Art and Art Deadlines.com

A food-themed FREE resource site for ARTISTS.

×
Art and Art Deadlines.com

Tag: $5 Art Contest

CALL to ARTISTS: Moving Forward

Learn more about opportunites to Move Forward and earning Brownie Points at AAAD - ArtandArtDeadlines.com!HUNGRY? me too

Because we live 20+ minutes to the closest grocery store, it can be very frustrating to start dinner and realize we’re out of onions or potatoes or eggs or whatever.  So, we are all about menu planning at our house.  This next Call is about planning as well, but it requires your input, your participation.  Take a look…

Check out this Call for Entries from AAAD for 2016-17 Planning & Progress.  We have a lot going on, and I need your guidance an input to make sure that AAAD heads in a direction that works for all of us.  I even formatted it like our normal calls to be certain that I don’t shake up the routine too much, ha.  Keep reading…

CALL to ARTISTS:
Moving Forward from AAAD

 

Enter the Small Plates Exhibit at The Balcony in Knoxville, TN sponsored by AAAD!ELIGIBILITY:  Open to all artists.  You may notice that we have eliminated the Featured Artist program in an effort to publish more of the ART in our name, Art & Art Deadlines.  If you have an interest in being an Artist of the Day, we want to hear from you!  Look in the juror section for an add’l bonus!

MEDIA:  Are we including all the media Calls you want?  Am I missing something?  Am I under-representing your media?  Please tell me.  I largely post at the request of jurors and gallerists, so sometimes I unintentionally wear blinders.

DEADLINE:  April 18, 2016.  AAAD has a #smallworks (9×12 or smaller) Call out with an April 18th deadline, SMALL PLATES: A Response to Hunger.  $5 Entry & open to prints. Please enter so that we can provide more show opportunities in the future!

NOTIFICATION:  Now.  Tell me what you need from AAAD.  We have incorporated a lot of changes over the years based on readers’ suggestions.  And, I am open to more.  The site will undergo some dramatic aesthetic changes and alterations to the formatting of posts and subscriptions, and you can help shape that process.  The resources will remain the same, and you’re simply stuck with the food references.  But, I’m open to hearing you.  Email me, leave a comment on the post (link to comments at top) or reply to your subscription email.  Any way you wanna…

FEE:  None.  I am maintaining my commitment to NOT charge artists for use of this site. Ever.

Learn how you can help #saveERNIE!JUROR:  R.L. (Rachel) Gibson, continues to be the Editor.  Me.  Publication has been a bit sporadic lately because of events that left my family stranded in rural Virginia for a while.  Dramatic, I know.  I try not to publish personal posts often.  But you were so kind when I lost my father a few years ago, that I thought I would share.  Here’s the whole #saveERNIE story.  So many of you ask me if there is anything you can do to help out at AAAD.  There is.  Instead of paying a $5 Artist of the Day fee or the $15 Artist to Love fee, donate $10 to #saveERNIE, I will enter you for FREE in both the Artist of the Day competition & Artist to Love directory.  Plus, you have a chance to win a house concert.  Time runs out Monday, August 18th, so hurry.

SALES:  Selling art?  Yes?  YEAH!  No? Maybe I can help.  I will be travelling the country this summer giving career development seminars at Arts agencies and collectives.  If you have a ideas for someone that I should approach with seminars, including “How to Price Your Art”, “Creative Branding” & more, let me know.

AWARDS:  Brownie points.  I have millions of “brownie points” up for grabs.  You know you want them.  It is easy to get them.  Choose from one or ALL of these methods:

  • Subscribe to our FREE email (top right sidebar)
  • Like Us on Facebook Subscribe to Notification for double points.
  • Follow us on TwitterRegularly RT for triple points
  • Talk to that one friend that needs motivation about subscribing to AAAD.  We need friends.
  • Send me your success stories by email or comment.  I need motivation too. 🙂

Thanks for the love.

Click to Read the Full Call for Small Plates: A Response to Hunger!

