Artist Index

**Click Name To View Artist Statement & Bio**

Norman Aragones
Artist Statement:
The main paradigm in my photographic art revolves around the concept of depth (having some level of meaning within the photo and thus attempting to elicit a viewer's reaction through deliberate imagery).

Bio:
Mr. Aragones attempts to produce art filled with thought and complexity. He attempts to examine the human condition in every detail. Furthermore, Norman hopes to challenge the viewer each time he/she examines his photo(s).

Jacquelyn Blackstone

Artist Statement:
The images I make inevitably reflect something I have seen before - a painting, a movie, a photograph. Millions of images are carried around in our brains and cannot be forgotten. A place , the light, a configuration of shapes and shadows can evoke another time and place or affect the way I see something now. I have been working with gelatin silver black and white photography for more than 50 years and my subjects and series have changed over time. I started hand coloring some of the prints using colored pencils on matt paper and still make these one of a kind prints. I have recently started to work with digital prints as well.

Bio:
Jacquelyn Blackstone has been working with gelatin silver black and white photography for over 50 years. She started college as an studio art major, taught art for a number of years to supplement her her waitressing career. She then went back to school to become a doctor and eventually became an Obstetrician - Gynecologist with a sub-specialty in Maternal - Fetal Medicine ( high risk pregnancies). Through it all she continued to photograph.

Yiyun Chen

Artist Statement:
In 2012 I went back to China with my family for a short vacation. When we were taking off from the airport, my mother whispered to me: "we are going home now." Two months after, when we had to fly back to the U.S., she said the same thing to me. I was thinking about those words and questioning myself what and where my home. In the conversation about my pondering, Mom asked me: "Where do you like it better?".
I have been working on various series of "portraiture setting" to explore the relationship between self/other and sense of place and objects; In fusion and change, harmony and evolution, I capture the seemingly unexceptional moments that I encounter in my everyday life. Things have become so easy to obtain and discard, and we have so many choices on what to have and what not to.

Bio:
Yiyun Chen is a Cleveland-based artist whose photographic and photobooks have been exhibited in Wausau MOCA, Zanesville Museum of Art, Ohio University, Indiana University Kokomo, Rochester Institute of Technology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Institute of Art, Lakeland Community College, San Joaquin Delta College, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Ann Arbor Art Center, Gallery 263 in Cambridge, PH21 gallery in Hungary, and Loosen Art Gallery in Italy, etc. Chen's works could also be seen as part of the collections in Cleveland Art Association, Mandel Foundation, Rochester Institute of Technology and Cleveland State University.

Mark Coggins
Artist Statement:
In deciding where to aim my camera, I look for groups of people interacting or engaged in a common activity, rather than individual subjects. As a photographer who has also published seven novels, I am perhaps drawn to tableaus that hint at a story.

Bio:
Mark Coggins's work has been shown in galleries across the United States and Europe, including exhibitions jurored by acclaimed photographers and curators Amy Arbus, Elizabeth Avedon, Judy Dater, Henry Horenstein and Michael Kenna. He has won multiple awards, participated in solo and small group shows, and he has published a monograph entitled Street Stories.

David Dingwell
Artist Statement:
For several years, my photography has focused on cityscapes, architecture, and urban nightscapes. Photographing iconic neon signs in large cities has always been my favorite subject for photography based upon vibrant colors and deep shadows. Over the course of the past year, I have switched my focus mainly toward emotive portraiture while continuing to explore urban landscapes.

Bio:
David's photography was first inspired by his father, who was an avid hobby photographer during David's childhood. David is an attorney who practices law in Canton, Ohio. He is also a resident artist at Patina Arts Centre in downtown Canton.

Matt Gallien
Artist Statement:
My art is made to tell a story as well as show an image. My art combines my passions of science, art, and journalism. I see these three disciplines not as wholly separate entities but as all parts of the same process of storytelling. To reflect this approach my images often are clean, tight, and every frame must tell a story. I use photography to highlight stories of the everyday whether it be natural processes or the lives of the average person. Each frame should be a chapter in a story that unfolds to the viewers as they see a series of images. I want explore the boundaries of photographic storytelling by experimenting with state of the art techniques as well as tools that are normally reserved for collection of scientific data. This allow for glimpses at worlds that humanity would not be able to normally see whether it be light beyond the visible spectrum or stopping actions that move to fast for an eye to see.

Bio:
Matthew Gallien is an artist living in South East New Mexico. He was first taught photography by his mother at age thirteen. In high school he became a photographer and editor for his school's yearbook and developed a true love of the medium as well as a love of natural sciences. After high school graduation he attended New Mexico State University Alamogordo and obtained an Associates of Arts and an Associates of science. He moved to Las Cruces New Mexico in 2016 to pursue an education in fine art and wildlife science. It was in college he found my passion for documentary photography and a want to tell stories of people and this world around us. In 2021 he graduated with a degrees in Wildlife Ecology, General Agriculture, and Mass Communications with a minor in Studio Art.

Zoe Heller
Artist Statement:
I'm Zoe Griffing Heller, a contemporary visual artist specializing in digital photography. My work explores the subjective nature of reality, themes of alienation, dissociation, and belonging. I employ photo manipulation and sculptural props, often incorporating distorted body parts, everyday objects, and anonymous figures to convey a sense of confusion and detachment. Drawing from my personal experiences with mental health and growing up around individuals with developmental disabilities, I aim to visualize the complexities of our inner worlds and push the boundaries of what we perceive as reality.

