

Shanti Hands
BURLS, 2024
Acrylic on fabric
15.5" x 13.25"

Susan Wallack
Self-Portrait With Obstacles, 2023
Mixed media
11" x 14"
16" x 20" (framed)

Artist Statement

The mystery of "Self-Portrait With Obstacles" is that I cannot say with certainty what about myself I've divulged or hidden. It is a choice in my work to keep the images unbound, and open to interpretation.

Girija Kaimal
Winter, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
15" x 18" x 2"

Artist Statement

Poppies is a mixed media work that integrates clay, acrylic, metal nails and reclaimed plywood. All the materials were found objects that were integrated into this 3-D diptych. The piece represents the artist's ongoing practice of reimagine discarded objects and media to create images of intense color and joy.

Artist Bio

Dr. Kaimal has a doctorate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Master of Arts from Drexel University and Bachelor's in Design from the National Institute of Design in India.

Geoffrey A. Agrons
Interfaith House, 2010
Photograph
21.25" x 17.25" x 1"

Artist Statement

In her polemic On Photography, Susan Sontag argued that the proliferation of images in the modern era fostered a passive "chronic voyeuristic relation" to the world around us. As a diagnostic radiologist, I spent my workdays interpreting "photographs" of the human interior. Each study was approached as a puzzle with a potential solution, and each analysis was a quest for certainty. Through concise language in a written report, I sought to minimize ambiguity. The images were presumed to hold meaning for the patient and their physician, and often that meaning resulted in intervention on the patient's behalf. In this narrow sense, at least, Sontag was wrong.

In time, I came to recognize that an unspoken aesthetic appreciation of diagnostic images was deeply entwined with the rigor of anatomic analysis, logic, and problem solving. But I grew interested in a different relationship with photography, one that separated an immediate emotional response from vigilant interpretation. I acquired a camera and began to explore the world beyond the darkened radiology reading room. The still camera became my modality of choice for effective diagnostic imaging. In the process, I found respite in feeling rather than thinking.

RM Cimini
Garden Reflections, 2024
Oil on cradled board
10" x 10"

Artist Statement

I specialize in atmospheric paintings that evoke emotional spaces. My long-standing meditation practice informs my work. The paintings that connect with viewers through our shared consciousness open the door to a spiritual world, offering a sense of transcendence, a glimpse into an existence apart from everyday activities.
The pieces on paper that have been submitted are ink-wash, watercolor, or acrylic paint. In each case, I was striving to incorporate the properties of the medium into the painting itself. For all of these, I was committed to the fundamental challenge of producing something alive, something that communicates to others, and something that exists in the world for the first time. Throughout the work, I sought a state of automatic flow. While I'm conscious of my choices-observing what emerges and deciding what comes next-I was seeking an ideal state of pure creation where I would simply follow the work's inherent energy.

Artist Bio

RM Cimini, a fine artist lives and works in Delaware. Featured in multiple group and solo exhibitions, her work was notably included in an exhibit at the Belskie Museum in Closter, NJ, and the Monmouth Museum in Lincroft, NJ. She served, from 8/2016 until 6/2019, as President of Studio Montclair, a non-profit visual arts organization. An inducted member of the National Association of Women Artists, she holds an MFA in painting and sculpture from Bennington College. Her work is held in private collections in the United States and abroad and in the public collections of Atlantic Health Systems, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the MC Hotel.

Jean Broden
Broken Fences, 2010
Oil on canvas
24" x 20" x 1.5"

Artist Statement

All of my paintings are created with the idea of bringing viewers back to a specific place from their lives. Whether they are cityscapes or of natural places, I want people to feel connected, maybe to something from their past, or perhaps a place important to them in their current lives. I want the images to feel like comfort food for their souls.

Artist Bio

Jean Broden is a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, as well as a lifelong artist. She is a graduate of Moore College of Art, and worked in advertising, illustration and art education. For the last twenty years, Jean has focused on oil paintings as her primary medium, which she sells at festivals and galleries in the Philadelphia area.

Hugo De La O
The Brown eye Blue eye experiment, 2020
Oil on canvas
12" x 15" x 1.5" (framed)

Artist Statement

This painting is about Jane Elliot's experiment in 1968. To teach her white students she decided to base the experiment on eye color. Where blue eyed students were treated better and had more opportunities. Then changing the privileges to brown eyed students. The out come is astonishing.

Artist Bio

Hugo, a sculptor-painter and co-founder of The Creary De La O Family Foundation, draws deeply from his roots as the child of immigrants who fled the El Salvador Civil War.

Since graduating from PAFA, Hugo has been an active member of the Philadelphia artist community-working on commissions, exhibiting his work at RASCO Gallery in Philadelphia, designing theater sets, and participating in projects from the Mural Arts of Philadelphia. Hugo aims to exhibit his artistic skills and passion further by engaging deeply with the Philadelphia community.

Andrea Bartine Caldarise
Cairn near road, 2023
Oil paint on canvas
20" x 20"

Artist Statement

Andrea Bartine Caldarise's art explores the psychological connection between people and their environment. Drawing inspiration from field trips and research deep dives into ecology, folklore, and geological histories, her compositions chart real and imagined locals, diagramming where multiple realities converge.

Artist Bio

Andrea Bartine Caldarise studied at Tyler School of Art, Temple University (BFA, Painting/Art History, 2009) and at the University of Pennsylvania (MLA, Arts Administration, 2013). In her studio practice, Caldarise centers an intuitive making process. She has collaborated with dance company, RealLivePeople (2010-2013) to create artworks centered on first-person accounts, engaging audiences with interactive dance. Upon moving to New York, Caldarise became an artistic collaborator with theatre group, Exquisite Corpse Company (2014-2019) where she built environments for immersive plays. These plays, produced on Governors Island examined a variety of themes from manifesting memories around ambiguous loss to climate change.

Miriam Singer
new address, 2025
Pencil, marker, acrylic on panel
6" x 6"

Artist Statement

I use a variety of media including traditional printmaking, collage, markers, and acrylic paint to create small and large works on paper and panels. Most of the works are a response to a walk or daily travel through neighborhoods that I spend time in. I generally draw in a sketchbook or sometimes on a single sheet of paper while out in the field. I draw architecture and objects by looking. Often, bringing the drawings into my studio where I add sketches to paper or panels. I draw or paint from sketches, memory, photographs, and from invention. These works are about physical materials, color, and line and a playful response to my daily experience in the built environment.

Artist Bio

Miriam Singer grew up in Buffalo, New York, having attended Brandeis University, and earning her MFA from Massachusetts College of Art. Singer has shown work in galleries, alternative spaces, and numerous public spaces including with Paradigms Gallery, The Albright Knox public art program in Buffalo NY, James Oliver Gallery, The Philadelphia Airport and even bus wraps at the Navy Yard. Singer uses a combination of printmaking and drawing media to create her unique works on paper, and designs for public art projects. Singer lives in Philadelphia and currently teaches printmaking at Fleisher Art Memorial and is a member of the artist collective, Space 1026.

Joseph V. Labolito
Interior of the K&A El station at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, 1987
Photography
Open edition
20" x 24"

Artist Statement

My photographic practice is an exploration of Philadelphia, a city that is both my home and my muse. Over the decades, I have meticulously documented its neighborhoods, people, and evolving landscapes, creating a visual time capsule that encapsulates the spirit of Philadelphia from the 1980s to the 2000s.
This collection reveals the life cycle of the city-from the birth and demolition of buildings to the bustling streets filled with iconic skylines, quaint row houses, and the indomitable spirit of local business owners and athletes. My work is intended to be viewed contemplatively, inviting audiences to reflect on the intricate narratives woven into the fabric of our communities. These photographs celebrate the interplay between past and present, highlighting the resilience and rich history that define Philadelphia and its people. Ultimately, my photography is a testament to the enduring human spirit and the vibrant life that thrives in the heart of this remarkable city.

