Water & Stone Juried Art Shows are Open to
Creative or Expressive Arts Therapists and Students
Creative or Expressive Arts Therapists and Students
We are fortunate to be in a profession where we are hopefully able to hold space for others to feel seen, heard, and valued for who they are. As therapists, we don’t always have access to that same space for ourselves or we don’t have time to show the amazing human behind the professional persona to those in our community. These art shows are an opportunity to be witnessed and supported in a way that is very much needed in this day and age. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy witnessing what others have created and will consider joining future art shows.
These shows ask you to create art about your amazing multifaceted self. The focus is on identity and exploring that creatively, in a way that feels comfortable for you; choosing what you would like to have witnessed by others. Whether it is some creative aspect of your inner world, an exploration of the masks you wear, or something that makes you uniquely you, I hope you will consider participating.
These shows ask you to create art about your amazing multifaceted self. The focus is on identity and exploring that creatively, in a way that feels comfortable for you; choosing what you would like to have witnessed by others. Whether it is some creative aspect of your inner world, an exploration of the masks you wear, or something that makes you uniquely you, I hope you will consider participating.
2026 Art Show
in conjunction with The 10-YeaR celebration of
the Water & Stone CAT conference
Awards and Voting
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All Artists
Received a Certificate for 10 ATCB CE Hours, 2 LCAT Contact Hours Best in Show Voted on by Conference Attendees - $100 workshop credit* - TBD (July 5) Juror’s Top 3 Choices $75 workshop credit* Kendra Kambestad Kirane, Sharon Itkoff Nacache, Emily Bess Varacalli Emery’s Student Pick 2 free workshops*Tindy Roberts *Workshop credit can be used for any Water & Stone/Firefly & Phoenix continuing education offerings Sept 2026-May 2027 OR 1 Individual Mentoring/Consultation Meeting with Emery. |
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Detailed Program and Artist Statements
| Program for Art Show 2026.pdf |
Artist: Lia M. Camion
LCAT, ATR-BC https://www.instagram.com/horsetruckarts/ Title: Erosion Dimensions: 9” x 12” Materials: Pencil, Oil Pastel on Paper Year: 2023 Artist Statement: In 2022, a surgery literally removed a part of my body and altered it irreparably. It was a crude reminder of my humanness, my physicality, my connection to the land itself. I was breakable. I am breakable. The winds of life wear us down over the years, reshape us, take pieces of us, spread us thin. I felt the weight of the world in that knowledge, heavy on me. Now, still feeling the magnitude of that awareness, I also feel reassured by these invisible threads of connection that transcend me. The silt washed away is perhaps no longer mine, but it now belongs to the world around me. I am the wind. I am the dust. I am human and Earth. |
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Title: Double Vision
Dimensions: 18” x 32” Materials: Oil Pastels, Digital Assemblage Year: 2025-2026 Artist Statement: Two mandalas made in two different moments, but both equally autobiographical. A line from a horoscope book, for people born on my birthday, always stuck with me: "Restrain your inclination to be exacting and domineering and learn to control your temper." In one realm, I crave order, reason, planning, and ultimately, to control all the variables. And in another realm of mine, gut and intuition run the show, burning a little wilder. Both of these sides serve me in life, personally and professionally, but balance is hard to find as I teeter back and forth between these two seemingly-opposing sides, uncertain about where lays the line in which I cross over to an unhealthy extreme. Precision and control vs emotion and instinct. As I get older and hopefully wiser, I remind myself to hold space for "and" more than "or," knowing that opposing perspectives can coexist. |
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Artist: Jessica Fox
MSED, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT https://www.instagram.com/jfoxartistnyc/ Title: Pantone Portrait Year: 2025 Materials: Pantone Paper, Gloss Medium Dimensions: 30” x 40” Artist Statement: I am a strong woman with deep feelings. I am her, I am trying to push through the hard days. I carry strife and sadness. I seek connection and community. |
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Title: Am Yisrael Chai
Year: 2025 Materials: Mixed Media Dimensions: 18” x 12” Artist Statement: The recent events from the war with Israel, the music festival hostages and death have brought my identity to the forefront. I am a proud Jew and stand with Israel everyday. I believe in hope and I have faith. I want peace and love to prevail. |
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Artist: Radmila Gurkovsky
ATR-BC LCAT LPAT Title: In Pursuit of Union Dimensions: 16” x 20” Materials: Transparency Film, Watercolor, Collage Year: 2008-2026 Artist Statement: This piece emerged from returning to art fragments I created nearly 18 years ago during my BFA training. What began as saved remnants evolved into a dialogue between past and present selves. Revisiting these materials became a collaborative process across time. My earlier artistic voice resurfaced through tactile memory, while my therapist identity shaped how I listened, responded, and allowed meaning to unfold. The process mirrored the therapeutic experience: attuning, witnessing, and making room for what wants to emerge. This work holds the integration of those identities and reflects an ongoing effort to honor both the expressive freedom of my artist self and the reflective presence of my therapist self. In creating this piece, I offer myself the same space I strive to provide for others—to feel seen, heard, and valued. |
