Vera Bennett
I have been drawing since a very young age, about three or so. However, I never formally started painting until my ninth grade year at Cushing Academy. Generally these paintings feature still life or flowers; the style being realism or as real as I can get it while giving the image a sense of emotion. As much as I enjoy painting, I do not restrict myself to one medium or subject genre. Outside of painting I draw a lot, both with pencils and digitally to the computer. In my personal works I tend to focus on a more "cartoon" style because I aspire to be an animator when I graduate college. This is where my inspiration comes from; the desire to see my art in motion or to breathe life into art makes me strive to continue drawing and painting, and as a result I am constantly improving.

John Callahan
Art has the ability to express the human condition and the anguish of man as he inevitably is forced against the boundaries of society and his environment. I love this unique characteristic of art. This capacity to convey such incredible beauty and yet describe the anguish of reality has led me, in recent years, to become a better artist. As an artist, I have been drawn to more stylistic drawing and painting, although I still enjoy realism and the beauty that accompanies that style of work. In my artwork, I see the anguish of mankind and the magnificence of the world that surrounds him.

Diana Chung
I have always enjoyed art and it has been my favorite hobby. I had done mostly drawing and painting, so fused glass was unfamiliar to me. However, the more glass I made, the more I was attracted to this art. I found inspiration in the pictures around me; food pictures on restaurant menus especially motivated me to make dishes that actually contain food made out of glass. My biggest goal was to create glass pieces that seem as real as possible. Therefore, I frequently use tack fusing to give a 3D texture and make the pieces more interesting and lively. I have so much fun creating art pieces by using fused glass and sand blasting because there is no standard method or limitations, only infinite creativity and innovation exist. 

Lauryn Hunter
The pieces I made for this show are by glass fusing. I have made a variety of things, such as masks, glass panels, and sushi dishes. My inspiration for these pieces came from the help of my instructor, Mr. Johnson, as well as all of the options that were available for me to create. In the past I worked with paint (oils and watercolors), pottery, raku, sculpture, and a bit of stencil making. My work reflects who I am as a creative person, but also how I am emotionally. My work allows me to relieve my stress and also to just have fun.

Alex Krasowski
My medium is photography. The reason why I love photography is because I love having the ability to capture a particular moment in time. I always find it fascinating and eye-opening to see something from someone else’s perspective, and I hope that when people view my work they can enjoy seeing things from my point of view. Daytime landscapes and other outdoor scenes that overlook a large view are my favorite things to capture with a camera. One of my favorite activities is traveling to new places, and photography allows me to capture moments in various locations that I otherwise would not be able to remember in such detail. I like to think that when people view my pictures, they can simply appreciate their beauty and maybe even see the subject in a different way. When I take a picture of something that catches my eye, my main goal is for it to come out as an image that one can observe an infinite number of times and still appreciate, either by being able to find something good about it to admire each time or just appreciating it for its attractiveness. For black and white photography I use my 35mm Nikon N2020 and develop the pictures myself in a darkroom; for digital photography I use a Canon EOS Digital Rebel or a Canon PowerShot SD500.

Peter Law
I work with silver, mainly by force. I have always wanted to use something a little more exotic like titanium, but not yet. The two pieces I have made for this show, however, are mixed media. My flower has a cast bronze base and a forged copper iris flower that has been silver-plated. My chain mail tie is made up of copper and sterling silver. My inspiration comes from the world around me and the world within me. I try to keep away from everyday style and keep to my own style, but I will always incorporate geometrical precision into my work.

Julia Lin
The first time I knew I loved art was when I was in kindergarten when I read a children’s book that introduced paintings from the 1500s and 1600s. In the book, there was a painting of a goddess and angels dancing in the forest. It caught my eye because of how the painter portrayed the silhouette. Each figure related to each other by its posture and expression. I have always been intrigued by images from magazines, children’s books, and television. They gave me a lot of inspiration, and art has always been my passion. When I was 13, I came to Cushing Academy’s Summer Session, where teenagers from all over the world worked with different media in a number of state-of-the-art studios. I wanted to be able to do creative work like these students, so I decided to come to Cushing Academy. Throughout these three years at Cushing Academy, I have developed new skills in a number of media: oil painting, silversmithing, and pottery. I have done many sketches, too. I am really happy to have this opportunity to exhibit my work in New York. This show might be the chance to discover new passions and express them with confidence.

Leslie Ott
Growing up, art was always around me. Everyone in my family seemed to have a talent, but it took me a long time to find mine. Photography came as an accident. The summer of 2007 I took a trip to Ghana and witnessed a truly beautiful world – a world that I felt needed to be captured. So it started: I needed to capture everything. Now I’ve narrowed everything down to the things that I understand the least because those confused moments are often the most beautiful or at least the most understandably awkward. The people around me now are the reasons that I’ve kept up this new-found passion of mine and I don’t ever plan to stop seeing and capturing the beautiful/awkward moments in life.

Haley Pickford
Creativity and art have always been a huge part of my life. When I was younger I always enjoyed doing arts and crafts in my spare time. As I got older I began to expand my artistic horizon from construction paper, scissors and glue, to photography, pottery, and glass. My background in photography helped me to learn about color and tone. Last year I experimented with pottery which helped me to understand shape and design. The knowledge that I gained through these media helped me to become successful in the art of glass.

Before coming to Cushing for my sophomore year I had no experience with glass, but I was excited to try it. I love color, and glass is a material that comes in a wide array of vibrant hues. I learned the techniques quickly and used my knowledge of color and shape to create things with bright geometric and eye-catching designs. I am inspired by my love of color. I enjoy playing around with unusual shades and positioning them in different ways. I love color combinations that are found in nature, but I do have a lot of fun creating my own palettes. I enjoy making art using the fundamentals of color, pattern, and repetition because I believe that they create a visual interest as well as an exciting and unique end result.

Gaby Skok
Last year as my relationship with photography deepened, a photojournalist and role model of mine said, “I don’t fight with my fists anymore. I fight with my camera.” His words sold me into my trade forever. He saw photography not as an art, but as an empowerment, a silent weapon against the inner war that is expressing oneself through pictures. In the photographer’s battle to capture and retell, I find that remaining at odds with one’s subject is critical. How can anyone produce anything of worth without a struggle? To me, art is little more than the artist’s shout in the crowd of hushed self-expression. A picture is a fleeting renegade, your own personal riot against whatever suppresses you most. By fighting with your camera, you’re more than an artist, you’re free.