Juror Statement:

Change is a fundamental fact of human experience. It is inevitable, be it predictable or completely random. Change can be joyous: losing our first tooth, the birth of a grandchild. Change can be tragic: natural disaster, financial collapse, death of a loved one. Change can be sudden like an accident. It can be gradual: the progression of the seasons, the graying of my hair. Artists know change: in our style, our audience, our medium. While we may not seek change, we know that very soon it will find us.

If change is the one constant, as everyone says, then it seems the variable in the equation is our own reaction to that change. Change is the constant; it is we who are somehow New. It is we who are now altered, inspired, shaken, or evolved. How will we react? How will we sit with this New/Now?

All art is in some sense autobiographical. Muse upon some deviation in your life, your work, your world. Create a piece that reflects your reaction to a change you have experienced, a change you anticipate, or one you have initiated.

David Baker Bio:

David Baker is a visual artist who specializes in poetic landscape painting, much of it done en plein air. His studio pieces are often reinterpretations of paintings done outdoors. His principal media are watercolor, oil, and charcoal.

His subjects are magical discoveries made while walking the landscape near Lake Michigan and, in particular, the campus of Ox-Bow. Frequently these paintings will suggest an ongoing series of pictures. David is a lifelong artist/teacher. He recently retired as art professor Emeritus from Southwestern Michigan College. He still teaches a bit at Ox-Bow School of Art and at the South Haven Center for the Arts.

"New/Now" runs through November 7, 2026. Read about the artists statements and click on the images to view more information about the artwork.

Dombrowski's Wild Ride

Dug Rusin
First Place Winner

Pen and color pencil on paper

"My iconography is predominantly derived from subconscious prompts and dream images. My experiences have taught me that the everyday objects from these images can take on deeper, almost mystical meaning through emotional attachment & historical significance, personal or collective, allowing my work to be interpreted in different ways by all who view it.

For example, in my visual lexicon the rhinoceros represents change. Rhinos, as well as change, can be described as overwhelming, undeniable, obstinate, unpredictable, & incomprehensible. Attempts to lead or maneuver a rhino or change seldom go as intended, & as we mature we all recognize this situation & feel compelled to accept, understand, & accommodate changes. Or be crushed.

This drawing is about the unexpected loss of my best friend and the complex emotions & void that followed. This particular rhino arrived without invitation. It stomped & gored, leaving an indelible shadow of pain that follows it even as it plods through time."

The Door I Move Through

Cathy Sorensen
Second Place Winner

Cardstock, colored pencil, ink pen, varnish on wood panel

I am contemplating physical change in my body with Scoliosis. Contrasted with the transformation of a butterfly. The tree represents my spine curving and rotating my ribcage out to the side, pushing into my back. It is said the brain believes the body is straight. Transformed without my awareness until pain and stiffness alerted me. My ribs becoming strange new wings. I look at the Monarch, once a flexible caterpillar, cocooning itself in a chrysalis. Does it know what is ahead? Is it caught unaware like myself? Or, does it know the freedom and beauty ahead of wings and flight? And I find myself contemplating the strange beauty and deformity of nature.

Break Water

David Buetsche
Third Place Winner

Mixed media, fishing net, dock line, found objects on canvas

My work considers change as something that accumulates slowly in landscapes, industries, communities, and the objects we leave behind. Lost Bearing and Break Water examine coastal environments as places where natural forces and human histories continually reshape one another. Weathered wood, rope, corroded metal, an obsolete CB radio, and distressed surfaces become evidence of systems once used to build, communicate, navigate, and endure. As these materials deteriorate or lose their original purpose, they become markers of transition. Rather than romanticizing what has disappeared, I am interested in what remains and what those remnants reveal. These works ask how we orient ourselves when familiar landscapes, technologies, and ways of life begin to erode, and whether our attempts to resist change ultimately become part of its record.

Fractaline Morning Routine

Sam Foster
Honorable Mention

Acrylic

I have Dissociative Identity Disorder. This means that my identity didn’t integrate due to trauma as a child. I live each day with a smattering of symptoms related to it. One of the ways I cope is through art. It’s been a safety net that many alters have run to for a long time so much so that I am able to trace back who I was or who was in control based on the work we created at the time. We unintentionally draw and paint ourselves in our work and the memories we each hold become the themes of our work. The alters that hold memories of moving and abandonment create work based on those feelings; the work of alters that hold feelings of confusion and isolation mirrors how they feel; and those that focus on love and connection make art about that. The point of my art is to be an outlet and an educational tool for myself and for others. I want to be able to share not only my pain, but my joy with the viewer through my work.

