ArtWorks is proud to announce its 25th Anniversary Art Auction, powered by Everything But The House. Running August 20 – August 26, 2021, this auction features a few of the nonprofit’s creative alumni, whose ranks include 4,000 youth apprentices and 3,500 creative professionals.
The virtual auction benefits ArtWorks’ youth employment program, which will provide 200 jobs this year for local youth, ages 14-21—its largest employment year ever.
Below, you can learn more about the artists in this auction and click on the image to go directly to the EBTH auction page. We thank all the artists for their support and creativity!
Adam Laine is a Cincinnati-based artist with a history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. He has worked with ArtWorks for the organization’s CincyInk project. The piece, “You Made Away With Me,” is the print of an original design by Laine.
Painter Adam Mysock holds a BFA degree in Painting and Art History from Tulane University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In collaboration with his studio practice, he has taught at the university level for more than 10 years – most recently as a Senior Professor or Practice at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mysocks’ work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is in private collections throughout the world, including those of Thomas Rusche, Beth Rudin DeWoody, and the 21C Museum. In 2012, he was awarded first prize “Best in Show” in the Ogden Museum’s first annual Louisiana Contemporary Juried Exhibition. He was also included in the 2013 South edition of New American Paintings. More recently, Mysock has exhibited at VOLTA NY; Galerie Andreas Binder in Munich, Germany; the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans; Galerie Jochen Hempel in Berlin, Germany; and is part of the traveling group exhibition Guns in the Hands of Artists. Mysock is currently Coordinator of Manifest Drawing Center, living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. The pieces are original paintings by Adam Mysock: quadriptych and landscape.
Anissa Pulcheon is a person interested in thinking about the future and helping others express themselves. She spends her time making coffee, volunteering, doing freelance illustration, painting, and making music. Anissa is the Digital Communications Coordinator at Girls Rock Cincinnati. She graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. This year, Anissa led a team of 9 ArtWorks youth apprentices to create a mural in collaboration with WordPlay. Her piece is “Tips” – oil painting for Off Ludlow Gallery Show, “Drip”. January 2021.
Antonio Adams is a multi-disciplinary self-taught artist and leader working in Cincinnati, OH. Adams has been drawing, painting, and creating since he was a little boy. Now his work is collected internationally. He is one of the co-founders of Visionaries + Voices, an arts organization for artists with disabilities in Cincinnati, as well as Thunder-Sky, Inc., an outsider art gallery that operated in Cincinnati. His artworks have been exhibited at The Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati; The Museum of Everything, London; The Cincinnati Art Museum; The Pittsburgh Folk Art Exhibit and Symposium, Pittsburgh; The Outsider Art Fair, New York; Country Club Gallery, Cincinnati/Los Angeles; and In the Gallery, Nashville. Adams is the lead designer for ArtWorks’ 2014 mural, The Raymond Thunder-Sky Legacy Mural. His piece is “Portrait of 2 Girls” – Acrylic on canvas.
April Sunami is an award-winning mixed-media painter, muralist and installation artist. She is the lead artist for ArtWorks’ V2 Gallery 2021 Youth Artist Exhibition: The Way We See Ourselves. Sunami’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Theatre in Accra, Ghana, and during the Cuba Biennale in Mantanzas, Cuba. Her work has been featured in various juried group exhibits, galleries and museums including the Columbus Museum of Art, the National African American Museum and Cultural Center, and a solo exhibit at the Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, Ohio. Her work is also represented in private, corporate and public collections throughout the United States. Her piece is Go Back and Get It II : Claiming My Inheritance, Mixed Media on Wood (Oil, acrylic glass, metallic leaf and Swarovski crystals), 12” diameter round. Her artist statement: My passion for African stories and histories that have been marginalized and ignored by Western culture is the ignition for most of my work as an artist. As a Black artist it is imperative to my sense of self-worth and identity to resist the narrative that my African ancestors were without a history or noble past. This painting is one out of a series of eight that are an homage to the African queens of antiquity. Go Back and Get it is the literal translation of Sankofa, a word in the Twi language (indigenous to Ghana). This refers to the concept in traditional Akan culture that means one’s future is informed by the past. I describe many of my works as being Neo-Ancestralist/Afro-Futurist in that I look to my history as a guide to my present and future.
Arynn Blazer is a long-time artist and educator living, working and creating in Cincinnati. A graduate of DAAP, art educator, and visual teaching artist, she seeks to inspire others to connect to the natural world through works that are created with natural materials and processes, are slow and mindful in their creation, and taps into a deep source of peace and joy. Her piece is Bunny’s Garden, embroidery on hand-dyed fabric. Her artist statement: Inspired by the joy of observing nature and the feeling of peace a garden brings, this piece is influenced by the forms found in nature, an amalgamation of growing things intended to inspire the viewer to examine and connect to the natural world around them more closely. Embroidered by hand on hand-dyed fabric, dyed with black walnuts foraged nearby.
