Modernist ceramic sculpture, installation and vessels

Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong Ceramics
Studio # 410
jocelyn.armstrong@gmail.com
203-253-9533
jocelynbraxtonarmstrong.com
@jbarmstrongceramics

Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong is a ceramic artist whose sculptures and vessels have a fresh sophistication and modern aesthetic that link fine art with craft. Before devoting herself full-time to ceramics in 2001, Ms. Armstrong spent nearly 20 years as a freelance fashion stylist/editor in Manhattan. Her interest in fashion photography fueled her focus on figurative sculpture. Now 20 years into her ceramic career, she has reoriented her focus to the vessel, exploring materials and experimenting with surface treatments. Her large-scale wall sculptures of delicate porcelain wings for which she is known, continue to evolve.

Ms. Armstrong’s talent has been recognized and her work critically acclaimed. She received an Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism in 2008, and was granted prestigious Emerging Artist Awards from American Style Magazine in 2008, Ceramics Monthly in 2007, and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in 2005. She won First Prize in Sculpture in 2008 and 2006 during the ‘Annual Art of the Northeast USA Exhibition” at the Silvermine Guild Arts Center (New Canaan, CT) and at the Bruce Museum Arts Festival in 2013 (Greenwich, CT).

Her porcelain sculptures are held in many private collections, and have been exhibited regionally and nationally at venues including Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA), San Angelo Museum of Art (San Angelo, TX), Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah, NY), Lincoln Arts & Cultural Foundation (Lincoln, CA), Mesa Contemporary Arts (Mesa, AZ), Wayne Art Center (Wayne, PA), Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center (Dowell, MD), Blue Print Gallery (Dallas, TX), BWAC Gallery (Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY), Phoenix Gallery (NYC) Visual Arts Center of New Jersey (Summit, NJ), Rockland Center for the Arts (West Nyack, NY), Clay Art Center (Port Chester, NY), Westport Arts Center (Westport, CT), Artspace (New Haven, CT) and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, CT). Her work is included in Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Feminist Art Base (Brooklyn, NY). Ms. Armstrong holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. She is an Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Manhattanville College (Purchase, NY). She lives in Westport and maintains a studio in Bridgeport, CT.

Photo credit: Cheryl Stockton Photography

Multidisciplinary Artist

Janine Brown Studio
Studio # 302
janinekbr@gmail.com
203-685-5986
janinebrownstudio.com
@janinebrownstudio

Janine Brown (b. Belmond, Iowa. 1967) is a multidisciplinary artist in Connecticut and New York City. Her experiences as a fashion designer, wife, and mother inform her work. She draws on these experiences to question ideas and stereotypes of people, places, and things. Her award-winning work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Silvermine Galleries (New Canaan, CT); Moorpark College Art Gallery (Moorpark, CA); and Gallery 825 (Los Angeles, CA). Group exhibitions include “Stitching the Revolution” at the Mattatuck Museum (Waterbury, CT); “NOW: As a Consequence of Fact” at Pen & Brush (New York City, NY);  “Liminal Forms” at The Invisible Dog (Brooklyn, NY); and “Tra 2 Mari” at the Museo Area Archeologica Arte Contemporanea (Cisternino, Italy). 

Brown holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts (NY), an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, an AAS from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and a BFA from Iowa State University.

Artist Statement

The history of the home economics movement informs my current body of work. The science-based movement was started in 1899 as a basis for female-led innovation in the home. Using kitchen chemistry in my studio, I cook biodegradable plastic and natural composites that encapsulate symbolic ingredients like leftovers, family financial statements, U.S. currency, and flowers. The composites are used to create objects and Victorian quilt patterns that are stitched and crafted together to explore myths of the domestic space, women’s issues, and capitalism. Due to their biodegradable properties, the objects have the potential to be liberated given the right environmental conditions.

2D Visual Art

Studio # 211/212
Eric.Chiang.Art@gmail.com
203-216-3744
EricChiangArt.com
@eric.chiang.art

Eric is a full time professional artist; his artwork has been exhibited in National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and Art Revolution Taipei in Taiwan, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, Queens Museum, First Street Gallery in New York, New Britain Museum of American Arts, Mattatuck Museum, MoCA Westport, Silvermine Guild Gallery, Housatonic Museum of Art, New Canaan Arts Center, Bruce Kershner Gallery in Connecticut, Blomfield Gallery in Boston, as well as many libraries and other venues and communities in Connecticut, New York & Massachusetts. In September 2016, he was given Citation from New York State Assembly for his outstanding artwork about humanity.

