Visual Art

Backyard Morning

Andrea Hellman, Ed.D., is an associate professor of English at Missouri State University. She holds a doctorate in Language, Literacy, and Cultural Studies from Boston University. She is best known for her publications in TESOL and directs a National Professional Development grant project called Show Me Multiliteracy (multiliteracy.net). 

Andrea is a prolific fine artist, who maintains an online gallery of her works. She is a member of the Fresh Gallery in Springfield, Missouri. Her preferred medium is digital painting although she has worked in oil painting, watercolor, etching, collage, mixed media, and photography. Accolades for Andrea's art in 2023 include two Gold, a Silver, and two Bronze Awards from the J. Mane Gallery, two Artist-of-the-Month Awards and five Bronze Awards from the Camelback Gallery, a Second Place Award and an Honorable Mention from the Ten Moir Gallery, a Bronze Award from the Global Painting Conclave, two Talent Prize Awards and an Honorable Mention from Teravarna, an Artistic Excellence Award and two Honorable Mentions from Fusion Art, two Special Merit Awards and several Special Recognitions from the Light Space Time Gallery, a Best-in-Show Award and a Crystal Award from the Gallery Ring, two Laurel Awards from Gallery 4%, an Honorable Mention from the Art Show International Gallery and the Art Room Contemporary Online Gallery. Her art was published in Passengers Journal, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, New Note Poetry, and she was was a featured artist in Hayden Ferry's Review Issue 72, Spring/Summer, 2023. (https://www.andreahellman.com/). 

Love & Fresh Air

The works and the world of Gregg Emery are inherently imperfect: purposefully paradoxical marriages between simplicity and complexity, clarity and confusion. Through his powerful color selections and movements, Emery awakens something vital within his viewers. His own inspirations combine western mystical experiences with his Quaker grandmother and growing up in a remote rural community along the borders of Canada and the Mohawk nation of Akwesasne.

Over the past few years, Emery has received critical acclaim for his exhibits around the globe. From Brussels to Beijing and back again. In 2017, Emery was commissioned and completed an 8,000 sq ft mural around a pool on Roosevelt Island that was featured in Time Out NY, the Gothamist, and the New York Post.  He was selected to exhibit in the 10th Annual Governors Island Art Fair, dubbed by the New York Times as the Art Fair of the 99%. From there it was off to Brussels and the Cube Art Fair, where Emery’s paintings could be viewed alongside the work of Chuck Close and other American greats. His paintings were featured during Art Basel in 2019 and 2021 and were also shown in Art New York at Pier 94. They appeared prominently in the widely acclaimed TV Show The Last O.G. Recently Emery’s work appeared on a billboard in Times Square, was featured in galleries in Chicago, New York, Miami, and Connecticut and, over the summer, a series of 7 paintings was created exclusively for Bergdorf Goodman in New York and he will be showing these paintings as part of Miami Art Basel art week in December.

Emery received his BA in Painting from Hartwick College and his MFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art.  He is also the official painter of the Poetry Brothel of New York.

Hand Broom Cleaning House

Rachel Ehlin-Smith's woven sculptures are a collaboration of intricate craftsmanship and natural inspiration. Incorporating cotton, horsetail, alpaca fibers from her alpaca Poppy, and locally foraged plants. Her pieces are dyed with plant-based pigments and crystallized using alum or copper. Meticulously woven on a floor loom, Ehlin-Smith's sculptures evoke a romantic, ethereal feeling, reflecting their Southern California roots and the artists' connection with nature.

Into the Dark Water We Fall

Coriander Focus is a full time creator, working most in the mediums of photography and written word. Coriander creates between four and eight thousand photos per year and shares her art with her community alongside poetry, short stories, and other creative exploration. Coriander spent her youth deep in the mountains of rural Appalachia where her love of wild places was cultivated. She has since captured that love using fine art photography for more than a decade. She has worked as an artist and has had her work displayed nationally across galleries and shows since 2010. Notable highlights of Coriander Focus’ recent career have been Sarasvati Creative Space Residency (2022), Exhibition in Motion hosted by the Society of North American Goldsmiths (2018) and Transformation, hosted by RE:ARTISTIE New York NY.(2017)

Silver Trilobite

Richelle Mechem was born amidst the enchanting desert and mountainous landscapes of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and her artwork typically draws inspiration from the terrains of the American Southwest. Mechem's abstract work is new and experimental. She creates three-dimensional sculptural, mixed-media paintings inspired by geology and astronomy. Her tactile textures inspired by the natural world offer viewers a tangible experience of terrestrial and cosmic spectacles.

Mechem's subject matters reflect her deep reverence for Earth and the Universe while emphasizing a sustainability narrative. Her portfolio includes works inspired by plate tectonics, fossils, celestial phenomena, and oceanic activity. She builds her wood panels with a tapestry of traditional and non-traditional materials. Her palette is eclectic, from crystals and rocks to seashells and sand. For example, the artwork "Silver Trilobite" blends hues and textures to evoke the timeless narratives embedded within Earth's layers.

Educated with a double Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Italian from the University of Kansas and further trained in Art Education at Avila University, Mechem has been creating and teaching since 2011. Richelle Mechem is an emerging artist with exhibitions at prominent spaces in Grand Junction, Colorado like the Avalon Theatre and Uncanny Valley Gallery. She is a storyteller who uses mixed media to recount tales of the universe, challenge conventions, and reinvigorate our perceptions of the world.