View the full bodies of work, artist profiles and art pricing in the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal magazine issues. For commission and purchase inquiries, contact artists directly.
- Susan B Borgersen
- Mary Kandalian-Aslanian
- Chelsey Clammer
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
OKWe may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.
Privacy
Kerry Milligan
Collage is the technique of unpredictable, free associations, of speculation without the reins of rationality. Kerry Milligan freely uses it, as one should imagine the future: a space to be collectively designed.
At first glance, Kerry’s digital photo collages appear as surreal environments in which cityscapes, buildings, and people overlap in curious and surprising ways—a jumble of visual inputs that inspires a chaotic energy. However, as often happens when observing this wonderful associative technique, collages are much more than the sum of their tiny parts. Dwelling analytically on the details, one grasps the artist’s wit, juxtaposing seemingly random elements and exploiting forms with a prolific compositional logic. Space observatories, like caskets, hold tangible feminine objects; Las Vegas becomes a futuristic lysergic dream between nature and artificiality; store mannequins begin an uncanny, humanoid conversation.
Kerry’s technique, like her collages, also lies between the real and the imaginative, between the analog and the digital. Her collages are digital reworking of personal photographs or scans of old photo prints. The artist’s creative process involves several executive steps that lead, filter after filter, manipulation after manipulation, to a transformed, imaginative, futuristic rendering of reality—a kind of augmented surreality achieved with different layering levels. The artist’s painting practice, with which she is best known to the public, has the same approach. Spontaneity is at the basis of her natural and floral paintings, between reality and abstraction, as if they came from a dream world.
Kerry’s approach is intuitive and worthy of the Surrealist tradition. The twentieth-century Surrealists loved associating images from different sources with free associations and automatisms. Offspring of recent psychoanalysis, collage represented for them a way of using the most spontaneous, irrational, latent part of their selves, creating playful and free art. Similarly, Kerry’s collages are unpredictable and multiple. Objects from different fields, styles, and eras coexist in the same space, finding connections. Looking at her collages, one thinks about the great masters of Surrealism as Salvador Dali, who, behind every seemingly random juxtaposition, concealed symbolism, or the self-portraits dense with pregnant elements by Frida Kahlo. Kerry’s digital collages are a modern transposition of the Surrealist paintings of the past, sharing the same desire to capture the serendipity of reality, which is increasingly complex and fast-paced.
Whether she paints abstract landscapes dissolving into curvy lines and organic forms or experiments with surreal digital collages, Canadian visual artist Kerry Milligan consistently demonstrates vivid imagination and sensitivity. Her paintings are featured in national and international exhibitions and are also part of public collections. Through her experimental collages, Kerry Milligan fully embodies three magical skills for imagining the future: intuition, organization, and the ability to envision what is not yet there, like in a lucid dream.
Kerry Milligan is the Gold Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
www.kmstudioart.com
B. Fulton Jennes
After Another January Without Snow, My Husband Imagines the Last Snowfall on Earth
It’ll fall at the top of a remote mountain—a place with no sherpas,
no base camps, no frayed prayer flags flapping in the wind,
because people won’t climb mountains anymore—why bother?–…
Imagine an ordinary morning: Breakfast cups are in the sink, and you are casually chatting about the weather. Suddenly, the conversation becomes deeper: It didn’t snow this January. Will we see snow again?
B. Fulton Jennes draws from this excerpt of everyday life, an ordinary conversation with her husband, to compose a poem of extraordinary evocative power. Strong and deliberately exasperated images follow one after another to tell of climate change and environmental crisis. The pretest of an intimate talk turns into a question for the community, an urgency that is anything but private. As often happens, the most inescapable and complex issues emerge in insignificant moments. In New England, where the writer lives, there was no snow. The feeling is nostalgic: the white snowflakes seem like a distant memory. It arouses melancholy and, at the same time, anger and fear. Will normality ever return? Or is this the new normality to which we are gradually becoming used?
After Another January Without Snow, My Husband Imagines the Last Snowfall on Earth is more than a freer-flowing narrative, more than a literary experiment. It emerges from a sincere concern for the future. This eco-anxiety includes environmental perils such as global warming and melting glaciers, as well as war, nuclear power, and land and ocean pollution—a feeling of danger for the future that sprawls tentacularly across various domains.
