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Chandler resident Carol McDonald never imagined she would become an artist after retiring in 2018 from her “left-brain, analytical business administration career.” Over the years, she had taken a slew of art classes, but never thought of herself as “remotely artistic.” For Christmas in 2018, McDonald’s husband bought her an easel and a canvas and encouraged her to paint. She experimented with different paints, colors and textures and discovered that she enjoyed expressing herself through...

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When the pandemic first shuttered Phoenix, Aileen Martinez began painting places she missed. An ongoing series was born, in which Martinez portrays buildings around town, giving them character, ebullient color and a deep sense of longing. Her Crescent Ballroom has airy brown bricks and pastel accents, fringed by palm trees so loose the green spills from their leaf outlines, tops almost seeming to waver. Her Pizzeria Bianco stands wistfully empty under a pink sky, structural...

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By the time painter and illustrator Shela Yu was 11, she was drawing fairies and mermaids on her bedroom walls. Today, most of the 32-year-old Chinese American artist’s work lives in sketchbooks, PDF files and as murals emblazoned on building façades. Her painting has a kinetic yet calming energy. “I like watching clouds move across the sky,” she says. “I like the way incense smoke scatters across the room. There’s a natural movement that I...