FEATURED ARTIST: Charmagne Coe

Learn more about how to become a Featured Artist!chicka
chicka
CHEESE

Spring is just around the corner.  It is a sure sign when farm-animal-shaped chocolates and marshmallows start popping up everywhere.  But this year, instead of a chocolate bunny, can I formally request a chick made of Romano or maybe a simple sheep’s milk cheese shaped like the ubiquitous egg?  You know it is Spring when I am asking for cheese instead of blindly accepting  chocolate in any form.  Yum… cheeeeese.

The upcoming season of green has also brought to mind work with a lighter feel.  For the most part, artists submitted work to the Featured Artist Contest  this past month that felt hopeful although still contemplative.  And, color abounded.  This work was chosen because it had both a sense of wild abandon AND familial ties.  I found the dichotomy intriguing.  On behalf of www.ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, I am proud to congratulate Charmagne Coe as our latest Featured Artist!

Learn more about Featured Artist Charmagne Coe! FEATURED ARTIST:
Charmagne Coe

 

Charmagne Coe is an American artist who creates expressive surreal paintings and drawings. Her work has been featured in international publications, group and solo exhibitions.

Her fantastical, surreal paintings are made with watercolor, ink and pastel. Inherent is a deep respect for the nature of automatism and contour line.

When she is not painting, she is inking wild expanses and heart-achy characters.

 

The Gift by Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!Are you self-taught or formally instructed in your current media?   “Both, but mostly self-taught.  I was raised in a family of artists and musicians, so I witnessed first-hand, the importance of authenticity and perseverance.  I have a minor in art from Northern Arizona University.   My schooling imparted crucial foundational skills and philosophical awareness.  From there, I developed my own auto-didactic processes. Drawing was my first artistic love, but I greatly desired to be a painter as well.  I wanted to somehow fuse the two.  Experimenting led me to the three media I conjointly employ/implore now: watercolor, ink and pastel.”

Talk to me about your process and how you feel about teaching and/or sharing your process. My process of obtaining ideas and painting itself is extremely organic and open-ended. My time management is structured. I am not inclined to teach the inspirational methods I use because painting is kind of like a personal meditation and a wild place. I like to preserve vulnerability for the canvas. However, I am always willing to discuss brush technique, marketing ideas, website construction and the like.”  (Interview continues below.)

Kinder Storm by Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!

I find myself loving both saturation of color in your paintings and the stark contrast of your line drawings.  Are the drawings studies for the paintings or just a separate passion?  “I consider my drawings to be stand-alone works of art, but sometimes they naturally become studies for paintings.  My painting and drawings are blood brothers.”

Drawings by Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!I see that figurative images weigh in heavily, and the evidence of Romanticism is rampant and extraordinary.   Talk to me about your inspiration.Yes,  my work is partly figurative. The characters are enmeshed in surreal landscapes — which, to me, are actually like emotional atmospheres. I am truly a tactile person, a romantic, if you will… so that obviously comes across! Some of the latest are very sensual. Artwork from the Renaissance and Belle Époque eras have always enticed me, but so has modernity and futuristic panoramas. My work jumps freely between time periods.”

Gossamer by Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!What style or school of art do you think work fits into? And why do you think so?  “I prefer to use the term ‘expressive surrealism’, but I find ‘abstract’ or just ‘surreal’ perfectly acceptable.

“My process and artwork is highly automatistic as was the first surrealists; I do not plan out my art in advance, so I freely express what I am feeling and sensing along the way. It’s sometimes like playing a solitary form of the game, Exquisite Corpse.” 

My goal is not to paint exact representations of the world, but rather the feelings evoked by people, places and situations.

 

Hinder Be Go by Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!Talk to me about the two artists (one living, one dead) that have most influenced your work and why.  “I am most influenced by life at large, and the loves of my life.  So those artists who go after love and life hard, are who I am most taking with.  I adore the ineffable works of Chris Berens.  Miro’s vast legacy of artwork lifts my head off my shoulders.”

What is your favorite food?  It IS a food-themed blog after all.   “That’s easy–Mexican food. I come from a larger Hispanic family that really knows how to cook traditional, hearty food. It’s always made with fresh, simple ingredients. Sentimental as it sounds, my grandmother told me to always cook with the ingredient, love. She was right.”

