My current body of work tells one story about creation, unity, connection between creator, process of creation, and each one of us, regardlessof gender, age, religion, georgraphy, nor any other boundries. Thus although the title is FOUR and there are three images in total, the Fourth is merely an implication of creator that created the process of creation.

My current body of work tells one story about creation, unity, connection between creator, process of creation, and each one of us, regardlessof gender, age, religion, georgraphy, nor any other boundries. Thus although the title is FOUR and there are three images in total, the Fourth is merely an implication of creator that created the process of creation.

Jessica Burke was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1976. She received her Masters degree in Painting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2005. She is currently a professor of art at High Point University. Her work is represented in private and public collections throughout the United States. Her work is a meditation on gender and identity. The figurative allegories of experience, thought and emotion are based on the visual judgments that are propagated at an alarming rate in this "contemporary" society of ours. We are bombarded by popular culture imagery with its imbedded associations that operate as a teaching device; they tell us what to think, how to look, what to believe and who to support. Her images are inspired by the experiences that are considered fundamentally opposed to the “accepted parameters” given to us by this ruling majority of popular culture. She believes we are a visual culture and our identity is defined by the visual vocabulary we create.

Edith DeChiara
www.edithdechiara.com

My mixed media works probe the external and interior worlds. It frequently references nature as a source of imagery, creating a calligraphic, gestural line that physically describes the external world while evoking mood and alluding to the internal emotional life. These intimately scaled works hint at nature, plants and rocks.

My garden provides the impetus, reference and inspiration for forms in nature. The series titled “Play on Nature” abstracts flower, seeds and seed pods to create what I consider universal shapes and formations.

I use thread as a metaphor for line. The attributes of thread, which appeal to me, include flexibility, delicacy and tensile strength. I use different types of thread: thread pulled from fabric and manipulated to form delicate wispy filaments and lines of heavier weights and value, sewing and embroidery thread. I work on paper, often with the addition of encaustic as a surface layer.

My focus when working with stone or wood is to become "one with" the material and allow it's natural beauty to emerge. For me the essence of art is the amount of "Chi" or "life force" it has. My sculpting is a process of collaboration or dialogue with the wood or stone. I follow the Tao of Sculpting: staying in the moment, enjoying the journey and practicing "effortless action." My recent work has been influenced by my interest in Quantum Physics and is about the transformation of matter into energy and allowing stone to dance and sing. "Gravity is matter's memory that it once was light."

"Flying Birds" represents the free spirits up in the sky, it is spiritual, a life of uncertainty and love, peace to come together and tolerate one another. The birds can be friends, lovers, passing through.

The sky is a wholesome effect that intrigues the birds to fly high up to the sky. They are tired but keep going with their energy never giving up on them. They might get fatigued, but they want to succeed with the other clan and are strong to achieve their goals.

I have always been inspired by the moodiness of Maine and the mystical shores of Ireland. These beautiful places have captured my imagination and inspire me to depict, through my watercolors, the essence of these locations. The ever-changing and magical qualities of light and the delicate hues of the sea fascinate me and influence my art. My palette is filled with the subtle blues, violets and greens of the ocean and its surrounding light. These colors, as well as the elements and atmosphere which are expressed in my artwork, are constant and timeless. It is my hope that my paintings will invite the viewer to feel the mist of a rocky coastline, see a glint of sunlight and to enter into a peaceful retreat - and be briefly transported to the places of my inspiration.

I have always been inspired by the moodiness of Maine and the mystical shores of Ireland. These beautiful places have captured my imagination and inspire me to depict, through my watercolors, the essence of these locations. The ever-changing and magical qualities of light and the delicate hues of the sea fascinate me and influence my art. My palette is filled with the subtle blues, violets and greens of the ocean and its surrounding light. These colors, as well as the elements and atmosphere which are expressed in my artwork, are constant and timeless. It is my hope that my paintings will invite the viewer to feel the mist of a rocky coastline, see a glint of sunlight and to enter into a peaceful retreat - and be briefly transported to the places of my inspiration.

