Featured Artist Showcase

Anna Stauch is a self-taught Kansas City-based artist, known for her unique, vibrant artwork! 

Ranging from murals, illustrations, paintings, and even a tattoo artist! 

Starting young with realism, loving to be exact, doing professional portraits, still lives, and Murals, then breaking out adventuring into different mediums and styles, ultimately creating my style I would describe as vibrant, out of the box, black sheep thinking! I pour as much energy, emotion, and creativity as I can into each piece. 

I am currently working on a vibrant acrylic painting collection and tattooing. 

  I am an abstract drawer who lets her imagination run free. I am also in my mood, and one day I want to understand myself. I paint how I feel. I also have another hobby, passionate about writing. I write different things, like poetry and stories. I am from here in Kansas. I also lived in Denver, Colorado, and El Paso, Texas, where I was born. 

Drawing makes me feel connected to the outside and helps me to ground myself. 

Art has always been central to my being, as has mental illness. My mother put me on disability as a teenager as my problems multiplied with age.  Chasing a childhood dream, I completed my junior year at KSU to become a therapist in prisons. Alas, I'm on a gap due to my mental and physical health, as it worsened with the state of the world. But I will continue!

  Christina Santiago (she/her) is a Latina lesbian writer by training, trade and passion. By day, she works for a social services and mental health nonprofit. By night, she poets around Kansas City. 

Christina's poetic memoir, "You Can Go to Hell and Back", was published by La Resistencia Press in 2022 and sold out of two printings. Her debut collection outlines her experience before, during and after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her first-person, narrative poetry often reflects her experiences with mental illness, queerness, biracial identity, spirituality and love in all its forms.

Christina has performed poetry across Kansas City, from coffee shops like Blip Roasters, Anchor Island Coffee and PH Coffee, to arts spaces like Greenwood Social Hall and HJ's Youth and Community Center. She also joined the leadership team at Poetic Underground KC this year, three years after hopping on the mic for the first time.

  Clariece Kirkwood is a multimedia and self-taught visual artist based in Kansas City, MO. Her work explores emotion, identity, and imagination through bold colors and intricate detail. Whether painting on canvas, drawing on paper or illustrating digitally, Clariece brings a new fresh perspective to every piece and subject.

See more from Clariece: Siriusly_Art on instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Clariece Kirkwood on Facebook. 

  Dale is an honest man trying to make something beautiful instead of making something that might destroy someone. He just wants to play his part in keeping the peace and being a positive influence in his community. He plays a leadership role as an Eagle Scout in Troop 11 and has a passion for teaching his skills to young scouts and clubs. He is an avid gamer and collector and connects with his peers by sharing his passions with them, including his art.

  Darrell experienced a life-altering accident at the age of 5, resulting in a mental health disability that has shaped much of his journey. Despite the challenges he faces, he continues to find joy in everyday moments and holds onto a deep appreciation for happiness. His resilience and positive spirit are central to how he moves through the world.

  During a season of life when my mental health prohibited me from doing most things, I found art to be the only consistent. I was able to leave a part of my journey on the canvas and found it to be a pivotal part of my healing. With many acronym labels attached to my “condition list”-PTSD, ADHD, OCD, MDD- I began to explore what these conditions meant for me and how I could use them to grow instead of being debilitated. I formed pathways in my mind to begin to take when life felt unbearable. Pathways that lead to no matter how big or small they may seem. Although there were times that I could express myself verbally, I always found a way to speak through my art, pouring onto the pages of my journey. I am thankful for even the worst of days, as they have created the best version of myself today.

 EFFY WINTER is an American poet and scholar specializing in literary studies with a concentration on the lives and work of German writer Assia Wevill and English poet Ted Hughes. As a nominee for the 2018 Pushcart Prize, her poetry has appeared in numerous publications. In 2022, she began pursuing her academic work in England, dividing her time between London and West Yorkshire, where she studies confessional poetry at The Ted Hughes Arvon Centre for Creative Writing. 

See more from Effy: @effyrosewinter 

  Kansas City, Kansas native. Mother of three children, Grandmother of six, and seven great grandchildren. 72-year-old woman African American.

  Kammy Kennelley Downs is a teaching artist whose artworks employ seeds, roots, and plants as metaphors for the relationship between the seen and unseen in life. Her practice includes social practice projects around issues of mental health. Downs grew up in rural Kansas and has been teaching art for over 30 years. Currently, she teaches art at Kansas City Kansas Community College and Heroes Home Gate for homeless veterans. She earned a bachelor’s degree in art education from Emporia State University and a Master of Fine Arts in drawing from Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. Downs is committed to facilitating artistic opportunities in her community and empowering others to realize their creative strengths. She believes art has the power to heal while making space for community. 

