Artists Describing Their Art:
Yucel Donmez - Yucel Donmez's place in Turkish and American Art History: Yucel Donmez has been continuing his artistic work in Chicago since 1980. He has staged many exhibitions both in Turkey and in the States and was accepted into one of the most influential art encyclopaedias to shape American art history, 'Who is Who in American Art' in 2000. His inclusion in the 'Biographical Encyclopaedia of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers of the U.S.' in 2002, followed by the 'Devonport's Art Reference' encyclopaedia, Donmez has secured a permanent place in American art history. Yucel Donmez also appears among the 63 artists from Chicago to have entered the renowned art reference book, 'Art Diary International', published every year by the famous 'Flash Art' magazine in Italy. Awards: 2003 'Who is Who in American Art' prize plaquette Donmez has been recognised by American art critics (Alan Artner, Chicago Tribune, 1989) as an artist who has shed new light upon the art of painting with his self-developed painting techniques. He obtained 'The National Medal of Art' one of the most important awards in the United States in 1995, for his 11-year-long ...
Oleg Lipchenko - What about an art? Probably I'm not an artist - just a musician without a voice. And what I'm using for singing - paint and canvas. It's pretty much like singing. Sing a song when you want, when it's singing itself, when your voice is just following the inner melody. That's an Art what I call it. . . . . . About an inspiration. Art is very personal thing. Artwork, being inspired of something, could touch or induce a personal response in someone, and who knows will it be related to the source inspiration. My latest works are primarily much more abstract, sometimes absolutely abstract. This character of my painting doesn't depend of what I like or what I don't like in art. I'm not a special fan of abtract art or realism, but I hate statements, programs and manifests in art. It goes as it goes, or at least it should. If you ask me what style or the direction my paintings belong to, the question doesn't make much sense to me. Directions and styles are just labels or stamps which help dealers to pack and sell art. I like such words as Realism, Surrealism, Abstract...
Mary Zeman - in 1997, I began to paint after I had brain surgery to remove a benign brain tumor from the right side of my brain. I was recovering from surgery, and out of the blue, I called my mom and asked her to take me to buy some paint and brushes. This was the first time I ever painted in my life. While I was growing up, I was never exposed to art and just didnt know anything about it, though I had always wanted to learn more. I began painting on wood, paper, newspaper, anything I could find, then I started to paint on canvas. When I went back to my job in television, people looked at my art on the walls of my cubicle, and some people encouraged me to go further with it. I would work all day, then come home and paint at night, and looked forward to the time I would be painting. In October of 2000, I decided to leave my job and make a go of being a full-time artist. Everyday, I learn something new about art, and I love making art. The biggest compliment I can get is when adults look at ...
Otto Rapp - BOGOMIL'S UNIVERSE - the Inner Universe of Otto Rapp Bogomil's Universe is an excursion into the realms of the Inner Universe - a parallel universe that exists in the mind, and glimpses thereof are presented here. I am increasingly reluctant to speak of my work as strictly and exclusively surrealistic. While Surrealism provided the initial spark, and some of the methods of Surrealism are employed, I do not suppress the influence of the rational and selective focus. Thus, particularly in later works, there is to be found a conscious juxtaposition of the complementary forces of inspiration and reason. I do not concern myself with the elimination of the rational, the exclusivity of the irrational and the absurd, but presentation of the conscious and subconscious world as an inseparable whole. I draw my inspirations from the layered labyrinth underground which represents the other side of life, which is an inner imaginative-inspirational counterpart to the outer world, expressed with the help of logic-alogic associations, analogisations and symbolism. The paintings in the cyclus Bogomil's Universe are derived by creating textural surfaces, the method of Decalcomania as pioneered by the Surrealists, letting color, consistency and flow of the paint determine initial ...
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. ...
Simon Blackwood - About the paintings of Simon Blackwood The property of beauty is to shine. Its' light extends infinitely both inwardly and outwardly. It is both overwhelming and inspiring and whatever it illuminates is consumed as it is also created by it. In short, beauty is not partial. I have chosen to follow a spiritual orientation toward all things I do. The road and the destination in this journey is the love of beauty. (A statement inspired by the writings of Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi and Jelaleddin Rumi.) Painting is a metamorphosis from base elements into an image of another reality beyond those original elements. It can allude to sublime ideals through subject matter or by the means of the juxtaposition of colour, shape and form. At best it reveals the highest aspirations of man striving to praise the gift of intelligence, love of beauty and life itself. Paintings can recall or remind us by illusory means; they may also point towards something beyond the material object of the 'tableau' hanging on a wall. The paintings represented here also attempt, without abstraction, to point beyond the subject matter, alluding to the hidden, in the world of man, that gives rise to his creativity. ...
Leon Aarts - What is Art? Art is the thrilling spark that beats death - thats all. Brett Whiteley Why does one paint? The most fundamental reason one paints is in order to see. Whiteley Who is an artist? I am an individual who is also an artist-look at what I am doing. Alan Pearson. What is the definition of Art? Discovery is the definition of Art. Pearson. What is'good' art? There are no rules about investment. Sharks can be good. Artist's dung can be good. Oil on canvas can be good. There's a squad of conservators out there to look after anything an artist decides is art. Charles Saatchi (Art Collector) Can one explain what one's art is about? Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don't know what to say about what I paint, really. Balthus The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel. Mondrian It is particularly colouring of the soul which literary technicians have not so far found to be chemically analysable, and consequently,it has NO name.Expressionism is today in the AIR. I choose to be an artist. Leonardus Aarts...
Theodhoraq Napoloni - Artistic Practice My artistic practice generally is oriented towards painting. In essence the paintings portray theatrical situations created by objects, and for a formal and aesthetic appearance the image that is represented has the quality and attributes of''FICTION REALISM''. What interests me most is the expressing of situations that deal with the unconsciousness, and it is exactly this unconsciouss that gives a lot of importance to the instinctive side and pushes me toward certain actions or pulls my attention towards something. During the realization phase of painting, this''special interest'' becomes more stronger and gives the image more apparent clearness with all the details and characteristics of the object. For me, the content I select to represent is very important. It is a selection that follows intuition primarily, and the psychological stains, putting them all together towards a real ending, that in fact, is an invisible reality whose imprints are hidden deep into fragmentilized moments of our history. All this process for me is the best tool to bring it in surface the deepest content of the truth, and the aesthetic dimension. The nature of the objects that become part of the painting is different. Sometimes the definitive images ...
Audri Phillips - The paintings are done slowly, thought and dreamed about until the images seem correct to me. I apply layers of thin glazes and pay attention to the way thin paint runs and drips. This combination of chance and control hopefully leads to a better painting than I alone am capable of painting....