Courtney Parsons is a graphic designer and illustrator from northern Virginia. She is the co-creator of a coloring book series titled Color Your Way USA, a history-themed coloring book series. She derives the inspiration and themes of her work from animals, nature, and the universe around her.
ARTIST STATEMENT: I work mainly in digital media and my pieces are mix between photo manipulation, 3D elements and digital painting/drawing. I enjoy creating surreal and strange creatures, fragile and powerful at the same time. My style was influenced a lot by religious imagery, fairytales illustrations and many classical and modern painters.
BIO: Natalie Shau is mixed media artist and photographer based in Lithuania (Vilnius). She found interest in fashion and portrait photography as well as digital illustration and photo art. Despite her personal work, Natalie also creates artwork and photography for musicians, theater, fashion magazines, writers and advertisement. She also worked as an art director for a short 3d movie of Kamel Ouali musical “Dracula.”
PRINTS: If you are interested in fine art giclee prints – you can email me directly and i will provide you full information about price, edition and size of work you are interested in. Please note that copies are very limited and I have only few or even one copy of work sometimes as I do only very limited edition prints. They are all signed and numbered by hand.
CUSTOM PORTRAITS: I can create a custom art portrait based on your photograph. Please contact me for details.
CLIENTS: Lydia Courteille jewelry Kamel Ouali Kara expo Island Def Jam Ogilvy & Mather Sony BMG Century Media Nuclear Blast Trisol Metropolis records Peaceville Records (Cradle of Filth) Michel LAFON Actes Sud Simon & Schuster Books Bloomsbury Publishing Cadbury Le Livre de Poche
GALLERIES: Opera Gallery (USA) Kat von D’s Wonderland gallery (USA) Corey Helford Gallery (USA) Vanilla Gallery (Japan) Dorothy Circus Gallery (Italy) Cabinet des Curieux (France) Last Rites Gallery (USA) STRYCHNIN Galleries (Germany) Phillips de Pury & Company gallery (USA)
BOOKS: Tangled Tales (self published) Art that Creeps (Korero Books)
Robert Steven Connett is a self-taught artist living in Los Angeles, California. His beautifully realized visions of an unseen world teeming with vibrant and complex lifeforms open windows into a universe that we rarely contemplate. Microscopic biological phenomena in nature, flora, and fauna, particularly oceanic origins, provide Connett with bountiful inspirations. His imagination ensures his creations rise above the natural and inhabit a sphere somewhere between the familiar and the extraordinary. Connett masterfully brings a sumptuous and bizarre underworld into existence, a remembrance of a time when life was plentiful and mysterious before the current great extinctions began.
What’s buzzin’ cousin? Lemme clue ya’ to what Derek’s been up to these most recent dims n’ brights. He’s makin’ art like … no-tomorrow-style. This cat’s got a way long history of scratchin’ out art for lots of king-sized bigwigs like Marvel Comics and Cartoon Network. But nowadays he strictly digs the gigs that let him beat his own bongos.
He gets a large charge creatin’ art for a whole heap of way-out events such as the Tiki Oasis, Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend, Tales of the Cocktail and even Spain’s Wild Weekend! He’s also laid out art for several righteous rags like Barracuda, Atomic, and Tiki Magazine. And like, most recently he’s been interviewed and featured in some nutty overseas mags … Playboy Brazil, Cover Magazine in Venezuela and the French art mag HEY! Now if that don’t send you into orbit, you’re runnin’ on the wrong kinda fuel!
But what really flips his switches like … too much, is makin’ with the Van Gogh routine. Derek’s had his paint splatters well-hung in galleries all over the world. MondoPop in Italy, Outré in Australia, Vertigo in Mexico and La Fiambrera in Spain to namedrop just a fewsville.
Derek has also been commissioned to create art for such hi-falootin’ fat cats as Shag, Elvira, The Brian Setzer Orchestra and Pixar director Lee Unkrich! Crazy, man!
Like … Derek would rather juggle chainsaws than be a nine to five pencil-pusher so you know these days he’s diggin’ a one-way ticket to Flipsville! See ya soon, baboon!
