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INTOLERENTIAPHOBIA*
Fear of Intolerance—or to be clear, the fear for tolerance of intolerance. ARTIST: LISA AMOWITZ MEDIA: Collage and painting, electrical lights, 2020 Lisa Amowitz is an artist, graphic designer, published author of three young adult novels, and the Director of the Digital Design AAS degree program at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. She holds a BFA in Illustration from Carnegie-Mellon University, and an MFA in Painting from Lehman College of the City University of New York. You can find out more about her and her work at lisaamowitz.com. "My art explores the layers of ugliness that lurk beneath a mundane or even lovely facade— and my fear of those unknowable depths—the fear of that at what point does unchecked intolerance erupt into active violence and even genocide." CREEPIANNORUMATTOLLOPHOBIA* Fear of creepy old elevators ARTIST: DIANE BRONSTEIN MEDIUM: Antique meat grinder handle, photo, spray paint, chains, wooden boxes, hardware, 2021 Diane Bronstein imagines a world where nature has won. Her training as a graphic designer focuses on the power of image. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has always infused her work with illustration. For over twenty years, Bronstein has been in the museum field and signage industry, developing logos, exhibit graphics and environmental graphics. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums. speedygale.wixsite.com/unreal-city “There's nothing as terrifying as stepping into a box floating in space that makes screeching, noises and jerky movements." SCELETAINDOMOARMARIUMPHOBIA* Fear of Skeletons in the Family Closet ARTIST: VAVA BUITENKANT Vava Buitenkant is an advertising creative director who specializes in promoting nonprofit orgs. With a Carnegie Mellon BFA-Graphic Design, she returned to NYC seeking an ad agency job – to combine her loves of both visual & verbal expression. She eventually landed a job with high-profile clients like Steinway and Tiffany. Although MADMEN days were over, her “seasoned” colleagues still enjoyed 3-martini lunches. T’was a very glam time that she’d remember fondly, even after “hearing the calling” to seek her own “public service” accounts. That “calling” was actually the ever-present Bronx-accented voice of her mother, Irene — an architect/activist for human rights, who’d urged her kids to help heal our world’s misfortunes. So Vava started serving The United Nations, and mixing in pro bono clients with her paid work. At times, she also veers away from client assignments to run wild – expressing her own dreams (and nightmares) with a mix of photography/collage/sculpture. buitenkant.com “My dead relatives haven’t literally shown up as ghosts, but they've certainly haunted me figuratively. Our ancestry includes no tales of royalty, nor moms like June Cleaver. In fact, our family scenes have been more like those in "Grey Gardens" and "Mommie Dearest," where mothers and daughters have been inextricably chained together by generations of mutated dysfunction. Therefore, I woefully dedicate this piece to my matriarchal lineage, in an attempt to contain my fear of “Skeletons in My (Maternal) Family Closet.” ONEIROPHOBIA Fear of dreams ARTIST: MERILL COMEAU MEDIA: Organza, paper, button, threads, 2021 Mixed media artist Merill Comeau has participated in over 80 exhibitions at venues including Fuller Craft Museum, Danforth Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, Museums of Old York, and Edward M. Kennedy Institute. In 2020 the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston hosted her project Threads of Connection and FiberArt International 2019 included her installation Family of Origin. Her residencies include Southern New Hampshire University, Hambidge Center for Art and Science, the National Parks of Catoctin Mountain and Acadia, and Weir Farm National Historic Site in CT. Surface Design Journal, TextileArtist.org, Fiber Art Now, MutualArt.com, and The Boston Globe have showcased her work. merillcomeau.com "My nightmares are harrowing, exhausting, dangerous misadventures in which I desperately try to escape my own or a loved one’s death. Frequently I try to calm an agitated, violent, insane person or employ deception to escape. I awake hyperventilating, my heart banging. I can’t just return to sleep but must physically rise and move about of the dream returns. These re-lived experiences of trauma are followed by days of emotional disturbance. Oneirophobia, fear of dreams, causes me trepidation of much needed sleep. My stitched down nightmares are contained in a night shirt’s pocket – hopefully unable to get out." OBSTRUOPHOBIA* Fear of being in the way of movement ARTIST: BRIDGET CONN MEDIUM: Silver gelatin photographic chemigrams, wood, thread, 2021 Bridget Conn e arned a BFA from Tulane University in 2000, and an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Georgia in 2003 ,focusing in Photography. