Inaugural Beats and Brushes Exhibit
We are excited to unveil this new show in our annual exhibit series! Our inaugural Beats and Brushes exhibit features four artists of color: Christine Samad, Leilah MarLee, Quanel D, and Russel Samad. This captivating exhibition blends abstract map-scapes, saturated magical realism brought to life in a 3D printed reality, with provincial decay photography to bring forward distinctive perspectives on shared experiences living in Central Florida. We hope you will join us for these exciting exhibit programs!
Opening reception: June, 11, 2021 at 6:00pm
LO-FI FESTIVAL AND COMMUNITY CELEBRATION: JUNE 19, 2021
ARTIST PANEL: JULY 8, 2021 AT 6:30PM
SATURDAY SHENANIGANS: JULY 17, 2021 AT 10:00AM
GALLERY TALK WITH AMANDA: JULY 29, 2021 AT 11:00AM
ART AFTER DARK: JULY 31, 2021 AT 6:00PM (ORDER YOUR TICKETS HERE)
Christine Samad
Christine Samad was born in Long Island, New York, and moved to Florida in 2003. She uses her experiences and upbringing to fuel her artwork and community work. Christine was in foster care at a very young age, and mental health issues severely impacted her life. She was retraumatized in foster care. Despite the challenges Christine faced at a young age, she motivated myself to go to college and find joy in connecting with and helping others. She pursued a degree in education and became an elementary teacher in 2010. She has always had a love of art, and I began to pursue painting after writing and illustrating her first children’s book, Queens that Say Please, in 2018. Ms. Samad continues to find joy and use art to express herself and her imagination. She writes poetry to empower herself and others and has published original art and poetry books. Sharing her story and connecting with others has helped her develop into a strong, compassionate artist.
Christine creates art under The Pigcowtopus Project, a movement meant to inspire the creative creature within all of us. She uses bold colors and lines in her imaginative artwork. Christine currently experiments with Posca Paint Pens, acrylic paint, watercolor, mixed media, and painting on different surfaces, in addition to digital art. Each time she switches between mediums, she says she learns something new about herself and uses the new skills she develops in one medium to create in the new mediums. Christine loves to illustrate the spirits of nature and how humans connect with nature and each other. Nature has a healing power and connecting to nature helps her develop as a person and an artist. Christine connects her art to writing poetry and deliver messages about self-awareness and mental and emotional health. She draws from life experience, being in foster care and her work with the community. She leans into vibrant colors, bold lines and expressive concepts to inspire others and start a conversation about emotional health.
Leilah MarLee
Leilah MarLee is a native of Lakeland Florida, and started her journey in art young. She always enjoyed painting and being creative. Her mother and Grandmother were very creative women and she takes after them both. She began taking art seriously and started learning art and photography when she was in high school. She is currently in university pursuing a degree in the arts at Polk State College. She hopes to have a career in Art Therapy to help people utilize the creative process to explore self-expression and find new ways to gain personal insight and develop new coping skills.
Leilah says, “I am a painter. I always say that I do not draw and I do not know how to draw." Painting and Photography are my things.” Leilah’s mom always says that she is just like her grandmother, a collector of many things and skills. When Leilah is painting or taking pictures she feels they tend to mirror her moods. She recollects, “you can tell how I was feeling on the day I took that shot.” Leilah is currently focused on Light Study and the way that lighting can change perspective on the things normally considered uninteresting or imperfect. Her light bulb photos are a good example, a person doesn’t look at a lightbulb throughout the day and think “oh my gosh, that’s a beautiful light bulb” because that’s weird; or her photos or rust or broken widows, a person naturally assumes that those are ugly and need to be fixed. But Leilah likes to challenge the way we see “the broken”. The photos she takes are the things she sees everyday, trash on the side of the road or a honey bee sitting on a flower. Leilah MarLee wants the unseen to become the seen
Quanel D
Quanel D was born June 16, 1992 in Winter Haven, Florida. But he is a native of Lakeland, Florida. In childhood, some inspiration for his art was via the imagination and even a kindergarten teacher who once said to his mother, "when the other children are drawing stick figure, this child draws shape and forms.... your forte will be art!". As time progressed, he took art classes through public school and even private classes to better hone in on the craft. Quanel received his diploma from Harrison School of the Arts in 2011 and in 2018 he graduated from University of South Florida, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts degree with certificates in Art History and Business. Professionally, Quanel has done several art exhibitions and commissioned work in the Central Florida Region.
Quanel believes, “creating something out of nothing is the fundamental of our very existence. Our universe as a whole was created out of nothing therefore anything can made out of something.” His work’s main objective is to explore abstract concepts; other additives are use of compositions, color, contrast, form, unity, and 2D/3D components that is a important part. Satellite views of interesting places all over the world and decorative patterns are essential as well. Quanel wants to make an impact in his community, the world, and ultimately his own life and others.
Viewers of all ages can enjoy the energy injected in his work, which he considers an extension of his identity, character, and being. He wants audiences to start a conversation and to be engulfed in an open window to his escapades.
Russel Samad
Russel Samad was born in Toronto, Canada and grew up in Florida. His passion is in the arts and technology where he enjoys fusing what he has learned about each. From a young age, he took up sculpture and started creating with wood and metals to recycle every-day items around him into art and adding small electronic details to enhance the overall piece. Education around art was done in high school to learn principles of both 2D and 3D art. His love of technology and learning about mechanical movements led to taking several mechanical engineering courses at USF to strengthen his understanding of how materials work together and how to make them stronger. This led to an interest in 3D modelling and printing where he was self-taught how to model in 3D via traditional mouse and keyboard as well as in virtual reality. He runs several 3D printers at home with most of them being hand built and modified to suit different purposes. Russel and his wife, Christine, enjoy painting and creating outside in nature and can usually be found live painting in local parks. They also enjoy setting up their pop up gallery at local markets and fine arts festivals where they tell the stories of each painting and their journey to where they are now.
Russel and Christine create art under the Pigcowtopus Project, a movement meant to inspire creativity within everyone. When people stand back and admire the pieces made, they can feel the vibrancy and warmth and get sucked into the worlds being created. Russel has dabbled in creating these worlds virtually and have fun traversing the wilderness and looking at everything from different scales and perspectives. His work brings creatures and concepts to life and transport them into reality. Russel has been using different 3D modelling and printing techniques followed by re-sculpting the pieces using torches and manual tools to get the appropriate effects. Some pieces are unpainted to show the natural medium underneath, and some are painted to show the vibrancy of the original art.