Born in 1971 in San Bernardino, California, and raised in Atlanta, Craig first recognized his creative drive via crayons on his parents’ walls. By age 7, his capacity for detailed visual interpretation became undeniable. After excelling in an introductory drawing class, Craig continued to develop technically and conceptually while always planning to pursue a formal art education.

At the University of Mobile, Craig’s light bulb switched on in a rejuvenating glow! Craig earned an area award for academic excellence, and the University’s most prestigious exhibition, “Art with a Southern Drawl,” featured 1 of Craig’s pieces.

Craig’s collections run the gamut from abstract expressionism to haunting, graphic realism, each reflecting its creator’s unique vision. He is most well-known for his Populus series.

Craig explains, “Inspiration begins with a ‘What if…’ as I consider alternate imagery, surfaces, effects, results, etc. It comes from the past in conjunction with now. Like a bolt of lightning.”

Which came first— the artist or the inspiration? For Kevin Chambers, the artist was intrinsic, but inspiration came at age 12. That is when he started formal art training in Blairsville, Georgia with famed artist Colleen Sterling. “She was the first person I found that was making a living being an artist,” he says, “It’s the first time I realized it was a possibility for me.”

Today, his works and collaborations are widely exhibited and displayed in public, museums including Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, national, international, corporate and private collections around the world, from Switzerland to Japan, Dubai and China.

Chambers received a BFA in Media Arts and Animation from the Art Institute of Atlanta, a program that allowed him the latitude to develop his own personal style while he apprenticed for talented artists. He studied the figure with contemporary masters such as Glenn Villpu, Brian Booth Craig, David Simon, and anatomical workshops with Andrew Cawrse.

Gregory was formally educated in the photographic arts followed by almost a decade employed as a camera & lighting technician in the motion picture industry in Los Angeles. Running the gamut of film productions, from independent to studio backed features, Gregory shared his talents in the creation of moving images for broadcast & the big screen. In 2000, returning to his roots, Picture Productions was founded with Gregory at the helm. A commercial photography studio producing high quality images for marketing, advertising and editorial clients globally. 

Scott Eakin is an Atlanta- based artist originally from Illinois. He works with acrylic paint on wood panel surfaces. Layers of lines, bars, and bands of brilliant color are stacked upon each other meticulously to create the paintings’ graphic, geometric impact. At a closer look, one also finds countless miniature landscapes hidden within the lines. In his work, Scott investigates interactions between edges and intersections, planning and happenstance, and intellect and intuition. 

His work has been represented in galleries and museums since 2007. Exhibitions include the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences, Macon, GA. Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta, GA. Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, GA. Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GA, The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ. Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY, Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA. Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL, Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA, among others. 

Al Heberer is a ceramic artist located in South Georgia. He is inspired by the look of ancient pottery and exclusively uses ancient clay sculpting techniques. Al’s art is created without pottery wheels, molds, or stamps. He strives for his art to give the feeling of swimming over shallow coral reefs or walking through a bright spring garden with large blooms bursting everywhere. His hand-shaped bowls allow for familiar, durable, yet contemporary designs.  

James is an abstract painter known for her large works on canvas. She is inspired by color and movement and uses strong brushstroke and varied marks on neutral canvases with pops of bold colors. She paints with acrylics , and uses chalk, oil pastels and pencil to vary the texture and medium of her works. She is influenced by the colors in nature, the lightness and space of the sky, and the texture and depth of landscapes. “I love to make people happy and for a client to add my painting to their home is wonderful compliment” Michele received a BFA in fine art and art history at Hunter College in New York, NY with a concentration in studio painting. Michele paints out of her home studio in Atlanta where she lives with her husband and three kids.

Jess Jones is a textile artist and Associate Professor of Textiles at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Affiliate Faculty with the Institute of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Jess’s work examines psycho-geography, textiles’ relationship to the urban environment, and the creation of digitally derived layered and stitched compositions. Her work, Weeping Quilt, is currently seen at the Zuckerman Museum of Art. 

Christina Kwan is an Atlanta-based artist known for her abstract works on paper and large-scale murals. Originally from South Florida, Kwan moved to Atlanta in 2010 after graduating from the University of Florida with a BFA in Drawing. A decade and many different career paths later, her work explores her Asian-American identity and the internal struggle of feeling incomplete or existing in between. Kwan’s work has been shown in various commercial galleries and academic institutions. At the same time, her murals span all across Metro Atlanta in places such as Emory University, Marietta Square, and Microsoft’s Atlantic Yards. Her compositions feature bold and calligraphic brush strokes inspired by her East Asian heritage, acting as a yearning for permanence and a search for ancestral ties.

