mixed media – Circle Foundation for the Arts

Lilliana S. DiDovic

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"My art is a reflection of my own journey in life. I was born in the former Yugoslavia (Šibenik, Croatia). In 1992, I escaped the war in my homeland (Sarajevo, Bosnia) and was granted political asylum in the United States for my family and me. En route to our exile in America, we stopped in Philadelphia, where we found our new place in the Sun. This city, where we made our new home and where my son’s life has been saved so many times, has become a theme and inspiration for my paintings. I found inspiration in the city that gave me hope, home, and solace. My life, which has been full of surprises and is very difficult to describe in words, is visible in the colors I use for my art-brave, dynamic, vibrant and unpredictable. It is one of the new escapes from the life I previously had. My award-winning paintings portray Philadelphia in its best light - bright, bold, glittery and famously iconic. Done in acrylic, on canvas, black drawing paper, or on the old furniture pieces, my paintings show a celebration of life and existence. I am spreading that celebration all over the world, with my art included in private collections in Europe, Australia, South America, Israel, and Hong-Kong, China and throughout the United States."

"Lilliana's artwork and the colors she applies to her art are very unique. Lilliana enriches American abstract expressionism by the unique way she illustrates the cityscapes of Philadelphia. Looming with blocks of colors and lines, she shows the streets of Philadelphia, its buildings, charming stars, houses and flowers with fantastic colors. Looking at Lilliana's work we can see and feel her quest for beauty in art. Her art with abstract expressionistic techniques have revealed a sincere pop art. China has an old proverb that says "Art is a person" for me, that phrase portrays Lilliana exactly. "

- Dexiang Qian, Profesor of Fine Arts Academy, Hunan University, China from the book "Her Philadelphia Tales - The Art of Lilliana S. DiDovic" by DoN Brewer

Katty Smith

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Never in her first sixty-five years did Katty Smith ever dream of becoming an artist! Growing up in the small community of Halifax, Virginia, there were no opportunities for exposure to art. However, that strong desire to work with her hands translated into basket weaving, sewing and creative floral arranging. An undergraduate degree in business followed by an MBA at age fifty-nine, a Master Gardening certificate and a Master Naturalist certificate formulated a love of learning throughout life. At age sixty-five she enrolled in a college class for ceramic sculpture. The bells and whistles were heard and she found her passion in life. She studied sculpting in clay for five years before becoming a studio artist in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

Kelvin LHC

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"I am a firm believer of “Everything is constant except change” an understanding from the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus.

Paying homage to Mark Rothko, I intend to explore this human bioluminescence and striving to illuminate the artwork. Gravity pulled textures are applied to extend the relationship of light and gravity by Albert Einstein. The color pulse and vibrations are intended to celebrate our unreality and stay guided by a famous quote of Mark Rothko. "Art is not about an experience; it's an experience.”

Artistry is an evolutionary journey. My art evolved from scientific theories to deep-sea marine animals, and finally to that innate energy that binds us all together.

Einstein’s theory of relativity and how light is bent by gravity fascinate me. I used gravity to form peaks that give texture to my work and communicate movement and rhythm. These low-relief textures distort the pathway of light, much like how gravity bends light. Once I had the science figured out, I infused my artwork with colors. The subtle shifts in my color choices are intentionally applied to calm my audience and hopefully facilitate healing. I believe in the healing potential of color. I seek to harness that potential in my works.

An energy flow cresting over a well of light, my art captures power and fluidity by harnessing the latent vitality in all living things. From his early obsession of illumination through flickering candles and later geological forces, this sculptural piece was partially done upside-down using gravity to achieve its dynamic movement.

A brilliant collaboration of artistic impulse and intuitive osmosis- through its rhythm, textural vibrations, and bold hues that shift in different lights, we are reminded of the spark within our beings. At the heart of things, we already have the ability to realize our dreams- we just need to believe."

Catherine Pickop

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Repetition, stillness, and rhythm are essential elements in Catherine Pickop’s work. She is particularly interested in how art can help to express internal emotions and rationalize inner thoughts. She began using coffee residue as a material in her art-making, exploring feelings consciously and subconsciously as a method of self-discovery. Her works become a visual reflection of her mind, the process of her art-making describes how she sees the world, reconstructed on paper in minimal abstract form.

After exploring different media through her early stage, she is now more focused on drawings with natural mineral pigment and coffee residue. She created her own method and gesture of rubbing natural mineral pigment on paper which is a direct and intimate way of painting. Each painting evolves from a combination of carefully planned structure and the immediate sensation of application and removal of pigment. The carefully calibrated neutral tones create complex spatial compositions which invite the audience to appreciate movement and subtle variations of color.

Catherine Pickop lives and works in Hong Kong.

Carmen Moreno

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Born in Madrid, Carmen Moreno has a Degree in Music and Piano from The Real Music Conservatory in Madrid. A Germanist, Doctor of Philology by The University Complutense de Madrid she has received fine art education in Painting by Isabel Bazo, Madrid, and by Michael Klenk, Germany in the Haller Academy of Arts SHA, as well as in the Graphic etching Graphik-Radierungswerkstatt-81 in Schwäbisch-Hall, Germany. Carmen Moreno lives between Spain and Germany. Her productions are in oil, acrylic, watercolors, engravings, aquatints, and etchings and they are recognized internationally.

Anne Jeffery

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"Growing up in California, under the spell of such luminaries of photography as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston, I was entranced with the photographic process. After receiving a sensible college degree, I went on to study photography at Brooks Institute of Photography. I left Brooks to begin a career with the Federal Government documenting wildfires for the Bureau of Land Management. During my Federal career, I worked as a photographer, a public relations specialist and National Deputy Director for BLM’s Office of Fire and Aviation. Over the years my work has evolved from documentary photographs into creating fine art multi-layered digital photomontages.