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Georgia Southern University in Savannah. She teaches multiple forms of Photography, including experimental darkroom processes that are the basis for her current body work. bridgetconnartstudio.net "I’ve long held a fear of being physically in the way of movement, whether it's by foot or in a car. I’m always hyper-aware of my surroundings and feel weirdly guilty if I stop in the middle of a sidewalk when someone is walking behind me. When driving, it’s rare that I stay in the left lane, even when one is around.". DMS.PHOBIA FEAR OF A TO Z ARTIST: JILL DANENBERG MEDIUM: Paper, ink, crayon, pill bottle, small medicine chest, 2021 Jill Danenberg is a Bronx-based artist with a focus on painting and book arts. She was an award-winning advertising Creative Director when a concussion interrupted her career. She turned to art to process her injury and make sense of the world. Throughout her professional life, she has devoted significant time to projects she feels passionately about including empowering girls to embrace STEM, health initiatives in marginalized communities and bringing music mentorship to incarcerated people. She often addresses serious subjects through cartoons in the belief that humor opens the door to important discourse. Can a Benzo bottle contain your fears? Or will they always spill out? This scroll book is an unraveling of anxieties: Anaphylaxis, Bedbugs, Concussion(s), Dentists, Eggs(raw), Fat, Ghosts, Heights, If, KKK, Loss, Militia, Nosebleeds, Osteoarthritis, Pandemic, Quicksand, Randomness, Secrets, TBI (see concussions), Unknown, Vegas, War/Warts, Xenophobia, Yeast infections, Zoonosis….and an embrace of their place in the medicine cabinet. instagram.com/jdanenberg MONOPHOBIA Fear of isolation ARTIST: JOANNE DESMOND cardboard, wax, cheese cloth, oil stick, pan pastel, wood, paper, ink, tea papers, thread, 2021 Joanne F. Desmond received a BA in Art from University of MA/Boston with a concentration in printmaking and photography; M. Ed. in Arts & Learning from Endicott College; MFA from Mass College of Art & Design. Desmond’s work has shifted from the traditional use of media (i.e. photography and printmaking) into an exploration and combination of materials. Her work is now primarily mixed media, which has often taken on a more sculptural form. Joanne Desmond’s studio, Red Horse Studio, is in Berwick, ME. She is a member of Boston Printmakers, Monoprint Guild of New England, Brickbottom Arts Association, and Women’s Caucus for the Arts. joannefdesmond.com “I find myself continually curious about the relationship between memory and emotion as connected with the sensitivities of time, place, and familial attachment. The notion of hiding, covering-up, obscuring the truth – the reality of who we really are at any given moment in time – has always intrigued me. Discovering what lies beneath the surface of someone or something is what I pursue. My current work straddles the thresholds of identity, experience, and memory as they connect to ancestry, relationships, and the fear of loss of connection. It is an exploration of the relationship between the visible and invisible, the gaze, the subject, and the other.” CREMNOPHOBIA Fear of precipices (literal & metaphysical) ARTIST: JILL DIVINE MEDIUM: MULTIMEDIA & WRITING, 2020 Jill Divine is a word artist and multi-media poet. She received her MFA from Northern Arizona University in 2018, and teaches poetry and art at the jail in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her book of poems, Game, was a finalist for the Patterson Poetry Prize, and she is a co-founder of the semi-annual Inmate Art and Writing exhibit. She was awarded the Viola Award for Literature in 2013. She now resides in Flagstaff, AZ, and spends her time going on road trips and scouring the past, gathering stories from both. youtube.com/watch?v=jLnJqj0Ktbs "I am an appreciator, a finder, a traveler of small roads, and a lover of words and of breathing. I hope my work conveys this." CHRONOPHOBIA Fear of time ARTIST: MARIA EPES MEDIUM: Cyanotype, relief printing, 2021 Maria Epes is a feminist artist working in the media of artists’ books, installation, sculpture, printmaking, and works on paper. Her specific focus is on expressions of the body, in life and in death, with concern for the equality of women and the acceptance of death as part of life. Her work has been exhibited and cataloged internationally at venues including The National Museum of Women in the Arts, MOMA New York, ABC No Rio, Ceres Gallery, Franklin Furnace, La Mama La Galleria, and is represented in the Feminist Art Database at the Brooklyn Museum. She holds a B.F.A. from Cornell University and M.F.A. from California College of the Arts and is based in Asheville, North Carolina. www.mariaepes.com " I fear being unable to live in the present moment, that my head and