by Michael Moreth

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MICHAEL MORETH is a recovering Chicagoan living in the micropolitan City of Sterling, the Paris of Northwest Illinois.

by Donald Patten

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DONALD PATTEN is an artist from Belfast, Maine. He is currently a senior in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Maine. As an artist, he produces oil paintings and graphic novels. Artworks of his have been exhibited in galleries across the Mid-Coast region of Maine. His online portfolio is donaldlpatten.newgrounds.com

Artist Statement

We have a strange relationship to photographs, in that we overlook the artifice. Conversely, in paintings all we see is the artifice. In my paintings, I have attempted to create hybrids that have elements of photographs (such as the color scale) and elements of paintings (in that they are brushwork). The goal is not to create realism, but to pull the mediated and mediation so close together that they nearly touch.

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KARL ZUEHLKE is an artist, translator, and teacher. Zuehlke’s artwork has appeared in The Penn Review, Cream City Review, Adroit Journal, Reed Magazine, Tint, Peatsmoke, and elsewhere.

Artist Statement

I was sitting in a cafe with an acquaintance when I asked if I could draw her. She read something from her phone as I drew. The wallpaper behind her looked like the inside of a microchip. Instead of a menu, there was a QR code printed on the table. I incorporated elements of the QR code into the wallpaper around the subject. I also let the tip of her eyelash intrude upon the design. Finally, I embedded a heart shape into the wallpaper so that it appears to float by the subject’s lips. This drawing vibrates with interactions between the human mind and the technology it has created.

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SAMANTHA STEINER is a writer and visual artist. She has received fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the Saltonstall Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Find her on social media @Steiner_Reads.

by Uzomah Ugwu

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UZOMAH UGWU is a poet/writer, curator, and multi-disciplined artist.  Her poetry, writing, and art have been featured internationally in various publications, galleries, and art spaces. She is a political, social, and cultural activist. Her core focus is on human rights, mental health, animal rights, and the rights of LGBTQIA persons. She is also the managing editor and founder of Arte Realizzata.

by Mario Loprete

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Painting is MARIO LOPRETE‘s first love. An important, pure love. The foundation of his painting lies in creating , starting from the spasmodic research of a concept through which he wants to transmit his message. Sculpture is his  lover— his artistic betrayal to painting— Avoluptuous and sensual lover that inspires different emotions which strike forbidden chords.

For his concrete sculptures, he use his personal clothing. In his artistic practice, he uses plaster, resin and cement, and transforms articles of clothing into artworks that can be hung. His DNA and his memory remain inside the ​concrete, so that the person who looks at these sculptures is transformed into a type of postmodern archaeologist, studying his work as urban artifacts.

He likes to think that those who look at his sculptures, created in 2020 ,will be able to perceive the anguish, the vulnerability, the fear that each of us has felt in front of that planetary problem that was COVID-19. Under a layer of cement are the clothes in which he lived through that nefarious period.

The clothes that survived COVID-19 are likened to what survived after the 2,000-year-old catastrophic eruption of Pompeii, which recounts man’s inability to face the tragedy of broken lives and destroyed economies.

Artist Statement

My artwork addresses the mute expression and range of heart-felt emotions experienced by the human race. Art is something people should be able to relate to. Art is a visceral experience that can be accessed by all regardless of race, socioeconomic status, gender, religion, or identity.

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HANNA MARIE DEAN WRIGHT is a self-taught folk artist residing in Keavy, Kentucky. She uses her experiences from growing up in rural South-Eastern Kentucky, teaching special education classes, and living with obsessive compulsive disorder to inspire her unique works of art. Hanna Wright uses bold lines and bright colors to create abstract figures with relatable and at times deeply emotional expressions. Hanna was born in Barbourville, Kenucky on April 15th, 1993. Hanna graduated from the University of the Cumberlands in 2015 with degrees in Special Education Behavioral Disabilities and Elementary Education.  

Hanna Wright’s mamaw, Geraldine Scalf, has had a great impact on Hanna’s art career and works as a fellow folk artist residing in Barbourville, Kentucky. Hanna was adopted at the age of 4 and moved from Barbourville to Keavy, Kentucky. She now teaches special education in the Laurel County School District and spends most of her free time creating unique works of art on paper, canvas, wood, and reclaimed scrap materials. Hanna most enjoys drawing her expressive “Starmen” and painting abstract figures and faces on reclaimed wooden panels. 

Hanna Wright’s collection of art contains over 2000 works of art on paper and   over 400 paintings of all sizes. Hanna’s artwork has been gaining popularity on the internet since 2015 and her artwork has been sought after by art galleries on a global scale. Hanna has had opportunities to display her artwork in galleries from Australia to New Mexico.