MSEd Virtual Exhibition 2025

THE MIDDLE SPACE

2025 MSEd Graduate Exhibition State University of New York at New Paltz

2025 Graduate Exhibition Master of Science in Education in Visual Arts Education State University of New York at New Paltz

Making requires space. Real, physical space, as well as head space. Students in the MSEd program at SUNY New Paltz have had to forge studios from spare rooms and niches in domiciles, and create mental capacity for making alongside teaching responsibilities and busy lives. And to create within the strange, mediated reality of virtual space.

And making within an online environment is fraught with significant challenge.

The MSEd members, fixed in small boxes online, had to form partnerships with colleagues they may never meet and trust their critique, sharing digital images of work that exists in real time and space. The studio work has emerged through often private adjustment and decision, absent of late-night conversations and impromptu visits from colleagues and faculty. Yet the work exhibited in this online format demonstrates remarkable evolvement in technical and conceptual development, demonstrating significant shifts in thinking and personal growth.

Half the work in the MSEd is focused on pedagogical research, producing a thesis research paper focused on subject matter relevant to the teaching interest of the candidate. The process, along with the studio work, forces a deep examination of the relationship with teaching and making, connecting theory and praxis.

Students have been challenged to consider “the middle space” in the classroom, the place where teacher and student find common ground, where teaching and learning is a shared enterprise and ideas are exchanged in a reciprocal process of evolving experience. The delivery of the MSEd curriculum is divided to give equal emphasis to pedagogy and making, focusing attention on the significance of developing studio practice alongside the theoretical underpinnings of what goes on in the classroom. Through discoveries in materiality and object and image, students confront what it means to translate their own studio investigations into making a classroom and deliver curriculum to young minds. What graduate students learn in their studio research allows them to experience dead ends and serpentine paths of learning, experiences that will most certainly connect to their teaching, impacting empathy with younger learners.

Students in the MSEd have been challenged to think about space: the place where they create and dream, struggle with ideas and materials, patching together disparate bits of themselves in relation to a complex world; and the space of their classrooms where they forge communities of learners struggling with what it means to be fully human in a world exceedingly more and more virtual and digitized. Their work in the program has forced them to confront what it means to be both artist and educator, and the significant relationship between these points of personhood, attempting to locate a middle space where they are not one or the other, but where each point of being allows for a deeper understanding of their role in the world and the work they are committed to.

Important work. Demanding work. Necessary work. They are to be commended for forging such middle ground, a liminal space for making and emerging.

Thomas Albrecht

Director of Art Education, Department of Art SUNY New Paltz

In an online studio classroom, labels and definitions become useful tools.

Digital folders are assigned names, and image files are tucked neatly inside with their respective titles. Students label some things as studies or experiments, teetering between a viable solution and what seems like a void of indeterminate depth, full of new questions or new ways to ask the same questions. The questions that itch and gnaw, with their own gravitational pull.

The MSEd in Visual Arts Education Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz is delivered fully online. Students are challenged to approach graduate-level studio research without a shared, fully equipped studio or a physical place to connect. All aspects of the program, dialogic and material, are perpetually mediated by a screen.

Part of our shared task is to create a space that bends away from the online default setting— a dull, disconnected half-reality. This requires that students choose to remain deeply and meaningfully conscious. It is a choice in favor of nurturing human capacity, complexity, and creativity, and to cradle these uncertain things with skillful hands. And, to acknowledge that this uncertainty is a place of potential, bright and painfully messy. This cohort’s thesis exhibition reflects a commitment to curiosity, as they have transformed uncertainty into work. It demonstrates an understanding that there are ever-changing terms and conditions in a studio practice’s contract with “finished”.

Finished work often waits patiently, ready for a student’s quiet and inspired return. Sometimes, we return to our work and find it has been waiting to be fully reimagined. Sometimes, we are privileged enough to try again to shed the mire of process with a kind of honesty only time can offer. The work that has taken place this year, and defined as finished in this exhibition, is serious work —made, re-made, revised, re-examined, repaired, reinvented. It is a finished and conclusive accomplishment. Though, like most creative pursuits, it remains a patient companion. Eagerly awaiting a fortuitous return.

Paige Van Doren

Term Lecturer, MSEd studio research faculty SUNY New Paltz

My art focuses on memory, emotion, time, and their fleeting, intangible, yet interconnected nature. Some of the memories I represent are logically connected, such as taking place on the same day or involving the same people. Other memories do not seem to have any logical connection—but they are connected in my head, such as butterflies and diaries. I explore how art can represent something constantly changing, evolving, and different for everyone. To accomplish this, I use technology to create animations involving audio, altering images from my past by overlaying, overlapping, and editing them.

