Interview With Stephanie Visser

Mysterium #1
Acrylic Mixed Media Collage on Paper 76" x 43"
Stephanie Visser

Stephanie Visser's intriguing abstracts explore the relationships of sunlight and shadows, stillness and movement, sound and quiet.

Which of these pieces was the most challenging to create or conceive?

Initially, these new pieces come from a surprise chemical reaction that occurred, when attempting to be frugal, I mixed regular house paint with dried acrylic paint and worked it over with sand paper. The first piece in this series was on a large unprimed canvas. The result of the experiment was a look and feel that was not typical of my process which I found exciting and intriguing. I had no idea as to how far I could take it and in what materials it would be the most successful.

If you had to swap being an artist for a separate role that you would commit to at the same capacity, what would it be?

That's an easy one for me since I would most likely recommit to my career as an interior designer. It always afforded me an opportunity to work with color and form in a three dimensional format and I found it challenging and rewarding as well as artistic.

What 3 things are most unlike you or your work?

I am not a painter or a person that is struggling to make social commentary in my work or in my life. I often see work I admire that is a composite of images with deep subconscious meaning. However, my work is more lyrical and emotional and does have subconscious meaning, but is less image related and more like a Rorschach ink blot than realistically interpretive.


Mysterium #8
Acrylic Mixed Media Collage on Paper 76 x 43"
Stephanie Visser

Does art serve a function beyond decorating walls?

I certainly hope so....even though in my other life I often am called upon to "decorate" walls. I most often preferred that people have the opportunity to have art around them that speaks to them at the deepest level, even if they did not have the desire to explore or understand why. For me, art's purpose is to examine and illustrate our interior worlds in any form that it takes, realistic or abstractly. Everyone has a unique language or personal culture that they may not be able to articulate except through the work of another that arouses their personal psychology and explains themselves to themselves.

Stephanie Visser

Stephanie Visser's next exhibition opens October 5, 2010.

TAG Gallery Interviews Anne M. Bray

Desert Sunset
pastel
Anne M. Bray

Anne M. Bray’s Road Trip pastels celebrate fleeting moments captured on the road and frozen in time.

What goes into making work like yours?

My steps for creating my Road Trip pastels:
1) I get in the car and drive off.
2) I shoot digital captures when I see something that catches my eye (while driving).


this set of captures was shot in about 10 minutes

3) I edit my favorite shots and get them printed as glossy photos at Walgreens.
4) I crop the photo with tape, if needed.
5) I clip bristol paper to foam core on top of some large gridded paper
6) Holding the photo in my hand, I plot the general composition: sky, ground.
7) I start applying chalk pastel in large swaths and smear and smooth with my hands.
8) I work in color sections and do the sky first before any mountains or foreground. (I don’t want the dust from the sky getting on the lower parts). I smudge with my hands a lot. I do NOT use fixative. Fixative ruins my pastels because of the many many layers of pigment.
9) Done! I remove the drawing and grid paper from the foam core and tape both with a cover sheet. I keep these all together until I get the piece to my framer.



Who are some artists, contemporary or historical whose work you like?

Hudson River School, Whistler (the dark landscapes), Rebecca Campbell, Danielle Eubank, Paul Klee, Nancy Monk.

How did you end up becoming an artist?

I've always been an artist. One thing that helped shape my vision was growing up with original oil landscapes painted by various relatives. Also, when I was five or six, my grandfather would sit and doodle with me - we would both work on a sketch and pass it back and forth.

What do you like/love about being an artist?

For me, the best thing about being creative is that when I'm truly involved with
my work, I go into a whole different place that is not of this world.

What projects are you working on right now?

At TAG, I like to show every year to justify my membership dues. Since I also have money jobs, my art time is limited. I work in series and have many going on simultaneously. One big project still in the planning stage I call "On the Edge." My concept is to circumnavigate the contiguous US states that border the Pacific, Mexico, the Atlantic, and Canada. I will drive as close to the edge as the highways allow and will shoot video out the passenger side window. I will make incremental stops along the way and do work based off the video feed.

Name something you have done or that has contributed to your art career?

