OAKLEY SMITH

My creative journey has been an exploration of the relationship between matter and energy; these two fundamentals we humans currently use to explain our reality. Within this liminal space I find myself becoming a channel, allowing the flow of creative energy outward into reality.  Immigrating to Canada at a very young age I was encouraged by my mother to work with my hands and this has since continued to fuel my creative endeavors in painting and sculpture. My father occupied himself with spiritual matters, and the common good of the community.  I am currently one of Canada‘s best known rhinoplasty surgeons. Growing up and living in Toronto, my career has evolved into combining the aesthetics of beauty and the technical skill of surgery. In the operating room, I’m sculpting, aesthetically balanced masterpieces that bring joy, and are often life-changing to my patients.  The confluence of Covid and achievement of my career goals created a change in my personal situation and directed my energy towards sharing and communicating through my art the joy I experience with the world.  My artistic journey has taken unexpected turns, weaving a narrative that is both at times, common and unique. My work is an investigation into the interface of the order we impose on our chaotic interactions with reality. I explore my visions, as if through a mirror, darkly, translating the contemplation of the mystics, and the understanding which transcends our ability to comprehend the glory surrounding us.

ANTON MODERN ART 

The origin from which this style of art has been inspired and birthed, is rooted in Urban Industrial Architecture and African Art, mainly sculptures, textiles and masks. Like the Most Famous European Artist which were strongly influenced by the sophisticated approach to the abstraction of the human figure: Braque, Modigliani, Vlaminck, Derain, Klee, Miro, Matisse, and so many others, along with the most infamous of them all, Picasso, I too have been spiritually and soulfully influenced by the Primitive Voice of the Dark Continent, The Black Indigenous, The Tribal...Movements such as Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism which were birthed in Europe, were influenced by African Art, incorporating elements like dissonant colors, geometric forms, and fractured or distorted human forms. 

UNTITLED ART 

UNTITLED ART frees the viewer’s imagination to creatively explore the art with absolutely no limits or boundaries. This allows the viewer more time to look and think about what is being seen. This individual way of observing, creates endless ways and potentials of how the art is being viewed. Such an effect causes the viewer to create his or her own interpretation of what they see. The artist believes titles can sometimes be limiting for both the viewer and the art. Titles can bring immediate closure to the viewer exploring the art. All is seen in the title. Therefore, the viewer looks, but does not necessarily take time to see, what could possibly be beyond the title. The artist’s goal is to help strengthen and create independent thinking and expression about what the viewer personally sees and feels through his or her own eyes, by simply using his or her own minds. This style of art has been birthed free of titling, so that the art can converse and articulate its own voice to the viewer. Anton quotes, “I want the viewer to remember the art by establishing a personal connection from the experience of visually exploring the art, possibly creating his or her own title.”

STEFANIE DEMAS 

Stefanie Demas is a Brooklyn-based, self-taught artist inspired by recurring patterns in the natural world. Through a unique combination of encaustic and mixed media, Demas translates her inspiration into visual masterpieces that challenge perspectives. Her award-winning art has been featured in a number of exhibitions, and earned her recognition as an " Artist to Watch and Collect." Artist’s statement I am interested in exploring the patterns that recur in nature on both the macro and micro levels. In focusing on these patterns and the elements that create them, and stripping away markers of perspective, I aim to ask the viewer to shift their point of view until the similarities in the disparate parts become evident. I build up layers in my work, mirroring the layers in nature, time and reality. I seek to show how we fit into these natural rhythms and patterns. In the process of creating my work I use fire, water, earth and air, and explore ways to manipulate these elements so as to walk the line between control and chaos.

LISIE S. ORJUELA

The act of stopping, pausing, and proceeding attentively is an infrequent, yet desperately needed endeavor in today’s frenetic, chaotic, and dissonant world.  Lisie S. Orjuela intentionally slows down her creative practice, to be present, to be open, and to allow for the subtle relationships of shapes and nuanced variations of colors to lead the way. Thinking, feeling, sensing, and processing along with the fleshy physicality of oil paint, the lusciousness of the colors, the crunchiness of the charcoal, and the awkward relationships of the shapes, each drawing, each painting begins to take shape. In her Port Chester, NY studio she attentively works on each piece.  Lisie S. Orjuela’s heritage and influences come from a mix of cultures, visual experiences, and living rhythms stemming from her Argentinian roots and from the variety of places she has lived in: Uruguay, Switzerland, Mexico, and seven states within the United States. Orjuela has held solo exhibitions at The Rye Arts Center in Rye, NY; Moira Fitzsimmons Art Gallery in Hamden, CT; Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA; Edit Gallery in Richmond, VA; Marie Louise Trichet Art Gallery in Litchfield, CT; Port Washington Public Library in Port Washington, NY; and Ulla Surland Gallery II in Fairfield, CT. She has also had two-artists exhibitions at UConn Stamford Art Gallery in Stamford, CT and Scott & Bowne in Kent, CT, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions.

