PAUL Spring 2018

Three Generations
Oil on canvas, 28" x 22"

People on the Shore (After Picasso)
Digital Painting, 16" x 20"

I Feel Sick
Oil on cardboard, 16" x 20"

Linda Berry

Linda Berry’s upbringing in Bucks County, Pennsylvania was typical of
most baby-boomers, except for one significant difference….her mother
was a watercolor artist. As a result, Linda grew up embracing the
language and skills of watercolor painting!

Her 25 year career in teaching opened up many doors such as earning
Masters Degrees, art certifications and opportunities to fine-tune her
watercolor skills. On a personal level, the highlight of those years was
becoming a mother to daughter Jessica.

Fast forward 40 years and Linda is now a full-time watercolor artist. She often comments, “It is
my desire as an artist to help preserve family and community memories…nature, architecture,
people. Active people are included in my paintings so that viewers feel they are part of each
painting, rather than just passive observers. Also, I concentrate on a traditional style of art and
carefully attend to details so as to maximize accuracy without jeopardizing aesthetic qualities.”

Having spent years producing commissioned pieces and participating in art shows, Linda now
focuses on illustrating books. Most recently her work can be found in “Flying Forts and Tall
Dutch Tulips: A Year At War”, “Eat With the Seasons” and soon to be released “Mariela and the
Bird of Seven Colors”.

Linda’s sketch books reflect “everything that catches my attention from traveling the world to my
own backyard”. As a Center City Philadelphia resident there is never a lack of artistic
opportunities inspired by the wonderful people and history in “my own backyard”. Painting brings a
great deal of joy to Linda. It is her hope that you share that same joy, and each time you look at a
piece of her artwork it brings a smile to your face.

Bernard Collins

Bernard Collins is a multidisciplinary artist originally from South Philly. He
received a Bachelors degree from Temple University Tyler school of Art and a
Masters Degree from University of Pennsylvania in painting.

He also is an accomplished spoken word artist who often blends his words
with music dance and visual components on stage. Currently, he is an
instructor at Fleisher Art Memorial

Chabane Djouder

Chabane Djouder studied four years at the Regional School of Fine Arts in
Azazga Algeria (École Régionale des Beaux-Arts). Thereafter, he studied two
years of restoration and conservation at the Regional School of Fine Arts in
Oran Algeria where he was born. Following his education, he has committed
himself to teaching art. He has taught painting to high school students in Oran
City and at the School of Fine Art, Azazga. His paintings have been seen by
many in exhibitions throughout Algeria and the United States. He is currently
living in the United States where he also met his wife. He speaks various
languages: French, Arabic, English and Berber.

Chabane Djouder's work is a mix between Abstract and Figurative. Critics
have described some of his work as a mix of Abstract and Impressionism.
He describes his art as a representation of the energy that moves about us
each day, unseen to the naked eye.

"I am an observer of silent human interactions in which I discover people’s
humanity through their tacit communication, emotional and spiritual
energies, and body language," comments the artist.

"This combined with waves of electricity, music, and natural energies
contribute to the colorful blends and textures of my paintings."

Jeanine Leclaire

Jeanine Leclaire makes art about her world, as she observes it.
This is a broad statement, but so is her range of expression. Often, she
uses photographic reference material to produce highly detailed, realistic
paintings. Some of her other pieces, in particular her works on paper,
are more expressive, incorporating imagery straight from her
imagination. What these two approaches share is that they are a record
of everyday life, capturing those quotidian moments that most everyone
can recognize from their own experience. She draws out the emotional significance of these scenes,
hinting at what the subject was thinking and feeling in that milieu, immediately before and after that
moment depicted in paint.

In Jeanine’s life as an artist, she has found joy, support, and inspiration in the community of artists
around her in Philadelphia, encouraging them to come together to show their work, plan and focus
their businesses, and engage in the Deviant Life Drawing sessions that she and her partner Nick
host in their home. Jeanine also spends some of her time teaching artists, novice and adept alike.
She has found teaching to be substantially beneficial to her own creative process.

As for a brief summary of her career in art, Jeanine Leclaire has been painting, drawing, and selling
her work since she graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2005. During that
time, she has shown her work primarily at Rodger LaPelle Galleries, in Philadelphia, and Corte-Real
Gallery, in the Algarve region of Portugal. Furthermore, she has shown her work in numerous juried
group shows, in such places as The State Museum of Pennsylvania, The Southern Alleghenies
Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Jeanine has an upcoming show in September 2018
at Gallery 222 in Malvern, PA.

Marángeli Mejía Rabell

Throughout her years in the city of Brotherly Love, Marángeli has engaged in a
wide range of community development efforts and arts/culture initiatives designed
to support the empowerment process of Puerto Ricans/Latinos and collective
impact. Her professional philosophy is centered on her commitment to the
community’s educational, professional and personal growth and utilizing arts &
culture as a tool for social change.

