Landescape Art Review Special Edition Summer 2015

A r t

R e v i e w Anniversary Edition

From the Urban Organic series A work by Alison Wells (USA)

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Cherisse Alcantara Julia Vergazova (Croatia)

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen (Denmark)

To build a bridge between different worlds of expression, to reach out for the sublime, that is my challenge.

I make modern nonverbal myths in my fabulating paintings hoping to reach the onlooker in a way that brings our minds together, so we can walk the paths of understanding dreaming the very old dreams of humanity.

Christopher Reid (USA)

I am a realist painter drawing on the beauty I find all around me to create art. I am inspired by the way light falls on a form or filters through the atmosphere in a landscape. With the right light, even an ordinary everyday object can become a work of art. I want to share my vision with others. Too many people stumble through their days oblivious to their environment.

(USA)

(Russia)

Antonia Cacic

I visited several sites in Peru: I'm impressed with their rich culture and the great vibrancy.

Fascination with their culture, origins, habits, way they dressing with lots of color, the psychological impression of their physiognomy and the dramatic landscape of the Andes, all mixed into one conglomerate that I had remembered gave me a strong incentive for exploring the painting surface.

II

I am an artist working in techniques of batik and oil painting, who draws inspiration from nature, cities and cityscapes. My works may seem to be decorative -but it's always an attempt to find a balance between a realistic landscape and an abstract expressionist painting. I strive to use right color, line, composition to help viewer dive into landscape, to feel emotions that I had on the cliff near the sea or in the center of never sleeping city.

In my paintings, I explore the internal landscape and external forces in relation to figures and their environment.

I am interested in utilizing multiple levels of reality by combining figures taken from a certain moment in time into different or imagined spaces, thereby creating new interpretations.

Seemingly ordinary events and everyday observations contain strange and incomprehensible elements which interest me greatly.

Alison Wells (USA

Landscapes are constantly changing, being constructed and deconstructed at a rapid pace much like the process in my paintings.I am particularly fascinated with the tactile nature of cities along with their emotional energy and their dominant structures. I translate these three aspects in my work through abstracted mixed media paintings on canvas.

In this issue

Alison Wells Lives and works in New Bedford, MA, USA Painting, Mixed media

Christopher Reid Lives and works in Wilmington, NC, USA Painting

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen Lives and works in Slagelse. Denmark Mixed media, Painting

Antonia Cacic Lives and works in Croatia Mixed media, Painting

(Albania)

(USA)

Intensity and Subtlety: how can pulsating metamorphoses suggest the infinity of variables in the real world alongside the subtle interactions between visual elements?

Both mixed media on paper and oil on canvas are involved in my work.

The former is the laboratory and passage to search reality余 the latter is the arena where my own visual language is developed to express an artistic experience.

Cherisse Alcantara

Endri Myrtaj

Fei Li Susan Carmicle (USA)

In our modern day world far too many of us spend our days constantly filled with technology and other distractions.Many of us live in large cities and do not have the opportunity to experience the natural beauty of our world without tall skyscrapers.

Through my landscape paintings I hope to bring feelings of serenity and peace to the viewer, even if these feelings are fleeting.

I have always thought that reality is made of multiple dimensions. In its deepest levels it swarms of signs, symbols. A forgotten language by people, but a building stone of its psyche. Artists are born with a vertical relationship down to that psyche.

With my archetypical approach most of my paintings unconsciously relate the past, the present and the future by an invisible mystic string, merging them into one composition.

Lives and works in San Francisco, USA Painting

Julia Vergazova Lives and works in Moscow, Russi Painting, Mixed media

Endri Myrtaj Lives and works in Albania Painting

Susan Carmicle Lives and works in North Branch, MN USA Painting

Fei Li Lives and works in San Francisco, USA Mixed media, Installation

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Alison Wells Lives and works in New Bedford, MA, USA

An artist's statement

T

he urban landscape has always been a source of fascination in my work because it pulsates with a pure energy that provides me, the artist with an array of visual and emotional stimuli.€

Landscapes are constantly changing, being constructed and deconstructed at a rapid pace much like the process in my paintings.I am particularly fascinated with the tactile nature of cities along with their emotional energy and their dominant structures. I translate

these three aspects in my work through abstracted mixed media paintings on canvas.

I use mostly a neutral and limited palette along with varied textures, geometric shapes and organic forms, to create individual worlds of rhythmic movement.

Alison Wells

LandEscape meets

Alison Wells An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator witht he collaboration of Katherine Williams landescape@europe.com

Alison Wells's brushstrokes convey the urban environment's pulsating energy to create an area of interpaly with the viewers capable of providing of a mutilayeres experience, that invites to find the connections between the outside world and the way we relate to it. One of the most convincing aspects of her approach is the way her narration of the ephemeral and emotional dimension of subjectivity condenses the permanent flow of the perception of the reality we inhabit in. It is with a real pleasure that I would like to introduce our readers to her stimulating works.

Hello Alison, and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal multidisciplinary training and you hold a MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. How do these experiences influence your evolution as an artists and how do they impact on the way you currently conceive and produce your works?

I did my undergraduate degree at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica and at that level art school for me was about learning the fundamental techniques.

I learnt about artists and art movements, I trained under mentors and gathered as much information under my belt as possible - It was about learning the rules. These were extremely Juerg Luedi

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Alison Wells

Art Review

Spring Fiesta Acrylic and Paper Collage on paper 8"x10" 2014. Private Collection

Alison Wells

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important years in my art career as it gave me a solid foundation and set the stage for me to go off on my own and explore and experiment with the knowledge I gained.

After my undergraduate training I practiced as a professional artist for seven years exhibiting and selling my art. The business of art although a wonderful experience when one is successful at selling one’s art can sometimes be detrimental to the raw creative experience. At this point I knew it was time to return to art school. I knew it would be a way for me to creatively delve whole-heartedly into my work and learn new techniques and rules to play by.

On the contrary my graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth was less about learning techniques and rules. Instead it was more about critical thinking, learning to question everything as well as breaking and reinventing the rules with just enough structure to keep me focused. It gave me a place to better grow into myself as an artist as it was also about social interaction, working and feeding off the creative energies of others in a community.

Now 8 years after graduating with my MFA I find myself reaching back to that state of mind in my studio anytime I feel the business of art compromising my creativity and so I strongly believe that my solid training in the arts was and continues to be invaluable in the way I conceive and create my artwork.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Particularly in my abstract urban landscapes my main focus is capturing visual and tactile textures in and on the surfaces of the work. The surfaces of my paintings are very important in my process as they reveal the history of the piece, and the process of layering in the

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Alison Wells

Art Review

Belly of the Beast, Acrylic & Mixed media on canvas, 50"x50" each

work. These layers provide depth, both physically and emotionally layered with a variety of materials such as acrylics, oils, tar, wax, sand, paint mediums, bonding agents and found objects. From these materials my urban landscapes are unearthed through experimentation and exploration and it is in the most open and honest explorations that

sometimes everything comes together all at once.

It is during these times that it seems like I’m outside of himself, like an observer not in control, instead merely the medium for the art to go through. To me, that is what it is all about, where my best works come from. It’s about clearing the mind, getting out of the

Alison Wells

LandEscape 11 Art Review

way, not being precious with the work and allowing the art to flow through me.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from your Belly of the Beast series, that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit yur website directly at

http://www.alisonwells.com in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production... In the meanwhile, would you like to tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

The urban landscape has always been a source of fascination in my work because it pulsates

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Alternate Landscapes Acrylic & Mixed media on canvas, 50"x50" each

Alison Wells

Alison Wells

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abstract beauty that goes beyond a stereotyped idea of landscape and brings a new level of significance to images: this challenge the viewers' perception in order to going beyond the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but the way we relate to it...

I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal such unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Belly of the Beast, Acrylic & Mixed media on canvas, 50"x50" each

with a pure energy that provides me, the artist with an array of visual and emotional stimuli.€Cities are constantly changing, being constructed and deconstructed at a rapid pace much like the process in my paintings.

My initial inspiration is my love for tactile surfaces along with the grit, the grime, the beautiful and the grotesque aspects in and of city life. I am also inspired and fascinated by the dominant structures and geometric forms of the buildings that create remarkable interplays of negative and positive shapes.

A feature of your Urban Organic series that has particularly impacted on me is the way your works seem to unveil the subtle connection between environment and the way we perceive it. The sense of geometry that pervades these canvas speaks of an

Throughout time and history, Artists have always used their creativity to reveal the world we live in, in new and interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. My work focuses on the physical world through the dynamic and natural state of randomness that occurs in nature but is perceived differently by everyone.

It is this difference in perception that moves me to go beyond a stereotyped idea of landscape and for a more abstract portrayal based on emotions and senses.

I agree that one of the roles of an artist is to reveal unexpected sides of the nature of life because it brings up the question of the role that our emotions play in our perception of nature. If we have a strong emotional association with a particular sense like a sound or smell or taste, we start to observe it more often and it starts having different meanings for us. I hope to portray my perceptions in ways that opens up the viewer to experience their own perception of nature and its many hidden messages.

The rhythmic movement suggested by the synergies of different media creates an area of deep interplay that establishes a vivid involvement with with the viewer.

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Blue-Moon Eclipse Acrylic on paper, 9"x12" Framed

Alison Wells

Alison Wells

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At the same time, you seem to remove the historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in an absolute and almost atemporal form. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Personal experience is definitely an invaluable aspect in an artists’ work whether consciously or subconsciously but yes a creative process can absolutely be disconnected from direct experience. In that case it becomes solely about formalism and the act of reacting to the elements and principles of design. The visual elements provide an essential starting point for the artists in their process as well as the viewer in understanding a work of art. Today, art is open to new interpretations because it is too free and fluid to be tied down to any one thing or way of creating and viewing.

I have highly appreciated the way you explore the boundary between Imagination and Experience in your interesting Spring Fiesta and I would say that imagination play a role in the fullfilment process of the viewers that reminds me what German artist Thomas Demand once stated: "nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead": what's your point about this? And in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

Narratives in my work are not always clear cut and don’t necessarily include an obvious plot.

I am not only interested in the stories of my cultural heritage and past but also the stories I tell about myself and to myself whether imaginary or real that engages the past, present, and future. In a lot of modern art, formalism fights the integrity of the narrative and therefore it is a struggle in my work… though a good struggle, forcing me to delve into both territories and see where it takes my paintings.

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Alison Wells

Art Review

Swampy Moonscape 1

Swampy Moonscape 2

Acrylic on paper, 9"x12" Framed.

Acrylic on paper, 9"x12" Framed.

I would define Blue-Moon Eclipse a dynamic painting: the soft nuances of red on the dark background works as a springboard to the opaque that light that burst out of the canvas... Such nuance of red that has suggested me such a tactile sensation, a feature that I can recognize in the works from your Swampy Moonscape series as well... to by the way, any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

important formal ideas and concepts in the work and therefore color needed to be secondary at that point.

My Urban organic series started out with a very limited palette - this was because I was exploring

However as the work began to develop and take amazing directions so did my palette as I reintroduced color in new an exciting ways leading to the color play you see on “Blue Moon Eclipse” and “Swampy Moonscape series” Besides producing the stimulating works that our readers have admired in these pages you also teach and you are currently Adjunct Art

Alison Wells

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Swampy Moonscape 3

Misty Mangrove Moon

Acrylic on paper, 9"x12" Framed.

Acrylic on paper, 9"x12" Framed

Professor at Bristol Community College: have you ever happened to draw inspiration from the works of your students? By the way, I sometimes I wonder if a certain kind of formal training could even stifle a young artist's creativity... what's your point?

mistakes and it is the working through of these mistakes and discoveries that are invaluable to everyone.

I have been teaching for 15 years and I have discovered quickly that education isn’t just a one-way street. As a teacher I learn from my students everyday and I find myself simultaneously enlightened and inspired by the lessons I learn from them. I also learn from their

In terms of formal art training for young artists, I strongly feel that if they make that choice to go to art school they need to go into it with a critical eye, responding to everything and questioning everything. Personal creativity can definitely be developed and nurtured with formal training but it’s definitely not for everyone and it can stifle the creative process of many budding artists.

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Alison Wells

Art Review

For some it is all about gaining knowledge of technique in the studio, reading countless books, taking class after class, but for others‌ they learn best through the experience of trial and error.

Before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a a question about the nature of the relation with your audience: and during these years your works have been exhibited in several important locations around the worls as the D’art Contemporaine in Pont Aven, The New Bedford Art Museum and the Mutual Life Gallery in Kingston. What impressions have you received in these occasions? And in particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

Many artists (myself included) sometimes act as if an audience reception of their work means nothing to them and that they are solely interested in expressing their message and fulfilling their creative calling. However this is not always the case and many of us still feel a need for validation knowing our hard work was not in vain and that someone even just one person got what we were trying to say or just responded positively to our work. Sometimes even a negative reaction is better than none at all. It must be a conversation between artist and viewer because we will not get far clapping with one hand.

Thanks a lot for this interesting conversation, Alison. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects: anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

One of my dreams ever since I could remember was to own and run my own Fine

Underground Railroad Montage Acrylic, paper collage, monoprint & graphite on paper

Arts Gallery and I am very proud and happy to say that this dream recently came true.

Therefore my future plans would be to work hard at it and to continue to ensure its growing success.

I plan to keep creating artwork and to continue traveling and experiencing what life has to offer, as much as possible. I also intend on continuing to inspire others by sharing my talents through formal teaching – and teaching informally through my art.

Thank You

Alison Wells

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Other Side of the Harbor Acrylic & paper collage on canvas, 62"x 48" 2013

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Marsh pastel 24�x18

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Christopher Reid Lives and works in Wilmington, NC

An artist's statement

I

am a realist painter drawing on the beauty I find all around me to create art. I am inspired by the way light falls on a form or filters through the atmosphere in a landscape. With the right light, even an ordinary everyday object can become a work of art. I want to share my vision with others. Too many people stumble through their days oblivious to their environment. I want to help others better appreciate their world by allowing them to see it through an artist's eyes.

While plein air painting one day, an old man came up to me and said, “I have been coming here to drink my morning coffee most of my life and I never realized how beautiful it was until I saw your painting.� That is the greatest compliment I could hope for.

