Memories and Fortunes
Featured Artists
Abbey Miller
IG: @artwizardabbey
TITLE: The Irreplaceable Human Soul, 2025 (not for sale)
MEDIUM: Mixed media on paper
DESCRIPTIONS:
When creating my artwork "The Irreplaceable Human Soul," I considered what types of art can only be created by humans and not by artificial intelligence. No matter how well AI can imitate artists, it will never have emotions – it only copies what it sees us do. I drew and wrote from the heart and worked in overlapping layers to convey emotional depth. I treated the paper like my personal sketchbook by adding stickers, pins, and 3-D objects from my daily life. Also included are illustrations of my closest friends, to-do lists, and custom fortunes that I created as positive reminders for myself. This is me, in the current moment, on paper. The capabilities of AI are improving rapidly, and if artists do not adapt, we will be out of a career. AI can create digital paintings, but it will never be able to replicate the emotional nuances of the human soul.
TITLE: You Are Your Own Worst Enemy, 2023 (Not for sale)
MEDIUM: Oil paint and Sharpie on board (11" x 14")
DESCRIPTION: This piece represents how critical I can be towards myself. I am the dragon, resting without disturbing the angel or the devil, but they start a war with each other and disturb the dragon’s peace. The angel, depicted with one dark, feathery wing and one light, bony wing, lives ambiguously without fear. The music of their harp lulls the dragon to sleep. The devil torments the dragon by shooting at them with Cupid’s bow. An arrow strikes and the dragon bleeds glimmering gold. The devil delights in the dragon’s pain.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Abbey Miller is an illustrator and multi-media artist with a passion for storytelling. In 2024, she graduated from the University of South Florida College of the Arts with a BA degree in Studio Art and she is excited to become more involved in the art scene of Tampa and beyond. She frequently works with subjects from nature, LGBT history, and her own characters. Her art often takes place in whimsical fantasy settings with a sentimental, humorous, and introspective theme. Through her creations, she hopes to inspire others to live authentically, ambiguously, and unapologetically. When she is not making art, she loves birdwatching, seeing movies with friends, and going out with family.
Cameron White
It all begins with an idea.
IG: @camz.canvas
TITLE: Untitled 2021-2024 ($100 each)
MEDIUM: Digital media (procreate)
DESCRIPTIONS:
From the inner workings of my mind.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
I create art to confront what people usually look away from. My work is direct, emotional, and unapologetic. I pull from real experiences—raw moments, sharp feelings, and the truths that sit beneath the surface.
I don’t aim for perfection. I aim for impact. I experiment, break rules, and follow the energy of the piece until it hits with clarity. My goal is simple: make people feel something.
Catherine Spirit
It all begins with an idea.
IG: @catherinespirit
TITLE: Grenadine, 2024 ($100)
MEDIUM: Spray paint on particle board (11x14in)
DESCRIPTIONS:
Grenadine’s gaze is high in space while our gaze sits on her lips and bosom. I find my eyes in this visual perspective often, and I quite like it. One could say this is a statement on the commodification of women’s bodies, one could say this symbolizes sexual freedom. I say I like what I see and I put it in paint. Thank you to all women, and all those they deem worthy enough to gaze upon their forms.
TITLE: The Word, 2023 ($9000)
MEDIUM: Oil and collage on canvas (42x54 inches)
DESCRIPTION:
Words are powerful, every sound has a frequency. The words that you choose to use daily determine how your life materializes, as well as the energy that surrounds you. These are words I want to see in my future.
TITLE: Redirect, 2023 (Not for sale)
MEDIUM: Oil on paper (16x6 in)
DESCRIPTION:
The way people speak looks just like this to me. The shapes of their bodies make sounds, and they look like this. I see facial features in these shapes. I see sensuality, anger, and passion in these shapes. I see love in these shapes. Do you see the humanity in the shapes around you? Do you see it in these?
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Catherine Esprit is an Afro Latina multidisciplinary artist who communicates her thoughts and emotions through paint, fabric, collage, and more. Her work explores realism, abstraction, philosophy, and spirit. She notices patterns in life that evoke emotion and inserts them into her pieces, across all mediums.
