Artists Profiles Part 1: Florida Flora and Fauna: The River of Grass and Beyond

Florida Flora and Fauna:
The River of Grass and Beyond


Opening Reception


Friday, September 9, 2016 | 6-11 pm



Heart of the West Palm Beach #CulturalCorridor


811 Belvedere Road

West Palm Beach, Florida 33405

786-521-1199

presents




Exhibition Dates:

September 9th through October 2, 2016


Opening Reception


Friday, September 9, 2016 | 6-11 pm
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Artists Profiles Part 1
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Elliott Block
"I look for a unique, artistic view of a flower, bird, architecture, equipment that imparts its character.  Sometimes just the structure; other times a combination of colors, shapes and rhythm. I convey the ineffable, transitory nature of beauty by capturing a fleeting mental view and converting it into a lasting picture that incorporates what I experience. Many times an image of detail provides a better appreciation of the whole structure that is not visible, yet is filled in by our mind."
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Bjorn Davidson

“Bjørn Davidson is an emerging artist born and educated in New York. Calling on inherited talent and self taught skill to venture forth into the world of art, he enjoys expanding his artistic horizons and changing  other peoples.”
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Bonnie Wilburn

"My art is inspired by my love of horticulture.  Surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants in my Florida home, I am continually amazed and inspired by their beauty.  My art captures the intense color and structure of the tropical plants using a unique and elegant style I have developed over the years.  My botanical paintings are a combination of realism and fantasy capturing the essence of each plant."
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Chris Kling 
Chris Kling received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978


Since then Ms. Kling has received numerous awards from shows for her landscapes and portraiture throughout the southeastern region of the United States and with the Portrait Society of America. She has received many commissions for her oil portraits and landscapes and her work is in numerous private and corporate collections in the United States as well as international collections. Those collections include the painting of John Peyton, Mayor of Jacksonville, Florida. 
Chris states “Being an artist is not just my career.  It is an integral part of who I am and is something that I am compelled to do.  I work in oil primarily in a traditional manner but with a contemporary flair through color, composition, value, and application of paint. Color sings to me and I try to use its harmony to evoke an emotional connection with others.  I love to paint plein air which helps my studio work retain an authenticity that only comes from observation from life. Painting, to me, is reaching out to find the common emotional connection between all of us and life around us.”
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Deborah Bigeleisen
Graduate of Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY 

 "Having started my fine art career by painting Rembrandt-like portraits of illuminated white roses, I credit my discovery of fractals for transforming my artistic vision and giving a new energy and voice to my work. Fractals have taken my vision of a single image of a flower to depths beyond what the naked eye can see - the point of pure abstraction. My vision is in sublime chaos. "

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Elizabeth Reed
 1994 Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, Washington 
BFA Illustration and Graphic Design, highest honors

1976 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 
Painting and printmaking, degree studies Reality is what we perceive.
"My paintings and drawings rearrange fragments of images into imaginary scenarios. These selective memories reflect my dreams and concerns. "

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John Rachell
BFA - School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1977

”The gentle breeze plays a soft lullaby as it dances through a veil of creation. Listen and hear the delicate tiptoeing of the meek beneath a canopy of endless similes and exquisite metaphors. Be still my spirit… 
for a moment in the garden.”
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Emilio Aponte Sierra
Master Degree of Education, Ann G. Mendez University

My body of work is created using a unique technique which I have called Aponte-Sierra paper manipulation©. This technique is a unique method of weaving together pages from colorful magazines and news publications. I also cuts, folds, interlaces, rolls and twists the recycled paper to create 3D art pieces. Each piece is presented in an acrylic box.
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Gwen Eyeington


Gwen Eyeington has a bachelor’s degree in biology, worked in the environmental field for many years, and now publishes books in environmental science.  Gwen is also an artist, and strives to convey the passion and wonder she feels for the natural world, primarily by painting landscapes and wildlife in oil.  Combining her scientific knowledge with her artistic ability Ms. Eyeington hopes to create environmental awareness, especially for the unique ecosystems of Florida, which she enthusiastically visits whenever possible.
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Scott Jeffries


Scott’s work is an irreverent expression of his sub-conscience, an invitation to imagine space and form  from a new perspective. Born in New York City, raised and educated in Pennsylvania, he draws inspiration from the world in which he lives.
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Sami Makela


 Artist SAMIMAKELA (born 1972) is from Helsinki, Finland. As a son of a well-known World War II illustrator, Reijo Makela, Sami grew up appreciating all types of art. After finishing art school in Helsinki and making a name for himself as a graffiti mural artist, Sami travelled to Paris to seek inspiration. Finally in 1994, Sami decided to pursue his dreams in America. As an owner of Makela Art Studio, art restoration, murals and decorative painting is close to Sami’s heart. He has also continued to create his original Recycled Paper on wood Cityscape paintings for clients. Sami also paints Sea Turtle paintings which he most of the time donates to Juno Beach Marine life Center. Profits from those paintings go 100% to their Sea Turtle Programs. He has also been involved in street art events and work since the mid-1990s, and many of his murals are still in existence around Palm Beach County. In addition, one of his mural works “History of Helsinki” (1992) is part of a permanent exhibit in Helsinki Museum of Art. 

