In this evocative feature, Tiara Knutson merges the macabre with elements of nature, creating sculptural works that honor both death and renewal. Drawing from personal experience and a deep fascination with the afterlife, her pieces invite viewers to reconsider the beauty within life’s inevitable cycles.

Christina Voytko, a Northern California–based mixed-media artist, transforms cyanotypes, watercolor, and ink into luminous reflections on nature, folklore, and the subtle magic of everyday life. Her Winter Solstice series celebrates the quiet threshold of the season, inviting viewers to pause, notice, and reconnect with the enduring cycles of light and growth.

Cecil Ybanez bridges worlds—geographically, culturally, and creatively. Working with polymer air-dry clay, found objects, and everyday materials, his mixed media pieces explore translucence, lightness, and layered perspectives. Each work invites viewers to reflect on memory, perception, and the complexity of contemporary life, offering moments of pause, insight, and subtle illumination.

Colleen Cunningham’s paper collages are a mesmerizing fusion of impulse, control, and layered consciousness. Drawing from myriad sources, her baroque compositions explore the relationships between seemingly disparate elements, transforming space and narrative into psychedelic, cohesive dreamscapes. Each piece invites viewers to linger, uncovering the intricate layers of meaning embedded in her waking visions.

Based in Joshua Tree on unceded Cohuilla/Serrano land, Corinna Rosella creates immersive works that blend analog photography, collage, and pressed flora. Their art examines grief, ecological awareness, magic, and ancestral connections, inviting viewers to witness unseen rituals, cycles of death and rebirth, and the quiet power of transformation in everyday life.

Amy Handy, the creative force behind The Alchemist’s Lair, combines paint, old photographs, mosaics, and found objects into richly layered mixed media collages. Each piece is finished with resin, evoking the feeling of being preserved in time like a fossil in amber. Drawing on her experiences as a costume designer, pottery studio owner, and freelance editor, Handy transforms her multidisciplinary background into artworks that are simultaneously vibrant, mysterious, and deeply evocative. She exhibits widely in Queens, New York, and is preparing for an upcoming show at Maple Grove Cemetery’s cultural center.

Minka Sicklinger transforms the everyday into the magical through hand-drawn illustrations, tattoos, and object-based work. Influenced by anthropology, ritual, and ancestral memory, her art navigates the spaces between figure, form, and symbolism. Every piece invites viewers to connect with fleeting moments, hidden gestures, and stories left behind by those who came before.

Deema Alghunaim (b. 1984, Kuwait) merges architecture, performance, and visual art to explore the tension between language and land. Her interdisciplinary practice uses site-specific performance, watercolor, and improvised methods to document and reimagine contemporary landscapes and human interaction within them. Alghunaim invites viewers to witness spaces of memory, transience, and possibility.

Trish Tillman creates immersive mixed-media works that bring memory, identity, and social rituals into physical form. Drawing on childhood play, nightlife aesthetics, and DIY activist spaces, her art combines stretched leather, shiny embellishments, and figurative gestures to explore how we perform identity and navigate social hierarchies. Her work balances critique, humor, and visual allure, inviting viewers to reconsider the connections between appearance, power, and personal expression.

Kerry Sherman’s multimedia practice explores the intersection of mythology, Hermetic philosophy, symbolism, and the subconscious through dreamlike digital collages. Drawing from archival imagery and surrealist influences, Sherman creates visual compositions centered on transformation, healing, and psychological space.

Clare Kim’s work celebrates curiosity, wonder, and the small moments that weave us together. Working across drawing, painting, and ceramics, she brings intuition, memory, and playful exploration into her layered pieces. From solo exhibitions at Chinatown Soup to group shows across Brooklyn and beyond, her art invites viewers to slow down, reflect, and connect with the subtle magic around us.

Nikki Painter’s mixed-media Garden works on paper transform observation and pattern into meditative, vibrant compositions. Combining drawing and collage, her Night Gardens explore depth, energy, and the quiet edge of beauty in nature. Through her work, she invites viewers to reflect on the fragility and astonishing richness of life.

Seoul-based contemporary painter Hyun Jung Ji creates evocative works that explore the invisible emotional threads shaping memory and human connection. Through braided forms, flowing hair, and recurring motifs such as cranes, serpents, and flowers, her Threadscape series weaves together inner landscapes that feel both dreamlike and deeply personal. Her paintings invite viewers to reflect on quiet emotional bonds and the delicate truths that exist beneath the surface of everyday life.

Inspired by life and layers, Cara Jane Murray creates vibrant, multidisciplinary works that explore joy, struggle, and human resilience. From her roots in Southeast Alaska to her current home in Montana, Cara’s art blends graphic design, contemporary folk influences, and expansive landscapes. Her expressive acrylics, oils, and watercolors invite viewers to reflect, heal, and connect with the beauty of the human experience.

Yana Tymoshenko’s work blends realism and imagination, using vivid colors and photorealistic subjects with a unique abstract twist. Drawing from her experiences across multiple cities and her fascination with the human mind, her art explores emotion, thought, and the eccentricities of life in ways that are both playful and profound.

Leisa Rich is a Canadian experimental artist whose work pushes the boundaries of fiber art, sculpture, and interactive design. Using techniques like embroidery, weaving, tufting, 3D printing, and laser engraving, she transforms everyday and recycled materials into wall-hung artworks, wearable sculptures, and sensory environments. Rich’s practice invites audiences to engage through touch while exploring memory, childhood, and the tension between stability and change. Her work has been collected by major institutions including Delta Airlines, Hilton Hotels, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Julie Pelaez transforms abstract painting into a tool for reflection and personal empowerment. Working in layered mixed media, her collections explore human experience, subconscious patterns, and emotional healing, inviting viewers to engage deeply with each piece. From intimate home installations to large-scale corporate commissions, her work bridges interior design, narrative, and symbolic abstraction.

Working under the name HandmadeHome, contemporary artist Svetlana creates surreal fantasy sculptures that feel as though they’ve emerged from hidden magical realms. Combining polymer clay with naturally grown crystals, her mixed media works explore the threshold between energy and matter, nature and imagination, resulting in otherworldly beings rich with texture, symbolism, and quiet wonder.

Chris Beaty’s collage-inspired paintings and drawings transform fragments and interruptions into layered visual narratives. His work maps the nonlinear rhythms of perception and identity, inviting viewers to navigate spaces where meaning dissolves, reforms, and flows with intensity.

Tori McLean’s interdisciplinary practice transforms childhood curiosity into playful, thought-provoking explorations of female identity. Through interactive prints, sculptures, and installations, she invites viewers to engage with kinetic figures and participatory works that question societal expectations and celebrate imaginative inquiry.