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About the artist: Susan Lee Simpson is an emerging BIPOC poet and collage artist seeking to create connections through the written, visual, and book arts. After leaving a 30 year pre-pandemic career in research/statistical consulting, she is enjoying a “new chapter” of life, full of right-brain awakening. She lives and creates in Chapel Hill, NC.
Find Susan on Instagram.
Motherhood in the Capitalist End-Times
2023
Glass baby food jar with hollow core house image and Gerber's lid
From Debra: Parenting an infant upends one's sense of self and stability in the best of times. Choosing to become a parent during the era of (potentially catastrophic) climate change can be even more fraught and frightening.
The house inside the baby food jar is sliding off its foundation, accompanied by the text on the lid "MyGerber.com/ClimateJourney," representing the monumental changes of both parenthood and global warming.
Heap
2022
Bronze, steel, aluminum
In many ways, we live in hopeful times where institutions that have defined the Western world are changing. Each of the crowns is made to represent an aspect of society that has undergone an upheaval - religion, royalty, capitalism, war/ the military-industrial complex, patriarchy, and white supremacy. This work represents the hope that each of these institutions will soon find itself in the trash heap, replaced by egalitarian structures.
Time (or Squirrel Capitalism)
2023
Wood box, velvet, bronze
This box examines the concept that the stages of an acorn are a measure of time for a squirrel. The hiding of acorns also represents a form of wealth for squirrels, as a large cache will ensure the lives of an entire squirrel family. Human beings have exploited animals and treated them as objects - this work attempts to address the squirrel as the subject of his or her own life, while also illustrating similarities to human desires and needs.
About the artist: Debra Couch is a sculptor living in Chicago. Her work focuses on the intersections of human and animal consciousness as well as the human experience under late-stage capitalism.
See more of her work on her website.
Portals
From Ralph: This collection of latex pieces explores ways in and out of a body, of a space, & of a psychic state. It includes casts of the artist’s navel & nipple. It was created during the height of COVID lockdown, while craving skin to skin contact & escapism.
Ossifications
This disparate and immersive installation explores architectural abstraction and memory held within spaces. These sculptures are ghosts as well as pendulums, keepers of time and memory. They are bulging reminders that history and human experience cannot be plastered or painted over.
First Dress
I often ask myself whether femininity is ingrained like skin, or performed like the clothes we wear, like a dress. This piece imagines that there is a secret layer under our skin that holds the answer, like our fascia is a text that can never be read.
Future Fossils
This series of memetic & fabricated historical documents explore the earth and the body as a database amid an impending apocalypse. The pieces are an attempt to remember small moments and memorialize the trans body, which has historically been left out of archive.
I Almost Became an Angel
This levitating sculpture is a celebration of the body I still have, one that could have easily ceased to exist, one that with all its pain and failures still wakes up with me every morning, lifting me up amid immaterial legislation and very material violence.
About the artist: Ralph Skunkie Davis is a transdisiplinary transgender artist whose sculptures act as liberatory tools, complicating the perception of non normative bodies in space through biomimicry, installation, prosthesis, and body modification.
Speak Up
From Tracy: Witnessing the unrest in my country, I have created a series of three powerful protest art pieces that display the essence of the #OccupyJulorbiHouse protest and the struggle for a voice in Ghana, following the declining costs of living and the apathy of the government towards the people's struggles.
Sika No Ashe
As an artist, I felt compelled to create these artworks to call out the media's selective reporting and to give a voice to the unheard—through “Aftermath of Our Rise,” as well as present the resistance and solidarity of Ghanaian youth to let themselves be seen in “Speak Up.” “Sika No Ashe” sheds light on the fleeting value of the money in the average Ghanaian's pocket, and how cash seems to fly right out of us with every purchase.
Aftermath of Our Rise
They are a visual representation of the frustration and determination of the people to be heard and acknowledged.
