2021 New Directions

Curator Essay

New Directions | Novi Hram Gallery | Sarajevo, Bosnia | Herzegovina

We All Breathe the Same Air Encaustic and Inks on Rives Paper | 8.5 x 11 inches | 2022

I wanted a title that could capture the entirety of the global situation of a collective humanity. We All Breathe the Same Air kept coming back to me and I decided to title this painting as such. As a practice, I always Google search my titles before paintings leave the studio. Doing so, I came across the quote below by President John F. Kennedy as part of a larger address given at the American University in Washington D.C. on June 10, 1963. Wherever your politics may lean, I personally felt this quote to be universal. “For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

Valerie Albicker Compassion Mixed Media | 11 x 8.5 inches | 2021

The focus of my work revolves around place, making and found objects. Trained as a printmaker, my medium changes based on the project and accessibility of materials. After spending 2017 to 2019 in Thailand, I developed a sensitivity toward the differences reflected in a collective society (Eastern cultures) and an individualist society (Western cultures). Iconography of Buddhism plays a significant role in my recent work. My current series integrates news events, and my reflections toward what is being printed with either a hopeful icon of the Buddha being present or more frequently, missing. For New Directions: The Sarajevo Winter Festival, I present “Compassion” which represents my prayer for society and our planet, may all sentient beings treat their neighbors with consideration and kindness.

Lourdes Archundia A-Head Correction Fluid on Digital Print | 5 x 7 inches | 2022

A-head considers two potential directions: insisting on a self- serving path during the ongoing pandemic or moving forward as a whole with everyone’s best interest in mind. Procuring only individual instant gratifications has contributed to an endless prolongation of the current pandemic, costing millions of lives. The only direction forward is setting self-interests aside for the time being and fully committing to our social responsibility. The use of correction fluid isolates the main figure in the center and highlights both the absence and presence of others. The chosen perspective and overall composition emphasize a forward direction.

The lyrics from Bob Dylan’s song, Mother of Muses, speak of our need to connect with our inner source of inspiration, our Muse, who directs and shapes our creativity. This painting is of flowing ocean waves, seaweed drifting over a watery verse from the song. The Muse is found as specs of color in the frothy edges of the surf, where the tides wash ashore and then return to the ocean again. Elusive, yet steady in Her rhythmic ebb and flow, we find our Muse in quietly listening to our innermost thoughts and feelings. In gently responding to our intimate source of inspiration, we can find fresh and insightful ways to authentically express ourselves in our work.

Pamela Beverly-Quigley Patriotism in RGB Digital Photography | 8.5 x 11 inches | 2022

Over the last couple of years while we self-quarantined to mitigate COVID 19 and its variants, news outlets became our lifeline to the outside world. Conspiracy theories, fueled by social media were masked as truth and the more outrageous tales became fact for many. This was further reinforced by our President who told us we could not believe the “corrupt” news media—leading many to search for their news on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. This piece titled “Patriotism in RGB” depicts the American flag sliding apart into color light channels of (R) Red, (G) Green and (B) Blue