Allison Brown

Allison Brown Childhood | video

Allison Brown Fade | video

Allison Brown Final Trip | video

Allison Brown Intertwined | video

Allison Brown Light | video

Allison Brown Reminder | video

Allison Brown Sunset | video

Allison Brown Time | video

Allison Brown Timeline | video

Allison Brown Untitled | video

My work explores the connection between family history and personal memory, shaped by stories and moments preserved in photographs. Inspired by images from my grandparents’ lives, I create mixed-media pieces that evoke both feelings of nostalgia and a sense of relational distance. Using a variety of materials, including graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, and ink, I explore how making art becomes a way to connect with a past that I still feel deeply tied to. By placing my work alongside these family photographs, I examine the distance between their experiences and my own.

Catherine Carlson

Catherine Carlson

Bomb Pops | archival photograph

Catherine Carlson

Bomb Pop | colored pencil, watercolor on paper

Catherine Carlson

Brothers | archival photograph

Catherine Carlson

Brothers | digital drawing, charcoal brush

Catherine Carlson Nest | archival photograph

Catherine Carlson

Nest | colored pencil, charcoal, watercolor on paper

Catherine Carlson

Paper Cranes | archival photograph

Catherine Carlson

Paper Cranes | colored pencil, watercolor on paper

In my work, blankets represent the protective barriers we employ to shield ourselves from trauma, painful memories, and the harshness of reality. When faced with adversity, stress, or anxiety, we cope with comfort objects and rituals.

I investigate the relationship or tension between concealment and exposure, vulnerability, and security.

My work is built around themes of identity and selfdiscovery. It explores the relationship between color and emotion through achromatic color schemes and obscure forms. I encourage the viewer to look beneath the surface of my work to discover the emotional and psychological layers that are hidden there.

Daniela Charter

Daniela Charter

A Line Woven Through | charcoal

Daniela Charter

Almost Remembered | charcoal

Daniela Charter

Cloaked in Survival | charcoal

Daniela Charter

Layer by Layer | charcoal

Daniela Charter Soft Armor | charcoal

Daniela Charter

What Covers Reveals | charcoal

My current work captures historic Greek figures mid-myth: moments of longing, endurance, and transformation. Those moments are expressed through carefully chosen acrylic hues that surge in gestures borne of intense visceral feelings. Each splatter violently meets the paper’s surface.

Paint weeps and merges. Colored pencils then tenderly coax imagery from the amorphous and vibrant chaos. Creatures, flora, and flesh slowly emerge, unfurling the Homeric lore that persists with a glinting pull through my consciousness.

Deciphering meaning in the layered details requires you to linger a moment longer, to step into the same drifting space of myth, emotion, and indulgence that guides my hand.

Margo Christie

Margo Christie

What Do You Fight For? | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

The Pain You Reap | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

False Righteousness | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

Warm Welcome | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

Nothing's What it Seems | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

True Nature Will Be Revealed | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

Is It You I'll Find? | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

Sealed Your Fate | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Margo Christie

Waiting | acrylic paint, gouache, colored pencil

Unlocking my mind is something I struggled with deeply throughout childhood: Is sitting still really the answer to focusing and understanding?

My crochet hook is the key to unlocking a deeper connection in my mind. As I crochet stitches, my hands are moving but my mind is still, allowing space to process.

As my hands work, I am healing the incomprehensible parts of me. There are still imperfections and gaps in my life and in my art. My crocheting hands are working to bring the pieces together and marking my journey with collections of yarn.

Hailey Crossley

Hailey Crossley

Untitled | yarn and beads

Hailey Crossley Untitled | yarn

Hailey Crossley

Untitled | yarn and beads

Hailey Crossley

Untitled | yarn and beads

Hailey Crossley Untitled | yarn

Hailey Crossley Untitled | yarn

Hailey Crossley

Untitled | yarn and beads

Hailey Crossley Untitled | yarn

Hailey Crossley Untitled | yarn

Hailey Crossley Untitled | yarn

This watercolor series of seashell still life paintings addresses living with loss, grief, and inevitable change.

While seashells feel like a constant organic form in nature, they are still the remains of the animal that used to live inside them, or what is left behind. Close-ups of seashells I have collected are a physical representation of the complexity of living with what remains after loss. The shells interact with each other and the space through textures and related color palettes. The rock form serves as an anchor to the space, and the wooden jewelry box creates contrasting geometric shapes through light sources and shadows cast. The seashells serve as characters in a subtle, delicate, and quiet composition, urging contemplation.

Sophia Di Meglio

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

Sophia Di Meglio Untitled | oil

I am a multimedia artist and creator of the immensely popular Seanie Gazette that features the hit comic, Gary. To create my work, I draw with pencil and pen on paper and use varied Adobe software like InDesign and Photoshop. I make these papers because they are fun to create and are a way for me to express myself. Each Gary character is taken from a bit of me. The newspaper allows me to express a bunch of random thoughts and stories that I hope others find the humor in and can join along with where my mind wanders.

