2023 COHORT
PROJECT GRANTS
Freddie Bell website instagram
Freddie Bell is a multi-disciplinary artist from Hillsborough, NC. They are an NC native and after bouncing around the state and the country and have been calling the Triangle home since 2019. Freddie works out of his studio at the Eno Arts Mill. He received his BA in Art from Warren Wilson College in 2012. Freddie’s work has been shown in galleries throughout North Carolina and the U.S. Freddie was a 2022 NC Emerging Artist in Residence at Artspace in Raleigh, NC. Freddie finds inspiration in community and how we understand ourselves. Gender and identity have been common subjects and inspirations for Freddie’s work since undergraduate school, influenced by his lived experience. Freddie works across mediums, using color, shape, and varied repetition to reflect on identity.
Jonh Blanco is a Filipinx-American, undisciplined artist known for their whimsical and authentic creative practices. As an activist-gardener-student-survivor of childhood domestic and sexual violence, Jonh’s work is described as critically courageous. John received a BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005 and an MFA in Studio Art at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 2019. They currently work at 21C Hotel and Museum, are a company member at ShaLeigh Dance Works, and are co-creator at BASEMENT art space. In Fall 2022, as part of BASEMENT X Peel Gallery fundraiser, Jonh presented stank/Stink, a collaborative performance art experience presenting 1-3 minute ephemeral time-based cumulative performative acts within a designated site by a group of 19 individuals taking turns responding to (or not) the previous presentation. tank/Tink will be the second experience of an ongoing series of performance happenings.
Aliyah Bonnette website instagram
Aliyah Bonnette is a multidisciplinary artist working out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Working using a variety of materials, she creates painted quilts as her medium. Using bold and often abstract shapes in her background, she juxtaposes her realistic figures as a way to play with the natural comfortability of the quilts and the often-unspoken discomfort of the topics within her work. Her work focuses mainly on the black femme experience in America and pulls inspiration from various topics in the African American Diaspora or her own life experience as she navigates the world as a Black Woman in America. Though a self-taught quilter, her bachelor’s degree in both painting and textiles have allowed her the space and knowledge to explore her medium more in depth.
Jane Cheek is a mixed media installation artist based in Raleigh, NC, with experience in fine art and education. She has created several public artworks and installations in the Triangle area, including a recent commission titled “The Sun Made the Meadow and Sky Glow That Day” at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Jane is currently working on a large-scale outdoor installation project commissioned by Roswell Art Fund in Roswell, GA and a small group exhibition at Durham Art Guild.
Jane believes in the power of collaborative community based art as a catalyst for change, and has taught summer camp art at Artspace, been a teaching artist in residence at Arts Together and Total Like Centers, and engaged with the community in various ways. She has completed commissions for Raleigh Arts, International World of Bluegrass Festival, Trophy Brewing, and Artsplosure, among others.
Jane’s installation work often involved managing a team of fabricators and collaborating with clients and community members. She is passionate about creating engaging and playful work that brings joy to the audience.
Alyssa Cuffie website instagram
Alyssa Cuffie (she/her) is an artist and curator from Milwaukee, WI based in Durham, North Carolina. She is the daughter of Celeste. Who is the daughter of Augustene. Who is the daughter of Clemontee. While working full time in tech as a project manager, Alyssa is also an active participant in the local arts community. Recent experience of note includes her work as the First Friday vendor curator for Glow Fitness and VAE Raleigh’s first Collaborative Curatorial Fellow in 2022. While there, Alyssa curated an art exhibition and series of events titled “Creating a Home, Not an Empire” about the black family home and the characters you’ll find within it. She’s also continued to work with other arts organizations as a juror, mentor, and board member. As a rising curator in Raleigh, she seeks to activate unexpected spaces through art and community events. When not following up with developers at work or reaching out to vendors for Glow, you can find Alyssa tending to her plants and trying new air fryer recipes.