Batres Gilvin, an artist collaborative in Greater Cincinnati, is comprised of Karla Batres and Bradly Gilvin, life partners who met in 2011 while studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. They are the lead designers of ArtWorks’ 2021 mural project Casa Colina in Price Hill. In a multiethnic partnership that joins the personal with the professional, Batres’ Mexican American heritage and Gilvin’s Southern American roots are a catalyst for complicated conversations about difference, otherness, and identity. In Batres Gilvin’s world, contradiction is both material and tool; it is also a reminder of the complexity of humans and the necessity of holding space for difficult conversations. Their piece is Woke, which reflects the feeling of strength and alertness encapsulated by women during The Me Too movement. Woke is made of punched tin that has been hand cut and painted with acrylic lacquer, a process that can be traced back to Pre-Columbian times. The viewer becomes part of the piece and the statement upon looking into the reflective surface of the artwork.
C. Matthew Hamby has always been a figurative artist, with a satirical sense of humor. Focused line and color his developed gnarled illustrative style pushes the narrative and astatic. Using pen and ink, Hamby applies washes of color allowing the line to be seen through transparency. The themes of his work highlight the strange, the distorted and the beauty that can be observed from that. Clients include local groups such as Procter and Gamble, The United Way and Cincinnati CityBeat. Work can be seen in different freelance projects and gallery showings around the country. 2006 was Hamby’s first year donating to ArtWorks’ fall fundraiser event, Secret ArtWorks. Each year since then, he’s proud to have contributed to such a great organization that has visually transformed Cincinnati for the better. His piece is How Do You Do – Created date: July 2021. “I’m Uncle Sam, that’s who I am.” This piece is a nod to the Grateful Dead’s song US Blues. It celebrates the character Uncle Sam in his American attire as described in the song, holding a guitar ready to rock out.
Calcagno Cullen is a social practice artist, arts educator, and curator. She was a lead designer for ArtWorks’ nationally-funded 2020 installation project, Switch on Avondale. She is founder and Executive Director of Wave Pool Arts Center, a gallery, studio space, and socially-engaged arts activator in Cincinnati. She has previously worked in the education department of SFMOMA, the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, California and was the Director of Adobe Books Backroom Gallery in San Francisco. She has been artist in residence at The Center for Great Neighborhoods in Covington, KY, Lo Studio dei Nipoti in Calabria, Italy, Teple Misto in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, and in Sardegna, Italy. Her work has been shown in shows throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her personal mission is to “create empathy and social change through contemporary art.” Her piece is Results from Desiderate. Desiderate is an interactive sculpture comprised of two typewriters that asks visitors to respond to two corresponding questions that are presented on a continuous loop of paper. This scroll work is the result of a Desiderate installation at the Contemporary Arts Center in 2019 that posed the prompts, “What We Love About Ourselves” and “What We Wish We Could Change About Ourselves.”
Carla Lamb is a retired teacher and long-time ArtWorks supporter. She worked on ArtWorks’s Tour De Cincy Bike Racks with collaborators, Pam Kravetz and Karen Saunders. Her piece is Peace Pistols.
Carrie Cooke Ketterman sings, acts, paints, and owns an online Etsy craft shop. She lives in Corydon, Indiana with her husband, Jeff, where they operate the Old Capitol Tea Room in their 114-year-old home. She performs in two bands, the 1920s-inspired The Tin Pan Alley Cats and the 1950s-inspired Rosie and the Rockabillies. Carrie and Jeff make public appearances as one of the most iconic couples in television history, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Carrie is also the author of a local history book called “Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana”, which is part of the popular Images of America series produced by Arcadia Publishing. This piece a concept sketch for Germania Pig for ArtWorks’ Big Pig Gig project, signed by artist Carrie Cook.
Cedric Michael Cox studied at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, receiving his BFA in painting in 1999. As a student, he was awarded a fellowship to study at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. His accomplishments in the visual arts and arts education fields have earned him awards and recognition, including the Individual Artist Grant by the City of Cincinnati, in 2009, and The Congressional Award, in 2010. Cox creates paintings that catapult color into rhythmic action. With abstract and recognizable images, he creates compositions inspired by themes in music and the natural world. Abstract forms that seem to grow like plants and flowers are expressed in bold, shaded colors, interweaving in vivid patterns. Cox’s life and work reside at the heart of Cincinnati’s art community. He has shown at major regional and national museums and galleries, and used his knowledge and experience to work with students and shared the wonder of creating with new collectors. Cox is the designer of many ArtWorks projects, including Pig Casso at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center, The Avondale Pride Mural (2011), and Avondale Pride: We Rise from the Ashes (2018). His piece is “Totems in the Mist #2” – acrylic on canvas.
C.F. Payne’s illustrations have appeared in magazines and children’s book for nearly forty years. Graduating from Miami University, he started his freelance career in 1980. Having taught illustration for thirty years, he is the Director of the MFA in Illustration Program at the Hartford Art School. His art has been exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Payne’s cover art has appeared in Time Magazine, MAD Magazine, Der Spiegel, Sports Illustrated and Reader’s Digest. C.F. Payne has illustrated 20 children’s books. He is the lead designer of ArtWorks’ project The Singing Mural, completed in partnership with the Cincinnati Opera and CET. In 2018 C.F. Payne was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. His piece is Sparky, an illustration of Reds “Big Machine” Manager Sparky Anderson is a 7 ½ Inch square portrait created in mixed media that includes oils. acrylics and colored pencils. Framed the art is 14 inches square.