My creation process is intuitive and uses no shortcuts. The process itself is enjoyable and meditative, especially when I am painting outdoors en plein air. I prefer to work in

pastel, watercolor, acrylic, and charcoal. I usually listen to the subject to determine the media. I challenge myself constantly by using different techniques and varying subjects and media. I further hone my drawing skills through weekly life drawing sessions with a model and frequent sketches.

I have always been orbiting an art career. I wanted to be a comic book illustrator in high school. Then I wanted to design 3d animation in college. After college I ran an advertising firm and did a lot of graphic design. I finally realized that the only part of any job I had ever loved was the creation and drawing. So it isn't that I decided to become an artist, but that I finally stopped fighting it. Art is no longer something I do, it is who I am.

Christopher Reid

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LandEscape meets

Art Review

Christopher Reid An interview by Josh Ryder

Christopher Reid's paintings reflect the tradition as a permanent interplay between inscrutability and beauty: contradicting Adorno's view that art acquires meaning in proportion to its lack of function, Reid's gaze on reality provides the viewer of a functional service. His careful investigation of the epiphanic feature of the details of the environment we inhabit invites us to rethink about the way we perceive reality, and in particular, his stimulating work entitled Landscape Reflection clearly shows the interconnection between perceptual process and emotional dimension. I'm particularly pleased to introduce our readers to his art.

youth. I examined the photos of paintings by Caravaggio, Rubens, Bosch, Turner, Sargent, Titian, and the museums of the world. I learned to love art and figured out why certain paintings worked better than others. This was the beginning of my art education.

We all owe a great debt to our teachers, whether they be the past masters who inspired us or professors who introduced us to a new concept. We grow so much faster when we are able to learn from not only our own experiences, but from others’. In college I learned how to talk about art and better describe my thought processes while I am creating. When I taught art, I began to understand it on a deeper level and appreciate my teachers even more. As an artist, one must put in countless hours practicing, but an art education helps aim you in the right direction.

Hello Christopher and welcome to LandEscape. I'll start this interview with some questions about your background. You have a solid formal education and studied fine art at The Savannah College of Art & Design, and at the UNCW. Would you like to tell our readers how these experiences influenced your development as an artist and how did they impact the way you currently conceive your works?

I entered art school wanting to gather as much knowledge as possible because art fascinates me. I did not expect it to develop my style or improve me magically without practice. In this way I truly benefitted from the strengths of a solid art education. I may not agree with some of the concepts I was taught, but I can appreciate how their introduction causes me to question and examine my own work.

When I was a small child, my greatgrandmother died and I saved her library of art history books from the trash. I already had a deep respect for books and liked the pictures. I reread the entire collection throughout my

I suggest visiting http://www.reidsart.com in order to get a wider idea of the artistic production that we are going to discuss in these pages. I would start from your Landscape series, that our readers has already started to get to know in the Juerg Luedi

Christopher Reid photo by Kimberly Brandt brandtphotos.com

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

Masonboro Airshow, pastel 18�x24 Watching the birds fly evokes a feeling of freedom and joy. I wanted to capture the experience of watching in awe on a beautiful day from a kayak at Masonboro Island. I combined several reference photos to create a swirling movement with plenty of variation. I had to represent birds with only a few strokes but was careful not to use the cliche 'm' shape that is so often used.

introductory pages of this article. When I first began this project I tried to relate all the visual information to a single meaning, but I soon realized that I had to fit into the visual unity suggested by the narrative that pervades your images, forgetting my need for a universal understanding of its

symbolic content. In your work, rather than a conceptual interiority, I can recognize the desire to enable us to establish direct relations... Would you say that it's more of an intuitive or a systematic process?

I realize that my portfolio runs the gamut of subjects from portraiture to plein air

Christopher Reid

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River Rocks, pastel 18”x24 Many artists treat reflections too much like a mirror. Having grown up playing in the ocean and on boats, I pay attention to how the water closer to you is so much more transparent and how the color of water is greatly affected by the depth and turbulence.

landscapes and is hard to categorize. If art is a form of communication, why would each artist say only one thing? I understand that “brand recognition” is important for sales, but I love too many flavors to choose only one for the sake of commercialism. I paint because I love creating art, not to get rich. There are much

easier ways to make a living, but none that I am so passionate about. Another reason for my range of subjects is that I want to grow as an artist every day and the best way to do that is to explore new subjects and challenge oneself.

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

In answer to your question, Art is both intuitive and analytical. I utilize my left brain when analyzing composition and planning, but allow spontaneity when actually painting and interpreting my subject. I feel that it is a mistake to use only a portion of your brain when creating. Both hemispheres of my brain are engaged during the creative process. I paint whatever subject speaks to me at that moment. I paint en plein air often and at competitions I see other artists rushing around scouting what to paint days in advance. That just isn’t how I work. I have to see the light at the time of my painting in order to determine what interests me. I need to be excited about what I am painting. When something catches my eye I begin to analyze the composition and determine how to create a work of art from it.

While working, I listen to the painting. I may alter the division of space, omit objects, grab objects from outside the picture plane, or invent, if that is what is needed.

You draw inspiration from reality and you use archival materials. In your works the scene is real and it seems that one of your goals is to represent what’s really there and still use a painterly approach. Philippe Dagen wrote in his “Le Silence des Peintres”, that the coming of a straight realism has caused a progressive retrenchment of painting from the role of representing reality. With exception of the Hyperrealism movement, Painting is nowadays more and more marked with a symbolism. Do you think that the dichotomy between Representation and Painting is by now irremediable? Moreover, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

I don’t think that painting and representation need to be in conflict at all. The real reason for the hiccup in art history during the 20th century where Realism became disconnected

from art was due to the rise of photography.

The role of the artist as a mere recorder of a visage or event was over. Once this artificial means became ubiquitous, many assumed that Realism was no longer valid. Many artists valued being different over having their art actually express their idea. I find this entire line of reasoning to be utterly ridiculous. It is like saying we should all stop speaking clearly because now we have a computerized voice on our cell phones or that we should begin muttering incomprehensibly. Saying that realism is no longer valid is like saying that the advent of microwaveable dinners meant the end of restaurants and chefs should all begin creating dishes that nobody could eat. I think it is noteworthy that none of the masters from before the 20th century were merely recorders, but they were all realists. Each artist added their own unique voice and perspective to the discussion.

The first goal of any form of communication is to be understood. A byproduct of the 20th century hiccup was that as many artists abandoned realist art as a universal language, they disconnected from the audience they were trying to speak to. Art became something that many people who like to buy art could not understand and then artists bemoaned their poverty. The word “artsy” became appended with the word “fartsy” during the hiccup.

Each of us has our own voice and we should clearly speak what is on our minds. What are we trying to say as artists? If I am intrigued by the play of light and shadows across across a wall, I want to share that fascination with my viewers. I am capturing my interpretation of an experience and mood, not a mechanically reproduced recording. I am not interested in what is trending, only in how I can express my own artistic vision so others can experience it.

Realism is universally understood. I could stop

Christopher Reid

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Snowy Egrets ICW, pastel 18�x24 These egrets were paying too much attention to the motorboats passing on the Intracoastal Waterway to notice the kayak approaching the other side of the marsh. There was a thick haze to the atmosphere as the sun passed through the high humidity in the air. The egrets glowed warmly in high contrast.

my paintings halfway through and call them finished or splatter paint around randomly and call it art, but I would be lying to myself and the viewers.

As for a narrative. Sometimes I begin a painting with a narrative in mind, and sometimes I just paint and listen for the narrative. I think the

viewer will create their own narrative if the painting is a successful work of art and the more involved a viewer is in the creation of the artwork, the better. I don't usually try to force my interpretation onto the viewer.

I like the way your careful approach offers a rigorous but at the same time lively visual

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

translation of immaterial and physical sights that pervade our reality. In this sense, your approach is intrinsically connected to the chance of creating an area of intense interplay with the viewers, that are invited to evolve from the condition of a passive audience. In particular, your refined investigation about constructed realities has reminded me of the ideas behind Thomas Demand's works: while conceiving Art could be considered a purely abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the ephemeral nature of the concepts you capture. So I would take this occasion to ask you if, in your opinion, personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that the creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

I think that personal experience pervades everything we do, not just art. Perspective is relative. If two artists were to do a painting from the same photo of the ocean, do you think the artist who lived at the beach or the one who lives in the mountains would create a more personal and true painting? Artists can certainly create art disconnected from direct experience, but there is no advantage to it. When painting a dragon, would an artist not benefit from first studying reptiles like alligators? Would you want a portrait of you painted by someone who had never even seen a photo of you?

I think that the need for familiarity with a subject is even more vital to the success of a landscape. I paint en plein air often and I have seen this practice greatly improve my handling of landscapes, even when working with photo references. I am more aware of how the environment felt and how the colors truly looked. Photos do not capture the true colors or value range visible in real life. Having experienced a scene firsthand, I am aware of

Christopher Reid

LandEscape 13 Art Review

Needlestack Sundown pastel 22”x30”

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

Safe Harbor, pastel 18�x24�

Waterways at night have beautiful reflections and lights that seem to skip across the water. I wanted to show how the vast sky makes even the cranes and derricks seem small by comparison.

the breeze on my skin, the scents in the air, and the sounds, so that I can attempt to convey those sensations in my painting. If I am standing in the shade, I tend to paint with a cooler palette than if I am in direct sunlight.

I believe that painting subjects of which I have direct experience contributes an

authenticity to a painting that the viewer picks up on, even if it is subconscious.

I also believe that if you are to invent aspects of a scene, direct experience is vital. We each have icons in our minds that match words. If I ask 20 people to draw an eye, almost everyone would draw the Egyptian hieroglyphic eye.

Christopher Reid

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Winter Woods, watercolor 12�x16�

It is rare that we get snow in this region of North Carolina, so I grew up enjoying the rare days when we had enough to play in. I began this painting by covering up all the white of the paper so that it would create a moody atmosphere and the sense that, despite the white snow, it was evening.

That is not how a real eye looks. Because I have drawn so many eyes from life, my drawing would look much more realistic. I have replaced the typical icon of an eye with a more anatomically correct one in my mind and have a greater understanding of how it functions. It is the same with types of trees. I am much

more familiar with oak trees than with banyan trees because I have painted oak trees en plein air many times. Experience is what allows me to invent.

I definitively love the way you extract a peaceful vision of reality from the general

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

idea of the environment we live in, as in Needlestack and Safe Harbor. Many contemporary landscape artists such as the photographer Edward Burtynsky or Michael Light have some form of environmental or even political message in their works. Do you consider that your works are political in this way or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach?

I am glad that there are artists who deal with political messages in their artwork, so I don't have to! In modern society we are so inundated with social issues that I do not want to drag that into my art.

When I am enjoying a landscape, I don't want to think about the latest wars in the Middle East or which corrupt politician was caught on video today. I get sick of that and I don't want to get sick of my art. I paint with a smile and I don't think I could do that if I were using my art to give speeches.

I do believe that an artist has a duty to help shape the mores of their society, but this can be done subtly. Most of my art is meant to cause people to appreciate the beauty of the world around them. If someone develops an appreciation for the beauty of a sand dune on an uninhabited beach, then hopefully they will be less likely to destroy it.

You mentioned Safe Harbor and Needlestack.

Both show the presence of man in the environment. I do not make a judgement, but leave that up to the viewer.

The morning and evening light can make anything beautiful. Perhaps someone living in a large city has forgotten this.

They might not be able to do much to prevent pollution personally, but maybe my art can help them appreciate the beauty of life around them and make life a little better. Art allows a viewer to see the world through someone else's eyes – from an external perspective.

Curtained Reflection, pastel on panel 46�x30�

The nuance of light colors that I have admired in Scattered Light has suggested me a sense of dramatic -and I would daresay "oniric"- luminosity that seems to flow out of the canvas that communicates such a tactile sensation. Any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I would say that rather than being oniric, or dreamlike, people have become so accustomed

Christopher Reid

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Sailing Into The Sun, pastel 18”x24” I grew up sailing and wanted to share the thrill of flying across the water toward the sun. I used a tilted perspective so that every line would be a diagonal to create tension and movement. I paid close attention to all the colors created by the sun shining through and around the sail as well as the green color of seawater in the wake.

to viewing the world through a lens that when confronted with realistic light it now appears shocking. On the morning I was painting Scattered Light in a sunlit park, billions of people were staring at digital screens. This has become the new “reality” and “photorealistic” has somehow come to mean “real” to most

people. I am often told that my art “looks better than a photo.” That is because I try to make it look more like my real experience and if it looks just like a photo, what is the point in painting it?

My palette varies for different media. My palette for watercolor and acrylic is based on the double-primary system with 3 earth pigments

LandEscape 14 Art Review

Dappled Light With Lantern pastel 24”x18”

Christopher Reid

Christopher Reid

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and white added in. I like the earth pigments not so much for their color as for their different working properties. I don't use black and mix my own darks. I mix all secondary hues myself.

For pastel I use an open palette and grab whatever I need. I removed all achromatic grays from my pastel set because every time I think I see gray in nature I look closely and actually see a low-chroma color instead. I do use black to create shades in pastel, but try not to overuse it.

Scattered Light is one of my plein air paintings and shows how I react to the colors and light I see in real life. I don't preselect a palette for pastel and I go so far as to put all the colors back in the box after each painting to make sure that I am grabbing colors because they feel right and not because of a set palette. Even when I use an unlimited palette with 200 pastels in front of me, most paintings never end up needing more than 15 pastels. I find that color harmony is stronger when I use less colors.

My palette has definitely changed over the years. I will often try one new color just to see if I should add it to my regular palette. I don't want a lot of colors, so it would need to be superior to a color I already use. My watercolor palette has evolved to be highly transparent, but for acrylic I have had to alter my choices to include more opaque pigments.

In your investigation about the liminal space between representation and abstraction references a universal imagery suggested by natural elements that are quite recurrent and seem to remove any historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in a more atemporal form. In this sense, I daresay that the semantic juxtaposition between sign and matter that marks out your art, allows you to go beyond any dichotomy between Tradition and Contemporariness, establishing a

stimulating osmosis between materials from an absolute dimension and a personal, lively approach to Art...

I don't often try to recreate scenes that I did not experience. I know that some artists love painting false nostalgia, but I prefer to paint my experiences rather than what I imagine someone else experienced. I value authenticity.

