MAGGIE COUSINS
Maggie Cousins describes herself as an artist and visual communicator who expresses her vision through pen and ink as well as digital drawing. Maggie's work combines her strong spiritual connection to the Earth and the universal energy that is within us and surrounds us. Her current pen and ink drawings invoke both macro and micro representations of birth, destruction and rebirth, continuing her interest in strong visuals and spiritual themes.

Maggie graduated as a graphic designer from Bournemouth College of Art and Design, Bournemouth, UK. After selling her highly successful design and branding consultancy in the UK a few years ago, Maggie went back to her first love, drawing. In 2006, Maggie was nominated and accepted as a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Since moving to New York in 2007, Maggie has shown at Art Gotham, Chelsea and in 2008 Maggie was selected as the only painter to be shown at a UK/US creative excellence event at the Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Center. A British Consulate event attended by his royal highness Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. She has also shown at the ArtExpo NY and LA, Leslie Lohman Gallery NY, Climate Gallery NY, Queens Museum of Art NY, Fizz Gallery UK, Fusion Gallery UK, ABC Treehouse Gallery Holland. Her work is held in many private collections in New York, Amsterdam, Sydney, London and Milan.

"I created this work in response to the spiritual shift that's happening to us all. Capturing cause and effect, how not being there affects being there, and how what we don't see creates what we see. The space between the space—lost moments held in that space, the illusion between past and present, then meeting now. It is the universal that everyone experiences and can relate to— things coming together, and things moving apart, sometimes in succession, sometimes all at once. How, as individuals, we are all connected to each other through time and space, how we move through that space and our relationships to one another, interwoven even when we are not aware of one another's presence. When that space begins to shift, crack or breakdown we can enter new and uncharted landscapes and make them our own. At the core of everything, taken back to a cellular existence, is the world and everything in it made perfectly beautiful in that one moment. In that simplicity, when we no longer conform to the norm, those boundaries that constrain and contain us are no longer there, that is when the impossible becomes the possible. Limitless possibilities of who we might become in this spiritual shift."

DIANE DAVIS
Diane Davis' ongoing visual exploration of the physics of the urban environment and her love for dance informs her paintings. A painting from the Dance series, Sunrise Dancers, and an earlier work from her Childhood series, Log Cabin, is in the permanent collection of The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NY. Her work is also included in the Montclair Museum, NJ. She has exhibited nationally including Hampton Museum, Va., and the MoCada Museum, Brooklyn, NY. Her exhibitions include the Renaissance Fine Art Gallery, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY, The Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY and The 2008 National Black Fine Arts Show, NY.

Ms. Davis' art commissions include Affinity (formerly the Bronx Health Plan), Children's Village, Dobbs Ferry, NY, Bridgefield Civics League, Bronx, NY, and the Riverbank State Park, NY.

Her work is featured in documentaries, such as NINE BY FIVE: Nine Artists. Five Boroughs. One City, presented on TV, and in print media, such as the New York Times, the Daily News, and the Journal of the Print World. Ms. Davis' work is published in 365 Days of Black History In Praise of Women, Psychology, and Essentials of Sociology. Ms. Davis is a participating artist in The Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Portfolio, 2000.

Diane Davis is a native of Paxton, Illinois and a longtime resident of the Bronx, NY. Currently she is an artist-in-residence at Chashama's Manhattan, NY studios in Harlem.

"Mathematics and science inform my art. I see infinitely changing mathematical formulas as I observe the choreography of pedestrians moving between sites. Their bodies cluster in repeating numbers of twos, threes, and fives, creating specific geometric shapes and lines. I observe each of us as a "segment point" on a line; a specialized point which, when moved, modifies the line's shape. In addition I experience lines as invisible energy highways connecting one person to the other. My understanding of the cosmos includes my theory that people are synchronized by an underlying force, as witnessed by their weaving in and out in crowds. This force creates mathematical equations."

KAREN FITZGERALD
Karen Fitzgerald's work has been widely exhibited in the United States. The Milwaukee Art Museum, the Queens Museum of Art and the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art have featured her work in their active exhibition schedules. A variety of public and private collections include her work: the New York Public Library, the Reinhart Collection (Germany), Jack Eichenbaum and Pat Palmieri. The Greenwall Foundation, Queens Community Arts Fund and Women's Studio Center have all supported her with individual artist's grants. She is a master teaching artist, providing arts-in-education consulting services for the education community. She lives with her husband and three sons in Woodside, Queens; her studio is located in Northern Long Island City.

