Author: Seraphina Calder

Linda Cancel’s work starts with place, but it never remains fixed there. Born in 1959 in Moscow, Idaho, she was raised within the open terrain and shifting light of the Pacific Northwest. Those surroundings continue to inform how she approaches painting. One of her earliest memories—watching fireworks over the Snake River as a toddler—left a quiet but lasting impression. It was not only the brightness of the moment, but the way light traveled across water and faded into darkness. That sensitivity to light and transition continues to surface in her paintings. Her work returns to atmosphere, to the gradual movement…

Sebastian Di Mauro’s work begins from a place of displacement. Born in Australia and later relocating to the United States, he entered a cultural landscape that felt both recognizable and unfamiliar. The America he had absorbed through film and television—constructed through distance—shifted when encountered directly. Living alongside a partner connected to Wilmington, Delaware, he moved between two understandings of place: one imagined, the other lived. That tension continues to shape how he approaches image and material. Rather than treating identity as stable, Di Mauro works through its instability. His practice reflects movement, contradiction, and the layering of experience over time.…

Bobbie Carlyle, an American sculptor with a deeply rooted sense of purpose, shapes her work from a life rich with experience. As a mother of seven and a grandmother many times over, her perspective is grounded in lived moments rather than abstraction. Her practice does not separate art from life. Instead, the two move side by side, each informing the other. She earned her Fine Arts degree from Brigham Young University while raising her family, a path that reflects both determination and clarity. That same focus carries into her sculpture. For Carlyle, bronze is more than a medium. It becomes…

Nancy Staub Laughlin works across pastel and photography, allowing the two to merge into a single visual language. Based in the United States, she earned her BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, a background that continues to influence how she approaches composition and surface. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums along the East Coast and is held in both private and corporate collections. Critics, including Sam Hunter, have recognized her work for its distinct character. That sense of distinction comes from how her images avoid clear classification. Rather than separating photography from drawing, or observation…

Miguel Barros’s work is shaped by distance, movement, and a life lived across cultures. Born in Lisbon in 1962, his path stretches through Portugal, Canada, and Angola, each place leaving its trace on how he constructs images. His move from Angola to Calgary in 2014 introduced a new environment, yet Lisbon remains a constant point of return. With a background in Architecture and Design from IADE in Lisbon, Barros builds his paintings with a sense of structure that feels present but never restrictive. It serves as a foundation rather than a rule. His work unfolds between control and instinct, where…

Michel Marant, born on August 4, 1945, in Saint-Junien, France, has shaped a practice grounded in the rhythms of everyday life and a close awareness of the natural environment. Educated at the National School of Decorative Arts in Limoges and affiliated with the Maison des Artistes, he has gradually developed a visual language that feels both personal and consistent. His work moves fluidly across pencil, acrylic, oil, and collage, applied to canvas, paper, and cardboard without preference. While his sensibility echoes aspects of art nouveau, it is not tied to tradition. Instead, he constructs his own system, where line, color,…

Some artists begin with what is in front of them, while others begin with what is happening inside. Rebecca Navajas belongs to the second approach. Her paintings are not built around precision or careful depiction. They unfold from feeling. Emotion leads, and the visual language follows behind it. Color is not there to decorate the surface. It carries intention and weight. Gesture is not restrained. It moves freely, sometimes shifting direction, sometimes pushing back. Nothing in her work feels fixed. Each piece holds a kind of internal movement, as if it continues to evolve beyond its final form. Navajas treats…

Jane Gottlieb’s creative direction has long been shaped by a deep interest in color, movement, and visual energy. Raised in Los Angeles and now working from Santa Barbara, she began as a painter before turning to photography, where she found new ways to investigate composition, rhythm, and light. Over three decades ago, she made a pivotal shift that continues to define her practice: hand-painting individual Cibachrome prints. Through this approach, photographic images are transformed into singular, physical objects that resist easy classification. Rather than presenting photography as something fixed, Gottlieb treats it as a surface to be reworked. Color becomes…

Tinashe, born in 2001 in Mutare, builds his work from movement rather than stability. His life has shifted between Zimbabwe and the United States, and that constant repositioning shapes how he understands identity. Nothing feels fixed. Culture, race, and gender are present in his work, but they are not explained or spelled out. Instead, they sit inside the images, embedded in gesture, color, and atmosphere. His paintings feel inhabited. They carry a sense of lived experience rather than constructed ideas. There is memory in them, but not in a nostalgic way. It is closer to something that lingers. At the same…

Garda Alexander is a German-born artist who lives and works in Switzerland. Her work does not chase spectacle or dramatic gestures. Instead, it moves quietly, grounded in a deep attentiveness to the natural world. Trained across multiple disciplines, Alexander works through painting, sculpture, spatial design, and land-based interventions. Yet regardless of medium, the core of her practice remains the same: exploring how color, space, and form connect human beings to life itself. Her art carries a sense of stillness. Rather than presenting grand statements, it invites a slower kind of engagement. Surfaces, shapes, and environments are arranged in ways that…