Alyson Boyko
2013, BA, Mass Communication

Alyson Boyko is a sewist, quilter and needleworker from North Georgia. Boyko was taught hand-sewing beginning at age 2 and knitting at age 12. She learned machine sewing and techniques at Brenau University briefly before switching majors to Mass Communication and pursuing a media career. Inspired by the quilts made by her great-grandmother, Boyko began self-taught quilting in the 2010s. Boyko began self-taught crochet in 2023. Boyko sews, quilts and needles for therapeutic and practical purposes.

ARTIST STATEMENT

For many years, women were relegated to household hobbies. Through quilting and knitting circles, pattern and fabric sharing, they created a sisterhood. I learned to hand sew and knit from my mother. My grandmothers taught me craft skills and precision. I picked up quilting after my great-grandmother passed, and I remember her by the quilts she made special for me throughout my life. Sick of screens and depressed, I needed a hobby. Revisiting my old skills, I found the satisfaction I yearned for. My art allows me to be selfish in a world where I feel hardwired to give.

Melinda Cooper
2000, BA, Fashion Merchandising
Instagram: @melindawcooper 

Melinda Cooper began taking photography seriously during the pandemic as a way to cope. Taking daily photo walks helped her in immeasurable ways, including by sharpening her creative eye and observational skills. This led to a consistent practice of searching for the overlooked to share with others.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I take photographs to document the quiet beauty in everyday, overlooked places. My work focuses on light and texture, aiming to show that beauty lies in the ordinary. I use a digital camera to capture these scenes, preferring natural light to keep the image authentic. My goal is to make the viewer slow down and notice the details they might normally pass by.

Jennifer Griner
1996, BFA, Commercial Art
www.jenidawnart.com
jenidawn.art

Jennifer Griner is a Georgia-based artist who works primarily in painting and mixed media. Her practice integrates layered surfaces, symbolic mark-making, and material elements such as grave rubbings to explore memory and human presence. Her work has been exhibited in regional and alumni exhibitions and centers on themes of collective grief, remembrance, and the preservation of personal histories. Through series such as Voices Silenced and Larger than Life, she investigates how art can serve as witness, honoring lives impacted by tragedy while creating space for reflection and dialogue.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

My work examines memory, loss, and the fragile space between public tragedy and private grief. I create layered surfaces that act as both memorial and witness. The Voices Silenced series responds to school shootings across the United States, honoring victims by transforming sites of violence into spaces of quiet remembrance. Each piece serves as an act of acknowledgment and a refusal to let names and stories disappear. In my Larger than Life series, I shift from collective loss to individual legacy, exploring how lives are remembered and recorded. Incorporating grave rubbings and material traces, I emphasize physical presence while confronting absence. The process itself — layering, transferring, and preserving — mirrors the way memory is constructed over time. I am drawn to work that engages viewers emotionally and invites contemplation. By merging portraiture, symbolic materials, and historical reference, I seek to create spaces where viewers pause, reflect, and consider the enduring weight of human life and legacy.

Shiloh Van Gray
2012, BFA, Painting and Drawing
www.shilohvangray.com
Instagram: @shiloh.vangray
TikTok: @shilohvangray

Shiloh Van Gray is a classically trained oil painter whose work examines contradiction within everyday identity. Her figurative paintings explore the tension between outward roles and private realities, revealing the complexity beneath familiar surfaces. Her practice focuses on perception: how identity is presented, constructed, and understood. Alongside her painting career, she works as a professional tattoo artist, extending her classical training into refined, custom work on skin.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work explores the space between how we appear on the outside and what we carry on the inside. I am interested in first impressions, how quickly we define people by their roles, professions, or outward image. In my paintings, familiar figures initially seem composed and recognizable. On closer view, small details begin to shift that perception. These quiet disruptions invite viewers to slow down, question their assumptions, and consider the complexity beneath what feels certain. I work in oil because its layered process reflects the layered nature of identity. Paint can be built up, softened, or partially concealed, mirroring how we shape and present ourselves to the world.