In the tradition of artists Georgia O'Keefe, Mark Rothko and poet Mary Oliver, Karen Fitzgerald's work expands the dialogue of what it means to be of this world. This is a language of rapture, embedded in the overpowering sense of beauty we find ourselves engulfed in. It is formed by an acute awareness of the mysteries of the fabric of this world. Religions of the world have used gilded surfaces to signal the spirit realm; Fitzgerald uses gilding in the same way, not as a decorative treatment, but as a signal towards something beyond the physical, something metaphysical. These works explore what transformation looks and feels like. They imagine the point when entropy becomes undone. The transformative nature of this conversation will endure beyond mortality.

NATE LADSON
Nate Ladson was born in South Carolina and grew up in the "Heart of Harlem." As a young man Nate become an art student at the High School of Art and Design and later continued a studio course at The National Academy of Fine Arts.

Mr. Ladson, largely self-taught, is particularly inspired by the paintings of Rembrandt and his dramatic use of natural light contrasting and fading effortlessly into dark, creating a depth and mystery.

Nate's art exhibitions include "The Inner Vision" Exhibition at the International Center in New York, Marlin Luther King Black History Month Art Show, and "The Black Renaissance" Fine Art Exhibition in NYC, where he is a member of the West Side Arts Coalition (WSAC). Nate also exhibited in an art exhibition and commission at the Riverview Galleries at Riverview Towers, the "Collectors Art Show" in Brooklyn, the Harlem School of the Arts Group Art Exhibition and the "Afro Design, Jazz, and Art Exhibition" in Brooklyn, NY. Nate was invited to participate in the "Profound Audacity" art exhibition for Barack H. Obama, first African American President of the United States, by guest curator, Jessica Walker and the Art Gallery Curator, Greg Mills of IAMAA, the Museum of African American Cinema, and the NYS Office of General Services.

Until recently, Nate has primarily been known as a portrait artist and a realist, but lately has begun to work more abstractly, allowing his subject matter to fuse with light, color and brushwork that reaches for portraying the internal, or the soul, rather than the external. Nate says he has been driven of late to "let my inner spirit out" in a way that is more subtle than with his previous work. Gradually he is experimenting with leaving human forms out of the work and concentrating on the energy within these forms. It's a big move for which he follows the guidance of his spirit and not the outlines of the physical structures before him.

PAULA OVERBAY
"My direction seems to be straight into the forces of clouds and all things that surround them. The abstract images could resemble particle physics, Australian Aboriginal painting, constellations, winds or nebulae. They can be spores or nuclear explosions as they flip between microscope and telescope."

"Overbay's simple point, applied with the specificity of a dot printer, builds form and volume. Her technique accumulates these points with a gestural structure, with dotted lines eddying into an unresolved vortex. Harnessing color in the dots that are, most often, 1/32nd of an inch wide, Overbay plays with atmosphere. Thousands of marks accrete into form. Her numinous pale orange and yellow dots float on a textured gray paper, reminiscent of a dawn cloud in the desert. In one large work, she lets a single red dot fly solo, launched from an exquisite string of relatives. Other works place a turquoise dot within a red dot, creating optical frisson and a type of rococo minimalism. Whatever her process or subject, Overbay's works on paper show a presence of mind and focused inquiry harnessed to impressive and contemplative technique. This is an artist of curiosity and passion examining the tenor of clouds." — Helen Lessick, Public Arts Collections Manager, Los Angeles, CA. 2011

"I owe a debt of gratitude to the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest IL for the time that I was able to spend there to foster this body of work".

KRISTIN REED
Kristin graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA and from Pratt Institute with an MFA. She has worked as a photo journalist, travelling to Central and South America and is a freelance commercial graphic designer in NYC.

Kristin has painted several large public murals in NYC and Long Island as a member of Artmakers Inc. And she was the subject of a documentary film "Firmitas per Populum" during the making of a 30 x 80 ft. community mural in Erie PA. The mural by the same title was commissioned by the Erie Art Museum, the Erie Public Art Committee, and funded in part with a grant from The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. Several of her murals can be found in Braun-Reinitz and Weissman's On the Wall, Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City.