In addition to creating arts that explore the meaning of existence, showing his empathy of panhuman desperation, love, connections, and hope, he is very active in leading organizations connecting individual artists as well as artists and communities.

Abstract Painter
Studio # 406
Email: linda@lindacolletta.com
Website: lindacolletta.com
Instagram: @lindacolletta

Linda Colletta (b.1974, New York)

Linda Colletta is an abstract artist, who has been creating art in various mediums for over 25 years. At 19-years old, she got her start in New York City as a scenic artist painting backdrops for MTV and VH1. After 16 years in the music television industry, she left to dedicate herself to painting full time. Her work has been shown nationally at Scope Miami Beach, LA Art Show, Market Art & Design Hamptons, Uprise Art, White Room Gallery, Southport Gallery, Burning Man, The Affordable Art Fair, and The Other Art Fair. Private collections include Google NYC, Justin Bieber, deCordova Museum, Memorial Sloan Kettering, New York Presbyterian, 590 Madison and 277 Fifth NoMad. Linda is self-taught and works from her studio in Bridgeport, CT.

Artist Statement

I am a self taught abstract painter focused on process, color, and scale.

The physical process of my work is very important to me. I paint flat on large scale tables using unprimed canvas and vintage house painters drop cloth. I press paint through many layers of canvas with my body weight, peel them apart, flip them over, and repeat this process several times, working on both sides of the canvases to create several under-paintings. All the extraneous results of preparing, testing, mixing, mistakes, trials, scraps and scribbles are included in the paintings, allowing them to evolve in an uncontrolled manner. The transfiguration of my materials and substrates infuses an element of history, hard work, and heroism into the paintings that speaks to the triumph of the marginalized and repressed.

I tear my paintings into strips and weave them back together utilizing both the front and back of the paintings. I am weaving paintings into three dimensional forms as a way to coalesce gender driven movements throughout history; and as an act of dismantling the canon which has been controlled, formed, and directed by white men. The grid is a framework to zoom you in and out of the paintings, and to emphasize all the micro elements of life that make up a larger state of the world, and to suggest finding freedom within boundaries.

I work with buckets of watered down acrylics and pool my paints onto several layers of canvas at a time. I consciously choose high saturated colors that are so often omitted from public and domestic spaces for fear of being too much, too loud, or even dangerous. I use color to push societal comfort zones and question phobias and conformism.

I focus on large scale immersive paintings and installations because that is where I feel most free. I crave the room to move and breathe freely, and I continuously push the scale of my work as a show of force as a woman who demands to be seen and heard.

Studio #402
Email: judithmillercorrigan@gmail.com
Phone: 203-257-6049
Website: judithcorrigan.com
Instagram: @judithcorrigan_

I am a gestural expressionist painter known for my outsider style that emphasizes empAthy: the ancient bond between horse and humans. The Emotions and lives of Human figures dominate my canvas as well in strong defined lines and use of intense color. I have exhibited work in the North East USA, in Venice and Cangne sur Mer, France; My paintings are in private collections.

I grew up in a small town in the Catskill mountains on the banks of the Hudson River, so at an early age I strongly connected to the contours of the land and the rhythms of nature. As a child I spent summers on my grandmother’s farm in Southwestern Massachusetts where horses, especially, captured my young imagination, imbedding in my psyche images of majestic size and graceful beauty.

These early images, coupled with a love of music and dance nurtured by my father, developed subconsciously over the years, giving rise to colorful, mysterious paintings of human figures and animals intertwined in the dance of life.

More recently my work has evolved and been strengthened by travels to Europe where the ancient architecture, art history, and pre-history of other cultures inspire new forms and colors in my figurative paintings, helping me to discover unexplored parts of myself.I grew up in a small town in the Catskill mountains on the banks of the Hudson River, so at an early age I strongly connected to the contours of the land and the rhythms of nature. As a child I spent summers on my grandmother’s farm in Southwestern Massachusetts where horses, especially, captured my young imagination, imbedding in my psyche images of majestic size and graceful beauty.

