Artists + Writers - ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal | Call for Artists

Maren Smay

If you seek art that invites deep reflection and emotional resonance, Maren Smay’s paintings are a compelling choice. Her work captures the intangible, encouraging viewers to connect with feelings rather than just observe the literal and self-evident. It embodies experiences meant to be felt, transforming perception into a profound journey.

Abstraction in Maren’s art process equals removal and purification. It represents the act of removing what is not necessary to reach something else. Each painting is the distillation of experiences felt in nature that cannot be logically interpreted. Inspiration for Maren Smay does not come from a detached contemplation of nature but from a living immersion in it. It is not nature seen from afar but walked through, smelled, and breathed. Every walk, every exploration in natural surroundings, becomes, for Maren, an inexhaustible source of images synaesthetically translated into her paintings. Experiencing wilderness regions and night skies, the stillness of dawn and the joy of a summit reached…Maren feels fully alive, invaded by a welcoming energy in these moments. Moments that speak to her of something bigger, spiritual, beyond the self. In her paintings, she tries to precisely capture that ineffable something that cannot be accessed through rationality.

Maren’s works are not created for those who seek control, perfection or a clear and uncluttered reading. They are paintings that arise from intuition and free gesture, open to the unexpected. The artist does not start from a precise image: each acrylic brushstroke in relation to the previous one, in a continuous dialogue between medium and colours. Error is also an integral part of the creative process. Maren does not erase or fix it but transforms it. It is precisely in this act of embracing spontaneous imperfection that her expressive style is revealed. Every painting bears visible traces of this tension. Her acrylic paintings, charged with charcoal or markers, are alive, changeable, and open.

Automatism is a central element in Maren’s creative process, ideally linking her to the tradition of Surrealism and Action Painting. As in the Surrealists’ automatic drawings or the instinctive gestures of Abstract Expressionists such as Joan Mitchell and Willem de Kooning, the sign arises from an emotional reaction rather than a rational intention. The painting does not illustrate but expresses: it is a trace of interiority, a way of bringing out the unconscious through gesture. In this way, the canvas becomes a field open to the truth of the moment.

Maren Smay is an artist based in Colorado who exhibited in several galleries in the Denver area, receiving honourable mentions. She recently participated in an exhibition at One Brooklyn Bridge Gallery in New York. After starting as a self-taught artist, she continues her education at the Art Students League of New York, receiving attention for her work. Her abstract paintings offer no answers but are meaningful for those who love to get lost, as in a path through the wilderness. They are not meant to be deciphered but experienced.

Maren Smay is the Gold Artist of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

www.marensmay.com

ArtAscent Gold Writer of the 2025 Abstraction call for artists.

Milena Hernandez

Where Love Grows Wild

Dedication

A wild rose from my mother’s garden
bloomed not just with pretty petals–
but with heart (like me)…

Poets often use nature to craft deep metaphors. For example, trees—characterized by their bark, various shapes, and the harmonious relationship between their roots and crowns—can symbolize existence. Milena Hernández skilfully derives evocative concepts from the diverse forms found in nature.

Plants and flowers have features that inspire the sensitive and creative minds of poets: the flexibility of the weeping willow, the strength of the oak, and the mysterious charm of ivy all have suggestive human characteristics. All it took for Milena to be fluidly inspired for a poem was a rose. A single, wild, and unruly rose that the poet noticed in her mother’s garden. Starting with this simple natural imagery—a flower that grows free despite the constraints of the garden—the poet managed to weave a powerful narrative about female identity, resilience, perseverance and non-conformist individuality. The image of the rose, with its delicate petals and protective spines, immediately evokes a contrast between fragility and defence: beauty defies imposed limits, growing spontaneously and haphazardly in the garden, rejecting pre-established standards of society, celebrating its freedom. It rejects rigid geometries imposed from the outside in an effort of courage and self-acceptance. Milena’s rose bloomed “without ribbons” and “without rules,” rejecting decorative conformity and institutional shaping. Instead, it grows naturally, guided by inner impulse rather than external expectation.

Milena writes freely and fluidly; her writing style recalls the spontaneous processes of nature. Her technique blends freeform narrative poetry with internal rhymes and vivid metaphors. Through a childlike lens, almost like the rhyme or fairy tale, she creates a whimsical, spellbound tone. Language becomes musical and alive, animating symbols with emotional depth. Intuitive and heartfelt, her writing feels extremely simple yet magnetic, guided by a deep trust in the power of words to uplift reality and enchant the reader. There is a form of tender playfulness in his way of describing nature, which is not limited to the rose but embraces every natural element, from the roar of the thunderstorm to the golden dawn to the stillness of the ground. Every detail is observed with childlike wonder, transformed into a living, participating image, as if the whole of nature were a metaphor to reveal. This playful use of poetry recalls the unconventional style of E.E. Cummings, characterized by an intimate lyricism that combines tenderness and formal experimentation, a simple but profound narrative style, lyrical and accessible, capable of treating complex themes with a fairy-tale touch.

