My main interest is figural painting. However, not as a study of human anatomical features, but rather a way how a man’s external appearance reveals a person’s inner, the most intimate world. The deepest and probably the most indirect message of my paintings is a story of human being and an event which creates his inner world. The goal of my paintings is to study the question about deepest realities of life, which is hidden in a human being. Paintings are created as a conversation in silence about most significant events.

As Christian Bobin in his book “Le Trés-bas” about Francis of Assisi wrote: “Essential things always start in sleep. Essential things always arrive unnoticed. In life there are only few events. Wars, celebrations and everything that come with noise is not the event. The event is a life that suddenly comes into existence. It comes without notice, without noise (..) we will never see it coming. We can never be a witness of invisible. Only after a long time we realize that something had happened.”

  www.sandaundzena.com

When I come across a subject matter worthy of painting it is like falling in love for the first time. It sweeps me off my feet and I want to find a way to immortalize that moment for all time, creating something that will communicate that feeling to someone else. For me, that experience comes most often with antique cars, particularly the 1950′s models. The sweeping curve of their exterior is like a sculpture, and I am fascinated with the way they bend and curve light — especially when that surface is chrome or Bakelite. It is a dance of visual poetry.

I am usually surprised that what I start out painting changes and evolves into something much more interesting than I anticipated. It is like raising a child and watching him grow with all those unexpected moments of bliss and delight. After I’m finished I think, “Wow, where did that come from?”

www.AmandaFurr.com

Anitra Berzina is a talented multifaceted artists working with textures, scratches, stains and glazes I recreate deep three-dimensional visual effects that define each element, plane and chroma that appear both figurative to abstract. Her work in everything from glass and paint to graphic arts and design. Inspired by nature and organic forms, her art pursues painting on canvas in addition to non-traditional surfaces such glass.  This allows her to exploit aspects of transparency, translucency and opacity of a given material, as well as the paint and its interplay between the layers. The cast shadows and diffused light between various layers then became an integral part of the paintings and give another dimension and depth to the works. She studied at the Art Academy of Latvia, and  “Berengo Fine Arts”, Murano, Italy and has exhibitied in Paris, Latvia, Belgium and the US among other places.

www.anitraberzina.com

Mi trabajo habla sobre el análisis de la dinámica interna que se suscita en  mi al percibirme perceptible y percibible. Descomponiendo en el lienzo las fuerzas interactuantes que me cuenten de mi existencia, fluyendo entre la indefinidad, de la Primeridad, al mundo material; en un movimiento presente y registrado en la obra, su efecto.  Soy otro producto, del deseo de vivir como mexicano, siendo aquello que mis circunstancias económicas y socioculturales no me permitieron en su momento.
Moviéndome, soy el puente, entre la infinitud y la muerte. Creando; me advierto estando vivo. Buscando sobrevivir,  mientras tallo con el pincel lápidas efímeras como evidencia memorial, perecedera; de un discurso a-temporal existido y asistido en su modificación, en su materialización, por mi movilidad o por alguna otra. Mi obra, inerte a su termino; como otro ser. Busco en la ejecución, la definición sin detalle; la luz coloreada, la falsa textura; la sombra iluminada, la forma; el trazo simple y honesto. Uso la imagen por su universalidad, y su color, por su correspondencia discursiva con mi percibir. Lo figurativo por su falsedad, pudorosa. Busco el retrato; por afán. La apariencia, como ventana de la verdad. La razón humana importa cuando no está, cuando no se entrega, cuando reta, cuando desafía y  entrega deslizándose hacia el lienzo.

-25 junio 1980, La Piedad de Cavadas, Michoacán de Ocampo, México.

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I produce from my studio an ever-evolving genre wherein the figurative, the human form, is a central theme. Capturing a movement, a moment, in the endless flow of life is love, my love. That life has flowed from time immemorial, without repeat, each unique motion of each individual an act of love – conscious or sub-conscious, knowing or unknowing, intended or accidental. Who are we – except to move, and to be, and to love? Depicting life – and, so love in its endless magical mystical variety must continue to be one of the cornerstones of art. Life and love are inextricably intertwined, and arguably identical in the final analysis.

There is a primal element to movement, The body is there, visible. The inner energy shines through. Movement is the expression, while numerous unseen chemical and biochemical transformations enable drama to unfold. Contacting, perceiving and grounding that inner energetic dance in my work, on my canvas, is my passion. I hope a co-creation with nature, and certainly my lifelong endeavour.