Prelude by Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!What is your favorite snack food?  “I am actually more of a snacker than an eater, so I have many, many faves.  But for right now it’s Manchego cheese. I was actually in Spain at a street cafe when I discovered this traditional mild, nutty sheep’s cheeseI still like to eat it just as I did then–paired with young red wine and plain almonds.”  Good choice.  I have such a soft spot for cheese from both sheep and goat’s milk. Yum.

Thanks for spending a little time with us, Charmagne. What’s coming up next for you?  “I am thrilled to have many recent paintings featured in the upcoming, Viriditas.  It is an anthology of contemporary female artists created and curated by the extraordinary Michaela Meadow of Magpie Magazine.”

Learn more about Featured Artist Charmagne Coe!
If you’re interested in
becoming a
Featured Artist, Click to Learn How!

ARTIST to LOVE: Susan Gainen

Peek-a-Boo, I See You

Say “Hello” to our newest Artist to Love

Susan Gainen
Watercolor/Tinted Gesso Painting
Owl One in Hyperspace Postcard, Watercolor by Susan Gainen
Owl One in Hyperspace Postcard
Watercolor
GAINEN is a Saint Paul (MN) watercolor artist whose prime directive is to spread whimsy. She has taken responsibility for the city’s historical, mythical, and completely imagined wildlife. Since 2006, Susan Gainen has painted hundreds of creatures including the Original Small Friends (70, The Small Friends’ Chronicles), LLLama families (35, Meet the LLLamas), and the Lost Cave Paintings (150+ watercolor and tinted gesso). Wild Parrots (43), Tiny Wild Hummingbirds (50+), and Tall Parrots (20) – all of Saint Paul.

FAVORITE FOOD: Ginger Chili Krispee Treats

Are you an Artist to Love? Be sure to let us know!

ARTIST to LOVE: David Phillips Hodge

Peek-a-Boo, I See You

Say “Hello” to our newest Artist to Love

David Phillips Hodge
Painting
Yellow Mountain, Acrylic Painting by David Phillips Hodge
Yellow Mountain
Painting
HODGE began his art career at age 18 at Missouri State Univ. Afterward, he headed to NY to pursue filmmaking at NYU. For 30 years, David ran his own production co., producing & directing everything from campaign spots to music videos. David won numerous awards--2 Emmys, 3 Cine Golden Eagles & a Monitor Award. While in NYC, he also directed Off Broadway theatre. David has returned to painting & is exploring emotion evoked through line, shape & color. His work lies at the intersection of color field painting & representational art & how they co-exist within the same canvas.

FAVORITE FOOD: Sushi

Are you an Artist to Love? Be sure to let us know!

Who will be ARTIST of the YEAR?

Enter the $5 Art Contest today!SPRINKLE ME

One of the  joys of writing posts for this blog is the privilege of reviewing entries into the $5 Art Contest.  Choosing a Featured Artist is difficult, but I appreciate the opportunity to do so.  Featured Artists are a little like the sprinkles on top of my art community cupcake.

Once a Featured Artist’s post goes live, their job is simply to promote the post to both the benefit of AAAD and their own exposure.  Comments generated by their posts are counted at the end of the year, and the post wit the largest number of comments is named Artist of the Year.

In 2010, it was Catherine Roach.  She will always have a special place in AAAD’s history.  She keeps in touch, and we are so very proud to be a part of her history.  In 2011 it was the intricate work of weaver Pamela Zimmerman.  Her original interview remains among my favorites.  In 2012, it was mixed media collage artist Stephanie Mead’s portraiture work that took my breath away.

Who will be ArtAndArtDeadlines.com’s
2013 Artist of the Year?

That is all up to you.

Look through the 2013 Featured Artist profiles.  Leave a comment for your favorite…or more than one.  Comments stop being counted after midnight EST on December 31st.

Results will be announced the first week of January!

 

If you would like to be considered for Featured Artist, enter our $5 Art Contest (that can also be entered for free).  Or, if competition isn’t your cup of tea, submit your information to our Artist to Love program and start building a stronger web presence today!

