Second Issue of Assembla Magazine (Attunement Issue)

ASSEMBLA MAGAZINE

ISSUE #2

APRIL 2025

ATTUNEMENT ISSUE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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A Q&A WITH TARA AXFORD

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KAT JOHNSON

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A Q&A WITH ICARO GALVAO

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JASON LORD

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SOPHIE ACHILLI

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MAJKE LUTHI

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MARSHA BALIAN

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KRISTINA MORICONI

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TWIGGY BOYER

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NATASHA PASTRANA

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ISAAC FRANKLE (SHOVELMAN)

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GALE ROTHSTEIN

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LICHTENERGER-FROEHLING

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JOAN TAMKIN

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LISA PETRIDOU

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A Q&A WITH JACK RAVI

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QUINCEY SPAGNOLETTI

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JOHN DIRE

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A Q&A WITH DAWN SURRATT

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FRANK JENNINGS

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A Q&A WITH MIRIAM ABELLAN

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PAMELA CONNOLLY

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AMY DUNCAN

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DANA FALCINI

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LISA FREEMAN

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ELISABETH DISHUR

COVER ART BY DAWN SURRATT

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EDITOR’S NOTE To collect is to care. To arrange is to listen. To create is, perhaps, to remember how to see.

This issue is a quiet celebration of presence. Each artist reminds us that beauty lives not only in grand gestures but also in what we find tucked into pockets, scattered on sidewalks, or held in the stillness of an afternoon. Leaves, paper scraps, fragments of the built and broken world are offered back to us, reimagined with tenderness and intention.

Their work is a meditation on noticing. On finding balance in contrast. On allowing instinct, memory, and curiosity to guide the hand.

There is no need for certainty here. No pressure to produce a final answer. Only the gentle invitation to show up, to explore, to create for the joy of it. These pages ask us to slow down and take delight in what we often overlook.

We hope this issue meets you in a quiet moment. That it gives you space to reflect and room to wander. That it reminds you of the beauty in small things and the magic of paying close attention.

Not because you must. But simply because you can.

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Dana Falcini - Your Poem is Recorded in the Shifting Winds

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Rediscovering the Overlooked: A Conversation with Tara Axford on Creativity, Connection, and Artistic Evolution Mixed-media artist Tara Axford uses collage and assemblage to transform the overlooked and discarded elements of her surroundings into fresh, abstract compositions. She is drawn to fragments with history—the weathered, forgotten, and discarded—capturing their essence to reveal unexpected beauty. In her current work, Tara fuses two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements, blending traces of human presence with the natural world. Her art explores contrasts like calm versus chaos, and order against disruption, creating balance through intentional juxtapositions. Central to Tara’s process is a commitment to the handmade and the reuse of materials, which she believes adds depth and authenticity to each piece. By honoring the rawness of nature alongside the marks of human life, Tara encourages viewers to appreciate the richness in the seemingly ordinary. Through her work, she invites people to pause and recognize the beauty in their surroundings, hoping to inspire a renewed appreciation for what may otherwise be overlooked.

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Artist Statement

Untitled I, II, III, Adrift, Residual Mechanisms, and Incomplete Descriptions—explore the themes of creative rebirth, sustainability, and the human relationship with nature. Using discarded materials and recycled cardboard, I reflect on the fragility of the environment and our capacity for innovation. The pieces represent memories and emotions, symbolizing how we hold onto experiences of places. The works invite the viewer to contemplate the connections between nature, memory, and creativity.

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Incomplete Descriptions

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Untitled

Your artistic journey beautifully bridges the connection between nature and human elements. Was there a particular moment or experience that deepened your understanding of this relationship and inspired you to weave it into your mixed media practice?

The idea of a pocket find is universal—many of us collect leaves, seed pods, or shells, drawn to their shape, texture, or colour. My collecting began with beachcombing on a family holiday, where I photographed my finds in small arrangements before returning them to the shore—a keepsake of my stay. Over time, my curiosity expanded beyond nature. I started noticing discarded pieces, weathered fragments, and overlooked urban debris during neighbourhood walks and playground visits. As I arranged my finds, I began mixing natural elements with man-made objects, exploring the interplay between the organic and the constructed—turning everyday discoveries into unique compositions.

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Growing up surrounded by creative tools and influences, how did those early experiences shape your artistic identity?

Are there lessons or habits from that time that continue to guide your work today?

Growing up in a creative household, I was free to explore and entertain myself. Museums and collections also fascinated me—the arrangement of objects, their appeal, and especially their scale. I’ve always loved miniatures and the playful act of rearranging, reinventing, and shifting context to reveal new narratives. Using my hands to compose and my subconscious to guide, I find endless amusement in the process. This playful experimentation and amusing habit has stayed with me for decades.

Your work masterfully juxtaposes opposites—disruption and serenity, busy and calm—creating a captivating tension.

How do you navigate these contrasts in your creative process, and what role do they play in shaping your artistic vision?

I’m drawn to the tree and moon poses in yoga— the pursuit of balance. Maybe it’s about control, juggling what I have to do with what I want to do. Walking in the Australian bush mirrors this contrast—calm and serenity alongside chaotic, tangled plant life. This duality carries into my art. I start with a frantic, busy energy, then collage and refine, seeking balance through found objects. Every selection is intentional, sometimes harmonious, sometimes disruptive.

I’m always searching for that spark of interest— how can I make the viewer pause, look closer, Your work breathes new life into overlooked maybe even respond?

details, turning them into compelling visual narratives. What draws you to specific elements in your environment, and how do Your work thrives on experimentation and you approach reimagining them through your discovery. How do you determine when artistic process? a new technique or process transcends exploration to become an essential part of your artistic language?

From torn bits of paper to forgotten objects at a worksite or a place I visit, I’m always intrigued— who used them, how did they end up there?

The weathered, worn Wabi-Sabi charm draws me in. When I incorporate these finds into my creative process, it begins with shape, colour, and texture. But soon, almost by accident, a new story emerges—one shaped by another time and arrangement.

I love experimenting—seeing what happens when I just play. My attention span is short, yet I can spend hours in my creative space exploring. Sometimes, I have a clear project or technique in mind, and if it works, I’ll use it again. But my process is always the real focus—the joy is in discovery. There’s always that nagging thought: was this a waste of time?

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But I’ve learnt that nothing is ever truly wasted.

Even the most random creative explorations often resurface in unexpected ways, finding a place in future work—and that’s where the magic happens.

creative and that play isn’t just important but necessary. Art is often expected to lead somewhere—an exhibition, a sale—yet people can spend hours training for sports without that same pressure. Creativity deserves the same freedom, a way to spend time for its sheer joy without justifying its worth.

Your “pocket finds” capture small, natural wonders with remarkable intimacy. What do these collections reveal about your In an era of global connectivity, social view of creativity, and how do they inspire media has become a powerful tool for your larger body of work? artists. How has it influenced the way you share your perspective and create meaningful connections between your Creativity is accessible to everyone—it’s just art and a worldwide audience? about finding a way in. Pocket finds are a simple, doable practice. You don’t need much; Social media has opened a portal to a world it’s just a moment of time, and we always have a of like-minded creatives, allowing me to camera on hand. The process itself is a catalyst, encouraging us to pause, observe, and truly see. Working with found objects—arranging, pulling apart, combining shapes, colours, and textures—has become second nature to me.

Over time, these elements have settled into my subconscious, emerging naturally in my markmaking and painting.

Your work emphasises creativity as a way of seeing and connecting with the world.

How does this philosophy influence the way you share your knowledge and inspire others in their artistic journeys?

In a world that feels increasingly busy and overwhelming, living creatively offers a muchneeded escape. I love sharing my process because it helps others see that they can be

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connect with people globally who share my interests. In our busy lives, it offers a way for others to instantly see my work and decide if they have time to engage—which makes those connections even more meaningful. Creativity can be isolating, with long hours spent alone making. Over time, you become so close to your work that it’s hard to see it clearly, objectively. Sharing it with others can bring fresh perspectives, new energy, and the joy of seeing how people respond.

focusing on one area and other times blending them. It feels like I’m just getting started, and I’m grateful for the chance to live creatively in whatever form that takes. Seeing something come together that didn’t exist before is an exciting thing to wake up to.

If you could distill your artistic philosophy into one key message for those exploring your work or seeking inspiration, what would it be?

Keep going—you don’t need to know the end result. Just keep showing up and creating. Let yourself explore and play because that’s where inspiration thrives. When you find yourself smiling and losing track of time, you might just be onto something special.

Looking ahead, what possibilities within your practice excite you the most? Are there new themes, tools, or collaborations you’re eager to explore that could push the boundaries of your artistic vision?

I’m always excited by the endless possibilities of discovery—whether it’s a place, exhibition, tool, technique, book, or pocket find. The more I explore, the more I want to keep going.