Charley Harper (August 4, 1922 – June 10, 2007) had an alternative way of looking at nature. His serigraphs were large expanses of rich color, which gave the viewer a very different perspective on the animal kingdom. A conservationist as well as an artist, Harper revealed the unique aspects of his wildlife subjects through highly stylized geometric reduction. Harper attended West Virginia Wesleyan College and graduated from the Cincinnati Art Academy, where he also taught for many years. His pieces are featured in collections and museums around the world. ArtWorks re-created many of his pieces as large-scale murals, including Homecoming (Blue Birds) on Walnut St. and Beguiled by the Wild on the City Bard, now owned by the Cincinnati Zoo. His piece is Praying Mantis, 1960, hand-cut and hand-pulled original silk screen print by American modernist Charley Harper (1922-2007). One of the vintage prints of images that appeared in Ford Times magazine in an edition size not exceeding 250.
Chase Melendez was born and raised on the west coast and currently lives and works in the greater Cincinnati area. He received his MFA in studio art from University of Cincinnati and his BA in studio art from San Diego State University. His work is largely inspired by the bold colors and graphics of his 80’s and 90’s childhood. In addition to his studio practice he is active in the Cincinnati theater community, building and painting sets, and has a variety of experience in film/video, live event, and concert production. He was the lead designer on the mural, 8C4I5N1. His pieces (see version 1 and version 2) are acrylic paint on hand cut stacked wood. They explore form and dimensionality while flirting with objective and non-objective abstraction using the bold colors, hard-edged patterns, and visual motifs that are found throughout his work.
Nationally known native Ohio artist Chuck Marshall developed an early love and respect for the outdoors and art. Chuck knew he was going to be an artist from a very early age. He would spend hours each day sketching images of fields, hillsides, and animals that he would see while roaming the countryside. After a short stint in the Navy, he studied one year at the Art Academy of Cincinnati before moving to and studying at the California Art Institute in Southern California. His art career includes many years as an illustrator and graphic designer. Chuck has been invited to and participated in many national plein air events such as the Plein Air Convention and Expo; Olmsted Plein Air Invitational, Atlanta, Georgia; Door County Plein Air, Wisconsin; Great American Paint Out, Apalachicola / Panhandle Florida area; Wayne Plein Air, PA; En Plein Air, Texas; and Finger Lakes Plein Air, where he has won best of show twice. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters, Ohio Plein Air Society, American Impressionist Society, and Oil Painters of America. Chuck’s work has been published in International Artist Magazine, American Artist Magazine, and Plein Air Magazine. His piece is a concept sketch for ArtWorks’ 2000 project, The Big Pig Gig.
Originally from the shores of Argentina, Daniela Fernandez was a “Nose” in the perfume industry for ten years. It was while creating fragrances that she deeply sharpened her sensitivity towards feelings and emotions unleashed by stimulus and perceptions. Daniela studied art since she was a child in Argentina. Her first inspiration was the breathtaking landscapes of her country and its people, which she permanently revisits in her art, adding nuances influenced by her present experiences. In her journey around the world, Daniela moved to the United States in 2018 where she now finds inspiration in the beautiful and varied nature of this unique land. The dance of light and atmosphere brought by the four seasons brings a new spirit to her art. Daniela is a teaching artist for the new John Ruthven mural in Milford. Her piece is oil on canvas.
Drew Christman is an artist born and raised in Cincinnati, OH. He is a graduate from the School of Creative and Performing Arts, majoring in the Fine Arts program. He is primarily a painter, known for working with abstract forms and figurative illustrations characterized by vibrant colors and jazz-like compositions. Drew has also done work in the fields of independent publication, photography, design, and print media. His pieces are Ruins – Made with spray paint, latex paint, on panel, and Citrus Cowboy – Wheat paste news print on panel. Made with spray paint, latex, and oil stick.
Erika Nj Allen is a multimedia artist based in Cincinnati, OH. who makes work to save lives, or at least her own life. Erika is a recipient of ArtWorks’ 2020 Jump Start Emerging Artist award and the co-creator of When Life Gives Us Lemons, a series of site-specific meal performances in response to the hardships of COVID-19. Working in two, three, or more dimensions, Erika uses photography and sculpture to create mimetic approximations of fresh produce that form part of her diet. After undergoing a hysterectomy and experiencing the physically and emotionally draining aftermath, Erika began making work to bring those feelings out of .an unknown darkness and into a conversation on lightness and adaptation. Erika uses her voice as an artist and survivor to extend an invitation to whoever is interested in sharing their experiences, or to those who simply want to listen and learn. Her piece is a monochromatic still life.
Evan Hildebrandt has been a full-time artist since 2008. He has a studio in downtown Cincinnati where he is prolific in creating his artwork. He has worked with many clients and interior designers to create site specific work over his career. Evan is able to visualize with the client to come up with the perfect piece of art for the space. From abstract to photo-realistic paintings, Evan has a wide array of artistic talents and uses a variety of materials including paint, resin, tar, clay and glass in his work. He has served as a teaching artist for many ArtWorks’ murals including 2019’s Pool Queue and 2020’s Time Saved vs Time Served. His piece is an abstract painting. His statement: “Typically, I use a variety of mediums in my work, resin, varnish, and even tar. For this piece however I wanted the challenge of using only one medium, acrylic paint. It forced me to focus on form, color, texture and paint laying techniques to achieve the diversity of elements seen in the work.”
