Fins Feathers & Fur 2022
Art Exhibition Winners
Below are the biographies and/or artist's statements along with the artist's websites or emails.
Please visit the Fins Feathers & Fur exhibition page and contact the artists directly for purchase inquiries or to see more of their work.
Congratulations again to all the winners and thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Blue
Christie Goldstein
First Place Winner
My photographic approach is to try and capture movement, texture, or color in a way that creates a visceral response from the viewer when seeing a subject captured in this way. I want to draw the viewer in to the visual story that unfolds when I use my camera to seek out the essence of my subjects. Stories breathe life into images and forge connections to art in a way that still fills me with awe.
vocalization
Scratchboard, 5 x 7
Lynne Kibbe
Second Place
Nature and animal artist, Lynn Kibbe, grew up in the hills of Cogan Station, PA, and it is there that she began her love of animals. Drawing inspiration from her own backyard and from the captivating areas of travel throughout the nation, she began to create dramatic animal art. She currently lives in Trout Run, PA and continues to create scratchboards capturing unique characteristics of wildlife, many of which have originated using reference work from her own property. Lynn’s main focus is on horses, North American birds and mammals with an occasional still life. After having worked in other art media, she now works exclusively in fine art scratchboard. Her scratchboard drawings are representational, many times without flamboyance and flair in order to present peacefulness. She observes and interprets what she sees in her own way through her work. Scratchboard is a very tedious medium which takes many weeks to complete just one. It is created by removing the black ink layer (revealing the clay below), then repeating it again and again to build depth and values. Everything in the image is made of a scratch of some kind. If in color, I paint those colors in after the black is removed, then the process begins all over again with layers of scratching that are interwoven with layers of coloring to build up depth and values. Lynn has no formal art training and began with an interest in oil and watercolor painting. Since early 2009, she has created representational wildlife art with a focus on particularity and dramatic light. She is inspired by close-up views and has still lifes as well as nature and animals in her portfolio. She continues to participate in several important art competitions. Lynn is a Signature member of the International Society of Scratchboard Artists. She donates regularly to many not-for-profit charities such as the SPCA, Beckoning Cat Project (Williamsport) and Appalachian Horse Help & Rescue (Linden). Lynn has demonstrated her approach to scratching at many venues throughout north central Pennsylvania.
The guardian
Acrylic Glaze, 48 x 60
Kim chase
Third Place
Kim works in acrylics focusing primarily on figurative, portraits and wildlife. Making a connection to nature through each piece, she interconnects how we all have parallels to our surrounding environment and all that we share our planet with. She is drawn to colour and light and how to make them dance on the canvas in one way or another. Colour and light are an emotional language that as an artist she tries to tap into. That emotional language can uplift and inspire other people and it brings happiness to others when you can share your emotions through your art. Her goal is to nourish the heart and home with each piece she creates.
Sandra Belitza-Vazquez
Honorable Mention
Sandra Belitza-Vazquez's spirit of adventure and curiosity about the world has taken her on a lifelong journey exploring the human condition, discovering the endless beauty of nature, and understanding the awesome constructs of man that define the world we inhabit. While pursuing her Master's degree in Anthropology at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, she began documenting life in indigenous communities. Her exploration of nature and wildlife and her continued interest in the world's cultures has taken her on travels through Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe, in addition to her travels throughout the United States. She has participated in over 50 solo and juried group art exhibits in Mexico and the U.S., winning awards of excellence and having her images printed as greeting cards by the National Wildlife Federation. Through the medium of scanner photography, she has recently found a way to extend her curiosity and artistic sensitivity by creating new worlds using this mechanical process to obtain creations full of life and beauty. You can see her work on her websites sbvaz.com and sandyscan.com, and follow at www.facebook.com/sbvazquezphotographicartist; and www.instagram.com/sbelitzavazquez.
Katherine Derstein
Honorable Mention
Katherine Derstein in a freelance artist, originally from Philadelphia. Currently residing in Montgomery County Pa. with her husband and three children, she spends her time homeschooling and working part time as an artist. She received her BA from Holy Family College in 2001, and has maintained work as a local artist in various shops in Philadelphia, Bucks and Montgomery County over the past 20 years. She works in various mediums on all types of surfaces with nature as her inspiration.
NIcole Dimt
Honorable Mention
Nicole Dimt is a 22-year-old artist from Toronto, Canada. Nicole has a degree in Visual Arts with a specialization in acrylic painting from York University. In her art, she tries to connect to her inner child, exploring themes of distortion, dystopia, and high amounts of joyous color.
Lynette K. Henderson
Honorable Mention
I am fascinated not only with the beautiful and varied shapes and patterns of animals, but also animal behavior and relationships, and how they manage to survive both inside and outside of human enclosures. The concepts of predator and prey usually attributed only to the animal world are also found within human nature, most of the time hidden from view. Unacknowledged as part of nature, humans tend to project themselves and their desired or imagined characteristics onto animals. Preserved in zoos, common to both rural and urban environments, the animals are considered by visitors to be either extraordinary, as pests or even despised rather than admirable, based on human perceptions/imaginings of the value of different species. In some recent works I have also focused on the vulnerability of animals and natural environments due to the threats of climate change, pollution and other contemporary environmental problems.
merry jayned
Honorable Mention
I am a self taught artist based in Pennsylvania that enjoys working with pen, ink, and watercolors. I draw cats and creatures pulling inspiration from my own cats' day to day life. Animals and nature influence my creativity and move me to illustrate my imagination.
fabienne sowa-dobkowski
Honorable Mention
I am a California-based digital photographer and art historian, best known as Fab. Using photography as a primary form of artistic expression, I discovered a passion for nature photography and illuminating the hidden world for the viewer. Deeply rooted in the academic fine-arts tradition, my work portraits the transient to illustrate the interconnectivity of humanity and nature. I organize my work into thoughtful documented series to promote environmental awareness through witty wordplay, aesthetic perceptions, and re-interpretations of hierarchy of genres. My distinct post-processing techniques are used to portrait the essence of a scene. Each process is inspired by the “subject” itself and what best portraits its fundamental nature.
vasu tolia
Honorable Mention
Vasu is a contemporary painter who is constantly evolving her style. She lives in Michigan. Originally from India, she migrated to US for furthering medical career. She was a very successful academician, mentor, clinician and researcher. After retirement, she learnt drawing and painting and has found a perfect medium to pour her zeal for nature and humanity now. Presently, she is shifting from classic landscapes, flora, fauna and figures towards abstracting the same. Use of vibrant colors and geometric shapes is her hallmark to draw the viewer in to her stories on this visual journey of strokes, lines and vibrant colors inspired by people, the world and travels. The influence of Indian culture is evident in some of her figurative and Ganesha Paintings.
Vasu has received many awards for her works in local, regional and national competitions including best of shows several times, artist of the future award, published in several magazines and interviewed on radio and on YouTube by NAWA.
Her medical career has brought her numerous accolades with over 150 published research articles and book chapters. She still consults on medical issues. Vasu’s artwork has been shown in group exhibitions in Metro Detroit area, CA , NYC and in many online national exhibitions. She generously participates in projects for fund raising with her art on projects dear to her heart like healthcare, children and women’s causes. One of her paintings was featured in the TOP 20 Covid Art in Washington Post in 2020. She had two solo exhibitions so far and has two additional solo exhibitions slated for 2022. She recently joined the board of Friends of Asian Art and Culture at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Vasu is also a budding poet who writes poems on different subjects and has been featured in several Ekphrastic events. Her bold, energetic strokes inject lyrical quality to her creations that has inspired many poets.