All Artists

Cookie Ashton received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Texas Christian University with additional education at the Centro Bellas Artes in Maracaibo, Venezuela; the Instituto de Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; the Glassell School in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas; Les Illusiones School in Les Cerqueux, France; Parsons School of Design in Paris, France; the University of London–Chelsea Art School and the Slade School of Art  in London, England; as well as private instruction in Paris, France; and Denver, Colorado. Her award-winning work has been exhibited in North and South American and Europe.

Kate Baldock grew up in Oxbow, North Dakota, and had a passion for art and fashion from a young age. After spending years in other fields of work, she finally followed her dream to become an artist. She specializes in acrylic painting on canvas using playful colors, imaginative line, texture and a fresh, contemporary style. She enjoys creating large-scale, modern works for homes and businesses and bringing joy to others through art.

Elizabeth Becker works primarily in watercolor. She is drawn to the spontaneity and immediacy of this medium which has taught her to be present in the moment, relinquish control and embrace imperfections. Her paintings are an exploration of emotion, the human condition and her spiritual connection to nature. Emotional release and expressive experimentation with water are important to her process.

She works intuitively, allowing colors to bleed together and slowly bloom. Through evolving layers and abstractions, she hopes to capture the elusive, transcendent essence of her subjects. She believes the use of abstraction gets us beyond appearances and closer to the way things truly are.

Lara Brooke, born in in 1989 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, displayed a passion for art from an early age. Her childhood was marked by innate creativity and a love for painting, which quickly became her preferred means of expression. Encouraged by her early success, she pursued her artistic interest academically, studying art history and studio art. During a detour into the fashion industry, she developed an appreciation for the intersection of art, design and culture. As a multifaceted artist and art advisor whose career has been marked by her dual passion for creativity and curation, she is known for her distinctive approach, blending her backgrounds in art and fashion with the dynamic influences of Miami’s eclectic culture.

Claudette comes from a large family filled with artistic talent. The ninth of 11 children, she held a paintbrush in her hand from the time she could walk. She studied at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California; the San Francisco Art Institute and the Gerrit Reitveld Art Academy in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In Amsterdam she learned to mix the old with the contemporary. Although her colors are muted, Claudette uses more than 85 of them in each of her works. She enjoys painting people as they are difficult and provide a narrative quality to her art. However, even when she paints a pattern there is a story behind it. To add modern qualities to her work, she paints more loosely in some areas while leaving other areas more representational.

Colio was raised in Kazanlak, Bulgaria. At age 13, he was sent to a school for fine arts, securing one of the few coveted spots available for the truly talented, despite his parents’ lack of political connections in what was, at that time, communist Bulgaria. He was later chosen solely on merit to attend the College of Fine Arts. Upon graduation, he went on to the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. After the fall of communism, Colio was able to leave Bulgaria and support himself through his art in the West. His works are shown throughout Europe and the United States today.

Laura Dargan grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. She is a self-taught artist who loves to experiment with different techniques and products. Each body of work she creates is an evolution of her process and is influenced by various sources of inspiration. Her work explores the interaction between unexpected color combinations and irregular shapes. Her goal is to create visual energy that is specific to the viewer. By composing designs without any suggestion of representation, each viewer has a chance to connect with the painting in their own way. Dargan’s work embodies the very idea that art is subjective.

Joe Davis is a painter, illustrator and graphic artist whose work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, among other cities. His Tokyo exhibitions include several installations with Seibu as well as the American Pop Culture Today exhibition at the Laforet Museum. Davis’ work can also be found in many collections and has appeared in publications including The New Yorker Magazine and The New York Observer. It was also featured in the film Batteries Not Included. His animation has been broadcast on Nightline and included in numerous festivals.

Elige attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for graphic art, but eventually ended up as an apprentice in the studio of fellow RFA Decor artist Robert Robinson. While Elige’s style was initially similar to Robert’s, he has now developed a unique style of his own: organic, vigorous compositions full of energy and movement. Influenced by art from Mid-century Modernism to Contemporary, Elige compares paint to clay and uses heavily laden paint that allows color to be manipulated and mixed directly on the surface of the canvas. His paintings’ surfaces are often so heavily laden with oil paint that they can take up to four months to dry.

