The Artists

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CHAPEL HILL, NC

 Duane creates obsessively. Iteration and combination are the hallmarks of his work. One photograph becomes ten. A single sculpture becomes five. Quantity becomes quality. His aim is to continually validate his point of view and to provide some joy and challenge for his audience. 

MORRISVILLE, NC

Sampada Kodagali Agarwal is a visual artist based in Morrisville, NC since 2006. Art is her passion and she enjoys teaching/learning art forms from modern to traditional, especially folk-art styles from India. She is also a Certified Zentangle® Teacher (CZT) since 2012. As an artist steeped in the practice of tribal and folk-art styles from India, Sampada plans to bring this rich cultural heritage to modern surfaces, transforming a car into a vibrant storyteller. By bringing folk art to such a moving canvas, she aims to seamlessly blend tradition with modernity as a way to connect the past with the present. At its core, this project is about inclusion and cultural preservation in new, adaptive ways, and to be brought into our daily lives.   

CHARLOTTE, NC

Nico Amortegui is a full time artist based in Charlotte, NC. Known for large-scale paintings and installations, his mural and sculpture works can be found in numerous cities throughout NC as well as Atlanta, DC, and Tel Aviv. A native of Bogota, Colombia, Nico learned numerous skills and trades by doing and has a tremendous appreciation for generational artisan craft. Nico enjoys working with a variety of media especially with sculpture pieces where he can incorporate found objects and everyday materials. His body of work is most often influenced by the genre of folk art and his love for symmetry and bold color.

GREENSBORO, NC

 Viktoria Banovic is an oil painter and sculptor based in NC, working with materials like steel, cast metal, and clay. Her art practice is rooted in exploring the human experience, identity, and the figure, creating work that spans a variety of styles/media. Driven by an innate need to create, she approaches each piece with a commitment to pushing her boundaries and challenging herself. Viktoria’s work invites viewers to connect with the emotions and complexities of the human form and experience.    

DURHAM, NC

Stu Beavers is a metal artist from Durham, NC. Stu's mother was a welder and though she tried to teach him, he always preferred painting and drawing. It wasn't until he took a formal welding class at Durham Tech that those lessons with his mom clicked and he understood her love of metal- he's been obsessed ever since. He is heavily inspired by wildlife,
recreating the flora and fauna of his favorite tropical landscapes. As a handyman and hobbyist auto mechanic, his materials are always close by and he sees the potential in the everyday objects around him. 

LOUISBURG, NC

 Words can build or destruct. Sara Bordner uses her love of lettering to emphasize the importance of empowerment and share other’s stories through murals. Her process typically starts with a positive message that leads to additional movement and surrounding imagery. She strives to celebrate human emotion and connectedness. Her installation is a personal project – self discussion she encourages everyone to try. Her goal for her work is to encourage others to speak more intentionally to themselves. 

GREENVILLE, NC

Jessica Bradsher is a visual artist specializing in metal sculpture and painting, currently living and working in Greenville, North Carolina. Her large-scale sculptures are displayed publicly from the eastern to the mid-western regions of the United States and are also included in private collections. Jessica holds a Bachelors of Fine arts in both Studio Sculpture as well as Art Education. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts in 2018 from East Carolina University and currently teaches visual arts and sculpture at a private high school in the Greenville area. 

RALEIGH, NC

 Jane Cheek is a mixed-media and installation artist whose work explores joy, memory, and transformation through vivid, large-scale creations. Drawing inspiration from nature and personal experience, she transforms reclaimed materials into monumental artworks that celebrate resilience and beauty in imperfection. Her process emphasizes the power of small, intentional acts to spark meaningful change and connection. By presenting joy as both an essential human need and a radical force, she invites viewers to pause, reflect, and rediscover wonder. 

DURHAM, NC

TJ Christiansen enjoys the process of creating sculptures that capture the true beauty of the wild animals that make up planet earth. These animals depend on clean water and plentiful food sources for their survival. Some of these animals are so mystical and some of them are close to becoming endangered or even extinct. The relationship between man and nature is a growing concern for the future of all wildlife. TJ chooses animals from all over the world and try to create a life size sculpture that shows their true beauty. Without their natural habitats, these living creatures would not survive. Over the years he has created several types of artwork, but his true passion is creating life size animal sculptures and sharing them with the world. Even if a particular piece he creates only raises the awareness of one person, that is one more person who knows about the plight of our global environmental changes, whether caused by man or Mother Nature.