Her work travelled for two years in the show "The Realm of the Coin" with the Smithsonian Travelling Exhibitions program (S.I.T.E.S.) to major museums around the country, including The Queens Museum of Art in NYC, Her work is in MoMA as part of the Hand-to-Hand "On Enemies" collection. Currently she has a studio residency award from chashama.org at the Brooklyn Army Terminal.

In addition to her artistic career, Kristin does hands-on energy healing work, frequently traveling to Central and South America working with a humanitarian group, Healer2Healer, who collaborates with indigenous Maya and Amazonian populations doing acupuncture and Reiki clinics.

"In practicing ancient healing modalities and art I began to see the world as energy… to experience a shift in the way I perceive our planet and its place in the cosmos. This has changed my art, bringing it closer into abstraction and harmony with light forms, sacred geometry and color. This was the inspiration for finding other artists making this shift, and curating this exhibition."

"In microcosms and in macrocosms there are huge interstitial spaces. It is in these "in-between" places—where we normally cannot perceive being—that there exists an energetic fluidity of movement. Chaos encounters harmony. Moving back far enough or moving in close enough, patterns form and the architecture of life appears. It is here that we connect and interconnect, dancing with all existence. Internally and externally our bodies and souls churn in constant life-seeking motion. Only when we are completely still is this observable."

ATANASKA TASSART
Atanaska holds a Master's degree in multi-media fiber art from the State University of Visual Arts in Lodz, Poland, and in painting from the University of Art in Vienna, Austria. She also studied at Parsons School of Design and the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Over the years, Atanaska's work has been featured in many important American and international exhibitions as well as several solo shows in New York. She has been honored with the Theodore Koener Foundation Award for Science and Art and received an Excellence in Visual Arts Award from the Austrian government.

Atanaska has traveled and studied many world cultures and is deeply influenced by ancient traditions and their universal wisdom. She also draws inspiration from the modern discoveries of science, which provide a complementary perspective on the cosmos and the natural world.

Atanaska's artwork incorporates her interest in ancient and modern sciences in its use of fundamental forms—lines, circles, and points. In particular she gravitates toward the circle, which appears in almost all of her work.

"Recently, I have explored the endless arrangements and articulations of the circle. This basic shape is found everywhere from the orbits of atomic particles, to the organic cell, to the swirls of galaxies. With this form I continuously improvise new images by playing with color and texture, so that each work captures a mood, essence or sensation. I work spontaneously and in the moment. I set no limits in the variety of my materials, which include canvas, paper and wood as well oils, acrylics, inks and mixed media. I employ the color palette as a versatile and expressive element in my work. It sets the tone, suggests space, transparency and tension.

My images stand on their own, but are inspired by science. The organic forms seem to be arranging themselves, coalescing into wholes or diverging into smaller parts. This sense of movement and vibration reflects natural processes like the creation of tissues in the body or the condensation of matter. I reinterpret these natural dynamics on the canvas to create new forms, new elements".

SHIRLEY TAYLOR
Shirley Taylor received her MFA in painting from the City College of New York and has studied at the Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design. Her paintings and drawings are featured in a number of private collections. A native New Yorker, she has devoted the past 25 years to designing and directing arts education programs for children and adults throughout NYC. Her recent works focus on mixed media painting and collage.

"For me, the art making process, and particularly the process of collage, is one of discovery, contemplation, pursuance, and resolution. There is a somewhat destructive quality to creating in this way; cutting and tearing things apart then putting them together with other things to make them part of something new. "Finishing" a collage is a way of healing the destruction. A painter and graphic designer, it was only through a severe physical challenge several years ago that I was able to find the courage, time, and patience to sit with paper, photos, pencil, paint and other materials and allow the inherent rhythm of making art this way to emerge. This was part of my healing journey. Many of the works that I created during this period were inspired by nature and how the natural elements inform and reflect the human condition. They also, I believe, offer guidance on how we can heal ourselves and the planet."

GIGI BOLDON
Gigi has been an artist since the moment she was able to hold a brush between her fingers. She studied at Columbus College of Art and Design, and received a B.F.A. from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. In 1993, Gigi boldly left a lucrative career in Graphic Design to pursue her art on a full-time basis. Working from her home studio in Detroit, MI, she has exhibited primarily in the Midwest and Canada.

Gigi's work offers broad reflections of African-American life, with an eye for style, periods and interior design omnipresent in her work. Informed by greats such as Romare Bearden, Benny Andrews, William Johnson, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Gigi is also one of few artists who works across a wide range of mediums, including acrylics, watercolors, collage, paper sculpture, stained glass and airbrush.