Sean Gustafson

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 1 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 2 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 3 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 4 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 5 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 6 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 7 | digital design

Sean Gustafson

Seanie Gazette #3 Page 8 | digital design

Our bodies are our very first homes. A vessel that carries us through life, embarking on a journey of growth, connection, and beauty. The body decays due to illness, and as a result, we grieve what once was, whether that be physical functions or a version of our lives before confronting disease.

My work offers a glimpse into my experience with the forces of grief and decay, inviting viewers to peer closely into the sculpted caverns and holes. Cellular drawings yield an illusion of depth, as I layer histological studies with vellum. The work explores the visual language of bodily decay– how it invokes grief, molds us, and reveals a deep beauty amongst the pain.

Abigail Herman

Abigail Herman

Cell by Cell | charcoal on paper, vellum

Abigail Herman

Metastasis | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman

Metastasis (detail) | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman

Relapse | charcoal on paper

Abigail Herman

Malignant | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman

Malignant (detail) | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman

Remission | charcoal on paper, vellum

Abigail Herman

Fragmented | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman

Fragmented (detail) | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman

Transparency | charcoal on paper, vellum

Abigail Herman

Residual Matter | paper clay, charcoal, India ink, wire

Abigail Herman Carcinomas | charcoal on paper

Abigail Herman Decay | charcoal on paper

Abigail Herman Decay (detail) | charcoal on paper

Abigail Herman A Life Well Lived | charcoal on paper

My current research has led to assemblage and collage using discard materials to explore narrative and personal history. Transitioning from 2D to 3D required deeper considerations of space and material, challenging traditional norms of making and inviting viewers to engage with their surroundings. For example, using broken toys and forgotten technologies in new contexts prompts reflection on everyday objects often ignored. Reflecting on personal lived experiences, material choices became central to each piece’s meaning. At the core of my practice is the belief that artistic value lies in seeing potential where others see waste.

Ben Holmes

Ben Holmes

Echo #1 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo #2 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo #3 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo #4 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo #5 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo #6 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo #7 and Echo #8 | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

Ben Holmes

Echo Environment | found objects, mixed plastics, salvaged electronics

There are no guarantees within life and within ceramics. My work focuses on my emotional connection to my memories and how these moments build the story of my life. The moving image of my hands making, in combination with the string of memories, creates a loose narrative to show the poetic passage of time - a documented choreography between creator and creation. I explore connections between myself and the impermanence of the material. The pots carry their own aliveness in tandem with the energy of my hand. My work embodies: What we make.

What we manifest.

What we hope to contain.

Antoinette Kearney

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part I : Making | video

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part II : Manifesting | unfired ceramics, photo series

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part III : Containing | pit fired ceramics

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part III : Containing | pit fired ceramics

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part III : Containing | pit fired ceramics

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part III : Containing | pit fired ceramics

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part III : Containing | pit fired ceramics

Antoinette Kearney

Loving Memory, Part III : Containing | pit fired ceramics

Through the creation of acrylic paintings, I investigate the juxtaposition between childhood and adulthood, exploring the way paintings can preserve a sense of nostalgia, memory, and emotion. In examining my own memories through painting, I ask myself: “How can my memories be reimagined or preserved through making?” Much like memory, these pieces range in subject matter—from chickens to childhood recollections—yet all these pieces aim to build on a sense of familiarity. With the pieces varied in subject matter, the series is tied together through compositions featuring the use of internal frames depicting my memory landscapes.

Lauren Kimball

Lauren Kimball Dress Up | acrylic

Lauren Kimball Dress Up II | acrylic

Lauren Kimball Late Nights | acrylic

Lauren Kimball Late Nights II | acrylic

Lauren Kimball

Aunt Kimmy’s Chickens | watercolor, acrylic, white gel pen

Lauren Kimball Bubbles | acrylic, chalk pastel

Lauren Kimball Snow Day | acrylic, charcoal

Lauren Kimball The Deep End | acrylic

Lauren Kimball Road Trip | acrylic

I guide the fibers under and over. I press wool into itself with needle. I slow down my mind, my nerves, my actions.

Here it comes, that wondrous thread binding me to all my mother’s that came before. It’s as if the actions of my hands awaken the braided strands between me and them.

Capitalism's definition of me falls away, and I find myself reorienting to another place and time. Wet clay travels through the crevices between my fingers, as if my hands were a shifting rocky landscape responding to the earth’s core. The sound ignites a rhythm, as if Her heart was beating through me. My attention waivers, I look down. The floor is laden with plastic wrappers and cardboard boxes.

