Lisa Corrigan Egan--Stating Like an Artist

Garbage collages. Three-dimensional assemblages. Found-art sculptures. The series subConversations can be described many ways, but to me there is no better description than Abstract Self-Portraits. Figure, form, and narrative take a backseat to experience, emotion, and memory. I splattered paint, hammered nails, and shattered mirrors, all in the name of "opening up" and creating art.

My finished pieces show the physical process of a psychological practice; I want people to see what my oldest memories, most embarrassing moments, and happiest experiences look like. It's not always easy for people to verbalize thoughts and feelings; we are guarded creatures. But the lack of overt narrative throughout my pieces allows for the viewer to connect. I hope my audience is triggered by the aggressive elements of the pieces, and is able to reach down and experience subConversations on the same visceral level I felt while creating them.

Vinny Yacuzzi--I Am Not A Terrorist

I try to imagine if I had grown up in a war torn country, one where militia and terrorism ran the way of life. I think I take my good style of life here in the US for granted.

I have watched videos of terrorists who have captured victims and are broadcasting them for the rest of the world to see. I think, what made them choose this person? What goes through their head when making that decision? These things I will never understand. From seeing these though I do understand how these videos make me feel, and it is a feeling of complete disgust and grief.

By seeing videos and watching news on the television about war and terrorism, I have been immersing myself in the work. But by taking this approach, I sort of overwhelmed myself. My feelings of disgust and grief were now accompanied by pain, sorrow, and anger. Feelings from watching these videos and shows were carried over into my work.

Katelyn O'Malley--Sewing It Out

As the fabric runs through the foot of my sewing machine, I am deep in thought, not about how this project will come out but about the emotions I have felt in that day, week, or month. I do not feel comfortable expressing my emotions to the world, but sitting in front of my sewing machine allows me to let it all go.

Over time I have noticed that how one feels can be reflected in clothing. Whether you’re expressing an excited mood with a yellow sundress or depressed in all black, what you are wearing says something about how you feel and who you are, whether intended or not. People deny the idea that clothes don’t make a person, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And, yes, to a certain extent I guess that is true, but let's face it, we do judge people by the way they dress.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to wear clothes that tell the world how you really feel? I myself would not feel comfortable wearing some of my emotions for everyone to see.

I wanted to challenge that idea, wearing your emotions. If I could create fabric which spoke my emotions would I have the guts to prance around in it?

Cathryn Cortesa--Roses In December

A Chinese Taoist philosopher, Lao Tzu, said "a good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving," and I believe the same is true for a good artist.

My work is about seeing the world in new ways. I believe that in the everyday, we lose a sense of the wonder, vibrancy, color and freshness of life that is right in front of our eyes- especially in the smallest and simplest of things. These works follow the journey of images that I’ve photographed in my travels, with a focus on the exploration of how we see and remember color. I am also interested in the relationship between how we see things in the world, how we remember or re-imagine them, and also how we could see them as if we were to remove our dull lens of habituated reality.

I have always been fascinated by the abstraction and fragmentation that occurs when we record things in our memory, and the reconstruction of these fragments when we recall our memories. These works reflect that interest. I used the idea of fragmentation and reconstruction to create several different versions of the images, piecing the colors found on the canvas together in a work of reconstructed assemblage. I wanted to try to capture the most colorful and interesting representation, piecing together how I remember the original image. My plans for each successive piece developed and changed as I attempted to work in an organic process, reflecting the philosophy of a good traveller. After all, as J.M. Barrie eloquently stated, "God gave us memories so we might have roses in December."

COMPONENT ERRATA Dylan Ritchotte

The most recurring childhood memory I have is of playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The vibrant world presented before my eyes was tangible and comprehensible. I was fixated with defeating this other reality and in the process I became an extension of this electronic realm. I controlled the outcome.

What I perceived to be true was actually fabricated— a structure of red, green and blue had given life to a world that did not occur outside of my own optic consciousness.

My work explores the ephemeral visual forms generated by electronics. I become submerged in these domains. Connecting the viewer to them is what enables these worlds to exist.

Nick Nycz

I have begun my journey in hopes of finding out the REAL meaning and symbolism behind something so neutral, pure, simple, unbiased: a number. Not just any number, however, the number 7 (seven). The number itself can be a gateway to different meanings, such as that of luck, spiritual enlightenment, and even death & destruction. My mission is to explore all of the boundaries to what this symbol really means and also to try and explain what other visions / ideas are of this object...from different minds all over the world.

The most important thing to remember with this piece is what it means to you. If it triggers something that is important or symbolic in some sort of way, then you have extracted the intent of the piece. Though this may or may not be the same thing for your neighbor, what matters is how it reflects on you (on the inside). So the important question is: What does SE7EN say to you?