These early images, copled with a love of music and dance nurtured by my father, developed subconsciously over the years, giving rise to colorful, mysterious paintings of human figures and animals intertwined in the dance of life.

More recently my work has evolved and been strengthened by travels to Europe where the ancient architecture, art history, and pre-history of other cultures inspire new forms and colors in my figurative paintings, helping me to discover unexplored parts of myself.

Wabi-Sabi Studio
Medium: pottery & paintings
Studio #: 402
Email: ddutko@optonline.net
Phone: 203-209-6314
Instagram: @ddutko

I've been a working artist since leaving art school: freelancing, working on magazines, editorial illustrations, graphic design and the corporate world. I've never limited myself and continue to explore other mediums, such as glass and pottery, which keeps me humble.

Oil Painting

William P. Duffy Fine Art
Studio# 202
williampduffy@hotmail.com
774-276-5480
williampduffy.com

William P. Duffy was born in Boston in 1948. He received his art education at the School of the Worcester Art Museum/Clark University and the Boston Architectural Center. His work can be found in private collections throughout the United States and in several foreign countries. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, and is a member of New England Plein Air Painters, an artist member of the Copley Society, and a member of the Oil Painters of America in whose 2006 national exhibition Bill was given an Award of Excellence.

From 1993 to the present, Bill has exhibited at the Mystic International Exhibition at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport. At his first International Show, judged by George Plimpton, founder of the Paris Review, and Stephen Doherty, Editor of American Artist, he received an "Award of Excellence". In the 1998 Show, judged by James Taylor of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, and Peter Sutton, Director of the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT, Bill was honored with another "Award of Excellence". Judges Stephen S. Lash, Chairman of Christie's Americas, John Carter, President of Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, and Dawn Riley, CEO and Captain of the America's Cup contender, "America True", gave Bill the 2004 International Show's "Award of Excellence".

Painting & Drawing

Studio # 401
dwyermary20@gmail.com
203-767-3724
www.marydwyerart.com
@and_now_its_history

Mary Dwyer's work is based in history drawing and storytelling with concerns for free press clean water dangerous jobs and women's history

Kate Eisemann Pictures
Studio 411
(917) 873-2256
kateeisemann@mac.com
www.kateeisemann.com

Award winning Photographer Kate Eisemann began her career shooting for CBS Hartford and area newspapers. Later her work in movies and commercials with Academy Award winning directors and cameramen came to influence her work; expanding her talent at crafting and shaping light, and summoning performance & expression from her subjects.

Her portrait work is known for the soulful quality that is reflected In her subjects’ expression.

Kate’s notable subjects have included Nelson Mandela, Bibi Netanyahu, Tim Gunn, Dustin Hoffman, Pakistani Prime Minister Munir Akram, Author Jane Green and Al Roker. In her new work, Kate seeks to balance her design aesthetic with the humor and natural absurdity of animals. ‘Belly Beast’ has become one of her most popular images, recently the overall winner at the Fairfield Museum show.

Raised in Connecticut, Kate lived and worked in Manhattan for 20 years before returning to Fairfield with her husband, son and cat.

Vanessa Fiero is an American artist and designer creating couture furniture from salvaged pieces as well as experiential residential, hospitality and retail spaces. She specializes in product restoration, space planning and curated interiors.

She is inspired by painted portraits, foreign bathrooms, religious artifacts of any divinity, and Kendrick Lamar.

ABOUT THE STUDIO
La Verdad is a design and rehabilitation studio creating bespoke furniture and interiors with an emphasis on reuse, retro and vintage.

Combining design, curation and restoration, the studio aspires to construct distinctive spaces using local materials and international inspiration. Projects fuse modern elements with one-of-a-kind, unconventional pieces to create interiors that feel both familiar and spontaneous.

Christienne Frank
Studio # 308A

Fabrication And Restoration
cof.restomod@gmail.com
@cfrestorationandfabrication

I am a multidisciplinary fabricator, maker, and restorer of motorcycles, scooters, and aircraft components, or anything that needs to be built from sketches or drawings. I work in metal, wood, plastic, and composites.