She serves as the Director of Community Economic Development at the Village of Arts and Humanities.
Her work focuses on exploring the intersection of arts and culture and economic development through
efforts and collaborations in areas of commercial corridor revitalization, workforce development,
entrepreneurship and the creative economy.

Through her work with AfroTaino Productions, she has served as a resource to brands & corporations,
co-developed and executed comprehensive campaigns/special events and produced arts/culture
programming and special events/campaigns in the public and private arena for multicultural audiences.

Marángeli’s work as an actor, teacher, facilitator, organizer, consultant, curator, programmer among
many others has supported her in developing a unique approach focused on collaboration and a social
capital development process

Leah Reynolds

My work is mainly sculpture and installation, often employing photography-
usually temporary. It is meant to be experienced in relation to the whole
body. I am interested in the dichotomies between fragility and strength;
ephemerality and solidity. The use of fabric as a basic material allows me to
explore these issues.

My studio practice is very process-oriented and part of that involves
information-gathering. I am always looking for projects that engage others and
occur outside of the studio or gallery. I like to work with a particular site in
mind because it adds to the mix of information.

When I started out over 35 years ago, I was most interested in placing art in
places where it could be encountered by anyone. At the time I was using
fabric in mixed media constructions. I was drawn to using fabric because of
its various uses; for protection, disguise, decoration, etc., as well as its
association with women's work.

While working at a shelter for battered women and their children, I began to
think about the concept of shelter; physical, psychic, metaphoric. This has
remained as one of the basic elements in my work. Recently, I have been
making work that concerns the growth and proliferation of forms over time;
as well as natural processes, like storms.

I am currently working towards earning a Master’s in Social Work, to be
better equipped to work towards social change and to have more of a
positive effect on people's lives.

Kathleen Spicer

I am both painter and sculptor, two very different processes that I find ever
challenging and endless with possibility! My work sort of defies both
categories as it is not painting, traditionally, on canvas, and most sculptures
are wall hung. My language is always clear, the work is very shape-oriented
and the color is always a vital part of the final product.

My “relief paintings” have a top layer that is composed of cut out shapes that
make patterns. I incorporate semi-abstract forms that reflect images found in
nature, like flowers, buds, leaves and more and various “speech bubbles” and
punctuation marks, a direct reference to communication. The bottom layer
supports the top layer physically as well as reinforcing the sense of light that is
build up through COLOR and adds depth. I build the color up in layers, to
create a sense of LIGHT coming from inside the painting. The final product
should feel alive with LIGHT, color, pattern and movement. ILLUMINATED.

My mostly wall hung sculptures utilize similar shapes and colors but connect
to each other and show the forms in depth, looking inside and outside of the
shapes. Negative space is very important. The interplay of connected shapes
is very much alive and even the shadows they cast feels charged with energy.
My sculptural work asks questions, speaks to the viewer and, hopefully,
invites conversation. The color adds so much as it solidifies the work and
adds mood to the work – it can be soft spoken, fierce, delicate, dark, uplifting
and often humorous.

I always embrace new possibilities and seek to create work a that is living
construction, drawings in space, and meditations on moving choreography
that radiate positive energy from within.

Finally, given the political climate that is so much a part of our lives, for better
or worse. I have never been directly political but in this current administration,
my most recent works cannot help but reflect the current climate. I so my best
to give back a positive and uplifting message.

Bryant Vazquez

I started drawing as early as the first grade. As an artist, I am a multi-
instrumentalist, a singer/songwriter, a painter, a draftsman, a sculptor
and a writer. For me, immersing into various forms of art feed into the
creation of more art.

I relocated to Philadelphia from Flagstaff, Arizona in October 2013 to
focus on music. In early 2014, I started drawing again, and by the
summer I began painting—mainly portraits. I used house paints,
acrylics, ink, pastels, graphite, charcoal, and anything else available.
My early paintings were created on found objects, drywall, and
abandoned cardboard pizza boxes.

In painting and drawing my focus is figurative art, though abstracted by
way of being self-taught.The first portraits were done without reference
images, solely from the unconscious.

Since 2014, I have switched between several different genres and
approaches: expressionism, realism, abstract expressionism,
surrealism, color field, line art, digital paintings, and sculpture.

By nature, I consider myself an expressionist painter. I draw a large
source of influence from the German-Austrian Expressionists, as well as
influence from the London School—amongst them, Francis Bacon for
his autodidactic alchemy. I have been told that my paintings tend to
capture the essence of the emotional state—particularly in the eyes.

My execution varies, but I tend to either set limitations for myself as a
device for discipline, or to let myself merely paint with abandon.

In most cases, the results are outside of my control. Within this struggle
—to fight, to capture some semblance of responsiveness, usually by
accident, but always as intent—I find the foundation for catharsis.

For me, there is no greater truth than art. Even at my worst, even at my
most cynical, art is the driving force behind my reason for living. In many
ways, this is the best I am.

I have no singular goal in mind, other than to challenge myself with
every new creation; to maintain this appetite for life, for love, for art, and
to do this until I die.