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ARTISTS 2024

We are so grateful for the continued support of the generous artists who have made Art for Change 2023 possible by donating their creative works. For 36 years these artists, and many many more, have supported the Persad Center’s commitment to the Behavioral Health of the LGBTQ+ community and we thank them.

Below you’ll find details about their work and where to find them online. 

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Artist

Artist Miles Saal, aka Yung Mulatto (1996-2017) was a Pittsburgh based visual artist and musician who became a significant figure in the underground Pittsburgh hip-hop movement until his death in 2017 by suicide. His work was prominently used locally to support the marketing of local businesses and hip-hop artists. Gone but not forgotten his spirit and legacy stays alive via the #StillSaaling: Miles Saal Memorial Fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation to support non-profit organizations focused on mental health and artists of the Afro diaspora

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John James Bond

Artist

John is a Pittsburgh native, he still lives and works in the area, he has been creating art for more than four decades.

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Jean Davis

Artist

I began creating art 15 years ago. Oil painting, acrylic painting & woodcut printmaking are the mediums I use most often. Working with various styles and subjects are essential and intriguing in my art journey.

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Barbara Broff Goldman

Artist

Barbara Broff Goldman is a printmaker, bookbinder/book artist and fiber artist. She is a founding member of the Pittsburgh Book Arts Collective...

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Ann Heckel

Artist

The Artist , Ann Heckel has been painting and exhibiting since 1957 when she won her first prize. She studied sculpture with Josepha Filkovski.at SetonHill, worked at a stained glass studio in Berlin, PA one summer, Taught Art in Chartiers Valley, gave herself a birthday present ,weekend at Touchstone at a Kathy Zimbicki water color class.

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Jon Krise

Artist

Mr. Jon is a watercolorist who has shown his creations around the globe, including Venice, Rome, London, Zurich, New York, LA, Miami, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. He's been featured in magazines and at Tom of Finland Foundation where Aj Sloan said, " Mr. Jon punches out from the rest." He has been painting for over 3 decades with a background in business and architecture.

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Christopher Malone

Artist

Chris Malone is a self-taught artist born and raised in the Midwest. Malone’s work is rooted in traditional African doll making but takes it a step further to use it as a medium to explore spirituality and ancestry.

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Tara McPherson

Artist

Tara McPherson is an American contemporary artist exploring concepts surrounding the human condition. With a focus on powerful female archetypes, her otherworldly characters hold a compelling tension in their gaze. Inspired by astrophysics, nature, mythology, comics, music, love, loss, and good old life experience. Her portraits delve into the realms of our psychological states, giving us a peek into the complexities of the human psyche.

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Ellen Chisdes Neuberg

Artist

Formerly the owner/director of GalleriE CHIZ on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside for 22 years, Ellen is using the building, with its...

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Brian Sesack

Photographer

Brian Sesack is an American photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a self-taught artist, he can’t...

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Ben Skinker

Artist

Ben Skinker is an evolving ceramic artist and experienced family physician who wishes to continue support...

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Sam Thorp

Artist

Sam Thorp(They/them) is a genderqueer artist creating drawings with a sweeping gestural lines and expressive use of color. Each drawing is then printed out making it a “print” similar to a photograph “print” printed from a digital file. Sam's work tends to focus on exploring ideas in the fringe areas of gender, sexuality and culture.

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Bob Ziller

Artist

Bob Ziller has been making art for over 50 years, as a painter, poet, singer, translator, and filmmaker. He has also published a dozen books of art and poetry as the editor of Lascaux Editions.

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Alexander

Photographer

Alexander is an emerging artist living in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. His medium of expression is photography. As an artist, he goes by the mononym Alexander...

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Norman Brown

Artist

I am a self-taught artist. My work includes acrylic paintings of fantasy figures, landscapes, still life compositions of real and made...

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Terri Geever

Artist

Teri Geever is a member of the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society and has served on their executive board. Teri teaches and exhibits in the Pittsburgh area....

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Peggi Habets

Artist

Peggi Habets lives and works as an artist in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa. Her deep love for the fluidity and spontaneity of watercolor have led her to paint and teach in the medium for over 15 years.

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Scott Hunter

Artist

Scott studied painting and art history at Boston University. He graduated in 1993 after a classically structured education based...

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Chaz Letzkus

Artist

Chaz is often asked how he got into this style of art. While searching for a job after graduating college, he did a lot of drawing to pass the time. Chaz was working on a gazelle drawing and the ears reminded him of a bird's wings so he drew a bird swooping down and he made the eye a fish. He added a lot of other animals and some people in the body of the gazelle. And thus Chazmania was born in 1973.
There were a lot of early influences that contributed to this hidden image style. Chaz is a puzzl....

