Detroit Art Press

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”

Twyla Tharp

DETROIT ART PRESS Detroit Art Press is dedicated to introducing and investing in the careers of Detroit’s best emerging and established artists. Our mission is to support artists through the promotion and sale of their work in addition to driving traffic to their websites and expanding their audience.

DAP expands the world of art collecting by providing the opportunity to discover and own limited edition prints by some of the most exciting and promising talent the metro area has to offer at a democratic price point making the work accessible. All our art is printed to museum quality, fully authenticated by the artist, made in limited editions, and signed by the artist.Â

ALAN WATSON One of the essential facts of our human condition is that we manufacture neither our bodies nor our brains.

Nevertheless, it is from out of these physical things that we create our hopes, our dreams, and indeed our selves. My mixed-media paintings are designed in sympathy with this basic fact: Â for each composition begins with elements that I did not self-manufacture but nonetheless manipulate to my own creative ends.

These elements are usually “found� objects that no longer represent their original purpose in the world but are now employed for their shape, color, or texture.

Sometimes the objects remain wedded to the surface of the painting; at other times they are removed once their new-found purpose has been achieved. The latter technique is employed with such things as masking tape or factory -made stickers. Some of the shapes employed may be common symbols, such as stars, moons, grids, spirals, or even figures. Examples of objects that would remain in the painting include such things as drywall tape, broken toys, or pieces of tile.- Alan Watson

MARY ROUSSEAUX “i connect with nature, and then i come back to urban life and have a connection with humans and the natural rhythm of the city — detroit has its own type of swagger,” she explains. the artist says she needs that clear city/country contrast in order to carry on; it’s the yin and yang that defines her work and her very being. a mixed-media artist who lives in detroit’s indian village neighborhood, rousseaux numbers rather than titles her paintings. “i don’t want to define your experience,” she says. “it’s personal for everybody.”.

"detroit-based abstract painter mary rousseaux is a woman of many contrasts; the feisty persona one encounters when they first meet the artist belies a deep tenderness that oozes from her work. then there’s her love of both city and country.

DEBORAH FRIEDMAN My work is the result of creating order out of confusion.

The challenge in starting with an unplanned idea is finding balance in an ever-changing composition. The excitement of the emerging composition propels the work forward using the consistency of line and, often circular, shape to achieve the desired visual stability. There is an awareness on my part that I'm creating an environment or escapes to other places in my work. These images require intense concentration, so much so, that when a piece is completed it is as though I'm returning from an extended trip to another place and time. My studio is my loyal friend, always there, where most things eventually make sense. I am in charge, in control, for better or worse. The colors, smells, the work, both mess and order, are all a part of me, all contribute to my being an artist.

- Deborah Friedman

BIRGIT HUTTEMANN-HOLZ

Deeply inspired by the beauty of flowers and landscapes, I push my subject to a place of gestural abstraction with sweeping gestures, layering curves, heightened by bold saturated tones. The process of mark making, color choice, and composition happens mostly subconsciously. It matures to a gestural dance revealing my utmost authentic voice; a dreamlike reconfiguration of emotional meanings.

The resulting energetic work shows a lush world, where nature is in constant celebration and invokes both my vision and feeling of a world where beauty and vulnerability are the touching keystones.

Detroit, 2019

BIRGIT HUTTEMANN-HOLZ

MARY ROUSSEAUX www.detroitartpress.com 248.730.2170 mary@detroitartpress.com