Porcelain/Mixed Media/Printmaking

Studio # 402
hollyh52@gmail.com
203-241-0908
hollyhawthorn.com
@imholly52

Holly Hawthorn found the ceramic studio in the basement of a now long obliterated old converted house on the campus of the University of Bridgeport in the 1970’s She spent the next four years there and still has the dust of that encounter under her finger nails and in her soul. The magic and mystery of creating art sent her to the New School in NYC, The Athens Center, Greece, University of Urbino, Italy, Cambridge and MECA, Maine. The inspiration for her current work is derived from the vast collection of shells, stones and beach rake items gleaned from the shores of Maine to Ireland. The seashell is a timeless symbol that for her evokes the playfulness of time spent at the beach and the wonder of nature. These illustrative and playful works are meant to conjure a smile and a memory in the viewer. As an eclectic artist she produces monotype and dry point prints that focus on water themes.

Photojournalist
Studio #214
Email: douglashealey@icloud.com
Phone: 203-856-6762
Website: douglashealey.com
Instagram: @douglashealey

Contract Photojournalist-Objective is to interact with customers, helping them solve problems while being a team player. Create photographs that speak, capturing the spirit of the moment and work with publishers, editors, reporters and other organizations that use photographs to document and illustrate stories, including fast breaking news, sports, and features.

Designer, Typographer, Fabricator, Photographer, and Product Designer

Karl Heine
k&k Studios

Studio #304
karl@designerjournals.com
203-856-8661
creativeplacement.com
designerjournals.com
@KarlHeine
@DesignerJournals

Karl Heine is a multifaceted designer working in fabrication of custom journals, OLED, typographic assembly, specialty print and image creation.

Sculpture, Drawing, Photography

Studio 204
heidenart@gmail.com
crystalheiden.com
@heidenart

 Crystal Heiden is an artist who works in a variety of media. By exploring the concept of landscape and location in a nostalgic way, Heiden investigates the dynamics of reality, including the manipulation of its effects and the limits of spectacle based on our assumptions of what landscape means to us. Rather than presenting a factual reality, an illusion is fabricated to conjure the realms of our imagination.

Her artworks establish a link between the landscape’s reality and that imagined by its conceiver. These works focus on concrete questions that determine our existence. By referencing romanticism, black humor and symbolism, she finds that movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a humor that echoes our own vulnerabilities. She also considers movement as a metaphor for the ever-seeking person who experiences a continuous loss though the act of living in the 4th dimension.

Her works are often classified as part of the new romantic movement because of the desire for discovering and locating the self in the unfolding globalized world. However, this reference is not intentional, as this kind of art is part of the collective memory. By questioning the concept of movement, she creates work through labour-intensive processes which can be seen explicitly as a personal exorcism ritual. They are inspired by a nineteenth-century tradition of works, in which an ideal of ‘Fulfilled Absence’ was seen as the pinnacle.

Her works seek to isolate and understand the movements of humans and/or objects. By doing so, new sequences and landscapes are created which reveal an inseparable relationship between motion and the understanding of the self.

Designer of minimal, masculine, and enduring quilts, pillows, and accessories.

Ocheltree Design
Studio # 309
richard@ocheltreedesign.com
203-543-2408
ocheltreedesign.com
@ocheltreedesign

Richard Killeaney was raised in San Diego, California. He received his BA in studio art from Hobart College and a MFA in Textiles from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has taught textile design to students at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, The Art Institute of New York City, and The Rhode Island School of Design. His work has been exhibited in numerous gallery shows, most recently at the New Britain Museum of Art in 2014. He has been featured in Natural Home magazine (Jan/Feb 2007) and profiled for Patrick McMullan’s online magazine PMc. He currently lives in Bridgeport, CT where he runs Ocheltree Design, his own line of quilts, pillows, and home accessories.

Ocheltree Design, named after Richard’s great, great grandmother’s maiden name, pushes the idea that green design can look great. The line takes inspiration from the Southern California Coast. The quilts and decorative pillows in the line are manufactured in the USA at a quality to withstand daily use and to become heirloom pieces. The materials used are either repurposed fabrics or organic, including men’s shirting, wool tweeds, cashmere knits, and denim. While the quilts may be hung on the wall, they are designed in unlimited editions in varying sizes from crib quilts to king sized. The pillow inserts are filled with kapok, a plant fiber, down-alternative that is animal product free, hypoallergenic, and supports sustainable rainforest economies. The tote bag collection repurposes leather and suede from apparel sources to make simple, sleek bags for everyday use.