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Jennifer Marcin

Artist

I like to create art that is in the moment. We never get the same moment again. Being "present" is so important to me.

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Sandra Moore

Artist

Art has been a process of living for me. In the 70s, I was a stringer photographer for UPI and Associated Press. I worked in the late 70’s as a lab tech to subsidize my work with the wire serves. In the 80s and 90s I worked as a Scenic Artist for a variety of theaters and schools, while raising a family.

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Lynn Ratkovich

Artist

Lynn Ratkovich, a multimedia artist and art educator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania enjoys experimenting with different media as well as working in layers using paint and collage techniques....

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Samira Shaheen

Artist

Samira Shaheen is a multidisciplinary artist working in oil acrylic and recycle objects for art. She earned a Bachelor of Arts...

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Nina Sowiski

Photographer

Nina, a Pittsburgh native from a family of artists, became interested in photography after she retired. She is a member of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists,...

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David Watts

David Watts is a Pittsburgh native artist (mixed media), costume designer and performance artist. He is well known for his artwork created with recycled and up-cycled materials as well as his “invention” of Pierogi Art.

David Watts is a Pittsburgh native artist (mixed media), costume designer and performance artist. He is well known for his artwork created with recycled and up-cycled materials as well as his “invention” of Pierogi Art. David is a graduate of Ivy School of Professional Art, and has spent many years as a costume designer and entertainer throughout the Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Pittsburg areas. Over the past 15 years, David’s visual art has appeared in many exhibits throughout Western PA. His work has received accolades from the press, featured in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Tribune Review, for his creativity, use of materials and quality.

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Lynne

Artist

Lynne b. is a Pittsburgh based artist, sometimes writer and independent curator.

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Cynthia Cable

Artist

Cynthia Cable studied at Parsons School of Design and received a BFA from Syracuse University. She continued her education with Robert Heinecken and Arthur Siegel at Harvard University and later with Nathan Lyons at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester New York.

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Danielle Gensler

Artist & Designer

Danielle Gensler (she, her) is a Pittsburgh born and based professional abstract artist. She hopes that her bright, colorful art evokes good feelings in all who view it.

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Dawn Hartman

Photographer

The Intimacy Project is a collection of images created by and for the LGBTQ community with the primary goal of combating homophobia. The exhibit uses photography and its subjects to showcase the diversity of LGBTQ people, the nature of our relationships, and the manifestations of intimacy experienced within those relationships. Pittsburgh Photographer Dawn Hartman created this ever-changing exhibit to promote visibility and positive representation for the LGBTQ community specifically.

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Tim Krikston

Artist

Freelance photographer for the last 30 years after self-employed as an owner of a studio in Hialeah Florida for 5 years in 1974, which centered on portfolios and civic events. Presently contributing to public radio stations and other organizations such as the PSO for their publications.

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Ignacio Lopez

Artist

Ignacio Lopez graduated with a BFA in Studio Arts/Creative Writing and a Certificate in Professional Writing from University of Pittsburgh in 2016.

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Kathy Mazur

Artist

I was born, raised, and love living in Pittsburgh. After working in the corporate world for over 35 years as a web and UX designer, technical writer, and software instructor, I decided that it was ...

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Brenda J. Nachreiner

Artist

My art delves into the realm of abstract expressionism, serving as a visual diary of my subliminal self and reflecting my deepest passions, loves, and struggles. It is, undoubtedly, my best therapist. I prefer not to explain my work or its personal meaning; instead, I invite you to draw your own interpretations and connections.

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David Schafer

Photographer

I am an award winning Photograper from Western PA,
who has donated numerous framed photos to the Persad Center Art Auction prior to Covid.

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Barbara Shema

Artist

Barbara returned to Pittsburgh in 2013 after living in Budapest Hungary for 2 years teaching English as a Foreign Language. During that time, she left her art-making behind, but took her camera.

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Mary Culbertson Stark

Artist

Known in the Pittsburgh region for her compelling images ad- dressing life from the female perspective; Mary Culbertson-Stark has been creating visual narratives for almost four decades....

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Mark Zets

Artist

Versatility, Variety,an Artist with a Wide Range of Talent & Experience...Pop , Political, Abstract , just to name a few of the acclaimed different Genres...

CONTACT

Art Committee

Questions regarding art donations.

Persad Center

412-606-9877

For LGBTQ+ mental health, community, and substance abuse services

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