Gee Horton calls Cincinnati his home base now, but he grew up in the West End of Louisville, Kentucky. He was the first in his family to graduate from college and would go on to receive his Master’s of Social Work from the University of Louisville, where he then found success coaching division-1 women’s basketball at University of Louisville, Furman University and Xavier University. Pursuing his call towards social service, Gee worked at a non-profit and then in the corporate space as an executive recruiter, but that artist within him was growing louder with time. What may seem an unlikely pivot into the arts, was actually a deferred passion that began from a young age when his gift of drawing was first noticed. As a self-taught artist (having only ever taken one art class in his life), Gee is currently articulating his craft from pencil to page through his full-time role as CEO/Founder of Gee Horton Studios. With an expedited pace into notoriety (rare for independent artists), Gee has quickly become a household name in Cincinnati over the last few years. In 2020, he made his museum debut at the Cincinnati Art Museum where his piece “If I Ruled the World…” was shown in The Black & Brown Faces exhibit. He has also been featured at the renowned Cincinnati Music Hall and The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Bending his pencil towards activism, he has been involved in collaborative projects that included serving as artist recruiter for the now famed “Black Lives Matter!” mural in downtown Cincinnati, in which he also designed and executed the art for the letter “L.” He is currently an ArtWorks board member and an artist-in-residence at The Mercantile Library of Cincinnati where he is working on a six-foot portrait of the famed Black abolitionist and writer Peter H. Clark. His piece is “SAMO LIVES” – print on paper.
Harry Sanchez, Jr. was born in El Paso, Texas in 1980. He has spent much of his life on the border with Mexico, but he has also lived in many parts of the country doing menial jobs such as working in construction and in the restaurant industry; providing maintenance to a golf course; and ushering at a movie theater. His mobility allowed him to experience and understand life and this society from the perspective of people from different social classes and races. In his most recent work, Sanchez has used installations, prints, and other media to make artistic statements from the position of a racialized minority in the United States. He uses his artwork to comment on global matters such as the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib; the double-identity of whistleblowers who are hailed as heroes or condemned as traitors; and to denounce the separation of families following the deportation of undocumented migrants. Sanchez earned his BFA from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2015, and his MFA from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. His work has been exhibited in such cities as Cincinnati, Seattle, Dallas, and at the Louvre in Paris. He was a teaching artist on the mural, Early Bird. He is currently living and working in Dayton, Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. His piece is an abstract chalk drawing.
J. Miles Wolf is a photographic artist living and working in Cincinnati, Ohio. Early training at Tulane University lead to a 40 year career that includes publishing books, stock photography, owning photo labs and galleries. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Wolf’s photographs are in hundreds of private and corporate collections throughout the region. He has been photographing ArtWorks’ murals and public art installations for many years. J. Miles Wolf has self-published 9 books of local photographs. The Cincinnati Collection, Cincinnati Images and others can be found online or at local bookstore around the region. His piece is Lackman on Vine Street, a night photograph featuring the 19th Century historic Italianate architecture of Cincinnati’s Over-the Rhine Historic District. The framed photograph is 23×30 and is in a float mount frame without glass.
Jenny Roesel Ustick is Associate Professor of Practice and Foundations Coordinator in the School of Art – DAAP at the University of Cincinnati. She holds an MFA from the same program and a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. A Cincinnati native, Ustick has become one of the most prominent muralists in her region, completing over 10 projects with ArtWorks and several independent projects that include commissions from the US Soccer Federation, 21C Museum Hotel Cincinnati, and multiple local establishments. Her Mr. Dynamite (James Brown) mural in Cincinnati has earned her international attention. Elsewhere in the U.S., Ustick has created or contributed to murals in Tennessee, New Mexico, Illinois, Kentucky, and Florida, including invitations to the Walls for Women mural festival in Tennessee, and the CRE8IV Mural Festival in Rockford, Illinois. Internationally, Ustick has participated in the Proyecto Palimipsesto mural residency with La Fundación ‘ace para el Arte Contemporáneo y el ‘acePIRAR, Programa Internacional de Residencias Artísticas in 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was Artist in Residence in spring 2018 with the Graniti Murales program in Graniti, Sicily. Her piece is The Clothes Have No Emperor: Nose-ring.
Paper Acorn began in 2009 as the creative endeavor of Cincinnati artist Jessica Wolf. Paper Acorn’s large-scale installations and light-based sculptures can be found in both private and corporate spaces across the country. With the progression of her work, Jessica strives to transform environments and transport the viewer to a place of discovery and wonder. She has been involved with many ArtWorks projects, including Olay: Light As Air and Confluence. Her piece is “Paperback,” April 2021, 14 x 14 x 36”, wood, paper, glass, light. A hanging cascade of curled paper flutter in the light like an unfurling expansion of book pages. The subtly textured ivory paper allows the light to filter through, casting dream-like shadows on the surrounding space. “Paperback” calls to mind flight, dance, and ephemeral memories. This statement lighting piece is a beautiful blend of form and function.