Class of 2026

Chloe Hartman
Honorable Mention

Pencil on paper

This piece of artwork is inspired by the song, “Class of 2013” by the artist Mitski. Throughout this song, she speaks to her mother asking her, “mom, am I still young? Can I sleep in your house tonight?”. I have felt deeply connected to this song and the mother-daughter relationship it explores. Mitski presents an emotional plea to her mother, begging for security, comfort, and a temporary escape from the uncertainty of her life. My art is titled “Class of 2026” reflecting my own college graduation year. As I enter adulthood, I am riddled with the fear and uncertainty of my future. As a new chapter of my life is beginning, I have found my self spending a lot of time thinking of my mother and my relationship with her. Regardless of where I stand with her, she is my constant. This drawing depicts a younger version of my mother inspired by a photo from 20 years ago. I see myself in this image of my mom, as I’m learning that everything, and all that I am, leads backs to her.

Self Portrait (Finally Feeling at Home)

Kiki Lyzenga
Honorable Mention

Fiber sculpture

My face has been there for every cry, every bout of laughter, every family photo, and every moment I’ve been on this floating blue ball.
As I’ve been transitioning and simply getting older every year, I have a new appreciation for a face I used to nitpick and critique daily. I’m finally starting to feel at home in my face, body, and overall being, and I’m so lucky to live in a time where I’m able to grow into the person I want to be with only a few financial and societal pushbacks I do my best to brush off.
Change is awkward sometimes, but I love it more than any predictable linear path.

You’re only given one flesh suit in life, so you might as well feel at home in it <3

Cigarette Cereal

Nicole Musgrove
Honorable Mention

Acrylic Paint, Modeling Paste

Cigarette Cereal examines change as an inevitable aspect of human experience, emphasizing the ways individuals respond to and navigate transformation. Cigarette Cereal explores the difficult process of overcoming addiction, particularly the tension between the decision to change and the sustained action required to achieve it. A woman gazes into a bowl of floating cigarette butts, confronting both the physical remnants of her addiction and her own reflection. The work draws from my personal experience with addiction and considers the psychological confrontation that accompanies change. My work considers change as both an internal and external process—one that challenges our sense of self while creating the possibility.

Coyote Blue Angel

Lisa Jaquez Allen

Acrylic on found object

My artistic journey is deeply rooted in the traditions of the Mexican and Native American cultures which have inspired me since my childhood. I specialize in acrylic painting and the repurposing of rescued three dimensional wooden animals. These found, forgotten creatures find new life in my studio as I re-imagine them with colors and patterns drawn from various, also forgotten, artistic traditions. My work with these animals is an ode to sustainability and the transformative power of art. After the loss of my husband this year, “Coyote Blue Angel” arose from the dust bin and with the help of imagery based on the Native American legend of the trickster coyote became my commentary on the complete randomness of life and death.

Time Masquerading as Itself #1

Sylvia Bandyke

Photo collage with a woman's face superimposed over a clock

Change informed the photo collages of my Time Masquerading as Itself series when my mother died on her 104th birthday last year and I decided soon thereafter to renovate the family home and move there from my newer condo. I am now a part of the older generation with her passing, which is making me feel kind of sentimental about the family home that mom lived in for over 70 years. Time has taken a toll on it and I need to do a lot of updating. Time has taken a toll on me too what with the caregiving I offered on top of grieving her loss and now renovating the house in preparation of my move here. Ironically I am now finding beauty in imperfect, aging people and places that I did not see when I was younger. Change and the passage of time have a certain visual signature and I feel it should be honored and cherished as much as the unblemished attractiveness of youth.

