Recipients of the Connor Meigs Art Award

2009 - Stephanie Olesh: "Myth & Mundane"
Stephanie Olesh is an Omaha native and 2004 graduate of Central High School. She is a 2008 BFA graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.



Stephanie's paintings mix nature and culture with fantasy and narrative stories. She writes, "I am driven by the rush I get from watching a movie, or listening to music while walking outside. It's possible to become invested in a story even just with the mood of a song. It effects how I see everything. the icons of our stories are present in our dreams and in our lives, and I feel most rewarded when myth and mundane overlap."




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2008 - Sariah Ha: "Configurations"
Sariah Ha is a California native and the second recipient of the Connor Meigs Art Award. Sariah graduated with a BFA from California State University/Fullerton in 2007.



She specializes in large-scale figurative drawings in the expressive tradition of Egon Schiele. Her web site - http://www.sariahha.com/ - explains her creative drive:
“The primary motivation behind my work is the release of emotion. Being able to express my feelings through a blank paper or canvas enables me to keep moving forward in life. Armed with a brush and a canvas, I can express the trapped inner workings of my soul. For me, the process is what matters: the experience of shaping my artwork, the sensation of my arm moving and the force of my fingers making the marks on the paper."



Sariah was born in the U.S. of Korean heritage. She sees herself straddling the line between the two cultures. This wavering sense of identity is evident in splintering lines that trace the contours of dark and moody figures. Cultural tension is further accented by her mixed media approach, which combines acrylic, ink, pastel, charcoal and oil.

“My works convey the roller coaster of emotions about finding self," She writes. "As an artist, I try to communicate my innermost thoughts and feelings through my subjects. The key to the expression of my own identity and cultural struggles is the use of Asian Americans as the subject of my work. As I struggle to define my identity, my artwork becomes an extension of these conflicts. My work is the voice I cannot use to speak, it is the dream I envision, and it is the expression of my belief.”
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2007 - Nick Shindell: "Under a Hot Sun"
Phoenix painter Nick Shindell is the first recipient of the Connor Meigs Art Award. Nick completed his BFA in Drawing and Painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006.




While attending SAIC he primarily studied figurative drawing and painting as well as landscape painting. He paints with strong colors and expressive gestures that give interesting impressions of landscapes and domestic scenes.