Most evident in Gigi's art and her personality is her passion. She has an attraction to nudes as a subject and she states, "…the human form is one of the most beautiful of Gods creations." Gigi feels that the nude, as expressed in fine art, "grabs us differently than in other manifestations such as film, music videos, and commercial advertising."

NOREEN DEAN DRESSER
Committed to transformation and originating from Cleveland, Noreen Dean Dresser studied Fine Arts and Art at Antioch College and art History in the U.S., Greece, and Italy respectively. Dresser studied a comparison in five countries Urban Planning in Europe with a specific interest in guest workers integration into host societies. Dresser's commitment to others served when she was staff at Watts Towers Art Center and was part of the Pacific Time Movements of African American Art and Feminism her professional experiences have also included service on the College Art Association Executive Committee for Women in the Arts and serving as President of the National Board Women Caucus for Art.

Her experiences in the Federal Services have afforded Noreen a unique perspective on landscapes, as well as the opportunity to study the environment and changing weather patterns. This, along with her keen sensibilities in art and community service, provides the backdrop for her current body of work, which addresses environmental concerns and examines severe storm systems. Noreen has exhibited throughout the Tri-State area, Ohio and California, and is the Director of Parlour 143, a visual and performing arts salon in Harlem.

LISA INGRAM
Lisa Ingram studied painting with the art-world legends Ross Bleckner and Sean Scully and has since exhibited her work in numerous museums and galleries throughout the United States and Europe. This includes solo exhibitions at Soho Myriad Galleries, Atlanta GA; 55 Mercer Gallery, New York, NY; The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA; and many others, as well as group shows and collaborative projects at Fusion Arts Museum, New York, NY; The Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY; and Suyama Art Space, Seattle, WA.

Her oils, watercolors, and limited edition prints are owned by countless private collectors and corporations around the world including Disney, Guggenheim Productions, Mandarin NYC, and Marriot Resorts. Currently Ms. Ingram is developing a new series of work in Harlem, New York, through a studio art grant with the Chashama Foundation.

MIRA GANDY
Mira Gandy is a New York based artist whose textured paintings are a mixture of figuration and abstraction. She incorporates collaged media imagery into her work to explore ideas related to female identity, beauty, race and popular culture. Gandy received a BFA from the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts, where she has a scholarship named in her honor bestowed annually by USC Black Alumni Association.

Gandy got her start in the art scene in the early nineties. After studying Art History at the American University in Paris, a subsequent introduction to Russell Simmons and his brother, artist Danny Simmons, led to her inclusion in a series of group shows in Soho and Brooklyn curated by Rush Fine Arts. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Miami and Los Angeles galleries and she is currently the art columnist for the New York Beacon newspaper.

KLODE GAROUTE
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Michele Claude Garoute Michel started painting at a very early age. She was only 5 years old when she won her first award for art. Everyone thought it was ephemeral then. As time would show however, a visit by her father Tiga (a prominent Haitian artist) in New York in 1991 reaffirmed her true passion for art. Like an explosion Klode, the artist, emerged, and through her outburst we are left beneficiaries of marvelous wonders.

Klode paints on canvas, paper, and hardboard, among her mediums, she uses a well developed technique by her father known as Soleil Brule, which is best described as the synchronization of earthly tones which emit obscure forms and figures, suggesting a condition of modification as if observing the accomplishment of a transmutation. Klode's creative process is influenced by the Soleil Brule technique, which allows her to create work with boundless and startling originality. She has exhibited throughout the New York area, and in Port au Prince, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Florida.

RUTH LLANILLO LEAL
Ruth Llanillo Leal is a self-taught artist, native of Spain and currently residing in New York City. Her art style is lyrical fantasy rooted in surrealism. She uses a smooth technique that renders each piece a dreamy escape to the beyond.

Ruth's work has been exhibited throughout New York City, as well as in Paris, Norway and Russia. She received the Golden Eagle Special Achievement Gold Medal in the "Imaginary" category in January, 2011.

GRACE Y. WILLIAMS
Born in Jamaica, W.I., Grace Y. Williams' art reflects a special relationship with the medium of glass and a penchant for storytelling. Over the past 35 years, Ms. Williams has explored and embellished techniques with glass - a material she describes as "magical and mysterious" and has been enchanted with since she was a child. She was able to take her love of the medium to new heights through a grant she received in 2008, which allowed her to travel to India to study indigenous treatments of glass. Her vast body of art includes stained and painted glass, mosaics, and various treatments with mirrors. Grace's use of images and recycled materials adds a historic element to the work, allowing her to tell stories and mark significant moments in time through the use of found objects.

