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.

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.

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.

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!”

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.”

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. 🙂

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.