Patricia Traub’s oil paintings exist at the intersection of art and activism. These works attempt to humanize her animal subjects, in a way that showcases both their inherent beauty and rights to live in the world untortured. In her group portraits, in particular, she places animals and humans among each other in a way that emits harmony and equation of value.
“Traub only studies animals from direct observation, both in captivity and in their natural habitats, resulting in global travel to Borneo, Egypt, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Norway, South Africa, and Tanzania,” Gallery Henoch says. “Through thoughtful posing of the creatures, she conveys a serene sense of equilibrium among the species, one to which she pledges a vigilant watch. She says, ‘The underlying context in my painting is about our responsibilities to all living things and the environment we all live in.’”
Traub, a Pennsylvnia native, graduated from York Academy of the Arts and later, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She’s worked as an instructor and garnered several awards since.
To mark the recent 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," oil painter 
Justin Fitzpatrick’s oil paintings blend influences from Art Nouveau, illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages, anatomical drawings, and elsewhere. The actual subjects in the works likewise move through time, from using the construction workers as visual motif to creatures of the natural world rendered with Victorian flavor.