DAVID HAUPTSCHEIN
Artist Statement

Throughout history, whenever a new art medium is invented, bold artists engage with the groundbreaking invention, letting their imaginations run wild, and creating things that have never before been seen. Of course, there will always be the inevitable detractors and naysayers who rail against the innovation, freeze like frightened rabbits, and end up waving from behind. Take, for example, the introduction of photography: it took decades before it was finally accepted as a serious medium for making art.

Now we have Photoshop and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which might best be described as “assisted intelligence” since it is neither intelligent nor sentient. What AI can do is to help stimulate creativity; it can harness and accelerate the ability of the artist to move in unpredictable and unique directions. For me, the transition to this powerful digital technology came easily, perhaps because I am fearless when it comes to making art. Naively, I assumed that other people would see AI as I do, which is as just another tool. I have been mistaken about this. Once, on the opening night of my own art exhibition, an angry patron accused me of being a fraud and a plagiarist. On another occasion, I was scolded by someone for daring to speak about AI in an art gallery, as if I had taken the name of the Lord in vain in a house of worship!

When people ask me questions about the meaning of my work, I try to answer as best I can. But in the end, because I’m inviting the viewer to become part of the creative process, I don’t want to tell them what to think, thereby robbing them of the pleasure of making their own discoveries. As the painter Francis Bacon once said, “If you can talk about it, why paint it?”

 

    michelle stone               paint   process    reason   
A painting begins            Dreamscapes      
layered textures    scraps of past      imagination    
Construct an ecosystem….            shadows       surreal characters
Spill from mysterious --yet familiar     
Experience   Observation     Investigation.    Obsession
        A life            
Unnamable abstract /explicit    forms /images          Arrange       
capture, define, populate, animate        humorous, banal, eerie grotesque    
        Blobs   invigorated
  Slow evolution.           Context            creatures hunting for ground or air          
        To Breathe 
A narrative appears to emerge or retreat from an ambiguous arena
Relentless.                    In transition.           
An ability to crystalize into the menagerie of another reality           Protagonist or Companion              
Struggle for purpose and reason for being.  
       Trust Intuition
buried and consumed by collecting              tangible     
random archives     see, own, find, steal         photos, skulls, toys, chards
        Detach from control          
 Internal dialogue bucket for memories and curiosity. …randomly wandering in search of a root.    
         Wonder Everlasting                Share Magic
 Humans                       Nature                Universe  
                             Growth Transformation Decay

ALLEN VANDEVER
Artist Statement

Let’s get this straight: Allen Vandever isn’t just making art—he’s building an entire alternate reality. A reality that’s raw, vulnerable, visionary, a little dangerous, and entirely his own. He’s one of those artists who’s not waiting around for the art world to give him permission—he’s already out there doing the damn thing. Vandever’s work is urgent. It’s personal. It’s cosmic. It drags childhood trauma into the light. It pulls erotic energy from the body and lays it bare on the canvas. It lives in that rare zone where the spiritual collides with the carnal, and the viewer doesn’t just look—they feel.

His studio isn’t a studio—it’s a laboratory, a performance space, a confessional, a crime scene.

His shows aren’t exhibitions—they’re experiences. You don’t walk past his work. You confront it. You wrestle with it. You walk away changed—or at least a little bit shaken.

He’s experimenting with pricing models. He’s building community. He’s holding space for healing, chaos, and real connection. He’s making art that’s meant to matter to people outside the art world’s ivory tower.

This isn’t careerism. This isn’t trend-hopping. This is an artist doing what artists are supposed to do:

Telling the truth—even when it’s hard, messy, or inconvenient.

Vandever isn’t asking for approval.

He’s daring you to pay attention.