Our Juror: Colleen Gutwein O'Neal
About This Year's Juror
Colleen Gutwein O'Neal
Colleen Gutwein O’Neal has dedicated herself to photography, curation, and academic pursuits in art, environmental injustice, and public humanities. Trained in traditional film photography and darkroom practices, and self-trained in digital formats, O’Neal utilizes a combination of gelatin silver prints, digital C-types, and Polaroids along with sound recordings to create portraits, selfportraits and conceptual works. Her photographic work is inspired by Roland Barthes’ concepts of stadium and punctum. The archiving of people and places through imagery is a response to politically motivated archive maintenance and destruction inspired by MichelRolph Troulliot’s perception of power and historical narrative. Her work is held in collections including Newark Public Library and the Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
O’Neal curates at non-profit, commercial, institutional, and pop-up galleries. Major themes her curatorial practice involve scale and form, language and symbology, nostalgia, history, communication, ethereal solitude, representation in community based collective archiving, local and global environmental interventions, and political activism. She works with artists by collaboratively following lines of inquiry departing from a central, anchored theme.
Academically, O’Neal engages both as a student and educator while openly rejecting the structural inequalities rampant in highereducation. She is also a member and strong supporter of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT Union. O’Neal has college level teaching experience in darkroom and digital photography, senior studio capstones, and seminars in contemporary art. O’Neal completed her master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on public humanities and is currently earning her PhD in American Studies, continuing to focus on public humanities, conceptual art, environmental injustice and urban development at Rutgers University, Newark.
Juror Statement
Colleen Gutwein O'Neal
Art is a cultural dialogue spanning tens of thousands of years, one we have an opportunity to experience and contribute to within our lifetime. I see artists as the creators of culture, of historical narratives, the keepers, the makers, and the visual linguists of ages. Through the creation of art, artists are in dialogue with each other and the world around them, holding the ability to access places within us all that have been desensitized and denounced simply by living in the society we are born into.
There is courage in the act of making art, the act of taking a concept and pushing it as far as possible, seeking to move beyond the ken. There is also courage in pursuing something without recognition or praise but just waking up and doing the work each day, expressing emotion, moving forward, taking chances, making mistakes, and constantly evolving. These ideas, along with the GoggleWorks mission of “transforming lives through unique interactions with art” are the lens through which I reviewed submissions for the 16th Annual National Juried Art Exhibition.
Pouring over artwork, artist statements, social media accounts and websites provided in each application, I found it impossible to judge one creative expression as better or worse than another. Instead, I focused on curating a collection of works that embodied the spirit of exploration in medium, scale, conceptual pretenses, color, texture, and social commentary. The selected works act as catalysts for continued abandonment of the expected. They simultaneously mirror and mold the world, demand interaction, disseminate information, and hold in reverence individual and collective interpretation.
Artist Index
Aubrey Barnett
Pat Bechtel
Derek Bencomo
Jessica Burkholder
Cheryl Capezzuti
Marika Christofides
Michael Cruz
Summer Doll-Myers
Arda Ergin
Amy Forsyth
Michael Francis
Todd Frankenfield
Lynn N. Gano
Kayla George
Elaine Goodman
Ilse Goshen
Jill Haas
Laurie Hartranft
Gene Hracho
Jade Jaroszenski
Al Johnson
Calvin Kaucher
Elizabeth Knauss
Lexie Koch
Paul Laincz
Vincent Lerch
Aubrey Maurer
Nicole McGonigal
Deanna McLaughlin
Joanne Minnick
Danny Moyer
Marcus Natt
Kelly Nevin
Judith Ornstein
Jane Palmer
Lance Paull
Vince Pellegrini
Tomi J Petrella
Raegan Pilgert
Jean Plough
Anne Mitchell Reid
Martha E Ressler
Maryann Riker
Tindaekwe Roberts
Cassi Denise Rodriguez
51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65.
J Matthew Schley
Bridget Schwagerl
Anna Schweigert
Robert Seabourne
Zachary Shaffer
Lee Shannon
Hyeyoung Shin
Leah Slemmer
Joey Strain
Stephanie Rado Taormina
Peter Tietbohl
Don Weaver
Daniella Yacono
Terri Yacovelli
Dave Yasenchak
Aubrey Barnett
My work explores the relationship between perception, reality, and the impact they have on our sense of self by revealing the inner and outer worlds that shape our experiences. It examines perspective’s role in shaping our subjective existence, inviting viewers to reflect on the human experience with a sense of curiosity and wonder. Rooted in the rich traditions of architecture and stained glass, I handcraft custom-hued glass panes. These glass panes rely on the interplay of color, light, and the passage of time to activate the work, creating a sense of distorted reality. These kinetic pieces respond to viewers' movements, the shifting position of the sun, and the surrounding environment, prompting viewers to pause, contemplate, and rediscover the complexity and beauty inherent in everyday life.
Untitled • Mouth Blown Sheet Glass • 75” x 10.25” x 15” • 2023
Pat Bechtel
I paint with the intention of bringing positivity into a rough world. Despite dealing with a spine injury, I’ve dedicated myself to producing this work, hoping to motivate others to pursue their creative passions. Through the technique of layering, I aim to provide a gritty, textured depth to my oil paintings.
Portfolio: patbechtel.com | Instagram: aubrey.barnett_ | Allentown, PA
Derek Bencomo
My work expresses my harmony with nature and life in Hawaii, successfully reflected in the movement and visual rhythm I find in the wind, water and mountains. Never figurative, my work balances mass and abstract lines, capturing a sense of motion with motion while the sculptural aspects mirror the figure of the wood. Over the last decade my work has shown dramatic growth from the tradition of woodturning, where bowl or vessel is the norm, to a sculptural approach that is distinctly original. My current works feature lines that curve and stretch out in three dimensions against the subtle backdrop of wood grain. The form, line and patterns are all abstract, reflecting the natural beauty of a wave, stretch of beach and horizon. I am an artist who values the freedom from strict form. It takes stamina for a tree to grow. I find great joy in the integrity of each individual piece as I guide it into a new life. It is a delicate transformation, a synthesis of my creative energy and the indigenous energy stored in the trees.
