Kory Twaddle (Painting)

Anne K Smith (Photography)

Stephanie Lanter (Ceramics)

Keith Young (Collage | Mixed Media)

Kory Twaddle (Painting)

“I explore my own lived experiences and my body’s interactions with space as subject matter, in which I seek to give physical presence to my own ethereal encounters with the external world via lived diagrams, or biograms. My drawings and paintings are records of the lived moment, of specific periods of time and particular spaces, of my own life. They consider how I move through and between familiar spaces such as my studio, home, and workplace, as well as how places and routes change me. They present the body and its innards in an abstracted and playful way in efforts to examine how the body and the spaces it inhabits are intertwined both in reality and as conceptual architectures in the imagination.“

Twaddle imagines how abstract and imaginary qualities are shared by buildings and bodies, and rooms and organs. Both are defined by membranes that take in and let out masses, substances, and nourishment. Architecture and bodies both house specific and unique selves and have systems to keep the whole going and solve problems. Organs of the body and rooms of the house are similar in that they serve specific functions within the whole of the body, each having its own unique purpose and materials.

Blood veins appear as moving pathways in the body between oft-visited locations, or between particularly important rooms in a building. Movement occurs as “book cells” duplicating in mitosis. The alignment of cells during reproduction calls for them to arrange themselves in straight rows, much like books upon a shelf. Reading books (or acquiring knowledge of any kind) literally changes me (and others) both intellectually and physically because the connections between brain cells actually multiply as we learn. Psychological events are thus capable of creating effects in the physical world, even when not consciously intended.

“In the process of investigating my interactions with space, I seek to better understand how humans use proprioception (the body’s sense of its own parts, their locations relative to each other and to surroundings, and memorization of repeated familiar actions) and synesthesia (the psychological phenomenon of experiencing strong associations between seemingly unrelated things, such as a number and a color) as new windows into how people experience environments. My work is imaginary in that it is based in perception, cognition, and symbolism, without allowing cognition to be first among equals. My biograms are subjective maps of my experiences with both physical and psychological spaces.“

Anne K Smith (Photography)

Photography has prompted Anne Smith to examine everything with greater intensity and consideration. It has given her a means to examine her inner thoughts and feelings. In the “Nelson Files” series she revisits a specific scene multiple times and creates an intimate yet distant out of focus sequence that tells a very personal story.

Below is the image from his Unfocused Series, which will be included in the ART CARE PACKAGE as a limited edition of 15. The work comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and is printed on premier archival Museo Silver Rag paper with archival Epson Inks. The work is matted in a 7.75″ x 9.75″ frame.

Stephanie Lanter (Ceramics)

Stephanie Lanter has been an artist and educator working in clay, fiber, mixed media and words since 2000. Currently the Assistant Professor of Ceramics at Emporia State University in Kansas, she has also taught at Washburn and Wichita State Universities. She has had the good fortune of being awarded residencies at Arrowmont’s Pentaculum, the LH Project, the Archie Bray Foundation, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and the Mendocino Arts Center. She was one of the founding residents at the Red Lodge Clay Center, and the first Jentel / Archie Bray Foundation Critic at the Bray.

Along with exhibiting her sculptural ceramics, installations, and mixed media drawings to an international audience, she has given numerous workshops and presentations, including recently for ArtAxis National ClayWeek Conversations. She has written for and been featured in journals such as Ceramics Monthlyand Ceramics, Art and Perception. In 2010, she received a Kansas Arts Commission Collaboration Grant to support the interdisciplinary installation and publication series, The Waiting Room Projects, directed by Marguerite Perret, and exhibited across the country and in the Netherlands. She received an MFA from Ohio University in 2002 and a BA from Xavier University in 1998.

Below is a sample image from her WORD CUP Series, which is included in June’s ART CARE PACKAGE.

Medium: Porcelain, glaze, luster measuring 2.5 x 3 x 2.5 inches.

Keith Young (Collage | Mixed Media)

Keith Young lives in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his studies at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo. then transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute. He grew up in a creative family nourished by free thought and conversation, it was the loving matriarch of his family who realized and encouraged his artistic talent. Young’s most current exhibit was located at Anthony Phillip Fine Art in Brooklyn, New York.

Young’s canvases use an array of mixed media to rearrange the world as it is presented to him; he crosses boundaries of materials, genres, subject matter, and themes to discover life through an ever-expanding collection of images and techniques; collage, drawing, over-painting, applique, and embellishments. Found objects, linoleum fragments, magazine pictures, lace, wallpaper, spray paint, all become part of Keith’s vocabulary of painting. The paintings bridge the logical to the illogical by creating a natural synergy with the incongruous or disparate elements that find their way into his work. By critically analyzing materials and being somewhat of a material atheist, Keith has been able to define his aesthetic as an artist at a young age; frequently experimenting with techniques and objects that maintain the integrity of his aesthetic within his work. Keith’s paintings have given him a voice in his own life. His work doesn’t talk about worldly issues; but rather, solves personal struggle ultimately illustrating the phrase, the personal is political. Keith Young is colorblind, but this is not a disadvantage for him; His inability to distinguish certain colors allows him to create works with unique palettes that are among the components that make his work so compelling to viewers.

Below is the image from his Small Sticker Collage Series, which was specially created for the ART CARE PACKAGE. Each piece is unique, comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and is signed on verso The work is matted and framed.