Artist Bio

Joseph V. Labolito is a distinguished photographer based in Philadelphia, known for his extensive and evocative portrayal of the city's rich tapestry. Born and raised in the Frankford-Oxford Circle area, Joseph began his photographic journey in high school, working with portrait studios. Over the past four decades, he has developed a multifaceted portfolio that encompasses still life, architecture, health care, athletics and documentary photography.

Diane Pieri
Moonlight Over Meru
9 color offset lithograph
15" x 18"

Artist Bio

Since 1969 Diane Pieri has had 34 solo exhibitions, 220 national and international group exhibitions. She has been the recipient of two Pollock- Krasner Grants (1999/1992), two Independence Foundation Fellowships in the Arts (2001/2011), a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant (1992). She was included in the 2005 Philadelphia Invitational Portfolio, Philagrafika. She has been a fellow at Yaddo (1991), The MacDowell Colony (1990). In 1990 Pieri was an Artist-in-Residence at Mark diSuvero's Socrates Sculpture Park where she created a 15 ft. sculpture, called Gateway.
In 2006 Pieri's public art project, "Manayunk Stoops: Heart and Home", a series of 9 seating elements fabricated in Italian tesserae, was installed along the Manayunk towpath through the Association for Public Art's New Land Marks Program. Working with Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, Pieri has completed 12 murals since 2001. Since 2009 she has completed 7 murals in College Station, Texas. In 2005 Pieri founded the Cooke Museum of Art at the Jay Cooke Elementary School in North Philadelphia. This museum was the only established museum within a Philadelphia public school. In 2012 she was invited to collaborate with Anthropologie to design a robe and loungers based on her images. In 2024, an image from the Phases of the Sun series was chosen to be reproduced for a Philly Eyeworks/Innervisions lens cloths.

Andrew Conti
The Ochre Mound, 2022
Mixed media on wood panel
12" x 12" x .875"

Artist Statement

I create my work to memorialize life - from the everyday to the magical. From seemingly mundane moments to the profound possibilities of existence. I work intuitively, building with color, line, and shape to create flattened abstract forms - mountains, mounds, stelae, markers of life. I paint to slow the world down and create meditative moments of focus and calm.

Artist Bio

Andrew Conti is a painter and sculptor who creates large and small works that explore color, calligraphy, monument and markers of memory. A long time resident of Japan, Conti returned to the US in the mid 2000s and lives and works in suburban Philadelphia with his family.

Jen McCleary
Direction, 2019
Mixed media on wood panel
14" x 11"

Artist Statement

The roots of my art lie in the process of collecting images, ephemera, and found objects, which I layer, alter, or arrange to create something complex and symbolic. I work both digitally (photo-collage and graphic design) and in more traditional forms (mixed-media collage/painting and jewelry made from found and vintage objects). In 2019 I began to learn the craft of wheel-thrown ceramics, which I alter through decoupage and the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi (repairing broken items with gold and lacquer). For me, this process of creation, destruction, and repair mirrors the ups and downs of life and treats the inevitabilities of damage and healing as something beautiful to be celebrated.

Artist Bio

Jen McCleary attended Tyler School of Art (BFA Painting and Printmaking), University of the Arts (Continuing Education in Print Design), and University of Pennsylvania (MLA). She works both digitally and in traditional mixed-media collage and views the two seemingly different media as complimentary and rooted in the same process of collecting and arranging images. In 2019 she began to learn the craft of wheel-thrown ceramics, which she alters through decoupage and the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi (repairing broken items with gold and lacquer). This process of creation and destruction considers the inevitabilities of damage and healing as part of the beauty of an object. She also works as a freelance graphic designer specializing in book cover and layout design.

Cassandra Petruchyk
Bulldog, 2015
Ink, oil pastel, Bristol board, acid free
13" x 17"

Artist Statement

I use drawing to give a visual voice to both domestic and wild animals, giving recognition and respect to honor them all.

Artist Bio

I have lived around art my whole life. My father was a painter, and my mother, who raised me, is a sculptor. Both parents taught art in various institutions from college to elementary grades, and mynmother was always my art teacher. She still is today.nI started drawing at a very young age and my family loved and encouraged it. I went on to study art in school. I received a BFA from the University of North Florida where I studied with Louise Freshman Brown. Wjile I earned a BFA, I also had a great interest in the biological sciences. After graduating I worked as an artist, producing work, showing it regularly and selling it.

Kara Mshinda
Behind the back, 2022
Archival pigment print
12" x 12"

Artist Statement

This photo collage is one of several works from my ongoing project All Hands Hold. This collage and photography project began as an anthropological inquiry about human connectedness and developed into a body of work that explores the sensuous functions of touch and sexuality.

Artist Bio

Kara Mshinda (she/her) is a visual anthropologist who creates photo-based artworks about identity, memory, and embodiment in community contexts. Mshinda is best known for using collage, collaborative portraiture, and alternative photo processes to document urban landscapes, candid play, social encounters, and the material culture of daily life. Mshinda is a Principal Collaborator of GrioXArts, a studio-centered art space at Cherry Street Pier that focuses on building community via process-based art education.

Constance McBride
Memory Fragment (no. 47), 2024
Ceramic, collage on wood panel
10" x 10"

Artist Statement

My Memory Fragments are little expressions of pain and joy, love, and loss. They are all about the stories we tell ourselves and stories we share with others via scattered bits retrieved from deep within the mind. I include notes, lines from favorite quotes and poems or just phrases and words to many of these pieces. The pieces are hand built and are sometimes the foreground for a photocollage on wood panel. I apply a variety of surface treatments including graphite and stains to emphasize the textures and characteristics of lived in skin. My photocollage backings begin with either images I capture in nature and later alter in the studio, or images derived from details of text on one of my sculptures.

Artist Bio

Constance McBride draws attention to gender-based issues using sculpture, installations, and collage, addressing ageism and mortality. Her work has been featured nationally and internationally; in Suboart Magazine (PT), Yahoo News (Cities Rising Series w/Katie Couric), Artblog, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and more. Her piece Will There Ever be Peace is featured in the book, Paper Clay Art and Practice by Rosette Gault. McBride earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arcadia University, Glenside, PA.

Kathleen Studebaker
Fragment, 2023
Cast iron, steel, brass, aluminum, walnut
6.5" x 6" x 6"

Artist Statement

This piece is a fragment of some unknown history; just a left-over piece of mysterious, broken machinery. I have a thing for mechanical objects, and for gears in particular. I find gears to be beautiful, but also meaningful: they are powerful symbols of purpose and potential. Sometimes the pieces I create tell a story; more often, as with this piece, they exist inside the context of one. While the story of this object is not clear, it is my hope that the viewer will consider its details and form, and imagine what its life may have been.

Artist Bio

Kathleen Studebaker is a multi-media sculptor focusing on wood, metal, cast plastic and a variety of other materials. She is a fabricator and all-around tinkerer, and has developed her broad knowledge-base of material processes through work in many different shops (from all-glass furniture and elaborate corporate trophies, to traditional wood working and academia). She has a great love of detailed fabrication and problem-solving, and makes every element of each of her works by hand (no CNC machines, lasers, etc). Her work often references the far-flung future, or perhaps alternate realities, and is inspired by astronomy, narrative fantasy, and the intersection of digital technology with mechanical function. She earned her MFA in sculpture from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL in 2013, and is currently working as a studio artist based in Philadelphia, PA.