FEATURED ARTIST: Michael O’Gorman

Learn more about Featured Artist Michael O' Gorman!‘SHROOM to go

It has been a truly surreal year for me, my personal art, and for many of my readers.  So, with fingers crossed I began reviewing the entries hoping to find a little surrealism.  Honestly, I rarely have surrealists enter, but I was hopeful.  I knew what I wanted, and what-do-you-know, I found it.   It was like finding that random mushroom on your pepperoni pizza just when you were hoping for veggies.  On behalf of AAAD, I am proud to announce this month’s Featured Artist is Michael O’Gorman.  I find this work to be endlessly complicated, but fluid.

The Application of Great Britain to the Earth by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!FEATURED ARTIST:
Michael O’Gorman

Michael O’Gorman is an artist from the United Kingdom who specializes in surreal oil paintings of organic and anthropomorphic subject matter, expressed through a unique ’merging’ style. He is obsessed with detail and perfection, and spends many months on a single painting, ensuring that the color gradients are smooth, that all narratives within a composition blend harmoniously, and – most importantly – that each painting is exciting and rewarding to view!

O’Gorman graduated from the University of Warwick in 2006 and works as a freelance artist and writer.  He loves to create complex, detailed artworks whose narratives can be explored and observed forever, with the viewer always discovering something new and exciting.

Memoirs of a Fertile Imagination by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!Are you self taught or formally instructed?  “I’m self-taught. I always doodled as a child, but it wasn’t until 2002 – when I was 17 years old – that I tried to create my first serious drawing. Four months of obsessive penciling by lamplight later, and ‘Black Water’ was finished!

“Three years after ‘Black Water,’ I taught myself to paint. I outlined some figures onto canvas with pencil and coloured them with acrylic paints. This was the beginning of my first painting, ‘Perpetual Fluidity,’ which remains my only improvised painting.

“I’m extremely glad that I avoided art lessons, since I cannot understand how surreal artists – artists whose works are assessed on uniqueness of expression – could benefit from an external mentor. I do have a university degree, but it’s in an unrelated field.”

The Medicine Tree by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!Is your media paint, ink, digital?  Of the twenty-eight artworks I have created to date, two are in pencil, one is in acrylic, and the rest are in oil. It didn’t take me long to graduate from acrylic to oil after completing ‘Perpetual Fluidity.’   Though I appreciated their boldness, I found acrylics a little too shallow for my tastes.  Moreover, their quick drying times maddened me; I’m a perfectionist, and I need to spend hours moving paint around the canvas until the colour gradients are seamless!

I read your method of deriving inspiration from words randomly chosen from the dictionary, but I am also interested in knowing those pieces that have personal meaning to you.  Talk to me about your favorite (non-random) piece.  My favourite piece to date is probably ‘Memoirs of a Fertile Imagination’ since I feel it encapsulates the most unique aspects of my style: An unlimited sense of flow (resulting in a non-existent focal point), anthropomorphism (giving human features to non-human subjects), and a playful tone. Its warmth always brings a smile to my face.” 

The Landscape Painter by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!You state that, “Working from life is plagiarism”.  That’s a pretty controversial way of explaining you’re not a fan of representational work.  What does that say about your view of photography?   “I appreciate photography to an extent, and the medium has incomparable value as a historical document. Unfortunately, while not everyone can compose music, write stories, or paint landscapes, everyone can take photographs. Consequently, photography has become the refuge of the amateur, and the online art world is now saturated with unremarkable photos that often eclipse the actual artwork.” Editor’s Note: Ouch.  Just in case you think this contest is rigged or biased, please note this is the second Featured Artist in a row that has, innocently enough, slammed some aspect of how I work.  Geez.  Guess it is good that I’m not thin-skinned.

A Corporate Ladder Deflating an Encapsulated Situation of Its Irony by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!What style or school of art do you think your work fits into and why?  “I’m comfortable with the surreal label, since Surrealism is an effective umbrella term for unusual artwork. I also feel that certain artworks of mine have Abstract and Visionary elements to them, though I don’t align myself with those movements.”

What artists (living and/or dead, famous or not) inspire you most?   I’m not a great art lover, and I can’t claim direct inspiration from other artists. That said, I do appreciate the works of Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Salvador Dali, Jacek Yerka, and Zdizslaw Beksinski. I like artists whose works are unique and instantly recognisable – artists that don’t need to signature their paintings because no-one can imitate them in the first place.

