love, lament & solidarity

love, lament & solidarity artists

Lee Cooksey

Lee Cooksey grew up in Dallas, Texas where he was regularly involved in a variety of interests including the arts. From an early age Lee knew he wanted to be involved in creative spaces. He attended the College of Architecture at Texas A&M, where he was exposed to a variety of arts and medias. Not long after graduating he joined the ministry of Cru.

Hope Curran

Hope Curran's name has inspired a lifelong multidisciplinary research approach of light, home, community, beauty and relationships. She believes hospitality is the highest form of art. To hope is to not yet have, yet hold close. These are her prayers and promises written in ink, portraits of light.

Hope’s work is an ongoing case study of HOME, family and experience as a foreigner in Paris. It’s rooted in a desire to engage with communities and create a shared place which transcends language, borders and culture. Amidst the refugee crisis, globalisation, climate change and cultural wars she hopes to curate spaces of rest, reflection and welcome.

Tomesha Faxio

Tomesha Faxio used to be a lawyer. She started dabbling in photography while working as Legal Counsel for Spanx. Even though Tomesha enjoyed working at such a fun and vibrant company, she found herself much more interested in what the creative teams were doing than what was going on in the legal department. It wasn’t long before it became clear that her hobby needed to become her career. And, when she was honest with herself, practicing law never really suited her well. As a lawyer, Tomesha constantly felt like she was leaving part of herself at home. So, in 2019, she quit her job to pursue photography.

She soon discovered that her love for storytelling — specifically, Black storytelling — was best channeled through documentary

photography. Tomesha’s most recent documentary project, Wash Day, has set the tone for the type of work she’s drawn to and that she wants to continue to produce.

Phyllis Thomas

Phyllis Thomas’ art-making is an intentional process combining conceptual and thematic images which begin with a thoughtful response to an object, circumstance, nature, book, biblical text or music. More often than not it is a spiritual meditation inspired by biblical texts informed by dictionaries, commentaries and historical research. She keeps obliterating shapes until she finds the bare elements that translate and summarize her personal insights through note-taking, observation and sketches. Almost iconic in essence, Phyllis’ work becomes a symbol or sign extracted from the words she has read and studied. Her primary mediums are fluid acrylics and watercolor on paper, canvas or board. The renderings are often enhanced with stitched thread, embossing and gold or silver leaf which have the effect of slowing her down and taught her to reflect on the piece as she works.

Chris Fox

Chris Fox is a writer and illustrator from Rock Hill, SC. He’s been drawing and writing since he was a kid. So when it came time to decide what to study at Winthrop University, the choices were obvious: Spanish with a minor in Religion and Philosophy. After college, he rediscovered his love for these mediums as ways to express visually and in prose the ideas and concepts that engage his imagination.

Angela Grelet

Angela Grelet, who explores personal identity and cultural interconnectedness, was born in Hong Kong, lived in Australia and the United States of America, where she started painting, before settling in France in 2001 and is now living in Belgium.

Her work is influenced by her personal experience and her life across several continents. She tackles the questions of human identity and human roots, of the differences between peoples and the influence of our origins, the way we look at other people and ourselves.

"Running" - is part of her latest series "My World turns BLUE". It is in reference to the use of blue liquid in water cannons to better identify and apprehend demonstrators, that Angela chose to use the old photographic technique of cyanotype, and its typical cyan blue color, for her work evoking these events.

Angela used fallen branches on the forest floor to symbolize people and communities that are separated from their native soil and stripped of their security and protection. The symbolism of the fallen branch emphasizes the fragility of the detached branches left behind.

These branches also make the link with our human condition.

Indeed the shape of the branches chosen for Angela’s work evokes the Chinese character for human being: (ren, yan). This work wants to signify that it is through the full development of the human person, in the respect of her or his freedom and dignity that peace will be able to come, and justice will be able to prevail.

Brandi Voigt Fox

Brandi Voigt Fox is a Southern Artist who explores the questions of life with flowers and produce as stand-ins for human models. As she wrestles with her personal identity through these Floral Portraits and Produce Tales, she invites the viewer to enter into their own wrestling.

Dennissa Young

Dennissa Young is a Native New Mexican based out of Chicago. Her work focuses around radical softness and how art can be a platform to foster connection and even friendship. Dennissa graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with a BFA in 2015 and since has bounced around from Istanbul to Rock Hill to Chicago. These moves have shaped her and inspired her to make work about organizing, community and coming together. Dennissa works with Cru Arts and Culture as one of the National Directors and serves alongside two galleries in Chicago, Belong Gallery and The Martin.

Elizabeth Pate

Elizabeth Pate is a multidisciplinary artist with Midwest origins. Her work has included handwritten typography, various sewing and DIY projects, as well as watercolor. Her current work explores themes of heritage, loss, and identity. Elizabeth has shown her work in Denver. She is based in Queens, NYC where she shares a cozy apartment with her husband, Mark.

Jorge Rosario

Jorge Rosario identifies as a Son of the living God, husband to the most amazing woman on earth, father of three works of art. He really enjoys this newfound form of worship as he is in awe of how God is using this paint brush to put his imagination on canvas. Jorge is grateful for the opportunity to share this with his extended family.

Bonnie Sanders

Bonnie Sanders is a photographer who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. As an artist, she believes that beauty matters and seeks to be a voice of hope in the world. Her current work in photography is centered around children rescued out of slavery, communities receiving the gift of clean water, and teenagers raising their voices to stop the violence against indigenous women. Her photos have been displayed in coffee shops, churches, as well as local and national events that center around human trafficking. In March, 2018, twenty of her photos were displayed in a gallery in Florence, Italy to celebrate International Women's Day.

Joe Schlie

After having lived in France for almost 17 years, Joe Schlie is thrilled to apply all that he learned and experienced there, now with Cru Arts and Culture. As the executive director of Cru Arts and Culture, Joe is helping to develop a global network of Cru artists and partners. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in journalism and earned his Master's degree from Bethel Seminary with an emphasis on global theology. He is married to Suzy Schlie and has three daughters.

Chuck Wallace

Chuck Wallace believes the arts are much more powerful than most realize. They are a hidden yet extremely powerful realm in the creation of God which speaks deeply to our soul. Beauty is a value. It's part of what makes us human - and in the image of God. As a painter, Chuck loves color and contrast. Many of his paintings take a perspective that is unique and where he tries to portray drama. Chuck wants the viewer to see something from an angle they may not have seen before.

The emotion of a painting is also important to him. It may be a little comical like in 'Arroyo Seco Classic' an old truck which is wired together and the hood held down by a small padlock or ominous and strong as in 'Stormy Stand' which shows the tower and bells of a very old chapel standing strong against an ominous and foreboding storm much like the Church has done through the ages.