Maxfield Bala is a 22 year old multi disciplined artist from the San Francisco bay area. Bala’s Artwork can be found internationally through mediums including, large scale murals, fine art gallery exhibits and graphic design projects. Bala’s style and medium use is highly versatile yet striking characteristic in its nature. However, his most notable pieces stem from high imaginative characters adorned in high color and detail.
Marc Anthony and Ali Palmatier have merged their visions to create The Green Palette Community Center in midtown Kingston, NY. The space includes an indoor treehouse, DJ booth, puppet theater, large work tables, wood shop, city flower garden, pottery wheel and kiln, and an assortment of materials to create art with.
The Green Palette Community Center provides workshops, classes, exhibitions, and community outreach activities in a fun, welcoming, and supportive atmosphere. Their goal is to bring the creative process to interested individuals and groups of all ages and backgrounds, and to empower people to share their voice and vision to bring meaningful change into their lives and into their communities.
In a career spanning over forty years, performance artist Linda Mary Montano (b. 1942) has created works in a variety of forms that explore the possibility of eliminating the distinction between art and life by creating videos, books, objects from past performances, live performances, workshops/teaching and spiritually deep ways of bringing sacred truths to her own daily life and the lives of others.
Ori Alon is an artist, writer, teacher and a father of three. He lives in Beacon NY and besides running the Center for Supportive Bureaucracy as an Executive Empowering Clerk he writes a postage stamps comics collection, The Magic Bagel children’s book series, a Board member of Menschwork and founder of Alfassi Books community publishing house.
http://www.supportivebureaucracy.org/
G. Riley Johndonnell (aka ‘Uncle Riley’) is an artist, activist and Optimist who creates works of art which intend to generate positive energy. He co-founded UMEWE Inc. (you-me-we), a social benefit art and design collaborative, which creates civic works and new opportunities for collaboration among artists and communities.
As a participating O+ Festival artist, Uncle Riley (and UMEWE) will present three projects: 1) “INT-O Yellow” – a color-based platform developed in collaboration with Pantone for artists to make a positive social impact, 2) “Happy Spots” – Optimistic public art and physical spaces for PDH (Public Displays of Happiness) and 3) The (P)optimism Shoppe @ 622 Broadway in midtown Kingston, where all are welcome to explore and join ‘Optimism’ the art movement.
JESS X CHEN is a multi-disciplinary artist/activist, filmmaker and poet. Her work exposes narratives of diasporic time travel, intimacy and collective protest by connecting the traumas between the queer and colored body and the body of the Earth. She is a member of the Justseeds Artists Co-operative and a teaching artist at ImMEDIAte Justice, an organization that amplifies the voices of girls in marginalized communities to produce films and murals that speak their truth. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, her artwork has appeared in the The LA Times, The Huffington Post, The UN Human Rights Council and on indoor and outdoor walls throughout the US. Her films have screened at the Asian Cinevision Diversity Screening at the New York Times, and she has performed her poetry on stages, TEDx conferences, backyards and rooftops nationwide. Through film, mural-making, poetry and youth art education, she is working toward a future where migrant and indigenous youth of color see themselves whole and heroic, on the big screen and the city walls & then grow up to create their own.
Rebecca R. Rojer is a filmmaker based in Kingston, NY. Her short film ASHLEY/AMBER premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011 and has since screened around the world. More recently, she directed THE SCHOOL CLOSURE PLAYBOOK, a video essay about the privatization of public schools in Chicago. The film premiered online at Jacobin Magazine, where Rebecca served as multimedia editor, and screened on Chicago public television. Rebecca also works as a freelance web designer and illustrator under the moniker Beccatron.
https://vimeo.com/171181266/2f0ac5fb9e
I am a 9 year old artist. I am a girl, who lives in Woodstock and goes to St. Joseph’s in Kingston. I have been inspired by the artwork that I have seen.
Andy Monk, Liam Robert and Liz Fernandez have been working to develop a series of socially engaged workshops and activities to address issues of social justice. For their upcoming project at the O+ Festival, participants will collaborate to make knit and crocheted rainbow blankets for homeless and at-risk LGBTQ youth.
The goal of the project is to raise awareness about the disproportionate levels of homelessness among queer youth. The activity of making blankets together provides an initial point of connection that supersedes differences among individual participants. This creates a safe space to engage with each other about the social injustices affecting the LGBTQ community.
The project is designed to be accessible to people of all skill levels from beginners to those more advanced. They will be teaching beginners how to knit and crochet through instructional workshops during the festival.
Camilla Ha is a multidisciplinary artist who combines sound, animation, painting, sculpture, and food to create immersive installations and performances. She is currently based in Manhattan and the Hudson Valley.
https://vimeo.com/100354270
