Artist Statements
Karlie Anderson
Karlie Anderson is a representational oil painter from San Jose, CA. Through her art, she explores American society’s painful truths, often displayed in black and white, confrontational compositions. Her inspiration for these message driven pieces comes from her own life experiences and what she views as the injustices of today’s world. With her art, Anderson wishes for viewers to empathize with her subject matter and reflect on how they can better the world through their own actions. Despite others criticizing her pessimistic approach, she believes her shocking artworks may be the only way for people to understand the horrible injustices that are taking place before them.
Kori Hess
Kori Hess is a young oil painter hailing from El Segundo, CA. Through use of fantastical imagery and memento mori, Hess hopes to enchant, mystify, and incite emotion with her paintings. Hess states, “The goal of my work is to create something both beautiful and mysterious. I want to make people feel a sense of uneasiness while still captivating them with my imagery–like ‘This is weird and creepy, but I can’t look away’.” Hess works primarily in oil paint, but also enjoys ceramics, and explores other mediums as well. She draws her inspiration from nature, the human form, and her own inner musings. She creates work as a way of battling her mental illnesses and transcending the mundane; creating artwork for her is an emergent experience. Creating art is Hess’ greatest passion, and ultimately her purpose.
Bailey Huerta
Bailey Huerta is an artist from Fillmore, California. From a young age, she was surrounded by individuals who encouraged her creative abilities. Her art depicts various glimpses of her family and hometown. Having been surrounded by these things her entire life, she felt a way to show her admiration and appreciation for them would be by portraying them in her art. This personal connection to her works has made her look harder to find ways to convey how they make her feel, and how she would like to make others feel. This is evident in her color choices, and how they contribute to her themes of happiness and hope. Her bold lines and visibly thick paint strokes create intrigue with texture and contrast. Through her art, she aims to create curiosity in those who view it, and give them the ability to form personal perspectives.
Dani Iribe
Similar to her race, Dani Iribe’s methodology is a mix of lowbrow and traditional figure painting. Her hopes are to raise both questions and cultural awareness through her use of allegory, hints of satire, and strong imagery. She draws inspiration through pop culture, fashion and history. Being biracial herself, race and ethnicity are a common theme throughout her paintings. Other persistent themes include her use of strong symbolism such as animal figures, memento mori, and her manipulation of color. Her paintings are an apologue exploring her mind, depicting her feelings on topics she believes deserve a stage.
Sebastian Montoya Vega
Sebastian Montoya Vega is a Peruvian-born artist, educator, and mentor. He really appreciates and enjoys the art of storytelling. Most of his work represents his cultural heritage, which always carries a profound spiritual message. He hopes to inspire new generations by sharing his love for wisdom, culture and art.
Thor Nualsumlee
Thoranin Nualsumlee is a printmaker and painter from Moorpark. With a keen interest in nature, he enjoys painting animals as his subject to express humanity’s love for them. Most of his pieces focus on representing animals in an abstract fashion with impressionistic qualities. His works contain nonrealistic style with his representational versions of his animal subjects.
Kaylee Reel
Kaylee Reel is a Southern California artist, born and raised in Ventura. Her favorite media includes acrylic, pen, and watercolor. Her creation process is often meticulous and detail oriented, most often focused on execution of sharp, fine lines and her selection of bright, lively colors. Reel uses creating as a vehicle of expression, to work through her anxiety, her emotions, and struggles in relationships and self. For Reel, her work is more about the process of and for expression than it is of the subject matter of the work itself. The subject matter of Reel’s works vary widely, from animals to landscapes and natural elements to portraiture and hands.
Mona Saii
Mona Saii is a printmaker and painter from Moorpark, California that investigates profound human experiences and the human condition through visual storytelling. A purposeful use of dark and light elements, centrality of human characters, emphasis on expression, and fantastical situations help to express the emotion of her artwork and of her character(s). In addition, she creates sequences among her pieces to tell a story. The Romanticist-inspired style of Mona’s artwork is reminiscent of the humanities and of old classic literature, which she feels helps to encourage a recognition of the richness of emotions and a reflection on being human. Mona’s artwork is greatly influenced by Eastern and Western religions, mysticism, philosophy, classic literature, and psychology. The unifying theme behind all that inspires her is the depth and capability of the human experience, whether that is a state of flow, rapture, depression, or introspection.
Natalie Tseng
Natalie Tseng is a representational artist from Santa Clarita, CA. Throughout her childhood, she had a fascination with design, animation, film, and music. She spent years paying close attention to detail and maintaining a pleasant aesthetic in her art. As she grew older, her personal experiences and observations influenced her work. Her series “Illuminations” showcases enlightening imagery of her family and friends to reveal the hidden positivity within the darkness of her world. With her dramatic use of lighting, Natalie displays her collection of subtle yet significant memories to commemorate those who have shaped her into who she is today. Ultimately, the goal of “Illuminations” is to remind viewers to be thankful for who and what they have in their lives when dealing with future hardship.
Jessica van der Laan
Born in Colorado Springs and raised all over the country, artist Jessi van der Laan now lives in London, Ontario, Canada. She came from a very science centered family that also enjoyed art. As a family, they would go and visit art museums multiple times a month, mainly when they lived in Europe. For a while, Jessi did not know from where she drew her inspiration, eventually realizing it came from previous experiences and coping with anxiety and depression. Her prints are based around photos taken on her family’s many adventures across the country and Europe. Her paintings are centered around the events that caused her major depressive states, and they give her a chance to let go of them. Jessi thinks that art should be expressive and unique to the artist and that no artist should feel pressured to create in the popular style.