MEET THE ARTISTS
DOMENIQUE ANNONI
Domenique is a local artist and educator, currently pursuing her MFA from Eastern Michigan University in photography. Her studio practice involves working with a variety of materials and processes often merging disciplines such as photography, watercolor and fibers to create multi-layered works of art. Her art practice allows her to be both an explorer and collector within her environment. The objects she finds are often merged with her knowledge of photography, watercolor and fibers to create assemblage-art. The act of exploring, collecting and creating gives her the opportunity to be in touch with nature and her everyday environment.
ALEXA DIETZ
Alexa was born, raised, and continues to work in Ypsilanti, MI. In 2014, she received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Eastern Michigan University. The same year, she was awarded Best of Show in the 10th Annual Rites of Passage: Emerging Artists Exhibition at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH. Currently working as a freelance studio assistant and developing her studio space and new body of work.
Her work is inspired by emotions, ideas, and forms: the everyday, recognizable and the hidden, geometric. Dissecting the memories of her familial history allows her to restore them through fabrication, exploring many different materials and methods. By running a bead of weld, She draws parallels to the women within her family who were professional seamstresses – or whom had sown with traditional methods. Other works have included materials such as wood, found object, bronze, video and performance. The scales of the objects are influenced by their emotional and physical weight, sometimes larger than life.
DEBRA JEAN-SMITH GOLDEN
SONIA KRAFTSON
Sonia Kraftson works in paint, collage, mixed materials and installation, considering cohabitation that respect organisms, humans and animals alike. She is interested in individual marks and open exchange to help us experience selves and other life as having innate value. She believes stories stir empathy and allow us to interrelate narratives that lead to compassionate choices. Her desire is to engage in conversations that work to remove blinders, illuminate bias and encourage positive and sustaining relationships.
Sonia lives in cohousing and teaches creative writing at a women’s Prison and runs workshops for kids at Ypsilanti Library. She has a passion for making spaces where people can speak and listen to one another and share stories that allow for new insight. Sonia is looking to start visual collaborations that empower individuals and groups to explore art making together. She believes this will enable unique sharing and help establish participant honesty that moves beyond the superficial and into a space of wonder together.
Sonia recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at EMU and is currently pursuing her MFA in Visual Arts at Eastern.
LINDA LOCK
Linda is an artist, born and raised in Michigan. She grew up in the country amidst farmland, ponds, swamps and natural forests. Her love of nature was nurtured by her parents who gardened and created a 20 acre Backyard Habitat certified by the National Wildlife Federation. Her childhood was a combination of running, playing, making and creating. This spilled into her high school and college years where she won awards for architectural drawings and etchings of the natural world. Eager to share her love of nature and art, she studied to become an art teacher. She has over 20 years of experience teaching inner city young artists’ to have a creative growth mindset. After raising a family, she has returned her focus to her own artwork and study as an MFA candidate at Eastern Michigan University.
CLAIRE MOORE
Claire is a mixed-media artist and designer. She is primarily focused on the act of giving physicality or visual space to the intangible. By layering repeated imagery on translucent surfaces with scraps of material from her daily life, she processes intense emotional experiences through her work.
Claire is inspired by the impact people have upon one another and themselves. Leading art workshops, founding artist collectives and gallery spaces, and serving on city arts and culture boards has strengthened her belief that absolutely everyone is creative and in the incomparable power of community.
Claire is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at Eastern Michigan University.
TAYLOR ORR
Taylor is an interdisciplinary artist working out of Adrian, Michigan. Taylor holds a BFA in Fine Art from the University of Dayton, Dayton Ohio. She currently attends Eastern Michigan University working to complete an MFA in interdisciplinary studies. Taylor looks to her visual vernacular for reference on experience to create three-dimensional fibers based works.
https://www.taylororrstudio.com