W. Tucker 

Artist Statement: “The work begins unplanned. Line drawings, markings, painted strokes and scribbles are made with numerous mediums including oil, lumber sticks, resin sticks, charcoal, graphite, and ink. I do the work mostly on older items that I purchase or find – such as old book covers and the pages of these books; kid's wood blocks, cabinet doors, and table tops. I also work on items that I build or make – small cement pieces and standing wood, drywall and plaster boxes. The drawings and markings are created with my non-dominant hand. The use of my left hand allows me to draw in an unpracticed manner, with less fixed intention and control.

More recently the work has expanded from the 2-dimensional work to installations that include wall drawings, books, and standing boxes. The wall drawings are transient, painted over when the installation is dismantled, having a beginning and an end. Books are either created or have been adapted from existing books - images are either added to the pages or pages are removed and new pages are stitched in. The boxes are an exploration of the work in 3 dimensions, interior and exterior - a comment on what we present to the world and what we may choose to hide. Over time I have realized that in the finished work I see aspects of our human condition - vulnerability, frailty, kindness, anger, frustration, humor, curiosity, and relationship. As well as glimpses of stories, moments, and dilemmas that may represent how we approach or walk through life.”

Sally S. Bennett

Through a language of color, pattern, symbol, and abstraction, Sally S. Bennett presents a collection of timeless mixed-media compositions. By conjoining vintage ephemera with contemporary collectives, she spans across eras — striking avenues to collective memories and present-day ideas. With the ability to entertain a thousand variations, each piece offers a discovery with every visitation. In a visual portrayal of the human experience, in all its beauty, mood, and madness – Bennett creates work that demands engagement.

Artist Statement: “My creative approach is a blend of spontaneity and obsessive attention to detail – the combination of paint, scattered words, patterns, collages, and memorabilia are all the perfect vehicles for the work to express a crazy perspective on life – my art comes out of life and like our lives, it is not a quick read. I want my work to engage the viewer – to see and feel the beauty and humor that is around us everywhere. When I start I let the painting guide me – I am the spectator wanting to see something I have never seen before. I use anything I can find – old, new, and everything in between; the collage reflects reality. It is straightforward. The patterns surround us and the words speak to us – the memorabilia brings us back to the essentials. All of these tools help me begin and complete the story from the old and forgotten to something new and now.”

Lance Letscher 

Critically acclaimed collagist Lance Letscher transforms found and discarded materials into evocative compositions fueled by a juxtaposition of color and value. His masterfully layered imagery generates a sensation of light and space, converting the once two-dimensional compositions into three-dimensional illusions. His palette of materials consists of album covers, books, handwritten recipes and notes, magazines, business ledgers, diary entries, letter fragments, and a variety of found ephemera. He meticulously stores these weathered materials away, which he later surgically deconstructs and deploys to create fresh narratives from the shards of memory. His use of aged mediums takes the audience through old avenues of the mind, provoking senses of familiarity and nostalgia. In an intuitive process, he engages in countless permutations of form revealed through provisional dissections and rearrangements of content. For seven hours a day, he gently drags his X-acto blade against the cast-away fragments, recontextualizing the matter until a story unfolds. "I follow the color, the line, and the perspective to create movement in the composition. The expressionist qualities come later - not in a conscious way. Through the collages, I let myself be carried away by what I have at hand."

Kelly Moran 

As an avid collector of vintage paper and objects, Kelly Moran is passionate about transforming once-forgotten entities into compelling visual stories. Through her use of found and discarded materials, she successfully captures the social landscape of the 19th and 20th centuries – vintage imagery is recontextualized into a series of dynamic narratives, where the interiors of social convention are redecorated with personal whim, expression, and humor. Through her prolific production of mixed-media assemblages, she takes us to a world without taboo or reservation; where curiosity and exploration are encouraged. By juxtaposing vintage iconography with contemporary themes, she draws parallels between the old and the new; inviting us to an open-ended reflection of where we are now and where we were then.

From estate sales to eBay, Moran searches far and wide for particular items dating between the 1800s and 1970s. Encyclopedias, newspapers, magazines, comic books, cookbooks, medical journals, advertisements, and other paper ephemera serve as building blocks in her mixed-media creations. Despite their fleeting functions and inherent fragility, these entities have been preserved and passed down through generations.

Jeff Wheeler 

“Texas, at one time, was the Western edge of American expansion, and this residual idea of The West and manifest destiny — an unfolding landscape given to European settlers by the divine bearded one himself — is pretty damn hard to shake. It is embedded in every lonesome cowboy ballad, every photo of an (admittedly) beautiful sunset, every song about ‘the open road’ or ‘riding the rails,’ every hardscrabble ‘pull-yourself-by-your-bootstraps’ self-help session. Manifest destiny long ago washed to the Pacific and now we’re all left here to wallow through the backwash. The ‘open range’ now feels more relevant in reference to an empty mall parking lot. The wider world has moved on but our origin story — our mythology — has not… Jeff’s pieces often incorporate old land surveys, deeds, maps, and other government ephemera; and feel like travel brochures to a jumbled post-colonial wasteland… His effortlessly humorous dissections of modern life fully resonate with the alienation felt by ‘outsiders’ all across our state, and his humor opens the door to a serious discussion.” 