My photomontages may be composed of up to 70 different layers. A layer may be an original digital photograph, a digital creation such as flare, fog, stars, shadows, color splashes or a layer may modify another layer by adjusting exposure, hue, saturation, color, and/or texture.

I have studied under some of the masters of photography including workshops with Al Weber, Philip Hyde, Maggie Taylor, and Ysabel LeMay. In addition, I had the great honor of being selected to work as an assistant to Ansel Adams at one of his Yosemite Workshops.

I was a finalist in the Julia M. Cameron Award for Women Photographers - Alternative Processes 2016 and had my work exhibited at Berlin Foto Biennale - 4th Biennial of Fine Art & Documentary Photography. My work is currently being exhibited at Friedman Memorial Airport, St Luke's Medical Center, 7Fuego Restaurant and Bellevue Public Library.”

Angeles Gonzalez

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"I am an Audiovisual Communication professional with more than 20 years of experience working in television, in creation and edition of audiovisuals. In the world of photography, my training is self-taught, my work has evolved through my own research. I started doing Documentary Photography; there was a moment when I wanted to investigate further, and I went into other genres, like fashion photography and later I evolved to Fine Art.

The experience was very positive. I experimented and discovered new ways of capturing, not only moments but subtle details which I could register and forms of expression which I could shape. I became able to create what was in my imagination. Utilizing a unique technique my works require a long and continual gaze.

Inside the many possibilities offered by photographic art, the one that attracts me the most is the portrait, because of the power it has to transmit sensations and emotions, which reach the viewer directly. But I go a step further, because I try to get my photography to have a pictorial appearance so real, that when I contemplate it, put into question that what I am watching is photography or painting.

I consider my photography, emotionally dense and infinite; my art emphasizes fantasy and imagination as a source of aesthetic experience

My professional career focuses on the search for beauty, and through my photography, I try to share my emotions. My last projects have been based on a study through the painting of the great masters of the Baroque and Renaissance; I analyze the use of light in those wonderful chiaroscuros, to use that knowledge in my photography, where my goal is to achieve that mixture between photography and painting.

In my works, the framings, the treatment of the light, the scenery, the whole, get a mixture, that when observing the work printed on canvas surprises that it is photography."

Adi Zur

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"I was born and raised in Israel, the ancient land of the Bible. I lived near archaeological digs where I played hide and seek in my childhood. After studying philosophy and painting, I became an art teacher and painted as well. In 1991 I moved my family to Toronto, studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) and graduated with an Honors Degree. As a full-time artist, I showcase my works at various galleries all over the world. My work is published in a few art books."

Adi Zur graduated with Honors (Drawing and Painting) at the Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto, Ontario. She has studied at The Academy of Art Teachers, Tel-Aviv, Israel and AVNI – Institute of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel and majored in Philosophy at Tel-Aviv University.

Carol Brown

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Born in Birmingham, England, Carol Brown relocated to New York City where working in Independent Film helped to develop her style as an artist. Winning the best director award from the Thanet International Filmmaker Festival in 2010 for her film 'Jamaica Jamaica.'

A solo exhibition in New York City in 2014, won the “Lorenzo il Magnifico Award” at The XI Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy, 2017, ArtTour International's Top Artists To Watch, 2018, participating in "The Shibuya Station Exhibition" Tokyo, Japan March, 2019 and exhibitions in Italy and Paris.

Ingrid Steckelberg

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Ingrid Steckelberg was born in Breslau. She lives as a freelance artist in Achim, and works in the artists’ village of Worpswede near Bremen, and Achim. Between 1993 and 2000 she received her artistic education in en plein air painting. Along with painting she has engaged in photography. Since 2001 she is a member of the National Association of Artists’ as well as a member of the artists’ collective ‘Galerie ART99’. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. In 2014 she received the Volksbank Cultural Prize.

Ingrid Steckelberg draws her inspiration mostly from objects and landscapes. She is fascinated by the aesthetics of decay, such as rusting iron or the morbid beauty of rotting wood and crumbling walls. She views her paintings as metaphors, rearrangements, and metamorphoses of reality. She creates abstract works combining different materials and techniques, in order for raw and brittle structures come to light. For some years she worked on different series about transformations from one state to another (political and social).

Lilliana S. DiDovic

"In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." - Andy Warhol

Katty Smith

"The subject matter fueling my creative process is always constant, the female figure; however, there is never a predetermined picture in my mind of the finished product. The partial to realistic female face is a defining trademark of most of my works and often sets the wheels in motion."

Kelvin LHC

Catherine Pickop

"The process of my art making is a way to express my personal response to the world around me with a distinct technique and style. It is a profound self-communication and a visual representation of my mind."

Carmen Moreno

“Art is the substantial, desperate attempt to understand the world, life and death. It creates a pictogram of everything we think we can influence. It is a survival strategy. Topics, Technique or Medium are not important, the action itself is what is decisive”.

Anne Jeffery

Angeles Gonzalez

Adi Zur

"My paintings are influenced by the fact that we are bombarded each day with information by competing media. My paintings are born out of a sense that in the midst of this whirl of media and information there is a calm eye to the storm."

Carol Brown

"I observe and dream, resulting in me romanticizing people and places and dealing with them in my idealized state. This can be a bit awkward in life at times, but my journey of self-discovery has taught me to make my idealized world real. And share what I see."

Ingrid Steckelberg