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Volume 21
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Artist Profiles -
Volume 21
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David in his Studio
As jewels extracted from the cold earth, David LaBella’s entrancing photographs turn rugged, natural forms into crystalline reflections of beauty and splendor. The world is a stage and LaBella’s work explores the meditative splendor to be found in deep woodlands, delicate flowers and leaves, endless skies and cool flowing mountain streams. A self-trained photographer for the last ten years, LaBella embarked upon his creative path as a lover of nature that was transformed when he picked up the camera to begin rendering his technicolor shots of time and place. What began as a hobby developed into a craft and through his lens, LaBella displays a deep insight into the emotive power of the photograph. Perhaps some of his most stunning work is the monochromatic images, no small feat for unadulterated outdoor photography. Here we discover a lush bounty of hydrangea, or writhing roots and tree limbs cast in a moonlight blue, or fallen leaves that carpet the forest floor in golden yellow hues—these are images of startling beauty. Many pieces capture delicate seasonal phenomena which remind us that we are just visitors in this magnificent, ethereal world we call Earth. It is this concept that lies very close to the heart of his creativity. LaBella explains that his “true mission” as an artist is “expressing the close connection of American landscape art to the historical process of the nation and to the close relationship art has had with the conservation and preservation of what original landscapes remain.” These are not just photographs of nature, they are one man’s exploration of the sublime natural world that surrounds us and he hopes that sharing his work may spark the desire for preservation in others. They invigorate us, haunt us, and impart a profound peace in our hectic modern lives so often entwined with technology. LaBella has exhibited his photographs throughout Connecticut and New York and his works have been featured in a variety of leading publications. Presently, he lives in Connecticut and photographs throughout the United States. www.labellaphotographic.com www.Art-Mine.com/ArtistPage/David_LaBella.aspx |
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Read more... [David LaBella]
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Artist Profiles -
Volume 21
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Village - Acrylic on Canvas 36'' x 48''
The eclectic Brazilian painter, Suzete Martins, fashions rich, highly textured works that are steeped in beauty and philosophy. Though her works are typically non-figural abstractions, Martins’ painting deals with a variety of timeless subjects such as love, hope, celebration, and community. Her use of color allows meaning to permeate the work as the viewer’s eye recedes deeply into the viscera of the painting, searching like a hunter for hidden truths. Martins’ oeuvre recalls a wide variety of physical phenomena such as the powerful interaction of plate tectonics or the haunting and awe-inspiring beauty of evening forests. Most of her works have an underlying geometric compositional quality comparable to constructionist or De Stijl styles, where bold lines and rectangles push and pull the viewer’s eye around the canvas. Martins experiments with a variety of media including sand, paper, or fabric and she is not tied to one style in particular. In certain paintings she crafts a light, lyrical quality while retaining the rich texture so characteristic to her work. While in others, she employs the color field, applying layer upon layer of color, which shimmers and pulsates without being constricted by subjective matter. Each painting is a journey for both the artist and the viewer, peering out to discover meaning and beauty in life. Martins currently resides in Buffalo, NY. |
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Read more... [Suzete Martins]
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Artist Profiles -
Volume 21
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Personality - Oil on Canvas 39.5'' x 31.5''
There is a vital spiritual element expressed in Susana Guardiola’s paintings, one that speaks to our longing for something beyond ourselves that we traditionally search for in the mirror of nature. Hence, the beauty of much of her work lies in her detailing of delicate flora and in the magisterial intricacies of trees. By presenting both the sturdiness as well as the fragility of nature, Susana captures the evocative power of her subjects. A tree is a living example of the complex contradictions so often found in the universe, and it is a testament to Susana’s aesthetic dedication that she is able to render both this vulnerability as well as the potency with equal commitment. Like benign explosions of liquid color, her subjects reveal their delightful details as well as their greater significance with all the lush sensation of a spring morning. At times they are portrayed up close, at other times through a hazy distance, with earth and sky often included, as if two vital halves of this mysterious splendor. Saturated as they are in color as well as in Susana’s deep obligation to communicating her love of the world and the human spirit, Susana Guardiola’s art is a stunning example of work that transcends the level of beauty and serves as nourishment for the soul. |
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Read more... [Susana Guardiola]
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Artist Profiles -
Volume 21
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In Tuned - Acrylic 24'' x 36''
Jim Lively combines traditional portraiture with cutting-edge design and avant-garde composition in his provocative and engaging paintings. His primarily female subjects are often shown in an abstract or semi-abstract realm, but one that still feels rooted in contemporary technology, surrounded as they are with bandwidth color patterns, rows of numbers and text, pixilation and chilly cityscapes. Never truly integrated into these ultramodern environments, Jim’s sirens nevertheless maintain their faith in the familiar blank stare of advertising, that mix of invitation and challenge which is used to sell everything from sex to soft drinks. Yet these icons seem alienated and vaguely lost, transported as they are to a realm where their environment of prefab colors and jagged shapes highlight the unreality of their advertising-borne gaze and by extension, the promises behind the ads. The anxiety wrought by contemporary media is a major subject of these works, especially the concern of feeling alienated from one’s own culture and its expectations. Like an embarrassment of conspicuous riches, the composition at times seems to overwhelm Jim’s subjects, even occasionaly threatening to literally strangle or swallow them. To be sure, these are sirens sweetly singing, but our enjoyment of them, usually unhampered by self-reflection, has been mediated by Jim Lively’s dramatic and satirical imagery. |
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Artist Profiles -
Volume 21
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The Night 2 - Pen on Canvas 55'' x 79''
Meng Yang has chosen as a tool one of the most indispensable building blocks in the visual arts—the straight line—to create complex and powerfully stunning images. She composes her work with lines that she entwines and overlaps to produce her imagery, and her choice of using ink on canvas generates an effect that can be equated with the look of woven artwork. Meng has observed that in both art as well as science, the line is one of the most vital and irreducible forms, and in personalizing this most rudimentary element, she is able to reestablish her love of the rich tradition of Chinese nature painting. Her subject matter varies—she at times presents floral imagery, or images from daily life, or she creates fragmentary abstractions that are reflections of her inner life. The modern, ironic aspect to her work is that she uses a network of highly detailed lines and a very structured composition to create time-honored images which have, as their subject matter, sublime visions of nature. Meng has come full circle in her growth as an artist. She is revisiting traditional imagery, but she is creating it in her own idiosyncratic way. While Meng Yang’s art is personal, it also touches the viewer with its power and its inspiring beauty. |
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Read more... [Meng Yang]
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Artist Profiles
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