Milena Hernández has a BFA in Motion Pictures & Television from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. She has worked in film and television production, collaborating with HBO and Paramount Studios. Skilled in script development and set production, she is now focusing on creative writing, combining her experience in storytelling with her poetic sight. Her poem Where Love Grows Wild declares self-determination and gentle resilience, representing a seed planted for all women.

Milena Hernandez is the Gold Writer of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for writers. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

ArtAscent Silver Artist of the 2025 Abstraction call for artists.

Eric Rugers

Eric Rugers’ creative process is profoundly influenced by his personal experiences. His artwork portrays a broad spectrum of emotions, allowing viewers various entry points into their imagination

Eric’s art emerges from the intersection of painting and photography, where close-ups and details transform his method into abstract, vivid images. His use of colour expresses deep emotions, while the forms tell unique stories, all aimed at sparking thought and imagination.

Each image invites the viewer to dive in and discover clarity through reflection. While some works offer strength, others reveal vulnerability or insight, they all share the ability to inspire a moment of pause—an opportunity to observe and find a quiet horizon amidst the rhythms of daily life.

In Figure 8 IV, a sense of inner strength emerges, akin to energy drawn from the earth’s core or the roots of a tree. Despite the active atmosphere of vibrant reds, the piece is counterbalanced by blue and white elements. It has the power to transform a space into a serene environment, evoking the feeling of sitting in front of a fire under a dark blue sky dotted with shimmering stars. Conversely, Golgotha III presents an atmosphere that, while still grounded in strength, conveys a more dynamic force reminiscent of the eruption and flow of magma—fluid and ever-changing.

The final piece in the series, Orbital I, introduces a sense of lightness, blending the freedom of the stars with the playful essence of a day at the beach. This artwork invites viewers to reconnect with the wideopen imagination of childhood, much like jumping into water and witnessing sunlight shimmer through the waves. It infuses the room with sunlight and a refreshing breeze of salty air.

Eric’s paintings mirror the atmospheric landscapes of William Turner, transporting viewers into scenes of soft sunsets over urban environments or foggy mornings in the forest. In Turner’s work, light plays a crucial role in evoking emotion, widening the viewer’s perception of possibilities. This interplay of light and colour is also present in Eric’s images. Though their artistic approaches differ, both artists create emotional connections through their work, weaving a tapestry of information and imagination that resonates with shared human experiences.

Born in 1970 in Melbourne, Eric Rugers is an abstract artist with over 30 years of experience in illustration and graphic design. In 2022, he shifted his focus to fine art, blending traditional painting techniques with digital photography. He was named a finalist by the Museum of Avant-garde (CH) in 2024. Currently based in the Netherlands, he offers a selection of limited edition prints.

Eric Rugers is the Silver Artist of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

https://ericrugers.com

ArtAscent Bronze Artist of the 2025 Abstraction call for artists.

Richard Stanford

Abstraction doesn’t always begin with a brushstroke; sometimes, it emerges from a ruin. In Richard Stanford’s work, the weathered textures and fragmented images transform photographs into quiet meditations on memory and erasure.

For years, Richard Stanford explored the hidden stories etched into urban walls—those left bare after neighbouring buildings had collapsed or had been demolished. Weathered by time and the elements, these surfaces became, to him, silent witnesses to lives once lived. He began using them, along with personal photographs, as the foundation for semi-abstract photo collages. Blending fragments of architecture, nature, and memory, his work transforms the every day into visual relics—traces of human presence shaped by light, absence, and time. These collages are where lived experience and abstraction meet. The clock, ever present, marks time without explanation.

In Forest-Fire, Stanford layers willow branches over autumnal reds beneath a calm sky. Hidden among the foliage, a faint face of Jesus from the Holy Shroud emerges like a ghost. The image becomes an oneiric fantasy, where memory blends with landscape. The Gangster’s Wife presents a crumbling urban landscape with a negative of a couple attached to it. The peeling paint and fractured surfaces are not records but expressive wounds. Wednesday Morning offers a sparse nocturnal scene: a silhouette of a lone tree, an illuminated obelisk, and a glowing watch in the foreground. A solitary figure stands on a pedestal, turned away, evoking distance and reflection. The landscape can be interpreted as a psychological space with its entangled symbolism and anxiety towards the transience of things.