Larry Strickland
@lrys.world
lryswrld.com
TITLE: The price of freedom ($2500)
MEDIUM: Oil Paint (7.5 x 4.5)
DESCRIPTIONS:
This piece speaks to the fall from ecstasy. That moment when the hands that we’re holding you above the clouds and as soon as your let go you’re reminded of how long the fall is. That fall can be a fall from love, a fall from expectations, a fall from mania, all you are left with is the feeling of a free fall
Atropos’ Crow (bird dragging man)
Atropos, one of the 3 greek fates, is known as the scissor bearer who cuts the thread of life, ending it abruptly. Death, and the never ending grief that is birthed as a result, exist in a place that seems to sit outside of time and space. It can bring you back to moments, to moments, each of which transporting you to another place, to another feeling, to another dimension where the past seems to be standing before you and touching the deepest parts of you in the present. But there is always that moment of reckoning with the reality before you, that’s death is final, that loss is permanent. and there you stand, paralyzed, being dragged on into an unknown future.
Purple isn’t a real color (woman with knife)
Our eyes perceive different wavelengths of light as different colors, but that doesn't mean every color we perceive has its own wavelength. There's no single wavelength of light that you can create to shine "pure purple light"; rather, we perceive purple when our eyes sense both red and blue light.
Usually, our eyes see loads of different wavelengths and more or less average them out - pure blue and green light together are perceived as yellow, the same as pure light in between those two. But red and blue are on opposite ends of the visible spectrum, and blue + red doesn't look like the midpoint between them, which would be some shade of green.
Instead our eyes perceive red light and blue light together as something else, purple.
Mirrors (blue vampire)
Frigid hands feel warm when you’re freezing. You find yourself in empty embraces, chasing the afterimage of something hollow. You’re left looking in the mirror. Wondering if this distorted image is a reflection of the distortion you see within, or a reflection of familiar omens, here to sap your already depleted spirit like vultures to a corpse. Mirrors are portals. What do you see in the reflection?l
TITLE: Atropos Crow
TITLE: Mirrors (Different Image)
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
I am an avid and curious creator who uses my voice to speak on a number of personal and social issues. With my art I narrate and bring to life my own queer black experience through color and form to create a conversation with viewers
Cherry Hybrid
IG: @cherry_hybrid
https://cherryhybrid.wordpress.com/
MEDIUM: Mixed media collage
TITLE: 1,951 Stardust (2024) (Not for sale)
TITLE: Jim the Crow-Dog (2024) (Not for sale)
TITLE: Miles Davis Runs the Sky (2024) (Not for sale)
DESCRIPTION:
The pieces I’ve included are selections from my Fragmental series, a body of work that anchors my exploration of Fragmentalism—an approach I named to articulate a movement that has existed, though often unrecognized, for decades. Rooted in the assembly of large images from layered, meticulously placed smaller forms, this practice celebrates the intricacy and intention found within collage-based construction. Although this method of making has long been present, it has rarely been granted meaningful visibility within the fine art canon. Through the Fragmental series, I aim to challenge that perception. These works serve as a foundational step in elevating collage and Fragmentalism to a respected place within contemporary art discourse, affirming the depth, rigor, and expressive potential inherent in this way of creating.
With every new piece, I explore different themes, techniques, and mixed media processes, pushing the boundaries of my practice. Constructed primarily from paper fragments, these works are meant to provoke dialogue around topics I am deeply passionate about. Through them, l've retold Black history, represented influential political figures, and created characters that question societal norms. I am especially drawn to abstract patterns and color, using them to interplay with the figures they support, highlighting how form and texture can coexist to deepen meaning.