Because I am a contemporary artist, my paintings tend to reflect contemporary scenes.

Many of my landscapes show the influence of man because it is hard to escape. I may remove power lines if they clutter my composition but I am not pretending the environment is still pristine. I often camp out on islands. On one recent camping trip, the noise from a highway miles away continued every hour of the day and night. There were no clouds in the sky, but plenty of jet contrails. Soda bottles and beer cans were washed up amidst the driftwood.

This is the world we live in now.

Sometimes we need art that shows us how our environment should be and sometimes we need to be confronted with how it actually is. I think that even within the context of a polluted environment one can find beauty. A drainage ditch or retention pond can have interesting colors and reflections despite their utilitarian functions.

I couldn't go without mentioning Marina Reflection and Landscape Reflection, a couple of pieces that have particularly impressed me. The multilayered experience suggested by these works is capable of bringing a new level of significance to the usual concept of landscape, and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense you invite the viewers to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some information and ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need, in a way,

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

Landscape Reflection, pastel 18�x24 As part of my reflections series, I wanted to depict landscapes seen only as reflections. While on Park Avenue painting, I saw this landscape reflection in my girlfriend's car window and had to paint it. The challenge was to show the interior of the car without overpowering the reflection.

to decipher them. Maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature...

What's your point about this?

In both of the Reflection paintings you mentioned I was working to bridge the gap

between genres. I wanted to offer the viewer a different way to see the landscape.

Are you focusing on the reflection, the object reflecting it, or seeing through the reflective surface? As an artist, I am primarily interested in creating a work of art with an interesting composition. The subject is usually a secondary

Christopher Reid

LandEscape 21 Art Review

Marina Reflection, pastel on panel 36�x48�

While taking a kayaking break for some lunch at The Fish House on the ICW, I noticed how the scene reflected in my girlfriend's sunglasses was enhanced by the color of the rims. I had been looking for a way to combine the genres of landscape, portraiture, and still life in a new way and this struck me as a perfect combination.

consideration. If we are painting shapes of color with varying values, why can't genre be transcended without abandoning realism? Is Marina Reflection a landscape, still life, or portrait? I actually resisted the urge to add some wildlife into the painting!

My Reflection series definitely includes some introspective works. When we view something reflected, our perspective changes and I wanted to link metaphorical reflection with literal physical reflection. I think that even being exposed to nature can result in introspection.

Thoreau wrote about this better than anyone.

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Christopher Reid

Art Review

When I paint, it is meditative for me. Since the mood of the artist plays a role in creation of the artwork, it only makes sense that a bit of that introspection shows through in my art.

I believe that the role of every artist is different. I certainly hope to bring about an appreciation of everyday scenes in my viewers. As an artist, I notice little things that most people don't, because I am looking at everything from an aesthetic perspective. I want to share that with my audience.

During your over twenty-five year career your works have been extensively exhibited on several occasions, including a recent solo show, "Reflection", at Jazzcars Gallery. So, before taking leave from this interesting conversation, I would like to pose a a question about the nature of the relation with your audience - in particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process in terms of what type of language to use for a particular context?

I don't view the audience as separate from the artwork. They are active participants and vital to a painting's success. We create art together. As a 2-dimensional visual artist, I can only suggest part of my experience in pigment. The viewer's mind must fill in a lot of the blanks. If you are verbally describing a scene to someone, you want to speak so that they understand and in a context that they are familiar with. In the same way, the audience is always a consideration when creating art. My style and subject matter are entirely my own preference, but it is important to me that the audience is able to enjoy the art. Rather than paint only what I think the audience wants to see, I try to make sure that my paintings have a clear vision. If I don't understand where a painting is going, how can I expect my audience to?

I typically paint whatever interests me at that moment and in the style reflective of my mood. I approach the issue of finding a common language with the audience when selecting works for a show. This gives me full artistic freedom while also being practical.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Christopher. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I am having fun working larger and am experimenting with different surfaces and media. I am currently fascinated with capturing water in new ways, but I never know what will interest me from day to day. I respond to my environment. The day to day weather certainly affects my art as it does my mood. I am going camping again this weekend and I will be open to whatever inspires me. All that I can be sure of in my future projects is that I will continue to question and explore my world through art.

Art is a passionate journey. I may set goals such as how many paintings I hope to finish in a year, but I don't constrain my artistic choices in the same way. There must be a balance in life between structure and chaos.

I wish I could predict the evolution of my work, but there is no finish line for an artist. I am always exploring and improving my skills. I never stop learning or challenging myself. I hope to be painting until my dying breath.

Christopher Reid

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Tools Of The Artist, watercolor 9”x12” I painted this self-portrait using a small handheld shaving mirror. I wanted to show the true tools of the artist, the eyes. Notice that my hand with a paintbrush is reflected in the glasses and my silhouette is visible in my pupil. While the hand is an important part of artistic creation, it is the eyes that are most important.

They allow me to observe things that non-artists don’t notice and to examine my own work in self-critique.

When I began this portrait, there was a large white shape in the reflection of my glasses. I laid in a light wash as a sort of block-in for the lenses and then worked on the rest of the painting. When I came back to the glasses later, the shape was gone. I was perplexed, until I realized that the shape had been the reflection of the blank watercolor paper on my board.

As I painted, the reflection had constantly changed! I like that this painting reflects the flexible process of creating art. We adapt what we see with artistic license in order to better capture the essence of our subject.

LandEscape 40 Art Review

At the Edge of Town. It is a Mystery to me

LandEscape 25 Art Review

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen Lives and works in Slagelse and Odsherred, Denmark

An artist's statement

T

o build a bridge between different worlds of expression, to reach out for the sublime, that is my challenge.

I make modern nonverbal myths in my fabulating paintings hoping to reach the onlooker in a way that brings our minds together, so we can walk the paths of understanding - dreaming the very old dreams of humanity.

Sometimes I try to express the feeling of the landscape in connection with the time of the year.

Working with art is a never ending process, and every time a peak has been reached, there is another one to be climbed.

My work as an artist is a very serious business but at the same time a great source of joy and understanding.

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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LandEscape meets

Art Review

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator with the collaboration of Josh Ryder landescape@europe.com

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen accomplishes the difficult task of exploring the liminality between Expression and Imagination, in which perceptual reality and fulfillment process coexist in a coherent unity: his effective investigation about the intrinsic elusive concept of Time goes beyond a mere symbolic strategy and bridge together between different worlds of expression, establishing a stimulating osmosis between the expressive potentials of the unconventional materials he incorporates in his pieces. I'm very pleased to introduce our readers to Froekjaer-Jensen's refined artistic production.

Hello Sven and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? While you had a very thorough university education as a professional historian, as an artist your are basically self-taught: so I would like to ask you what are the most relevant experiences that has influenced you as an artist and how do they impact on the way you currently conceive and produce your works. In particular, how much important has been for your to get to know ancient cultures as australian aboriginals?

Looking back and trying to understand and structure the intricate web of memory and the different elements of changing viewpoints through personal development and time is

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

always a difficult task, but shortly said: Understanding the outer world and my place in it has always had a very high priority to me ever since I literally much to the horror of the grown ups ran away as a four-year-old child in a small town in Jutland to discover what was at the edge of town - and beyond.

My studies at the University of Copenhagen were chosen to give a deeper knowledge of Juerg Luedi

LandEscape 27 Art Review

In the dead of Winter I told you so

naturalistic landscape painters, they gave me the first important input to beauty and the colour/form structure concept. Danish painters like Holmer Trier, Poul S. Nielsen and Kalle Bovin all left their mark on my first understanding of art.

the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico and his pittura metafisica gave me the first glimpse of the bridge between reality conceived as being outside the mind and the reality of the mind working on its own grounds.

During my university time I was strongly influenced by Edward Hopper especially his House at the Railroad from 1925. Hopper and

Later on the art of the aboriginals of Australia was a great inspiration, especially their concept of dreamtime and the nonverbal message,

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Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Art Review

The Shaman

Fabulation. The big Snake

they concealed in their works for everyone with the right eyes to see. Apart from the beauty of their works, they showed me the existence of a language beyond words, a language of great importance for building a bridge between humans and different layers of understanding.

The last important persons in my artistic development – only to mention a few– were the concept artist Sol LeWitt together with Piero Manzoni and Marcel Duchamp, whose clarity of thinking illuminated so many new ways into art.

The concept of the shaman from indigenous people, especially the shamans of Siberia, was an important hallmark for widening my understanding of this language and the bridge between the two worlds, I stretch my works between.

I feel grateful to all these artists for giving me the strength and freedom to follow my own artistic way, the naturalistic painters showing me the respect for the material and the landscape, Hopper and de Chirico opening my eyes for what was in and beyond the

detail from myFunerals, Performance

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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Fabulation. Dreamtime

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Fabulation. All these Days

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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landscape, the aboriginals giving new knowledge of the common language of art, and the concept artists opening up the horizons of possibilities in art. All of them taught me to trust myself and never to be afraid to tread unknown trails regardless of other´s opinions.

and space. So I cannot write a description of my works outside some guidelines of what I am striving to acomplish. The narrative is embedded in the title of the works, which is quite important to me, and the rest of the understanding or experience will come by itself.

The hallmark of your approach seems to be a search of an organic synergy between the expressive potential of the colors and the evokative power of subtle reminders to collective imagery. Although each of your projects shows an autonomous life, there's always seem to be such a channel of communication and a consistent narrative in your works, that springs from the way you combine the ideas you explore: German artist Thomas Demand stated once that "nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead". What's your point about this? And in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

I would start to focus on your artistic production beginning from Tracks., an extremely interesting project that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest our readers to visit directly at http://www.feili.us in order to get a wider idea of your multifaceted artistic production.

In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

The work of Thomas Demand is impressive, and I agree with him in the quotation about the psychological narrative, but only as a possibility, not as a necessity. Your description of the organic synergy in my works is very precise, but actually I work with an expression that is non verbal and therefore quite out of my control in the first phase. I establish the setting for the picture by choosing material and working mode, and then in a strange way I have to follow the creative process actually running behind myself, and only in the choice of the different elements and their autonomous life and their location on the surface do I find my role. So yes answered in an emotional non logical way: There is a narrative for my works, but it is in the way the aboriginals art taught me, a nonverbal common language that is shared by humans living independently of time

Actually there was no inspiration except the wonder over the experience of loss and disapperance in personal human life and the general historical process. The moment which goes away and only leaves some fragile and often ephemeral tracks behind. I wanted to explore what was gained by freezing elements of human processes in time and on canvass, sharing the knowledge with the onlooker that the process was finished and only existed in our minds. At the same time it should be of aesthetic value, and the moments – or locations where the moments took place – should be chosen with utmost care to give the best representation of the concept of the project.

Therefore all the locations reflect important traits of human activities in Danish society, and using Athens with all its historical associations for one of the exhibitions of Tracks thanks to cooperation with the Greek American artist Blanka Amezkua was important to the project in a global way. The most important legacy of the project was the knowledge that crossing the bridge between then and now in a

LandEscape 14 Art Review

Tracks.

Artist of the year 2011 in Slagelse

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Art Review

Tracks. From the Edge of Town

Tracks. Just walking

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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When the wilderness.

When the Wilderness.

The three Women at the Root of the Tree.

It is a Mystery to me

new and fruitfull way gave space for wonder and sometimes contemplation, a feeling that is still essential to me and my projects.

Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

One of the most epiphanic feature of Tracks. is concerned with the way you investigates about the elusive nature of time and memory: reminding the concept of Heterotopia elaborated by Michael Foucault, you question the intimate struggle between constructed abstraction and imposed realities. While conceiving Art could be considered a purely abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the concepts you capture. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process...

This very important question is strangely difficult to answer in a straightforward way. It depends on the definition of the concept direct experience. If the direct experience is understood as the way our outside world leaves its imprint on our mind, the creative process in any way can be disconnected or be independent of it in any way. But if direct experience covers every aspect of awareness, it is not possible. Maybe one could rephrase the question to ask what part of the mind is exposed in the work of art, and to what extent is possible for the artist to control the process.

To me it is very important to make time stand still, which of course is impossible, and I can only do it by making an object out of thoughts

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Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Art Review

and feelings. This object might be ephemeral and fragile or more lasting, but its existence – short or long – unites it with its rightfull legacy of expression in the heap of broken images that we all possess, but do not always create.

The concept of Heterotopia with its otherness often in a neutral notation can in a strange way be connected to one of my two newest projects: When the wilderness is calling all its children back again, because I am striving to reach other worlds or aspects of other worlds without notation of good or bad. Just as a description.

To be quite honest I think deep structures in my mind define the values and elements of the paintings, and in that way maybe trick me a bit, luring me into the trap that is open for many artists – or humans in general. But that is a risk I have to take.

Another interesting series of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Winter Landscape: in this body of work you explore the landscape in connection with the time of the year, investigating the psychological nature of the representational image. Philippe Dagen once established in his Le Silence des peintres, that the coming of a straight realism has caused a progressive retrenchment of painting from its primordial representetive role of reality.

With exception of Hyperrealism movement, Painting is nowadays more and more marked out with a symbolic feature. Do you think that the dichotomy between Representation and Painting is by now irremediable?

At the first sight there is no going back to representation, since its most simple form has been taken care of by photo and film, but elements of representation of the outside world are impossible to bypass when working with any form of expression, even in the most abstracts forms of art. If painting as such is obsolete, the importance of thought and

engagement as vehicles for the art of the future will grow. This discussion has been going on for a long time, but as long as painting can be used as a mean of expression for me, I will go on just following my way and walking on a rope that might break at any time, but enjoying the stroll high above the abyss.

The nuances of lively but at the same time thoughtful tones that dialogue in the pieces from this series communicate me such a tactile feature, that I can recognize. This synergy between medium and ideas allows you to get a refined a balance between a Realism and an abstract Expressionist: any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

Since the old fashioned colours suit my work quite well - after having experimented a lot with alternative colours and materials such as dirt, plastic, and many other things – I stick to my own palette, which changes between light and dark after the subject of the painting. There are certain colours which really touch my heart but sometimes I leave them to try something new.

