Artists Describing Their Art:
Tatana Kellner - Growing up in communist Czechoslovakia, as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I learned to mistrust authority and question official doctrines. The current political landscape with the erosion of civil liberties, the misinformation fed to us by our leaders and the manipulation of facts by the media has motivated me to refocus my artistic concerns from exploring my personal history, albeit political, to taking a direct stance on contemporary politics. I use media, especially the newspaper, as my primary source material. The images and text fragments are processed in a way that parallels political maneuvering (deal making). My work is tactile. Layers of inky marks form the images. The inherent messiness references political corruption, loss of innocence, and encapsulates a specific moment in time. History defines us. History haunts us. ...
Jonathan Benitez - my art is a storytelling in visual form.my images are my attempt to extricate memories from my past experiences as a child.i live in a coastal community where the daily toils of the fisher folks are my sources of inspirations. beauty sometimes do not reconcile with certain aesthetics. but i found it in exploring realities,there is beauty in depicting the human conditions,the other side of happiness,the negative feelings as effected by pain and sufferings but unspoken.the best art in the world is not about happiness but its about depicting what happen to humanity. ...
Shannon Russell - Artist Statement I use color like a knife. Segmenting dissecting redefine, constantly searching for what makes a shape or look. What makes something that defines a figure or portrait. What subjects look like? Most of my work is based off of celebrities and figures in the press. All of my subjects come with certain preconceived notions attached and I search these out through the use of color, texture or light. I work in oil paint, specifically for it tonal quality. The pure pigment used with and archival medium, applied to a snow-white ground, achieves a certain level of light penetration that makes my work seem like stain glass in full sunlight. That theme of light penetrating seems to travel throughout my work. Whether I am painting objects or like my most recent work concentrating on figure and portraits. I use light to define the color and to make a skeletal structure to break open the emotional connections of subjects and viewers. If you examine someone and see the colors that dance across their skin as light passes over and through it, you will understand where my painting is coming from. It is just a moment a glance into that ...
Dina Elsayed Imam - I've always found a great satisfaction in the action of watching and in turn in the process of recreating the experience. This continuous process of understanding through visual experience made my work lean towards a more personal and expressionistic style. But that kind of expressionism sprouts out of a genuine desire to transfer a much more realistic truths about what I depict in my paintings. I make no attempt to constrain my interest in a single subject matter. but till now My main concerns lay with the human body and its surrounding space & objects. ...
Camilo Lucarini - I born with a pencil in my hand, I started professional painting, after graduating in The Art School of Fine Arts, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I was born. In the last 25 years I have been recognized, mainly, for my wildlife paintigs, of which I have made exhibitions in Europe, North and South America. Among my clients are hunters, collectors and animal lovers....
Augie Nkele - Born: Kisangani, Congo, Africa BFA: Emphasis Painting, 1979, Academie Des Beaux-Arts, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi Additional Studies: Notre Dame de la Sagesse, School of Interior Design, Brussels, Belgium, 1980-82 Currently a US citizen residing in Fort Worth, Texas I am from the Kongo people. Before Columbus sailed to the New World, the Portuguese had already established trade relations with the kingdom of Kongo. Members of the royal court of Kongo attended the university in Lisbon. I speak the Kikongo language, as well as Lingala, Swahili, French and English. Congo is always in my heart although it has been many years since I have been there in person. My country has a rich artistic and cultural history and the Congolese people have made important contributions to art and music. One of my goals with my art is to introduce our history and culture to others. When you know Africa you will love Africa. I love learning about different ethnic and national cultures. I look for links that can unite people rather than divide them. Having lived on three continents has given me a broader interest perhaps than if I had only lived in one community all my life. We must ...
Larsen Lena - At the vanity, chasing the dream that is often just a mirage, tired with stress and permanent search, at the stream of rushing days and years we sometimes stand motionless for a while seeing something beautiful: open flower, spring dusk, the picture that suddenly attracted our attention. It is possible that such abstractions and revelations are the main meaning of art. After all, the artist's brush can really fix the time, place, and mood, and capture for a moment our mind, tossing between past and future, and thus awake our feelings and thoughts......
Mavis Mcclure - Mavis McClure Born: 1967 Selected Exhibitions: 2004 Chaco Gallery (w/Nathan Oliveria & Peter Voulkos) 2002 Oakland City Gallery (w/Viola Frey), Oakland, CA 2001 Solo Show, LewAllen Contemporary 2000 "From the Fire", Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA "Contemporary Figure", LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe 1999 Solo Show, Jan Baum, Los Angeles, CA "Enduring Form", LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe SOFA Chicago, Sandy Carson, Denver, CO 1998 Solo Show, Virginia Breier, San Francisco, CA "Pedestals & Stretchers", LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM "30 Ceramics", John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA Olive Grove Sculpture Walk, Auberge du Soleil 1997 "Saving Grace", A New Leaf Gallery, Berkeley, CA "30 Ceramics", John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA 1996 "Au Plien Air", A New Leaf Gallery, Berkeley, CA Ceramic Sculpture, Virginia Breier, San Francisco, CA Publications: American Craft San Francisco Chronicle Santa Fe Magazine ArtWeek Albuquerque Journal Contra Costa Times San Jose Mercury News Trend Magazine Interior Design New York Times Collections: Doug Ring, Los Angeles, CA American Museum of Ceramic Art Fourth Street Shopping District, Berkeley, CA CB & Dick Watts, Los Altos, CA Howard & Matilda Rubin, Santa Fe, NM Estate of Jerry Garcia, Mill Valley, CA Mary & John Carrington, Newport Coast, CA Anita Roddick, West Sussex, England Robin & Leonard ...
Sandi Carpenter - Due to my endless curiosity and wide range of interests, my work has evolved over the years. Just as a musician would change instruments to perfect the mood and rhythm created, I enjoy moving from one medium to another, be it French dyes on silk, watercolor or acrylic. I am always hopeful that the magic I feel in creating these images will be felt by the viewer with similar intensity. I believe it is only then that art really lives....