heart are trapped in between the lost places of the past and the yet unfound places of the future. I fear being stuck and mired in mourning the passage of time instead of learning to live in the space-time continuum. I contain this fear of time by making a record of this moment, through the process of making a cyanotype of my skull from an X-ray. Then I seal the deal by stamping this document with my chop: I was here. I was present in this moment of my time." ALGORITHMOPHOBIA Fear of artificial intelligence ARTIST: NANCY FERRIER MEDIA: Acrylic paint, found objects, 2021 Nancy Ferrier was the director of Chimera Gallery in Nashua NH from 2006 to 2011, which was dedicated to presenting works of emerging contemporary artists. She then opened her own studio in Western Avenue Studios, in Lowell MA. The signature project from her studio was an interactive offering called “Find the Phi”, an examination of the concept of phi, the mathematical basis for the spiral, which occurs again and again in natural forms. Studio visitors encountered four paintings depicting a flower, a snowflake, a Nautilus shell, and a spiral form in the cosmos. They were given instructions to use free stickers of these images to “tag” their lives as a reminder to look for the spiral form and be reminded to look for the “sweet spot” in all things. fineartamerica.com/profiles/nancy-ferrier “AI – Totally Obedient Moron’ represents the technology that given the simple command to create paper clips will efficiently and madly produce that product from everything in its environment even its human programmers, like a technological out of control Sorcerer’s Apprentice, endlessly vomiting out paper clips. TECHNOPHOBIA Fear of Bandwidth ARTIST: LESLIE FORD MEDIUM: Oil pigment stick on mylar, wood box, 2021 Leslie Fordis an abstract painter based in New York whose practice embraces printmaking and photography. Her work is inspired by her meditations on literature; current events, music lyrics and popular culture seem through the lens of simple engagement of process. She seeks to provide clarity or identify hidden meaning between two or more conceptual ideas by combining studio practices with processes of the mind to express her metaphors of ephemeral ideas. She holds a BFA in Design from Carnegie-Mellon University and completed a summer residency in Painting and Mixed Media at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. leslieford.me —Rules of attestation and how analytics engines work --Legitimate use cases that result in partial attestation --New solutions including certificate delegation, transit identity service, and more --Verification services for inbound calls “I don’t know what any of that means, but it all scares me. My painting practice is about layers of understanding and vision. I have a strong interest in mirage as an experience. Sensory distortions, perceptions and deceptions are present in all my work. What we see or think we see may or may not be physically present but could still be an experience.” * Indicates artist-created phobia name , , " |
CONTREITOPHOBIA
Fear of sexual abuse ARTIST: DWORA FRIED MEDIA: Wooden Box, photography, acrylic and oil paint, vintage dollhousefurniture, lego, miniature lightbulbs, doll‘s plastic sandal, vintage father doll, vintage metal pill boxes Dwora Fried is an assemblage artist creating mixed media sculptural spaces in small, large and life-size wooden boxes. She populates them with objects, miniature vintage furniture, dolls, toys and fabrics from the 50s, adding photographs, plastic, wood, metal and paint.Her small rooms evoke what it was like to grow up as an outsider in postwar Vienna: being Jewish, lesbian and a child of Holocaust survivors, she learned to see everything through the prism of loss, danger and secrecy. Fried has had solo shows in London, England, Venice, Italy at the Jewish Museum and Vienna, Austria where her art is in the permanent collection of Austria’s MUSA Museum. In Los Angeles, solo show have taken place at Sparc Art, LAAA/Gallery 825 and One Archives Gallery.Her work has been part of group shows at Chicago’s Elmhurst Art Museum, San Francisco’s Arc Gallery and Orange County Center for the arts. In Los Angeles, she has shown at BG Gallery , Launch LA/Korean Cultural Center, Irvine Fine Arts and the newly opened MASH gallery in Downtown LA (curated by Mat Gleason). Her most recent shows were at Castelli Art Space (curated by Peter Frank) and at Quotidian (curated by Jillith Moniz). www.dworafried.com “I inherited a sense of isolation, displacement and an appreciation for the surreal.” LEUKOCHLOKAKOPOLISIPHOBIA* Fear of white mob violence ARTIST: MARINA GUTIERREZ MEDIUM: Filagree aluminum repousse, on wood base, cloth netting, drawings, 2021 MARINA GUTIERREZ is a multidisciplinary artist from New York City working in community, public and studio arts. Interweaving historical, individual and political narratives, she adapts folk