Her artwork may be seen on Instagram and Facebook at kammydowns, at kammydowns.com, and in her studio at The Bunker Center for the Arts, KCMO.

  Karina Solis is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Kansas City. She enthusiastically explores a variety of mediums, including acrylic painting, clay sculpture, and photography, driven by the belief that art can be found in many forms – a philosophy that extends to her study and practice of various martial arts. Karina's artistic hope is to bring joy and light to her viewers and to express herself authentically in ways she has previously felt unable to. Her submission, "Elenita," reflects this journey of self-expression and the rediscovery of inner joy as a vital aspect of mental well-being. 

 Kevin VanEmburgh is an artist with a background in photography. This helped shape how he approaches the surface to paint. Always in love with light, strong contrast, and color that shapes the page, Kevin paints with an intention that is based on abstract work inspired by the ocean and nature. As a person who must create every day, he strives to make many mistakes so that out of a pile of work he isn’t happy with, he has a few pieces that he loves and feels are worth sharing with the world. It is a process that gives and takes and keeps him showing up every day. Art is his outlet, and life feels less complete for him when he is not creating.

Laura Crossley is a multidisciplinary creative innovator bringing bold ideas to life for global brands, startups, and nonprofits. She's led creative work for names like the American Heart Association, Garmin, Lucasfilm, Sesame Workshop, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. 

Laura's first public artwork – 'Takes Heart' – was featured in the 2024 Parade of Hearts and acquired by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Her work amplifies the voices of women and gives presence to the otherwise unseen hurdles women face every day. Her digitally connected pieces aim to drive social impact while celebrating resilience in all its forms.

See more from Laura: https://laura-crossley.com/art 

Jezebel In A Winter War 

Cold wind keeps me inside, and this cold wind leaves me nowhere to hide.

How do I hide my mind from the cold? When my body craves the warmth of those I hold. 

I was marked as a Jezebel unhinged. But do you even know what lies within? 

The ‘hyper sexual’ Black Woman. Let me live my life as you do yours. 

But because of my dark skin, I now hold secrets that can’t be shared. 

Stop sexualizing me. When all you do is hate me. 

Lissie Stanislaw is a trained visual artist working in painting and mixed media. Her work explores memory, emotion, and the moments "between scenes." Her recent work engages more directly with themes of mental health and personal recovery, using texture and light to process grief. She is a Phidian Art Show award winner and continues to build a body of work rooted in emotional honesty and quiet transformation. 

See more from Lissie: @lissie.stanislaw.art on Instagram.

  My mental journey made me into the artist I am. “It all took time to understand that elevating into loving yourself means something to yourself and to others.”

  Matthew McCann was born in Independence, Missouri. He graduated from Truman High School in 1990 and Park University in 1997. After teaching writing, journalism, and speech for 15 years outside the Kansas City area, Matthew returned to Kansas City to begin his next chapter in life.

  Nick Lopez is a program coordinator at Missouri Humanities and a Marine Corps veteran. His poems have been published in "Veteran's Voices", "Haiku Journal", "Line of Advance" and Volume 11 of "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors." His essay "I am a Coconut" won the Johnson County Library, KS "Imagine Your Story" contest in 2020. Nick's paintings have been displayed in several group exhibitions in the Kansas City metro area. You can view his art on Instagram art_is_strange_studio. 

  Nicole Colunga is a painter from Kansas, recently rooted and now finding her rhythm in Kansas City, who uses art to make sense of the world and herself. For Nicole, painting isn’t just about making something beautiful—her work is all about capturing moments that feel real—messy, emotional, quiet, joyful, or heavy. Her work comes from personal moments, often tied to mental health, memory, and the quiet in-betweens that don’t always get talked about. Creating helps her slow down, process emotions, and sometimes just breathe. Through each piece, she hopes to hold space, not just for her healing, but for anyone who sees a part of their story in her work. Her art is an invitation: to feel, to reflect, and to know you're not alone.

  After experiencing a deep personal loss, I created this piece with color, texture, and intentional absence to hold the emotions I could not speak.

The yellow evokes the memory of life and spirit, while the embryo form in the lower right corner honors a life that could not stay. 

Miscarriage became a way for me to hold grief, memory, and healing in my hands — to let art carry what words could not.

Tip is a queer poet, facilitation, and creative grounded in community, healing, and self-expression. With a deep love for storytelling and safe spaces, their work explores identity, mental health, and the quiet resilience of the inner child. They are passionate about using poetry as a resilience of the inner child. They are passionate about using poetry as a tool for connection, reflection, and collective care. When not writing or hosting workshops, they can be found tending to their plants, hanging with their cat, or curating soft, bold spaces for sapphic joy.