Art Space Talk: Jessica Joslin

Jessica Joslin was born in 1971 in Boston, MA and grew up collecting flies off the windowsill to look at under her microscope. Ever since, she has been enchanted with collecting a magpie's array of remnants from the natural world. The collection gradually grew to include obsolete bits of antique mechanical mechanisms, hardware and other oddball artifacts. In 1992, she began building the first beasts of this menagerie, using objects sent in a care package from her father, the same pieces that she'd collected as a child. Jessica studied at
Parsons School of Design and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Brian Sherwin: Jessica, I've read that as a child you collected flies in order to study them under a microscope. Would you say that you've always had an interest in observing the details of nature? You collected other items from nature as a child-- how did your youthful curiosity set you on the path toward creating art?

Jessica Joslin: Yes, it all started with getting a microscope for my birthday…from that moment on, I was utterly incorrigible! Ha. I definitely think that my interests were defined early on. When I was little, I wanted to be a zoologist. My father is a commercial sculptor, but he started off in the sciences, in neurophysiology. He always encouraged our curiosity and answered our questions thoroughly- even beyond what one would expect a child to understand. When we went to the beach and collected seashells, we would bring them home and look them up in Audubon reference books, to learn more about our new treasures and their origin. We also collected seedpods, wild flowers, egg cases, bones- whatever we came upon in our travels. I didn’t have any sense that bones were considered macabre…I simply saw them as a beautiful clue to some mysterious animal that had once been there, the same as a seashell. From an objective standpoint, both are skeletons, yet they do have very different associations in our culture.

BS: In time you started to collect obsolete pieces of antique mechanical devices, hardware and other peculiar artifacts-- when you were a young adult your father sent these relics of your past to you in a care package. I understand that these pieces were the first pieces you utilized within the context of the work you focus on today. Is that so?

JJ: The machine parts were objects that I collected on my own, after I’d left for college. I used them, integrated with objects sent from our family "nature collection" for a series of photographs of constructions, which integrated natural and man made artifacts. Those same parts were later recycled for the earliest of the beasts.

BS: Can you go into detail about the creation of those early pieces? In regards to the mechanics involved in your work, did you have a lot of failures at first? How has your work matured since that time?

JJ: Over the years, I’ve had quite a few technical issues to surmount, especially since my work involves so many materials and techniques. I felt that art school wasn’t great at encouraging craftsmanship. At the time, it seemed that acquiring technical skills was overly associated with the trades and the decorative arts, so it was subtly discouraged. Overall, there was a pretty heavy-handed conceptual slant, often coupled with the arrogant assumption that one could just "hire someone" to build things for you (as was the habit of current blue chip artists like Koons, Hirst, et al.) That way of working never appealed to me. I always felt that, for me, the craft and concept needed to be integrated. Also, why would you want someone else to do the fun part?

Ultimately, I ended up learning many of my techniques through trial and error and through a sort of self-devised apprenticeship system in various trades. My earliest creatures incorporated parts from antique adding machines and turn of the century millinery taxidermy. The mechanical elements were made of hardened steel, which can’t be drilled with conventional hand tools, so in my first pieces, I (cringe) used hot glue. Of course, that’s about the worst possible choice that I could’ve made. It looks ridiculously shoddy and it doesn’t last. Those first pieces fell apart within a few years. I’ve come quite a way since then…

BS: Jessica, you work as a commercial model maker building prototypes of toys-- you have also worked as a carpenter, mold-maker, machinist, and sculptor --how have these experiences enhanced your personal work?

JJ: It’s through my professional work that I’ve acquired the many skills needed to build my pieces. I suppose it’s like anything, the better that you get at something, the easier it looks. From a structural standpoint, many people don't realize the complexity and precision of my work. For example, just one foot on Ludwig (the monkey on the ball) is comprised of 30 separate parts, all of them tapped and threaded. Any painters out there will recognize how tricky it can be to achieve a specific expression in the eyes. That obviously holds true for sculptural work as well. There is a lot of engineering (and finesse) that goes into making them seem natural and effortless, as if they were meant to be.

BS: Do you ever have trouble balancing the time spent doing commercial work and the time you need to create your art?

JJ: Yes, I’d imagine that it’s difficult for anyone to balance two careers. Some years I’ve been able to support myself from art sales, but not always. Professionally, I work freelance, which gives me some flexibility regarding schedule. I do enjoy the challenge of working in commercial shops. Still, contract work tends to come in bursts, so the hours can be intense. Most shops start at 6 or 7am, which can mean getting up as early as 4:30am. I can’t really say to the shop foreman that I don’t feel comfortable working on the metal lathe at 6am because I was uploading images for an Icelandic art magazine all night. I have to find a balance point, where I can do both things and not risk my digits.

BS: Where did you learn the skills that you utilize within the context of your work? Many of us can barely change a flat tire...

JJ: Trial by fire, many times over many years. Sometimes I’ll decide to learn a new skill by just jumping in. This summer, for example, I decided to learn carpentry, so I pretended to be a carpenter and applied for a job. (Seriously, don’t try this one at home kiddies!) I thought that I could probably figure out how to do the job, by the time the fellas got over the fact that there was (gasp) a girl in the shop, so I (hopefully) wouldn’t be booted out. My first day on the job, they gave me a pile of plans and said, "Build these." It was rough at first, but somehow I did the work. I also saw how I could improve my technique, and my next pieces were much tighter. Within a month or so, they were ready to make me a project manager. Anyway, that’s an extreme example, but it all comes down to creativity, initiative and lots of hard work. In some ways, I think that a lot of artists would benefit from doing some good old-fashioned manual labor. It’s a good test of your mettle. I want to learn as many skills as are relevant to my personal work. To me, honing my skills through my job is perfect, since I get paid for my experiments.

BS: Jessica, you use animal bones within the context of your work. You only use specimens from licensed distributors-- the same suppliers that a natural history museum would use when putting together an exhibit. Can you tell us about the laws regarding the use of animals bone in the manner that you do? Perhaps you have some advice for other artists who are interested in using animal bones as a medium-- can they use bones that they find in their work? What do they need to know?

JJ: Honestly, I find animal protection laws to be a bit Byzantine. I wish that they were more accessible, but legal jargon is just not my thing. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve increasingly been using osteological suppliers- because origin of the specimen is clearly documented. With found parts, it’s very important for artists to be aware of their state and Federal laws. Just because you didn’t kill it, doesn’t mean that it’s okay to have it. Often, the laws don’t differentiate between whether you have found or killed an animal. For example, I could legally hire a licensed hunter to kill me a deer and bring me it’s head, yet if I find a deer skull while walking in the woods, technically, it’s not legally obtained. I could be fined. In particular, artists should be careful to stay away from protected and endangered species. Migratory birds, for example, are often found littering the sidewalk below mirrored high-rise buildings. They are often very beautiful, but also strongly protected. Again, just because you found it, doesn’t mean that it’s okay to use it.

BS: Jessica, some of the bones that you use are actually replicas. I've read that you enjoy making it difficult for viewers to tell which is real and which is not. Can you discuss the meaning behind that choice? Or is it just a challenge that you set for yourself?

JJ: I prefer the translucency and tactile qualities of real bone, yet I don’t feel that the intent or meaning of my work is different when I use replicas. I use replicas in instances where a particular species is protected. It gives me more aesthetic options in the variety of species that I can work with. I make all of my molds and casts myself, since I’ve found that often "museum quality" replicas don’t use uv-stable resins, so they tend to yellow with time. I strive to make all of my casts as indistinguishable as possible from the real bone specimens. Why wouldn’t I? I don’t want them to look fake and cheesy...

BS: Jessica, by meshing bones with various mechanics are you making a statement about how industrialization has harmed the environment-- forced animals out of their natural habitats? That is what I interpret when I view your work-- am I correct in what I'm sensing?

JJ: Well, that’s one aspect of my work, though frankly, I'd rather not simplify it to a single note. That is indeed an important issue, but I’m not pursuing a didactic agenda with my work. As David Lynch once said, "If you want to send a message, go to Western Union."

In the visual arts, there is the potential to communicate ideas and to make layered associations, which language cannot tidily convey. My work encompasses a broad range of my interests, spanning the many years that I've been making these sculptures. Those layers are there to be excavated, but that is not strictly necessary for appreciation of my work.

I make my beasts because they are what I dreamed of discovering, but they didn't exist anywhere, so I had to make them myself.

BS: Has your work-- the pieces containing real bones --ever angered viewers? Have you ever had to explain to viewers how you obtained the bones or do you make it clear at exhibits that the bones were obtained legally and ethically?

JJ: Occasionally I’ll get a rant, but usually it’s when someone has made assumptions. They don’t take the time to read about where I get my parts, or even which parts are real and which are not. If they don’t grant me that courtesy, I don’t take the time to correct them.

Perhaps surprisingly, I have generally received interested, supportive responses from the people who I’ve spoken with…including those who are involved in animal rights organizations. I have a very strong affinity for animals, and I think that comes across in my work.

BS: Jessica, many of your creations have hidden movements-- jointed legs, spring-loaded beaks, and movable tails --some are free standing, but have mechanisms that allow movement or multiple positions. In many ways they convey the craftsmanship of an artisan watchmaker. Do you ever have to repair your pieces after an exhibition?

JJ: Rarely. I did recently get one piece back for repairs. It had been dropped by the collector’s housekeeper, which broke the bone legs. Still, that’s very unusual. I usually design my work with the knowledge that it will need to be shipped to my gallery (in Arizona). The larger pieces are all engineered to disassemble easily. My work is much stronger than it appears in the images. They are intricate, delicate to a certain extent, yet are as strong as they can possibly be, given the materials that I work with.

BS: Do you have a favorite? Is there one 'beast' that you have enjoyed creating the most?

JJ: I’m always the most besotted by the creature that is on my workbench at that moment.

BS: Jessica, do you keep any form of documentation while working? I assume that these pieces involve a great deal of planning. Do you keep a journal?

JJ: They do indeed take a lot of time to plan. I don’t like to draw, so the only sketches that I do are more like technical illustrations, used mostly for determining angles and thread & coupling sizes. I only draw on post-its, so that they can’t be confused with "real" drawings. I’m more of a list-maker, though I doubt that my notations would make sense to anyone but me. I don’t keep them for posterity.

BS: Finally, you mentioned that you have a book in the works when I first contacted you. Is this book a collection of your work? Will it contain any of your writings? When will it be published? Will people be able to purchase the book from your site? Tell us about the book.

JJ: Thank you. I’m very excited about this project! Menagerie will be out this spring and it will contain images of my creatures, spanning the last 7 years. It is being sponsored by my gallery, Lisa Sette www.lisasettegallery.com. The book will be available through the gallery, as well as selected bookstores around the world. Once the book is available, my website www.jessicajoslin.com will have information and links to vendors. Thanks for asking me to participate Brian. Your site is wonderful!

You can learn more about Jessica Joslin by visiting her website-- www.jessicajoslin.com. Jessica is a member of the www.myartspace.com community (jessio). She is involved with the Beinart International Surreal Art Collective-- www.beinart.org. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Ben Edwards

Ben Edwards is a painter who attended school at the University of California, San Francisco Art Institute, and Rhode Island School of Design. He is known for meshing traditional aspects of painting with the technology of our times. For example, by utilizing digital images of suburban strip mall sprawl, which Ben then paints meticulously, he is able to re-arrange the all-too-familiar architecture into a completely different world.

Ben has participated in many group shows and has had several solo exhibitions at the Van Doren Gallery in New York. He is currently preparing for The Sorrows of Democracy, a solo exhibit that will take place at Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. He has lectured at several major institutions of higher learning-- Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, Columbia University School of Architecture --and has been featured in Artforum and Art in America.


Softstream Meadows, 2006, oil on canvas, 44" x 60"

Brian Sherwin: Ben, you earned an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Who were your instructors at RISD? How did your studies at RISD influence the work that you create today?

Ben Edwards: I worked mostly with Michael Young, Holly Hughes, Dennis Congdon and Duane Slick. Michael in particular was an exceptional teacher, and I think any graduate students who worked with him should consider themselves very fortunate.

I’ve often wondered what I would be doing today had I gone to another graduate program. I believe that not only is my work stronger, but I am a more aware and critical thinker because of my experience at RISD. In terms of the impact on my entire outlook about art and my experiences of daily life and the world we live in, there was probably more change and development for me in those first few months at RISD than at any other time in my life. In a nutshell, the philosophy was to question everything, take nothing for granted, understand one’s own perception and methods, and to learn to effortlessly combine thinking and making. It was a revolution.

Ether Study(United We Stand), 2007, inkjet on paper, 22.5" x 30"

BS: Ben, when I view some of your work, Immersion for example, I'm reminded of grids or some form of matrix-- as if there is a trace of digital influence within the context of your art. Is that so? How has technology influenced you?

BE: When I was at RISD (1995-97) the technology we take for granted today was still in its early stages. I don’t mean the personal computer, but all of the things that we can now do with them. Yahoo was a young start-up and I’m not sure Google even existed yet. Digital photography was just becoming affordable. Computer generated animation was just getting off the ground. I think Toy Story came out around this time. I could sense the beginnings of a huge change, not only with how technology would affect our lives, but aesthetically. Looking at what was on TV at the time, or at regular print ads, I could see the impact of the computer on how things were being made. It was about this time when I started thinking about how virtual products (like Toy Story) were becoming more real, while the real world of the consumer was becoming more and more simulated, or virtual. So I knew that I had to move into this direction to able to incorporate this subject into my work. In 1998 I first started using digital photographs and Photoshop to plan my paintings, instead of projecting directly onto the canvas from slides. This was a first step in making my paintings more virtual, but I felt that I had to move into 3D modeling to really take on the virtual.

In 2001, after my first solo show in New York, I began to think about how my work could not just be about a virtual world, but could be a virtual world itself. Just as I was synthesizing a huge number of photographic sources to make my paintings, I wanted to merge all worlds into my own meta-world, so that the virtual reality of video games would mix with the physical world of buildings. I began to use 3D modeling at this time and I loved the "holodeck"-like feel of the empty, default space of the program. It’s this perfect Cartesian grid where anything can be loaded into the scene and placed wherever you want. This just added to the idea that I could have multiple realities co-existing.