ADCP-354358

Seongbae Cho

UV printing on Aluminum panel

My work explores how technology changes how we encounter the natural world. For New/Now: Pondering Change, I present algorithmic collage paintings embodying the post-digital transformation of landscape and medium. Contemporary perception of nature is no longer direct; it is mediated through reproduced digital images. To sit with this "New/Now," I use computational algorithms to deconstruct landscape photographs into organic hybrid forms, mirroring the chaotic shifts of technological change. The vital variable is the reaction of the artist’s hand. Layering manual labor over automated software operations, my practice explores the friction between automation and human touch. These paintings are not mere digital outputs, but evolved spaces where software logic and tactile perception shape one another. While technological acceleration permanently alters our visual experience, painting remains a resilient space to process and critically reflect on the changes transforming our reality.

Now I am Two

Deborah Correnti

Pastel

Losing a parent changes you. You lose your greatest cheerleader and your toughest critic. "Sunsets" captures the suspended time between saying goodbye to one generation and welcoming the next. Inspired by my father-in-law’s last visit to Michigan, it is a reminder of his presence. It reminds us to tell his story: the story of an immigrant family, of war, of love for good food, conversation, opera and ballroom dancing. We become the patriarchs, telling his story. A few years after we lost my father-in-law, our grandchild was born - the longed-for child he never met, but who carries a piece of him. I changed from daughter to grandparent. I painted "Now I Am Two" the day she turned two. She is now beginning to understand who she is and where she belongs. In her I see my mother’s hair and my father-in-law’s spirit. We are all born of stardust, but shaped by the generations that come before us. Every day she asks us to “talk about our day.” She will be the one to tell our stories.

Always on the Outside of the Dream

Jacob Cotton

Graphite on Paper

The Lost series examines change through absence, isolation, loss, and the distance between ourselves and what we long for. In Always on the Outside of the Dream, a landscape appears as though viewed through a convex lens—a world visible, yet separated and distorted. The work reflects the experience of being on the outside looking in, close enough to see the dream but unable to enter it. All That Remains uses the eroded landscape of the Badlands as a metaphor for loss and the passage of time. As the landscape is worn away, what remains is a vast emptiness and the scars of what has been taken from it. The reflective drawing considers that emptiness and how pain can similarly recede with its low horizon. Together, the works explore how change reshapes both the world around us and the landscapes we carry within us.

3 Minutes 45 Seconds

Donald Cronkhite

Oil Painting on Linen

The Romantics sought to seize each moment and explode it to its epic potential. In the same way, I have tried to use my paintings to capture cloudscapes when they've reached their peak volume--the immediate prelude to the violence and release of storms, with all the emotion that lies therein. Likewise, with my landscapes, I tend to focus on one element in nature, such as a tree, and elevate the common into the majestic. I am drawn to capturing the way trees interact with their surroundings of ever-changing skies, dynamic weather conditions, and shifting light. The human scale size of the paintings is a vital element of my purpose, which is to fill viewers' peripheral vision and envelop them in the movement and kinetic energy of a storm. The effect is both Romantic and hyper-realistic, ephemeral and concrete.

Botanics With Attitude — Divergent Directions

Karen Dawson

Acrylic on MDF board

Change is the thread in my work that connects memory, landscape, and time. My wall sculptures combine natural forms with maps to explore shifting places, growth, and transformation. Layered materials in my work reflect how both nature and human experience is continually reshaped and reveals beauty in what evolves rather than what remains fixed.

Adrift

Dorothy Graden

Mixed media on paper

I am submitting 2 works of art that explain "Change" in different ways. The first work is titled "Chaos". It represents my emotional state in today's world. Climate Change just recently affected my life with the sky river, "Derecho" and it was quite unsettling. The destruction of nature and the changes we had to make during the power outage and lack of gasoline for our cars was frightening. Also, the political climate is upsetting and we have family changes that are sad and happy at the same time. My mind is truly chaotic right now. I work at settling myself by painting. It is a great outlet for anxiety and stress. My second entry is titled " Adrift". This work compliments "Chaos" in a way that's like turning over a coin and gives another perspective of emotional distress. I ask myself, " Can I just drift and breathe? Can I let the chaos around me be there and not have such a severe reaction? Can I float the river and just observe the present and not worry?

My Eyelashes Touch the Glass When I Blink

Sam Helmbreck

Oil on canvas

My figurative painting work depicts possible experiences, struggles, and futures that are the cause of environmental issues, negligence, or degradation. They simulate scenarios in which we, as humans, have to adapt to these changes in the environment.