Heather R. Hanline
1996, B.A. Commercial Art

Heather Hanline, born in Metairie, Louisiana, is a dedicated working artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries across Georgia and is held in public and private collections nationwide. With more than 25 years of experience as an arts educator, she has inspired students through courses in drawing, photography, graphic design, and AP Art History at Forsyth Central High School and in private instruction. Hanline remains deeply engaged in her own creative practice. She draws inspiration from her love of travel, literature, and history, interests that continually inform and enrich her artistic work. From her studio in Cumming, Georgia, she is completing private commissions while developing a new body of work for upcoming exhibitions.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

This recent body of work explores my love of discovering new ways to use traditional photographic technologies. I am especially interested in the creative possibilities that emerge when historical processes are reimagined through contemporary tools. The gelatin silver prints Cortile and Greve were created on location at Villa Calcinaia in the Chianti region of Tuscany. Using a modern interpretation of the ancient Camera Obscura, I captured images onto black-and-white positive paper and developed them inside the camera. I am drawn to the rough, irregular borders created where the camera body’s edges interrupt the chemical process. The photographic monoprint Assisi was created using a hybrid process that begins with a smartphone image. After printing it with a laser printer, the black-and-white elements were transferred onto a Gelli plate. Using a method related to Reverse Painting on Glass, I added color to the plate before transferring the final image to high-quality paper, linking contemporary technology with a long artistic tradition.

Lainey E. Kennedy
2008, BA, Theatre with Concentration in Scenic Art
Instagram: @lunarkatstudio

Lainey Kennedy is a self-taught multimedia visual artist with a BA in theatrical scenic painting and design, and loves utilizing those skills to create immersive, conceptual worlds in her paintings and collages. She loves reimagining classic literary and theatrical characters, especially Shakespeare, in different worlds such as steampunk, cyberpunk, and sci-fi space opera. Her art can be seen around Gainesville at Oakley Gallery and Inman Perk Coffee Shop throughout the year. She lives in Cleveland, Georgia, with her wonderful husband and two daughters, Lillian and Clara. When not creating art, she can be found on Brenau’s Historic Campus as the assistant director of event and production services.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I love tackling the ideas of a computerized world versus an analog one and what it means to belong. I like to blend analog and digital techniques to show that the human hand with a pen is mightier than the AI sword. I enjoy taking classical characters from Shakespeare and changing their natures just enough to challenge the viewer to see not only a different interpretation but a completely different reality. For “A Concussive Rage,” I chose to paint Puck traditionally in acrylics, while surrounding him with digital “remixes” of his own image overlaid with binary code and paper pixels to represent his fragmented essence. Please read the accompanying excerpted scene for a more detailed look at our Robin Goodfellow.

Nicole Klein
2009, BFA, Studio Art
Instagram: @nikkitraveltips

In 1987, Nicole Klein crash-landed onto earth with top hits ”Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake and “La Bamba” by Los Lobos blaring in equal harmony. Since then, Klein has continued to march to her own beat. Klein trudged through a BFA at Brenau and an MFA at Georgia State University and has since swanned through 22 countries. When she is not flouncing about, she enjoys hiking, gardening, birding, spending time with her partner in crime, and her Cane Corso. A camera accompanies her throughout these endeavors, punctuating the rhythm of her life. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

While traveling, I enjoy acting as a female flaneur and taking time to observe scenery on foot. A steadfast rule when traveling is to take only pictures and leave only footprints. When interpreting the pictures I have taken, I invite you to do as the late, great Ozzy Osbourne said: “take what you want and go.”

Veronica Martin
2000, BFA, Studio Art with a minor in photography
2001, Teaching certificate
2011, M.Ed.

