2021 ArtPop Street Gallery: Charlotte, NC

"I began this piece the day after my son died in direct response to his passing. Immersed in the feeling of a void and a vacuum, surrounded by a grief that felt foreign and unexplored, the image of twin sojourners immediately came to mind. In craving a new kind of armor to withstand my own evolving story, the parity between fear and hope, between emptiness and exploration, between grief and the unknown, manifested readily. The illustration shows the equipment of extremes, an Apollo era spacesuit and a Cousteau era atmospheric deep submergence suit. These are mission critical tools, donned to withstand the hostile unknowns of extreme height and extreme depth. They are worn by the brave who are willing to step forth into darkness. The vibrant, unreal color is a mark of intent; calling the viewer to action by responding with resilience, hope, ingenuity and optimism for what's to come. Created out of both joy and longing, the image is for anyone who hopes to be well equipped for the void uncovered before them." -David Bulfin

"I photographed this gutted phone booth in 2019 outside the remains of a dilapidated convenience store for my Payphones on Film series. With these images, I aim to find and document as many remaining public telephones as I can find on 35mm film. As each payphone has its own history, character, and surrounding atmosphere, I consider this a series of portraits. As an added bonus, finding these leftover public fixtures of the past doubles as a sort of scavenger hunt, making the process equally as rewarding as the processing the final image." -Dylan Bannister

"Salt and Pepper. Einstein and Tesla. Two great minds, alive at the same time that dramatically shaped the world. Someone once asked Einstein what it was like to be the smartest man alive and he replied, "I don't know, you should ask Nikola Tesla that question." Yet, like pepper is to salt, Tesla is often an afterthought when it comes to Einstein. Why is that? This piece is also a playful nod to the extraordinary amount of thoughts that were running through these two men's minds at any given moment." -Jesse Carkin

"Receiving Care" is an image about the reciprocal and flowing nature of giving and receiving care. When we are the ones in need, someone comes along even if in the smallest way and gives us a portion of the care we need to thrive in life. These moments spread across humanity and time add up to be the life giving hope we so often need to keep moving forward. In this or these slices of giving it is that the giver is also the receiver making the question of who is helped the most beautiful answer; both/all/everyone. By helping one, we have helped all. Pay it forward. Reach out. Love all. Become the brotherhood/sisterhood." -Christina Cobb

"Through my work I try to showcase and celebrate the beauty of movement and dance while adding a contemporary twist, and in some cases, by adding another medium. The medium that was added to this shoot was flour." -Aletha Buck

"I once traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on a business trip with my father and toured manufacturing facilities. My favorite factory was Utexa. Utexa is a synthetic yarn production plant that transforms plastic into string yarn to make clothing. This process was amazing; they started with rice grain sizes of plastic which were melted and sent through microfilament thin dishes, turning them into fibers. A cooling process took place, where these tiny strings were tacked together to make a normal thread. It was amazing to see plastic, a major pollutant of our environment, repurposed and made into something new again. When I returned home, I knew what I wanted to create. My Utexa print is made up of four layers resulting in an image depicting machinery holding synthetic yarn. Layering was important in this print to properly depict the process the plastic goes through to become yarn. The plastic started out rough and became an extremely soft thread. I decided to add texture by layering the machinery to highlight the synthetic yarn." -Katherine Heilig

"Future Movement is the first in a series that delves into interpreting movement as color. It is a celebration of hue and a reminder to myself that abstract art is home, that color creation is what moves me to create. Tufting offers an avenue to be both soft and structured, to balance the tension between wanting to touch the artwork, while knowing it is against ‘The Rules’.

This series is created by dying the wool yarn myself, which provides subtleties and variations that cannot be found in commercially dyed yarn. Their blue is blue; my blue is aqua, robin’s egg blue, the first blue in the sky in the morning, all in one hank of yarn. Using a yarn-fed power tool called a tufting gun, I create textured textile pieces that are then stretched across custom wood panels. The panels, like our own bones, are the invisible support for each piece." -Cat Babbie

"The piece I created shows my family on the beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina enjoying s’mores around a beach fire. The main inspiration for this artwork was my family and spending time outdoors. As a N.C. native, I fully appreciate the beauty of the place where I have grown up. Since the beginning of the pandemic, making a bonfire is one of the few types of entertainment that people can do safely. I am continually trying to find happiness in my immediate surroundings and making this piece is what has helped me get through these arduous times. I now appreciate the extra time with my family, because I had taken it for granted earlier in my youth. I also aimed to create a nostalgic image that would be familiar to many generations." -Ella Mackinson

