The top five artists in each category were given awards in the 5th Annual Women Artists international online art exhibition. Below are the biographies and/or artist’s statements along with the artist’s websites or emails.
To contact these artists directly for purchase inquiries or to see more of their work, please visit the 5th Annual Women Artists Art Exhibition page for contact information.
Congratulations again to all the winners and thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Best in Show (Traditional) – Jenna DuPlessis – “FLUSHED” – oil on canvas
Jenna DuPlessis is a figurative realist painter who currently lives and works in the beautiful desert of Tucson, Arizona. A self-taught artist from Southern California, she began drawing and honing her skills from a young age. She studied art history at UCLA, and discovered a passion for oil painting following her first formal class at the Kline Academy of Fine Art in Los Angeles. A member of the LGBTQ+ community, her paintings delight in the magic of the female form, gender identity, and attention to the details that make each of us uniquely beautiful. She is inspired by other female realist artists such as Marilyn Minter, Alyssa Monks, Natalia Fabia, and Samantha French. Her work has been exhibited in several group shows and she is incredibly excited for this next phase of her art career.
To learn more about Jenna and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
Best in Show (Photography & Digital) – Gabriele Gracine – “I RECKON” – digital
I am a self-taught digital artist. My process is a proprietary technique I constantly explore and enhance. Using my gift of creativity to bring the power of beauty to the world is my primary motivation. I’m an intuitive artist, circumventing my conscious mind in order to create directly from my inner awareness.
My art is an emotional reflection of my inner landscape; simultaneously a reflection from my past, a snapshot of the present and a preview of the future waiting to be revealed. As I change and mature, my intuition seamlessly absorbs, incorporates and conveys the results to my creative processes. Allowing my images to take the lead in their actualization accesses the power of flexibility, freeing me from limiting expectations and the encumbrance of control.
Working intuitively invites and empowers the magic of mystery, delight and surprise to my art work. I strive for deeply personal communication with the viewer. My intent is to capture their wonder and imagination with an image of visual poetry that is unique, deeply personal and extends an invitation to consider further exploring the extraordinary digital world.
To learn more about Gabriele and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
Best in Show (3 Dimensional) – Diana Fernández Vásquez – “STEP BY STEP” – bronze sculpture
It is for me to recognize what can be unearthed: to reveal what magnificence of light and colors of form discover the sensuality that lies within. With a courage gained through experience, I can break into these alabaster stones, revealing their secrets subdued, cloaked in the dusts of our Planet evolution, which is why I love stone sculpture. And my bronze sculptures are also a summary for the concept of art responsibility because are very durable, able to withstand the elements for many years when properly prepared. Finally, the ability to use corrosive materials to create a patina allows to create a vibrant coating, because bronze is an incredibly important historical art medium for sustainable sculpture. To develop cosmic visions in fiberglass, is to create new visions of outer space with inner material, that is why in fiberglass I developed Red Moons and many other possibilities and much more that sculpturally merge with color and shape in a different way of my other sculptures in alabaster and bronze, which also represent the universal experiences that surround us.
To learn more about Diana and to see more of her work, please visit her Instagram.
2nd Place (Traditional) – Zheng Jiaoyan – “GERBERA” – oil painting
Zheng Jiaoyan has a master’s degree in aesthetics from Renmin University of China, and her painting teachers are Mr. Li Xiaogang and Mr. Xin Dongwang. Engaged in art education for ten years, she is a learner deeply rooted in art education. She is also a member of China Fashion Designer Association.
To learn more about Zheng Jiaoyan and to see more of her work, she can be reached via her Email.
2nd Place (Photography & Digital) – Liza Hennessey Botkin – “FAR FROM HERE” – photography
I was born and raised in New York City, but my photographic career began in Los Angeles in the 70s while I was working for photographers Michael Childers and Lou Stoumen, from whom I learned how to print. I consider myself a street photographer, shooting from the hip, taking my camera with me wherever I go. I wander the streets of Los Angeles, spending much of my time in malls where, for many years, I’ve been documenting the preoccupation many people have with shopping. Though I’ve never studied the art of photography in an academic setting, my work is deeply influenced and defined by that of Henri Cartier-Bresson. I, too, search for what he so aptly called “the decisive moment.”
To learn more about Liza and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
2nd Place (3 Dimensional) – Jennifer Phillips – “METAL HEADDRESS” – metal
I work with different types of metals to create realistic sculptures that resemble the natural world around us. With my art, nothing is static, stale or frozen- it’s easy to put metal together, but to give it life is another thing entirely. That is the goal with my pieces, to bring the metal to life. By cutting the steel, heating, and bending I am able to create movement. By welding and grinding I create texture. The inspiration for my works stems mostly from nature, wildlife and similar elements.