Since almost all of my paintings now grow out of this virtual world, the traces of technology that generated it are apparent. I believe this is an aesthetic expression of the world we live in. Metaphorically, we are all forced to snap into this perfect, Cartesian grid. Since we are always in it, we don’t necessarily see it, but anyone who is paying attention can sense its presence.

BS: Ben, you have a solo exhibit-- The Sorrows of Democracy --lined up for 2008. Can you tell our readers about this exhibit? What are your motives behind the exhibit?

BE: I’ve had to put this body of work aside, and I’m expecting these paintings to be finished in 2009. I am loosely basing these works on Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire. I see them as also a loose interpretation of the Bush years. My title was inspired by a Chalmers Johnson book called The Sorrows of Empire.

The New Way Forward, 2007, oil on canvas, 30" x 45"

BS: I just looked at an image of The New Way Forward-- which is a piece from The Sorrows of Democracy. This piece has a dark mood about it when compared to some of your other recent work. Can you tell us more about this painting and how the world of today has pointed your vision in this direction?

BE: The New Way Forward is a study for Together Forward, the last painting in the cycle. Its composition is based on Turner’s The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire, which was an inspiration for Cole. My titles come from the names of the military operations in Iraq. When I first came across them, they struck me as yet another Orwellian play by the current administration. I don’t mean for these paintings to be necessarily about Iraq, but more about our general mood right now. I feel anxiety and sadness about the state of the world.

BS: Ben, do you 'see' the image in your head when you start a piece? Is there any preliminary work involved before you start-- sketches, research? Tell us about the work behind the work.

BE: There is a lot of work behind the work, sometimes I feel too much. Lately my paintings start out with an art historical reference and then I build my own composition on top of that. I begin by making very simple sketches of a general image in my head, then I’ll block out the scene in 3D, with simple forms for the architecture, basic lighting and an approximate camera. This turns into a map of where to put architecture into the scene. I conceive of the final painting being a synthesis of multiple channels of information. Simply put, I use the computer to generate lots of possibilities, more than could ever be used in one painting, then the process of making the painting is one of choosing fragments and accumulating them until arrive at what I want.

Omnigen Orchards, 2005 inkjet on paper, 12" x 16 1/2"

BS: What are some of the mistakes you have made with your work? Do you mind telling us about those early creative trials? Have you always been able to express your thoughts with the medium that you have chosen? Did you ever have doubts about your work?

BE: I really don’t believe in the idea of mistakes when it comes to making art. It’s easy to look back and Monday-morning quarterback, but at the time, you think hard about what you’re doing and you do what you feel has to be done. If you know you’re giving your work 100%, then you can’t blame yourself if something doesn’t work out. So I can think of several experiences that I could classify as mistakes, but I prefer to think of it as a necessary part of learning.

One of the problems with my work is that it’s really a cyborg creature, part painting and part digital. Many times these are in conflict, and in my own head I am conflicted. I have always used some kind of technology as an aid to make paintings, from regular photographs to the slide projector, then all the way up the line from Photoshop to 3D modeling. I’d say up until the last few years I’ve always had an Enlightenment attitude about it, which coincided with my philosophy about technology and life, that is, that technology leads to progress. Now I question that more. Just as technology threatens the stability of life on earth, and our humanity, as a painter I feel threatened by the technological machinery I’ve created for myself. It seems kind of melodramatic to put in those terms, but I guess this is part of the reason why I consider myself a painter. This may be generational.

Those of my generation are really on the edge of being techno-savants or Luddites. We can go either way. I can pick up new programs pretty easily, but I always have the sense that computer technology is an intrusion rather than being completely natural. First I was a painter, then along came the computer to help me. Now it feels like it’s taking over, as in life. But I don’t want to be in front of a screen. I’d rather make a painting.

BS: Ben, your work has been featured in several publications-- Artforum, Art in America, The New York Times... how does your success drive your artistic exploration? Does exposure make you feel 'under the gun', or does it energize you?

BE: It is strange to see a reproduction of a painting that only a few days earlier I was finishing up in the studio. I sometimes look at the last shape I painted and think about how close it was to not being there. Once a work is finished and it leaves the studio, it has crossed a line of finality for me and I begin to let it go. Seeing it in reproduction has the effect of a thick lacquer that shields the work from all the uncertainties involved with every decision in its making. Sometimes I’ll become conscious of this in the studio, but I’ve learned to quickly ignore it. Occasionally a painting in progress will be like a child throwing a temper-tantrum, and I imagine the day when it’s all grown up and out of the house and I can be proud of it. That’s when the reviews (at least the positive ones) are nice.

The Triumph of Democracy, 2007-8 (in progress)

BS: What other plans do you have for 2008? Do you have any other exhibits lined up besides the one we've discussed?

BE: I am currently working on a painting called The Triumph of Democracy. It’s a commission for a new building in Washington D.C., and it will be completed in April. In May, I will have a show of paintings at the Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo. Then I will return to The Sorrows of Democracy.

BS: In your own words, what do you hope people gain from viewing your art? What is the most crucial message you wish to send to the masses through your work?

BE: Making art is a narcissistic activity because the artist is saying that his or her creation, a piece of the artist really, is important enough for you the viewer to consider. I don’t think artists approach it in this way, with the idea that they are communicating to someone. The process starts out very quietly, and it’s very personal, but it ends up being very public. I don’t think too much about that public part of it. I try to make the work that I feel has to be made, regardless of who sees it. It certainly helps to know that a public will most likely see what I make. Before I started showing my paintings would end up in a closet in my little studio, and that was pretty discouraging. But it’s the faith that the work is expressing something true about how I view the world at a particular moment in my life that drives things forward. It’s the search for truth, if even one’s own truth, which can often be elusive, that gives the work necessity. For every painting, the message is always "This is how I saw things, this is how I felt at the time when I made this." My hope is that my viewers felt it too and think to themselves, "YES!"

BS: Can you tell us more about the philosophy behind your work?

BE: Making art is like being on a never-ending search for something. I think most people who are regularly engaged in some kind of creative activity would agree that it’s a positive-reinforcing activity, where the more you’re doing it, the more you can build on it, and so on. When I’m in one of these active times, images will appear in my head and I don’t know where they’ve come from. I love it when one of these comes floating to the surface. When you have this experience, you realize that there is a whole world in your subconscious. To me, this is truth. It’s like the famous Descartes dictum "I think therefore I am." You never think these things deep under the surface are false or wrong. There’s an underlying faith that there is greater truth under the surface than there is above it.

As my career moves along and I have more and more work under my belt, and I have a broad range of work that I make, the whole thing feels like a train that keeps adding cars. But the engine is that interface between the conscious and the subconscious. As ideas and philosophies develop and evolve, adapting to the reality of the world, the subconscious transforms and the conscious artist has to catch up. The subconscious, I suppose, is the track following the terrain of the land, and if that changes course then the whole train does too.

So anything I say about my work is about the cars of the train, not the engine and certainly not the track. For this reason it’s good to occasionally talk about the ideas behind the work so I can remind myself of where I’ve been, but it’s very difficult to talk about things that are current. Sometimes if I feel the need to express something that I can’t do visually, then I’ll write something, and I feel like this is part of my work.

Cinnamon Gardens, 2006, oil on canvas, 44" x 60"

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

BE: I think with the things that I’ve written and with past interviews I’ve covered a lot of ground. With my current work I can’t say much more. But I will take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work my assistants contribute. As the role of technology in my work has increased I rely more and more on some very talented (and younger) people to help me build this virtual world of mine. They help me to spend more time painting, and for that I’m grateful.

You can learn more about Ben Edwards by visiting his website-- www.benjaminedwards.net. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Adam Frezza

Adam Frezza was born in upstate New York and currently calls New York City his home. He is currently a Keyholder Resident at The Lower East Side Printshop. Recent solo and groups shows include the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL and Society of Illustrators' Educators Symposium Student Sketchbook Anthology, New York, NY.

Adam is one of the 50 finalists of the Myartspace NY, NY 2007 Competition. The finalists were chosen by three very respected members of the global art community-- Jessica Morgan, curator of contemporary art at the Tate Modern, James Rondeau, curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago and Steven Zevitas, Publisher and Editor of New American Paintings.

I Guess The Lord Must Be in The Bathroom at The Museum of Modern Art 4, Acrylic Polymer & Graphite on Board, 7 x 5", 2007.

Brian Sherwin: Adam, can you tell us about your early years-- your early interest in art?

Adam Frezza: Apparently, I used to like to draw when I was a kid. My parents tell me that I asked if there was a school for art when I was about 4 years old. I don't remember much of it, but we drove to this small building near our house in upstate New York. There was a large blue and red triangle sculpture permanently mounted in the parking lot. I waited in the yellow station wagon while my father entered the strange building. I saw him talking in the doorway with a woman. He began to look upset and eventually came back to the car dejected--it seems that the instructor thought my parents were forcing me into something that they wanted more than I did. Nevertheless, the school would not accept me until I was older. I have always felt a weird connection, albeit opposition, to triangles-- I can't help but think it has something to do with that day. In a way, it helped me prepare myself for future rejection.

BS: Adam, I read that you studied at Flagler College, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and at the University of Florida. Who were your instructors during those years? Can you tell us anything about these art programs?

AF: I think those are all fantastic schools for very different reasons. Flagler College, first of all is one of the most unique and beautiful campuses I have ever seen. The college itself is located in St. Augustine, FL, the oldest city in The United States. The art program is like a forgotten precious stone. Former Art Chair, Don Martin is a phenom leftover from the analog days of graphic/commercial design. The things he can do with an airbrush and a rapidograph pen are outrageous. Enzo Torcolleti is a fantastic Italian sculptor who still calls Italy home but has taught at Flagler since 1969 (he retired in 2007). Patrick Moser is a painter with the hands of a piano player and the mind of a scholar. Professor Maureen O'Neil helped bring a more conceptual and poetic element to the program. One of my most engaging and courageous instructors at Flagler, however, was the German artist Uli Whittaker. She has since moved on to further her art career, but the energy and inspiration that woman provided in the classroom really helped me hone-in on my drawing ability.

After receiving my B.A. from Flagler, I attended The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, PA for a one-year post-baccalaureate. PAFA was the first art academy in The United States, and its reputation precedes it. It was an amazing experience: a full size cast replica of Michelangelo's David in the cast hall, live horses in the drawing rooms, a museum with some of the most important examples of artwork from early America through to today, and a faculty that reads like a who's who of academic art. The studio spaces are fabulous. I really flourished there under the instruction and care of Bruce Samuelson, Kate Moran, Kathy Bradford, Dan Miller, Anthony Rosati, Micheal Moore, and Mark Blavat. The lecture-programs and visiting artist programs at PAFA are really wonderful and provide access to people and information from all areas of the artworld.

From PAFA I moved to Gainesville, FL and attended the University of Florida where I received my MFA in Painting & Drawing. UF was a, somewhat surprisingly, amazing place. The level of instruction and criticism was beyond what I had anticipated for a Florida school. As much as PAFA had a connection to New York and various niches of the artworld, UF seemed to have even more. I think part of the reason could be the fact that the faculty boasts international contemporary artists like Max Becher (son of Bernd and Hilla Becher), Andrea Robbins, Sergio Vega, Arnold Mesches, Sean Miller (JEMA), Ron Janowich, Celeste Roberge, Richard Heipp, Bob Mueller, and art historian Alex Alberro. The Google-ability of all of these artists is pretty impressive (go ahead, try it!). The lectures and visiting artists were amazing and the trips to New York City and Miami were priceless.

Robert Storr, Raphael Rubinstein, Hal Foster, and Charlie White (to name a few) all came and gave fantastic talks, some with enlightening studio visits, and often with the opportunity for even more intimate social encounters with some of the best people in the field. All of this from a school with much of its focus on teaching; Grad students actually teach many of the rudimentary undergraduate courses, so I have quite a bit of teaching experience under my belt. The overall experience at UF was exceptional.

A Beguiling Mechanism For Controlling Substance (installation view), Various Materials on Panel, 96 x 288", 2007.

BS: Adam, I've read that you do not like to link yourself to any movement or genre. In a sense, you feel that linking yourself to other artists in this way may contain your work in a manner that will hinder individualistic growth, correct? Can you tell us more about your philosophy behind this choice? Do you think it is important to place your work in a historical context-- do you give any form of validity to your work by enforcing it with artists who have came and gone --or is that something you avoid as well?

AF: I like to think of history as a flattened fiction, unharnessed by the separation of time or context. It is easy to hear words like 'surrealism' or 'post-modernism' or any other term organized through a specific history and believe yourself to have an understanding of what that is. I am more interested in not knowing-- I like to look at terms and genres that history has mapped out or defined and question or revise what has already been done with them. Not so much in the appropriation of images or ideas but more in the viewing and internalization of these images and ideas. Of course the rules of history are there to keep things organized and understandable, but it is sometimes more productive and enlightening to knock down the walls that separate something like a Giotto mural from a graffiti wall.

I guess it really comes down to my desire to break things down and try to pick them up again: it's never going to come out the same way. So yeah, call me whatever, but I am always going to try to squirm my way out of it. I think this is happening more and more with contemporary curators and the search for different links between artists and history. I like to imagine my work hanging beside a Brueghal painting somewhere in Belgium and also next to the latest by contemporary artists at the Whitney or MOMA. The time and context aspects of history are meant to be played with.

Rosco, Silver Leaf on Digital Print, 5 x 7", 2007.

BS: Adam, you are known for working in a variety of manners-- painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video, performance, and photography. How do you keep your work connected when taking so many creative paths? Do you deal with the same themes from one method to the next? Or do you 'burn the bridges' as you go, so to speak?

AF: If the bridge ever gets burned, I use the ashes from whatever was burned for a future project. For instance, a series of drawings might need to look a certain way, but once that series is over, I am not going to keep making the same drawings. Elements of those drawings may creep into a painting or sculpture, but by that time the imagery has shifted so much that the content has to be dealt with and controlled differently.