Jim Effler is a professional illustrator living in Cincinnati, Ohio. Originally known for airbrush illustration, he eventually replaced this challenging tool with digital methods. He also started working more in oils, a medium he used occasionally since attending the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Now he combines digital with painting and traditional methods. Jim also enjoys painting portraits and landscapes. His style is realistic with a touch of impressionism. Jim is a member of the Cincinnati Art Club and was on its board from 2006 to 2009. He is also a member of the Portrait Society of America. Jim has won many awards for his artwork. He has taught illustration at the College of Mount St. Joseph, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Miami University, and AIC College of Design. Jim is the lead designer of ArtWorks murals Brewing Heritage: Grain to Glass (2015); and Locks, Docks, and Barrels (2016). His piece is an oil painting of architecture in landscape.
Joe Walsh is a Graphic Design graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning and is an ArtWorks Youth Apprentice Alumni. He has worked in Illustration, Animation, and Film and now works as an artist in Cincinnati, Ohio. His piece is “Kubrick” – screen printed on poster. The very meaninglessness of life forces a man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their idealism – and their assumption of immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But, if he’s reasonably strong – and lucky – he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfilment. No matter how vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
The late John A. Ruthven, naturalist, author, lecturer, and internationally acknowledged master of wildlife art is often called the “20th Century Audubon.” Ruthven uses the same techniques as his famous predecessor. After studying and researching his subject thoroughly, he sketches to rigid specifications then renders the original painting with great detail. John A. Ruthven received the 2004 National Medal of Arts for his impeccably accurate and unfailingly beautiful wildlife art, and in recognition of his contributions as an artist and naturalist to conserving our natural treasures. Unveilings of original paintings have taken place at The White House; the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; the President`s Palace in the Philippines, for Crown Prince Henri in Luxemborg, at the Neil Armstrong Space Museum, and the Ohio State Capital Rotunda. Among the corporate offices featuring his work are Proctor & Gamble, the Cincinnati Bengals, John Deere & Company, and the WILDS – International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals to name a few. John received Eloise Payne Luquer Medal from The Garden Club of America Award at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Rochester, NY. He was honored for his special achievement in the field of botany which may include medical research, the fine arts or education. His piece is a print of ArtWorks’ 2013 mural Martha, the Last Passenger Pigeon, designed by John Ruthven. This print is hand-signed by John Ruthven.
Artist John Lanzador loves art and is well-versed in making art across a variety of mediums. He’s fluent in carving, painting, drawing, design and even working with chalk. Lanzador finds inspiration in outsider art, tattoo shops, botanical illustrations, toys, food, pop art, illuminated manuscripts, comic books and even Mexican lottery bingo cards. John is an educator who is passionate about working for the greater good. He’s collaborated with ArtWorks, BLDG and Visionaries + Voices on community projects and trained youth apprentices to become part of the vibrant art culture of Cincinnati. He is the lead designer of the Queen Shares Mural. His piece is a painted carved wood panel, 2021.
Jon Flannery is a lifelong Cincinnatian, a designer, printmaker and director of the print design studio Cryptogram and is an ArtWorks Youth Apprentice Alum. This proof (Untitled 2017-2020) is comprised of layers from a photo taken by MarkBWavy, a studio proof sale poster, and a hand-cut fist by Julia Warner for summer 2020 protest posters. A proof print is a byproduct of the silkscreen process. In the studio, it acts both as an outlet of experimentation and a functional readying of the image for the edition. These prints are composed and built up of various layers from client to personal work over periods of a few months to several years, until they feel complete.
Jonesy (she/they) is a 28-year-old self-taught, mixed race, queer artist currently based in Cincinnati, OH. Her work focuses on human intersectionality and fantasizes a world that thrives beyond basic hetero-normative thinking. She uses loud, and flamboyant queer imagery of other-worldly characters visualized happily thriving in full flying, glorious colors outside the rigid black and white boxes our society places on them and their identities. Jonesy wants her spectators to see something positive and exciting in her work and to feel SEEN and embraced and celebrated for the unique colors of their own existence. She encourages you to see yourself in all your living colors. Chase the rainbow. She was part of 2020’s FOUND Cincinnati. About this piece: “This is a piece that I created in a deep artistic rut. While I had only been creating visual art for a year and a half, everything else I had created up until then flowed naturally in terms of inspiration and execution. This piece was my own mental block. I would pick it up and put it down over several months between projects and I despised it. I eventually just signed it and said whatever. It happens to be one of my favorites now for the soul fact that I came face to face with my own insecurities as an artist with imposter syndrome. Sometimes you have to embrace your bad, take a step back, and realize there is beauty beyond self doubt. This was that piece for me. ”
Josie Masset is an artist and illustrator working in Cincinnati, Ohio. Born and raised in the Queen City, Josie has watched the city grow and evolve; Her Cincinnati Watercolors paintings are meant to celebrate the Cincinnati experience, especially Cincinnati small businesses and local creators. She is an Youth Apprentice Alum. Working in primarily water-based media, Josie creates work that captures the facades or interiors of iconic Cincinnati businesses and hidden gems alike. Her piece is Cincy Nature Trees, Ink and Watercolor on Watercolor Paper. This piece, done with ink and watercolor on watercolor paper, is based on a photo taken on a night hike at the Cincinnati Nature Center (Rowe Woods). The Nature Center is such a wonderful, peaceful place full of memories for her and many in Cincinnati; this piece captures an exquisite, silent moment in nature.