Ina Liu, Isabel Lu, + Sophie Tô website
Isabel Lu, MPH, RD is the 2023 Artist in Resident at Artspace in Raleigh. Isabel has completed two community-engaged murals on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus and curated the first AA student art exhibit at the UNC Asian American Center. Isabel also brings experience co-creating art with AAs through her solo show “YING YANG [Nutrition],” where she explored AA identity through food and stories. She has 6 years of health equity research experience, such as leading focus groups and interviews with individuals from marginalized communities on their experiences with food access and economic instability. These experiences will help guide both the history documentation and community-driven mural process of this project. Portfolio and CV
Ina Liu, PharmD, MS is the 2022-23 UNC Asian American Center fellow and co-creator of “Plural of Me,” an art platform that uses music, visual art, and oral histories to tell narratives of Asian American women. She has experience in leveraging art for health equity and social justice movements, creating art campaigns for the World Health Organization, National Association of Asian American Professionals, and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable organization. She has completed and published research leveraging focus group methodologies, specifically in behavioral health, wellness, and mental health in minoritized communities. Her combined experience in behavioral health research, collecting oral histories, and visual art will support history documentation, community engagement, and art creation. Portfolio and CV
Sophie Tô, MPH is a field scholar with the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) and a PhD candidate in Health Behavior at UNC. They study how media, arts, and storytelling can be used to advocate for health equity. Her PhD dissertation will focus on how Asian American comedians, especially in the South, have told stories about racialization/racism, identity, and health during COVID-19. In Sophie’s role at the SOHP, she works on the Southern Mix project, which collects oral histories of Asian Americans in the South. At UNC, Sophie has played active roles in the Minority Student Caucus, Asian American Center, and Carolina Asia Center. Sophie has also been writing news satire for over 10 years, has performed stand-up comedy, and has been a writer for several journalistic publications. Sophie’s experiences as both a storyteller and a researcher collaborating with storytellers will contribute a dual perspective to each phase of this project. LinkedIn
Freeman Long instagram
I was born in 1970 in Chicago to parents who had left Georgia and Arkansas along with thousands of other African Americans during the Great Migration to become academicians. I began photography in 8th grade, experimenting with camera angles, editing sound and film.
Even though I enjoyed street and landscape photography, I was more comfortable behind the camera photographing people. I enjoyed the subjects’ awareness of me and of the fact that they were being photographed. I really value the relationship between photographer, subject and camera.
My father encouraged me to become politically involved; as a young man needing to find my own way in the world I instead turned to education and expression in the arts, obtaining an undergraduate degree in Photography with a minor in Filmmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992.
In 2020 I experienced the loss of my father and my beloved wife of 24 years. My fashion photography career broke down due to industry upheaval in the early part of the pandemic. Along with the murder of George Floyd and subsequent civil unrest, these events inspired me to work closer with my community in a more meaningful way.
Kelly Schrader website instagram
Since graduating from Virginia Tech with dual degrees in Studio Practices and Art History, Schrader has had a fruitful and varied career in visual arts. From collaborating with museums, galleries, and nonprofits across the east coast and Midwest on community and educational programs, to creating engaging public murals while mentoring student artists, their work always has a focus on community interaction and creating accessible art. In addition to their artistic practice, Schrader has been working in nonprofit arts administration for over 6 years, and currently serves as Community Arts Coordinator for the United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County. Since moving to Raleigh in 2020, Schrader has established the Pop-Swap community and event series, co-founded the Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub, is a Director-At-Large and DEI committee member for NRACT, joined the Triangle Screen Printer’s Guild, volunteers for various mutual aid and community groups, and has completed public murals in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, among other projects.
Schrader works in a large variety of mediums as a muralist, screen printer, digital illustrator, ceramicist, installation artist, and fiber artist. While their work often deals with serious concepts, Schrader always attempts to view these issues through a humorous lens.
