Anita Payne

AHRC NYC

Anita has been a member of the Fisher Center for nearly 30 years, where she has developed her talents in drawing, jewelry-making, and weaving.  Over the past few years Anita’s weavings have evolved into these beautiful unique wrap like structures. According to her mother, Lucille, Anita’s artwork is an expression of her heart, bringing love and emotion into every piece she creates

Jose Martinez

AHRC NYC

Jose Martinez (b.1985) is a self-taught artist based in Queens, New York. Jose finds himself mostly drawn to the needle and thread, meticulously threading through the prepared surface to encompass geological-like formations. His practice is rooted in repetition and restraint. Each stitch is placed deliberately, allowing patterns to gradually emerge through accumulated labor. Carefully selected thread colors interact and repeat across the surface, creating subtle shifts in rhythm, depth, and movement. Jose joined ArTech Collective in 2021. 

Hin Wah Mock

AHRC NYC

Hin Wah has been weaving with Intertwine Arts for a number of years, and often expresses joy
and laughter while he works. Hinwah can sometimes struggle when feeling overwhelmed by a
difficult challenge such as threading a needle. Over the years he’s become much more
confident with these challenges and more content with the work that he is doing.

Rosemary

AHRC NYC

Rosemary is a newer artist at AHRC NYC who discovered embroidery and quickly made it her own. She works free-hand with lots of color and sometimes adds small fabric-collage elements to her pieces. Rosemary often stitches all the way around the embroidery hoop, making the frame an inseparable part of the work.

Veronica

AHRC NYC

Veronica is relatively new to embroidery and works with a calm, focused energy. She chooses her colors with confidence. Sometimes she sketches her designs onto the fabric. Other times she follows the fabric’s original pattern or stitches free-hand. She especially enjoys using warm, bright colors.

Ernestine Rivers

AHRC NYC

Ernestine is an artist at the AHRC-NYC program in Brooklyn NY. She is a keen weaver who works mostly on the cricket loom. Ernestine’s favorite projects to make with her woven fabric are rag dolls, bags and pillows. She is excited for her first time exhibiting her work in an art show. Ernestine is a very nice, friendly artist in the weaving class and is very considerate and encouraging to the other artists in the group.

Richard Foster, Rebecca Previl, Evelyn (Staff)

AHRC NYC

This piece was a collaboration made between Richard, Rebecca and Evelyn, at the AHRC-NYC program in Brooklyn NY. Rebecca and Evelyn woven the individual pieces of fabric on the cricket looms, and Richard brought them all together in a patchwork style using his signature stitches. Richard enjoys making big colorful stitches in all his woven fabric, creating a second layer of handicraft to his work.

Gilbert "Junior" Laury

AHRC NYC

Gilbert “Junior” Laury (b. 2000) is a young artist from Queens, New York. A fan of animated films, Junior often incorporates their influence into his work. His preferred media include graphite, colored pencils, and markers, though his adventurous and upbeat spirit encourages him to explore other practices such as weaving and embroidery, which he describes as relaxing. In his abstract embroidery or weaving pieces, the repeated use of purple—a favorite color— is a distinctive element of his work.

Ashanti McKelvin

AHRC NYC

Ashanti Mckelvin (b. 1998) is a self-taught artist based in Queens, New York. Her practice centers on embroidery and weaving. Since joining ArTech Collective in 2021, she has remained actively engaged in producing a range of works, including pillows, blankets, and more recently, braided yarn strands on canvas or burlaps that evoke movement and connection. Her work is organic in nature, with a strong emphasis on texture, color variation, and assemblage.

Jimmy Tucker

YAI

Jimmy is one of the longest standing members of YAI Arts Without Walls, and has been involved since 2018. He was inspired to try weaving to make a gift for his mom, and made his first scarf. Since then, his creativity has exploded. He has started making stuffed dolls from his own hand drawn characters. He is excited to weave fabric for their body parts and clothing, and then uses felt, pipe cleaners and other materials for embellishment of their features. 

Everette Ball

YAI

Everette is an avid weaver and looks forward to our weaving sessions. He gets his creativity from his grandmother, who is also an artist. He has a great sense of color and style, and loves to make items to wear. He is also incredibly meticulous, and though he is fairly non-verbal, he is great at following patterns. He loves bright colors, especially rainbows. Lately, he has been experimenting with clasped weft and embroidery. 

Eileen Suriel

NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital

Welcome to the Family was designed by Eileen, a weaver who is blind as a result of an optic glioma, a brain tumor. She created this work so that children and families in the pediatric oncology clinic and even healthcare providers could encounter various pieces of medical equipment in a non-threatening way. Eileen likes to guide the hand of the person experiencing her creation to explain the objects woven into the fabric so that they can be understood.

