“Bush Blues” Megan

McGuyre

Sweet Flora, lush bush with striking flower, Leaves down and fine, Behold her softness, what makes her your weakness And do not shame her vines.

Sit yourself upon her trunks, Feel her strength between your legs. Don’t prune the foliage that she grew She wants it to be longer.

Sweet Flora, the pink of her petals, With scents that drive you wild, The pollen that bursts from her Is sweet but sickly, only as infectious, to draw you so.

And look! Oh, see her fruit she bares: Berries, among the leaves and folds, With sugary juices and salty seeds, That has your tongue and holds.

Sweet Flora, the gifts you give

From your blossomed brush, Do not sever her growth, her petals, her sweet jewels. Let the people love her, be sated, and flush.

Artist Bios

Sandra Cavanagh’s first two decades were pitched on the tensions between a loving family life, political upheavals, and the dangers of politically sanctioned brutality and censorship in Argentina. Her career began in 1997 after studying Fine Arts at K.I.A.D., University of Kent, UK. She resides and works in NYC.

Shiva Tamara’s art seeks to explore the intersection of feminism and the representation of the nude female form. By reclaiming and challenging traditional notions of beauty, Tamara aims to empower women and challenge societal expectations placed upon them. Through their paintings, Tamara strives to depict the female body as a symbol of strength, resilience, and agency, transcending the objectification often associated with nudity. Each brushstroke becomes a celebration of individuality, diversity, and the inherent beauty that lies within all women. By embracing the female form in its unapologetic rawness, Tamara’s art becomes a catalyst for dialogue and a visual manifesto for gender equality.

Rodion Voskresenskii is an independent artist without a certain residence, born in Taganrog, Russia, in 1994. Rodion is a painter, furniture designer, and scenographer. He graduated from university with a Marketing Design degree in 2016. He immigrated from Russia in 2022. Voskresenskii’s work is a mixture of figurative subjects surrounded by long-lasting emotional sequences and a deeply sensual environment containing a lot of real and fictional objects. His work strives to bring the viewer his emotional experience and sense of moment with the help of ideas and visual means of romanticism, modernism, and impressionism.

Jodi Brewer, a resident of Memphis, Tennessee, is a multifaceted individual who embodies the roles of mother, artist, student, and textile teacher. She explores intricate themes of sexuality, identity, and belonging through her sculptural works. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Studio Arts at the University of Memphis to further her own artistic education. By refining her techniques and exploring new avenues for creative exploration, Jodi’s artistic pursuits allow her to push the boundaries of her craft. She challenges societal norms and invites viewers to reflect on their own experiences through her thought-provoking art.

Kristin O’Connor is a painter whose work explores the intersection of feminism and sexuality. Drawing inspiration from her upbringing in the southern Evangelical church, her work incorporates elements of biblical symbolism and purity culture metaphors to challenge narratives that demonize sex and pleasure. Her work is a celebration of the power and resilience of women in the face of oppressive cultural norms and expectations. She graduated with a BFA in Painting from the University of Tampa in 2013, and she received her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2015. She lives and works in Brooklyn.

Megan Hosmer is an American artist, teacher, and a 2023 graduate of the NSCAD MFA program in Mi’kma’ki (Halifax). Since she is an experimental analog photographer, her work primarily centers around feminist questions of identity, disability, and community through photographic portraiture. As a Nova Scotia transplant from Oklahoma, Megan has been exhibited locally and internationally in the Stitches and Pics Gallery, the Anna Leonowens Gallery, and the Bus Stop Theater. More of Megan’s work can be found at meganhosmer.com.

Ilhan Mathangi (he/him, they/them, she/her) is a trans non-binary Muslim photographer and multidisciplinary artist specializing in photo manipulation. Mathangi exhibited his work collectively and individually in the Netherlands, Mexico, and Argentina. He made the visual art for the First Festival for Senegalese Migrants’ Rights of La Plata (2020). He was a finalist in the 1st Contest Of Photography ArtJaén (2023); he was selected in the 40º National Salon of Visual Arts of Tucumán (2021); he won the First Prize in the National Salon of Visual Arts of Junín (2021); and he was awarded the prize of 3rd Vol. of The Collection of New York (2022).

Babak Haghi started professional photography in 2013 and since then, in addition to fine art photography, has also worked on theater and performance art photography. His main concerns are dialect of body, nature, and femininity inside humans and the outbreak of identity with the use of photography and video art. During this time, identity and body dialect have been Haghi’s major subjects in his different series: dialect, which does not require a language, insinuates that if any human frees themselves to the level of reaching subconscious, their body language will automatically speak. Body language can even be an expression of a human’s hidden identity, and this can be the reason to eliminate gendered borders and exhibit humans’ hidden (sexual) attractions. Photography of performance and dance, or any other body art, is Haghi’s real passion.

Raylene Solis is a Filipino American multidisciplinary artist primarily focused on two-dimensional artwork such as paintings, digital illustrations, and drawings. She is interested in identity, environmentalism, and the details of intersectionality in life experiences. Through educational and personal artistic practices, she aims to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of creating art while working to integrate and create solutions; therefore, she carefully evaluates all the materials and mediums involved in the production and life cycle of creating art.