I work across different mediums, sometimes

Learn More www.taraaxford.com @tara.axford

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“Creativity is accessible to everyone - it’s just about finding a way in.”

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Residual Mechanisms

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Adrift

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Tracing Memory: A Conversation with Ícaro Galvāo Ícaro Galvão (b. 1996, Recife, Brazil) is a visual artist whose practice explores themes of memory, forgetfulness, and the passage of time through experimental photography and mixed media. With a background in analog and 19th-century photographic processes, Ícaro incorporates cyanotype, collage, weaving, and other physical interventions to transform images and found materials into layered narratives.

His works often feature discarded family photographs, aged wood, and other objects marked by human touch and the erosion of time, recontextualizing them to construct new meanings. Influenced by the Pictorialist movement and a tactile approach to artmaking, he emphasizes the interplay between history, materiality, and human memory. Ícaro’s works reflect a deep engagement with archival materials and manual techniques, fostering a slower, more reflective process that contrasts with the immediacy of contemporary image production. By reimagining forgotten objects, he invites viewers to contemplate the fragility and resilience of memory.

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Artist Statement

My work explores the interplay between memory, time, and the physicality of photographic materials. Rooted in analog and 19th-century photographic processes, I transform discarded photographs, cyanotype prints, and found objects into layered narratives that reflect the passage of time and human presence. The surfaces I work with—sometimes marked by rust, mold, and wear—carry stories of their own, evidence of their journeys through history. Through techniques like collage, weaving, and stitching, I deconstruct and reassemble these materials, creating hybrid forms that blur the boundaries between photography, sculpture, and tactile art. This process is deeply tied to my interest in preserving and reimagining remnants of the past, fostering a dialogue between memory and forgetting. By breathing new life into forgotten objects, my work invites viewers to reflect on the fragility of memory, the resilience of materiality, and the enduring traces of human touch on the world.

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Your artistic practice incorporates photography, mixed media, and archival materials in innovative ways. Can you share what initially drew you to this approach and how your background shaped your artistic journey?

I have a bachelor’s degree in photography, but I’ve always had an interest in practices that allow me to work with my hands. In 2011, I bought an analog camera and started shooting with 35mm film. What began as a hobby gradually turned into an obsession. I started deepening my knowledge of analog photography on my own, and this eventually led me to research historical photographic processes. At the time, I didn’t have access to the materials and space their practice required, so my studies were limited to the theoretical aspects of them. In 2015, I started studying photography in university, and I learned even more about these processes, but it wasn’t until 2021 that I had my first practical experience with a 19th-century technique, which was the cyanotype process itself. Since then, I’ve also experimented with anthotype and gum bichromate printing, but cyanotype is the one process that I connected with the most and continue to work with to this day.

My personal approach to photography was heavily influenced by this need to work directly with my hands. I started by manually altering the films I shot and then eventually moved on

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to working with cyanotype printing and introducing mixed media techniques to the process. These interventions are also motivated by my desire to deconstruct these traditional photographic practices and even the image itself, breaking it apart to recreate it in a new and different way. This has led to the incorporation of alternative techniques such as weaving, collage, assemblage, and stitching into my studio practice.

Your work often explores themes of memory and forgetfulness, intertwining them with techniques such as cyanotype, collage, and assemblage. What inspired your focus on these themes, and how have they evolved throughout your career?

As a child, I lived in the city of Olinda, which is right next to Recife, the city I’m currently based in. They are both historic cities, with Olinda being one of the very first cities in colonial Brazil. I lived in an old house with my paternal grandmother, immersed in a world of antiques, like older pieces of furniture and objects that carried the marks of time. From a very young age, I developed a fascination with those things and the memories they held, which led me to collect old coins, banknotes, keys, and small glass bottles, keeping them in boxes as if they were magical artifacts.

When I was completing my bachelor’s degree in photography, I decided to focus my final project on the health condition affecting my maternal grandmother. She has Frontotemporal Dementia, an uncommon type of dementia that

causes problems with behavior and language and, much like Alzheimer’s, can lead to memory loss. During that time, I deepened my study of memory and forgetfulness to better understand her condition and how photography could relate to these themes.

All of this inspired me to take an interest in non-digital, historic photographic processes.

From around 2011 to 2014, I worked almost exclusively with 35mm film, and I started working with cyanotype in 2021. The revival of these techniques plays a significant role in my exploration of memory and forgetfulness.

The title of your exhibition, A Fina Linha Vermelha da Rememoração (The Fine Red Line of Remembrance), evokes a delicate tension. How did this title shape the narrative of the exhibition, and what significance does the ‘red line’ hold in your exploration of memory?

In A Fina Linha Vermelha da Rememoração (The Fine Red Line of Remembrance), my first solo show, there is a work under the same title that served as the starting point for the series.

For this piece, I digitized archival photographs to create contact negatives, which I then used for cyanotype printing. I took eight different photos and overlaid them, creating a dense assembly of photographic information meant to reference the process of archiving memories, which, when stored, overlap and become entangled.

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These printed images were then torn to pieces by hand to symbolize the act of forgetting, much like when we try to forget something or someone and destroy their photographs. With the resulting fragments in hand, I used a fine red cotton thread to stitch together what was torn apart. In this way, the red thread served as a means of reuniting fragments of memories, reorganizing these pieces of forgetting to form a new image—one that could never be fully reconstructed as it once was.

For this piece, as well as for others included in the exhibition, I used the red thread to connect different memories. Its delicacy underscores the fragility of memory, as if it is on the verge of breaking, unable to bear the full weight of what it holds together.

The introduction to your exhibition describes memory as a ‘social technology,’ shaped and influenced by political and societal forces. How does this idea resonate with your artistic practice, and in what ways do you see your work engaging with these dynamics of memory and erasure?

In today’s world, with the advancement of technology and the widespread use of social media, we are witnessing a highly automated production of images, where there is little reflection on the responsibility of capturing photographs or interpreting them. For me, reviving classical photographic processes, as well as engaging in physical interventions, introduces a different rhythm to the creation

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of images—one where the artist/photographer has more time to deliberate and embed their ideas into the work. At a time when the viewing speed of a photograph is the swipe of a finger on a screen, when photos are often taken solely for sharing on social media (sometimes available for only 24 hours), and when people no longer look beyond the surface layer of an image, creating at a slower pace can itself be a political act.

Beyond the act of capturing images, I also turn my attention and artistic practice to photographic archives, rescuing photographs of strangers that have been discarded and removed from their original contexts. Why

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were these people forgotten? Who erased their pasts? Are they still remembered? I find myself with more questions than answers regarding these dynamics between memory and erasure.

These questions, in turn, direct my artistic research—they enter the process as inquiries, not certainties.

meaning, while still carrying their individual history with them.

Your works often feature visible interventions, such as stitching, tearing, and layering. How do these physical manipulations reflect your broader artistic philosophy, particularly your In your practice, you collect and views on the interplay between history, repurpose materials such as discarded materiality, and human touch? family photographs, wood, and other found objects. How do you decide which objects to incorporate into your work, Due to my interest in the history of photography and what role do they play in constructing and 19th-century photographic processes, I came across the Pictorialist movement during new narratives of memory?

It’s interesting how the decision to use a particular object in my work feels almost intuitive, as if the time has come for that piece to be incorporated. I’ve had a piece of wood stored away for two years, knowing I wanted to use it but waiting for the right moment and the right project for it. I also pay close attention to the aesthetic beauty of objects, so sometimes this decision is influenced by their shape, color palette, or other visual characteristics they possess. Beyond aesthetics, I view all the materials I collect in a very similar way— they are objects that served other purposes, that carry a lot of memory on their surfaces, and that have been displaced from their original context. I appropriate them and put them into dialogue, creating new tensions and constructing new memories with them.

There’s something almost chimerical about it.

Fragments of different things coming together to form something entirely new, with a new

my studies, which greatly influenced my practice. It emphasized the importance of the artist’s physical intervention in the construction of a photographic work, and this resonated with me. For someone like me, who has always been drawn to making things by hand, this approach came naturally. Additionally, techniques like weaving, stitching, and embroidery are deeply rooted in historic processes and have also been revived in contemporary artistic practices by many artists, just as I have done with cyanotype, for example.

Weaving plays a particularly important role in the creation of many pieces in my current work. Unlike traditional weaving, which uses materials such as linen or wool threads, I use archival photographs and cyanotype prints to create my pieces. When constructing these works, I see the creative potential of this technique, especially when I use photographic images to create a fabric of memories.

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“I retrieve this material that was destined for oblivion and use it to create new narratives”

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Your work is described as “stretching the limits of photography” through the incorporation of techniques like collage and weaving. How do these blended approaches allow you to explore and expand the conceptual and material boundaries of your art?

I have always found it challenging to express myself solely through the photographic image.

Through interventions and mixed-media techniques, I discovered a way to create a new conceptual layer that goes beyond this image.

