Photo courtesy.
By Ally Morrison
The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB’s advisory board will host the 37th annual ArtBlink Gala in a virtual format Feb. 4.
The event will feature 20 local artists who create original artwork live. These pieces will be available for bid or purchase during the event via an online auction. Proceeds from the event will support top-priority projects in cancer research and care through the cancer center. Meet three artists participating in this year’s event.
Natalie Zoghby
Natalie Zoghby, a Birmingham artist originally from Hoover, is excited to participate in her fourth ArtBlink Gala.
She said she’s always been an artist. She attended Hoover High School, where she took a multitude of art classes. She then continued her education at the University of Alabama studying fashion. Zoghby has been painting, drawing, teaching and doing commissioned work since she was in high school.
After earning her undergraduate degree, she attended grad school and obtained a graduate degree in arts and medicine.
With her degrees, Zoghby teaches art in hospitals around Birmingham.
“I taught a painting class with the VA, working with spinal cord injury veterans,” Zoghby said. “I work with seniors and adults with disabilities to bring creative experiences to hospitals and community centers. It’s different from art therapy because we’re not trying to change behavior. It provides people with creative enrichment and something fun to do.”
Zoghby’s art originally focused on abstract works. When the pandemic began, she revealed, she stopped painting.
“I was working from home, my son’s school was closed, and there was so much going on that I just quit painting,” Zoghby said. “I rested, and that was just what I needed. Between late 2020 and early 2021, I was finally able to begin painting again and started working on one of my current collections, Women of Influence.”
Her artwork from this collection is on display at Houseplant Collective in Avondale. The collection features inspirational women of 2020, including Dolly Parton, Lizzo, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amanda Gorman.
“The main painting in this collection is a portrait of Dolly Parton with a vaccine needle and butterflies that represent her donations that helped with the vaccination,” Zoghby said. “It features a lot of women that I felt, in all of their individual work, did amazing things to advance women.”
This will be Zoghby’s fourth ArtBlink event, and she said it is her favorite event in Birmingham.
“I think it’s so interesting because there’s always something to watch,” Zoghby said. “People are making art and they’re always so different. I’m excited about this year’s gala because last year they came to our house to film, which was wonderful, but this year we are able to go in small groups and film together.”
Zoghby said the event is fun because all artists participating work on the same project with the same goal to raise money for the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She enjoys seeing how participants interpret art differently.
Currently, Zoghby is employed by United Way’s Meals on Wheels. She is head of operations in the kitchen and helps with the program and its fundraising.
Sarah Mason
Birmingham artist Sarah Mason is thrilled to be a part of ArtBlink for her fourth year.
“I moved to Birmingham in 2007 and started painting in 2016,” Mason said. “For me, painting started more as a self-therapy hobby that I was doing on the side and, surprisingly, it turned into my career. I grew up in Kansas City and studied music and just carried into the arts. I never realized it would actually encompass the visual arts, but it did.”
According to Mason, her new passion has been an exciting opportunity and career change, as she previously taught music full time.
“I am a watercolor painter, but I use the paint differently than the average watercolorist,” Mason said. “I use the paint in a more abstract way, it’s more of a unique modern-contemporary abstract.”
Mason details how she came to value her passion for painting by understanding the relationships of colors.
“I feel like I can put colors together in a way that people can really relate to, such as capturing the moment of a sunset.”
Mason got involved with ArtBlink after her now-retired uncle, who was employed at Kirklin Clinic, encouraged her to participate.
“I inquired about participating, and they said they would love to have me,” Mason said. “I have done two live ArtBlink Galas and did the virtual event last year. I love it. I love participating because I know all the money raised goes back to the cause of cancer research.”
Mason is looking forward to being involved in the event and is excited to see how much money will be raised through the gala.
“In a way, I feel like people are being more generous because they know it has been harder to raise money and hold fundraisers,” Mason said. “I’m excited to see how much pieces sell for and, hopefully, we can break some records.”
Sally Boyd
To Birmingham artist Sally Boyd, ArtBlink holds a special place in her heart, as she began participating after having gone through chemotherapy for ovarian cancer in 2015.
“I am an ovarian cancer survivor. I always said I would have never done this before cancer because I don’t like to be on stage,” Boyd said. “But once that happened, I thought this was a way I could give back to UAB, for research for early detection for ovarian cancer. It touches many people and that is my reason to do it. I don’t do it for the purpose of my art career, but for the purpose of ArtBlink.”
Nature-inspired artwork fills Boyd’s portfolio, with picturesque works of landscapes and trees.
“I have always been inspired by nature,” Boyd said. “When I look back at my work, it is usually related to nature in some way. Nature is always changing.”
Boyd is from Birmingham and attended Mountain Brook High School. She studied art at the University of Alabama and got back into painting full-time in 2006.
“I grew up in Birmingham but moved to Atlanta and different places. But I came back,” Boyd said.
When asked what brought her back to Birmingham, Boyd simply replied, “home sweet home.”
Boyd is part of a local non-profit organization named InSpero, which aims to foster creativity and has a mission of bringing beauty to Birmingham and healing the city.
Boyd describes her excitement for this year’s event and explains how amazed she is by the event organizers.
“I love seeing other artists and what they are doing,” Boyd said. “As artists, we are pretty isolated in our own studios doing our work. It’s fun to see what they are working on. I’m amazed by the organizers of the event. They’ve had to shift from a live event to a virtual event, and they have done a great job.”
In 2020, Boyd was awarded ArtBlink’s Patrons Choice Award. Each year, one winner is selected for the award by the cancer center director, along with members of the advisory board.
To compete, participating artists are required to exhibit two pre-made works of art, which are judged before the live-painting portion of the event. After the winner is selected, their art is hung in the cancer center along with past Patrons Choice Award-winners.
