Author: Seraphina Calder

Libuša Němcová is a Swiss-based artist originally from the town of Košice in Slovakia. Her life is full of contrasts—by day, she works as a 24-hour home help caregiver abroad, tending to the needs of others with care and patience. But beyond her work, she builds a parallel world through art—a place shaped by memories, observation, and deep connection to her roots. What began as childhood doodles has grown into a sincere and evolving art practice. Libuša’s story isn’t one of overnight success, but of steady growth, perseverance, and a love of painting that has carried her through life’s changing…

Jane Gottlieb has spent decades chasing joy through color. Based in Los Angeles, she began as a painter and transitioned into photography, eventually finding a new language through hand-painted prints. Over 30 years ago, she began painting directly onto Cibachrome photographs—a hands-on, labor-intensive process that blended photography with the spirit of painting. She didn’t stop there. Today, she brings her original prints into the digital realm, scanning and transforming them with Photoshop into vivid, high-energy works printed on aluminum, canvas, or paper. Her style is instantly recognizable—bright, bold, and unapologetically optimistic. It’s not about subtlety. It’s about saturation. Gottlieb’s work…

Lidia Paladino doesn’t rush. Her work asks for patience. Born and based in Argentina, she built her name on engraving and drawing, with a strong early focus on textile drawing. It was through the quiet, tactile process of working with fabric and thread that she developed a way of seeing—slow, layered, deliberate. Eventually, she returned to engraving, bringing with her a fresh sensitivity shaped by that earlier path. That return wasn’t just a technical shift. It marked a recommitment. A long, steady process of rebuilding a practice, step by step. It led to recognition—including Argentina’s First Municipal Prize for Engraving…

Alan Brown’s creative journey began in the quiet of a darkroom. Under the soft red light, he watched photographs slowly take shape—emerging from blankness into something whole. That early experience wasn’t just about learning technique. It changed how he looked at the world. The process was physical, patient, and calm—qualities that stayed with him. It wasn’t about the outcome as much as the act of noticing. That way of seeing—careful, deliberate—would become the foundation of his work. That moment sparked a career that’s lasted more than forty years. Brown studied Communications at Syracuse University, with a focus on Advertising Photography…

Derrick Bullard started painting when he was just a teenager. He had ADD, lots of it, and not much that held his attention. But painting did. It gave him something to lock into—something that didn’t ask for neat answers or perfect focus, just time and presence. That was enough. And so he kept going. What began as a teenage coping mechanism became a lifelong rhythm. No art school. No dealer’s pressure. No critics to please. Just him and the paint, day after day. Now, two decades later, Bullard’s body of work is massive. He’s produced hundreds of paintings—maybe over a…

Born in 1949 and raised in the Bay Area, Deborah K. Tash brings together poetry and visual art in ways that blur boundaries between the seen and unseen. Her work is shaped by her roots—Mexican on her mother’s side, Celtic on her father’s—and by a lifelong love for texture, symbolism, and layered meaning. Tash doesn’t just make art; she builds bridges. Between cultures, between the human and the natural, and between reality and the otherworldly. The term “Mestiza” is central to how she moves through the world and her work, not just as a cultural identity but as a lens.…

José Brito doesn’t paint to match a sofa or flatter a living room. He paints to wrestle with the world. Born and based in Portugal, Brito’s work is raw, loud, and uncompromising. He trades polish for grit—layering thick black ink, torn newspaper, rough textures, and fragmented text into pieces that feel like living documents. His materials come with history embedded in them—headlines, photographs, ads, propaganda—and he doesn’t try to clean them up. Instead, he lets the mess speak. Brito’s work grabs you. You don’t drift through one of his exhibitions; you stop, stare, get pulled in. His paintings are full…

Oenone Hammersley is an artist with her feet in the earth and her eyes on the living world. Her work is built around a deep connection to nature—rainforests, wildlife, rivers, and skies. Known for her vivid paintings that blend realism with abstraction, Hammersley doesn’t just paint what she sees—she paints what she feels about the planet. Her art explores the tension between beauty and fragility, using layers of color and texture to express environmental urgency without being heavy-handed. Hammersley’s paintings carry a quiet reverence, a kind of visual prayer for the wild spaces still untouched. She reminds us of what…

Stuart Beck was born in 1967 in Lancashire, United Kingdom. His first lessons in painting came from his father, who introduced him to the basics and nurtured a quiet creative habit that stuck. Over time, Beck developed a visual language of his own—rooted in abstract painting but deeply connected to what he calls “the real world.” His work pulls from the things he’s seen in nature, architecture, and culture—across travels, memories, and daily moments. There’s an observational quality in what he does, even though the forms are abstract. What stands out in Beck’s practice is not just technique, but what…

Oronde Kairi works out of Germantown, Philadelphia, where the walls of his studio pulse with color, sound, and story. His art doesn’t sit quietly. It sings, moves, and remembers. Through bold lines and vibrant palettes, Kairi paints the texture of Black life in America—urban scenes, icons, music, everyday moments turned monumental. What makes Kairi’s work feel alive is how deeply it’s rooted in rhythm. Not just visual rhythm, but cultural rhythm—the kind you hear in soul records, see on street corners, and feel in childhood memories. He leans into the beauty of daily life and gives it gravity. Whether it’s…