About the artist: Tracy Arthur, popularly known in the creative world as Slimm, is a 21-year-old self-taught digital artist based in Accra, Ghana. She is currently pursuing a business degree at the University of Ghana, using time off from studies to hone her art skills. Deeply rooted in her cultural heritage, Slimm has a profound love for her roots and seeks to make a positive impact in her community through the art she creates. She explores her creative side through art, skillfully combining Ghanaian culture with contemporary elements in her works. Her artistic journey has centered around the exploration and reinterpretation of tradition to resonate with modern audiences. Slimm's diverse portfolio showcases captivating book cover illustrations of published novels and character art, demonstrating her talent and distinct artistic style.
Check out Tracy’s portfolio, and connect with her on Instagram and Twitter/X.
“do what you can for a bag”
From GRVNGE LESTAT: This is a good example of wage survival and living paycheck to paycheck having to do what you can to make ends meat (pun).
Forgotten Call
The justice system fails once again.
Spare souls? Anyone?
Not only feeling like a void in my own body, but not being able to love or be loved for it.
About the artist: Haley King, also known by their artist name GRVNGE LESTAT, is a Chicago-based LGBTQ+ mixed media artist who primary uses illustrative methods and combines that with their photography in an effort to create their artistic world of liminal spaces and hauntingly provoking atmosphere in their pieces.
See more of their work on Instagram.
Artist's Statement: In this silkscreen piece, I convey the perseverance of communication throughout LGBTQ history. Included in this 18x24" print are scans of personal ads from several 1993 Advocate magazines, as well as images personally taken from displayed documents at the Gerber/Hart LGBTQ Museum & Archives in Chicago.
The resilience of the LGBTQ community through historical tragedy and uncertainty is a subject that is often bypassed in cultural discussion. These personal ads and magazine articles tell stories that may have never been spoken aloud. Not only do they capture a longing for community, but also a triumph in the pursuit of such. As a trans person myself, I feel personally connected to each and every one of these pieces of history. The intricacy and complexity of the composition expresses the depth of this communication through the '90s and beyond, implying a much longer progression backwards in time. Within the intentional over- and under-flooding of the ink through silkscreen lies a defiance to the very practicum itself. It challenges the conventional neat, clear-cut silkscreen ideal, much how the personal ads in the piece challenge conventional cisheterosexual norms.
About the artist: August Velez Miller (they/he) is a Chicago-based multimedia artist specializing in printmaking and graphic design. Focusing on color and composition allows him to create work that is both attractive and impactful. August graduated from Columbia College Chicago in December of 2022 with a BA in Animation, and currently lives on the north side of Chicago with his partner, cat, and dog (definitely a full house). He works primarily in traditional silkscreen print, the Adobe Suite, and Procreate. You can find August on his semi-personal Instagram or via his website.
From Lia: “Searching for My Roots” is about a village in Bulgaria. During the Great World War, my grandparents were forced to leave their village, Akalan. They settled in Northern Greece. One hundred years later, my family and I decided to reverse the route of our ancestors. The village was almost abandoned.
The last residents
There is no bus stopping here
Black bow on a white door
Wood and wire
The old bench
About the artist: Lia Mageira is a Greek photographer who graduated from The University of West Attica. Her art has appeared in Spectaculum Magazine, Private Review Magazine, Press Pause Press Magazine, The Sunlight Press, Zoetic Press, Mud Season Review, Edge of Humanity Magazine, Orion Magazine, and others. She was the cover artist in Typehouse Magazine, Rivanna Review Josephine Quarterly Art and Poetry Journal, and Absynthe Magazine. She was also nominated for the Best of the Net 2020-2021 awards.
Find Lia on her website, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Of the Earth
From Zoephia: To some degree, I think all of my work is inspired by the devastating forces of capitalism.
Number One
In close relationships people are recognizable by their hands alone, but in an unsettling way we are more commonly known for what we are capable of accomplishing. Certain labor is apparent simply by glancing at a worker's hand.
Sold
When I was making the first two hands named Sold, I was thinking a lot about ableism. People are shunned and neglected, because in this cruel world we are not seen as worthy of love by simply existing.
Yeah
This dehumanization insidiously spreads to us all as we are known to acquaintances by our job titles and our potential handyness to others.