Paul Rabinowitz is an author, photographer and founder of ARTS By The People, a non-profit arts organization based in New Jersey. Through all mediums of art Paul aims to capture real people, flaws and all. He focuses on details that reveal the true essence of a subject, whether they be an artist he’s photographing or a fictional character he’s bringing to life on the page.
Paul’s photography, short fiction and poetry have appeared in many magazines and journals including New World Writing, Waxwing Literary Journal, Pif Magazine, Courtship of Winds, Burningword, Evening Street Press, The Sun Magazine, Grub Street Literary Journal, The Montreal Review, The Metaworker, Adirondack Review, Bangalore Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, The Oddville Press and others. Paul was a featured artist in Nailed Magazine in 2020 and Mud Season Review in 2022. Paul was nominated for Best of the Net in 2021 for his Limited Light photo series and also nominated for the Maria Mazziotti Gillan Literary Service Award. Paul is the author of Limited Light, a book of prose and portrait photography, and a novella, The Clay Urn. Paul is working on a multimedia novel called Confluence, and has completed a poetry collection called truth, love and the lines in between. His poems and fiction, Little Gem Magnolia, Villa Dei Misteri, Confessional and The Lines In Between are the inspiration for 4 short films. Villa Dei Misteri and Little Gem Magnolia won best Experimental Films at the RevolutionMe and Oregon Short Film Festivals.
Paul has produced mixed media performances and poetry films that have appeared on stages and in theaters in New York City, New Jersey, Tel Aviv and Paris. Paul is a written word performer and founder of The Platform, a monthly literary series in New Jersey, and Platform Review, a journal of voices and visual art from around the world. Paul’s videos, photography and poems appeared in his first solo exhibit called Retrospective With Reading Glasses at CCM Gallery in New Jersey. He is currently at work co-writing a television series with author Erin Jones called Bungalow.
ABOUT PAUL’S PHOTOGRAPHS
This selection of photos comes from Paul’s ongoing photography series, Limited Light. The series was born from a desire to photograph artists in a way that captured the essence and emotion of their art, rather than focusing solely on their physical appearance. Because of Limited Light’s unique aim, the portraits often grew to become a collaboration between Paul and the artists–the final product coming out of a mutual trust and a shared understanding of the ultimate goal. The process of taking these photographs has adapted over time, but each photo featured here was taken in a sixty-minute session. Purposefully, Paul had never seen most of the artists before meeting them to take their portraits–he’d only witnessed their art.
The artists Paul has worked with for this project range from poets to dancers to painters. There is no manipulation of the photographs, so what you see is what Paul saw when he took the photo. The name–Limited Light–comes from the fact that the only equipment Paul uses is camera; therefore, he has to rely on natural lighting and embrace how the subject is transformed by the changing light. This project, he says, has taught him how to accept uncertainty and see beauty in the variables he can’t control.
Several of the photos below are featured in his first book, Limited Light where he mixes his portraits with narrative prose. and also appeared in his solo show at CCM Gallery in New Jersey called, Retrospective with Reading Glasses.
Nick Bryant is a tattoo artist, working out of Dark Light Studios in Fort Collins, CO. He’s been tattooing for over eight years professionally, getting his start in Seattle, WA. Tattooing is his passion—striving to give clients his best work, and a great experience in a welcoming environment. This series is an ode to a couple of his favorite artists, Norm Collins aka Sailor Jerry, a tattooer, and Bill Waterson, an illustrator/cartoonist and the creator of Calvin and Hobbes. Nick combined the art of both artists into some really fun images to hang on the wall or get tattooed. Both have happened.
If you’d like to see more of Nick Bryant’s work, you can see his most up-to-date pieces on Instagram at @wolfantlers
As a fallen limb, bent spoon, snow melting over stone. Inward life veering toward largely empty landscapes. Collector. History, miniatures, shapes dug from the earth, animals, awkward postures, hair, long necks, textures, scents, window views. Something out of time, flattened, studied, uncertain and uncomfortable. Small, ineffectual mirror.