Vessel and Spoon • Hawaiian Koa Wood Vessel, 7.75” x 12” x 8” | Spoon, 8” x 1.75” x .75” • 2022
Jessica Burkholder
When I think about the world that is around me—the events, the history, the places, the people, the undercurrents to our society, the patterns and cycles of humanity —I think in pictures. In fact, it can be difficult for me to articulate in words the deeply felt emotions, grievances, connections, and—at times—the sense of contentment I feel. In my mind, images speak with boldness and clarity. Painting releases those images from my mind. My favorite medium for releasing those images is oil painting. Possessing deep feelings is universal. I believe we offer one another ways of working through those feelings when we openly create. In this way, we can offer comfort, encouragement, healing, and the deep satisfaction of being seen to one another. I create to share. I create to build community.
Cheryl Capezzuti
I create works that remind us of ancient relics, extinct creatures, and past civilizations but on close inspection are deeply connected to what it feels like to be an American right now. Using dryer lint as the medium – the fibers and debris shed from our lives and typically discarded without thought – my sculptures are archaeologically layered and open to personal interpretation. Embedded with tell-tale evidence of daily lives such as ticket stubs, papers clips, pet hair and bandages, I hope the work engages the viewer intellectually, emotionally, and playfully. I sculpt works for the pristine box of galleries from the least glamorous of materials, but also exhibit provocative work in laundromats. I hope my work prompts viewers to reflect on the mass amounts of by-product produced by systems of mechanization. I also hope it brings an unexpected aesthetic pleasure to the mundane task of doing laundry. The push/pull between the beautiful everyday-ness of the material and the overwhelming amount of waste humans produce drives my work. These figures speak to all of us: They challenge us to consider what we are missing, speak to the angst of our times and reflect the solitary nature of existence.
Portfolio: studiocapezzuti.com/gb | Instagram: studiocapezzuti | Pittsburgh, PA
Bipedal, Heroic Vll, with Detail • Residential Dryer Lint • 90” x 22” x 18” • 2022
Marika Christofides
My work revolves around the theme of scientific objectification, drawing from personal experience and feminist critiques of science. I explore the ways that medical and scientific establishments have historically dealt with bodies - both human and non-human - deemed “other,” by partitioning and classifying. My aim is to deconstruct and playfully challenge the scientific gaze. Central to my practice is a reverence for mid-century feminine-coded print ephemera—greeting cards, sewing packets, and recipe books—which become the raw material for my digital collage practice. Through a process of repetitive mirroring, images of objects like flowers and aprons acquire an otherworldly quality and transcend their original context. Within this realm, I depict abstracted, imagined ‘bodies’ in various states of becoming, exploring both macro and micro perspectives. My prints, installations, and artist books showcase a graphic sense of color, pattern, and design. Borrowing from scientific visualization conventions, such as anatomy charts and microscope images, I create an ‘objective’ aesthetic that is broken by large and small moments of escape, disorder and ambiguity. This deliberate juxtaposition prompts viewers to reflect on the relationship between institutional knowledge and lived, embodied realities.
Portfolio: marikachristofides.com | Instagram: @marikachristofides | Stillwater, OK
Symbiote God 3 • Digital Print on Canvas • 40” x 50” • 2021
Michael Cruz
Michael Cruz is an artist and educator living in Chester County. He works primarily in oil and his subject matter ranges from landscapes and still life to abstract figures and colors. Many of his works are what he describes as “autobiographical landscapes,” paintings that capture the experience of nature and the environment around him. Many of the works feature places from Chester County, the Eastern coastline, and a recent series on the Southwest. Cruz has taken art classes at the University of the Arts, Arcadia University, PAFA, and Historic Yellow Springs. In addition, he has exhibited work in Phoenixville galleries, Goggleworks, participated in the Downingtown Craft Fair and Media Craft Show (2022) and took part in a fundraiser for the Easttown Library. He currently resides in Exton, PA with his wife and two children.
Exton at Dusk • Oil • 9” x 12” • 2023
Summer Doll-Myers
Reflective • Ink and Micron on Paper • 26” x 33” • 2021
As an artist and designer, I draw inspiration from the roller coaster that is daily life with the tiny moments when one can just take it all in. Exploring the vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and fleeting moments found in our everyday experiences, I navigate this delicate balance through abstraction. Using inks and micron pens, I aim to evoke a sense of wonder through meticulously crafted patterns. By intentionally leaving the edges of the paper visible, I emphasize the handmade nature of my creations, distinct from digital art. Each brushstroke dipped in ink creates a unique mark, inviting viewers to uncover hidden details upon closer examination. The use of metallic inks adds dimension, as light interacts with the surface. I prefer working on a larger scale to fully immerse the viewer, evoking a profound sense of awe and discovery. Despite the complexity of my compositions, my ultimate goal is to impart a feeling of tranquility, reflecting the serenity we seek for amidst life’s chaos.
Macungie, PA
Arda Ergin
Born and raised in Istanbul, Ergin is heavily influenced by his Turkish roots. He seamlessly blends his cultural heritage with personal experiences to discover beauty in the mundane. Through oil paintings and ink drawings, he navigates two distinct realms in his artistic journey. One path explores the allure of everyday life, capturing scenes from the daily routine that resonate universally. The other delves into the realm of imagination, where Ergin crafts compelling narratives that invite viewers into his creative world.