forms and post industrial, recycled materials within conceptual frameworks. Her works range from installation to drawing. Having received Joan Mitchel, NYFA and Mid-Atlantic Fellowships and two N.Y.C. Design Awards for public projects. Gutierrez also co-authored “ART/ VISION / VOICE Cultural Conversations in Community.” "The mobs of January 6th were a verse in a long epic of racist repression. The Fear of white supremacist violence is what I hope people of goodwill can contain." ENCAVMAPHOBIA Fear of being burned ARTIST: ELLEN HANAUER MEDIUM: Felted wool, lamp-worked glass, magnification lens, and mixed media, 2021 Ellen Hanauer is a sculptor and installation artist focused on science, gender, interior spatial relationships, and the human condition. She works in mixed media with a concentration in fiber and continues to expand her large scale exhibition, Transform. Hanauer has exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, universities and galleries where she has had several one person exhibitions. Her work has been included in many scientific conferences and exhibitions overseas. Hanauer has been commissioned in Florida and throughout the northeast, including Rockefeller Center and Riverside Park. Her work is in the permanent collections of museums and prestigious art collectors. .ellenhanauer.com "Fire has always petrified me, for I spent several weeks as a child in the hospital and made friends with a little girl whose fingers and toes were consumed by fire. I faced my fears when creating the lamp-worked glass for this piece — it was terrifying." THANATOPHOBIA Fear of prevalence of breast cancer ARTIST: JULIE HARRIS MEDIA: Liquid light on abaca handmade paper, 2018 Julie Harris has been included in over one hundred and seventy-five regional, national and international shows. Highlights include a solo exhibition at BSB Gallery in Trenton, New Jersey, two traveling shows; A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art, initiated in New Jersey, and Underneath it All, initiated in Washington D.C. Underneath it All, exhibited in Soho New York City in 2014 at ISE Gallery where Julie lectured about her creative work. At present, her creative work focuses upon the statistics that one in eight women will develop cancer within her lifetime. jharrisb010.myportfolio.com "My current work deals with the terrifying statistics that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime." MORTEMOCEANUSOPHOBIA Fear that all life in the ocean will die ARTIST: LISA KNOX* Lisa Knox is an oil painter whose studio in Boston’s historic Fort Point neighborhood is located in one of the city’s first artist-owned buildings. Knox's current series focuses on waves, the sea and the interconnectedness of all species. The artist's free time is spent wandering the shores of New England in her 1963 Ford Ranchero with photographer-husband Kirk and Schnoodle named Scout in search of subject matter for her paintings and shrines. lisaknox.com “It’s hard not to love the ocean when you grew up just miles from it’s shore. By the term ocean, I don’t mean just the ocean and shoreline, but all the interdependent ecosystems comprised therein; the marshes, the estuaries as well as the many species of plants, birds and wildlife that call it their home. Like most of my ilk, I’ve always been interested in marine ecology but it wasn’t until I watched the Sci-fi Pixar animation “WALL-E” in 2008 that a disturbing vision took hold of me. The film opens with an image of the earth from space. Not the brilliant blue satelitte image that we’re accustomed to seeing, but a murky brown, motionless planet. While sitting in the movie theater, I suddenly imagined myself standing on a lifeless ocean shore while sludge-brown waves lapped against oily, tar blackened sand. It’s an image that haunts me to this day and was the inspiration for this piece. “Let’s Go Down to the Sea” is a diorama of sorts. Presented like a page from a grammar school primer, it depicts a toddler sitting in a dingy without oars, floating into the Pacific Trash Vortex. The Trash Vortex is represented as a wave of plastic toys. The fact that the plastic trash are toys belies their threat. The toddler faces away from the vortex, unaware of her immanent peril. The Pacific Trash Vortex itself spans an area of 665,400 square miles and threatens all ocean species in its path from plankton to sea mammals. It is comprised of plastic garbage which floats within a thick stew of toxic microplastics. Living along the Atlantic Ocean, it’s easy to become the toddler in the dingy, to turn away and pretend it doesn’t exist. Then I remember the image of our brown, lifeless planet from “WALL-E” and am once again seized by fear…MortemOceanusophobia.” ALTHAZAGORAPHOBIA Fear of being forgotten, abandoned or ignored ARTIST: LILY KONYS MEDIUM: Pen and ink, media paper, acrylic black paint, 2021 Lily Konys is a self-taught artist who works in the Hudson