Ultimately, I tend to question all of those mediums in a similar fashion as I question history-- and not in a visual way, but in the internalization of the experience of something. Can a performance be looked at like one might look at a painting? Can we think of a video as a drawing or a sculpture? Again, these are not new ideas, but by disregarding medium, to an extent, the focus comes more upon continuing with an idea and expressing it in as many forms available or possible.

The Ill-Magical Use of Tools, vol. 4, Graphite on Paper, 10 x 15", 2007.

BS: Adam, your work seems to have some roots in psychology in the way that it deals with the idea of beauty. It is as if your work is a visual play on the psyche of consumers-- questioning their actions, their fears, and repulsions. Is this so? Can you go into detail about what you are conveying with your work?

AF: 'Consumers' is an interesting analogy. . . I think you might be a sensitive perceiver, and I mean that as the highest compliment. I believe that much of the inspiration for my work comes down to the difference between someone who would scoff at a pile of shit in the street and the person who would inspect, question, and show a little curiosity about the same substance. Our collective perception of our external world is highly manufactured and anything that can lift the curtain and reveal an aspect of reality, or a clearer perception of our surroundings, is worth investigating. There are so many things that leave me feeling unsatisfied; yet if I look at the same things in a different way I become filled with satisfaction. I am interested in altered states of reality and the human's ability, or desire, to control those experiences.

13 Stages of A Broken Nose: The Owen Wilson Memorial Drawings, 11, Acrylic Polymer & Graphite on Board, 7 x 5", 2007.

BS: Is there a spiritual side to your work? You've mentioned that you are interested in how a decayed or broken down form can become a new form all together... does your work, hint at aspects of reincarnation? Do you explore the spiritual side of life with your work?

AF: Spirituality is such a slippery word. I am not a conventionally religious person, but I do believe in the sensation that this understanding of a human experience is just one possibility for existence. Of course, life seems real enough, but I am left feeling curious about the severity of it all; I am not necessarily searching for something else or looking for answers to the world's problems, but I enjoy playing with the idea that this is/or is not an end realm. There is always a bit of tongue in cheek happening with my work between aspects of spirituality, humor, and wit.

BS: It could also be said that aspects of nature influence your interest in decayed forms. For example, the situation of life and death... how a corpse can be full of life-- maggots and other living beings that feed upon a creature that once thrived. With that said, would you say that the essence of nature is captured in your work?

AF: Well, I guess the one thing I left out above is sexuality, and maybe sexuality is something I equate with the 'essence of nature'. However, capturing the essence of something is seemingly impossible, but the effort is still intriguing. All things end . . . By recognizing and respecting the beasts that do and will consume our beings, I imagine an aging process that is expected and appreciated rather than feared and repressed. Sex just happens to be an important and vital signifier of the life cycle.

BS: What are you working on at this time?

AF: I am at the tail end of the first installment of a new project (working title, The Mastery of Unbecoming). The piece is one of a projected five works that will work together to form one large idea and image. The pieces are broken into 12" x 12" squares that can be joined together to create larger images. Each of the five pieces will have 30 squares to make five 6' x 5' images or one 6' x 25' image. It is a gilded and painted pencil drawing. I want to wait until the project is completed to post it, so it may not be up until fall 2008.

Of course, I have other projects to keep me busy while I work on this. I am at the beginning stages of a video project that is really multiple photographs of a sculpture, installed in a specific place, and set to motion. Ultimately, I think of it as a drawing (to riff on the 'medium' discussion earlier). I like staying busy.

BS: Adam, let us talk about some of your accomplishments. It is my understanding that you hold a studio residency at The Lower East Side Printshop in Manhattan. Can you tell us about that experience?

AF: It has been fabulous! I live just a short walk away so it is very convenient and the people there are really great. I actually haven't made any prints there yet, but I have been working on the pieces I just mentioned. The shared space is really a great way to interact with other artists, but it has also been a wonderful place to quietly work on what I am focused on right now. The residency runs until October 2008 so you can bet to see some prints in the near future.

Mason Manila Drawing 13, Acrylic Polymer & Graphite on Manila Folder, 5 x 7", 2007.

The Church Door Drawing 1, Acrylic Polymer & Graphite on Board, 7 x 5", 2007.

BS: Adam, I understand that you plan to have a solo exhibition in January. Where will this exhibition take place? Do you plan to reveal new work? What other exhibitions do you have planned for 2008?

AF: A show of small drawings, Mason Manila & The Church Door, will be on view at The Gallery @ Stoneham Theatre in Stoneham, MA (10 miles north of Boston). Both series of works are available to view online @myartspace.com, but I am excited to see the work up on walls. All framed works for the show are priced @ $295ea. so get 'em while they're hot! The show will be up from January 10 thru January 27th. Also, in February '08 I will have work featured in the Northeastern publication of New American Paintings (Book 74).

Leigh Gives Birth to A Lucian, Acrylic Polymer & Graphite on Hand-Crafted Graph Paper, 7.5 x 6", 2007.

BS: Adam, what else will you be involved with in 2008?

AF: I hope to drop some Small Bombs of Disgusting Love on the Frieze Art Fair in London next October. I am also keeping my fingers crossed for a permanent installation project in an art village in Korea. Wish me luck.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

AF: Sure, . . .

My temporary experiences
Of this rickety life
Are like color and texture
Being thrown out a window.
But my tears,
Like mescalin,
Clear my eyes
So that I can see this beautiful mess.

Adam Frezza is a member of the www.myartspace.com community-- login id: frezzart. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Senior Contributing Editor

www.myartspace.com/balhatain

Art Space Talk: JenMarie Zeleznak

JenMarie Zeleznak's paintings deal with themes of death and despair while exploring the emotional sensations that stem from hopelessness, loss, and social disconnection. JenMarie's paintings seem to contain cruel layers of paint-- each mark representing a sense of peril, but further observation reveals that a glimpse of hope remains. JenMarie's work is about survival-- overcoming the obstacles and burdens that each of us face at some point. They are like psychological landscapes... revealing the conflicting storms of the human psyche, condition, and collective humanity.

Brian Sherwin: JenMarie, do you have formal training in art? If so, who were your instructors and how did they influence you?

JenMarie Zeleznak: I would not refer to my previous schooling before college formal training because the programs lacked. It was just basically your typical art classes. Currently at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I don’t feel as though I am being formally trained in the practice of painting, as much as I am participating in a dialogue involving issues in painting and what it means to be a painter at this current place in time.

I did however have a phenomenal instructor by the name of Blake Cook, who helped shape me into the painter I am today. It wasn’t his formal instructing, but his conceptual way of thought in which I was inspired by. I learned we valued the same things in art and life, along the lines of seeing beauty in loss, death, and the unknown. He helped me realize my values and what I was truly interested in to the point that I wasn’t making paintings to just fulfill an assignment or just to get by foundation requirements; I was making paintings because I was creating a body of work, which I had not known I was capable of.

BS: Tell us about your early artistic influences and experiences. When did you decide to pursue art?

JZ: As a child I was always involved in the creative aspects of life; be in art, theater, music, performance and the like. I guess I have just never thought otherwise. I never had thought about being anything else "when I grow up". It seemed to be a given, though it didn’t always come easy. Seemingly intuitive, there were times when I had to decide if what I was doing was worth it, or should I be doing something else with my life? Of course it was worth it, and now this is what I do. I couldn’t, and still can’t imagine not being a painter. Not so much the act of painting, but the process and ideation that becomes the painter; the painter’s ideas or philosophy on life.

Hanging in the Wait of Fading Echoes, Yet I Only Yearn for You, 2007, oil on canvas, 72x72"

BS: With that said, how would you say that your work has advanced since that time?

JZ: I’ve understood my position as an artist and painter as taking on many roles such as the painter as a cultural producer and philosopher. Aside from just being immersed in the process of painting, I find myself always searching for answers like stepping back from a situation, assessing it, and delving into it. I search for answers and give meaning to things through the process of painting.

BS: JenMarie, you've mentioned your interest in philosophical studies... do you feel that artists-- in general --should embrace the role of philosopher? Also, people often say that society is built from creative minds-- that art is the backbone of civilization --do you agree with that charge? If so, do you feel that it is being lost today or do you feel that artists are still navigating us toward a new cultural horizon, so to speak?

JZ: Absolutely. I think it’s a significant aspect of our lives to always be searching, and gain understanding of the world we live in and things we experience. Through this act we are in sense cultural producers, and I think by being more philosophically engaged that "charge" could be relevant. I think throughout the years it might have been lost, sure. But I do feel that there is something of this sort on the horizon if in fact more artists engage themselves in this dialogue.

I Don't Even Remember Dying, 2007, oil on canvas, 48x48"

BS: Would you say that there is a certain degree of spirituality to be found within the context of your work? Perhaps not in the organized religious sense, but in a more private manner-- a search for the essence of faith... of keeping hope? If so, are you revealing that side of yourself to the viewer or is your goal for the viewer to discover aspects of their own 'soul searching'-- for lack of a better expression? Perhaps that is just my interpretation of your work-- what I see in your work for myself --do you strive for this sort of self-reflection from those who view your work?

JZ: Deriving from the landscape, similar aesthetics lead to a method of creating, which usually consists of a solitary being within a sparse lonely space. The forms created depict hopelessness and despair by attributing human characteristics, such as the ability to weep, mourn, withdrawal, and seek solace in moments of being mentally, physically, or emotionally defeated. Through a cool somber palette with subtle warm undertones, my work lingers between romantic pathos and apathy. My work deals with issues related to the pragmatic burden of loss and the mental, emotional, or physical process one goes through when coping with the finality of something ending.

Within this body of work, earlier works are experienced within space of the mind, expressed from a first person point of view. Recent works depict a being that experienced loss; withdrawing itself within the landscape it once had imagined. Through the process of making these paintings, personally, I was going through a process of something ending in which I was not ready to relinquish. Through these struggles, each painting was manifested. I do see these works as a sequential whole; as a narrative which might bring about the possibility of understanding and identifying with these emotions one habitually tries to dismiss, move on and not dwell upon.

I see these paintings functioning by my projection of personal, experiential emotions onto them, in hopes that others might reflect on their past times, even if we don’t share the same memory. "The melancholic figure has a compulsive desire to ‘repeat the trauma of loss’; it is the only way of perpetuating that love which we do not want to relinquish, because a substitute for the same love will never be found as it once was." By painting about this nostalgia for the past and inability to relinquish what once was, I am extending these relationships so that they seem to somehow still exist. It helped me get by, and come to understand the regressive tendencies of melancholia one might experience when it seems like there is nothing to grasp onto. I would hope the viewer would project their own experiences onto my paintings and see reflections of their own through them.

BS: Can you go into detail about your artistic process? How do you begin a piece? When do you know that a piece is finished?

JZ: Starting a piece is probably the hardest thing for me. If I don’t think I am ready or am seemingly avoiding starting a piece, I usually stretch and gesso other canvases. I think a really meditative state occurs during those times, which I enjoy. I usually don’t start painting right after I gesso. I let the gessoed canvas hang around in the studio for a while before I begin. I have been using black gesso recently-- it definitely has a presence. The black is so heavy and weighted. I just chose to work with black gesso because I had been fighting white gesso for quite some time, and the black somehow seemed more appropriate.

I have this default way of starting a painting, which usually is derived from the landscape. My paintings are very atmospheric, so I tend to meditate in that for a while as I begin to cover the canvas and establish space. I work between atmosphere and subject, though sometimes the atmosphere is the subject. A painting is done when it feels done. I know from having overworked many paintings in the past that when it communicates this energy of completeness, it is. I am not one of those people who work back into things far after they’ve been put aside. I work, bring it to a state of completeness, and then move on.

So This Is Me Telling You I'm Done, 2007, oil on canvas, 48x48"

BS: Are you influenced by current world events-- do they find a way into your paintings? How does contemporary life impact your creative practice?

JZ: Contemporary life impacts my painting in every way imaginable. A lot of my work has to do with loss, death and dying, tragedy, existentialist views on life…and I think these concepts are surfacing everyday for everyone. These issues are tough to really put into perspective until you witness it or it personally affects you. Between wars, a natural disaster, personal and societal relationships…I think there is always something influencing me each moment in the studio.

BS: Tell us more about the philosophy behind your art. What motivates you to create?

JZ: In spirit of the previous question, I think they go hand in hand. I am very influenced by contemporary life simultaneously inspired by nostalgia for the past. I have a hard time disengaging with people or situations, which I suppose through painting about them they still somehow exist. I guess by extending my relationships with these past relations and occurrences I try and bring them to a state of closure because I probably didn’t feel that closure at the time the [tangible or intangible] relationship ended. Just as I don’t quite come to understand human existence and relationships with others, by painting about it and bringing these issues into significance, I feel as though I am trying to better understand, analyze, or resolve these complex issues of human relations to the world and to others.

BS: Why did you choose to work in the medium(s) that you use?

JZ: I think that is a common question for painters these days, and an issue that painters constantly confront. Painting isn’t just paint on canvas anymore; it is a way of thought and can be stretched rather far. I, though, have a romanticized relationship with traditional easel painting, and find value in the hand of the artist. There is also something about oil painting and the engagement with the brush and mark making that I find myself always lusting for. I can’t really describe it. All I know is I can’t imagine it any other way.

BS: What is your studio like? Can you go into detail about your studio routine? Do you work in silence-- listen to music? What is it like to be in the studio of JenMarie Zeleznak?

JZ: My studio is pretty organized. I like to have space to work and move around to step back and see what I am painting. Sometimes I listen to music, sometimes I work in silence. I find them both to be inspiring. Some of my favorite music to paint to would be instrumental rock such as This Will Destroy You, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono…and bands of the like. I feel like much of that music deals with the element of a certain aura I want my work to have. Sometimes the studio can be pretty intimidating.

I try to be in the studio as much as possible, so when I’m not painting I’m usually reading or having studio visits and vice versa. I’m not one to start many paintings at once. I usually just have one I am working on, so that I am solely focused and immersed in it.

BS: What are you working on at this time?