Bio:
Zoe Griffing Heller was born in Columbus, Ohio. They received their BFA at Columbus College of Art and Design. They spent years in Oakland, California, where they worked as an art facilitator for adults with developmental disabilities and as a commercial photographer. They currently work as a full-time photographer in Cleveland, Ohio.

Don Jacobson
Artist Statement:
I am delighted by quality of light, vibrancy of color, unexpected and often unnoticed detail. The stunning structure of an orchid, the intricate ornamentation on an older building, or dishes stacked in a dish drainer are fascinating to me. Abstractions and patterns are richer and invite investigation. My subject matter is limitless. Anything that appeals to my eye is fair game for my camera.

Bio:
The world of photography and the world of the natural wonders of the Sierra Nevada opened to Don Jacobson simultaneously. The photographs he took with his little Kodak Brownie were woefully inadequate to express the grandeur of the Range of Light. Within a week of his first backpack trip into the high country, he bought his first SLR, a Pentax Spotmatic and began to take photography classes. While living in lose Angeles, he studied photography with Edmund Teske at UCLA for a year.

He is currently a member of the Portland Photographers Forum and the Interim Group, a critique group originally formed by the influential photographer Minor White. Many of his photographs have won awards, been published in well respected photographic magazines, the Sierra Club calendar and exhibited nationally.

Micah Kraus
Artist Statement:
I live in a place where ego and artifice don't hold much water. There's value in lasting power, sincerity and earnestness in a crumbling building or a weathered face. I'm drawn to these structures and people, admiring their steady dignity even while bare and vulnerable. My prints and photographs are about a slowly collapsing structure that finds potential amongst its disassembled pieces.

Bio:
Micah Kraus runs Work Studio LTD, an art & design workshop where he creates a bunch of stuff and tries to make sense of it later. Process and concept are at the foundation of his work, thinking like a printmaker and using repetition as a means of expression. He is inspired by the smooth work-worn objects in his grandfather's toolbox and strives to create imagery with that kind of textured warmth.

An educator and engaged community member, he seeks opportunities to create, collaborate and serve. Kraus and his wife, artist Kim Eggleston-Kraus, have lived and worked in the Maple Valley neighborhood since 2002.

Chris Manfield
Artist Statement:
There is often more meaning and truth in the questions we asked rather than the answers that we get. As a photographer, my job is to bear light - in all meanings of the word. My work therefore, can be considered as my invitation for you to meet me in a space where we can contemplate and learn together. I now practice art and make my work by drawing inspirations from my personal experience in relation to the experience of others. Through my work, I strive to foster a safe space where people can reflect upon and respond to a range of complex human conditions while keeping in mind that there is beauty in our desire to connect with the world and each other. The purpose of making art, after all, is to remind ourselves that life is more important than art.

Bio:
Chris Manfield graduated with a BFA from SFAI in 2018. He worked for the International Center of Photography until 2019 and completed his MFA in Studio Art from San Francisco Art Institute in 2021, where he was nominated as SFAI's 150th anniversary graduate commencement speaker, and recipient of the John Collier grant and awards as well as Anne Bremer Memorial Award. In 2021 Chris moved to San Luis Valley, Colorado to start an alternative living eco-art residency. Since 2022, he is the art installation co-director of the Crestone Energy Fair.

David Martin
Artist Statement:
David Martin is an artist who resides in his hometown Canton, Ohio, where he has an art studio in Patina Arts Centre. He works in various mediums including oil paint, graphite, color pencil, digital creations, and photography. He graduated from the University of Akron with his BFA in Fine Art Photography and minors in Commercial Photography and Painting. His creation process is both traditional darkroom and digital SLR's where his focus is on light. He joined the Navy as a photographer in 2010 but was medically discharged due to mental health problems he dealt with since the early 2000's. He was also diagnosed with Hemochromatosis in 2018 and has turned to art as his therapy since 2011.

Bio:
David B. Martin, II is a resident artist at Patina Arts Centre, in Canton Ohio, where his mediums include oil paint, graphite, color pencil, watercolor paint, and photography. Art has become his therapy since his medical discharge form the Navy in 2010 and then with being diagnosed with hemochromatosis in 2018. He loves the creation process. He began his career in art by being inspired by the great American Artist, Norman Rockwell, and originally focused on painting and illustration in college. However, once he discovered with the darkroom and the process, he was hooked. Then, he was led to street photography and studying commercial lighting. He did join the Navy in 2010 as a photographer but was left broken hearted where he was medically discharged due to is mental health and later blood disease. It was then that art gave him a reason to continue. He creates based on ow his mind is functioning at that time. It can be one medium one day then another the next.

Joe Remalius
Artist Statement:
Photography has been my passion for more than half a century, and have been mainly self taught, I focus on capturing the beauty of nature by constantly walking and remembering to look back because you may find your foreground.

I also enjoy creating  custom wood frames for my pictures.

Bio:
Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, I attended Penn State and then joined the U S Navy.  I started my professional life in Hospitality Management then went into Health Care and finished my career retiring from the Cleveland Clinic.