The Art
I think the title of this special issue speaks for itself. I was delighted to curate this experience for you and I hope it helps you change the lens through which you see sexuality, sensuality, and existence in yourself and others.
-Anna Jordan
Abract Portrait Black and White
By: Hanna Wright
Hanna Marie Dean Wright is a self taught artist residing in Keavy, Kentucky. She uses her experiences from growing up in rural South-Eastern Kentucky, teaching special education classes, and living with obsessive compulsive disorder to inspire her unique works of art. Hanna Wright uses bold lines and bright colors to create abstract figures with relatable and at times deeply emotional expressions. Hanna was born in Barbourville, Kenucky on April 15th, 1993. Hanna graduated from the University of the Cumberlands in 2015 with degrees in Special Education Behavioral Disabilities and Elementary Education. Hanna Wright’s mamaw, Geraldine Scalf, has had a great impact on Hanna’s art career and works as fellow folk artist residing in Barbourville, Kentucky. Hanna was adopted at the age of 4 and moved from Barbourville to Keavy, Kentucky. She now teaches special education in the Laurel County School District and spends most of her free time creating unique works of art on paper, canvas, wood, and reclaimed scrap materials. Hanna most enjoys drawing her expressive “Starmen” and painting abstract figures and faces on reclaimed wooden panels. Hanna Wright’s collection of art contains over 2000 works of art on paper and over 400 paintings of all sizes. Hanna’s artwork has been gaining popularity on the internet since 2015 and her artwork has been sought after by art galleries on a global scale. Hanna has had opportunities to display her artwork in galleries from Australia to New Mexico.
https://www.pinterest.com/hwright4643/artwork-by-hanna-wright-of-keavy-kentucky/
Right There
By: Dave Sims
A retired educator, Dave Sims makes art and music in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. His comix and paintings both old-school and digital appear upon the walls, covers and inside pages of over sixty tactile and virtual exhibits and publications. His guitar playing and singing still leave listeners shaking their heads in disbelief, while his totems continue to catch the eyes of many strangers. Experience more at www.tincansims.com
IG: tincansims
Cripple #2
By: Nick Maynard
Cripple is a series of 10 photographic images
I’m a queer, working class artist, who has been born and brought up in the North of England. In the last few years, I have had work appear in exhibitions in Manchester and on-line. This year one of my pieces has been short listed for the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. My work is primarily about transformation and for me that begins with a thought. Not that I believe you can change what a person thinks with art - but you can give them something to think about. We are all an accumulation of experiences, and that’s what I try to create within my work – transformative experiences in the form of subliminal questions only the individual can answer for themselves. My work tries to curate a blend of the subversive and the traditional, with the beautiful and the violent, and because of that not everybody is going to engage with the work in a positive or favourable way. But those people are not my audience. As a queer artist I create for a queer eye, with a queer aesthetic and a queer agenda. What happens now, in a post-gay world? In a time when we are no longer rare exotic creature to be looked at, as if from another realm. Since the hetero-normalisation of the ‘gay lifestyle’, being gay has become the new ‘normal’… What about those of us who still want to feast with panthers? What do we have to feed our souls?
https://boyographer.wixsite.com/website
INvisible
By: Shannon Kernaghan
Acrylic, metal & paper on board. 16 x 24 x .25 in. Yesterday you were cherished, every smile and word golden. Today you are invisible, lost in a crowd of faceless strangers with only memories to connect past and present. Whether your story is one of silence or sound, unite with those who foster and value your visibility.
I have always been intrigued by crows. When I pause to watch their flurry of activity – individually or in a murder – they kickstart a comparison to humans: the similar appearance of these birds makes it tough to identify female from male and I empower my subjects with the same unassuming designs as these clever birds. Only through sharing similar façades – people and birds – can we detach from the stereotypical comparison to an ever-shifting ‘beauty scale.’ My narrative is based on the tricky dynamics of desire and passion. Images circle for weeks, months, like those same cheeky crows. When the crows finally land, the stories unfold like feathers.
Shannon Kernaghan creates visual art from Alberta, Canada. Her art has been exhibited with galleries in New York City, Chicago, Laguna Beach, Palm Springs, London and more. Kernaghan’s passion is storytelling in all forms – she also writes poetry, fiction and everything between, in books, journals and magazines. More at www.shannonkernaghan.com/mixed-media/
IG: www.instagram.com/shankernaghan/
Twit: twitter.com/ShanKernaghan YT: https://buff.ly/2VtpmN5