Clint Atkinson Austin, Texas “What if I Kissed You?” “What If You Kissed Me Back?”
My goal is to create emotive painting and drawing that combines impactful figurative compositions with equally powerful surface work. I place importance on both the overt figurative composition and surface mark making. When successful, the figure arises from a richly worked surface. I often work fairly large for this reason, up to 8 feet by 10 feet. Since the pandemic, I’ve been exploring spray painting and working with more color. It’s been an equally exciting and frustrating time.
Penelope Caldwell Portland, Oregon Romulus & Remus Revisited
The explanation is in the myth, by adding 2 more babies I ask What if?
Hector Carmona Miranda Austin, Texas Hand: Re-signified
Growing up in Mexico, i was influenced by pop culture, mainly 3D and 2D animation, and Disney being the most prominent storyteller. Its influence is strong in my work for instance, the mickey mouse hands. Growing up in Mexico these white gloves are more than just about a mouse. They are genderless, race less, ageless and without any social status because they can be seen in all kinds of characters, old and new. But in the states, these gloves are also a topic of discussion about racism in old cartoons. They are suggesting the idea of the glove as being a reminder of the Jim Crow minstrel shows. Here mickey’s race is questioned.
As an artist living in the united states, i cannot ignore the history but what if the icon could be re-signified? What if i could re-imagine it with a little more of my culture?
Ron Conrad Salem, Oregon Reverse
The fish in my sculpture titled “Reverse” turns the tables on humans by catching the man and rowing away, perhaps to cook him for the fish’s family or sell him in the “fish” market. What if the hunted became the hunter and human domination over nature was stopped?
Patricia Downs Plattsburgh, New York Ulcerative Geodes
My piece “Ulcerative Geodes” started with the question of what if…?” I was in a creative rut and looking to develop a process of making sculptures that bridged my love of bending wire and weaving fibers.
It was the very beginning of the pandemic, Spring 2020, and I was trying to revive my art practice (after graduating from college in spring 2019 and going into the work force). I was sitting on the edge of my bed and looking at an old canvas. I thought, “what if I use the canvas stretcher as a frame, like a lap loom, and weave wire into the shape of a grid, then weave strips of fabric between the bars of the grid..?” And then I just dove in and started creating. This piece is the first exploration of what I call wire-grid armature technique. After covering the grid in fibers, I crocheted protrusions coming off the piece using fabric strips instead of yarn, detached it from the frame and then warped it into an interesting abstract shape. I have continued to use this process to this day.
Elaine Erne Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mr. Duckie Takes a Diving Lesson
People in abusive situations are always asking “What If?” What if I was quiet, what if I was better, what if I never said no, would things be better? But there are the what if I make it worse, what if they send me somewhere worse, what if I can never escape? The best “what ifs” are those that can propose a solution even if in reality it is not a real solution but just fantasy.
Jennifer Fernandez Shoreline, Washington Rainy Day Games
My paintings explore gesture and color as emotive vehicles. I imbue my work with sense of rapture, overwhelm and at times instability and disproportion. Using a bright bold palette, I revel in the interaction and animation of slashing hues.
Growing up in Miami, rainy season meant indoor games-Chutes and Ladders, Operation, etc. What if we imagined a rainy day when all those games were played? And what if instead of remembering each game individually, they were played in unison – a cacophony of game pieces and pick up sticks?
Hazel Glass Portland, Oregon Lured by the Sherwood Stars
What if those twinkling lights aren’t what you think they are?
What if they lead you somewhere enchanted?
Dave Hanson Price, Utah Road trip
My photographs are elements of my ongoing visual autobiographical journey. They are outcomes of the variations of my thoughts and the evidence of my presence in the places where I have been, the things I have seen and the people I have experienced. They tell of brief moments in my life that I have been paused in my steps and have awakened from life’s visual slumber.
