ArtsArt Directions: Papay Solomon
Papay Solomon connects Arizona & Liberia through the subjects depicted in his vibrant, large-scale paintings.
Papay Solomon connects Arizona & Liberia through the subjects depicted in his vibrant, large-scale paintings.
Rachel Eskandari at work | Photo by Lauren Peachie Rachel Eskandari is a Phoenix-based artist, teacher and entrepreneur. This summer, she’s adding another title to her robust resume: author. In 2019, she was selling painting kits on Etsy, hosting watercolor workshops and producing work for local boutiques and several stores at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport under her Pink Puddle Studio brand. When the pandemic hit, these projects and partnerships slowed as the...
Lizzy Lubitsky has made sculptures shown from Rome to Washington state. Many push the limits of what sculpture can be. Consider “Toast.” The 2015 installation featured a patch of pine wood afloat in a full bathtub – where Lubitsky sat in a swimsuit. On the plank was a toaster. The toaster was electrified, plugged into a nearby wall. Lubitsky, a 25-year-old interdisciplinary artist, fell for sculpture at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia,...
The words “dinner plate” may conjure visions of dainty, white and uniformly round china. In her North Phoenix home studio, Brazilian-born ceramist Christiane Barbato breaks from this bland dinner plate of yesteryear completely. “I’m the daughter of an engineer, and my dad criticizes my style because he likes everything round or square,” Barbato says. “But I love organic shapes because they remind me of nature. My dream is always to get the glazes of natural...
Lee Hendrickson’s photographs might best be described as an artistic chemistry experiment. A former research scientist who later earned a degree in biomedical photography, Hendrickson photographs home-grown crystals under a microscope to create stunning images that mimic forms in nature. He grows the crystals on glass slides by mixing different powders (caffeine, citric acid) and solutions (acetone, wine), and then places them under a high-resolution microscope. To the naked eye, the crystals look like powder...