Of Land & Longing: A Global Virtual Exhibition and Catalog
Presented by Create! Magazine and Visionary Art Collective
Of Land & Longing is a global virtual exhibition celebrating the rich and varied ways contemporary artists engage with the landscape. From traditional vistas to abstract interpretations, this curated collection highlights the enduring power of nature as muse, mirror, and metaphor.
Featuring artists from around the world, the exhibition invites reflection on the themes of place, belonging, and our evolving relationship with the natural world. Whether serene, urgent, or poetic, each work speaks to the landscapes we inhabit—and those we carry within.
This special exhibition is accompanied by a digital artist catalog and amplified through the platforms of Create! Magazineand Visionary Art Collective, offering visibility and professional recognition for the participating artists. Of Land & Longing brings together a diverse group of contemporary creatives exploring themes of place, memory, identity, and belonging.
This virtual exhibition and catalog are co-presented by two passionate leaders in the art world:
Victoria J. Fry is a New York-based painter, educator, and curator, and the founder of Visionary Art Collective, New Visionary Magazine, and Warnes Contemporary Gallery. Through her initiatives, Victoria continues to champion artists around the world, offering them visibility through curated exhibitions and editorial features.
Ekaterina Popova is an internationally recognized artist, certified master coach, and founder of Create! Magazine. With over a decade of experience uplifting creatives through publishing, coaching, and curating, she is committed to helping artists thrive both in their practices and careers.
Together, they invite you to explore the evocative works in Of Land & Longing—a visual journey into how we connect to the landscapes that shape us.
Congratulations to the featured artists:
Nicki Ault, Cameron Bailey, Laura Barr, Kimberlea Bass, Isabel Bonilla, Paula Borsetti, Yuan Butler, Sarah Burns, Yemaya Diethelm, Elisha Enfield, Tara Esperanza, Daniel Freaker, Jaclyn Gordyan, Cheryl Hochberg, Taylor Himmelberger, Cary Hulbert, Phil Irish, Jade Jaroszenski, Kathy Knaus, Catherine LaPointe, David Linneweh, Jennifer L Mohr, Nathaniel Moody, Lindsay Mueller, Guy Nelson, Dana Oldfather, Mason Owens, Jennifer Peart, Serena Perrone, Taylor Pierce, Sara Roberts, Rainey Straus, Susan Stillman, Kara Taylor, Jena Thomas, Lily Timberlake, Gillian Wainwright, Sharon Wensel, Chloe Wilwerding, Nora Wiley-Schwartz
📖 The digital catalog is now available on Amazon.
We invite you to view the full exhibition and join us in celebrating the powerful voices of this remarkable group of artists.
Jennifer L Mohr (she/her) is an artist investigating introspection, belonging, and nature in her acrylic paintings. Pushing beyond personal and found photographic reference, Jennifer creates imagined meadow scenes as a response to memory and feeling. Her paintings explore themes of self-reflection and introspection through grounding and intimate images of her beloved Prairie landscape. Jennifer holds a B.F.A. in painting from the University of Saskatchewan and her paintings have been acquired by collectors across Canada, the United States, and beyond.
She lives and works in Airdrie, Alberta.
Create! Magazine is proud to feature artist Sarah Burns in the “Land and Longing” virtual exhibition. Based in Southern Oregon, Burns captures the vibrant landscapes of her home region using traditional European painting techniques. Deeply inspired by the natural world and historical art practices, her plein air paintings not only preserve the beauty of the environment but also foster a deeper connection to place, history, and community.
Nathaniel J Moody’s paintings blend memory, landscape, and emotional resonance into powerful visual narratives. Working in oil and watercolor, Moody captures the shifting nature of identity, belonging, and connection to land. His work, included in Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing exhibition, invites viewers to reflect on personal and collective journeys toward home.
Yemaya Diethelm’s multidisciplinary practice weaves together memory, the human body, and nature, with a focus on the ecologies of the Pacific Northwest. Her latest works, featured in the "Land and Longing" virtual exhibition, reflect on the fragility and resilience of our environment through powerful oil paintings. Discover how Diethelm uses seaweed as a symbol of ecological strength and addresses themes of climate grief in her compelling visual narratives.
In the "Land and Longing" exhibition, Isabel Bonilla presents a thought-provoking collection that repurposes fast-fashion denim into tactile, ocean-inspired landscapes. Through her upcycled art, Bonilla addresses the environmental costs of clothing production and the urgent need for sustainability. By transforming discarded material into powerful visual statements, her work invites viewers to reflect on our relationship with nature and the impact of our consumer choices.
In Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing exhibition, British artist Daniel Freaker shares richly layered paintings that balance bright, beautiful color with deeper reflections on the human condition. Freaker's work captures the tension between structure and chaos, inviting viewers into dynamic narratives of searching, connection, and meaning.
Through layered textiles, collage, and photography, artist Chloe Wilwerding reflects on the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. Her work, which reassembles fragments of digital and environmental imagery into vibrant new wholes, is featured in Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing exhibition. Wilwerding’s art invites viewers to reconsider how we perceive and impact the landscapes we inhabit.
Laura Barr’s richly colored paintings capture fleeting, transcendent moments where light, color, and form transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Through her Here and There series and other works, Barr explores impermanence, water conservation, and meditative beauty. Featured in Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing virtual exhibition, her art invites viewers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the quiet wonder of the natural world.
Ontario-based artist Phil Irish brings together painting, collage, and environmental insight in his striking Niche Species series. Created during an Arctic Circle Residency and now featured in the Land and Longing exhibition, his work explores the beauty and fragility of the natural world through emotionally resonant animal imagery and stark Arctic landscapes. Each piece is a meditation on climate change, interconnection, and what it means to care for our planet in a time of crisis.
Cheryl Hochberg’s artwork invites viewers to reflect on the deep connection between humans and nature. Through her ongoing projects in places like Wyoming, South China, Finland, and Tucson, Cheryl captures the beauty, struggle, and resilience of the landscapes she visits. Her work, currently featured in the Land and Longing virtual exhibition, embodies a unique exploration of the impact of human industry and nature’s ability to heal and adapt. Learn more about her process and the stories that shape her projects.
In her emotionally rich abstract landscapes, Denver artist Kathy Knaus channels the tension and harmony of the natural world through expressive color and texture. Her work, featured in Create! Magazine’s virtual exhibition Land and Longing, reflects on the healing parallels between people and the earth. Drawing from her background in Five Element Acupuncture and a lifelong connection to nature, Knaus creates vivid, intuitive compositions that ask us to slow down, look closer, and honor the beauty in resilience.
Catherine LaPointe-Vollmer brings a deep reverence for nature to her soft pastel landscapes, highlighting the subtle patterns of light and shadow often overlooked in everyday scenes. Her impressionistic works, featured in the Land and Longing virtual exhibition, are rooted in the forests, rivers, and seasonal shifts of her native North Country. Through plein air sketches and intuitive composition, LaPointe-Vollmer reveals how the ordinary becomes extraordinary when viewed in just the right light.
Oakland-based painter Tara Esperanza brings the intricate beauty of succulents to life through her bold, representational oil paintings. Featured in Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing and Time Capsule exhibitions, Esperanza’s work offers a vibrant reflection on nature, community, and resilience—seen through the imaginative lens of both artist and observer.
In her latest work featured in the "Land and Longing" virtual exhibition, Kimberlea Bass weaves together themes of nostalgia, family, and memory. Using a combination of photography, found objects, and stitching, Bass transforms discarded materials into poignant pieces that evoke a deep sense of reflection. Read on to discover how her unique approach reimagines the fragments of personal histories and explores the emotional weight of memory.
In Land and Longing, Susan Stillman’s evocative paintings capture the subtle drama of light as it transforms everyday landscapes into spaces of wonder and reflection. A longtime educator and accomplished artist, Stillman invites us into scenes both familiar and extraordinary, drawn from her neighborhood walks and travels abroad. With an intentional absence of the figure, her work focuses entirely on light, color, and the quiet beauty of a single moment.
Lily Timberlake’s work invites us to slow down and savor the passing moments that often go unnoticed. Featured in the "Land and Longing" virtual exhibition, her oil paintings explore the intersection of time, memory, and the landscape, capturing the tenderness of everyday experiences. Timberlake’s intuitive approach to painting preserves the spirit of fleeting moments—from the warmth of a neighbor's garden to cherished objects and personal rituals. Her work encourages reflection and offers a sense of enchantment, as viewers are drawn into the vibrant layers of life she masterfully immortalizes on canvas.
Featured in Land and Longing, a virtual group exhibition by Create! Magazine, David Linneweh’s work offers a contemplative look at suburban architecture and the emotional pull of memory. His image-transfer technique paired with vibrant color fields transforms familiar neighborhoods into layered reflections on time, idealism, and the fading mirage of the American Dream.
In Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing virtual exhibition, artist Jaclyn Gordyan presents a body of sculptural work rooted in nature and emotional resonance. Working from the forests of Michigan, Gordyan combines natural-found materials with abstract techniques to reflect on our ancestral ties to the Earth. Her contemplative process and evolving practice transform foraged elements into meditative, organic forms that explore human experience through the lens of the natural world.
