Akiane Kramarik

Akiane Kramarik was born in Mount Morris, Illinois to a Lithuanian mother and an American father on July 9, 1994. According to her website, she is homeschooled.

Primarily a self-taught painter, however she states that she is taught by God which is unusual for her family, considering they are not religious. Akiane started drawing at age four, painting at six, and writing poetry at seven. Her first completed self-portrait sold for $10,000. A large portion of the money generated from sales is donated by Akiane to charities, and apparently she has sold paintings in the region of $150,000. According to Kramarik, her art is inspired by her visions of heaven, and her personal connection with the Christian God. Kramarik's art depicts life, landscape, and people.

At the age of 10, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on CNN at the age of 12.

http://www.artakiane.com/

Helen Masacz

Helen Masacz is a painter with a growing reputation, having been selected for exhibition in the

From her site: BP Award at the National Portrait Gallery in 2004.

In 2005 along with other noted artists such as Frank Auerbach, Tracey Emin and Marc Quinn,Helen was asked by the National Portrait Gallery to contribute work for their exhibition celebrating their 150th anniversary.

Helen works to commission and has lately been compiling a body of work for exhibition in 2009. She concerns herself with the issues of transition; from childhood to adulthood, from the changes in relationships over a lifetime and to the meaning that the passage of time imprints on all our lives.

Helen was born in London in 1964 and still lives and works there.

http://www.helenmasacz.com/

Jenny Morgan

Artist statement: I manipulate the figure to expose the individual’s idiosyncrasies and create a physiological portrait. Working with people from my own life as subject matter allows me to hone in on specifics of their character and present their personalities as I experience them.

http://jennymorganart.com/

Fernando Vicente

http://fernandovicente.es/

Fernando Vicente was born in Madrid, Spain, where he started working as illustrator and painter during the eighties. He creates very beautiful artworks mainly painted or mixing paint and photo. His illustration work can be seen in dozens of publications.

Chrystal Chan

http://www.chrystalchan.com/

Chrystal Chan was born in November 1984 and raised in the Bay Area, California. Being fascinated by the spiritual world since the age of seventeen, most of her works present subjects in metaphorical situations that are derived from visions, supernatural experiences, and beings. Other works are reflective of feelings and situations placed in the everyday life. Each piece states facts of the physical or the supernatural. Chrystal received a BFA in illustration/animation in 2009.

Cherri Wood

http://cherridarling.blogspot.com/

Cherri Wood (aka Fy Simone) is a young illustrator based in Minnesota, USA. Deeply influenced by indie films, comic art, graphic novels and photography, her watercolour and ink studies explore various areas such as alienation, childhood idiosyncrasies, and psychosis.

Each drawing contains quotes and dialogues from classic plays and short stories, which help narrate each inkling.

Cherri is currently working on a new a series, mostly containing animals (at times accompanied by little-willowy girls). She will be using various mediums such tea-stains, flora stains, carmel soda stains, juice mix and scents added with acrylic and india ink.

Eileen Doughty

Artist statement:

I love the concept of “place” and so my preferred subject matter is the landscape. The tactile nature of quilts is explored and celebrated in my art.Currently my work focuses on exploring what makes textile art so unique from much other fine art media: texture, freedom of shape of my “canvas” (using non-rectangular perimeters) and employing three rather than two dimensions. My quilts have been exhibited in numerous quilt and art shows, and at corporate venues. They are in private, government and corporate collections in the United States and Japan.

Lauren Porter

http://www.lauren-porter.co.uk/

By using craft as an art form I am provided with rich social and historical connotations crucial to the work I produce. I created a Ferrari because it is instantly recognisable and the opposite of what people expect from something that is knitted. Bringing binary opposites together results in the work becoming appealing to a mixture of audiences. I want as many people as possible to see and enjoy my work- including those who wouldn’t ordinarily go to an art gallery. I enjoy the fact that people leave my exhibits with a smile on their face. I believe that by using an optimistic slant through creativity, it can be significant in portraying deeper meaning.

Regino Gonzales

http://www.regnyc.com/



(This image doesn't do him justice but his images can't be downloaded from his site; I had to find this on Google)

Regino started his tattoo appreticeship may of 1995. Along with his artistic journey he has received a BFA from The School Of Visual Arts, which was completed in 2001. This just begins to scratch the surface of a talented individual who is passionate about his artistic outlets. Outlets from painting, sketches, digital design, identity processes for major names, photography, and tattooing just to give you a brief overview of the many creative paths of Regino Gonzales.

Lizzie Thomas

http://lizziethomas.co.

Artist Statment: I am a newly graduated paper artist based in Brighton, Sussex, UK. I express my ideas through the media of paper cutting, woodwork, books arts and print.

My work is an exploration of narrative, myth and metaphor. I am particularly interested in the use of symbol in fairytale and folklore and also write my own stories. I take inspiration from the use of wood and paper in Japanese spiritual life. I use 2D to create 3D by introducing layering and movement into materials. I exhibit and sell nationally and welcome commissions. I am a member of Craft Central and the Crafts Council Craft Directory.

