aRTIST IN rESIDENCE
Get to know our cohort of artist in residence currently creating in the BelRed Arts Studio.
Fred Lisaius
Fred is a Bellevue local with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is a painter and sculptor who draws inspiration from nature, often collecting leaves, berries, mushrooms, and other bits of the outside world. His pieces are metaphors for local and global communities. Within this theme, he explores the concepts of diversity, self, and truth. Fred invites viewers to find their own connections and meaning within his art.
Don Honey
Don Honey is a queer artist based in Seattle. Their work celebrates the playful and sensual nature of the human body. Their influences comes from vintage pinup art, comic books, and video games. They have a background in video games, but their queerness really bloomed after getting involved with the pole dance and burlesque communities.
Kate Jones
Kate Jones is a contemporary abstract artist based in Redmond, Washington, whose work centers on the theme of radical transformation and healing. Jones retired from a dynamic dual career as a registered nurse and the creator of her interior design business specializing in Feng Shui and color residency. This lifelong dedication to wellness and one’s environment now fuels her conviction that art can be a powerful catalyst for personal healing.
Working primarily in acrylics and mixed media, Jones has an intuitive, layered process. She builds attractive, textured areas and complex compositions through expressive mark-making, creating visual metaphors for the inescapable, messy and difficult challenges we face throughout our lives. Her canvases reminds viewers of the strange beauty and quiet elegance that is often gained from these random, transformative occurrence.
Twyla Sampaco
Twyla is a queer Filipina-American photographer and self-published author based in Seattle, WA. Preferring old, gifted, and novelty film cameras, she makes the most of faulty shutters and ambient light; reprocessing unresolved trauma with the romance of plastic lenses, leaking light seals, and inconsistent film advance mechanisms. Her intensive analog photography process gives her something tangible to do with her hands, and creative latitude for expressing emotional truth. Her photographs have been exhibited at Vermillion Gallery, Seattle (2021); A-Gallery, Seattle (2023); Mutiny Gallery, Seattle (2022); the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience, Seattle (2020); and the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles, WA (2019).
Twyla graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in Material Science & Engineering and a certificate in Program Management. In 2021, she self-published her first book, "Technicolor Nightmare", a photo memoir about surviving bipolar disorder in her twenties. In 2023, she published two other books, “Monochrome Daydream”, and “Fragile; not like a Flower. ” Twyla’s current projects are surviving bipolar disorder in her thirties, and completing her next book.
EMMA JOHNSON
Emma is a non-binary potter whose love of mud developed in 2021, when they took their first ceramics class. They have since been creating a variety of ceramic works including sculptures, food-themed works, and collections of cute dinnerware. You can catch them at Northwest Pottery Collective teaching, or at various markets in the greater Seattle area.
Emma has been running EGJ Studios since 2022 selling handmade ceramic goods. Their work is an extension of all the things they know and love. It is a collection of their life experiences and they hope you get to enjoy them as much as they do.
LaMecca Bostwick
Lamecca is a interdisciplinary artist and part time Fine Arts student at Shoreline Community College. She specializes in abstract and impressionist watercolor paintings. However, she does love to explore layering mediums and creating art that’s driven by my emotional state and music on a variety of surfaces, including found objects, canvas, wood, and watercolor paper. Her work has been displayed locally in coffee shops and a gallery, and she loves sharing her art through both original pieces and merchandise like postcards, totes, paint-with-me art kits, and hoodies. She has sold her originals at local art fairs, pop-ups, and online.
Ryan Johnson
Ryan is a 43 year old art director working in video games the last 20+ years. He has extensive experience live digital painting at arts and music festivals all over the west coast. Currently, he is focusing on oil, alla prima, plein air.
With over 20 years in the game industry, he has defined artistic visions, built creative teams, and shipped successful titles across mobile, handheld, and console platforms. Directed visual development for games such as SpongeBob Krusty Cook-Off, Zombieland AFK Survival, Narcos Idle Cartel, and M&M's Adventures on mobile; contributed to Bionicle Heroes, The Simpsons Game, and Shrek Forever After on the Nintendo DS; and worked on acclaimed titles for PlayStation and Xbox. Known for leading cross-functional collaboration, streamlining workflows, and delivering quality visuals that align with strategic goals.
Sammy Ng
Sammy Ng’s creative journey began with a degree in programming that led to a dream job at Xbox—but her lifelong passion for art and animation never left her side. Even while working in tech, Sammy continued to draw, explore 3D modeling, and experiment with digital design, eventually finding her stride in vector-based illustration.
In 2012, she hand cut her first layered paper cut illustrations. It gave her freedom to adjust the line countless times until she was satisfied.
Sunyoung Kwon
Sunyoung began her artistic journey with formal studies in painting, printmaking, and three-dimensional art. In 2008, her creative pursuits paused for more than a decade while she cared for her husband during his leukemia treatment. Afterward, she returned to the art community by teaching anwhere she serves as director. She finds deep fulfillment in mentoring young and professional artists preparing for advanced study, and her teaching continues to inspire her own artistic exploration, sustaining her passion for art as a process of discovery.
Sunyoung earned a BFA in Printmaking from Hong-Ik University in Seoul and an MFA in Printmaking, with a minor in Sculpture, from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her artwork has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout South Korea and the United States.