The prussian blue has been taken out and exchanged with cobalt blue and ultramarine blue over the time, but the ballance of warm and cold colours is still working for me. To me every colour has its own life and also its own bridge to my feelings of expressions. Often I just start choosing from the way I feel, but strangely I always know – as in the painting process itself – when I make a mistake. So I often use a lot of time correcting my work, sometimes changing colours or elements on the canvas more than 20 times. In the later years I have been experimenting a lot with the fabric I use to paint on to reach exactly the expression, I search.

While many contemporary artists as Michael Light and Edward Burtynsky use to convey in an explicit way sociopolitical messages in their works, you seem to maintain a more

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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Black fabulation. Guardians of the Dawn. I

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Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Art Review

Black fabulation. The Guardians of the Dawn. II

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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in your opinon the role that Art could play in sociopolitical questions?

I completely agree with your clear analysis, with the addition that I suppose there is a common human reservoir of elements of artistic expression and understanding that I draw upon, only seeing the structured worlds we inhabit as part of the immense possiblities of expression and search for knowledge and understanding. I am not quite sure I search for an aesthetic ethnograpghy, to me it is more a search for a common human description of deep structures not limited by time or space but linked to the potentials and limitations of our species in an aesthetic way.

I do respect in every way artists who try to change the actual political or economical situations of the day or of our lifetime, but I other goals to follow. But art, maybe mostly music or literature has an important role to play in the sociopolitical questions.

The Card that is so high and wild you will never have to play Another

neutral approach. Maybe that the following assumption is stretching the point a little bit, but I think that your practice reveals the connection between different cultural spheres which describes such a real-time aesthetic ethnography: you seem to be drawn to the structured worlds we inhabit and how they produce a self-defining context for our lives and experience... do you agree with this analysys? Moreover, what could be

During these years you works have been exhibited in several occasions, including your shows in USA and many other countries as well as in Denmark. So before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a a question about the nature of the relation with your audience: it goes without saying that positive feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important although not indespensable support. In particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

The bridge I am working on stretches between different worlds, but to get platform for my work, and to acquire the securety, however frail, that is required to be able to follow my path, I had to get access to juried exhibitions in Denmark and abroad.

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Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

Art Review

White Days. Mother

White Days. Never saw a Woman so alone.

Sven Froekjaer-Jensen

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But since it went quite well and also got me some awards at home and abroad for which I am very grateful, it was not nescessary for me to adapt my work to the whims and modes of the actual Danish art scene.

My biggest problem is the lack of time and the immense challenge to create a card of art that is so high and wild, I will never have to deal another.

My work with art is a dream come true and I am thankful for the opportunity of being part of the scene.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Sven. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects?

How do you see your work evolving?

Your question opens a mental image to a long, winding parth I have to follow leading into the landscape of the mountains, where the treasures are hidden, or to put in other words, I must go on working as long and as hard as I can. In the nearer future I will finish the black project mentioned combined with its mirror the project, Days of White, in which I am trying to find a minimalistic expression of deep structures of the mind.

After that I will return to the landscape in a new setting, searching for a new expression, an expression which – if it is possible – has both the nearness, the stillness and the potential of both mind and matter. And after that? I will follow the way layed out for me, thankful for being one of the builders on the bridge on the endless river - of art.

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator with the collaboration of Josh Ryder landescape@europe.com

White Days. The Animal

LandEscape 40 Art Review

Peruvian Andes 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2015

LandEscape 5 Art Review

Antonia Cacic Lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia

An artist's statement

I

am painter from Croatia. 20 years ago, when I was a child, here in Croatia was a war and the fall of communism. Now Croatia is member of the European Union.

Last year I spent four weeks in Peru (in a small village in the Andes; Chacas). I saw that people live in terrible conditions.

But I was moved by their serenity despite the merciless conditions of life. I visited several archaeological museums and sites in Peru (for example Chan Chan, city in the sand near Trujillo). I'm impressed with their rich culture and the great vibrancy.

As I said, motive was developed through time spent in the Peruvian Andes where I stayed four weeks among native population, descendants of the Incas who live at an altitude of 3500 m.

Fascination with their culture, origins, habits, way they dressing with lots of color, the psychological impression of their physiognomy and the dramatic landscape of the Andes, all mixed into one conglomerate that I had remembered (it seemed all like an entirely different world ) gave me a strong incentive for exploring the painting surface.

Antonia Čačić

Antonia Čačić was born February, 20th 1976.

1994/2000. Croatia, Zagreb - graduated design on Faculty of Architecture 1997/2002. Croatia, Zagreb - graduated painting on Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb 2002/2006. Slovenia, Ljubljana specialized study of painting on Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana.

She exhibited on many group and solo exhibitions.

LandEscape 6 Art Review

LandEscape meets

Antonia Cacic An interview by Josh Ryder

Antonia Cacic's paintings reject the tradition of mere decor and establish a permanent interplay between Trascendence and perceptual Reality: she conveys memories in a multilayered combination that invites the viewers to a lively intellectual experience, and while dispensing with the theoretical precepts of minimalism, her work keeps a marked independence from the concept she explore.

So the evokative mix of tones and shapes that hallmarks Cacic's recent works can be viewed as an aesthetic testing ground for the autonomy of painting and its historicity. I'm particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating artistic production.

Hello Antonia, and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and after graduating at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb you have atpecialized study of painting on Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana: how have these experiences influenced your evolution as an artists and how do they impact on the way you currently conceive and produce your works?

I think that in order to find some new challenge in painting one have to constantly be open and curious. Formal education helps to acquire knowledge or skill and accomplish technique, but if the skills and techniques achieved in the process of training end in themselves, then it is limitative. Of course, art education is not Juerg Luedi

Welcome Croatia 150 x 200 cm, oil/canvas, 2013

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Antonia Cacic

Art Review

Peruvian Andes, 160 x 260 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2015

necessary and the only requirement for research, and sometimes even can be an aggravating factor. Accepting the challenge is a process that sometimes leads all learned in question and requires a passion that drives to rise new spaces.

directly http://www.saatchiart.com/antoniacacic in order to get a wider idea of your multifaceted artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

I would start to introduce our readers to your current production from Peruvian Andes series, an extremely stimulating series of performing paintings that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit

Motive was developed through time spent€ in the Peruvian Andes where I stayed four weeks among native population, descendants of the Incas who live at an altitude of€ 3500 m.

Fascination with their culture, origins, habits, with the way they dressing with lots of color,

Antonia Cacic

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Peruvian Andes 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2015

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Antonia Cacic

Art Review

Peruvian Andes, 160 x 260 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2015

and the dramatic landscape of the Andes gave me a strong incentive for exploring the painting surface, dealing with the ways in which colors dominates in traditional costumes, in a dramatic landscape, in the psychological impression of their physiognomy, all mixed into one conglomerate colors that I had remembered. It seemed all like an entirely different world.

My research consists of the following processes: place the horizontal format€ then spontaneously shed a few colors on it (it is important to pay attention to the correct consistency of the paint in order to obtain the corresponding result) then

pick up the excess paint scraps, leave to dry and then intervening in some parts as they are dropped, and the mapping of some white to these parts after repeated procedure bleed, mapping, until the composition is closed in a meaningful whole.

Result depends on a lot of coincidences that occur during leaking. The manner in which it will correspond with other colors and what will give impression when rags collect excess paint. It is somehow built inside, there is a general vision of what I want to get, but this is largely due to coincidence mode impossible to predict, it is an experiment.

Antonia Cacic

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Peruvian Andes, 160 x 260 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2015

This process began two years ago when I painted portraits of the former Croatian president in an ironic gesture, and then continued through a series of paintings called Mirroring, a kind of self-portrait.

The abstract feature that that hallmarks your recent works creates an area of visual interplay with the viewers, that are urged to evolve from the condition of a merely passive audience. In particular, your process of semantic restructuration of a view has reminded me of the ideas behind Thomas Demand's works, when he stated that

"nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead". While conceiving Art, even in the case of Photography, could be considered an abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the concepts you explore. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process...

Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

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Antonia Cacic

Art Review

A difficult question, at first glance I would say that it is difficult to separate the process of direct experience. But when I paint it looks to me like some kind of trance and then what we call 'thinking' is no longer handled by the same terms as when things are trying to verbalize. I would even say that in painting there is something a priori, something that is in front of the experience, even something elusive for experience. I could say that now I want to snap just that what is in front of image. Of course, we wonder what is it that others recognize if in painting there is something a priori.

The act of painting is surely direct experience in material. There were times when I stopped to paint because I felt it was no longer anything to say in that medium. But I really missed pigments, brushes, and all others painting substance in all its meanings, so I returned to painting.

The nuance of delicate tones that pervade your canvas, and I can admire especially in Manta tejida has suggested me such a tactile sensation: any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I wanted in Manta Tejida to transfer that magic I met while I stayed among the Indian population in the Andes. I do not know what it was, maybe it was because of altitude (lack of oxygen), and when I came back I wanted to put that particular impression on canvas. Dynamic changing light in the Andes have left an impression on me, also continuous changes of light changes the color palette. Light is one of the principal demands of painting, and there is a marvelously light in Andes.

Another interesting project of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is the triptych Mirroring. The multilayered experience conveyed by these anthropomorphic shadows is capable of

Manta tejida, 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

bringing a new level of significance, to the usual idea behind the concept of perception: and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense it invites the viewers to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist's gaze could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Actually, something like that was on my mind when I was doing this series of paintings.

Antonia Cacic

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Manta tejida 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

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Antonia Cacic

Art Review

Mirroring, 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

Mirroring, 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

Specifically, I wanted to show self-portrait in the reflection, in the morning when I look in mirror, while I'm not fully awake yet. So this is the sense between full consciousness and dreaming. I wanted to snap exactly that moment, that impression when we do not sleep but not awake yet. This is also painting between perception and memory, because it cannot be paint by observation but by the remembered impression.

it into an accessible visual is a key point of your works and plays a crucial role in your process: you seem to reject mere decorative aspects, in order to focus to the inner nature of the stories you tell with your paintings. How much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your images?

While characterized with a deep abstract mark, your works seems to provide the viewer of a subtle narrative, as in President: the capability of discerning the essential feature of a view and to translate

This series of paintings is also about catching an impression. In this manner of painting you do not know exactly what you're going to get, but in the process it happens to be lots of coincidences that take you to the definition of the image. Therefore, it is possible to say that I’m thinking about the narrative all the time, but in a way that it is not a literal and unambiguous; painting is different from the

Antonia Cacic

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Mirroring 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

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Indios head 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

Antonia Cacic

Antonia Cacic

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verbal narration, it is not possible to determine its existence in time because image is all present at once, but can be observed and analyzed in long time and in lots of layers and narratives. In this series called President I wanted to get impression of President, manipulate with the color in order to achieve resemblance of character and meanings.

I daresay that your works can be also considered allegories of the conflictual relation between Perception and Memory: your paintings seems to be pervaded with an inner narrative, but you reject an explicit explanatory strategy: rather, you seem to offer to the viewer an Ariadne's Thread that allows to find personal interpretations to the stories you tell through your colorful plasticity. How much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

I like that expression; between Perception and Memory - Indian Heads are exactly that, something between perception and memory.

Perception took place in direct contact, but when I came back it took some time to settle impressions in some kind of no-factually memory, I had impressions in some kind of smear, glance, like someone look at you and quickly turn his head, it was something that is pure essence of painting, that can be reached only by color and surface.

In my memory their hair seemed purple, violet, and their faces something like pink-red.

I like the way your brush strokes create an intimate unity between past, present and future, establishing a vivid involvement with with the viewer.

At the same time, you seem to remove the historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in an absolute and almost atemporal form... do you think that this

Indios head, 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

might be interpreted as a reject of acceptance of the contingence of your work?

It could be said that I'm little flirting with contingency here. In this kind of process there is a lot of contingency, especially because some parts of paintings literally depend on coincidence (the way I pick up color with a towel, etc.).

However, I want to get a result that is not just contingent. The way I paint I'd call processed coincidence. I repeat that procedure a lot of times if necessary until I get a result, until I see that the painting is visually consistent. And when we are talking about visually consistent I thing we are already in some kind of rejection of acceptance of the contingency of work.

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Antonia Cacic

Art Review

Mirroring, 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2014

President, 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2013

During these years you have exhibited your works in several group and solos. So, before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a a question about the nature of the relation with your audience: in particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

for communication. Painting is quite recluse process and I always wondering if anyone else sees what I see in particular painting. I think that the only truth of the works can reach universal, and so does the audience.

When I paint I don’t think about anything other than of visual integrity of work. I paint what motivates me inside, in this matters I cannot make compromises. When the process of painting is completed then there is a tendency

Thanks a lot for this interesting conversation, Antonia. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects. How do you see your work evolving?

I think I will go towards some kind of reduction, but I cannot predict. Thank you for inviting me.

Antonia Cacic

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President 130 x 160 cm, acrylic/canvas, 2013

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Midnight hour, 2015, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

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Cherisse Alcantara Lives and works in San Francisco Bay Area, CA

An artist's statement

I

n my paintings, I explore the internal landscape and external forces€in relation to figures and their environment. I am interested in utilizing multiple levels of reality€by combining figures taken from a certain moment in time into different or imagined spaces, thereby creating new interpretations. Seemingly ordinary events and everyday observations contain strange and incomprehensible elements which interest me greatly. I am drawn to characters involved in their inner world, doing ordinary things; complex figures with inner drives: hopes, doubts, fears, and flaws.

During moments when individuals are caught unawares, a little bit of their internal dialogue and inner selves are made visible through their gestures, posture, body language and facial expression to name a few. I like to create scenarios for them by placing them in both familiar and€equivocal spaces with mood and atmosphere serving as a continuation of

their state of being and condition. I am highly in tune with the lighting, shadow, tone and atmosphere because they serve an integral component in my paintings.

The characters become suspended between the real world and the dream world, reflecting the experiences we have of spaces and the everyday life: of belonging and not belonging, of being present in the moment and not, and of experiencing both our outer and inner worlds simultaneously.

My sources come from my personal memory and experiences, and both found and self made imagery. I sometimes start out with situations and seek out the images necessary.

Other times, images I encounter serve as my point of departure to invent narratives.

