Creative Thresholds

by Ashley Sauder Miller

These Two, 10 X 10″

At the End, 50 X 35″

But this Belongs to Us, 5 X 8″

Pulling Things Together 1, 11 X 14″

Bind and Separate, 48 X 50″

Quick Fix, Under the Rug, 56 X 60″

Cover/Veil (Blue), 30 X 40″

Here Again, 12 X 12″

Little Yellow, 4 X 4″

Pink Rug and Chair, 28 X 60″

Interior Spaces (My Memory is Fuzzy), 30 X 50″

Interior Spaces (Cover/Hide), 48 X 50″

Ashley Sauder Miller holds an MFA from James Madison University (2007) with an emphasis in painting and drawing.  She actively exhibits her work, maintains a regular practice  from her home studio, works as the director at local art center, and is the primary caregiver for her four children.

In my most recent work, I am particularly aware of the demands of motherhood, preservation of memory, and repetitious patterns of thought and behavior. Consistent in my work throughout the past number of years are my children’s mark making, textile design, Biblical text and stories, and a deep rooted passion for painting, drawing, and making.

Website: http://www.ashleysaudermiller.com/

Instagram: @ashleysaudermiller

Facebook: Ashley Sauder Miller Art

by Shirley Benton

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 2 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 2 ft

Acrylic on Board, 4 X 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 2 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 2 ft

Acrylic on Board, misc

Acrylic on Board, 4 X 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 4 X 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 4 X 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 2 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 3 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 X 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 2 x 4 ft

Acrylic on Board, 4 X 4 ft

Artist: Shirley Benton

Creating abstract art is an inward journey for me and my work is continually evolving. By staying in the moment and with very little planned, the creative process takes on an energy and motion all its own. The tactile experience of opening the paints I’ve selected quiets my mind and the layering of color provides a way to express a range of emotion from simply playful to much deeper complexity and tension.

I am a self-taught artist whose creative production revolves around exploring emotion and expression through color and form. Using simple tools and a lot of experimenting, I apply and blend multiple layers of acrylic paint on hard board which is then framed and ready to hang. Delving into the unknown with each new piece is filled with play, celebration and inner revelations. It is an act of possibility and discovery for myself. Sharing my work with others who bring their own unique interpretation enhances a connection and creates additional layers of discovery. The personal and the shared, the unknown and the final outcome are what keep me in the studio.

My work has been displayed at The Grand Impromptu Gallery, Allied Arts Center, Artistic Expression Gallery, Four Winds Café, Ruby’s Collections, Artifakt Signature Gallery, Obscurities and Tacoma Art Slam. Juried art award for “Gemini” from Allied Arts Center.

email: shirleybentonart@gmail.com

facebook: shirleybentonart

facebook: Small Studio Big Paintings

website: shirleybentonart.com

Instagram: shirleybentonart

by Emili Yi

Watercolor Emotion Series

The Watercolor Emotion Series aims to explore the relationship between emotion, color, shape, and context through water media.

“Optimistic Thought,” Watercolor, 30cm X 40cm

“Emotional Man,” Watercolor, 30cm X 40 cm

Mind Manifestation Series

The Mind Manifestation Series comprises a collection of paintings that were started and completed during the summer of 2013 using watercolors and charcoal. The inspiration for this body of work stems from the Emili’s exploration of the relationship between mind, image and actionable experience within material existence.

“Mind,” Watercolor and Charcoal, 30cm X 30cm

“Mind 2,” Watercolor and Charcoal, 30cm X 30cm

“Mind 3,” Watercolor and Charcoal, 30cm X 30cm

Expressive Symbolism

“Caged Dancer,” Digital Media (Acrylic), 15″ X 15″

“Caged Dancer” uses symbolism, a diverse color palette and fluid line stroke to express a story of irony and confined fancy. It marks Emili’s first work since emigrating to the United States and in digital media.

“Red,” Digital Media (Acrylic), 15″ X 15″

“Red” is an exploration of emotion expressed in symbol and color to represent context, mood and atmosphere.

Visual Syntax Series

“Visual Syntax,” Digital Media (Acrylic), 15″ X 15″

“Visual Syntax” is an abstract painting which contemplates the evolving function of human visual syntactic processes during a time of emerging information and media technologies.

“Escapade,” Digital Media (Acrylic), 15″ X 15″

“Escapade” continues to explore human mindscape in a time of transition. The image presents a visual landscape rich in organic shapes and colors inspired from nature. The aim of the image is to present an abstract concept based created from shapes inspired from nature and contrasts from that of mathematical abstraction and straight line.

Watercolor Bodies

These images work to present the human figure through color and the virtues of watercolor media.