Portfolio: babayoqi.com | Instagram: @babayoqi | Philadelphia, PA
Passing Through • Oil on Canvas • 72” x 48” • 2023
Amy Forsyth
I began my career in architecture and later started designing and building furniture because of its immediacy, tactility, and potential for exploring ideas at an intimate scale. Recently, some of my pieces, such as these, have shed their function to become sculptural pieces. Made primarily of piano parts, which I inherited from my father, who rebuilt pianos, these pieces explore ideas of how we emerge from our context to become our unique selves, while still being steeped, for better or worse, in our backgrounds. I have manipulated the piano keys, along with some additional elements, using woodworking techniques learned through furniture making. I also see relationships to architectural models I have built over the years.
Portfolio: amyforsyth.com | Instagram: @fiddlinfasta | Bechtelsville, PA
Legacy • Found Objects (Piano Parts), Wood • 29” x 13.5” x 20.5” • 2024
Michael Francis
Accordion • Oil on Wood Panel • 9” x 12” • 2024
Mike Francis is artist based in Easton, PA. His approach to painting is automatic and engaged with similarly to free writing. A knee-jerk process that’s informed sometimes by writing prompts or found images. The work is usually started and finished in the same day.
Portfolio: spudoogle.blog | Instagram: @mike.a.francis | Phillipsburg, NJ
Todd Frankenfield
Todd Frankenfield is a mixed media artist working and living in Easton, Pennsylvania. His work deals in topics of nihilism, surrealism, minimalism, and the inherently finite property of materials. This current body of work, titled Confluence, is about the lines between personal loss and growth dissolving. Catalysts for growth can be apparent or hidden and the exploration of each occurrence is just as important as its outcome. Built upon layers of paper and paint, the purpose of each piece is both obscured with blocks of color and revealed through scribbled oil pastel shapes. Each stroke or line seeks its own clarity. Between their spaces sits a hope that two or more indirect moments will manifest as understanding.
Portfolio: toddfrankenfield.com | Instagram: @wearemostaliveindreams | Easton, PA
Lynn N. Gano
Manifestations of Life • Oil on Canvas • 23” x 46” • 2023
As an artist I am always inspired by nature, literature, and music and mold it into a visual representation. I use symbolism in my work to understand the human condition. People, situations, emotions, fears, or aspirations; all what we at times may or may not experience in our lives. That symbolism may be taken from nature, literature, and or music. I use insects and butterflies combined with other visual elements to represent the transformations of these human conditions we have within ourselves or what we observe in others.
Orwigsburg, PA
Kayla George
“Self Preservation” is a series of large-scale acrylic paintings that intimately explore vulnerability and mundanity. Each self-portrait captures a candid moment, revealing raw emotions amidst otherwise ordinary scenes. These portrayals of the artist prompts viewers to contemplate their relationship to their own insecurities, and to connect with universal human experiences. The use of vibrant color palettes and intricate detailing with oil and chalk pastels work together, seeking to embrace imperfections while challenging conventional notions of vanity in self-portraiture.
Elaine Goodman
20” x 26” • 2023
Elaine Goodman, BFA Pratt Institute 1973, Wife, mother, grandmother, dog lover, volunteer and friend Working with “ repurposed materials “ creating functional art. The 3 pieces originated as pillow boxes and recycled picture frames. Using mixed medium, these tables emerged! All art is a “ self-portrait “. If I’m true to myself, I understand that the placement , colors and size all reflect parts of me and how life’s journey propels me . I’ve always loved primitive, whimsical, folk art. I especially love to paint attitudes of people , plants, and animals.
Ephrata, PA
Ilse Goshen
My bold use of color and pattern are influenced by my 35 years as a textile print designer. My work has evolved over time to capture the nuances of color, pattern, and depth observed in the natural world. My intention is to pull the viewer into my painting by creating depth in the background. When looking closely at my work you will see the layering of color and pattern of the background while the foreground is on full display. This is an effect I have achieved using a liquid mask, which resists the next layer of acrylic paint. I work from foreground to background, light to dark, using the resist to mask out shapes before applying the next layer of paint. When finished, I will peel up the mask and reveal the painting underneath. The unveiling is the highlight of my process because it’s a mystery as to what lies underneath. The feeling is like what I experience when observing nature. I try to capture the organized chaos of the natural world.
Portfolio: ilsebydesign.com | Instagram: @ilsebydesign | Bloomsbury, NJ
You Belong Among The Wildflowers • Acrylic on Canvas • 36” x 48” • 2022
Jill Haas
In The Balance • Collage • 24” x 24” • 2024
I was born into botanicals. I grew up watching my grandmother and mother paint flowers, and in that atelier I inherited their love of leaf and petal. When I create my plant portraits I feel a connection with my family members through the generations. Their wisdom in addition to my own life experience has led me to this body of work. My decision to return to botanicals after years of exploring other muses is about me leaning into who I am, where I’ve been, and where I want to go. I collage with swatches of paper that are covered with my loosely painted brush strokes. The silhouettes in my work allow me to repeat my subjects, emphasizing their importance. Often, the silhouettes depict the subject in a different stage of life, referencing the generational tradition of botanical art in my family, and helping me reckon with my own aging. My hope is that viewers feel moved by my work because they share my adoration for the natural world that envelopes and supports us all. By painting plant portraits I’m hoping to call attention to the role nature plays in our lives, amplifying the chorus of voices calling for its protection.
Portfolio: jillhaasstudio.com | Instagram: @jill_haas_painter | Landenberg, PA
Laurie Hartranft
A self taught artist, my paintings and drawings create stories and portraits inspired by antique and vintage snapshots that I find emotional bonding to, or connection within myself. I work to expose a sense of vulnerability and sensitivity of a subject or interaction of subjects, preferring to highlight quiet imperfections and create an identity where one has been lost and in turn expose my own emotional experience to the subject. My process includes experimenting with different mediums, such as oil, oil pastel, conte and charcoal as well as various non traditional surfaces to create depth and capture the uniqueness and underlying complexity of an unknown individual who has gone before and been forgotten, while confronting my own mortality in relation to memory, identity, imperfection and fragility.
