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Kayleigh Efird – Saint Genevieve Still Loves You

Kayleigh Efird is a multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer with a special sensitivity towards color and performance.

Her work is no stranger to the absurd and otherworldly, as she is inspired by the lovable cast of the Muppets and baroque painting. Growing up in North Carolina, Kayleigh began her artistic pursuits as a high school student at University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She continued her studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland and received her BFA as a fibers artist and illustrator. She debuted her first gallery show in 2016 with her illustrated series Planet Mol. She debuted her textile work two years later with her collaborative fashion collection NICE TIME alongside co-creator Shelby Slayden.

Her first solo runway collection DAVID arrived in April of 2020. Her work has been published digitally and in print by Baltimore Style Magazine and BMORE Art Magazine. Her career also includes exhibitions in London, Baltimore and North Carolina. She recently undertook a six month assistantship with punk fashion designer and icon Pam Hogg.

“Saint Genevieve Still Loves You represents an ongoing project that occupied most of my 2020. The illustrated collection seeks to project fantasy and mischief into a year indoors. It is my spaghetti western; riding horses, seeing an oasis, and realizing your pool is full of sand. As a reflection on a year making art in the pandemic, Saint Genevieve Still Loves You is my testimony as a 2020 college graduate; thinking ‘what do I do now?’ and scrambling to puzzle together a resume. Saint Genevieve Still Loves You is a story for being aimless, an epic quest about being completely “un-epic”. You don’t really know where you are going, but you keep walking anyway.”

Instagram

Website

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Nick Luther

Nick Luther was born on September 3rd, 1993, as the second of four boys. Growing up with a father who loved comic books and horror movies was a huge factor in developing his favorite artistic subject matter and preferred styles. 

Nick has been drawing for as long as he can remember. His father was always drawing when he was a small child and seeing this as well as the art of Doctor Seuss books and the fun colors and characters of Looney Toons had him drawing by the age of four on a regular basis. One of his favorite subjects as a child was creating and drawing monsters with movies such as Alien and The Thing being heavy influences.

He became interested in drawing his own comics as a young child in daycare and remembers copying from Calvin and Hobbs books before he and his eldest brother started making their own stick figure comics that continued on into middle school. He also began using pipe cleaners to create simple stick figure characters to play with which eventually developed into elaborate monsters of varying designs and the ability to make stop motion movies with these homemade creatures. He started to refine his own artistic vision in high school when he began to focus more on proper human proportions and anatomy instead of simple stick figures. Some of the inspiration for his own characters and how he draws anatomy in his own way comes from the dark and exaggerated styles of Tim Burton, Gris Grimly, and Jhonen Vasquez.

While art classes in school introduced him into new mediums he hadn’t experienced before, his favorite style remained very much illustrations and character creation and his love of comics never wavered; some of his favorite comic book artists he’s known about since childhood such as Todd McFarlane and Sam Keith. 4 years of art classes introduced him to painting and charcoal and in that time he also pursued experimenting with acrylic paints in his own time. He says that in that time he went through at least 2 sketchbooks a year and most were full of his own caricatures of various people he knew or favorite characters and actors.

He still has those sketchbooks and various other works he’s done in his possession to this day. 

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Karen Leong

“Karen Leong is a writer of poetry, prose, and nonfiction. Her works mainly involve Hong Kong, women of colour, and her lived experience in straddling both. She has been featured on Cantocutie, ZAMI, Doof Magazine, and Vice Asia. She plucks inspiration from reclamation and desire.
In her spare time, she scrapbooks, performs, and waxes poetic about being an Aries sun.”

Instagram

See her poetry below, titled “thrice alone”

I. on waning

full bellied moon
what is mid autumn to you?
dangle on the precipice low hanging bloom
I, wasting away runny like the yolk like the
Mooncake guts velvet on my tongue
balm on my soul and splits my lip
My grandmother wears red and her head
lowers thread by thread low hanging bloom

yesterday I was cinder like
carry smoke and weight
stained reflections in formed gutters
now my face is the moon
shucked off all its hard lines
Let myself be round cheeked pockmark and smile
crowning here the crowning joy of it all
can a motif be exhausted if it belongs to people, me, us?
slat the beams where the rabbit princess dangles
my grandfather seated next to her; home spun on waxy planes
and today of all days i can see
lucid clear are their eyes while mine glisten
dyed yellow in the low hanging bloom