Graphic Design, Product Design, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Typography, Mixed Media, Photography, Video, Interactive, Experiential, Public Art

MEGAGLAM®
Studio # 304
kHyal.net
MegaGlam.com
kHyalAndKarl.com
GetfiZz.com
@kHyalandKarl
@MegaGlamster
@MegaGlamStyle
@WeathersKwirl
@GetfiZz
@SECTIONculture

kHyal™ (A/K/A MEGAGLAM®) is a self-taught American artist and designer working internationally on multidisciplinary projects.

Abstract Artist working in Oils, Acrylics and Mixed Media

Studio # 213
AK@AynKraven.com
(917) 838-1932
AynKraven.com
@aynkraven

Being the Artist I am today and seeing how my work has evolved, I can honestly say that I equal the sum of my life.

Art is part of my DNA, something I could never deny myself and, it has undoubtedly saved me many times over. Life for most of us has a tendency to take – but in my Art I have found so many gifts, so many understandings shown to me and such Freedom!!

Every canvas I begin teaches me something new. I find that the work will always show you what it wants to become and, persistence always pays off. I often work on a large scale. I find it lets me fully express myself, there is no intimidation, there is only Freedom one painting can change many times, It truly love the process, a crazy dance of love and hate, excitement, disgust then elation.

Being an abstract artist, I look to the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. I feel so connected with that whole time period and spend many mornings reading about their methods, their lives. I envy the connections they shared with each other; it was such an exciting time for the Abstract Artist. Such a moment!! For me, Abstract Art is a never-ending quest, when I work I feel like an explorer, architect and an archaeologist all rolled into one. It can be an emotion, a vision or certain color direction and you start building, exploring and then deconstructing to explore what is beneath. It’s this madding organically raw, yet meditative dance that you do.

I like to work in Series, large and small scale at the same time and that will usually lead me into whatever my next Series will be. I am not a painter who wants to do something consistently over and over.

For myself, I have so many ideas that I want to explore that I will have to explore! Just the way that I love tight controlled work, equally as much as my loose work. I can swing back and fourth like a pendulum at times even enjoying both at once, hopping from a tight tape line to a free and loose deconstruction. Create & Release!!

In the end, you are the creation of your own experiences. The dysfunction of my childhood, the Art & Design Schooling in Switzerland and London, my very trying years in Parsons and surviving in New York City and the wisdom that comes from having your own family and lastly the DNA that always leads you to your truth.

When all is said and done, I invite the Viewer not to look at my work as a whole complete painting but, to be a part of my exploration of my layers or shapes and what emotions they might discover within themselves, what makes them connect. My hope is to elevate the Viewer to awaken the Viewer’s DNA.

Digital Artist with a focus on Abstract Photography

Joanie Landau Designs
Studio #206
joanie@joanielandaudesigns.com
203-253-9533
www.joanielandaudesigns.com
@joanielandaudesigns

Artist Joanie Landau was born and raised in New York. Early in her artistic career, she became fascinated with collagraphs, a rather obscure form of printmaking. Each of her pieces begins with original photography and usually multiple images are used to form a piece. She loves working with saturated color as well as starkly contrasting black and whites and very often does a study of the same piece in all its beautiful transformations. Like printmaking, the process possesses magical qualities.

The digital art experience provides an outlet to be unceasingly creative, continually working and reworking pieces with the click of a mouse. Every new layer or filter creates endless possibilities, tapping into the unlocked potential that exists and providing the feeling that there are no barriers.

Using direct communication from the streets as well as social media, Joanie Landau’s intention is to confront modern social commentary with a splash of sarcasm and humor. Influenced by artists Mel Bochner, Barbara Kruger and Andy Warhol, she is in a constant state of exploration.

Artist Publishing

Studio 310
emily.k.larned@gmail.com
(917) 612-0375
emilylarned.com
@emilylarned
@impracticallabor

Emily Larned is an artist, designer, and educator. She has been printing and publishing as a socially engaged art practice since 1993, when she made her first zine.