Instagram: @lauriehartranft | Wyomissing, PA
Little Haze • Oil on Canvas • 16” x 20” • 2024
Gene Hracho
Reliquary • Mixed-Media Construction with Found Objects and Internal Lighting
My creative work seeks to contrast dueling aesthetics, one evocative of the unrestrained imagination of a precocious youth and one representing the disillusionment that inevitably comes to temper it. The sculptures are conceived with respect to the way that they’ll relate to a viewer’s human body or, perhaps, how they might have related to my own body many years ago, when I was quite a bit smaller. The mixed-media constructions appear as relics of adventurous undertakings which would have elicited quite an adrenaline rush, while certainly also involving a callous disregard for the planet and its other inhabitants.
Portfolio: genehracho.com | Reading, PA
24” x 30” x 73” • 2021
Jade Jaroszenski
The focus of my paintings is exploring my everyday surroundings, through constructing them into abstract forms. I use expressive color and mark-making to depict my daily experiences, reflecting on memory and my interactions with nature and places. Through painting, I express myself without relying on a clear storyline, people, or words. Instead, I use paint and brushstrokes to guide the observer towards a deeper understanding. By the careful selection of color schemes, a mood is created that can transport a viewer into a daydream or transform a mundane setting into something more enchanting. My experience comes from studying plein air painting for years and connecting to my environment in that way. Currently my paintings rely on both observation and imagination, sometimes referring back to photographs I’ve taken and other times working from plein air.
Portfolio: jadejaroszenski.com | Instagram: @jade.jaroszenski | Temple, PA
Warmer Winter Days • Oil • 16” x 20” • 2024
Al Johnson
My work originates from intuitive moments. Each mark makes a connection to the next mark on the canvas from gestural strokes. What is revealed is the evidence of not where I began but where the artwork is headed. Through my artistic practice, I seek to transcend the ordinary and create a visual language that resonates with the viewer on a profound level reflecting a fusion of realism and imagination, blending the familiar with the ethereal. Equally important to me is the exploration of the human condition. I am fascinated by the complexities of our emotions, our interconnectedness, and the narratives that shape our individual and collective identities. The purpose of my method is to offer a portal to introspection. Each piece in its inception has a story of my spiritual journey and the viewer’s connection to its creation. Currently, I am working on expanding the series, Cross Culture, collaborating with artists and academic/cultural institutions.
Portfolio: aljohnsontheartist.com | Instagram: @aljohnsonart | Easton, PA
The Supreme Dream • Mixed Media on Canvas • 24” x 24” • 2024
Calvin Kaucher
Pseudo Physics • Pen, Pencil, Marker, Book Page • 7.25” x 10.25” • 2023
So, forget about what you think I think. I will forget about what you think about what I think about my work. Non Sequitur, pleasing, displeasing, it’s mission accomplished. It just comes. I do not know what they mean. I don’t know how I Art. I don’t worry about why I Art. I like the process. I have fun. I resist aesthetically, societally, politically situating myself. To me poignant messages, conveyed meanings lack relevancy, possibility, plausibility, efficaciousness beyond the act of perpetuating that message. I submit our ever churning deluge of information blinds and inures us to much beyond the moment, and that meaning is stripped of valency the instant it enters the infosphere. Shere volume wholly co-opts representation, communication, and in this society no one can ever relate what they mean. No where to land. No where to stick inside the info-interference pattern we live in where it is not fast subsumed by the next wave. The means to express intention with fidelity in the “communications age” is not through the medium. Mass media is the only medium now. It assimilates all. The revolution in my living room at my drawing table “will not be televised”.
Womelsdorf, PA
Elizabeth Knauss
A steaming cup of tea. The feeling of warm socks straight out of the dryer. Your cat curling up on your lap after a long day at work. Embracing those little moments cultivates a deeper connection to the world and reminds us to be grateful for the beauty that surrounds us everyday. My paintings depict real-life moments that bring joy and happiness – I hope to evoke similar emotions in my viewer. Utilizing watercolor and dry brush techniques, layers of deal are built through washes of color and defining brushstrokes. I add the final touches with gouache and arrive at a sense of realism as if you can reach through the painting and touch the subject.
Portfolio: elizabethknaussart.com | Instagram: @elizabethknaussart | Morgantown, PA
Nap
Watercolor
12” x 9”
Lexie Koch
Spiral Vase • Cone 6 Stoneware, White Slip • 4.6” x 4.5” x 17.5” • 2022
When making ceramic pieces, I put myself in the mindset of each piece, imagining its entire lifecycle as it goes from soil, to kiln, to table. For the small part that I play in its life, I change it permanently, so I make sure to move with intention. Pinching allows me to focus my attention most carefully on every square inch of a piece, and “give away” a part of myself in the process. Through interacting with my work, the viewer can feel some remnant of me in them. As I sit in my studio making, I consider this fleeting intersection of timelines: my life and the piece’s life. I choose to interpret these moments through organic lines that skim their surfaces. Sometimes these lines depict moments intersecting, while other times they do a careful dance in order to avoid one another. By hiding in abstraction, these narrative lines are open to interpretation which allows them to hold new stories outside of my hands. They are not dependent on my presence to hold meaning. I aspire to see my work continue to change beyond my grasp; I want it to mean something to someone other than me.
Instagram: @made_by_lexie | Columbia, NC
Paul Laincz
I
Vincent Lerch
Second generation artist born and raised in Reading, Pa. Growing up I was surrounded by my Dad’s oil paintings, street art, horror movies, and 90’s MTV. Put all these influences in a blender mixed with what I learned from going to school for graphic design and you end up with my artistic vision. My art is me facing my anxiety in a Sarcastic manner. Telling myself the world’s problems are out of my hands even if the world we live in is crap at times.