Karen Saunders is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts educator who hopscotched across the Midwest before landing in Cincinnati. She has a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with an emphasis in Ceramics, and an MA in Art Education from Miami University at Oxford. Saunders is a lead designer for ArtWorks’ Tour De Cincy sculptural bike racks. Saunders was recently commissioned for an interactive installation at the Contemporary Art Center’s UnMuseum, and two different exhibits in its lobby. She also exhibits her art at venues such as the Canton Art Museum, Richmond Art Museum, Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery, KMAC Museum and 21c Museum / hotel. Her piece is Scarlett & Blue. Her statement: “My work is about investigating wonder and awe. This piece, Blu an Scarlet, is from a body of work that looks at the mysteries of a sense of place. I often head out with my camera when traveling in search of wonder. These images were taken on a wonder walk, and I have not altered them except for cropping. The body of water in the images is Lake Erie.”
Kate Tepe is a Cincinnati based artist who creates work related to group and personal identities, interpersonal relationships, and community networks. She received her MFA from the University of Cincinnati and BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has worked under the guidance of several respected artists, including Noel Anderson, Katie Parker, and Nick Cave. She has led instruction and develop programming for the Contemporary Arts Center, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Public Schools, the University of Dayton, and The Art Institute of Chicago. She is the lead designer for the Hey. Let’s Talk Mental Health Card Game. Her piece is an abstract acrylic and ink painting.
L.D. Nehls is an artist and educator in Cincinnati, OH. L.D. was the lead designer of a mural in Enon Alley, as part of ArtWorks’ 2016 project New Lines. See the piece, “Sap Green” – Latex on Wood.
Lindsey Whittle is a multimedia performance / garment artist, print designer, and facilitator whose primary mediums are collaboration and color. Whittle is a professor / educator in performance, garment and foundations at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and co-owns and co-instigates PIQUE experience gallery and Airbnb in Covington, KY. She has a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati (2007) and a Fashion Masters from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2014). Whittel was the craft editor for Kiki Magazine and taught English at a fashion high school in Gifu, Japan (2009). Whittle has exhibited in Salem, MA; Chicago, Il; and Cincinnati, OH and has been featured by Hyperallergic. She has worked for many years with ArtWorks’ Hero Design Company (HDC). Her piece is a mixed media sculpture of glasses. This piece is 1 of 2. Lindsey Whittle has the other one, which is a mirror copy for wear and activation. Like most of Whittle’s work, this piece can function as a sculpture, on the wall, as a hat, as glasses or as a performance object where many wearers move together. This piece is part of a larger body of work that strives to connect people together. Whittle wears these sculptures daily. They help Whittle achieve the goal of being taller, and they are an invitation to collaborate and perform with others at a moment’s notice. This is the 4th version of these objects, and the first time Whittle has made one available for sale.
Husband-and-wife duo Jonathan and Lindsey Lamb spearhead LKMNDD in addition to making art together under the moniker Lindz and Lamb. LKMNDD (a.k.a. Like Minded Productions) expands the possibilities for art—in the real world, outside the gallery walls. They take art to the streets, the concert, the arena. Simply put: they bring art to the people. They are the designers for the mural, It’s Your Thing. Their piece is a linear art triptych.
Lizzy DuQuette is an ArtWorks teaching artist and designer. In the spring, Lizzy co-led apprentices to paint murals throughout the new Walnut Hills ArtWorks office. Past projects include OUR NEW NORMAL, a remote stop-motion animation and collaborative poetry project, and BLINK: LIGHT + SHADOW, a giant scrolling picture machine and shadow puppet project that told a story about climate crisis. Lizzy received a BFA from the University of Cincinnati DAAP with a concentration in drawing and printmaking. Her piece is Now I climb hilltop woods and stone halos to find an unabridged view, color pencil and gouache, collage, 2015. This original illustration was part of what became her submission for CincyInk. It was inspired by a line in the collaborative poem Seven Hills and a Queen to Name Them. “I love that this project connected so many people, artists, poets, organizers, and the people who got tattoos of lines from the poem. My favorite thing about Cincinnati is visiting one of the many hilltop parks that overlook the city and watching the bats come out at dusk as I sit on the stone ledge.”
Mark Patsfall is an artist and printmaker who received his MFA from the University of Cincinnati. In 1980, he designed and assisted in the construction of Prasada Press, a fine art press in Northside run by Janice Forberg, and printed there until 1981. He founded Masterpiece Press, Inc. (now Clay Street Press) in 1981 and worked with many local, national, and international artists. Working with Carl Solway Gallery (1984 – 2002), he was chief designer and technician for video artist Nam June Paik. Working with Volatile Editions, he printed or oversaw the fabrication of works by many artists of national or international reputation. His work as an artists has been exhibited locally, nationally, and abroad. In 2002, he was awarded a two-month artist residency in Prague, Czech Republic by the Ohio Arts Council and Jelini Foundation. In 2011, he executed a video sculpture commission for the American Broadcast Museum in Chicago. Hi work is in many public and private collections. He is a mini mural artist for ArtWorks’ project CincyInk. He is a former adjunct professor of art at the University of Cincinnati and was an executive member of the Board of Directors of the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 2011-2020. He is also a US Army Vietnam veteran (1969 – 1971). His pieces are Untitled (Woven Print III), Relief printing on woven strips of Rives BFK paper, Dimensions: 31” x 29.5″ and Untitled (Woven Print IV), Medium: Relief printing on woven strips of Rives BFK paper, Dimensions: 31” x 30.75.” Both works are unique works, monoprints on Rives BFK paper using antique found letterpress plates, old etching and relief plates created by the artist and found objects which were inked and printed. The narrow strips of paper were then woven together and glued using archival glue.
