Vertna Bradley

# 1 Sylvia explores the sea and encounters the skull berry monster gathering food for the day.

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

 #2  Sylvia meets the one legged croc wearing astronaut at the crosswalk on its way to work.

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

 #3  Sylvia clones herself in an effort to visit as many dimensions as possible to find the pool.

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

#4 Sylvia braves the elements following the directions of the skull head farmer and the signals from the radio set.

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

Artist Statement

Water, travel, and movement are recurring themes in my interpretation of imaginary space and imaginary place for this work that I call The Adventures of Sylvia. I chose to work with cut out layers that utilized ideas of perspective in each piece. Space and place are temporal concepts in and of the mind, so I created a character named Sylvia that is a dimensional traveler who Astral Projects and encounters various species in her constant search for the swimming pool. With her mind narrowly focused on just a search of the perfect oasis, she never realizes that there is amazing crystal blue water either in front of her or behind her at all times. Sylvia misses several opportunities to just enjoy the water.     

Bio
Vertna holds a Ph.D. in Media & Communication Studies with an emphasis on Film &
Philosophy, an MFA in Film & Video Production with a Complementary Study in Mass
Communication, and a BFA in Film & Video Production. Her interest in expressing herself through diverse representations in film/books is a culminationof over 20 years of working in, creating, and studying mass media as a visual artist/filmmaker, editor, cinematographer, copywriter, producer, professor, and two time Accolade Award winner. She works in forms ranging from handmade/cameraless films, to 16mm and super 8 films, to multimedia, and broadcast television. Her collection of work includes avant-garde, documentary, narrative, gallery exhibitions, interactive media, television commercials, and news topicals / promotions. 

Deborah Taylor

Splashdown

mixed media collage on paper

7.5" x 7.5" 2015

Two Moons Rising

mixed media collage on paper

8.5" x  8.5" 2015

Desert Blooms

mixed media collage on paper

7.5" x 7.5" 2015

Secret Life of Plants

mixed media collage on paper

7.5" x 7.5" 2015

Artist Statement

My collages for Imaginary Spaces/ Imaginary Places are dream-like images where unrelated objects are juxtaposed to create new forms, and recognizable elements are placed into an unnatural size relationship with their surroundings. The images created are glimpses into uncanny worlds that are reminiscent of science fiction or dreamscapes where the systems of the natural and built environment no longer operate in the way we expect. 

Bio
Deborah Taylor is an artist living in Melbourne, Australia and has been exhibiting for the last 15 years. Although Deborah’s background is in printmaking, she is currently engaged in more direct methods of creating – painting, drawing and collage. Her work has primarily been abstract and has always embraced the element of chance. While the figurative aspect of her collage work is a departure from abstraction, landscape has always been a source of inspiration and the process of finding and combining images still relies on chance.

Deborah studied Visual Arts as an undergraduate at RMIT and then as a post-graduate at Monash University. She is currently an Artist in Residence with St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne and teaches art and gardening part-time to primary school children with learning disabilities

Kerith Lisi

 

Sampling

collage on paper

6" x 6" 2015

Probability

collage on paper

6" x 6" 2015

Expansion

collage on paper

6" x 6" 2015

Approximation

collage on paper

6" x 6" 2015 

Artist Statement

This “Imaginary Spaces: Beautiful Mind” series is a reflection the imaginary spaces possible in the human mind. Brilliance, genius, madness, all overlapping to capture the mathematical mysteries and beauty of the world.  Often times those who perceive, wonder and question differently are most harshly judged by society.  I wanted to combine pieces representing a portrait of everyday life, mixed with the intelligence that shapes and explains our world.  I often think of the brilliant and creative minds living in relative isolation, leaving behind their gifts to the benefit of a much larger world.  

Bio

Kerith Lisi is a mixed media collage artist, born in Fresno, California. Drawing inspiration from fragments of discarded materials, she layers old with new, imbuing her work with a sense of time and history, bringing to light the beauty hidden in the details. Her subtle placement of text and images invites the viewer to draw closer and create a personal relationship with the work of art. Kerith studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from UC Davis, as well as completing studies abroad at the University di Pisa, Italy. She has participated in group exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, Kerith lives in San Carlos, California with her husband and two children.