“Watercolor Body 1,” Watercolor, 30cm X 30 cm

“Watercolor Body 2,” Watercolor, 30cm X 30 cm

“Watercolor Body 3,” Watercolor, 30cm X 30cm

Homage to Picasso

“Bullfight,” Watercolor, 160cm X 110 cm

“Bullfight” was created to pay homage to Pablo Picasso during Emili’s Junior year in art school.

Photo Realism

“Woman,” Digital Media (Acrylic), 32″ X 24″

“Woman” demonstrates Emili’s skill sets in Portraiture work.

“Leopard,” Digital Media (Acrylic), 24″ X 16″

“Leopard” demonstrates Emili’s skill-sets in Portraiture work and photo-realism.

Emili Yi was born in Liaoning, China February 24, 1987. At an early age Emili displayed artistic ability and was enrolled into a private art school by her parents at the age of six. In 2001, Emili trained under the tutelage of Professor Song Wei who is a practicing professor at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and widely recognized as a wood-block painting and print master. In 2007, Emili studied at the Yi Yuan Private Art Academy and in 2008 enrolled into the Northeast University Fine Arts Program. She graduated in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree Major in Oil Painting. Emili moved to the United States on July 4, 2013 and currently lives in Walnut Creek, CA.

Website: http://www.emiliyi.com/

Twitter: @emili_yi

Facebook: Emili Yi

by Riin Kaljurand

My interest lies in paint itself. Paint as medium is as tangible and formable as clay and can be manipulated and approached as sculptural material. My paintings are collaged from dried layers of acrylic or household paint by manipulation–by scraping, folding, cutting and building up the surface. Of personal fascination for me beside its surface is paint’s physical quality and its formability. Dried paint is highly flexible and formable and can be used multiple ways. Some of my paintings are built up by collaborating collage techniques and traditional knitting. Paint can also be manipulated in different drying stages. For example, a layer of acrylic paint left for drying overnight gives it a quality which allows it to be drawn into. Because I approach paint as sculptural material I choose to hang paintings further from the wall to give them object like, sculptural format. They often take on three-dimensional forms with varying textures and colours. Colour of paintings are usually taken from original photos from ‘Soviet Woman’, but it is not as intense. For me paint is not embellishment on canvas, but rather a physical material in its own right.

I was born in former Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, what was a part of Soviet Union. The era has always fascinated me with its paradoxes and peculiarities. Imagery of my paintings is taken from Soviet Estonia’s magazine ‘Soviet Woman’. According to communist ideology of work and importance of working, in this magazine women are represented as hard working comrades of Soviet society. ‘Soviet Woman’ created and propagated femininity according to communist ideology. Judith Butler has said: ‘Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed’.

Builderwoman 2

Builderwoman

Cafeteria

Class Photo

Cow

Fifty Shades of Grey

Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side

Head in Clouds

Hitchockian

Knitting

Lady in Green

Leftovers

Red

Snow

Stereotype of my Mother

Photographer: Margus Valt, www.margusvalt.com.

Artist: Riin Kaljurand

by Dwijen Gupta

When 3 is Company

Artist: Dwijen Gupta

Dwijen Gupta, painter from Kolkata, India, has been painting for over 25 years and has to his credit several solo shows as well as group shows in India and abroad. Dwijen Gupta completed graduation from Govt College of Art & Craft, Kolkata, and has been in the field of fine art for over 25 years and specialized in large water colours and Acrylic on Tussar ( tasaar – special silk) cloth, Paper and Canvas and Mix Media. Awarded as the Best Watercolour Artist, he had accolades and honours.

“Unification of woman with nature” is the basic trait of Dwijen‟s world-outlook. Through his deft artistry, Artist Dwijen Gupta forces the viewer to deliberate on his female-centric compositions. The strong “Indian‟ feel is inflected through an active interplay of facial features as well as postures and gestures enhancing the mood of his frames. What attracts one’s attention is the simplicity of his women. Not surprisingly his “women‟ seem to be cast in a timeless capsule where her position seems defined either as a mendicant, singer, musician or a devotee far removed from this world, introspecting on the act at hand, singing or making music. The figurative compositions elaborated in water colour and mixed media; express the unheeded, unspoken and unsung” as viewed by critics. His latest collection of artworks is titled “Abstraction of Poetical Tunes”.

Contact: dwijen07@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwijen.gupta.5

by Tempy Osborne

As a second generation adventurer and explorer I have always had the notion that anywhere in the world could potentially be seen as home. I live and work in Belgium but grew up in a family of artists surrounded by the sea and mountains landscape of the Beara Peninsula in West Cork, Ireland. In 1989 at the age of five I was taken on a year-long family adventure to the remote Inuit village of Grise Fiord in the Canadian Arctic. Here gleaning the experience of 24 hour darkness, temperatures of -40c and below, dog sled fishing trips, ice camping and the harsh reality of seal hunting, polar bear skinning and sea ice that breaks up a little earlier with every passing year. Since then I have been back to visit the Arctic many times and ideas of climate change, mass culture and fear of the unknown continually to surround my work.

