Born in 1977 in the village of Tulancingo de Bravo, Hidalgo, Mexico; Margarita Maxon has worked designing stages, logotypes, and advertisement for the Federal Government of Hidalgo State, in the departments of Tourism and Economy.

Besides, Margarita kept painting for specific clientele, especially portraits and historical themes of Mexico. The principal subjects of her paintings were villagers, farmers, prehispanic natives, Aztec & Maya Mythology, and the Spanish Conquest.

Maxson immigrated to the United States in 2006 and started exhibiting through the region. Her work has been published in The Norwich Bulletin, the New Haven newspaper The Register, the New London newspaper “The Day”, and The New York Times. In 2009 Margarita started working in doll making, and mixed media. Margarita’s work is found in collections across the USA, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Argentina, France, and India. Her work is currently exhibited at Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook, Connecticut.

Beth has been creating art since her earliest childhood memories. She received her BS in Fine Arts and began working as a graphic artist/photographer for BIC Corporation. Putting her career on hold to raise three children she found various creative outlets as a stay at home mom in graphics, set design, costumes and teaching K-8 Art classes. Now in a new empty nest season of life, it is her time to create and share what has been hidden for years.

A love for color, texture, paper, sewing, photography, drawing, and 3-dimensional work led her to explore mixed media techniques enabling her to use multiple skills and passions in a single piece of art. As she has taken classes under the direction of Regina Thomas, a whole new world has opened to allow skills to be sharpened and creativity to flow. Beth’s artwork is currently exhibited at Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook, Connecticut.

Karen Burke has been creating digital art using her own photography, and a bit of Photoshop for the past 5 years. She uses her photography skills, along with Photoshop knowledge to create fun, whimsical animal art. Karen’s goal is to create art that is light hearted, makes people smile, or even laugh out loud.  Laughter is the best medicine, Karen always used it during her almost 30 years as a nurse, now Burke is sharing her sense of humor through her art.  Karen has won several Digital art contests, and in 2015 one of Karen’s photographs was published in the print version of National Geographic. Burke creates a story by adding elements that make the animals look like they are doing “human” things.  She also loves to create tribute art, “Fun Fine Art” as Karen likes to call it.  It is a wonderful way to get people seeing the Old Masters artwork in a new light.  Vermeer, Renoir, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, and more.  The Old Masters’ art gets reinvented with her animals in the place of their human subjects.  Karen Burke’s photography is currently exhibited at Spectrum gallery in Centerbrook, Connecticut.

Robert grew up in a small town in North Carolina. Where he learned a great deal about art and how welcoming people can be in the art community. Having many experiences and growth, he realized he needed to move on and find a new approach. Now Robert lives and works in Austin, Texas.

Robert is a self-taught artist.  Dedicated, he has been painting for nearly 20 years.  Capturing the look or posture of a person is important in his art.  Robert’s style is moody, incorporating humor and a surrealistic feel at times.  Along with his figurative work, he has recently worked on a series of animal paintings that are light and fun. “Trying to depict the soul of a creature is challenging and I strive to create paintings that are thought provoking.”  

Robert’s work is currently exhibited at Spectrum Gallery in Centerbrook, Connecticut.

Clondalkin born Paul Nixon has been creating art using a broad range of his artistic skills for the past eighteen years, but his passion for woodworking began in his early childhood. Surrounded by a family of cabinet makers Paul quickly took on the family skills. Paul spent much of his early childhood with his grandparents in the mountains of County Sligo in the northwest of Ireland. In a thatched house set on the slopes of a two thousand foot mountain Paul’s grandmother Margaret had a great influence over him. She spent a good deal of her 83 years living on these slopes and its wild glaciated lands where she was tuned into the historical, mystical, and legendary wonders that enveloped this area. Margaret endeared Paul with these qualities which allowed his imagination to evolve and develop that would serve him well in later years.                                                                                                                                