Michael Coppage is a conceptual artist using an interdisciplinary, dialectical approach to address social issues surrounding race and language. He is a lead designer of ArtWorks’ 2019 Avondale project, goVibrant. Coppage began 2021 as a recipient of ArtsWave’s Truth and Reconciliation grant and also completed a TEDx Talk. He also had two concurrent exhibitions at the Kennedy Heights Art Center and the Annex Gallery during the first three months of the year. Currently, he has a public installation on display at the 21c Museum in Cincinnati through the remainder of the year. In July, his highly anticipated Black Box series will be on display at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a Smithsonian affiliate. Coppage has gained some attention recently with a body of work entitled “American+” after depicting white Americans as monkeys in his paintings. He has several collaborative pieces set for completion this year and also released a podcast on Spotify appropriately titled Black Box as part of his recent series. His piece is Guns-N-Gucci, Artist Embellished Reproduction. Bananas are easily digestible. The longer they ripen the easier they are to consume. Ironically, ideas are the same way. The more you are exposed to them the more palatable they become. This piece is about American consumption and how easily influenced we are by corporate branding and marketing. Guns and Gucci couldn’t be further apart from each other but as long as they sell, we consume.
Michael Stillion is an Artist, Teacher and Curator living in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design and his MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Michael is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Miami University where he teaches painting and drawing. His honors include being twice awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, a Joan Mitchell full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and a full year fellowship to the Roswell Artist in Residence. Stillion is the lead designer of ArtWorks’ 2008 mural Spring Through Time and 2014 project Main Street Collages. His work has also been exhibited in venues such as the Columbus Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Roswell Museum of Art, Marshall University, Art Chicago and SpringBreak Art Show, New York. His work has been featured in publications such as Art Maze Magazine and New American Paintings. His piece is a floral still life, an unique watercolor monoprint in artist made frame.
Nicki Deux is a painter raised in Miami with 20 years of art education and 10 years and over 200,000 square feet of Mural Experience. She is the teaching artist for ArtWorks’ Fountain of Life mural. Her pieces are Findlay Market II 11X14″ Acrylic on Canvas and Findlay Market III (sky view) 11X14″ Acrylic on Canvas. This uninhabited landscape explores the beauty of the man-made Cincinnati landmark’s colourful and timeless architecture, but without people. The lack of human inhabitants in a space built by humans gives the cityscape a post-apocalyptic unease which is counteracted by the bright colours.
Nikita Gross is a Cincinnati photographer. She was the lead designer and teaching artist for ArtWorks’ 2020 Heart and Soul. Her pieces are Joy I and Joy II. Joy is the result of a liberating experience where artist Nikita Gross invited 21 women into the woods to experience the freedom of connection and uninhibited self-love while swimming in a creek together. These pieces were created in 2019. They are both photographic prints from an experimental 35mm negative.
Nytaya Babbitt is a Cincinnati-based artist, working to create dialogue within the community. She is studying illustration at the Art Academy of Cincinnati while working on her project, ” Black Women Narratives.” This project is about black women for black women to narrate their own images while others take the time to listen. She is a teaching artist for the Avondale Mediation mural. Her piece is a large-scale portrait.
Pull Club is a printmaking and design studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. Made up of three artists Amy Scarpello, Chelsey Hughes, and Linda Winder. Pull Club focuses on textile and paper print goods, with screen printing as the central process to creation. All projects are handmade in their clubhouse studio, located in Camp Washington. The first piece is Overgrowth, a print produced by Pull Club Studio in 2017 and is now out of print. A two color screen print of a rabbit hidden in the grass and clover. Printed on green gold 100 lb cover stock. The image is printed in a dark forest green with marks of cornflower blue closer through the image. This item was illustrated by studio artist Linda Winder. The item is editioned in pencil to the lower right 23/25, debossed with the studio’s logo, and initialed by the artist. The print is slightly oversized at 25 x 19”. The second piece is Beautiful Ladies, a test print produced by Pull Club Studio in 2016. A one color print featuring gestural illustrations of ladies. This is a prominent design motif in Pull Club work. The image is printed in back on a cream toned Stonehenge paper with a deckled edge. The art has some light marks to the center and ad small tear to the lower left. Debossed to the lower right-hand corner with the studio logo this and marked “AP” or artist proof. This is a very limited test print no paper edition was created of this image. The work is 22” x 34”. The third piece is a collection featuring out-of-print works from Pull Club Studio. The largest print at 12.5” x 19 is a tone-on-tone image in shades of blue. This item was created as a limited run for, the Taft Museums, House Party event circa 2018. This work features the iconic image of the Taft House illustrated in a playful style with a variety of halftone gradients highlighting the gardens. This collection includes a playful representation of a Bengal tiger biting a football. This print is 12.5” x 12.5” and is a two-color print on orange paper. The tiger is completed in brown and cream printed layers. The item is editioned in pencil to the lower right 17/40 and debossed with the studio’s logo. The final print image celebrates Cincinnati welcoming of spring – Bockfest. The image of a goat with flowers and beer surrounding it sits on an 8.5” x 11” cream paper. The studios logo is printed to the lower right. The artwork is printed in six layers of warm springtime hues.