Hair Growth is Possible • Acrylic, Ink, and Collage • 10” x 10” • 2024
Instagram: @Vinny_Lerch | Wyomissing, PA
Aubrey Maurer
Aubrey sculptures express the beauty of nature and our innate kinship with our natural environment. Through abstraction, She translate her visions of natural shapes into organic forms to increase the viewer’s emotional connection with nature. I hope that my art will highlight the beauty present in our environment and encourage viewers to consider their relationship with the natural world and their emotional connection to it. She’s encouraged to mirror what is around me in nature, pushing the limits of creating organic sculpture—understanding what internal environments my pieces could hold. Their impact in an ecosystem— respecting the relationship between nature and herself, knowing that the materials she using are not forever. The purpose is to give back to what has brought her so much joy and happiness for many years and hopefully will have an impact for years to come. She hope that a viewer can appreciate the beauty of imperfection and see how these works are much like ourselves and nature, full of complexity, hidden depths, and surprises. That’s the true beauty of my work.
Water Hemlock • Clay • 18” x 4.5” x 5.5” • 2023
Nicole McGonigal
Nicole McGonigal is a professional painter who uses acrylic paints and trash to create eye-catching paintings. The artist is known for her works including animals and children. Nicole adores all animals and has a miniature farm of her own. She loves to capture each animal’s personality and beauty. Being a teacher, she enjoys capturing the joy and wonder of a child in her paintings as well. Nicole’s works have been displayed in various local art exhibits and art magazines. Nicole, 32, resides in Pennsylvania with her family and pets. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Education. The artist enjoys reading, going on adventures, and spending time with her family.
Deanna McLaughlin
Cart size: 0.51” x 0.6” x 0.49” (1.29 x 1.52 x 1.234 cm) Band: .25” W x 2.25” Diameter 2023
While I do not limit myself to working with one type of media, I fully embrace the qualities each material challenge brings. Working with many kinds of materials to create the desired outcome is invigorating. I am inspired by the insatiable desire to experiment, explore, and continually learn new processes while experimenting with 2-D or 3-D design. I love taking one shape or form or idea and exploring how many ways it can be manipulated into new forms My work has transitioned from an externalized expression of emotions to offering my reflections on the world around us. Thirty years of working in mental health and educational settings have fine-tuned my awareness of the inequities and social isolation that are a result of our growing virtual world. In my opinion, the shopping cart is the most iconic image of America’s consumer-based culture. “Cartrageous” became a series originally intended to challenge the viewer to question and assess individual ideas about consumerism, power, and privilege. 15% of all sales from the series are donated to a local soup kitchen. My work has been described as quirky, playful, fun, and a conversation starter. I am happy to accept that as a compliment.
Portfolio: deannamclaughlin.com | Instagram: @cartrageous | Philadelphia, PA
Cartrageous Slider Bracelet
3-D Printed Sterling Silver Ring and Cart with 2.5 mm Black Onyx Wheels
Joanne Minnick
Reflecting On The River
Mixed Media, Woven Patinated Copper & Fossils • 48” x 25” x 2” • 2022
Copper is a near perfect element to work with, a perfect palette. It’s plain to see why its beauty has been prized for millennia. It is open to receiving color and texture. Copper can be woven and forged with ancient as well as modern techniques. I think that there’s a need in me to reproduce those feelings that I experience when I am in awe of some beautiful vision in the natural world. It could be a rock face covered by algae that stirs me to create a blue-green hue on copper. Using fossils of ancient sea creatures and agates from volcanic minerals in my work gives me a connection to the past. In the midst of nature I can be still, slip into the flow of the streaming river or the flowing air. The connection is palpable. Peace. Awe. Reflection. That is what I hope that viewers find in my work.
Portfolio: elementalmetaldesign.com | Instagram: @jojomaminnick | New Ringgold, PA
Danny Moyer
Ambiguous imagery assembled to create visual harmony, the works I create invite people to investigate scenes from everyday life that include everything from marketing compositions to detritus. My photography is combined with building blocks of color and recycled illustrations. Attempting to evoke a subjective response, I present new contexts with familiar objects. I like using images and objects that make people question the visual value of the matter we disregard every day. Transformation occurs when things that are left for lost, appear with intention. These thoughts and ideas live between two extremes, finding expression somewhere in the middle.
Instagram: @dannymoyer.artist | Easton, PA
0314211 • Mixed Media • 37.5” x 37.5” • 2021
Marcus Natt
Around this time last year, when I started to become interested in trying to make portraits using the wet plate collodion process, I came across a New York Times article from 2019 titled “Your Ancestors Were Slaves. Who Owns the Photos of Them?” It was about a black woman from Connecticut who was suing Harvard University for ownership of “stolen family property”- daguerreotypes of slaves from South Carolina that were made in 1850. She lost. I knew then that I wanted to use this historical photographic process to make images of as many black folks as I possibly can.
Portfolio: marcusnatt.com | Instagram:@a_film_adrift_in_the_cosmos | East Stroudsburg, PA
Plate 023 • Archival Inkjet Print (Blowup of 4x5” Tintype) • 16” x 20” • 2023
Kelly Nevin
September 7:20 • Oil and Paper on Panel • 14” x 18” • 2023
I take an expressive approach in my paintings with bold color and texture, seeking to tell dramatic stories of both awe-inspiring landscapes, as well as scenes from “the everyday” which are often overlooked. Working primarily in oil, I often bring in textured paper and cold wax as a part of my layering process. I consider my paintings to be “snapshots” of a particular view, integrating elements of imagination and sensations felt from a particular environment during a specific point in time. I seek to give a glimpse into not only what is seen, but also what is perceived.