Paul left Ireland for New York in 1985 where he partnered in an auto repair business in White Plains NY. In 1996 Paul met his future wife Francesca, a complaining customer, when a year later they moved south to Greensboro North Carolina. It was then that Paul’s ability as a multi talented artist began to flourish. Paul considers himself a late bloomer when it comes to his artistic talents. At the age of 45 Paul was offered the gift of an old wood working lathe from his wife, Francesca’s uncle Raley Dunn.  Paul set about learning how to operate the lathe when his wife on seeing his progress asked him to make her aunt Mary a walking stick. Having received the lathe from her husband he set about his work and finally with the cane finished he felt it needed something personal and from his heart that would make it unique. That was when Paul picked up an xacto knife and set about carving a vine extending about 7” below the handle. Having no experience as a wood carver and 40 hours later with only three leaves carved into the wood, Paul gave up in frustration and abandoned his project.                                                                                                                                                                                  

Two weeks later when Francesca discovered that Paul had quit she stressed to him that he needed to finish making this cane as she had already made her aunt aware that Paul was doing something special for her, and so she was expecting something special. With new pressure applied, Paul recovered the cane and worked on it for the next three months. Paul remarks that it did not hit him till after he presented his gift to Aunt Mary and watching her emotional tearful response, that he realized that he had to pursue this new found skill. His next two wood sculptures which followed depicting a walnut bust of Queen Maeve a mythological Celtic warrior, and a walnut carved crozier attributed to St Patrick are both on permanent display in the William Butler Yeats museum in Sligo Ireland. Paul says that working in 3 dimensional works allowed his skills to expand into painting, stained glass, cement and resin casting and photography. Several of his bronze public sculptures adorn the city of Greensboro and the surrounding area as well as liturgical carvings across the USA and Ireland. His photography and his subject pertaining to his carved fairies caught the attention of the William Butler Yeats Society in New York and Ireland. Last year he was invited to NYU to be involved in a tribute celebrating WB Yeats where he provided a power point presentation of his work and its relation to the works of Yeats.                                                                                                                 

As an artist/sculptor/ photographer Paul has been accused of being a bit of a Chameleon with his subject matter and style running the gamut from Contemporary/Abstract to Classical Renaissance. He is a visionary who is talented in many mediums who is constantly savoring the excitement of exploration and experimentation.          

In the twenty one years living in Greensboro, North Carolina. Paul has carved out a reputation as a sculptor and photographer. Much of his new photography is influenced by those early day experiences which capture the imagination of so many who have come to know his work.

Graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in art/ illustration.

Illustrated over forty books for children, as well as book covers, calendars, puzzles, cards, posters, and magazine illustrations.

Also creates Fantasy Art. Paintings as well as sculpture.

Shown numerous times at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum in Amherst, MA.

Shown in the Sanford Smith Fine Art Gallery in Great Barrington, MA.

Michelson Gallery in Amherst, MA.

Shown Fantasy Art at the World Fantasy Convention, NY, won numerous awards at the New England Science Fiction Association‘s (NESFA), Boskone in Boston, MA, Fantastic Worlds exhibition in Kenosha, WI, and will be showing this year at Illuxcon in Allentown, PA.

Member of the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild, World Fantasy, Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, and the New England Science Fiction Association.

Dennis Nolan has illustrated over thirty books, authoring ten, and is the recipient of a number of awards, including both the SCBWI Golden Kite Honor Award for his book Dinosaur Dream, and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award for the book Fairy Wings, which he shares with his wife, author and illustrator Lauren Mills. His paintings have been selected for awards in the Spectrum Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art Annuals and the Art Renewal Center International Salons. As a curator he conceived and organized the Keepers of the Flame, Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum, authoring the catalogue. Nolan was born in San Francisco, California and earned undergraduate degrees in both Painting and Art History, and a graduate degree in Painting from San Jose State University. He has taught at a number of schools including the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford in Connecticut where he wrote the curriculum for the Illustration program and is now Professor Emeritus. He currently teaches in Hartford’s Low Residency MFA in Illustration program.

Christine Kornacki is a children’s book author/illustrator and book cover artist living in Shelton, CT. She creates vibrant oil paintings that invite you into her imaginative world.