II. land-locked sea


Silver bird twitching into gear
the pews pin drop against the low whine
engine oil that sputters take me, me
loosely assembled for a passengerless plane
I, the same
I, pared down

These aisles could be glided down
My mother shed less of her for me
The four chambers of my heart cleaved less severely
North east for auspicious roots
South west where I will be
There is no view so I settle in my skin
I am no love child of the east
and west I am Writhing
against inhabiting a place
only to be wrested away when I just start to ripen
start to wrap the word home in my mouth
Even the cantonese is stilted and tinny
from above my head, cajoling
Time to fasten
Let the words drip
Collected and bagged,
until they too curdle
stretched like whey across the sea

III. a response of sorts


On bad days, are we meant to wield?
pen like gunmetal
kiss the sword of those who spit
flecks dusted like snow on our cheeks

we are in praxis
But we bruise like fruit
online today I yell pretty nothings at what
it means to be slope and valley
Keyboard tiles are not an armistice for eyes that don’t crease
but wilt

under attack is a light way to put what unclenches inside
when i hear my garbled tongue
from gooseflesh and wrinkled skin
He hurt me, smoothed over like a worry stone
He hurt me, the lines past and present
vivisect as I watch mes crumple, wind out of sail
sorrow is borrowed and sowed
Sowed and borrowed from those who came
landlocked and spread forth
wear, tear or worse yet — seeking home
An immigrant story is one that refashions itself
Temporal, shining
Beacon of spittle adorned as a badge
Twelve months and insurrections later
caution is thrown at the wind
and we grab at it with empty hands

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Joseph Ovalle – America Closed

Joseph Jesse Ovalle is a multi-media artist who investigates the meaning of an object through material use, process and symbolism. He graduated from Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a minor in Art history. Joseph references historical and contemporary in his work to speak about topics such as: religion, race, politics, culture and American society.

He has shown across the United States at various galleries, museums and educational institutions and currently has public sculptural work up for view at Kellogg Community College, Scovill Sculpture Park, and Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville. Joseph is currently the Co-Director of the ‘In Art Gallery’ which is an online venue for artist to exhibit there work.

He is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree as an Assistant Instructor at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design in Bloomington, Indiana with his dog Jefferey.

“War is life for people across the globe. Surveillance, weapons and police surround us. Race, Religion and a limited access to essential resources are used as mechanisms of division. This work is a message for those with power who believe our democracy can be purchased, you are outnumbered.”

Website

Instagram

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Malik Davis

Malik Davis is a photographer and videographer from Indianapolis, IN. He graduated from Anderson University and currently working at IU: Kelley School of Business as a Learning Media Producer & Videographer and also Freelance Concert, Wedding, and Landscape Photographer & Videographer.

Instagram: @malikdavisphotos

“I never thought that I would be labeled as an artist until quarantine happened. Before I started my deep dive into photography and self-portrait work, video was my first love – and the only reason I started to get into photography more was because at my first job with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. I would make bi-weekly videos highlighting their weeks of training and give the fans updates on what the band was doing. And while I would be on the field shooting with the band members they would joke and say “Malik take my picture!” and I would remind them every time that that I was specifically video based and they should talk to the actual photographer for action shots. It was all fun and games until one day it dawned on me that maybe I should try and be versatile with my skill set, which is what helped get me to where I am today in the photography world.

When I shoot self-portraits I usually have a song or a concept in my head that I, personally, think would be cool to see while scrolling on Instagram. My approach to shooting self-portraits is “what is it that I want to make clear to the audience?” Or “How can I express how I’m feeling while I’m looking at this photograph?” And usually while I’m editing them – I do the coloring first and once I’m done, put them away, and then after a day or so of not looking at them, I pull them into Photoshop and see what other element or elements could add to sort of amplify the shot in a unique way.

I never really got into the self-portrait thing until I found a handful of self-portrait photographers on Twitter and Instagram and sort of studied how they posed and everything —  and then during the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer — I, as a black man, have faced racism a number of times and I wanted to get my message of frustration, sadness, and anger out in a healthy way, but also pushed that narrative of “We Black people want equality.” And after seeing that people’s lives could be put in danger if I went out and took photos at a protest, I took it among myself to use myself as the subject and voice all of those things through my artwork.