I see these interventions as essential tools for building the conceptual foundation of a work of art. Whenever I have the opportunity to discuss my work with the public—whether through workshops, courses, or guided tours—I make it a point to encourage these practices in photography, especially in our current context of image creation and its relationship with technology.

The materials you use, such as wood and photographs, often come with their own layers of meaning. How do you interpret and integrate these layers into the stories you tell through your work?

As mentioned before, the materials I collect catch my attention precisely because of the memory they carry. It’s the handwritten dedications on the back of photographs, the rust and mold stains on their paper, the

traces of wear, and other marks these materials bear on their surfaces. All of this serves as evidence of the passage of time and of human interaction with these objects. I often say that the content of the photographs I use doesn’t interest me as much as the material itself and what it represents. I’m not particularly concerned with who the people in those images were; what matters to me is that the photo was once treasured by a person or a family, and at some point, it was discarded and forgotten. I retrieve this material that was destined for oblivion and use it to create new narratives.

Your process involves transforming found materials while preserving elements of their history. What challenges or discoveries arise when creating new narratives from these remnants of the past?

Lately, I’ve been paying closer attention to the different marks that certain objects, particularly old archival photographs, carry on their surfaces. It’s fascinating to observe that each mark was made at a different stage in the material’s existence.

For example, it’s common to find the names of companies that manufactured the photographic paper (such as Ilford or Kodak) on the back of the photo—marks made during the production process.

On the back, you might also find texts,

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dedications, or family notes, which are tied to a stage more closely related to the capture and family use of the photograph. There are also annotations made by antique dealers and flea market sellers, who jot down numbers related to image lots for inventory control—marks from a later stage after the photographs were no longer in family use.

investigations I’m undertaking yet, and there is still so much more to discover. I want to keep working with cyanotype, as it’s a technique that offers a wide range of possibilities on different surfaces, but I also aim to revive other historical processes and integrate them into my practice.

One of my current goals is to increase the scale of my works, which is challenging due to the Additionally, there are marks related to limited space in my studio, which is inside my conservation issues, such as mold, fiber apartment. deterioration, yellowing of the paper, and even, in one specific case I observed, footprints— most of these resulting from improper storage. The wood I use in my work is employed as Lastly, there are the marks I make on these I collect it, since I don’t currently have the materials as I handle them, plan the artworks, equipment or space to intervene on these materials. This is something I’d like to explore take notes, cut, sew, or weave them. in the future—I would love to be able to cut, shape, and create frames from the wood I In the end, these materials have gone through collect. numerous manipulations, passed through many hands, and bear a wide range of human and time-related interventions from different These themes of memory, forgetfulness, and moments in their existence. For me, these retrieval have appeared in various ways in everything I’ve produced, each time with a marks tell many stories of their own. different approach. I don’t intend to reach conclusions but rather to keep questioning and Looking ahead, what are the key reflecting on these themes, exploring how they questions or themes you wish to explore impact our society today, our image production, further in your practice, and how do you and contemporary artistic practices.

envision the evolution of your artistic language?

I see myself continuing my current research for a long time. I feel that I haven’t fully explored the

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Learn More @icaroga

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Sophie Achilli @sophieachilli_art

BIOGRAPHY I am a self-taught French paper artist. I am 49 years old and a mother of two. For as long as I can remember, I have always drawn and written texts and could not imagine my life without this essential creative process. As a young adult, I first practiced engraving, linocut, and kirigami. I then started fusing the three techniques and telling my stories through elaborate 3D collages. I have an MA in English literature and have always been influenced by my readings. The countryside where I live is essential to my work, through keen observation of nature, which is always present—either as drawings or as collected elements. I like the meditative feel of the time-consuming techniques I use. I may take several months to make a single diorama, waiting for things to peacefully become what they should be...

ARTIST STATEMENT My work often starts with text in one of my numerous sketchbooks. It then turns into collage, made out of collected magazine paper or other materials such as wrapping paper, sandpaper, etc. The collages are then inserted into boxes, whose backgrounds are covered in an oil-pastel-based mix and engraved with dry point. The dioramas that result from this process are deeply autobiographical and brimming with literary and mythological references. They often belong to series of similarly themed works and reflect periods of my life or stories I want to tell. They have an archetypal, primitive feel to them due to my admiration for the likes of Giotto and Mantegna, but also a jewel-like quality, as I include a lot of details, using delicate or shiny materials. The figures may have been intricately cut out or just scratched and torn, yet their common point is vivid eyes that look at you.

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Marsha Balian www.marshabalian.com

@marshabalian

BIOGRAPHY Marsha Balian admits a dislike of following instructions. She is self-taught and frequently invents her own techniques. Her work has a strong narrative quality and incorporates found materials, often combined with drawing and painting. Since invention doesn’t require strict adherence to rules, her art avoids what might be literal and attempts to engage the imagination of the viewer. Humor is never far behind. Her artwork has been shown throughout the Bay Area, in many parts of the country, and internationally. She has been featured in several publications, including Photo Trouvee Magazine, Woven Tale Press, Oakland Magazine, West Marin Review, and 48 Hills Magazine. Her work is included in Collage by Women: 50 Women Collage Artists of the World, a book published in Spain that has enjoyed huge international success. Most recently, Contemporary Collage Magazine included her work in a member feature.

Bird in Hand

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Coms

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ARTIST STATEMENT Sometimes it feels necessary to work three-dimensionally; it satisfies a need that isn’t always identified. I can be a hunter-gatherer for found materials that don’t always lend themselves to two-dimensional work. The three pieces submitted were inspired by objects found unexpectedly, like the old leather shoe sole used in Comstock or the wooden yellow cornice used in Yellow Roof. I adore antique photographs, and combining them with other found objects gives them new life and an implied narrative. Bird in Hand makes use of an old studio portrait of a serious-looking young man. I painted stripes behind him and added black nails I found at a job site. I painted a background scene for the doll’s hand and added form to the roof using empty spools of thread. I never plan my work in advance; rather, the materials themselves direct me toward where they need to go.

Yellow Roof

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Twiggy Boyer www.sarahtwiggyboyer.com

@twiggyboyerart

BIOGRAPHY Twiggy Boyer (b. 1990) is best known for her nostalgic mixed-media collages, often created using vintage found photographs. Boyer’s mixed-media works explore themes of nostalgia, memories, and connections and incorporate collage elements, drawing, embroidery, and painting. Born and raised in Paris, France, Twiggy studied painting and curatorial studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, and graduated with a BFA in Painting and a concentration in Curatorial Studies in 2012. In 2020, Twiggy co-founded Photo Trouvée Magazine—an art publication and artist platform that showcases contemporary artists who use vintage photographs as a medium in their works. She currently calls South Florida home, where she works, resides, and homeschools her daughter.

ARTIST STATEMENT My work delves into themes of memory, connections, and nostalgia. Using carefully curated found photographs as collage elements, I investigate how my personal recollections resonate with those of others. I work with forgotten photographs, often gathered from dusty thrift shops, that I feel inexplicably connected to. In my mixed-media collages, I seek to draw parallels between the captured moments in these images and my own memories—real or imagined—creating a tapestry of intertwined experiences over time. Patterns, layers, and repeated imagery in my artworks serve as visual metaphors to illustrate memories over time—adding and removing, sometimes blurred or influenced, fragments of images are cut, torn and collaged onto paper to create a composition intuitively. Ultimately, I seek to evoke a nostalgic and emotional response in viewers, inviting them to connect with their own memories.

Catching Light

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Afternoon At The Park

A Window Into My Garden

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Isaac Frankle (Shovelman) www.shovelman.com

@shovel.man

BIOGRAPHY Isaac Frankle, aka Shovelman, is mostly known as a blues and experimental musician, playing a barn shovel-turned-slide guitar at music festivals and venues up and down the West Coast. Located in rural Northern California, Frankle is also a found object and assemblage artist whose work is rooted in the surrealist tradition. Frankle’s art has been shown in galleries and sculpture gardens in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Mendocino County.

Outside The Box

ARTIST STATEMENT I have always been fascinated by surrealism.

Perhaps that’s what drew me to the medium of assemblage in the first place. I always try to find ways to attach seemingly random objects together.

In my work, I would rather have one or two strong, surrealist concepts than screw a huge pile of antiques to a picture frame. I’ve been told that my work is minimalistic for the medium, but I think that helps to cut through the noise. We live in a very noisy world.

I’m always seeking out treasure-hunting adventures.

I’m always on the lookout for a little bit of old-timey magic. I’m a real junk store hound. It’s thrilling to have a strange old object in a box under my bed that’s lived there for years and then one day find another at a yard sale that fits with it perfectly.

Born Into a Noisy World

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Lost My Key

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Estelle Lichtenerger-Froehling www.kleine-feine-dinge.net

@atelier_kleine.feine.dinge

BIOGRAPHY

ARTIST STATEMENT

My name is Estelle Lichtenberger-Froehling. I’m based in Luxembourg, Europe. I am an analog mixed media, collage, and assemblage artist. The materials I use include vintage ephemera, old photographs, antique books and illustrations, combined with other techniques.