As I continue to evolve, each piece has become stronger and more intricate, helping shape my emerging career and solidifying Fragmentalism as a defining part of my artistic journey.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Creating work under the name Cherry Hybrid, I explore themes of identity through a blend of visual art, writing, and curatorial practice. Trained as a writer, curator, and mixed media artist, I use techniques from each discipline to produce artwork, magazines, and themed exhibitions that engage with sexuality, African American history, and politics. At the center of my work is the complexity of identity—its strength, burden, and contradictions. My visual practice often centers on figures, both imagined and historical, with abstract patterns and vivid color used to evoke their environments and narratives. Influenced by movements like Neo-Expressionism, Surrealism, Dada, and the Avant-garde, I aim to challenge representation and spark dialogue. As a native Floridian, I’m committed to strengthening local art communities. This commitment has led to roles such as Artist-in-Residence at SPARC352, founding the zine EarlGrey, and curating several group exhibitions.
diana wangly
IG: @janglywangly
TITLE: Untitled, 2025 ($60)
MEDIUM: 2-Color Risograph prints and sewing thread (17x33)
DESCRIPTIONS:
This Risograph set of three prints is an exploration of my past struggles with spiritual hunger and pain.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
My art is dictated by my self-identity and through exploration of my memories in the past or present. I am inspired by my friends around me who create art alongside me and the people who love me and who I love back!
Mars
IG: @MarsNewWorld
TITLE: Alienated, 2025 (Not for sale)
MEDIUM: Ceramic (5ftx5ftx2in)
DESCRIPTIONS:
This is one of the most sentimental artworks I have made to date and it was also the most difficult in every step of the way. This is a physical representation of how I felt being the youngest sibling and having a large age gap with all 3 other siblings. It was isolating considering I wasn’t close to my parents either. I was yearning to be closer to them and feel like a complete family even though in our situation that would never be the case. All 4 of us were victims of a dysfunctional home and I love my siblings with all my heart despite everything. I may not fit into this puzzle but I think ultimately we all fit in a better one together.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
I create art as a way to understand and share my inner world, a journey that transforms personal experiences and complex emotions into tangible, visual forms. I work with sculptural ceramics and screen printing, two mediums that allow me to explore and express the layers of my identity, my struggles, and my triumphs. My creative process is a deeply personal act of catharsis, an ongoing conversation between my heart and the materials I choose, and a message to anyone who has ever felt alone or misunderstood.
I am a ceramic artist who integrates sculptural elements and screen printing into my work, creating pieces that serve as reflections of myself, shared experiences, and the complexities of human emotion. My art is driven by a need for catharsis, a way to translate intricate feelings and personal narratives into tangible, visual forms. Through my work, I seek to communicate that no one is truly alone; every emotion, no matter how deep or complicated, is something that others can relate to and understand. By shaping these emotions into physical objects, I hope to foster connection, empathy, and a sense of shared experience.
Gun
IG: @maticgun
TITLE: Femme Fatale ($2000)
MEDIUM: Acrylic (42x32x42in)
DESCRIPTIONS:
A piece meant to capture a sense of primal rage, yet soft and vulnerable. There is an aura of a sensual nature; it’s captivating yet deadly.
TITLE: “Smile” 2023 ($2000)
MEDIUM: Mix media on Canvas (36x48in)
DESCRIPTION:
A piece that evokes intense emotion. It was made during a time of depression combined with a long lasting art block. This piece was painted over 20 times; a nonstop cycle of an idea, then the primer or white paint. Just over and over, I would never allow myself to be content. Finally, one day, I just decided to have fun and use any medium available to me; spray paint, crayon, acrylic, marker, anything really. I loved the feeling of creating it, I felt like I finally got out of this “art block”.
My friend’s child, happened to be over, and her seeing me paint this piece, was making her smile from ear to ear. That’s why this piece is called Smile.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Art from the soul. Pure energy, pure chaos. The act of creation is sacred, no matter what place it’s derived from.
Anjulie Dorathea
IG: @anjulie.dorathea
TITLE: oddities, 2025 (not for sale)
MEDIUM: Speedball Acrylic Screen Printing Ink on BFK Rives Printmaking Paper (16in x 12in x 1 1/4in)
DESCRIPTIONS:
oddities is a screen print of the objects I have collected over the years and the memories they hold for me. My weird assortment toys, beetles, and teeth that I have been gifted or purchased.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Anjulie Dorathea is a current 3rd year BFA student at the University of South Florida. Their work, expressed across several different mediums, explores themes of a macabre nature.
Ayat
IG: @Zeitoon_studio
TITLE: Carrying Cherished Citrus, 2025 ($100)
MEDIUM: Digital, Framed (20x24)
DESCRIPTIONS:
It's a challenge carrying weight during your journey. Logically a person can't carry a heavy pot with a fruitful plant on their own for an extended period of time. Yet, humans repeatedly show they can surpass ‘logical’ limitations through their persistence and resilience.