And once the protests slowed down and things were beginning to settle a little bit, I started experimenting with different concepts for self-portraits and landed on this space theme that I seem to be stuck on and I’m the type of person who welcomes trial and error as an approach to a creative piece of work because it’s helped me learn and get better at my craft.”

 

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Isaiah

“To keep it short I knew that I wanted to be a photographer since I was 16.

I didn’t do that well in high school and I dropped out of college after my first year, shortly before I was told by my photography professor that my photos weren’t up to par with a current project. No amount of negativity or setbacks I’ve had in life has ever stopped me from continuing my journey as a photographer.

The process of shooting film has made me become more patient with documenting photos, and becoming more comfortable with myself. Also knowing that I can’t look at the photo right after I hit the shutter always leaves me with a mystery. Whether it’s portraits or out in the streets, I tend to slow down and observe how people operate and maybe even interact with them. My work is always made for me, I never shy from a personal project because it’s “too weird” and rarely find myself overthinking on how the audience will view my work. however I am beyond happy that many people can relate to the content I do put out.

I feed off the fact that I can go from shooting colorful portraits or B&W street photos that leaves my viewer with a sense of calmness, to a video or photo series (that was inspired from an old horror film) that has the viewer disturbed or left with sense of weariness, but intrigues them & leaving them wanting more. To any creatives reading this, I encourage you to make what’s in your heart. Dig deep into yourself and put out the most outlandish, craziest work that you can think of.

There are billions of people on the planet, you are not the only crazy one. Someone is waiting on you to do it.”

Instagram: @fluoresceeie

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Xakilah Daniel

Xakilah Daniel is a student at Indiana University. A fine art student, majoring in photography. She is a part of Black Lives Matter movement and based her artwork from intersectionality. Xakilah expresses the importance in sharing art tips within the art community, because she seeks fairness for everyone.

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Haley Inyart – More Meat More Problem

Haley Clancy Inyart is currently Co-Director of The In Art Gallery. Haley received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Art and Design with a focus in Drawing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

She had a solo exhibition at The Governor French Gallery in Belleville, IL titled ‘Fridges and Freezers’. She has shown work in numerous shows including, the 28th Cedarhurst Biennial Juried Exhibition, the 16th Regional Juried Exhibition at Freeport Art Museum and The Edwardsville 200th Anniversary Show at the Edwardsville Arts Center. Haley has also completed a large-scale sculpture for SIUE’s Sculpture on Campus Competition, she received the ‘Dennis De Toye’ Award’ for her 8-foot sculpture of a steak which can be seen on the SIUE campus. The environment and the meat industry are concepts which her work revolves around.

Haley is an avid runner and spends most of her time outdoors.

“Eating meat has a direct correlation to climate change and it is one of the biggest contributors. It also causes enormous amounts of deforestation, water and air pollution and the unethical treatment of animals. Animals in factory farms are forced to live in confined spaces, barely able to walk around and some don’t ever see sunlight. The next time you eat a piece of meat, think about the suffering, resources and money it took to raise, kill and transport that animal to you. 

Using colored pencils and oil paint allows me to bring out the vibrant colors of meat and food packaging and emphasize the advertising that comes along with the food and meat industries. This advertising seems to cover up the issues and horrifying processes that animals are forced to endure. I encourage you to consider the impact of each person on this planet and how your choices affect the planet. “

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Karen S. Holtzclaw

Karen S. Holtzclaw began painting in 1968 and continued in a realistic style until a couple of years ago, where she transformed into a fantasy style with an environmental context. She has also ventured out into book cover design and illustration.

“These paintings represent my feelings in the manifestation and celebration of two souls finding and loving life and each other”

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Deng Yueyao

Deng Yueyao Interactive

Hi, I am Deng Yueyao! I created this hypertext story called “A Land Without Misery” which depicts an imaginary scenario- a young girl chatted with a stranger on an unknown website. The audience can figure out the development of the story by clicking around the picture.

I set short audio that announces the end of the journey, but it is an open ending story. From my perspective, this work is designed to help people see things from different angles. I hope people can take a minute to imagine how does their life looks like if they are a plant, a cat, or a unicorn. In doing so, people can have a relax after busy work, or even get some inspiration on how to solve the problems they meet.

Click on the smile to be taken to a digital playground.

🙂

Important URL Link

https://yueydeng.pages.iu.edu/DengYueyao_Project2/Allen21.html