Through the vision of art, moments in our lives can become foremost and clear. My intent with my sculpture is to momentarily magnify a common emotion. Feelings frozen in time, experienced by the viewer as a participant, bringing their own thoughts and interpretation to the work, the art becomes successful and valued. The language of art needs to communicate, touch, and evoke a connection to the viewer. I believe universal feelings and thoughts must be accessible and clearly expressed for the work to become intimate and meaningful to the viewer. Using the human form in its elegance best expresses my inspirations rooted in emotion and beauty.

As a visual artist, working within the process of drawing, Monica Iancu hopes to “stimulate the tactility, subtlety and infinite breath of the natural world.” Her pieces are often made up of subtle hand-made drawn, printed or assembled materials. She overlaps and transforms spaces, to achieve a synthesis of both abstract and natural patterns using forms within the landscape some of which reference mountains, glaciers, and deserts. Her objective is to maintain an increasing awareness of process and history as it relates to and transforms the drawn and the lived experience.

My photographs are a method by which I examine the incidence and repercussions of trauma, and the ways in which recovery is attempted. I use my body as an instrument of this exploration. I am interested in the physical, psychological, and emotional aftereffects of trauma, and the various coping behaviors adopted by survivors in service of their recovery. I stage reenactments in an effort to reclaim the body, as survivors reenact traumas to reclaim the mind. It is my hope, and the goal of my artistic striving, that through a thorough examination of the narrative of trauma as visited on the body I may achieve a fuller understanding of it's effects on human lives.

Art, for me, should convey a life beyond what is visible. My focus is the consciousness of the human body, or more importantly the life-force behind it. I’m striving to convey a body’s energy, even when at rest, through abstracting and blurring together shapes. Much like my influence of Abstraction Expressionism I allow the medium a movement of its own to bleed and spread, I simply control the placement.

"Gentle Midas" is a work in a series of paintings in which I have explored the emotion and vibrancy of colors as they relate to the body. The addition of Gold Leafing in this painting provides an insight into what “Midas” might mean. Transforming to gold suggests that the body itself is becoming an object. What’s left of Midas is felt through the intensity of the color surrounding him and the raw emotion that can only be seen by its abstraction.

Sari Menna
www.sarimenna.com

As a photo artist I am fascinated by the many ways a scene or object can be manipulated with a camera. I have explored the use of color, contrast, lighting, composition, and perspective, to convey my point of view. My image is a moment captured not only as I saw it, but also as I want to reveal that moment to others. My latest works are composed of two individual photographs, layered one atop the other with varying opacities. The second image provides texture, depth, and interest to the underlying image. This technique was born of a desire to add complexity and to bring more of my own thoughts and feeling into the work.

Painting is for me as if an energy force from the Universe takes over my hands, my mind, my soul and transports me to a place where I start creating my paintings.

My works are the pure expression of myself with colors that empower and bring each painting to life in a special and unique composition

As an impressionist I give form to either landscapes or still life by mixing and applying colors on the canvas, copying from photographs, working from life or painting from my imagination, I like to start and finish my paintings in one or two session (al fresco) so they look spontaneous.

I find in painting the happiness to enjoy life to the utmost.

I don’t remember the exact thought process for this piece or when creating a particular sculpture. Sometimes I just stare at a piece of stone and get inspired, a rare event. Quite often I just stare at the piece of stone for days. But usually I start by “cleaning up” the stone, and as I do so an image comes to mind. At other times I know ahead of time what I may be aiming at.

The physical process, in creating a work, is as follows. First clean up the stone (getting rid of edges that are protruding), then rough shaping with a coarse chisel, then a finer chisel, for more details (if I find any), then coarse rasping, followed by finer filing or rasping to get rid of all the indentations and scratch marks, lastly sandpapering with a coarse paper and working to a fine paper. After that I polish the piece and this is the only time I use an electrical tool. A buffing tool.

Occasionally one has to modify the process. I was making a piece where to my dismay, the head of one figure came off! So instead of two lovers it became mother and child. This sculpture must have been at a particularly good time in my life because it has a theme of affection.