Cherisse Alcantara

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LandEscape meets

Art Review

Cherisse Alcantara An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator landescape@europe.com

Cherisse Alcantara work focuses on the tensions between Imagination, Memory and perception of Space in the modern age. In her paintings she investigates about the unexpected relations between the internal landscape and the outside world: the empty and sometimes emotionless space is a recurrent feature of her imagery and it seems to raise the question of the role of the individual in our ever more complex worldwide reality. Viewers are not forced to enter an unknown realm of emotions, but gently invited to explore the suspended worlds revealed by apparent emptiness and fill it with their personal experiences, to embrace Alcantara's intimate take on reality and to discover our unsuspected ability to bring a new level of significance to well-acquainted concepts as space and memory. I'm particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating works.

Hello Cherisse, and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you hold a BA of Art Practice University of California, Berkeley. How did this experience influence your evolution as an artist and how did it impact on the way

you currently conceive and produce your works?

Thank you for inviting me for this interview.

Since I could remember, I have always drawn and was always involved in art throughout elementary and high school. I grew up in a small Catholic town in the Philippines and so the first art I saw were these Catholic images and icons. I remember clearly when the new mural was being painted in the church altar which was also my school’s church. I grew up knowing that images hold some kind of power, even if unfortunately, it aided in cultivating dogma and fatalistic beliefs.

It was during high school here in the States that I really got into making art and art history, and fell in love with paintings. I couldn’t pursue art after that so for a short while, I was working in health care. For a few years, I lost my drive to draw and paint because I was going through some crisis. In a way, it was good for me to distance myself from art. I had to realize a few things and grow up, and in return, gain raw elements which I brought into my works.

When I finally went back to school to get my art degree, it was difficult to do oil painting initially because it is very unlike drawing and pastel. Experimentation was encouraged in my art department and because I was looking for my art and voice, my works evolved significantly. I went through a phase where I did these atmospheric, minimalist, semiabstract paintings. It was a very important Juerg Luedi

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Cherisse Alcantara

Art Review

phase in my artistic growth. Through these works, I found color, tone, mood, mark making and the paint surface which I brought into my new works. Without this phase, I couldn’t make the works I do now.

In Berkeley, I had very good and supportive professors who made me think more deeply about the conceptual framework behind my work. I didn’t grow up in an artistic family nor did I know any professional artist prior, therefore, it was great to meet many artists. I learned a great deal about the world of contemporary art. After graduating in 2013, I had a need to incorporate figurative elements in my works and developed the works I have now. I attended figure session classes for a year to train and hone my skills further. When it comes to my art, I allow myself to follow my needs, impulses and interests.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

In my works, I place figures in different or imagined spaces. I start with a vague idea of the imagery, of the figure and the space around it. Oftentimes, I get drawn to certain images without fully comprehending why initially. I use many sources, from self made photos of people I know and strangers to found imagery I see online, on social media and cinema for example. The figures I use are often from self made sources. I often use my iphone to take photos of people around me because it’s more inconspicuous.

Before I start a new painting, there is an incubation period during which I reflect on the images. I make many compositional drawings detail from myFunerals, Performance

and studies. What drives the composition I use is what I want to get out of the painting which I will say is the most important thing for me to know before I start. This determines how I want to place the figure in space, in what perspective, what space or place setting I will use, what’s the mood, the colors and how I will paint it. I often start with a rough underpainting and now, I try to keep things loose and open so I can freely make changes. I make many adjustments throughout because I am discovering the work. I make sketches in different phases of the work or I take photos of it and use Photoshop.

The act of painting is also an act of thinking but not in a theoretical way or linear way.

Because the visual imagery from your source or imagination has to translate to the paint medium and this happens as I paint and make adjustments. That is why things I didn’t originally plan make their way because there is a thinking that occurs which I am not fully conscious of. This is precisely why I love painting. I often focus on one piece for a couple of weeks, and this focusing allows me to distill the work and keep certain things or not. It’s the slowness of painting which I gravitate to.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Midnight Hour and Hanging that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit your website directly at http://www.cherissealcantara.com/ in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production... In the meanwhile, would you like to tell us something about the genesis of these interesting projects? What was your initial inspiration?

These two paintings are inspired by people and in this case, strangers whom I

Cherisse Alcantara

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Hanging, 2015 oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

encountered in my daily life. I get curious about strangers and I often ask myself many questions. What are their lives like, what are they thinking, where are they going and what will happen to them? In Hanging, what does it

mean when young people assert their identities through their attire or be in a clique?

The figures in these pieces are what you would call urban youth and young adults. It’s quite a difficult age because it’s when you’re

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Cherisse Alcantara

Art Review

Fluid grounds, 2015 oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches

finding who you are and what you want to do in life. Perhaps your personal and family life is chaotic or you feel uncertain about many things and thus, you’re in a sort of limbo.

In Midnight Hour, I was very captivated with the woman in profile. She had such a look

about her and was deep in her inner world. It’s her expression which drew me in. In Hanging, it was the postures of the figures and the way they are huddled together in some kind of circle that got me to look at them. I try to relate myself to my characters without being sentimental and judgmental. The spaces I

Cherisse Alcantara

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Ghosts, 2015

Sway, 2015

oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches

oil on canvas, 42 x 46 inches

placed them in are specific to what I want to get out of the piece and in short, a continuation of them.

Your investigation about the relationships between internal landscape and external forces gives life to a multilayered experience, as the one suggested by "Fluid grounds" that has particularly impacted on me is the way you unveil an unexpected connection between Man and Nature: rejecting the stereotyped idea of beauty of a landscape, you bring a new level of significance to the landscape that is far from being a mere background of our existence.

And in a certain sense this has suggested me the idea that your work is a refined form of decryption of what is hidden in the environment we live in and that we try to decipher. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of

Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

I do agree that one important role of the artist is to create a multi-layered experience which allows the viewer to enter and make her interpretations. I am drawn to art that are mysterious or incomprehensible in an unplanned or unpretentious manner because that’s when I know that the artist conveyed something you can’t put into words.

I am not interested in imitating nature and in this case, landscape. They are not mere backgrounds in my works. Initially when I started these works, it was Giorgone I was looking at. He was one of the first Italian painters to make landscape in which the meaning is in the mood and foregoing the standard Renaissance narrative in works such

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Cherisse Alcantara

Art Review

Whispers, 2014 oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches

as The Tempest. The landscape and spaces I paint are invented, imagined, manipulated or abstracted because I want them to connect with my characters. I want them to reflect the internal world of my characters. That’s why I

am very particular about the mood, lighting, tones and atmosphere in my paintings. In many of my works, I have used a dim lighting or a misty/foggy atmosphere. In Fluid grounds, the shadows can be read as metaphors. Shadows

Cherisse Alcantara

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are recurring elements in my works. It goes back to my Catholic upbringing: the light and the dark, heaven and hell, life and death but also of the dark hidden aspects within each and every one of us.

When admiring Whispers, that I have to admit is one of my favorite pieces of yours, I daresay that your approach take our perception with bathed breath, lingering about the dichotomy between the real world and a dream-like dimension: such symbiosis takes an intense participatory line with the viewer, creating an effective combination between Memory and Imagination. At the same time, you seem to urge us to take us in such an atemporal dimension. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

Whispers is an important piece for me because it’s the first painting in my body of work where I incorporated the figure. I stayed with this for a while. The landscape came from various sources because I was looking for the right space that relates to how I experienced it. My figures become suspended between the real world and the dream world, in spaces that are both familiar and imprecise.

Whispers was inspired by an image and event I have observed many years ago. This is a piece where particularities were excluded because too much information will make it unnecessarily specific. My memories aren’t bound in a chronological order nor are they photographic.

How I recall things have more to do with what I choose to remember and it’s often my experiences of them that stay with me.

My life experiences inform my art. My paintings are related to things I know, have seen and experienced.

You asked if the creative process could be disconnected from direct personal experience. I am doubtful about the direct experience being disconnected from the creative process because painting is such a physical medium with a mind-hand-body connection and that could be said of other medium as well.

There seems to be always a narrative behind your canvas that the viewer are invited to recognize. In particular, I have highly appreciated the way you explore the boundary between Imagination and Experience in the interesting Drift that I would define a dynamic painting: not only for the obvious reference to the concept of running, but especially for the sensation of movement suggested by the stimulating nuances of tones that pervade the canvas, a feature that I can recognize in Ride as well: any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I am highly in tune with the colors and tones I use. They create the lighting and overall mood in my works so they play a significant role. My palette is quite somber and muted because oftentimes, I end up sacrificing color for tone.

As you can see, the light I use is not the full daylight effect nor bright. I’m the kind of painter that paints from dark to light because I just cannot paint on a white or light ground for some reason.

My palette is small and I use very few colors in a painting. There are so many tones and variations you can actually get from a small palette. It’s easier to unite a painting that way too. I use different palettes for each painting. In the end, it boils down to what the painting needs. I adapt my way of painting to the work; I don’t adapt the work to my way of painting.

Often before I start a piece, I have a vague idea of the color palette I will use. With Drift, I wanted to get that artificial fluorescent lighting.

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Ride, 2014 oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches

Cherisse Alcantara

Cherisse Alcantara

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Among shadows, 2014

A time to, 2014

oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

Whereas with Ride, it’s the coldness of the snow and the whites I was getting at. In Tread, it was the atmospheric greens, browns and grays I was focused on. I also use glazes and scumbles often and as far as color theory goes, I am aware of it but it’s not something I think about in my paintings. It’s about what colors and tones feel right visually for me.

perceive our relation with Reality… Many landscape artists as the photographer Michael Light and Edward Burtynsky often reveals some form of environmental or even political message in their works. Do you consider that your works are political in this way or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach?

In a certain sense, your vision about the intimate struggle between our inner dimension and the outside world, revealed for example in Tread, often lead you to a process of a deep re-contextualizion the of the idea of the environment itself, urging the viewers to challenge the common way we

The viewer can read my paintings however she likes. However, it is not my intention to put environmental and political messages in my works the way the artists you mentioned do and by the way, I find their works compelling.

Yet because it’s human experiences and contemporary figures which interest me, they

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Tread, 2015 oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

Cherisse Alcantara

Cherisse Alcantara

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Travelers, 2014 oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches

are naturally affected by the world around them, their daily lives and life in general.

However, I don’t expect the viewer to directly read into that. I will say this though. If there is a

socio-political issue I am always conscious of when I paint, it’s the issue of gender and women’s rights. I tend to be very careful how I paint women. You won’t find Venuses, odalisques, movie tropes, orientalized,

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Cherisse Alcantara

Art Review

sexualized and objectified women and men in my works.

My women are women with thoughts and spirit such as in my paintings Travelers and Midnight Hour. Not to mention, having grown up in a country with a long colonial history and given that the tradition of oil painting as we all know has been Eurocentric, I am always mindful that I don’t contribute to this.

Your work Play seems to explore a more intimate and also conceptual dimension: and I can recognize a going-over and increasing hermetism in the way you carefully choose the few character that are represented: although I'm aware that this might sound a bit I have to admit that when I first had the chance to admire this painting I received an inexplicable and deep feeling of angst... would you like to tell me something about the narrative behind this project? And in general, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

I am glad you felt a strong reaction to Play. I was initially afraid that it would be perceived as cute because of the two children. It was inspired by two kids playing in the snow I saw during the holidays. What’s different about this piece is the absence of light.

The children are submerged in shadows and in this case, dark red shadows, which could be disconcerting to some perhaps. It’s not the first time I painted children. I’ve painted them in Tread and Among shadows. I am just unable to paint children the way other painters have done: happy, innocent and carefree. I am hesitant to paint portraits of other people’s children for this reason. In these paintings, I was reflecting on childhood and perhaps, they are self portraits of my childhood self. When I was painting these, I

was thinking about the loss of innocence, loss of childhood and self consciousness through my own experiences.

I think of a narrative in my works but I don’t see them as stories but more of scenarios or a moment in an ongoing story of someone’s life.

Painting is a static image you see all at once.

Thanks a lot for this interesting conversation, Cherisse. Finally, I would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects. Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

It’s my pleasure. I have just recently started to get my works shown and I’ll be participating in group shows in San Francisco.

You can find me on Instagram via the link on my website to see news, projects and upcoming shows. I have new pieces I have going in the studio and lots of ideas I’m inspired of. I’ll be very happily busy and productive. Thank you!

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator landescape@europe.com

Cherisse Alcantara

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Play, 2015 oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches

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SUmmer Café

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Julia Vergazova Lives and works in Moscow, Russia

An artist's statement

I

am an artist working in techniques of batik and oil painting, who draws inspiration from nature, cities and cityscapes. I am traveller by nature, trying to flee from cold gray Russia to the vivid and sunny landscapes of Europe -- and being back in cold Russia I pack architecture, atmosphere, rhyme, flavors and colors into frames, canvases and oil.

My works may seem to be decorative -- but it's always an

attempt to find a balance between a realistic landscape and an abstract expressionist painting.

I strive to use right color, line, composition to help viewer dive into landscape, to feel emotions that I had on the cliff near the sea or in the center of never sleeping city.

Julia Vergazova

LandEscape meets

Julia Vergazova An interview by Josh Ryder and Katherine Williams landescape@europe.com

Julia Vergazova's paintings reflect the tradition as a permanent interplay between inscrutability and beauty: her careful approach conveys memories in a multilayered, colorful experience that invites the viewers to a joyful experience. Conveying Realism and Abstract Expressionism in a lively and consistent combination, her works keep independence from the context they explore, so the colorful paintings that we'll discuss in the following pages can be viewed as an aesthetic testing ground for the autonomy of painting and its historicity. I'm particularly pleased to introduce our readers to her stimulating artistic production.

Hello Julia, and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you recently graduated with academic excellence from Penza Art College and moreover you travel a lot in Europe, and you draw inspiration a lot from its sunny weather: how does the combination of these experience influence your evolution as an artist?

Academic education allowed me to firmly master drawing, color and form perception and laws of composition. But education is not everything. It's important what exactly an artist wants to tell a viewer and what is goal she is trying to achieve,

Juerg Luedi

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Julia Vergazova

Art Review

Fall color of Paris Watercolor on Paper 14 x 11

not just the visual language mastership. It's important to get rid of everything you already can do on time, and go further in your study, to switch from mastering basics of the craft to conveying the meaning. In my creative works I stepped aside from canons of Russian easel painting realistic school and chose more unconstrained, decorative style.

