Author: Mary W

Keith McHugh’s art feels like a quiet excavation of the self—an act of peeling away illusion to reveal what’s honest and elemental. His work reaches beyond surface beauty, searching instead for what pulses underneath. A self-taught creator, McHugh doesn’t stay within the boundaries of one medium. He paints, sculpts, writes poetry, and even builds mobiles and puppets—each form becoming a new way to translate awareness into matter. His process is fluid, intuitive, and grounded in the present moment. Rather than chasing aesthetics or trends, McHugh follows the rhythm of consciousness as it unfolds, trusting that expression itself is its own…

The art of Natali Antonovich feels like stepping into a dream that knows it’s awake. Her paintings open small doors to an inner landscape—one built on stillness, emotion, and quiet inquiry. She doesn’t aim to portray what’s visible but to trace what’s felt, sensed, and often left unspoken. For Antonovich, creation is not performance; it’s dialogue. Each piece begins with reflection, unfolding slowly, as if guided by breath. Her art grows out of silence, not noise, out of patience, not haste. Even as a child, Antonovich was an observer—sensitive to the small, unassuming moments that make up life. She noticed the texture…

There’s a quiet intensity to Haeley Kyong’s work—an insistence on stripping things down until only the essential remains. “I love creating artwork that captivates and inspires people’s minds,” she says, and her art reflects that desire for honest connection. She avoids clutter and spectacle, choosing instead to work with simple shapes that carry emotional weight. Her pieces are built on the belief that color and form, when arranged just right, can express the inexpressible. They can stand in for both the physical and the abstract—the seen and unseen. Kyong’s curiosity about nature’s rhythm and structure feeds her creative process. She…

Vicky Tsalamata, an Athens-based artist and Professor Emeritus of Printmaking at the Athens School of Fine Arts, works at the crossroads of printmaking, mixed media, and philosophical inquiry. Her art probes the boundaries between ethics, politics, and personal responsibility. Over the years, she has turned her practice into a form of reflection and resistance—a way to face the noise and numbness of modern society. For Tsalamata, creating art is not about decoration but conversation. Her images speak to the uneasy relationship between silence and defiance, between the fragility of individuals and the structures that govern them. Beneath the surfaces of…

Nicola Mastroserio is not interested in trends. He does not create for the marketplace, nor does he bend his work to the appetite of collectors. His practice turns inward, searching for something more enduring—an inquiry into reality itself. His art resists easy definitions. It is less about appearance and more about essence, a steady meditation on what it means to exist, to think, to sense the hidden forces moving beneath daily life. Mastroserio’s work is not meant as decoration. It does not flatter or aim to please. Instead, each piece acts like a signpost, pointing to an inner road. It…

Miguel Barros creates art that invites us to reflect on our bond with the natural world. Born in Lisbon in 1962, he carries with him the cultural threads of Portugal, Canada, and Angola—three places that continue to shape his vision. When he relocated from Angola to Calgary in 2014, he opened new doors for his creative work, adding fresh landscapes and experiences to his palette. His education in Architecture and Design at IADE Lisbon (1984) gave him a grounding in structure, yet his painting slips free of rigid frameworks. His art balances form with fluidity, order with spontaneity. For Barros,…

Iris van Zanten (1971) has long pursued the core of image-making. After completing her studies at the Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam in 1996, she went on to earn a Master’s degree in Art History at the Vrije Universiteit. Her training gave her both practical skill and an acute awareness of the weight of art history. That dual foundation fuels her practice. Her work is about paring things down—seeking the gesture or texture that makes a story resonate. She often draws from sources that have been painted, carved, and retold for centuries—mythology, Biblical scenes, archetypal stories—and she looks for…

Lidia Paladino is an Argentine artist known for engraving and drawing, with a particular focus on textile drawing. Her path in art began with a deep immersion in textiles, where she explored how fabric can hold memory, rhythm, and design. Later, she decided to return to engraving, refreshing her techniques and building on her earlier practice. This decision set her on a long and fulfilling journey that has led to recognition, including the First Municipal Prize for Engraving in 2003. Her work moves between two worlds: the permanence of engraved line and the delicacy of hand-painted silk. This duality defines…

L. Scooter Morris calls herself a sensory illusionist, and the phrase fits. Her art doesn’t aim to record what the eye plainly sees but rather what the body senses in passing—the fleeting spark between perception and memory. She turns brief encounters into paintings that feel both immediate and enduring, charged with more than surface detail. At the center of her practice is what she terms “Sculpted Paintings.” These works resist flatness. Layer upon layer of color, texture, and light push forward, as though the canvas itself wants to break free of its frame. Acrylics and mixed media become her tools…

Nancy Staub Laughlin is an American pastel artist and photographer who works at the edge where two mediums meet—the sharp lens of the camera and the softness of pastel. She earned her BFA at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and has shown her work across museums and galleries on the east coast. Her art has been featured in articles, interviews, and sits in both private and corporate collections. The late Sam Hunter, art historian and critic, once described her vision as “refreshingly unique,” a phrase that captures her practice well. Laughlin turns images of the natural world—flowers, skies, horizons—into…