Likewise, the composition verses move swiftly between different and dramatic images. B. Fulton Jennes writes in a fluid, energetic, and cinematic manner. In her literary production, she ranges from poems with rigid structures, such as sonnets, pantoums, and ghazals, to poems with freer compositions. The willingness to mutate and experiment is part of her creative process. In the poem, the future is represented as something catastrophic, bordering on dystopian and grotesque, using a lashing vocabulary, but the ending verses remain evocative. The final repetitive refrain is a sort of inner self-reflection, a moment of self-awareness: “We used to love the Earth. Do you remember?”
B. Fulton Jennes mixes poetry and prose, drawing on examples of contemporary novelists and poetic masters. Like George Saunders’ novels, she creates poetic fiction and streams of consciousness from a personal perspective. Poems by Dorianne Laux or Marie Howe also show affinities with her style in their ability to capture metaphysical and spiritual dimensions of everyday life.
Poet laureate emerita of Ridgefield (Connecticut), B. Fulton Jennes has also worked as an educator, introducing students to poetry and organizing workshops and readings. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and anthologies, winning numerous awards, including the recent New Millennium Award and the International Book Award. It is hard to remain indifferent to such a lucid take on collective faults, and it comes back to mind the plentiful snow we encountered as children. It differs from the plastic version children meet today in yet another dazzling amusement park.
B. Fulton Jennes is the Gold Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for writers. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
ZaHaVa Sherez
The sculptures by ZaHaVa Sherez convey a message of inner strength and radiance. They mirror human forms and the power that comes from within. ZaHaVa’s working methods engage the audience in her constantly evolving art and spirituality.
In her latest project, InBodied Light, ZaHaVa showcases sculptures made from resin and bronze. This material lends the sculptures a sense of glowing from within. The sculptures have an uneven texture and twisted shapes that create the illusion of movement, particularly upwards towards the sky. The sculptures stand proud like flourishing plants, which continue into grounded sensations that can be a gift for everyone influenced by this fast-paced society. ZaHaVa’s art transports a fluid and ever-changing calmness, like a river running through the mountains. A softness that has the power to open our perceptions and unify all the disparities we see in this world.
In this work, ZaHaVa engages with established norms embedded in today’s society—labels that separate humankind based on ethnicity, colour, and gender. She wants to visualize the message ‘we are all one’ through her sculptures. The sculptures are faceless, ageless, and gender-neutral, offering a common ground for reflection. ZaHaVa creates an open platform for asking questions, and her art provides a space for fearless collaboration and change.
Isamu Noguchi also portrayed the strength art can produce in his architecture, landscape, and lighting design. Often recognized for his lamp designs, he explored emotional expression while maintaining an element of mystery. ZaHaVa work also echnos Olgade Amaral, who creates with various materials such as textiles, paint, and metals. Olga moulds them into precious and seemingly fluid sculptures that embody a liveliness you can also witness and feel in ZaHaVa’s art pieces.
ZaHaVa was born in Argentina, raised in Israel, and lived in the United States. Since 2018, her life and work have been based in Jalisco, Mexico. ZaHaVa is a sculptor who has worked with clay, stone, and mixed media. For InBodied Light, she initially worked with clay and then cast the final pieces with resin and bronze. ZaHaVa Sherez received multiple awards; the most recent include American Women Artists, 2023 Annual Online Juried Show, 2023 Open The Salmagundi Club, London Art Biennale 2023, and Exhibizone Art Exhibitions, Diversia, Human Rights (online).
ZaHaVa Sherez is the Silver Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
www.zahavasherez.com/
Jetta Williams
When we look at kids, we see the Future in the making. And we have the power and responsibility to help that future grow to its full potential. Jetta Williams seeks to create inspiring images to visualize this concept.