River Valley, New York. She recently graduated with honors from SUNY Purchase. Lily has received and completed a Historic Hudson Valley commission for a short graphic novel as well as numerous commissioned painting pieces. While most at home working with pen and ink, she also works in graphite, acrylic, oil paints, needle felting and sculptural work. She is currently working on her own, original graphic novel. Instagram.com/lilyinthevalley.art “I’ve always drawn a lot of inspiration from my experiences with isolation. Art offers a cathartic way to express the mix of emotions that accompanies it.” SWINGINGBELTOPHOBIA FEAR OF SWINGING BELTS ARTIST: CAROL KRENTZMAN MEDIUM: Fused glass, belts, glass tile, ceramic tile, stained-glass, toothpicks, beads, whiskey shot glass, rocks, seashells, wood, glue, paint, grout, 2021 Carol Krentzman’s artwork is made in her home studio with a focus on creating large public art stained glass and mosaic murals for installations on, or in buildings and homes. The mosaics are fabricated with a variety of broken tiles and pottery, pieces of stained glass and smalti, a variety of stones, colorful glass tiles and beads, and individually made fused glass and clay elements. Carol is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and has been drawn to making art her whole life. Stained glass and mosaics particularly appeal to her because of their nature, which requires that first she must break the materials apart into fragments, and then reassemble them to make a whole art piece. carolkrentzman.com "One of my greatest personal fears is seeing swinging belts anywhere in my vicinity. My piece for this exhibit is titled “Outside Inside.” When I was a child, I grew up in a typical, happy, loving 1950’s family on the outside. However, on the inside we were a frightened, tense, angry family. Fortunately, as a grown woman, I have been able to heal some of my fears through parenting my own four children. My husband and I made a commitment early on in our marriage to never hit a child for any reason. Proudly, we were able to live up to that goal, thus stopping the horrible cycle of abuse from childhood." THANATOPHOBIA Fear of Death ARTIST: DEBORAH KRIGER MEDIUM: Oil on paper, wooden box Deborah Kriger has a BFA from the Maryland Institute of Art. Working in oils, she paints from observation. She has painted extensively in France, upstate and in her studio in NYC. She often paints landscapes ‘en plein air’ and still life in her studio and is inspired by light, textures, patterns and colors. Her landscape paintings have a real sense of place. She says that when she looks at her paintings, whether recently created or from many years ago, she can immediately feel, hear and smell the environment where the painting was done. She hopes that those who view her paintings can experience the same sensations. Deborah has shown and been a member of M55 Gallery in NYC since 2012. 55mercerstreetgallery.com/artists/deborah-kriger/ "I have chosen to use my piece to represent my fear of death and becoming frail as I age. Thanatophobia is a form of anxiety characterized by a fear of one’s own death or the process of dying. In the Greek language, the word ‘Thanatos‘ refers to death and ‘phobos‘ means fear. Thus, thanatophobia translates as the fear of death. Included in my fear of death and aging is the fear of separation and my worry about leaving loved ones behind." CHRONOPHOBIA Fear of not enough time ARTIST: HOLLY LANE MEDIUM: Mixed media, 2021 Holly Lane is a California artist who integrates painting and frame, hand carving elaborate wooden frames that formally and contextually expand on the intimate paintings within. After earning an MFA at San Jose State University, Lane has continued on exhibiting widely in museums and galleries, with 20 solo exhibitions and more than 90 group exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in Stamford, Connecticut. Among others, Lane's work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, ARTnews, Art & Antiques and PBS’s online art magazine, art21. www.hollylaneart.com "Making one art work takes months of carving and painting. Even with working 8 hours a day I finish 4 to 6 works in a year. Added to that, I have so many ideas back filling my sketchbooks that I often feel with desperation that I don't have enough time. The hours and days speed by and I can't get them back, nor make them slow down. Seeing people who are younger than I am pass away makes me realize our lives can be as effervescent as bubbles floating on water. " MUSOPHOBIA Fear of mice ARTIST: DAVID C. LUCAS MEDIUM: Acrylic on board, found frame, 2021 David C. Lucas is a Graphic Designer, Adjunct Professor, and “Sunday painter” living in what he calls “the pre-burbs” of Yonkers and the more distant Catskills of New York state. He spent the bulk of his design career doing packaging, publications and visual merchandising in the Private Brand division