Interview continues below Perpetual Fluidity.

Perpetual Fluidity by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!

You know we have to talk about food. What is your favorite? Though I’m from the UK, my mother is Italian and I was raised in a household where Mediterranean food reigned supreme: Pasta, salads, buffalo mozzarella, bruschetta, pizzas, etc.  Italian food still remains my favourite.

“I’m also a big fan of British desserts, especially fruit scones with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam (served with English breakfast tea, of course). I honestly think I could eat that every day. In fact, when I’m elderly enough to get away with it, I probably will.”

A Multi-Instrumentalist’s Self-Performance by Featured Artist Michael O'Gorman!What about snack foods? “Probably arancini. They are balls of rice and cheese that have been fried and coated in breadcrumbs.” I have to admit, I have never heard of arancini, much less tasted it.  Fascinating.  That doesn’t happen often.

So, what’s coming up next for you? “In-between creating new artwork, I hope to put my existing artwork on sale for the first time.  I’ll also create a page on my website where people can buy prints of the original work.  After all, is a home truly a home without a framed print of a campfire transforming into a horned beast that writes algebra on an oversized blackboard pulsating with live flesh?  Definitely not!”

Michael, thank you for such a well-defined point of view and for being precisely that for which I was searching this month.

Learn more about Michael O’Gorman online!

Learn more about Featured Artist Michael O Gorman!

Save

ARTIST to LOVE: Debra Keirce

Peek-a-Boo, I See You

Say “Hello” to our newest Artist to Love, Debra Keirce!

Debra Keirce
Acrylic Painting
Center of Bombay, Acrylic Painting by Debra Keirce
Center of Bombay
Acrylic Painting
KEIRCE pursued a corporate career while building a business painting commissions—found in private collections the world over. Keirce then focused on galleries & museums. Drawn to small format, she began accumulating awards. She prefers urban landscapes & still life with a Trompe L’Oeil & photo-realism influence. Keirce paints, “colors & shapes with little or no regard to the entire subject until the very end of the painting process. One of the joys of painting is being surprised by the hyper realistic compositions that evolve from a very abstract, emotional creative zone.”

FAVORITE FOOD: Any vegetable on the planet!

Are you an Artist to Love? Be sure to let us know!

ARTIST to LOVE: Julia Trops

Peek-a-Boo, I See You

Say “Hello” to our newest Artist to Love, Julia Trops!

Julia Trops
Drawing/Painting
A Woman and her Apples by Julia Trops
A Woman and her Apples
Oil on Canvas
Since 2002 after a vibrant military career & completing her BFA, TROPS has taught drawing, trained life drawing models & was the founding organizer of weekly Life Drawing at the Rotary Centre for the Arts which became the Livessence Society of Figurative Artists and Models. Trops created the Okanagan Erotic Art Show Catalog, and the Simplicity in Mind for Livessence—both in the National Library & Archives in Canada. Trops was shortlisted for the City of Kelowna’s 2011 Honour in the Arts and wrote the book Art & Money (2013).

FAVORITE FOOD: Kale Chips

Are you an Artist to Love? Be sure to let us know!

FEATURED ARTIST: David Phillips Hodge

Click to Subscribe to www.ArtAndArtDeadlines.com by Email!a beer
& SUSHI
summer

Yes, it is the first day of August, and I am judging the JUNE entries to the $5 Art Contest. I will spare you the excuses.   As the hot, rainy days of Summer start winding down, we all need a little peace without boredom.  Beautiful sushi with a wasabi surprise.  Here it is…

This month’s artist works is a painter–now.   I appreciate the contemplative nature of landscape without having to endure another wagon wheel in a wheat field or lone seagull in the sand.  This work is like the intersection of reality and perception.  The message is subtle, but appreciated.

Learn more about Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge!

On behalf of ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, I am proud to announce the Featured Artist chosen from the June entries to the $5 Art Contest is David Phillip Hodge. I find this work to be…a visual respite but also thought-provoking.

