Artists Describing Their Art:
Lou Lalli - The shaping and use of stone is a vital part of the human endeavor. The fashioning of tools and implements by stone age peoples, the votive Venus figures of the Neolithic period, cycladic sculpture of the eighth millennium BC, classical sculpture of Greece and Egypt and all the sculpture to the present indicates that stone sculpture is intrinsic to human expression. Sculpting in stone directly links me to the people of the past. The subject and ideas I choose are derived from the past thus strengthening that link. The resolutions of the technical problems are the same that sculptors in the past confronted and solved. Although modern tools and implements facilitate my work I am still doing what all sculptors and stone carvers have done in the past; chipping, abrading and polishing the stone to release the form contained therein. My ideas and subjects are borrowed from antiquity with each piece telling a story. Antiquity provides a wealth of resources for my work; warriors, the myths, Venus figures, beasts, demigods and shaman/priests are the subjects I appropriate. In executing an idea, the importance of light and shadow, through the use of negative space is a primary concern in the ...
Paul Carbo - I started messing round with wood in 1999 while still working as a graphic artist for the Los Angeles Times. We all worked on computers at that time and I was craving to do art with my hands like we used to back in the "dim time" before computers. I initially started to build small functional art pieces for children. Things like paper and pencil holders. I then progressed to larger caricatures of famous people I thought kids should be aware of like Abe Lincoln and Mark Twain, still intended as furniture for children. I would store the finished cabinets in my living room. They mingled well with my other furniture and and found I using them to store CD's,books ans such. At that point I said to myself " Why wouldn't grown-ups like this kinda thing"? I left my job at the newspaper, forged on and continued to build....
Paul Orzech - Paul Orzech Sculpture Studio Artist Statement: The heart of my artwork is expressed by the words "Classical form with a modern edge." As an artist, I feel the need to incorporate the classic concepts of the human figure from the Ancient Greek and Italian Renaissance periods, with the more message-oriented elements of today's art. My belief in the beauty and power of the raw human form is exquisitely celebrated in the classical forms of sculpture. The modern themes I treat in my art include feminism; contemporary ideas of spirituality and love; and the all consuming presence time plays in our fast-paced American lives. I feel there is a quiet strength in the combination of established classics and contemporary expression that demonstrates a smooth continuity of social history. ...
Angela Treat Lyon - I make art because I must. It's a cellular need. It's a compulsion, an addiction, a Beingness I cannot deny. Simply put: Art is Spirit moving through any particular medium, whether it be stone, music, cooking, dance, speech, or whatever. Create an intention, take action, results follow, fine or not. Images dwell within me getting fat and juicy until they just simply will not allow me to sit on them one more minute. Many many nights I'll wake up with designs in my head, all clamoring to come out at once, and I'll have to get up and draw furiously till they're out and happy. When I was very young, I made a pact with myself not to do any artwork that depicts pain and suffering - why paint that when we see so much of it all around us, every day? What I wanted to see and surround myself with was expressions of the feeling I had in my heart about how I felt it could be, and really is, on levels we don't normally think about or have visual access to during the glaring light of day. I want my work to do ...
Elena Osterwalder - When people leave their homeland, their home memories freeze in that instant, and without them realizing it both the country and the people progress in divergent directions. The external influences of the new country tend to be assimilated with the old ones and in "The Arts" form a new esthetic with components of both cultures. Years later the yearning for what was left behind takes a hold of them and forces them to look back. In my case using components that have historical and spiritual value in the Mexican tradition, I strive to converge the various cultures that have influenced me and create a 21st century aesthetic. Cuando uno deja a su pais , el recuerdo de su pais se congela en ese instante y no se da cuenta que tanto el pais como el mismo progresan en direcciones divergentes. Las influencias del nuevo se asimilan con las antiguas y en "Las Artes" forman una nueva estetica con componentes de las dos culturas. Anos mas tarde cuando cree que ha incorporado ambas culturas, la anoranza de lo que ha dejado detras toma mucha fuerza y lo empuja a mirar atras. En mi caso...