Artist Notes

Issue Seven

Spring 2025

Brooke Marcélle Carpenter (b. 1993): Reflection (2024) is a graphite drawing of a collage depicting another way we can use water as a tool. It is not for only cleaning, but looking at things from a new point of view and enjoying the atmospheric qualities it provides us in multiple ways.

Mark Gilbert (b. 1969): Shadow of Corona depicts “Sarah,” an intensive care unit charge and rapid response nurse who has been working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in Omaha, Nebraska. The painting was commissioned by the American Medical Association and is part of an ongoing arts based research study exploring the experience of frontline health care workers during the pandemic

Camille Hickey (b. 1998)​: Rest in Flower (2024) is a soft commentary of androgyny. Traditionally feminine floral themes merge with the​ phantom edges of the subject’s body. The flowers represent​ decomposition, nature, and rest.

Kathy Hoang (b. 2003): Through the delicate portrayal of my mom in White Bride (2024), I aim to highlight the complex layers of femininity, tradition, and personal beauty during one of the most important moments of our lives.

Hayden Johnson (b. 2002): Hebrews 13:17-19 (2024) is illustrating the dominance over young girls in the Christian church, subjecting them to a passive, sweet, kind, non-confronting lifestyle. Purgatory (2024) asks: To stay or to go? The dilemma of remaining in a place that may hurt you because it is comfortable. Or, should you dare try something new?

Toni Parker (b. 1996): Life is a Mother (2024) is a pastel drawing on paper of the artist's mother. Exploring hidden legacies and collective healing, the work aims to address the spiritual and historical dimensions of the African American experience. 

Paw Thblay (b. 2001): Home and Grounded​ (2024) depicts a woman with a heart of lotus seeds that sprouted into lotus flowers. She is home and grounded in front of a cornfield.

Savana Schiltz (b. 1998): Vitauts Small Watercolor (2024) is a watercolor painting of the artist's grandfather as a young man during late WWII, as he fled his occupied country, Latvia.

Kara Walters (b. 2004): The idea for Monarch (2022) came from digitally collaging two images of a woman and a butterfly, copying the images over themselves using masking layers, and then creating the collage by drawing on paper. The artwork emulates current artificial intelligence attempts at image generation, the way AI often cannot get the number of fingers on a hand correct or generally confuses the subject.

Zoe Zimmerman (b. 2002): Sunset as an Ending II (2025) takes the colors and shapes from Sunset as an Ending I and abstracts it, using color and shape to create an image both unsettling and alluring.