Congratulations to the Winners of Beyond Borders II: Global Voices

Beyond Borders II: Global Voices had its closing reception and awards on October 17, with a lively turnout of guests and artists and our usual spread of impressive desserts provided by our generous Guild Members.

While we are sad to say goodbye to this wonderful exhibition, we are joyful for the time we got to spend with such an awe-inspiring range of works representing voices from around the world. We'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in the exhibit and to congratulate the award winners.

Honorable Mentions

The Body Keeps the Score by Susan Wehling

This oil and encaustic piece contrasts a striking depiction of grief against a pearlescent abstracted background that draws the eye to it and refuses to let the viewer pass by. Appropriate, as the artist intended the piece as a

"reminder that, no matter where, war destroys much more than it ever gains."

The Roots of Baltic Spirit I by Lauren Strock

Our next honorable mention is a large scale watercolor featuring a traditionally dressed Baltic couple in the streets of Riga, Latvia. The warm, bright colors and soft blooming treatment of the watercolor gives the piece a dreamy affect and evokes a warm spring day with bright sun shining, amplifying the intended charming effect. This piece is a part of Strock's Roots of Baltic Spirit series. As Strock says,

The Roots of Baltic Spirit explores heritage, memory, and identity through Baltic landscapes and culture, reflecting resilience, belonging, and the enduring connection between past and present.

Thread That Pulls Too Tight by Reinilda Fernandez Blair

Our final honorable mention went to Thread That Pulls Too Tight, a mixed media piece painted in acrylic and incorporating crochet yarn and hair bobos. The textural variance and 3 dimensional elements draw you into the story told with vivid color and a masterful rendering of the subject's facial expression. As Blair explains, this piece

"[d]raws on memories of Dominican hair care, the pressure to straighten or manage natural hair into what is considered presentable, and the belief, absorbed early, that hair has to be "good hair"; its rural setting shows that this care, and this programming, can happen anywhere."

People's Choice

The Band that Played at LoLa's Party by Kati Braverman

As with many of our shows, we held voting throughout the exhibition for the People's Choice Award. For this exhibition, the People's Choice winner is this lively mixed media piece painted on birch plywood! From the artist:

In creating "The Band that Played at LoLa's Party", I started by using a combination of earth tones mixed with crackle paste and applying that to a wood panel to create a distressed look, then I used #1 and #2 brushes - very tiny - to add in the figures. To create the focal point - the lady with the skirt - I was inspired by Klimpt's "The Lady in Gold" and by a reference to a strange English ballet that I saw online. I used various references to help with facial proportions and instrument design, then added a bit of glitter to provide some "sha-bang" and other musical vibes. I love music, my spouse is a bassist and drummer, and I played piano and guitar in my salad days, so to finish this musical painting was an emotional, sometimes angst-ridden journey that took many months, but one with which I am quite satisfied.

Third Place

Sacrificial Lambs by Leslie Murphy

This impressive oil painting is actually three paintings in one. Artist Murphy carefully planned and painted three images, then combined and cut two of the paintings into strips which she then attached to the third painting so that your view of the scene changes depending on where you stand.

In addition to being technically impressive, these pieces were also put together with a lot of thought from the artist.

These are not portraits of any specific girls. The piece is about girls being the collateral damage of the decisions made by powerful men. As usual I am using flowers to add to the narrative and communicate certain themes.

The painting of the Hispanic girls represents the teenage girls who have disappeared in ICE facilities. They are positioned among marigold flowers, which are the flowers used in the Day of the Dead celebrations that symbolize grief and love.

The painting of the little girls with the hijabs represents the girls who died in the bombing of the girl's school in Iran. The red poppies in front of them symbolize death from war.

The painting of the girls in the school uniforms refers to the Epstein files. These girls are staring confrontationally because no one is being held accountable. They are surrounded by rhododendron flowers, which symbolize caution and danger.

Second Place

Inheritance I by Adewale Adenle

This large-scale mixed media work of art is a truly stunning piece full of layered textures and shimmering details. This is also a very thoughtful piece, wherein Adenle made a number of deep and deliberate choices to tell the story behind it:

“Inheritance 1 (2026)” draws on the Yorùbá proverb “Ajogun ẹ̀wù kò mọ̀ iyì agbàdá ńlá,” which literally means “The inheritor of clothes does not know the value of a large flowing gown.” This three-dimensional, mixed-media painting meditates on the burden and privilege of inheriting ancestral knowledge. The opulent, time-honored oversized agbádá (gown) and fìlà (cap) overwhelm the youthful figure, symbolizing an inheritance that exceeds contemporary experience. What is received is not merely an object of prestige but the accumulated weight of memory, sacrifice, resilience, and ancestral labor that the inheritor cannot fully grasp, maintain, or value.

First Place

Feathers and Fortune by Mina Duffie

Our first place winner is a Hanji sculpture, a traditional Korean art form using mulberry paper. It's hard to believe that the sculpture is paper, with so many different textures and clean sculpted forms at play.

Feathers and Fortune portrays a traditional Korean chicken seller from an earlier era, capturing a familiar scene from everyday life. The figures and details are formed by shaping and layering Hanji, traditional Korean mulberry paper. Inspired by the lives of ordinary people in Korea’s past, the work reflects their warmth, resilience, humor, and the communal spirit of the time.

Thank you once again to everybody who participated in Beyond Borders II, either as an artist or a visitor to the exhibition. Thank you to our Guild for making our receptions so special, and congratulations to all of our award winners!

Be sure to stop by The Art Center before November 20 to see our current exhibition, I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues, featuring works made by the students and members of The Art Center.