Artists Describing Their Art:

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....

Yaroslav Kurbanov - My attitude to Art in general and to my art in particular is defined with following points - There must be an idea in a piece of art, regardless of whether it is new or supratemporal. The main point is, it should move the spectator, wake up his feelings and invite him to reflection. Nowadays artists try often to shock spectators and to replace all other emotions, that art is actually called to awake, with a jar. - An artist should find a suitable material as well as an appropriate technique and a form in order to express his idea best. - A piece of art must be accomplished professionally. In my work I touch upon the themes, which are important for me personally. When rereading classical literature, I realized, though, that the same themes have moved people also a hundred years ago or even earlier. They are Love and Hate, Faith and Betrayal, Fear and Composure, Discrepancies between humans inner world and his outer image, his Mask, which he wears for the others. The time has no power over these themes. This distinguishes them from many daily sensations, which fall into oblivion in a couple of years, months or sometimes even days. ...

Jerry Cox - Jerry Graduated from WestminsterWilliam Woods College in Fulton Mo in 1978 with a BFa, Jerry concentrated on Sculpture, Drawing and Watercolor. His sculpture work then was mainly wood constructions and carvings. Soon after graduation Jerry began restoring Juke boxes, Slot machines and old arcade memorabilia. He joined the St. Louis Artist Guild, the oldest Art organization west of the Mississippi, 130 years old this year and has been a member since and is now the Vice President. In 1982 Jerry started working for an antique restorer that also built reproduction furniture. In 1986 Jerry started his own business restoring antiques and building furniture. During this time the Furniture as Art movement grew as a craft and Jerry pursued that line of work and still does to this day as his main profession. About 2002 Jerry started using the lathe as an integral part of his sculptural work. The work often starts on the lathe only to be cut, carved and pieced together to form new shapes often with a Christian or Sci fi theme. Today Jerry heads the Fine Wood Division of NewSpace inc, overseeing the production of fine furniture and cabinetry. The sculptures are created is his 1600 square ...

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. ...

Alexey Klimov - ARTIST STATEMENT I think that absolute freedom in art is no more than a mirage. Like a vanishing point, not only it is not achievable, but also constant strive for being totally uninhibited fundamentally contradicts the very nature of art. I discovered that by trying to free myself I instead only created un-freedom within, but at the same time I recognized it as a blessing because this un-freedom, to my great surprise, flowered into my very own freedom. I built my personal space inside it, I fenced in all I was made of and then I gladly confined myself into this space and opened all the windows to share whataEURtms inside with others. This is the moment of great joy for me because this space has never existed before I have created it. Not unlike theater, my work attempts to counterpart outside reality with no ambition to compete with it. It is just a window into my parallel world, my very own, not so little Universe. ...

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 ...

Gunnel Watkins - My intention is to experience creative expression inside the context of the transpersonal. transaEURC/peraEURC/sonaEURC/al/transE^pEtmrsEtmnl/ Adjective: Of, denoting, or dealing with states or areas of consciousness beyond the limits of personal identity. Forms arise spontaneously and naturally from present circumstancesaEUR|..reflection, meditation, dreams and ritual open up dialogues with form bringing mind and heart back into balanceaEUR|aEUR|.central to my artistic expression, is the premise, that the art-making process is salutary in and of itself. I work with art and people with special needs; and, as an end-of-life Doula. aEURoeWhen the soul wants to experience something, she throws out an image in front of her and steps into it aEURoe Meister Eckhart ...

Duncan Laurie - Stones That Do WhataEUR|..? My objective in making the stones you see on this website is to encourage you to aEUR~enteraEURtm them. IaEURtmll be satisfied, however, it they enter you. For certain owners, the stones have a purpose beyond their appearance. Some stones have aEUR~input wellsaEURtm drilled into them, which can accommodate a small vial or something else; a liquid, or a message, ashes and so on. The input well is for making a connection inside the rock, bringing something from the outside world into the interior of the stone. Whatever one selects, placing it within the stone is a symbolic act designed to accomplish a purpose. This metaphysical use of the stone I call its aEUR~radionic functionaEURtm. Stones without input wells function in a different way. Their purpose is to engage your attention and reflect back abstract meaning or beauty there-by'entering you'. They should be touched or held. Their black polished stone, Gabbro, has come a long way, most recently from India. Gabbro is a aEUR~mafic intrusive igneous rock, chemically equivalent to basaltaEURtm. It is then carved or etched, often coated with copper, steel, patina or paint. The power that operates the device/artwork is the ...

Geert Vanderplancke - SCULPTING IS FOR ME THE CONQUERING OF SPACE WITHOUT LOSING THE SPIRITUAL CONTENTS OF EACH VOLUME OUT OF LIGHT.MY TOTEM-LIKE SCULPTURES RISE LIKE GHOSTS FROM THE INGNEOUS GROUND AND EVOKE, BY THE MATERIAL THAT IS USED,BY THE VERTICAL STRUCTURES AND THE EXOTIC MOTIVES,ASSOCIATIONS XITH THE "PRIMITIVE"ART OF BLACK AFRICA. I'M ALSO FASINATED BY THE NORTH SEA....

Kelly Blue - My name is Kelly Blue, I have been Painting since 1990 when I learned of a 6 year old girl whose blobs of finger paint won her a M.M.O.M.A. art contest. What started out as a kitschy, tongue in cheek venture soon evolved into one of the great loves of my life. I had always been an admirer of great Art but once my hands were covered in paint and my lungs filled with turpentine, I was hooked. My work grew into an avenue to attempt to express Buddhist concepts, koans, and the formless form. Even though I am a jaded 43 year old, I still cling to the idea that one person can change the world and I hope that my works will be a launching point to convey concepts for a Taoist world peace. My work, if layed end to end, could serve as a representation of the endless river of life, the universal stream of consciousness and Ananda. Currently I study Art Education at S.O.S.U. and plan on getting my M.F.A. before becoming an Art Professor. For 20 years I produced what is termed, "outsider" art and being ...

Daniel Oliveira - My art is about line and space / chaos and order. The search for this visual metaphor drove me into working with stone. I start by looking at each rock to seek for it's inner structure. These sculptures result from a similar building process, where the intersection of lines cut through the irregular formless matter revealing a secret structure embedded within each individual stone. By doing so, a new visual dimension created by matter and the absence of matter is revealed, as if each sculpture was made of individual building blocks organized to create an abstract entity or system and the combination of these units were the key to what defines the sculptural shape and ultimately the original untouched rock, as a group of things or parts connected in some way so as to form a whole. Daniel Oliveira...