Photography

Cosmos Best in Show with credit for base painting of Leonid Afremov

Perspective Image Curated into Black Box Gallery Exhibit

Award Winners

Artist Statement

Blessed are the weird people: poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, troubadours for they teach us to see the world through different eyes. -Jacob Nordby

In 2020–2021, as I continued to hone photography skills, I explored the new interest of creating digital abstract art. My curiosity was piqued while applying various software applications on photographs that resulted in bold, colorful abstracts. My abstracts are layers upon layers. Sometimes, I see one of my photographs and know exactly where to take it. Sometimes, I twist and turn to an unexpected destination. This year, I explore impressionistic painting in flor-art (flora art).

I love invigorating my art with vibrant colors. My childhood homes were plain, but I wasn’t, painting sky blue window frames and crafting faux pink roses. Now, I either bring or find together palettes of colors to abstract, such as blending a blood red, shiny cup with glowing orange drinking glass or discovering magical colors of the world around me in nature, décor, and my amateur acrylic and watercolor painting.

I am an ever emerging, experimental, contemplative artist who explores a terrain of a child’s strewn toys, mediating the intersections of photography, digital media, and, sometimes, painting, mine and others, in ever-expanding ways of understanding and evolving art.

I push boundaries to inspire others to fearlessly tell their story or find their creative outlet. I create, hoping you see my life and art as an invitation to see new possibilities of diversely engaging each other beyond the discouraging words, poor health, marginal finances, or loss of life. Take a breath. Stay a moment. Tell me your story. Find refuge in my art, and feel the kaleidoscope of impact, inspiration, rest, energy, play, delight, comfort every time you find your place in it in the frame of your daily life.

Artist Craft

Every artist was first an amateur. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Y. Hope Osborn’s journey as an author and artist began in childhood from a 110mm camera to crafting, drawing, décor, and writing that amazed elementary teachers. An MA with a 4.0GPA in Professional and Technical Writing included valuable lessons in design, software application, and assignments using photography. Through all these mediums she experimented with color, composition, and communication.

Hope has made her life experience work for her. She believes if you are an artist something in your life proves it, regardless of medium.

Hope is a freelance writer, editor, and artist residing in Little Rock, Arkansas, US. She publishes stories on botanica to educate and entertain and writes about personal traumas to encourage and empathize. She photographs the riches of life’s landscapes, digitally abstracts photographs for imagination’s realms, and paints photographs in tones of impressionism.

By God’s grace, the last three years she was awarded in solo and group exhibits, local and international competitions, and publications in both writing and art, sometimes in concert.

Despite disabling health, she is tenacious about living fully and productively, growing a year-around, patio garden; loving on rowdy cat Isobel; enjoying the comfort, camaraderie, and spirit of her church family; and trying to hold fast to a God who continually holds fast to her. Among these she blooms in seeking elusive great Captures, expressing reality and imagination that captivates, inspires, or informs while enriching lives.