JZ: Right now I am very excited. I am just finishing up a body of work which I haven’t necessarily decided a name for, but it deals with relationships, the idea of loss and having to let go of lingering feelings for another. It was a very personal series that I am ready to move on from.

I am just about to start a new body of work dealing with existential issues. I have been reading much Camus, Sartre, and Nietzsche. I am very influenced by their ideas, and am very excited to start this body of work.

BS: Do you have an upcoming exhibit? Where can our readers view your work?

JZ: Yes. I will be exhibiting in a select group show locally in Cleveland, Ohio. Your readers can find out more about that here, www.csuohio.edu/artgallery. Also, my latest news will definitely be posted on my website www.missjenmarie.com.

Please Tell Me Everything Is Going To Be Okay, 2007, oil on canvas, 48x48"

BS: JenMarie, the Internet is changing how we discover and view art. In your opinion, how have sites like myartspace.com empowered artists?

JZ: At first I was skeptical about viewing art on the internet. I have stumbled upon some wonderful work, especially on myartspace, which is what impelled me to join the site myself. I think myartspace is a great resource in sharing and discovering new work. I think the idea that galleries can seek you out by browsing sites like this or that you can submit work now via the internet to renowned exhibitions is exciting and convenient. I’m not sure what that all means, but I think it’s deemed appropriate at this day and age though I do believe reproductions lack a lot in terms of viewing work. I know my pieces lose a lot when viewed online. There is a tactility that is missing or won’t be able to be comprehended as I would like it to be, but I guess you have to sacrifice some things to get your work out there. I wouldn’t have known half of the art world newly emerging artists existed if I hadn’t had seen their work via the internet, so I guess I shouldn’t been complaining. Thanks for the opportunity.

BS: What are your thought on the meshing of painting and technology-- the addition of digital images or monitors upon a canvas-- works that combine the traditional methods of painting with the technology of today? Paintings on photographs, on monitors, or enhanced with computer programs-- or done entirely on the computer --are they dangerous territory for a painter and for the study of painting in general? Or are you open to that form of exploration? Should a painting be a painting... or can a painting be something that goes beyond the traditional materials and definitions of what a painting can and should be? Can painting, as a whole, be stretched so far beyond tradition that it damages the validity of painters from the past and present... while obstructing a true study of painting in the future? What say you?

JZ: I believe that painting can be stretched beyond its traditional materials, though I very much believe in the idea of the hand of the artist. You can’t deny technology, and in some instances other materials might be a better solution to conveying your ideas. I think it’s an issue painter’s deal with everyday in this contemporary art world. I think a lot is said through paint that other mediums cannot live up to. Painting is sensual, romantic, and emotional. And I think through other methods of creating, work like mine might be read as satirical or insincere, though I think these issues are relevant to painters today.

How is one to make a sincere painting without riding the lines of satirizing sincerity? I still deal with these contemporary issues today, and believe I will for quite some time, as any artist would. Even in my school today, the school is changing to where they are abandoning classical training towards a more theoretical view of art. These theories aren’t just art related but also revolve around philosophical thought, which is why I believe the artist as philosopher is important. We are taught that the discipline of painting can be stretched, but to what end? That is why I believe to take on a role as philosopher is of such contemporary significance. To explore philosophical ideas through painting and to participate in that dialogue is a way to stay involved with contemporary society, while still maintaining your presence as a painter. It’s a tough but exhilarating position to be in, as well as a tough question to have an answer to.

BS: You've mentioned how you deal with certain themes within the context of your work-- do those themes cause a form of symbolism to emerge? For example, your use of black gesso-- would you say that is a symbol? Do certain colors or movements of the brush upon the surface represent aspects of a selected theme in a symbolic manner? Or is that something you discover after you put the brush down, so to speak?

JZ: I do believe symbolism plays an important role in my paintings. These symbols, though, might be somewhat abstracted to the viewer, which leaves room for thought. I’d have to say the overall impending theme would be the idea of death. Some might take that to its literal translation, while others might understand death as the absence of life, death as departing from this life, death as a personification, or death as a time at which something ends. Just as the grave structure found in my paintings; I am using representational form to signify an idea which can be abstracted into something other than its literal connotation.

Metaphors are implied as a consequence of considering the relationships between the formal structures and the subject matter of a work of art by analyzing the form-content relationships. The form within the space is created with the idea of a termination point, not necessarily for a human being. As a metaphor, the grave-like structure functions as a void; simultaneously suggesting death beyond its literal implication by alluding to a time at which something ends.

My paintings function allegorically by abstracting the idea of death through the use of the grave-like structure suggesting the finality of loss just as an actual grave would. I think the black gesso functions in the same way; as this heavy-hearted void on an easel before I even start painting. As I paint, I am painting inwardly, as opposed to my works from 2006 which is very textural, tactile, and paint is literally hanging off the canvas. These recent works are painted into the canvas; into the void.

I'm Sorry I Wish Things Could Have Been Different, 2007, oil on canvas, 48x48"

BS: Your work is obviously very personal for you. Philosophically speaking, when you sell a piece do you feel as if a part of you leaves with it... or the pain that you dealt with in the work leaves with it? Do you ever feel regret about a painting that you know longer can touch? Or would you say that you view it like a book, each painting is a page and when a 'page' leaves you it gives the new 'reader' a chance to gain insight into their own life-- the memory of the message is still there... is that all you need?

JZ: I think you hit it right on the nose with the latter statement. I am very emotionally attached to my works. As works sell, they leave my possession, but the memory of the reason I made the work and the making of the work itself never leaves me. As I mentioned, I have a show coming up in January, and I am interested to see how the work is received, and if some paintings sell, what that persons story is and how they perceive the painting.

I believe everyone can see a little bit of themselves in the works, seeing as loss and death are so universal. We all experience loss in our everyday lives whether we deny it or not. Most won’t dwell on loss, while others reminisce to its fullest extent. The human condition allows us to realize our existence and the inevitable emotions we will experience through the journey of life, love, death, and loss.

BS: Finally, what are your goals as an artist? What do you hope to accomplish with your work?

JZ: I find a strange lack in emotive work in contemporary painting. Maybe I’m completely mistaken but, I find most tending to dismiss involving or discussing their emotions when it comes to art. I think many of us in this technologically advanced society have grown cold to the idea that sincerity and honest emotions still exist and seem to engage with ironic or satirical works of art because that seems to be how things are perceived.

I just hope to stay engaged with what I value in painting whether the art scene or life decides to go the other way. I hope to stay true to myself as a painter and set out to move and evoke emotion on others through my sharing of personal experiences of what much of humanity experiences every day— the sense of loss, despair, and hopelessness—even if we don’t share the same memory.

You can learn more about JenMarie Zeleznak by visiting her website-- www.missjenmarie.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Franck Benoualid

Franck Benoualid was born in Toulouse, France. Inspired by the work of the classic Masters, Benoualid has developed his own voice, which combines elements of abstract and figurative methods. Benoualid blends color and line to create a sense of tension within his paintings. His focus on the human form reveals the essence of the human condition as seen through his eyes. On a side note, Franck and I experienced a language barrier during this interview-- forgive my rough translation.


Brian Sherwin: Franck, tell us about your educational background. Do you have formal training in art? If so, who were your instructors and how did they influence you?

Frank Benoualid: I have never followed any training. I am a self-educated person. I taught myself "cooking "!

BS: Franck, tell us about your early artistic influences and experiences. When did you decide to pursue art?

FB: I began painting by challenge. I wanted to be able to hang something on my walls other than posters. I began in 88' and since that time I have not stopped!

I discovered the pictorial world with Picasso. It gave me the desire to know more about the world of painting. I therefore began to watch and to feel. Emotions felt in front of a painting are disturbing. I am very sensitive and affected by Pollock, Bacon , Rembrandt, Vinci or Caravaggio and De la Tour. The work of the light impresses me tremendously and especially the potency which has a work to jostle you or to turn you.

I began with abstraction. This allowed me to acquire my own technique. I am crossed between these methods, they play bit parts in the etude of the nude under all its forms. I still do not succeed in stopping the subject. I love to work on the human figure. For me, it is so powerful that you have all in one. And in contrary, one in all

BS: Franck, with that said, how would you say that your work has advanced since that time?

FB: My work has evolved during these years, but the thread remains constant. I always work on expression and represent the human. The beginning was more conventional and more reassuring with a strong reference to classics standards of the aesthetic. In the last few years, I work by searching for what is neither enticing nor reassuring in the figure. I explore the ways which badly put us at ease. All her distortions which frighten us and that our culture condemns.

BS: Franck, can you go into detail about your artistic process?

FB: I begin with sketches and drafts. I search on paper a lot. Then, it is a question of validating an idea and working it on a cloth, it is there that technology is taken into account. I begin with a game of mattering material and then work atop the face. At this moment everything is possible, by the succession of numerous coats and by the games of drying, I can be allowed to be surprising and leave in a direction drastically different from the idea that I had in the beginning .

We can say that I have a good time canalizing or trying to control the chance. Gesture and traits are important, they reassure me. I cannot say that I know that a picture is ever finished. For me we do not finish a picture. I have to decide to stop working on a picture and to accept it.
BS: Franck, how does current world events influence your work? Is your work shaped by politics or social issues?

FB: I do not paint with a militant step. I do not know if events of our world influence me. But I am sensitive to the state of the soul of our humanity. It is violent and soft, strong and weak, it is nice and ugly, cruel, unfair, with laughs, tears....It is without compromise. Life is not a long quiet river, but at the same time we are definitely happy on the water...

BS: Do you have a certain philosophy concerning your work? Does that way of thinking motivate you?

FB: There is no philosophy behind my work. Besides, I do not work, I am delighted to create. In fact, my step is very egoist. I cannot pretend to show a way or issue a message... it would be so haughty! I am only shaping feelings that live in me, that fill me or that upset me. I restore a small end of my course, my resentment at the given instant, and it balances me
BS: Franck, why did you choose to work in the medium(s) that you use?

FB: I began painting in oil, and I am fast crossed to acrylic for questions of time of drying and effects of material.

BS: Franck, what is your studio like? Do you follow a routine? Is it an important aspect of your process?

FB: My workshop is annexed to my home. It is my shelter, my bubble. Sometimes very organized, lined up and often taking the pace of a battlefield. I do not pass a day without treading underfoot in it, for 5 minutes or for many hours in silence or in music-- Blues, Jazz, Rock...etc...

BS: Speaking of your studio, what are you working on at this time?

FB: At present, I have no individual theme. I am always focused on human feeling and its distortion. Some people say that it is disturbing and it is not made to dissatisfy me. In fact, I well like to "jostle " and to "cause " reactions in viewers . A manner of putting people in the presence of feelings which upsets them-- to cross the barrier of the superficial and arrive at the core.
BS: Franck, are you involved with any upcoming exhibits? Where can our readers view your work?

FB: I have no plans for exhibiting for the time being. However, people can see my art in Montreal at MX Gallery, in London and in Paris at Opera Gallery.

BS: In your opinion, what are some of the problems facing artists today? Do you have any concerns about the state of the art world?

FB: The problems that face artists today are numerous. This is possibly not linked to their work, but in the modes of broadcasting of their work. It is more and more rare to meet a gallerist worthy of the name that works in collaboration with you. Today far too much gallerist fail to respect the act of creation, inside self-importance becomes unbearable. You need look no further than how they present you. We artists become a marketing product. A gallerist does not take risk, we have to be lucrative for them.
BS: Franck, it seems that many artists are starting to represent themselves Online. The Internet is changing how we discover and view art. It offers artists, no matter what their background, the chance to carve out their own destiny. In your opinion, how have sites like myartspace.com empowered artists in this manner?

FB: The Internet is revolutionary for the artist of today. The whole world view and the broadcasting of jobs and art is without borders. The links and contact with artists that is generated by the net becomes warm-hearted. It is a veritable force to what is necessary for artists to take into account today. The grouping of artists on sites like Myartspace is fundamental because it is grace to artists that the "community" weaves links and ideas so that perhaps one day they will all become independent in the way they are represented.

BS: Finally, what are your goals as an artist? What do you hope to accomplish with your work?

FB: My goal is to have the least possible pressure to remain the most free that I possibly can be in my artistic expression. I want to remain true. Thank you very much.

You can learn more about Franck Benoualid by visiting his website-- www.franckbenoualid.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Dejan Kaludjerovic

Dejan Kaludjerovic received his MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts of Belgrade in 2004, he also studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and at the Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna, in Erwin Wurm's class. Dejan's work often deals with how the mass media, fueled by Western influence, can manipulate individuals and groups into altering their cultural landscape-- changes that often have negative results. He is currently based in Vienna.

Love & Rockets / from the series Can I Change My Career for a Little Fun? / from the cycle The Future Belongs to Us I, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 160 cm

Brian Sherwin: Dejan, tell us about your educational background. Do you have formal training in art? If so, who were your instructors?

Dejan Kaludjerovic: Yes I have a formal training in art. In 1993 -94 I was studying part time at the SVA NYC. From 1994-96 was studying at Applied art Academy in Belgrade and from 1996 – 2004 I was studying at Fine Art Academy where I obtained my BFA and MFA (my professors were Cedomir Vasic and Mileta Prodanovic). Also I had one-year specialization at Viennese Angewandte Akademie with Professor Erwin Wurm as my mentor.

BS: What can you tell us about your early artistic influences and experiences? At what point did you know that you wanted to study art?

DK: Already as a little boy I was very creative. I wanted to try lots of things; imitating, singing, acting… Being very emphatic as a person I started to get interested in social sphere of society and when I was eleven years old I decided I would like to be a painter. I chose my high school according to that but I also attended courses in painting after school.
Bite a Carrot, Bunny! / from the cycle The Future Belongs To Us I, 2004, acrylic on canvas, 220 x 180 cm

BS: With that said, how has your work advanced since those early years?

DK: With education my work progressed in several ways. Getting formal training in the field of arts I could address my ideas with more ease. Knowledge about contemporary art helped to develop my concepts, but I have to make a special emphasis on the social sphere that influenced my work greatly. Growing up during the tearing up of former Yugoslavia, I experienced some extreme situations that influenced my work and me as a person in consequence. Growing up in Belgrade in the 80’s was also a very important influence on me and my work, as at that time a lot of things were happening in music, contemporary theatre, art, films, etc.

