Artists Describing Their Art:
Don Dougan - My work comprises both abstracted and figurative imagery executed in a variety of mixed materials, with stone being the predominate medium. Other materials used (usually in conjunction with stone) include foundry cast metals, carved and joined wood, cast and fabricated plastics, cold-worked and kiln-formed glass, cast and carved hydraulic cements, cast/formed paper, welded/fabricated metals, gilding, and found/assembled objects. The more abstracted imagery is worked in pedestal pieces, large freestanding sculptures, and in wall-mounted relief sculptures. The figurative lip series is usually presented in wall-mounted reliefs, deep shadowbox framing, and occasionally as either a pedestal piece or a large freestanding work. The most recently begun series of work comprises pedestal-sized pieces using the imagery of the ship or the boat hull. Each series or each type of work allows me to express aspects of the human condition - the more abstracted works tend to reveal a more universal emotional/rational characterization of subject matter, the lip series tends to allow sensuality, humor, and more visceral expressions, while the ship series delves into personal/cultural memories and emotional journeys. For more images and information on myself, my work, and my working methods please visit my ...
Andrea Waxman Mulcahy - My work illuminates an energetic state that exists yet is generally not seen. Movement as it is captured in space indicates pathways and an energy flow. Visualization of this movement brings to mind that which is not seen in the world but still exists. I'm intrigued by the way simple lines can become complex structures and how complex structures can be reduced to simple lines. I choose to work in steel because it gives me the most immediate connection to my thoughts and the welding process allows me to quickly execute my ideas. The stability and the permanence of metal also gives me the capability to build with structural freedom. Steel rods can represent an single line allowing the negative space to become an important part of the sculpure and the bent steel rods create a fluidity that lets one forget that the structure is made of hard steel....
Daryl Stokes - I have been an artist most of my entire life beginning in junior high school. In my early years, I did many sketches and paintings that were realistic subjects. Eventually I became intrigued with impressionism and abstract expressionism which lead me to create an extensive series of expressionistic acrylic paintings and optical designs. In college, I majored in art education and did extensive studies in fine arts, psychology and humanities. After college, I began traveling the US and eventually moved to Monterey, Ca. where I discovered articles created from redwood burls. I became fascinated with the endless array of natural forms inherent in redwood driftwood and burls and I began an entirely new artistic endeavor. For over 20 years, I designed and produced an wide array of redwood furniture ranging from coffee tables, dining tables, bars, chairs, sofas to include floor fountains, sculptured lamp stands, bed frames and many other unique sculptural products. Recently I have developed a new series of contemporary abstract redwood sculptures that are visually dramatic with many subliminal forms resembling animals or containing human characteristics. As the sculptures are viewed from different positions, they change remarkably....
Selin Melek Aktan - God created world from fire and water.Then looked at the earth,he thought it was looking very empty and made human. TO HAVE A MORE FUN He put the colours on his palette and painted world with them. HE GAVE US THIS EARTH AS A PRESENT Human liked his present and they started to dance GOD LOOKED AT HIS ART He enjoyed what he did. I am a very independent person and probably my paintings are too. I don't paint because of the trend, or mode, I paint because something or somebody fascinates me. It could be nature, a face, a story, an event, colors (especially, I adore strong colors ), a song, an object, my feelings, my thoughts, my dreams: never ending possibilities of improbability. I definitely love beauty. I am trying to express my personal sense of beauty and truth in my paintings.So every painting is different. There is not only one style in which I like to work .I traveled to the four corners of the earth, and each place I visited added to my desire for unique artistic expression.Wherever I went, I found new influences directing my brush strokes or guiding my hands ...
Dan Woodard - Archetypes...Myths...Rituals. I have long been intrigued and fascinated by these concepts. In my sculptures, both figurative and abstract, I employ these aspects of a collective unconscious to evoke an emotional state within the viewer. In my figurative work, my goal is to capture the myriad changing state of the human condition through subtle changes in facial countenance and body language. The end result shows how the inner condition is expressed by the outward form while also conveying a sense of this expression transcending both time and history. In my abstract sculptures, I have recreated the numinous quality of subconsciously shared images, stories, and ceremonial rites. The sculptures, themselves, are composed of abstract forms that are covered with a rich, textural surface. The end result is a complex organic piece that evokes a sense of ancient artifacts, of ritualistic objects from some unknown culture, or of imagined landscapes. However, be it figurative or abstract, my ultimate goal is to have the viewer feel a sense of familiarity with the work...a sense of having experienced this before. I believe this feeling of deja vu arises from both the collective unconscious and a mystical center we all share. ...
Richard Claraval - I've always been profoundly interested in the human figure, and in the representation of dynamic motion. My sculptures, drawings, and paintings revolve around these basic concerns, fussing the undistorted, non-truncated figure with various abstract forms. I'm mainly influenced by the Renaissance, Abstract Expressionism, and pure abstract sculpture such as that of Arp and Brancusi. It has long been exciting to me to think of the beautiful draperies of a Raphael painting, or Michelangelo's drawing of the risen Christ, as fused with their figures in a seamless integration. Similarly, I wish to see a beautiful Arp sculpture flowing with a beautiful human figure. My strongest inspiration comes from music, especially classical, and most especially Beethoven, though I am extremely fond of many other forms and composers. Richard Claraval 2009...