of Macy’s, Inc. He teaches design at New York’s City University of Technology. His most recent gig was executing graphics for historic Playland Amusement Park in Rye. He is also a volunteer Docent at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers dlucasski.wixsite.com/mysite/blog "Despite the fact that I find them adorable, I am completely disturbed by the existence of mice. If I hear one sculling in the wall, I’ll be up the whole night." XENOPHOBIA‡ Fear of the unknown COLLABORATING ARTISTS: MARY MCCARTHY, SHIRLEY VEENEMA MEDIUM: Collage, 2021 Mary McCarthy is a book artist and teacher. While teaching at Phillips Academy she attended an intense bookmaking class at the Visual Studies Workshop with Keith Smith and has been making one of a kind and limited edition books since. Her numerous grants include several to Senegal, West Africa to learn more about the slave trade from GoréeIsland, research that lead to several artist books. Collections include the Library of Congress, Smithsonian, Houghton Library and Tate, London. Shirley Veenema has collaborated with Mary McCarthy for many years, including a 2015 show at the Philadelphia Athenaeum, Sharing the Page: Mary McCarthy & Shirley Veenema. Originally a printmaker, she worked in interactive media before concentrating on her current work in drawing, collage, and artist books. One of her recent books (Witches, Magic & Early New England), produced as part of the Digital Public Library of America Community Representative program, has interested educators looking for alternative ways of assessing ‡"The term xenophobia is most often associated with fear of foreigners or strangers. We are using xenophobia in its broader definition: fear of anything that is unfamiliar or unknown." |
CHRONOPHOBIA
Fear of Time or Passage of Time ARTIST: DAN O'CONNOR Dan O’Connor is artist, photographer and sometimes Professor of Photography based in Newton Massachusetts He received his MFA in Photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. In addition to being an internationally exhibited artist, he also runs a family and wedding photography business called Pixia Photography. "Chronophobia: is an extreme fear of time or the passage of time. People with this anxiety disorder feel intense discomfort or dread when they think about time passing them by. My fear is running out of time and leaving too many things undone. I tried to use the space of the photograph to visualize this idea, in a way that I could not in the real world. In the photograph one figure is racing against the clock and mowing the lawn, while also being pulled skyward. Meanwhile another figure has lost the race and fallen dead, or perhaps they are just napping or maybe just dreaming up the whole scenario, while also being a part of it.” https://www.doconnorphotography.com/" ACCULTURAPHOBIA Fear of one's culture not surviving over time; the loss of culture ARTIST: ZIA PALMER MEDIUM: Mixed media, 2021 Zia Palmer is an artist, photographer, archivist, and family historian. Through analog photographic processes, Zia records the often slow changes in communities, landscapes, and architecture, specifically legacies and remnants of her ancestral locations in North Eastern New Mexico. She received her BFA from George Mason University in 2019. Zia’s work has been exhibited in several galleries in the greater DC region including Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, BMA Salon, and Torpedo Factory Art Center. ziapalmer.com "My family is from Northeastern New Mexico and can be traced to the land as early as the 1500’s. Through the passage of time and changes in governance I feel a sense of dislocation of place, what once was no longer is, all that is left are the memories passed down and the land. My work acts as a time and memory capsule, I have included images/objects that represent where I come from and are tied to four New Mexico towns that are important to my family history; Albuquerque, Montoya, La Manga, and Cuervo. I have always been interested in my own culture and other cultures unfamiliar to me. It is important to know your culture and remember where you come from and is just as important to share it with others. Our different backgrounds make us interesting and I cannot imagine a world lacking culture." HELEN PAYNE PHOSPHENEPHOBIA FEAR OF EXPOSURE OF INTERIORITY Helen Payne is a multimedia installation artist and art educator who was born on Jamestown, RI and was raised in Appalachia. She studied poetry at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and art at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL and the Maryland Institute, College of Art. She holds an MFA from University of Louisville in 2019. Helen’s artworks have been shown nationally including Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC, Woman-Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA, Mobius Gallery, Cambridge, MA, the Holzwasser