Andrew Newton

Artist Statement: I have always been interested in drawing and painting the human face.
Since I was sixteen I have been painting oil portraits. This started with doing many commercial celebrity portraits in my teen years, then slowly changing my style into expressionistic thicker painted images during my college education.
When I was painting portraits of family and friends I was never satisfied with connecting the subject to the viewer. I never wanted to make emotional bonds with my work, so I was limited to what I actually wanted to do with my themes.

Recently in my University education I have been developing my style of painting faces in a hyper-realistic style of working which creates a heightened look at something which could possibly appear to be photographic at distance.
My passion in Photo-realism has increased since looking at Chuck Close’s giant heads originally, and his abstract colour gridded works also. The connection between the two styles I felt was great, seeing how photo-realism was a distancing act from the subject matter and the art itself.
Looking also at non-figurative photo-realists like Richard Estes, Tom Blackwell and Charles Bell, they all relate in the same way of a scanned equally detailed crop of unchanged realism.

I have explored looking at themes like brushing teeth, eating and socially drinking, this to put the character in a situation of relatable circumstance, so again we are as viewers distanced and put in the voyeur perspective of life.
I strive for my work to look like a snapshot and an unthought-out composition, so it looks completely original and 'in the moment'. This because I wish to depict realistically the world around us, not trying to compensate itself or to glamorise itself.

http://www.andrewnewtonart.co.uk/

http://andrewnewtonart.deviantart.com/

Asya Schween

Asya Schween is an artist who mostly works with photography (specifically self portraits). Artist statement: I'm an ambidextrous, color-blind math grad student, 22. I have two master degrees and I'm two years away from my Ph.D. in Bioinformatics. From time to time I want to ditch my college and do photography but I'm afraid I appear to be a coward and of course such attitude doesn't lead to anything except mediocrity, to be generous. Therefore my photos are being used exclusively in a utilitarian fashion for my own hedonistic fulfillment only.
My self-portraits are not ordained by my desire to impose something upon them. I'm not an admirer/devotee/pretender of dark glamour and morbid beauty. I'm continuously producing self-portraits and sometimes disgust/terrified/upset with them myself. I do self-portraits just for fun in attempt to escape the boredom of mathematics, so I sometimes spend hours and hours to set up just one shot.

http://www.myownself.com/

http://myownself.deviantart.com/

Marina Bychkova

Marina Bychkova is an artist who works with sculpture, particularly dolls.

Artist Bio:

Making dolls has been the most constant aspect of my life since I was six years old. I believe that I was born to do this.

I was born in the South-Western Siberia, Russia in 1982 and fourteen years later immigrated to Vancouver, Canada along with my immediate family: Mom, dad and two younger sisters. Here, I graduated from High School in 2001 and then from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2006 with a Bachelor of Fine Art.

I fiercely resented the institution for the first couple of years into my degree and to this day still harbor residual disappointment and bitterness towards the program, which I feel didn’t teach me enough. Despite its shortcomings however, I’m able to appreciate its contemporary approach to art education, as it was crucially instrumental in the development of critical thought and conceptual aspects of my creative process. Because I felt that ECIAD wasn’t teaching much of anything other than abstract theories and thought development without any applicable and concrete, professional skills, I decided to take some independent jewelry courses on the side to apply that knowledge to my doll art practice. It turns out I love learning, because ever since then I try to take at least one jewelry course a year to learn something new and broaden my horizons. I believe that the secret to beautiful and engaging artwork is looking outside of a particular medium for inspiration and bringing other aspects into it. The reason that there are so many ugly and boring dolls out there is because people who make them look to other dolls for inspiration and continue to regurgitate what they see, thus making the same doll over and over and over again.

Creating a visual narrative is the most intriguing way of articulating my ideas and a doll is a perfect medium because of its potential for such visual story. My strong tendency for escapism has made the make belief narrative of fairy tales very appealing as a context for my dolls. What interests me most about fairy tales is the implicit and often explicit violence that lies just beneath the surface of the magic.
http://www.enchanteddoll.com/

http://marina-b.deviantart.com/

"Dan"

Dan on DeviantArt is an artist with an incredible talent with pencil. Pencil is often considered a basic medium for art, a first step in any artists development. More and more often we are seeing serious finished pieces done in pencil.

http://alohaman636.deviantart.com/

Marion Peck

Marion Peck was born on October 3, 1963 in Manila, the Philippines, while her family was on a trip around the world, and grew up in Seattle,
Washington. She received a BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1985. Subsequently she studied in two different MFA programs, Syracuse University in New York and Temple University in Rome. She currently lives in Eagle Rock, CA.

