Featured Artists #5: Claudia Tong / Beth Barlow

MEANS once again shares the work of two exciting grassroots artists. This post marks the fifth of our new online series, where we showcase two artists whose work we particularly admire. Check them out below!

Claudia Tong is an artist, quantitative researcher and football coach based in London, creating at the intersection of physical and digital art. Her practice spans from painting and illustrations to mixed media, visual computing, photography and music composition. With a background in computer science and psychology, she has lived, studied, worked and exhibited internationally.

Everyday Elsewhere This mixed media collage blends layered paper and illustration to portray a figure filled with bold, imaginative energy. Surrounded by dynamic textures and expressive lines, the person appears to think beyond the frame—curious, creative, and open to possibility. The embedded quote, “not traditional in everything we do,” reflects a spirit of thoughtful exploration. By embracing arts and culture, the piece invites us to find hope in fresh perspectives and the quiet magic of thinking differently, reminding us that even everyday creativity can open new paths forward.

A Sensory Sunset Captured from the rooftop of my office - a place I visit daily - A Sensory Sunset reveals the quiet magic of routine. The red and yellow sun, just moments from vanishing, transforms an ordinary scene into something extraordinary. Though familiar, each sunset is different, reminding us that hope lives in small, everyday wonders. In these fleeting colours, we find the magic that keeps us looking up.

Find out more about Claudia’s work here: https://linktr.ee/claudiaxt

Beth Barlow has been working for over 25 years. The piece came about when looking through peoples COVID facebook posts for notes of hope. There were a suprising amount. It turned out that in times of real crisis people would find all sorts of little but meanigful things to bring them comfort and give a sense of hope. The work is on found materials, things on their way to the bin but rescued in the hope that they could be part of a message about hope. The piece was created with recycled model air plane paints on wood with an old hair bobble to connect the work.