This assemblage work is named Unknown Soldier (Unbekannter Soldat in German). It is made from bundles of vintage papers with sewing thread, an original cabinet photograph, and some additional treasures.

Lovely Creature

Unknown Soldier

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Soulmates

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Liza Petridou @lizaa.petridou

BIOGRAPHY Liza Petridou was born in Cyprus. She studied Graphic and Interior Design. She worked as a designer for some years, and for the last 25 years, she has been working as a Video and Film Editor for the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. She is passionate about art and design. Her personal projects help her relax, stay focused, and breathe! She has worked with different mediums (illustration, photography, jewelry, ceramics, collage). She finds collage very similar to film editing. Each image offers an endless number of possible narratives! She has earned multiple awards for postage stamp designs, posters, logos, and photography. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Cyprus, Greece, and France.

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Uncomfortably Numb

A Glimpse Into

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ARTIST STATEMENT I have a background in Graphic and Interior Design, and I’m always caught between 2D and 3D. I’ve practiced with different mediums (photography, jewelry, ceramics), and I’m always going back and forth between dimensions. I practice collage using photographs and all sorts of paper and often combine them with yarn and thread, which infuse warmth and intimacy. My creative process of layering leads me to create 3-dimensional artwork. For my assemblages, I also use plastic and metal, materials that are strange and cold to human nature and to the self. My art reflects my views on two constant thematic questions: Can we protect our physical and emotional boundaries? Is there free will? When I work in 3D, I create light, playful spaces that have many points of view (literally and metaphorically). I like my work to evoke layers of thoughts and emotions and be open to personal interpretation.

o My Thoughts

My Own Web

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Quincey Spagnoletti www.QuinceySpagnoletti.com

@QuinceySpagsPhoto

BIOGRAPHY Quincey Spagnoletti (b. 1991) is a photographer creating artwork through installation and performance. Influenced by her own upbringing and the impact of her physical childhood archive of photos and toys, her artwork focuses on issues of identity and womanhood. She alternates between human representation in her work and the use of her childhood archive to create space and depth of interpretation. Spagnoletti received her BA from Colgate University and her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in the Boston Art Review, Photoworks UK, Leica Gallery Boston, and Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston. She was named a Top 25 Photographer to Watch by the Lenscratch Student Prize in 2024 and a Top 200 Critical Mass Finalist.

Straight Lines

Paper Dolls

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ARTIST STATEMENT When I look back at my childhood and how I was raised, I am confronted with ideas and notions of how a woman is supposed to act and “perform” for society. Through my pictorial and arts-related explorations of womanhood, I strive to push back against the traditional norms that have dominated my upbringing, in the process highlighting the challenges of my own internalizations of a woman’s role and my attempts to disrupt and unlearn what I have inherited.

Beginning with personal narratives and conversations with the maternal figures in my life, I set out to construct my own perception of space and inheritance based on memory. I incorporate human-scaled objects and props—the stuff of childhood and growing up—to ornament this investigation of perception. It is my intention to have the viewer question my intentionality and awareness, to wonder about where I am situated in the narrative of the work.

The nature of control continues to be a recurring theme in my work. Whether it is in searching for the “ideal” model, an exact replica of a leather chair, or a childhood dollhouse, I use the camera as a tool to elucidate my own emotions and my relationship to myself and those closest to me. My current studio practice is a back-and-forth between pathos and this notion of control—a constant search for who I am as a woman and how I want to present myself to society. In this way, I hope to leave an inquiry of the matriarchal and the matrilineal for the generations to come.

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Assembling Memory: Objects, Images, and Emotional Resonance Dawn Surratt earned a B.A. in Studio Arts from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Georgia. Her years of work with dying patients in hospice settings form the backbone of her imagery, combining photographs with photography-based book structures, installations, and objects as visual meditations exploring concepts of grief, transition, healing, and spirituality. Her work has been widely published for book covers and publications such as The Sun, BETA Magazine, Lenscratch, SHOTS, Diffusion, and The Hand. She has exhibited in galleries across the United States including The Center for Fine Art Photography, Southeast Center for Photography, A. Smith Gallery, Photoplace Gallery, and the Griffin Museum of Photography. She is a 2016, 2020, and 2024 Critical Mass Finalist, and her work is in collections across the United States including the Peabody Essex Museum and the Rubinstein Library.

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The Book Trolley of the Three Fates

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Artist Statement

Real But Not True is a project that speaks to all the bits and ramblings we carry around in our brains: the circular thinking, the obscure and mysterious language of dreams, and the relentless mind chatter that we struggle to escape from when we are trying so desperately to sleep. It explores this experience through the lens of fragmentation and anxiety. Collage is used as the foundational technique, where disparate elements such as found photographs and my own captured images are layered with leather, mica, paper, and wood. These fragments of materials and techniques serve as windows into different times and narratives, creating a dialogue between memory and identity, between sleeping and waking, between what feels real and what is, or is not, true.

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Reliquary #2

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Your work often integrates objects with photographic portraits, creating deeply emotive and multi-layered pieces. How did you first begin blending these two elements, and what inspired you to explore this approach?

My college degree is in Studio Art, and so it feels natural for me to experiment with a lot of different mediums. Those college years really influenced the way I work. I have always used transfers and different substrates with my photography and then I discovered other artists who were integrating photography and objects which inspired me greatly and led me to rediscover the Dada artists and the artists from the 1970’s that blurred boundaries between photography and other mediums. From there, I began to experiment and play around with how I wanted to develop this approach for myself. Now, I can’t imagine not working this way.

Much of your art is deeply influenced by your experiences in hospice care, reflecting on loss and transition. How has this shaped the evolution of your artistic voice, and

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how do you approach translating those time? profound experiences into visual form?

It’s the lens from which I view the world and it took me a while after I left hospice work to fully understand how deeply it has transformed me personally. I am always aware on some level that people are deeply connected to their losses and their past and I want to honor and acknowledge that fact through my imagery or through the ritual of artistic interaction in some way, with the things that I create.

You’ve described objects as talismans or relics that evoke empathy and connect us to memory. How do you select the objects for your pieces, and what role do they play in shaping the emotional narratives of your work?

I am drawn to certain materials that I feel express my work best. Organic materials like wood, paper and cloth resonate with me much more than metals and glass. I like the way these materials degrade, their ephemeral nature, the way that they have marked time and have a sense of familiarity. I like to reform them and breathe new stories into them that build on their energy and presence.

Your work often combines disparate materials to create deeply layered and tactile pieces. How do you approach integrating these materials to evoke a sense of memory and passage through

I like combining what feels familiar with something that is vague or not easily recognized or maybe use a familiar object in an unexpected way. There is an element of discovery which feels like being transported through time after smelling something that reminds your past, or seeing something again that you had forgotten about long ago. It’s familiar-ish and lovely and unexpected all at the same time.

Assemblage has become an important aspect of your work. What do you see as the unique power of assemblage in communicating complex themes like memory, grief, and emotional resonance?

Well it’s unique in that it’s all disparate visuals coming together to tell a story isn’t it? It’s not only the sequences of the imagery and the objects, but it’s also the housing from which they are viewed and that opens up lots of opportunities for new meanings and different kinds of associations over time. It can connect us back to the past and it can move us forward through the act of our attention.

Your installations, such as Sweeping the Graves, often serve as contemplative spaces for viewers. How do you design these works to foster emotional introspection and connect people to their own memories and experiences?

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“I hope that my work validates the experience to feel the full landscape of human emotions.”

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Most importantly, it’s being aware of the need to invite the viewer to quiet spaces within the space of the venue. Sometimes that’s really difficult when you have a large venue but it’s also a very fun challenge and can add a lot of depth and layers to the visual experience.

I recently showed work in a huge gallery that kind of overwhelmed me and I worried about how to fill the space with a meditative experience given that I create such small, quiet work. But I ended up making a labyrinth out of images on the floor that people could walk along and meditate on and it worked out really well. It gave people a chance to focus and what they were seeing and think about how it made them feel and what they were responding to.

It’s all about figuring out the scale and creating a safe and quiet space that invites someone to interact whether that’s with scale, materials, lighting or sound. Engaging as many senses as possible helps people stay present to their feelings.

The concept of ‘photographic objects’ plays a central role in your practice, sometimes blending photography with book structures, the written word, and sculptural elements. How do you see this approach expanding the possibilities of traditional photography?

There are limitations with telling a story with just one image. Materials and different substrates give context and meaning to an image in very different ways. There are so many photographers who have explored

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these concepts and continue to do so. It will be fascinating to see the ways in which photography will continue to expand and morph as we see AI coming more and more into the picture to challenge our ideas of “traditional” photography and what that means.