Robin Kerr Portland, Oregon Shaggy Dog Tale Excuse Me-Coming Through
What if you could look at a painting and see a scene from above and the side and from below at the same time? What if you could see the distant and near objects clearly without switching focus? What if it smelled and made noises and pushed you away or puled you into a scene and let you wander about? What if you could look at it and understand everything and nothing without distress? What if it reminded you of other people’s stories and where you were at the time? What if it made a new story?
David Carmack Lewis Portland, Oregon Ghost
My work explores the endless potential for mystery inherent in the world around us. I grew up fascinated by myths, folk tales and legends, an instinctive human response to tell stories about our surroundings. When seen through a different lens, from a different angle or in a different light, things you may not ordinarily notice, or give a second thought, can suddenly fill you with wonder, joy, unease or some inexplicable combination of these. My paintings embrace the potential for narrative or metaphor to tell both true stories and tall tales about what is real, what is imagined and how they overlap. In other words, I am always asking myself, “what is..?” I have always believed that narrative and metaphor, among the oldest tools of art, remain essential for finding new meaning in, and new ways of seeing the world around me.
Andrea Lopez Chen Vancouver, Washington La Reina May you always be loved
I am a Columbian self-taught artist currently living and working in Vancouver, Washington. My medium is mixed media on canvas. Representation and whimsical elements are a constant in my work. What if…I do less and allow the painting to guide me? These paintings are inspired by old drawings found in my sketchbook. Their paint went through the pages revealing new ghost images on the back and I took it from there. My intention was to allow unexpected imagery simply to emerge through the layers of acrylic paint and collage. I aim for the subjects to be captivating, to incite questioning, to relate and perhaps connect to the viewer.
Sara Luna Salt Lake City, Utah How many of me
I believe that we all carry a story with us, a secret that we try to hide from the world but our expression works against us, giving us away. My embroidery is home, it’s my attempt to return to my mother and the shelter I need.
Chas Martin Portland, Oregon Between Worlds
My images are concept drawn, inspired by books, dreams, conversations, meditations and a mash up of synchronous experiences throughout my day. I explore primal symbols, primal characters and situations to create archetypal metaphors. These are part of a continuous visualization to realization of my own personal mythology. I don’t know were it leads. It’s a meditative state where I live in wonder.
Jennifer McBrien Baltimore, Maryland The Guardians
What if you put male bird heads on female human beings? What if the earth became so endangered that it needed a magical force to come help protect it? My work is one of a fragile media. My stitches tell a narrative about the fragility of our world using birds, plants and figures as subjects. I choose a fragile medium of embroidery to emphasize its delicateness as well as a medium in which the connection of hand and material are constant. Whether I am free hand machine or hand stitching, my hands are guiding and manipulating thread and fabric. My process begins with my ink drawings from observation or photographic references. I translate the ink with the stitched line. Color and form are added with overlaying threads, fabric or felt. I get very excited about finding vintage and up-cycled fabrics that have sense that my subjects can interact with to tell their story. I am drawn to overlay and transparency leading me to experiment with a variety of fabrics from felt to organza.
Georgiana Nehl Portland, Oregon Color-Play
Many of my recent mixed-media paintings include diverse image fragments, set side by side. As I compose these two-dimensional forms. I ask myself: What memories, metaphors and stories might be constructed for myself and for others. If I set ‘this’ or ‘that’ specific image beside any of the others?
In my interactive work ‘Color Play”, I began with a query of What If? I create a piece where others can play with a similar trial and error process of setting image tidbits beside each other. Which image fragments will strike their own fancies, and help evoke their own memories and narratives? To this end, I created a set of 121 two-inch, image covered wooden blocks where experiencers are invited to arrange and re-arrange them into an unlimited number of compositional groupings. This open-ended process, where experimentation is encourages and there is no pre-set solution, then curiosity shifts my originals-and other- What if? questions back to the player.
Ani Pelucarte St Petersburg, Florida Mex Tea
My sculptural work depicts a whimsical and imaginative approach of a castle surrounded by feet, and in every window of this feet castle, a foot soldiers guarding it. This Castle is surrounded by three mutant flies that have ears instead of wings. They are trying to find a way to attack the castle and become new leaders of feetsville. Unfortunately, for the mutant flies, their attempt has failed due to fire candles that lie above the castle.
