Beth Haizlip - A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Beth Haizlip is a versatile and multi-talented artist.  She has been painting for many years graduating from Florida Southern College in l980 with a Bachelor of Art Degree. Working in a variety of media, Beth approaches her work with enthusiasm, skill, and vibrant colors.  Having her art work chosen for the Jacksonville Jazz poster for 2007 has been very exciting and a turning point for her career. She maintains her studio in her Orange Park home and works for the clay county art enrichment program.   Her work is at the First Street Gallery in Neptune Beach, the Village Gallery, Orange Park Town Hall and Stephanie’s Custom and Art Framing in Orange Park.

 

Grant Thornton - Grant Thornton grew up on his father's family farm in Blackshear, GA. And also in the small coastal town of St. Marys, GA. In his teen years, painting was something he did as a young boy, but never thought to exploit, despite what people suggested. He moved to Jacksonville about ten years ago and just recently decided to pick up a brush. Although he was never formally educated in the arts, he was always inspired by the ability to develop his own means and by the images that haunted his dreams. His attempt to recreate these bizarre themes often ended up in a brighter and much more playful display. He only wishs for people to see the darker suggestion behind them.

Lynn Matyi - • Participated in the Riverside Arts Festival contest several years and awarded 2nd place in 2006. • Displayed and sold work in Bungalow Artworks 2006 and European Art Garage 2005 • Commissioned work on 2 statues at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 2005-2006 • 2007 1st solo exhibit and sold half my work • Donated to the BRAIDS benefit June 2007 (live auction) and was in the top 10 works presented (piece auctioned for $1,000 ) • Jacksonville Magazine: will be in two articles in the October 2007 issue (BRAIDS and a painting in a Riverside home featured ) • 2007 December: will participate in the prestigious, invitation only art festival, 2007 Florence Biennale of Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy

Michael Cenci - Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Michael is a craftsman by trade. He has been practicing wildlife and nature photography for over 25 years. As an avid outdoorsman, his goal is to capture nature at her most defining moments. From the delicate butterfly perched on a flower, to the prehistoric gator lurking in the swamp, or the bald eagle capturing his pray, he tries to catch the essence of their being. It is his hope that those viewing his photography will see the wonder of nature through his eyes.

Monica Black - Monica was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on August 9th 1973. She moved to Jacksonville at age eleven when her family was stationed at the Mayport base. She is currently attending college at Jacksonville University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Photography. Monica is working on a body of work that consists of portraits of women; both face and/or body parts which are considered not beautiful according to society’s point of view. She feels that there is continuous pressure to be beautiful and it is everywhere around us from magazines, business brochures and billboards, to television shows and movies and that is why she chose this for her content. Her photographs are printed on watercolor paper that has a silver-based sensitizer, Liquid Emulsion, applied on it. Monica chose this process to create an organic feel and connect a realistic texture to the photographs.

 

Nicklos Richards - Nicklos Richards was born in Lexington, Michigan in 1981. Heavily influenced by the charm of this tiny fishing village, he began creating art at a very early age. Nicklos recently found an intricate finger painting in an old trunk at his mother’s house that he did in 1985, in preschool. Apparently, his teacher told his mother that he wouldn’t stop working on it until he thought it was perfect. All throughout grade school he was involved in various school activities involving the arts. His 9th grade art teacher was so impressed with his artistic abilities that he moved him to the 12th grade advanced art classes. After graduation he move to Okaloosa County, Florida with dreams of becoming a full-time artist. Working a full-time job while painting at night and on weekends kept him very busy and soon he was painting murals and custom pieces for homes. In 2002 he visited a friend living in Jacksonville who was starting a business and needed some logo work done. So impressed with the area, Nicklos decided to move here in 2003. He began working at MOJO BBQ, a blues influenced restaurant. So intrigued by the blues music he heard on the radio at work he began a musical exploration transferring the feelings of the blues into brushstrokes. MOJO Kitchen, a sister store of MOJO BBQ, opened in December of 2006 where he has over 50 original paintings displayed. In February of 2008 they will be opening MOJO Smokehouse in Fleming Island with between 50-60 brand new paintings.

Rebecca Forster - Having been born and raised in the mountains of East Tennessee, it was inevitable that as a sculptor she would be drawn to the beautiful landscape of the human body. The Smokies, though majestic in their gentle way, are only a prelude to the glory of the human form. After graduating with a BA in Art from Union University, she studied in Italy for two years at the Florence Academy of Art in order to gain a better understanding and mastery of figurative sculpting and drawing. Rebecca taught the same Academy sculpting techniques at Decosimo-Rogers Studio in Chattanooga, TN, upon her return from Florence. She married in 2006 and moved to Jacksonville, and in the last year she had a joint show with her husband at Union University, and is currently preparing for a solo exhibition at Florida School of the Arts in January 2008. Though she has no intention of completely abandoning the tried-and-true conservative techniques she learned in Italy, in this last year she has moved further and further away from a strict representation of the body and have been playing with imparting more honesty and expression on my work, yet without abstracting the figure beyond recognition.

Steve Forster - Steve was raised in central Florida and earned his AA and AS at Florida School of the Arts. He was accepted into ArtSouth, an artists’ community outside of Miami, where he taught painting and developed his own body of work. After six months there, he left for Italy where he studied oil painting at the Florence Academy of Art for two years. He moved back to the States to finish his BFA at the University of North Florida, and since graduating he has been working professionally as a painter in Jacksonville. He is applying to graduate schools and hopes to start working on his MFA in the fall of 2008. Steve finds the study of nature fascinating and how it distinctively relates to his relationship with God. Subtlety, honesty, and majesty are qualities of nature that he finds most revealing of His character. Specifically he is interested in the psychological presence light has as it passes over forms throughout environments. He has developed a personal aesthetic for dark environments and how a strong bit of light (the Spirit of God) can show us all of the possible ranges from light to dark, physically and spiritually. His work focuses on these aspects as a way to project how he feels about the subject.

Susan Paolucci