Gallery, Newton, MA and the Cressman Center in Louisville, KY. Helen believes that art making is a way of thinking about the world precisely. She brings that ethos from the studio to the classroom and back again. helenpayne.us "In the digital age more and more of our private lives are exposed for profit and control by the state and corporations. A literal example of this phenomenon was when, in 2019 the Kentucky Informed Consent Ultrasound Act was upheld by law, compelling women seeking abortions to be undergo an ultrasound. The work in PHOSPENEPHOBIA is an installation of monoprints which reimagine the images of the ultrasound as a violating exposure of a patient’s most interior self.” PHONOPHOBIA Fear of hearing voices ARTIST: LISA PEGNATO MEDIUM: Assemblage/combined collage, 2021 "As a small child I heard voices in the night. I believed they were my ancestors and I shouldn't be hearing them. I was broken and had to keep that secret so they wouldn't take my breath away. When I grew up I sat with my Aunt as she was dying from cancer and I saw my ancestors come for her. I wasn't afraid anymore because I knew that my power was seeing behind the veil." Lisa Pegnato has made her home into a studio in Providence RI. She has done design work for theatre and museums and just recently joined United Scenic Artists Local USA 829 to paint in movie productions.lisapegnato.com "I remember playing house in the woods when I was very little and my work reflects the peace and spirit I found there. My work expresses the relations between humans and the earth where plants and animals play a role, reflecting the sacred beauty contrasted by the troubles we have created in our Garden of Paradise." AGORAPHOBIA Fear of public spaces and situations ARTIST: MARILENE SAWAF MEDIUM: Gessoboard, pine box, acrylics, casein, varnish, 2021 Marlene Sawaf was born in Alexandria, Egypt and lived in Europe and the Middle East. After her Arrival in the USA in 1980, her first paintings were inspired by her education in Interior Design and Architecture and her taste for enigmatic, colorful images. Since 1981, she have been involved with many galleries, countless art exhibits in the New England area and a constant research into the creative side of painting. In 2006 and 2008 she received awards from the Currier Museum of Art for her figurative paintings. In 2011, she became a member of the Copley Society of Boston. marilenesawaf.com KENO-DOMATOPHOBIA* Fear of being in the house (Domatophobia) Fear of empty spaces and going out of the house (Kenophobia) ARTIST: MIRIAM SCHAER MEDIUM: Binderboard, kozo, plastic doll arms, spray paint, 2021 Miriam Schaer is an artist and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Her work is represented in numerous collections, including the Yale Museum, Library of Congress, and The Walker Art Center and has earned numerous awards including a NY Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship. Her ongoing work explores the complexities around care and motherhood. Her series about societal bias against childless women, Babies (Not) On Board: The Last Prejudice?, was exhibited by the International Museum of Women. A U.S. Fulbright Scholar, Schaer spent part of 2017 in the Republic of Georgia. miriamschaer.com "Affliction captures the emotional paralysis induced by two irrational yet complementary fears — xenophobia a fear of empty, wide-open spaces, and domatophobia, the fear of being inside a house or other closed structure. With Covid-19 drifting invisible and deadly, Affliction reflects the creeping dread I often feel that we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t, and that nothing will ever be as it once was." TOMOPHOBIA Fear of surgery ARTIST: LIZ SHEPHERD Liz Shepherd produces small print editions as well as large-scale sculptural installations. Frequent themes are the difficulties inherent in being part of an American family, illness and loss, disfunction due to addiction, and immigration. Recent solo shows have also been at Georgetown College, Georgetown KY, Artpace, San Antonio, Texas, at the Scuola Di Graphica in Venice, Italy and at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts. Her work is the permanent collection at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Edinburgh College of Art, Syracuse University, Boston Children’s Hospital, Hanoi (Vietnam) Contemporary Art Center among others and private collections. www.lizshepherd.com Four miscarriages + terrifying illness = fear of the death of a child. CHAETOPHOBIA Fear of hair COLLABORATING ARTISTS: AMANDA N. SIMONS, LINDSAY P.B. JONES MEDIA: Milled poplar, human hair, video 2021 Amanda N. Simons is a visual artist, writer, educator, and safety advocate whose interdisciplinary art practice currently explores the intersections of queer identity, and experience-based learning. Amanda holds dual degrees in English (BA) and painting (BFA), as well as interdisciplinary studio art (MFA) and visual and critical studies (MA). Amanda currently lives in a forest amidst the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, and manages the sixteen studios of Fenland School of Craft. instagram.com/peachycpizzab Lindsay P.B. Jones is a person who likes to bond with others by making gifts and safely exploring what makes each other uncomfortable. Lindsay had a dual BS in marine science and biology and likes learning new things. You can find her tromping in the woods sustainably harvesting plants to make you a magic potion that might help you and hopefully won't hurt you. instagram.com/peachycpizzab "I have too many chin hairs; she has too few. I fear we'll never be happy." NYCTOPHOBIA Fear of the dark ARTIST: DEBORAH SOVINEE MEDIUM; Paper, wood, graphite, pencil Her mom says that she declared to her in second grade that she planned to go to art school. She has always made art, winning her first prize in high school, which was a full Woodstock live concert album that she still has. .Deb Sovinee studied painting at both Syracuse University and Central/St Martins School of Art in London. She then spent many years as an exhibition designer at science museums, most recently in Boston, sometimes the only artist in a staff of scientists. But she learned to appreciate the outdoors, science, and nature, and never stopped painting. "I have carried around Fear of the Dark my entire life so this was a pretty easy choice. My mother would play hide-and-go-seek with us, her five children, when we were really young, with the lights turned off, and she’d always win. Once, when I babysat my nieces and nephews I turned off every light in the house to see who else shared that fear. It turns out it’s pretty common." PLASTOTHALASSOPHOBIA* Fear of drowning in an ocean of plastic ARTIST: JUDY THOMAS MEDIUM: Plastic bags, plexiglass box, 2021 Judy Thomas is an artist and educator whose work investigates color, media and meaning. Using simple materials combined in unusual ways, her paintings, collages and sculptural installations revisit modernist concepts through a 21st century lens. Since the early 90’s, she has collected post-consumer colorful plastic shopping bags as a material component in ongoing series “And now a word from our sponsors…”. Thomas holds a BFA from the University of Iowa and an MFA from CUNY Hunter College. Her work has been shown in numerous alternative spaces, as well as galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. She currently lives and maintains a studio in Newburgh, NY. judythomas.com “For the past 2 years I have meticulously collected, washed and hung to dry the plastic film from my personal consumer use as the basis for a new body of work I call “Little Scraps of Color”. CLEITHROPHOBIA Fear of being trapped in small spaces ARTIST: RACHEL WILSON MEDIUM: Mixed media, 2021 A long-time Arizona artist, Rachel Wilson is new transplant to watery Oregon, bringing along her enduring interest in capturing transitions. In Arizona, and in many of her residencies, installations, classes and exhibits she has found the abundant changes in culture, language, geology and climate to be obvious, stimulating, and sources of inspiration. In Oregon, the edges are smoother, the voices more liquid, but themes of transition continue to appear in her mixed media prints, paintings and outdoor designs. rachelwilsonwhenandnow.com "Though I don’t mind small spaces and enjoy visiting caves, I recoil from “squeezes,” the narrow spots underground where passage requires literally squeezing between rocks. This little work is about the escape from the fear of being trapped in narrow places." NAZIPHOBIA* Fear of Nazis ARTIST: MARCIA G. YERMAN MEDIUM: Wood, ceramic, fabric, beads, glass, antique wooden soldiers, 2021 Marcia G. Yerman is a New York City based artist. She works in a wide range of mediums including drawing, painting, collage, construction, sculpture, and photography. She often employs diaristic and narrative imagery to document psychological experiences. Self-portraits, relationships to family members and animals, and the domestic realm are observed and evaluated. Personal symbolism and a vocabulary of motifs are recurrent. They frequently appear in conjunction with political and social concerns. Her work combines formal, abstract, and culturally indigenous elements along with a strong use of color. marciagyerman.com "From a young age, I have had a fear of Nazi perpetrators, although nobody in my family died in the Holocaust. A combination of photography, films, and learned history, mixed with familial attitudes about Germany, intensified my anxieties. My parents owned the book, “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” and I remember looking through it in grade school. Nazis have become a representation of my neuroses in dreams. With the rise of white supremacy and Neo-Nazis in America, this anxiety has become frighteningly concrete." E |