– Bill Baird, Glasstire

Gail Siptak

Through the old and honorable tradition of narration, Gail Siptak conjures stories of life overseen and overheard through her whimsical, gouache-layered paintings. As a child, she aspired to become a professional entomologist. Having been raised in San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, she was surrounded by a multitude of water and terrain. It was here she explored the grandeur of the natural world and found her church in its actuality. 

During the pandemic, she veered away from large-scale oil paintings and took on the restorative process of gouache paint. With the combination of handmade paper and gouache, she began to create rich, flat patterns with dense strokes of color that possess a strong visual summoning. With her work, Siptak creates a clear channel between the observer and the observed. “I paint what I see of the human condition – be it animal or object. The glimmer of humor, pathos, and spirit in so much of what I see is the basis of what I paint.”

Carlos Hernandez 

Artist Statement: “My work reproduces familiar visual images, drawn or found, arranging or collaging them into new conceptually layered pieces. For me, the discipline of printmaking is the process of discovery; I love how the process has a feeling of unpredictability. In creating my work, I am drawn to discarded and found graphics and like to incorporate hand-drawn elements such as old ads and dirty patterns to add to my illustration and collage work.”

Carlos Hernandez never fails to break the boundaries with his densely-layered abstractions and beautifully twisted vision. His conceptually layered pieces are reconstructed from past assemblages, consisting of discarded and found graphics and hand-drawn elements. Coming from a large family and two working parents, he and his siblings were taken to the local convenience store every weekend for a means of entertainment and adventure. His internal world began to flourish from his exposure to magazines, records, and the latest pop culture he had gone to witness through the store. Having been a drummer in a variety of bands throughout the late 70s and early 80s, Hernandez took on the position of creating gig posters after falling in love with their printing process and graphic design elements.  He was deeply enamored and inspired by the bold and colorful art contained within the many mediums of print. 

In 1999, he moved to Houston, Texas. 12 years later he co-founded Burning Bones Press – Houston's first full-service community printmaking studio. As an artist and mentor, Hernandez serves as an important contributor to the development and expansion of the art community.

Claire Cusack 

Nearly 35 years ago, while hiking in the remote hills of Cloudcroft, New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest, Claire Cusack heard a voice she believed to be God. This voice of great divinity called to her and said, "Claire, you are supposed to be making art". It was that Monday she quit her job and began creating. What began as cross sculptures made from rocks slowly evolved into idiosyncratic works crafted from an array of found and discarded materials. What may exist to others as garbage serves as an inspiration to Cusack. Her materials are often gathered from urban intersections, rural roads, railroad tracks, junkyards, natural attractions, garages, and antique shops. Her miscellanea of finds consists of old leather, plexiglass, tools, fibers, fabrics, metal,s and more. To her, these worn and weathered materials possess a particular kind of beauty that cannot be imitated. For years, these articles are stored until they present themselves with a narrative to fit into. "I am drawn to pieces with a story to tell. The objects speak to me and to each other. They guide me to where they're supposed to be."

Catherine Colangelo  

Artist Statement: “Many years ago, when my child was going through an especially difficult time, I started painting shields that I imagined could function as talismans to protect her. I became interested in Ethiopian magic scrolls, which are paintings used in healing rituals to ward off evil spirits. My work has other influences such as illuminated manuscripts, Indian and Islamic miniatures, textiles, and visionary art. I’m especially drawn to the beautiful patterning used in these traditions. I am interested in the uplifting power of color and the creative process during emotional periods in our lives.  My work explores the complicated parent-child relationship and the desire to protect a loved one.”

In her latest body of work, Colangelo incorporates perforated paper into her talismanic pieces. With a history of almost two thousand years, the practice of paper-cutting remains an integral part of a multitude of cultures. Papel picado is a traditional Mexican paper-cutting technique used during the celebration of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead). Altars are created in honor of deceased loved ones and decorated with objects that symbolize elements of wind, water, earth, and fire. Elaborate designs are cut into sheets of tissue paper and hung above the altars, meant to represent air and wind. The delicate nature of the paper signifies the fragility of life; while the holes within it provide a passage for souls to travel through. By cutting her once-completed pieces, she grants a sense of breath to her talismanic compositions. An incorporation of negative space ignites an illusion of movement, as ripples and vibrations pulsate among the patterns.