The work deals with fantasy and real facts about castles and flies. Some castles many centuries ago were likely to be invaded by other realms, these invaders were always on the lookout to find the perfect moment to attack the castle. In the case of the flies, not everyone welcomes the buzzing insect into their home especially when they are near someone’s ear or food. So I decided from these true facts to recreate a scenario of whimsical castles threatened by invaders.
John Potter Sherrill, Iowa Bus Stop Dreams
“What if” – as it may pertain to my submissions can represent situations regarding the future, as expressed in “Bus stop Dreams”.
Candace Pratt Portland, Oregon Native Grasses In Harmony with Fire
What if we had listened to and learned from indigenous people in their stewardship of the land? Fire as Medicine. Guardianship Cultural Burning. Native people across the globe learned to manage and live in harmony with fire over thousands of years.
From my roots in the Midwest, I try to envision the bountiful grasslands that flourished a mere century ago. As a contemporary basket weaver, I reflect on the universality of baskets made with local grasses. In Harmony With Fire is an adaptation of traditional coiled grass baskets. Tiny glass threads are bundled and shaped in a kiln-forming technique. Waxed linen is used to stitch the grass-like bundles of grass together. It is the story of the annual spring growth of the emerald green grass, the summer drying and the ceremonial burning allowing the cycle to repeat anew. It is not too late to embark on a commitment sparked from a what-if moment, like now.
Sudie Raskusin Hillsborough, North Carolina The sun, as it set, struck fire to the trees long the shoreline
My artwork flows from what moves me and from where I find beauty: women, animals, the earth, color, pattern and light. My art represents the deep connection I feel with these elements. This body of work is cold wax and oil on wood panels. The properties of cold wax fascinate me and keep me curious; how the underlying layers inform and alter the layers applied over them, how incising and scraping and glazing make more changes. I know I am wielding the palette knife and mixing the colors, but what happens on the panel is beyond my control. I’m earning how to be fine with the state of not knowing.
Lisa Katherine Roberts San Angelo, Texas Hidden
“What lies beneath” is a succinct phrase, yet one foundational to the body of my work. As a collage and assemblage artist, I practice an ever-evolving form of inner contemplation, a point of fusion between plain object and complex thought. Crafted from the simplest materials and methods, my works are intended to challenge the preconceptions and fixed truths of both self and others, encouraging all to engage more freely in this life.
Mei Seva Belchertown, Massachusetts In the Sky
Born in 1996 in Elbasan, Albania I am a painter and photographer based in New York City. My photographs and paintings are often dreamlike and teeming with color, and I rely on natural elements to create lush and vibrant scenes. Through art, I seek to capture the world around me in all of its imperfect candidness.
My painting “In the Sky” imagines world high up in the sky, where distant fields call to those looking out the reflective windows, waiting.
Steve Sorenson Lone Tree, Colorado Stark trees captured in the Snow
Stark Trees, the image was taken after a forest fire, “what if” a pathetic idiot had not “deliberately” set this forest ablaze?
Ellen Stauder Beaverton, Oregon Shadow Pair Dialogue
What if I could create 3 Pieces in the form of Pair(s)? My photographic pair, a diptych, was inspired by Eric Satie’s 1903 “Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear,” a satirical, seven-movement musical reply to Debussy’s criticism of Satie’s music. A pear, Satie claimed, was beyond criticism.
Jim Stears Wilsonville, Oregon Heaven is Closed
My photographs tend to be whatever catches my eye, whenever and wherever I happen to be. Interesting locations, combined images and sometimes people are the focus of my work. I don’t photograph what other people want, I can’t. - I make images for myself. I strive to pull eyes into the photograph and evoke emotion, good or bad.
Heaven is Closed makes one wonder what would happen if Heaven were to close.
Leon White Seattle, Washington Secret Dreams
What IF some of our personal dreams are shared, exposed? Most of our dreams have something to do with our daily life-whether joyful, fearful, heartache. Most dreams are kept to ourselves as represented by the padlock on the pillow doors.
