January Featured Local Artist of the Month – Shay McCafferty

Stop by the shop in the month of January to admire and/or purchase works by Shay.

Born and raised in Montgomery County Maryland, Shay McCafferty is a 24 year old artist pursuing a career in medical and scientific illustration. She has her Associates in Fine Arts from Montgomery College and is currently enrolled at the Maryland Institute College of Art, majoring in drawing with a concentration in printmaking.

Growing up in the small town of Damascus, Maryland, Shay found herself caught between two passions. A love for the beautiful game of soccer, as well as her creative spirit for the visual arts. After two torn ACLs, two sprained MCLs, two torn menisci and a concussion, she felt it was time to focus mainly on her artwork. Shay draws inspiration from her background as an athlete and her interest in how the human body functions. Shay also draws inspiration from the natural world and how every living organism has a purpose. Her artwork explores the journey of life and death while symbolically addressing subconscious thought.


To learn more about Shay’s artwork, follow her on instagram: @shay_mccafferty

December Featured Local Artist of the Month – Katie Elwes

Stop by the shop starting December 5th to purchase and/or enjoy works by Katie Elwes.  

Meet Katie!

From the islands of Bermuda, Katie Ewles is a multi-disciplinary artist with a passion for the old and the new; the traditional and the popular. Primarily a musician, Katie moved to the Baltimore area in 2013 to pursue her career as a classical composer, songwriter, jazz pianist, and vocalist at the Peabody Conservatory. Since, she has become much more involved with her appetite for the visual arts (particularly painting, and charcoal/ink drawings), and has had her work displayed and sold, both in the United States, and overseas.

For Katie, being an artist in the 21st century means actively engaging with synergy between Art forms and styles, as well as collaborating with other artists. Through this approach, Katie strives to create work that is simultaneously intimate and universal, sophisticated and adventurous, and has the potential to be thought-provoking, captivating, and memorable to a wide-range of audiences.


Katie’s recent work has been largely inspired by curiosity in the big and small, and with social politics, particularly race and gender. Through color, she aims to explore the beauty of diversity, and the power of the individual within larger society. Her breadth of experience with both traditional and modern Art and Music has certainly informed her artistic style, which she often describes in one word: resourceful. Katie often aims to limit her resources (whether physical materials, influences, ideas, structures, etc.) in an effort to produce work that is more self-informed and self-aware. In this sense, by limiting resources, the potential of selected and available resources is more thoroughly explored (for example, only using one color allows the artist to explore the qualities and variations of that one color much more intimately, than if they were working with multiple colors). Katie believes this minimalistic approach often leads to an implied universality in her work: leaving room for viewers to read-between-the-lines and engage personally with the work, while simultaneously providing ‘common-ground’ that serves as a catalyst, allowing viewers to draw parallels between their own experience and the experiences of others.


 

To learn more about Katie, and see more of her work, please visit www.katiethecreator.com


 

November Featured Local Artist- Serenity Smith


Stop by the shop in November to view works by local artist – Serenity Smith!
All pieces are available for sale or merely appreciation.  

Meet Serenity!


Serenity is a 25 year old independent artist, working mostly in Maryland and New York. She graduated from Towson University in 2013 where she studied painting, drawing, and printmaking. Today she occupies most of her time by traveling, learning, and making art.


“This is going to sound really vain, but all of these paintings are about me. Now that you know this, I must also let you know that they are equally about you. If we are all reflections of one another, then I know that everytime I paint a picture of someone I am also revealing something about myself. My process is very personal, and I have a real connection to every piece I create. These are visual manifestations of ideas that are swirling around in my mind, and I am so happy to share them. I’d like to think that my style is constantly evolving, as I find new ways to express ideas. Currently my style is leaning towards Afro psycho surrealism (I made that up). As my work changes, the female figure as a favorite subject remains a constant. I like to create pieces that force people to think and ask questions, but also things that people can relate to. I have also included two abstract pieces by my artist friend SmileyTheRager. Working with him has helped me to introduce some abstract elements into my paintings, and I have found that artistically we create a nice balance together. I am so very in love with, and fascinated by this thing called life, and more than anything I hope that transcends through my artwork.”

-Serenity

Slsmith@ymail.com

IG @8erenity