VAP 2020-Q4
Artist Biographies:
Fiona Chinkan
Fiona Chinkan lives and works in New York City. She began her signature style of drawings in 2001, as a way to accompany graffiti lettering she was exploring at the time. Over the years, she developed the lines and forms as a means to express herself and interpret the world around her.
In 2007, Fiona graduated cum laude from the University of Hartford Art School with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Visual Communication Design with minors in Photography and Art History, and moved to New York to pursue a career in graphic design.
After spending 10 years working as a digital art director in the fashion industry, Fiona decided to pursue art full-time.
She creates out of her Brooklyn studio and you can see her daily drawings at instagram.com/fionac.nyc
Ian Stone
Ian’s interests have always been deeply rooted in figurative art. With an early commitment in self-portraiture and drawing, he explored the relationship between body image and body weight, after experiencing his own journey losing 170lbs.
After growing up in Montreal, Quebec, Ian began his formal fine art studies in 2001 at the Nova Scotia Craft, Art and Design University in Halifax. In 2004 he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Printmaking. He continued his explorations with a master’s degree at Concordia University, adding painting to his visual vocabulary.
Ian’s work has been shown internationally and is in the collections of the Florida State University Museum and the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria.
His current portrait work focuses on gay/queer self-representation, masculinity and the effects of social media on portraiture.
Laura Fedorowicz
As long as Laura can remember she has been an artist, drawn to colour and design. In her childhood and teens, it was an outlet to work through traumatizing events.
Chronic illness made its entry into her life in 2010, and an eventual diagnosis of Chronic Lyme Disease altered her life completely. A wife and mom to two girls, her painting again was a way to process life as she was experiencing it. Committed to fighting for her health and her family, she found a way to balance painting, treating, and healing.
After years of ineffective therapies, Laura travelled to Germany for inpatient Lyme treatment, and is well on her way to health. She continues to paint the world she wishes to live in, bright and bold.
Laura has a Bachelor of Environmental Design at Ontario College of Art & Design University. She lives in Winona, Ontario, Canada.
Sylvie Mcclelland
Sylvie is a multi-ethnic queer artist, originally from San Diego, California and a family very focused on psychology, the arts and social justice.
In 2000, Sylvie moved to San Francisco to undertake a Dual Bachelor of Fine Arts between California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) and the University of San Francisco. In their last year of college, Sylvie’s father unexpectedly passed away and they took a break from painting.
In the interceding years, they have designed costumes for local drag and theatre events in San Francisco, explored drawing and illustration in pen and ink, and painted and fabricated stop-motion puppets for use in motion pictures and television.
Sylvie has returned to painting and now primarily focuses on creating oil paintings at their home studio in San Francisco, CA.
instagram.com/littlegreenparrot
Susan Carr
Susan graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston at Tufts University, including a semester at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, in 2003, where she had won fifth year in 1996, receiving the James Williams Page Fund Award.
Her work deals with psychological issues, the big questions concerning life and death, and reflects her life. Currently she has her second solo show up at LABspace in Hillsdale, New York.
The work here is Susan’s unique language based upon symbols that act like runes or tarot cards: the viewer is invited to interpret the images as they see fit. Susan sees this work as her own version of an illuminated manuscript with the images based on her own personal ideas and truisms.
Jessica Ashburn
Jessica is a contemporary oil painter who currently lives in a suburb of Detroit with her boyfriend and 15-year-old goldfish, Fred. She attended College for Creative Studies where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art in Fine Art and Design. She works full time in advertising as an Art Director during the day and is a full time painter at night.