ARTIST STATEMENT

Even as young children, especially as young children, we often embrace superstitions and imbue harmless objects with the power to help us control our lives. I remember playing with Ouija boards as a preteen, reciting the alphabet as I twisted off a soda can tab, playing MASH and always having a rabbit’s foot on hand. I didn’t over think these toys or rituals or the common place, harmless but still comforting. Now that I am an adult I can look back and analyze these past behaviors and often find surprising new ones that I see other adults practice.

In my paintings I attempt to convey a feeling of need for control but also an avoidance of responsibility. Many things that happen in our lives are out of our control, but plenty still is within our reach to influence. It can be easier to say that the stars must not have been aligned or that our luck ran out than it is to simply accept that we made the wrong decision. It’s easier and sweeter to wish on a star or let a fortune cookie guide our choices than it is to plan ahead and calculate. For such a secular society we still are attempting to make magic.

I am not criticizing our superstitious nature in my paintings. I am simply admitting it.

When I was younger, which seems an odd thing to say for a 24 year old, I always said I was going to be an artist because I simply loved to create. It’s a beautiful and honest answer, but I’ve since realized that for

me there is more to it. When I am lost sleeve deep in paint for hours upon hours of creating, I realize that I am an artist because of being able to escape into my own blissful world. Art becomes a practice on happiness and fulfillment, where I am in charge of each stroke and each held in breath to stabilize my hand. I am able to choose the level of focus that each painting deserves, and thus each painting gets to show me how much I’ve grown. I give to Art, but Art reciprocates kindly.

Recently I have started to discover my abilities through abstract. I remember a particular painting that was going to be for a friend of mine. She told me what colors she was interested in, but allowed no more input. I was so nervous about doing this, about not being able to satisfy what she was looking for, so I asked her about what was going on in her life. She gushed about a new man in her life and how happy he was making her. I channeled that energy and excitement into my painting and tried to think solely on her happiness and how thrilled she was about him. I sometimes feel like a sponge who soaks up the emotions of my patrons and then twists them out on canvas. It’s beautiful, really, to be able to be so conscientious of someone’s life and to produce something that rings so true to them. When I am creating for others, I lose myself by empathizing with my paints. I envision my paintings to be an embrace between me and my patron, a moment locked in color and swirl that sings to the both of us about being understood visually. These creations are my brains way of telling my hands that this is what it FEELS like to see an emotion, a story in oil or acrylic that captures those thoughts and feelings that can’t be expressed through words.

I value all who create and cannot deny the desire to explore my skills within the realm of hyperrealism, impressionism, et al! My schooling at UW-Madison left me with a degree in Art History and has shown me that everything can be beautiful, unique and appreciated. I wish to encourage others with the Creativity Bug to explore daily, and not be discouraged by age, technical skill, nor experience! Emerge!

-dinah

Portfolio Website: www.dinahlangsjoen.com
Art Blog: http://dinahsays.tumblr.com/
Facebook Fan Page: Dinah Langsjoen Artwork

My name is HMCraig, and I currently live in the Boston area. My life has taken me to many places, on many adventures in the US and in Europe.

My work focuses on light and color. My subjects are often flowers and glass. Flowers provide me with limitless opportunities to play with form and color. Glass lets me explore reflection and refraction of light.  The large format of my paintings and the closely cropped compositions enable me to have the viewer thrust into something I find small and beautiful. I hope the viewer sees the same beauty as I did.

Additionally, my paintings serve as therapy. I sustained a mild Traumatic Brain Injury in 2009. I was training for a Half-Ironman Triathlon. After the injury, I couldn't run or ride (which I loved doing). So, I focused on painting which has been a good thing. My injury has changed my art in different ways. My colors are more saturated.  My brushwork is looser. I am less inhibited with my subjects.

 I get inspired every day by beautiful things, whether they are large or small. It's good to see something you find beautiful or fascinating every day, it keeps us grounded and in wonder.

  With Grace                                                Turquoise Smokey Butterfly

  Peace in My Home - Golden Apples and Parrot        Ready to Begin

  Opportunities                                                          Clementines and Blue

 Lillies and Light

Elation

  With Grace

I have been painting and drawing my entire life. My earliest memories were of drawing constantly on anything I could get my hands on! When I was around 12 years old, I spent some time taking oil painting classes with an instructor who only accepted children who were already talented. I basically had to "audition" to be in her class. Although it was many years ago, I learned to be confident in my ability and it allowed me to explore painting in a way I had never done before.
 
As I grew older, life and responsibility got in the way of of my art. Eventually, it just seemed like something I used to do! Those close to me always knew I was artistic and I was usually the one asked to do anything and everything that might need some creative expression!

