Judy Atlas is an abstract artist. Her paintings, monotypes and collages are expressions of the patterns, shapes and movements found in nature and everyday life. Her work relates to places and landscapes, real and imagined, external and internal.

Atlas has been teaching watercolor painting and collage at Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven since 1998. Her work has been featured in numerous solo, group, invitational and juried shows in New England.

#judyatlasart on Instagram

Finding beauty in the imperfect or impermanent, acknowledging moments of change and engaging with the processof transcience (transformation) often form the basis of my work.

My process is guided by the mix of planning and chance that the materials I use offer to the imagery. My most recent sculptures are all constructed of handmade paper. I find papermaking to be a transformative process where I start with the pulp (in this case from raw abaca and flax fibers) and work my way to a cohesive three dimensional form. The process involves a breaking down and reassembling or "revisioning" of both the materials and my own visual memories.

I am also drawn to the ambiquity of forms that go in and out of resolve as you move around them. I am interested in the chaos that comes out of even the most predictable and in that way mirrors nature.

Joy Bush works as a fine art photographer in the greater New Haven area and her images range from the isolated figure to landscapes and constructed objects. She is represented in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT), Montefiore Hospital (Bronx, NY), the Baseball Hall of Fame (Cooperstown, NY), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH), Yale Medical Group Art Place, and many private collections. You can see more of her work on her website, www.JoyBushPhotography.com and ODETTA DIgital on artsy.net. You can also follow her daily photographs on instagram @joybushphotography.

www.JoyBushPhotography.com

Much of my work addresses issues of perception and point of view. Changes in position, format, scale, and focusing create the illusion of space in very different ways, and affect the emotional response.

 I often use multiple images to expand space and time.

Crowley began photographing at age eleven. She has worked as a commercial photographer for theater and dance companies. After many years teaching photography at Norwalk Community College, she now teaches at Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven. Crowley has twice received a fellowship grant from CT Commission on the Arts. She exhibits nationally, with solo shows at Choate Rosmary Hall, Wallingford, Mark Murray Gallery, NYC and Palmer Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY. Her photographs are in corporate collections, Yale Smilow Cancer Center, Yale Health Center and homes of appreciative people.

www.phylliscrowley.com

Jennifer Davies graduated from RI School of Design and the Rome Honors Program. She has studied and taught papermaking at Women's Studio Workshop and Creative Arts Workshop. Solo shows include Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, JCC of New Haven and Travelers Insurance in Hartford. She has participated in "The Paper Runway" and Fiberarts International 2010, both traveling exhibits.

Paper is central to Davies' art. Some papers she makes herself, using fibers such as flax, banana leaf and hemp. Japanese fiber she cooks and beats to make long translucent hangings and webs. Paper's flexibility allows for creasing, ripping and color absorption, encouraging experimentation and taking advantage of unexpected results. When using collage, she gravitates toward imagery, which she describes as abstraction of the natural world. She suggests surfaces, weatherbeaten, overlaid and transformed by the process of time.

www.jenniferdavieshmp.com

A time of change/ transition/ looking back/ looking forward.  A time to define the need to create work that is new and to experience whatever unfolds  with new understanding and visions.  I have sought to shelve my familiars, and to experiment with unexplored materials, tools, shapes, concepts of color and design.  I am often surprised, frustrated and invigorated. What I have learned is that the same underlying quest continues to inform my work, regardless of the techniques, surfaces and tools.  The ability to capture light and air, the intrigue of layers and the mysteries hidden within, and the absorption and refraction of vibrant color remain my focus.  I wish for the viewer to share my journey and to join me as we discover together.

Certain twentieth century writers were drawn to intellectual schemes carried out from absurd premises. In Sartre's Nausea, the Autodidact has set out to read every book in the library of Bouville, in alphabetical order. In Camus's The Plague, the character Grand has spent years writing his novel--or rather the first sentence of it, which he revises over and over in an effort to achieve perfection. It is in precisely this spirit that I have embarked on my current project of photographing the state of Connecticut. It is a project that cannot be encompassed, can never be completed, cannot even be properly begun.  We cannot envision something so large except as an abstract concept, and yet we not only accept it but are distressed when it refuses to remain as it was.  One must know it for years before it reveals the quiet strangeness beneath the unsettling self-assurance of the almost normal.

www.williamfrucht.com

My lifelong love of art has found its expression in fabric. I revel in the simple act of placing one fabric next to another. I am attracted to the endless possibilities offered by the materials and techniques. When I relax into the flow of movement and sewing, I know I am in the zone where all possibilities exist.

