Working intuitively and instinctively, I encourage my subconscious to reveal itself in the paintings to express inner impulses, emotions and thoughts. Adopting a method of automatic painting and drawing allows for the creation of images which originate in my psyche or the collective unconscious.  Expressing my inner consciousness leads to the rendering of abstract-surreal biomorphic forms that unfold into recognizable archetypical images to my ego, and represent a multitude of diverse symbolic connotations. Using this reservoir of inherited universal archetypes, primordial images emerge as I overlapped energetically charged, intricate, interwoven line marking over the laminae of color and invented texture.  A recondite expression arises out of my mind and disjointed symbolic forms  develop into a complex rhythm of visual linkage to be interpreted thereafter 

Sarah Thomas

I lived in a tree house once, for six months. Having given away everything I’d arrived with, it was with only my memories and a few regrets that I finally left.  As time passed, memories of the tree house that should have been fading instead began to overwhelm and consume me.  I became trapped in the sticky sweet illusions of the past, held hostage by my own senses, rendered emotionally, physically, and mentally inert.  I could not pull myself out of the past to exist in the present, and the future faded into a blur of confusion and impossibility.  I was horrified to realize that no matter how far or how fast I ran I was still living inside that tree house.  When something affects us profoundly, the memories that we are left with can be as real and as powerful as the experience itself.  This realization led me into an exploration into of the nature of memory.

Like the memory of where one lives and works, or inborn memories to blink and breath, or the memory of a fatal allergy to penicillin, most of our memories serve a practical and necessary function.  It was a different kind of memory I was seeking to understand - the kind that cuts – long after the knife is gone - and has the power to draw up the blood of the past.  What practical or necessary function does such a memory serve?  Is it ultimately a choice or a condition?  For a long time I felt that I was the victim of a condition.  I wanted to explore the possibility that if I could somehow purge all of what I felt inside – and bring memories of taste, touch, smell, sound, sight, and feeling into tangible, physical form outside of myself – that those memories might then exist autonomously, with life and breath all their own.  With life and breath all their own, they would no longer need to feed parasitically off of mine.  Thus began a ritualistic, cleansing process of extraction and examination.

The paintings in this body of work are memories made manifest.  The images, colors, text and layers are quite literal - representative of the richly symbolic and multidimensional nature of memory.  Each a snapshot, a moment in time carefully rendered in cloth, infused with words and images.  From the moment of their conception, through a period of incubation, and in the process of becoming manifest in the physical dimension, the images are symbolically born through me into the world.  At this time they exist before me as extensions of my own physical being.  The act of cutting, burning, or otherwise puncturing the images is the most profound part of this birthing process.  Past and future rush to meet at the point of incision – skin is punctured and insides revealed, false words are cut away to reveal the truth, hopes are burned up in flames and smoke, armor is shed and the pains of the past are set free.  This is the point of transformation, the point where the painting takes its own first breath.  If I cut more I am no longer cutting myself.  If I burn more I am no longer burning myself.  I can now stand objectively before each image as an artist and bring it to fruition.

The tree house days sent me on a deeply introspective journey.  When it didn’t work to run away from my memories, I tried to numb, drown, burn, conceal and swallow them – I tried anything just to forget. It was when I stopped running and fighting and let it come through me, that I was able face the past directly and finally let go.  And so it is through the transformative power of painting that I move out of an introspective time.  I am left not with painful memories, but with a new approach to painting, and a heart and mind unbound by the past, receptive to the future.

Vladimir

My story:  my name is viet doan and i am an artist of sorts... growing up in america is different not being indigenous to the conditions...i looked to cartoons as being more real than most social and cultural interactions...therefore my paintings are
derivatives of this thought...and that is the gist of it

Krista Shiner

Prana and Chi are two words of Eastern origin used interchangeably to identify the energy contained in humans and throughout nature. It is commonly known in the West as the spirit or life force of Mother Nature. The ethereal bioplasmic energy has no form or structure, yet all forms and structures come out of it. It is this primeval source of energy that infuses my passion as a painter and what is materialized on canvas. By combining the formal aspects of art and manipulating traditional methods of painting, imaginative abstractions of prana emerge.