The illusion disintegrates. I am a contemporary woman, pining for an ancient impression to lodge itself into my bones whilst fabricating antidotes to the turbulence of modernity.

Erin Luna

Erin Luna

make fast | clay, raw wool, raw silk

Erin Luna

carry | clay, raw wool, raw silk

Erin Luna

sussurrare | clay, raw wool, raw silk

Erin Luna

sussurrare | clay, raw wool, raw silk

Erin Luna

la medicina | clay, raw wool, raw silk

Erin Luna

recollect | clay, raw wool, raw silk

Erin Luna

recollect | clay, raw wool, raw silk

My paintings are a personal response to the emotional shifts I feel as the seasons change. Through a meditative, personal process, I use layered color, imagery, and abstract form to express what I cannot always put into words. I use environmental color studies that reflect an inner state, while organic shapes echo the quiet movement of nature. As the light changes and the air shifts, so do I. Painting helps me process these subtle emotional transitions. My work is less about image and more about presence, a reflection of becoming, unraveling, and grounding with each passing season.

Ashley Maybach

Ashley Maybach

Spring | acrylic, oil, charcoal

Ashley Maybach

Summer | acrylic, oil, charcoal, pencil

Ashley Maybach

Fall | acrylic, oil, enamel, charcoal

Ashley Maybach

Winter | acrylic, oil, enamel, pastel

Memory: • “the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers data.”

• “something remembered from the past.”

We can type the term “memory” in our search engine and find an answer at the touch of a finger. However, memory is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon that changes over time. As a result of time, our ability to search for distant memories can be altered during the process of recollection.

Postcards serve as tangible anchors for fleeting memories, capturing glimpses of places without fully encompassing the original experience. This artwork mirrors that format, acting as a physical placeholder for the fluid nature of memory across time. It invites the viewers to reflect on their own fragmented collection of recollections and consider how the passage of time shapes those narratives.

Caitlyn McCreedy

Caitlyn McCreedy Collection of Keepsakes | mixed media installation

Caitlyn McCreedy James Joseph | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Blank Albums | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Kitchen Sink | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Nintendo 64 | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Floridian Fish | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Trinkets | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Lights | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Caitlyn McCreedy Generations | laser ink image transfer, pen and ink on paper

Madison Mundy My current work explores humor as an access point to conversations about mental health. By experimenting with different mediums, I play with bold bright, overstimulating color, and the marks each medium leaves on a surface. I consider visual mood that emphasizes the invisible dark humorous voice inside our minds.

As someone who struggles with mental health, I understand that visual art can build connections and community. These works aim to establish a place of collective understanding and awareness of mental illness.

Why live in a world of stigma that is so dark when we can live in a world that embraces mental health through my art!

Madison Mundy Count Down to Death | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy Take Your Meds | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy Your're Gonna Die | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy Tired of Being Numb | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy Overload.exe | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy

It's The Final Breakdown | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy

Am I Being Followed Or Am I Just Crazy? | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy

Casually Cheating Death | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy Where Do I Look? | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy

Are You Still Bedrotting? | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy

Yeah I'm Not Gonna Check These | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Madison Mundy

We've Got A Real Dish-aster | watercolors, gouache, markers, colored pencil

Reclamation draws on the complexities of memory, relationships, and the process of healing. Through pieces that embody a sense of catharsis and the resonance of material manipulation, the work honors resilience – the act of overcoming.

Pulled, torn, and mended, the body of work mirrors the laborious nature of recovery. Fibers, dye, and string respond to fleeting and tensioning emotions. Disparate material fragments are reconstructed signifying renewal; while simultaneously disfigured, depicting destruction and disruption.

Physicality is central – each action carries weight. Material strategies, intertwined with art therapeutics, meander between wreckage and renewal to underscore the strenuous route to revival. Through an engagement with material sensibility, Reclamation honors the past and present; celebrating the new paths we forge and the ability to break through.

Jacqueline Nicole

Jacqueline Nicole

Ruin | felting wool, cotton sheet, air dry clay, silicone sealant

Jacqueline Nicole

Ruin (detail) | felting wool, cotton sheet, air dry clay, silicone sealant

Jacqueline Nicole Restore | felting wool, paper clay

Jacqueline Nicole Restore (detail) | felting wool, paper clay

Jacqueline Nicole Grasp | felting wool

Jacqueline Nicole Grasp (detail) | felting wool

Jacqueline Nicole

Unraveling | cotton sheets, sheer thread, watercolor, acrylic ink

Jacqueline Nicole

Unraveling (detail) | cotton sheets, sheer thread, watercolor, acrylic ink

Jacqueline Nicole

Infectious | cotton sheets, watercolor, embroidery floss, fabric dye, acrylic ink

Jacqueline Nicole

Infectious (detail) | cotton sheets, watercolor, embroidery floss, fabric dye, acrylic ink