Allison Esley is influenced by her city's unique and diverse culture. A love for both fashion and nature are evident in her paintings as color and movement drive her creativity. Fashion designers Mara Hoffman and Alexis Bittar along with artists Bruce Riley, Cassandria Blackmore and Martin Kline inspire her work.

Deborah Fine is known for her minimalist style, featured in collections from New York City to Los Angeles. Her distinctive aesthetic is often showcased in a unique grid format, effortlessly transcending spatial boundaries. She launched her career at Condé Nast honing her appreciation for high aesthetic standards at such magazines as Vogue, Glamour and Vanity Fair.  Fine's work seamlessly weaves bold, distinctive brushstrokes reminiscent of Cy Twombly and Agnes Martin. Her unique exploration of line, shape and color beautifully intersects with fashion, design and fine art, creating a captivating blend of sophistication and contemporary thought.

Lenore Gimpert graduated in 1997 from the Center for Creative Studies at the College of Art and Design and received her M.A. and M.F.A. from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Inspired in art school, she turned to abstract painting and began to experiment with different materials, slathering thick paint on canvas and texturizing it with what was at hand. Her various techniques include dripping, smearing, splattering and pouring paint on paper and canvas. Her backgrounds typically start with a black surface and progress to a bright white or other bright color. She has a strong love of history, particularly the Greek Hellenistic, Baroque and Rococo periods, and fuses the romance of these periods with a contemporary eye in her work.

Photographer Andrea Hillebrand has been combining her love of window displays, great design and architecture over the last several years to form a body of interpretive work called "Worlds Within Worlds"—magical, surreal and abstract imagery from her travels to many cities. The images are not layered, but rather reflections from the architectural elements of the street back into the window displays of some of the most talented and inspiring designers in the world.

Unexpected surprises often occur during the editing process. When the beauty of something serendipitously captured is revealed, she discovers she has created a world within a world. Original forms are transcended, and everything is reinterpreted, sparking further reflections.

Sue Irion was born in Basel, Switzerland, and studied sculpture and painting at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel. She received additional training through study trips to Europe, Asia, Africa and North America and a workshop with Allan Kaprow. Her work has been exhibited in Europe and the United States. Her “Backstreet Illusions: Outtakes and Remakes” series documents “the makings and trimmings of illusions” from the streets of urban America— present in the form of buildings, written statements in advertising and cars—and remakes those scenes to create new illusions.

T.R. Joseph grew up studying dance and performance, which led to his passion for choreography and installation artwork and continued his education at Point Park University. He ultimately began taking his live compositions and translating them onto canvas and paper. His style is best described as a bold but playful myriad of expressive shape and color that bounces out into space from the wall. He continues to find new and different ways to create relatable abstractions in space.

Jenny Kiker graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design with an illustration major/painting minor. She created Living Pattern as a way to connect herself and her audience to themselves and the still delicateness of nature. Her creative process starts with a combination of drawing from observation and imagination. She lets the subject inform where the line wants to go and how it wants to feel. Color is the emotion in her work. The ink is free to deepen and soften, just as color would in nature. 

World-renowned artist and interior designer Larry Laslo attended the Philadelphia College of Art. After graduation, he became art director at Doyle, Dane and Bernbach Advertising Agency creating illustrations for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ, Playboy and The New York Times, for which he painted and illustrated entire issues. Drawing and painting remain his favorite means of expression. He finds inspiration in nature, loves beautiful colors and is intrigued by form. Not preferring one genre to another, he can paint abstract or figurative art. He eschews mediocrity and prefers that his paintings be very minute or very large, never boring. He wants his art to provide lightness and joy.

Joon Lee’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Art Ascent Magazine, Average Art Magazine, Ballpit Magazine, Collater.al, Collage Expo, Collage Collective Co., Creative Boom Magazine, Elydue, Itisartime, Juxtapoz Magazine, Minus37, Mor.bo Magazine, Modern Weekly, Newfound Journal, Nuvo Magazine, Onbooooooom Magazine, Paradise Magazine, Rated Modern Art, Rental Magazine, SAD Magazine, Tax Collection, The Visual Voices Magazine, The Art Room and Thisaintartschool.