A Palestinian woman burdened yet steady, carrying the weight of a growing fruitful orange tree. While the tree is facing straight reclaiming space, time, & identity. The woman represents persistence, rebirth, and the quiet strength of carrying one's history. There’s a tension between heaviness and hope, struggle and reclamation. Palestine was revolutionary, long before the occupation. Palestine imported 85% of the oranges being shipped globally. Israel occupied the orange groves and labeled them as their own. Palestine was filled with culture, life, and progress. Through the years, the land and its residents have been dehumanized and stripped away from everything they held dear. Our history if heavy and we will carry that weight with pride and persistence.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Ayat Hasan, is a Palestinian artist. Hasan creates works to communicate themes of intersectional communities, queer expression, and the Palestinian experience. Hasan is a multimedia artist focusing on painting, graphic design, and animation. Hasan’s work focuses on providing insight into the injustices and experiences Palestinian Queer folks face to invite the audience to reflect on their perspectives.
Ayat Hasan takes an approach to their cultural and historical background as a means to express contemporary issues and themes. Hasan enjoys researching historical paintings and connecting them to current problems because as commonly seen, history repeats itself. They focus on connection to their community and providing a space for future generations to explore different forms of expressions. They value the connection of community as a sense of resilience.
Their work intertwines the history of Palestine, using the familiar framework of fairytales to shed light on the realities faced by a community struggling for survival. The challenges become allegories of the Palestinian experiences. Their work is rooted in community, individuality, and the Palestinian experience. While rooted in a familiar fairy tale, the story is a powerful commentary on the resilience, connection, and hope that characterize the Palestinian Experience. The intention behind this peace is to allow The audience to gain perspective on the realities often diminished
Subwaytrane
IG: @Spendasmith2
TITLE: Lady on the beach 2021 (Not for sale)
MEDIUM: Canvas arcylic paint (20 x 14in)
DESCRIPTIONS:
Beach vibes
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Mine
Elizabeth Dhanaraj
IG: @studiolizdhan
TITLE: In over my head, 2025 ($400)
MEDIUM: Acrylic paint on gesso primed fabric (28 in x 32 in x 0.75 in)
DESCRIPTIONS:
This painting was made in a time where I shed many tears. My brush felt heavy in my hand, my room was dimly lit and I sat on the floor staring at this piece consumed by my own emotions. After many perceived and literal losses in a short period of time, I felt like capturing the position I often found myself in after each event, as there was never enough time to properly process between each. Each sword symbolizes a major event or perceived loss of mine and a tarot card of "death" sits hidden in the haze: reversed to the viewer, upright to me. My disembodied hand grips a sketchbook as though I should be looking and adding to it, yet neither is occurring and the hand is not even attached to me, signifying the "death" of my own creations and ideas.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
I sit and stare often, or at least recently it feels that way. After enough emotionally challenging experiences, sitting still can unintentionally act as an invitation for feelings that I choose to suppress, rather than an act of relaxation. Unfortunately for me, you often have to sit somewhat still to paint with a steady hand. I no longer find this unfortunate, however, as I have realized that these feelings actually facilitate the work that I make. I try to capture the filters that appear in my vision as I experience my life. Here, that means a hazy darkness that engulfs my surroundings, and feeling swallowed up by the depths of my own emotions.
jasmine elle
IG: @jas.elle
TITLE: voyeur, 2025
a kind of love, 2025
honey, 2025 (not for sale)
MEDIUM: inkjet print
DESCRIPTIONS:
Traversing one stairway among the many steep climbs of the sweet Montmartre neighborhood brought about the small moments captured in voyeur, a kind of love, and honey. In a space of reprieve away from warm crowds, one finds the symbols of a love memorialized for what it was, art that asks the stranger questions if they care to perceive, and the resonant sense of wonder in a lover looking back before taking a chance on whatever new memories are ahead.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Every water droplet in a cloud tells a story, as do the small, fleeting moments in our lives. The camera invites me to slow down enough to read the stories within a story. Separate, at times enmeshed. Light, heavy, often in the process of changing form. I aim to capture the intimacies in simple existence, the little pleasures, the subjects of subtle curiosity, and give space to the tangible and intangible treasures and memories we leave behind.
passion powerhouse
IG: @passionpowerhouse
TITLE: abundance begins within, 2023 (not for sale)
MEDIUM: acrylic, cotton + mirrors on canvas (30 x 24 x 0.5)
DESCRIPTIONS:
This piece speaks to the perpetual return to oneself— a journey through remembrance, recognition, and reclamation. The ability to discern, to know, and to choose. Being reminded of the potential and vastness that already exists within and what that means through each chapter.