The art quilt's main focus is shape. Pieces of cloth are cut into shapes, and these are arranged intuitively, then sewn in place as in the exploration of abstract art. Some of my work is representational where the process of arranging is more deliberate to create an illusion of a specific subject. The composed quilt top is then layered with batting and backing, and the improvisational process of machine quilting begins.  The resulting stitched lines crisscross and radiate around the shapes, enhancing the composition with texture and emphasis.

Inspiration comes from various sources, both visual and intellectual. Sometimes an idea just bursts into my mind, and I can’t rest until I transform it into an art quilt. My camera is a trusty companion for visual documentation. It records interesting bits of the world around me, revealing curious combinations of color, shape and line. With ideas and visual stimulation to inspire me, I find the meaning in doing. This makes my passing sensations and ideas tactile and permanent. My hands show me the way.

Robert Jacoby has been an active, award winning artist since the mid-1980s focusing first on figurative drawing and painting, then moving to abstraction in 2010. His transition was initially to explore “duende,” the internal force inherent to flamenco which inspires blazing performance. It led to a freewheeling, unpredictable style, guided by instinctive responses to emerging composition and color, but always seeking forceful expression. He is largely self-taught, supplemented by longstanding associations with regional art schools. A broad selection of his abstract work can be found at: Paintings by Robert Jacoby (www.jacobyart.com).

Sheila Kaczmarek studied art at St. Martin's School of Art, London, UCLA, Calif and the Academie des Beaux Arts, Brussels.  She has taught art for over 20 years. She is a founder member of City Gallery, is President of the Guilford Art League and serves on the board of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club.

She works with mixed media including transferred photographic images.  Her interest lies in both the process of layering and in stripping away surfaces. She apprenticed in the ceramic studio of the Guilford Art Center for 5 years and works with clay incorporating it with paint, metal and encaustic wax. Recently she has been intrigued by the complexity which can arise from assembling multiple forms

This work is about the perception of the line, its placement on the paper and the effect it has on the space surrounding it. All marks are line; it is everywhere and everything.

I love the process of mark making. To try to make the perfect mark. While it may take minutes to execute, it takes hours of thought and observation before the actual line is made. There is also the added intrigue and challenge of burying the color while considering the line.

Using various tools captures the “fun” of the line. A trip to the hardware store is an adventure. Mops, squeegees, rubber spatulas, you name it, they are all fair game to the mark-making.

Painting the tiles is still an important part of the process. They are my studies yet are important in themselves. The arranging and rearranging of them is like a game, a ballet. 

www.kathykaneart.com

Catherine Lavoie is a textile artist who explores human experience and the natural world utilizing repurposed and found objects. Recent work with bridal gowns create new life for garments that are typically worn once. Her handmade paintbrushes from pine needles and other natural elements add wispy marks to the fabric.

Tom Peterson began as a documentary, street photographer. He devoted himself to photographing local, urban environments. He created visual epic poem, portfolios and books with different themes. Since 2015, Tom has focused on creating unique, abstract images from digital photographs. He has exhibited his work both locally and nationally. Tom’s photographs are in corporate/business collections and homes. He has been a member of City Gallery since 2009.

Website: www.tpeterson45.com
 

I am a painter and printmaker interested in history, humanity, and our impact on the natural world. The intersection of these themes appears in my work in different ways as I try to understand where we have been and where we are going. My recent work combines antique, abstract, and representational elements, exploring the relationship between them. Adding layers of antique and vintage media sometimes changes the meaning of the piece and unexpected themes and stories emerge. When I use a fragment from a deteriorating book, I often look up a meaning of a word or translate a phrase. I learn something new or gain a new perspective — this process is always exciting and interesting. I’m interested in creating art that tells a story, is both peaceful and chaotic, and perhaps makes the viewer stop and think.