Veronica Martin has been producing, exhibiting, and selling artwork for more than three decades, embracing a range of media and creative processes. Martin taught art in K-12 schools for 20 years. Since 2011, she has taught high school art in Hall County Schools, where she developed curriculum and collaborated with both the county and the community. In 2017, she launched the annual Hall County Expressions Art Show to provide a venue showcasing student work. For 18 years, Martin has been an active member of the Georgia Art Educators Association, serving as co-president of District 2 since 2017. She has organized conferences and professional learning opportunities for art educators and events for National Art Honor Society students across the state. When it comes to building a stronger art community and providing meaningful art experiences, Martin takes pride in contributing in any capacity she can.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

My art is deeply influenced by my life and growth as an independent woman. I love to create, and I thrive on a challenge, which makes it difficult to define a single style or preferred medium. My work reflects my ongoing journey toward balancing mental and physical health, happiness, career, and family. Each of these elements has shaped my process, along with the occasional “I can do that myself” project that pushes me to learn something new.  Inspiration is everywhere, and I am constantly collecting moments, textures, colors, and ideas to return to later. Some may say I have too many projects on my plate — and that may be true — but I cannot imagine what life would feel like if everything were ever truly “finished.” Having projects to pursue and goals to achieve fuels my soul. Transforming ideas into something beautiful, refining every detail with care, sparks genuine joy in my heart. I will forever be photographing the world around me, adding to my growing catalog, searching for ways to make things better, and embracing the creative challenges that come my way.

Jennifer Lynch Shull
1994, BFA, Studio Art
Instagram: @JenniferShull

Jennifer Lynch Shull joined her first art class at age 9 at a local center in Sandy Springs, Georgia. and was introduced to oil painting. As she progressed through the levels, Shull participated in and won numerous art shows. Shull earned her BFA while remaining focused on oil painting as her favored medium, and expanded her repertoire with new skills in photography and digital arts. Her internship was spent in Atlanta working in a gallery for an established portrait artist, which taught her valuable lessons in dissecting surfaces as geometric planes. By her senior year, Shull had painted several freelance paintings and had a very successful senior art show.  She ultimately took a different direction after graduation and had a successful 30-year career with a Fortune 100 company centered around management, efficiency, and data analysis. Shull never lost her love of creativity, though. She restarted her artistic journey upon retiring in 2025, bringing an unusual mix of creativity and structure from her varied experiences.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

Painting at this point in my life brings together all the experiences I’ve gained over the years, but with a new perspective in processes and what inspires me. I value the planning stage for a new painting as much as putting brush to canvas. Taking my camera to a marsh in St. Simons Island, hiking a trail in North Carolina, or simply taking macro photos of flowers in my backyard inspires me. My creative process begins with one or more images I’ve captured. From there, I work in Photoshop to blend different images into a rough starting point. This allows me to build the bones of a painting, ensuring I can purposefully guide the viewer’s eye to points of interest and play with the general aesthetic. My first sitting with my painting is all about blocking in colors and fixing what doesn’t work. Next, I’ll revisit the painting and start applying the real layers while refining the shapes and tones. My final hours with a painting are always the most exciting. This is where I deepen the shadows and bring out the highlights to exaggerate key focal points and any fine detail that is needed to create crisp edges. I have found that playing with light and fine detail work has been a consistent theme and something I enjoy. Light can be used to draw the viewer in, but also provides realism when contrasted with deeply shaded areas. My style leans towards realism, with leniency to allow brushstrokes to remain. I see beauty in nature, which gives me a sense of calm and peace that I strive to portray on canvas. Painting is not just about what I see, but what I feel about the subject and the beauty and perfection that was created for us. I hope that my art can inspire and evoke these same emotions in the viewer, with their own perspective shaped by their experiences.