At that time Belgrade was a place where most important art and cultural events from east and west side of the world were presented and that made a great impact on my formative years. Afterwards I experienced the breakdown of the socialist system and later moved to the West, where I experienced all of the prejudices aimed towards people coming from Yugoslavia. This is a very important question/problem for me.

Through my own experience of the Western world’s looking on other parts of the globe, I as a person, but also as an artist, have gotten an intimate knowledge about the construct of how the West sees Yugoslavia is based on a very superficial knowledge and an hypocritical wish to help "others" only by adapting them to itself.

Miss60/ from the series Can I Change My Career for a Little Fun?
/ from the cycle The Future Belongs To Us I, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 160 cm

BS: Dejan, can you go into detail about your artistic process? How do you begin a piece? When do you know that a piece is finished?

DK: Most of my work is based on images taken from the mass media, mostly photographs published in magazines. For my working process selection of photographic material is crucial and it is done in several stages. The selected images are than arranged and rearranged in a computer program and merged with images taken from cartoon frames (these is related to paintings I have been doing for the last 2 years).

The painting is in some way already preconceived even before I start to paint it, as the sketch is done with the help of the computer program. From these small sketches I make a big sketch on paper that is the size of the canvas format. To get the wanted effect of the industrial looking painting, I transfer the sketch to the canvas with the help of the indigo paper.

I feel that painting is a way of intimate, intellectual, emotive communication between me and the canvas. When the conversation ends – but it does not end in a raw way and everything that needed to be said has been said - than I know that the painting is finished.

BS: Dejan, how does current world events influence your work? In other words, how does contemporary life impact your creative practice?

DK: On one level my work is not directly related to current world events. It is not my intention to bring daily events into my work. What I am interested in is relationships between people, individual and mass, how mass thinks and works – therefore I would say that contemporary life does influence my creative practice, but not directly via daily political or economical events but more the essence that can be read or understood from it. In that framework I am especially interested in patterns of behavior and questions of responsibility.

BS: Can you tell us more about the philosophy behind your art?

DK: In my work I deal with questions of responsibility, moral (especially emphasizing the problem of a double-faced moral or hypocrisy), truth, love, manipulation, the dichotomies of visible vs. invisible / hidden vs. revealed / natural vs. unnatural / spontaneous vs. constructed / past vs. present.

Since my earliest works, I have been dealing with the problematic of the mass media communication by using the techniques of drawing, painting, photography, print and video. The theme that occupies me is the problem of the exploit of children and the image of a child for commercial purposes.

My intention is to make one think through the process of increased awareness of the existence of the devious development of the collective consciousness and the patterns of behavior, which in the present time, more than ever, are intensified through violence, confrontation or war. The phenomenon of violence and fear also interests me as well as the relation of the society towards these categories. (What is particularly interesting and horrific at the same time is that violence and fear became a need and a form of entertainment.)

Since 2004 I have been working on a project called Europoly – The European Union Identity Trading Game. Europoly in its unique way deals with the problematic of the present day European identity, possible tensions (e.g. social, cultural, moral, and philosophical) between the two categories of „EU" and „non EU".

BS: Why did you choose to work in the mediums that you use?

DK: My concepts are transformed through various mediums, but the basis for it, is always a drawing or a photograph. I always use mediums according to the concepts of my works. Different concepts are chosen according to the best possible way to transfer it to the viewer/user.

BS: Dejan, what is your studio like? Can you go into detail about your studio routine?

DK: My studio is vast, with lost of light. In it there is a sofa, large table, lots of books and magazines, Internet connection and music. Sometimes I listen to music; sometimes I even dance in the course of painting, because many times I am really happy when painting, but on the other hand sometimes I feel in a very contemplative state and work in silence.

BS: What are you working on at this time?

DK: At this time I am working on my new video work, finishing the pre-production stage; and as this is the first art work that I am doing together with my new gallery from Ljubljana, I am quite happy about it. The work is quite complex. Because It is dependent on several factors how the result is going to be and for me this is very exciting. In the video my idea is to have a child (ideally 8-10 years old) singing a specific song "Je suis malade" originally sang by an adult performer Dalida expressing everlasting issues of longing, woman in love, woman in pain caused by love, woman disappointed, woman rejected…

Also I was invited by the Austrian embassy in Holland to produce my work Europoly as a portable game version and distribute it through schools in Netherlands. I am very happy about it because this work of mine is socially and politically engaged; it talks about the "new European identity" trying to enlighten the invisible people among us i.e. the immigrants. Its aim is to enter into most intimate spaces of families but also – as in this case – into educational system. For those reasons I am adapting this art project of mine into a German version.

Besides that of course I am also working on my new paintings and drawings, which will continue to explore the questions that I am involved with.

BS: What can you tell us about your recent exhibits? Where can our readers view your work? Also, do you have anything planned for 2008?

DK: Two months ago I’ve had a very important solo exhibition in the Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade which I am very satisfied with and in this year also two solo exhibitions in Istanbul and Vienna. Because of that now is the time for me to reflect on all the previous activities and exhibitions, but that is very hard. I have just returned from Linz, where I participated at a group exhibition dealing with questions of collective and individual memories.

In January a painting of mine which was bought for the permanent collection of the City of Belgrade will be exhibited. Besides that I am having two important solo exhibitions – one of them in May in Ljubljana (Gallery Ganes Pratt) and the other one at the end of 2008 in Berlin (Gallery Blickensdorff). A preview of my work can also be seen on my webpage www.dejankaludjerovic.net.

BS: In your opinion, what are some of the problems facing artists today?

DK: As I see it the art world today is so interwoven with corporate capital and because of that things are strictly controlled. We live in a time of total political correctness and there is no freedom in art, but maybe that is the way it always has been.

Keine Angst vor kleinen Tieren / from the series The Future Belongs To Us III, 2004, stills from video installation, duration 66 min, loop

BS: Dejan, the internet is changing how we discover and view art. Many artists have stated that personal websites and networking sites have allowed them to represent themselves without the help of others. In your opinion, how have sites like myartspace.com empowered artists?

DK: I do not think that sites like myartspace.com have empowered artists, but they did provide a possibility for exchanging contacts and meeting people so that they can communicate and cooperate in a global world.

BS: Finally, what are your goals as an artist? What do you hope to accomplish with your work?

DK: My goal as an artist is to keep doing just what I am doing for the rest of my life. In the first place I would like to surprise myself and because of that I hope for my art and I as an artist too keep changing. I also hope to achieve a stage where I will be able to have bigger and better production possibilities so that I will be able to realize my ideas and concepts as I see them fit.

With my work I want to intrigue the public to get them to think about some things that they maybe did not think before and on the other hand to make them a bit ashamed. With my work I try to problematize the notion of just one possible way of viewing and understanding an image, and this is one of the reasons why I am making paintings or videos.

In everyday surroundings we are not aware of the ideologies that are embedded into the images and we understand images as self-evident. When they are put into different contexts – namely the context of contemporary art – we view and understand them in a different way as our attention is oriented solely towards them.

You can learn more about Dejan Kaludjerovic by visiting his website--www.dejankaludjerovic.net. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Myartspace, the Free and Open Community for the Art World

myartspace is the premier online social network for the art world. It prides itself on being an open, free community that is inclusive of a wide variety of artists from all over the world.




By community, we mean artists, collectors, educators, curators, students and more. We also mean painters, photographers, videographers, sculptures and more.

By open, we mean that members are free to express themselves through their work – with an ability to upload an unlimited amount of images, video and music. They can build galleries that contain images, narration, music and video to build a meaningful experience for the viewer.

myartspace intends to keep the network open, free, fast and easy. As a matter of fact, we’ll be introducing some open-source support in 2008 so that people can build their own gallery presentation software to work with myartspace and distribute to the community.

Premium Services

We at myartspace have noticed that there are many artists in our community that want more professional capabilities in a site. They are using myartspace as their online presence, as their commercial network to raise their awareness level, and increasingly as their vehicle to sell their work.

myartspace has decided to launch “premium services for artists” . This is an optional paid subscription service aimed at those artists that seek additional features, speed, flexibility and capabilities for a very modest annual cost. Participation in the paid subscription service is totally optional and at the discretion of the artists. The standard “free” subscription to myartspace will remain free and continue to be expanded in terms of features and capabilities. The premium services is $40 per year if you sign up by December 31, 2007. The normal annual fee is $75.


To name just a few features included in the premium service:

• A personalized URL (web address) for the artists on myartspace

• Two different gallery templates to display their work – the traditional flash gallery and a new more vertically oriented HTML gallery

• A private copy of “Inside Art Edge”, a new bi- weekly bulletin that highlights opportunities for artists – scholarships, contests, fellowships, interesting events and even bargains.

• A Press Release capability so artists can make announcements and have them broadcast and syndicated around the globe through myartspace

• A personal event posting service so artists can alert their peers, friends and buyers of upcoming events (such as solo or group shows). Premium services allow you to integrate you own personal work into an eVite that can be sent out to your contact list.

• Two different “personal profile/home” pages – the traditional one and a
professional one that allows the inclusion of music and video on the page

• A performance boost for your gallery playback with “SmartCache for myartspace”. This creates a fast, ready‐made version of your gallery that can start up quicker than the normal gallery speed.

• Weekly analytical reports that provide insights into how frequently your creative work has been viewed.

• Adobe PDF generation for your galleries. This allows artists to be able to generate electronic “books” of their work which can be easily printed.

• Handy tools to allow artists to re‐arrange the order/sequence of images in a gallery, or even the order in which galleries appear to the world.

For more information:

Email Questions to: info@catmacart.com

Download A Brochure at: http://www.myartspace.com/premium/psbrochure.pdf

View A slide show at: http://www.myartspace.com/premium

Art Space Talk: Kelly Mudge

Kelly Mudge is an artist who is interested in exploring the many aspects of the human condition with her work. Kelly does not focus on the outward appearance of her models. Instead, she seeks to capture their personality by focusing on their inner workings-- the emotional side of their being. In a sense, Kelly strives to reveal the essence of her subjects. Kelly graduated from Pratt Institute where she studied under several influential instructors-- including Joe Smith and David Passalaqua.


Brian Sherwin: Kelly, tell us a little about your background. Can you recall your first experiences with art? When did you know that you wanted to pursue art for life?

Kelly Mudge: I've been drawing and painting as long as I can remember. I knew at a young age that I wanted to do something with my art. When I was in high school I got really into comic books, which was one reason I decided to pursue art as a career. I've since branched off from doing sequential work, but I still have some projects going on in the background. I started out wanting to do more commercial work (driven by some of the illustration classes I took in college) but am focused more on fine art at the moment.

BS: Kelly, you graduated from Pratt Institute in 2001. Who were your mentors during your years at Pratt? How did they influence or inspire you?

KM: There were some great teachers at Pratt who helped me develop my work further than I ever thought possible, including Professor Joe Smith and David Passalaqua. I was also very influenced and inspired by my peers. It's hard not to grow as an artist with so much talent around you.

BS: Kelly, you have been working on a project that you call "Engage". Can you tell our readers more about that project? What are your motives behind it? What are you trying to convey?

KM: In this project I am trying to capture the subjects personality in an unconventional way. I thought it would be interesting to do portraits that are more about the person on the inside than their physical appearance. I want to engage the viewer emotionally with each work.

BS: Kelly, can you tell us more about the symbolism of these multi- armed characters? As you know, some religions and aspects of spirituality embrace the image of multiple arms for various reasons. Is there a spiritual side to your work?
KM: In some pieces, yes. In others the use of multiple limbs is a way to convey their attitude, fears, etc. It's very specific from piece to piece.

BS: Kelly, in a sense your recent work is about the human condition, correct? By chance, have you studied psychology?

KM: Absolutely. One goal in this work is to show an aspect of the subject that other people wouldn't necessarily get to see otherwise. I'm very interested in psychology. I don't study psychology formally, but I do read up on it when I can.

BS: Kelly, what else has influenced your art?

KM: Every experience I have influences my art. Specifically, the people around me. I'm influenced by people's dreams, fears, insecurities, day to day struggles and stories. Aside from that, I'm influenced by music, comic books, traveling, history and of course other artists. Right now I'm really into Ralph Steadman, Gail Potocki and Lucian Freud to name a few.

BS: Kelly, tell us about your studio. Where do you work? What is your studio practice like? Do you follow some sort of routine?

KM: My studio is an extra bedroom in my apartment in Brooklyn. I have been working with acrylic on wood for the past few years, which lend themselves to working in a smaller space. I don't have any real routine- I work whenever I have the time to. I shoot my models in my studio, transfer the photos to my computer, then start the painting.

BS: Kelly, in your opinion... what is the most important thing to remember when creating art?

KM: To have fun. Otherwise, what's the point?

BS: Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

KM: I'm in a group show in January at Rock Paper Scissors Collective in Oakland, CA. I also may be showing in Oklahoma City this coming year.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art or the artworld?

KM: I hope I can do this for the rest of my life!

You can learn more about Kelly Mudge by visiting her website-- www.mudgefactory.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Lucy Puls

Lucy Puls is a mixed media sculptor who has exhibited her work primarily in California and New York. Her work is included in many public and private collections, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Oakland Museum.. Her work involves ordinary consumer items that are often used and discarded. Lucy received her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has been a Professor of Art at University of California, Davis, since 1985.

Ad Huc Locum (Magnolias) by Lucy Puls

Brian Sherwin: Lucy, you graduated with an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Who were your instructors at RISD and how did they influence you?

Lucy Puls: At RISD what most influenced me was the school as a whole and the place - Providence. The contrast between the historic colonial part of town that the school was situated in and the run down area's that many of the students lived in. I worked as a model maker in a factory my first year in graduate school so the difference was apparent to me on a daily basis in yet another way.