Presented series of works, named "Inner detail from myFunerals, Performance

city", is joined together by simple idea: cities are similar to people, every city has its own features and character. I wished to express exactly that: mood of each place, and not to copy pieces of visible reality.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In

Julia Vergazova

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applied free wax pouring, splashing, etching.

That allowed me to make the process of work creation to be even more interesting and valuable experience.

Amount of time I need to work on sketch and final expression varies vastly. Some pictures appear quickly and easily, others require a lot of work. Sometimes I take a break, set work aside and return back much later.

Sometimes I realize how things should be arranged already in the middle of process, in that case I abruptly make everything over if it's possible. One of features of the batik is that nothing can be changed or corrected later, in contrast to oil painting.

My favourite Mokum

particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

Presented works were made in the hot batik technique on the natural silk. Warm and living nature of the fabric helped me to accomplish my goal - that is to convey the spirit and emotion of the city. Regarding technical side: I am always eager to experiment, technique mixture, learning new. In my latest works I

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Como and Summer Cafe, a couple of extremely stimulating works that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit directly http://vergazova.com in order to get a wider idea of your multifaceted artistic production. In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of these interesting projects?

What was your initial inspiration?

"Summer cafe" is one of my early works. It contains summer heat, smell of cigarettes, cinnamon and coffee, evening coolness of summer terrace and yet warm asphalt of the city. Thoughtful girl sits on the table, her eyes are hidden by the hat. This work was created at the hot middle of summer. The city on the background may be any - from the European to the Middle East. "Como Lake" was inspired by journey across North Italy, and by visiting that lake in particular.

We were there with my mother, we walked down the shore, went boating, explored streets of nearby boroughs, stopped at shops and cafes. It is a very peaceful place, in my

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Julia Vergazova

Art Review

Evening Brussels II

Evening Brussels I

work I've tried to convey that silence, regular life of villages and transparent alpine air.

What has particularly impressed me of your approach is the way, by heightening the tension between reality and perception of it, your work explores the concept of emerging language in a lively

contest as an urban environment, and you seen to draw inspiration from your travels, so I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

In my opinion artist's context and experience are important and are inseparable from the work of art.

Julia Vergazova

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Scarlet

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Julia Vergazova

Art Review

Green waters of Ishma

Language, author, context - those are three main components of artistic statement. The artist is the subject of statement. Let's look through the history and watch the role of author along the line of art development. In roman gravestone portrait author is anonymous. Portrait is purely functional, it cannot be seen as an art per se. An icon is functional too, artistic part is introduced. The figure of author emerges as late as Renaissance. Simultaneously matters of secular and mimetic emerge, appears artistic

goal, picture, perspective.

Soviet State was an author by itself - it produced meanings and ideas. Other authors were nonexistent, there were only propagandist artistic service. In that case an artist acted like a pure context, there was no artist as the subject of the statement.

Joseph Kosuth makes the next step in reflection - he steps back from his statement and shows us our statement machine, for example in his installation "One and three chairs". The art moves through borders of the

Julia Vergazova

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imagine it. I think a good example here may be Joseph Bauyes, one of my favourite artists.

"My favourite Mokum" was created on the wave of impressions from visiting Amsterdam.

I've been there for a week and it became my favourite city. I literally fell in love. The huge museum of Van Gogh, museum of contemporary art, "Katten kabinet" (the museum devoted to cats), thousands of cyclists on the streets and developed bicycle infrastructure struck me to the heart! I've met lots of cheerful and friendly people, I for the first time felt incredible lightness and freedom. My reality had transformed. Each place influences us in its own way, and I felt psychic unity and harmony with Amsterdam.

After that I've had same experience just one more time - with Athens, when I felt almost physical pleasure of being inside it.

Cities are beautiful, and I am mad about meeting new (for me) cities.

In Amsterdam everything was beautiful colors of its streets, scent of its canals and tiny and comfortable cafes. I've put all that things into my work.

language. Talking about myself: everything I'm talking about was formed by personal experience and environment I live in, and that experience and environment influence on my choices in materials and language. But they also depend on the goal of the particular work of art. We live in the media space, with interest to the character, myth built around the artist. That myth is undividable from the artist's experience, maybe imagined, doesn't matter. Thus, if you don't have any particularly bright experience, you should

Saying about Brussels: it was evening, our plane has touched down in Brussels airport, and just in a few hours we were about to train to Brugges. I with my friend decided to have a small trip down the streets of the city, in the light of the setting sun. We passed by cozy patios and small squares, breathed in smells of cinnamon and coffee. That formed by work: there you can feel both warmth and coolness, it is made in silvery palette of sunset, with warm sparks of glowing windows that hide enigmatic life of the people of this beautiful city.

Northern countries are my favourite, in my view they are Northern Renaissance, medieval architecture, lace, chocolate and the cool of canals.

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Julia Vergazova

Julia Vergazova

LandEscape 42 Art Review

I have appreciated the nuance of lively but at the same time thoughtful tones colors that sometimes suggest a tactile feature, as in "Scarlet" and that in "Green waters of Ishma" and "Sailboats of February" allows you to get a refined a balance between a Realism and an abstract Expressionist: any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

I appreciate abstract Expressionists a lot. My favorites are Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Rothko is for me an example of painting as it is, full of concentration on the search of color interrelations and their balance. Sometimes I address to his paintings to draw inspirations for color decisions. Pollock's shamanism charms, he is a mysterious artist-myth, who died tragically on the peak of his fame. Pollock converted the process of art making into a dance, action, performance, where the process of creation is not less important than its result.

I often imagine myself as Jack the Splasher when I work with wax, when I pour or splash it, and it gives me awful lot of inspiration.

Talking about myself, while working on the presented set of batiks, my palette became more open and clear, I stopped fearing color in contrast with my early works, which had dingy colors and silver palette occasionally prevailed. Maybe it's related to the fact that I've later visited several southern countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, that sated me with impressions and unbelievably bright colors of their nature, allowed me to open up and stop being afraid of bright spots among grayish restrained palette of Russia. I drew inspiration for my work "Scarlet" from the impressions of my travel to the Greek island Hydra. It amazed me with juicy colors of its verdure, azure of the sea on the whitewashed houses and streets.

All the architecture was completely white, thereby making bright contrasts of southern

nature even more expressive.

Work "Green Waters of Ishma" was created under the impression of same named book of Max Frei, about fairy world, and travel to Czech Republic. I often borrow elements and architectural features of countries I have visited. I stylize, transform them and use to construct worlds of my canvases.

Recently I want to move away from copying real objects completely, focusing on solving solely pictorial and coloristic tasks in batik and oil painting. I also started to work in the genres of installation, audio-installation and ready-made recently. I am attracted by conceptual art, transmission of ideas with absolute minimum of resources, creation of meaning. Here we are returning to the question of the context the artist are living in.

In the latest years situation has changed drastically and I became more interested in important for my country and the whole world problems: problems of censorship, right of free speech, discrimination and privilege, total surveillance, war. Not only the beauty of the nature and diversity of the world. World is beautiful not everywhere and not at all times, unfortunately. This is reflected in my recent works, one of them was presented at the "Exploration of freedom" exhibition in Moscow in May 2015.

The multilayered experience suggested by your paintings is capable of bringing a new level of significance, to the usual idea behind the concept of landscape: and I would go as far as to state that in a certain sense Early Spring in Begijnhof invites the viewers to challenge the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension... By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need in a way to decipher them. Maybe that one of the

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Julia Vergazova

Art Review

Early Spring in Begijnhof

roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Certainly, successful work always asks viewer to learn and decipher, decode the information that the artist put into a work of art. Deep work of art makes a myth around it. It starts to live its own life, creates a cloud of interpretations.

In the work "Early Spring in Begijnhof" I've tried to express silence and eternity. I think eternity is deeply connected to the loneliness.

Work was created in connection with visiting the Begijnhof, located in Bruges. Beguines' way of life was similar to monkhood, they were engaged in socially useful affairs: raised orphans, made needleworks and wove laces, cared for the sick and for the elderly.

Julia Vergazova

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Tree in Bruges

That's why picture is restrained, made in almost monochrome gamma. The nature itself emphasizes the character of this place and inhabitants way of life. The picture refers to the history of this phenomenon. The picture, if I may say so, produces the sound of silence. It tunes the viewer for the silent contemplation of the world and the viewer inside it.

In all of your multifaceted artistic production there's a recurrent sense of

narrative: although each of your project has an autonomous life, there's always seem to be such a channel of communication between your works, that springs from the way you combine the ideas you explore: German artist Thomas Demand stated once that "nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead". What's your point about

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Julia Vergazova

Art Review

this? And in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

For me picture is a narrative in the first place, it is a search for the language and for the method of expression. It is more a statement than the author. I think that rather author becomes what she is doing.

Author is just a way the idea transmits itself.

The art emerges at the moment when idea hits the addressee, the viewer. The artist's task is to choose a right mode for idea transmission. The artist may use other's language, pre-built schemes, that were previously not in vocabulary of the art, as in the case of pop art. Each statement demands the choice of right medium. It's important to realize that particular statement may be expressed only with particular medium and language, and all other ways are not suitable for that purpose.

Then, if medium and language are chosen properly, statement gets its shape and integrity.

I definitively love the way your colorful brushstrokes seems to extract a joyful vision of reality from the general the idea of the environment we live in. Many contemporary landscape artists as the photographer Edward Burtynsky or Michael Light have some form of environmental or political message in their photographs. Do you consider that your works are political in this way or do you seek to maintain a neutral approach?

Considering "Inner city" series, I think that batik is not a suitable medium to raise political or ecological questions. My creative work is multifaceted, and I think that I, as an artist, has a right to have parallel branches of study in the different fields. In presented series I'm interested in viewer's emotion. In other works it's not the emotion,

Italian Lemons

it is the life itself, and it has the full right to be ugly and unattractive and not to have pliant implementation.

That is the conceptual approach to the art the viewer is no more a passive observer, she becomes an active participant of the art's action, sometimes she even discover that she became an co-author, co-actor. Once the person visits the gallery, she gets involved into the process of art making, being constrained to read and decipher works of art. It is a more functional approach then, for example, romanticism.

I think that working in different styles and directions is the method that could allow me to switch among in time and avoid getting tired of one subject and myself.

During these years your painting has been exhibited in several occasions, including the international exhibition "Aqua Omnia

Julia Vergazova

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Nafplio hills

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Julia Vergazova

Art Review

Sunt / The Water Is Everything" at Nagornaya Gallery, Moscow Aqua Omnia Sunt / The Water Is Everything at Nagornaya Gallery, Moscow and I think it's important to mention that you received the Grand Prix of All-Russian contest "Masterskaya" at the section of textile. So, before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a a question about the nature of the relation with your audience: it goes without saying that positive feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important altgough not indespensable support. In particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

As I mentioned earlier, the context and language is important, the way I am trying to convey the work of art to the viewer. I like when audience responds positively, but the last thing I would like to achieve is to follow their tastes. I find it important to form exhibition themes not for audience taste, but according to what you, as an artist and ideas broadcaster to the world, try to convey. That world exists in the context of surrounding mediaspace, Which questions arise from that co- existence of the world and media space, which problems are there to solve?

It's important there to choose right language that would be accessible for the audience. It's important to have good explications, it's important to collaborate with curators and get help from persons with strong writing skills. It's important to get support from institutions.

In Russia, if you don't work with realistic art or kitsch the question of how to interact with audience is critical. A lot of people deny the existence of contemporary art and argue about the figure of Kazimir Malevich, about whether his work could be considered to be an art. While the Black Square is still hanging inside

Tretyakov's Gallery, it continues to cause heated disputes - a lot of people are out of cultural context of, say, last hundred years or so. Some layer of culture exists only for the closed circle of people and got denied by everybody outside it. I think one of the main causes for that situation is government politics about art and culture, unfortunately.

Besides that, the period of informational isolation during Iron Curtain times created some lack in knowledge that still affects our society. I hope that contemporary artists will be able to break that counterstained some day and establish a dialogue with a more broad audience.

Thanks a lot for this interesting conversation, Julia. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects. How do you see your work evolving?

I would like to make works that would be full of meaning, maybe they would be minimalistic.

Maybe I'll return to the oil painting now, when I'm stepped back from the academic school quite far.

I'd look on oil painting from another angle, review approaches to oil painting's making.

I am interested in new experiences and practices. I think about enrolling into school of performance. And maybe I'll try my hand in video. But most of all I'm attracted to new technologies, I want to take part in science art projects. I have lots of new ideas, one of them is connected with science and education. Some of ideas reflect our existence among media space and politics. I want to get my hands on new materials, make installations with ground and plants.

But I think I'll stay loyal to the oil painting and working with color.

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Original Head mix techniques,60*70cm

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Endri Myrtaj Lives and works in Tirane, Albania

An artist's statement

I

have always thought that reality is made of multiple dimensions. In its deepest levels it swarms of signs, symbols, mythological creatures, archetypal landscapes etc. A forgotten language by people, but a building stone of its psyche. Artists are born with a vertical relationship down to that psyche.

Take for instance the symbol of the compass (drawing compass), as you might know for drawing a bigger circle your hand gets lower, and the pencil away from the center while the opposite happens when you draw a smaller circle, the center and the pencil get closer and the hand rises. The spiritual essence which actually is this center, is very important for every

artist and it is necessary that an artist tries to get closer to it, in order to reach higher levels as a human being and as an artist.

With my archetypical approach most of my paintings unconsciously relate the past, the present and the future by an invisible mystic string, merging them into one composition. Albania, my country reflects this essence. And when I finish a work and see that it resembles this essence, I feel accomplished.

Endri Myrtaj

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Art Review

Endri Myrtaj An interview by Josh Ryder

Endri Myrtaj's approach can be defined as an incessant attempt to reveal the hidden Ariadne's thread that unexpectedly links together different aspects of the reaity we inhabit in. Discarding decorative aspects, his approach is quite direct and it is grounded on a careful selection of signs that comes both from Memory and from a suggestive Imagination. Myrtaj's research of a forgotten language establishes a vivid engagement, capable of going beyond a mere emotional involvement: I'm really pleased to introduce our readers to his stimulating artistic production.

