Artifice

My name is Hanna. I’m an artist, art therapist, and special education teacher. I’m Ukrainian and have been living in Estonia for three years now because of the war in Ukraine — it’s dangerous in my hometown, Kyiv.

I draw inspiration from the majesty of nature and from people whose words align with their actions.

My hobbies include collecting stones, playing the guitar, working with clay, and photography. I love gazing at the sky for a long time and feeling present in the moment.

https://spacewoodengifts.etsy.com

https://www.instagram.com/__weanduniverse/

Stu Beavers is a metal artist from Durham, NC. Stu’s mother was a welder, and though she tried to teach him, he always preferred painting and drawing. It wasn’t util he took a formal welding class at Durham Tech that those lessons with his mom clicked and he understood her love of metal—he’s been obsessed ever since. He is heavily inspired by wildlife, recreating the flora and fauna of his favorite tropical landscapes. As a handyman and hobbyist auto mechanic, his materials are always close by and he sees the potential in the everyday objects around him.

Instagram @into_the_rust

Andrea Durfee is an artist and NYS licensed creative arts therapist based in Rochester, NY. Her paintings, sculpture and animation celebrates women, nature and sacred connection through vibrant landscapes and intimate portraits fusing the figure with flora and fauna. She is the creator of the oracle deck, Gaia: Lessons from the Earth and has a forthcoming book of poetry and goddesses being released February 2025. Her creations are an offering of space in which one can take a quiet walk, find light, and connect.

website: www.andreadurfee.com and www.aracreativewellness.com

instagram: @andreadurfee and @ara.creativewellness

Katharine Hooper is a Sommelier and artistic multi-hyphenate living in New York City. Raised by a celebrated painter father and an executive-career mother, she developed an early affinity for the intersection of art, science, and mysticism. After happily stumbling into a career in wine, she became engrossed in examining the overlap between the philosophical and the sensory, reflecting her balanced approach and dedication to truth. Her artistic curiosities include filmmaking, literature, anthropology, formal logic, drawing (in conte and charcoal), and both creative and critical writing.

Olivia Book, is a professional ballet dancer in Ballet West’s second company in Salt Lake City, Utah. Olivia grew up in a small town in Ontario, Canada and was born with a right arm limb deficiency. She has always been a natural performer and began ballet classes at a local dance studio at the young age of four, she later became a member of a competitive dance team from the age of nine until fifteen, competing in many different styles of dance.

Olivia attended The Royal Danish Ballet summer school in 2018 and 2021. In 2019 at the age of 15, she attended the Youth American Grand Prix, placed in the top 12 in both the classical ballet and contemporary categories, and was awarded two of the most prestigious awards, Outstanding Performance and Special Commendation from the Jury at the Youth America Grand Prix and was also personally invited to the Ballet West summer intensive by Adam Sklute, BW Director. During that summer she was selected to join Ballet West Academy’s Professional Training Division at the young age of 16 and made the tough decision to move away from home to live in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2021, she was promoted to the Trainee program and most recently to the second company in 2023. While at the BW Academy, Olivia was awarded the Adam Sklute scholarship in 2020 and 2022, for her exceptional artistry and has appeared in the TV show, The Next Step, season 8. She is studying Plant Based nutrition and is working on writing her memoir, capturing her dance journey from the very beginning, co-authored with her Mom. In her first two professional seasons with Ballet West she has performed in Dracula, Stars & Stripes,The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, Jekyll & Hyde, Serenade and Cinderella.

Olivia has been featured in Pointe magazine(2020), Front Row Magazine(2024) and interviewed by KSL news reporter Carole Mikita (2023) and Cassidy Wixom, for KSL online(2024).

Olivia can be found at:

Instagram: @olivia_book_

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@oliviabook

Ballet West website: https://www.balletwest.org/dancers/detail/olivia-book

Amber Dunford is a former mental health clinician turned interior designer and one of only a handful of “design psychologists” with expertise in the connection between space design and mental health. She spent years in private practice as a therapist before merging her passions for design and psychology by developing a college course on the relationship between the two. She believes there is a powerful, and often underrated, correlation between our mental wellbeing and the spaces we inhabit.

Today, Amber is a co-founder and interior designer at B&A Creative, a Salt Lake City based design firm. She also offers design psychology sessions to anyone looking for ways to enhance their emotional wellbeing through design.

https://www.amberdunforddesigns.com/

Robert Monroe graduated with a B.A. in Theater Arts from the State University of New York/Oswego. For twelve years, he worked as a New York casting director and talent executive. His credits include projects with the Walt Disney Company, the John Houseman Theater, the Annual MDA Telethon, and the now-defunct United Paramount Network. At the beginning of the millennium, he moved to Portland, Maine, to pursue a career as a photographer. His exhibitions include the Biennial at the Portland Museum of Art, Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and Return to Peyton Place: Photographs by Robert Monroe at the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts. He is a founding member of the Bakery Photographic Collective.

Pat Partridge writes across genres. He is the author of the mystery Fragile Memories, the sequel Buried at Bears Ears, and the humorous road-trip novel Fast on Fifty. His book of political humor, now in its third edition, has sold over 70,000 copies.

Partridge’s short stories span a wide range of styles, characters, ages, and themes. All were written in the past 3+ years. Two humorous ones—The Buddy Saga and The Porch Thief—and several ones with more serious themes—If You Could Forget One Thing, Visiting Helen, The New Dress, and The Break Out—have been published in Remington Review, The Haven, Ariel Chart, Fabula Argentea, and Litro, as well as anthologies.

Over the past three years, Partridge has won eleven awards in the League of Utah Writers annual contests—seven awards for short fiction and four for novel first chapters, with four stories included in the League’s “Best Of” anthologies. In 2024 his short story The New Dress won the Emerald Award for best short work across all formats.

Partridge still has trouble understanding why he writes, but he is pleased others enjoy his writing.

Callie Crofts is the founder, songwriter and front-human for SLC’s edgy electropop phenom Die Shiny. A small-town Idaho native, Crofts has spent the last decade making ripples in Utah’s underground music scene - becoming established in recent years as a local ex-mormon, queer and feminist icon. Known for unwavering authenticity and lyrical activism, the experienced artist boasts a diverse songwriting career - complete with top-ten billboard charting tracks, film festival wins, and a huge catalog spanning multiple genres.

Links:

https://dieshiny.com

https://youtube.com/dieshiny

https://instagram.com/dieshiny

https://facebook.com/dieshiny

Streaming:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/067vD9pRfJHbjnlwSSwexw?si=FX4vvPflSGioj55ennJOdg

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/die-shiny/1476018766

Callie Crofts is the founder, songwriter and front-human for SLC’s edgy electropop phenom Die Shiny. A small-town Idaho native, Crofts has spent the last decade making ripples in Utah’s underground music scene - becoming established in recent years as a local ex-mormon, queer and feminist icon. Known for unwavering authenticity and lyrical activism, the experienced artist boasts a diverse songwriting career - complete with top-ten billboard charting tracks, film festival wins, and a huge catalog spanning multiple genres.

Links:

https://dieshiny.com

https://youtube.com/dieshiny

https://instagram.com/dieshiny

https://facebook.com/dieshiny

Streaming:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/067vD9pRfJHbjnlwSSwexw?si=FX4vvPflSGioj55ennJOdg

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/die-shiny/1476018766