Artists Describing Their Art:
Sheri Smith - For the past fifteen years, I have worked on my Capturing Culture series, a body of works on paper, drawn from the audience of live music performances. Sketched in Caran dAche crayon on suede board or with a sharp implement into scratch-board. The pieces portray the performers and often their instruments and parts of the venue. Though ultimately a visual record, the work emerges from a ritualistic creative process which serves to address my feelings about time, creative skill, and visual imagery. The fleeting nature of these performances is central to the work. It is often hard not to see the passing of time as an enemy, but in the case of my work the opposite is true. The impending end of a song, set, or evening offers a sense of freedom, allowing me to work quickly. This rapid pace also dictates my choice of materials. Caran dAche crayons or scratch-boards function best when used quickly and confidently. A darkened venue limits my color palette on the suede board to just what I can see. Additionally, a confined seating space constrains the size of my boards and therefore the number of details I can include. Performances and process ...
Rosalyn M. Gaier - Beauty. Meditative thought. Nuance. These are subjects of my collagraphs. They take on important implications when examined in light of today's American instant gratification culture. While convenience, speed and availability have become hallmarks of our American way of life and our society's progress, there remains a need for something more meaningful. That something is beauty. From my frame of personal artistic reference, "beauty" involves the viewer by initiating the response of taking pause, suddenly, unawares. Arousing the response from deep within, beauty disarms and fulfills at one and the same time. This elusive beauty is vital nourishment for mind and soul. Does today's American art disarm and fulfill? How well are our minds and souls being nourished? Unfortunately, Americans' appreciation and awareness of beauty are partially numbed by their frenzy experience of instant gratification. Beauty falls prey to the mindset of fast food, "Shop till you drop" and instant access to just about everything. We sacrifice refined taste, uniqueness and rewarded perseverance for what often is ephemeral and not quite satisfying. What this means for artists is that their best pieces can be easily overlooked. Unless relevance and nuance of an artwork can be realized immediately, instant ...
Rosalyn M. Gaier -
Wayne Wilcox - ArtistaEURtms statements have always seemed redundant to me. The work generally speaks for itself. But here goes.. For me itaEURtms about shapes, color and lines interacting and relating to each other. Representational, abstract, non-objective theyaEURtmre all the same. Light against dark, color against color, line intersecting line. IaEUR~m as comfortable with super realism as I am with abstract expressionism. Then, of course, thereaEURtms the medium. I love the paint. I love the act of painting. I love how it flows and how it takes on a direction on itaEURtms own. ItaEURtms like magic. With one stroke something appears before your eyes that wasnaEURtmt there before. An image. An emotion. With each stroke or drip it changes. ItaEURtms an amazing experience. I highly recommend it. And then thereaEURtms image. I am a visual artist. IaEUR~m after strong images, images that evoke a feeling. Starkness, warmth, love, violence, emptiness, beauty, strength. I want the painting or drawing to stand on itaEURtms own. I am a painter. I cannot escape that fact. There have been times IaEUR~ve tried but I always return. ItaEURtms not what I do. ItaEURtm...
Wayne Wilcox -
Martha Hayden - My painting is both realistic and abstract, it is on that elusive edge between there and not there. On first look everything is in place, then all dissolves. I want realism and abstraction to take turns. I want a painting sometimes very evocative of time and place, sometimes overwhelming in abstract, structural logic. I look for a surprise, a drama, a different way of seeing. I try not to see anything for itself alone, but as a part of the whole. In this context, my subjects take on meanings other than the accustomed ones. They are more than still life and landscape; they are comments on thinking and seeing. ...
Edelweiss Calcagno - www.edelweisscalcagno.com +1-240-701-9100 Using different techniques, some of them mixed together to create new unique techniques. My art is formed by adding layer after layer, producing extraordinary illusions making the mind get involved in the labyrinth of colors and materials. Viewers never stop discovering new things - there is something fresh each time they look at my pieces. My source of inspiration is that a picture can speak a thousand words. I have seen many times how my art can touch people. I believe in the freedom of rights and equality for all, and these beliefs impact my artwork and my message. My art does not judge, but it is honest, even when this means stating what I see there is a strong message. I trust my art because the word that comes out from it is a positive word. I discovered the beauty of creating sculptures and prints in addition to doing paintings, etching and restoring art and now they have become part of who I am. There are the infinite possibilities hidden in sculpture. Between mixed media, aluminum casting, and more I love to touch any type of material and find new ways to use ...
Lynette Vought - I heard a writer say once that how we experience life is an illusion and that the purpose of art is to uncover reality. Indeed, reality seems quite like a set of unturned cards, and I'm not sure we can define it until after our hand has been played. The best solution I have found is to fray the edges of the illusion a bit by bending the laws that everyone knows. In my work people can fly, plants and people merge, women wear snorkels while making love. For me, these images hint at reality, opening a back door to the underlying truth of what I see and experience. By rendering things in a magical light, the illusion starts to give way to the real in the same way that madness sometimes serves to define sanity. Formally, my work is much more practical. I make paintings, drawings and intaglio prints based on my drawings. The prints are a mixture of old and new processes; instead of etching the plates in acid, my prints are made with photosensitive plates. I enjoy the control this process gives me over the final image. Thank you for visiting my site! --Lynette Vought ...
Bert Menco - Though they may seem simple, especially my drawings and intaglio prints but also my paintings are actually quite elaborate; half a year's work on an image is no exception for me. I draw directly or use small sketches, even doodles, as image-generating nuclei, often combining two or three that appear to complement each other. I rarely use concrete references, but rather work from inner visions. I tend to be narrative in my own art, perhaps poetic narrative. I don't see my images as telling a story but rather as reflections of inner feelings, similar to some poetry, and would like observers to read them as such. I like to believe that my work carries a certain mystery. My images are very much "inside out.aEUR? I have usually some idea of what I want to obtain, but much of the image is generated while I draw or paint. The end product always surprises me; I am often amazed that there even is an end product. Analyzing my own art is difficult but I think that the dreamlike images tend to deal with confined spaces which contain certain characters that reach out to one another but do not quite ...