July Artist of the Month

              Art At The Kent Library

Sponsored by The Friends of Kent Library

with Arts on the Lake

i love the way you love: June 29th-July 31st

Steph Gonzalez

    Steph Gonzalez is an Illustrator and Designer based in New Rochelle, NY. They earned their BFA in Digital and New Media from Pace University and is interested in using interdisciplinary approaches to increase access to art and education. Steph is a Board Member of the New Rochelle Art Association and, in addition to freelancing and exhibiting in local shows, is working to obtain their MA in Art Education from Lehman College.

  
    “For my graduate thesis exhibition, I created a series of illustrations on Adobe Illustrator inspired by the quiet and personal work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres. What I’m exhibiting here, at the Kent Public Library, are the original sketchbook drawings that my digital work is based on. “Untitled” (i love the way you love) is a celebration of the queer people in my life who I hold dear to my heart. Like Gonzalez-Torres, I sought to explore and express my queer experience while allowing room for the audience to insert themselves and create their own personal connections with the work.


    I, along with the subjects of these portraits, recognize the stories behind each image, but the lack of context is meant to encourage the construction of new narratives. Each moment was first captured in a photograph. I used that photo as reference for a colored pencil sketch that then became the basis for the final drawing in Adobe Illustrator. Instead of working directly from the photograph I decided to draw on paper first so I could take the time to fully reflect on who and what I was rendering. Through that love I hold for each person, this collective of moments ultimately became a self-portrait.”

   Instagram: @yummyknife 

    Website: StephGonzalez.art

                    Email: stephgonzalezart@gmail.com 

I still think you're very talented

Colored pencil on paper

Let me hold your bag so you can eat

Colored pencil on paper

                                                           I'm grateful to be here with you

Colored pencil on paper

 

June Artist of the Month

              Art At The Kent Library

Sponsored by The Friends of Kent Library

with Arts on the Lake

Still Blooming: June 1st-27th

Luisa Baptista

    Since I can remember picking up a pencil and crayon I have always been innately passionate about art. My earliest memories are of happily drawing, coloring freely and seeing the world through imaginative, creative lenses. My young soul was happiest when I was freely creative.    

Despite my natural gravitation toward art, my expression of it seemed to ebb and flow throughout several stages of my life. There were periods where I placed it all on hold, due to my inexperienced struggles and pressures to meet external and traditional expectations, ignoring what my soul was needing and subconsciously yearning for. Of course, as experience has taught me, creative instincts can not be suppressed for long and, consequently, my artistic desire to create and express would re-emerge and blossom during my periods of health crises and extreme stress. After my last life-altering health scare, with immeasurable support from loved ones, I began to listen and tune into my innate creative instincts and finally took a chance on myself and my art. Once I did, my world seemed to open up in ways that I could not have believed: some lifelong dreams were realized, awesome opportunities and experiences became possible and tangible and new artistic outlets opened up that I had never considered before. 

Long before I became cognizant of it, my visual art was always an extension of myself and what I needed to release. What began as subconscious doodling with pen and paper has developed into expressions of my passion for visual movement and energy, patterns and the arrangement between positive and negative spaces. Whether I'm working with vivid color combinations or high contrasts of black and white, my line work explores fluidity and motion. Creating linear tension and balance by diverging and synchronizing shapes and spaces provides both a heightened focus and meditative state for me. My art is not only inspired by, but celebrates my love for the beauty of natural lines, shapes, light, shadows and harmony found in the human body and nature and its elements (i.e.: bodies of water, fire, air, plant life). 

Instagram: @luisaartanddesign

Website: LuisaArtandDesign.com

Family (of 5) Nest framed Giclee print

16"x20" with frame $350

Floral Mandala 2 framed Giclee print

25"x25" with frame $550

                                                Flow Like Water framed Giclee print

25"x25" with frame $550