Emily Potts
Ultrasound, 2025
Gouache and charcoal on watercolor paper
11" x 14"

Artist Statement

Through my artmaking process I explore the relationship between the brain, the mind and the body through internal and external systems that regulate and process mental and bodily pressure and stress. I work to overcome the assumption that in order to heal something has to be completely resolved within the self. Instead, I offer that healing is an indescribable area, that is unmeasurable, and it is forever evolving and never finished. My overall vision for my work is to simulate the gesture and sensibility of a figure into systems that extend outside of the body but still allude to it in an unrealistic, imperfect, and nonfunctional way.

Artist Bio

Emily Potts (b. 1996 Houston TX, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice gives material form to invisible and chronic conditions. Emily's research focuses on the relationship between the brain, the mind, and the body in connection to function and disruption of internal and external processes. Her work has been exhibited at notable institutions regionally and nationally such as New York Academy of Art New York, NY, Mid-South Sculpture Alliance's Confab 2023 at the University of Oklahoma School of the Visual Arts, Norman, OK, the SAA Visual Arts Center, Springfield, IL, Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights IL, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA and LHUCA, Lubbock, TX. Emily graduated with her MFA in Sculpture in the Spring of 2022 from the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. Emily now lives in Howell, MI and works in East Lansing, MI. She teaches at Michigan State University as a Fixed-Term Assistant Professor in Foundations.

DeJeonge Reese
Untitled, 2024
Synthetic hair, beads, hair pins, barrettes, rice
5" x 7"

Artist Statement

DeJeonge uses her art and creativity to stimulate new and on-going conversations on the various facets of identity, linage, roots and ancestry within the black community; highlighting these intersections through her passion for experimenting with a variety of mediums and materials; primarily through hair.

Artist Bio

DeJeonge Reese (she/her) is a visual artist, educator and art advocate from Yeadon, Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelors degree in Visual Arts from The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and her masters degree in studio art from Moore College of art and design in Philadelphia, PA. With a background in ceramics; DeJeonge used her time at Moore to explore other mediums such as installation, mixed media and performance art.

Rachel Zimmerman
Monument to the Negev Brigade, Beersheba Israel #1
2004/2017
Paper: Hahnemuhle German Etching
Mount: 8ply Museum Rag Mounting
Edition: 1/3

Artist Bio
Rachel Zimmerman is a native of Philadelphia and the Founding Artistic and Executive Director of InLiquid, a non-profit visual arts organization. InLiquid supports the careers and creative practices of over 300 working artists each year and produces over 40 public exhibitions annually in its flagship gallery at the Crane Arts Building and satellite locations across the city. Under her leadership, InLiquid has been honored with numerous awards from Philadelphia Magazine, The Culture Trip, the Arts and Business Council, and more. As an artist and curator, Zimmerman was named one of the region's "Top 101 Emerging Connectors" and a Creative Connector by Leadership Philadelphia. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Friends Select and Collaborator Award from The greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. She has served on numerous boards and committees, including the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Design Philadelphia, COLLAB (part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Center For Emerging Visual Artists, and many other arts and culture organizations throughout the region. Zimmerman was also the founding co-chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of ArtTable. Additionally, Zimmerman is an artist in her own right. Her photography is in many private collections, museums, and galleries across the country and around the world.

Kate Wait What
Jade Earrings - Short
Borosilicate glass

Artist Statement

My work explores themes of memory, relationships, loss, grief, and longing. I grew up living in constant transience, attempting to avoid formal foster care placement. Coming into adulthood made me question my upbringing and it's effect on my adult persona.

My work utilizes glass to evoke the fragile nature of stability and the ghost-like quality of memory. I am interested in the dichotomy of having the desire for the stability that I lacked growing up, while simultaneously seeking out the continuation of the uncertainty that became so familiar. Trauma can affect the brain by leaving a haze over your past, leaving holes in what you remember. This process has empowered me to take back an element of control by processing my memories, and therefore, gaining a better understanding of myself. Through the repetitive process of making glass, my body is able to relax into a meditative state, allowing my mind to process grief and trauma. By finding peace in my past, I am able to achieve ataraxia and move forward.

Artist Bio

Kate Crankshaw was born in the Pinelands of New Jersey and currently resides in Philadelphia with her 2 small dogs, 2 cats, and pet pigeon. She is skilled in both flameworking and hot glass, making work utilizing both processes. Her work explores ideas of memory, longing, and relationships. She has previously held internships at Wheaton Arts & Cultural Center, as well as Vetro Vero Studios. Kate has received multiple awards & scholarships, including the Kimmel Scholarship for excellence in Craft and the Brian Effron Pilchuck Glass School Scholarship to attend a workshop at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA. She has also received a gallery pick from Wexler Gallery for her piece "Home, Springtime" while featured in the Art Unleashed exhibition. In addition to her art practice, she designs and makes jewelry and home decor, as well as fabricating work in glass for both designers and artists. Kate holds a BFA in Craft + Material Studies, with a focus in glass, from the University of the Arts (2019) and an MFA in Craft/Material Studies with a focus in glass from Virginia Commonwealth University (2023).

Donated By The Artist

Kate Wait What
Lilac Chain Earrings
Borosilicate glass with gold link clasp

Artist Statement

My work explores themes of memory, relationships, loss, grief, and longing. I grew up living in constant transience, attempting to avoid formal foster care placement. Coming into adulthood made me question my upbringing and it's effect on my adult persona.

My work utilizes glass to evoke the fragile nature of stability and the ghost-like quality of memory. I am interested in the dichotomy of having the desire for the stability that I lacked growing up, while simultaneously seeking out the continuation of the uncertainty that became so familiar. Trauma can affect the brain by leaving a haze over your past, leaving holes in what you remember. This process has empowered me to take back an element of control by processing my memories, and therefore, gaining a better understanding of myself. Through the repetitive process of making glass, my body is able to relax into a meditative state, allowing my mind to process grief and trauma. By finding peace in my past, I am able to achieve ataraxia and move forward.

Artist Bio

Kate Crankshaw was born in the Pinelands of New Jersey and currently resides in Philadelphia with her 2 small dogs, 2 cats, and pet pigeon. She is skilled in both flameworking and hot glass, making work utilizing both processes. Her work explores ideas of memory, longing, and relationships. She has previously held internships at Wheaton Arts & Cultural Center, as well as Vetro Vero Studios. Kate has received multiple awards & scholarships, including the Kimmel Scholarship for excellence in Craft and the Brian Effron Pilchuck Glass School Scholarship to attend a workshop at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA. She has also received a gallery pick from Wexler Gallery for her piece "Home, Springtime" while featured in the Art Unleashed exhibition. In addition to her art practice, she designs and makes jewelry and home decor, as well as fabricating work in glass for both designers and artists. Kate holds a BFA in Craft + Material Studies, with a focus in glass, from the University of the Arts (2019) and an MFA in Craft/Material Studies with a focus in glass from Virginia Commonwealth University (2023).

Donated By The Artist

Kate Wait What
Sun Shift Earrings
Borosilicate glass with gold link clasp

These earrings appear grey in artificial light and purple in sunlight!

Artist Statement

My work explores themes of memory, relationships, loss, grief, and longing. I grew up living in constant transience, attempting to avoid formal foster care placement. Coming into adulthood made me question my upbringing and it's effect on my adult persona.

