​​​​​​​​​Artist Statements:

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Lily Booth 

Teaching Artist at Starlight Studio 

This is a series of vignettes, freehand drawings on ceramic vessels, dedicated to hanging plants.  I’ve had a singular focus in recent years on plant propagation and a strong desire to experiment with new mediums and designs. These fixations have culminated into the creation of functional plant related items that I have been unable to find and would like to have in my home.

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Kyle Butler

Teaching Artist at Starlight Studio 

Kyle Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist with a primary focus on two-dimensional works and periodic returns to sculptural installation and other media.  When not wholly abstract, his work typically draws from the built environment as a subject, drifting between scrambled found imagery, disassembled maps, synthesized transient spaces, and more. The works in this exhibition are from a recent series involving chance-based debris compositions designed in part using rendering software and its physics engine.  Butler is a Teaching Artist at Starlight as well as an Assistant Professor at Villa Maria College.

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Madison Gardner

Teaching Artist at AKG W.O.W

Madison Gardner is a multidisciplinary artist who mainly works in paint and collage.  She has a deep passion for animals and the outdoors.  Much of her work is inspired by wildlife seen on hikes, adventures, and books.  Madison substitutes as a teaching artist at the Buffalo AKG WOW program.

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Sussan Giallombardo

Teaching Artist at Starlight Studio 

My work is based on observations from nature, architectural forms, and the environment. This series of works uses the shape of a house to focus on the relationships between lines, and shades of color and exploring limitations.

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Olivia Long

Teaching Artist at Starlight Studio 

Olivia is a printmaker and interdisciplinary artist based in Buffalo, NY. Recently using monoprint, collage, and text transfer methods, their work reflects on aliveness and grief. 

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Alison Mlinarchik

Teaching Artist at AKG W.O.W

My name is Alison Mlinarchik, I’m an artist from Hamburg, NY. I’ve focused on creating artwork for the past 12 years. Art is the only practice I’m able to keep my attention on. I enter a meditative state where I can turn off my mind and put all of myself into creating something beautiful. I often create works in a fantasy style, depicting portraits of elves and fairies in surreal environments. I enjoy working in a variety of mediums, including acrylic, oil, watercolor, ink, charcoal, ceramic, digital and more

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Maggie Parks

Teaching Artist at Starlight Studio 

My work explores a word between a dream state and memory. I use animals, landscapes, text, and collected ephemera to metaphorically examine ideas of sanctuary, sacred, and identity. These works are taken from an altered journal, and books exploring my life in my garden. 

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Sabrina Parsons

Teaching Artist at AKG W.O.W

Sabrina is a local Buffalo Artist and Educator. She is currently a Teaching Artist with Starlight Studios at their off-site studio at the Buffalo AKG. Her BFA is in K-12 Art Education. Her art-making experience extends to multiple different mediums, such as Ceramics, Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Fiber Arts, 2D and 3D Design, Film and Digital Photography, Graphic Design, Multi-media, and non-traditional materials. While her personal favorite medium is Ceramics, the foundation of her educational philosophy is exploration, and providing students with as many creative materials/experiences as possible to communicate their thoughts, emotions, and ideas. 

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​Anne Pueschner

Teaching Artist at AKG W.O.W

I began this series of work as a way to process my own personal grief and loss. After a close friend lost her family home in a tragic fire, I started to explore connections with the family home as a living soul, a heart that holds our memories and stories. While working on this series, some memories were difficult and raw. There were days when it was a struggle to process these feelings into actual pieces of art. I began to see this series as a way of honoring my family members. I was tasked to lift and memorialize their lives. I approached this work using a variety of mediums, materials, and art-making processes. Throughout the art-making process, I used copies of old letters that my mother and grandmother wrote to each other. These letters gave history to everyday events that occurred within my family. I used the granny square as a recurring pattern. My paternal grandmother crocheted beautiful afghans. The squares start with a center point that continues outward, much as we start our lives and expand outward.

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Curated by Kyle Butler