Your work often balances fragility and strength, sadness and joy. How do you navigate these dualities within your creations, and what do you hope viewers take away from this emotional interplay?

I hope that my work validates the experience to feel the full landscape of human emotion. Life is full of dualities and we are complex beings.

I never take that for granted within myself or with others.

In your workshops, participants are encouraged to develop concepts using photography as a jumping-off point and to create meaningful objects. What do you hope they take away from these sessions, and how do you guide them to connect with their own stories through objects and images?

Often, people are already bringing their own family objects with them to the workshops and are looking for a space to meaningfully create their own work. Sometimes people are working through grief and want to honor or create a piece that speaks to their loved one or their own sense of loss but are not sure how to do

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this. It’s always a balance between playing with the techniques and mediums, and then kind of getting down to work and making something in their own vision. I try to give plenty of supportive space for people to be where they are with those things...whether they need to play and experiment, or whether they’re in a place where they’ve already worked through much of their emotions and want to get down to the “business” of making. I’ve often thought that this was almost like legacy art or legacy objects. I love the idea that people are finding alternative means to telling their own family stories.

Is there anything you feel hasn’t been touched on that you would like to share about your artistic journey, your process, or the messages you hope to convey through your work?

I just want to thank you for having me here and asking me such meaningful and thoughtful questions. I am honored to be a part of your beautiful magazine!

Learn More www.dawnsurratt.com @dawn_surratt

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Wellspring

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Miriam Martínez Abellán on Memory, Identity, and the Transformative Power of Collage

Miriam Martínez Abellán (Murcia, Spain, 1978) is a visual artist and teacher with a degree in Art History from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Murcia and a diploma in Piano from the Manuel Massotti Littel Conservatory.

She combines artistic creation with cultural dissemination through workshops, conferences, curatorial work, and graphic design. She has an extensive exhibition career at both national and international venues. Her project *Hand Motif* was awarded a grant by the Plan EXE-2022 of the ICARM. She has taken part in national and international fairs and festivals, such as the Collagist Fest IV Edition in Brussels, among others. Her work has been selected in international open calls such as *Strike Light* in Edinburgh.

Her most recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Centro Párraga in Murcia and Covington Gallery in Madrid. She has also participated in group exhibitions in galleries in Berlin and Italy.

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The Oblique Look

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Artist Statement

Miriam Martínez Abellán develops her creative work through the manual techniques of analogue collage, assemblage, installation, and intervened objects. An inspiring language that brings her closer to vintage aesthetics and recycling. Far from the digital, she prefers a direct and emotional experience with the elements. She collects old images from photographs, postcards, books, or magazines—objects with history and materials of various textures. Collage allows her to create an imaginary of hybrid codes. She uses images from the past to explore themes of the present, where the recycling of stories is an essential part of her process. She creates a delicate and genuine visual universe in which one breathes avantgarde and experimentation. The themes of her work focus on memory, existence, social issues, and an intense reflection on the female figure.

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Snuck Into Memory

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Bird Woman

Your work is deeply rooted in analog collage and assemblage; however, it transcends traditional boundaries by incorporating installations and object-poems. What initially attracted you to this multidisciplinary approach, and how has it shaped your identity as an artist?

The pursuit of experimentation with materials and textures, as well as the search for new languages to shape my concepts, content, and ideas, led me to explore other avenues that stemmed from three-dimensional intervention or occupying installation spaces. This has enriched my way of communicating with the audience and with myself. Re-signifying objects and photographs confirms the expansive view of this technique and brings my creations closer to visual metaphor, poetry, or ready-made.

From your background in art history and music to your extensive teaching experience, how do these diverse influences inform your creative process? Do you find parallels between the rhythm of music and the composition of your visual art?

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on them?

I believe that being a pianist, having studied classical dance, and the fact that music is inherent to my life and creative processes has a connection to the outcomes. Sometimes I see terms like variation, cadence, or repetitions of elements in my compositions, from which the harmonies of an improvised piece or one written on staff paper seem to emanate. Emotion comes from the same place: the unconscious, questions, and personal experiences.

Your work often involves reimagining existing images and objects, creating new contexts and narratives. How do you approach this process of transformation, and what drives your decision-making when assembling these elements?

Any form of art allows us to delve into the questions we ask ourselves and reflect on them. In my case, I often use elements from the past to address present themes. A clear example would be when I use clippings from old advertisements where women appear sexualized and designed exclusively for domestic contexts, questioning their age, their ability to be a good wife, and so on. Removing them from these contexts and modifying them in works that express just the opposite or provoke reflection on those messages demonstrates the transformative power of collage, which at its essence involves recycling and re-signification.

Your process involves collecting old photographs, postcards, and found objects with history. How do these materials guide the narratives you create, and what makes a particular object or image resonate with you?

I identify with the immediacy to transform reality that this technique offers. Breaking, redesigning, and reconstructing stem from a gesture that involves much of our psyche.

It is a visual game that allows me to express issues that I would not otherwise be able to convey. Sometimes there is a preThe key lies in how we construct, knowing established script, a theme to investigate, what material to use, how to mix it, to express and you seek results; other times it is what content. Their origins are diverse. The intuitive, aesthetic, and random. result is a hybrid code, and in most cases, one must allow oneself to be found by the object, the photographs, the magazines, especially if Themes such as memory, existence, and you experience the direct environment where the female figure recur throughout your you acquire them: second-hand markets, ‘old’ creations. How do you confront these bookstores, or antique shops.

complex issues, and what role does collage play in shaping your commentary

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“Life is a collage.”

Fables of the

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“Turning objects and images into stories generates expanded narratives.”

e Domestic

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Pre-Sewing IV

Your work invites viewers to actively engage with open narratives and layered meanings. How do you approach creating art that challenges perceptions and fosters multiple interpretations?

personal and vital experiences of each individual.

Your object-poems and threedimensional collages blur the boundaries between art and literature.

What inspired you to explore this Often, these are works that displace intersection, and how do you envision the viewer, generating strangeness and these works expanding the language wonder, but connecting what appears of collage? to be incongruous activates the gaze, making you a participant in what you are observing. It is a new code, yet I am interested in how we construct our familiar; they are objects from everyday identity from memories; it is a way to reflect life that most end up being useless. on memory and the passage of time. Turning Decontextualized, they offer a new objects and images into stories generates idea of themselves and the culture expanded narratives. It is a way to approach that created them. Interpretations are the creative space without limits. multiple because they connect with the

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Your art often explores identity, memory, of your artistic vision even further? and social constructs. How do you tackle the task of intertwining these complex themes in your work while maintaining For a long time, I have been reluctant to do a sense of openness for viewers to digital collage due to the direct and emotional experience that manual work with materials interpret?

offered me. However, I am increasingly open to using media such as video art and new In my lectures and creative talks, I always use technologies to create hybrid languages that the phrase ‘Life is a collage.’ In life, we are allow me to create committed art aligned with cutting and pasting to get ahead, juggling. The new realities. philosophy of cutting and changing, keeping what resonates with us and makes us feel good, and cutting what does not, is important for moving forward. From this perspective, a common feeling is generated among viewers.

It is easier to reach them through liminal and less academic processes.

Having exhibited your work in cities like Berlin, London, and Barcelona, how have these international experiences influenced your creative perspective? Do audiences from different cultures interact with your work in different ways?

I have been impacted by the reactions of diverse audiences to my works as a curious experience. Being in contact with other cities and citizens is always an interesting source of inspiration.

Looking ahead, what themes or media are you excited to explore next? Are there unexplored areas in your practice that you feel could push the boundaries

Learn More www.miriammartinezabellan.com @miriammartínezabellán

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Fractal A

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Latent

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Pre-Sewing I

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Hilando

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Amy Duncan www.studiofourcorners.com

@ studiofourcorners

BIOGRAPHY I have a thing about junk… and all the stuff that people throw away. Over 25 years ago, I started mixing together found odds & ends, usually relegated to the waste bin, with simple graphic images to create original mixed media collages. Weaving together the elements of time and history, with color, texture, pattern, and tone, it’s not uncommon to find used envelopes, receipts, and letters, leftover wallpaper, old book pages, or snippets of torn maps as components in my compositions. An obsession with things that are old, rusty, and dilapidated, and then uncovering their hidden beauty, is the final layer of these collages, adding a 3D element to each creation and giving new life to recycled remnants. You can find me most days creating with the ordinary and discarded elements that surround me in my urban brownstone, which I share with my trusted confidant, The Southern Man. ARTIST STATEMENT Each composition begins with a single element… an old dog-eared photograph, a scribbled note, a torn page from a vintage book. There’s a story there that I tease out of this discovery, adding in elements of texture and pattern. A layering of nuance builds within the collage, usually ending with the attachment of complementary found objects, often nailed or wired into place, that coalesce the design. The most ordinary of elements can tell a story… you just have to listen.

