Artists Describing Their Art:

Valda Fitzpatrick - I believe that art is a reflection of who you are as a person and artist. It is a culmination of ones experiences and exposure to life. Art has always been the heart of my soul.While growing up in Europe, I was exposed to a rich cultural environment. My fascination for flowers,their colors and shapes,trees,the alps, all are echoed in my work. Although abstract in form, the initial concept of my designs stem from reality. For wherever I go ,nature always follows me....

Rufus Adeniyi - I am a widely traveled Nigerian Aesthetics consultant. A graduate of South Thames College, London and University of London Goldsmith College. I believed in Art as a way of life and a reflection of the spiritual and socio-economic life of the people. My flair for natural things of beauty has no measure. Apart from my Art gallery, I also run a consultancy firm in all forms of artistic embellishment in fine furnishing for corporate bodies, private individuals and diplomatic missions. Married and strongly believed in modesty and fair play....

Charles Mctheeney - ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Ive been a professional artist and sculpture since 1982 well sort of. In 1982 I started my own paint and body repair business out of the garage of my Home Place. Since then I moved into collision repair and have done millions of dollars worth of paint and body and collision repair for customers. I have done this of course to make a living but what has kept me going is the smile on the customers face when they see the finished product. I got to thinking if I can make people this happy just by giving them what they had before their accident or return a vehicle to the condition it was in when it was new. How happy could I make people if I gave them something that they never seen before or never ARTIST STATEMENT I like modern abstract steel sculpture. Thats probably why thats the kind of art that Im good at producing. I am shooting for inspirational, uplifting, strength, efficiency, cleanliness. Im interested in commissioning for residential and commercial indoor and outdoor installations. Any size any color. I have no problem working with individuals architects and managers to get exactly what is required...

Bozena Happach - My sculptures illustrate the complexity and beauty of human form in two and three-dimensional compositions. I intend to demonstrate the depth as well as the foibles of the human endeavor, along the journey of both physical and spiritual evolution. ...

Jernej Tramte - Carving is an old profession and it has experienced full boom in the past, for the first time in ancient Egypt and in Europe in the Middle Ages. It can be seen in the classic, old art, but pleasant lines of manually treated wood are also included in a modern setting, where they diversify and fill the space. My products are just that and they promote positive energy in space and bring peace and love. Each tree and wood has its own vibration. Wood is beautiful however it is treated, but most important for me is to revive and reimburse life to it in another form, in harmony with my expression, which vibrates in the direction of unconditional love. When working with wood I feel and connect with it, which is imprinted in the product. I work with a variety of wood materials oak, walnut, pear, cherry, alder, linden ..., also choosing them according to the harmony with the product. Bartolus is my artistic name, which is derivative of the Hebrew word for Jernej, as this is my name. I wish you a pleasant visit of my site, Jernej Tramte...

Sergio Milani - In 1960 I graduated from the P.Selvatico Institute of Padua - Italy, and immediately began my career as a teacher of art, at the same time as a freelance designer, I collaborated with the most famous Italian toy industry In plastic, with the task of designing new toys lines, designing and realizing their prototypes. As a lover of wood, in 1999, I came to the idea of aEUR
Merlin Mccormick - I am new to the art world and still trying to feel my way through. I have lived through the free love era of years gone by and now wonder what have happened to that spirit of enlightenment. That mind set that the body is a beautiful thing to marvel at and that sexual expressions of love and openness was something to strive for. That does not seem to be the case presently. It seems as though there is a push to view the human body as something to be ashamed of and not displayed in its nude form and viewed as something vulgar. The art works that I have created express that spirit of free love and appreciation for the human body and the freedom and awareness gained from sexual interactions of the body and mind. It is my hope that my creations re-light that flame from the past and that people fine my work appealing and would want to own one or more pieces. I only show a few here but I have many more ready to offer. They are truly unique one of a kind items that will grow in value as time goes by. ...

Bart Soutendijk - I have been making Wire Wall Murals on a commission basis since 1972. A Wire Wall Mural is the final step in a simplification process that starts with a photograph or group of photographs. I make and remake the line drawing to emphasize only the essence of the subject. I ask, myself: "What is it about this image that makes is unique." Then I strip away the lines that are not required to convey that quality. Finally, like the poet who reviews every word, I re-examine every turn and curve as I bend the wire into that image -- a large line drawing in space. The final installation, a solid line in front of a moving shadow, has scale enough to suit a large space without dominating the room. After I make a wire wall sculpture I hang it up and "live with it" for a while. Sometimes I cut away additional material, add more, or change bends before I consider the sculpture ready for a home, gallery, or museum. I say: Nothing is permanent, as long as you have pliers. ...

Max Tolentino - I do not think of art as a rationalization of an artistic thought or perhaps I am not still able to think this way. What fascinates me is the exercise of art; it is doing something that can express my personal point of view of things and the perception and the expression of the world as I see. Anything that carries human significance may cause me an emotion with the same intensity that I see at any museum in the world. Art is an emotional and intellectual product to me. Since my late starting in arts I have been sculpting my way in the artistic scenario with a differenced curiosity so that my overture to this environment gives me a privileged position. Doubts - no doubt - will arise, as my works transit between the formalism and the concept, between the beautiful and the political in art. But the doubts belong more to the one who sees then to me. Maybe I want to go further than the cultural concepts i?1/2 not that I pay much attention to it - but perhaps one day appreciating from outside I may glimpse a chance to be inside thus contributing in a certain way to this world ...

