Category: Art

Michaela Weiss: Michaela started her aerial journey in 2016. After her first silks class she was hooked. While silks remained her first love, she has also taken up Lyra/aerial hoop, hula hoop, aerial hammock and dabbles with pole arts. She received her Nimble Arts aerial silks teaching certificate in February 2020, and her CirqFIT Lyra certification in April 2021. Michaela has continued sharing her love for aerial by teaching, leading and creating aerial opportunities for students both in Kingston and Connecticut.

Amanda Panzer:
Amanda has been in love with circus arts ever since she took her first aerial silks class in 2013. She has been training with Hudson Valley Circus Arts in Kingston for over 8 years and continues to pursue aerial silks, hammock, lyra, hula hoop, and all matters circus as her passion project. In winter 2020, she received her teacher training with NECCA (New England Center for Circus Arts) as an intro level aerial arts instructor. That same spring, she also trained with CirqFIT to receive her Lyra teacher training. Since then, she has been working as client coordinator for Hudson Valley Circus Arts and advertently sharing her love and passion for all things circus. She hopes to inspire other folks to give aerial arts a try, as they are for every one and every body!

Felipa Gaudet: Felipa’s first experience on fabric was at her friend’s birthday party at HVCA in 2016. From the moment she inverted on the knotted silks, it was true love! As a yoga teacher, Felipa was originally interested in learning and teaching ways to interact with the fabric in a yoga-type practice, leading her to complete a 50-hour Aerial Yoga Teacher Training at OM Factory in NYC in 2017. When she first began her aerial journey, Felipa struggled with the core, pull up and grip strength required for an aerial practice. However, consistent practice with the hammock steadily built those muscle groups and gave her the strength she needed for more challenging endeavors. Not long after she began aerial yoga, Felipa became addicted to the cirque elements of the practice, finding them both exhilarating and wildly fun. Drops, wind-ups and belays quickly became her favorite things, especially when stacked and strung together. In 2018, Felipa returned to OM Factory to complete the 16-hour Advanced Aerial Yoga Teacher Training, where she learned to teach advanced, cirque-related skills and tricks. While hammock is her first love, she has also been enjoying learning split silks and Lyra at Hudson Valley Circus Arts and discovering the cross over between the apparatuses. In April of 2024, Felipa received her Lyra certification from CirqFIT, where she learned extensive teaching and spotting techniques. In addition to the physical and emotional benefits, Felipa enjoys the neural plasticity and proprioceptive gains that come from learning sequences and new ways of moving her body in space. Felipa loves teaching and practicing in the supportive Hudson Valley Circus Arts community, where people encourage one another and celebrate their accomplishments together. She is excited to help folks begin their aerial journey or bring their practice to the next level!

Rakel Stammer is a Danish interdisciplinary artist, painter, puppeteer, printmaker, writer and radio host, living in Kingston , NY, who’s practice addresses systems of power through an amalgamation of symbolism and political theory. Her visual art and writings has been exhibited and published in Sweden, Russia, Mexico, Spain, Italy, the US and Denmark. Besides puppeteering in Snake In The Boot Collective and Arm Of The Sea, Rakel is also an alumni of The Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale and has taught at Krabbesholm Folk College, and lectured at Södertorn University in Stockholm, Sweden.

Short: The recipe for Medukha involves fermenting the antics of a rock band in a pitcher of third culture confusion. Add Polish and Ukrainian folk melodies to taste. The resulting solution should be rich in Eastern European post-folk psych-rock chaos.

Long: The recipe for Medukha involves fermenting the antics of a rock band in a pitcher of third culture confusion. Add Polish and Ukrainian folk melodies to taste. Medukha uses ethnographic recordings, tokens of our homelands, the languages we’ve grown up with, and the folk music conventions we’ve been exposed to as an emotive vehicle for interrogating the immigrant experience: a wedding song from Southeastern Poland with patriarchal undertones becomes a curbside conversation with a bird, a Ukrainian spring song is fractured into an unrecognizable ambient soundscape, a song with disputed origins becomes fertile ground for a new language.

“Medukha’s music resolves the following contradictions without effort: grief and playfulness, historical depth and currency, professionalism and vulnerability, bedroom lo-fi and Eastern European folk. To anyone with Eastern European heritage who is alive in today’s culturally ambiguous globalized world, this music is especially healing.”
– Matt Genkin of the band You Want Milk
https://msha.ke/medukha

David Held (b. 1954, NY] is an interdisciplinary artist based in New Paltz, NY. He received his degree from the Center for Media Studies from SUNY Buffalo. He has exhibited and performed in exhibitions at numerous exhibitions including the International Computer Music Conference and the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. His audio work was also featured in Nam June Paik’s video on Merce Cunningham entitled “Merce by Merce by Paik”. He was honored with a Mid-Hudson Arts Grant and a NYS Council of the Arts Grant. Held’s work has been written about in MIT’s Journal of Computer Music.
makingwithheld.com
www.youtube.com/@makingwithheld

I like to make art that connects with others on the topics that I find painful and isolating.