To learn more about Jennifer and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
3rd Place (Traditional) – Liyuan Liu – “THE LAYOUT” – oil on linen
Liyuan Liu is Chinese artist based in Canada. She graduated from Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts and is a founder of the Vancouver Visual Art Studio. She participated in the 1st and 2nd Vancouver Chinese Artists Art Exhibition, and the 1st Vancouver Online Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition. Her work “Layout” was selected for publication in the prestigious Circle Foundation for the Arts. The work “Studio” won the Excellence Award at the HelvetArt Online Art Exhibition in Switzerland.
To learn more about Liyuan Liu and to see more of her work, she can be reached via her Email.
3rd Place (Photography & Digital) – Cheryl L. Hrudka – “HEAVEN HELP ME” – digital print on aluminum
Cheryl Hrudka has always been interested in Abstracts. These forms allow the viewer to question, and decide for themselves, her artistic intention. In other words, Cheryl’s images now pose more questions than answers. Her primary subject matter lies in the eyes of the beholder. Each viewer brings his or her own psychological insight to the subsequent interpretation. While trying to challenge, the viewer’s conclusions are never threatened but are respected and allowed to prosper. These images are at once geometric and biomorphic. In their mutability, they mimic our dreams, they mimic our lives.
Cheryl has found that architectural details, encapsulated and transformed, work better than other genres. However, there are no rules. The simplest of images are the starting point of her creative process. She focuses on the journey. There are no maps. While at times Cheryl has an idea of where she is going with an image, she truly does not know the end result until she gets there.
To learn more about Cheryl and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
3rd Place (3 Dimensional) – Kim Rose – “OAK KING” – porcelain ceramics
There are faces in the forest, flickering in sun-dappled leaves, shadowed on bearded oaks. The Celts named the faces “green men” and carved their leafy images into stone and wood all through Europe and the British Isles. To the Celt, green men symbolized the intertwining of mankind with Mother Nature. The archetype of The Greenman exists today to remind us to honor that balance.
All work is hand built, sculpted in porcelain, using leaf impressions, found feathers, bits of copper and brass, quartz crystals, beads and sculpted flowers and acorns. Each piece emerges from clay and kiln an individual; unique, sometimes delicate and fairy-like, sometimes antlered and bold, but always with the artist’s hope that others will feel that ancient connection and seek the balance of The Greenman.
To learn more about Kim and to see more of her work, she can be reached via her Email.
4th Place (Traditional) – Linda McCord – “REPTILE” – acrylic on canvas
The Dreams of Nature series of abstract acrylics are intended to appear dreamlike and represent nature. Focus is on rhythm, texture, form, and pattern. Interpretation of dreams was popular even in Bible times, and some psychologists use dreams as an analytical theory today. I love using repetition of shapes. The subtle pen and ink look in the negative space that repeats itself throughout the image is the focus of many of the pieces in this series. My art is an expression of an inner need to escape and find a place where I can go on a creative journey. Creating art is fun and sometimes frustrating but never, never boring. I love being an artist.
To learn more about Linda and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
4th Place (Photography & Digital) – Y. Hope Osborn – “COMMEMORATION” – Photograph
Y. Hope Osborn’s black and whites represent life’s steadiness and security. Recently, she connected teenage sketching, using #2 pencil, light erasure, touch, and sharpness, color images into black and whites of great depth to how she creates today. She learned to “see” color in shades of grey, so she begins with rigorous color processing before filters and editing for impactful black and white images.
Her love of color comes from growing up in a home where everything was always brown except her sky-blue window frames and pink decorative roses. She makes very careful choices about what she leaves in color, what is black and white, and which images she alters for a new perspective or concept in abstract.
All Hope’s art, including other photographic experiments, is about freedom. Abusive parents stifled her with silence and weighted her with care, stunting her play. She learns to play now through art in an ongoing process of recovery, even half a lifetime away from abuse.
Hope’s art is also freedom for those like her who didn’t grow up with an art education and are afraid to voice their ideas and feelings about art for fear of “getting it wrong.” She is confident in anyone’s ability to feel and see what they want in art. “Art is two-sided—the perspective of the creator and the perspective of the perceiver. Neither person should feel stifled.”
To learn more about Hope and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
4th Place (3 Dimensional) – Cara Lawson-Ball – “END OF DAY” – architectural gypsum
Principally Cara’s art is figurative life-size bronze sculpture. Between these large three-dimensional pieces, she creates two-dimensionally, painting in oil and pastel. Falling leaves on a hiking path, stones on a beach, rows in the garden, the lines created by a canoe paddle moving through cold water, all have been avenues to creating patterns. Subject matter whether native animals or landscapes tends to be inspired by the Great Lakes region and its inhabitants.