The fascinating, endless diversity, sexual – is my spectrum. I am inspired by the moment, in the moment, by the subject, to understand the essence of a scene, and trap it, still moving, first in my mind and then through my hands, often coloured by my imagination, and share it with others. The true artist tells us what she knows, not only what she sees, thereby opening new dimensions of our (oftentimes) narrow awareness. Reality intersects paradox. Our worlds are partly perceived – and partly created.

Unlike modern western, Western civilization, the ancients of the Orient were well tuned to the fundamental importance of sexuality – as evidenced in the divine practices of Indian Tantra. On the highest echelon they led to enlightenment. Sexual energies are the most powerful of human, and ’spill’ into all activities. Much of my work attempts to locate, portray, and celebrate, these sacred inner love-inspired energies. Colour, movement, action, voice, emotion, pain, joy, pleasure are some of my tools of celebration.

Human form and movement are too rich and to diverse to ever be captured in their wholeness. My work is humbly, a step in that direction, an inevitable journey along my life’s path, a joyful celebration of the love that surrounds us – but only rarely perceive. A love inspiration.

KIM DAVISON WEBSITE

Discovering people and observing their emotional landscape as it mirrors reflectively on their faces with never ending variation- marking their history and defining the human condition that is the mystery that I like to document in a new exploitative way.

My artistic goal is to replicate the experiences that we share as we discover people and document this experience in a visual way – making it an exploration rather than a documentation.

When approached from a distance my artwork creates a first impression based on simple and bold graphic elements- symbolizing the archetypal the mask, the iconic, the foundational basic emotional structures that we all share – the symbolic images that mankind has created to describe the human condition dating back to the early iconic painting of Christianity of the multi cultural mass carving styles from around the world all expressing a common connection. It is the principle layer within my art work.

On closer view i work on details the stabilizers the small nuances that make faces so expressive. The surface that is there to be observed- the grief- the joy- the horror- the humanity- the more than 200 facial expressions we have been imprinted at birth that we learn to interpret at a very early age.

The surface is the mystery known to all of us- what lies underneath is a journey or discovery.

By creating carefully orchestrated compositions I combine and extract multiple interpretations to create a complex impression. the compositions are stark and without denouements. I use a lot of white /negative space and reduce all expression to a minimum forcing the reader/viewer to complete the picture in their own mind based on their own present emotional landscape. The result is a multi layered interpretation not unlike the experience we all have as we get to realize people.

http://www.arendtgraphics.com/

It has been a long time since I have thought on the idea of writing a book on Art. The more time I spent thinking about it the more complex my thoughts became, so much so I was immediately gripped by the futility of it. Yet I persisted in weighing its importance to my life, how it has changed and given to it a vitality and sobriety I would never have known without it. Art has launched me on a fascinating journey across a vast sea whose horizons seem endless, within whose scope I feel is my Odyssey.
Through it I have wandered into the murky waters of despair self seeking and obsessed, as if what I was discovering was a Biblical revelation of man’s upward thrust into the light and into the truth. All this through an activity which has enforced itself upon me to see not only people as they are but the human being in the context of time.

I feel as Odysseus himself set on a course upon forbidden shores where reality is perceived by the very soul yearning, stumbling, reaching forward into an illusive world strange and unfamiliar, exotic in its beauty and horrifying in its tenacity.
There have been times when I have clung to Art conspicuously, using it as a shield against my fears and as excuse for my excesses. At other moments I have cursed it for its fickle nature, the demands it makes, and the weight it imposes on my life, on my loves and wants. It is at those moments I have been tempted to abandon it, preferably never to have known it. To be normal in the sense of not feeling fated to forego a somewhat undesirable task blind folded from the beginning. Yet it remains merciless in its grip on the artist. The spirit of Art can’t exist without him, this of course whether it is to follow an idea or search for the perfect form in a beautiful image. In this sense Art becomes a responsibility to the human mind and its evolution.

The Sphinx of the Oedipus Rex Tragedy is the theme of the large sculpture. It is a modern interpretation of the riddling Sphinx as a mechanical Godly device put on earth to the service of some mysterious purpose. This purpose is directly involved in Oedipus’s life’s fateful direction.

The Robotic element is what makes it so original and disturbing. It could be perfectly used in a Modern Greek tragedy (Epidaurus) interpreted to include it with a voice of course dubbed over.

