Year: 2017

Cristina Penescu

Cristina Penescu, Scratchboard Illustrations

Cristina Penescu was born in Bucharest, Romania, 1988. Her family relocated to California when Cristina was a year old. Cristina has experimented with a variety of mediums and styles and recently has made the transition to realistic wildlife art, which she feels has always been her true calling in life.  Cristina is has had no formal training and is a self-educated artist. She has experience working in a variety of mediums, however she prefers acrylic and scratchboard. Her artwork is very detail oriented and she aims to bring the viewer an up close, intimate look at nature. She recently was accepted as a Signature Member of the world-renowned Society of Animal Artists. Cristina is also a member of Artists for Conservation and the Marwell International Wildlife Art Society.

Scratchboard is a little known medium made up of a 1/8″ masonite panel that is covered with smooth white clay and coated with a fine layer of india ink. The artist uses a sharp knife to scratch every single detail and hair by hand. A single scratchboard piece can be made up of tens of thousands of tiny scratches layered atop one another.

Matthew Brookes

Matthew Brookes, “Les Danseurs” with Introduction by Marie-Agnes Gillot, Published by Damiani, 2015

For his first book, photographer Matthew Brookes has turned his lens upon the professional male ballet dancers of Paris. Over the course of a year, he took these dancers out of their regular environment of rehearsals and performances and photographed them in a raw space in which they were allowed to explore the physicality of dance in its purest form.

This series of portraits depicts the dancers’ responses upon being asked to interpret birds falling from the sky. The introduction is by Parisian prima ballerina Marie-Agnès Gillot, who has worked with these dancers over the years and watched them grow and develop. Brookes was born in England, grew up in South Africa, and is presently based between Paris and New York.

Charles Dickens: “A Memorable Day”

Photographer Unknown, Great Expectations

“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”

–Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Johnny Milano

Johnny Milano, “Washington, DC, Cyclist”, 2016, Infra-Red Photography

“After completing a Bachelors program in Political Science at St. Joseph’s College in 2011, I continued on to the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography program at the International Center of Photography in New York City, where I completed the one year certificate program in 2012. My work has appeared in and clients include publications like Reuters, The New York Times, Newsday, Stern Magazine, Al Jazeera America, Wall Street Journal, VICE, CNN,  and the Huffington Post. I am 360 video capable and a certified FAA commercial drone operator. Have memory cards, will travel.” -Johnny Milano