To me, it comes down to trying to live and respond to life, to people, to experience as authentically and truthfully as possible. Painting is prayer – it saves my life day by day, as a meditative and spiritually transformative discipline; the final “object” (or painting) is almost incidental to the long and repetitive journey through the stations of Beginning, Doubt, Failure and ultimately Resolution.

I paint on a variety of supports, from canvas to wood, to particle board to heavily worked paper. I often create these supports layer by layer in a series of random, flowing expressive actions – look, add, respond, glue, remove, attach; again; again… – before insisting on the painted image on the final surface offered up to the viewer. This is to try to capture and model my sense that this is what life demands of each of us – insistent agency and presence – over and against and informed by its seemingly random, often turbulent flow.

I say, with David Foster Wallace, “In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what’s human and magical that still live and glow despite the times’ darkness.”

I practice in the hope of moving towards an increasing clarity of perception and fearless engagement with the medium, that will allow me to say (with Rilke), “Look – a leaf, a dancer, a human being, a carrot, an oak tree, a window,” but to say them in such a way that the objects or people themselves never dreamed of existing so intensely.

Hilary Saner

BIOGRAPHY

I was born in the state of Washington, one of the most beautiful places in the continental United States. Most of my formative years were spent growing up on the east coast, during a time when the diversity of life and culture changed at a very fast pace. I began my fascination with art, at an early age during my first class trip to the National Museum of Art. While standing in the corridor, I was so overwhelmed with a multitude of feelings, right then I decided there was only one thing important enough to be in my life, and that was an artist. I wanted to help others feel what I had when viewing the work. I began drawing in pencil at seven, and at the age of 12 I was working with oils. I have tried other mediums over the years and recognized that oils were my one true love. It is a medium with great flexibility and life that speaks deeply to me.

Artist Biography

Biography

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Artist statement

“We Were Seeds…” is the first of a series of fantasy portraits dedicated to depicting both a likeness and the inspiration for the fantastical element. A Mexican Proverb reads, “When they buried us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” In today’s society, the assault on bodies of color is palpable and real. Our society has always known the meaning of this proverb, but its prescience is shameful. This portrait represents hope.

The wind blows through the little girls kinky hair and seeds blow from her like a dandelion. She is the representation of that proverb. She is the hope that keeps the seeds from springing up, even from being pushed into the soil. One cannot separate her from the words that inspired her.

Artist Bio

Marin Burnett, a native of New York and transplant to the Pacific Northwest, is a self-taught artist specializing in the human face and form.

Marin starting painting just after college as a form of escape and catharsis. What started as a casual hobby quickly became a passion and something that she dedicates her free time to on a daily basis. Marin works mainly in soft pastels and charcoal and works with bespoke handmade surfaces to ensure that the uniqueness of the individual and their story should be honored by the surface that holds their likeness.

Marin’s work has been featured at the Amber Tree Gallery in Washington, DC, the State House of Representatives in Maryland as well as the Hillman City Collaboratory in Seattle, WA. When she is not a consultant in her new Seattle home, or spending time with her husband and son, she is in her home studio working on prints or commissions to keep her sanity

www.marinalexisart.com

Biography

My name is Elite Shaier and I’m a self-taught artist.

I sculpt in clay and use other materials such as paper, rocks, pine cones.

I’m an author of short stories (two of which were published), a poet (one of which is being published), and a teacher of social studies (MA) and Hebrew.

Researched the Native American’s Sun Dance in the University of Bar Ilan.

I live in GA with one husband and two Great Pyrenees dogs (from shelters, of course).

I love desserts, art, animals and good people, not necessarily in that order.

Creative Statement

CONSTRUCT (radio) is one of several drawings I group as SIGNALS which reference abstract and symbolic images used in communication such as STEM or musical notations. I have also long enjoyed calligraphy. Letter forms do not have to be understood to have a point of view either compositionally or in terms of content.

I used black and white in this piece to add a mechanical feel which may look like electrical or wi-fi waves shooting across space. Loud and soft lines make tones.

As these waves are invisible in real life the presence here reminded me of a radio signal…thus the (radio) in the title.