The Minotaur represents an age old almost prehistoric human internal battle of conscience; man wrestling the animal out of himself. I have taken the artistic liberties of interpretation in revealing the new Minotaur of today, the mechanical Minotaur of our psyche. This Minotaur haunts us with its icy mystic mind. This is the Minotaur of tomorrow, the one which is coming but is already here. This is the side of us which threatens our humanness. And we must battle once more for our freedom.

www.jon-vlahos.gr

Raised and Educated in Toronto, Canada but inspired by Greece.

Studies
●      1969-1973 Central Technical School Fine Art Department.  ( Acquired the   F. Dawson Kennedy Award for outstanding Achievement)
●       1973 Won Scholarship as visiting art student to Florence Art College.
●       1980-1983 Studied Philosophy and Literature in University of Toronto
●       1984-1985 Anatomy studies at the Ontario Chiropractic College Toronto
●       1987-1989 Studied and graduated at the Ontario College of Art
●       Toronto (Acquired Fine Arts Diploma)

Employment Experience

●       1980-1985 Teaching Life Drawing and History of Art at Central Technical School, Toronto
●       1980-1985 Teaching Air-brush Technique and Poster Design at Dan forth Technical School, Toronto
●       1990-2000 Greece-Opened my own Art School at Xolargos, Athens
●       1993-2000 Taught in my own private Art School teaching Clay Sculpture, Wire and Plaster Sculpture, Life Drawing, Watercolor, the Technique of Oil Painting and Lectures.
●       2002-2004 Teaching at A K T O School of Fashion and Design Koumoundourou Sq. Athens Greece
●       2004 Construction Artist for the Set Designs of Sam Shepherd’s Lie of the Mind at Theatre Embros, Athens Greece Director:     Tasos Bandis, Set Design: Lily Kendaka Lighting:Guido Levi, Costumes: Bruno Fatalot, Carpentry:Xavier Devaux
●       2007 Full time Artistic position for construction of Sets for the National Theatre of Greece.
●       2009 Children’s Theatre: By John Xristopoulos Productions and Xari- Romas- Sevax the Mariner
●       2010 Children’s Theatre: By John Xristopoulos Productions and Xari- Romas- The Princess and the Frog Lectures
●       1982 “Man and Art” Trinity College, University of Toronto
●       1983 “Mythology” Blantyre Public School, Toronto
●       1984 “Mythology” Huron Public School, Toronto
●       1984 “mythology” St. Margaret Public School, Toronto
●       1996 “Art and Color” Deree College, Athens Greece

I always wanted to be an artist but my mother told me “You cannot survive on art – take an ordinary exam first” and so I did. But nothing can provide a person if she really wants to do something. So the painting took more and more place in my life. 1996 I decided to go to South Africa for 3 month to think my life over. Back home it was now or never, so my career as an artist began.

I had painted for many years for artist Gunnar Okner .He inspired me but also quelled me. So after some years I decided to go my own way – I do not want to be a copy of anybody. Since then I have painted the way I am; happy, positive and generous.

I am painting my life and my surrounding. The woman is me – always young as the inside. But why she always is barefooted I do not know. The dogs are my safety, the cats my wish for nine lives and more “feline guts”, the bulls and the horses are the men in my life….

I speak in pictures and it is easy to see what I depicts.  I work thematically – determined by culturally phenomena – pictures and figures, action and surroundings are woven together to a significant totality. I work in several techniques such as oil, gouache, ink and embroidery and I have rugs made in South Africa after my pictures.

Do I depict reality? Yes, but I do eliminate irrelevant objects in my pictures, such as perspective and light and shades, just to make my message more obvious.

www.ullabolin.se

Béatrice Casanova studied art with the great masters of Florence at the Martenot School. Lately, she exhibited in China, and took part in a great group exhibition organized by the “Art en Voyage” (Travelling Art) association. She exhibited in Mayfair and Paris with Artspace Galleries. She was noticed and selected by the Société des Artistes Français last November to expose to the ” Art in Capital ” to the Grand Palais in Paris. She draws her inspiration from contemporary Aboriginal art, amongst others. Her themes show a powerful esoteric symbolism. This dimension is sublimated by a work involving matter which, through superimposition of pigments, creates a dreamlike world full of shades.

I am an artist from southern parts of Sweden. In my artworks reflects my feelings and experiences that this world gives me. Viewers can put themselves in center of the artwork. I hope to reach a more international art public.

With my art I want to provoke,  make people reflect, remove blinkers and arouse feelings.