RESEARCH GRANTS
Jerstin Crosby website instagram
Jerstin Crosby (he/him) is an artist raised in the south and based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Crosby currently makes paintings and objects assembled from layers of hand-cut and laser-cut segments, realized in saturated tones. He has used digital tools from early in his practice, starting with the emergence of programs like Microsoft Paint, which has influenced his aesthetic in its colorful simplicity. This reliance on software allows for executions that push beyond painterly instincts using a limited vocabulary of elements that for figurative motifs, serving as character studies, “current moods”, and signifiers of the human condition.
Architectural references such as geometric grids, and patterns have found their way into the work. The figures are being defined and distorted by those environments. There is a degree of real and illusionistic depth offset by Crosby’s use of hard-edge, saturated color. The elements and their surroundings define each other through cutouts in the wood panel supports. Sometimes shapes are removed to reveal the wall behind, while other times you see still more layers and textures building on each other.
Crosby’s work extends beyond the studio into outdoor projects and was commissioned to create a permanent outdoor installation in Nash Square, Raleigh, NC. He has exhibited at Ada Gallery, Nasher Museum of Art, Speed Art Museum, Queens Museum, Cell Projects, Exit Art, the Mattress Factory, LUMP, and Kallio Kunsthalle Taidehalli in Helsinki. His exhibitions have been written about in publications such as Art Forum. Art Papers, and NPR Weekend Edition. He received an MFA from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 2005, and a BFA in Painting from the University of Alabama, in 2002.
Alia El-Bermani website instagram
As a figurative painter trained in traditional methods yet interested in representing the people and concerns of our time, I have recently been pushing my work to a greater scale. Over the last few years, my narrative paintings have expanded to incorporate figures along with folded paper sculptures, based on natural forms. This new direction for work, in which both the paintings and the paper sculptures themselves are exhibited alongside each other, fully activates the exhibition space, and engages the viewer in compelling narratives about our socio-political, cultural and ecological concerns. I am inspired by the poignancy of the notion that you can never fully unfold a piece of paper. I see connections to how once folded, the crease will somehow always remain, relates so well to how we humans interact both with each other and with our environment. As with words that when spoken sting and can never be fully taken back, how we walk this earth can have ever-lasting implications. Figures arranged within these oversized natural paper environments create rich, narrative, figurative paintings that inspire kindness, thoughtfulness, and activism, while the installation of these ginormous sculptures challenge anthropocentric ideas. This multi-faceted work raises questions about our interactions with each other, with nature and the impacts of those engagements.
Ina Liu, Isabel Lu, + Sophie Tô website instagram
Isabel Lu, MPH, RD is the 2023 Artist in Resident at Artspace in Raleigh. Isabel has completed two community-engaged murals on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus and curated the first AA student art exhibit at the UNC Asian American Center. Isabel also brings experience co-creating art with AAs through her solo show “YING YANG [Nutrition],” where she explored AA identity through food and stories. She has 6 years of health equity research experience, such as leading focus groups and interviews with individuals from marginalized communities on their experiences with food access and economic instability. These experiences will help guide both the history documentation and community-driven mural process of this project. Portfolio and CV
Ina Liu, PharmD, MS is the 2022-23 UNC Asian American Center fellow and co-creator of “Plural of Me,” an art platform that uses music, visual art, and oral histories to tell narratives of Asian American women. She has experience in leveraging art for health equity and social justice movements, creating art campaigns for the World Health Organization, National Association of Asian American Professionals, and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable organization. She has completed and published research leveraging focus group methodologies, specifically in behavioral health, wellness, and mental health in minoritized communities. Her combined experience in behavioral health research, collecting oral histories, and visual art will support history documentation, community engagement, and art creation. Portfolio and CV
