Sahar Aghasafari
Dr. Sahar Aghasafari is an Assistant Professor of Art and Graphic Design at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, specializing in fabric design, graphic design, and interdisciplinary visual/media arts. Her work integrates visual and media arts with STEM disciplines to enhance student learning, creativity, and success. With more than 20 years of experience, she combines traditional and contemporary approaches, emphasizing typography and interdisciplinary design in her teaching. Passionate about innovation and inclusion, she pioneers educational practices that empower students to excel in a rapidly evolving world.
Leslie Blackmon
Leslie Blackmon is an oil painter, whose practice also includes mixed-media and collage. Her paintings encompass a broad range of abstraction – from representational abstracted landscapes and forms to entirely nonrepresentational work. Her work explores memories and feelings about the American South, where she was raised. She is interested in the power of place and memory, how these things inform one’s perception of one’s present experience, and how exploring these connections through painting enriches understanding of both past and present experience. She holds a Master Certificate of Drawing and Painting from the Washington Studio School in Washington, DC, where she currently resides. Ms. Blackmon has shown her work nationally, in numerous juried group and solo exhibitions.
Patrice Boyes
Patrice Boyes, who wields a palette knife to work acrylic paint in the abstract tradition, is a Pennsylvania native who moved to Tampa, Florida in the late 1970s, and then Gainesville, Florida in the late 1980s. She studied under numerous private teachers as a child, including her artist father, and later studied under Dennis Akin at Dickinson College in the mid-1970s. After a detour into two careers and family, she returned to the easel with a passion for abstract expressionism inspired by nature and the built environment. Her works have been displayed in solo exhibitions and group shows, and are in private collections in Florida, Washington, D.C., and New York City.
Jill Bright
Jill Bright lives on a farm near her native town of Hahira, Georgia.
Her interest in art began with photography, which she still enjoys. Her first entry in Valdosta's Spring into Art" exhibition earned an award of Merit for her photograph of Nutt, her Brittany Spaniel.
Jill is a nature and animal lover and many of her works features pets, livestock and wildlife. All of her works feature brilliant colors. "Like most artist, I paint my surroundings. I do it in color."
On the difference between painting wildlife and people, Jill says, "I found that I like painting expressions, whether an animal or a person; it begins with the eyes."
Her other interest include cooking, skeet shooting, and social and duplicate bridge.
Judith Carlin
Exploring the human condition, our stories, and how we treat each other is Judith Carlin’s continual theme. Carlin wants her art to have an impact on the world: to inform, reflect, and evoke strong emotions. She strongly believe in the power of art, that a work of art can make a positive change in the world. In Carlin’s own words, “We're living in strange times and as an artist I feel the need to address that. I'm trying to paint our world with a compassionate and empathetic eye. I have many things to say and I feel like I'm writing with paint”.
When Carlin paints, it's not a physical reality she’s after but an expressive and emotional one. The people in her paintings are depicted at a heightened moment in their lives. Carlin wants people to look at the men and women in her paintings and see and relate to their fellow human beings. The hope is that someone will look at this work and come to a greater understanding and appreciation of how wonderful and diverse we all are in our shared humanity.
Rose Cofield
For Rose Cofield, art has been a life-long adventure. Her passion for exploring the possibilities of form and shape has been her prime motivation throughout her journey. Challenging herself with different materials has taught Rose to bend to the inherent attributes as well as the limitations of her chosen medium. Her abstract works in mixed media include collage, acrylic paints, mixed media, canvas and found materials.
Rose’s fascination with architecture is evident in her current work. Her experience in sculpture allows her to see the content of her mixed media pieces as form and shape. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Rose credits some of her images to that urban environment.
Rose studied art at New York University and The Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture. She has attended stone carving workshops at the Corsanini Studio in Carrara, Italy. Rose has taught sculpture workshops in schools and arts organizations through the South Carolina Arts Commission’s “Artist in Education” program. Rose has displayed her work at the Kershaw Fine Arts Center in Camden, SC, The Art League of Hilton Head Gallery, Hilton Head, SC, the St. John’s Museum of Art, Wilmington, NC, The Louise Gilbert Gallery, Statesville, NC, Florence Museum, Florence, SC, and Havens Gallery, Columbia, SC.
Annette Crosby
For Annette Crosby, all roads lead to Valdosta, Georgia. Her enthusiasm for her life there is evident in her energetic personality, immersing herself fully in home, family, community, and art. She grew up in Valdosta, went through all levels of school there, including college at Valdosta State University, and lives there now in the same home where she and her husband raised their three children. From childhood to now, she has consistently been an artist, her forms and techniques shifting and maturing to shape the established artist she is today. She earned two degrees, a BFA in art education and a MEd in Elementary Education. She has garnered awards in regional and national juried competitions, exhibits in invitational solo and group shows.