Grace has exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad, and received awards and honors from the University of Massachusetts, Nicole Miller Designs, Women of Visions, Inc., Studio Museum in Harlem, et al. Her work appears in the permanent collections of The National Museum of Copenhagen, Schomburg Center for Research of Black Culture, Studio Museum of Harlem, as well as the estates of Percy Sutton, Nina Simone, Bernice Steinbaum and Mario Cuomo. A prolific artist possessing boundless imagination, Grace continues to create and develop new modes of artistic expression in her Central Harlem abode.

YUKAKO
A citizen of the world, Yukako was born in Hirosaki City, Japan, and has traveled and worked in the U.S., Paris, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Singapore and many parts of Japan. The jazz-like energy and lyrical color or Yukako's paintings reflect intense concentration and rigor internalized by years of practicing Japanese calligraphy both in Japan and abroad.

Her artworks have been presented throughout New York and abroad, including the United Nations, The Paris American Academy in Paris and Ueno Museum in Tokyo. Her paintings and drawings are in the collections of The Art Students League of New York Permanent Collection, Grace Institute and many private collections in US, Europe and Japan. A member of The Art Students League of New York. Yukako now resides in NYC.

ADEMOLA
ADEMOLA OLUGEBEFOLA is a renowned contemporary artist whose work has set standards of innovative excellence. Widely collected and published in hundreds of books, catalogs, magazines and newspapers, his work has also been featured in major museums, universities, galleries and on television in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and Japan. His paintings, graphics and mixed media work is shown extensively on the internet. Born in the US Virgin Islands and raised in New York City, Ademola has expanded his national exhibitions to New York State's mid Hudson Valley over the last few years. TransArt has presented his work in Newburg, Kingston and has presented his major 5 acre environmental art as part of Jazz In The Valley. In a career that spans three decades, Ademola feels these 5 acre environmental art installations Nature Symphony and MAMBO: A Tribute to Tito Puente, in concert with the music, is a portal to new spiritual and creative frontiers.

Among a spectrum of recent art, culture and special projects activity, Albany International Airport hosted his paintings and a lecture as part of a landmark exhibition in October 2000. In June 2001 Poughkeepsie's Albert Shahinian Gallery presented Olugebefola and painter Helen Douglas in a critically acclaimed exhibition. Recent solo exhibitions and educational presentations include: IRADAC at City College; Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY; CHI Gallery in Oakland, California; Rush Arts in Chelsea, NY; and recent group shows at Fire Patrol #5 Art and Gallery X in Harlem and Danny Simmon's Corrider Gallery in Brooklyn. And his most recent multimedia solo shows Blues And The Abstract Truth and Goddesses and Gurus: Earth, Wind and Fire April 2005 at Savacou Gallery in the east village, are highlights of his recent work over the last few years. Having just returned from Salvador, Bahia and Rio deJaniero Brazil in February 2005 Ademola will be seen as part of a Caribbean region PBS special documentary on similarities in Brazilian culture, the British and US Virgin Islands where he was born.

ADGER COWANS
"For me, the artist's responsibility is to keep the temple (body, mind & spirit) clear, clean, and open, by being aware and keeping watch over what enters it mentally and physically. When it is so tuned the creative impulses can be fully received and reflected to the highest degree, where line, form and color define a space that the viewer can feel with their heart, explore with the eyes, and contemplate with the mind. In my work I want to startle the mind and jumpstart the imagination." – AC

Museum Representation:
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
The International Center of Photography, New York, NY
The National Center of Afro American Artists, Boston, MA
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY
Sorgenti Collection, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Howard University Museum, Washington, DC
Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH

AL JOHNSON
Called "the artist" since his youth, Al Johnson has exhibited in many corners of the world including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum in Japan, the Guangzhou International Art Fair in China and New York City in a juried exhibition curated by Jordan Kantor, during his tenure as Assistant Curator at the Museum of Modern Art. His abilities as a draftsman have allowed him the opportunity to develop the original renderings of the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world. Chosen out of a nationwide search, Mr. Johnson created the commissioned portrait of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, permanently installed in Brooklyn Borough Hall, in New York City. He also exhibited in the Artcurian "Artists Speaking for the Spirit" Group Exhibition, consisting of some of the most revered artists of African ancestry.

