ARTISTS 2023
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.
Hanna Dausch
Artist
My grandfather was a woodworker, my grandmother a painter, my mother a gardener, and my father a refinisher. Growing up I was surrounded by craftsmanship - precise lines, smooth curves, and distinct details shaped by skilled hands. It wasn’t until I moved away from home that I came to realize how much these details brought comfort and warmth to my childhood memories.
Clint Fisher
Artist
Clint Fisher is a multi disciplinary artist born in the back woods of Southern West Virginia and currently residing in Pittsburgh. A graduate of West Virginia University with a focus on studio art and art history his works embrace themes voyeurism, sexuality and individual observation.
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....
Brogan McGowan
Artist
Brogan G. McGowan, he/they, is Founder and Principal Artist of Notes From Brogan, a letter-writing campaign that works to organize stakeholders, people, and community allies who are invested in securing safe and affirming housing, healthcare and employment experiences for LGBTQIA people in southwestern PA.
Andre Pace
Artist
The task a retrospective reinforced by the verbal remains of the image identifying these elements they are seen afresh with expanded expressions of color and patterns its not gender nor identity the complicated issues still matters leaving visible traces of contemporary art and Mix media design works ...
Zachariah Szabo
Artist
Zachariah Szabo (b. 1989, Richfield, OH) is an artist currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. A native of the midwest and a former competitive figure skater and dancer, his work explores personal identity, loss, reference and subculture through photography, video and mixed media. His work has been collected privately across the US and Europe.
Pati Beachley
Artist
Pati Beachley is a Pittsburgh-based, non-binary sculptor. Her work mixes masculine and feminine attributes forcing a dialogue into gendered text and imagery—she adds a queer narrative by casting carpet and fibrous materials. As owner and designer of Tenderwerks, her Pittsburgh-based studio and foundry, Pati creates pieces celebrating the pleasure of everyday, useful objects that transcend the ordinary.
Myles Geyman
Artist
Myles Geyman is Co-Founder and Lead Product Designer of Stak Ceramics, located in Pittsburgh, PA. He is also a Senior Sales Engineer, designing passive access and fall protection products for aviation, space, and industrial applications.
His artwork explores light, shadow, material and form. While working primarily in ceramic materials, he also illustrates, paints and photographs his work in an effort to further understand the details that create an emotional connection to the object.
Mrjonart
Artist
A Tom of Finland inspired gay man that's enamored by the male form, Mr. Jon expresses this passion through watercolor on art board. Men of every shape, size, and color along with the kinks/fetishes that they indulge in are memorialized in their true raw and beautiful nature. Other mediums are used from time to time, such as colored pencil or oils, but my primary tools are ink and watercolor.
Nicole jonay Quantz
Artist
I am the proud mother of three amazing children, each with their own individual needs and qualities. One of my children is transgender, another is autistic, and I also have a nursing baby. This dynamic mix of responsibilities keeps me on my toes, as I’m constantly needed in various aspects of their lives. I feel like I’m needed everywhere all at once
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.
Andrew Criss
Artist
Andrew “Andy” Criss is a figurative and landscape painter from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he has been making work from his home studio for over twenty years. A recipient of the Delaware Division of the Arts Established Artist Fellowship, his work is in private collections throughout the United States.
Brian Ferrell
Artist
Brian Ferrell channels his deep experience in multiple craft forms for his studio practice, typically making sculptural furniture and vessels. An experimenter at heart, he draws inspiration from architecture and nature, working skillfully with mixed materials, including wood, metal, and clay.
Deborah Kollar
Artist
Deborah Kollar is a traditional Sumi-e brush painter. As a current member of Pittsburgh Society of artists and the National Sumi-e Society of America she shares her art as an educator. She has exhibited in group shows both locally and regionally and has been recognized via several awards.
Maia Leppo
Artist
Safran Everyday was created out of a desire to provide handsome, functional home basics. We are a small-batch, woman-run company that was created to offer a better alternative to big box stores. Before starting Safran Everyday, our founder Maia Leppo, was in the jewelry field for over 10 years and brings her material knowledge and design expertise to every product we make.
Jeremy Lucido
Artist
Jeremy Lucido is an artist, photographer, and zine publisher in South Los Angeles. Born in a suburb outside of Saint Louis, Missouri, Lucido was encouraged to follow his art interest at an early age. However, he discovered his love for photography when enrolling in a High School journalism class. At 21, he moved to Hollywood, California, to attend Otis College of Art and Design and receive a BFA in Photography.
Shortly after gradu
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.
Harriet Phillips
Artist
Harriet Phillips (1941-2009) was a prolific painter and portrait artist who delighted in exploring the range of her artistic style. She painted with acrylics, oil, watercolor and pastels- chose figures, landscapes, shapes and shadows. She was inspired by embodiment and color, in human/nature. She lived in Pittsburgh and Florida.
Jared Enrique Quinteros
Artist
My art is inspired from life experiences and carries with it my deep emotional struggles. I grew up in Arizona and started painting at a young age. I am self taught and had some success as a young artist living in San Francisco where I showed and sold my work. After life’s path took...
Lindsay Schmittle/ Gingerly Press
Artist
Gingerly Press is the printmaking studio practice of letterpress artist, Lindsay Schmittle. Lindsay discovered her love for old-school letterpress printing as a Visual Communications major at the University of Delaware. Jaded by the copious screen time of graphic design....
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For LGBTQ+ mental health, community, and substance abuse services