Ryan Heshka is an artist and illustrator, born in Manitoba, Canada. He spent a lot of his childhood drawing, building cardboard cities and making super 8 films. Formally trained in interior design, he is self-taught as an artist. Ryan’s illustrations have appeared in publications such as Vanity Fair, Esquire, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and others, as well as art magazines, American Illustration and Communication Arts. His artwork has been featured on the cover of BLAB!, and his work has been featured at galleries in North America (Roq La Rue, Seattle, WA; Richard Heller, LA; Copro Nason, LA; Orbit Gallery, NJ; Rotofugi, Chicago) and Europe (Feinkust Kruger, Germany; Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Italy). Ryan’s work is known for its surreal scenes, humor, pop culture references and visual language similar to comics and cartoons. He lives and works in Vancouver.
Stewart Francis Easton is a visual storyteller based in London who works in thread, ink, paint and digital media. Easton received an MA in Illustration and Animation. He has had a number of solo shows both in the UK and USA as well as being involved in numerous group shows in the UK and USA.
Breaking the
traditional boundaries of craft, Stewart Francis Easton’s work fuses together
hand embroidery, sonic art and design-based illustration. He has been removing
the ‘storyline’ of a visual narrative by creating geometric/graphic forms in
stitch.
This
reassembling of his work ethic in a conscious measured layout enables the
viewer to be free of their preconceptions of story. Some of his artworks
are part of private collections in the UK and internationally.
Artist
Statement:
I find pleasure in discovering the artifactual
nature of common objects, the sacred proportions in landscapes and urban
scenes, and the perfect imperfections in birds and animals. This
series of photographs taken within, and in observation of, various Pacific
Northwest homes, ships, WWII coastline surveillance buildings and other
structures, explores the voyeuristic nature of human curiosity.
Bio: I grew up in a family where something was always being made, repaired, or embellished. I earned a BA in Humanities from the University of Houston-Downtown, and have pursued art and photography as hobbies for many years. In my native Houston, Texas my works have been included in exhibits such as “Houston Collage Underground” at DiverseWorks, and “Earth Visions” at the Museum of Printing History. In my new home of Beaverton, Oregon, my photography and collage have featured in a “Beaverton Arts Mix” exhibit and in “#YourArtMoment”, an online gallery of works by local artists.
A native of France, born of Italian
parents, Liz grew up in Los Angeles.
Inspired by the world and her
travels, her keen eye captures the forlorn areas of our cities which she in
turn transforms into scenes that whisk viewers away to an altogether different
place, one filled with wonder and discovery.
She manipulates her original
photography onto acrylic painted wood panels, then layers each piece with
washes of color resulting in strikingly original works of art. Her mixed media
paintings aim to cast a light on the lost and forgotten segments of the cities
in which we live.
Liz graduated in 2002
from Otis Art Institute with a BFA in Illustration and now works as a
graphic artist from her studio in Los Angeles.
First Responder Donated to the nursing department in Long Beach Memorial Hospital.
Forever Strong Donated to Ladder 11 Company, in New York City.
We Belong
Honey Blossum Showing now through July at The Hive Gallery, Los Angeles.
Moon Man
Motherland
L’Chaim
Jeju Island
New World
Angels & Demons
Artist Statement
I have been painting most of my life, picking up an ethnic style that exemplifies my experience as a Filipino/Jew living in Los Angeles. I am impassioned by the movement of todays culture. I am bound by expressing my feeling and need for belonging. Through my work, I try to show the struggles I faced being a person who never really fit in. Though my work went through a lot of changes, I always try to emote the feelings of the time: from troubles with mental illness and my highs and lows (literally). In my early art career and life I realize one thing that gave me hope to push on. I have found that nothing is perfect, including art. I realize the mistakes can have a more important value than the successes. Though I strive for success, I have learned to love my failures and try to keep them in my art. I realize, that if I try to see me through someone else’s eyes we are all the same. We basically go through the same things and the same struggles. Mistakes can be beautiful too.