My goal is to create emotive painting and drawing that combines impactful figurative compositions with equally powerful surface work. I place importance on both the overt figurative composition and surface mark making. When successful, the figure arises from a richly worked surface. I often work fairly large for this reason, up to 8 feet by 10 feet. Since the pandemic, I’ve been exploring spray painting and working with more color. It’s been an equally exciting and frustrating time.
Penelope Caldwell Portland, Oregon Romulus & Remus Revisited
The explanation is in the myth, by adding 2 more babies I ask What if?
Hector Carmona Miranda Austin, Texas Hand: Re-signified
Growing up in Mexico, i was influenced by pop culture, mainly 3D and 2D animation, and Disney being the most prominent storyteller. Its influence is strong in my work for instance, the mickey mouse hands. Growing up in Mexico these white gloves are more than just about a mouse. They are genderless, race less, ageless and without any social status because they can be seen in all kinds of characters, old and new. But in the states, these gloves are also a topic of discussion about racism in old cartoons. They are suggesting the idea of the glove as being a reminder of the Jim Crow minstrel shows. Here mickey’s race is questioned.
As an artist living in the united states, i cannot ignore the history but what if the icon could be re-signified? What if i could re-imagine it with a little more of my culture?
Ron Conrad Salem, Oregon Reverse
The fish in my sculpture titled “Reverse” turns the tables on humans by catching the man and rowing away, perhaps to cook him for the fish’s family or sell him in the “fish” market. What if the hunted became the hunter and human domination over nature was stopped?
Patricia Downs Plattsburgh, New York Ulcerative Geodes
My piece “Ulcerative Geodes” started with the question of what if…?” I was in a creative rut and looking to develop a process of making sculptures that bridged my love of bending wire and weaving fibers.
It was the very beginning of the pandemic, Spring 2020, and I was trying to revive my art practice (after graduating from college in spring 2019 and going into the work force). I was sitting on the edge of my bed and looking at an old canvas. I thought, “what if I use the canvas stretcher as a frame, like a lap loom, and weave wire into the shape of a grid, then weave strips of fabric between the bars of the grid..?” And then I just dove in and started creating. This piece is the first exploration of what I call wire-grid armature technique. After covering the grid in fibers, I crocheted protrusions coming off the piece using fabric strips instead of yarn, detached it from the frame and then warped it into an interesting abstract shape. I have continued to use this process to this day.
Elaine Erne Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mr. Duckie Takes a Diving Lesson
People in abusive situations are always asking “What If?” What if I was quiet, what if I was better, what if I never said no, would things be better? But there are the what if I make it worse, what if they send me somewhere worse, what if I can never escape? The best “what ifs” are those that can propose a solution even if in reality it is not a real solution but just fantasy.
Jennifer Fernandez Shoreline, Washington Rainy Day Games
My paintings explore gesture and color as emotive vehicles. I imbue my work with sense of rapture, overwhelm and at times instability and disproportion. Using a bright bold palette, I revel in the interaction and animation of slashing hues.
Growing up in Miami, rainy season meant indoor games-Chutes and Ladders, Operation, etc. What if we imagined a rainy day when all those games were played? And what if instead of remembering each game individually, they were played in unison – a cacophony of game pieces and pick up sticks?
Hazel Glass Portland, Oregon Lured by the Sherwood Stars
What if those twinkling lights aren’t what you think they are?
What if they lead you somewhere enchanted?
Dave Hanson Price, Utah Road trip
My photographs are elements of my ongoing visual autobiographical journey. They are outcomes of the variations of my thoughts and the evidence of my presence in the places where I have been, the things I have seen and the people I have experienced. They tell of brief moments in my life that I have been paused in my steps and have awakened from life’s visual slumber.
Robin Kerr Portland, Oregon Shaggy Dog Tale Excuse Me-Coming Through
What if you could look at a painting and see a scene from above and the side and from below at the same time? What if you could see the distant and near objects clearly without switching focus? What if it smelled and made noises and pushed you away or puled you into a scene and let you wander about? What if you could look at it and understand everything and nothing without distress? What if it reminded you of other people’s stories and where you were at the time? What if it made a new story?