Radha Lakshmi is an interdisciplinary ritual community artist whose works of art emerge from ephemeral Mandala/Kolam traditions from Southern India. Radha received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and a Masters of Fine Art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her creative expressions come from her folklore traditions of Southern India. Radha has National and International teaching experience. She worked as an art consultant/faculty member at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, India. Radha also was a visiting Scholar at Rhode Island School of Design (Rhode Island), Darwin University (Australia), and The College of Fine Arts, Sydney (Australia). Her artwork has won several awards and is in museum and gallery collections throughout the world. Radha’s art also can be viewed locally in the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Proton Therapy Center and Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute. She currently resides in Cincinnati with her partner Joel Mellon, where she facilitates Creating Sacred Spaces through Mandalam ephemeral art. Her workshops include local high schools in Cincinnati, Art organizations, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and corporations like P&G. Her piece is Harmonic Resonance – Series 3, Size: 20”x20,” Medium: Monoprint.
Sara Torgison (born 1987, San Diego CA) is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus in ceramic and fiber arts. She received her MFA from the University of Cincinnati School of Art, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning and a BFA from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. Sara has served as a facility coordinator for both community and university fine arts studios. She currently teaches at the Seven Hills School and the University of Cincinnati while pursuing engagement with her community through workshops, collaborations and social practice projects. Her pieces (piece 1 and piece 2) define the evolution of an emotional eruption. The first is a quiet depiction of balance—things are stacking up, but they are held in an orderly way. The second piece shows a chaotic reaction to the pressure of maintaining stability. Sometimes we sit quietly, and sometimes we well up and over the edges of our ability to cope with the demands of our lives. Both works are wheel thrown and altered stoneware, each a different meditation on the balancing act of living.
Sharareh Khosravani’s portfolio includes large installations, sculptures, paintings, interpretive work, and book illustrations. Much of her work explores concepts of loss and otherness and invites the viewer to consider the fragility of their own position within a broader social context. She is the lead designer of a large-scale public mural on the side of Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati. She earned her MFA from the University of Cincinnati. Her pieces include Observer, which refers to “When women were birds” written by Terry Tempest Williams; “Word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper.” “Observer” shows the moment of whispering in nature as a “background” on which all meaning is possible. Her other piece is Untitled. “…the memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment…” Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time (6 volumes).
Stephen Powers is a contemporary artist and muralist currently living and working in New York City. He is also known by the name ESPO (“Exterior Surface Painting Outreach”), and first attracted attention under this name for his tags on the streets of Philadelphia. Powers abandoned graffiti in 1999, taking enamel on metal art into the studio and creating a practice that includes sign painting. In 2007, Powers, as a Fullbright scholar, transformed the iconography of political street murals in Dublin and Belfast into new narratives of his own making. Framed print of a Stephen Powers original design Everything is Shit Except you Love. This piece is created in Powers’ hallmark design of graphic lettering, which he often incorporates into his murals around the world. These murals are like love letters to the cities in which they reside.
Taron Jordan (aka Cone Bread) is a freelance illustrator currently based in Cincinnati, OH. His style consists of organic, decorative movements and is highly influence by the female form. His pieces include print 1, print 2 and print 3. His artist statement: “I believe that everything has an essence of beauty to it that flows within every line, shape and form. I seek beauty in culture and human figures with long hair that flows in the wind. Recording them with traditional black and white drawings or full-scaled paintings. I then scan my drawings into the computer so that I can color them in Photoshop. My objective is to depict what beauty is through the research of eastern cultures and the practice of drawing. I want to create a body of work that forces you to stand still and try to capture everything that the piece is trying to say.”
TC Thomason is a self-taught artist from Russellville, KY. His visual art background spans many mediums and styles – charcoal, pastels, ink, and paint; portraits, pointillism, and line drawings. He organizes shows and events as both an artist and curator, emphasizing the role art can play in community-building, connecting people around beauty and meaning. He has a degree in economics from Centre College, an MA in Arts administration from Ohio State, and lives with his cat named Bill Murray. His piece is a surreal acrylic painting.
Thomas Osorio is a visual artist. He was born in Dover, Ohio in 1991. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 2007 and in 2010 began attending Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York for his BFA, graduating in 2014. He went on to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016 for his MFA, graduating in 2018. After a short stint in Denver, Osorio moved back to Cincinnati in 2019. Since moving back to Cincinnati, Osorio has been involved in local organizations such as ArtWorks, including assisting on a mural in TQL Stadium. This artwork is a digitally manipulated photo of a series of flowers. His artist statement: “I take an appropriated photo and transform it through various image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Procreate on the iPad. I then digitally paint on top of the photo in the said programs, creating the construction you see before you.”
