About
Darya
Darya is a painter and a photographer. Her preferred mediums are oil paint and graphite but some of you may know her as “the hand“, handling tiny little masterpieces in the photos she takes for Beacon’s Tiniest Gallery. The miniature gallery is a project she helped start with her friends when the isolation of the pandemic took over and they craved connection to their community. When she’s not painting or documenting the gallery’s newest acquisition, she photographs life-size humans at a studio she manages in NYC. Born in the Ukraine; raised in Brooklyn; graduated from SVA. Darya says Beacon, "feels like home".
Find her on Instagram: @daryasaur
director/organizer
Chris
Chris Ams is a multi-disciplinary illustrator, creator, and visual storyteller. He was born and raised in Michigan, and has made a home here in Beacon with his dog, Cosmo, and husband, Will.
His preferred mediums are graphite and acrylics, but he loves to cross boundaries and genres through the use of both traditional and digital techniques. Regardless of the tools used, he always feels the most at home when exploring, making things, and breathing life into ideas in ways that excite and inspire.
Find him on Instagram: @chrisamsart
organizer
Evan
Evan is an artist and educator who moved to Beacon from Long Island in 2015. His preferred medium is oil paint with experience in woodworking, sculpture and pottery. When he’s not painting or enjoying nature Evan works as a Physical Education/Health and life skills teacher at a therapeutic day school. He’s grateful for the opportunity to connect with his students as a balance to the intrinsic exploration which accompanies his nightly painting sessions.Find him on Instagram: @ulfy
organizer
Julia
Julia wants you to stop what you’re doing and listen.
With inspirations ranging from the Beach Boys to Amy Winehouse, her music walks the tightrope between gentility and power, and it makes that balancing act look easy. Zivic’s simple chord progressions allow introspective lyrics and haunting melodies to shine in a way that rewards attentive listeners. And her multi-layered harmonies provide enough ear candy to satisfy any sweet tooth.
Zivic, a Taurus, was raised by a touring musician and a writer. Her Connecticut childhood, spent wandering through forests and bending the wind with her voice, trained her in creativity and self-expression. That training shows up everywhere in Julia’s music, which follows the listener like a kind spirit that reminds you everything’s going to be okay.
Julia Zivic was the vocalist, guitarist & lyricist for Progressive/Soul Band, Vinegar Mother, who decided to split in 2021.
She features on other projects & albums as well, lending her writing and vocals to friends she holds dear. Carrtoons, Jak Lizard, Yoh, Joanna Teters and more...
Find her on Instagram: @daddy.long.limbs
music director/organizer
photo credit: David Bartler
John
John Menzie is happy to be a new member of the Beacon Open Studios team and to work with such talented and caring people to encourage expression and connection within the community! John was always drawing and exploring through his upbringing in the Hudson Valley and realized early on that he enjoyed building and creating 3d. Now as an adult when he's not working with Procario Designs to build large bent wood light fixtures, he enjoys exploring his anxiety and social constructs through mixed media conceptual sculptures. He likes that art can be therapeutic and foster personal and social growth.
Find him on Instagram: @john_menzie
organizer
Frank
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Frank is a photographer and filmmaker in the Hudson Valley. While in college studying a trade, he found himself not being creatively fulfilled. At 18, he bought his first camera and fell in love with the idea of storytelling through a single image. He found his niche in artistic portraits and working with small businesses helping them build an online identity with their websites and social media through photography and videography. In 2022 Frank found himself astounded with all the local artists and craftspeople living in the Hudson Valley. Thus, the short film series “Your Local Creatives” was born. Your Local Creatives is a short film Documentary series highlighting all the talented people in the Hudson Valley doing exceptional work. In this intimate series we learn why the people do what they do, how they got started, and their plans for the future. Writing is also a big part of Frank’s creative process. Over the course of his filmmaking journey he realized that he wanted to make more narrative pieces of work. He currently has one completed screenplay, and is working on a multitude of other feature scripts and short films with the goal of eventually having them be shown on the big screen.
Find him on Instagram: @Frank__theodore
Website: Franktheodore.com