David Carmack Lewis Portland, Oregon Ghost
My work explores the endless potential for mystery inherent in the world around us. I grew up fascinated by myths, folk tales and legends, an instinctive human response to tell stories about our surroundings. When seen through a different lens, from a different angle or in a different light, things you may not ordinarily notice, or give a second thought, can suddenly fill you with wonder, joy, unease or some inexplicable combination of these. My paintings embrace the potential for narrative or metaphor to tell both true stories and tall tales about what is real, what is imagined and how they overlap. In other words, I am always asking myself, “what is..?” I have always believed that narrative and metaphor, among the oldest tools of art, remain essential for finding new meaning in, and new ways of seeing the world around me.
Andrea Lopez Chen Vancouver, Washington La Reina May you always be loved
I am a Columbian self-taught artist currently living and working in Vancouver, Washington. My medium is mixed media on canvas. Representation and whimsical elements are a constant in my work. What if…I do less and allow the painting to guide me? These paintings are inspired by old drawings found in my sketchbook. Their paint went through the pages revealing new ghost images on the back and I took it from there. My intention was to allow unexpected imagery simply to emerge through the layers of acrylic paint and collage. I aim for the subjects to be captivating, to incite questioning, to relate and perhaps connect to the viewer.
Sara Luna Salt Lake City, Utah How many of me
I believe that we all carry a story with us, a secret that we try to hide from the world but our expression works against us, giving us away. My embroidery is home, it’s my attempt to return to my mother and the shelter I need.
Chas Martin Portland, Oregon Between Worlds
My images are concept drawn, inspired by books, dreams, conversations, meditations and a mash up of synchronous experiences throughout my day. I explore primal symbols, primal characters and situations to create archetypal metaphors. These are part of a continuous visualization to realization of my own personal mythology. I don’t know were it leads. It’s a meditative state where I live in wonder.
Jennifer McBrien Baltimore, Maryland The Guardians
What if you put male bird heads on female human beings? What if the earth became so endangered that it needed a magical force to come help protect it? My work is one of a fragile media. My stitches tell a narrative about the fragility of our world using birds, plants and figures as subjects. I choose a fragile medium of embroidery to emphasize its delicateness as well as a medium in which the connection of hand and material are constant. Whether I am free hand machine or hand stitching, my hands are guiding and manipulating thread and fabric. My process begins with my ink drawings from observation or photographic references. I translate the ink with the stitched line. Color and form are added with overlaying threads, fabric or felt. I get very excited about finding vintage and up-cycled fabrics that have sense that my subjects can interact with to tell their story. I am drawn to overlay and transparency leading me to experiment with a variety of fabrics from felt to organza.
Georgiana Nehl Portland, Oregon Color-Play
Many of my recent mixed-media paintings include diverse image fragments, set side by side. As I compose these two-dimensional forms. I ask myself: What memories, metaphors and stories might be constructed for myself and for others. If I set ‘this’ or ‘that’ specific image beside any of the others?
In my interactive work ‘Color Play”, I began with a query of What If? I create a piece where others can play with a similar trial and error process of setting image tidbits beside each other. Which image fragments will strike their own fancies, and help evoke their own memories and narratives? To this end, I created a set of 121 two-inch, image covered wooden blocks where experiencers are invited to arrange and re-arrange them into an unlimited number of compositional groupings. This open-ended process, where experimentation is encourages and there is no pre-set solution, then curiosity shifts my originals-and other- What if? questions back to the player.
Ani Pelucarte St Petersburg, Florida Mex Tea
My sculptural work depicts a whimsical and imaginative approach of a castle surrounded by feet, and in every window of this feet castle, a foot soldiers guarding it. This Castle is surrounded by three mutant flies that have ears instead of wings. They are trying to find a way to attack the castle and become new leaders of feetsville. Unfortunately, for the mutant flies, their attempt has failed due to fire candles that lie above the castle.
