Artists

My work uses plant material and soil as a record of personal, cultural, and ecological history. History is not only held in the buildings and monuments, but in the soil itself. I gather this soil and foliage from both cultivated and uncultivated locations for my artwork. Using traditional domestic techniques of drying and canning, I preserve the materials that I have gathered. These will then be sewn together, cooked, and encrusted into objects. Despite my labor of preserving, these organic art supplies are transient. When made into works of art, they can be viewed in their vulnerable state, fighting against time, as they decay.

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PAGE TURNER is an assemblage artist who collects items of deep personal meaning to create delicate sculptural pieces infused with a new feminist aesthetic and a soulful reverence for her heritage. Recently featured in 50 Contemporary Women Artists: Groundbreaking Contemporary Art from 1960 to Now , her work is grounded in the Appalachian region of Virginia. Turner has exhibited widely in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles. Her recent exhibitions include FemiNest at Equity Gallery in New York, Contemporary Appalachia: Zephren & Page Turner at Art￾ists & Makers Studios in Maryland; and a solo exhibition Power & Restraint: A Feminist Perspective on Mormon Sisterhood at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University in Roanoke. Turner was the cover artist for Exponent II and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Her sculptures have been featured in Immediate Present, Artemis Journal, Women Speak, About Place Journal, and Young Ravens Literary Review.

DENISE GASSER {[email protected]} is a fine artist, art facilitator, and mother of four young boys. Her paintings attempt to lift the veil on the appearance of things and reveal a kind of magical order within. Though subject matter varies, her work consistently embodies tension between organic and geometric, order and chaos, reality and dreams. Denise has lived and worked in the Bay Area, Vancouver, BC, and now resides near the mountains of Utah with her husband and children. She can be found on the web at denisegasser.com and on Instagram @denisegasserart

AMBER LEE WEISS {[email protected]} is from Texas and lives in Houston. In addition to making art, Amber is an actress, serves in her ward’s youth program, has a part-time retail job, is an army-wife, and loves to dabble in various creative pursuits. She is married and has three small daughters. Amber started to make magazine collages ten years ago but didn’t start calling it art until two years ago. Her Instagram is @amberlieves.

North Carolina–based artist MIKENZI JONES is the artist behind Kenzi Studio Co. Mikenzi’s art embraces diversity, beautiful natural tones, and earthy boho vibes. Mikenzi has a BFA in graphic design from Brigham Young University– Idaho and has been working as a freelance designer and illustrator for the past ten years. When she’s not creating designs and prints through her Etsy shop, Mikenzi is busy being a mom to two small boys. Follow @kenzistudioco for new art.

KIRSTEN SPARENBORG {[email protected]} makes art that is explorative, cartographic, earth-bound. Her work interprets the emotional power of place in peoples’ lives, using watercolor, ink, and collage. Maps, mountains/landscape, and sketches/studies offer a visual memory of place at three scales: aerial, distant yet omnipresent, and intimate/inhabited. Altogether, the work may be called architectural map-drawings because it is Kirsten’s education and practice as an architect and urban designer that led her to appreciate and manifest the sensory value of places. Learn more at www.turnofthecenturies.com.

GARY ERNEST SMITH lives and works at his home and studio with his wife Judy in Highland, Utah. They have four married children and eight grandchildren. The major projects he has done for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are murals for the Nauvoo temple, the Samoa Temple, the Brigham City Temple, and the Provo City Tabernacle Temple. He has individual paintings hanging in numerous temples and church buildings throughout the world. He continues today to produce paintings the church uses for whatever capacity they need.

M. ALICE ABRAMS is an illustrator and printmaker specializing in linoleum block print and watercolor located in Vancouver, Washington. Her artwork reflects her religious convictions and insights, as well as her experiences with parenthood. Her goal is to create simple yet poignant artwork that makes people feel loved and welcomed in the gospel. When not busy carving or painting, she is trying to keep up with her lively daughters and dog with her husband.

ROSE DATOC DALL is a Filipina American artist who is an award-winning contemporary figurative painter known for her bold colors and graphic compositions. Her most iconic pieces are sacred works on the life of the Savior. Rose received her BFA in fine art studio and art history from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Rose is a wife and mother of four adult children, and grandmother or “Lola” to three grandchildren.

DAWN DAVIS-LIM migrated to Australia from England as a young adult. She worked as an intuitive artist before graduating with honors in art from Federation University. Her work has been collected across the globe, and she is the recipient of numerous awards for her Daoist-inspired, abstract work. She lives a peaceful, creative, spiritual life with her husband, Chai, in Avoca, Victoria.