Emily is co-founder of Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA), a union for reflective creative practice. To date ILSSA has counted over 400 members in 36 states and 5 countries, and has installed solo exhibitions at Unrequited Leisure (Nashville, TN), Ringling College of Art & Design (Sarasota, FL), Visual Studies Workshop (Rochester, NY), and the Center for Craft, Creativity, & Design (Asheville, NC), among others. She is founder of Alder & Frankia, a publisher of collaborations and work from feminist archives. Emily also has a studio practice creating experimental works on paper, including monoprints and collages.

Emily's handmade artist books, zines, & publications are collected by over 80 institutions internationally, including the Tate, the Brooklyn Museum, the V&A, & the Smithsonian, & are exhibited around the world. Her work has received accolades from the AIGA (50 Books | 50 Covers), the Type Directors Club (TDC, The World's Best Typography), and the Connecticut Art Directors Club (CADC) (Gold & Silver awards in Book Design, Spirit of Creativity Award).

She graduated from Yale School of Art with an MFA in Graphic Design and is currently Associate Professor of Art in Graphic Design at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.

Commercial / Advertising Phototgraphy

Studio 308
kvonstudio@aol.com
(203) 258-5287
kvonphotography.com
 

Keyvan Behpour (Kvon) is an Iranian-American advertising photographer, with strong ties to Iran, its people and its architecture. He came to the US in 1977 and has since traveled back to Iran on three extended photography expeditions, one of which was to accompany aid organizations assisting the Bam earthquake victims.

Kvon specializes in photographing people for corporate communications, fashion, editorial and other commercial purposes, on location and in his studios in New York and Connecticut. Kvon’s fine art photography has been featured in publications in his native Iran, and is on display in the permanent art collection titled EL Espiritu de la Tierra, US Embassy chancellery building, La Paz, Bolivia. His work has recently received meritorious recognition from The Beckett Paper Company and Fairfield County Women in Communications.

Kvon’s stock photography is available through Getty Images.

Alternative photographic practices

Studio # 306
mezzanotteobscura@yahoo.com
203-520-4765
thomas-mezzanotte.squarespace.com

Thomas Mezzanotte has been exploring the potentials of the photographic medium for over 45 years. He was educated at the University of Bridgeport. He became the director of the University’s Carlson Gallery in the 1980’s. As a Connecticut Commission of the Arts Master Teaching Artist, he conducts workshops at schools across Connecticut and at universities across the country. His work has been exhitbited at many galleries and museums around the United States including NY University, the Santa Fe College of Art , The Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, Oregon, George Eastman House, the John Stevenson Gallery in Chelsea, NY and at the William Benton Museum in Storrs, CT.

Mr. Mezzanotte has received numerous grants and awards including three individual artist grants from the state of CT and a Director’ Choice Award from the Edward S. Moore Foundation. He was a resident artist at the The Weir Farm in 2001, the Mcoll Center in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2005 and held the Dayton Artist Residency at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut in 2007-2008. He was honored as Fairfield Connecticut’s Artist of the Year in 2010. His work can be seen online at thomasmezzanotte.com.

Studio # 404
Email: claire.mcn@me.com
Website: https://claire444.weebly.com/
Instagram: @claire.444

My name is Claire, and I’ve been painting out of AMFAB for almost 3 years now. I’m happy to be creating and growing as an artist here! I draw inspiration from my life—I create as a method of exploring the things that have shaped my perception of the ever-changing world around us. I am inspired by the realms of music, psychedelics, and nature, as well as my own collection of personal experiences that influence my emotions, expressions, and ideas. I enjoy painting otherworldly landscapes, portals, and creatures. I also like to take commonly-used cliche expressions, idioms, and phrases, and turn them on their head by portraying them in a literal way. I think it’s funny, and plays to everyone’s naive side by simplifying the real implication.

I feel my style of painting merges bold and eloquent aspects of expressionism with the raw, rebellious spirit of graffiti. By using bright, vivid colors plus distorted and morphed shapes, I often get caught up in my own creative energy. Although my overall goal is always to bring my thoughts and feelings to fruition through art. The overarching patterns throughout the broader scope of my work at large represents the way I choose to acknowledge reality. For me, artistic exploration knows no bounds. Not limiting myself to a certain medium or aesthetic allows my mind to roam freely. This approach helps me to continually challenge myself, break barriers, and evolve as a creator. I graduated from Sacred Heart University with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations and a minor in Studio Art. I currently reside in Milford, Connecticut, working as a digital marketing specialist, and I hope to be a full-time artist in the next five years. I share Studio 404 with long-time friends Glorianna Restrepo & Mila Schwartz of the luxury hand-made jewelry brand, Thanks Dad. I love sharing a creative space with two individuals who continually inspire me with their passion and creativity. I love being a part of AMFAB, and I truly look forward to leaning into the community and getting to know everyone better in the future!