A cherishing attitude toward childhood is a relatively recent phenomenon, while children were the most unprotected and vulnerable part of humanity for most of our history. In the best-case scenario, they were viewed as miniature adults, expected to contribute to family labour or adhere strictly to societal norms without consideration for their developmental needs or rights. It wasn’t before the Enlightenment that significant changes began to evolve. Until the mideighteenth century, the depiction of children was shaped by the stereotype of incomplete, imperfect small adults requiring discipline, later replaced by the viewpoint of childhood as innocence and playfulness. This resulted in countless romanticized and tender portraits of kids that prevail even today.
But in her works, Jetta steps away from the sentimental perception of the subject. The featured pieces are from the series Superhero. As the artist comments, the idea behind the series is “To show the strength that each child has and their innocence, yet they have such potential as they develop and grow into the superhero they can be. We can make or break those little dreams and how they develop simply by words and actions.” Jetta’s personages are confident and empowered, lacking the infantility and submissiveness of traditional images. The reference to the popular culture characters helps her model the opportunities of their upcoming life, and the intensive colouring supports the characters’ vitality.
The artist freely navigates between different media in her practice, with pastels being her primary tool. For these portraits, she combined them with wooden panels, which allowed her to create a contrast between the smoothness of the pastel work and the uneven surface of the panels. Drawing inspiration from the meticulous realism of renowned portraitists like Burton Silverman, Jetta imbues her subjects with a dynamic energy, reflecting the vibrancy and potentiality inherent in every child.
Jetta Williams is a self-taught artist based in Kelowna, BC, whose creative journey began under the guidance of her high school art teacher in 1984. After winning an art competition during her university years, she invested her prize money into furthering her artistic skills. While raising her children, Jetta paused her artistic endeavours but resumed her passion in 2010, delving into forensic art and portraiture. From 2012-2015, Jetta worked as a forensic artist. She became a Federation of Canadian Artists member in 2015, further solidifying her commitment to her craft. Jetta’s artistry spans various mediums, including pastels, oils, and acrylics, with a preference for capturing the human appearance. She has drawn in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Prince Rupert, BC, and Iqaluit, Nunavut, and currently lives and draws in Kelowna, BC. She is an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (Central Okanagan Chapter), the Kelowna Palette Club, and the Kelowna Painters Studio
Jetta Williams is the Bronze Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
https://www.artalive.ca
Skye Hunter
Futureless
I’ve never had a future, not one that I could see. It feels as though the eerie grey sky that looms on a day when it’s not quite going to storm follows me around. I’m not supposed to be here, and this world—my family—has never felt like they were meant for me…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
Jenna Ataras
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
https://www.jenaataras.com
Nick Currass
Portrait: Imagined Daughter
Copper and an arc of yellow pirouettes round her
left-hand eye. Chartreuse diamonds speckle, with a
hint of viridian and myrtle for her right. But the sweet
shop licorice of her pupils glistens, a tear or two falling,
leaving contrails of salt in their wake…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
Robin Ay
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
www.RAconcepts.com
Rosetta Dorsa
City Rhythm
Listen to the rhythm of our city,
Hear it in the pounding of the street congo player’s drums.
Listen to the street soprano’s hum as she sings a song…
A song of a life of joy, that slowly turns to pain…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
Taria Karillion
On the Road to Who Knows Where
You don’t see me, back there, do you? In your Armani and Cartier and Italian leather shoes. To you, I’m just a part of the scenery—no more worthy of conversation or recognition than any other feature of this gleaming limousine.
There are mere milimeters of bulletproof glass between us, but we exist in separate worlds…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
Aaron Krone
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
https://kroneaaron.wixsite.com/aaronkrone
Tom Gannon Hamilton
Going Forward
While one doting preset is tenderly making
the future continuous with itself,
elsewhere, an equally loving present takes up arms
for a different future…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
Ljubica Simovic
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
Suzanne Miller
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
https://www.suzannemiller.us
Karla Linn Merrifield
DIPTYPH: Of Humanity and Geology
I read the news today,
then consulted the Tarot.
seeing myself in the Major Arcana’s
High Priestess of unknown secrets…
Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.
www.karlalinnmerrifield.org/
Yvette Young
Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent Future call for entry. To see the full body of work and exhibition, grab a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Future issue.