First Floor Galleries

McGuffey 2025-2026 Incubators:
Come to Life

June 5 - June 28

Opening Reception
June 5, 5:30 - 8:00 pm

Come to Life represents the work of the six graduating artists from McGuffey Art Center’s 2025-26 Incubator Artist Program. During their residency, the incubators were provided with a shared studio space at McGuffey for one year. Now, they invite the community to step into the rich worlds each artist has formed with their practice, strengthened through their time in the program. The Incubators feel this year was particularly special in the relationships they formed with each other. Through these connections, the incubators feel as if their work has rooted, bloomed, and truly Come to Life.

Featuring: Devan Burgess, Sidney Hale, Yary Corbin, Julie Stavitski, Winslow Loves You!, and Jaron White

Devan Burgess

Medium: Oil on canvas, works on paper, poems

Artist Statement: I create work on the mind. Over the last year, I’ve worked through a transitional phase in my art. Through the process of creation and the material object created, my work serves to reflect and question, while allowing space for an expression of the unknown. My reflections are a combination of memory and feeling, and my subjective experience of others–in particular, mothers whom I’ve met, who mirror my mother and my childhood. I’m interested in a desire to create a romanticized existence and the manipulation of that desire, once made real; I’m interested in the beauty of thought in mind, and the complications of materializing it.

Devan Burgess, The giver waiting , oil paint on unprimed canvs — Devan Burgess, *The giver waiting*, oil paint on unprimed canvs

Devan Burgess, From her rabbits hutch , oil paint on canvas — Devan Burgess, *From her rabbits hutch*, oil paint on canvas

Sidney Hale

Medium: Oil on canvas, oil on wood panel

Artist Statement: My work speaks to the position of lesbian sexuality in a patriarchal society, with narrative paintings depicting scenes rooted in fantasy and desire. My goal is to provide a visual language that depicts my experience while challenging viewers’ notions of queerness and intimacy.

Sidney Hale, Death in Appalachia, oil on canvas — Sidney Hale, *Death in Appalachia,* oil on canvas

Sidney Hale, Andro (you're safe inside me), oil on canvas — Sidney Hale, *Andro (you're safe inside me),* oil on canvas

Sidney Hale, Femme Hypnosis, oil on canvas — Sidney Hale, *Femme Hypnosis,* oil on canvas

Yary Corbin

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

I make colorful art to remind people to stop waiting, trust themselves, and go for what they’ve been scared to try. Each piece is meant to bring a little joy, warmth, and light into your space.

Yary Corbin, Floating Whimsy, acrylic on canvas — Yary Corbin, *Floating Whimsy,* acrylic on canvas

Yary Corbin, Field of Happy , acrylic on canvas — Yary Corbin, *Field of Happy*, acrylic on canvas

Yary Corbin, Neon Homalomena, acrylic on canvas — Yary Corbin, *Neon Homalomena,* acrylic on canvas

Yary Corbin, Pink Tub, acrylic on canvas — Yary Corbin, *Pink Tub,* acrylic on canvas

Julie Stavitski

Medium: Photography and Textile Art

I work in layered media to create unexpected worlds. I start with digital and film negatives of natural landscapes and waterways, and print them through experimental photographic processes, such as Polaroid emulsion lifts and cyanotype. I enjoy cyanotype because it holds onto the small shifts in light exposure and keeps those imperfections visible in the finished print. I then physically rework the surface by cutting, stitching, and adding unexpected elements. These interruptions allow the image to continue developing its story through material intervention, shifting and growing rather than settling into a fixed moment.

Julie Stavitski, Rupert of the Rivanna, toned cyanotype crochet — Julie Stavitski, *Rupert of the Rivanna,* toned cyanotype crochet

Julie Stavitski, Chapter 2 Cousin Timmy Is Curious, cyanotype embroidery crochet — Julie Stavitski, *Chapter 2 Cousin Timmy Is Curious,* cyanotype embroidery crochet

Julie Stavitski, Daybreak , polaroid emulsion embroidery — Julie Stavitski, *Daybreak*, polaroid emulsion embroidery

Julie Stavitski, Donaukanal, cyano type embroidery — Julie Stavitski, *Donaukanal,* cyano type embroidery

Winslow Loves You!

Medium: Printmaking

Some people believe that those who claim to have been abducted by aliens, haunted by ghosts, or have experienced other supernatural phenomena, are creating false memories to replace trauma - pushing away memories that are too hard to face with something more fantastical. My work behaves along the lines of this belief. Through exploring mythologies, personal or ancient, and references to dead matter or mundane objects that nevertheless hold an intense weight, I visually represent the whimsical ways the brain often reacts in response to an impossible feeling world. In my prints I primarily use etching techniques, exploring experimentation in chemical reactions as a means to provide proof of magic through process.

Winslow, Rootbaby, sintra drypoint — Winslow, *Rootbaby,* sintra drypoint

Winslow, Trapdoor , etching — Winslow, *Trapdoor*, etching

Jaron White

Medium: Acrylic on canvas, Drawing

I create to be present, to enter a flow where making becomes its own kind of meditation. Ideas arrive from clear visions, other times they unfold as I go, freely and without plan. There's no fixed style to what I make, it shifts naturally as I do, and in that, I hope to inspire others to see their own identity and expression as infinite. Drawing has been my foundation often growing into painting, but the process matters more than the form. At its core, my highest act and motivation is to inspire through what I create.

Jaron White, Untitled, acrylic — Jaron White, *Untitled,* acrylic

Jaron White, Dark Matter 1:14 , drawing — Jaron White, *Dark Matter 1:14*, drawing

Jaron White, Velvet Tiger Rug , acrylic — Jaron White, *Velvet Tiger Rug*, acrylic

Jaron White, Lord Of The Flame , acrylic — Jaron White, *Lord Of The Flame*, acrylic