My work utilizes glass to evoke the fragile nature of stability and the ghost-like quality of memory. I am interested in the dichotomy of having the desire for the stability that I lacked growing up, while simultaneously seeking out the continuation of the uncertainty that became so familiar. Trauma can affect the brain by leaving a haze over your past, leaving holes in what you remember. This process has empowered me to take back an element of control by processing my memories, and therefore, gaining a better understanding of myself. Through the repetitive process of making glass, my body is able to relax into a meditative state, allowing my mind to process grief and trauma. By finding peace in my past, I am able to achieve ataraxia and move forward.

Artist Bio

Kate Crankshaw was born in the Pinelands of New Jersey and currently resides in Philadelphia with her 2 small dogs, 2 cats, and pet pigeon. She is skilled in both flameworking and hot glass, making work utilizing both processes. Her work explores ideas of memory, longing, and relationships. She has previously held internships at Wheaton Arts & Cultural Center, as well as Vetro Vero Studios. Kate has received multiple awards & scholarships, including the Kimmel Scholarship for excellence in Craft and the Brian Effron Pilchuck Glass School Scholarship to attend a workshop at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA. She has also received a gallery pick from Wexler Gallery for her piece "Home, Springtime" while featured in the Art Unleashed exhibition. In addition to her art practice, she designs and makes jewelry and home decor, as well as fabricating work in glass for both designers and artists. Kate holds a BFA in Craft + Material Studies, with a focus in glass, from the University of the Arts (2019) and an MFA in Craft/Material Studies with a focus in glass from Virginia Commonwealth University (2023).

Donated By The Artist

Ciel Bernabei
Butterfly Dreams, 2024
Digital art print on pillow
18" x 18" x 6"

Artist Statement

Butterfly Dreams is a soft dreamy pillow to rest on and dream about love, happiness and youth.

Artist Bio

Hi Im Ciel, I love creating and dreaming new logos for my designs. Dreamy patterns and inspirations of love, happiness and youth.

Courtesy of Balance Gallery

Enamellyse
Annie's Stars with Glass Enamel - Pink, 2025
Sterling silver, glass enamel

Artist Statement

Often inspired by her walks both in nature and in the city as well, Ellyse uses enamel's graphic qualities as an illustrative tool to emphasize shape and pattern in her production work. The more complex applications of champleve and plique a jour allow her to explore personal narratives in her one-of-a-kind pieces. Plique a jour, a kind of miniaturized "stained glass" effect in fine jewelry, is evocative of church windows as these pieces glow as they catch the light. Stained glass is most commonly associated with biblically religious fervor, but in Ellyse's work it is an applied worship of more mundane facets of life from a window of asparagus made one summer when the artist developed a near ritualistic obsession with the vegetable, the gentle comfort of a child's rainbow drawing as seen through home windows during "pandemic walks", to a patch of clovers that represent a quiet space on a hill stolen away from an otherwise bustling day.

Artist Bio

Ellyse translates illustrations into fine jewelry using traditional enameling techniques, especially focusing on champleve and plique a jour. After graduating from Tyler School of Art with a BFA in Metals/Jewelry/CAD she found work on Philadelphia's historical Jeweler's Row repairing gold jewelry with a focus in antique enamel restoration. Working on antique pieces exposed her to the vast possibilities of the medium, combining the playfulness of colorful drawing with the craft discipline she has learned from working within the fine jewelry industry.

Donated By The Artist

Enamellyse
Annie's Stars with Glass Enamel - Yellow, 2025
Sterling silver, glass enamel

Artist Statement

Often inspired by her walks both in nature and in the city as well, Ellyse uses enamel's graphic qualities as an illustrative tool to emphasize shape and pattern in her production work. The more complex applications of champleve and plique a jour allow her to explore personal narratives in her one-of-a-kind pieces. Plique a jour, a kind of miniaturized "stained glass" effect in fine jewelry, is evocative of church windows as these pieces glow as they catch the light. Stained glass is most commonly associated with biblically religious fervor, but in Ellyse's work it is an applied worship of more mundane facets of life from a window of asparagus made one summer when the artist developed a near ritualistic obsession with the vegetable, the gentle comfort of a child's rainbow drawing as seen through home windows during "pandemic walks", to a patch of clovers that represent a quiet space on a hill stolen away from an otherwise bustling day.

Artist Bio

Ellyse translates illustrations into fine jewelry using traditional enameling techniques, especially focusing on champleve and plique a jour. After graduating from Tyler School of Art with a BFA in Metals/Jewelry/CAD she found work on Philadelphia's historical Jeweler's Row repairing gold jewelry with a focus in antique enamel restoration. Working on antique pieces exposed her to the vast possibilities of the medium, combining the playfulness of colorful drawing with the craft discipline she has learned from working within the fine jewelry industry.

Donated By The Artist

Cimone Kind Berman aka Argent Mirror
Orbital Explosion, 2024
handmade mirror
24" diameter

About the work

My art is a fusion of time-honored craftsmanship and transformative alchemy. The exhibited works unite the old-school method of silvering mirrors with my own experimentation. Each mirror tells a unique story, blending history, craft, and artistic vision, inviting observers to glimpse both their own reflection and the enchanting metamorphosis of existence itself.

This series draws inspiration from nature, entwining the rhythms of ocean tides and lunar phases with my practice. By infusing the essence of alchemy into my work, I transmute clear glass into ethereal portals. These mirrors become vessels where copper, silver, and gold meld together, embodying the intrinsic beauty of the elements.

I repurpose vintage glass as often as possible. Infusing vitality into forgotten fragments, I honor their history and reimagine their purpose. In giving new life to discards, I advocate for sustainability and the beauty of honoring the past while embracing the potential of the future. Each mirror becomes a harmonious blend of heritage, artisanship, and reinvention. Within my creative process, I honor the connection between the Earth, moon, and the essence of art, drawing inspiration from the natural rhythms that guide my work

Bio
Cimone Kind Berman, the self-taught visionary behind Argent Mirror, merges artistry with sustainability, specializing in crafting custom antique mirrors and fine art from repurposed glass. With a creative journey spanning over six and a half years, Berman has perfected a signature patina method adaptable across diverse artistic expressions.

As an entrepreneur, wife, and mother to twin daughters, Berman champions the belief that determination and hard work pave the path to limitless possibilities. This ethos is reflected in her artistic endeavors and life pursuits.

Argent, meaning silver in French, began as a collaboration with parent glass and mirror company, Philadelphia native Gordon & Sons. Berman's art installations range in size from jewelry, to enormous walls of mirrors. After years in the industry, she has decorated the interiors of award-winning restaurants, luxe personal homes, and gallery-based art exhibitions.

With an unwavering commitment to sustainability, Berman's art not only embodies exquisite craftsmanship but also encapsulates a narrative of possibility, determination, and the beauty of repurposing materials to create timeless works of art.

You can see Cimone's work in the exhibition "hearth, frame, foundation" at Park Towne Place

Terri Saulin
All The Things You are (I), 2024
Porcelain, luster glazes.

4.5 x 3 x 3

Artist Statement

In the "Shaker" spirit, I imagine a tiny wasp-worker making imaginary homes for important collections of most special memories. Saulin's process begins with cartography. The drawings and sculptures created are a visual "counterpoint" The layered information, produces an imagined, time-lapse view of a world. Inspired by the landscape of her urban garden, drawings become maps that document plant life,
fleeting shadows, secreted places where mantis eggs were found, caterpillars ate, and dragonflies landed. They map the cold feeling felt in between the discs of her spine as she lay on her back on a freezing night watching a Perseid Meteor shower.

Intricate ceramic constructions are three-dimensional memory maps. They are invisible cities, liminal urban planning, and love letters to treasured and influential authors, artists, musicians, friends, and family members. A mise en place of ingredients float between surface decoration and building blocks. They are carrots, onions and celery and they are meditations on the thousands of loops her mother made while crocheting piles of blankets, wondering what thoughts may have passed under the weight of each accumulated stitch.