Lisa Anne Cullen
As a Carolina artist and illustrator, Connected Collage is Lisa Anne Cullen's unique style of creative expression. Each watercolor painting is meticulously built by hand connecting smaller elements together to create the larger work. She graduated from Vermont Collage of Fine Arts with a Master of Fine Arts degree in writing, pairing her studies with art, illustration, and photography. Lisa Anne Cullen is a member of NAWA, MACK Artists Guild, and the Seacoast Artists Guild.
Fran J Davies
Art has been my best and most loyal friend since I was a child. It encourages me to explore and challenges me to learn and grow in skills, perserverance and patience. When I was a student in college the ability to draw realistically provided me with a sense of pride and accomplishment, but as I've grown and matured, I am developing an interest in moving past representational works to more impressionistic, personal approaches. I love experimenting with different mediums and I choose the media and process that best helps me express my feelings about a particular subject.
Sandy Dimke
After spending 20 years in architectural photography in Connecticut, Sandy now concentrates on fine art photography. Sandy presently serves the Chairman of the Pictorial Print Division of the Photographic Society of America and was one of the founders of the Photography Club of Beaufort. She was juried into the National Association of Women Artists in 2019 and serves on their South Carolina Board of Directors. She has judged both art and photography competitions throughout the Tri-State area, as well as in New England.
Her books include Hands Across the Lowcountry and The Cats of Beaufort. Sandy’s images appear in numerous books and two of her photos have appeared covers of coffee table books.
Her work is exhibited at Beaufort Art Association.
Rosemary Giusti Dillon
Rosemary Giusti Dillon is a Visual Artist currently living in Charleston, SC. She is originally from Massachusetts and has lived in Connecticut, Southern California, Kentucky and in the Philippines. Her travels have informed her Art.
She studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, and later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Connecticut.
As an artist, she is always excited to explore new mediums. She is a painter and sculptor. Her work is figurative, but can take a turn toward surrealism from time to time.
Marie Echols
Marie is a contemporary, realistic watercolor artist, also working in collage. She has signature membership in NAWA and the Georgia Watercolor Society. She has won numerous awards in local, national, and international watercolor competitions. Her work has been published in Artist’s Magazine and in the 2023 Splash: Best of Watercolor magazine. She lives and works in rural Wilkes County, Georgia.
Meyriel Edge
1989 -2013 Ashley Hall, Charleston, Arts Chair, art teacher middle and high school, studio Art AP
1988-1989 East Cooper School, middle and high school art teacher
1980 moved from UK to Crystal Lake, Illinois
1970-1980 High School art teacher at three schools in North Wales, exhibiting artist
The University of Chester B.Ed/Art
Flintshire College of Art Dip.AD
Sold work in UK and Europe
1983-88 Represented by Charleston galleries
2015-18 Represented by Fabulon Gallery, Charleston
Fran Gardner
A native South Carolinian, Fran Gardner lives in Heath Springs. She earned her BFA from Columbia College (1982) and later, her MFA from Vermont College of Norwich University (1993). She is professor emerita of art and art history at the University of South Carolina Lancaster where she taught studio courses and art history for 32 years. Gardner has gained attention in mixed media collage. She paints and draws with traditional materials, but also with the sewing machine, layering her work with rich texture, color and mark-making. In addition to creating and exhibiting her work, she writes critical essays about art, leads retreats, teaches workshops, and judges and curates exhibitions.
Muffy Clark Gill
A trip to the East African nation of Uganda in high school lead Muffy Clark Gill to an interest in the ancient art of wax and dye resist painting known as batik and later the Japanese wax process known as rozome. Her main source of inspiration is based on her memories of life and travel.
Continuing education in mixed media processes along with extensive use of photography has been the backbone of her art making. Work has been on display in many public institutions around the state of Florida including the State Capitol 22nd Floor gallery and the Office of the Florida Secretary of State. Recently she was designated a Master Silk Painter by Silk Painters International where she also serves on their Board of Directors. Muffy is currently the Vice President of Exhibitions for NAWAFL.
https://muffyclarkgill.com/
Sheila Grabarsky
Sheila Grabarsky recently had featured paintings in Willliams Sonoma catalog and had seven paintings selected for the Hollywood movie American Pastoral. She was recently interviewed for “A Night In The Art Gallery” on NJDiscover cable TV and wrote a published back cover testimonial for a book of art/poetry entitled Leaves of Absence by Sally Brown Deskins, published in February 2016. Sheila is a seasoned, classically trained, national award-winning artist who has worked and exhibited across the U.S. for over 35 years in corporate, educational, commercial, and healthcare venues as well as museums and online. Her work is in numerous private and public collections and is currently represented by Beauregard Fine Art, Rumson, NJ, Boxheart Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Lori Austin Fine Art, Sebastopol, CA and ArtWorks Gallery, Cedar City, UT as well as online at UGallery.com, Zatista.com and CharlotteFineArt.com. She is also represented by Elizabeth Sadoff Art Agency, Integrated Art LLC, Artists Circle, MD.