Hello Endry, and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you have studied a Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Tirana and moreover you have attended several classes of Art when you had the chance to study different painting techniques. How do these experiences influence your evolution as an artists and how do they impact on the way you currently conceive and produce your works?

Acquaintance with drawing and painting techniques are very important for every painter.

That is what I was trying to learn in some of the art courses that I have attended. Meantime studying architecture I think it has influenced in creating conceptual relations esthetically correct.

Where the logic of compositional harmony in architecture as in painting it seems to me very similar.

Even with the above didactic approaches, I have to say that mine is mostly an autodidactic way of understanding space, where I have paid attention to what artists call intuition, inspiration and sixth sense.

Before starting to elaborate about your production, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work? And how much preparation and time do you put in before and during the process of creating a piece?

It’s very important for every painter to create in time his own creative universe. Impressions and impulses I get from reality, take their time to appear, at the beginning on small sketches, where not all of them reach the canvas.

Juerg Luedi

Endri Myrtaj In studio,while working

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Facing North

detail from myFunerals, Performance oil on canvas,55*70cm

Irene Pouliassi

Endri Myrtaj

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Mountain View oil on canvas,60*70cm

It may happen that they leave space to chances, courses and strange circumstances that are created in the studio.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Landscape series that our readers have already started to get to

know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to our readers to visit yur website directly at http://www.endrimyrtaj.com in order to get a wider idea of your artistic production... In the meanwhile, would you like to tell us something about the genesis of this

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Endri Myrtaj

Art Review

Signs In the skye

The third Tuesday of March

Oil on canvas, 70*90cm

oil on canvas,70*90cm

interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

is the way you unveil the inner connection between Man and Nature. You appreciate an abstract beauty and sense of geometry that goes beyond a stereotyped idea of landscape, bringing a new level of significance to images: this challenge the viewers' perception in order to going beyond the common way to perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension...

By the way, I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in,

I live in Albania, a Mediterranean country with beautiful nature. I was always attracted by the show of colors, lights and shadows, how they play with each other in the nature.

All this game of phenomenons happens to find place in my paintings.

As you have remarked once, artists are born with a vertical relationship down to psyche: a crucial feature of your approach,

City Landscape oil on canvas,50*80cm

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Untitled mix techniques,50*80cm

Irene Pouliassi

Endri Myrtaj

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The Three fairies oil on canvas,90*80cm

so we need -in a way- to decipher them.

Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal such unexpected sides of

Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Every artist has his frequencies and own

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Endri Myrtaj

Art Review

Untitled

The Cult of the Brest

mix techniques,70*80cm

oil on canvas,80*90cm

way in approaching the reality. Despite the technological, cultural or social changes, the human being is worried and concerned by the same questions that he has inherited since the beginning, in his individual or collective unconsciousness. Here takes place my archetypical approach to painting.

opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process...

Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

The Ariadne's thread discovered by you approach creates an intimate unity between past, present and future, establishing a vivid involvement with with the viewer. At the same time, you seem to remove the historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in an absolute and almost atemporal form. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your

Impressions, words and images that urge me are in synchrony with my inner world. Later with those particles I rebuild the history where they move in time and dimension, so they can be called as you say “atemporal”.

I have highly appreciated the way you explore the boundary between Imagination and Experience in your interesting Abstract painting series: I would say that imagination play a role in the fullfilment process of the

Irene Pouliassi

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viewers that reminds me of the German artist Thomas Demand, when he stated that "nowadays art can no longer rely much on symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead": what's your point about this?

And in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

When I say I have a symbolic approach, rarely I am interested at the symbol as an implication.

What interests me most is if it stands good with the canvas as part of the psychological or metaphysical atmosphere that is created. Certainly, the painting has Her inner life

that functions with Her almost mystic laws that are imposed to you through Her language.

Multidisciplinarity is a crucial aspect of your art practice and you seem to be in an incessant search of an organic, almost intimate symbiosis between several disciplines, taking advantage of the creative and expressive potential of Painting as well as of Acquarel and Drawing: while crossing the borders of different artistic fields have you ever happened to realize that a symbiosis between different disciplines is the only way to achieve some results, to express some concepts?

Reconstruction of The Tower of Babel 70*80cm

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Endri Myrtaj

Art Review

Untitled,pencil on paper 29.7 x 42 cm

The oil-paint, the aquarelle, the pencil, etc. have their own way of behaving with the work surface, and therefore the feeling that is created during the work process is different.

love even though I know I’m separating from it more and more.

Oil-paints give me more ways of expression, at least for the moment.

I often like to go back to pencil drawing, perhaps as recalling the memory of the first

Thanks a lot for this interesting conversation, Endry. Finally, I would you like to tell us readers something about your

Irene Pouliassi

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14

Writings on Blackboard,mix techinques 50*65cm

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Endri Myrtaj

Art Review

Exhibition ìn Tirana

future projects. Anything coming up for you professionally that you would like readers to be aware of?

It has been a while now since I have started working on project and meanwhile I am getting back to some of the painting of this cycle, which I use to call “Albanian roots”.

The main themes of these paintings are the creation of life and death and spanning these extremes is a mystical world rooted in Albanian folktales.

There are symbols, odd imaginary animals, vegetation and landscapes, which do not lend themselves to immediate interpretation.

Endri Myrtaj

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I really hope that the love that I have for my country gets transmitted in the best way through these paintings.

Also thank you for this interview, it was very pleasant.

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Susan Carmicle Lives and works in North Branch, MN USA

An artist's statement

I

am in love with the creative process. Painting is a large part of who I am. There is no better way to express my inner self and feelings than through my art.

Although I use many mediums; I find myself returning to acrylics and water colors. I use oil pastels when I am in the mood for a quick study of color and form.

Realism is a very rewarding style for expressing myself. It can take several months to complete a painting. I find the details challenging, even somewhat tedious at times. When I grow weary of a particular piece of work; I immerse myself in abstract art.

I allow the brush and the paint to flow as they will, I become an instrument,

enjoying the dance of creation that has nothing to do with me. The joy of not being in control and letting the art takeover is inexplicable. Many times my works will be my interpretation of our external world.

At times I include people or animals; for a more focused study of our connection to the natural world. My hope is to capture the beauty of our earth and stir the viewer at some level.

Susan Carmicle

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Art Review

Susan Carmicle An interview by Josh Ryder

The work of Susan Carmicle accomplishes the difficult task of providing the viewer of an intepretation of the external world, through a refined process of organic symbiosis between several viewpoints that offers to the viewer a multilayered experience. One of the most convincing aspect of Carmicle's practice is the way she creates an area of intellectual interplay between perception and memory, that invites the viewers to explore the crossroad between contingency and immanence: I'm very pleased to introduce our readers to her refined artistic production.

Hello Susan and welcome to LandEscape. I would start this interview, with some questions about your background: are there any experiences that have particularly influenced your development as an artist and that it impact on the way you currently conceive your works?

The influences that have affected my passion for art I would have to say are my parents. My mother is a gifted musician/song writer and my father a brilliant visual artist. Being raised by two artists has been a blessing in my life. As a child I was in awe of my mother's ability to sit at the piano and play a song she had heard on the radio without any music sheets to follow.

At a very young age I recall sitting for long periods of time watching my father in fascination, create beautiful scenes with just paper and pencil.During the years of raising

my children and working a fulltime job, art was and still is , my refuge. It has been my escape ,my way of relaxing. I have taken several adult education art courses throughout my life which I have found very stimulating and helpful in honing my skills.

You produce your works in a very careful way and it can take several months to complete a painting: would you like to tell our readers something about your process and set up for making your artworks? In particular, what technical aspects do you mainly focus on your work?

Many of my paintings begin as an inspired idea in my minds eye. Because many of my pieces reflect our external world ,I take photos I refer to often ,while painting, to insure there will be realism in the piece. I usually do not paint the exact image of the photos but use certain parts of the photo such as a tree or the lay of the landscape. Quick sketches helps me to get a good composition before painting a piece.

When I feel I am ready to begin painting I enter my studio and turn on music to get the creative juices flowing. Music is my number one tool for inspiration.Once I have begun a piece I sometimes can paint for hours and forget all about time. Hours can fly by like minutes. When I feel I have lost enthusiasm for a certain piece I have learned to leave it alone for awhile. I tend to over-do pieces and have often times destroyed pieces by forcing it to Juerg Luedi

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Billie

detail from myFunerals, Performance

Susan Carmicle

Susan Carmicle

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completion instead of leaving it alone and waiting for further inspiration. Now I simply set the work aside and set it backwards on an easel so I can't see it. If it is in view I will analze it and destroy the work I have spent so many hours creating. It is not unusual for me to have two or three pieces going at a time. This helps me to get away from one that has me temporarily drained.

Now let's focus on your artistic production: I would start from Frida Kalho and Billie a couple of extremely interesting works that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest to visit directly at https://starone1.see.me in order to get a wider idea of your multifaceted artistic production.

In the meanwhile, would you tell us something about the genesis of these stimulating projects?

What was your initial inspiration?

Drawing people has been a favorite pastime of mine for many years. The portrait of Frida Kahlo came about through a call for art . I viewed several photos of her and read extensively about her life. I also watched the movie "Frida" . I was impressed with her as a woman as well as an artist and felt compelled to do several pieces of her. Two of my pieces were selected for a special collection in honor of Frida.

The piece entitled "Frida Kahlo" was my first attempt at painting a portrait and is one of the pieces that was selected. Prior to that time I had only used charcoal or pencils for my portraits. I have been intrigued by Billie Holiday ever since I saw the movie "Lady Sings the Blues" several years ago. Billie is a piece I was inspired to do after reading about her and viewing several photos of her online.

I like the way your careful approach offers a rigorous but at the same time lively visual translation of immaterial and physical sights that pervade our reality: in this sense, Hysteria and The Dancers reveal a refined investigation about constructed realities has reminded me of the ideas behind Thomas Demand's works: while conceiving

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Art Review

The dancers

Art could be considered a purely abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the ephemeral nature of the concepts you capture. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

In my opinion personal experience is an absolutely indespensable part of a creative process. Any image

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Hysteria

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Boundary Waters

Susan Carmicle

Susan Carmicle

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Morning Run

I bring into the material level I first must experience at some deeper level in order for it to come into being.

Sometimes it is just feelings transformed into the material world through an abstract painting, with no recognizable form. "Hysteria" and "The Dancers" are good examples of such feelings.

Another interesting painting of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled Boundary Waters: in particular,

when I first happened to get to know this piece I tried to relate all the visual information and the presence of a primary environmental elements to a single meaning.

But I soon realized that I had to fit into the visual unity suggested by the work, forgetting my need for a univocal understanding of its symbolic content: in your work, rather that a conceptual interiority, I can recognize the desire to enable us to establish direct relations...

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Would you say that it's more of an intuitive or a systematic process?

Our natural world without buildings and city noise has always been a place of refuge for me. There is a place deep within me that longs for that peace. I feel it when I am near a serene lake or on a wooded path. Maybe it is that peace I feel while I am painting that comes through in my work. Boundary Waters seems to reflect that serenity. I would say the results that bring about certain feelings for the viewer is accomplished through an intuitive process.

My hope is to touch the viewer and enable him or her to interpret my work at many different levels.

The nuance of light colors that I have admired in Springtime has suggested me a sense of dramatic - I would daresay "oniric"- luminosity that seems to flow out of these canvas that communicates such a tactile sensation, a feature that is quite recurring in your figurative works and that I can recognize also in Summer Haven: any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

It is interesting to note how several artists tend to favor certain colors during different periods of their life. They will do several paintings with blue as the dominant color and then maybe several with red as the dominant color.This makes sense because there are so many variations of hue in just one color. To obtain the desired shade of each color takes time and patience. So far in my paintings I have favored variations of green and blue. Through the years I have experimented with color and feel I have much to learn. I am beginning to understand how to imitate sunlight and shadows in my

Susan Carmicle

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Springtime

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Art Review

Summer Haven

paintings through finding just the right shades of color. The learning process never ends. It is infinite. That is the beauty of the visual arts.

The hallmark of your practice is a search of the Self within its surroundings: when explorating our relationship with the outside world, you seem to deconstruct and assemble memories in order to suggest a process of investigation about the liminal

area in which the Self and the Outside share an ephemeral coexistence:... I'm sort of convinced that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" as microscopic grains of sand in the environment we live in, so we need -in a wayto decipher them. Maybe one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature...

Susan Carmicle

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Rainy Night

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Ocean of Peace

what's your opinion about this?

The woman meditating in my painting, Ocean of Peace, is a good example of a person occupying a liminal space and coexisting with the outer world. I think it would be a challenging and interesting subject matter to convey on canvas the unexpected sides of our inner nature.You may have just given me some inspiration for a new painting. Thank you!!!

Come to think of it certain surrealism works of art seem to convey deep levels of our inner nature .

Salvador Dali has touched on that subject matter.

Your approach seems to be marked out with an organic symbiosis between several viewpoint out of temporal synchronization: moreover, the reference to the universal

Susan Carmicle

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DalĂŹ

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Susan Carmicle

Art Review

imagery from nature, environmental elements as well as celebrities from the international art scene, that recurs in your works seems to remove any historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering to the viewers the chance to perceive in a more atemporal form. In this sense, I daresay that the semantic juxtaposition between sign and matter that marks out your art, allows you to go beyond any track of contingency... in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

When I paint I am inspired. A narrative for my work never enters my mind during the creative process. When the piece is completed, often times I can see it is telling a story . The story may be multidimensional without me having planned any of it.This is what I love about the visual arts.

Before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a a question about the nature of the relation with your audience: in particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

When I am painting a traditional, realistic piece I am very concerned with how the audience will receive the work. I take great pains to make sure every part of the piece is perfect. Perfectionism can hold back the natural flow of the inspiration. I am working on letting go of the need for such accuracy in my work. I find it tedious and I no longer have the patience. The audience's reaction to my abstract pieces never really enter my mind during the process of painting. I just thoroughly enjoy the process.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Susan.

Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

Thanks to this stimulating conversation we are having I would have to say conveying our inner nature through symbolism would be challenging and rewarding. I know I want to loosen up, let my work flow and probably the best way for me to accomplish this is by trying different styles of painting such as abstract or immpressionism. I find myself leaning more towards the abstract of late. We shall see.