My colleagues at RISD were discussing esoteric art issues and my colleagues at work were discussing the relative merits of installing an air conditioning unit in their homes as a way to break the boredom while working on the models. Each week there was a new consumer item to be discussed, what was the best car to buy, where to purchase a home, who to get carpet from, how to get the best deal on this or that. I was riveted by these conversations.

BS: I understand that you are an art instructor. Where do you teach? Do you find it difficult balancing teaching with finding time to create your own work? Or do they feed off of each other, so to speak?

LP: I teach at the University of California, Davis. And yes, it is always hard to find time, but that goes with being a grown up. I manage pretty well because I like to work more then I like to hang out or go to parties or shop or do just about any other thing else I can think of. Please don't invite me to the beach or hiking!

No they don't feed off one another; the teaching tries to eat the studio artist whole. One must protect the studio artist from the teaching. It is important to figure out how to be a teacher and an artist and not get swallowed by the dark scary overwhelming teaching/committee/institution thing.

Ad Huc Locum (Nightstand) by Lucy Puls

BS: Lucy, you gather raw materials from book recycling centers, resale shops, and anything that you find on the curb for free. When using these items would you say that you are interested in where they came from-- where they once belonged? Does that question beg for an answer within the context of your work?

LP: I don't understand this question fully. Yes, as an individual I can't help but wonder about some of the things I've acquired, especially when they are personalized with doodles and names and other types of personal identifiers. But most often I am asking why are there so much of this one thing at this particular time? Why is it being offloaded now? What is so special about this particular time that prompts the removal of stuff that has hung around peoples closets, garages, and basements that it just has to go away now? What inspired so many people to buy these things to begin with and why are they getting rid of it in mass at about the same time? What's the subliminal significance behind this activity?

BS: As mentioned, your work examines the discarded and unwanted objects of present day culture. You have had exhibits devoted to exploring the proliferation of abandoned domestic appliances and other items. These works remind one of the 'paper trail' that we consumers leave behind. Would you say that your work questions consumer-culture and how it harms the environment due to this 'trail'? Are you concerned about the environmental implications of what we leave behind?

LP: I am. I have two remarks to make: a number of years ago I worried that since I was making stuff I was adding more to the worlds landfill. Not that I expect my finished work to end up there, though there is no guarantee, but there is a lot of materials that get used in processes that end up as waste. Those thoughts seemed destined to generate paralysis so I decided to stick with blind faith, which has served me well for many years. It's the artist's friend.

Second: in the At Huc Locum series you can see how people in the community are trying to recycle or reuse items in an ad hoc (absolutely no pun intended -I am not a pun person) way.

Although I am more interested in how a culture and society that is based on capitalism can continue to find ways to attract individuals in participating. Such as the new development of attracting kids to spend real money to buy items on the web for their web-based characters, cloths and other stuff. This is quite clever since there is nothing that they are really buying except the idea of a thing.

Ad Huc Locum (Plums) by Lucy Puls

BS: Lucy, I've read that you call these materials a 'goldmine of information'... can you go into further detail about that statement?

LP: The answer to this question would take too long to answer. Plus it feels like someone is trying to drill a hole in my brain. Can I please just lie on the floor and wail instead?

BS: Lucy, cast resin is another medium that you utilize. You often encase materials from pop culture: Barbie dolls, various toys, and guns. Can you tell us about this process? Do you have any suggestions for readers who are interested in using this medium?

LP: I don't use resin now. I may again in the future, who knows? The way I have used it in the past was very labor intensive. If anyone wants to learn about complicated materials and processes like casting metal, resin, mold making, welding, and lots of other stuff they need to take a class or apprentice with someone who works with it.

Many art fabricators are fabulous resources and always looking for good people to work for them. Spend a couple years with one of them and you will come out with a great skill set. They also have the best safety equipment. Don't do this on your own since you could compromise your health.

Ad Huc Locum (Hood) by Lucy Puls

BS: Lucy, you have also utilized album covers within the context of your work. These albums from the 60's and 70's impacted you as a teenager. However, this body of work is not about nostalgia... it is about memory. Can you go into further detail about your philosophy behind this body of work?

LP: You are assuming that I was influenced by the albums but in fact most of them I either never heard or didn't own. Only a few I knew and loved. Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow was my favorite album when I was 12 although I never owned it. I only went to visit it at JC Penny's on the weekends and hid it in the wrong section so no one would buy it. Joni Mitchell's Blue made me decide I should continue to live until adulthood; Carol King's Tapestry's drove me nuts because so many people played it so often - it was America's theme album for a while. The rest of them I didn't know well. For instance I had no idea that the Who album cover was someone pissing against a wall.

All the albums I used because a vinyl store gave me what they would be throwing away. They were thrilled not to use up dumpster space. I hauled them to my studio and looked through the boxes for signs of patterns (16 Carol King Tapestry albums in one batch!) just as I did when I would visit the thrift shops before the eBay folks messed up the ecosystem.

Back to your question, yes memory is important and music is a really strong memory trigger. Although in this work no music is being played, the idea of music from an era is evoked. By casting the albums in piles of about an inch or so thick in resin and sanding them until the covers get blasted off in spots, then photographing that cast, digitizing it, enlarging to double the size of an album cover, printing it, flipping it, and butting up two right side and two flipped images I ended up with what I wanted: A pseudo Rorschach.

What's a Rorschach? A tool in the form of a copyrighted inkblot that a supposed disturbed individual looks at and in his/her response reveals something hidden about his/her psyche. This has always been a controversial method in the field but in a way it reminds me of visual parallel to the light shows from the rock concerts of the late 1960's. All that floating colored oil on water or whatever was used to create those shows.

Ad Huc Locum (Ficus) by Lucy Puls

BS: Lucy what galleries are you represented by? Do you have any exhibits planned for 2008?

LP: Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco. I do, but not ready for prime time.

BS: What are you working on at this time? What do you plan to explore next within the context of your work?

LP: Sculpture, drawings, and photographs. I know this is a fake answer but I don't like to talk about what I am going to do because what I'm going to do is always about an urge. Its not very smart or cool. It is just a force that is pulling me towards something. I have to see where I end up. I refer to it as nomri vagus (wandering in the woods).

BS: Finally, do you have any advice for emerging artists?

LP: In scopulus!

You can learn more about Lucy Puls by visiting her website-- www.lucypuls.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: John Breiner

John Breiner started out painting graffiti murals in and around New York City. He eventually ended up at the School of Visual Arts where he was instructed by Bruce Waldman-- a Director of The New York Society of Etchers. John went from telling stories visually on the streets to giving new life to discarded books and other surfaces that he found along those same paths. In a sense, John's past, present, and future is represented in his choice of utilizing found objects within the context of his work. John continues to tell stories-- he just does it on his own terms.

Brian Sherwin: John, can you tell us about your early years. I understand that your grandmother did the coloring for the Duck Tails series of comic books, was she an influence on you? Also, in 1994 you viewed graffiti for the first time... why did it make such an impact on you?

John Breiner: Well growing up I was a creative kid. I was an only child and I always remember drawing. I remember my Dad drawing a cannon, showing me how to make the illusion of depth on paper. I remember my grandmother at her drawing desk, and the clear plastic comic cells. I remember my mom painting her ceramic statues. All of them were an influence on me when I was really young. Also through growing up with my friends in NY in the 80’s and 90’s. There was always something. Drawing comics, Sk8 boarding, making t-shirts and stickers for our Skate crew, massive neighborhood snowball fights and as I got older, music, DJ’ing, making tapes, and of course Hip-hop and Graffiti.

Graffiti had a huge impact on me, I don’t know why? It was just the right sequence of events. I still remember reading the source magazine and seeing pics of the subway for the 1st time. I was blown away. I never knew anything about it. Then I started noticing the highways from the backseat of my parents car, they were killed back then.. and it was just so amazing to me...

BS: John, tell us about the work you have done on the streets. I've known a few street artists who mention that they get a rush not only from what they are creating, but from the fact that at times it can be a risk to work in that manner. Those I've spoken with mention that it is hard for them to capture that same energy in their studio-- the four walls seem to keep that vibe in check, so to speak. Have you experienced that? Or are you able to channel that surge no matter where or how you are creating?

JB: Well I’ve been writing Graffiti since 1994. Tags, Pieces, Throw-ups. To be honest the best rush to me is riding that train home, hitting the bed. Waking up the next morning, going and getting the picture then moving on. There’s no formal critiques, worrying if its going sell, its just fun, its exhilarating and freeing, but it can get you locked up. Sometimes life can be that way.

It’s still my lifestyle but I tend to be more careful and strive for longevity. Part of that was moving into another type of art. I had to find something that I was comfortable making money off of. So the transition into "Studio" type work came about my 2nd or 3rd year in College and it was really, really difficult. Going from painting my name under a highway or whatever (in the dark) to painting a white canvas in doors, wasn’t easy, or even possible for me. It made very little sense to me, but it also made me into more of an artist though. I had to think more.

I started to realize things, like how I missed the layers from the walls. These walls were disgusting, but I loved them, they had a soul, and you felt like there was more of a reason to paint them. Eventually I discovered found surfaces that were around me were perfectly good for painting. Wood, metal, paper and eventually the books would result. That was how I got over the transition, by finding the hidden life in surfaces.

BS: Another issue that graffiti artists often experience is a form of paranoia that stems from what they do. Part of it, based on what I've been told, is due to the constant concern that someone might 'give you up' and the other concern involves a form of addiction to the streets-- as in they miss that raw energy, the sights and sounds of working into the night. Does any of this ring a bell?

JB: Oh of course, there’s some pretty unique experience’s I've had, the places I've seen and at the weirdest times of night. Normal people don’t see these things. I’m very grateful for that.. It’s a lifestyle, and I lead a very careful one. I’m a paranoid person in general I think, but being that way allows me to get away with most things I want to. I think it also gives me that feeling that if your doing some tags you’re always at least a little free.

BS: John, place us in the mind of a graffiti artists-- give us a psychological view of what a street artist feels when on the prowl for a space to claim for his or her own. Do you mind recalling some of your experiences?

JB: Umm.. shoot, I don’t know, its something that’s so ingrained,. I mean it’s a mixture of nerves, heightened senses, feeling sneaky, I guess feeling like your smarter then everyone, and then dumber when things go bad, and then smarter again when you get away, ha!. I don’t know?

I do know I miss being out there on a regular basis though. It’s sad, you don’t grow out of Graff, but you grow out of that window of carefree time you have to do it. It’s all about money though, and that’s really sad. If I had the money to get myself out of trouble, part of the fun is handling everything else that comes at you.

Experiences? Oh man, getting chased and split up in South America, with no idea where I was going, staying, or how to speak Spanish. Breaking my ankle. Having cops see us painting, stop, and then drive on for no apparent reason, all kinds, I’d prefer to stay away from specifics though.

BS: John, you've had formal training in art as well. Can you tell our readers where you studied, who your instructors were, and how that experience influenced you as an artist. Also, can you go into further detail about the conflict between the graffiti work of your past and the expectations of school? How did you mesh the two together?

JB: When I was a teenager I studied drawing with an Artist named Tommy Chin. Then I went to SVA here in the city. It was my first time being around artist so to speak. It was great, you know college, still being kind of care free, it was a fun time. I hooked up with a crew of really like minded artist’s there, We kick it, we do shows and individually we are all trying to beat art over the head these days. Peace to all of them..

There were also some great teachers there, Bruce Waldman, and the printmaking department, some of my painting teachers, and Tom Woodruff, provided a balance between doing what ever it is you feel, and making your art more intelligent. Some people knock art school like they think your going there to learn how to draw a line. Come on use your heads, Art school is damn near 98% paying to be around artists, point blank. They inspire you, you learn some history, you learn some new techniques but mainly your paying for 4 years of being placed in a creative environment. Where you take it from there is up to you.

It's not necessary for everyone, me I was at a cross-road in my life and future. My plan was to come to NYC to write Graff, but very soon after I realized that wasn’t so practical. So being there helped me develop what I'm doing today. As far as how my past art meshed with my current art, it was rocky at first, but once I figured out how to enjoy the art I make today, it was always separate and still is today. Graff is my hobby and history that I love and keep anonymous, and my other art is what I show to the world.

BS: I understand that you have strong opinions about the state of the art world. Can you discuss the issues you are concerned with and why you feel there needs to be change?

JB: Well I guess there’s always good a bad. In general things are cool. I’m pretty decent at networking, but it can get frustrating though. I’ve always been very do it yourself. I felt like me and my peoples weren’t getting the shine, so I curated, organized and threw a 30 plus person art show with music and film. We had over 600 people attend a one night show in Bushwick Brooklyn!! (And this was years before anyone lived there) The little old man that owned and lived above the bodega across the street came down in his robe and nightcap and opened the store. From his window above he saw the spectacle of the prime colt 45 target audience drinkers. Hundreds of them milling around in the street beer less!! He sold all his beer that night.

I’ve always been like that; it comes from taking spots, making art with out permission and getting tired of waiting. Waiting for people to catch on, catch up. Sometimes the establishment will catch on to actually interesting new talent, but it’s quite common to hear: I went to Chelsea, I saw one or 2 good things. How many galleries you go to? Twenty. I guess that’s just me being impatient, and to be fair there is a million artists (including myself) who if not already, will be knocking at their door. It would be nice to get paid from making what I want. I’m working on it...

BS: John, can you tell us more about your recent art? The motives behind-- the themes you are dealing with. Also, what can you see yourself exploring in the near future?

JB: Well I try to make work that’s a time warp, current ideas layered on old surfaces. I interact with life and time’s marks. I take these surfaces in embracing their marks, then add my own and send them back out to be possessions again. I want it to be a record of my times and ideas. Right now I’m unsure if art is really going to work out, so the chessboards came out in my work. The ideas of deadly games between animals, people, all reflects the real world and my place in it. The game of life. I try not to be literal and I use a lot of things to represent my ideas. Animals are a good one, and lately dense patches of flowers and plants, intertwined with shadows and eyes peering out. The idea of inviting beauty mixed with death. A lot of my work is about balance. It’s developing day by day. The whale is for this police state, swallowing up everything. There is some others, some re-occur, some develop into other things.

