Ashley Mireles is a multidisciplinary artist creating works ranging from murals and
installations to miniature drawings and paintings. With an inclination for detail
oriented work and a love for craftsmanship, Ashley is excited to participate in LIFT.
The process has increased her curiosity regarding material use and kinetic sculptures.

Justin Boyd is a Landscape artist living in San Antonio. He received his BFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his MFA from the California Institute of Arts. He is currently the Chair of the Sculpture and Integrated Media at the Southwest School of Art has received an Artist Foundation Grant, Artpace Travel Grant, was a finalist for the Arthouse Texas Prize, and has had the privilege of participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions.

As legend has it, Jimmy James Canales was born and raised here in San Antonio Texas, earned a BFA at the Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston and a MFA at the University of Texas San Antonio.
Among his many adventures Canales has romanced a cactus, walked across San Antonio twice, sacrificed a low-rider bicycle, survived a dual with the infamous Mat Kubo, eaten a bluebonnet, conjured Mapache Man, and invented Knife Skin Boots.

Stuart Allen’s photographs and installations are influenced by “fundamental elements of perception such as light, time, gravity and space.”[1]  Each work captures moments in ever-changing environments and incorporates the artist’s awareness of science, physics, the natural world, or the human body. Allen often employs time and site specific investigation to capture the ephemeral qualities of his subjects. In his extended exposure photographs, the artist captures elegant light trails spiraling through a variety of environments ranging from grand ballrooms to nocturnal landscapes. According to the artist, his kite installations expose “vital relationships between artist and environment, form and space, nature and culture.”[2] Allen’s work poignantly articulates subtle variations in the world around us, combining science and nature with art and expression.

[1] Stuart Allen, “Bio,” www.stuartallen.info/bio/stuart_allen_bio. html [2] Stuart Allen, “Regarding Kites,” http://www.stuartallen.info/writings/statements/Kites_statement.html

Ricky Armendariz (b. 1969, El Paso, Texas) was raised on the U.S.-Mexico border, a region that heavily influenced his artistic, aesthetic, and conceptual ideas. Images that have cultural, biographical and art historical references are carved and burned into the surface of the paintings, drawings, and woodblocks. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Texas at San Antonio (1995), and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999). Armendariz is currently a Professor of Art at The University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2008, he received the Artpace Supplemental Travel Grant for travel to Mexico City, Mexico and in 2013 was an artist in residence at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin Germany. In 2017 he was the first artist in residence at the DoSeum in San Antonio, TX; and in 2018 at the Anderson Ranch Residency in Snowmass Village, CO. He has exhibited at the Denver Art Museum, The Dallas Contemporary, The Blue Star Art Center in San Antonio, and Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin. International exhibitions include: Liminal Space, DMZ Museum, South Korea (2018), Common Wounds, Bethlehem and Tel Aviv (2005), and SINAPSIS at the Galeria Corriente Alterna in Lima, Peru, sponsored by the United States Embassy in Lima (2002) and “New Prints” Kunstlerhaus Bethanien , Berlin Germany (2013), Texas Contemporary Art”, Lalit Kala Academy, National Academy of Art, New Delhi, India(2015). He is in the permanent collections of San Antonio Museum of Art, McNay Art Museum, Denver Art Museum, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Massachusetts and the Bush International Airport Houston Art Collection, and the Cheech Marin Collection

an artist who emphasizes the relationship between art and
science. His work explores time scales both vast and rapid, the perception of our
environment, and the process of evolution by repeated success and failure. Cade
was trained as a field biologist and studied the semi-arid grasslands on the Edwards
Plateau. Relatively new to kite-making, his work speaks to the ritual experience of
flight, but also the immense scale of the sky. Since launching Bridge Projects in
2016, He and Stuart Allen have logged over 1500 hours working on community
based art installations.

Megan Harrison earned her BFA from Metropolitan State University, Denver and
her MFA in painting and drawing from UT San Antonio. She has exhibited regionally
and nationally, most recently in GEOMAGIC at New Mexico State University, NM.
Her work investigates ideas of scale, complexity and innovation.

Teizo Hashimoto was regarded as one of finest, and last, traditional Edo kite-makers
in Tokyo. In their small house in Tokyo’s Ueno district, he and his wife Kiyo
maintained the family kite making business for many decades. His powerful style is
instantly recognized by collectors of the Edo style kite.

Originally from Philadelphia, Jennifer Khoshbin (born 1968) studied Fine Arts and Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of Kentucky. Khoshbin has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States, and her work has been featured in magazines that include Readymade, House Beautiful, Glamour, and Spaces, and in several art and craft books. She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and their two children. 

As a youth, Sicily born Alessia Marrocu was introduced to the world of kites by
her parents on the Italian Coast. She has since established her own playful and
recognizable style and has participated in numerous international exhibitions
and festivals.

Akihiro Ogawa is one of the last professional “hata” makers in Nagasaki. Working
in cramped quarters just down the hill from Nagasaki’s famous Kasagashira Hill,
Ogawa produces the traditional red, white, and blue fighting kites of his city.

Austrian artist Anna Rubin has helped launch a renaissance of artistic kite making in
Europe. She is a fearless builder of amazing shapes that retains delicate touch,
making the end product look and feel weightless. Working with bamboo, paper,
and often, materials from the local environment, she has been featured in many
exhibitions worldwide.