Jacqueline Nicole

Scrutiny | ceramic, sheer, acrylic paint, yarn, string, thread, cotton sheet, marker, fabric dye, acrylic ink, duco cement

Jacqueline Nicole

Scrutiny (detail) | ceramic, sheer, acrylic paint, yarn, string, thread, cotton sheet, marker, fabric dye, acrylic ink, duco cement

Jacqueline Nicole

Scrutiny 2 | ceramic, paper clay, cheesecloth, cotton sheet, string, mod podge, duco cement, gesso, watercolor, wire

Jacqueline Nicole

Departure | copper wire, cotton sheet, thread, paper clay, watercolor, coffee, fishing line

Jacqueline Nicole

Departure (detail) | copper wire, cotton sheet, thread, paper clay, watercolor, coffee, fishing line

I am consistently concerned about falling into tropes about womanhood or motherhood. I struggle to find artists that explore or embody these emotional concepts without including corporeal depictions of life as a mother. My intention lies in the level of personal intimacy I seek to explore. I plan for my work to convey the essence of a private conversation.

I work on a smaller scale to explore how text, collage, and encaustic generate intricate relationships as a means to process these significant emotional experiences of my transition into motherhood.

Language and text influence the format in which I work. I want to entice my audience and cause them to lean in. Partial words and abstracted patterns are obfuscated by layers of encaustic of varying opacity.

Intentionally playing with what is hidden and what is revealed in each vignette is key to informing my audience of the clarity and confusion of my own matrescence. It is okay if my audience does not notice my work at first glance, as motherhood and its transformation is often overlooked by society. I want to explore what happens when someone takes the time to view my work at a distance, closer, and then very close. I am curious how these changes in distance can change one’s perception of my artwork.

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Untitled | encaustic, fiber, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk Untitled | encaustic, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Untitled | encaustic, fiber, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Untitled | encaustic, fiber, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Untitled | encaustic, fiber, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Untitled | encaustic, fiber, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk Untitled | encaustic, photocopied text

Kaileigh Osarczuk

Untitled | encaustic, fiber, photocopied text

Bombay ink and luminous metal leaf contrast and harmonize, revealing spaces that are ordinary or mundane.

The work illuminates the calm and quiet-moments often unnoticed. Our first instinct is to think that these moments aren’t worth sharing in conversation. On the contrary, these moments are something sacred and peaceful.

Luminous and rich leaf asks for your gaze to linger, a gesture welcoming you to pause and ground yourself. I compose moments that belong to anyone and no one, revealing intimate spaces that are equally banal and full of light. The works serve as a reminder to be mindful and present, honoring these moments as an act of reverence.

Maria Papas

Maria Papas

Mornings | bombay ink, ink pen, silver leaf

Maria Papas

Fill My Cup | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Finally Home | bombay ink, Procreate digital ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Water Me | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Bathe With Me | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Folding | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Silence With You | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Grandma's Touch | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

Maria Papas

Tears of Joy | bombay ink, ink pen, gold leaf

My art comes from real stories of struggle, loss, and getting through hard times; drawn from my life, the stories I grew up with, and over 20 years as a tattoo artist listening to what people carry. I work with wood and paper, stains and ink, so the surface marks convey meaning. I look to Charles White and Goya for inspiration. I keep things straightforward by focusing on what feels honest rather than polished, by building layers slowly, revising in place, and letting the surface hold its scars. I bring forgotten stories back into focus and make room for pain, memory, grit, and the drama that comes with them. Each piece asks the viewer to slow down, notice, and remember that they are not alone in their own struggles.

Michael Perez

Michael Perez The Quiet Between | ink on aged vellum

Michael Perez Echoes of Resolve | grahpite on paper

Michael Perez

What Remains | Ink and charcoal on cold pressed paper

Michael Perez Inherit the Ashes | stain on wood

Michael Perez Final Gambit | stain on wood

Michael Perez Falling Still | stain on wood

Michael Perez She Wears the Night | stain on wood

Michael Perez Strange Fruit | stain on wood

Michael Perez Strange Fruit II | stain on wood

Michael Perez

The Weight of Freedom | stain on wood

My current work focuses on landscapes that have been altered by human activity. Many of these paintings offer multiple views of the same subject to either showcase the expanse of the landscape or how it changes over time.

As an artist who grew up around Buffalo, New York, I began reflecting on the history surrounding me, and the presence of industry within the natural environment became my center of focus. Oil paint on aluminum panel is used to create this body of work, with the metallic surface symbolizing industry and further enhancing the visual narrative of an industrial presence interrupting the natural world.