Sophie Tô, MPH is a field scholar with the Southern Oral History Program (SOHP) and a PhD candidate in Health Behavior at UNC. They study how media, arts, and storytelling can be used to advocate for health equity. Her PhD dissertation will focus on how Asian American comedians, especially in the South, have told stories about racialization/racism, identity, and health during COVID-19. In Sophie’s role at the SOHP, she works on the Southern Mix project, which collects oral histories of Asian Americans in the South. At UNC, Sophie has played active roles in the Minority Student Caucus, Asian American Center, and Carolina Asia Center. Sophie has also been writing news satire for over 10 years, has performed stand-up comedy, and has been a writer for several journalistic publications. Sophie’s experiences as both a storyteller and a researcher collaborating with storytellers will contribute a dual perspective to each phase of this project. LinkedIn
Anna Weaver website
Anna Weaver is a performance poet residing in Wake County. She is the founder and host of Tongue & Groove, a monthly open mic for poets, musicians, and storytellers operating for more than six years in downtown Raleigh. She has performed at open mics in 36 states (and counting), chronicling her experience at openmictourist.com, where she also shares practical tips to help performers find their voice and to help open mic organizers create the events their towns and cities need. Anna’s stage experience includes writing and performing science poetry as part of Science Cafe at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, participating in Raleigh’s SPARKcon arts festival as a poetry-on-demand writer and burlesque poet, and serving as featured reader at events in North Carolina and Virginia. Her poems have appeared in journals, zines, anthologies, and civic art installations, earning nominations for the Pushcart, Best of the Net, and Best New Poet awards. She was a finalist for the 2017 Brian Turner poetry prize (spoken word category), and she has served for five years as coach for North Carolina’s Poetry Out Loud champion.
Shin-Yiing Yeung website instagram
As a multi-media artist, Shin-Yiing Yeung invites her viewers to see Nature and its interconnectivities on macro and micro levels by blending science with art. Her paintings reflect an intuitive process filled with abstract images of plants and imaginative creatures. Her style is filled with intriguing textures, bold colors, and musically-influenced brush strokes which conjures movement, wonder, and playfulness. Her nature photography highlights unique juxtapositions of human, insects, plants, sky. Her compositions and angles create a pause of curiosity in the beauty and harmony of Nature. Her conceptual art pieces are related to social justice and environmental issues and explores different ways to view time and space. She is a self-taught and nurturing her creative muse alongside her profession as a physical therapist. Her exhibitions include US galleries: Visual Art Exchange, 311 Gallery, Rubenstein Arts Center, and Hearth Studios. Her art is also sold at local markets and businesses. She is inspired by Hilma af Klint, Ruth Asawa, Susan Seddon-Boulet, Keith Haring, Yoko Ono, Minnie Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jeffrey Gibson, and Nick Cave.
MICRO GRANTS
Krystal Boney website instagram
Krystal Boney is an interdisciplinary artist whose work challenges the notion of beauty. Her work has been exhibited at ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL; Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, VT; Lump Gallery, Raleigh, NC; Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL; Fotonostrum, Barcelona, Spain; Harper College, Palatine, IL; SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC and Artspace, Raleigh, NC. She lives and works in Wake Forest, NC.
Aliyah Bonnette website instagram
Aliyah Bonnette is a multidisciplinary artist working out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Working using a variety of materials, she creates painted quilts as her medium. Using bold and often abstract shapes in her background, she juxtaposes her realistic figures as a way to play with the natural comfortability of the quilts and the often-unspoken discomfort of the topics within her work. Her work focuses mainly on the black femme experience in America and pulls inspiration from various topics in the African American Diaspora or her own life experience as she navigates the world as a Black Woman in America. Though a self-taught quilter, her bachelor’s degree in both painting and textiles have allowed her the space and knowledge to explore her medium more in depth.
Tori Celeste website instagram
Born and raised in North Carolina, I started using oil paints around the age of 12 and gained inspiration from comic books, anime, music, and the macabre. My work can be found on the online art streaming site Loupe. My work has been displayed at multiple local group art exhibits and art markets throughout the years including the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington NC, Bedford Gallery in California, and Jacoby Arts Center in Alton Illinois.