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A Girl with a Future

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Points to Ponder

Muriel

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A Woman of Substance

A Big Fish

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The Getaway

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Dana Falcini www.danafalcini.com

@danafalciniart

BIOGRAPHY Dana Falcini is an Australian, Naarm/Melbourne-based fibre artist creating sculptural forms using natural materials including hog gut, fish skin, bone, and hair. Mastering her techniques has been a long process of research, exploration, and experimentation, and it is still ongoing. To her, the materials embody an ancestral, mythical sensibility, so she creates artifacts that can bring memories and stories to the future. Falcini finds that when preserving skin and gut, forgotten connections are remembered, and an understanding is formed between the past, present, and future. This discourse is meditatively woven and stitched into the art, slowing time as harmony and understanding intertwine. Oscillating between small delicate objects and large immersive installations, she has had five solo exhibitions, exhibited in national and international events, undertaken public art projects, enjoyed artist residencies, and been the recipient of several awards.

ARTIST STATEMENT Somewhere between serenity and unrest, beauty and horror, on the fragile point of balance, stillness can be found. Dana Falcini’s work explores the dynamic edge of awareness, searching the mystical and strange landscape of dreams and memories to find transformation and stillness. Originating from an ancient place set deep within, each piece is a working from her own inner world. They express an internal language of vulnerability, loss, and longing, mixed with the mysterious and delicate elixir of hope and optimism. Encoded with their own story, her objects capture the remains of what is left behind, transforming them into reminders that from death and endings, life finds new beginnings. When the objects are presented together, they become a more complex map searching for stillness, transformation, and beauty.

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Your History is Written into the Earth

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You Saw the Future Embossed on Stars

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Your Poem is Recorded in the Shifting Winds

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Top Left: Your Rhythmic Stories Remember Time Top Right: Remembering Poetry of the Unknown Bottom Left: 4 - 1 (4)

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Lisa Freeman @ freeman_lisa

BIOGRAPHY Lisa Freeman is a collector who brings to light the “mystery of the forgotten.” By collecting objects, both the familiar and unusual, and assembling them together, Freeman asks us to look, to truly look, and, hopefully, to see. Freeman was born in Canada, grew up in the Midwest, and landed in Georgia as a teenager. The constant shifting left her feeling like a bit of an outsider, cloaked in invisibility. Armed with the powerful resource of observation, Freeman watched and witnessed the human spectacle, taking visual notes and collecting— always collecting—along the way. Lisa Freeman works from her home studio in Athens, Georgia.

ARTIST STATEMENT This series of work, So Much More, addresses the limitations frequently imposed on women in a patriarchal society, which, in large part, take the form of sexual objectification beginning in childhood. The expectations of women in our society are dichotomous—either that of a homemaker or a receptacle for men’s sexual fantasies. A woman’s worth is too often incorrectly summed up by how she can best serve men. Throughout history, women have pushed back against the demands of a restricted life and have fought to be acknowledged as more—indeed, as so much more.

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Burn Baby Burn

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Reel Woman

Handling It

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Something Old Something New

Tea Time

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Elisabeth Dishur www.elisabeth-dishur.de

@elisabeth_dishur

BIOGRAPHY My name is Elisabeth Dishur, and I was born in 1982 in a small town in East Germany.

After I finished school, I studied philosophy and journalism in Berlin for many years. During this time, I traveled a lot, played in various bands, and had countless part-time jobs to finance my studies. I came to fine art much later, and completely by chance. About 12 years ago, I saw an assemblage that I really liked but was far too expensive for me. This frustrated me so much that I started creating assemblages myself. This type of art captivates me the most and most closely corresponds to my own language. I now live in Potsdam with my husband and two children, and run my own small gallery here, where I sell my work as well as commissioned pieces.

ARTIST STATEMENT Elisabeth Dishur processes what she finds—and sometimes what she searches for—into threedimensional object boxes. The staged interaction of seemingly alien things not only creates something completely new and unexpected, but also something suddenly meaningful, recognizable, and sometimes even familiar. Thematically, her work deals with people, their wishes and fears, and their position in the world. Certainly due to her study of philosophy, she observes her environment very closely—especially how and why individuals move and behave within it. Her assemblages are like constructed dreams: close enough to touch, yet distant. They elude grasp and are full of sensitivity for what is hidden. Her works are also reminiscent of small sets in a magical theater. Above all is her fascinating feeling for color and composition, her unmistakable sense of humor, and the courage to explore the third dimension.

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Stillleben

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We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are

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Consequences

House in the Cloud

The Tide of Life

Screw

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Kat Johnson @katjohnsonart

BIOGRAPHY A Los Angeles, California, native, I have always been involved in the arts—from music to photography, writing to pottery, drama to assemblage. After a long career as a writer in advertising, I transplanted myself to the artistically fertile High Desert, where my work in the visual arts has since grown organically and prolifically under the spell of the region’s natural and spiritual grace. My work has been shown at numerous galleries in the Joshua Tree area, as well as at many venues throughout Southern California, including LA’s La Luz de Jesus and the Craft and Folk Art de Jesus and the Craft and Folk Art Museum. My artwork was also used as an album cover by the country rock band Poco.

ARTIST STATEMENT My found-object assemblages have been likened to “poetry in a box” (a description I quite like). And, as with poems, I try to instill a lyrical quality, a sense of wonder and evocativeness—something that might be found in dreams, just out of reach. Totems of luck, magic, history, nature, and love infuse the pieces. Yet the process of creating them remains, even to myself, a mystery: each seemingly brings itself into being, as every object brought into play informs the next until a full idea is teased into life.

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The Divination Machine

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Top Left: Doorway To Another Dimension Top Right: Etudes/Life Studies Bottom Left: Dark Horse

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Cali Girl: Forever

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Jason Lord www.taftterrace.org

@ jasonearllord

BIOGRAPHY Jason Lord is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator working across media and modalities to investigate the central question, “What does it mean to be human?” His inquiry-based practice is prolific, and his work is often obsessive as he pursues shifting phenomenological curiosities. The questions change but often reflect a preoccupation with organizational systems, rhythm and time, ritual, impermanence, and the Gestalt principles.

Jason’s work is grounded in both relentless material experimentation and an ongoing philosophical investigation into the nature of consciousness, collective and individual, and its relationship to cognition, imagination, and the building of knowledge. He is the recipient of a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, the Windgate Distinguished Fellowship for Innovation in Craft from the Hambidge Center, a Penland Winter Residency Fellowship, and numerous other awards, grants, and residencies.

ARTIST STATEMENT This body of work arose from a 1000-day walking ritual, a perambulatory witnessing of the discarded, a walking prayer of reclamation and resurrection, and a meditation on compassion. To engage in compassion for something or someone, we first bear witness to them. We acknowledge something or someone as a piece of a complex world with validity, purpose, and potential. Compassion is a practice. As we build capacity for it—to witness a rusted-out tailpipe and give it new life as an act of love—we can exercise it on other things and other people. These are icons for a new world, junk saints of empathy and understanding, and compassion. Their message: that anything can be treated with tenderness—even a jagged and corroded crowbar or disintegrating mitten; even the imperfect, the outmoded, the discardable; even you and me, even on our worst days.

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Pantheon

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Lord of Communion, of Hush

Lord of Stillness, of Stirring

Lord of Precarity, of Love

Lord of Patience, of Assent

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Lord of Equanimity, of Care

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Majke Lüthi @majkeluethi

BIOGRAPHY Majke Lüthi is a multimedia artist and poet whose work investigates identity, heritage, and connection through poetic reflections on the world around us. Her practice addresses questions such as: How do our surroundings and relationships shape who we are? What makes us feel at home, and can that feeling exist in multiple places? Rooted in narrative poetry, Majke’s artistic expression captures the essence of these questions using traditional tools like a typewriter and fountain pen. Her work—often touching on complex themes—is lightened with humor and optimism. By transforming her poems into art pieces using various techniques, including photography, installations, and collages, Majke creates works that invite personal engagement..

ARTIST STATEMENT Family patterns often shape our behavior, like well-trodden paths. In Golden Mountains, I cut, paste, and reimagine my Swiss heritage and family history to forge new ways of understanding identity and belonging. Inspired by my grandfather’s carefully curated photo albums of joyful vacation scenes, the project contrasts these images with hidden struggles: his obsessive escape into stamp collecting, my grandmother’s retreat into agoraphobia, and an uncle’s battle with addiction. These themes reflect universal human behaviors— suppressing pain, presenting a brave face, and yearning for something better. While deeply personal, they resonate widely. Interactive elements are central to my work, including group discussions about “feeling at home.” I plan to gather stories from individuals who, like me, have dual nationalities, weaving them into the project to expand its depth.