Christina Pierino

Christina Pierino Instinct and Intervention | oil on wood panel

Christina Pierino

Instinct and Intervention, Panel I | oil on wood panel

Christina Pierino

Instinct and Intervention, Panel II | oil on wood panel

Christina Pierino

Instinct and Intervention, Panel III | oil on wood panel

Christina Pierino Cargill Grain Elevator | oil on aluminum panel

Christina Pierino Cargill Grain Elevator II | oil on aluminum panel

Christina Pierino Smoke and Flames | oil on aluminum panel

Christina Pierino Water and Steel | oil on aluminum panel

Christina Pierino

Bird’s-Eye View of Bethlehem Steel | oil on aluminum panel

My work explores how visual art can engage the haptic senses to deepen our understanding of its therapeutic potential. By creating sensory experiences, I aim to support individuals who may not connect with art through traditional, linear means of interpretation.

Using digitally printed works on canvas enhanced with texture paste, I emphasize the tactile dimension of visual art in relation to sight and sound. This multisensory approach aligns with studies of visual perception and auditory response, inviting viewers to experience art in a more immersive, embodied way. The integration of audio elements and three-dimensional textures allows for a layered interpretation encouraging a sense of calm, introspection, or meditative awareness.

Monique Reyes

Monique Reyes

Bowling | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Bowling (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Campfire | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Campfire (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Candy | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Candy (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Cards | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Cards (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Fidget Tubes | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Fidget Tubes (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Gaming | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Gaming (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Legos | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Legos (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Pencil Shavings | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Pencil Shavings (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Swings | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Swings (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Waves) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

Monique Reyes

Waves (detail) | digital painting, texture paste, acrylic paint

As a non-binary person who is assigned female at birth, there has always been a weight on my shoulders to present myself as a feminine woman. I often feel as though I am stuck in my own flesh trying to transform myself into something that I am not. In this body of work, I explore my gender through a series of euphoric/dysphoric paintings. I invite the viewer to explore the ideas of how we pressure ourselves to feel or become a certain gender, and what it feels like to be non-cisgendered under cisnormative cultural rules and ideas of womanhood through the perspective of the gender binary.

Rebecca Rivera

Rebecca Rivera

The Cold Will Keep Me Here | acrylic on canvas panel

Rebecca Rivera

Who Wore It Better? (diptych) | acrylic on canvas

Rebecca Rivera

So Close, I Can Almost Touch It | acrylic on canvas, plastic flowers

Rebecca Rivera Left Out To Dry | acrylic on canvas

Rebecca Rivera

Mourning Does Not Work If No One Has Died | acrylic on canvas panel

Rebecca Rivera

Made To Your Liking | acrylic on canvas, embroidery

Rebecca Rivera

Liar Liar: How She Smiled Through The Flames | acrylic on canvas panel

Rebecca Rivera I Hope You’re Hungry! | acrylic on canvas

My paintings explore the environmental and social impacts of climate change, focusing on its effects on vulnerable ecosystems and marginalized communities. My work depicts nature’s devastating results, leaving communities almost uninhabitable. I paint imagery that shows the impact from natural disasters, often without human figures.

My intent is to inform the viewer of suffering by showcasing powerful visuals that call them to take action. “Activism starts to take place because images become available of something that wasn’t visible,” says American photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier. As an activist artist, my work raises alarm to move viewers toward new pathways to healing and community building.

Alison Roland

Alison Roland

Red Alert | acrylic, flow acrylic, house paint on canvas

Alison Roland

Fragility | acrylic, house paint on canvas

Alison Roland

Texas EF3 | acrylic, house paint on canvas

Alison Roland

Vortex | charcoal on heavyweight paper

Alison Roland Lost | acrylic on canvas

Alison Roland

Firestorm | acrylic, flow acrylic on canvas

Alison Roland Loss and Hope | acrylic on canvas

Alison Roland Chido | acrylic on canvas

Alison Roland

Mwanamke Neida (Strong Woman in Swahili) | acrylic on canvas

Alison Roland

NYX | acrylic primer, acrylic on canvas

Fairytales in the Modern World, a narrative photography series, eliminates the security of conceptual distance inherent in fantastical tales by reimagining them in current context and costuming their characters in apparel accessible to modern women. Cliché imagery from popular fairytale iterations anchor the work within the shared cultural zeitgeist. I stage highly charged scenes in ubiquitous locations reflective of everyday encounters to invoke feelings of unease by interweaving darker elements from historical fairytales with fears, pressures, and insecurities commonly felt by the modern woman. These scenes are set within the context of contemporary digestible media types. The artistically depicted realization of these fears offers an opportunity for deep reflection, discomfort and catharsis. This work, rife with feminist commentary, seeks to recapture the original fear-driven spirit of fairytales while examining the often problematic portrayal and treatment of women in fairytales, the media and contemporary society.