Each project’s goal may be different; however, Cara finds she is forever trying to solve the issue of imagined line. A line that we may not see completely, but instead feel intuitively. In sculpture that may come with the rise and fall of fur, hair, or fabric. In paintings, cloud patterns can lead the viewer to the corresponding colors in a lake.
There is simply not enough time in the day to hike or canoe or linger in all our wild places. As an artist Cara has the luxury to go there in her art and tries to create a space where viewers can come along.
To learn more about Cara and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
5th Place (Traditional) – Yuqian Sun – “ARTIFICIAL FAIRIES NO.9 “LISTENER” – watercolor and ink on paper
Yuqian Sun was born in Shenzhen, China in 1997. At the age of 14, her long journey of studying abroad began. After graduating from Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, she earned her BFA degree at the University of Michigan in 2019. Now she works as an art program leader at an international high school.
Yuqian’s art practice is derived from her photography works, which she started practicing when she was a kid. It was a pure hobby at first, but turned into a long and comprehensive method of creation that carries my aesthetics. She studied and experimented traditional mediums, striving to refine her painting style into a unique authorship. In her doll portrait series “Artificial Fairies” and “Gem in Their Eyes”, she keeps looking for the ideal doll in doll images she created. Inspired by visual beauty of these mass-produced toy dolls in real life, her work proceeds to discuss the context derived from the meanings behind objects that are human beings’ artificial imitations.
Watercolor is the medium she studies the most. The emotional intensity that emerges in the poetic flow of translucent color is the reason of her obsession with the medium. When working on representational paintings with watercolor, Yuqian imagines capturing a solid form with intangible materials like water and light. Yuqian has learnt to be confident yet humble to cooperate with water instead of controlling it. Water-flow calms her down, teaches her to be honest with herself, and brings her inner world onto the paper.
To learn more about Yuqian Sun and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
5th Place (Photography & Digital) – Debbie Lee Gallerani – “HELLO KITTEN” – mixed media digital
Born in Palm Springs, California in 1959, Debbie was surrounded by the most entrancing fusion of cultures. Mid Century Modern was prevalent in homes and fashion, classic Spanish architecture adorned streets, Native American Indian, Old Western, and Mexican art delighted tourists and locals alike. In addition, the delicious warm desert pallet filled her senses, and these elements would subtly and sometimes boldly manifest into Debbie’s art.
Debbie’s original ambition was to have a syndicated comic strip. Her comics were published in several local papers in her 20’s. During that time, she mastered her illustration skills, and moved into the graphic design field. She worked for Palm Springs Life magazine as a designer, and shortly after, became the Senior Art Director for Multi Media Advertising in Palm Springs.
Debbie spent over 35 years in the graphic design field, and ran her own company, “Studio West Graphics” in Orange County, CA. In 2005, Debbie discovered a new passion from her Father. His beautiful oil paintings became an inspiration for her to move from graphic design to fine art. She began to explore acrylic painting, mixed media, graphite, digital mixed media, and sculpture. Her eclectic figurative style lends a thought provoking and sometimes quirky study of women and animals, which are in collections worldwide.
Now residing by the spectacular Saguaro National Park in Tucson AZ, Debbie is running a successful Bed and Breakfast from her Hacienda, “La Casa Del Artista”, and applying the rich desert pallet influences to her paintings, drawings and sculptures.
To learn more about Debbie and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
5th Place (3 Dimensional) – Sara A. L. Kimber – “SURRENDER” – bronze, silk organza
Sara Kimber has been creating art and defending women’s rights for most of her life. Born in Cambridge, England she moved to America in 1967 and spent much of her childhood traveling the world. Initially working as a project manager, Sara, now in retirement, is focusing on her love of art. Her work is based on simple, realistic images, standing by themselves to show a wholeness of spirit and elegance.
Sara is a feminist figurative sculptor creating work, using the female form, to represent a woman’s experiences in a patriarchal society. She works primarily in terracotta clay, but utilizes steel, bronze, wood and found objects to strengthen her narrative. The textures and colors of her materials feed into her tactile, down-to-earth way in the world and reflect the colors of the cycles of nature.
Striving to create art that contributes to the dialogue concerning women’s current and historical situation, she depicts woman’s connection with the cycle of life, and the female spirit of perseverance and receptiveness. At the same time, she challenges patriarchal views of the female body often presented as a dehumanized, objectified vessel. Centuries of subversion has driven the feminine to fight for equal position and consideration in society, inspiring her to depict this harsh fight, our objectification, and our transcendence. Much has been done by our ancestors to correct this discrimination. As a woman in her early 60’s, Sara uses her artistic voice in the fight for equality, creating and shining light on the divine feminine nature.
To learn more about Sara and to see more of her work, please visit her website.