Pablo Torres Correa instagram
As an illustrator and comics artist, I am drawn to the power of storytelling through visuals. I revel in the act of creating characters and worlds that allow me and my audience to escape into fantastical realms. Being Latino, my cultural background is an important influence in my work, informing the themes and aesthetics that I explore. Through my art, I strive to offer a glimpse into a world beyond our own, one filled with wonder, adventure, and imagination. My characters embody a range of emotions and perspectives, inviting viewers to see the world through different eyes. Whether I am creating a whimsical fantasy landscape or a gritty dystopian future, I aim to inspire and captivate my audience with my unique vision. In my illustrations and comics, I aim to capture the vibrancy and diversity of my culture, celebrating its rich history and traditions while also exploring its complexities and challenges. Through my work, I hope to connect with people from all walks of life, fostering a sense of empathy, curiosity, and understanding.
Chloe Crawford website
Chloe Pascal Crawford is a multidisciplinary artist highlighting the labor disabled people undertake to set the conditions for their existence in public spaces. Her work is exhibited in relation to her perpetually-seated sight-line, challenging conceptions of lowness as a place to be overlooked. She has shown at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Artists Space, VAE, EFA Project Space, and Eugene Contemporary Art, and received fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute, and Vermont Studio Center. She has a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, and recently completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. It took her 19 years to obtain enough work credits to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance.
Tyshika Dickens website instagram
As a multi-hyphenate artist, I find my inspiration through fragments of people that look like me. I believe there is truly something magical in giving art a conscious. I am committed to cultivating a dialogue about African American culture and its wavering path through unrefined photo imagery, screenprinting, and illustrations. In doing so, my practices are at the intersection of then and now. It has become the reflection of experiences within this community’s past, present, and future. Ultimately, providing my audience with a dialogue and opportunity to connect to a community they may or may not be familiar with. African American writer, Lorraine Hansberry, has encouraged me to create stories about the world as it is and as it ought to be. As of now, I have focused on what it is.
Shawn Etheridge website instagram
I have been creating art since childhood. Starting with markers and colored pencil, I was introduced to painting with acrylics by my 8th grade art teacher. Later, I was exposed to graffiti arts by a childhood friend, which had a profound impact on my style by fostering a love of bold color and a preference of markers over brushes. A graduate of North Carolina Central University, I majored in Public Administration while minoring in Visual Art. My love for the arts were further nurtured by amazing instructors and growing with like minded creatives as the fine arts program became my 2nd home.
My work has been displayed in numerous establishments spanning the east coast with my base being in the Raleigh-Durham Area, including the Hayti Heritage Center and Durham Arts Council in Durham, NC, the Garner Performing Arts Center, Garner, NC, the Mint Museum and the VAPA Center in Charlotte, NC, and the William R. Harvey Art Museum in Talladega, AL. I have works in the permanent collections of Benedict College in Columbia, SC, Shaw University and Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, NC, as well as a number of private collectors. Prominent owners of his work include public figures Erykah Badu and Dr. Cornel West,.
My primary, ongoing project is a series of paintings celebrating the country's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The only Fine Arts tribute of its kind, currently includes all the North Carolina(11) and Virginia(5) Institutions, Howard University, Spellman College and Florida A&M University. I am a member of the Charlotte NC based artist collective, The Palette Table, and I am represented by Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery, also based in Charlotte, NC.
Britt Flood website
Painting is an extension of the parts of myself I cannot, or don't know how, to verbalize. I aim to visualize heightened moments of awareness and realization to cast a spell of lovesickness within the viewer; the magical manipulation of a conventional moment, capturing one's essence rather than physicality, to give inactivated spaces poetry and ephemerality, in favor of the unexpected and in search of the miraculous: evoking simultaneous moments of sweetness and darkness. I feel an urgency to to visualize tenderness and poetry through large scale painting and mark making by transforming every day spaces and overlooked spots in our communities.