Viktor Bezić

Parallels

collage on paper

9" x 9" 2015

LeWitt Wall Drawing x Detroit Ruins x Poet's Head

collage on paper

9" x 9" 2015

I don't know where the screen ends and my eyes begin.

collage on paper

9" x 9" 2015

  

Missing Space

collage on paper

9" x 9" 2015

Artist Statement
Our idea of places and spaces have been altered by the internet, our mobile phones and social image sharing sites such as instagram and pinterest. Unfortunately, a lot of our immediate experience with place is mediated through our mobile phones. Trying to capture shots of places in their ideal states and later editing them in a way to idealizes them further. Images of these environments may not exist in the way they’ve been captured or edited creating an imaginary idealized place. As digital technologies further augment physical space, in addition to the blending of the physical and the digital we place an emphasis on our overall experience with place mediated or not. As Greg McKeown reminds us, “The faintest pencil is better than the strongest memory”. Our memories are rarely ever that accurate and our digital captures or manipulations are probably just as accurate as our memories. Our imagined places or memories of them can be just as real to us through our experiences and interactions with them.

Bio

Originally from Toronto, Canada Viktor has lived in Singapore, Shanghai and currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. Although predominately a digital artist, Viktor explores ways to create art in an analog format that is heavily influenced by digital culture. His interests reside at the points in which art and technology intersect. Viktor’s visual style is heavily influenced by the internet and digital tools. Mimicking digital techniques you’d see in photoshop but in an analog format. His explorations involve trying to give tangibility to things that are now predominantly made of ones and zeros.

Edith Hütter

Fraction 6

collage on paper

8.5" x 8.5" 2015

Fraction 2

collage on paper

8.5" x 8.5" 2015 

Fraction 3

collage on paper

8.5" x 8.5" 2015

Fraction 1

collage on paper

8.5" x 8.5" 2015 

Artist Statement
No one on this planet earth can experience reality the exact same way as another person. Everyone is acting from a very personal background of his own history, influenced by education, origins of perception, awareness, social development, genes, etc. So should not reality itself be called an imaginary room, which is overlapped by millions of different perceptions, views which can never be totally congruent, and where it is a challenge to find the consensus which makes us all human, all of the same race? Even this is only a small part of reality, because human beings are only one of millions of existing creatures and phenomenons of life on this planet.

Bio
Edith Hütter was born in 1963 in Austria. She has training as a photographer and has worked at the University of Vienna. She currently lives and works in Vienna.

Patti Robinson

 Hollywood Confidential

collage on paper

9" x 9" 

 New York

collage on paper

9" x 9"

Coney Island

collage on paper

9" x 9"

Men Are From Mars

collage on paper

9" x 9"

Artist Statement

I intended to create a series about imaginary versions of real places. Looking at the completed work, I see women in situations that represent strength, sexuality, vulnerability, beauty, danger and fantasy.  Through these journeys to imaginary places, I found a way to represent some of the complex and conflicting aspects of feminine power.

Bio

Patti Robinson is an artist and art teacher working with repurposed materials in many different forms, including collage, mixed media, fashion, sculpture, and design. She has a BFA in Art and Art History from Arcadia University. A major influence was her work for the estate of Joseph Cornell. Her She was selected for the Artist in Residence for a healthcare training program through The Creative Center and the National Endowment for the Arts and the NYFA MARK program. She has been teaching art and design to adults and children throughout Eastern Long Island and New York for the past ten years. She created a collaborative recycled fashion workshop for hundreds of participants at World Maker Faire and received a blue ribbon. Her work has been featured in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, Treehugger.com, Recylart.com and Makezine.com

 

Deborah Mahnken

Clean Sweep

collage on paper

6" x 6" 2015

In Their Sites

collage on paper

5.5" x 5.5" 2015

Survival of The Fittests

collage on paper

5" x 5" 2015

Fire Away

collage on paper

5" x 5" 2015 

Artist Statement

At it's root, this work reflects the struggle of man and his everyday environment. In our attempts to control the area around us, little things can seem larger than life.  Images are set in an imaginary dreamworld battleground, reflecting how we become consumed and fixated on the small things.

Bio

Deborah Mahnken is an artist who works primarily in pastel, pencil and collage.  She loves the quickness and immediacy of these mediums and employs the use of text, line, and pattern. Her subjects reflect her life experiences. She chose to leave a career in corporate America to raise her family where she kept her creative side appeased by being active in the paper arts industry, including teaching and participating in trade shows.  A weekend art retreat in 2011 inspired her to pursue art classes  where she discovered her passion for pastel and collage. She currently lives in the Springfield, Virginia. 

Benay Yaffe

Pineapple

collage on paper 

12" x 12" 2015

Polar Bear

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

Blinds

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

Trapeze

collage on paper

12" x 12" 2015

Artist Statement

For this group of works Imaginary Places/Imaginary Spaces, I sought to explore common themes in my art such as the natural world, juxtaposed against the feelings of fragility, anxiety and dread that color my everyday life. I like to use strong graphic elements as a foil to oversentimentality, and humor to beat off the gloom.

Bio
Benay Yaffe grew up in Ft. Smith, Arkansas and currently lives in Newtown, Connecticut.  She has previously shown her photographs in local exhibitions and is beginning an exploration into the world of collage.