Marine/Nautical Paintings

Studio #:408
brecmorgan@aol.com
203-257-6695
brecmorgan.com
@brecmorgan

Brechin Morgan is a native of Connecticut. At the age of sixteen he left high school to work in Greenwich Village. He hitch-hiked across the country and through Mexico riding over 1,000 miles through the southwest in railroad boxcars. He attended two years at Silvermine College of Art in New Canaan Connecticut and studied painting. For over twenty years he owned a sign company and painted large outdoor murals. He spent four and a half years sailing single handed around the world in his 27 foot sailboat “Otter”. Returning to Connecticut he set up a studio in Bridgeport CT and paints from his sailing and marine experiences.

Abstract Expressionist Painting
Studio # 208
jay.petrow@gmail.com
203 803-0533
www.jaypetrowfineart.com
@jay.petrow.abstract.art

Abstract & Figurative Painter

Studio # 403
studio@kellyrossetti.com
914-523-9210
kellyrossetti.com
@KellyLRossetti

Kelly Rossetti is a contemporary abstract and figurative painter based out of Westport, CT. While primarily self-taught, she studied classical oil painting at a small Atelier in NYC where she credits getting her foundation and love of the figure. Kelly works in both Acrylic and Oil and often utilizes an array of mixed media to achieve depth, texture and marks.

Interactive Installation, Digital + Time based Media, Printmaking, Photography, Food sculpture, Teaching

Roxy Savage
Studio 201
roxysavage.artist@gmail.com
(203) 521-8447
roxysavage.com
facebook.com/roxanne.faber.savage
@roxysavageart



I’m an interdisciplinary artist working with photography, digital media, objects, and food. My artwork explores female identity and domestic life. Pairing domestic space with technology empowers me to address personal, universal, social, and political concerns. Working with gelatin, foodstuffs, and kitchenalia as art materials is an act of feminist resistance and artistic expansion.

Daily life has always been the focus of my work. After years of (only) creating artwork with my hands, I now create drawn and photographed animated videos, AI-generated artworks and food-based installations. Through these processes, I bracket and embrace ideas about domestic space, blurring the lines between studio and home in layered installations with video, objects, and sound.

Paintings, drawings, ceramics
Studio # 411
janetslom@gmail.com
917-846-7827
janetslom.com
@janetslom

South African born artist Janet Slom creates powerful images that reverberate with the rhythms of nature and life, and explore the dance of opposing forces. She has won numerous international awards and commissions. Her solo and group exhibitions have taken place at venues including the United Nations (NYC), Lincoln Center (NYC), the Adelson Gallery (NYC), Kohn Pederson Fox Gallery (NYC), Everard Read Gallery (Cape Town, South Africa), and Frank Pages Gallery (Baden-Baden, Germany). Her paintings are in collections internationally, including the South Africa Parliament (Cape Town, South Africa). Janet studied at the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), Massachusetts College of Art (Boston, MA). She has taught extensively and is currently on the faculty of Lehigh University’s Iacocca Institute.

Quilts, fabric, patterns

Denyse Schmidt Quilts
Studio #401
info@dsquilts.com
dsquilts.com
@dsquilts

A former graphic designer and graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Denyse Schmidt began creating quilts in 1996. Intrigued by the rich historical nature of quilts and inspired by beauty born of necessity, Denyse adds her distinctive aesthetic sensibility – clean, spare lines, rich color and bold graphics – to this rich art form, and has won acclaim from the worlds of art, design and craft. In addition to designing and making quilts, Denyse is an author, fabric designer, lecturer and teacher. Denyse’s studio is located in a historic textile building in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Newborn, Maternity, and Milestone Photographer

Drea S Photo
Studio 308
dreaschod@yahoo.com
203-556-7985
dreasphoto.com
@drea.s.photo

WELCOME! Drea is a personalized photographer located in Connecticut. She specializes in maternity, newborn, milestone, and boudoir photography since 2017. Drea was born in Ecuador, and moved to the United States at the age of 6. Her love of photography came naturally as a gift from her mother and grandmother, they both have the eye and the will to document every little life moment and it stuck with her her whole life.