The Hive (2020, Feature Artist) Venice Art Auction (2013-2018, Charity Art Show) La Luz De Jesus Gallery (2002-2018: Group Show) Hale Art Space (2013: 2 Man Show) Van Eaton Gallery (2012: Group Show) Angel Project Food (2012, Charity Art Show) Hale Art Space (2012: Solo Show) Clare Foundation (2010-2012: Charity Art Show) C.A.V.E Gallery (2009: Group Show) The Hive (2007: Feature Artist) The Hive (2007-Now: Monthly Group Shows) Brea Gallery (2003-2006: Group Show) Cannibal Flowers (2006-Now) Monkeyhouse Toys (2006-Now) De Vorzon Gallery (2001)
The enclosed body of work was inspired by 35mm Kodachrome slides and generations-old photographs that were gathered from locations across the United States. Through my experience of painting and sharing these photos, I have found that there is something inherent in them that speaks to many Americans, whether it be a photo taken at a pool party in 1965 or of someone’s mother standing in front of the family car—we insert our own lives into these scenes from the past.
I view
thousands of slides and photos to find the ones that moves me emotionally. I’m constantly
on the hunt for photos that mirror scenes from my childhood, or that I feel a
connection to through personal or familial experience.
The
suburban scenes I paint reflect my own childhood in New York on Long Island.
The cars proudly displayed on driveways, the meticulously manicured lawns, inviting
neighbor’s pools, and 1960’s architecture were the backdrop of my youth. Though
I don’t live in this setting anymore, I still feel a significant connection to it.
This
process of photographic research, and painting the essential scenic components,
is very personal. I’ve realized, however, that my experiences are part of
common thread that many Americans share regardless of age, race and gender. The
images that produce a flood of involuntary memories for me often evoke similar cascades
of feelings and thoughts in others. Why is this?
Another angle I’m interested in exploring is the effect of color on memory. When looking at vintage photography, I see the color as a built-in time stamp. Different types of film age in various ways because of unstable color dyes—the faded color scheme adds a Gestalt effect that evokes these nostalgic feelings. Most of my paintings take place in the past before I was born. The photographs that inspire me act as my window to the past, and in my own case these photos color my impression of the past. Through these paintings I’m engaging with the past, and bringing along the view for the ride.
My name is Karl Stephan and I’m from Bristol in the UK. I write and draw (and publish) independent comic books. My latest project is called Mary Boys and it is currently funding on Indiegogo.
Mary Boys is about four teenage Knights Templar
from a backwater English town. Their guardian and mentor is an old Catholic
priest named Parrish who raised them in the ancient Templar fighting arts. Many year prior
Parrish was the victim of an attempted robbery which left him with a bullet in
his skull and flashbacks to a past life when he was a member of the original
Order of the Knights Templar hundreds of years ago.
The Mary Boys are quadruplets born with a rare genetic condition that causes enlarged hands and feet, distorted facial features and prevents sufferers from growing any body hair. Hence their strange appearance (I can draw normal people, honest!). Their condition also affects the way they metabolize alcohol. Drinking beer gives them almost superhuman strength strong and endurance (unlike the rest of us who send drunk texts to people we … shouldn’t).
The story takes place in
Basham, the Boys’ home town, which is riddled with many social problems
thanks to a huge retail corporation driving out small businesses, resulting in
job cuts which left large sections of the community impoverished and resulted
in a rise in organised crime.
Parrish
prophesied
that Basham will suffer
a great biblical apocalypse unless it is purged from its evils so the boys roam
the streets at night with their cricket bats, heavy boots and lager cans to
bring in the needed salvation by force.
The ‘Mary’ in the title is a reference to
the Boys being Catholic and also to the mysterious image of the Blessed
Virgin being
ever present in their nocturnal missions, guiding them in their fight against
gangsters, hooligans and wrong ‘uns, including Basham’s own police force.
To raise the necessary funds to cover
printing and shipping costs, which is where you lovely people come into the
picture. In return for your monetary support, you will receive print copies of
both 24 page comic books and other incentives as well, including art prints,
emroidered patches and digital copies from my published comics catalogue.
A bit about the comic: My chief stylistic inspirations for this project are golden age artists like Jack Davis, Will Eisner and Wally Wood. Save for the lettering, all the art is traditionally illustrated with paint and ink, so it will have that old school feel to it. Please download a sample of the first 7 pages in the link below.
This Indiegogo campaign covers the first
two issues, which contains the Boys’ origin story and introduces major
characters and themes.
