3rd Place (Traditional)
Elizabeth Burin

Elizabeth Burin is an independent artist working in Baltimore. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Switzerland, she worked as a museum curator and medieval art historian before turning to studio art. She holds a Certificate of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is a Signature Artist member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society. Elizabeth exhibits frequently in the mid-Atlantic area and online, and she has received many awards for her work. Elizabeth Burin’s artistic inspiration derives from her travels and above all from nature’s infinite variety of forms. She values the expressive power of color and often revisits a subject to enhance a coloristic effect. She particularly favors the fluid and luminous medium of watercolor, for layers of transparent pigment provide the key to the brilliance she seeks.

More of her work may be viewed at ElizabethBurin.com.

4th Place (Traditional)
Tom Smith

Originally from Toledo Ohio, Tom Smith has lived in the Milwaukee area since 1981. His art training consisted of lessons at the Toledo Museum of Art in Elementary School, and then classes in High School. After one class in college in 1977, he essentially stopped painting. Earning a Master of Music Degree after moving to Wisconsin, he became a professional cellist. He also taught 1st Grade for 15 years in Wauwatosa. He began to paint again in 2012 when he stopped teaching. Painting mainly landscapes from photos, in the summer of 2016 he discovered and began painting “en plein air”. This has developed into his passion, working in everything from snow and rain storms, and a range of 8ᵒ to 98ᵒ weather!

Artist’s Statement: In my childhood, there were dreams. I would paint. I would make beauty. Always present though: a shadow. Even my name was hateful to me. Then, childhood passed. There would be no beauty. There would be other things, though. Wonderful things: love, children, a career. Yet hiding, in that shadow would be the art, the beauty. There was a crash. I was unmoving. I was lost in the darkness. Until slowly, emergent, it came finally: the art. You see, I have suffered from severe anxiety and depression for much of my adult life. The shadow: blocking out the beauty. Then the finding: Asperger’s. Mild but present-and the knowing brought light. It was after I was unable to continue my career that I began to paint. Therapy, one could say. I say: a renewal of my childhood dreams. And so I began to know that I love standing on the Earth and knowing that I am a part of its wonder. Yet I also know that time is fleeting. One of my favorite quotes is by writer James Agee: “…and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of the night.” Life was for a time, for me, full of sorrow. A sorrow I wanted to end. Painting brought me out of this darkness. When I was in the hospital, the one book I brought along was about oil painting. So when I came home, I began to paint. I hadn’t painted much since I was a young, but now I began to see it as a way to a new life. I wanted to be an artist, and so I painted. I found other artists, I joined art groups. I painted. Being a painter has brought me into the light in so many ways. Sometimes being in it can be hard for me. I still struggle, I don’t know how or what to say. But painting has saved my life. I can look and say: here, that’s me. My name is Tom Smith, and I am an artist.

To see more of Tom’s work, please visit his website.

4th Place
(Digital & Photography)
John McCluskey

Artist Statement: I am drawn to the intimacy and urgency photography uniquely offers, that sense of both the quick and the quiet coming together whenever a visual transfers from the human eye to the fantastic limits of the viewfinder. My photo shoots center mostly around New York City, New Orleans, and New England, where I experience this ‘communion with subject’ most profoundly. Whether close-up or panoramic, in busy, noisy, or tranquil settings, the connection is real and inspirational. I use a digital camera and am drawn predominantly to deep color, high-contrast, negative space, geometrical patterns, and wide-angle perspectives across urban and natural landscapes. I prefer underexposures for the darker sensibility this offers, the magnitude being critical. I approach the images, post production, as belonging within any of four quadrants: traditional color, traditional b/w, color graphic, and b/w graphic. Every photo is considered for each quadrant; some work well in only one; some in all four. And there are always surprises. Patience offers fresh viewpoints; each photo may emerge in it’s own time – some sooner, some later, all valuable. I embrace this, letting some simmer awhile, hoping they’ll announce their presence in perhaps an unexpected quadrant.

Artist Bio: John was born in Chicago and grew up in Connecticut, where he currently resides. While working in the IT industry for many years, John also became a published author and photographer. He applies the unique qualities obtained from a structured career and multiple creative outlets interchangeably, each discipline informing the other, a synergy constantly creating new and exciting approaches. John’s photography acts as a perfect companion to his writing: a visual counterpoint to the written word, the two often published together as well as independently. His photography may feature negative space or geometrical patterns, as an example, whereas his writing may illuminate such space or purposely blur patterns and connections. Regardless, discipline and routine always apply. John has had many photographs, poems, and short stories, including a novella and poetry collection, published on-line and in print over the years.

To see more of John’s work, please visit his website.

5th Place (Traditional)
Eldon Case

Eldon is largely self-taught although he also has taken several workshops/short courses from nationally known artists. Eldon paints both abstracts and landscapes, using oils and acrylics. What keeps Eldon going back to the studio day after day is the exploration of color, light and pattern. He loves to see a painting evolve while seeking to capture a sense of light with oil on canvas. Robert Wyland and Gary Jenkins are inspirations to me in their use color in painting. He has had work in shows at a number of Michigan venues including Riverwalk Theater (Lansing), Clinton County Arts Council Gallery (St. Johns), Studio West Gallery (Brighton), Shiawassee Arts Center (Owosso), Williamston Theater (Williamston) and Framer’s Edge Gallery (Okemos). In addition to the Michigan venues, Eldon has had paintings accepted in nationally jured shows in the Mildred M. Cox Art Gallery, William Woods University, Fulton Missouri and at Gallery 311, Raleigh North Carolina. Since February 2017, Eldon has had twenty-six paintings accepted into international on-line art exhibitions. Also his paintings are in a number of private collections.

  To see more to Eldon’s’s work, please email him directly.

5th Place
(Digital & Photography)
Barbara Mierau-Klein

Barbara Mierau-Klein is a digital artist recognized for her multi-layered, imaginative and colorful fine art images. A native of Germany, Barbara lives in the Washington, D.C. area but often travels the world as a passionate landscape and nature photographer since her teenage years. Barbara discovered digital art several years ago and became so fascinated that it turned into a full-time pursuit. Much of Barbara’s work is highly stylized and focuses on beautiful moments and evocative moods across a wide range of subjects. The inspiration for her images comes from many sources, often her own nature photography, but also books, song lyrics, movies, and works of other artists, old masters as well as contemporary digital artists. Barbara’s work has been exhibited at the Baumbach Gallery, Palm Springs, California, Heaven Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Orenda Gallery in Reno, Nevada. She has had thirteen top-ten placements in online juried art competitions at the Light Space Time Art Gallery and Fusion Art Gallery over the past year. Her work has also appeared regularly in Living the Photo Artistic Life Magazine and Fine Eye Magazine with a feature article on her work in August 2018. With her digital art creations Barbara seeks to impart a sense of wonder and invite the viewer to step into a different reality for a brief moment.

To see more of Barbara’s work, please visit her website.