Ariannah Chaochang is a Ceramic Artist born and raised in Sacramento, California. She relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 2021. Her artist identity is rooted in her personal experiences of living between two different worlds and perspectives. One foot in her culture and the other pursuing the American dream. Ariannah’s art is the only medium that has given her a sense of peace and a safe space to expressively heal.

The link to my Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/chao_studio_/

Directive is the studio practice of fine artist and leatherworker Jess Goehner. Her exploration into leather began in Milwaukee, WI, the heartland of the leather industry, and continues today as Jess works out of a garage studio on the Virginia coast. Through hand-stitched leatherwork, drawing, painting, and sculptural experimentation, she investigates themes of material history, embodiment, labor, and concepts of ritual. Since 2013, Directive has produced functional leatherwork and sculptural pieces that blur the boundaries between craft and fine art, using making as a language to explore form, repetition, and meaning. Jess earned a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University with a focus on drawing, sculpture, and craft. In addition to her creative practice, Jess has taught drawing, leatherwork, book arts, and design at museums, arts organizations, and educational institutions across the country, including the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts, the Rawls Museum Arts, and the Hermitage Museum and Gardens.

Jordan Stearns is a glassmaker born in Annapolis, Maryland. In 2018 he started in glassblowing, and learned to make flat sheets and plates of glass that could be used for stained glass. By combining the crafts of glassblowing and stained glass, he creates windows and panels that harness light to bring life to them. Jordan’s artistic practice is interested in symbology, optical illusions, history, and geometry. 

Jordan now lives in Portsmouth, Virginia, and continues to create and repair stained glass windows. He also produces custom sheet glass and rondels for other glass artists, and can be found online at www.yellow.glass and on instagram @twotimeyellow

www.yellow.glass

Instagram @twotimeyellow

Maggie Kerrigan is a visual artist located in Virginia Beach, VA, creating two- and three-dimensional artworks by altering books.  Each artwork begins with a carefully curated book and an individualized process to intrigue the viewer and further explore the literature’s themes.  A variety of processes are used, including cutting, carving, folding, paper casting, and sometimes deconstruction and reconstruction of the book.

Kerrigan exhibits in local, regional and national shows and has won several awards.  She teaches both painting and altering books, along with  business skills and coaching for artists.  She is heavily involved in the Virginia Beach Art Center and the regional artist community.

Her studio is located at the Virginia Beach Art Center.

www.thebookartist.com

IG:  @bookartistvb

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/BookArtistVB/

Knapp-Castillo is a proud Californian who now calls Virginia home. She is passionate about reclaiming her Indigenous and Latina culture through storytelling in her art.

Growing up, she always felt a deep connection to her cultural roots from Lakota, Mexica, Zapoteca and Latino communities. But as she got older and moved away from those communities, she realized that she lost touch with her culture and the connection she had. It was through storytelling, both through her own art and the stories of others, that she was able to reconnect with her heritage.

https://www.cactusmoontrading.com/

https://www.instagram.com/cactus_moon_trading/

Rowena Federico Finn’s mixed media work meticulously combines wide-ranging materials including capiz shells, piña fabric, found images, and historical texts to explore experiences of cultural displacement and histories of colonialism. Drawing on her Filipina background and her upbringing in Virginia, Finn considers the ways that cultural values are reflected and shaped by shared narratives: found materials like fairytale illustrations and historical texts are circulated and passed down from one generation to the next, communicating a set of common values and moral instructions. Vintage maps present a different type of guidance. They transmit seemingly neutral information about the earth’s geographic characteristics and sociopolitical boundaries, but undeniably present a specific perspective, from a particular moment in time.