Vulnerable
The man and the skull
From Vincenzo, about his art: These artworks on the male body relate to my personal experience and to the theme of social resilience. Over the years, I have had to fight against countless prejudices about homosexual status and I have often had to face obstacles and difficult moments in the affirmation of myself, as artist and individual. Even today I continue to fight to reach and achieve my goals, especially linked to overcoming the sense of inadequacy generated by contemporary trends, and that I have always felt as a neurodivergent and extremely sensitive individual.
Resilience
On the other side, this aspect of my life forced me to react in the face of difficulties, making me stronger and resilient. I have therefore tried to convey my experience in my artistic practice.
Crouched figure
About the artist: Vincenzo Cohen (birth name, Vincenzo Curcio) is an Italian multidisciplinary artist and writer. He was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and after spending his childhood in South Italy, he moved to Rome to undertake academic studies. In 2002, he graduated in painting from Fine Arts Academy, and in 2005 he held his first Solo Exhibition. In 2007, he achieved a degree in archaeological sciences from La Sapienza University in Rome. His production ranges from figurative arts to writing and consists in reworking of life and travel experiences by exploring different social themes. As a polyhedric artist, his production is the result of a continuous process of historical-scientific research addressed to the representation of cultural and naturalistic content.
Find Vincenzo online.
Considering the Dystopian (VIII)
Angels for the Dystopian (XXII)
Angels for the Dystopian (II)
From Stephen: These pieces are excerpted from Considering the Dystopian, a mixed-media montage series-in-progress which deals with overcoming a sense of overwhelming futility while bearing witness to where we are as a species in the world today—knowing that there are spirits in healthcare trying to heal this. But are they outnumbered, and will greed and indifference win the day?
About the artist: Stephen Mead is an Outsider multi-media artist and writer. Since the 1990s, he’s been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online. He is also grateful to have managed to keep various day jobs for the health insurance. Currently he is resident artist/curator for The Chroma Museum, artistic renderings of LGBTQI historical figures and organizations and allies predominantly before Stonewall. Find his work here: The Chroma Museum.
The Analysis
The Border
From the artist: My name is Désirée Jung, and I am poet and visual artist from Vancouver, Canada. My portfolio includes published poetry, translation, and fiction. My most recent work, a series of video poems, in both English and Portuguese, speak on the relationship between language, landscape and displacement. There are three series of video poems addressing issues matters of identity, lack, desire, excess and capitalism. My visual art is also an attempt to translate light, despite hopelessly failing it. For more on my digital art, writing, as well as my video poems, please see my website: www.desireejung.com.
From Tess: This piece incorporates “coffee painting, pencil and ink, as well as flower, leaf, and mushroom stamping with acrylic paint. Featured are locally found flora and fauna from Central New York that you’d normally walk past; an assortment of backyard finds that highlight the beauty in things that often go unappreciated. The intention is to promote the conservation of all, not just endangered species. I firmly believe ecological activism helps cultivate empathy within our society, as it establishes a base respect for all beings regardless of species.
About the artist: Tess Lavarini is a Puerto Rican and Italian mixed media artist. Current focus as a 2D Animator and completing an AA in Animation & Visual Effects (2D & Stop Motion Animation) at Academy of Art University. Her first work in the industry was in 2022 as a 2D Prop Designer for an animated short produced by her college, and as of 2023 her work has been featured online to more than 100,000 viewers (combined from all social platforms), she's worked on 3 other unreleased animated projects, and is a two time exhibiting artist at The Art Groove's Group Exhibit (September - October 2023) in Chelsea, NYC.
See more of her work on her website, Instagram, and elsewhere.
About the artist: Susan R. Morritt is a writer, visual artist and musician from Waterford, Ontario, Canada. Her visual art has appeared in various juried art exhibitions in Ontario, Canada including Haldimand Artworks Exhibition and Edinburgh Square Juried Art Exhibition. Her prose and poetry appear in numerous magazines including A Coup of Owls, Better Than Starbucks, Cowboy Jamboree and her work is upcoming in 34 Orchard Journal, The Rabbit Hole Writers Co-op Anthology, and The Journal of Undiscovered Poets. Susan is a former racehorse trainer who has worked extensively with livestock, and currently works part-time teaching English as a Second Language to turkeys.