Chrystal Strickland
2020, MS, Psychology Clinical Counseling
Instagram: @indiglow23
Facebook: @IndiGLOW4Me
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrystal-strickland/ 

Chrystal Strickland, MS, LPC, is a mental health counselor and the owner of IndiGLOW Counseling, LLC, in Gainesville, Georgia. She earned her Master of Science in Psychology from Brenau in 2020 and earned her bachelor’s degree at Georgia Southern University. Strickland has always had an interest in the arts, growing up taking dance, music and art classes privately and art at school. Strickland said that her love of creativity is the foundation of her interest in art. She is inspired by her late father, Prentis Strickland, who passed away when she was 12. Both of her works in the alumni exhibit are dedicated to him. Strickland focused on digital art for this collection because of its luminous color saturation, expressive depth, and accessibility. The themes woven throughout these pieces, both seen and unseen, are hope, empowerment, and motivation. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

As a mental health therapist, my work, both clinical and creative, is rooted in inspiration and empowerment. I chose digital art as my medium because it allows for rich color saturation and greater accessibility. Early in my career, I couldn’t afford the kind of artwork I wanted in my therapy office — pieces that felt calming, beautiful, and emotionally uplifting. I understand how deeply one’s environment impacts the therapeutic experience. These works y were created to meet that need: to offer emerging therapists affordable, inspiring, motivational and empowering art that enhances the spaces where healing happens. It is my hope that this artwork engages every viewer in a positive way and acts as a catalyst for great self-belief cultivation. These two pieces began as a labor of love from one therapist to another, and from a deep belief that beauty belongs in the rooms where growth happens and shame dies.

Ashley Warmack
2012, BA, Theatre,
Instagram: @ashleymariewarmack

Ashley Warmack is an Atlanta-based painter who works primarily in acrylic and modeling paste. Her textured floral abstractions explore color, movement, and expressive palette-knife mark making, creating dimensional petals and layered surfaces. Warmack holds a B.A. in Theatre from Brenau University, a Juris Doctor from Georgia State University, and works professionally as an attorney in Atlanta.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

My work explores color, texture, and movement through expressive floral forms. Working in acrylic and modeling paste, I use palette knives to build thick layers of paint that create sculptural petals and strong texture on the canvas. While flowers serve as the starting point, the paintings focus on bold color relationships and the energy created through layering. In my professional life, I work as a prosecutor, handling cases that involve crimes against children. Painting gives me a space to focus on color, creativity, and the process of making something by hand.

Willow J. Wolfe
2011, BA, English/Creative Writing with a minor in Studio Art
Instagram: @willowjwolfe
Facebook: @WillowJWolfe1
TikTok: @nomoo4you_kthxbye
Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/willowjwolfe
YouTube: @willowjwolfecrochet

Willow J. Wolfe is a female artist in her 30s who earned her bachelor’s degree from Brenau in English/Creative Writing and minored in Studio Art in 2011. She has also studied studio art at Georgia College and State University. She comes from a long line of artists and attributes much of her skill to her grandmother, who taught her how to use watercolors as a child. Wolfe was introduced to soft pastels by Mary Beth Looney, a former Brenau art professor, and knew immediately that she was meant to work in the medium, as the textures and vibrancy of the colors brought the simplest things to life that nothing else could. Previously, she displayed a pastel work of her childhood cat, Speedy, in the 2025 alumni exhibit and at the Quinlan Art Center. Wolfe also has an untitled watercolor painting on display in the ICU at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, where she was treated as a child for a grand mal seizure. Wolfe is currently working on her first novel, The Lost Princess. She also enjoys writing fan fiction, video games, crocheting, watching cheesy Lifetime movies and spending time with her Emotional Support Animal, the magnificent and benevolent King Baghura.

ARTIST STATEMENT 

As an artist, my focus is on the spirit of the subject. I have often been told that when someone compares my work to the picture or subject matter that inspired it, while my work does not look like the piece that inspired it, it still looks more like the subject somehow. I feel it is important to remember that all matter contains life or references to it and that, as the great Mufasa once stated, “We are all connected in the Circle of Life” … it’s just we might not interpret it the same.