Participating Artists
Ed Trask
Ed Trask is a musician, painter, and muralist whose work has been celebrated in permanent collections around the world, including the Modern & Contemporary Art Collection at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Ed earned a BFA in Painting & Printmaking from VCU and while in school, he transformed many of the dilapidated buildings around Richmond into his very own art gallery through painted murals. After graduating in 1992, he continued painting illegal murals around the world while on tour with his own bands and friends. Ed has since brought creative changes and positive impact to Richmond through public art. He co-founded the RVA Street Art Festival and served as a commissioner for Richmond’s Public Art Commission. He is a past board member of the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and has lectured and facilitated creative consulting programs for numerous corporations while working with community nonprofits to bring creative, inclusive public art throughout the city. Follow Ed on Instagram.
Austin “Auz” Miles
Austin "Auz" Miles is a celebrated painter, designer, and public artist in Richmond, VA. She uses color, texture, and distortion to embody her own stories and contribute to the conversation about Black female experiences. Her paintings are a glimpse into a realm where emotions are personified and become out-of-body experiences of connection. Through her work, Auz hosts visual conversations that ignite understanding and inspire community healing. Her work has been displayed at Virginia Museum of History and Culture during Fresh Paint (2018) and Mending Walls (2020) exhibitions. In addition, she collaborated with the Jamestown Settlement in 2019, creating two works featuring the tenacious tri-cultured women of Jamestown and the first Black women to be documented in the United States in 1619, Angelo. Auz has painted many vibrant, uplifting murals throughout Richmond's city and has shown her work in Virginia, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Atlanta GA, and Cusco Peru. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more at auzmiles.com.
Steve Hedberg
Richmond artist Steve Hedberg paints both representational and abstract works, finding much of his inspiration from the streets, trails, hills, and riverbanks of Richmond. Steve’s body of work represents the spirit of the great outdoors and in 2018 he paddled a 260 mile stretch of the James River for a series of paintings that celebrate his love of nature. His paintings have found their way into many collections including the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Facebook, Capital One, and the U.S Department of State. Steve, his wife, and two daughters call Forest Hill on the South Bank of the James their home. Follow Steve on Instagram. Learn more at stevehedberg.com.
Melissa Burgess
Melissa paints portraits of the built environment in Richmond, emphasizing elements of time, space, and architectural elements. In Richmond, her work has appeared at Glave Kocen Gallery, Eric Schindler Gallery, 1708 Gallery, Artspace, Nest, Jefferson Hotel, Main Street Station, and more. Melissa’s art has also been shown at the Daegu Culture & Arts Center in South Korea, Hae-Tae Gallery in South Korea, Centre of Creative Work of Youth in Uzbekistan, Liang Bao Lou Gallery in China, and Shang Main Gallery in China. She has appeared in Discover Richmond Annual Regional Guidebook, Richmond Magazine, Richmond Times Dispatch, Cambridge Chronicle, and Boston Sunday Globe. She is the recipient of Women in the Arts Award by Style Magazine. Learn more at www.mburgesspaintings.com.
Laura Goodman
Laura’s background in art is informal and largely self-inflicted. She grew up in a rustic farm house in Maryland, and her childhood experiences created an appreciation for nature and determination to make the most of the materials at hand. She has a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, and her starter career was as an elementary school teacher. On her way to where she is today, Laura designed and made children’s clothing from fabric remnants, repurposed thrift store furniture, painted murals, wrote articles about creativity in education and volunteered her time doing graphic design for a local campaign. However oil painting and multimedia collage are what finally captured her attention six years ago, and she hasn’t put the brush down since.
Each of her pieces is designed to tell a story, albeit the kind you hear told at the end of a long night, and although her subject matter varies, she consistently uses bright colors and bold brush strokes as a ladder that she uses to climb out of darkness.
Laura says while she may be late to the party, she’s excited to join the Richmond art community. And we’re excited to have her!