Susan Carmicle

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Apollo

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Fei Li Lives and works in San Francisco, USA

An artist's statement

M

y purpose is to build manyfaceted structures on canvas/paper based on exploring the relationships between:

Ambiguity and Clarity -- How can the elusiveness of space exist in a clear pictorial structure? How can landscape, still life, figure/portrait and nonobjective space alternate or coexist on the two dimensional surface?

Intensity and Subtlety-- How can pulsating metamorphoses suggest the infinity of variables in the real world alongside the subtle interactions between visual elements? Both mixed media on paper and oil on canvas are involved in my work.

The former is the laboratory and passage to search reality余 the latter is the arena where my own visual language is developed to express an artistic experience.

An installation, related to a complex, even chaotic space, with the phantasmagoric play of mirrors and the elimination of object identity, has been built instudio as the point of departure for each work.

The painting/drawing process involves searching for the visual placements and internal forces that are created by intense battles of colors and shapes, which are based on the structure of the installation and walking the tightrope between visual dynamics and pandemonium

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Fei Li An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator with the collaboration of Stephanile Ellllis landescape@europe.com

Fei Li accomplishes the difficult task of exploring the liminality between Ambiguity and Clarity, in which perceptual reality and fulfillment process coexist in a coherent unity: her effective investigation about the intrinsic elusive concept of Space goes beyond a mere symbolic strategy and offers a multilayered experience capable of establishing a stimulating osmosis between the expressive potentials of the materials she incorporates in her pieces. I'm very pleased to introduce our readers to her refined artistic production.

Hello Fei and welcome to LandEscape: to start this interview, would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training and you have studied both at the San Francisco Studio School and at the prestigious New York Studio School: how did these stimulating experience influence you as an artist and how do they impact on the way you currently conceive and produce your works?

My parent found I reacted strongly to colors so they introduced me to calligraphy as early as two years old, and took me to life-drawing art classes at four. I had been detouring and trapped by practical aspects of life until I attended the San Francisco Studio School -where I built my major foundation of visual

language. The program was very different from typical art schools today -- there was no grade culture, and we all studied very closely and directly with Lon Clark -- more like the Hofmann School in the Mid-Century. And it is still my north star today when navigating the sea of doubt. I started my study in photography, which aroused my awareness of the space and the relationship between the artist and the reality perceived. I am still using the camera to draw wherever I go, to look at and interact with the surroundings with the four edges of the view finder. Then I became obsessed by the exactitude of the space projected on the two dimensional surface in relation to the subject matter without copying the appearance. This obsession was enhanced by the study in the drawing marathon New York Studio School, which was short but very intense, and eventually developed into my current project -- Anonymous Objects and Mirrors.

The hallmark of your multifaceted artistic production is an incessant search of an organic symbiosis between the expressive potential of the colors and the evocative power of subtle reminders to unconscious imagery. Although each of your projects shows an autonomous life, there's always seem to be such a channel of communication and a consistent narrative in your works, that springs from the way you combine the ideas you explore: German artist Thomas Demand stated once that "nowadays art can no longer rely much on Juerg Luedi

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symbolic strategies and has to probe psychological narrative elements within the medium instead". What's your point about this?

And in particular, how much do you explicitly think of a narrative for your works?

All art is primarily abstract, but there are always narratives in paintings unless it is a pure Nonobjective space. Even though I eliminated most of the identity of the objects in my setup and paintings, there was still a narrative of the “naturalistic space” which can be found in nature.

There are different degrees of narrative in my work, that indicates my survey in the spectrum of visual-verbal (which, in my personal perception, is how the reality would be). Philip Guston’s comment about abstract art left a deep impression on me many years ago: “There is something ridiculous and miserly in the myth we inherit from abstract art -- that painting is autonomous, pure and for itself, and therefore we habitually define its ingredients and define its limits. But painting is ‘impure’. It is the adjustment of impurities which forces painting’s continuity.” Although the study of visual language freed me from thinking linguistically in sequence, I still keep a small part of the verbal approach in my painting, because, that is my authenticity which is impure. There might be different definitions of “symbolic strategies” depends on which art field is referred to -- visual, conceptual arts, music, literature, etc, and from my understanding, in visual arts, symbolic strategies could be part of the psychological narrative elements and they might be more verbal than visual. They are devices artists use to approach their intention, to create a self-contained work of art. And there are so many great artworks that do not rely on symbolic strategies at all, especially paintings. There are also so many bad paintings with the psychological narrative elements in them.

The “psychological narrative elements”, reminds me of Robert Irwin’s words: “A good painting has a gathering, interactive build-up in it. It’s a detail from myFunerals, Performance

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detail from myFunerals, Performance

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psychic build-up, but it’s also a pure energy build-up. And the good artists all knew it, too.

That’s what a good Vermeer has, or a Raku cup, or Stonehenge.” So ultimately, the vital force in painting is created by the formal construction -- how all the elements, are resolved with the understanding of visual language and the medium in the two dimensional surface.

I would start to focus on your artistic production beginning from "Anonimous Obljects and Mirrors II", an extremely interesting series that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article: and I would suggest our readers to visit directly at http://www.feili.us in order to get a wider idea of your multifaceted artistic production.

In the meanwhile, would you tell us

something about the genesis of this interesting project? What was your initial inspiration?

As a matter of fact, I have felt trapped in the verbal language almost all my life. Especially when I speak, sometimes it takes me a very long time to search for the right logic to address my “thoughts” which I never feel they are precisely expressed. Although I started drawing from life when I was young, I hadn’t truly understood the meaning of observation until my first year in San Francisco Studio School, where I was pardoned and set free through the awareness of the abundance of nature which is often neglected under the conceptualized linguistic mode, through the simultaneously inter-engaged way of sensing and expressing, through the realization that the existence as a physical being could act and

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perceive and intellectualize without the aid of linear syntax. The switching of approaches to the objective world made it compelling to sharpen one’s sensation. I started to eliminate the object identity of the still-life to focus on the formal construction. Meanwhile, the urge to create something more ambitious, complex and profound led me towards the juxtaposition of created-reality (the anonymous objects) and projected-reality (nature in the mirror), to search the possibilities for creating an innovative pictorial structure on the working surface.

One of the most epiphanic feature of "Anonymous Objects and Mirrors II" is concerned with the way you investigates about the intrinsic elusive nature of space: reminding the concept of Heterotopia elaborated by Michael Foucault, you question the intimate struggle between constructed abstraction and imposed realities. While conceiving Art could be considered a purely abstract activity, there is always a way of giving it a permanence that goes beyond the intrinsic ephemeral nature of the concepts you capture. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?

I used to be intrigued by the preciseness of the visual reality and worked from very close observation. But one could not work absolutely direct from observation, meaning, there would always be a lapse between looking at nature and looking at the canvas/paper. In this case, I never worked from direct experience -- the moment I looked at the canvas/paper, I was with my imagination/memory; meanwhile, I worked from direct experience all the time -even when I created the installation in the studio from zero, namely, the imagination, it

was still the exhale of the experience that I inhale from nature.

Your careful exploration of the the liminal area between Ambiguity and Clarity can be assimilated to an investigation about the emerging of language due to a process of self-reflection. What has mostly impacted on me is the way you have been capable of bringing a new level of significance to the concept of landscape, inviting the viewers to challenge the common way we relate the inside perception to the outside reality...

This suggests the idea that some informations & ideas are hidden, or even "encrypted" in the environment we live in, so we need -in a way- to decipher them. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to reveal unexpected sides of Nature, especially of our inner Nature... what's your point about this?

Frank Stella pointed out “...what is not there, what we cannot quite find, is what great paintings always promise. It does not surprise us, then, that at every moment when an artist has his eyes open, he worries that there is something present that he cannot quite see, something that is eluding him, something within his always limited field of vision... Still they keep checking… Painters instinctively look to the mirror for reassurance... We can see Caravaggio looking at himself from The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, Velasquez surveying his surroundings in Las Meninas, and Manet testing the girl at the bar to see if there is anything different about those who have to work rather than see for a living.” This is relevant to my pursuit of Ambiguity, while the Clarity itself refers only to the plasticity of the painting, as Louis Finkelstein addressed it: “the entirety of its relations conspire to make a world whose meanings are mutually supported”.

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Another interesting series of yours that has particularly impacted on me and on which I would like to spend some words is entitled "Figures": in this project you explore the blurry boundary between collective memory and identity, investigating the psychological nature of the representational image. Philippe Dagen once established in his Le Silence des peintres, that the coming of a straight realism has caused a progressive retrenchment of painting from its primordial representative role of reality.

With exception of Hyperrealism movement, Painting is nowadays more and more marked out with a symbolic feature.

Do you think that the dichotomy between Representation and Painting is by now irremediable?

There are two series of figures with different degrees of the identity: one is focusing on the spatial construction-- the mass of the volume of the human figures, the other is how they exist in the space around them (interior). In the former series, I found it hard to avoid the psychological attachment to the human figure rather than pure spatial construction as I was sitting very close to the models. However, there is a potential danger in representational images -- they could go towards illustrating the idea/story rather than creating the equivalent of the visual experience. Meanwhile, the same treacherousness could happen in abstraction -the superficiality in terms of decoration and surface-treatment. Although the painters today need to pick a position in the spectrum between Hyperrealism and Nonobjective Abstraction, I think they are two different

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systems (verbal / visual). However, when used well, visual language could enhance the imagery. A good story needs to be well told -- as Raymond Carver quoted Isaac Babel in his essay On Writing "No iron can stab the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place." In painting, it is the twist of the visual language that stabs the heart. Hence, the Representation/Narrative/Verbal-system connects to the artistic-authenticity while the Painting/Abstraction/Visual-system links to the universal-validity. Here I would personally relate the word “symbolic” it to Louis Finkelstein’s Law of Suggestion: “that the meaning of things is poeticized, multiple, mobile, because our actual ways of experiencing are innately multiple, associative and infinitely variable.

One thinks here not only of the dynamic metamorphoses of de Kooning, but also of those quirky shuddering shapes of Guston, which, in their harlequin colors and pulsating surfaces suggest more the actual passage of the real

world through our lives than any merely denotable object.

This law also indicates the debt of abstract expressionism to surrealism, but it extends far beyond either surrealist practice or abstract expressionism as a closed set of circumstances.”

The nuances of lively but at the same time thoughtful tones that dialogue in the pieces from this series communicate me a tactile feature, that I can recognize especially in Red Singing in the Void II that our readers have already admired in the starting pages of this article. This synergy between medium and ideas allows you to get a refined a balance between a Realism and an abstract Expressionist: any comments on your choice of "palette" and how it has changed over time?

Thank you. This Series is mostly constructed by paper. Although oil is my primary medium, I have been fascinated with paper for its tactile

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and multi-transparent quality for a long time.

I keep collecting all kinds of paper I can find, and dye my own paper with watercolor pigments too.

The palette is changing as my collection of paper expanding. In the beginning it was like a pre-mixed color palette by the selection of the papers, and some other gouache colors in relation to the paper palette.

As I experimented with some mediums, like matte medium, I realized that I could actually “mix” the color of paper by adding different transparent layers. It started to gain the capacity for the nuance, the complexity and the richness, then developed its own sense of virtuosity to some degree. This series also echos to Bernard Berenson’s remark about the space: “Space-composition is the art which humanizes the void, making of it an enclosed Eden, a domed mansion wherein our higher selves at last find an abode… The religious emotion... is produced by a feeling of identification with the universe;this feeling, in its turn, can be created by spacecomposition; it follows then that this art can directly communicate religious emotion…

And indeed I scarcely see by what other means the religious emotion can be directly communicated by painting – mark you, I do not say represented”.

While urging the viewer to follow your research of a visual point of balance between the opposites, you seem to reject an explicit approach: you rather offer an Ariadne's thread that invites us to find the visual rhythm suggested by your approach: rather that a conceptual interiority, I can recognize the desire to enabling us to establish direct relations... Would you say that it's more of a systematic or an intuitive process?

I tremendously admire William Eggleston who could always capture the profound sense of

the quotidian scene. His exhibition At War with the Obvious in Met Museum two years ago was a great inspiration. For me, it is always impossible to plan ahead for the visual construction because, the level of complexity I try to achieve might go beyond the pure systematic analysis. The way nature communicates with us is not with a linear logic, but with a group of simultaneously interengaged activity. As we know the universe consists of fractal-like infinities, we are not just inside the maze, we are outside as well. It is a process with the brush in one hand, and the rag in the other, however, every decision I make or try to make was not arbitrary or random, but with the purpose to conspire a living organ on its own. In this case, I would call it an intuitive process with intention.

During these years you works have been exhibited in several occasions, including your recent show at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and you're going to join an artist residency at Dumfries House. So before taking leave from this interesting conversation I would like to pose a question about nature of the relation with your audience: it goes without saying that positive feedbacks are capable of providing an artist of an important although not indispensable support. In particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process in terms of what type of language for a particular context?

I consider the accomplishment of the artist more important than the interpretation. I once read somewhere that “if the audience reception is crucial, you should go study the audience and that’s called mass communication”, which is very different from the dimension that I focus. I know I’m still in the beginning journey of my artist life, I need all kinds of feedback, from the great paintings,

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nature and the audience, etc, to help develop my growth. I’m quite insatiable. Theoretically I put the feedback into three categories in my journey of “faith with doubt” -- positive feedback, negative feedback, unsure feedback.

I know how to deal with the first two categories.

I usually put the third one aside for a certain length of time until it falls into the first two categories and adds on to expand my knowledge of art.

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Fei. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

I enjoyed this interview a lot and it’s such a great expansion to my artist statement. In studio I will continue to explore the subject

matter of Anonymous Objects and Mirrors in terms of complexity and elusiveness (I want them to be even more intricate in their complexity and elusiveness). I have been experimenting with some drawings for a more radical and innovative “pictorial drama” in varying scales and hope to see them well resolved on the canvas soon. As you know this fall I am going to join an artist residency at Dumfries House, and am planning to develop a new series of drawings -- instead of the mirror installation in the interior space (namely, the studio), I am going to bring it outside to interact with the landscape and draw from it. It will be a very exciting project.

An interview by Dario Rutigliano, curator with the collaboration of Stephanile Ellllis landescape@europe.com