Divergents Art

Ellen Wetmore works in video, drawing and sculpture. Her work has been on exhibition at Ciné Lumière in London, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and the Sarah Doyle Gallery of Brown University. She was awarded the 2017 Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Film and Video and a Berkshire Taconic Artist Resource Trust Grant. She is a Professor of Art and Department Chair for Art & Design at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Some of her work can be seen at http://ellenwetmore.com/.

When I was in my first years at my current college I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. My twin sister who was studying to become a expressive therapist suggested that I start taking pictures when ever I was upset or depressed and I fell in love with it. Ever since then photography has been my main medium to express my emotions and my creativity.

"My Dyslexia has had a huge effect on my work. One of the reasons I make my work is because I can not express myself in language because of dyslexia. I find it easier to show how I feel threw images then with words.” - Nick Fagan

A“My NVLD makes it hard to communicate with others and so I see my artwork as a way to communicate with others without the barriers of my disability. It is also a challenge to the neurotypical world that there is nothing wrong with me and that we neurodivergent folks do not need to be fixed. We are exactly who we are supposed to be.”-Anne Offen

Ryan Smoluk is an emerging Winnipeg artist who has already received substantial recognition for his work. He has been awarded grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council. A highlight of his young career took place in 2012 when he was given a United Nations Stamp Award for his painting The Path. The drawing, completed when Smoluk was 15 years old, was reproduced on a postage stamp that became available world-wide.