MCLEE MATHIAS
McLee Jessie Mathias was born in Stamford, Connecticut on March 18th 1994. Having been raised by a single mother who immigrated from Haiti he was taught the value of hard work and self perseverance from an early age. Since the moment he picked up a trumpet in elementary school his passion for music and the arts was fueled. First it was music, then photography and now he is growing his profile into the art world.
THOMAS TURNER
BRIE MIYOKO
Brie Miyoko (she/her/hers) is a Connecticut born fine artist and art educator who specializes in acrylic + oil surrealism paintings. Currently her practice is based out of the New York metropolitan area where she focuses on pulling inspiration from her daily life.
Recreating past family photographs--- honoring our mother figures, grandparents, and community plays a significant role in her work. As well as creating new memories within the present day. Miyoko is currently enrolled at the University of Connecticut-Stamford, where she spent 2 years in the School of Fine Arts before switching over to Early Childhood Education. The passion for visual arts has been around for as long as she can remember. From drawing on the seats of a school bus during elementary school, selling custom portraits of friends in high school, and to group exhibitions in Brooklyn during college!
​​​​​​​ALEJANDRA GONZALEZ ZERTUCHE
Hi there! I’m Thomas Turner, and I’m currently very interested in digital painting and drawing. The questions of “how do you differentiate between the act of painting and drawing when the motions and media are identical?” + “what actually separates the two disciplines when all you have to focus on are the marks?” are enchanting to me, a juicy visual riddle. I have the large goal of using the gracious studio time given in this residency to learning how to paint traditionally in gouache, acrylic, and watercolor, and to use these media experiences to help answer my over arching questions about the differences and relationship between painting and drawing.
Alejandra Gonzalez Zertuche is a Connecticut-based Mexican oil painter and educator, originally from Coahuila Mexico. She is also a recent graduate of Texas State University, where she received her BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in painting. Her paintings focus on the stories and memories of the people around her, and her identity as a Mexican person, now living in the United States. “Through my work, I create a conscious remark and a report of my visual testimony about transformation, hope, and survival in the United States.”
GREG AIMÉ
I’m a mixed digital and traditional media image maker who is currently attempting to understand the world and the people in it through visual translation into 2D color, value, edges, and lines. My work as of late has consisted mainly of two things: quiet meditations on the objects we touch daily / the places we live in + the ways in which we curate our daily performances of identity on ever-changing familial and cultural didactic imagery.
LILY MORGAN
Lily Morgan is an art educator and painter based in Norwalk, CT. Her work explores the relationship between abstraction, geometry and realism. Her paintings are built, layer by layer, and increase in complexity as they move towards the surface.
TIARA TRENT
Tiara Trent is a 21 year old african-american multimedia artist who tells visual dreamlike stories from her heart and imagination. Tiara was born and raised in Bronx, NY, but has made Norwalk, CT her home in the past six years and has integrated herself in the local arts community. Her preferred media consists of ink, paint, digital painting software, and anything else she can get her hands on. Tiara is currently a Studio Arts major at Norwalk Community College and her biggest dream involves becoming an illustrator and animator like her biggest influence, Hayao Miyazaki. Tiara’s artwork presents themes of relationship with self, the black female identity, beauty, and spirituality.
FRANCISCO MANDUJANO
I absolutely love what I am doing and my goal is to teach others how to create miniatures and terrain builds through simple techniques and cheap materials found all around us like bottle caps, lids, milk cartons, tooth picks, etc.
Most of my inspiration comes from the video games and cartoons I use to play and watch as a kid such as Dragon Quest, Dark Souls, and One Piece.
REMY SOSA
I learned how to draw from my mother who was an architect but really got into art after learned I could draw with an eraser. I've always loved making art and even found it helped with stress and anxiety. As a shy young girl, I was raised in a man-dominant environment where I couldn't speak unless spoken to and could never raise my voice. I learned to speak through lines and colors. Art is the way I scream. It's my language. I guess I always knew my future was going to be around art.
LORENA SFERLAZZA
Lorena Sferlazza (she/her) is a visual artist and educator based in Norwalk, CT, negotiating the dynamics of vulnerability and environmental impact through painting, drawing, and photography.
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Her work has been published in Create! Magazine and exhibited across the Northeast and Italy, namely at Anna Zorina Gallery, Sotheby’s, Paradigm Gallery, FMC Tower, Museum Galleries at PAFA, among others.
Lorena has been honored to receive awards from PAFA, Holy Cross, Scholastic, Inc., Lyme Academy, and Kevin’s Fund.