2021 Visual Art Mentors
ALEXEY ADONIN
As an explorer of the mysterious universe of oil painting, Jerusalem based abstract-surrealist artist Alexey Adonin has dedicated over one and a half-decade to convey his vision of hidden otherworldly realms connected with a timeless source of inspiration. Alexey was born in Slutsk, Belarus, in 1973. He graduated in 1993 from the State Art College named after A. K. Glebov, Minsk, Belarus. In the same year, he has immigrated to Israel. Since 2002, Alexey has exhibited locally and internationally. His works have also been acquired by notable private collections worldwide.
You can find Alexey’s work here.
NAYA LEE CHANG
Born and raised in the California Bay Area, Naya is a twenty-year-old multimedia artist and student at Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design. She is pursuing a BA in History at Brown and a BFA in Furniture Design at RISD. Naya’s affinity for humanities research influences her artistic work, which often addresses American culture and identity, current events, and social (in)justice. Inspired equally by historians, journalists, and activists, Naya seeks to make work that is informative yet accessible, critical yet hopeful.
Naya’s primary skills and current interests include woodworking, book arts, gouache illustration, and mixed media painting. In her furniture and artist books, she emphasizes fine craftsmanship alongside inspired concepts. Naya illustrates for several campus publications and has received grants and purchases prizes for her fine arts work. Naya is a 2019 YoungArts winner.
You can find Naya’s work here.
What's your hottest artistic take?
Artists become activists when their work ensures stories continue to be told and change continues to be demanded.
What was your childhood nightmare?
I had a recurring dream that I was stuck instead of a broken clock, frantically trying and failing to fix it.
What's one thing you're looking forward to, post-COVID-19?
I’m looking forward to indoor dining with my family and friends.
JANELLE CORDERO
Janelle Cordero is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in the seventh most hipster city in the U.S. Her writing has been published in dozens of literary journals, including Harpur Palate and Hobart, while her paintings have been featured in venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. Janelle is primarily a portrait and figure study artist who works with pencil, ink and watercolor to manifest a loose and organic style. Harsh bold ink lines are juxtaposed with the softness of watercolor, the ebb and flow and bloom of color. Janelle is the author of three books of poetry and artwork: Many Types of Wildflowers (V.A. Press, 2020), Woke to Birds (V.A. Press, 2019) and Two Cups of Tomatoes (P.W.P. Press, 2015). Her fourth book, Impossible Years, will be published in September 2021 through V.A. Press.
You can find Janelle’s work here.
Why do you make art, in a few words or sentences?
I make art because it fulfills my needs for contemplation and prayer. When I’m solely focused on painting or sketching, my mind isn’t distracted by meaningless thought cycles. I’m utterly in the moment, giving myself entirely to whatever piece I’m working on. And I hope the viewer of my paintings will experience that same kind of transportation into a meditative mindset.
Who's your favorite artist, and why?
My favorite artist is Conrad Roset, because he’s able to create such dreamy and loose watercolor portraits and studies of the human body. He’s so adept at navigating that line between beautiful and grotesque, and his paintings have this vibrant and blooming quality to them that veers into circus chic.
What was your childhood nightmare?
As a child I was afraid of ghosts. Ghosts, death, all the unknowable mysteries. I had constant nightmares about dying, about the inescapable nothingness, the void. As an adult, I am afraid of loss. Loss is just another word for ghosts, for death, but it’s less shameful to say. Other adults understand this—we talk of loss in broad daylight. So and so lost his job, the neighbor lost her husband, someone’s cousin lost his ranch to the bank. Perhaps the idea of loss is more childish than ghosts—if something is lost, there’s still hope of finding it someday.
JUDITH SKILLMAN
Judith loves to work with oil on canvas; often she uses a palette knife and thick paint. She likes to work alla prima and sometimes adds cold wax for more texture. Seascapes are her obsession. She is not trained in realism and when she takes classes that call for realistic observation the learning curve is steep. She hopes to get better at portraying depth via atmospheric perspective. Her work is abstract but the best pieces contain elements identifiably oceanic.
Admittedly one must know the rules prior to breaking them.
You can find Judith’s work here.
What’s your hottest artistic take?
My hottest artistic take is probably the painting I will upload, which happened quickly and felt right, titled “Rogue Wave”.
Who's your favorite artist, and why?
There are so many. Joan Eardley is certainly one, and also William Song.
What was your childhood nightmare?
A runway cracking up as we were landing.
What’s the soundtrack to your life and why?
Something very scary as there has been much trauma…lots of foreboding.
MEHEK VOHRA
Mehek Vohra is a rising junior studying Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and Cognitive Neuroscience at Brown University. At RISD she is exploring the principles of brand identity, and her artistic practice aims to combine typography and motion graphics with media studies to challenge the way we process information around us, and the extent to which media influences our thoughts and behavior. At Brown she is investigating how our visual systems work, and is working with peers to conduct experiments which test depth and perception. Mehek has a growing interest in Computer Science and hopes to use Java Processing, CSS and HTML to create dynamic motion graphics.
In the past, Mehek has conducted research on the media theories of Herbert Marshall McLuhan, and has worked with Yale professors and students to create brand guidelines and logos for their start-ups and research ventures. She is currently interning with Fluent, a NYC based marketing agency to learn more about digital marketing and design accessibility.
You can find Mehek’s work here.
Why do you make art, in a few words or sentences?
To help people communicate what cannot be said through words.
Who's your favorite artist, and why?
Yayoi Kusama is the first artist I conducted an in-depth study on, and will always be my go-to artist for inspiration. She paints visual representations of her hallucinations and mental chaos, and I find it fascinating how she can materialize her thoughts and transform a terrible illness into beautiful paintings that are vivid and so full of life.
What's one thing you're looking forward to, post-COVID-19?
Concerts! With the bass pounding in my heart and jumping and dancing until my legs go numb. I miss the contagious energy of a mosh-pit and the feeling of escaping reality for a few reckless, overwhelming hours.