http://www.marionpeck.com/

Sas Christian

Artist statement: I was born in London in 1968, the eldest of four. I was a shy introverted child lacking in self confidence with a passion for drawing and an unfortunate taste in clothing.
At 13 I was sent away to boarding school, a Church of England private girls school with compulsory morning and evening chapel services. At first it was a living hell really, and it was art and music that helped transport me away. Although my mother had plans for me to have a career in medicine I had other ideas, and with the support of my headmistress and art teacher we managed to persuade my reluctant parents to let me study graphic design, which as it turned out was absolutely useless. I studied 'old school' methods, that's to say, cut and paste by hand. Computers had not quite come to our college yet, but by the time I left they were the new way. To add insult to injury, after I graduated and was looking for work, schlepping my portfolio all over town -- it was promptly stolen, and I had nothing to show for my years in college. What a bummer! Lucky for me, this time wasn't a total loss -- because it would be the town where I'd meet my lovely husband Colin. He was a DJ at the time and although he never played the music I requested, I was besotted and eventually made him mine.

In 1992 we moved to S. Florida, year of Hurricane Andrew. We started our own couture latex company called Hotbox Inc. We specialized in custom made fetish rubber clothing. We manufactured our own sheet rubber, which at the time was unheard of. Without any money to push the business forward it was a hard task and eventually we had to call it quits.
I worked in a department store, at a commercial art studio and a PIP printing (where I quit on my first day, before lunch)! It was around this time that I first saw an issue of Juxtapoz with a cover by Mark Ryden - and I was struck. The urge to paint was growing, but I lacked the knowledge and confidence to do anything about it. It seemed so complicated. My very early attempts were very graphic, comic book style. Hard colors.

Then, I went camping...

Colin and I went canoeing along Peace River in Florida where I tried LSD for the first time. A considerable hit of LSD. I had no idea what I was in for. It was a terrifying trip, I was gripped by anxiety and surprise at my experience - for a while I thought I'd done myself permanent brain damage! The relief I felt to be sober again prompted me to throw away self doubt and I decided I wanted to paint, purely for myself. If it was no good -- it didn't matter. If no one liked it -- it didn't matter. The very next day I picked up a canvas, cheap brushes and some acrylic paints and away I went. "Jam Sandwich" was the first painting I produced, and is the only one of my pieces that I will keep.

My original inspirations relied heavily on anime, Tamara De Lempicka and Mark Ryden. I loved the creative expression of the Harajuku kids in Tokyo. They filled me with such hope and excitement. Originally the intention of my paintings was just about creating a strong image, purely visual. I wanted to impart a modern tongue-in-cheek humor, incorporating my experiences. Contemporary, ballsy, flirty, weepy girls; punk, catholic, no-nonsense, damaged but not broken girls. Funny, intelligent, unusual, independent, odd ball, outsiders. Lovely.

The next logical step for me was to move into oils. With no formal fine art training whatsoever, and no knowledge of art history and even less of art technique it seemed like the most complicated thing in the world -- fat over lean? What the hell did that mean? So, in 2003 I bought a book off the Internet "How to Paint with Oils." I decided to give it a go, and have never looked back. Oils have a whole new set of rules, and to be honest I'm still finding my way.

As time goes on I find myself relying less on the narrative and more on the emotive. I hope that my work can connect with people on different levels. I'm trying to harness a single moment in time, an emotional response, seemingly insignificant gesture that can mean so much.

If you have a creative impulse, whether it be art, music, writing, theater, cooking, whatever -- express it. Don't let you own hang-ups, caution, fear of failure or ridicule stop you...

http://www.hotboxdesigns.com/index.html

Suzzan Blac

Suzzan Blac (aka "The Goddess of Gore") is a traditional artist who paints mainly in oils.

Artist statement: I am an artist who paints the emotions. I am facinated with psychology, physiognomy and body language. My paintings are motivated by my anger, pain and frustration. My art concentrates mainly on the eyes and the mouths, because they are the most expressive features of human emotion. I prefer to use oil, because it is the only medium mobile enough to blend and create the smooth technique I require to produce such realism. Work begins with a simple, subconcious doodle and then I attack the canvas! "I scream at the world - and the world screams back at me"

http://beinart.org/artists/suzzan-blac/gallery/paintings/

Valentina Kallias

Valentina Kallias is a Swiss artist on DeviantArt who's work has been featured many times on the website's "Daily Deviations" section. She works in digital media and her work explores the concepts of the human form combined with machines; androids.

http://valentinakallias.deviantart.com/

http://valentinakallias.deviantart.com/gallery/#My-Daily-Deviations

Christian Edler

An artist on DeviantArt who's work is very dreamlike and nightmarish. His pieces usually exemplify some kind of psychological story or problem. Some of his work is very Dali-esque.

http://reality-must-die.deviantart.com/

Face Rot

"FaceRot" is an artist who I found on DeviantArt. His unique illustrations are often grotesque and "ugly" which is what makes them so intriguing. His work is mainly illustration done with markers and even tea. His imagery tends to revolve around ideas of drudgery, desolation, and overall decay. (Maybe some insight to the name "FaceRot")

http://facerot.deviantart.com/