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Artist: Jennifer Johnson
ATR-BC, LCAT Title: A Place to Connect Dimensions: 9” x 12” Materials: Acrylic and Collage on Paper Year: 2026 Artist Statement: This piece was inspired by one of Caroline Mays’s’ Archetype cards: Child of Nature. I have always felt a connection with animals, birds, butterflies and trees. I have volunteered with animals since my teens and even considered becoming a veterinarian. Of all the archetype cards this one resonated with my child self. I enjoyed the art making process as I was able to focus on a personal joy. |
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Artist: Daniele Kaplan
LCAT, LPAT, ATR-BC, ATCS, CCLS [email protected] www.creativeartstherapyspace.com Title: Spark Dimensions: 10” x 10” Materials: Fiber Arts Year: 2026 Artist Statement: As a creative arts therapist, I often walk a fine line between my rational and creative sides, between logic and imagination. In this piece, instead of that line being straight, it loops-de-loops, and twists and turns, amid black and white worlds colliding as creative sparks emerge. |
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Artist: Kendra Kambestad Kirane
LCAT, BC-DMT www.nycmovementtherapy.com www.instagram.com/themovementperch Title: In Care of a Memory Dimensions: 14” x 17” (3lbs with frame) Materials: Mixed media – HB pencil, black ink pen, newsprint, collage on heavyweight paper, wood frame Year: 2025 Artist Statement: While mourning the loss of my father, I was attracted to the Bargue drawing method and the notion of death masks as a means of freezing time. In parallel, as a Creative Arts Therapist, I questioned how to balance my personal and professional roles. In Care of a Memory is a conduit for the complicated feelings surrounding our lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease, the premature role reversal we faced, and the existential questions that surfaced from this confusing, grotesque disease. Using an HB pencil, black ink pen, magazine rippings, and newspaper print, the creation of mixed media enables me to experience an exactness and preservation of the past that is otherwise elusive. The layering evokes a sense of movement, weight, and a covering up of parts not yet ready to be seen or dealt with. Here we have a daughter and a father on his deathbed. Imagery of birds taking flight are framed on a textured wall. Commentary swirls through the air. In Care of a Memory addresses the intermediary, the role of caretaker: it asks the viewer to see my layered attempts to deliver care and to acknowledge the impossibility of being seen as all roles at once. |
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Artist: Leonard G. S. Lambert
ATR-BC, LMSW Title: Illuminating Identity Dimensions: 9” x 12” Materials: Crayola Sidewalk Chalk on Canson Mixed Media Paper Year: 2026 Artist Statement: In “Illuminating Identity” my Inner Impressionist has depicted myself as a tree within a sphere. It hopefully is a tree that has, both personally and professionally, become familiar with knowing the emotional pain of being discarded and or feeling lost. My tree moves around in the sphere, through its cycle of life, hoping to radiate emotional support to those who are managing their life challenges, tasks, and crises. My tree has leaves representative of the seasons, spring buddings, summer’s rich hues and density, and autumn’s leaves. Though my tree is decades old and seasoned; it is unfinished— still anticipates and maintains faith and hope. My tree welcomes the sunrise and blue skies, while knowing that there will be many inclement weather days too. My tree, within its sphere, moves around on the ocean as it ebbs and flows. |
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Artist: Sharon Itkoff Nacache
ATR-BC, LCAT, LPAT, PMH-C www.cocreatearttherapy.com https://www.instagram.com/cocreatearttherapy/ Title: “Everything and Nothing” Dimensions: 8.5” x 11” Materials: Mixed media on alcohol ink paper Year: 2023 Artist Statement: The longer I am in clinical practice while experiencing my own life stage transitions and the strain of sandwiched caregiving, the more I am able to recognize and honor the deep human need we all have to be seen, find meaning, forge connections, and be held, regardless of life circumstance or developmental phase. I dance between my child and mother selves, ego and the collective, micro and macro, animal instinct and cerebral pursuits, all with a gnawing sense that my time here is everything and nothing at the same time. |
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Title: “We Contain Multitudes”
Dimensions: 8.5” x 11” Materials: Highlighter and pen on alcohol ink paper Year: 2025 Artist Statement: The good daughter, the perfectionist, the healer, the wise woman, the mother, the martyr, the rebel, the whore, the shrew, the warrior, the beast, the critic, the artist, the child, the wanderer. I am them all, as are you. |
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Title: “To Be or Not To Be”
Dimensions: 18” x 24” Materials: Wax and mixed media on canvas Year Created: 2026 Artist Statement: I lost myself creating this at my brother’s house in the mountains for an entire blissful afternoon this past January. The imagery poured out like a flood. When I finally re-emerged, I got up and made dinner for a hungry household. That is the power of making art and finding flow: losing and finding ourselves again, disconnecting to reconnect. Awake, hungry and alive. The product is simply a record of this experience, a fevered frenzy captured on canvas. |
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Artist: Ed Regensburg