As a storyboard artist in the commercial and feature film industry, his signature style is sought after. The over 700 illustrations created for the feature film "After.Life" brought darkness to light from frame to frame. Mr. Johnson has developed storyboards for the Academy Award Winning Film "The Hours", the feature film "The Fountain", HBO's Soprano's, Six Feet Under and Sex and The City, and the 2010 Izod Indy 500 commercial, to name a few. He also created the storyboards for Izod commercials that aired during the 2011 Super Bowl.

His passion is to inspire. A humble and self-effacing man, Mr. Johnson gives back to future artists by providing his unique teaching style designed by Al Johnson Art Studios. The lists of his accomplishments are many as he motivates those to come.

JENNIFER ANN MOSES
Jennifer Anne Moses is a painter as well as a writer. She and her husband have three grown children and two dogs. Though she now lives in Montclair, New Jersey, she began to paint while she was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana---a place that gave her new lenses with which to view both the world and her place in it.

Her work springs from what she calls "waking visions," wherein a complete image, usually in full color, and often accompanied by text, comes into her mind's eye. Her paintings have been shown at Nicholls State University, Louisiana State University, the Acadiana Center for the Arts, the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, the Inside Out Gallery in Minneapolis, the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C., the Attic Gallery in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Gallery Rue Cou Cou in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana, Congregation Shomrei Emunah, Gallery U in Montclair, New Jersey, 73SeeGallery in Montclair NJ, and the Outsider Art Gallery in Frenchtown, NJ. She's the author of Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou (University of Wisconsin Press) and Food and Whine: Confessions of a New Millennium Mom (Simon & Schuster). She's currently working on a series of works based on biblical stories.

MARY ZEE
The artwork of New Jersey native, Mary Z takes a critical view of what is considered "reality" from many perspectives. She deconstructs reality as most people think of it and represents it as split it into two basic components of itself: the conscious versus the subconscious aspects of reality. The symbols, mythologies, and cosmologies that she uses to do this are part of our childhood and adult culture and are presented in a way that challenges the viewer's awareness of what they "actually" believe versus what they "think" they believe. Having engaged in discussions comparing the idea of 'community' versus, 'neighborhood' or 'livelihood' versus 'economy', her work reproduces familiar visual signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered pieces. Most often, Mary's themes are combined into images of 'vessels' containing things. They are containers. Then there is the separation of what is 'within' from what is 'without'; what is above from that which is below. Again, her work deals with many "levels" or "dimensions", not just two. One possible repeating theme is the concept of the "King". Every King 'contains' his realm within him, thereby defining what is outside of the kingdom.

Mary studied Life Drawing, and Painting at Livingston College, in New Brunswick, followed by classes in Painting and 20th century Art History at South Hampton College, Long Island University in New York. She then attended Simon's Rock College majoring in Fine Arts & Art History, where she also studied Theater. She earned a Bachelor's degree from The University of California, Santa Cruz double majoring in Fine Arts & Art History. Mary was awarded a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA where she studied print-making, Painting, illustration, anatomy, drawing, typography, color and design. Later Mary apprenticed under Visionary Navajo Painter and Native American Shaman, David Chethlahe Paladin, at his Renaissance Academy of the Fine Arts and Creative Development, in Prescott AZ. Paladin was a former professor at Prescott College where Mary herself, also studied. A champion of sustainable science, Mary finally earned a Master's degree in Sustainable Development from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

OMO MISHA
Omo Misha means "Misha's children" in Yoruba. It is a name that has come to identify artist, Misha McGlown, and her myriad creative endeavors. A Harlem resident and native of Detroit, MI, painting was Misha's first art form. A career in jewelry design, however, would sweep her away from the medium for more than a decade. In 2006, Misha returned her interests to painting. Working primarily in oils, she emphasizes historical portraiture but also creates "abstract-landscape" works as well as an African- inspired, figurative series. Since 2007, she has exhibited throughout the New York area and developed a formidable record as a curator, working with Harlem Arts Alliance, Columbia University, the NYC Parks Department and other creative and community-based establishments.

Misha has been featured on HGTV, National Public Radio, and in numerous local and national print publications; has executed public art installations on behalf of the Harlem River Park Task Force and the 125th Street Business Improvement District (2011), and; has been awarded artistic grants by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2011), Puffin Foundation (2007, 2010) and Harlem Arts Alliance (2008, 2009).