At some point, probably around 14 years ago, someone asked me to paint a full scale "family tree" on their wall. I told them there was no way I could do that! But after being talked into it, it actually came out really nicely and my latent talents started to bloom once again. I put together a portfolio, took it over to my local paint store, and a muraling business was quickly born.
 
I've spent all the years since painting murals and faux finishes for many people. At some point when murals started to die down a bit, I reinvented myself and learned how to paint kitchen cabinets, doors, etc. to resemble different types of wood. So another branch of my business was born and it has been keeping my steadily employed.
 
What has been lacking now for some time, however, is the joy that painting brings me. Painting for ME. I've spent so much time making painting a business, learning to paint quickly, learning to listen and produce what OTHER people's visions are. I need to get back to what I love to do. So now another twist in my life and it's time to paint again on canvas. What I choose, what I love, what I'm drawn to. I can't wait to see where it all goes.

www.denisemariesaylor.com

--Midnight Sonata -- Artistic process and anti-process---

An impulse. Surging through my being like some addictive substance from within the farthest reaches of my mind. Unavoidable and stubborn in its progression, it overwhelms and never fails to propel me towards the fresh opportunity ready and waiting at the easel...

Middle of the night, the world around me at quiet slumber, 75 watt overhead bulb illuminates the studio and glares in blood shot eyes. Maybe mix just a bit more cerulean in. No, prussian and just a dab of white....

Addiction? Obsession....

The process is conscious yet subconscious -- an image is rarely preconceived, but rather it materializes through each oil laden swipe of the knife. It's rather chaotic in its conception in that traditional sketches and research are not only abandoned but ignored entirely. Spontaneity dominates the so-called creative "process", yet the formula remains constant -- atleast as constant as a spontaneous creative "process" will allow....

Ground and foreground interact with the spark and exhaustive release of a night spent. Melting together and separating at the shift of a hue, only to melt back into one another moments later. Pigments are chosen as a reflection of emotion as the contemplation evolves into being. Continued from corner to edge to corner and between, the white of the once fresh opportunity is devoured piece by piece, moment by moment. Window into a new dimension unveiled upon completion, its inhabitants emerging only after the scene has been set.

They journey through the contemplation, melting and resurfacing like the atmosphere in which they reside. Stepping further into the canvas, they entice their audience to do the same. Walk the path and consider the possibilities of the unknown. Consider the notions set forth by their seemingly blind journey toward an end undepicted. Consider something more....

Methodical yet frenzied, the creation comes to fruition in one continuous sitting, no matter how long that may take. Just as a thought lingers in the recesses of the mind until acknowledged or confronted, such is the character of the muse within. That impulse that craves satiation. So it shall be satiated...until tomorrow.

Palette knife comes to rest, mind slows to but a comfortable crawl. Eyes gaze upon the piece of my soul plucked from my subconscious like a Polaroid into my imagination. The silence of the early morning reminds me of my exhaustion. 75 watt bulb a mere memory. Sleep may now embrace me....

Bio -

Although I've been painting since my age was measured in months (my mom, a toll painter, would give me scraps of wood from her projects, a cup of water, and a brush for me to "paint" with....) I really became serious with it in '99 during my last years of high school. Resigned to my profession I was accepted to Montserrat College of Art on scholarship and concentrated on painting.

Sagittarius Gallery, my business, was started in April of 2003 and since then I have been blessed to have over 1000 patrons on 5 continents. I am a self-representing artist who utilizes the internet and social media to connect with patrons from across the world. Although I primarily sell my work through the net, I have shown at several galleries including at the World Monument Fund Gallery / Prince George Ballroom and Rogue Space in Manhattan, Karin Sanders Fine Art in Sag Harbor, NY, Robert Dowling Studios and Gallery in Bangor, ME, as well as a solo show at the Gallery and Grille in Newburyport, MA. Locally my work has been shown at The Broadway Art Center, Albany, and Fulton Street Gallery in Troy. I have also participated in several outdoor events including Art on Lark and the Stockade Arts Show in Schenectady. My work has been published in ArtNEWS, American Art Collector, and The World's Finest Erotic Art vol. 2, has been licensed by McGaw Publishing, and I am a listed artist with Art in America.

I concentrate primarily on the female nude figure to convey my vision, but regularly explore a variety of subjects such as florals, urban cityscapes, abstracts, and landscapes. My tool of choice is the palette knife and my medium, pure, undiluted oils. I work out of my Scotia, NY home studio and welcome studio visits by appointment.


Thank you so much!

Sincerely, Aja
Sagittarius Gallery
www.sagittariusgallery.etsy.com