Best in Show

Morgan Guinessey

I am a 25 year old Art educator and artist. I grew up in Commerce, Texas and moved to Tampa in 2023 after graduating with my Art degree. I am primarily a painter and love to paint with acrylics, but also experiment with oils and watercolor+ink from time to time.
My artwork is a fun whimsical tale that documents the relationship between animals and fantasy. From snails that have houses rising from their shells, and elephants with monarch wings for ears, my goal as an artist is to take you back to when you were a child and anything was possible.

People’s Choice

Madison Lynch

I began drawing in 2021 after taking a course on Understanding Art, and had the privilege of studying with Kevin Grass at St. Petersburg College in Clearwater until the spring of 2024.
The patience, attention to detail, and quiet of the studio classes had me hooked. I learned to love the struggle of working in charcoal and then in acrylic paints. I especially love capturing small details in ordinary objects – finding hidden colors in shadows and reflections makes daily life feel more interesting.
I absolutely adore the wide range of clouds we see in Florida every day and try to show the drama of those storms in my landscapes.

Technique

Dealey Dansby

My prints are drawn from the world around me. I am fascinated by nature and light, from the smallest insect to the vast sky above. My goal is to capture the feeling of a time and place to invoke an emotional response. I love the process of printmaking, taking an idea through drawing, carving, and printing. Most of my prints are created using the reductive process where each color is printed and carved from one block. I usually start with printing the lightest color, then the block is “reduced” by carving away the areas that I want to remain that color; the process is repeated layer after layer until the final color is applied, leaving a destroyed block.

Storytelling

Frank Batista

Frank G. Batista (1987) is a visual artist (painter) and Christian pastor in Havana CUBA. He studied painting at the professional academy of visual arts “El Alba” in the city of Holguín and theology at the Theological Seminary “Los Pinos Nuevos”.

For 8 years he has dedicated himself with his wife Ari and daughter Melissa who are also visual artists to planting the PUENTE church. His faith and art are intrinsically related. In addition to being a painter, he is a photographer, filmmaker and provides spaces for talks, conferences and artistic creation workshops.

He is convinced that making art is one of the ways of loving others.