Biography

The formative years for me artistically were those spent in undergraduate and graduate studies at San Jose State University and Cranbrook Academy of Art, respectively. San Jose State University had a very active art department and was close enough to the San Francisco Bay Area to allow plenty of museum, gallery, and studio visits. My struggle during this period was to find a medium I liked and determine what my artistic voice was to be. In San Jose, and again at Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, I explored the mysteries of metal casting and found a formal and visual language in a machine/man, machine/animal synthesis much expanded and grounded a few years later during a two-year grant period (on the Prix de Rome) at the American Academy in Rome where I could work, look and think, all the time.

My first teaching position at the University of Minnesota was followed by almost a decade at Humboldt State Univ. in Northern California (less the 2 years in Rome) central Texas. The move to Texas, to fill a position in sculpture at the University, saw the introduction of a distinctly figurative element in my sculpture and the beginning of drawing as an art form (as opposed to sketches for sculpture). The concepts of “situational” work and of “particulated” imagery (many independent forms working as a whole) continue today. Ideas swirl around how we communicate with each other and with the natural world.

Artist Statement

Mt Evans is a 14,271-foot high mountain, where one might encounter snow in June. Just a few hundred feet below the summit in what is described as the southernmost area of arctic tundra, I was finally able to catch the magic which has charmed me for years.

Artist Biography

A Denver native, Mr. Harris has lived and worked in Kansas City, New York and Boston before returning to Denver.  Mr. Harris is now focusing on dimensional photographic fine art.  Harris’s exploration of dimensional photography began in the early 70’s showing his works in New York and Kansas City.  Harris now uses his patented process to create photographic constructions using a single, often abstracted image layered over itself on clear acrylic surfaces and superimposed on a subtle grid.  Harris holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the Kansas City Art Institute and a Master of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute with additional studies in Economics and Computer Sciences from the University of Missouri, Sublimation Color Research from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Artist Statement:

Last August I attended an outdoor dinner where one of the speakers was a local cowboy author who wore a large cowboy hat. While he told cowboy tales he set his hat on a nearby table not far from a small light bulb. As he spoke I adjusted my Sony camera and took a shot of the hat in the subdued light. The photo image was adjusted in Photo Brush-5 using Topaz Impressions app.

Artist Biography:

Gaylord Mink began his “artistic” life as a photographer when he retired after 40 years as a research scientist. He began this afterlife as a free-lance wildlife videographer where he concentrated on the movement and behavior of the wild subjects. Later he expanded to digital still photography where he now attempts to tell visual stories about the subject’s behavior. Recently he is focusing on incorporating light and texture as principle subjects in his work, most of which still centers around wildlife and natural things. Occasionally, however, he attempts surreptitious shots such as this one.

Artist Statement

I am interested in creating mixed media pieces that investigate the human experience and condition, often using the figure itself.

My work often includes figurative imagery. I explore human emotions and issues at micro and macro scales. My work explores how individuals react to emotional events. I also think about larger groups and the dynamics of how crowds react to highly charged events. In The Queen’s Identity, I explored the identity of an individual who was hiding an interior self and finally taking a step out. Following a similar theme, Coming Out is a piece about the different experiences people have when coming out. The varied experience of people are represented by the hands and how they interact with the strings. I also use my art to consider moral, ethical, and religious issues, such as in my piece When is it a Baby?, which is about abortion.

I use a wide range of media. I will often begin with a medium and build an idea around it. Also, I use unexpected materials at times, such as baby doll parts like in When is it a Baby?, used CO2 canisters, an old plastic wonder horse, and empty bags of Starbucks coffee.

Resume

EDUCATION:    University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN

Bachelor of Science in Studio Art

Sculpture Emphasis – 2018

HONORS &

ACTIVITIES:   Member of Ball State Student Government – 2014-15

Executive Member Hall Council Ball State – 2014-15

Member of Epsilon Sigma Alpha – 2014-15

Dean’s List – 2015, 2016

Zutt Scholarship recipient – 2016

Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award — 2018

EXHIBITIONS:   Ball State Student Show – Juried – 2015

USI Senior Exhibition – Juried – 2017

Peephole Student Showcase – Invitational – 2017

Off the Wall – New Harmony Contemporary Gallery – Open – 2017

USI Student Art Show – Juried – 2017

Parklane Gallery 26^th Annual International Miniature Show – Juried – 2018

The Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana Arts Awards – invintational – 2018