Participating Visual Artists

Ann Altar is a visual artist and educator. Blurring lines between candor and fiction, her rebellious work tackles taboo topics with a tender trace of humor.

Ann's collage work is often large-scale, made with recycled and repurposed materials — rejecting notions of perfectionism and elitism while embracing a use-what-you-have mentality. She most frequently utilizes cardboard as a canvas for her collages but has also worked with window screens, glass door panels, plastic, discarded TVs, wood, and remnants of her own furniture. Unpretentious and hypnotic, her pieces push the boundaries of attention, leaning heavily into maximalism.

My name is Ekaterina Asel Linetta, I am a self taught, multiple medium artist. I was born in Misawa, Japan and grew up most of my life in the summery, southern, suburbs of Georgia. Exploring my sense of identity has led me to piece together the memories of my broken past using personal symbolism paired with archetypal imagery to create an eclectic sense of vibrant fantasy. As much as I feel cursed, through my work I have gained an immense amount of trust and strength in myself which I am incredibly thankful for. Illuminating my feminine into reality gives me a sense of control over the silence that perturbs my heart. I am filling the void where she should be. I am her, and she is me.It is an image learned out of survival and born out of idealization.

After I moved out to Philly in 2018 I started taking photos of things I saw walking around - architecture, graffiti and street art, trash, shadows. But one day I started seeing forks and they started living in my head rent-free; I strongly dislike single-use plastic, so I needed to turn it into something that wouldn't make me nuts - and so Street Fork Protection Services was created. It started out as a joke with my friends, the forks were no longer litter but now were operatives of a larger collective with a new use of looking out for the planet and its inhabitants. Since microplastics are in our bodies I decided the agents will always be with us and so will be impacted by their time with us, remembering us and anything else they encounter after we've moved on. Plastic is forkever.

In my artistic journey, I've expanded my vision to explore a diverse range of mediums, merging over 15 years of graphic design expertise with my passion for painting and illustrating. My artistic inclination leans toward the whimsical and conceptual realms, drawing inspiration from surrealism, pop, and abstract art. In my latest creations, I've pushed the boundaries by embracing various techniques and concepts, including limited color palettes, the infusion of fluorescent pigments, and the exploration of optical illusions. Painting remains my truest passion, serving as the canvas for my artistic expression where I strive to captivate and challenge perceptions through a fusion of creativity and skill.

Genesis, a Latina artist, draws inspiration from her Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage. Raised in a family of strong, hardworking women, she discovered her artistic voice early on. Primarily working in oils, Genesis skillfully blends vivid colors with elements of reality, creating art that reflects emotional intelligence—the very essence behind her artist name, Emotional IQ. Her art explores themes of femininity, natural beauty, and identity, offering an intimate glimpse into her soul. Through these themes, Genesis honors her roots while inviting others to connect with their own. 

My artistic practice explores analog photography, zines, and artists’ books as sites of resistance, memory, and re-imagination. I approach the image as a living and politicized space that can be shaped by power, absence, and the possibilities of reclamation. I create work that honors the inherent messiness of lived experiences, seeking to center intimacy, memory-making, nostalgia, family (born or found), community, and story-telling. My zines invite touch, pacing, and nonlinear engagement, making the viewer a co-conspirator in the work through interaction and reflection. Sequencing becomes a political act by placing images in conversation, allowing silence and fragmentation to speak. I seek to build creative spaces where marginalized identities are not only represented but honored, and where individuals and groups can reclaim their stories in ways that are empowered and brave.In the end, I remember that every moment of connection, beauty, and joy is the result of hard-fought battles within my own self and down my ancestral line of those who resisted, fought back, and survived, encouraging me to find joy and humor when I can as celebration of that legacy of triumph against the odds.

Wanting something is so vulgar. These pieces attempt to translate some of that intensity and shame. The way that desperation affects oneself and others. How it feels to be uncompromising, or rather, finding it impossible to be anything else. And the isolation of it all. If there's anything I hope these pieces achieve, it is making anyone else who might struggle under the weight of their own intensity feel less alone.

About the Art:

"Bebé de Sol", or "Baby of the Sun", features a whimsical portrait of an infant vejigante. Vejigantes are folkloric creatures from Puerto Rico that dance in the street during carnival season. In modern times, these mischievous demons represent rebellion in times of colonialization. Additionally, this vejigante is adorned with Taíno symbols. Acknowledging the Taíno natives is an essential part in identifying the roots of Puerto Rican culture.