Hema Gaia is a queer, nonbinary, multimedia artist and performer born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. They create works from overlooked physical and digital materials, sounds, and histories. Their process involves identifying and transforming these elements into art installations, musical performances, and sanctuaries. Gaia’s practice intends to probe dialogue on the relationships our society has with non-human animals and their habitats.
Luca Gonzalez instagram
As a relatively new North Carolina resident I’ve been building my social media presence through marketable/high-reach content before showcasing personal work. Before applying to artist markets, I’ve been attending various markets throughout the triangle to get to know the community first before presenting. This micro grant will help support me in transitioning my practice from digital to traditional drawing and painting to explore personal themes versus algorithm-positive consumable content. My long-term goal is to establish myself within the local arts community and use arts markets selling more affordable functional pieces to continue supporting my fine arts practice, building to a larger body of work and the sale of fine arts pieces.
Brianna Gribben website instagram
Brianna Gribben is an artist born and raised among the pine trees and sandhills of North Carolina. She earned her BFA in Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She creates as a way to understand herself, connect personal and collective narrative, and to break down cultural notions of gender, beauty, shame, and the grotesque. She uses a variety of techniques including: quilting, drawing, collage, ceramics and print-making. Her work is fueled by an insatiable curiosity about a variety of subjects. Her interests and inspirations include southern culture, radical acceptance, self-portraiture, anti-oppression theory, history, science, and zines.
Ezra Izzet instagram
Wiley Johnson website instagram
My abstract paintings are filled with bright colors that make me happy. I use broad strokes of acrylic paint on canvas. I don't like the smell of oil paint, but I like the way that acrylic paint flows off my brushes. I never know how my paintings will end until the colors ”pop.”
I am inspired and motivated to paint because it makes me happy and gives me something to do when I am alone. My only sibling and best friend, Zach, was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2011. I was more isolated then, particularly since I don't drive. The isolation of my studio gave me the freedom to create. My paint and canvas do not judge me because I have autism. Painting helped me get through a really challenging time just like it helps me deal with everyday problems. Painting helped me get to a happier place in my life. It makes me happy to hear people say that they like my art. Art connects me to my community and to the larger art world. I am grateful for the opportunities that art gives me.
Samir Knego website
Shanny Kohli website instagram
Shanny Kohli is a visual artist based in Durham, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and three sons. She was born in New Delhi, India but spent most of her childhood in Kuwait. She ed Kuwait with her family during the Iraqi invasion in 1991 and resettled in Iran and India for 2 years. Eventually, she moved with her family to Dubai, UAE, where she spent her young adult life. Shanny attended the American University of Sharjah (UAE), earning a bachelor's in Visual Communication. She worked in Kuwait for a few years with various international advertising agencies before immigrating to the United States in 2009.
Shanny draws inspiration for her artwork from her multinational background, Sikh faith, art history, and science to explore various subjects, including identity, inequality and injustice, and belonging. Given her own multinational background, she is also interested in learning about other cultures and traditions in our society.
Lee Levingston Perine is a multidisciplinary artist and ambassador of joy working in event curation, digital media, and sound design. His work builds community while celebrating the artistry, diversity and resilience of Black LGBTQ+ people. As a lover of history, he is committed to documenting and sharing the stories of Black queer and trans elders and ancestors for present and future generations. His work is inspired by a wide variety of sources including Afrofuturism, Sylvester, Audre Lorde and Faith Ringgold.
Cristiana Rioli website instagram
Cristiana Rioli has found her voice in non-objective painting inspired by urban landscapes, marine scenes, and piles of objects. Her style consists of combining mixed media techniques in acrylic, soft and oil pastels with collage bits on texturized surfaces. The result is a harmonious, joyful composition with vibrant colors.
Cristiana is an artist living and working in North Carolina. Originally from Italy, where she completed her studies in the classic fiend (Greek, Latin, History of Arts), she recently moved to the United States where, in the last eight years, developed her passion for abstract painting.