Artist Bio

Terri Saulin received her MFA from the University of the Arts and her BFA from Moore College of Art and Design. She is a long time member and press coordinator for Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia and a Member/Supporter of The Clay Studio, CFEVA and In liquid Gallery, Philadelphia. She currently teaches a variety of Studio Art courses at The Agnes Irwin School, in Rosemont, PA. Terri is the owner of No. 5 Butchie Alley. No. 5 Butchie Alley is an outgrowth of Terri's studio. The space is secretly tucked away on a small easement in South Philly and opens into a garden of inspiration.

Donated By The Artist

Terri Saulin
All The Things You Are II, 2024
Porcelain, luster glazes.

4.5 x 3 x 3

Artist Statement

In the "Shaker" spirit, I imagine a tiny wasp-worker making imaginary homes for important collections of most special memories. Saulin's process begins with cartography. The drawings and sculptures created are a visual "counterpoint" The layered information, produces an imagined, time-lapse view of a world. Inspired by the landscape of her urban garden, drawings become maps that document plant life,
fleeting shadows, secreted places where mantis eggs were found, caterpillars ate, and dragonflies landed. They map the cold feeling felt in between the discs of her spine as she lay on her back on a freezing night watching a Perseid Meteor shower.

Intricate ceramic constructions are three-dimensional memory maps. They are invisible cities, liminal urban planning, and love letters to treasured and influential authors, artists, musicians, friends, and family members. A mise en place of ingredients float between surface decoration and building blocks. They are carrots, onions and celery and they are meditations on the thousands of loops her mother made while crocheting piles of blankets, wondering what thoughts may have passed under the weight of each accumulated stitch.

Artist Bio

Terri Saulin received her MFA from the University of the Arts and her BFA from Moore College of Art and Design. She is a long time member and press coordinator for Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia and a Member/Supporter of The Clay Studio, CFEVA and In liquid Gallery, Philadelphia. She currently teaches a variety of Studio Art courses at The Agnes Irwin School, in Rosemont, PA. Terri is the owner of No. 5 Butchie Alley. No. 5 Butchie Alley is an outgrowth of Terri's studio. The space is secretly tucked away on a small easement in South Philly and opens into a garden of inspiration.

Persian Hamadan Rug

Persian Heriz Rug

Persian Heriz Rug

Persian Meshed Rug

Persian Meshed Rug

Aerisbotanica
Datura Branch
Cast bronze

Artist Statement

Aerisbotanica designs and hand makes beautiful cast bronze vessels and botanicals for the luxury home accessories and gift market.

We use the lost wax process to create our work. This process, also known as investment casting, is an ancient and intricate method of sculptural and artistic metal casting. The technique involves creating a detailed wax model, which is then encased in a mold. The mold is heated to melt and remove the wax (lost wax), leaving a hollow space in the shape of the original form. Molten bronze is then poured into the hollow mold, filling the space left by the wax. Once the metal solidifies, the mold is broken, revealing the cast metal object. This process allows for exceptional detail and precision, making it an excellent method for producing intricate and finely crafted bronze botanicals and decorative vessels.

Artist Bio

Chris Collins, an accomplished sculptor, leads the creation of our work. He holds an MFA in sculpture, with a specialization in metal casting. He has over 20 years professional experience in all aspects of sculpture production, including holding leadership roles in major art foundries. He is also an educator, teaching this process at the university level, and in private workshops.

Jennifer Joseph, the lead designer, is an accomplished artist, with over 30 years' experience in various types of design, organization and creative entrepreneurship.

Life and creative partners since 2008, both Chris and Jennifer maintain artistic practices, and their work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally.

Donated By Woodmere Art Museum

Carrie R Crudd
0011 Red-Pink-Pot

Made from Aqua-Resin, a water-based, non-toxic, sculpting resin. Green-sustainable.
For decorative or functional use; heat and water-resistant. Please handle with care! This is a functional artwork. You may rinse gently with water, or dust lightly with a paintbrush. The piece is supported by an internal wire structure/skeleton.
12" x 14" x 13"

Donated By The Artist

Prajje Oscar
SHOES
Print on canvas chocks

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
YAYA - SCARF
Silk

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
DIDI - SCARF
Silk

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
COLLECTION HAT- MUSTARD
Wool felt - detective hat

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
COLLECTION HAT- BLUE
Wool felt - baseball collection hat

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
PRAJJE OSCAR SWEATER
Cotton bland - white

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
BORAN KNITTED SWEATER
55% cotton, 45% polyester

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
BOIS CAIMAN KNITTED SWEATER
55% cotton, 45% polyester

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
ZAKA
Denim patch vest

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
KOUZIN
Drop waist skirt (denim mini skirt)

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
DANBALA SUMMER DRESS
Short dress (green)

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Prajje Oscar
LEGEND GOWN
Silk & chiffon gown

Artist Statement

As a designer, I am profoundly responsible to those who wear my designs. My mission is to ensure they feel beautiful, empowered, and contemporary while offering them an aspirational and attainable luxury

Artist Bio

A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Prajje transformed his childhood dream into a reality, establishing his fashion house in 2003. Now based in Philadelphia, his brand encompasses a sophisticated atelier and a Couture Atelier in Haiti, reflecting his deep connection to heritage and craftsmanship.

Prajje's work is synonymous with artistry and innovation. As a two-time Project Runway alumnus, his visionary approach to design captivated millions, solidifying his reputation as a cultural storyteller. He serves as the Creative Director for Philly Fashion Week and the Haitian band ZILE, shaping their artistic direction and wardrobe with unparalleled flair

Marguerita Hagan
Charger 1, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
12.5" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow'- Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Charger 2, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
12.5" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Charger 3, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
12.5" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Med Plate 1, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
5" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Med Plate 3, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
5" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. Ã'Ã'¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Med Plate 4, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
5" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ÃÆ''Ã'Ã'¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Small Bowl, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ÃÆ'Æ''ÃÆ''Ã'Ã'¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Small Plate 1 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
3" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Small Plate 2, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
3" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

Marguerita Hagan
Small Plate 3, 2025
Custom Diatom with Luster (hand-built in red clay with white glaze)
Hand-made sturdy stoneware. Each unique, food, dishwasher, microwave and ovenproof safe.
3" diameter

Artist Statement
What does light talk about? I asked a plant that once. It said, 'I am not sure, but it makes me grow' - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

Oak trees know. Their roots graft into one flesh so they may share mutual sustenance, benefiting the community as a whole. When one tree is in need, the healthy ones direct their energy in support. This goes brilliantly macro with fungi, the underpins of the terrestrial realm. Their fiber optic-like mycelium likening a high speed internet connects life in the subterranean. Micro-marine organisms connect in exquisite mutually beneficial systems or colonies in the ocean and provide over 50% of all oxygen for the planet. Rich diversity and reciprocal sharing fuel thriving communities and environments. This light-giving flow has enabled all life to thrive for eons.

Inherent potential realized moves everything, even light itself. ¨It certainly moves me. My work is a response to this light. The interdependent forms and projects grow in a continuous heliotropic adventure, energized with every opportunity and connection.

Artist Bio

Marguerita Hagan is a ceramic sculptor based in Philadelphia and an activist for the thriving of all life in mutually sustainable communities and environments. The concept of interdependence plays throughout her sculpture, teaching and community arts.