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Police

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Retour

Taistoi

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Drama

Blackflowers

Anoniem

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Kristina Moriconi @kristinakreatesar

BIOGRAPHY As both a mixed media artist and a writer, much of my work explores the relationship between narrative and image, between the language of metaphor and the possibilities of what can be rendered to communicate it visually. I work exclusively with found objects, photographs, and recycled materials. My ongoing search in used bookstores, antique and thrift shops, and the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse has become an integral part of my process. The challenge of taking something discarded and giving it new life in my art has become a reflection of my awareness of human excess and disregard for the environment.

I take seriously my role as an artist in bringing attention to this matter and to the ways we, as caretakers of this earth, can repurpose and preserve as we create. .

ARTIST STATEMENT My work has been especially inspired by quotes, poems, and song lyrics. In a search for peace and a way to cope with what is happening in our country and world, I find objects to repurpose in order to make connections, make sense, and perhaps tell a new story somehow. My lyric narrative, composed of words + images, is forthcoming with Minerva Rising Press in 2025.

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Who Makes the Rules

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When You’re Not Spoon Fed Love

Noise

We Shall Press On

The Measure of a Man

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A Point on Which the Soul

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Natasha Pastrana www.natashapastrana.blogspot.com

@natashapphoto

BIOGRAPHY Natasha was born in Mexico City. As the daughter of a Portuguese mother, European art has a big influence on her work. She has a degree in Science of Culture from the Claustro de Sor Juana University in Mexico City and a Photography degree from The Photography School Activa. Gold winner in the category Book Fine Art at the Budapest International Foto Awards, with the book Aunque yo muera (Even if I Die). Selected artist at the International Photofestival Amalgama, 2022. Featured photographer at the Critic’s Choice Competition Gallery, LensCulture, 2021. Her work has been exhibited in art centers worldwide, including The Pósito Museum in Spain, The Museum of Modern Art in Cuenca, Ecuador, and Miami Art Center, among others. She has received grants from the National Fund for Arts and Culture and the State of Mexico Fund for Arts and Culture. Her work belongs to public collections such as the House of Mexican Art in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

ARTIST STATEMENT My work delves into my personal life in a very unconscious way. When I analyze why I create certain pieces, I realize that, at that specific moment, I was trying not to think about something that worried me. Art becomes my way out. I heal and work through my worries in my pieces. Photography is a very important part of my academic education and permeates all of my work. I have a fascination for old pictures and objects—I find them so meaningful that I couldn’t imagine working with any other medium.

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Mary

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Infinity Mask

Blood

The Singer

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Family matters

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DNA

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Gale Rothstein www.galerothsteindesigns.com

@galerothsteindesigns

BIOGRAPHY Gale Rothstein is an assemblage artist living and working in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Her art practice has always been about putting together the pieces. Assembled boxes and environments (Inter-Exteriors) emerge from a strong narrative and historical framework. Referenced through re-use, the work is informed by her former career as a jewelry designer, as well as a lifelong pursuit of collecting antiques, collectibles, found objects, harvesting broken appliances, hardware, and other damaged objects. Her many fascinations, including archaeology, time travel, and love of the American Southwest and Native American art, inform elements and themes found within her imagery to create highly narrative compositions. The artist dedicates her work to the memory of her father, Milton Rothstein, a jack of all trades and one of the original recyclers and repurposers, decades before it was a trend.

ARTIST STATEMENT I had worked for most of my professional career as a jewelry designer through my company, Gale Rothstein Designs, Inc. I currently create one-of-a-kind collage and assemblage sculptures. My forte has always been putting together a constellation of objects; as a young child, it was not unusual for me to take apart one thing to make another. My work demonstrates the interconnectedness of the continuum of our experiences through the relationship of my chosen objects. Re-contextualized and juxtaposed in discordant and surreal environments, these destinations provoke the viewer to ask, “Where are we? Who is here with us? How big or small are we? Are we awake or dreaming?” The visitor is continually challenged to reevaluate one’s sense of time, place, and orientation.

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For Mrs. Margaret Packard Rescued From a Flea Market Bin of Anonymity

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The Prophetic Language of Birds

A Facsimile of What We Imagined

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COVID Quartet

The Holy Grail Redux

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The Poet’s Cafe

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Joan Tamkin www.joantamkinart.com

@joantamkinart

BIOGRAPHY Joan Tamkin is a passionate and dedicated artist. She believes in minimalism and simplicity, and her art pieces are a testament to that. From her art history studies at Smith College to her extensive work in the world of interior design, creative expression has been a driving force in her life. She has had the opportunity to immerse herself in the art world in many ways. Working in the corporate division of the rental gallery at LACMA led to her skill in matching emerging local artists with major business entities who wanted to enrich and enhance the ambiance of the workplace. In the late seventies, Joan was appointed to the Board of the Otis Art Institute and served for many years until the college merged with the Parsons School of Design. The experience led to an understanding of how higher education serves young artists’ creative energy.

ARTIST STATEMENT Joan Tamkin is an assemblage artist whose modern, meditative wall pieces and table sculptures bring a Zen-like balance to any environment, transforming spaces into peaceful sanctuaries. Her work is rooted in the beauty of found objects—wood panels, blocks, intricate cardboard, twigs, paint, and more—each thoughtfully combined to create harmony in form and texture. A prolific artist driven by her passion, Joan aims to elevate homes, offices, and public spaces like restaurants, cafes, and galleries with art that offers both calm and intrigue. Her pieces invite viewers to pause and experience a subtle transformation in their surroundings.

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Shaping Narratives Through Found Objects and Photographs

jack ravi is a collage and mixed media artist whose work explores the intersection of memory, nostalgia, and the power of found objects. Rooted in curiosity and wonder, his artistic process is a personal, meditative journey, driven by a profound emotional connection to the materials he uses.

In his art, jack explores how memories shape our identities and how the objects that once held meaning can be reimagined to evoke new emotions. jack’s work seeks deeper connections with the world, inviting us to pause, look closer, and reconnect with our own memories and stories. He also shares his process through workshops and retreats, fostering community and creative empowerment. His teaching style is rooted in mindfulness, offering a space for individuals to explore their own curiosity through bookmaking and mixed media. jack is also the author of *Artful Memories: How to Create Unique Art with Old Photographs*. He currently lives and works in Scotland.

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Artist Statement

jack’s work is a meditation on memory, nostalgia, and the power of found objects. It is a journey of transforming discarded materials like old photographs and papers into new, meaningful stories. Each piece invites the viewer to reflect on time, personal and forgotten memories, or fragments of stories. In his work, jack taps into the collective unconscious, exploring themes of loss, play, memory, and identity. His pieces offer glimpses into stories, but deeper understandings emerge from the emotional response of the viewer in the present moment. jack’s work celebrates the beauty of the overlooked and the fleeting moments that shape our lives, encouraging a deeper connection to the world around us. With a deep reverence for old, discarded, found objects, jack celebrates their beauty and potential, transforming them into mixed media works that invite reflection and connection to the past, while resonating in the present.

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Remnants I

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Cherubin’s Wings

Your journey from Northern Italy to Scotland has deeply influenced your artistic path.

Can you share how this journey has shaped your artistic practice and informed your approach to collage and assemblage art?

There’s a profound difference between lake people and sea people. I am a lake person. Born on an Italian Lago, I now live by a Scottish Loch. From a young age, lake people learn the temperament of the water, its hidden dangers, majestic beauty, quiet strength, and resilience. We are dreamers, contemplative by nature, drawn to still waters and the intimacy of a defined horizon. We revere lake water. We fear and respect it. And I believe this deep connection to place has instilled in me a sense of contemplation, and perhaps even melancholia, that I carry into my work.

Found objects play a crucial role in your work. What is the significance of these objects, and how do you go about selecting and integrating them into your art?

Found objects are integral to my work. They carry a sense of history, memories, and all the

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weight of forgotten, untold or erased stories.

I tend to select my objects intuitively, often drawn to elements that resonate emotionally, or through their texture, patina, or narratives.

For me, incorporating these objects in my art is a collaboration with the past. I reinterpret stories by giving them new meaning and life in my collages and assemblages. All objects possess a spirit or essence of their own, while also becoming essential pieces to larger artworks.

You’ve mentioned forming an emotional connection with the discarded photographs and objects you use. How does this connection influence your creative process and the stories you aim to tell through your art?

I see old photos as vessels. When I encounter them, I can feel a wide range of emotions: empathy, sorrow, nostalgia, longing, regret, joy, love, calm... Whatever connection I establish with my papers, photos, or objects guides how I incorporate them into my art. Each piece holds a unique energy, and through my collages and assemblages, I aim to allow their stories to unfold and resonate in unexpected ways. This process is about honouring their past while creating something new that speaks to both the objects and the viewer.

your chosen techniques and how they contribute to the emotional depth and narrative complexity of your pieces?

What do these methods represent within your broader artistic vision?

My techniques revolve around layering, juxtaposition, and transformation. Working with vintage photographs and objects allows me to create works that are rich in texture and narrative complexity. Some of my favourite techniques involve resilience and the beauty of imperfection, which add emotional depth and they also align with my broader vision of finding meaning and artistry in the overlooked and the forgotten.