I started working with books 4 or 5 years ago, (originally just for there yellowed pages); eventually I began dissecting them and strictly working on the end pages. I take the idea that people read the summary of the book on the end pages, there’s no width to scare any one, and a picture is worth a thousand words. All these books are discarded when I find them. They’ll never give information again so I update them so they can communicate again. I think I’ll stay working with them for a while, till the next thing finds me.

BS: Have you had any recent exhibits that you would like to tell our readers about? Also, do you have any exhibits planned for 2008?

JB: Well this summer I had a solo show Entitled "Trail Of An Octopus" at Sensei Gallery in Manhattan. I’ve done three or four shows in the last couple of months, including Fountain with Adhoc which just finished up. I would really just like to get back in the studio now, focus on just work for a couple of months then hopefully do it again.

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

JB: Nope I think that’s it... thanks...

You can learn more about John Breiner by visiting his website-- www.johnbreiner.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Bo Bartlett

Self Portrait, oil on panel, copyright- Bo Bartlett

Bo Bartlett is an American realist with a modernist vision. His paintings are well within the tradition of American realism as defined by artists such as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth. Like these artists, Bartlett looks at America’s heart—its land and its people—and describes the beauty he finds in everyday life. His paintings celebrate the underlying epic nature of the commonplace and the personal significance of the extraordinary.

Bartlett was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where realist principles must be grasped before modernist ventures are encouraged. He pushes the boundaries of the realist tradition with his multilayered imagery. Life, death, passage, memory, and confrontation coexist easily in his world. Family and friends are the cast of characters that appear in his dreamlike narrative works. Although the scenes are set around his childhood home in Georgia, his island summer home in Maine, his home in Pennsylvania or the surroundings of his studio and residence in Washington state, they represent a deeper, mythical concept of the archetypal, universal home.

--Tom Butler, excerpt from the book Bo Bartlett, Heartland. http://www.bobartlett.com/shop/index.html

Allegiance, oil on panel, copyright- Bo Bartlett

Brian Sherwin: Bo, your bio states that you look at "America's heart" and the beauty you find in "everyday life" within the context of your work. Can you go into further detail about that statement? Why do you focus on the American experience, so to speak? Do you find it difficult to capture the collective spirit of America?

Bo Bartlett: I don’t think there is a collective spirit of America. America to me seems fractured. Many people seem marginalized. I think the "America’s heart" concept is really just talking about a larger idea; a mythological spirit or soul of America which has to do with the concept of freedom, individual rights, and the adventurousness we associate with the frontier spirit. People are all longing. We’re all looking for something. On some level, my paintings tend to address this sense of desire. I paint people because I am a person. I paint America because I am American. I’d like to think that I’m a citizen of the world, but at the same time, I can’t deny my nationality. I am not necessarily proud of it.

Old Glory, oil on linen, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: Bo, as you know, every country has an underbelly in regards to social issues-- social injustice, racism, sexism... how do you deal with these issues in your art?

BB: The problem is that I’m a white male. You can’t cry "Oh, pity party," when you’re a white male. But as a figurative painter, it does raise obvious dilemmas. I’ve been hit pretty hard by Roberta Smith, Peter Schjeldahl and Michael Kimmelman for painting relatively heterosexual white male paintings. One must paint from their own experience, yet at the same time, try to see the big picture. I love the idea of a Norman Rockwell America. I was born in the fifties, and for a middle class white guy in Georgia in the fifties and early sixties, life was pretty idyllic. Do I have a nostalgia for this? One must address their own time. One’s work must, If it has any life at all, address the problems of one’s era. So certainly, having lived through the sixties, the race riots in the south, the Viet Nam war on television, and the cultural wars inherent in growing up in the conservative south, one must process the culture in which one lives. In representational painting, one tries to tap into a larger archetypal drama so that the whole human condition is addressed; all of history, not just the specific conflicts of a given decade.

History Lesson, oil on linen, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: Aside from painting, what other forms of expression do you enjoy? When you visit a gallery or museum what kind of art do you observe? How do you take that excitement-- that energy, into your own work?

BB: I love all art. As Robert Henri said, if you look at any piece of art long enough you will find some worth in it. My tastes are very varied and diverse. In museums I tend to gravitate toward Wyeths and Rothkos, Picassos and Cornells; Work that has directness and honesty, true to the artist’s experience, to their temperament. And I am just as likely to enjoy all art forms such as film, video, photography, installation, conceptual, performance pieces, concerts, plays, etc. Doug Aikens, Bill Viola, Robert Wilson, Antonio Lopez Garcia, and Sally Mann all excite me when I discover them in a museum setting.

BS: Let us discuss your educational background. In 1974 you had private studies with Benjamin F. Long IV. Mr. Long is a respected artist and grandson of noted artist McKendree Robbins Long. At the time he was an apprentice of internationally-renowned Maestro Pietro Annigoni. Can you recall your experience studying under the direction of Ben Long? How did he influence you as a painter?

BB: Ben may be the greatest draftsman I have ever encountered. He studied with Madam Simi and Annigoni, whose lineage goes back to Michelangelo. Ben taught me how to draw. He was patient and tough. I was only 18 when I studied with Ben, having come to Florence straight from Georgia. I had thought I would be an abstract painter. I didn’t think that being a representational painter was an option until I met Ben. I assisted Ben on some frescoes, but he wasn’t really my painting teacher.

The Babysitter, oil on linen, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: You apprenticed under Nelson Shanks-- another artist of note --can you tell our readers about that experience and the mark that Nelson made on your creative endeavors?

BB: I learned to paint from Nelson. He too had studied with Annigoni. Nelson, who had studied painting with Henry Hensche, painted optically, coloristically, and in the tradition of the Boston painters such as Paxton whose lineage went back to Sargent and the French academy. All of Nelsons private students, after studying with him for two years or so, would leave his studio painting almost exactly like he did. The goal in the words of Leonardo’s teacher Verrocchio was "For a student to be successful he must surpass his master." It was a bit like learning how to drive. Its one thing to know the mechanics of driving. Its another to know where you want to go on your journey. We all came out of there being able to paint exactly as we saw. The question became where we wanted to go with it.

BS: Bo, you also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Who were your mentors at that time?

BB: I worked with Nelson at the same time I attended the Pennsylvania Academy. My favorite teacher at the academy was Morris Blackburn. He was one of the more modernist teachers. There was a divide in the seventies at the academy between the "realists" and the "abstractionists". Blackburn saw beyond this into the core of one’s endeavors. He used to say, "Art is like taking a journey. Where are you going to go and how are you going to get there?" One must have a map, a plan, which can be deduced from the attempts of every artist who preceded us. All previous art is a foundation on which to build.

The Way, oil on linen, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: Bo, when you view the paintings that you create today do you see traces of your former instructors within them? How have you branched away from their teaching?

BB: The other teachers at the academy who influenced me were Ben Kamihira, Arthur DeCosta and Sidney Goodman. I was also influenced by Harvey Dinnerstein from New York. I was searching for a contemporary context for large figurative painting. Some have referred to it as "history painting," but if so, it is a private history that is being portrayed, not a public history. Sidney Goodman’s large painting entitled Crowd Scene which depicts figures standing on cars watching an unseen tractor-pull in the distance opened my imagination to a way of depicting figures in a contemporary context involved in a group discovery which, for me, spoke to the mystery of contemporary man’s existence. Harvey Dinnerstein’s Parade surrealistically portrays a protest march from the sixties. I saw this painting in Harvey’s living room on a visit to Brooklyn and it profoundly affected me. I still think about these paintings and the work of all of my teachers and forbears everyday when I paint.

Every person (i.e. artist) has different experiences. A child growing up riding graffiti scrawled subways in the Bronx is going to have a very different visual history and language than a child growing up in the fields and country side of south Georgia. So, everyone’s experience is unique. Hopefully my art is true to my experience, and my path is my own, as all of our paths are our own.

Habeas Corpus, oil on linen, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: Bo, in 1986 you received a Certificate in Filmmaking from New York University. You then embarked on a five year collaborative film with Betsy Wyeth, the wife of Andrew Wyeth. The film, entitled Snow Hill, focused on the life and works of Andrew Wyeth. Can you tell us about those years?

BB: I had wanted to make films. I had several screenplays I was developing. At the same time, I had just begun showing in New York. I received a particularly harsh review for a show at PPOW in1991, and was back in Pennsylvania licking my wounds when Betsy Wyeth called and asked me to come out to Chadds Ford for a visit. She bought paintings and upon discovering that I was interested in film, asked me to assist her in making a biographical documentary about Andrew Wyeth. I spent three years every day with the Wyeths.

BS: Do you have any stories about Andrew that you would like to share with our readers? Can you briefly explain what you gained from his friendship and mentorship?

BB: Andy is the greatest living painter. He’s 90 years old, and he has gone out every day of his life and painted. He doesn’t try to impress anyone or play into what is fashionable. He is completely and totally true to his experience. He literally goes out into his own back yard, paints what is there, and makes it universal. No one else living can capture and encapsulate time or the meaning of the fleeting effects of sunlight as objectively or deeply as Wyeth. He completely and totally gets it. I feel blessed to have had a 15 plus year friendship with him. His encouragement has sustained me through many long afternoons in the studio when I’ve been able to put aside the words of some critic with an ax to grind. The bad reviews that I’ve received pale in comparison to some I’ve read about Wyeth. Andy says, in his high pitch shrill, "People only make you swerve. I won’t show anybody anything I’m working on. If they hate it, it’s a bad thing, and if they like it, it’s a bad thing. An artist has to be ingrown to be any good."

Sleeper Awake, oil on linen, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: Bo, have you ever instructed anyone in the art of painting? If not, is that something you plan to do in the future?

BB: I taught one year at the Pennsylvania academy. But for me, teaching works best in the private setting. I usually have had over the years one or two students at a time for a period of two or three years. I am very particular about who I’ll teach. They must already have a handle on their skills and have the potential to develop their very own unique voice. It’s not about just teaching a bunch of tricks, but it is a marriage of teaching the materials and techniques of the craftsmanship of painting and developing a larger more holistic approach to art making and living. I will teach several 2-4 day master classes in the coming year, including one at the New York Academy of Art and one at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.

Car Crash, oil on panel, copyright- Bo Bartlett

BS: Finally, do you have any advice for emerging artists who are exploring realism?

BB: Other than "Breathe," "Be open," and "Look and Paint,"… I had a list of "10 dos" which I suggested that my students at the academy adhere to daily.

1. Hydrate (drink a gallon of pure water a day)
2. Eat Right (eat three well balanced meals)
3. Be Physical (exercise ,walk, or play a sport,regularly)
4. Study (learn all you can about your primary interests)
5. Make some money(work. be responsible,not greedy.
You have to eat and pay the rent)
6. Make Art (believe in it, develop it and enjoy it.)
7. Meditate or Pray.(find and practice a spiritual discipline)
8. Sleep (8 hours a night to recharge and dream)
9. Love (develop a few close honest friendships)
10. Know Thyself (Be clear. write. decide when an issue
is your own or when it is someone else's)

You can learn more about Bo Bartlett by visiting his website-- www.bobartlett.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews. I'd like to thank Anelecia Hannah from the Bo Bartlett Studio for connecting me with Mr. Bartlett.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Book Review: Metamorphosis: 50 Contemporary Surreal, Fantastic and Visionary Artists

Metamorphosis: 50 Contemporary Surreal, Fantastic and Visionary Artists

Metamorphosis is a book that represents the work of 50 contemporary artists who epitomize the traditions of contemporary Surreal Art, Fantastic Realism, and Visionary Art. However, there is more to this book than the artists who grace its pages. It also serves as a catalyst for understanding the significance of these works within a historical context and for realizing the global reach that these movements have had. In that sense, Metamorphosis is a book that represents every Surreal, Fantastic, and Visionary artist-- past, present, and future.

Metamorphosis accomplishes this by containing essays by Ernst Fuchs and others that give historic validity to these forms of expression. The text offers information defining how contemporary Surreal, Fantastic, and Visionary art came into existence and how these forms of expression have made an impact throughout the world even though there are some who have tried to contain it-- tried and failed.

Many texts that I've read involving these styles have lacked this connection with art history. The connections revealed in Metamorphosis give the reader an idea of where to search for more information pertaining to the historic and contemporary significance of these forms of expression-- including a list of various online sources that readers can explore for themselves.

It is great to find a book that introduces the reader to contemporary artists, such as Chet Zar, Laurie Lipton and Alex Grey, while making it clear that these contemporary works have a basis within the context of art history and that the imagery they portray has broad implications in our times and beyond.

You can find out more about this book by visiting the following link: http://beinart.org/shop/metamorphosis.php

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space News: Yuliya Lanina at Scope Miami

Yuliya Lanina has been very busy since last I spoke with her. I remember viewing her work at DiVA in New York. Haunting child-like laughter beckoned viewers to enter the darkened room where her work was displayed during that event. Currently, her work can be found at Scope- Miami with ADA gallery (Richmond, VA). Her video "Journey" will be shown with Patrick Heide Gallery (London) at Aqua art fair in Miami. Yuliya's display at Scope can be found at Booth 48.

Yuliya had the following to say about her works:

"I explore cultural identity and sexuality through images of perverse yet innocent dolls. Taking cute and cuddly ready-mades and turning them into fetishistic objects, I construct my work on the intensity of coexistence of opposite extremes and remains open to a multiplicity of interpretations. Having worked with dance troupes, large sets and installations in the past left me with the desire to create self-contained experiences and stories, having full control over the creative process and the result. I also found it easier to talk about loaded topics such as sexual violence, neglect, addictions and cultural identity through surrogate dolls instead of live actors. I explore those themes through images of perverse yet innocent dolls that act and perform in an adult-like manner.

