Fern Apfel transforms letters, stamps, and keepsakes into richly layered paintings that blur the line between text and abstraction. Her work evokes nostalgia, memory, and the passage of time, inviting viewers to reflect on personal and collective histories. Explore her contemplative practice in Issue 53 of Create! Magazine.

Lilian Day Thorpe’s photomontage work blends film photography with digital collage to create serene, textural landscapes that hover between memory and imagination. Her compositions prioritize mood over realism, offering a pause from the everyday and a space to reflect on beauty, quiet, and stillness.

Corinne Ann Bowen’s analog photography transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary. Through shadow, light, and subtle gestures, her work invites viewers to pause, reflect, and honor the small, sacred moments often overlooked in daily life

Xi Zhang’s paintings blend Eastern philosophy with Western expressionist traditions, creating emotionally charged compositions that examine memory, empathy, and the immigrant experience. From expansive dreamlike landscapes to intimate portraits, his work invites viewers into spaces of psychological tension and reflection.

Brittney Denham Whisonant transforms personal and collective experiences of motherhood into visually rich, tactile works. Through quilts, cyanotypes, and natural dyes, her practice explores identity, domestic labor, and maternal material, creating a dialogue between tradition and contemporary artistic expression.

Christina Lucia Giuffrida’s paintings invite viewers into a surreal, Queer-centered adventure, where vivid color, graphic figures, and layered environments challenge perception and celebrate irreverent women. Her work combines fantasy, humor, and material experimentation to explore identity, movement, and the unpredictable beauty of life.

Michael Hambouz, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist, musician, and curator, creates work deeply informed by chromaesthesia and personal history. Drawing from music, memory, and his Palestinian-American heritage, Hambouz experiments across mediums—painting, printmaking, sculpture, and animation—to explore themes of loss, transformation, and resilience. His vibrant abstractions, often influenced by sound and architectural forms, invite viewers into layered reflections on identity and generational experience.

Andreea Alunei’s work transforms grief, humor, and imagination into intimate, layered paintings. Drawing on the birth of her daughter, the loss of her mother, and a deep interest in personal mythology, her surreal imagery—halos, unicorns, and whimsical children—invites viewers to reflect on life, death, and the delicate balance in between.

Lauren Moses’ paintings and printmaking explore complex systems of power and identity through layered imagery and historical references. Oscillating between the familiar and the unknown, her work invites viewers to engage with evolving narratives, revealing new insights with each encounter. Based in Charlottesville, VA, Moses draws from her experience as a lifelong musician and visual artist to create work that resonates deeply, offering fresh perspectives on history, gesture, and meaning.

Genevieve Cohn’s paintings invite viewers into richly imagined communities of women, where historical inspiration, literary fiction, and fairy tales intersect. Her work celebrates collaboration, self-endowed agency, and connection with the natural world, offering a space for reflection, ritual, and the beauty of shared experience.

Lauren Cohen’s interdisciplinary practice spans painting, ceramics, and installation, exploring the construction of identity and systems of control. Her work blurs past and present, merging historical archetypes with personal experience to create rich, thought-provoking narratives. Learn more about Cohen’s practice, exhibitions, and artistic vision on our blog.

Kurt Stimmeder (b. 1972, Bad Leonfelden, Austria) creates oil paintings and lithographs that balance technical precision with emotional depth. Now based in Linz, his practice explores memory, immediacy, and the unspoken language of the human body. Exhibited internationally from New York to Tokyo, his work reflects on the human condition with layered narratives that are both profound and quietly suggestive.

Sarah Alice Moran (b. 1982, New York, NY) creates what she calls “magic paintings,” works that balance allegorical elegance with a macabre playfulness reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons. Her pigment-soaked canvases conjure a primal feminine force, redefining power through intuition, communication, and quiet contemplation. With influences ranging from Balthus to Scooby-Doo, Moran’s work offers a contemporary take on ancient, alchemical imagery.

Joanna Pilarczyk is a London-based painter known for her vibrant use of colour and layered compositions. Her internationally exhibited portraits explore identity, relationships, and acceptance, celebrating diversity through striking, expressive imagery.

Sarah Sanford’s work captures the fleeting beauty of light and the hidden patterns of the natural world. Through layered prints, dimensional collage, and installations, she invites viewers to reflect on impermanence, interconnectedness, and the quiet moments of wonder in everyday life. Featured in the Lightness of Being exhibition, her art offers a contemplative space for connection and discovery.

Marleen De Waele- De Bock’s work celebrates the beauty of life through vibrant, immersive paintings inspired by nature and her experiences living around the world. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” exhibition, her art offers viewers a sense of peace, joy, and positivity, inviting a moment of serenity in everyday life.

New York City–based artist Tracy von Ahsen creates hand-cut analog collages that merge memory, myth, and personal transformation. Featured in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, her work explores liminal moments where lightness emerges through stillness and emotional release, inviting viewers into layered psychological spaces of reflection and introspection.

In the Lightness of Being exhibition, Mary Porterfield presents intimate, life-sized drawings reflecting her mother’s care for her father during his battle with Parkinsonism. Layered and translucent, her work captures both the weight of loss and the quiet resilience of love, inviting viewers to witness transformation and reflection through her deeply personal lens.

Kateryna Reznichenko’s paintings invite viewers into a space between clarity and collapse, blending realism with expressive gestures. Featured in the Lightness of Being virtual exhibition, her work reflects themes of transformation, resistance, and the delicate interplay of intention and chance.

Maya Rae Miller transforms intuition into art through her surrealist automatic drawings. Featured in the “Lightness of Being” exhibition, her work invites viewers to engage with the subconscious, discovering beauty, emotion, and shared human experience in each line and gesture