"My work often explores the concept of cultural identity, integration, and displacement. Most of my painting or wall sculpture was constructed with silk fabric, a culturally-rich material, and a metaphor for my identity. Being an immigrant and experiencing dramatic changes in the cultural environment, I was struggling to rebuild my identity. Making artwork has become a way to meditate and recall those lost memories.
The Flame-keeper was reconstructed with hundreds of hand-cut silk fabric ribbons dipped into acrylic paint. I think of the alteration of painted silk to a sculptural form as a visual second skin. These cut, torn, beaten, sanded, and layered forms represent my cultural transformation." -Kenny Nguyen

"Begin Again is part of my “Change in Motion” series developed for my ASC Regional Artists Project Grant received in January, 2020. “Change in Motion” grant began as a personal journey as my life underwent drastic changes, but soon evolved into a more global concept of change as the pandemic and events of 2020 unfolded. Begin Again is an expressionistic landscape capturing the energy of life in bloom, the essence of change & growth, and the peaceful tranquility of the rolling hills of nature. The painting also reflects my travels to Ireland, the interplay of dichotomy & harmony, and a search for peace amidst the flux of 2020 changes." -Molly Partyka

"This painting is inspired by the overall body of work of Willie Nelson. It's reflective of the many paths, failures and successes in an artistic journey. Being a colorblind artist, this was my first effort to break through my challenges and represent color properly on the human form. This painting is reflective of both Willie's journey as well as my journey with this painting." -Tim Petrinec

"A commission piece for my friend's son. His birthday is on the anniversary of Apollo 11. He sent me several photographs but this one stood out to me. I was excited to play around with the colors of the clouds. I wanted to give it a whimsical feeling because it was going in a little boy's room." -Ashley Proctor

"Series in my portfolio of the last five years depicting iterations of an experimentation with garments and painting. Textiles are used metaphorically to contemplate the human condition, reveal qualities of femininity, and explore identity.
Emerging is a visual dialogue evoking human presence and the past.
The piece selected for ArtPop 2021 is from a series that began in early 2020 entitled VOICES THAT SKIP TOWARDS NIGHT. I felt an urgency to reflect upon the importance of relationships, bonds, remembrances of loved ones and places of respite. Therefore, these paintings employ clothing as a veneer to suggest figures and memory. They present scenes of vast skies, lands, or atmospheres in which viewers may roam in their imaginations.
Aiming to instill a sense of enveloping comfort, the focus is built upon a fantasy that spirits of loved ones surround us at night. Driven by introspection regarding my connection with my late brother and mother, the series evolved to include a universal perspective regarding unions between people and the ways in which we communicate with those closest to us." -Caroline Rust

"In my acrylic painting titled “Eye-scape,” the viewer can escape into the eyes of my delicate and graceful cat, Lilly. Her eyes are painted in their vivid true colors in contrast with an otherwise black-and-white composition. Eyes have always been one of my favorite things to paint, as I feel they are a true connection point." -Sara Simmons

“Labyrinth” is a piece about the interactions of color and form. It’s based on the ideas of Josef Albers about color interactions. Back in art school (SUNY Purchase), I studied color theory under Leonard Stokes, he was a student of Josef Albers while he was studying at Yale. Leonard Stokes had us read the book, “ Interaction of Color”, by Josef Albers. The teachings of the book and Stoke’s color theory classes, have always stuck with me. I find the perception of color interesting, in that it changes depending on its relationship with other colors. The idea of exploring this concept in my artwork really came to mind last year, when I saw a small painting by Josef Albers on display at the Bechtler Museum. It inspired me to use Alber’s principles of color theory more consciously in my own work. Those principles, combined with the element of movement, which is always important to me, and a love of the midcentury modern artwork, inspired this artwork." -Mary Zio

"We have all been affected one way or the other by the nasty and dreaded coronavirus. This piece
is my hope for a better future without a pandemic. My hope is that the proverbial sun will shine on us once again and we will be able to live life in a relatively normal way and get back to hugging each other, dancing and spreading the love." - Mikel Frank

Untitled painting, by Greg Barnes

Girl in Goggles, by Robb Webb