Yoko Iwanaga - www.yokoiwanaga.com

Yoko Iwanaga was born in Japan and recently received her MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design. She has exhibited around the country, with many of her paintings ending up in private collections as a result. She says of her work:

“My works are based on my memories of childhood. Sometimes I recalled images of childhood memories. These images change every time, and become my own personal images that give me a mysterious feeling. I express these remembered images in my work using abstraction form. Most of these are in the ordinary scenery of nature.”

-Yoko Iwanaga

Shilo Anderson - http://shilohanderson.blogspot.com/

"I received my B.A. in Studio Art from William Jewell College in Liberty, MO May 2007. I began taking classes at the Kansas City Art Institute during 2006 and continue to take classes there. Before enrolling at William Jewell, I was an English Literature major at The University of Missouri, Columbia. I never took an art class before my sophomore year at William Jewell. I have not always been involved in an art track officially, but I have always considered myself as creative. I have worked in mixed media since I was about eight, sewing pillow magnets that my grandma would hang on the refrigerator. I began to see how an open mind to experimenting with different materials can open the floodgates to an artist. Almost immediately I experienced how small details can add a real craftsmanship to art and how that allows the artist to put more of themselves into their work. My creativity comes from trying to incorporate new materials into my artist’s arsenal. I use household hard wares such as bolts, wires and clasps, and special substrates, such as hand made paper and pegboard. I love sewing paper, gluing, and working with and incorporating small details. I will often force myself to work with materials I already have, and I thrive on how that encourages new kinds of creativity. I do not like to waste materials and I tend to hold onto everything, because, I will use it one day. My home base is Kansas City, MO where I am surrounded by my family and friends. I am a traveler at heart. I enjoy the East Coast the most, visiting New York, Florida and Boston often. I have extreme interests in creating art, being clean, tiny things, fast music, going to concerts, reading classic literature, running, diet coke, and red wine."

-Shiloh Anderson

Chris Rank - www.chrisrank.com

Award-winning Atlanta photographer Chris Rank has had his work featured in, among other publications, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Money, Details, The Sporting News, Guideposts, The Detroit Free Press, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Formerly with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Rank worked for Sports Illustrated during the 1996 Olympic Games. In addition to extensive location shooting in North America, Rank has also completed successful shoots in France, Spain, Romania, Costa Rica and Brazil. He has assisted legendary National Geographic photographer Joe McNally. In 2007, Rank was honored with a first place award in documentary photography by the New York Association of Black Journalists. A gallery in Paris subsequently offered prints of the award-winning image, from the funeral of music legend James Brown. Rank holds a Master of Science in photography from Syracuse University, where he was an adjunct professor of graphic design. He was also awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from the University of Georgia.

Jeremy Cowart - www.jeremycowart.com

"Through Jeremy's Remarkable eye for beauty and Jena's equally descriptive words, Hope in the Dark allows us to visit the people of Africa, realize their strength, imagine ourselves in their struggles and wrestle with the realities of their world." - DONALD MILLER (AUTHOR, BLUE LIKE JAZZ)

Jeremy Cowart and Jena Lee have brought an orphaned land and it's people into focus. This collection of stunning images and insightful descriptions offers a chance to be transformed by the collision of fragile humanity, breathtaking landscapes, vibrant cultures and the cruel and careless effects of poverty, all the while exposing the hope that outshines the dark. This book is full of beautiful, intelligent, creative people and their stories." - DAN HASELTINE (LEAD SINGER, JARS OF CLAY)

Gaston Carrio - www.gastoncarrio.com

Gaston Carrio was born and raised in the vibrant city of Buenos Aires, Argentina; a city with profound European influences in art, music, and architecture. At an early age, he recognized a soothing passion for drawing and sketching. The creative process was challenging, yet rewarding in a way as it allowed him to express his ideas without any boundaries. It allowed him to reach a level of satisfaction and fulfillment that he had never acquired before. At this point, he decided to become an architect.

He obtained his Bachelor degree in Architecture while living in Argentina from Universidad de Belgrano. Following graduation in 2001, he received both a scholarship to continue his Post Graduate Studies and the opportunity to work as an Assistant at the Faculty of Architecture at Ball State University in Indiana. After approximately two years of involvement within the program, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to begin working for an AIA Award Winning Architecture Company where his design focus has been on international projects.

As he has continued to be inspired through architecture, a new avenue for expression has emerged, painting. He is a self taught, self-representing artist. Gaston Carrio currently lives and works in Atlanta.

Jennifer Jenkins - www.jenniferjenkins.org

Jennifer was born on January 23rd 1977 in Concord, California into a military family and so began her travels. But if pressed to choose a place of origin, she would adopt central Pennsylvania where she completed her high school and undergraduate educations. In 1999 Jennifer graduated from the Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. degree in Life Science, filling the next several years with work in the biotech industry in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2003, she relocated to Savannah, Georgia where she received her MFA in Fibers from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her current drawings and mixed-media works are emblematic of her interests in repetition, frequency and odd bodies. Jennifer currently works as an adjunct professor in the printmaking department at the Savannah College of Art & Design.

Jennifer received two artist grants to attend the residency program at the Vermont Studio Center in January 2006 and December 2007. She is a recipient of the Combined Merit Fellowship (2003) and the Nancy N. Lewis Endowed Scholarship (2005) awarded by the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her artwork is held in private collections in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in addition to the permanent collection of the Savannah College of Art & Design.

Lori-Gene - www.lorigene.com

Lori-Gene has exhibited throughout the United States, in Europe, Scandinavia and Central Asia. Galleries and museums that have exhibited her work include the Imatran Taidemuseo in Finland, Sierra Nevada College in Nevada, Galeria del Auditorio Raul Bailleres in Mexico City, Mexico, Grove Gallery in La Jolla, California, Zenith Gallery in Washington DC, and The Contemporary Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Her work is collected worldwide. Institutional collections include the Art Museum in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, AL, and Sankt Ansgar Gymnasium in Hamburg, Germany. Corporate Collections include King & Spalding, AT & T Corporation, Hilton Hotel, Easton OH, Four Seasons Hotel, Atlanta, GA, and Taylor Mathis Corporation. She is represented in numerous private collections.

She has received many grants and awards, including residencies in France, Uzbekistan, the Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia, and the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada.

In her current work, the Virtuosi series, Lori-Gene investigates motion, sight and sound. The concept for this series began during her artist residency at the Banff Centre, where she perceived a close relationship among artists’ goals in different disciplines. Returning to the U.S., she created a body of drawings based on that vision. Her work caught the attention of composer Thierry Pécou and cellist Silvia Lenzi, who granted Lori-Gene a residency in France to explore the relationship of sound and color, and create the art for their internationally published CD cover. During this residency, she exhibited her work in Paris and in Pelvoux, France. Lori-Gene also created the artwork for CDs published by ACA Digital Recording and Sir Fir Enterprises.

Lori-Gene served on the faculty at Georgia Perimeter College with distinction, winning the President’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 1996. She was awarded tenure in 2001. She left that position to pursue studio art full-time in 2003. Lori-Gene continues her educational outreach by presenting drawing workshops, performances, and lectures internationally, often accompanied by
pre-recorded or live music.