Ikesha Irvin, Luis Rivera, Alondra Perez, Veleka Kerr, Roshiene Abrams, Jonathan Young

Heartshare Human Services

The weaving group at Heartshare Human Services day habilitation program have been weaving together with Intertwine Arts for 4 years. This steady group of artists - Ikesha, Luis, Alondra, Veleka, Patricia, supervised by staff member Roshiene - have created an incredible body of textiles over this time.

Some Things Change Over Time is an experimental piece that focuses on the discarded remnants of the woven projects that have taken place at the Heartshare Human Services day habilitation program over the last 4 years. The weaving group, Luis, Ikesha, Alondra, Veleka, Jonathan and Roshiene, combined years worth of collected yarn scraps to bond, stitch and sew this mass of textural wall hanging. The piece feels like a snapshot in time for the group, who recognize the different colors and materials that have come and gone over the years of art marking.

For Our Solar System, the group wanted to go back to their roots - the paper plate circle weaving. Made with simplicity and joy, the circles come together to create orb like forms - a solar system of the Heartshare community.

Aletha Capers

Heartshare Human Services

Aletha attends the Intertwine Arts program with Heartshare Human Services in Oakland Gardens. She has been sewing since she was 5 years old, and so loves to embroider in class. She often incorporates flowers in work, and is very project oriented. So far she has had her art transformed into a pillow, embellished onto a T-shirt, and a tote bag decorated with her work. She would like to make a bag with handles next and put her name on it, a signature of her work as she embroiders her name often. Aletha is very talkative, often talking to herself as she sews, and also loves to sing if music is playing.

Brianne

Heartshare Human Services

Brianne attends the Intertwine Arts program with Heartshare Human Services in Oakland Gardens. She focuses on creating sculptural circle weavings that she works on for months, often incorporating yarns and materials that are sparkly, pretty, textural and alternative. She has an eye for color and often compliments people on their outfits. She is always singing and dancing in class as well.

Natalia Osorio

Heartshare Human Services

Natalia attends the Intertwine Arts program with Heartshare Human Services in Oakland Gardens. She enjoys embroidering and circle weaving, and said she gets inspired by her dreams and nature, specifically flowers. Her favorite colors are pink and yellow, and she loves Justin Bieber. She is currently working on making her first pillow. When asked about how weaving makes her feel, Natalia said “I feel happy when I make art.”

Mimi

Heartshare Human Services

Brian Shulman

IAHD

Brian is an avid artist who is often waiting outside the door ready to start weaving.  He quickly selects bright primary colors, often starting with orange, his favorite. Over the 2 years that he has been weaving, Brian has developed his signature style, weaving contrasting ribbons or fabric in and out of the warp to create a three-dimensional effect.  Each week he weaves 12” to 24” of fabric.  Later he helps to sew the separated pieces together to make wall hangings. Other pieces are made into scarves, a hat or a pillow. Brian enjoys weaving because he can do it at his own pace. He also enjoys reading about American history and watching all types of sports on TV, but especially baseball and hockey.

Paula Dertouzos

VISIONS

Paula is an artist at VISIONS, in Manhattan. She enjoys using the colors pink and purple as they are her favorite. She has a nice table arrangement with her friends who all weave and chat together. Paula likes to try new things and has recently taken up the cricket loom, a project that she enjoys as it is much faster and more satisfying that the cardboard looms which she finds to be a little slow. She has been recently inspired by the class to start making stuffed animals, and this elephant is her second attempt, and quite grand at that. 

Wayne McKenzie

VISIONS

Wayne McKenzie was born in Guyana, moved to the Bahamas and then came to the United States when he was 10. He landed in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he was a milliner for many years. He created felt and straw hats for the community until he began losing his vision in his mid-40’s. He loves being creative, and weaves with colors he remembers from memory.

Sharon Joyner

VISIONS

Sharon is an artist with an incredible imagination, who is visually impaired. She loves to push the boundaries of what is possible, and will transform a simple weaving into a tapestry by using different colors for the ground and sky, and then adding embroidered elements for the birds, trees, and sun. She is always searching for what she can make next, and recently wove enough fabric for this vest on the floor loom. 

Mary Burris

VISIONS

Mary Burris accompanies Suzette, who is visually impaired, as her aide. In between helping Suzette and the other vision impaired artists sitting at her table, she loves to make her own weaving creations.

Donna Hedges

VISIONS

Donna is an artist at our VISIONS program in Manhattan. She is visually impaired, but has a strong sense of color and design. She loves to make projects such as bags and pillows for her children and grandchildren. She is also the life and soul of the class, keeping everyone entertained and creating a great sense of community.