Instagram: @kelly.nevin.lillie | York, PA
Judith Ornstein
Remnants • Honeycomb Corrugate, Cardboard, Metal • 13” x 11” x 36” • 2024
In making art I discover my humanity, which often becomes obscured amid a life that is moving too fast and filled with too much. Making art is a working process, every day, that engulfs my whole being. My work is about that process. It takes me places, suddenly and without reason and I delight in the things I do not plan. I’m an abstract artist whose imagery melds poetic impulse with networks of shapes. My work recycles the detritus materials from the ‘Amazon Generation’. Various kinds of honeycomb, fluted and flat corrugate. The familiar by-products of our throwaway society. Mundane objects are shapeshifters for my creative use. Cardboard imbues my sculptures with the conflict of permanence and impermanence. Humble materials, like corrugate, bring up the issue of ‘what gives art value’ and lives as a sign of cultural excess. I am a rescuer of recyclables. My work reside in a space between solidity and fragility. The throw away quality of cardboard reflects an almost organic life span from development thru deterioration. My sculptures are put together in a tangled space as a kind of improvisational universe. That is process at work, overwhelming my thinking and instinctive reasoning.
Portfolio: judithornstein.com | Instagram: @jornsteinart | Brookyln, NY
Jane Palmer
Jane Palmer makes handcut paper and mixed media collage to explore the emotional landscape of this apocalyptic era and offer solace and joy to fellow travelers. A former community organizer, Jane practices analog collage as a form of communication, disrupting and recontextualizing how we see everyday images.
Portfolio: papercut21.com | Instagram: @papercut.21 | Reading, PA
Fruit Bowl • Analog Collage • 14” x 16” • 2024
Lance Paull
My work is an exploration of ideas and emotions that define and illuminate my perceptions of life and its lessons. Using the universal language of sight I search for the marks I might leave behind, much like the first marks left behind on cave walls that still speak and illuminate those past life experiences. The exploration of the conflict that occurs between the ideas and the realization of them create Intriguing and unexpected revelations. Revelations that build upon the subject matter with light, color and texture to define and articulate form and space that transforms this conflict into work. Religion, mythology and poetry and my internal world inform my creations and give me the context for perceiving, making and discovering—a complex world that includes a portion of artifice and magical thinking.
Portfolio: lancepaull.com | Instagram: @lancepaull | Glen Rock, NJ
Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Panel
24” x 36” • 2023
Vince Pellegrini
I love the experience of being out in the wilderness attempting to capture the mood & emotions of landscapes I happen upon, almost as much as viewing the results afterwards. I hope that you feel this while experiencing my images. My favorite way to travel is to just wonder at my own pace without fixed reservations. If the location is perfect then there is no reason to move on & the light is allowed to do its magic. I really love the technical aspects of this hobby, as well. Photography has given me the opportunity to experience many beautiful places around the globe. The journey continues.
Beauty in Withering • Fine Art Photography • 16” x 16” • 2023
Instagram: @vincentapellegrini | Wyomissing, PA
Tomi J Petrella
My goal is to examine the initial perceptions and assumptions of what “I” see and feel, in my life and art. Deep exploration, interpretation, and reflection of each subject is then the practice for this understanding and insight. There is a stillness and emotional context to the conversation, between me and my subject choices, that goes beyond mere representation and past the surface. I find that color, shape, and pattern come into sharp focus, light takes on form, while mood acquires texture. The process, both internally and externally, of creating art is an continuous challenge, joyful meditation, and opportunity to see the familiar with fresh eyes.
Portfolio: tomijpetrella.com | Instagram: @tomijpetrella | Easton, PA
Four Trees • Acrylic • 30” x 40” • 2023
Raegan Pilgert
Through these artworks I like to believe that there is still hope through the uncertainty. Just like the beauty in the pain. It will always be there as long as you’re willing to find it. Take everything you could never put into words and create something that says it all for you. Art is like life, it might not last forever, but the impact will always be there. I hope one day these artworks will save lives, just like they did mine.
Mertztown, PA
Man of War • Photography • 8” x 10” • 2023
Jean Plough
The work involves people, but instead of looking at them realistically, it shows how they feel. Sometimes I use words as part of the art, and the words also express how the people feel.
Instagram: @jeanplough | Philadelphia, PA
Dancing • Acrylic Paint and Oil Pastel on Canvas • 32” X 32” • 2023
Anne Mitchell Reid
My art is a reflection of my life-long journey: I have been an artist and weaver for nearly fifty years! My studies at the Scottish College of Textiles and Edinburgh College of Art set me on the right path. As a Scot I am inspired by the land, sea, and ever-changing sky of my homeland, but also by my travels and life in different countries and cultures. For ten years I ran my own design and art/craft business in the remote Highlands of Scotland and have sold work in galleries and museum shops on both sides of the Atlantic. Music has been a major influence throughout, both in terms of the work I make, and the energy I get from singing in choirs. Over the decades I have explored a variety of media: weaving large and miniature tapestries, working in pastel, experimenting with mixed media collage and incorporating wool, sisal, flax, silk, metal and found objects in my work. In recent weavings I have been “painting” using mohair and brushing it to mimic brush strokes. I have been fortunate to live a wonderful, rich life, and I hope that my work captures that joy and conveys it to the viewer!
Portfolio: annemitchellreid.com | Instagram: @reidannemitchell | Spring City, PA
“Days End” • Woven Tapestry, Mohair, Wool, Silk, Cotton, Framed • 34.5” x 30.5” • 2021
Martha E Ressler
In my art quilts I use drawings, postage stamps, and found objects, along with fabrics and hand embroidery. They are reborn in a stitched story about human imprints on the earth, evidence of new and old secrets to be discovered or imagined. An object discarded might merge with pages of timeworn books or sheet music, or swatches of rescued embroidery, unfinished quilt tops, or linens. I am a member of Cloth in Common, an international group of art quilters, and a Juried Artist Member of Studio Art Quilt Associates. I was a painter before turning to art quilts. I moved to Tilden Township, Berks County, from Pittsburgh eight years ago. Currently the Director of Art Plus Gallery, I support the arts in their many forms. My husband and I have turned our five acres into a haven for birds and pollinators, and planted about 800 trees to “re-wild” some of our land.
