Nancey B. Price

Artist Statement: I am an admirer of revelations and evocative thoughts. My work is inspired by my rural upbringing and ancestral stories passed down to me. My visual art centers and celebrates Blackness from the fields of rural America to the stars in the night sky. My performance storytelling invites you to ponder the significance of lived experiences and my writing gives you a glimpse of my innermost thoughts.

Website: nanceybprice.com

Instagram: instagram.com/nanceybprice

Twiggy Boyer

Artist Statement: My work seeks to investigate themes of memory, connections and nostalgia. Using carefully curated found photographs as collage elements, I explore how my own recollections and experiences are often similar to another person’s. I work with forgotten photographs gathered from dusty thrift shops that I feel deeply connected to. I aim to relate the small moments captured in the images to my own memories in a sort of familiar parallel. The patterns, layers and repeating images in my mixed media collages become a visual representation of memories over time—adding and removing, sometimes blurred or influenced, fragments of images are cut, torn and collaged onto paper intuitively. Floral elements often find their way into the works to further illustrate the fragility and ephemeral qualities of memories and to bring symbolism to the pieces often referencing the principles of Victorian floriography. My hope is to invite viewers to make a connection to their own memories and to encourage a nostalgic and emotional response, ultimately creating a bond between us. Borrowing aspects from the memory of others, I mold them into my own and aim to create new ones for others to borrow from.

Biography: Twiggy Boyer is best known for her nostalgic mixed media collages often created using vintage found photographs. Boyer’s mixed media works explore themes of nostalgia, memories and connections and incorporate collage elements, drawing and painting. Born and raised in Paris, France, Twiggy studied painting and curatorial studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD and graduated with a BFA in 2012. Boyer has been a part of a number of group exhibitions most notably at the Coral Springs Museum of Art and at Yale University, and has permanent works collected in the Doug & Laurie Kanyer Art Collection. Over the last 10 years, Twiggy Boyer has worked as a teaching artist in the museum education setting, as a full time elementary art teacher and in the form of teaching adult collage workshops. In February of 2020, Twiggy co-founded Photo Trouvée Magazine-- a digital art publication that showcases contemporary artists who use found photographs as a medium in their works. She currently works and resides in South Florida with her daughter and partner.

Website: www.sarahtwiggyboyer.com

Social: www.instagram.com/twiggyboyerart

Jenny Brown

Artist Statement: Over the past two decades, I have been making art which questions our long held understandings of time, space, energy, and matter. With a focus on visualizing the most lush & ethereal phenomena of the natural world, my collages and drawings are celebrations of the ongoing physical and spiritual evolution of our universe.

As an artist who sees the process of creating art as non-linear, I find that I experience the past, present, and future lives of my subjects all simultaneously. The use of layered antique collage, which comes into my process with its own rich history, provides a building block for illustrating the complexities of time and are place in it. It is my hope that my work creates a space for the viewer to explore and reflect on what was, what is, and what could be.

Biography: I am a 1996 graduate of Bennington College and received my MFA in 2005 from The School of Visual Arts, where I focused on the study of painting, drawing, and collage. I moved to Rhode Island in 2008, and currently work out of an antique and vintage paper filled studio in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood. Over the past year my work has been shown at The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE, Drive-by Projects in Watertown, MA, & the 2022 Superfine Art Fair DC. My collages were also featured in Photo Trouvée Magazine”s recent publication “Echos of Yesterday,” as well as the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of Humana Obscura magazine.

Website: www.jennybrownart.com

Social: @jennybrownart

Laurie Kanyer

Artist Statement: My collages are shines of hope and transformation. They have a strong architectural influence that harken to ancient wonders. They have often been referred to as having a totem-like presence, with layers of hidden and known symbolism.

My love for the triangle, the strongest of all shapes, is prominent in my work. The triangle has ancient origins and represents the magic of “threes”. For me the represent the essence of life. It is the symbol for so many life forces such as body, mind, spirit, or the past, present, future or sun, moon and stars. I begin and end each collage with a triangle. This is an opening and closing ritual to my practice that offers continuity and grounding to each of the works.

In my practice I have a deep commitment to symmetrical compositions. The intent is for the viewer to observe the power and potency of order. These works are visual sanctuaries inviting the viewer to sit and pause—to meditate and reflect. The symmetric nature allow the eyes to penetrate the works. The abundance of detail offers a visual path to ignite curiosity and wonder. Questions of the magnitude of the universe with all its varied detail is an overriding theme. 

As a therapist and an educator I used collage as a therapeutic tool with clients and students. I too use collage for its mental health benefits. I am entranced by how collage possessed mystical qualities unlocking the channels of the brain to bring forth potent knowing. My works illustrate true bliss and the power of the subconscious to reveal and uncover truths.

Biography: Laurie Kanyer, MA is an author, publisher, counselor, artist and organizational consultant. She has worked with individuals, families and organizations since 1983. Kanyer holds a Masters degree in Human Development focusing on Infant Mental Health, Childhood Grief and Loss and Organizational Development from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. 

She has recently published Collage Care: Transforming Emotions and Life Experiences with Collage (2021), and Collage Care: The Guidebook, Using Collage to Gain Deeper Knowledge and Experiences on Emotions (2022). Kanyer has used collage as a therapeutic tool with her clients and students for decades.

As an artist her works have been exhibited all over the United States. She is known for her mastery in sculptural beadwork, ink on paper and collage. Her artwork is part of a deep and enduring spiritual practice and it is known for its depth and focus on details.

She founded Passport to Parenting, a program associated with Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and was acknowledged by the United Nations for Inspiring Warmheartedness for this program. She founded Growing Capable Parents, a program focusing on the needs of pregnant and parenting women experiencing poverty. 

She founded Yakima Light Project, the first non-profit gallery in the downtown core of Yakima Washington. At the time this was one of the most poverty stricken areas in the State of Washington with limited access to the visual arts. In 2015 she received the Washington Museum Association Award of Individual Excellence for this project. 

She and her husband Doug have been art collectors since 1978. In 2016 the Kanyers founded The Doug + Laurie Kand Art Collection having dedicated their efforts to collage exclusively. They are one of very few private art collectors in the world focusing solely on collage (see kanyerartcollection.com). They met in college in 1977 and have been married since 1981. They have three grown children, two sons-in-law and and two grandchildren. They live in the high desert region of Central Washington State, USA.

Website: kanyerartcollection.com

Social: @kanyerartcollection | @lauriekanyer

Elyse’ Jokinen

Bio: Elyse’ Jokinen is a self-taught visual artist working primarily in analog collage. Her work has been collected in more than four countries and has been featured with Collé, PxP Contemporary, Contemporary Collage Magazine and more.
She is the founder and passionate facilitator of the online platform Wilder Collage. Elyse’ lives on the island of O’ahu with her family.

Artist Statement: Over the past decade, my life and travels have led me to several places around the world. New locations, people, and moments. In many ways, creating collage brings me the much-needed feeling of home.

I begin each piece with a bit of spontaneity, just like my early journey. Then, I deconstruct the found material to depict the twists, turns, ups, and downs. Like wandering, some pieces are precisely chosen while others end up in my hand by total happenstance.

Finally, I begin to combine the fragments into memories, stories, and desires.
The paste holds these down in a way that I’m unable to and makes each collage feel whole.

Website: www.elysejokinen.com

Social: @elysejokinen | @wildercollage