Japanese kite maker Masaaki Satoh is known as a master of the Nagoya Koryu –
bug inspired kites that are made in three forms: horsefly (Abu), cicada (Semi) and
bee (Hachi). These exquisitely crafted kites are a delight in air as the bowed
“hummer” vibrates in the wind to produce a loud buzzing sound.

German artist Anke Sauer was trained as a typesetter and graphic designer. She
has been building kites for over 20 years and shows them worldwide at international
kite festivals. Since 2007, she has been teaching kite-building as a alternative form
of expression.

Hungarian artist Istvan Bodoczky is a professor of art and pedagogy at the
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. Once challenged to fly one
of his oddly shaped paintings, he has since made delicate, asymmetrical kites that
require tremendous patience and skill to coax into the air.

Son of Hungarian kite artist Istvan Bodoczky, Anton Bodoczky has distinguished
himself as a kite maker. He trained in fine arts as well as a video and production
design. An exceptional craftsman, he takes features of the environment and
duplicates them in his sky-borne sculpture.

Ansen Seale considers himself an Artist / Scientist and identifies strongly with the “maker”
community, utilizing tools like modern CNC technology and electronics to produce
artwork. Seale’s ethic and artistic sensibilities, however, are definitely old school.
With a father and grandfather who were artists and craftsmen, they passed on to
him much more than their hand tools. Aesthetically, Seale is especially interested in
modes of seeing.

is an artist and graphic designer whose creative practice consists of
socially-engaged projects and client-based collaborations. She is interested in the
political history of kites and the themes of participatory and collective action. Molly
received her MFA in Art and Social Practice from Portland State University and her
BFA in Graphic Design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Molly is an
Assistant Professor in Communication Design at Texas State University.

helped set the standard in American kite making with his
exceptional cellular kites of the 1980s and early 1990s. Creating exciting shapes
and executing them flawlessly, Stanfield’s kites explore complex geometries and
tension systems. With a machinist’s attention to detail, Stanfield builds his own
mechanical connectors and threaded tensioning mechanisms.

In 1971 New York artist Tal Streeter turned away from his rapidly expanding career
and left for Japan to study the art of kite making. Following his return to the United
States two years later, he wrote the “The Art of the Japanese Kite,” arguably the
most influential book about kites ever published in English. His journey and
subsequent account of Japanese kite making traditions has become the definitive
resource and inspiration for a generation of North American and European kite
artists. Streeter is recognized as the first artist in the West to employ traditional kite
making techniques in the context of contemporary art. His sculptures, drawings and
kites have been featured internationally in museums, galleries and festivals. and his
work is included in many public and private collections including the Museum of
Modern Art and the Storm King Art Center.

born in Kyoto, Japan. She received her BS degree from
Tottori University, Japan. Following graduation, she worked as a studio assistant for
sculptor/ceramicist Katsushi Takeda in Shiga, Japan. In the United States, she
studied Fine Art and Art History at UT San Antonio. Stringer is fascinated by a story,
during Japan’s Edo period, when a giant kite was used to fly a ninja to steal a
golden roof top decoration in the shape of a mythical fish from Nagoya castle,
which was under control of the Tokugawa clan.

Ryan Takaba’s studio practice stems from his research into how objects are used,
cared for, and honored. His practice is performative and durational, attending to
the pieces daily through the length of a show. Takaba’s kite is used as a vehicle to
transport material and residue that is left behind after an object is used. Ryan
received his MFA in Ceramics from Kent State University and BFA from the University of Hawaii. He is currently chair of the Ceramics Department at the Southwest
School of Art.

Robert Trépanier made an immediate impact on the kite world with
his airborne portraiture. His kites feature caricatures of everyday people that are
sometimes dark, often humorous, and always unique. He is adept at using traditional materials but is often found experimenting with cutting edge ideas: kite energy,
lightweight gliders and four-line maneuverable kites

Nico van den Berg is a Dutch kite maker specializing in historical replicas. His
meticulous work is made with period materials: cord, cloth, wood, and hardware
available during the era of original kite’s invention. Nico is a member of the
Historical Kite Association, a group dedicated to preserving, making and flying
significant 19th century kites.

Holly Veselka is a multidisciplinary artist who makes work about perception and the
cosmos. She is new to kite-making but loves using the sun as a light source and the
sky as a project space. Holly is the recipient of Creative Capital’s 2016 On Our Radar,
and residencies at Otis College, Los Angeles, and PICTURE BERLIN, Berlin. She is
an Assistant Professor at Texas State University in the School of Art and Design.

was one of the famous professional kite makers of the
Shirone and Sanjo region of Japan. Watanabe’s rokkaku set the standard for the
design. He sold kites from his small house and workshop on the main street in
Shirone and they are prized by collectors worldwide.

Jason Pearce Willome was born in San Antonio, Texas, and received a BFA from UT
Austin in 2000 and an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2003. Jason
currently lives in San Antonio with his family and works as a Senior Lecturer at UT
San Antonio. According to Willome, “the heavens or the sky, especially when
regarded as a tangible thing, can be felt with a kite – an honest firmament.”

Nobuhiko Yoshizumi was among the most revered kite artists in the world and an
active member of the Kyoto Kite Association and the International Friends of Small
Kites. He is holder of the Guinness Book of World Records for the smallest kite,
awarded in 2000, for his 0.6 x 0.7 cm red and black Wan Wan Kite. Yoshizumi was
one of the lead kite artists in the Goethe Institute Art Kite Exhibition, transforming
works on paper from 100 world renowned artists into beautifully crafted kites.