She has worked for a wide variety of clients in the Kid Lit and Advertising industries. She received her BFA and MFA in Illustration from the Hartford Art School, West Hartford, CT and currently gives back to the community by teaching as an Adjunct Professor in their Illustration Department. With experience as a graphic designer, photographer, and educator, she uses this strong foundational background to bring her illustrations to life.

Her children’s books include The Sparkle Box, The First Christmas Night, and The Sparkle Egg,and the six book series for the American Girl doll characters Marie-Grace and Cecile.

Trained in a variety of fine arts media Jeni Gray-Roberts is an emerging artist working predominantly in kiln-formed glass.

Her glasswork evokes the movement of light, air and water.  She is inspired by all things in nature but is especially fascinated by moving water.  Her work is a reflection of the ebb and flow of the rivers and oceans she has experienced throughout her travels.

Jeni studied journalism at Moravian College and fine arts at Sam Houston State University.  Her initial artistic career included radio, fashion and photography.  Following that, Jeni spent 8 years at various New York City advertising agencies and a Manhattan art and events gallery.  Through the Art Students League of New York City, she practiced silversmithing and then found fused glass. That is when she finally discovered her artistic purpose.  Later she went on to study glass fusing and kiln work. She is a member of the Glass Art Society and her pieces can be found in private collections throughout the US.

Jeni moved from New York City in 2006 and lives and works in Deep River.

Pastel artist Carmen Zambrano was born in Peru and moved to the United States at the age of two. Carmen is now a native of Danbury, Connecticut and has been painting with pastels for the past twelve years. She uses pastels to illustrate and capture scenes from nature and the stories she reads. As a child, Carmen developed a deep appreciation for the beauty of the world around us and of the worlds created in stories. She received a BFA in Illustration from Western Connecticut State University and has been a part of the art community in Danbury from a very young age. She does a lot of painting commissions for private collections and donated paintings for Habitat for Humanity. She recently had a show that was well received at the Danbury City hall and won best in show for Illustration at the Fine Arts Show at the Danbury Fair Mall. Carmen is not only an illustrator but also a graphic designer. Her logo for the Danbury Public Schools can be seen throughout Danbury.

Andrew Laverty has shown in student shows at UMASS and Bridgewater State (Gallery 244, CVPA Campus Gallery, Anderson Gallery), Gallery X, tl6 Gallery, in New Bedford, MA and Imago Gallery in Warren, RI.

He received his undergraduate degree in graphic design from Bridgewater State.

For the last three semesters, Andrew has taught foundations courses at UMASS in structural drawing and 2d composition: printmaking.

Liam made his stage debut in the Broadway play A Doll’s House at the age of seven, and his film debut in Henry Fool (1997). His first major film role came when he starred in Stepmom (1998). Liam has since starred in numerous films and television show.s

The inspiration for this series comes from classical architecture and natural forms. It started with a question, could I make imitation feather patterns by folding a sheet of paper. I wanted the form to be modern but also reminiscent of the calculating precision of the natural world. The original inspiration is less obvious in this current examination of the process. As I followed the paper and listened to what it liked to do it showed me that it was capable of computing an impressive number of variations. It looks sturdy and it is surprisingly resistant to deformation, more so than a sheet of unfolded paper. The angles support themselves. It is inorganic in the same tradition as classical architecture, with it’s exacting angles, yet it harkens to natural forms such as sand dunes and mountain ranges. Mankind’s earliest inspirations for abstract artwork is nature which can be seen in the pyramids and the sacred geometries from the Middle East, Europe and Asia. This work is a continuation of that tradition of trying to answer that question which all artists ask, what is possible?

Jason Neely is a photographer from Middletown, Connecticut who shoots a wide range of subjects – from landscapes to street photography – with the natural world and travel two of his favorite subjects.

Neely teaches photography classes in Middletown and at the Arts Center Killingworth.  His photographs have been shown throughout Connecticut, including juried shows in West Harford and Guilford. His work is part of private collections throughout the United States and in Great Britain and Ireland.

His photo of his dog, Sidney, leaping through his living room appeared in the August 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine and was used by the rock band Weezer for the cover of their 2009 album, Raditude.