FEATURED
ARTIST:

David
Phillip
Hodge

 

A Missouri native, Hodge began his art career at age 18 at Missouri State University.  After graduating with a BFA, he immediately headed to New York to pursue his other passion, filmmaking, at NYU.  For 30 years, he then ran his own film and television production company, producing and directing everything from political campaign spots, to music videos, to documentaries and commercials.

Painting by Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge!Hodge won numerous awards, including 2 Emmys, 3 Cine Golden Eagles, and a Monitor Award. While in NYC, he also directed Off Broadway theatre.  He is thrilled to have now returned to painting.  His current focus is exploring the emotion evoked through line, shape and color.  The work lies at the intersection between color field painting and representational art—examining the ways in which they co-exist within the same canvas.

Are you self taught or formally instructed?

“Well I graduated with a BFA in sculpture & ceramics. One of my teachers once told me that after graduation you spend the next few years trying to unlearn what you learned in school.” 

Painting by Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge! I’ve had
quite a while
to unlearn
what I learned
in art school.

 

Your work is very quiet. Is the process as peaceful as the work comes across?  

“I believe the process of picture making IS somewhat peaceful, at least for me.  There is a fair amount of taping, spraying, brushwork, sanding and stencil cutting though.  Also, there is always music playing.”

The connecting aesthetic in your work seems to be landscape.  How landscape and color field work together for you?

Painting by Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge!“Landscape?  I keep coming back to the landscape. It gives me a certain amount of freedom to explore color because the landscape is so recognizable to the viewer.”

Tell me about the painting process for you.  Do you paint from photographs, plein aire  or from memory?  Is your work strictly paint or is their silk screening involved as well? 

Sometimes I work from photographs that I’ve taken or that my wife has taken. And other times I work from memory.  I don’t currently use silk screen  but, that not a bad idea.  Maybe in the future.

Painting by Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge!What style or school of art do you think your work fits into and why?

“I believe my work fits most closely as color field painting. I  coined the word Colorscape to describe my current work.”

You know we have to talk about food. What is your favorite?

“My favorite food changes from time to time or day to day for that matter, but at the present time I would say sushi is my favorite food. Last week I was in the Midwest so it was steak.”   I suspect you are easily bored and just haven’t found your true favorite.  Let me know if that ever changes, David.

Painting by Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge!What about snack foods?

“My favorite snack food is definitely beer.” Best answer ever.  No, really.

So, what’s coming up
next for you?

“I wish I knew.” 

Honesty, not bravado.  Refreshing.

David, thank you for making me take a second look at landscape.  I’ll try to be less dismissive in the future.  Lesson learned…maybe.

Learn more about David Phillips Hodge online!

Learn more about Featured Artist David Phillips Hodge!

 

FEATURED ARTIST: Sima Schloss

Learn how to become a Featured Artist!on a
CHOCOLATE
high

Life is moving at a crazy pace these days, and the $5 Art Contest has almost been canned a few times.   But every time I get a fantastic entry or trip across another great artist, I remember why I do this. This month’s artist is no different.  With my frenzied pace, it is no wonder that I picked an artist’s work that mirrors the same frenetic energy making my life a wonderful roller coaster this summer.  Hang on…

This month’s artist works in a mix of media–drawing, painting & collage.  I find the work has a pulse.  You can look at a piece and both identify with the subject and have concern about the sort of mind-bending mania that created it.

Featured Artist Sima Schloss!The work seems,
above all else,
self-aware.

 

Self-awareness isn’t necessarily the highest and best that we can want from ourselves or our art; however, nothing of true value follows where self-awareness has not preceded.  Don’t just LOOK at this work, I need you to SEE it.

On behalf of ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, I am proud to announce the Featured Artist chosen from the May entries to the $5 Art Contest is Sima Schloss.  I find her work to be…so much more than a pretty face.

And its only Tuesday by Featured Artist Sima Schloss!FEATURED ARTIST:
Sima Schloss

 

Sima Schloss grew up in a suburb on the south shore of Long Island and studied art at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island and graduated in 1993.  Sima moved to New York City soon after. Where she says,” My life really began.”  Her work is in a number of private and public collections including those of Tina Tang Studio, Miss Sixty Inc., and various other arenas. She has shown her work in different venues all around New York, Portugal and Spain. From The Yes Gallery in Greenpoint, NY, 3RD Ward in Williamsburg, NY to a group show at The Colorida Gallery in Lisbon, Portugal.

