Artists Describing Their Art:
Eduardo Diaz - Statement My name is Eduardo DIaz and Iim a Mexican artist residing in the Bay Area since 2001. In my work I express different elements of Mexican culture, while emphasizing its Native American heritage. I incorporate native themes and images, both extant and prehispanic, into my works and combine them with personal feelings, experiences or fears. Although cultural elements are the essence of my art, through them I also like to express political and social opinions. As a Mexican, I feel in touch with the problems at the Mexican-American border, as well as with the issues facing Mexican immigrants. I also like to express the tension between the indigenous and the industrialized worlds, and to analyze the different elements that make up Mexican identity, especially when confronted with life in a different country. My favorite medium is oil painting. I use vivid and deep colors, with which I reflect the light of the Mexican sun. Some of my compositions are figurative, and oscillate between realistic scenes and more elaborated images, with affinity to surrealism. My most recent productions are less figurative and combine the same vivid colors into expressive abstract constructions. Biography My name is Eduardo D...
Dana Zivanovits - Dana Zivanovits was born in 1958 in Columbus, Ohio and received his art training from the Columbus College of Art and Design (1978 to 1982). After art school, he went abroad for a year and studied the art of the old masters in London, Paris, Madrid, Rome and Venice. Returning to his studio in Columbus to develop these influences into a new body of work, he then traveled to Mexico and studied the sculpture and painting of that country for an extended period. The unique and vivid colors of Palenque and Vera Cruz intensified his palette. After a period in Ohio, he then moved to Venice Beach, California where the brilliant light of the region reinforced his desire to capture effects of sunlight and atmosphere. Returning to Ohio in 1995, he has continued to paint themes deriving inspiration form sources such as world mythology, classic and B-grade cinema, literature and dreams. However his primary inspiration is direct observation from nature, versus an approach based in art theories or cultural critique. Dana has been widely represented by galleries and exhibition projects including Julie Rico and Mega Boom in Los Angeles, the Venice Art Detour, Around the Coyote Festival in Chicago ...
Satu Laurel - Sublime and the search of beauty are the main starting points of my paintings. Traditional techniques serve that idea. There is also a hint of mystical, unanswered questions and secrets. Paintings are driven from psychology and unaware, hidden thoughts. Christian themes like Creation and human-God relationship interests me. Contradictions and paradoxes are fascinating. Ugly can be seen as beautiful and old gives a birth to a young. Letting go from the usual gives freedom to see more than the present moment....
David Mihaly - The first series here represents notable historical and pop culture figures, many with Ohio roots, presented in a contemporary style. Each portrait can be seen as a celebration of the individual depicted as well as a meditation on the difference between the bygone era of actual achievement in the arts versus todays culture of instant celebrity. Also included here is a series of textured jazz musician portraits. Each musician painting was made using a layered acrylic technique, evoking the smoky atmosphere of the clubs where the music was born....
Marc Awodey - "My statement IS the work." Awodey received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1984. Hundreds of his works are in private collections around the USA. Awodey lives in Burlington, Vermont- one of the most active arts enclaves in in North America. He teaches fine arts at Burlington College and The Community College of Vermont, is an award winning art critic, and has published 3 books of poetry. Resume and slides are available on request. Awodey's vision is unique, and his work may be considered investment quality. Click on "send the artist an email" for further information. "I do not try to be profound. My only concern is to make pictures that work - I can't worry about critical relevance, or what a viewer might discover in a piece. Such are not for me to know. I am a figurative painter who is, nevertheless, more focused on formal issues than narrative content. Narratives are egocentric, and I am an artist of the Id. Textures, color, and line are the Id. I establish a dialog with each canvas, and let it develop on its own terms - so my pictures are very simple and direct. The anatomy of the picture...
Patsy Mair - PATSY MAIR I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, W.I., and studied Painting as an adult beginning seriously in the 1970s , tutored by Gorge Rodney, one of Jamaica's master artists. My early working background was in Education and Training. As a graduate teacher I taught History, Spanish at High School level and Communication Skills at College Level. Then later I specialised in Training and Development of staff at the workplace. During those years I used my week ends to develop my interest in Painting. While growing in the techniques of oil, acrylic and pastel paintings I exhibited in solo, joint and group shows in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago and won Bronze Medals in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission National Fine Art Competitions among other awards. More recently I participate regularly in exhibitions and am a member of the Jamaica Guild of Artists. My inspiration for my work comes from experiences of what I know and feel. With wide interests and having worked for many years as a volunteer in the cause of abused women I focus on strengths and hopes, happiness and peace. I try to express the vitality of life as I see it, through the medium ...
Florine Justine - "Artists create Art to communicate ideas, thoughts or feelings. There are a variety of methods: Literature, painting, photography, sculpting and so. I choose to express myself in " Fine Art" as a painter. -Fine Art- " I try to catch colors to give to the Reality, Brightness, Contrast and Life". I work on Oil or/and Acrylic techniques, on Canvas and in many genres (Still life, Landscapes, Flowers, Portraits, Animals, Abstracts ). Painting imposed itself to me and complete my communication needs. I paint by passion for Life, and Colors. If you want to know more about my Art, I invite you to consult my Painting Gallery. ...
Nathalie Van - What's there to tell? I am a 28 year old Modern Abstract Style Artist. My favorite surfaces to paint on are gallery stretched canvas and canvas panels. I paint every day and hone my art skills. I am mostly self-taught (with the exception of some high school teaching plus watching my grandmother paint), and my education doesn't really have anything to do with art. I am an electrical engineer by degree, which gave me lots of patience, endurance, and the knowledge on how to build an autonomous robot! I've also done some creative freelance writing and earned some money that way. Now I get to do the fun stuff - paint all the time! My favorite things to paint right now are Asian-inspired art, martini's, abstract landscapes and other abstractions. I paint something new almost every day....
Jo Mari Montesa - Of all the gifts God gave to man the finest is his free will. Second to life itself. It is the essence of man. It is what separates man from all the other creatures of God. By ones choice or action he is judged if he is worthy to be called the man created by God. The child of free will is art. It is man's self-expression. It is synonymous to freedom of expression. Every art is unique since every man is unique. How man perceives art is also unique as how man perceives beauty. As how man perceive life. Art is like life. It all depends to the person's perception. Truly beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. The gauge of how beautiful life is, depends uniquely to every man. A professor of mine once walked in the streets of Manila during summer. It is very hot, humid and dusty. He noticed a very old beggar asking for coins to the passers while bathing to the heat of the sun all day. Beside the beggar was a newspaper stand. One tabloid headline reads'Young Matinee Idol Commits Suicide." My professor stops for awhile and asks ...
Jo Mari Montesa -
Sven Froekjaer Jensen - To build a bridge between different worlds of expression, to span the abyss between the diversity of human minds, to reach out for the sublime, that is my challenge. Therefore I have to maneuver in a battlefield between old techniques and the new expressions of our time. That means to work in two directions all the time, one way from the old masters of the 19th century especially the drawing skills of the so called Copenhagen school with a very profound technical base, and the other way a freedom of expression, that is the only highway to the description of our time and the dreams and goals of present life. One could express it in another way saying, that I make modern myths in my fabulating paintings. But on the other hand the technical skills acquired from the drawing exercises are a necessity for getting the freedom that makes the fabulations possible. By creating the nonverbal myths on my canvasses I hope to reach the onlooker in a way that brings our minds together so we can walk the paths of understanding - dreaming the very old dreams of humanity. Therefore I work very intensely with drawings of the human and...
Sven Froekjaer Jensen -