Author: Mary W

Carolin Rechberg treats art like a lived experience, not a finished product. Born in Starnberg, Germany, she moves through creative fields with the ease of someone who never felt bound by category. Her practice spans ceramics, sculpture, painting, sound, performance, photography, writing, and installation—not as a list of skills, but as a way of staying connected to the world around her. Rechberg doesn’t aim to produce static objects. She’s more interested in what unfolds when material, body, space, and attention meet. Her process is physical. Sensory. Rooted in rhythm and repetition. The way she works reflects how she sees: nothing…

Cheryl Crane-Hunter approaches painting as a way to listen—not to trends or noise, but to something quieter and more enduring. With a background in art education and a deep bond with nature, she paints not just to express but to connect. Her work often carries a spiritual current, woven through with light, emotion, and symbols that hint at deeper layers. Every canvas becomes a place where seen and unseen meet. She often finds inspiration by the sea, where moonlight and tide become part of her rhythm. The brush becomes a way to receive, rather than control. There’s little rigidity in…

Doug Caplan, born in Montreal in 1965, first encountered photography as a teenager. His parents handed him a black-and-white Polaroid camera—simple, manual, and chemically scented. It didn’t spark an immediate calling. But it left a trace. The kind that lingers in the back of the mind for years. It wasn’t until the early ’90s, after getting married, that he picked up a camera again. This time, something clicked for good. Caplan has worked across analog and digital mediums, but the tool isn’t the story. What matters is how he sees. His photographs don’t chase grandeur or drama. They tune into…

Born in 1959 in Moscow, Idaho, Linda Cancel has always had a strong visual memory. One of her earliest moments—watching fireworks above the Snake River as a toddler—seems to have rooted her fascination with light and its emotional pull. The landscape of the Pacific Northwest, with its muted drama and natural quiet, shaped her instincts early. Forests, rivers, snow, and mist weren’t just scenery—they became part of her visual vocabulary. At twelve, she began oil painting lessons with William F. Pogue. His deep respect for the storytelling traditions of the Golden Age of Illustration left a strong impression. Through him,…

Albert Deak’s work moves fluidly through layers of mystery, inviting reflection rather than resolution. Since completing his ceramics degree in 1989 at a leading art university in Eastern Europe, Deak has explored a wide range of mediums and ideas. What began as a hands-on relationship with clay gradually expanded into painting, graphics, and digital forms. Each shift marks a natural unfolding of his practice—a way to give shape to ideas that hover just beyond definition. Influences like Pollock, Richter, and Kandinsky may be present in his visual vocabulary, but Deak doesn’t borrow; he interprets. His approach to abstraction isn’t to…

Alexandra Jicol’s art is grounded in connection. Born in Bucharest during a time of restriction and social strain, she was shaped by contrast: the stillness of Romanian landscapes alongside the tightness of life in a controlled city. That tension—between openness and pressure—runs through her work, shaping the emotional depth and quiet force behind each piece. Her paintings are less about image and more about atmosphere. They ask you to pause and feel, not just look. With every mark, she investigates what it means to carry emotions we don’t always understand. Her materials are physical, but her focus is psychological. Using…

Working out of Athens, Vicky Tsalamata brings a firm, unsentimental eye to her art. She’s not interested in trends or ornament. As a Professor Emeritus in Printmaking from the Athens School of Fine Arts, she knows her tools inside out—archival prints, layered mixed media, and the soft grain of Hahnemühle cotton paper. But technique is only part of the story. Her real work lies in peeling back appearances. Drawing on references like Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine and echoes of Dante’s Divine Comedy, she holds a mirror to the messy contradictions of human life. Her art walks through the past with one foot in…

Caroline Kampfraath builds her art from objects that have lived other lives. A can, a bottle, a worn-out piece of metal—each one enters her hands already carrying a story. Based in the Netherlands, she creates 3D works that blend these found materials with fragments of the human form, forming sculptures that feel both deeply personal and open to interpretation. Her work draws from memory, observation, and a desire to understand how we relate to the world around us. It’s quiet, reflective, and layered. Some pieces feel like questions. Others feel like memories you can’t quite place. Each sculpture holds more…

Miguel Barros creates from a place of connection—between memory and nature, between structure and emotion. Born in Lisbon in 1962, Barros carries the experiences of three continents. With roots in Portugal, Canada, and Angola, he brings a layered perspective to his work. In 2014, he relocated from Angola to Calgary, Alberta, where a new phase began. Trained in Architecture and Design at IADE in Lisbon (class of 1984), Barros has always approached painting with an architectural mind and a poetic heart. His work blends logic with feeling. It shows the bones beneath the bloom. His upcoming exhibition, Gardens of My…

Ruth Poniarski didn’t start out with a paintbrush. Her early years were rooted in design and construction—she earned her degree in architecture from Pratt Institute in 1982 and spent a decade working in the field. But over time, she found herself drawn to something less rigid, more expressive. In 1988, she made a shift. Painting offered a new way to think—one that didn’t require measurements or blueprints. It gave her room to build with memory, story, and emotion instead of steel and concrete. Her paintings blend the surreal with the symbolic, pulling inspiration from myths, literature, and the deeper questions…