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Sandi Pfeifer

"Simply put: I am a rabidly curious person with a restless mind who just happens to be a mobile photographer!"
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Manon Sander
Marin Art School, Novato, CA,
studying oil painting in colorist impressionist style with 
Dorallen Davis and Jane Heaphy.

Expressing my joie de vivre through loose brushstrokes in
combination with a well thought-through design and a vibrant color
choice translates into a painting that resonates not only with me as
artist but also with the viewer, offering him a view of things that might

otherwise have gone unnoticed.
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Rick Newton
 BFA Massachusetts College of Art

Newton’s paintings depict an unsettling world where there has been a change in

hierarchy with a story that goes on with in an endless state of irresolution, they have a quiet elegant quality. The scenes are oil and acrylic paintings rendered meticulously typically using a limited color pallet complemented by graphite mark making that indicate a flux in energy or molecular structure. The work is done on wood panel with Venetian plaster or backgrounds applied resembling the finish on cabinetry, which asserts his images. 

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Nicole Galluccio
BFA, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

 With the piece I have submitted for Flora and Fauna, “Sacred”,
I felt it was important to touch on current ecological issues within our
society and how we relate to them as humans. I chose to utilize a flora and fauna mandala (sacred geometry) as a metaphor for the sacred planet and what 
we are aiming to protect. 

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Andrew Pereira

Guatemala City, Guatemala
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Andrea Huffman
 1994: M.S., Art Education, Florida International University 
1980: B.A., Art Education, Florida Atlantic University 

 “I am intrigued with the small nuances in nature, the interdependence within every aspect of the natural world and its relationship to humanity. I create works of art on fabric to connect my viewers to my personal observations and experiences. Fiber offers tactile and dimensional qualities, while essentially maintaining a two-dimensional surface. My work draws upon both fine art and craft traditions, as well as contemporary innovations. I integrate various media, including dyeing, drawing, painting, printmaking and digital imagery with machine and hand stitching, along with a new exploration of natural dyes and pigments, to embellish each image in a way that will emphasize and convey to the viewer, my initial fascination with my subjects. Through this process I seek to actively engage each viewer in a visual dialogue about our connectedness to the environment and the need to preserve its beauty. It is my intention to inspire a deeper appreciation in order to effect positive change.” 

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Petrina Easton
Petrina Easton, who now lives in Boynton Beach, is inspired by the merging social and cultural factors affecting modern life. Her current body of work is focused on still-life, taking a traditional approach but with a modern-day twist.

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Judy Yudit Eisinger

 Kent State University, Bachelor of Fine Arts, minor in education, 
full scholarship 
Cleveland Institute of Art  and Cooper School of Art 

 For me, art has always evolved from impressions of life, rather than a strict rendering of a given subject. In every new painting, I love the ebb and flow of line and bold colors, the power of less is more, and the ways simplicity and boldness together can magically evoke sensation. 
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Sarah Knouse
MFA, Cuny Hunter College, New York, NY

 Through my art making practice I explore themes of ornamentation and superficial grandeur as they occur at a domestic scale. I often combine notions of quotidian household surroundings with those of the ephemeral and surreal. My fascination in our culture’s relationship with decoration and surface treatment plays a large role in my work. 
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Sue Oakes
Briarcliffe College, A.A.S., Graphic Design, 1999 


 My work is not straight Photography but Photo Imaging, enhanced photographic techniques created by my digital “hand painting”. Although it originates with computer hardware and software, it is not the result of anything “automatic”, and is developed from my original photography.

Through my work and teaching, I demonstrate that art and technology are not antagonistic, but can coexist and should be used to enhance each other in new and exciting ways. In my digital work I blur the borders between photography, painting, and digital illustration to achieve my artistic vision.
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John Mangan
Clark College, Vancouver WA, Major in Fine Art/Painting

"The tropical areas of Florida are magical. There is such diversity in these verdant acres, such mystery and sensuality in the flora and fauna; broad leafed plants, gators, ibis, the history of big cats do thrill me as a painter. As I continue painting I see my work edging closer towards the interaction between human communities and unfettered nature. "
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Carol Erenrich

BA Art History, Boston University, Boston, MA

Making photographs, capturing a moment, is a pleasure that trains the eye to see extraordinary arrangements, textures, and color in what might seem to be a very ordinary every day image. Taking that image, combining it with others, creates new meaning for these images. This has become a passion. I am often surprised at what comes from these combinations and manipulations. It is an active process; twirling, mixing, shredding, ripping, reversing, inverting (and sometimes reverting) my images. But this has, paradoxically, helped me become a better photographer and often becomes an outlet to comment on social issues.

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Judy Flescher
Bachelor of Art, Framingham State College, Framingham, Mass.

I would like viewers to feel the joy, the beauty, the magic of living. We are all touched, sooner or later, with tragedy and the realization of our own mortality. When I create, every piece is an emotional expression of what I am feeling, viewing, or remembering. Art helped me to heal emotionally after my fight with breast cancer. Art gave me hope, which I want to share with others.
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Kim Fay

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