Paint itself is fluid, as is Chi, layered between found objects such as wine corks, metal, and grains They act as the external catalysts that alter the energy body, simultaneously providing inventive texture, contrast, visual interest and intuitive conceptuality. Toxic stimuli manifest through time in the form of illness, thus the energy and physical bodies distort by the creation illness and the destruction that occurs through this transformation. An alteration of prana is captured by abstract intertwining of line, texture and biomorphic shapes to effectively communicate the primordial energy in relation to the physical body. These gentle and fierce organic forms suggest a state of metamorphosis juxtaposed in a rhythm of sinuously layered paint and texture. I have furthered my concept visually by extending the dimensions outside of one canvas. The grouped and fused canvases seem to merge and disintegrate from one another representing the life force in a continual state of adaptation. Color is a vital component of energy, used intuitively in relation to the ethereal body and may subconsciously reflect ailments of my own spirit.

Ultimately, my paintings portray the interlacing transformations that occur between prana and the physical body, briefly manifested as paint and textures. They address this delicate life force, the introduction of external catalysts from toxic environments, and what happens in between.

Charlene Harlow

My paintings are not the conclusions of ideas, but are the results of my decisions and discoveries during the process of painting. They demonstrate a sense of whimsicality and freshness through the forms and colors presented.

Spoings and Thoings, Oil on Canvas

To the Moon and Back, Oil on Canvas

After the Comet, Oil on Canvas

Steve T. Laws

I would think the most ready influence of my artwork would be Norman Rockwell for the whimsy, nostalgia, and human element. Two more influences of mention would be Gary Larson, delightful slapstick, and Bill Watterson, humor and humanity, comic artists who are a credit to thier crafts and an inspiration to me. To a lesser extent and in tribute, I try to infuse my adoration and admiration of Albert Bierstadt and Fredrick Church’s amazing abilities to paint awe inducing atmospheres. Borrowing much from late 19th century American Landscapes, infusing them with early 20th century illustration,. I play and experiment with moods and ambiance. Visually and aesthetically, I work to create sincere heartfelt narratives, most commonly borrowing influences from said masters to produce works infusing humor and levity. Oft toying with the interactions between nostalgic figures and storybook characters, one can see how, in bounding into the realm of the absurd, I am not shy about using the peculiar to reach my aims.

Randy Garcia

"The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity."  -  Alberto Giacommetti

"The meaning of art as it is experienced by the viewer, not the artist. The artist's ideas are not essential to the art as seen by the viewer. The viewer is an artist in the sense that he conceives a given piece of his own way that is unique to him. His own imagination determines what it is, what it means. The viewer does not have to be considered during the conception of the art, but should not be told, then, what to think or how to conceive it or what it means. There is no need for definition.   Keith Haring in his Journal, October 14, 1978

With the two quotes above as my parameters I look to use various painting processes to create non-objective spaces with their own internally consistent meanings.   My art is about the perception of reality, not as a collection of objects but as we see the world, through layers of meaning and experience. 

Uh Oh, Oil On Canvas

The Dream, Oil On Canvas

Aged, Oil On Canvas

A Colorless Existence, Oil On Canvas

Ball Playing with Boy, Oil On Canvas SOLD

Garvin

Many times I have been asked, “What inspires you?” I have come to the conclusion that it is life that inspires us all, but it is often what we struggle with the most. Simply put the work here represents my visual interpretation of the journey through this life...

This journey includes my exploration to give meaning or clarity to this existence, all the while questioning our significance. This has led me to
focus my work on Chaos Theory and the universal connection that binds us all to the source, what ever that may be. Chaos can be widely seen through the self similar and turbulent patterns found throughout our known system and in ourselves.

This is my visual means to explore the vast expanse of the mind, and the system in which it exists. To question the belief structures that mold all of our lives. As a creator of images in the context of a Post-modern society, does any of this really matter? Once my work is in the gallery, it is out of my hands. The viewer will use their own knowledge and experiences to conclude what the work means to them. If anybody is still reading this, I hope you enjoyed my soul, I enjoyed sharing it with you.
Never Stop Exploring

Balance, Encaustic on Wood, 8 x 13 inches

Chaotic Yang, Encaustic on Wood, 24 x 24 inches

Chaotic Yin, Encaustic on Wood, 24 x 24 inches

Don't Eat the Spinich, It Will Kill You, Encaustic on Wood, 8 x 13 inches

Don't Walk on an Open Pasture, It Will Kill You, Encaustic on Wood, 8 x 11 inches

Ganges, Encaustic on Wood, 8 x 8 inches

Life Begets Life, Encuastic on Wood, 7 x 12 inches

Our Future, Encaustic on Wood, 8 x 8 inches

Somewhere in Morocco, Encaustic on Wood, 18 x 24 inches

Josiah Lopez

Eleven, Mixed Media on Canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Anton Kirchner: Favoritisms