Form communicates emotion.

Pattern transmits expression.

Rhythm is the basis of our visual world, from the windows and tile arrangements in our homes to the composition of plant life and oceanic creatures. Almost every form of matter we acknowledge throughout our daily lives is evidence of rhythmic life.

Rhythm structures tone and sound. It shapes speech, melody, dance, poetry, and the human body. Without rhythm, light, sound, and other forms could not be differentiated from one another as their frequency or rhythmic waveforms define them.

While exploring and exposing various subject matter, my goal is to recognize how shape, form, and pattern are primary in our daily outlook.

The works created can be described as visual sheet music. Blocks and angles of color brushed and smudged across random perimeters of various mediums. Broken and solid line work split and gel together a variety of hues and shapes. Found within the core of the work are the cultural references, signs of technological advances, schematical diagrams, component dials, and switches are all included for their fundamental form. Most of them are basic circles, squares, and triangles. When these ideas are put together, it creates a piece of music that is seen instead of heard. The rhythm of life is inhaled and exhaled with each day given to us. By realizing the fundamentals of our daily visual experiences, individuals can relate to and appreciate rhythm’s role in our lives.

Emily Mann is the artist, designer, creative consultant, and founder of Ink + Indigo. Emily believes in creating and sharing beauty every day, and this creative space has allowed her to do just that. She has made all types of art for all kinds of applications, spaces, and clients. Painting, sculpture, printmaking, installation, event design, graphic, digital, and web design are just a few of her specialties. 

Emily’s work has been collected by a fantastic variety of residential clients and hospitality projects worldwide-from, from a Ritz Carlton in California to luxury homes in Dubai and so many beautiful places in between!  

I am a mixed media artist from Atlanta, Georgia. I formerly attended the Art Institute of Atlanta, the Atlanta College of Art, and the Savannah College of Art & Design/Atlanta. I create large-scale assemblages of highly colorful, textural, hand-painted “modules” (i.e., circles, cubes, spheres, etc.). These components are typically painted on all visible sides, pushing these  “wall-hung sculptures” out from the wall and giving the work a three-dimensional quality. This element also allows the viewer to experience my works from different vantage points (e.g., from the left or right side, the top or the bottom). 

International artist Cat Tesla is a contemporary nature-based abstract painter. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1963, Cat grew up with a love for art and science and obtained degrees in Biology and Graphic Design, along with a Master’s Degree in Human Genetics. She worked as a genetic counselor on faculty at Emory University for 20 years, then eventually traded the genetics clinic for an art studio. Tesla completed additional painting studies with artist, writer, and author of “Expressive Drawing” Steven Aimone and Sausalito-based artist and teacher Nicholas Wilton. Cat’s work has been exhibited in galleries across the U.S. and the U.K., the Knoxville Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta, and the Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art north of Atlanta. After 25 years as a professional artist, Tesla’s paintings are in more than 300 corporate collections, nearly 1000 hospitals and medical centers in the U.S., and thousands of private collections worldwide. Her nature-based abstract works were recently placed in Capital One and the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab’s permanent collections. Tesla lives and works in the Sarasota, FL, area.

In my early 30’s, I discovered my life’s true path. I was meant to be an artist. Although I believe this path was in place for me since boyhood, I did not find my true calling until I walked into an art gallery as a potential buyer and was overcome with the desire to learn the painting process.

Years before, I majored in Industrial Design at Auburn University. While not my true calling, it laid the foundation of concept, composition, perspective, color, and craftsmanship that has been critical to my artistic process.

Winston Wiant is originally from Amelia Island, Florida, and is full of southern charm. She brings her whimsical and witty delight to every painting. Having painted since childhood, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art at Brenau University and has been pursuing her love of art ever since. Her paintings are full of texture, using the palette knife and free brushstrokes to layer the paint, creating one energetic piece after another. She lives in Athens, GA, with her husband and two daughters and paints in her home studio. “Art to me is a form of self-expression. The way I feel that day reflects in my work. My love of bold color and texture is both distinctive and captivating.”