By incorporating ready-mades I comment on the objective existence of those issues in our culture. By taking cute and cuddly dolls and turning them into fetishistic objects I strive to create mixed feelings in the viewer, mixing appeal and amusement with fear and repulsion. I also hope to engage the viewer in a new way by adding another level of interaction with the work: a minute long acts of my pieces. Humor plays an important role in my work. I enjoy having people laugh at my pieces, for only when one laughs at their own absurdity is there a chance for change. Laughter is also a way of trying to stay away from being didactic or moralistic. My stages capture visions where the actors can be animated by the viewer’s participation. "Lullaby", a stage presented at Scope Art Fair by ADA Gallery (Richmond, VA), is a commentary on the loss of childhood innocence, which results in delusion and heightened awareness"

You can find Yuliya Lanina on www.myartspace.com. Her login name is yuliyalanina. The Myartspace community wishes Yuliya the best of luck with the art fairs.

Links of Interest:

www.yuliyalanina.com

www.scope-art.com

www.aquaartmiami.com

www.adagallery.com

www.patrickheide.com

Myartspace Interview with Yuliya Lanina:

www.myartspace.com/blog/2007/03/art-space-talk-yuliya-lanina.html

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: Marilee Salvator

Marilee Salvator is an Assistant Professor of Printmaking and 2-d design at Bloomsburg University. Marilee's work has been exhibited in over 30 exhibitions throughout North America and abroad. She recently had a solo show titled Ring Around The Rosie at SNAP Gallery in Edmonton, Alberta. Other recent exhibitions include Stampa D’ Arte, Fondazione Bevilacquq La Masa, Venice, Italy, Power of Print, Italian Cultural Institute, Italian Embassy, Washington, DC, Global Matrix 2, International Printmaking Exhibition, Robert L. Ringel Gallery and Stewart Center Gallery, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, and International Small Engraving Salon Carbunari 2006 8th edition, Florean Museum, Maramures, Romania.

Stains #2, silkscreen, iron oxide monotype, marker

Brian Sherwin: Marilee, tell us about your educational background. Do you have formal training in art? If so, who were your instructors and how did they influence you?

Marilee Salvator: I have a BFA from Illinois State University and a MFA from University of New Mexico. The most influential professor I had was Sean Caulfiled. He was one of my printmaking teachers at Illinois State University. Sean is a very passionate and prolific person. He loves printmaking and this is very evident in his approach to educating others. As an educator myself now, I try to model my approaches after him.

Circular composition #10 2007, multiple shaped etching plates, polyester lithography, silkscreen
8x12

BS: Marilee, tell us about your early artistic influences and experiences. When did you decide to pursue art?

MS: I was highly artistic as a child. At that point in time I don’t know what influenced me, perhaps it was art classes in grade school or a dysfunctional childhood. I saw the world differently than the people around me. When I was making, I was in my own creative world and these differences became irreverent.

I tried to pursue other careers as an adult, due to lack of parental support (my parents, like most parents, were scared about what I would do with such a career). In my early 20’s, while enrolled in an Art Therapy program in Santa Fe NM, I decided to stop fighting it and pursue the one thing that I was always passionate about, fine art.

When I began college, I was confused and a bit all over the place, not really sure what I was suppose to be making or who I was as an individual. When I started asking myself these types of questions and understanding their relevance, my artistic vision began to slowly form. But not before I began the risk of pursuing fine art with all of my being.

Collection #1 2007, shaped etching plates, digital size varies

BS: With that said, how would you say that your work has advanced since that time?

MS: I developed my own vision. My work is constantly evolving. This evolution depends on the current idea I am exploring. I have always been obsessed with process and ritual but I like to think that it has grown to include an element of sophistication and artist focus. I often work with autobiography and feminist issues. The making of my art has allowed me to evolve as a more integrated human being. My focus has become more on the conceptual side rather than the formal, although, I still hold great interest in the latter.

BS: Marilee, is there anything else you would like to tell us about your background in regards to how your art has evolved?

MS: I knew that I had found something that held my interest when I took my first printmaking class. I began working obsessively. Spending all of my time in the studio, always making. I still had no clue what I was making; it was about the act of doing, this intense ritualistic process. Over time, the details were ironed out.

Rain Installation 2002, Lithography, intaglio, relief, wax, thread, velcro right side 8ft x12.5, left side 8ft x 7ft

BS: Can you go into detail about your artistic process? How do you begin a piece? When do you know that a piece is finished?

MS: All of my work begins with an abstract notion. I do not foresee a visual end. It’s more about a larger idea I want to portray to the viewer and then the formal arrangement that occurs through the process. I like to collect data. I will gather things to work with that are related to this idea. For example, when I was working on my rain series, I spent several months recording the New Mexican raindrops on sheets of notebook paper. When it would rain, Id get paper and go outside and let the droplets land on the sheets. I then trace them with a pen or pencil. I gathered all of these records.

Rain #4 2003, Lithography, 2 pieces of waxed Kozo hand stitched to BFK, 18.5x18.5

These records were then used to formally arrange the large installation called Rain. I spent about 1 year figuring out the proper arrangement of this work. It is quite large; one side is 12.5 ft and the other about 8 wide. Each little square is composed of 2 sheets of waxed rice paper and one heavier sheet of rag paper that I printed the rain marks on. After going through the assembly line type work of printing my records on hundreds of different sheets of paper, using countless colors, etc, and dipping them into a large vat of wax, I selected pieces that worked well together as individual formally interesting compositions in the 6in square format. These were then hand stitched together and a strip of Velcro was adhered to the back.

The "closet formalist" in myself always comes out around this time in my working process. The large installation evolved over numerous painful months of trial and error. I lined my studio walls with strips of Velcro and began moving the pieces around, searching for the correct composition. Repositioning the lines of Velcro, extending then. I ended up using the corner.
I wanted a solid formal arrangement that both portrayed the poetic idea of fragility and delicacy as well as a beautiful engulfing atmosphere that one could become lost in.

The work is designed to give the viewer 2 different experiences. The overpowering feeling of being emerged in the storm of rain and the individual more quiet experience of flipping through individual groupings.

Scrap Book 2004-07, mixed printmedia

BS: Marilee, how does current world events influence your work? In other words, how does contemporary life impact your creative practice?

MS: I am very interested in contemporary art and feel that it is a very exciting time for artists.
My most recent works deal with sexual abuse. Like artists such as Tracey Emin, I am working with the very personal, showing this vulnerable side of myself, giving others permission to do the same thing.

I feel that art has tremendous potential for change. Visual outlets impact the human mind on a primal level. Words tend to be more surface. We have learned far to well to sensor our language and block out things that can be addressed visually much quicker and with greater impact.

BS: Marilee, tell us more about the philosophy behind your art. What motivates you to create?

MS: I must create. It is not really a choice; it is more of a compulsion.

BS: Why did you choose to work in the medium(s) that you use?

MS: I love experimenting with different materials. I tend to always include some type of printmaking due to its repetitive nature and the delayed gratification involved.
I’ve worked with menstrual fluid. Ran tampons through my etching press. I chose these materials for conceptual reasons. This is used in the sexual abuse works. My interest here deals with sexuality and femininity. It is a way of addressing a personal shame that is the result of my childhood sexual molestation.

Red Rover, Red Rover 2004, menstrual fluid monotypes, silkscreen

BS: what is your studio like? Can you go into detail about your studio routine? Do you work in silence-- listen to music.

MS: My studio is messy. I have a lot of different projects occurring at one time. My routine is all about ritual. I go in and begin somewhere, on something and I wait and see where it takes me. I tend to cycle through different things. I can’t work on one thing at a time, attention deficient disorder. After working for a while I sit and look at the progress and wait for my mind and intuition to give me answers about the next move. I usually listen to music and sing really horribly.

BS: Marilee, what are you working on at this time?

MS: I’m working on a series of etchings and a mixed media installation piece.

BS: Do you have an upcoming exhibit? Where can our readers view your work?

MS: My work is currently part of a fundraising effort for autism. The fundraiser will go through the first week on December. People can go to the website www.midnightinchicago.com/index.htm and donate $5 for a ballot to vote on a particular artist, such as myself ☺. All proceeds go to support research in autism. I’m in a 4-person show, Women’s Concerns At Lock Haven University, Lock Haven PA that opens in January. My work can also be viewed at www.marileesalvator.com.

BS: The internet is changing how we discover and view art. In your opinion, how have sites like www.myartspace.com empowered artists?

MS: Defiantly!

Lacy Circle 2007, inkjet print, 10x8

BS: Finally, what are your goals as an artist? What do you hope to accomplish with your work?

MS: I hope it continues to evolve and inspire others in a compelling way. I hope to empower women whom have suffered from abusive situations. I hope to draw attention to issues of abuse within families. I have high goals, I know.

You can learn more about Marilee Salvator by visiting her website-- www.marileesalvator.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin

Art Space Talk: William Brovelli

William Brovelli's work is centered in exploring the possibilities that arise from mass production on an individual level and its accumulative results. William has created over 40 thousand hand drawn pen/ink figures as material for his works on canvas. The figures range in size from one sixteenth of an inch to 3Ft. These arrangements illustrate the idea of humans as objects which are grouped, categorized, arranged, displayed and observed.

Brian Sherwin: William, tell us about your early artistic experiences. Where did you study? When did you decide to pursue art for the long-term?

William Brovelli: My earliest experiences would have to be public television, programs like Electric company set images in my mind that remain an underlying framework and I believe this is true for most artists. In our time, Video games have been a stronger influence than art school, at least on a sub level. I studied commercial art under Douglas Bradway in Mass. I decided to pursue art for the long-term at around age 29.

BS: William, you live and work in Manhattan. I understand that you are not originally from there. Why did you decided to move to Manhattan and how has that experience influenced you as an artist?

WB: I am from Western Mass. originally and for me it was a kind of purgatory. The energy in N.Y. is conducive to my way of working and the idea of being a little fish in a vast ocean is a great thing because it puts one in a position to really get things done on many levels, the possibilities are endless in a large city.

BS: William, in your statement you explain that your work is centered on exploring the possibilities that arise from mass production on an individual level and the accumulative results that stem from it. Can you go into further detail about this?

WB: In my 20's I did a lot of factory work and when I think of influence, This was the biggest. I would be locked into a machine on an average of 12 hours a day and I learned that in a narrowed format, humans are hard wired to deviate from a path of repetition and this is a major component of the creative experience, I think that boredom is an underestimated factor in creativity as well. There is an evolution of the image that happens when we work. Every time we create an image, the form is set in our minds and as we have learned that no two forms of matter can occupy the same space at the same time and I believe that this condition happens mentally as well, The mind will move to the next frame as the evolution continues.

BS: So would you say that the core of your work is about how people have become a number, another face, just another cog in the industrial wheel, so to speak? Is there an anti-industrialization or anti-consumerism aspect to your work?

WB: Humans are cogs! There are many wheels and many levels, all working just the way they are meant to. There is no anti-system in my work and as humans we are by nature consumers and producers.

BS: You have created over 40,000 hand drawn pen and ink figures that you use as material for works on canvas. When you first started creating these figures did you plan to use them on canvas-- or did your utilization of canvas evolve from your artistic practice in general?

WB: When I developed this approach to working, My focus was on the individual figure primarily. I eliminated background and color, scaled down the size of the figure and worked in pen/ink so that the results would be immediate, so as to cover more ground fast. The canvases came later as a way of display, I originally wanted to keep them in book format but decided to allow the canvas to act as a page or a screen.

BS: William, can you tell us about that process-- the addition of the figures to the canvas? Perhaps you have some advice for others who plan to use works on paper atop canvas?

WB: For a couple of years now, I had felt that working on large canvas was wasteful, an unnecessary step in an age of the virtual but I have come to realize that the object will always have its place especially in regards to architecture. So the act of the craft remains intact for me. One interesting result that occurs when working with cut paper on canvas is the initial isolation of each individual form and the visual outcome that occurs when the images are grouped. This outcome is unique to collage. I could draw or paint the figures onto the canvas but the overall result would be a loss of a true replication of a mass interaction.

BS: What do you enjoy most about using pen and ink as a medium?

WB: The immediacy!

BS: It is obvious that the use of the human figure is important to you. What do you enjoy most about the figure in general? Within the context of you work... why does the human figure serve as the most important symbol that you utilize?

WB: Humans like to view humans first and foremost, so it will always be a firmly positioned form in art. It is a familiar image so as a base it can be expanded on infinitely and still retain its reference point.

BS: William, tell us more about your studio practice. What kind of routine do you follow? What are the conditions you need in order to create? Do you work in private or do you enjoy company?

WB: I work every day without exception. At this point in my life I work an average of 12 hours a day on my art. Before moving to the city, I worked 1.5 jobs so that only left an average of 4 hours daily which I had maintained for the past 7 years. Working in pen and ink is lo-fi , so this helps eliminate strict conditions. I work in private.

BS: What is the Filler Figures Project?

WB: This project consists of drawing a base image, which I call a filler figure, and repeating this figure by hand in sequence until Dec. 2008 when the project will end. The figures will be cut out and arranged on 6- 6'x6' canvases aprox. 5,500 figs. per canvas. What the results will be is a visual mapping of a changing pattern within repetition . The accumulative nature of things is a subject that is also tied into this and other projects that are under way and slated for viewing over the next four years. So I guess I remain in my factory after all.

BS: Where do you plan to exhibit these works? Do you have a location worked out? Do you ever have open studio exhibits?

WB: I am currently working on gallery representation. As I'm sure you know, this is not an easy task and it is especially hard being a new comer to the city but I do have some good leads. I am targeting Chelsea (of course). I am pretty good at net working so I will do what I need to do. I have done private studio visits only.

BS: The factory... is that a place-- a state of mind --that you want to remain in with your work? It seems that you find a sense of joy within an environment that most people view as mundane. Is that part of your goal-- to show the life and energy that can be discovered in tasks that involve repetition? Philosophically speaking, do you think there will eventually be a time when you close the factory doors for good, so to speak?

WB: At this point the factory is a state of mind. I have found that too much freedom is not such a good thing. Restrictions breed interesting results and resistance is a key factor in anything of worth. As far as the factory doors closing, I guess that will happen when I am dead. ( Not philosophically speaking).

BS: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say about your art?

WB: I hope I have a hundred more years to do what I am doing because I have only scratched the surface.

You can learn more about William Brovelli by visiting his website-- www.williambrovelli.com. You can read more of my interviews by visiting the following page-- www.myartspace.com/interviews

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin