How do we define ourselves amidst a rapidly changing world? Our identities constantly evolve, influenced by our experiences, relationships, and surroundings. INNER SENSE explores our past, present, and the emotions shaping our unique existence, inviting reflection on our inner feelings and the beauty they reveal. By peeling back the layers, we can gain an understanding of ourselves —a profound inner sense.
INNER SENSE
Best of Show- Shame
Director’s Choice- Taking Flight
Rachel Katz
hog gut; shredded personal journals
Berkeley, California
I literally “cut” 50 years of my personal journals, obscuring the words and content within. I chose hog gut to incorporate with the shreds because of its translucent and metaphorical associations. "Taking Flight" was inspired by my intrigue w/ transformation and the reworking of old memories.
Director’s Choice- Absence: Grief
Michelle A. Smith
steel, fabric, wood
Annandale, Virginia
This piece utilizes a sculptural metal spike as a placeholder to symbolize the physical and psychological pain felt in the ensuing absence after my husband ended his own life. The tension between the spike and the empty rocking chair reflects that moment of realization after a loved one dies.
Inward Journey
Looking for Peace
Barbara Tabachnick
encaustic with 3d elements on birch cradle board
Granada Hills, California
Things I Can Touch
Unbearable
Mason Weiss
fabric, clay, human hair, faux fur, paint, steel, and sand
Newbury Park, California
Enslaved
Home(s)
Barbara Satterfield
ceramic- white earthenware, oil paints, encaustic, heart pine trunk, bird nests, press molds of pine bark
Conway, Arkansas
Metaphysical
thirtyFour
The Seer
Marianne McCarthy
collage/ink on silver gelatin photograph
Brooklyn, New York
I find the spaces between bounded categories of identity to be fertile ground for exploring the intersection of artistic expression and spirit communication. The reciprocal gaze between the subject and me reveals a narrative that is retold through a visual language of timelines and symbolic elements
Viviana
Doina Iacob
mixed media
Wood Dale, Illinois
On November 14, 2021, at 4:44 - the magic hour when angels shake the glittering dust off their wings - our angel, Viviana, my first grandchild, ceased to exist.
Morbus Animi
Callie Clark Wiren
acrylic
Chicago, Illinois
Morbus Animi (mental Illness) is a self-portrait illustrating the internal struggles with mental health issues, an unwanted dependency upon medications, and feeling incomplete and unattractive to the world/society due to the flaws my mental health issues are viewed as.
Cure Period
Ballerina in Blue
Marissa Madonna
acrylic and colored pencil on hot press watercolor board
Kure Beach, North Carolina
Peeling
Heather in Light
I Dreamt of Mountains
Internal Wounds
Dawn of Destiny
Catherine Carlton
mixed media
San Diego, California
Vantage Point
El es Mío y Yo Soy de Él
Daniel Esquivia Zapata
graphite, soft pastel, white acrylic, paper on mylar
Opelika, Alabama
The title of this piece translates: “I am of him as he is of me” this is what my 105 years old grandmother answers, when ask if she remembers me or loved one. This are the words that are surrounding her hands in this drawing, this is a reflextion on generational trauma, love and resiliance.
Unknown 6
Shannon Tallcouch
oil on canvas
San Diego, California
My Soul Feels Weary
Buena Johnson
pen & ink
Los Angeles, California
Pen & Ink rendering of any woman, every woman who still has hope & perseveres.
Evolution
Paige Bradley
bronze
Stamford, Connecticut
As we contemplate the timeline of our life, we have to ask if we are we truly evolving into a more spiritual and free human being, or are we even more encumbered by attachments to our desires.
Tobacco Grower
156
Sabrina Rodrigues
oil paint on used khadi paper
London, England
A series of 156 A10 self-portraits
Alone With My Thoughts
John Diephouse
digital collage
Lansing, Michigan
Faggot Mirror
Tanner Blackwell
acrylic, mirror, wood
Troy, Michigan
I’m thinking about the labels we ascribe to ourselves and others. How is language responsible for constructing our identity? It is quite frustrating having to navigate around these imposing labels, and it frequently becomes nearly impossible to see anything but the labels imposed upon us.
Transformation I
I Am Not Who I Thought I Was.
Linda McConaughy
board game, sequins, acrylic, privacy film
Rocky River, Ohio
Made in response to re-examination of personal choices, but also as an antidote to all of the "word art" now sold all over.
The view must look through words adhered to glass in order to see the artwork, but the viewer is also confronted with their reflection, created through large mirrored sequins.
Cusp
Gary Henzler Allen
linocut
Homestead, Pennsylvania
Embossing based on a brain scan of someone with PTSD.
My Curves
Inner Self
Rain Down On Me
Suffocating Values
Seven Sorrows
As We Forgive Them That Trespass Against Us...
The Release
Gray Maps, the Worry and the Mystery (1 - 20)
Kelly Harwell
acrylic, chart tape
Glendale, California
Sometimes nature, road trips with endless panoramic views and landscapes do not offer an escape from reality. Desert landscapes merge with ultrasound images of the interior of the body in this 20-piece series.
The Gift of Depth
Catie Radney
acrylic on canvas
Alexander City, Alabama
Artist Catie Radney uses the canvas as an opportunity to confess her thoughts and experiences, becoming a world she can get lost in. Both being magical, spiritual, and painful as they bring joy, madness, and clarity; Radney's process replicates the constant struggle for balance in all of life.
o-o-o-ok
Wendy Bruce
thread
Largo, Florida
Sometimes you have to tell yourself everything is going to be ok because our inner dialogues determine our experiences.
The use of thread in this artwork communicates a sense of comfort. It is both fragile and sturdy. When the threads are interconnected, there is resilience and strength.
Fish & Bird
Bubzee Feller
pen & ink, found portraits, cyanotype of wing & fishtail
Winlaw, Canada
The Years Roll On
a sign of great love you cannot take away
Karen with Child
Coercion
Beni
Benign
Shushanik Karapetyan
acrylic on canvas
Brooklyn, New York
I painted 'Benign' during the month of June when the lilies were in bloom in New York City. Various shades of these flowers are reflected in this painting. At the time, I was thinking about benign cysts, how they silently emerge during the menstrual cycle and just as silently disappear.
Self
Mark Exline
photography
Kansas City, Missouri
"Self" is a self-portrait taken as part of a series of explorations of the concept of self as an insider, a viewer, and a presenter.
ID
Joseph Barbaccia
polymer-based clay on black satin and wooden frame
Georgetown, Delaware
According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories.
Open Wound
Michelle A. Smith
oxidation fired ceramic vessel with cold surface finishing
Annandale, Virginia
This work opened up my awareness to the profound beauty of scars left on the soul by emotional trauma. The wide open ceramic vessel serves as visceral visual accounting of my husband’s death, which will never fully heal.
DNA
Tony J. Smith
oil on canvas
Oxnard, California
Self portrait of who I am and aspire to be whether my outer self shows it or not.
Just a Phase
Pushing Up the Entire Genus
Dark Am I, Yet Lovely
Chrys Corn Goodman
oil, cold wax and charcoal on canvas panel
Asheville, North Carolina
(The Shulamite) She was there, waiting to be found.
Taken from the Song of Solomon, sung by Sinéad O’Connor
Passing
Jena Ataras
film
Berkeley, California
This short video reflects how internalized racism impacted my family in the US.
Rainbows and Butterflies
Alien Art: Death of a Dinosaur
Gary Aagaard
oil on canvas
Tucson, Arizona
Self-portrait portraying traditional art being invaded by computer art.
connected
Jeanette Griffith
acrylic, collage
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
My work in abstract painting-collage mirrors the complexity of Jazz. It is characterized by complex line, color, value, movement, contrast, and syncopated layering with an emphasis on improv. My process incudes sketching, collage, and listening to jazz artists -“painting” - that artist through color, movement, line, space….It is a careful, attentive, interpretation of the feeling coming from the music.
Emerging
Letting Go
A KFC Night
Bob Conge
mixed media monoprint
Wayland, New York
My current series is inspired by dreams, both night and day dreams of my interaction with the subject. All the works in this ongoing series exist in a night scape inspired by the dream source and the fact that I have always worked at night through early morning, 1 AM to 5 AM.
In "A KFC Night" the image emerges as a statement of our cruel treatment of live stock, hence the chicken in a straight jacket ruled by the overweight woman on his shoulder. Imagery of the chemicals we inject in the food to increase production and profits promote the concept of greed at work here. In the end however we are the victims and the chickens in their fried selves have their revenge by giving us heart disease.
Still Just a Rat in a Cage
Vanessa Mercado
digital
Los Angeles, California
Ceremonial Scroll: Cosmic Connectedness
Kristin Reed
acrylic on linen
Brooklyn, New York
Ceremonial Scroll hanging from a stick. The intention is to search for connection within and without.
BLUE CONNECTION
Soul's Return
Cognizance
Rafa Devers
Left Blooming Alone
Dora Duan
archival pigment print with threads
Cupertino, California
Memories are collective moments which may remain with us as shadows, intangible as they are. Inspired by a study of imperfection, I have been exploring how to narrate those uneasy and vulnerable moments in my earlier life as a way of returning to some episodes that I want to understand further.
Edgar, my beloved
Emotional Explosion
GIRL WITH CHIGNON. Self-portrait
Eva Moosbrugger
murano glass
Dornbirn, Austria
Blue stands for romance, especially for the romantic longing for the unattainable, the infinite and the absolute, for melancholy, for romantic love. Apertures in the outer layer provide a glimpse on the true character of the lady, which is - in a metaphorical way - represented by selected colors.
Jawni
Lori Pratico
acrylic
Oakland Park, Florida
Created to bring attention to mental health among LGBTQ+ youth, this portrait reaches inside a young woman both complex and layered. We all have places inside of us we allow few to see.