Portfolio: martharessler.com | Instagram: @stitcher_martha | Hamburg, PA
Grace Under Fire • Art Quilt • 40” x 30” • 2024
Maryann Riker
Tindaekwe Roberts
Tindaekwe’s photography captures the natural beauty of our world, inspiring others to find wonder in their own lives. Her thought-provoking images connect us to the world beyond ourselves. Each photo is a glimpse into the soul of the wild, forming its own narrative from the spirit of nature. For Tindaekwe, art is a sanctuary, a healing embrace that is also extended into her work, and inviting us all to find our solace in the natural world.
A Carousel of Shadows • Photography • 8” x 10” • 2023
Cassi Denise Rodriguez
Informed by the subconscious and executed by intuition, my paintings seek to examine the delicate balances between: chaos and order, comfort and discomfort, positive and negative. Through my personal abstract language, I am investigating the visual sensations that occur by juxtaposing colors and shapes that are loosely derived from geographic mapping. Combinations of intense then subtle palettes are carefully chosen to fabricate a new world where formality meets emotion. On each painted surface I am surveying a field where the viewer can perhaps disengage from their own reality and enter a fantasy world that transcends the present.
Portfolio: cassidenise.com | Instagram: @rodriguez_cassi | Reading, PA
J Matthew Schley
Frisson-Fiction-Friction • Pen and Ink with Watercolor • 21” x 15” • 2024
My interest in drawing the human body reflects a number of ideas-one the possibility of story in a picture -two the desire to create a visual frisson. An aesthetic elegance that is more a feeling I get from a drawn line than any specific preconceived image. The frisson has to do with the line being alive. The line can represent, be a metaphor for any number of emotions or states of being. But I am not trying to draw any particular state of being. I just try to draw honestly. These drawing are above all else playful. One drawing inspires another but because they are play, happenstance controls the direction they take. I don’t know where I am. The watercolor aspect of these drawing have a specific purpose to both draw the viewer closer to search and wonder about small things and to move the viewer outward towards a worldview of my imaginary world.
Pottstown, PA
Bridget Schwagerl
Hello, my name is Bridget Schwagerl! I am currently a student at Camden County College in New Jersey and I am majoring in Graphic Design. My artwork tends to be digital art of original characters I made, however in this show I included the other mediums I enjoy working with. For this show, I included pieces I made using photography, graphic design, and colored pencils. I enjoy capturing the moments from my life when using photography or colored pencils, even if there is not much of a story behind it. For the graphic design submission however, I love playing with the shapes in illustrator and putting them together to create something new. Overall, I gravitate towards anything creative, and when I can, I enjoy reaching out to find new mediums to try and work with!
Portfolio: razzuportfolio.carrd.co | Instagram: @razzu_2306 | Berlin, NJ
Miya at Sunset • Photography • 10” x 8” • 2023
Anna Schweigert
Art is both a natural compulsion and spiritual exercise for me, and my process feels like a meditation on order and chaos. Printmaking gives me the opportunity to work indirectly, with the results remaining a mystery until they arrive. Lately those prints have been taking on new life after the ink or paper dries, and I have been finding ways to incorporate added materials and processes into the mix. Paint and thread bring new dimensions to embossed textures and inked designs, where nature, geometry, and pattern unite.
And Every Night I Shut My Eyes • Mixed Media Lithograph • 14” x 10” • 2023
Robert Seabourne
The best description of my work is impressionistic landscapes. Whether done en plein air and done in the studio, they are colorful and sometimes they are moody, but they are of a style that captures the essence of the scene that I am painting. The goal of my painting is to find and present the beauty of the environment around us that tends to be overlooked. Not to sound cliché, but my art has to have a meaning to me; whether it is just a feeling from a scene that left an impression on me or a well-thought out idea that my mind’s eye happened to reveal to me. This feeling, I hope, will touch the viewer through a memory or recognition of a familiar place; giving the viewer a certain feeling that is relatable.
Portfolio: robertseabourne.com
Neglect • Oil • 22” x 10” • 2024
Zachary Shaffer
Narrative is a key part of all my work. Each piece doesn’t necessarily tell a whole story, but is more of a fragment. A small window into a larger tale. Mimicking the effect of flipping through a story book and seeing the illustrations out of context. Only having at most a caption to clue you in on the larger narrative. This is why in a lot of my work I include text or the title directly on the painting. Letting the title function as that important context to create the illusion of a larger story. Humor is another important element of my work. Whenever I’m showing my art, it always feels good if people stop and chuckle. Typically I try to make pieces humorous by creating absurd scenes, and distorting characters into very animated poses. I want each piece to feel full of life.
Oh, The Terror • Acrylic on Board • 27” x 18” • 2024
Lee Shannon
I draw to to find comfort. I find comfort in the human form. I find comfort in the power of queer people surviving in a world that would rather they didn’t. I find comfort in the dark, in the wide open spaces, in stone, sand, wind, heat, and cold. Yet I look to our planet’s threatened future and find nothing but stone, sand, wind, heat and cold. No comfort. In the future I envision, merely surviving will be an act of defiance. In the future, everyone will be queer. The future terrifies me, but maybe it comforts me a little too. Lee Shannon is a Lancaster-based artist and graphic designer. He is a graduate of Kutztown University, with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and a concentration in drawing. He spends his days designing home decor and his nights drawing humans with magic powers.