Your artistic practice is described as personal and meditative. How do mindfulness and intuition guide your creative process, and how do you incorporate these elements into your teaching?

My pieces are approached with a sense of presence, which allows the materials to guide me rather than imposing on me. This openness often creates a flow state where decisions feel instinctive and intuitive, enabling me to connect more deeply with the objects and their stories. In teaching, I encourage this same sense of mindfulness: slowing down, Your work transforms vintage observing, breathing, paying attention, photographs and found objects into accepting. Intuition becomes a key part of the evocative collages and assemblages. process, which helps us to trust our creative

Can you explore the importance of

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choices and uncover unexpected possibilities.

By fostering an environment of exploration and play, I hope to help other artists not only develop their skills but also connect with their own inner creativity in a more meaningful way.

profound ways, by conversing with the past and reflecting on what shaped who we are. This act of transformation can even be healing, offering a way to honour the complexity of the past, while creating something that speaks to the present. It allows us to preserve our histories not as static relics but as evolving, living “Artful Memories,” co-written with Jane narratives with our own personal meaning.

Chipp, showcases a shared passion for vintage photographs. What was the inspiration behind this collaboration, and Your teaching spans a variety of formats, what do you hope to achieve with this from pre-recorded classes to intimate book? live workshops. Can you delve into the transformative impact you aim to have on your students’ creative journeys and Jane and I found each other on Instagram personal growth? and quickly discovered an affinity and a synchronicity in our work: we were both creating in strikingly similar ways. This connection inspired us to collaborate on Artful Memories, a book we wished we’d had when we first started. The book is both a celebration of our love of vintage photographs and a guide for transforming them. By sharing our techniques, insights, and passion, we hope to empower readers to explore their creativity and connect deeply with personal and collective histories.

Stilness “Artful Memories” encourages readers to transform old photographs into art.

How do you believe this practice can help individuals connect with their personal Teaching has become an integral part of my histories and memories?

artistic practice, and I approach it in the same way I do every other part of this miraculous Transforming old photographs into art can work. My aim is to create a space where be a deeply intimate practice. It can allow a everyone feels encouraged to trust their reconnection to our personal history, often in instincts, embrace their unique voice, and

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see making as a deeply personal and fulfilling process. Ultimately, the transformative impact I wish for anybody working with me, is to leave the room with more than just new skills: I want them to feel empowered, connected to their creativity, and open to the possibilities of their wonderful artistic journey.

I’m currently preparing for my biggest solo exhibition to date next year, which is a really exciting challenge and a great incentive to create new work. I’m also keen to keep sharing my work through creative retreats and workshops, as I find these experiences deeply inspiring. Ultimately, this year will be about creating more art, embracing more beauty, and forging deeper connections with other You actively engage with people online like-minded beauty foragers.

and in person through various platforms and communities. What does it mean to you to connect with others through art, especially in digital creative communities?

How do you perceive the power of art in fostering these connections?

I used to feel lonely in the way I see the world.

Until I discovered a community of kindred spirits out there who see beauty in the same oddities I do, and connecting with them has been one of the most meaningful parts of my journey. Art has this incredible ability to bridge distances, both physical and emotional, and to remind us that we are not alone. Whether online or in person, I like to think of creative communities as spaces where like-minded people can come together, share ideas, and inspire one another. Art is not just about making; it’s about belonging, and these communities exemplify that beautifully.

As an artist constantly evolving, what new themes or techniques are you excited to explore in your future projects? Are there any upcoming collaborations or ideas you’re particularly passionate about?

Learn More jackravi.com @jackravi

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Ancestor Medals Triptych jr

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“Art is not just about making; it’s about belonging.”

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@ dire_john

John DiRe

I was born in 1960 in Manhattan and steeped in fine art from an early age by my mother, in the galleries and museums of NYC. In 1982, I began a career in graphic design, first with renowned book designer Katy Homans, later as in-house designer at the Central Branch of the NYPL. In 1988, I earned an MFA in graphic design from Yale, where I studied with Paul Rand and Armin Hofmann, and wrote a thesis on humor as a visual device. I returned to NYC to work in digital design, eventually becoming a creative director at R/GA, focusing on motion graphics and interactive media. In 2004, I retired from design, becoming a full-time homemaker and primary parent to my two children. Inspired by the Ruscha show at MoMA in late 2023, I began making art.

I currently live in rural, upstate NY with my wife and dog.

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ARTIST STATEMENT My art reflects the intimacy of home I’ve enjoyed in my later adult life as a full-time parent and homemaker. I make art in my kitchen and garage, my longtime domains, and draw from the library of things already in these domains. This palette of fasteners, solvents, coatings, and everyday materials is a useful constraint. And the work helps exorcise my profound compulsion to catalog, curate, organize, and handle my inanimate things. I celebrate the quotidian. Each day’s work soothes and structures, as does a to-do list, as does an assignment from a client, as do the needs of a hungry child. I am fascinated by sudden shifts in our perception of scale. I am fascinated by microscopy and pathology. I celebrate the ephemeral as representative of the transience of all things, of our mortality. I believe everything has intrinsic beauty, that all objects have meaning..

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Contessa

100 Cuts 100 Scrapes

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Traveler

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Brood

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Pasta con Sarde

Bedfellows

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www. frank-jennings.com

@frank.jennings2

Frank Jennings

Frank Jennings is an established artist who, for more than five decades, has focused on creating assemblages within the box format. His works are celebrated for their wit, inventiveness, and impeccable craftsmanship. Born in 1950, Frank was educated in Yorkshire and later in Canada, where he completed his M.A. in Visual Arts. Frank created his first boxed assemblages in 1971, while still a student on the Art Foundation Course in Bradford. He has now participated in well over 100 exhibitions that have ranged from the Northern Young Contemporaries to several Discerning Eye appearances and the National Open Art Competition exhibitions, where Gavin Turk was the head selector. Frank is one of the featured artists in the recent publication Out of the Box: A Celebration of Contemporary Box Art

by Tom Buchanan.

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ARTIST STATEMENT I have a lifetime interest in old museums that house the quirky and the curious, where a lack of display space encouraged marriages and relationships to form between disparate objects and artifacts. This peculiar interest, combined with an insatiable appetite to satisfy a diverse collecting habit, are the main passions that influence the ‘Deceptive Receptacles’ I create.

Over the years, I have amassed a plethora of objects and artifacts that have the potential for inclusion in my work: I like to display such items in close proximity to each other, hopeful that this might enable them to foster a relationship. Occasionally, I have used personalities such as Brunel, Columbus, Houdini, and Don Quixote as a starting point. The seashell is an ongoing feature within my work, initially as a single element and then progressing to multiple usages in a series of ‘Hermit Crab Museums’.

The Fishing Arrangement

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The New Flavour of Discovery

From the Wardrobe of the Fastidious Dutchman

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Top Left: A Shell of Her Former Self Buttom Left: Turkish Delights Top Center: Columbus’s Cardigan Buttom Center: The Night the Midnight Milk Race Turned Sour Top Right: Fragile Reliquary

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@pamconnollyphoto www.pamconnollyphoto.com

Pamela Landau Connolly

Pamela Landau Connolly is a lens-based artist and book maker who has been investigating the theme of home for more than 30 years. Her photographs of tin dollhouses, domestic spaces, and family portraits look closely at the American dream, exploring childhood memory and the notion of home; the yearning between the imaginary and the real. Connolly’s photographs are held in the collections of Brown University and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Her recent artist book, Fly in Amber was acquired by the Hirsch Library, Houston, and the University of Michigan’s Art and Design Collection. Connolly has exhibited her work nationally at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans, Foley Gallery in NYC, and Candela Gallery in Richmond, and internationally at the Kominek Gallery in Berlin and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Recently, Connolly became the creator and curator of Landau Gallery, a miniature art gallery in 1:12 scale.

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ARTIST STATEMENT ‘Columbus Drive’ uses vintage potholder looms, family photographs, archival canvas, and cotton thread to retell my childhood in suburban New Jersey during the 1960s and 70s. My process begins by scanning 3” square snapshots and reprinting them digitally on canvas. I cut the enlarged photos into 1/4” strips, warp the loom with color threads, and weave them back together. The finished piece includes both loom and woven image forming a 3-D object. While working on an earlier project exploring tin dollhouses, I began thinking of other toys used to prepare girls for their future as housewives. I remembered the potholder loom I played with and loved. At this time, I was scanning family photos. The square pictures and the square loom seemed to connect one to the other, and the idea emerged to combine them. This work was chosen for Photolucida’s 2024 Critical Mass Top 50!

1st Day of School

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Mom with Yellow Lamp

Mom with British Officer

Lauren in My Room

Pam and Peasant Woman

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Dad and Rembrandt

Me and Lovee

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Lois, take the picture

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