Lelia Santos

Lelia Santos

Don’t Take Candy From Strangers (Remember Ladies, Sugar Isn’t Good For You) | artist (as the subject), Faux pearls, pre-purchased clothing items, self-made clothing items, fake blood, lollipop, faux razor blade, light reflector, digital camera, Canva editing program

Lelia Santos

All Worth It For Prince Charming | artist (as the subject), gauze, fake blood, digital camera, camera stand, lighting wand, Canva editing program

Lelia Santos She Who Tries To Live As They Do (Cinderella) | artist (as the subject), pre-purchased clothing items, specifically purchased clothing items, handcuffs, light reflector, portable light source, cell phone, digital camera, Canva editing program, Photoshop Express editing program, iPhone text template

Lelia Santos

Sleeping Beauty | artist (as the subject), faux diamonds, faux pearls, pre-purchased clothing items, marker on paper (the sign), neon lighting, digital camera (wide lens), Snapchat

Lelia Santos

The Power Of Perception (Moana)1 | Artist (as the subject), pre-purchased clothing items, specifically purchased clothing items, purchased prop accessories, handmade prop accessories, fresh flowers and leaves, light reflector, portable light source, cell phone, digital camera, Canva editing program, PhotoShop Express editing program, Instagram template

Lelia Santos

The Power Of Perception (Moana)2 | artist (as the subject), pre-purchased clothing items, specifically purchased clothing items, purchased prop accessories, handmade prop accessories, fresh flowers and leaves, light reflector, portable light source, cell phone, digital camera, Canva editing program, PhotoShop Express editing program, Instagram template

Lelia Santos

Little Red Raving Hood | Artist (as the subject), pre-purchased clothing items, car keys, car, fake blood, beer bottles with wolf-themed labels, digital camera, camera stand, photography light, colored gel (red), Canva editing program, PhotoShop Express editing program

Lelia Santos

All This For A Man | Artist (as the subject), pre-purchased clothing items, temporary red hair dye, seashells, handmade jewelry, hardcover book, candles, melted candle wax, fake blood, faux razor blade, light reflector, portable light source, cell phone, digital camera, Canva editing program, PhotoShop Express editing program

My work explores the transitions from girlhood to womanhood and then into motherhood. What began as a broader reflection has become a deeply personal project, rooted in my own lived experiences.

Girlhood, for me, was bright, imaginative, and full of color, but also quiet and lonely. On the path to womanhood through adolescence, the search for connection brought both joy and vulnerability, placing me on the path of predatory men, substance use, and instability. It was in this chaotic period that I found refuge in music, especially the raw, unapologetic energy of the punk and riot grrrl movement. The DIY mentality, the assertion of messy power and emotional truth, continues to resonate through my work.

Motherhood, while a happy surprise at 23, was an initial loss of color, identity, and time, hiding underneath the weight of care and new responsibility. While there are clear moments of colorful light and joy, they are often fleeting, lost in the heaviness of responsibility.

I work primarily with fiber art, embroidery, appliqué, and fabric collage. There's something powerful in using these traditionally “domestic” crafts to tell stories about girlhood, womanhood, and motherhood; stories about being a woman. The process is slow, messy, and hands-on, similar to the DIY spirit I grew up admiring in riot grrl culture and zines. Raw. Messy. Loud and real. Colors and textures used feel like flipping through a stitched-together diary or sticker book.

Mandy Sirchia

Mandy Sirchia

Girlhood | fabric (cotton, felt, canvas), embroidery thread, gouache

Mandy Sirchia

Womanhood | fabric (cotton, felt, canvas), embroidery thread, gouache

Mandy Sirchia

Motherhood | fabric (cotton, felt, canvas), embroidery thread, gouache

Mandy Sirchia

Quilt - Wip | fabric (cotton, felt, canvas, tulle), embroidery thread, gouache

Shades of Acceptance is a visual autobiography, capturing fragments of my experience rather than a full comprehensive narrative. Throughout this series I break away from isolated moments to a more encompassing exploration of emotions. Mapping out my journey through identity, adoption, and authenticity. Using layered and woven materials, I represent a collection of memories that have contributed to my own understanding of self. A collection of moments that bring upon both confusion and clarity. Incorporating photographs adds a more personal element while preserving a degree of privacy. There’s an ongoing reciprocal relationship between and identity and this work: my experiences impact the art and in return the process reshapes my perspective. This body of work is an attempt to insert myself into a conversation surrounding identity. A conversation that feels messy, urgent and inescapable.

Shay Steuart

Shay Steuart

Shades of a Memory | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

Shay Steuart

Shades of Gratitude | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

Shay Steuart

Shades of Formation | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

Shay Steuart

Shades of a New Beginning | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

Shay Steuart

Shades of a Young Girl | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

Shay Steuart

Shades of Decay | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

Shay Steuart

Shades to Continue | photographs, wet media on watercolor paper

My artistic practice explores painting representations of my internal struggles, utilizing surrealism as a conceptual framework. Using the medium of acrylic paint, I use intentional shadow and symbolism of subject matter to invoke a response of curiosity and sometimes even discomfort from viewers.