Robert Pulley - A friend told me recently that it was helpul for her to know how an art work is created and how the artist thinks. That led me to consider what I have to say about my art work. When one looks at my sculpture I hope one sees strength, mystery, sensuousness, spiritual energy and more. How these constructions in modeled clay can stir such responsed in myself and others is a mystery to me, but I can say something about my methods and way of thinking. I have always been intuitive, reactive and spontaneous. I love improvisation, expression and the power of chance and serendipity. This may not seem obvious in large pieces that must be carefully crafted over weeks or months. Here is how it works. When I began the first pieces in this body of work many years ago they were purely improvisational. I would begin each piece with a flat slab of clay that I cut into a shape that would be the bottom of the sculpture. I usually had a vague idea of the proportions I wanted. This general notion set the theme within which I worked. In the manner of free jazz I would consider ...

Robert Pulley - Diana Carey - I developed a passion for the creation of metal forms while studying at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Each piece is unique and is discovered as I create it. There is no direct path from one piece to the next, instead, each evolves from the material. Once I start working on the piece I move with it as it starts taking shape. I want the metal to flow, the pieces to be light and airy, counterbalancing the rigidity of the steel I am working with. My sculptures are there to be touched and felt. Touching my sculptures can move a person along the same wavelength I felt as I was creating it. I know a piece has succeeded when I see smiles on the faces of people looking at it. People have said that my work makes them happy as they see and experience it. As I work on my sculptures ...

Daniel Lombardo - My art is first informed by the human figure, its essential vertical presentation with a focus on unique but related frontal and rear views, and the gestalt of interconnected shapes that are both linear and volumetric. It is secondarily informed by totem poles of the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest and other tribal cultures from around the world, with their stacked and interconnected elements that may represent key figures or concepts in their myths and legends, combined to "tell a tale" or remind of basic cultural tenets. Though my sculptures do not represent any specific events, I imagine my pieces as abstract tales both of personal events or generally themes of human experience. The pieces develop from gestural sketches based on this visual language of interconnected forms merging and diverging usually along a vertical axis. Most recently I have worked in forged steel which has fostered new gestural elements that this material inspires. ...

Elnaz Nourizadeh - Art for me is life. When I create a sculpture or a simple bowl, I feel alive. I like to create things that have feelings, emotions and motion. I create two types of artworks, sculptures and pottery. In my pottery I express my raw ideas in irregular and often asymmetric shapes of vessels and combination of different glazes and colours. This gives me the time to control my emotions and excitement. Each of my sculptures manifests a period in my life; emotions, everything I feel, see and experience. Overtime my sculptures have transitioned from statements about restrictions in my life to ideas of freedom and breaking the barriers. I get my ideas from everyday things I see in the streets, music I listen to, the news I read or a new artwork that catches my eye. I start making samples and experimenting with the idea and reading and researching about it until it becomes mature enough to build a sculpture. I prefer clay as my main medium because it gives me freedom and allows to create any shape I desire and refine the shape as it dries. ...

Louise Parenteau - ARTISTIC STATEMENT I studied fine arts at the University Of Quebec In Montreal (1986-1991). I was involved in various artistic activities in which I took a strong stand against injustice, poverty, and social exclusion. My work took shape using different methods of research and observation. I articulated my artistic approach inspired by existential human sufferings. I created portraits of individuals with unusual physical traits, expressions, deformities, attitudes... These characters inspired me to use colour in contrasts and splashes. My aim was to express the life animating the characters by an internal light. For my installations, I used a physical space to transpose socio-political situations and dramatic events. With the barest resources, my intention was to stimulate the interest of the viewer. My material supplies: Acrylic, rubbish, wood, metal, rust, polystyrene panels, personal objects, used clothing, etc. In 1995, I realized that I had reached limits with my artistic approach. I decided to have a period of questioning with the aim of going further in my research in terms of intention and expression. This process enabled me to explore, to experiment with different materials and to reposition myself using sculpture as my main form of expression. Ever...

Robert Hargrave - Beauty is often found in unexpected places. Few people would expect anything made from plywood to be beautiful, yet they are surprised and intrigued when they learn this fact about my work. I laminate a very special Birch plywood from Russia to a darker Lauan plywood from Indonesia, then carve them to reveal the previously hidden core. The results are often compared to some rare and exotic wood, skillfully brought to life. The Plywood Sculpture line consists of nearly seventy contemporary designs that are functional as well as decorative. There are over two dozen mirrors in many shapes and sizes. The designs range from figurative to geometric, from celestial to functionally conservative. Several figurative sculptures are balanced by some furniture designs. The line is rounded out by many gift items, such as picture frames, boxes and other accessories." All of my designs have a fluid sense of movement, emphasized by the black glue line. The alternating light and dark woods have a variety of colors in natural, however dyed colors offer even more possibilities. Each piece is signed and given a smooth, maintenance free lacquer finish. A free, full color catalog is available upon request. ...

Rheta-Mari Kotze - "My biggest challenge was leaving the corporate world and a good job to pursue an uncertain career in Fine Art. Following my passion for art and teaching myself to create the hand beaten sculptures I make now, has been an incredible journey of blood, sweat and tears but mostly greatly rewarding and most satisfying to see the technique evolving over the years". ...