David Beker
Deconstructed Tansu

Artist Bio

David Beker is an architect, craftsperson and artist. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design in Design and Technology, a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and an undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Maryland. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Drawing from his experience as an architect and digital artist, David Beker's three-dimensional projects exist in a space between functional furniture and architectural sculpture. These sculptures draw inspiration from the deep cultural meaning of recognizable objects. These elements are combined and arranged to create a new composition that challenges the understanding of the object's original meaning.

Donated By The Artist

Loominous Designs
Blue-green seed bead earrings

Donated By The Artist

Loominous Designs
Long Tila Earrings #3
Seed beads, gold fill ear hooks

Donated By The Artist

Loominous Designs
Long Tila Earrings #4
Seed beads, gold fill ear hooks

Donated By The Artist

Loominous Designs
Triangle seed bead earrings
Seed beads, gold fill hooks

Donated By The Artist

Carl Durkow
CLT 1 (Cloud Laminate Table)
MDF, formica, aluminum
12" x 12" x 28"

Artist Bio

Carl Durkow (b. 1995, NJ) is a Philadelphia based furniture and object designer whose process involves taking the scenic route, sidestepping the digital realm and embracing the control of the human hand. With a dedication to physical experimentation and refinement, Durkow is interested in utilizing mundane details of the constructed world to foster surprise and intrigue.

Inspired by the elegance of fine craft, surrealist painting, and historic furniture designs he seeks to create objects meant to be lived with and cared for. While function is never neglected in the process, it often comes second to novelty of form and decorative reference. Durkow's creative journey is centered around evocative design, prioritizing sensory and tactile pleasures for anyone who encounters his work.

Donated By The Artist

Carl Durkow
Egg Cup
MDF, Formica, Aluminum
2" x 3" x 4"

Artist Bio

Carl Durkow (b. 1995, NJ) is a Philadelphia based furniture and object designer whose process involves taking the scenic route, sidestepping the digital realm and embracing the control of the human hand. With a dedication to physical experimentation and refinement, Durkow is interested in utilizing mundane details of the constructed world to foster surprise and intrigue.

Inspired by the elegance of fine craft, surrealist painting, and historic furniture designs he seeks to create objects meant to be lived with and cared for. While function is never neglected in the process, it often comes second to novelty of form and decorative reference. Durkow's creative journey is centered around evocative design, prioritizing sensory and tactile pleasures for anyone who encounters his work.

Donated By The Artist

Carrie R Crudd
0007 Midnight Garden Mirror
Aquaresin, acrylic, mirror, wire
Material: Made from Aqua-Resin, a water-based, non-toxic, sculpting resin. Green-sustainable.
Use & Care: For decorative or functional use; heat and water-resistant. Please handle with care! This is a functional artwork. You may rinse gently with water, or dust lightly with a paintbrush. The piece is supported by an internal wire structure/skeleton.
Durability: Pots have shipped from Philadelphia to California and Switzerland successfully!
15" x 15" x 6"

Donated By The Artist

Aerisbotanica
Datura Branch
Cast bronze

Artist Statement

Aerisbotanica designs and hand makes beautiful cast bronze vessels and botanicals for the luxury home dÃÆ'Ã'©cor accessories and gift market.

We use the lost wax process to create our work. This process, also known as investment casting, is an ancient and intricate method of sculptural and artistic metal casting. The technique involves creating a detailed wax model, which is then encased in a mold. The mold is heated to melt and remove the wax (lost wax), leaving a hollow space in the shape of the original form. Molten bronze is then poured into the hollow mold, filling the space left by the wax. Once the metal solidifies, the mold is broken, revealing the cast metal object. This process allows for exceptional detail and precision, making it an excellent method for producing intricate and finely crafted bronze botanicals and decorative vessels.

Artist Bio

Chris Collins, an accomplished sculptor, leads the creation of our work. He holds an MFA in sculpture, with a specialization in metal casting. He has over 20 years professional experience in all aspects of sculpture production, including holding leadership roles in major art foundries. He is also an educator, teaching this process at the university level, and in private workshops.

Jennifer Joseph, the lead designer, is an accomplished artist, with over 30 years' experience in various types of design, organization and creative entrepreneurship.

Life and creative partners since 2008, both Chris and Jennifer maintain artistic practices, and their work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally.

Donated By Woodmere Art Museum

Aerisbotanica
Devils Claw
Cast bronze

Artist Statement

Aerisbotanica designs and hand makes beautiful cast bronze vessels and botanicals for the luxury home dÃÆ'Ã'©cor accessories and gift market.

We use the lost wax process to create our work. This process, also known as investment casting, is an ancient and intricate method of sculptural and artistic metal casting. The technique involves creating a detailed wax model, which is then encased in a mold. The mold is heated to melt and remove the wax (lost wax), leaving a hollow space in the shape of the original form. Molten bronze is then poured into the hollow mold, filling the space left by the wax. Once the metal solidifies, the mold is broken, revealing the cast metal object. This process allows for exceptional detail and precision, making it an excellent method for producing intricate and finely crafted bronze botanicals and decorative vessels.

Artist Bio

Chris Collins, an accomplished sculptor, leads the creation of our work. He holds an MFA in sculpture, with a specialization in metal casting. He has over 20 years professional experience in all aspects of sculpture production, including holding leadership roles in major art foundries. He is also an educator, teaching this process at the university level, and in private workshops.

Jennifer Joseph, the lead designer, is an accomplished artist, with over 30 years' experience in various types of design, organization and creative entrepreneurship.

Life and creative partners since 2008, both Chris and Jennifer maintain artistic practices, and their work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally.

Donated By Woodmere Art Museum

Aerisbotanica
Sycamore Ball
Cast Bronze

Artist Statement

Aerisbotanica designs and hand makes beautiful cast bronze vessels and botanicals for the luxury home dÃÆ'Ã'©cor accessories and gift market.

We use the lost wax process to create our work. This process, also known as investment casting, is an ancient and intricate method of sculptural and artistic metal casting. The technique involves creating a detailed wax model, which is then encased in a mold. The mold is heated to melt and remove the wax (lost wax), leaving a hollow space in the shape of the original form. Molten bronze is then poured into the hollow mold, filling the space left by the wax. Once the metal solidifies, the mold is broken, revealing the cast metal object. This process allows for exceptional detail and precision, making it an excellent method for producing intricate and finely crafted bronze botanicals and decorative vessels.

Artist Bio

Chris Collins, an accomplished sculptor, leads the creation of our work. He holds an MFA in sculpture, with a specialization in metal casting. He has over 20 years professional experience in all aspects of sculpture production, including holding leadership roles in major art foundries. He is also an educator, teaching this process at the university level, and in private workshops.

Jennifer Joseph, the lead designer, is an accomplished artist, with over 30 years' experience in various types of design, organization and creative entrepreneurship.

Life and creative partners since 2008, both Chris and Jennifer maintain artistic practices, and their work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally.

Donated By Woodmere Art Gallery

Aerisbotanica
Artichoke Pod
Cast bronze

Artist Statement

Aerisbotanica designs and hand makes beautiful cast bronze vessels and botanicals for the luxury home dÃÆ'Ã'©cor accessories and gift market.

We use the lost wax process to create our work. This process, also known as investment casting, is an ancient and intricate method of sculptural and artistic metal casting. The technique involves creating a detailed wax model, which is then encased in a mold. The mold is heated to melt and remove the wax (lost wax), leaving a hollow space in the shape of the original form. Molten bronze is then poured into the hollow mold, filling the space left by the wax. Once the metal solidifies, the mold is broken, revealing the cast metal object. This process allows for exceptional detail and precision, making it an excellent method for producing intricate and finely crafted bronze botanicals and decorative vessels.