ATR-BC, CHt., LCAT www.creativesanctuary.com https://www.instagram.com/regensburged/ Title: ARCTURIAN CLEARING Dimensions: 16” x 20” Materials: Acrylic Polymers on Canvas Year: 2026 Artist Statement: “During creation, the energetic pathways of spirit travel well beyond planet earth…in this painting, all the way to the star system of Arcturus and beyond…facilitating healing and spiritual evolution, clearing the debris of illusion, illuminating our multidimensional identity.” |
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Artist: Tindy Roberts
Graduate Art Therapy Student Title: Journey of becoming Materials: Mixed media Dimensions: 16” x 20” Year: 2026 Artist Statement: One of my favorite places to think is along a large river. There’s nothing quite like watching the birds dance above the currents, silently contemplating with the tide. As I journal, my mind pauses and finds itself fixated on a nearby tree. Not only have I spent a lot of time watching it evolve in the seasons, but it has also quietly witnessed my own transformation. The sentences constructed within this piece are journal entries which I can now identify as catalysis to my own personal growth and development. The sentence selected are all reflections made while sitting next to that tree, contemplating. It felt fitting, as my life felt like the landscape around me, ever changing. It took time to embrace this natural process... Stuck between the tension of holding on, and letting go of what no longer serves me. I had to trust this process, and lean into the unknowing. This piece helped me find a way to honor that journey, and how it has constructed itself into new meaning for me today. |
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Artist: Carla S. Rose
ATR-BC, LCAT www.carlarosearttherapy.com Title: Life Reflection 1 Dimensions: 16” x 20” Materials: Acrylic on Canvas Year: 2026 Artist Statement: My painting came from a guided imagery of my safe place. In my visualization, I was looking back over my life from a future place. The ocean, sand and sky represent the wide-open natural places that remain the same despite the passage of time. Themes of re-parenting and containment are included in the mother and child and the treasure box being kicked out to sea. The artist continues painting her scene, because she, like everything in the painting, is a work in progress. |
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Artist: Emily Bess Varacalli (Abramson)
ATR-BC, LCAT http://www.emilyabramson.com Title: Nullah Dimensions: 8”x 11.5” Materials: Cyanotype, enlarged negative, Indian Handmade paper Year: 2026 Artist Statement: This self-portrait began as a photographic enlarged negative printed through the cyanotype process onto handmade Indian watercolor paper. The layered process reflects the pictorial, emotional and psychological layering within the work as well as within my life. The words are my poetry slightly out of focus creating ambiguity which words and thoughts shift between. A passage from the book, Women Who Run with the Wolves deeply resonates with this piece and the process of creating it: “The creative force flows over the terrain of our psyches looking for the natural hollows, the arroyos, the channels that exist in us. We become its tributaries, its basins; we are its pools, ponds, streams, and sanctuaries.” My creative process has evolved as I have evolved--my identity changing. As a mother, artist, and therapist I continue to search for the different channels and sanctuaries within myself and my art. |
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Artist: Danielle Velazquez
ATR-BC, LCAT Title: Illumination Dimensions: 8” x 10” Materials: Collage on board Year: 2026 Artist Statement: In this piece I used cut up pieces of colored paper to create a visual and symbolic representation of the growth and expansion that comes along with being a therapist and working in a field that helps others grow. This piece reflects the process that both clients and therapists go through in the process of working together creatively to elicit change. |
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Title: Words
Dimensions: 8” x 10” Materials: Collage on paper Year: 2026 Artist Statement: This is a collage piece that incorporates words to express the creative process and the experience of the creative arts therapist. I selected words intuitively that felt like the right fit to express this experience. |
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Title: Touched
Dimensions: 8” x 10” Materials: Collage on paper Year: 2025 Artist Statement: This collage piece was created after attending a workshop that discussed trauma and the ways that it impacts individuals from an early age. This piece reflects the profound impact hearing such stories can have on others and the witnessing that is a part of the process of healing. |
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Artist: Jodi Wattel
ATR-BC, LCAT Title: Butterfly Dimensions: 12” x 36” Materials: Acrylic paint Year: 2026 Artist Statement: “Through the exploration of layered textures and materials, I manipulated the paint to bring an internal vision into form. Allowing the materials to speak for themselves, I remained a conscious observer between the emotion and the canvas. The work reflects a process of metamorphosis, emergence, and transformation.” |
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Title: Sophia Blue
Dimensions: 16” x 20” Materials: acrylic paint and assorted cosmetics Year: 2026 Artist Statement: “Sophia Blue emerged gradually through quiet, intentional moments, revealing itself layer by layer. The slow and mindful creation of this piece became a graceful reminder of the hidden creativity I continue to carry within me. Through this process, the work evolved organically, reflecting both introspection and rediscovery.” |
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