DURHAM, NC

 "My love of working with my hands came from my father, a pilot, and an expert mechanic and woodworker. I learned to weld from the aircraft mechanics at my father’s airport. I became enamored with the amazing strength and beauty of welded metal structures. My love of things mechanical led to a GM Scholarship in Engineering at Duke. After later attending art and design classes at UNC, I started making art in earnest, using my engineering knowledge to explore strength and balance in sculpture."

- Joe Coates

KNOXVILLE, TN

 Raised in Burlington, NC, Nyssa Collins is currently a Knoxville based artist working in sculpture, puppetry, performance, and animation. She discovered her love for interactive art experiences while working as an artist and performer with Paperhand. Her works use mythic narrative and tricks of perception to point at the miracles of the human experience. She is interested in where we are unable to fully see the contexts structuring our understanding of the world - where the time scale is too enormous, where systems are too complex, or where our biases and fears complicate our judgment. Her work represents the mystical systems of belief we construct at the edge of our ability to understand, where our imagination does a great deal to create our experience.  

RALEIGH, NC

 Lisa Crane is a sculptor living in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her years of work as a psychotherapist, court-appointed expert witness, and child advocate working with victims of abuse led her to embrace the efficacy and power of art as expression and catharsis. Most recently, Crane exhibited as a solo artist at Tennessee Tech’s Joan Derryberry Art Gallery, which featured her revelatory work "Trophies": a life-size, 17-piece installation that highlights the history of women advancing their equality through protest marches and celebrates the beauty of the unretouched female body. Crane studied art history and sculpture at Miami Dade College. She works in Raleigh, where she lives with her two pups in a log cabin on the edge of the woods. 

MADISON, NC

 Scott Harris is an aluminum artist and sculptor working and showing primarily in the southeast. Born in Fargo, North Dakota, Scott re-located to the mountains of NC in 1996. He completed his BA in Visual Arts from Brevard College with an emphasis in both painting and sculpture. It was there he first experimented with painting on aluminum due to its flexible surface.  As the process evolved, he discovered the reflective quality of the material added depth and movement to his art.  

WILSON, NC

 Elizabeth Laul Healey is a multidisciplinary artist who has been living in Wilson, NC with her husband since 2020. Elizabeth grew up in Southern California and moved with her family to North Carolina in 2011. She has been a bicoastal artist that has shown her work internationally. Although Elizabeth started out as a painter for her first ten years, she has since made and sold over 300 sculptures since 2007 and has won many awards including a grant award the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). In the last couple years Elizabeth has worked full time on her larger Positivity Watch Dog series with her husband Duffy Healey. 

 Duffy Healey is an entrepreneur and artist along with being a publisher for over 30 years. Duffy has worn many hats and lived in multiple states; he was born in Brooklyn New York and moved to La Jolla California as a teenager, married his wife and moved with his family to North Carolina in 2011. In addition to publishing a luxury real estate magazine for over a decade, Duffy has also published six coffee table books including a book on artist Vollis Simpson and his Whirligigs in Wilson, North Carolina. Although Duffy has been helping his wife Elizabeth with her art for over 20 years, he finally decided to work with her full time as of the last couple years.  

DURHAM, NC

 Born in Greensboro NC, Vandorn Hinnant received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Design from N C A & T State University in Greensboro NC in 1981, and briefly studied sculpture at UNC-Greensboro. He is a recipient of a 1993-1994 NC Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award, and has participated in artist residencies at The Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences, Project Row Houses (Round 10), Penland School of Crafts, Center for Design Innovation (Winston-Salem, NC), the National Arts Education Association, and the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia PA. The artist has a long history of public exhibitions. He sees his purpose as a creative to serve as an inspiration to others wishing to live fully engaged with ‘the creative response’. 

CARRBORO, NC

 "I began to see my own world differently and enjoy working with my hands when sitting in school classrooms didn't agree with me - Spending time in natural settings, something would catch my eye, rotting wood, a tangled knarl of root, fallen cedar, mosses and lichens - Without knowing how I might use them, I begin to shape, peel, cut open and form them into the second life that I imagine, learning that the most beautiful elements can be revealed from the most ragged piece of discarded nature - In my years, I have sculpted wood, sand, discarded guitars, giant floats for holiday events, furniture, lamps, fencing and most recently gingerbread into a prize-winning replica of a boat-building center - My collection of Tiny Houses have evolved into their own imaginative worlds of wonder where as my neighbor recently said, 'When I see them, they offer me a place to rest' - Seeing the world differently..... may the viewer take their time exploring the second life of these pieces from nature ~~~"

- Damian Hoffman

BLACK MOUNTAIN, NC

  Catherine Kaleel is a contemporary artist known for her vibrant, pop culture-infused works that bridge fine art and public engagement. She earned her MFA in Painting from Laguna College of Art and Design and holds a BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Kaleel is an active figure in the gallery and public mural scenes across the United States, with a focus on Southern California and the Greater Asheville, North Carolina area.

Beyond exhibitions and murals, her artistic accomplishments include participating in the Letters of Hope exchange with Long Beach high school students—highlighted in a feature on CBS Mornings—designing the 2013 summer tour shirt for musician Father John Misty, and serving as an Artist-in-Residence in Navasota, Texas. Kaleel’s multidisciplinary approach and community-driven projects continue to expand her impact in both traditional and public art spaces.

 Lance Turner has exhibited in galleries and Museums throughout the United States, including ArtFields in Lake City, SC in 2015, 2021, and 2023. He painted two large scale public murals for ArtFields; He has shown at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art in Los Angeles, CA in each year 2013-2018; He was part of a 3 person mural for a large scale video game exhibition at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis,TN; the artist has shown at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda, FL; The Southern Nevada Museum of Art in Las Vegas, NV; and the Woodruff Arts Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, GA. The artist has had 4 residency fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center. The artist has painted two murals on South Main Street in Memphis, TN and has painted murals for Nike, Black Rock, and the History Channel. His work was recently published in issues 118 and 142 of New American Paintings. He has been in the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Issue in 2008 and 2015 for Solo Exhibitions at the Odessa Gallery, and as the first resident artist at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN. Lance Turner was born in North Carolina in 1985. He graduated from Memphis College of Art with a BFA in Painting and Art History in 2007, and a MFA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012. 

ASHEVILLE, NC

Eric Knoche lives and works in Asheville, NC where he shares an art studio with his wife, Kristin.  He has been making things from clay and firing them with wood for nearly 20 years.  Prior to moving to Asheville, Eric apprenticed to Jeff Shapiro, Accord, NY and later to National Living Treasure, Bizen, Japan Isezaki Jun.

My most important artistic influence is the annual ‘Whitman’s Sampler’ boxes that my grandma bought for Christmas when I was young; the kind where each chocolate is a different shape and style and there is a key on the inside of the box to tell you what’s what.
 

FAYETTEVILLE, NC

 As an interior designer and textile artist, Kia Love is captivated by the transformative power of textiles in shaping spaces that nurture, inspire, and connect us. Through her work, she seeks to harness the emotional and sensory potential of fabrics to craft environments that evoke emotions, tell stories, and foster community.  From intimate, bespoke textiles that adorn interior spaces to large-scale public art installations, such as yarn bombs, she uses fiber as a medium to engage, surprise, and delight diverse audiences. By merging traditional craftsmanship with modern materials and techniques, she creates immersive experiences that weave together color, texture, and pattern. Currently, she's exploring the dynamic intersection of textiles and interior design, pushing boundaries to unlock the full potential of fabrics in defining, dividing, and energizing spaces. Through innovation and experimentation, Love aims to craft environments that are both beautiful and meaningful, elevating the human spirit through the art of textile design.
 

LAURENS, SC

 Doug McAbee learned to weld at age 7.  While his imagination was running wild, his father began teaching him practical construction methods with wood and steel.  The sense of play and exploration he valued then is still with him as he creates whimsical and organic drawings and sculptures. Doug earned his MFA at Winthrop University and works as Professor of Art at Lander University in Greenwood, SC.  He lives out in the middle of nowhere with his family and their dogs and he creates drawings and sculptures when he’s not teaching.   Doug is interested in using humor, color, and narrative in his artwork.  His father was a great storyteller and Doug is interested in the power of imagery and story in his visual communication with viewers.  Doug creates indoor and outdoor murals, as well as indoor and outdoor sculptures and sometimes exhibits them together in immersive visual experiences in galleries. He was also raised by wolves. 

ASHEVILLE, NC

 Harry McDaniel was born in Wichita, Kansas and now lives in Asheville, NC. Through childhood, his creativity took many forms, but it wasn’t until his mid-20’s that he began to see himself as an artist. He is primarily self-taught. His first significant acknowledgment came in 1988 when he was commissioned for a public art project in Maryland. That project deepened his interest in creating artwork for public spaces. Two fellowships from the NC Arts Council further propelled his creative exploration. Since 1999, he has installed a new public sculpture almost every year, in locations from Michigan to Florida. Throughout his career, his design concepts have been infused with his attraction to natural forms, his fascination with movement, his interest in human interactions, and his humor. 