Schloss was also featured in NY Arts Magazine, Top Websites Annual Art guide to the Internet. In 2013, she will be featured in the e-book about Artists As World Changers by Renee Phillips.Her work was also at the Fountain Art Fair in Miami, Florida. Currently she works with The Metropolitan Museum of Art in their education department teaching art to ESL and GED students.  Sima is also an adjunct professor at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. She is currently working on a series of independent projects.

Interior by Featured Artist Sima Schloss!Are you self taught or formally instructed? “If ‘Taming the Beast’ is self taught, then, that came with age.  I went to art school and  was a whirling dervish at 18 w/ my attention unfocused. It’s only now that I really appreciate everything that I learned there.”

Your work is
NOISY. 

 

NO really, I had a hard time concentrating on any one piece because my eye was always skipping ahead to another.  I love it.  Is the process for you as frenzied as the work comes across?  “Yes,my process is as frenzied as it comes across.  Many times when I am creating with the subway being my favorite studio, I get so many ideas.  The sensory overload comes out in my artwork.  One person said that looking at my artwork is a workout in itself.  If we could only create muscles at the same time!”

Passing thoughts about Houdinin by Featured Artist Sima Schloss!The connecting aesthetic in your work seems to be portraiture and color.  How do they work together for you?  “I love to study facial expressions and observe the colors the person is wearing.  Both are so telling about who that person is.”

Tell me about the collage process for you.  Are you attracted to the materials first or do you start work and then search for the right material to fit a piece? “‘Process not product…if only we could remember that in our love lives, too!   I love to make a huge mess when I am creating; I love the layering process.  A friend once said that you could shoot a bullet through some of my works and it wouldn’t penetrate.

“Like consciousness itself, the medium of collage is cumulative, aggregate, constructed through the mind’s desire to see itself reflected in chronological process. It stacks, rips, defaces, and replaces. Its memories are writ scatter-shot with the voices of others and with communiques whispered from within. It is polyphonic. Collage wears every other medium across its face, like the great grandparent of art, rendering the act of thinking material, with paint, print, ink, swaths of photographs, fields of color, Letraset and adhesives.”

February brings Questions by Featured Artist Sima Schloss!What style or school of art do you think your work fits into and why? “My work is a combination of surrealism and abstract art.. I don’t make pretty pieces of artwork, I want to make people think.  I want to evoke a feeling.”

“If you want to see
a calm piece of work,
look at landscapes
and fluffy flowers.” 

 

You know we have to talk about food. What is your favorite? “God I am a seriously a chocoholic–preferably milk or white.  My mom keeps telling me to switch to dark chocolate because its healthier. Hell no!” I am fairly certain that I have ranted on this blog (more than once) in the past about white chocolate not really being chocolate, but I am going to set that aside.  I simply want to suggest that you switch to dark chocolate…because it tastes better. 🙂

For someone who talks alot you have nothing to say by Featured Artist Sima Schloss!What about snack foods? “I am addicted to white chocolate.  I keep stashes at my apartment, studio and at work.  My students even tell me that I eat too much chocolate.  This is coming from certain individuals who choose to eat Doritos® and a Coke® for breakfast.  Again, is there anything beyond white chocolate?  If we must get particular…Green & Black’s White Chocolate.” Really?  Chocolate and chocolate?  Those are your food answers?  hehehehe.  It is refreshing to meet someone that throws restraint to the wind, but I suppose your work should have been the first hint.

So, what’s coming up next for you? “Currently, I am working on a series of drawings only using shades of grey and black in pencil and pen WHILE using the same photograph of a mouth. I have been using the same sketch, enlarging, shrinking it into the collages.this new series  is a journey back to basics with mostly drawing, my first love.”  Thanks for waiting to the end of the interview to let me know you are temporarily abandoning color, ha.  It is a good thing interviews are my primary job, eh?

Sima, thank you for reminding me that my frenzy is not singular

Learn more about Sima Schloss online!

Learn more about Featured Artist Sima Schloss!