Portfolio: leeshannon.com | Instagram: @un_beleeevable | Lancaster, PA
The Juggler • Digital, Risograph Print
9” x 11” • 2022
Hyeyoung Shin
Self-Indulgent • Screen Print-Based Paper Cast w/ Handmade Kozo Paper 32” x 19” x 4” • 2023
Throughout my art practices, I am interested in creating some ambiguous space to speak about human vulnerability and a collective sense of belongings where we are only able to define and value ourselves as human beings. A body figure is a central linguistic component in my work. As an immigrant artist, I have relocated constantly for the last twenty years, facing cultural; linguistic; and artistic evolutions, all the while striving to rescue my confidence and a sense of purpose. ‘PAPER’ has also been my long-time fascination and the paper sculpturing method that I have been using for my recent works is one of Korea’s traditional papercraft techniques called ‘Jido-gibeop,’ which is used to cast from the existing object forms, and it is similar to papier-mâché process in western craft tradition. I grew up in Korean culture where it is not only utilized to write or draw on but also to use for creating home goods, furniture, and even to use as architectural materials. From this upbringing, I see the paper as an embodiment of culture as various papers that exist in different civilizations that have the ability to hold and interconnect experiences and memories like human skin.
Portfolio: hyeyoung-shin.com | Kansas City, MO
Leah Slemmer
The people that surround us play an inevitable role in the way our lives are shaped. I focus on the interactions and non-interactions between figures. I explore the feeling of isolation by cropping figures out of the painting or obscuring faces from the viewer. Oftentimes, this leads to one outlying figure, loading attention to their expression and where their gaze is met. This frozen moment in time forms a quiet, uncomfortable tension between the painted figure and viewer. I work quickly with oil paint to represent the urgency of the moment. In this fervency, the figures become distorted and sometimes transparent, referencing how memories change over time. The settings in which these figures reside create a stage for mundane activities and interactions. Although these surroundings appear to be insignificant, they create an intimate space for the figures to be alone with their thoughts, despite the people that surround them. These paintings explore the dynamics between ourselves and the quiet moments from people that inhabit our lives.
Portfolio: leahslemmer.com | Instagram: @leahslemmer_art | Lancaster, PA
Life of the Party • Oil on Panel • 14” x 11” • 2021
Joey Strain
Stephanie Rado Taormina
My paintings are explorations of feelings, thoughts & the energy that is resonating through me during the creative process. They are strong, bold and have a great amount of energy – translating feeling & thought into color & form. Each painting is a conversation with my soul. I deeply resonate with large scale works using acrylics, charcoal & oils - I’m into exploring abstract forms, experimenting with new styles & techniques, using words of meaning incorporated into the work and ways to shine a light on our inner & outer worlds and how we make sense of the human experience.
Portfolio: stephanieradotaormina.com | Instagram: @stephanieradotaormina | Wyomissing, PA
The Pink Chair
Acrylic on Canvas
60” X 48” • 2021
Peter Tietbohl
I am continuously humbled by the challenges of working with glass as well as the opportunities for expression it allows. My work is focused on searching for beautiful moments; moments that occur in a color pattern where the movement of the molten glass is frozen in the finished piece, where colors move and overlap in unique ways, creating unreproducible patterns. Creating designs along side this spontaneity drives the development of my work in the studio.
Bleached Coral • Blown Glass • 17.5” x 4.5” x 4.5” • 2023
Instagram: @GlassByPeter | Reading, PA
Don Weaver
Curtis at the Asylum • Mixed Media on Canvas • 48” x 20” • 2023
The world is in constant motion this art is my attempt to capture some moment I work in mixed media, creating juxtapositions of surface, image, texture, color and tone. I’m fond of obscure pun, vague reference and found objects.
Wernersville, PA
Daniella Yacono
Making art is a deep seated urge with which I translate my human experience and become aware that these themes and subjects are universal and interchangeable with all humanity. Recognizable figures and landscapes blur within colorful brushwork and palette knife slashes. Scenes may be obscured or may move with frenetic energy. Relationships, identity, reality, and myth are within each composition. I draw and paint to remember; it is an act of remembrance, love and longing. This cathartic unearthing of personal memory, history, and myth is essential to the work that I make where interior landscapes become external and new. History is narration, and art has the power to rebalance the narrative, and show what is hidden, small, overlooked and taken for granted. Myth is the foundational stuff we acknowledge we believe and things we inherently think we know. It is the magical power of storytelling which can give life to the abstract concepts we can’t explain coherently. Art-making is simply the chance to dive deep into the dark water of existence, to see how far I can go before surfacing. In distilled form it is exploration, it is play, and necessary.
Portfolio: daniellayacono.com | Instagram: @daniellayacono_studio | Wyomissing, PA
Happy Maker of the Cellular Future • Oil on Stretched Canvas • 48” x 36” • 2022
Terri Yacovelli
My art serves as a means to explore the journey of our human experience, both physical and spiritual. Ladders, portals and passages lead from one state of being to the next. Lines are obscured, broken and reconnected to map paths of our deliberate choices and that of chance. My creative process reflects this same concept. Painting with encaustic means accepting and allowing the materials to inform what comes next. Hot wax often has a will of its own, forcing me to abandon preconceived notions and give in to the medium and moment. The result of this practice is a delicate balance between the elements of my deliberate artistic choices and the physical property of the paint. My paintings have become a visual rumination on impermanence, spirit and the inner knowing that gently guides our way.
The Mansions We Dream Of • Encaustic • 24” x 32” • 2023
Dave Yasenchak
Dave Yasenchak is a prolific visual artist from Berks County, Pennsylvania. Over the past decade he has exhibited his work at galleries, art exhibitions, fairs and festivals across the Northeast region. He has also painted murals and created innumerable illustrations for many businesses, musicians, and private collectors. His highly detailed ink work ranges from imagined surreal dreamscapes to realistically rendered still-lifes, and all that lies between. His recent work concerns the merging of humanity and the natural world - reminding us that despite the trappings of civilization, we are inseparable from nature.
Portfolio: stuffdavemade.com | Instagram: @stuffdavemade | Boyertown, PA
Living Room of Earthly Delights • Pen and Ink on Paper • 12” x 15” • 2022