HILLSBOROUGH, NC

Milkweed Mutual Aid creates space and organizes events in furtherance of their guiding principles:

• To build an alternative, and revolutionary, network of support and decrease reliance on the state 
• To support and create alternatives to policing and commerce 
• To foster self protection and reliance on one another to have our needs met
• To facilitate the exchange of ideas, resources (material and educational), creative exploration, art, liberation, joy and the things that matter most to our community.

MAULDIN, SC 

Aldo Muzzarelli is a Venezuelan born Artist. Holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Central University of Venezuela, worked as an illustrator at the Inter-American Center of Languages (CIDI -Caracas) and was an animator on several films produced by the Film Department at the University of Los Andes. He served for several years as Director of Culture of his hometown and taught at training workshops in fine arts all around Venezuela. He performed specialized studies in Spain (Fresco Painting Techniques on wooden panels, Technique of Buon Fresco e  Secco, Restoration of Paintings on Canvas, Dorados al agua,  Stucco marmorio,  Stained Glass and Grisailles) and frequented the atelier of the great Venezuelan master Abdón Romero in Florida US. Aldo Muzzarelli created several monumental works for the Cathedral of San Pedro in Caracas and he opened his own gallery in Tinaquillo. He has participated in individual and group exhibitions in Venezuela, The United States, Spain, and Italy; earning awards and recognition (22 awards in Venezuela and 56  so far in US). In culmination, his famous leitmotiv, earned him the nickname "Painter of Butterflies". He currently resides in Mauldin, South Carolina, and divides his time and work between Venezuela, The United States and Spain.

PITTSBORO, NC

 Felix Obelix (Wendy Spitzer) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans music/audio, collage, participatory projects, and public art. She has created audio installations on grief and mental health, bus shelter artworks, film soundtracks, and collages exhibited regionally and nationally. She has released two albums of original music; a third, as one-half of the duo Private Cathedral, was released this year on Barchan Dune Recordings. Curiosity often drives her participatory projects: she asks questions, finds patterns in the answers, and juxtaposes elements to highlight their connections. Collaboration is also a hallmark of her practice, and co-creation may occur with acquaintances, friends, community members, or other artists. After time spent in Prague, London, and Siem Reap, she now makes art in central North Carolina. 

ATLANTA, GA 

Sean Stockton: Skateboarder/Artist/Footwear Pattern maker trained in Milan with a bachelor’s degree in Accessories Design from FIT NYC 

DURHAM, NC

  Jen Stone is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of sustainability, fashion, technology, and storytelling. She transforms discarded materials into wearable pieces and immersive installations that spark renewal and connection. Guided by her initiative Seams That Give, she’s committed to responsible design and creative projects that give back.  From hand-painted garments to large-scale works, her pieces merge bold aesthetics with intention. Stone began her fashion business at age ten and has built a practice rooted in purpose, crafting designs as unique as the people and places that inspire them. 

CULLOWHEE, NC

 "Bananas are a common motif in contemporary art and serve as a humorous element when dealing with philosophical conundrums such as arts commodification or even gender/cultural discrimination. I find the shape of bananas boomerangish as well as hammock- like.  The taste and smell of bananas are also fairly innocuous and their color beacons of cheefulness. Soft-sculpture bananas that are 'human' sized and displayed in the air will hopefully enable viewers to consider their connection to the fruit, the form, the figuration."

HILLSBOROUGH, NC

  Kara Tew is a native North Carolinian artist based in Hillsborough, NC. She works primarily with industrial and natural materials, such as wire and wood, to weave pieces that quietly reflect on nature and identity. She is inspired by the flora found in her locale as well as the visuals of 1960s cinema and art. Her process shows a commitment to detail and careful consideration of her inspirations.  

RALEIGH, NC

 Tonya Solley Thornton is an artist based in Raleigh, NC. Her work centers on play and material experimentation, often using found objects and fabrics sourced from thrift stores and flea markets. She searches for color, shape, and handmade items that feel like they need rescuing. In the layered chaos of her studio, she brings new life to overlooked materials. Her process creates unexpected conversations between elements, forming abstract works with a strange emotional pull. Through collage and found-object sculpture, she explores how shape, color, and texture can express feeling, allowing materials to guide her decisions. Each piece is a puzzle—one she assembles intuitively, solving it as she goes. The result is work that feels both familiar and unfamiliar, nostalgic and oddly new. 

GREENSBORO, NC

Jason Torchinsky is a Chapel Hill-based artist and writer who focuses on the same things he's liked since he was a kid, which includes cars, obsolete technologies, and early video games, among others. He tries to make work that provides novel and fun experiences for people to interact with, because fun is, after all, fun.  By combining unexpected subjects with familiar or even nostalgic media or using technology in unusual ways or at unpredictable scales, often with humorous intent, Torchinsky hopes to give participants a renewed sense of wonder when they think about the world, especially finding wonder in the small and seemingly mundane. Sometimes, he's just trying to have fun. Torchinsky is co-founder of the automotive website The Autopian, and has written two books. His yard is full of cars he needs to fix, already. 

RICHMOND, VA

 August J. Trivet, known by close associates as simply Trivet, serves as one of the primary custodians of the Motus Folio. Known for their extensive collection of measuring tapes, Trivet’s work is informed by past employment at a variety of institutions—hospitals, government agencies, public schools, factories. Their most demeaning job was serving as a waitressing clown. 

 Tracey Cockrell, a sculptor with an interdisciplinary practice, is chairperson of the MFA in Studio Art at Maine College of Art & Design, and recently served as a visiting faculty member in sculpture at Bennington College. Ranging from installations and sculptures to sound art and collaborative performances, Cockrell’s practice explores the complex relationships between language and landscape, psychoacoustics and the subjectivity of place. In 2024, Cockrell’s work debuted internationally in Munich’s KloHäuschen Biennale. Cockrell’s work has been discussed in The Portland Press Herald, The Atlantic Monthly, The Art Section, Sculpture Magazine, ArtNewEngland, The Boston Sunday Globe, WGBH TV’s ‘Greater Boston Arts,’ and Maine Public Radio’s ‘Maine Things Considered’, among others. 

CONCORD, NC  

 TuxedoKat (Katlyn Cornelius) is a sculptor based in Concord, NC, known for transforming discarded materials into striking public art. Her work reimagines glass, metal, and reclaimed objects into structures that honor resilience, transformation, and beauty in what is often overlooked. With projects like Pollinator Paradise (Charleston, SC), Tree of Every Color (Charleston, SC), BookMark (Concord, NC), and Meta Towers (Charlotte, NC), TuxedoKat builds works that invite interaction and reflection. Her intuitive process uses UV and epoxy resin to unite broken glass into illuminated, durable sculptures, often without the need for internal structures. Driven by a lifelong passion for rethinking waste, TuxedoKat believes art has the power to shift perceptions and create new meaning from forgotten materials. Her work encourages viewers to see possibility where others see discard. 

GRAHAM, NC

 Nature and industry inspire the work of Wayne Vaughn. He strives to bring animation, balance, and intrigue to his creations, challenging gravity, but keeping trust between the piece and its landscape. His hope is that his work invites the viewer to play, question, and respond.  It is a great honor to be recognized, but Vaughn's greatest reward is the delight on the face of a child. He loves to bring animation to cold hard steel.  His greatest satisfaction is bringing a smile, inciting a conversation, or inspiring a new creation.

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love." - Claude Monet

CHAPEL HILL, NC

 Jan-Ru Wan is an Asian American artist born in Taipei, Taiwan. Through repurposed found objects and traditional textile techniques, she explores the human condition—particularly themes of collective suffering, loss, and resilience. A former professor at East Carolina University and NC State University, Wan has exhibited widely, including at the Asian American Arts Center (NYC), First International Biennial of Casablanca, Yango Biennale (Kinshasa), Rauschenberg Gallery, Kuandu Museum (Taipei), Hueman Art Museum (China), Mint Museum, and Cameron Art Museum. Her residencies include Headlands Center for the Arts, Burapa University (Thailand), and Thamgidi Foundation (Netherlands). Wan's work has appeared in Sculpture Magazine, Surface Design, and NAEA’s anthology. She is a GOLD recipient from UW–Milwaukee and a 2023 Women’s Studio Workshop fellow. 

 DURHAM, NC

"I am an artist based in Orange County working in textile, paint, and sculpture. I utilize quilting as a process to explore assemblage across media and textiles as a logic to formally consider surface. My proposal, "Surface Attention", involves covering a building or section of a building with a quilted botanical "wrap". Envisioning camouflage as something playful and unexpected, this piece serves to "wild" a built space by rendering its surface illegible."

- Carson Whitmore

ATHENS, GA

 "I am a multi media sculptor based in Athens Georgia.  My inspirations are based on Nature, the architecture of plants and a seeker of beauty in the details."

- Joni Younkins-Herzog