About the Artist:

Dreaming Diablo Arts features unique visuals utilizing a popsurreal style with dreamy imagery, fantasy themes, and girlypop horror. Paintings depict mystical monsters, spooky skeletons and ferocious beasts. Each one suggests the haunting beauty behind the imperfections of humanity, with a little cheekiness on the side.

The Artist Statement for James D Cooper, Written by a Friend
James is reluctant to call himself an artist. He is a decades long public servant. His artistic style is what he calls “No Style”. Which, from the perspective of many of us who know him, means that he simply adds paint and other mediums and materials to a canvas while setting his mind free to create whatever it is that enters his mind. I have heard him say that he is truly free when creating art. He has said that he creates art primarily in hopes that someone can get some good out of what he puts down on canvas.
He also has an Instagram page where he posts art and photographs- @jamesdcooper8

Janos Boon (they/them) is a multidiscipline artist and academic. Their photography has been featured in two solo shows in Pennsylvania and New York, their paintings have been displayed in Philadelphia, and their fine woodwork has been auctioned in Harrisburg to benefit local arts organizations. They are currently working on a mural for The Odd Parlor tattoo parlor in Steelton, and they have been the Scenic Charge Artist for Gamut Theatre Group's Free Shakespeare in the Park for the last two years. Both their academic work and their art explores identity, concepts of self, grief, reclaimed spaces, and mental health. They are flexible for commissions for both fine woodworking, murals and portraiture and willing to work within budget constraints.

As an artist, educator, and public art producer, I hope to leave the world more beautiful than I found. I believe visual art can explore spaces that words alone cannot. My work explores our connection to ourselves and our perceived realities.

Growing up, I always had access to art as a creative practice. My mother is an art teacher, and I distinctly remember after school time spent drawing while she made bowls. Working with clay was always an option, but I tended to enjoy two-dimensional, figurative work more. During my free time I read voraciously. I also spent a lot of time observing people when I had nothing else to do, and I would make up stories about their lives. The process of watching, then drawing, and then creating narratives from what I observed was a constant routine.

During my life as a working artist, my focus has primarily been in the two-dimensional world of drawing and painting, yet in the last few years it has largely shifted to three-dimensional work in ceramics. I create figural sculptures and functional ceramics depicting subjects largely absent from mainstream art, with my main focus being queer people and people of color. My work strives to bring the mundane life of my subjects to the viewer in a way that feels intimate and natural. I want to see people like me represented not as sensational talking points, but rather as human beings living their lives. The sort of exaggerated characterization of people like me in the media creates a feeling of isolation and otherness.
My hope is that by seeing my work I may create a connection with the viewer and expose them to a group of people they may never have truly interacted with in the art world.

In my functional work I prefer to imagine how someone might interact with an object. As someone holds something in their hands, or drinks out of it, I imagine it is like a conversation between myself and them.

I made Architects/Disaster in 2021 in response to the ban on reusable shopping bags in my city during the pandemic. Prior to COVID, I decided to reduce the amount of single-use plastic and paper products in my everyday life. I was surprised when grocery stores around Atlanta stopped allowing reusable bags at the beginning of the pandemic, which forced me to return to the plastic shopping bags. Stores around the city collected reusable bags from shoppers prior to their entry for "safety purposes," insuring that there were no other options except single-use plastic. I decided to collect the bags, figuring that I would recycle them eventually. Instead, after receiving inspiration from an old Tumblr post, I turned the bags into plastic yarn and crocheted them together. Kroger and Publix bags primarily make up the background, while bags from HMart, Walmart, Goodwill, and Petsmart make up the lettering. Two large, clear shipping bags were used for the boarder.

Shelly (Lipscomb) Echeverria is an illustrator, still-life, landscape, and portrait painter. She builds her inspiration from places traveled, nature, and family. Shelly holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and makes her home in Central Pennsylvania.
Her paintings hang in the Pennsylvania State Capitol, medical offices, galleries, businesses in central Pennsylvania, and private collections. “I paint because I must! Making art brings me peace. I can lose myself for hours while I’m painting. It’s what my soul was created to do. I love people and am intrigued by them. This is why portraiture is my favorite work. In my portraits, I try to capture the personality of the individual, looking beyond skin tones and features.”
Shelly self-published a book, “So they say I have Breast Cancer,” to inspire others who are going through life-altering challenges. Currently, she is working on a series of children’s picture books with Bena Hartman Books, the first of which is “My Elephant-Sized Dream”. She also illustrated a resource book, “The Fight” by Dr. Brittany Patterson.

I love creating. Making art brings me joy.

My Art deals with the darker side of existence.
i explore themes that are personal to me and my life experiences.
i also use Art to deal with my bipolar 1 issues and past addiction issues.

jim mackey