Artist Bio

Chris Collins, an accomplished sculptor, leads the creation of our work. He holds an MFA in sculpture, with a specialization in metal casting. He has over 20 years professional experience in all aspects of sculpture production, including holding leadership roles in major art foundries. He is also an educator, teaching this process at the university level, and in private workshops.

Jennifer Joseph, the lead designer, is an accomplished artist, with over 30 years' experience in various types of design, organization and creative entrepreneurship.

Life and creative partners since 2008, both Chris and Jennifer maintain artistic practices, and their work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally.

Donated By Woodmere Art Gallery

Aerisbotanica
Poppy Pod
Cast bronze

*ONE Cast Bronze Poppy Pod

Artist Statement

Aerisbotanica designs and hand makes beautiful cast bronze vessels and botanicals for the luxury home dÃÆ'Ã'©cor accessories and gift market.

We use the lost wax process to create our work. This process, also known as investment casting, is an ancient and intricate method of sculptural and artistic metal casting. The technique involves creating a detailed wax model, which is then encased in a mold. The mold is heated to melt and remove the wax (lost wax), leaving a hollow space in the shape of the original form. Molten bronze is then poured into the hollow mold, filling the space left by the wax. Once the metal solidifies, the mold is broken, revealing the cast metal object. This process allows for exceptional detail and precision, making it an excellent method for producing intricate and finely crafted bronze botanicals and decorative vessels.

Artist Bio

Chris Collins, an accomplished sculptor, leads the creation of our work. He holds an MFA in sculpture, with a specialization in metal casting. He has over 20 years professional experience in all aspects of sculpture production, including holding leadership roles in major art foundries. He is also an educator, teaching this process at the university level, and in private workshops.

Jennifer Joseph, the lead designer, is an accomplished artist, with over 30 years' experience in various types of design, organization and creative entrepreneurship.

Life and creative partners since 2008, both Chris and Jennifer maintain artistic practices, and their work has been shown and collected nationally and internationally.

Donated by Woodmere Art Gallery

Nate Willever
Pitcher, 2024
Wood ash and local feldspar glaze Reduction fired cone 8

Artist Bio

Nathan Willever was raised in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Maine College of Art.

His functional pottery made from local materials have been featured in numerous national exhibitions and publications such as Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated and Clay Times. In 2019 he was selected to be a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist.

His work has been shown nationally at galleries including Schaller Gallery, The Clay Studio, Akar Design, Jane Hartsook Gallery and The Ohio Craft Museum. He has taught workshops at institutions such as Ox-Bow School of Art, Touchstone Center for Craft, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

In 2018 he was selected by Haystack to be a guest artist at The Shigaraki Ceramic Culture Park in Shigaraki, Japan.
He was awarded The 2018 Sybille Zeldin Fellowship at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. In 2019 he was a Windgate Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.

Donated By The Artist

Nate Willever
Serving Bowl, 2024
Stoneware woodfired and reduction cooled cone 8

Artist Bio

Nathan Willever was raised in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Maine College of Art.

His functional pottery made from local materials have been featured in numerous national exhibitions and publications such as Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated and Clay Times. In 2019 he was selected to be a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist.

His work has been shown nationally at galleries including Schaller Gallery, The Clay Studio, Akar Design, Jane Hartsook Gallery and The Ohio Craft Museum. He has taught workshops at institutions such as Ox-Bow School of Art, Touchstone Center for Craft, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

In 2018 he was selected by Haystack to be a guest artist at The Shigaraki Ceramic Culture Park in Shigaraki, Japan.
He was awarded The 2018 Sybille Zeldin Fellowship at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. In 2019 he was a Windgate Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.

Donated By The Artist

Nate Willever
Square Box, 2024
Stoneware, white slip, clear hlaxe reduction fired cone 8

Artist Bio

Nathan Willever was raised in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Maine College of Art.

His functional pottery made from local materials have been featured in numerous national exhibitions and publications such as Ceramics Monthly, Pottery Making Illustrated and Clay Times. In 2019 he was selected to be a Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist.

His work has been shown nationally at galleries including Schaller Gallery, The Clay Studio, Akar Design, Jane Hartsook Gallery and The Ohio Craft Museum. He has taught workshops at institutions such as Ox-Bow School of Art, Touchstone Center for Craft, Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

In 2018 he was selected by Haystack to be a guest artist at The Shigaraki Ceramic Culture Park in Shigaraki, Japan.
He was awarded The 2018 Sybille Zeldin Fellowship at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. In 2019 he was a Windgate Scholar at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Black Raya Earrings
Hand fabricated. Rhodium plated sterling silve. Natural pink sapphires.
70 mm" x 2mm

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Bomba Signet Ring
Lost was casting. Rhodium plated sterling silver, 18k yellow gold.

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Caduceus Ring with Two Bezels
Lost was casting. Sterling silver, 18k yellow gold. Moon stone, blue spinel.

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Garras/Wood Earrings
Foraged American sycamore
Hand carved and charred wood and sterling silver
Tree coordinates: 39.95184ÃÆ''Ã'Ã'° N, 75.20819ÃÆ''Ã'Ã'°W
1 3/4" x 5/8" x 1 1/2"

Artist Statement

A tree will tell you a story about life, growth and death

Essential to the air we breath, magnificent, strong, patient, and almost invisible to us, trees are silent witnesses to our life's events.
To turn a tree on a lathe is to reveal a story about growth, reproduction and death. I forage local trees after they have been taken down by arborists and storms. Each piece has the recorded coordinates of that tree's geographical location.
In 2019 driven by a strong desire to create from the materials that surround me, I embarked on a journey to explore the natural ecosystem of my city. I collected fallen logs and branches while I taught myself carving and wood turning. My work is exclusively made from species that are native to Philadelphia's rich and diverse urban canopy predominantly found in parks, cemeteries, vacant lots, and tree-lined streets.

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Lagrimas Earrings
Limited production. Hand fabricated oxidized sterling silver, 18k yellow gold, dendritic agates
2 5/8" x 1/2" x 1/2"

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Memento Mori Series - Triangulo Earrings
Lost wax casting. Hand fabricated. Oxidized sterling silver and rubbies.
1 1/4" x 7/8" x 1/4"

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Naturaleza Muerta Series - Black Bud Earrings
Lost wax casting. Granulation. Oxidized terling silver, 22 kand 18k gold.
1" x 7/16" x 7/16"

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Naturaleza Muerta Series - White and Gold Bud Earrings
Lost was casting. Sterling silver, 18k yellow gold.
1 1/8" x 1/2" x 1/2"

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Roca Earrings
One of a kind piece. Hand fabricated. Sterling silver, rock, amber.
1 3/4" x 5/8" x 5/8"

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Spinning Earrings
Hand fabricated. Oxidized sterling silver, 18k yellow gold, rubies.
1 1/8" x 5/8" x 3/8"

Artist Statement

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Wood Cuff Series - Dark
Foraged American sycamore
Hand carved and charred wood and sterling silver
Tree coordinates: 39.95184Ã'Ã'° N, 75.20819Ã'Ã'°W
3" x 4" x 2 1/2"

Artist Statement

A tree will tell you a story about life, growth and death

Essential to the air we breath, magnificent, strong, patient, and almost invisible to us, trees are silent witnesses to our life's events.
To turn a tree on a lathe is to reveal a story about growth, reproduction and death. I forage local trees after they have been taken down by arborists and storms. Each piece has the recorded coordinates of that tree's geographical location.
In 2019 driven by a strong desire to create from the materials that surround me, I embarked on a journey to explore the natural ecosystem of my city. I collected fallen logs and branches while I taught myself carving and wood turning. My work is exclusively made from species that are native to Philadelphia's rich and diverse urban canopy predominantly found in parks, cemeteries, vacant lots, and tree-lined streets.