Anthropogenic refers to environmental change or pollution by human activity. By creating art depicting the devastating anthropogenic future, we can see how our current issues related to climate change are happening right now. There are worldwide problems that stem from climate change like increased wildfires, increased flood rates, contamination, and increased temperatures. These connect with personal learning experiences in environmental studies and express my eco-anxiety related to environmental devastation. I aim to bring the viewer closer to the reality of environmental disaster and establish thought and conversation about the issues. This allows a space for them to speak with others about these issues and self-reflect.

Drawing 2026 #21

Edward Hoagland

Pen, ink, watercolor

I have always had an interest in cartography, astronomy and calligraphy and how they have been depicted (changed) over time. In some cases the "change" can be quite direct and literal and in other cases the "change" might manifest itself in differing creative points of view of the same subject matter. In either case I choose to present this theme in a precise manner inferring but not revealing a precise meaning.

Innocence

Nicole Ingalls

Micron Pen Drawing

My work explores the fragile intersections of protection, decay, and memory. How time alters the spaces and objects that once offered comfort. Each piece is a reflection of what we keep, what fades, and how beauty can still live within the process of loss.

This work specifically reflects a snapshot of my grief from losing my father to cancer and, within a year, a cancer journey for my mom and my sister.

Change is inevitable. The decay of our bodies, our spaces, and our memories is inevitable.
Change is beautiful. The growth of microscopic organisms and the evolution of our natural world is inevitable.

This piece reflects the pursuit of balance.

Be Good Obey Yes Sir

Brandon Jennings

Mixed Media on Board

The meaning of obedience has changed many times throughout my life. As a boy, I obeyed my father and other adults because I was taught that obedience was a form of respect. When I was nine, a stranger took advantage of that obedience, changing what it meant to me and altering my relationship to male authority.

I joined the U.S. Air Force in 2000 and served during peacetime. I obeyed orders because that was my duty. Later, I volunteered to deploy to Saudi Arabia. While I was there, the United States invaded Iraq. The orders I followed became part of a war that changed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Be Good Obey Yes Sir examines how obedience, authority, and responsibility have changed the way I understand the world and my place within it. It connects the orders I received as a child with those I followed as an airman—and consider what remains after the orders have been carried out.

Cycle 2

Martin Matsuyuki Krause

Bisqued Porcelain

"Working across sculpture, mark-making, and social practice, I consider how we inherit histories, materials, and forms, and how they remain capable of transformation. As queer and shin-nisei, I am interested in change as both accumulation and interruption: what is carried forward, what is altered, and what becomes through human action.
In Cycle 2, porcelain rises and collapses into a bone-like, toroidal form, simultaneously biological and alien, familiar and new. Finger-like ridges record the hand that continuously reshapes earth. This work considers change as a material process: destruction, inheritance, repetition, and becoming."

Holding Time

Cara Lawson-Ball

Oil and cold wax

"For me, the meaning of a title often connects to our mental and environmental well-being. Holding Time emerged from a moment of trust—a willingness to follow the instinct of a child who chose these quiet colors of light and shadow, allowing them to come together in a delicate balance.

For me, Holding Time speaks to the passage of time and the subtle transitions that shape our lives: our friendships, the changing seasons, and our own growth and transformation. Each time I see this piece, I pause for those in-between moments—recognizing what is shifting while appreciating what, for a moment, remains."

Canvas Du Jour

Kaye Longberg

Colored Pencil

Image "Canvas du Jour" was inspired by the Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix. Warhol was a gay man surviving the AIDs crisis in the 80s who longed for acceptance and love. He poses inside a giant Campbell's soup can, the symbol most commonly associated with him. For better or worse, his success with it relegated his work to "pop art," opening artistic dilemmas: was he restricted to that genre? Was interest in pop art just a fad? What would he do next? If he took artistic risks with untried concepts, would he face rejection? The can as an enclosure represents the problems he faced professionally when contemplating change. Further, he poses bare, stripped of embellishment but for his iconic wig. His nudity shows viewers both his vulnerability and the scars he sustained from being shot by a disturbed employee, making him literally a canvas himself. The wounds caused change. "Canvas du Jour" is wordplay inviting viewers to ponder the weight of change.