2020 Featured Artist Updates
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As part of our December issue (Theme: We're Grateful),
we are posting updates from each of our Featured Artists from 2020 who continue to do amazing work in their fields. Let's see what they've been up to! Click their photos to see the original feature. |
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January 2020 Featured Artist
MONICA PASQUAL California-Based Singer-Songwriter 
Photo Credit: Joshua McClain
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In April 2020, Monica's album You Can't Kill Light won an Independent Music Award for "Best Adult Contemporary Album."
She has also been up to some new things during the pandemic. While staying with her mom in Salt Lake, she became so inspired by her mother's art that she started an online business with her sister that features her mother's work. Pilar's Garden offers a diverse array of products by the 94-year-old Spanish artist Pilar Pobil. Readers can find this space at Pilar's Garden. |
February 2020 Featured Artist
ZSUDAYKA NZINGA TERRELL Washington D.C.-Based Artist & Designer 
Photo Credit: Satra N. Smith
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Zsudayka is really excited about the direction her career has taken.
Since her feature, she and her husband, James Terrell, opened The Colored Section in Washington, D.C. A virtual tour of this show can be found at TerrellArtsDC where you can also view an artist talk, hosted by renowned curator, Carol Dyson. Zsudayka was awarded a grant from the DC Commission of the Arts to curate an art show which will be held February 4 - March 19, 2021. She is also representing other artists and selling the work of her husband, James Terrell, and an artist from Nigeria, Eze Franklin. |
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March 2020 Featured Artist
PENNIE BRANTLEY New York-Based Painter 
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Pennie received the Elizabeth Stanton Blake Memorial Medal of Honor Award at the 131st National Association of Women Artists Annual Members’ Exhibition. Her essay on the meaning of her highlighted work, “Feeding Vincent” (Kitchen at Van Gogh’s Asylum), is included in NAWA’s fall newsletter.
Pennie was asked to be the first guest on NAWA’s new virtual program “Art in Conversation with Farrin.” AHA (A House for Art), the PBS Albany television program on the arts, will feature an interview with Pennie about her work in early December. Her oil painting "Admissions Stripped Bare” is included in the Mohawk-Hudson Region Exhibition at the Albany Institute of History and Art (AIHA) until January 3, 2021. She was recorded speaking on her piece for AIHA’s YouTube channel. Pennie continues to work on a series of 10-12 paintings that are inspired by a visit to the Terezin prison camp north of Prague in the Czech Republic and will be a guest on Sanctuary's Coffee & Conversation show in January. |
April 2020 Featured Artist
BELINDA GREB Oregon-Based Photographer 
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Coronavirus squashed her plans for overseas trips. However, she took a few road trips to wilderness areas where social distancing was not an issue. In late May and into early June, her visit to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks inspired photos of Grizzly 399 and her four cubs and one of the Grand Tetons with early morning light touching the peaks - bestsellers for her.
On Labor Day, the Holiday Farm Fire (a 173,000-acre blaze that scarred the McKenzie River Valley in OR ) reduced her home to ashes. This was a devastating blow - losing a home that she lived in for 20 years that she was deeply connected to. Thankfully, her dog, Maisie, and some of her cameras and equipment were spared. She is in the process of emotionally recovering from that blow. Writing about this experience helped her to navigate and process this tragedy. Find Journey Through Fire. There is a glimmer of hope as Belinda foresees traveling again and doing what she loves best - photography. |
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May 2020 Featured Artist
VALERIE PATTERSON New York-Based Watercolorist 
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Since Valerie was featured in May, her work has been exhibited at the following art centers and galleries:
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July 2020 Featured Artist
JACELYN Canadian Singer-Songwriter 
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Jacelyn's debut album, Dovetailing, has made a big splash on the music scene! It made the ‘most added album’ to radio list on the charts across North America and was featured on Canada’s Jazz FM's "First List" show.
Dovetailing is available from: Jacelyn's Website Spotify Jacelyn discusses her debut album launch with Myrna Haskell in a virtual interview with Sanctuary. Stay tuned for... Jacelyn's holiday project coming out on radio and online. Teaser video for the multi-media Dovetailing experience comes out between Christmas and New Year's Day. |
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Sept. 2020 Featured Artist
MERRILL FRENCH Connecticut-Based Oil Painter 
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Virtual Invitational Exhibition:
Juror: George Billis (of the George Billis Gallery) Art Essex Gallery December 1 - December 31, 2021 Merrill continues to paint and to build her inventory since we last heard from her. Merrill is looking forward to the day that the pandemic is under control so that her work can be more readily seen in person. Merrill is available for work "on commission" as well. Readers may browse her previous commissions. Merrill is represented by Cooper & Smith Gallery in Essex, CT and Francesca Anderson Fine Art in Lexington, MA. |
October 2020 Featured Artist
DESPINA SYMEOU London-Based Printmaker & Painter 
Photo Credit: Sym DSGN
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Despina won an award for her work chosen for the Island2Island exhibition at Velorose Gallery in Central London. However, since then, her area has gone into a second lockdown and all exhibitions and fairs have been cancelled or are now available online.
The Affordable Art Fair is holding their first online fair with selected galleries. ContemporArti is showing her work. On December 10th, Despina plans to re-launch her new web site ArtbyDespina.com with a ‘giveaway’ Limited Edition Lithograph for those subscribing for upcoming news and events. Early access to tickets and offers are also included. She is back in the studio creating and hoping for a better 2021! |
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November 2020 Featured Artist
AMY BRIGHT UNFRIED Wyoming-Based Sculptor 
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Amy's Work is Included in:
56th Annual Holiday Bazaar Art Association of Jackson Hole Center for the Arts Jackson, Wyoming November 29 - December 30, 2020 Online and In-Person Amy makes one-of-a-kind bronzes by the lost-wax process. These sculptures combine the soft art of knitting with the great tensile strength of bronze to create unique and colorful compositions. Her most recent work combines knitted elements in other shapes, and the direct casting from wax-imbued beginnings also includes the continuing "Ruins" series of small cryptic architectural spaces.
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JUNE 2020: CELEBRATING THE MEN IN OUR LIVES
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CHENG GONG
Photographer 
Cheng's work has been selected for Payne Y. Loh Art Foundation in China.
He is also considering various plans for an exciting new project. "I am planning my next project, but I need some time to carry it out due to the pandemic. I have some images in mind, and I want to have real people "act it out" as staged photography. Chinese food and elements will also be included in the project." |
LEIGH MCCLOSKEY
Artist, Actor & Visual Philosopher 
Photo Credit (Above): Robert Patrik Winston
Leigh has been posting new videos and has been attending Zoom programs during the pandemic. KNOW THYSELF with Leigh McCloskey "A deep and intimate look at living an examined life in an oftentimes difficult and angry world. An examined life is essentially a constantly transforming question; just like seasons, it’s not an arrival point, but a capacity to navigate where certain questions need to be asked.” WHY STORIES MATTER with Leigh J McCloskey Stories change the world, not from without, but from within the heart. Take a breath today. Let yourself think upon what you truly value most in this world and what you love, not what you fear. “Your stories matter. In fact they construct what you consider reality and even now build what you think of as a future. Build one with a garden in it, some place to cultivate your story and give you a sense of meaning that you can finally live with, at least privately. The world is, things are, your story is your power.” |
EUGENE MIRABELLI, PH.D.
Acclaimed Author 
Gene's latest novel Renato! was released on October 23rd!
This new release combines three sequential novels about the poignant and comical misadventures of artist Renato Stillamare, one of Mirabelli's unforgettable characters.
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