My art making allows me to turn the negative emotions I feel in my life into something beautiful and truly curious.

With each artwork I create, I allow myself to heal and to grow from all my life experiences. The physical process of creating my artwork helps me to expel the negative energy I may hold onto in my body and, in turn, helps me to heal from these struggles.

Hannah Teeter

Hannah Teeter

Gluttonous | acrylic pn mixed media paper

Hannah Teeter

Fix Me | acrylic on canvas

Hannah Teeter

Still Hungry? | acrylic on mixed media paper

Hannah Teeter

Ostracized | acrylic on mixed media paper

Hannah Teeter

Starving | acrylic on mixed media paper

Hannah Teeter

Gravity of Light | acrylic on canvas

In this body of work, I consider how our relationships with our fellow women shape who and what we are. What multitudes are contained within a woman and her history?

In what ways are we an assemblage of the women who came before us? I sample and reassemble forms, images, and concepts from my family's past to find new meaning.

Each piece expresses some aspect of womanhood that I contend with, combining found objects with rich painting to evoke accumulation and kitsch. The works exist in conversation with one another, repeating key motifs, compositions, colors, and decoration. As a collection, the series defines womanhood within the context of our families, challenging a western feminism built upon individualism. The work asks the feminine audience to consider their own multitudes and interconnectedness with the women that surround them.

Julia Thompson

Julia Thompson

Shepherdess | gouache, string, found photos collage

Julia Thompson

Black Sheep | gouache, printed photos, beads, yarn collage

Julia Thompson

Hostess | Gouache paintings collaged

Julia Thompson

Diviner | gouache painting, photo collage

Julia Thompson

Lalechka | gouache collage in wooden frame

Julia Thompson

Sister | gouache, lace, beads, yarn collage

Julia Thompson

Flightless Bird | gouache painting collage

Julia Thompson

Craftswoman | gouache paintings, fabric collaged

Drawing on my experience as both an artist and athlete, society and culture often reinforce the essence that these identities must remain separate. The weight these personas and emotions carry exists in layers folded into one another.

My body of work engages with the depth of feeling that arises from the conflict of being one or the other. These separate entities are like liquid matter—fluid yet distinct.

This unfolds a new conversation, seeking spaces where these shifting forms dissolve the boundaries of beginning and end. Folding together opacity and saturation, they transform through woven actions. Line and color become a tether—binding push and pull into a visual language shaped by breaths of reflection.

Samantha Trimblett

Samantha Trimblett Pull | digital media

Samantha Trimblett Break | digital media

Samantha Trimblett Hold | digital media

Samantha Trimblett Pause & Wrap Between Stillness / Fluid Divide | digital media

Samantha Trimblett Loop | digital media

Samantha Trimblett Link | digital media

Samantha Trimblett Bind | digital media

The strength of women often lies in their adaptability. Like trees that bend and warp around a fence, women adapt and flourish. My work addresses the intimate relationship and complex parallels between women and nature, investigating how they intertwine as they undergo cycles of change and transformation. Fragments of female figures ebb and flow in and out of natural elements, representing women’s deep connection to the earth and how their struggles with change overlap. The passage of time transforms and alters the appearance and perception of both women and nature. However, we view the evolving female body and nature’s changes through different lenses.

This work invites a discussion about societal pressures and expectations placed on women, which both contrast and coincide with the evolution of the natural world.

Emily Webb

Emily Webb Rooted in Rising | graphite on paper

Emily Webb

The Garden She Grows | graphite on paper

Emily Webb She Unfolds | graphite on paper

Emily Webb Full Bloom | graphite on paper

Emily Webb The Turning | graphite on paper

Emily Webb Echoes of Harvest | graphite on paper

Emily Webb Where She Falls | graphite on paper

Emily Webb Buried in Light | graphite on paper

Emily Webb Draped in Silence | graphite on paper

Emily Webb Tide of Her | graphite on paper

I experience the act of creating to be both serene and chaotic. This series represents my process of navigating the balance between meticulous planning and creative impulsivity. My work shows dialogue between organic and constructed forms through layered contrasts. The paintings are experimental, discovering interactions between color and shape, along with repetition and pattern through textured layers. This series displays inspiration from traditional art motifs via abstracted forms. I invite the viewer to look deeper into each area of the canvas and engage with the contrasting relationship between order and the complexity of unexpected moments. My paintings are a representation of embracing a process of experimentation while discovering what emerges in time and making.

Madelyn Yeager

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic

Madelyn Yeager Untitled | acrylic