I studied Fine Art specializing in painting at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland from 2002- 2006. Rarely painting on traditional canvas, instead I search for new ways of expression using wood, plastic, fabric and other surfaces.

Tigh, oil on fabric, 10x10cm 2015

Summer Hills, oil on wood, 3x3in 2014

About Dawn, oil on fabric, 15x15cm, 2014

Little Boat, oil on wood, 1x1in, 2014

Arctic Mars Research Station, detail, oil on fabric, 2014

Adrift, oil on wood, 2x3in, 2015

Unknown Limits, oil on fabric, 10x10cm, 2014

Big Iceberg, detail, mixed media on board, 2008

Iqaluit International Airport, oil on board, 6x4in, 2008

Artist: Tempy Osborne

Website and blog: www.tempyosborne.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tempy-Osborne/157594580975060

Instagram: @tempyosborne, www.instagram.com/tempyosborne

Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaintBoxStudios

by John F. Marok

The figures in my paintings have their origins from my own life. I begin with my friends, family and myself as a model but what transpires during my painting process always yields a revelation. The end result is a painting that solicits or awakens something in me … something that was not originally foreseen. I don’t fully “get” the painting immediately … its significance unfolds over time.

Often my paintings exude an enigmatic quality, which is not something for which I strive. However, I feel most resolved with a painting when it is imbued with elements of both ambiguity and precision. When a painting is completed, I feel as though I’ve met a stranger that I somehow know–a curious feeling of deja-vu.

I work with the belief that what is most personal is also most universal. My perception is that our vulnerability, our deepest innermost thoughts and feelings of the world around us can be common and shared.

66″ x 54″ oil on canvas

48″ x 36″ oil on canvas

48″ x 36″ oil on canvas

48″ x 36″. oil on canvas

40″ x 30″ oil on canvas

84″x72″ oil on canvas

84″x72″ oil on canvas

Artist: John F. Marok

Born in Montreal in 1960, John F. Marok graduated from John Abbott College and Concordia University with a special emphasis on painting. He is a recipient of the Queens Jubilee Medal, has been awarded Grants by the Canada Council and from Quebec’s ministère de la Culture and has painted and completed research residencies in Europe and Canada. An accomplished, full-time painter, Marok has been working and exhibiting for 35 years.

In 1980, Marok was jury selected at 19 years old (the youngest participant) for the 3rd Biennale of Quebec Painting, held at the Saidye Bronfman Centre in Montreal. The following year he was represented by the Grunwald Gallery, a prestigious commercial gallery in Toronto and participated in an important exhibit of Quebec painting at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). At 22 years of age he was given his first one-man exhibition at Grunwald and received much critical acclaim and commercial success. Subsequent to several other exhibitions John’s work became nationally recognized and collected by several museums across Canada, namely: Musee d’art contemporain du Quebec (Montreal), Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), Musee du Quebec (Quebec), MOCCA (Toronto), Nickel Arts Museum (Calgary).

During the 1990’s Marok’s work was purchased exclusively by Jean Lapointe and then by Gaetan Morin. These highly regarded collectors sold and distributed Marok’s paintings into private collections and the collections of The University of Ottawa, The University of Quebec, McGill University and also the collections of the City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau which houses over 100 paintings by Marok.

For the past 25 years John has been living and working in Wakefield, Quebec where he maintains his full-time art practice. Of his paintings, John says: “My paintings are inspired, influenced and shaped through my experience of places, people and things in my life. I work with the belief that what is most personal is also most universal. My perception is that our vulnerability, our deepest innermost thoughts and feelings of the world around us can be common and shared.”

by Jon Davenport

Miss Golightly II 60×48

Rocket II 48×48

Southern-Fried-24×24

North-Carolina-Royalty-24×36

Orange-Soda-48×48

Artist: Jon Davenport

From biology student to owning and running a creative agency in London to a career as a fine artist, life has taken Jon Davenport on a rewarding and unconventional journey. Despite his scientific beginnings, he’s always had a strong artistic streak weaving its way through his different career paths.

Growing up in Ipswich, UK, Jon was always an avid drawer, and could often be found with a pencil and paper in hand. With the arrival of his first computer, he embraced the new frontier of digital art, and had work published in one of those early computer magazines. The stage was set!

His creative urges took a backseat to getting a biology degree at Brunel University in London. It was afterwards, in his first job working at Archant newspaper group in Ipswich, that he quickly progressed from plate maker to becoming an integral member of the art studio. It was during this time that he taught himself photoshop, desktop publishing and graphic & web design.

After a few years he setup a design agency, and eventually went full time and moved to London. This proved to be a successful move, working for a number of clients such as Nike and Virgin, and gaining praise from the likes of Richard Branson and Tony Blair.

