Rhonda Fenwick
Rhonda's work is concerned with the creation of a sublime world that manifests in an ephemeral space between an art object and a spectator's experiencing of it; where art works come into being through the 'play' of others. How a work of art may come into 'being' through imagination, and also relates to our connectedness to Nature and how we interact socially with the world around us. Through play and imagination we can create spaces, places and worlds. We can re-connect through our feelings and responses to the sacredness of our lives and our relationships with self, others, objects and the spaces we inhabit.
Claire Rollinson
Claire Rollinson has recently moved back to England after living in Northern Ireland. Her art practice includes the disciplines and expressions of drawing, painting, and printmaking with an element of storytelling running throughout.
Gina Martin
Gina Martin works in wood and natural "found" objects, both in her studio and the environment in site-specific pieces. She also works in 2D and 3D using various materials and techniques.
Andy Holt
Through the challenging circumstances that have presented themselves to Andy over the last two years, he had to make a conscious decision to be a survivor; as Winston Churchill put it, 'If you find yourself going through hell, keep going'. Out of the dreadful trials we face, there seems to come an inner resolve, a deep reflection, a spiritual awakening and an unquenchable desire to be creative. The works he has recently created are an attempt to represent aspects of his personal journey to find peace, aware that it often seems elusive and fragile.
Caroline Coode
Caroline has 5 sons and 8 grandchildren and works from her home in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is an artist and gardener with a passion for growing organic fruit and vegetables. As a Quaker she regards their Peace testimony as an important influence in how each of us tries to live our life on a daily basis. In a world so much at war, it is difficult to know how to make a difference. Art cannot, alas, provide food, shelter or medical aid. However, it can and does, nurture, heal our souls and feed our spiritual hunger. My two pieces of work in the exhibition, 'In the Beginning' is my response to the awe I feel about creation itself and 'Behold a New Earth' is an expression of my joy and faith in the eternal cycle of death and rebirth in this wonderful world.
Mary Cook-Cosh
Mary Cook-Cosh is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. The content her work is weighed in exploring aesthetics pertaining to teenagers, teenage life and imaginary landscapes of flora and fauna that creatures and beings often inhabit. Film is inevitably an inspiration and the dialectics of dark drama staged with colourful aesthetics is a tension Mary finds fun to explore. For the World War I Commemorations exhibition in conjunction with Mona Lisa Arts & Media in partnership with St Peter's Church and in collaboration with the Royal British Legion, Mary has created a series of ink and graphite drawings works specially made in honour of young people that lived during the period of World War I. We see young brothers pictured together perhaps before they each set off to war, a propaganda poster picturing young English youth within the circumference of English allies, a "Dazzle Ship", which many young soldiers contributed the fabrication of, in addition to images of a teen getting a routine eye exam or a set of children in the midst of a brief moment.