My first date with my future wife was at the Surrealism show at the Chicago Art Institute back in '68. A number of years later, on our honeymoon, we stopped at the Salvador Dali museum (just outside of Cleveland at that time.) I guess I've been fond of Surrealism most of my life and this fondness grew to include Symbolism as I got older. These styles informed most of my work since I started painting in 1966 no matter what else I may have been planning for any particular piece. These days I've gone digital and as I explore my new and enormously expanded creative space, my pieces continue to reveal their Surrealist/symbolist roots, sometimes by design and sometimes not.

This is my first show here at Stripes and as a way to introduce myself; the pieces in this show are examples of images that took that track. All of the work was created between 2005 and this 2008.

My work is done on computer and the images are constructed in a technique called digital photomontage. The process is very similar to collage in the sense that the components in an image are extracted from photographs and pasted together to form the final image. Sometimes the images are tightly bound to a concept I have for the result and other times they just reactively ‘grow’ based on random components I find at hand (a tip of the hat to Dadaism). I delight in combining or repurposing things to create new realities from our tangible world, following the tenant that the unexpected combination of components is the signature method of innovation.

I take all the photos for the components I use in my work personally and often these components are highly modified before being integrated into a final composition. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed my small part in their creation.

Hope

Dropping In

Imbude II

Haiffaa Ali

Haiffaa and her family fled Iraq with nothing but the clothes they were wearing and each other. She was an only child in a well-off family and had never lacked anything. She knew that the life she had lived was now in the past and that she would be leaving her country to start with nothing.

It has been a little bit over a year since Haiffaa has been in America

Haiifa has had the wonderful opportunity to learn to use her hands creatively, making jewelry through a refugee program for women called "A Little Something"

The first time Haiffa was given proceeds in the amount of eight dollars for some jewelry she had sold she found herself staring at the eight dollars in her hand and wondering what it was for. She said, “I can’t tell you how the feelings inside of me came up. I looked at this money and I didn’t see eight dollars; for me it is like eight million. For the first time in my life, these hands, my hands, made something for me. I did something not as a mother, not as a refugee, but just me, my work.” “I have this pride, this feeling, and I can’t explain it. This eight dollars, it means everything right now. It tells me I can do something and make my own money. This is my first money I made. I can never spend this eight dollars. I have to keep it and show it—I must show it to the other women so they know how this feels and it is real.”

In her early fifties, Haiffaa finds herself in a new country with a new life and her first career.

To read more about Haiffaa Ali or the program A Little Something please visit http://refugeecrafts.blogspot.com/

Ven Ashin Sandamanaw

A Calm Place, Acrylic on Canvas, 20 x 34 inches

A Contented Life, Acrylic on Canvas, 15 x 25 inches

A Peaceful Life, Acrylic on Gesso Board, 14 x 18 inches

A Peaceful Morning, Acrylic on Canvas, 20 x 35 inches

Why War, Acrylic on Canvas, 28 x 18 inches

International Artists

Òscar Amóros - Spain

"Art is magic and photography is a tool of this magic to change reality"

"Es otra forma de mirar un libro.Hacer abstracción del significado de los objetos es algo que AMORÓS adora,su fotografia és abstracta en el significado de lo que se está viendo no en la forma, visiones abstractas de detalles reales y cotidianos que nos pueden transportar a universos de magia.Así de un pequeño libro muy viejo AMORÓS puede encontrar paisajes maravillosos donde nadie ha estado antes, donde no hay nadie, sólo el espectador delante de la foto, cómo el lector del libro , sólo él (ó ella), el libro y la imaginación.Es una simbiosis entre el lector/libro y el espectador/foto en un mismo acto intimo y personal.
Así en estas READING LANDSCAPES sólo estás tu, la foto y tu imaginación.No se necessita nada más.
"El arte és mágico y la fotografia es la herramienta de esta mágia para cambiar la realidad"

“Forest in Morning Fog”  39” x 13” Amorós 2008  CPrint B&W / foam board 12mm, edition 1/6

“Nature Resting”  39” x 13” Amorós 2008  CPrint B&W / foam board 12mm, edition 1/6

“Night Landscape” 55” x 17” Amorós 2008  CPrint B&W / foam board 12mm, edition 1/6

Òscar Amóros Biography