2017 Individual Artist Fellows

Yolanda Chetwynd
Visual Arts: Painting

“The wandering nature of my European Jewish heritage, and my husband’s displaced Hindu family, relocated to India during the 1947 partitioning, has resonated strongly throughout my life and in my paintings.”

Phillip Bannowsky
Literature: Poetry

“In some ways, ‘Jacobo’ recapitulates experiences I had teaching English in Lebanon from 2002 to 2004, as well as insights extracted from Ecuador, Delaware, Chrysler, and growing up itinerant.”

Arden Bardol
Visual Arts: Crafts

“A lot of my work tends to be a combination of something very structured, whether it be a circle or a square, that then has very flowing elements to it that add a softness and a grace.”

Gitu Barua
Literature: Fiction

“Where earlier, I used only my memories and creativity, now I speak to police and physician friends to include facts in my fiction. I find my writing has become more focused and disciplined with this work.”

Kathryn Canavan
Literature: Creative Nonfiction

“Like the ordinary people involved on assassination night, their stories might never be told if someone doesn’t spend time unearthing facts about them from diaries and newspapers and archives and descendants.”

A.T. Moffett
Dance: Choreography

“It’s really about gathering as much information in as many different ways as possible. And because dance is our primary medium, that involves having as many first-hand experiences with movement as possible.”

Hugh Phibbs
Visual Arts: Works on Paper

“…if I were sitting making little strokes, trying to make this gradient between strong color and weak by myself, it would be nowhere near as beautiful as the water is gonna do on its own.”

Troy Richards
Visual Arts: Painting

“I built this machine, and I attached a paintbrush to it. And I was able to program some fairly complex paths. I would draw the composition out, and I would translate that to the code for the machine.”

Chad States
Visual Arts: Sculpture

“I want to transport the viewer out of the typical white-cube experience by providing an all-encompassing theatrical space. Music, lights, video, sculptural objects are all used in to create a mise en scène where the viewer becomes an active rather than passive participant.”

Beth Trepper
Visual Arts: Photography

“I’m far more concerned if I can stir the soul of even one person through my art. My success isn’t measured in money as much as in this world creating beauty and keeping beauty alive for all of us.”

Jennnifer Borders
Visual Arts: Sculpture

“There’s an overarching theme of vulnerability in my life — and people’s bodies, and our environment, mortality — so there’s that. And also a sense of the fragility of life, of the preciousness of that.” Photo credit: Walter Borders

Daniel Carunchio
Music: Solo Recital

“I just listened to it  (‘Transfigured Night,’ by Arnold Schoenberg) over, and over, and over again. I grew to really love it and to identify with certain things in it.”

Larry Kelts
Literature: Poetry

“The high I got from writing poetry was, wow, it was just so great that I couldn’t go back. And it’s still there. I’m never happier than when I’m working.”

Kathy Maas
Literature: Creative Nonfiction

“I’m very in tune with the tiny nuances of human interaction, and I think that’s where a lot of my writing springs from.”

Ray Magnani
Visual Arts: Photography

“Can I make a powerful, abstract image out of something that most people would just walk by without looking at twice? What are we seeing here? Why is that not just visually interesting but intellectually interesting?”

Terrance Vann
Visual Arts: Painting

“The overall thing I’m trying to establish with my art is something I’m calling neo-Afro-surrealism. We’ve seen so many art movements that have been spearheaded by different artists, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of genres that are attributed to African-Americans.” Photo Credit: Joe del Tufo

Aaron Wright
Literature: Playwriting

“My mom always instilled in me that you have to give, and I think in my profession, in my writing, I can’t help but give, because that’s what I’ve always been called to do.”

David Yurkovich
Literature: Fiction

“Once you become adept at doing, say, graphic novels or comics, it’s hard to wrap your mind around then writing prose, because you’re thinking, How do I tell this story in pictures and a minimal amount of words?”