Richard’s approach to photo-collage shares affinities with Robert Rauschenberg’s method of layering disparate visual elements to create meaning beyond the literal. Like Rauschenberg’s Combines, which fused found objects, images, and paint into hybrid works, Richard merges fragments of urban decay with personal photographs. Both artists blur the line between documentation and abstraction, transforming everyday materials into complex visual narratives. However, while Rauschenberg often embraced chaos and cultural commentary, Richard’s compositions are more introspective—archaeologies of memory, marked by a quieter, elegiac tone.

Richard Stanford is a photographer, filmmaker and novelist living in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec. He received his degrees from the Université de Montréal and Concordia University. His photography has been exhibited since 2008 at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Vehicule Art Gallery, Arbour Gallery, Skelly Gallery, Workshop Gallery, Cornwall Art Gallery, HUB Centre for the Arts, and Critical Eye Gallery. Ovi Magazine has published two of his photographic exhibitions. He is the author of the scripts and director of 50 documentary films and feature films, with ‘I Wanna Be Me’ from 1984 being his first one. The Adirondack Review, Montage, P.O.V., Canada’s History Magazine and Ovi Magazine published his stories and essays

Richard Stanford is the Bronze Artist of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

https://richard-stanford.pixels.com

ArtAscent Distinguished Artist of the 2025 Abstraction call for artists.

Lindy Giusta

Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

Chuck Fischer

Distinguished Artist of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for entry. To see this in more detail and the full exhibition, grab a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

www.chuckfischerstudio.com

ArtAscent Distinguished Writer of the 2025 Abstraction call for artists.

Tanya Adèle Koehnke

Shaped Woman

My head is a triangle
inverted
it pierces my rectangle torso tilted
my arms and legs are broken cylinders
my body rolls sideways
on a zigzagged circle…

Distinguished Writer of the ArtAscent “Abstraction” call for entry. To see the full body of work, grab a copy of the 2025 ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal “Abstraction” issue.

Explore the fresh art work of our juried, distinguished artists and writers

Explore the fresh art work of these talented artists

Introducing the artists of the Abstractions collection:

Introducing the artists of the ArtTreasury Collector’s Annual collection:

Maren Smay

Milena Hernandez

Where Love Grows Wild

Dedication

A wild rose from my mother’s garden
bloomed not just with pretty petals–
but with heart (like me)…

Eric Rugers

Richard Stanford

Lindy Giusta

Chuck Fischer

Tanya Adèle Koehnke

Shaped Woman

My head is a triangle
inverted
it pierces my rectangle torso tilted
my arms and legs are broken cylinders
my body rolls sideways
on a zigzagged circle…

Jack Farkas

Leanne Trivette S.

Mike Stengl

RUSS

Margaret Wasiuta

Ljubica Simovic

T.M. Stoecklein

Aaron Krone

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Recent Comments

ACCOLADES

I honestly believe ArtAscent is among the best of the quality arts and literary magazines available today.

I just received a print copy of the April issue. It is really magnificent! Beautiful, extravagant artwork, high quality printing.

Each time I read through an issue of ArtAscent, my mind opens up a bit more as to what art can be, what writing can be, and to how the two can enter into a dialogue together. To explore the different ways reader/writer and artist/viewer can converse with each other.

Explore the fresh art work of our juried, distinguished artists and writers

Explore the fresh art work of these talented artists

Introducing the artists of the Abstractions collection:

Introducing the artists of the ArtTreasury Collector’s Annual collection:

Where Love Grows Wild

Dedication A wild rose from my mother’s garden bloomed not just with pretty petals– but with heart (like me)…

Shaped Woman

My head is a triangle inverted it pierces my rectangle torso tilted my arms and legs are broken cylinders my body rolls sideways on a zigzagged circle…

Pages

Recent Comments

ACCOLADES

I honestly believe ArtAscent is among the best of the quality arts and literary magazines available today.

I just received a print copy of the April issue. It is really magnificent! Beautiful, extravagant artwork, high quality printing.

Each time I read through an issue of ArtAscent, my mind opens up a bit more as to what art can be, what writing can be, and to how the two can enter into a dialogue together. To explore the different ways reader/writer and artist/viewer can converse with each other.

Dedication

A wild rose from my mother’s garden
bloomed not just with pretty petals–
but with heart (like me)…

My head is a triangle
inverted
it pierces my rectangle torso tilted
my arms and legs are broken cylinders
my body rolls sideways
on a zigzagged circle…