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Wood Cuff Series - Light
Foraged American sycamore
Hand carved and bleached wood and sterling silver
Tree coordinates: 39.95184Ã'Ã'° N, 75.20819Ã'Ã'°W
3" x 4 1/4" x 2"

Artist Statement

A tree will tell you a story about life, growth and death

Essential to the air we breath, magnificent, strong, patient, and almost invisible to us, trees are silent witnesses to our life's events.
To turn a tree on a lathe is to reveal a story about growth, reproduction and death. I forage local trees after they have been taken down by arborists and storms. Each piece has the recorded coordinates of that tree's geographical location.
In 2019 driven by a strong desire to create from the materials that surround me, I embarked on a journey to explore the natural ecosystem of my city. I collected fallen logs and branches while I taught myself carving and wood turning. My work is exclusively made from species that are native to Philadelphia's rich and diverse urban canopy predominantly found in parks, cemeteries, vacant lots, and tree-lined streets.

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Paz Sandoval
Wood Cuff Series - Rippled
Foraged American sycamore
Hand carved and charred wood and sterling silver
Tree coordinates: 39.95184Ã'Ã'° N, 75.20819Ã'Ã'°W
3" x 4" x 2 1/4"

Artist Statement

A tree will tell you a story about life, growth and death

Essential to the air we breath, magnificent, strong, patient, and almost invisible to us, trees are silent witnesses to our life's events.
To turn a tree on a lathe is to reveal a story about growth, reproduction and death. I forage local trees after they have been taken down by arborists and storms. Each piece has the recorded coordinates of that tree's geographical location.
In 2019 driven by a strong desire to create from the materials that surround me, I embarked on a journey to explore the natural ecosystem of my city. I collected fallen logs and branches while I taught myself carving and wood turning. My work is exclusively made from species that are native to Philadelphia's rich and diverse urban canopy predominantly found in parks, cemeteries, vacant lots, and tree-lined streets.

To be adorned is to tell a story about one's identity

Jewelry is theatrical in nature and gives the individual the power to construct an idealized version of the self.
To be adorned is simultaneously a personal and public act of creating and expressing one's identity.
When we embellish our bodies, we are making a deliberate choice about how we present and perceive ourselves, and what we want to communicate to the world.

Artist Bio

Influenced by the punk counterculture movement of my youth I started making jewelry as a way of expressing my individualism and nonconformity. I make things in the tradition of the decorative arts and often borrow techniques from what is historically referred to as "women"s craft". My recent work in wood is an attempt to connect with the natural world of my urban surroundings.

In the late '80s I moved from Spain to the States to study at Tyler School of Art.

I am a full-time artist living and working in Philadelphia.

Donated By The Artist

Wear to Wall
Fancy T - Size Medium, 2020
Limited edition, hand screen printed silk organza sleeve, cotton, spandex body

Artist Bio
Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator.
Donnelly makes screen printed and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized within videos and installations.

Donnelly founded Wear To Wall in 2019 with the intention of making her artwork wearable.

Wear To Wall is a unique apparel brand because each design is produced as an individual piece, making it more like artwork. The design process starts with the materials determining the size of a piece, which ultimately dictates the design itself. The garment is complete once all the designated materials get used. The limited edition pieces are made from patterns and assembled with a variety of fabrics, making each piece unique.

Art-to-wear pieces are not made from patterns and instead are "built' like sculptures and composed like "drawings." Wear to Wall designs are one-of-a-kind with materials and fabrics that are historical, serendipitously sourced, and created in a zero waste process from start to finish. These pieces are true originals-no other will ever exist.

Shelby Donnelly lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Donated By The Artist

Wear to Wall
Fancy T - Size Small, 2020
Limited edition, hand screen printed silk organza sleeve, cotton, spandex body
PHOTO CREDIT: JAY MUHLIN

Artist Bio
Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator.
Donnelly makes screen printed and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized within videos and installations.

Donnelly founded Wear To Wall in 2019 with the intention of making her artwork wearable.

Wear To Wall is a unique apparel brand because each design is produced as an individual piece, making it more like artwork. The design process starts with the materials determining the size of a piece, which ultimately dictates the design itself. The garment is complete once all the designated materials get used. The limited edition pieces are made from patterns and assembled with a variety of fabrics, making each piece unique.

Art-to-wear pieces are not made from patterns and instead are "built' like sculptures and composed like "drawings." Wear to Wall designs are one-of-a-kind with materials and fabrics that are historical, serendipitously sourced, and created in a zero waste process from start to finish. These pieces are true originals-no other will ever exist.

Shelby Donnelly lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Donated By The Artist

Wear to Wall
For Awhile, Here We Are Bow, 2022
1/1, One size fits all, synth satin and velvet

Artist Bio
Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator.
Donnelly makes screen printed and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized within videos and installations.

Donnelly founded Wear To Wall in 2019 with the intention of making her artwork wearable.

Wear To Wall is a unique apparel brand because each design is produced as an individual piece, making it more like artwork. The design process starts with the materials determining the size of a piece, which ultimately dictates the design itself. The garment is complete once all the designated materials get used. The limited edition pieces are made from patterns and assembled with a variety of fabrics, making each piece unique.

Art-to-wear pieces are not made from patterns and instead are "built' like sculptures and composed like "drawings." Wear to Wall designs are one-of-a-kind with materials and fabrics that are historical, serendipitously sourced, and created in a zero waste process from start to finish. These pieces are true originals-no other will ever exist.

Shelby Donnelly lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Donated By The Artist

Wear to Wall
Hand And Glove Coat, 2023
1/1, Hand screen printed 100% heavy weight cotton
Size: M/L

Artist Bio
Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator.
Donnelly makes screen printed and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized within videos and installations.

Donnelly founded Wear To Wall in 2019 with the intention of making her artwork wearable.

Wear To Wall is a unique apparel brand because each design is produced as an individual piece, making it more like artwork. The design process starts with the materials determining the size of a piece, which ultimately dictates the design itself. The garment is complete once all the designated materials get used. The limited edition pieces are made from patterns and assembled with a variety of fabrics, making each piece unique.

Art-to-wear pieces are not made from patterns and instead are "built' like sculptures and composed like "drawings." Wear to Wall designs are one-of-a-kind with materials and fabrics that are historical, serendipitously sourced, and created in a zero waste process from start to finish. These pieces are true originals-no other will ever exist.

Shelby Donnelly lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Donated By The Artist

Wear to Wall
I'm Set Free Coat, 2023
1/1, Cotton canvas, hand screen printed
Size: S/M
PHOTO CREDIT: AMELIA GISH

Artist Bio

Shelby Donnelly is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator.
Donnelly makes screen printed and sewn textiles, garments, and objects that are contextualized within videos and installations.

Donnelly founded Wear To Wall in 2019 with the intention of making her artwork wearable.

Wear To Wall is a unique apparel brand because each design is produced as an individual piece, making it more like artwork. The design process starts with the materials determining the size of a piece, which ultimately dictates the design itself. The garment is complete once all the designated materials get used. The limited edition pieces are made from patterns and assembled with a variety of fabrics, making each piece unique.

Art-to-wear pieces are not made from patterns and instead are "built' like sculptures and composed like "drawings." Wear to Wall designs are one-of-a-kind with materials and fabrics that are historical, serendipitously sourced, and created in a zero waste process from start to finish. These pieces are true originals-no other will ever exist.

Shelby Donnelly lives and works in Philadelphia, PA.

Donated By The Artist