Alexander Alvarez is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Orlando, Florida. He earned his MFA in Studio Art and Design from the University of Central Florida. His practice intertwines iconography, contemporary issues, and mythology to explore memory, identity, histories, and the human condition. Drawing from psychology, allegory, and lived experience, Alvarez merges the personal with the uncanny, transforming individual and collective stories into visual narratives that invite introspection, dialogue, and compassion. His work constructs symbolic worlds where the subconscious becomes tangible, guiding viewers through spaces of reflection, contradiction, and transformation.

Emily Little is a self-taught visual artist born in Spain, raised in New Hampshire and Hawaii, and settled in NC. Little’s background of constant change has influenced her to create oil and acrylic paintings exploring duality and nuance, encouraging radical authenticity. Over the past four years, Little has exhibited her work at various museums, art festivals, and private collections across the U.S. She loves oil painting, but experiments with linocuts, collage, woodwork, and often adopts new mediums for the sake of the message. Little feels most inspired when interacting with other creatives and discussing how to improve the community.

John Godwin is a pioneer of a new form of art that is created with the greatest single fundamental basis of all art: light. Join him on a journey into the avant-garde world of abstract light painting, where vibrant hues and dynamic compositions come together to evoke emotions and spark imagination.

Lindsey paints various philosophies of the human experience and reflections of the natural world. Her style is a colorful, romantic realism, aiming to honor the subject of each piece as a natural expression of life to be felt and studied without shame or judgement. She uses bright colors and fine details to create a tangible energy to each piece, leaving a striking impression with strong intention.

Sarah Matthews is a mixed media artist based in the Charlotte area. Combining embroidery, paint, and other mixed media elements, she creates colorful, tactile works that balance beauty with a touch of the uncanny. Drawn to the space where whimsy and the eerie coexist, her work often incorporates layered symbolism and hidden meanings that invite a closer look.

Amy Smith is a mixed media artist based in Mount Holly, North Carolina. Working primarily in watercolor and colored pencil, she creates dreamlike images inspired by surrealism, Art Nouveau, and contemporary fantasy. Her work often explores the space between beauty and strangeness, combining delicate detail, narrative symbolism, and a sense of quiet magic. Amy holds a degree in Fine Art from Meredith College, and also works as a graphic designer in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Holly Spruck is a narrative oil painter working in Charlotte, NC since 2002. Born and raised in New York, she attended College in New Hampshire, where she earned a degree in Art Education with a minor in Painting. From 1996 to 2002, Holly lived in the Czech Republic and taught art at the International School of Prague. While in Prague, Holly hosted four solo exhibitions, two selling out on opening night. Holly is a recipient of www.ArtPopStreetGallery.com class of 2018 where “Morning Commute,” was found on a billboard around Charlotte.  Her paintings have been featured in publications including www.nijimagazine.com, THINK magazine, Creative Loafing, Coffee People Zine, and on the cover of The Main Street Rag.

Born on a spring Baltimore morning in 1983, Jon Norris' artistic talents blossomed early, nurtured by his father's ingenuity and his grandmother Bonnie's artistic patience. Watching Bonnie paint ignited his self-taught passion.    In 2009, with only five dollars, Jon moved from rural Eastern North Carolina to Charlotte, a pivotal move that fueled his artistic growth. His first ceiling mural at Church & Union led to a mention in a New York Times feature.    Now a family man, Jon has transitioned from acrylic to oil paint and explores mixed media sculpture. Beyond his dark satire, he finds deep fulfillment in painting eulogy portraits for those grieving.

Mark Doepker is a self taught artist born and raised in Michigan.  Drawn from life, the subjects in his work are real people of the community.  Mark's belief is that figure drawing is one of the cornerstones to any creative or successful society.    "We learn a lot about each other when we draw-allowing a certain empathy to be discovered through the process.  Hopefully, this empathy can guide our own lives to better places.  I can take these drawings and turn them into murals or sculptures and back to drawings."    Mark's work has been exhibited extensively throughout the Charlotte region and can be found across the country, Europe and Central America.

Sue Edwards is a maker and a teacher. She started in junior high school with 4 years of mechanical drawing classes, winning prizes making predefined lengths and thicknesses of lines that look beautiful, even as drawings of mechanical parts.    After moving just before her senior year of high school, and not having the possibility of her big senior year architecture project anymore, Sue stopped drawing, and instead began teaching violin from 1994 to the present.     Sue resumed drawing again in 2013, and when stress got to her, she joined a life drawing group, using her Ipad.  (The class) convinced her - through a workshop which required traditional materials - that this was a beautiful experience.  She started with charcoal.   After moving to Charlotte in 2014, Sue started learning ceramics and also began figure-sculpting during life-drawing in Mooresville, NC and Cornelius, NC.      Now Sue loves a regular practice of using ink, soft pastels, and painting with many different water based mediums. "I love doing quick portraits, figures, and urban sketching from life.  In my work, I first look for and recognize shapes made by light and shadow, and patterns of that shadow.  I discover emotion held in the body posture and share a story that the gesture might be telling."

Brianna Casini is an oil painter based in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2019 she graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelors in Art, double majoring in Studio Art and Anthropology. She also attended Wake Forest University’s School of Business for her Masters in Accountancy. Brianna has traveled multiple times to Japan to capture the everyday life of individuals. Her paintings highlight community among strangers as they interact unmindful of the viewer. Whether that be patrons visiting shrines and temples, customers looking for a late-night meal, or couples wandering the streets at night, her paintings strive to capture fleeting moments within these individual’s lives. Brianna has exhibited in shows across North Carolina and in 2026 received second-place in the VAPA Exploration show in Charlotte and third-place in the Roots and Branches Arts Mount Holly Festival in Mount Holly. She has been accepted into the 2027 artist residency Metropolitan Fukujusou in Kyoto, Japan to paint Urushi artisans at work.

Isaac Chavarria Robles is a Mexican-born, self-taught artist and art therapist living in the United States. After immigrating from Mexico at the age of twenty, he developed a body of work that explores identity, migration, resilience, and the emotional realities of life between cultures. Working primarily in acrylics and oils, Isaac creates expressive paintings inspired by everyday experiences, cultural memory, and the immigrant journey. His work reflects a deep commitment to storytelling, honoring overlooked voices, and celebrating the strength found in adaptation and perseverance. As both an artist and therapist, Isaac believes art has the power to connect, heal, and inspire understanding across communities.

Lauren Burroughs is a North Carolina artist whose dreamlike paintings explore transformation, healing, and the relationship between humanity and nature. Inspired by dreams, personal experiences, and the natural world, her work uses symbolic imagery and flowing forms to invite viewers into imaginative spaces where darkness and light coexist.

Mel Rosen is a multimedia artist drawing from coastal sea finds, archaeology, mythology, natural history, and artificial intelligence. Her work presents strange, hybrid objects and environments untethered by time. Through these works, natural and cultural histories evolve together, continually reshaped by habitat, technology and interpretation, holding both warning and promise. She holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art/Temple University and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, with additional study in Rome and New Zealand. She exhibits nationally and internationally and lives, works and teaches in South Carolina.