___________
I want to remember as much as I can— what’s necessary on these paths of sacred continuance. I want to remember my inherent worth, belonging, and the power I have in returning to deep knowing again and again. I want to remember I’m never really alone, and it isn’t all mine to carry. I can’t forget the impermanence of it all. The interdependence of it all. The mirrors and reflections. I imagine more and less— more of what we genuinely need, desire, and have lacked, and less of what keeps us further away from abundant possibility and natural reciprocity. I see alchemy, transformation, and radical acceptance. I see efforts, experiments, and practice. I see genuine love, compassion, and closeness.
I’m not the traumas I carry or stories I’ve grasped onto too tightly.
I can remember, return, and rewrite my own stories.
A homecoming. Again and again.
Mind. Body. Spirit.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
As a deeply curious (queer) being, and through creativity, I practice living and engaging with the world and my surroundings in ways that contribute to realities I know possible. My queerness is integral to my practice and allows me to choose what’s expansive, liberating, tender, and alive rather than what’s repressive, controlling, or harmful. Whether I’m working through words, paint, scraps, clay, or daily rituals, my creative practice is a means of expression, connection, reflection, commentary, and more. It's how I listen, process, ask questions, cope, and attempt to make sense of the ever-shifting environments within and around me.
Through this ongoing exploration, I realized that one of the main threads running through my work is the notion of reminders. They're integral charms and perspective shifts that guide me back to intention, presence, and compassion. Reminders to pause, return, look more closely; reminders of what really matters and can be easy to forget; reminders that the path forward is rarely linear, and that the act of remembering is what tends to keep us going at all.
I immerse myself in what’s real, raw, and vulnerable, even when it’s uncomfortable or difficult, because I know that’s what brings me closer to the kinds of richer lives still available under these conditions. My work invites others into a space of noticing. It calls for a willingness to remain open enough to see beyond what’s been prescribed or embedded— to come back to ourselves and to what’s human and true in each moment, again and again. It's a space that continues to make room for the contradictions within and around us, embracing radical acceptance.
Aside from what I personally reap from the work, my hope has always been that you’re left with feelings, pieces or experiences that bring value to your life. I truly believe our most profound medicine is often found within us and alongside others.
taroghost
IG: @taroghost
taroghost.carrd.co
TITLE: Dayflower, 2024 ($300)
MEDIUM: Oil on Canvas (30x40)
DESCRIPTIONS:
Before British colonization, women in India did not have to wear blouses underneath their saris. White is traditionally worn for funerals in Indian culture, whereas in American culture it is often worn for weddings, and being a first generation American I wanted to use both of those meanings in this piece: women are often expected and pressured to marry as soon as they can, and in some cases it can be the death of their inner selves, who they are as people, their individuality. I see myself in the women in my family who persevered despite their situations making it nearly impossible for them to grow with these societal expectations. Nevertheless, they still found ways to cultivate life, through their families, through plants, through art, through food and music. I can never forget the sacrifices the women before me endured to make a path for a better future. I painted this as an ode to those women. You don’t have to wear a blouse with your sari; you are not less than for the path you choose to take.
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT:
Melanie Vaughn (taroghost) is a multimedia artist who graduated with the BA in studio art at the University of South Florida. As a 23-year-old first generation Guyanese American artist, their work is influenced by both their cultural heritage and personal experiences, often exploring themes of identity, femininity, and the fluidity of self-expression. They thrive on experimentation, working with a variety of mediums to uncover new methods of bold mark-making to communicate emotion and narrative through gesture and form. Their goal is to one day have their own studio practice continuing to create works about their identity and femininity.