Cry Me an Ocean
From Marysabella: Cry Me an Ocean represents rising water levels caused by global warming and humanity's lack of action.
A Vivid Demise
A Vivid Demise provides commentary on the possible effects of nuclear warfare.
Odd One Out
Odd One Out represents feelings of isolation and provides commentary on substance abuse in schools and low income areas.
About the artist: Marysabella Llamas is a high school-aged artist from the Chicago area. The artwork she makes provides commentary on social issues using surrealism and symbolism.
Pinterest Girly
From Jada: My illustrations play a significant role as they portray women of color in a manner that is frequently overlooked in traditional art spaces. By depicting these women in simple, endearing ways, I aim to celebrate their beauty and humanity, which is often underrepresented in society.
Café Girly
Moreover, my artwork delves into the exploration of feminine identity and the women's experience, shining a light on the unique perspectives and encounters of women of color.
Tulips
About the artist: Jada Russell (WCIFS) is a 23-year-old illustrator based in the vibrant city of Chicago, IL. Her passion for art stems from her childhood. Because of this, she discovered a program called Young Artist At Work. Through this program, Jada had the privilege to collaborate with fellow creatives and create a series of awe-inspiring murals that continue to grace her community to this day. The experience proved to be a pivotal moment for Jada, as it helped her to uncover her true calling in life, art. Jada's artwork is an exciting mix of playful experimentation and a testament to her love for all things cute and adorable. Be it stuffed animals, clothes, or even food, Jada can capture the essence of cuteness in her designs, all the while infusing them with a youthful, playful energy that is uniquely her own. Through her art, Jada aspires to spread joy and happiness and to make the world a brighter, more vibrant place.
See more of Jada’s work on her website, and connect with her on Instagram and TikTok.
death by any other name
From Marie: After dealing with relentless red tape in the healthcare industry, I was inspired to make this piece. I have ADHD and have been clashing with my health insurance company every month for prescription refills, as they have decided to require prior authorization for this much-needed prescription. My anxiety only worsens as I try to navigate a world where neurodivergence is punished and seen as an affliction.
electronic ersatz
I feel trapped in a sea of anonymity where society expects me to play the role of wife, breeder, and mother; there is no room left for my dreams under the watchful eye of the Christian church and the American government.
incremental invasion
This collage focuses on the violation of privacy and reproductive rights, steeped in a dream and holding one's hand out for a better tomorrow.
About the artist: Marie Magnetic is inspired by her identity as a queer, Jewish, Blackfoot, and neurodivergent woman as she examines dystopia, delight, and delusion in society. Growing up in a small town in southwestern Michigan helped to shape Marie's values as she witnessed friends and family suffer from addiction, mental health issues, poverty, and other forms of systemic disadvantage. Marie’s artwork reflects the experiences of being othered, whether as a woman in a patriarchal society, an ethnic minority, or someone with a disability. She received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Central Michigan University and is pursuing a BFA in Drawing and Painting at DePaul University in Chicago.
Fine more of her work on Instagram.
American Shooting Abstract
From R.Drada: These works all focus on my views and fears about the state of America today. “American Shooting Abstract” is focused on the number of shootings there are in America. I create these works in order to process my own shattering fear of gun violence, and those that support the furthered influx of guns in America.
Broken Blue Sky
These works deal with a sense of disillusionment in the idea that America is “the best.” They ask, how can a country believe it is strong when their children are shot in schools?
Blue Sky, Red Altar
Lucy Parsons, pictured here with a quote from the Chicago Police that called her “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.”
8x10”, painted in gouache with lettering done digitally
Emma Goldman, accompanied by a press quote that labeled her “the high priestess of anarchy.”
8x10”, painted in gouache with lettering done digitally
About the artist: Find Dani Knight on Instagram.