Living in Maine is like living in two places. I spend my days walking circles in the forest, down side streets, and through pocket gardens. In summertime, days pass slowly and the crystal green ocean glistens with falling waves. Deciduous forests cloak winding carriage trails to the Atlantic. In the winter there is only silence. Seaside towns that are so empty even light footsteps echo down their streets. Stone walls that once marked property lines crumble along the forest floor. Nature reclaims the ruins of ancestral homes and resort hotels. By night, dark salt water crashes against seaside cliffs while foghorns moan in the harbor. Three of the four seasons are spent in total isolation. Memories of being submerged in the amber glow of August fall away. Cicadas sing as the days grow shorter, until one morning a fog rolls in to hover above the marshland. I cross the great Piscataqua River by foot. From the bridge I watch its powerful current. Tankers pass along the waterfront with salt, freight, and scrap metal.
I grew up on a small island, and sometimes wonder if I grew up to become a small island. There are days that I escape to the city, but find vines creeping between the bricks and cobblestones.
Winter is brittle, trees lose their leaves and reach toward clouds heavy with snow. Days are dark and fade into what feels like endless night. Roads snake along the coast without streetlights, becoming treacherous after dusk. During my adolescence, I spent a great deal of time wandering the island. My brother and I made our playgrounds in abandoned bunkers and atop timber pilings that once supported an anti-submarine net to capture German U-Boats. When I couldn’t sleep, my father tapped messages on my back in morse code.
When I came of age, I left the island and all of its architectural ghosts. Every night, I found myself wandering city streets until sunrise, searching for patterns and visiting the dark waterfront. Silence no longer existed, and the stars were masked behind the ochre glow of millions of lights. As an adult, I find myself on the mainland, but within close proximity to the island and the unending loop. Although I work primarily as an illustrator, my creative process involves wandering alone and trying to understand what it means to be remote. I have returned for it. I vanish into the trees, down side streets, beneath the waves, into the salt air.
Katarina Zuder is an artist currently attending the Myers School of Art in Akron, Ohio. She is working towards a major in studio art and a minor in illustration. Her signature style consists of watercolor and ink; but has gotten into other mediums more recently. She finds her inspiration through her battle with anxiety, the societal standards set for women, music and religion. Her work has been a part of the 83rd Annual Juried Exhibition at the University of Akron and as the album art of local musicians. You can contact her through @katarina.zuder on Instagram.
Natalie Shau is mixed media artist and photographer based in Lithuania (Vilnius). She found interest in fashion and portrait photography as well as digital illustration and photo art. Despite her personal work, Natalie also creates artwork and photography for musicians, theater, fashion magazines, writers and advertisement. She also worked as an art director for a short 3D movie of Kamel Ouali musical “Dracula.”
Clients:
Lydia Courteille jewelry
Kamel Ouali
Kara expo
Island Def Jam
Ogilvy & Mather
Sony BMG
Century Media
Nuclear Blast
Trisol
Metropolis records
Peaceville Records (Cradle of Filth)
Michel LAFON
Actes Sud
Simon & Schuster Books
Bloomsbury Publishing
Cadbury
Le Livre de Poche
Galleries:
Opera Gallery (USA)
Kat von D’s Wonderland gallery (USA)
Corey Helford Gallery (USA)
Vanilla Gallery (Japan)
Dorothy Circus Gallery (Italy)
Cabinet des Curieux (France)
Last Rites Gallery (USA)
STRYCHNIN Galleries (Germany)
Phillips de Pury & Company gallery (USA)
Books:
Tangled Tales (self published)
Art that Creeps (Korero Books)
If you are interested in fine art giclee prints – you can email me directly and i will provide you full information about price, edition and size of work you are interested in. Please note that copies are very limited and I have only few or even one copy of work sometimes as I do only very limited edition prints. They are all signed and numbered by hand.
Custom Portraits:
I can create a custom art portrait based on your photograph. Please contact me for details.
Anna Angrick is an illustrator from Indiana studying at School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is inspired by mid-century children’s illustration, retro-futurism, and early Disney concept artists like Mary Blair and Rolly Crump. Anna is currently freelancing and working on personal commissions, but once she graduates she wants to concentrate on doing children’s book illustration and hopefully writing and illustrating her own children’s book.