The Overall Winning Artists Category consists of the 5 Best Entries received from the 3 media categories of the Painting & Other Category, Photography & Digital Category and the 3 Dimensional Art categories. 

The winning artists will now be featured on the Light Space & Time website from June 15th through August 15th 2019 and thereafter, the artworks and links to the artist’s websites will remain online in the Light Space & Time Archives.

The overall winning artists’ category of the 2nd Annual "555 Special" Art Exhibition will receive extensive worldwide publicity and promotion.  In addition, the overall winning artists will also receive extensive worldwide publicity in the form of email marketing, 550+ press release announcements, event announcement posts and social media marketing. 

Winning artists will also have their art exhibition results posted and promoted on ArtJobs/ArtWeek. Artweek/Artjobs produces 800,000 page impressions per month, 280,000 website visitors per month and has 30,000 newsletter subscribers.  

Congratulations to our artists who made our 2nd Annual “555 Special” Art Exhibition so successful. At any time, we invite our winners and other interested visitors to link their websites to the Gallery’s Archive section for further ongoing promotion.

The Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery will have digital “555 Special” Award Certificates, Event Postcard, and Press Releases sent to the winning artists within the next week or so. Thank you to all of the artists who participated and for being a part of the gallery. To return to the 555 Special Home Page click here.

1st Place – Overall - Louis Esposito – “American Strength”

Biography: A native Californian, Louis Esposito was introduced to Ceramics while studying Industrial Design at San Jose City College. From that moment art became his focus.  He continued his art education at San Jose State University in 1965, concentrating on ceramics and glass blowing where in 1972 he graduated with an M.A. in Art.

His work at that time was heavily influenced by the psychedelic 60’s and artists such as Frank Stella, Robert Hudson and Andy Warhol. The artworks produced at this time were ceramic sculptures with a pop art theme. Louis wanted to go beyond ceramics and chose glass blowing as the next step. Louis went on to produce sculpture pieces using glass blown shapes which were brightly painted and combined the glass blown shapes with colored Plexiglas shapes. Louis moved to Richmond, Virginia and in the early 80’s Louis opened his own ceramic & sculpture gallery where he continued to work in ceramics.

After moving back to San Jose, California in 1983 he started working in graphic art with a large company using Illustrator and Photoshop, he worked at creating brochures, manuals and producing the company magazine. In 2000 he decided to continue in 2D graphic art, where he produced colorful illustrations with geometric shapes as the main theme and then he continued on a series producing individual portraits with a slightly pop theme.

Artist Statement: In the past I worked in ceramics and glass blowing creating sculptural pieces and now I am exploring mixed media techniques as a digital artist. My tools are the Wacom pad in conjunction with Photoshop and Illustrator. My inspiration comes from the pop art era, artists like Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. I use vibrant colors, the use of shapes and digital photos to express my creativity. I enjoy experimenting with new ideas and techniques; this is reflected in my ever changing artwork.

Louis can be reached via his website:  www.louisespositoart.com

2nd Place – Overall - Linda Dunbar – "Black Wall Street"

Linda was born in East Texas and grew up in Louisiana where she learned to love art. She honed her drawing skills at an early age, but did not pursue painting until she found herself in Oklahoma as an empty nester. Now she has trained under some of the best.  Using the teaching skills she used as a public school teacher, she now teaches a number of students in the Tulsa area, oil painting art classes.

She is a juried member of Tulsa Artist Guild (TAG.) She holds memberships in Oil Painters of America, The Portrait Society, Daily Paintworks, American Women Artist, National Oil and Acrylic Painters and The American Impressionist Society. Linda lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and paints daily. She is also the founder and organizer of Plein Air Tulsa!

Linda’s website is: www.lindadunbar.com

3rd Place – Overall - Candace Ceslow – "Gold Rush"

Candace is a painter, currently residing and working in Montauk, NY. She graduated from Adelphi University in 2012, with a Bachelors in Fine Art. Growing up on the eastern end of Long Island, the ocean has played a major role in her personal and artistic development. It is a place of continued rejuvenation, wonderment, and beauty but also a place of deep unknowns and, at times, tumultuous surf. Her work explores the contradicting emotions that emerge from the water. Candace’s work has been exhibited in galleries on Long Island, in Brooklyn, and in Southern California, as well as other various cities across the United States.

Candace’s website is: www.candaceceslow.com   

4th Place – Overall - Jon Bøe Paulsen – “The General's Morning”

Jon Bøe Paulsen’s (1958) paintings are hauntingly realistic. His impeccable skills give filmic qualities to his works. The artist studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (US) and graduated from the Norwegian State Art Academy in 1984.

His portraits tell many stories in one single image, and his dynamic between light and dark add a “carravaggistic” feel. Jon’s success as an artist was translated into various commissions, awards, and publications, including a documentary film on his life.

The artist’s work has been featured in exhibitions in Norway, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom.

Jon’s website is: www.artrenewal.org/Artist/Index/7440   

5th Place – Overall - Cherry Hammons – “Goldn”

Cherry Hammons is a digital artist, living in the United States in West Virginia. Her passion for digital art began after coming across an ad for a Photo Artistry Course, enrolling in it, and after that enrolling in the advanced Awake and Kaizen courses. She has loved photography since she was a youngster and has been an amateur photographer for many years, taking many photos of primarily nature, pets and family. But when Cherry discovered digital art, it opened up a whole new world of excitement and delightful fun, pushing the boundaries of traditional photography to result in more fascinating artworks.

Several of her images have been published in the Living the Photo Artistic Life Magazine, which can be found at thephotoartisticlife.com. She has also won an honorable mention in the monthly online Shift Art Challenge. Although Cherry has not found a certain, definite style in her artwork yet, she creates what she feels and loves.

Cherry’s website is: Artboja.com/art/255svz or you can visit her Facebook Page: Cherry’s Artworks.