I've had residencies at four different art colonies -- unstructured time away
from home to concentrate on getting work done. I've had four sessions at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula, CA which almost functions as a studio for me. Almost all of the pieces in this show were created at colonies.

Anne M. Bray's exhibit, Road Trip opens October 5, 2010.

Joe Pinkelman Interview

Legs With Decals
ceramics/decals/wire
42 x 21 x 14"
Joe Pinkelman

Destruction and re-creation strike a delicate balance in Joe Pinkelman's three dimensional forms.

Does your own life play a role in your imagery?

Yes it does. Most if not all my life experience plays a role in my imagery. I think that is always the starting point and hopefully it expands beyond self. That allows someone else to share and be empathetic with the form and experience. In addition, ceramics adds an abstract element to the work because it is a pot and not a reference something else.

Who are some artists that are currently producing work that you like?

In the ceramics I like Paul Mathieu, Grayson Perry, and Daniel Kruger. On an international scale I like Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor, Martin Puryear, and Richard Serra.

Would you collect your own work if you saw it in a gallery? Why or why not?

There are some specific pieces I like and wish I had kept. In general though because I am constantly surrounded by it (I can't sell most of it), it's good to look at work that is opposite of my interests. There is a story of Soutine admiring the works of Rembrandt in the museum yet their paintings are polar opposites.

In your work do you prefer timeless themes or current issues?

All my work has been an attempt at timeless issues and it is just recently since my visiting Jingdezhen, China that I am interested in current issues. I am working on a series of pieces that respond to pedophile catholic priests and the amnesty they receive from the Vatican, and in a new body of work I want to explore the involvement and culpability of the U.S. in regard to Iran, Iraq, and 911.

What is the purpose of art?

I think the purpose of art is to communicate ideas and emotions that have significant and universal meaning. Not to sound crass, but everyone scratches their ass. Even the Queen of England scratches her ass. Yet is that a universal that has significant meaning? The ideas and emotions expressed through art should be about understanding the world and individuals in more complex contexts. The purpose of art allows us to see those contexts and great art gives us the knowledge that we are free in our own lives to direct them as well. Consequently I am not a believer in causality.

Joe Pinkelman's exhibit at TAG opens October 5, 2010.

New Exhibition Featuring Julienne Johnson, Sue Keane, Pat Doede Klowden, and Ellen Starr

Reception:
Saturday, September 11, 5- 8 PM

Artists' Q & A Panel:
Tuesday, September 14, 7 PM

Julienne Johnson, "Ashes For Beauty"

For her first Solo Exhibition Julienne Johnson presents a powerfully poetic body of work in a visceral, yet painterly language all her own. Working an Abstract Non - representational format, Johnson leads us through a complicated, dangerously vulnerable drama on canvas. Acting out each scene with emotionally charged, often hand mixed color pigments and symbolic references - we follow her down a path of angst and honesty as we try to put our own feelings in order.

Sue Keane, "New Ceramics"

After a successful career in architectural design, Sue Keane began working in clay, and one can see her work is still strongly influenced by the geometry of architecture and how forms relate to their surrounding space. Surface textures play an important part in the visual attraction of each piece as does light and shadow and types of glaze used. The fine detail of her work requires close examination of both surface texture and form.

Pat Klowden, "La Famiglia"

In 'La Famiglia', sculpturist Patricia Doede Klowden continues her exploration of the notion of place and identity as it functions in the modern world. Her newest bronze figures represent a transitional shift from the more androgynous communication of humanity seen in her previous series, 'The Bronze Age'. Here, recognizably female figures express the power of cultural origins and physical strength through attenuated form and subtle detailing. Klowden then moves to her most personal exploration of identity yet: her own family. In ceramic, she touches upon the forms and personality of her grandchildren, trading the universal cast of her earlier bronzes for the more personal markings of family.

Ellen Starr, "Return to Nature"

In her latest exhibition, "Return to Nature," Ellen Starr explores the endless possibilities of subject matter presented to us in the natural world. She explains, "I am attracted to complexity, perhaps because I'm an inveterate organizer. I like to find logic in disorder; to see beauty in the intricate; to make confusion understandable. I strive to balance form against form; color against color; and light against dark. My ultimate goal is to achieve a stable whole out of many parts to create a sense of equilibrium and serenity."