Sara Roberts' work invites viewers into a world where reality and dreams converge, capturing fleeting moments of beauty within vast, luminous landscapes. Featured in the "Land and Longing" virtual exhibition, her paintings explore the profound relationship between humans and nature, using light, water, and shifting perspectives as metaphors for memory and perception. Experience the delicate balance of expansion and contraction in her evocative landscapes and dreamscapes that transport us into a space of introspection and stillness.
Mason Owens’ paintings capture the subtle, transitory nature of everyday life, focusing on the intimate moments shared with friends and loved ones. His work, imbued with nostalgia, humor, and childlike curiosity, transports viewers into landscapes where ordinary scenes are transformed by the warmth of memory. Owens’ practice—now part of the "Land and Longing" virtual exhibition—combines egg tempera with a playful, experimental approach, translating the magic of these fleeting experiences into timeless pieces.
Jena Thomas’s thought-provoking work bridges the gap between human nature and the natural world. In the Land and Longing virtual exhibition, Thomas delves into how humanity idealizes nature and creates artificial environments, capturing the transient collision between the two. Through emotive abstractions and surreal landscapes, her work challenges us to reconsider how we relate to both the world around us and the marks we leave upon it. Discover more about her unique approach and thematic explorations in this featured artist profile.
Serena Perrone's work weaves together themes of dislocation, loss, and transformation through an exploration of landscape, natural phenomena, and the symbolism of material culture. Featured in the “Land and Longing” exhibition, Perrone’s multifaceted practice, which spans printmaking, sculpture, and photography, is a reflection on the deep emotional ties between place and memory. Her pieces evoke the poetic and metaphoric potential of the natural world, inviting viewers to contemplate the complex narratives of displacement and nostalgia.
Featured in Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing virtual exhibition, Kara Taylor’s richly layered works explore psychological depth, impermanence, and symbolism. Blending oil, photomontage, encaustic, and assemblage, Taylor channels personal and universal cycles of holding on and letting go—revealing an emotional landscape shaped by memory, nature, and shifting identities.
Cameron Bailey’s layered woodblock prints evoke the ephemeral nature of memory and landscape, blending traditional Japanese techniques with tonal atmospheres inspired by Western art history. As part of Land and Longing, Create! Magazine’s virtual exhibition, Bailey’s work explores how time, place, and emotion merge through color and impression.
Yuan Butler’s work embodies the intersection of cultural heritage and personal exploration, where abstraction meets figuration to evoke the power of mythology and nature. Featured in the Land and Longing virtual exhibition, Butler’s art delves into the mysteries of water and female forms, creating an immersive dialogue that invites viewers to reflect on the fluid myths of time and space. Her paintings offer a glimpse into her internal landscape, where intuition, nature, and identity converge in an ever-evolving, meditative practice.
In her hauntingly beautiful photography series "WAS IT JUST A DREAM?", Los Angeles artist T.B.H. layers moments from Southern California and Spain into accidental but evocative double exposures. Featured in the Land and Longing exhibition, her work invites reflection on memory, impermanence, and the transformative potential of mistakes. Through this dreamlike merging of time and place, T.B.H. challenges us to consider what it means to remember—and reimagine—the past.
In her feature for Land and Longing, Rainey Straus shares The Old Growth Project, a multidisciplinary body of work that merges technology, ecology, and ritual. Through LiDAR scans of California’s redwoods and embodied observation, Straus paints the presence of trees beyond human-centered narratives, inviting us to consider new ways of relating to the natural world. Her work unearths beauty and urgency in the forest’s voice, resonating with themes of loss, reciprocity, and reverence.
Sharon Wensel’s art invites us into moments of stillness, healing, and reflection through vibrant scenes inspired by the natural world. Following a return to painting later in life, her work now appears in Create! Magazine’s Land and Longing exhibition, celebrating the deep emotional resonance found in nature’s beauty.
Elisha Enfield’s evocative paintings draw from the rich history of human rituals, blending themes of fire, funerary rites, and remembrance. In her works, she examines how we navigate grief, celebrate life, and honor those who are no longer with us. Featured in the Land and Longing virtual exhibition, Enfield’s paintings invite viewers to reflect on the interplay of memory and myth in the human experience.
Brooklyn-born artist Nora Wiley-Schwartz blends personal memories with artistic exploration, focusing on nostalgia and domesticity in her paintings. With works that evoke a sense of quiet reflection, Wiley-Schwartz invites viewers to appreciate the beauty in everyday life. Featured in the "Land and Longing" exhibition, her latest work draws from landscapes tied to her childhood and artistic retreats, bridging the gap between urban life and natural environments.