James Moffitt, aka YAMES, is a Buffalo native and co-founder of Pine Apple Company, an artist collective and gallery/gift shop located in Buffalo’s Allentown neighborhood. Art has been a passion of YAMES’ since a young age, leading him to study at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts and then at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. YAMES has grown into a multidisciplinary graphic artist who specializes in hand-painted signs, gold leaf, typography, illustration, murals, and more.
You can see his work on businesses throughout Buffalo, including Hydraulic Hearth, Sato Ramen, Larkin Square, Detailer’s Barbershop and National Grid’s Terminal Station B. In 2020, YAMES completed two mural projects with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Public Art Initiative, and has assisted on numerous other projects as well. The first mural titled Practice, located in Buffalo’s Cobblestone district, speaks to YAMES’ personal growth as an artist and individual. The second mural, Love Black is a collaboration with Edreys Wajed. Edreys developed the art of Love Black Boys in 2017. After the murder of George Floyd, both Edreys and YAMES shared the desire to speak out with their art. So the collaboration of Edreys’ idea and silhouette imagery with YAMES’ lettering was developed and became the mural that now stands at 712 Main Street in Buffalo. In 2021 YAMES was selected to take part in the Lowe’s 100th anniversary mural campaign at their Webster, N.Y. store. This year Yames is the recipient of two grants that will be used to grow and evolve his practice of gold leaf glass signs. The first grant is from the Andy Warhol Foundation through the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art. The second is from the New York State Council on the Arts through Arts Services Incorporated. YAMES plans to use these funds to attend workshops in brilliant glass cutting and to build out his personal art practice here in Buffalo, N.Y. with the goal of having a gallery show later in 2024.
theyames.com

Long Version: Jade Warrick, known artistically as TrashKiD, is a beacon of creativity and advocacy in New York’s Capital Region. Originally from Los Angeles, her journey has always been driven by a mission to intertwine art with social impact. Through her distinctive murals and public artworks, Warrick doesn’t just capture attention; she weaves a rich narrative of histories, personal experiences, and the intricate dance of community life. Her art initiates critical conversations around community development, healing, and artist rights, transforming urban canvases into immersive stories that urge a deeper engagement with our environments. As the visionary behind Amplified Voices, Warrick champions the empowerment of marginalized voices through art and wellness programming, creating a platform for healing and expression. Her role as a host for PBS’s AHA! (A House for Arts) and her impactful tenure as the Curator of Public Art and Placemaking in Troy, NY, further cement her commitment to embedding art into the fabric of community life. With over a decade of experience in arts education, public art production, and placemaking, alongside her dedication to curriculum design and program development, Warrick stands as a formidable figure in the art and education sectors. Her work not only adorns spaces but also stirs a profound emotional and social resonance, leaving indelible marks on individuals and communities alike. Beyond her creative endeavors, Warrick is an ardent arts advocate, believing fervently that the vitality of a thriving creative ecosystem lies in society’s recognition and investment in the arts as a pivotal driver of economic opportunity and community revitalization. She argues for increased public and private funding for the arts, integration of arts in economic development planning, and the provision of essential infrastructure to support artists. Her advocacy underscores the art sector’s potential for driving inclusive growth and enhancing quality of life, advocating for a recognition of its value that transcends its economic impact. Short Version: Jade Warrick, known as TrashKiD, merges art and social advocacy in New York’s Capital Region. Originally from Los Angeles, she creates impactful murals and public art exploring community life, sparking conversations on development, healing, and rights. Founder of Amplified Voices, Warrick provides a platform for communities in underserved areas to express themselves through art and wellness programs. Her past role as Curator of Public Art in Troy, NY, alongside her current work with PBS’s ‘A House for Arts!’, underscores her commitment to integrating art into communities. With extensive experience in arts education and programming, her work strives to profoundly impacts individuals and communities. As a fervent arts advocate, she champions public and private investment, viewing the arts as essential for economic growth and community vitality. She advocates for funding, inclusive planning, and artist support to enhance quality of life.

Sophie Eisner (b. 1985, New York City, NY) is a visual artist working in sculpture, installation, drawing and performance. Using a combination of industrial materials (steel, concrete, wood, vinyl fabric) and traditional art media (plaster, paper, ink) Eisner explores relationships between our bodies, the built environment and emotion. She is particularly concerned with the intersection of intimacy and utility. By collapsing the familiar and the strange, her work explores poetic qualities of functional objects with playfulness and longing. Sophie Eisner has exhibited at Simone DeSousa Gallery, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Wasserman Projects, Franconia Sculpture Park, and the Wright Museum of African American History. She was the 2020 recipient of the Louise Bourgeois Award in Sculpture from Yaddo and holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.
sophieeisner.com

Chip Thomas, aka jetsonorama, is a photographer, public artist and physician who worked in a small clinic on the Navajo Nation from 1987 to 2023.  There he coordinated the Painted Desert Project which he describes as a community building effort which manifested as a constellation of murals painted by artists from the Navajo Nation as well as from around the world.

Thomas’ own public artwork consists of enlarged black and white photographs pasted onto structures along the roadside primarily on the Navajo Nation but all over the country.  His motivation is to build community while reflecting back to Navajo people the love they’ve shared with him over the years.  Thomas was a 2018 Kindle Project gift recipient and in 2020 he was one of a handful of artists chosen by the UN to recognize the 75thanniversary of the UN’s founding.   He has no formal artistic training but identifies strongly with the DIY energy of punk and hip hop.