Artist Statement

Following Lines

An expanse is cleared, so as to slow down, to be present. Unfolding a space to be intimate, open, vulnerable, and to carefully listen to what is not so obvious. I follow the line and see where it will lead, what will open, what will be laid bare. Thinking, feeling, sensing, and processing along with the textured contact of charcoal on paper, the smoothness of oil pastels and the flatness of gouache paint, a moment is held close, is touched.  Brought up and formed through different cultures, from my birth in Peru to deeply religious Argentinian parents, to living in Uruguay, Argentina, Switzerland, Mexico, and seven US states, drawing is grounding. It centers me, holds me fully present in this moment, in this place.

JENNIFER HICKS

Jennifer Hicks born in Lawrenceville, NJ has been living in the Hudson Valley since 2015. Ms. Hicks is a visual artist, performer, choreographer, and teacher. She received her MFA from Naropa University in Contemporary Performance, her BFA from Tufts University and Degree in Fine Arts from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She has been a guest artist at Naropa University in the MFA Contemporary Performance Department for several years and North Western University in Louisiana, among other institutions. Jennifer has won several prestigious awards for her work including The Traveling Scholars Award from The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Franklin Furnace for an installation/performance about medicine called “Training For Uncertainty”. She was a member of the performance collective in Boston called Mobius Inc. and an original founding member of the former performance collective called Pan 9, also based in Boston. She is also the owner/director of Jane St. Art Center in Saugerties, NY.  As a dancer, Jennifer studied ballet, modern and jazz since childhood but began her interest in Butoh back in the mid 1980’s. She began to study Butoh seriously in the early 1990’s at the San Francisco Butoh Festival. Her main performance influences are Tatsumi Hijikata, KATSURA Kan, Maureen Fleming, Wendell Beavers, Barbara Dilley, puppet theater, early cartoons (yes, I mean Bugs Bunny!), nature and silent films.  She has been dancing in KASTURA Kans International Dance Company since 1999 and has her own contemporary dance company based in Boston and Boulder CO called CHIMERAlab Dance Theatre.  She has been teaching movement, creating original theater and performing for over 30 years. Ms. Hicks is a certified Shintaido Instructor, and a Registered Yoga Teacher with The National Yoga Alliance.  She is a certified TranceDance International Facilitator studying with Wilbert Alix since 1986 and was assisting him in his workshops in Hawaii, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Texas.  Her training also includes graduate level training in • The Viewpoints with Wendell Beavers, Mary Overlie and SITI Company • Roy Hart Vocal Training with Ethie Friend and Jonathan Hart • Body Mind Centering® principles with Erika Berland, Suzuki Actors Training with members of SITI Company • Contemplative Dance with Barbara Dilley • Vocal Training with Meredith Monk • Lecoq Neutral Mask with Amy Russell • Grotowski Based Physical Theater with Stephen Wangh • Performance Art with Marilyn Arsem (founding director of Mobius) • Moment Work from Moises Kaufman and Leigh Fondakowski. She studied shiatsu massage and acupuncture at Boston School of Shiatsu, New England School of Acupuncture and is a licensed massage therapist.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

I’ve been delving deep into my artistic process working from life and drawing on past experiences while exploring new techniques. I enjoy working with different time periods or timing within each session with the models which allows for surprise and experimentation while layering imagery. I let the marks guide me and respond to the mood of the sitter. This can lead to some very exciting discoveries. I enjoy letting a narrative emerge as part of the wonderful journey through mark making, observation, exchange and feeling

JULIA SHATERNIK

Julia Shaternik is a professional artist and fine art  instructor, specializing in painting, and teaching art. She has also worked as a graphic designer. She currently resides in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, Shaternik is the daughter of renowned Belarusian sculptor and artist, Ales Shaternik. In 2004, she received her M.F.A. from Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, the same year she immigrated to the U.S. Shaternik has been painting since early childhood and started exhibiting her works in the United States in 2006.  Julia's artwork encompasses a range of styles, from contemporary to neo-impressionism, and she works with various media, including acrylic and oil on canvas. Her paintings feature vibrant flowers, abstract compositions, elegant female figures, and captivating landscapes.  Shaternik has exhibited her work in the Museum of Russian Contemporary Art in Jersey City, N.J. in October 2006, as well as the following galleries: Lana Santorelli Gallery, Van der Plas Gallery, and the Gallery 402, all in New York City; Jade Nectar Gallery in Southampton, N.Y.; Belarusian National Palace of Art in Minsk, Belarus; Square Pear Fine Art in Pennsylvania, and the International Stella Gallery in Paris, France. Her works can be found in a number of private collections in the U.S., Canada,  Italy, Israel, and Belarus.  From 2008-2012, she taught art to children in her Fair Lawn studio. She has also worked for six years as an in-house graphic designer from 2012-2018 in New Jersey. She is married with two young sons. In her spare time, she enjoys painting in her studio, spending time on her family's boat and biking. In addition to painting, she enjoys teaching fine art to people of all ages.