OTTO NEALS
Artist, sculptor and printmaker, Otto Neals was born in Lake City, South Carolina to Gus and Della Neals. He is self-taught in all mediums except in the area of printmaking which he learned at the Bob Blackburn printmaking workshop, studying with Roberto De Lamonica, Mohammed Khalil and Krishna Reddy.

His commissioned works include a 20 foot mural at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital, a bronze work at the Brooklyn Children's Center, ten bronze plaques at the "Harlem Walk of Fame" and a bronze work at prospect park in Brooklyn based on the works of Ezra Jack Keats, entitled, "Peter and Willie". For this work, he was awarded the N.Y.C. Arts commissions award of excellence for design.

Neals is in many collections, public and private including the Ghana National Museum, the Columbia Museum (S.C.)., the Smithsonian Iinstitute,The Library of Congress, Hon. John Lewis, Mayor David Dinkins, Randy Weston, Hon. Bruce Wright,Harry Belafonte, Dr. Ute Wachsmann, Hon. Una Clarke and Oprah Winfrey.

He has exhibited at: Studio Museum in Harlem, Howard University, Du sable Museum, Huntsville Museum of Art (ala), Columbia Museum (S.C.), Benedict College, Gibbs Museum (S.C.), Brooklyn Museum, Hampton Museum, Kenkeleba Gallery, Dorsey's Gallery, Museo De Arte Moderno Gallery, Cali, Colombia, Museum of Art, Rock Hill, (S.C.),Pratt Institute and many other places.

RAMONA CANDY
Born in Brooklyn NY, Ramona began creating as a child. Her mother was a dressmaker and, in her family's tiny apartment, she and her siblings were surrounded by fabrics, colors, threads and patterns which had a great influence on her life, and helped developed her love for the arts. She did not inherit great sewing technique but definitely became heir to her mother's creativity. Ramona earned a degree in Art at CCNY, while also studying dance in studios throughout NYC. Her passion for dance blossomed into an exciting performing and teaching career spanning over 25 years. After retiring from the dance company, she picked up paintbrush and, since the late '80's, has been creating, exhibiting and still learning.

Using her talent as a performing and visual artist, Ramona remains involved in her community. She frequently teaches dance workshops at St. Joseph's College, where she also sits on the Arts Council. She has served as artistic director and sat on the board of several arts organizations in Brooklyn, including SONYA (South of the Navy Yard Artists), Cultural Crossroads, Inc and presently, the Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus. She has won several honors for excellence in art as well as her community work. She was the featured artist for Brooklyn Academy of Music's DanceAfrica 2010 and The International African Arts Festival 2006. Her art is in many private and several public collections including the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, Dunn Development Corporation, Rugged Cross Apartments, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura - MuBE Sao Paolo, Brasil and Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo, Brasil. She has exhibited in galleries in and out of NYC, including Tabla Rasa Gallery; Kenkeleba House, Corridor Gallery; Bronx Community College; Astor Theatre, Pen and Brush, Rush Arts at Pfizer, Taller Boricua, Hudson Guild Gallery; and Hanson Gallery, Honesdale, PA; Visual Arts Center of New Jersey; Graphias Casa da Gravura, Sao Paolo, Brazil; Bravura Gallery in Southampton.

Ramona lives and works in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

TOMO MORI
Tomo Mori was born in Shijonawate, the countryside of Osaka, Japan. Tomo studied art at Kimoto Art School, Miyabi Calligraphy School, Tokyo Metropolitan High School of Fine Art and the Atlanta College of Art (renamed SCAD). In 1991, she exhibited her first large scale painting at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art. After graduating college in Atlanta, she worked as a graphic designer/art director for major broadcast medias and publishers and moved to New York City in 2000. In 2010, she made a decision to focus on her art again and left her position in the corporate field.

Since April 2011, Tomo has shown her work in over 14 juried exhibitions/competitions, including Rogue Space Chelsea, chashama, Dwyer Center, Canvas Paper Stone Gallery, Renaissance Fine Art in New York City and Bill Lowe Gallery in Atlanta. She received the congressional record for her winning painting for Bid on Culture banner design contest. Her work focuses on her main theme; the beauty of co-existence through her signature style; canvas on canvas collage. She currently lives and works as a full time visual artist in New York City.