It wasn’t until Jon moved to the USA to marry his wife, Atlanta artist Christy Kinard, that he began indulging his pure creative urges, with her constant encouragement. Thanks to all the previous twists and turns, as well as embracing a new found love for photography and the paintbrush, it was only then that he could truly begin to create artworks that he was proud of.

Website:  http://jondavenportart.com

by JT Winik

Needs

Child’s Play

King Ali

Mirage

The Mime

Posing

White Sheet

Day Dreams

Ecstasy I

Girl with Braids II

Homage a Degas I

King Stein

Mary Anne III

Swirl

Artist: JT Winik

BFA – NSCAD University, Halifax, NS

BEd – Western University, London, ON

JT Winik (BFA, BEd) is a Canadian visual artist whose figurative paintings explore themes of isolation, introspection and the fusion of contrary states of being. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, The Netherlands and Mexico and she is currently represented in galleries in Toronto, Prince Edward County, Montreal, and Amsterdam. Her paintings have been featured in national magazines, books and book covers in Canada, Holland, Turkey and England. She paints full time from her studio in Kingston and has spent extensive periods working at studios in Spain and Holland.

https://jtwinik.wordpress.com/

http://www.jtwinik.com/

https://twitter.com/jtwinik

http://www.armedartsalon.com/jt-winik—canada.html

http://oenogallery.com/artist/?ai=2533

http://www.musegallery.ca/featuredartists/painting/Winik/index.html

http://www.artinteriors.ca/artists/j_t_winik

http://www.galerieblanche.com/artist/18/jt-winik

http://www.artacasa.nl/artists/Winik.htm

by Laura Carter

Schrödinger’s Cat by Caroline Nevin (https://www.facebook.com/CINfulART)

Games retire into heart
and then the Copernican window
that never quite says what it can say
because the world is made up of obsolete angles.
I listen to Neutral Milk Hotel and think of the two-headed
Hegel, though I know that A does not equal what it is.
On the other side of the city, a couple settles down
and turns on the TV for the last time. And then they get divorced.
It’s as simple as that really, the fact that they have grown apart
because the night crept into them where it hurt.
There’s really nothing left of a city when you
see only the remains of the day, and then nothing left of those old remains.
Salvador and his friends are growing beards again in my latest longing.

*

Every night we kiss before the sheets become wet with
remnants of bodies lost in space
Before a loss
there is always a voice that comes from somewhere telling us that we should
stop
By we I mean me
and you the one I once remembered
but the dawn is an unruly fool
matched only by night
where things are almost simple and right with the new rain
and everybody
loves to wear a city and
even the sky is a new rooftop

*

A document is filed under sun and
nothing seems to change.
Outside, the world is what it has always been:
full of people needing to care
and be cared for, full of people needing to hug and be hugged and to be blessed
by something, if not others.
The old people
walk slowly to their doctors’ visits,
making ducks back into dogs,
telling off the sun because it’s so far gone and
the only thing left is
a body—not just one but maybe many
slouching toward a destination.

*

Modernity is made of old spikes—
you lose one, and then I help you heal where it fell
into the ground into a puddle of milk.
The other side of the revolution
is that a lover can be made of nothing
but himself—pure self—pure nothing but him-him-him-himself
and the world is brighter than an orange May.
A new romance is almost as alphabetic as
the time you escaped from the womb again.

*

A sun glistens in early
and you don’t know what to do so you make your coffee
and imagine what your next life will be.
Made up of the worlds of alphabet skies,
you’re not all there yet, but you want to be there oh so bad.
While you’re worrying about the next thing, I’m worrying about
where I put the keys to the car in case I need
to flee in the middle of the night and
drive to the station to write a letter.
The next thing I want to do is become ordinary,
as plain as new luxe
but not entirely live
as a wire is live, not entirely all that way.
The place near the desk where you put your chair spins.

*

As it turns out, the animals are awake
and listening to Cyndi Lauper on iTunes
until 3 in the morning, just because they can.
Everything for sale, until dawn
hits and their lovers turn over in their beds.
Neglect? you might ask. What’s the working world about?
It’s not the lake anyone needed.
It’s not even Times Square where the cultures are all blending and
and suddenly your Jungianism seems obsolete, retarded
by the station moving forward in space.

*

Someone wants to enter the door of the law for the last time.
It’s like shuffling what’s left—
with tears for ordinary
time schedules train stations left.
The latest groove is an exercise in fear,
when the world doesn’t want to take you in.
Someone enters the last door
and begs a little sustenance
as if remembering what a love was for.

Laura Carter lives in Atlanta, where she is poet-in-residence at WonderRoot Center for Art & Social Change until March. Her most recent chapbooks are out in 2014 with Dancing Girl and ShirtPocket Presses. She has published many poems online and in print journals, and she lives on the east side of the city with her two cats, Sasha and Sonya.