Creative Thresholds

by Jodie King

Go Outside and Play 72″ x 60″

Her Strength 24″ x 24″

Infinity 30″ x 40″

Make Love 60″ x 48″

Never Far Away 48″ x 48″

Stay True 50″ x 42″

The B’s 40″ x 40″

The Transition 30″ x 40″

Unite 24″ x 24″

You’ve Got To Believe 48″ x 48″

Artist: Jodie King

I use bold color, many layers of paint, and other forms of mixed media to create art that has been called “whimsical, sometimes deep, and always honest.” The layers of paint on the canvas create depth within the painting and symbolically reflect back the many layers of our lives. At the heart of my work is a call to all of us to live unapologetically, with joyful abandon and freedom.

My process involves journaling and meditating before any paint touches the canvas. Afterwards, using my gut/intuition as my guide, I make marks, write, and layer paint while letting go of what the final result may be.

Whether the painting is pure abstract or infused with vintage photography, the work is a bold expression of my voice as an artist and as a woman. The hard-won lessons of life, and sometimes the downright hilarious ones, reveal themselves in my work in unexpected ways. With intuition as my guide crazy, fun, and deep stuff happens on the canvas.

by Anne Siems

Artist: Anne Siems

Artist Statement:

Essence

In my latest work I have shifted to an emphasis on pattern, color, brushstroke and mark making. Moving into an ongoing exploration of my personal experiences through more abstract means of expression.

For the moment I have left the dresses, plants, fruit, animals. I am focusing the essence of my inquiry to the faces and the surrounding color field.

In my work I try to be as honest and true to myself as I can without losing discernment. I aim as best as I can for sincerity, intimacy and openness in my paintings. In them I find the beginning of something that touches the universal. It is a place where others can touch the magic and sensuality that gets exposed in the process.

I think deep inside of us lives a longing to experience a sense of ‘falling in love’. A visceral experience without words. For that to happen, this place needs to be free of irony, social commentary or conceptual humor. I am looking in my work to find the point in which we feel a certain ache – the ache caused by the knowledge that life is full of light and dark, sacred and profane, beauty and ugliness, life and death.

Website: http://www.annesiems.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anne_siems_art/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnneSiemsFanPage/

by Riin Kaljurand

My interest lies in paint itself. Paint as medium is as tangible and formable as clay and can be manipulated and approached as sculptural material. My paintings are collaged from dried layers of acrylic or household paint by manipulation–by scraping, folding, cutting and building up the surface. Of personal fascination for me beside its surface is paint’s physical quality and its formability. Dried paint is highly flexible and formable and can be used multiple ways. Some of my paintings are built up by collaborating collage techniques and traditional knitting. Paint can also be manipulated in different drying stages. For example, a layer of acrylic paint left for drying overnight gives it a quality which allows it to be drawn into. Because I approach paint as sculptural material I choose to hang paintings further from the wall to give them object like, sculptural format. They often take on three-dimensional forms with varying textures and colours. Colour of paintings are usually taken from original photos from ‘Soviet Woman’, but it is not as intense. For me paint is not embellishment on canvas, but rather a physical material in its own right.

I was born in former Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, what was a part of Soviet Union. The era has always fascinated me with its paradoxes and peculiarities. Imagery of my paintings is taken from Soviet Estonia’s magazine ‘Soviet Woman’. According to communist ideology of work and importance of working, in this magazine women are represented as hard working comrades of Soviet society. ‘Soviet Woman’ created and propagated femininity according to communist ideology. Judith Butler has said: ‘Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed’.

Builderwoman 2

Builderwoman

Cafeteria

Class Photo

Cow

Fifty Shades of Grey

Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side

Head in Clouds

Hitchockian

Knitting

Lady in Green

Leftovers

Red

Snow

Stereotype of my Mother

Photographer: Margus Valt, www.margusvalt.com.

Artist: Riin Kaljurand

by Dwijen Gupta

When 3 is Company

Artist: Dwijen Gupta

Dwijen Gupta, painter from Kolkata, India, has been painting for over 25 years and has to his credit several solo shows as well as group shows in India and abroad. Dwijen Gupta completed graduation from Govt College of Art & Craft, Kolkata, and has been in the field of fine art for over 25 years and specialized in large water colours and Acrylic on Tussar ( tasaar – special silk) cloth, Paper and Canvas and Mix Media. Awarded as the Best Watercolour Artist, he had accolades and honours.

“Unification of woman with nature” is the basic trait of Dwijen‟s world-outlook. Through his deft artistry, Artist Dwijen Gupta forces the viewer to deliberate on his female-centric compositions. The strong “Indian‟ feel is inflected through an active interplay of facial features as well as postures and gestures enhancing the mood of his frames. What attracts one’s attention is the simplicity of his women. Not surprisingly his “women‟ seem to be cast in a timeless capsule where her position seems defined either as a mendicant, singer, musician or a devotee far removed from this world, introspecting on the act at hand, singing or making music. The figurative compositions elaborated in water colour and mixed media; express the unheeded, unspoken and unsung” as viewed by critics. His latest collection of artworks is titled “Abstraction of Poetical Tunes”.

Contact: dwijen07@gmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwijen.gupta.5