Drea loves to mix her artistic eye with emotion in her work. Most describe her work as dreamlike, soft, and creative. Drea will capture the smallest details that mean the most, and be the one whom you can trust to document your journey from pregnancy and beyond. She is one text or phone call away to each and every client through the entire process. All sessions are customized to capture the session you have always envisioned, and her vow is to preserve your photographs in the most special way. From taking care of custom sets, the highest quality newborn props, and collection of couture gowns ready to wear for her maternity and newborn clients- She makes the experience as seamless as possible for a stress-free photography session. You will be able to relax while she handles everything, and the final images tell a story.

But that's not the end result. By specializing in heirloom products and wall art, clients can select their final artwork. From gallery grade acrylic and canvas, to the storyboard wooden collage you can choose your favorite to dress your walls with. To complete your collection, matted fine art folio, gorgeous leather bound or acrylic covered albums, can all be custom ordered. Drea S Photo's custom collections which include wall art, digitals, and an album or book are a client favorite.

From the moment you find out you're expecting, to birth, to birthdays, and family milestones- Drea is there for you to capture it all, and form these forever memories with you.

Oil on canvas or panels, gouache, acrylic on paper, yupo, panels

Studio # 205 A/B
suartsharp@gmail.com
203-209-8084
https://www.susansharp.net
@suartsharp

Susan Sharp is an abstract painter of biomorphic and linear forms, flat planes, vivid color and highly glossy surfaces who works in a wide variety of sizes on wood, mylar and paper. Her paintings have been seen in numerous solo exhibitions in New York and Connecticut and many group exhibitions in private galleries and public institutions nationwide including the Silvermine Art Center, the Housatonic Museum of Art and the Stamford Museum

I am drawn to paint in its liquid state, where forms are in the process of emerging. Applying several layers of paint on smooth surfaces, such as paper, panels or canvas, result in dense and translucent topographies.

The abstract imagery born is both psychological and intuitive. Scale shifts, pattern, and unexpected juxtapositions add to the sense of play and ambiguity.

Subtle references to anthropomorphic forms, which coexist with the linear and geometric elements, navigate disparate worlds.

Sharp’s paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the country. In 2022 Sharp had a solo exhibit at the Beth Urdang Gallery in Wellesley, Mass. Her Assemblage works were also included that year in an exhibit,Real and Imagined at Five Points Gallery in Torrington, CT.

Fine Art & Interior, Furniture, Fashion Design

Ulla Surland
Studio 307
ullasurlandllc@yahoo.com

Ulla Surland was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father’s career as a chemical engineer, moved her family back and forth from Denmark to Finland and Columbia, South America before settling in New York City.

Her early life was immersed in art and design as both her parents were creative, her father a talented amateur photographer and her mother, a weaver, embroidery designer and clothing designer. She followed the family tradition by excelling in fine arts, applied arts and science. She attended The High School of Art & Design in NYC, graduating from Ossining High School when her family moved to Westchester County, NY. She went on to Marymount College where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Arts & Science degree in Fashion Design.

She started her design career in NYC with a number of firms including Jhane Barnes, Sermonetta Corporation, Dawson America, Anya, among others. She gained experience designing textiles, men’s and women’s knit wear, and women’s better ready to wear fashion, and traveled to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Greece, Java and Bali where she supervised production of textile and clothing designs.

Ms Surland struck out on her own in 1998. She opened a boutique in Fairfield, Connecticut, featuring her fashion designs and carefully chosen jewelry and accessories from other designers. Attached to her fashion boutique, she opened a fine art gallery showcasing artists whose work she admired. Her boutique became known for beautiful, simple and refined women’s fashions, and her fine art gallery for showing quality work of highly creative and skilled artists.

Feeling the need for change, she closed her boutique and gallery in 2008, and applied herself to the study of interior design. She received a professional certificate in interior design from Fairfield University in 2010. She opened a home decor boutique and fine art gallery in 2011, and closed again permanently in 2013, when she decided to devote her time fully to creative new pursuits.

Ms Surland runs her art & design business out of her light filled studio in the American Fabrics Arts & Design Building on Bridgeport, CT.