Cristiana considers herself as a self-taught artist inspired by Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine Daily- Birnbaum, and Tatyana Grosman’s expressionism. She established her style through experimentation and attending various art workshops with nationally acclaimed artists (Joe di Julio, Edward Sterling, Pamela Caughey, Nancy Hillis).
Robyn Scott instagram
I studied studio art at the University of California, Irvine (BA) and the Winchester School of Art in the UK (MA). I currently serve as the Artist Coordinator for Arts Access in Raleigh, hosting a monthly meeting for artists who self identify as having a disability. I live and practice art in Durham, NC. In the past, I worked as an art teacher for grades 3-8 in California.
My work focuses on the lived experience of having invisible illness and how that informs interactions between me and my community. Invisible illness and disability lead to a number of misunderstandings and missed connections in an environment that is built for healthy people. Navigating this world is an adventure, sometimes traveling through a maze, an upside down world, or one with no gravity at all. My work contains hidden images, reflections, and light where shadows should be. The negative and positive spaces become one and the same throughout the process of creating these pieces to play on the lack of depth of field in real life. The viewer may see multiple elements of the drawings eventually noticing that what was hidden is now in plain sight.
Amy is a multidisciplinary artist and educator originating from Louisville, Kentucky. Her practice spans from creating installations, paintings, drawings, mixed media sculptures, to publicly engaged works. Amy received her BFA from Western Kentucky University and her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Amy has exhibited her work in various galleries and museums, including The Kentucky Museum, The National Academy of Sciences, and in galleries throughout NYC. She has attended multiple artist residencies such as SÍM in Iceland, Superbude in Austria, and Works on Water in NYC. She has been selected for various honors and fellowships such as a Johns Hopkins Extreme Arts Fellow, a National Academy of Sciences Fellow, and a More Art Engaging Artist Fellow. Amy is also a lead artist on the newly selected NASA mission, Dragonfly.
Miriam Ximil website instagram
My name is Miriam Ximil and I was born in Puebla, Mexico in 1987. The following year, my family and I immigrated to the United States. I grew up in Queens, New York and was influenced by the variety of art and culture in my environment. At the age of 13 my family decided to move to the then small town of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. This event triggered an identity crisis because I was now a city girl growing up in the deep south and one of the very few Mexican students in my school.
During my mid twenties I decided to venture off to the world of art by moving to the west coast. I lived in Van Nuys, California for a few years but truth be told my heart belonged to North Carolina. Thus, I am currently based out of North Carolina, United States. I specialize in traditional and digital illustration. I also use mixed media to achieve the desired outcome of an idea. I’m constantly learning new techniques to expand my art "toolbox".
Through my art work, I focus on sharing my experiences as a first generation Mexican immigrant/DACA recipient living in the United States. My art is also inspired by a variety of elements such as my family, dreams, film, music, visual artists such as Jose Posada, Todd McFarlane, Vincent Van Gogh, Robert Crumb, to name a few. Common themes that I love to explore in my work are the ‘Day of the Dead’ theme and the Superhero motif. While it is traditionally celebrated in Mexico from October 31st to November 2nd, I observe and explore the Day of the Dead theme year round with my artwork. I see this theme as my constant reminder to appreciate the time I have on earth and to spend it with loved ones while celebrating the little things in life because time is quite precious and fleeting.
I love to give each character within my illustrations/paintings a story. I like to think that each character would have a comic of their own. It’s inspired by a feeling that I get when I walk by strangers in public and I see that everyone else is a lead of their own story too. Most of the time I give my characters superpowers. The superhero motif reminds me of how strong people can be in times of crisis and that even most superheroes also rely on help from fellow superheroes.
When I was growing up in the early 90's I rarely saw an abundance of representation of the Hispanic/Latina/o/x/e community in superhero movies, cartoons, games, or comic entertainment industry. For this reason I love to illustrate characters and stories I would have liked to see when I was a child. In addition to illustrating relatable characters' external features, my focus for character development is bringing awareness to the importance of creativity, education as a form of empowerment, and mental health within my community.