The work deals with fantasy and real facts about castles and flies. Some castles many centuries ago were likely to be invaded by other realms, these invaders were always on the lookout to find the perfect moment to attack the castle. In the case of the flies, not everyone welcomes the buzzing insect into their home especially when they are near someone’s ear or food. So I decided from these true facts to recreate a scenario of whimsical castles threatened by invaders.
John Potter Sherrill, Iowa Bus Stop Dreams
“What if” – as it may pertain to my submissions can represent situations regarding the future, as expressed in “Bus stop Dreams”.
Candace Pratt Portland, Oregon Native Grasses In Harmony with Fire
What if we had listened to and learned from indigenous people in their stewardship of the land? Fire as Medicine. Guardianship Cultural Burning. Native people across the globe learned to manage and live in harmony with fire over thousands of years.
From my roots in the Midwest, I try to envision the bountiful grasslands that flourished a mere century ago. As a contemporary basket weaver, I reflect on the universality of baskets made with local grasses. In Harmony With Fire is an adaptation of traditional coiled grass baskets. Tiny glass threads are bundled and shaped in a kiln-forming technique. Waxed linen is used to stitch the grass-like bundles of grass together. It is the story of the annual spring growth of the emerald green grass, the summer drying and the ceremonial burning allowing the cycle to repeat anew. It is not too late to embark on a commitment sparked from a what-if moment, like now.
Sudie Raskusin Hillsborough, North Carolina The sun, as it set, struck fire to the trees long the shoreline
My artwork flows from what moves me and from where I find beauty: women, animals, the earth, color, pattern and light. My art represents the deep connection I feel with these elements. This body of work is cold wax and oil on wood panels. The properties of cold wax fascinate me and keep me curious; how the underlying layers inform and alter the layers applied over them, how incising and scraping and glazing make more changes. I know I am wielding the palette knife and mixing the colors, but what happens on the panel is beyond my control. I’m earning how to be fine with the state of not knowing.
Lisa Katherine Roberts San Angelo, Texas Hidden
“What lies beneath” is a succinct phrase, yet one foundational to the body of my work. As a collage and assemblage artist, I practice an ever-evolving form of inner contemplation, a point of fusion between plain object and complex thought. Crafted from the simplest materials and methods, my works are intended to challenge the preconceptions and fixed truths of both self and others, encouraging all to engage more freely in this life.
Mei Seva Belchertown, Massachusetts In the Sky
Born in 1996 in Elbasan, Albania I am a painter and photographer based in New York City. My photographs and paintings are often dreamlike and teeming with color, and I rely on natural elements to create lush and vibrant scenes. Through art, I seek to capture the world around me in all of its imperfect candidness.
My painting “In the Sky” imagines world high up in the sky, where distant fields call to those looking out the reflective windows, waiting.
Steve Sorenson Lone Tree, Colorado Stark trees captured in the Snow
Stark Trees, the image was taken after a forest fire, “what if” a pathetic idiot had not “deliberately” set this forest ablaze?
Ellen Stauder Beaverton, Oregon Shadow Pair Dialogue
What if I could create 3 Pieces in the form of Pair(s)? My photographic pair, a diptych, was inspired by Eric Satie’s 1903 “Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear,” a satirical, seven-movement musical reply to Debussy’s criticism of Satie’s music. A pear, Satie claimed, was beyond criticism.
Jim Stears Wilsonville, Oregon Heaven is Closed
My photographs tend to be whatever catches my eye, whenever and wherever I happen to be. Interesting locations, combined images and sometimes people are the focus of my work. I don’t photograph what other people want, I can’t. - I make images for myself. I strive to pull eyes into the photograph and evoke emotion, good or bad.
Heaven is Closed makes one wonder what would happen if Heaven were to close.
Leon White Seattle, Washington Secret Dreams
What IF some of our personal dreams are shared, exposed? Most of our dreams have something to do with our daily life-whether joyful, fearful, heartache. Most dreams are kept to ourselves as represented by the padlock on the pillow doors.